Android 4.3: Things that changed

[beck79]

Being impatient, I flashed the 4.3 update using the procedure from the XDA forum preserving the user data, this was a breeze.

While playing with the 4.3 I came across the following (this is not a change log):

Pros
Sound: This seems to have improved (?), though I am not sure. But at least there are some equalizer settings that I discovered in the Google Music (maybe it was already there).
Google Maps: New version, looks nice. Easy options, settings and UI overhaul.
WiFi settings: Now you can set an option so that Google Apps can still use the WiFi even if WiFi is disabled, this is nice (Settings->WiFi->Advanced).
Camera: Countdown timer has been added. The interface is overhauled (looks nicer), the shooting mode seem to have improved. It was over blueish earlier and this seem to have been rectified.
Location and Browser History settings (reporting/history): These have been made easy with 'Google Location Settings'. Earlier you had to use the Browser and jump through a lot of hoops before you could disable this. Same with Google Ad preferences.

Cons:
Hangout: This is the standard chat app. I hate hangout app and the only way to switch to Talk is to root, delete Hangout and install Talk. I might root just for this reason.
Disabled Apps: The disabled apps don't show up anymore in the Settings->App->All. To enable them it looks like you have to go to Playstore and enable them from MyApps. That is inconvenient.
Bootup Lag: There is a noticable lag especially while booting into recovery mode.
Google Keep: This keeps crashing.

Overall it is a minor update, with some welcome tweaks here and there. I might root just to get rid of Hangout. I read that they added some new Bluetooth features, hopefully it didn't break any existing ones. I am yet to try Bluetooth, I hope they solved the connection issues that I was having.

 

[Metro1088]

I'd like to add the following two visual changes.

1) The black gradients on the top and bottom of the home screen have been considerably reduced. They are brighter now and their opacity is much lower. I am happy with this change as the old design made bright wallpapers look pretty bad. My home screen look much better now.

2) The clock disappears from the Notification bar when you are in the lock screen and all icons (battery, signal, etc.) align to the right.

Minor tweaks but worth mentioning. I'm still investigating for more.

 

[blessedred]

Being impatient, I flashed the 4.3 update using the procedure from the XDA forum preserving the user data, this was a breeze.

While playing with the 4.3 I came across the following (this is not a change log):

Pros
Sound: This seems to have improved (?), though I am not sure. But at least there are some equalizer settings that I discovered in the Google Music (maybe it was already there).
Google Maps: New version, looks nice. Easy options, settings and UI overhaul.
WiFi settings: Now you can set an option so that Google Apps can still use the WiFi even if WiFi is disabled, this is nice (Settings->WiFi->Advanced).
Camera: Countdown timer has been added. The interface is overhauled (looks nicer), the shooting mode seem to have improved. It was over blueish earlier and this seem to have been rectified.
Location and Browser History settings (reporting/history): These have been made easy with 'Google Location Settings'. Earlier you had to use the Browser and jump through a lot of hoops before you could disable this. Same with Google Ad preferences.

Cons:
Hangout: This is the standard chat app. I hate hangout app and the only way to switch to Talk is to root, delete Hangout and install Talk. I might root just for this reason.
Disabled Apps: The disabled apps don't show up anymore in the Settings->App->All. To enable them it looks like you have to go to Playstore and enable them from MyApps. That is inconvenient.
Bootup Lag: There is a noticable lag especially while booting into recovery mode.
Google Keep: This keeps crashing.

Overall it is a minor update, with some welcome tweaks here and there. I might root just to get rid of Hangout. I read that they added some new Bluetooth features, hopefully it didn't break any existing ones. I am yet to try Bluetooth, I hope they solved the connection issues that I was having.

How's you're battery life? It's supposedly supposed to have way better battery life than 4.2.2 because of Project Roadrunner

Posted via HTC One on Android Central App

 

[beck79]

How's you're battery life? It's supposedly supposed to have way better battery life than 4.2.2 because of Project Roadrunner

Posted via HTC One on Android Central App

The battery life doesn't seem a lot different. I think it is too early to say and I have been playing some power hungry games
Lot of apps keep crashing, but that is expected till the developers update the apps.
Also I think there is some lag after using the phone for a while, again I have Nova launcher, could be the launcher.

 

[NoraMelua]

I wonder if Google finally fixed the punctuation in their voice recognition service for non-English languages (period, comma etc. are all recognized as words instead of punctuation marks). I can say for sure that this doesn't work in German and I think most, if not all European languages are affected by this long-standing issue as well. This is really annoying, as it renders an otherwise useful feature completely unusable.