Skyrocket ICS update (finally!) be careful what you wish4
After patiently waiting 9 months since I bought my phone, on the promise that it would be updated in the 4Q/11to ICS, ATT/Samsung finally decided it was time to release a not so robust update from Gingerbread (which was very stable) to ICS 4.0.4 which I find to be somewhat laggy and prone to freezes, quite a disappointment given the wait. Don't even mention wonderful ATT 4G LTE coverage areas (not).
Anyway after about 1 hour of dealing with the Kies PC download and install to my PC and one failed sync try, I finally was able to get it installed. How do I know? The phone settings now reflect current ICS version. However, in addition to how shakey the stability of new apps is, I also had to go through 3 battery pulls, + remove and re-insert my microSD card in order to restore about 1/3 of my 170 apps that took a hike during the upgrade. This was after calling Samsung Tech support who could only propose a hard reset and start again from scratch in reinstalling each app + re-entering all data set-ups. Luckily, I did not follow that suggestion or I would be up all night restoring phone.
However one of the biggest disappointments, if not the biggest disappointments is that the ATT update is still covered in Touch "Wiz" 4 which is a big bummer. Neither the phone dialer, contact app, or notification bar updated for me. What has changed is a new email app that is not as smart looking as the one in Gingerbread that it has replaced. ATT never cease to amaze me, along with Samsung in how much they can mess up what should be a transparent OTA update process with a stable release that "just works" that is a genuine UI update, not warmed over Touch Wiz 4 ( and Gingerbread was smoother, too.) Personally, I can't wait for a newer Google Nexus with more powerful chip, LTE and 4.5-4.7 HD screen so I can loose this p.o.s. Anyway, if you've been struggling with similar issues after upgrade, please know you are not alone. Way too much like work!