JellyBean for the LG Spectrum 2!

[micrors4]

It's also pretty hard to brick these phones, as far as I know only me and asianflavor have managed to do it sort of after flashing the korean ROM which did boot but the touchscreen was all messed up, reversed itself if I remember correctly. The employees at my local Verizon store know me pretty well at this point so they were suspicious, but they just gave me a new one anyways, so far that is the only way I have been able to brick the phone, and I have messed up flashing ROMs on it, but it can usually be saved by flashing the CAB. I recommend you just try rooting it, I have rooted phones more times than I care to count and have yet to **** one up, not to mention the process mordant found couldn't be easier.

 

[Zrunky]

Ok LOL so after that last post I did end up updating to Jelly Bean. As I imagined, I'm unimpressed. However, I have been impressed with Nova Launcher which I installed to take care of the grey search bar. This wasn't needed as LG modded the search bar and it's transparent like ICS. I'd heard that Nova Launcher was glitchy and laggy, but I guess that's no longer the case since it's quite good.

But yes, JB as implemented by LG is a waste of a download, IMHO. The only good thing I've found is that you can close all apps from the "recent apps" menu rather than swiping them all away. The notification menu is a joke. With all the crap that LG puts at the top, notifications don't start until halfway down the screen.

And since I always have an alarm set, they start more like 60% of the way down the screen for me (screencap attached). Google Now is about as useful as I thought it would be (that is, pretty useless.) Other than those things I can't really see much difference other than much slower "media scanning" upon bootup which makes reboots and battery pulls a chore. I hope to god battery life isn't shorter or this will have been my biggest OS upgrade mistake since Blackberry v4.7. The one upside to JB is that RAM seems to be better utilized, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

So overall thumbs down on Jelly Bean. It offers little of interest, and its several downsides outweigh its few upsides. Thumbs up on Nova Launcher. Especially the option where one can have it stay in "running memory" at all times so there's never a lag going back to the home screen. The only good thing I can say about Jelly Bean is that I would have never downloaded Nova Launcher without it.

 

[agt7575]

So... anybody? Is the home screen google search bar colored (grey), or transparent like ICS's? Because, if so, I think I'm going to pass on Jelly Bean. I use it for business mostly and from the video and written reviews I've seen, there doesn't seem to be that much improvement for that purpose. Yeah, it's a little smoother, but it seems to be overall slower except with video which is not meaningful to me. I have no use for Google Now or the changes to the notification screen. And I went through the rest of the changelog and I haven't seen anything that makes much difference to me.

And if it has that awful grey search bar at the top then that finalizes my decision. I don't want to have to use a different launcher; I have enough addons running as it is.

Here's the changelog:

-Addition of Google Now
I'll never use it

-Take action directly from the notifications panel
I don't want to

-User can select an app to launch when user stops alarm
I don't want to

-Weather application and widget have been updated
I use neither

-NFC LG Tag+ help has been improved
I hate NFC

-Brightness option has been moved to notification panel for global access
I use a third-party brightness app

-Browser now loads Google account bookmarks
I don't want it to

-Improved readability for email conversation
I don't have a problem reading email as is.

-Optimized Bluetooth® connect/disconnect and audio stream switching implementations
I never use bluetooth

-User can back up contacts when the SIM is swapped to a new device
That's not meaningful to me

-Preloaded widgets including Social+, Today+, Finance, News and Power Control have been removed
I don't really care

So overall I'm disappointed. If JB on Spectrum 2 has a black or transparent search bar on the home screen, then I may consider replacing ICS because then at least JB won't be worse than ICS. But currently it has no redeeming features and that ugly grey bar would make the experience worse for me, so I won't update if it has it.

WOW.. seems to me that you wasted you money on a smart phone.. U seem like you'd be perfectly happy with a $50 flip phone. lol.. I must say, what a very in-depth, technically based user review of JB. HOw every useful of a review... LOL

Not everything related to JB deals with just the GUI, there are actually enhancements to the core android system.. these enhancements u will never see visually or with an app, but will give the user a better experience, weatehr it be watching movies or productivity for work. JUst don't base your opinion on "I don't like it, I don't use it, I dont care, yada yadda yadda".

 

[Layvin1]

WOW.. seems to me that you wasted you money on a smart phone.. U seem like you'd be perfectly happy with a $50 flip phone. lol.. I must say, what a very in-depth, technically based user review of JB. HOw every useful of a review... LOL

Not everything related to JB deals with just the GUI, there are actually enhancements to the core android system.. these enhancements u will never see visually or with an app, but will give the user a better experience, weatehr it be watching movies or productivity for work. JUst don't base your opinion on "I don't like it, I don't use it, I dont care, yada yadda yadda".

Exactly! I mean feature wise of the GUI, yeah whatever, who cares, unless you care. =-O
What I have been thankful for is the core of the system that came with JB. I was about ready to have a fit with ICS as it had became really unstable on my Spec2, several reboots a day, apps crashing and freezing, switching between WiFi/4G would cause ICS to reboot itself right in the middle of whatever I was doing and that was royalty pissing me off. I even had to do a few hard battery pulls when the screen would go black and the whole phone would be unresponsive.
ALL OF THAT! I REPEAT, ALL OF THAT HAS BEEN FIXED BY JELLY BEAN!
So for me... JB was a well needed update. If you was not having issues with ICS than you probably won't care about the upgrade, but I for one couldn't be happier it came along.

Sent from the Best overlooked phone in the market. LG SPECTRUM²

 

[weldor]

So far I have been pleased with the update, most of the changes seem for the better.

The one change I really don't like. Before the update when I disabled my lock screen and got a phone call the screen would light up with the red or green buttons, touch the green to answer.

After the update with the lock disabled on the home screen when I get a call the screen lights up with a phone handset icon and you have to drag it to answer.

Cant find any way to change it. I'd sure like to find a way.

 

[Zrunky]

I had a feeling some fanboys would flame me for my critique I'm used to that sort of thing. I can't wait for y'all to point out the magnificent new internal improvements that justify a whole 0.1 version upgrade number. Please do tell, with specifics, other than the "project butter" humdrum we've all heard before from the google marketing team.

Here are a few more annoyances:

- New email, text, etc notification icon now has a big orange dot over the icon. This, I assume, is to show the number of new messages, but the number is so tiny it's unreadable, while the big orange dot covers the icon so extensively that you can barely see what the icon is. Extremely poor design.

- I manage my apps all the time, and the app menu item has been moved down the settings menu so it's harder to get to.

- I've realized that Google Now is merely a marketing gimmick. Yes I can turn off the "feature" of restaurants and tourist attractions popping up wherever I go, but come on google, you're not fooling anybody.

- Auto-brightness still sucks, but this is probably an LG thing.

- The News aggregator app is no longer included. I didn't think it mattered until I realized that this means it's not available anywhere. "News" was one bundled app I actually used frequently, now I have to use gReader or some such. Oh, and same with the "Finance" app that's no longer bundled.

- After the OTA update my Email app settings were completely messed up and I got a message saying "Unfortunately Email has stopped" over and over and over. I had to go into the app settings menu, force stop Email, clear the cache and all data, reboot the phone, and re-enter my (3) email accounts. (I read on another site how to do this -- the problem is widespread.) Fortunately it didn't do this for my K-9 Mail accounts, Yahoo mail accounts, and Gmail accounts. But still, really? How many people are going to upgrade OTA, have that problem, and not know what to do?

- Doing things (returning calls, text messages, etc.) from the notification pulldown is cramped and annoying. I find myself going into the app rather than working from the pulldown. So that "feature" is useless and merely serves to space the notifications out so that I have to scroll down to even see them.

Here are some good things:

- Data usage graph is no longer in that obnoxious logarithmic format.. now it's linear and easier to read.

- The recent apps menu has added functionality and is probably the best UI improvement in this update.

- The overall feel is slightly smoother, videos have markedly less lag. Though my eyes can't take watching videos on my phone so that's not very meaningful to me.

Keep in mind I'm not a fanboy of any corporation, I don't "love" my phone or any other electronic device I own. I use business machines and consumer devices all day long and I'm not averse to reporting both the bad and the good as I see them. I owned Blackberries for years and half my posts on the Crackberry forums were positive and half negative. Unfortunately, IMHO, Jelly Bean is mostly negative, at least as implemented on the Spectrum 2.

 

[BigCTM]

JB is great as far as I am concerned. Much faster and smoother than ICS...I have been using Nova since day 1 and it was great with ICS and is still great with JB. The number 1 thing for me (which most reviewers ignore these days) is reception. The Spectrum 2 has the best reception by far of any android phone I have ever used. I do not say that lightly either, having owned the S3, Galaxy Nexus, Rezound and Razr M. Samsung's radios are the worst for sure. The S4 is a non event for me due to this.

 

[JimiMack]

See what I enjoy with everyone's cheers or jeers about the update is to remember it is Android, you can basically get it to do what ever you want. Do not like Now, so use another app, do not like the icons, download different ones, they took away the news app, there are thousands to choose from. Yeah if you do not like the built in launcher and by the way I have not like one stock OEM launcher yet, you can being downloading and trying launchers till they release the Spectrum 3. That is the great thing about Android, with a little time and effort you can make your phone to be and do exactly what you what it to be. Manufacturer's are never going to release a phone that will please everyone and that is fine because you can alter and fix what you do not like. I always look at the hardware specs on my phones and then decide is this phone hardware wise going to be able to handle my needs for a year, damn well knowing I am stripping down the OS and customize the software to my needs.

 

[w4rbytez]

Came from Stock ICS (root) and just successfully updated to JB but now phone won't connect to PC. Tried all connections (Media, Ethernet, etc.), USB debugging on/off. Tried 3 different cables and all USB ports. Current USB drivers are installed. Anyone have any ideas?

EDIT: Backup, Factory Reset and everything is good. Root success!

 

[Darkangels6sic6]

And I was hoping for the ease of Jelly Bean connection to pc.

Sent from my VS930 4G using Droid Forums

 

[Darkangels6sic6]

So every time I checked the pc it only showed the 11A update and it was 1gb. So I tried everything else and got the error. Finally decided to try the update and figured I would do that then jb. Turns out it was the jb update...

Sent from my VS930 4G using Droid Forums

 

[Zrunky]

Here's another annoyance I just found in JB:

In ICS, when there wasn't a default app for something, it asked you which app you wanted to open and then provided a checkbox if you wanted to set it as default. Now, it presents you with a list of apps and makes you hit a second button, "Just Once" or "Always" or something along those lines.

I have a half dozen browsers I use for different occasions. Sometimes Browser, sometimes Firefox, sometimes Chrome, sometimes UC Browser, sometimes Puffin (when I need flash). Now, instead of just hitting the button for the browser I want to open, I have to hit two buttons -- one for the browser and one for the "Just Once." Every single time.

The most stupid and obnoxious update to Android I've run across so far. Google really messed this one up and it pisses me off to no end.

EDIT:

Here's another annoyance, based on the above. When voice searching you can only open links in one type of app. I just searched for "how to clean a steering wheel." It gave me a google search list, one of which was a web site and one of which was a youtube video.

It will not open one in my default browser and one in the Youtube app. Once you've selected the default app that voice search uses to open up its displayed links, that's it.

Unless I want to continually click "Just Once" every time I open a link in voice search, everything will be opening in my browser. Completely idiotic.

 

[JimiMack]

Here's another annoyance I just found in JB:

In ICS, when there wasn't a default app for something, it asked you which app you wanted to open and then provided a checkbox if you wanted to set it as default. Now, it presents you with a list of apps and makes you hit a second button, "Just Once" or "Always" or something along those lines.

I have a half dozen browsers I use for different occasions. Sometimes Browser, sometimes Firefox, sometimes Chrome, sometimes UC Browser, sometimes Puffin (when I need flash). Now, instead of just hitting the button for the browser I want to open, I have to hit two buttons -- one for the browser and one for the "Just Once." Every single time.

The most stupid and obnoxious update to Android I've run across so far. Google really messed this one up and it pisses me off to no end.

EDIT:

Here's another annoyance, based on the above. When voice searching you can only open links in one type of app. I just searched for "how to clean a steering wheel." It gave me a google search list, one of which was a web site and one of which was a youtube video.

It will not open one in my default browser and one in the Youtube app. Once you've selected the default app that voice search uses to open up its displayed links, that's it.

Unless I want to continually click "Just Once" every time I open a link in voice search, everything will be opening in my browser. Completely idiotic.

If you are unhappy with the JB update, flash back to ICS. As you have mentioned several times nothing really interesting for you here. I am not looking to be a smart a** just thinking it could save you some complaining.

 

[micrors4]

The beauty of Android is customization and the ability for consumers to modify what they don't like with apps that can fix pretty much any problem, you just have to a bit of digging in the market and internet in order to find a solution.

 

[Ran1971]

My lg spectrum 2 got its update to jb and I'm loving it