just wanted to put my 2 cents in...
Motorola, Verizon, Amazon and Google really porked us over with JB this round-the bloatware is incredible. I don't know what Amazon paid Google or Verizon but their apps eat horrible amounts of memory.
After the JB update I was getting as low as 125-150 meg left free (outta 1 gig) at any given time (with no apps running), and experiencing quite a bit of lag and general choppiness.
After I got done freezing/removing all the apps I did not want/need I now usually sit around 240-350 meg free and all my lag/slowness is gone, the phone runs GREAT!!
You DO NOT have to be rooted to freeze anything on my list below, I am strictly stock. Also, this is IMPORTANT, check your multi-tasking "button" (the one on the far right) throughout the day and close (by swipping them to the left) any apps shown there that you are not currently using. This seems to help me IMMENSELY! Only pain is having to close each one at a time. It would be nice if they had a "close all" button like my wife has on her samsung galaxy tab 2 tablet.
Anyway, here's what I froze:
Accessories (Verizon app) - don't want/don't need
Amazon MP3 - I use mostly use poweramp for what music I play
Audible - don't want/don't need
Chrome - bah!!! (makes a cross with his fingers) this thing is a resource hog!! I have used Dolphin for for almost 2 years and still am happy with it
Google play magazines - don't want/don't need
Google Play Movies & TV - don't want/don't need ( i do not have unlimited data, nice try google /verizon)
Google+ - don't want/don't need
MC3 - don't want/don't need
NFL mobile - don't want/don't need
Real Racing 2 - don't want/don't need
Verizon Tones - don't want/don't need (Verizon isn't giving up easy lol)
VZ navigator - don't want/don't need (really Verizon? you ever hear of something called Google maps?? doh)
Zappos - don't want/don't need
I also turned off Google Play, to me it takes up way too many resources for what it gives in return. I already have plenty of other apps that do the same without slowing my phone down.
There are still a few misc. Google apps I could have removed but I have my Google Service down to 1 process and 2 services using around 14 meg so I figured I could live with that (I actually kinda like Kindle)
I also uninstalled my amazon app and amazon scan app, I just use my browser instead.
So, over all, the biggest thing is keeping your amazon and google services under control and the only way to do that is by uninstalling or freezing the ones you dont need.
Like I said above I got my Google services down and my Amazon services were using a whopping 50+ meg of memory and I got that down to 13 meg/1 process and 3 services.
And really, this applies to any app you DOWNLOAD, not system apps that are part of the Android OS. After you use an app you've downloaded, wait until the end of the day and go look at your running applications. Is it still running? Is it the kind of app that REALLY needs to be still running?? How many apps REALLY need to stay resident in your phones memory all the time? And look to see how much memory that is exactly? Even if its only sucking up 2 or 3 meg, that adds up pretty fast. Android is supposed to manage this and close apps on a timely basis, but guess what, its not perfect. Unfortunately, if it is a resource hog, you pretty much have no choice but to uninstall it. DON'T try using task managers to manage things! It will make it worse.
I've been in computers 25 years and this reminds me of the old windows days when you really had to sit on task manager and keep an eye on how many processes were running. Memory cost a lot more back then and any computer guy worth his salt didn't give it up to be eaten by crappy programs coded poorly, trying to spy on you, trying to spam you or all of the above. Now it's just crappy apps doing the same. If manufactures keep this up, the 1 gig of memory we have is NOT going to be enough! They are trying their best to turn all smartphones into pure advertising machines, so we have to fight back however we can. It's not like we don't pay enough for these things already!
Well, I hope someone found this entertaining to read!
Good Luck!
(please remember, anything you do to your phone you do at you own risk, your mileage may vary!)