Friday, November 25, 2011

What to do if an app doesn't work with an Ice Cream Sandwich port

Boxee

Everywhere you look you see Ice Cream Sandwich being ported to one phone or another.  Anytime there's a version update to AOSP, it's fun to be an Android geek.  And every time it happens, and our great community of developers start porting it over to existing phones we start seeing apps that just aren't working well -- even our favorite apps.  So what to do when faced with a situation where an app you need or want badly is misbehaving?  It's a bit different situation when a build is hacked together versus an official update, like we're seeing now with Ice Cream Sandwich.  Here's what I would recommend:

Don't use the report to developer feature from the force close dialog if you see one.  There's a good chance the app isn't working because of something the developer has no control over, and just an app report is going to confuse the situation.  Take a moment and find the contact information for the developer, and send them an e-mail telling them what is happening, what software you're using, and if you're able, send a logcat of the event.  Also let the ROM developer know there's an issue, but don't expect he or she to be able to do much about it.  In fact, don't expect the application developer to be able to fix the issue either -- things like hacked video drivers or other binary bits we need and don't have can lead to unsolvable problems.

The important thing to remember, and I'll quote our own ICS ROM developer Beezy:

For now, just sit back and relax.  Enjoy what you can do now, and wait for everything we need from Google and the manufacturer.  Try a different app that does the same thing.

I'll also add that you don't have to use ICS just because it's available.  Give it a try when you can, and if it doesn't work out for you flash back.  Remember -- this is supposed to be fun.



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/di_DjDBB8sQ/story01.htm

Maggie Grace Maggie Gyllenhaal Majandra Delfino Malia Jones

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