# A week on, ICS CM9 worth the wait?



## Cullers (Nov 23, 2011)

After months of waiting, a week ago, we finally got the chance to try a working version of CM9 for the Touchpad.
Since getting my touchpad I've been waiting for this to become available but I've held out to get the general view of how its standing up.
What is the viewpoint of the members? Was it worth the wait? Do the problems make you wish you hadn't changed over?
Absolutely no doubt the guys doing this work deserve a medal so massive kudos to them.


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## sandman (Oct 9, 2011)

do a nandroid backup and then upgrade to ics. If you don't like it revert back. Simples.

Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk


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## jinchoung (Sep 16, 2011)

it's totally worth it imo. dalingren has the most awesome quality of being extremely modest in declarations but whether it was cm7 or cm9, i find it FAR from "full of bugs".

cm9 is ridiculously slick... just makes using it so much more fun and.... SLICK!

youtube vids indeed cannot be played in HD because that requires hardware acceleration for decoding which cm9 touchpad doesn't have yet but most everything else seems to work really well for me. hell, even 3d games work and seem to be a bit faster even than in cm7 so hardware acceleration for 3d graphics/gaming seems to be all onboard and good for prime time.

the only hiccup i encountered was an inability to actually get into cm9 until applying v.10 of the gapp fix... v.8 which was linked got me stuck at the setup. and i was crashing every half hour or so but since applying the charger fix that's linked on the main page, that stopped... didn't know if that was supposed to address that kind of crash but whatever it was, i haven't crashed since... and it's been days.

anyway, if you have a bit of time and you want to play with cm9, you won't be disappointed.

jin


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## Turdbogls (Jun 7, 2011)

Absolutely better. Completely with the wait. I HIGHLY suggest doing a fresh install with data,system,and cache wipe. I did it that way and I had absolutely zero problems other than the known ones.

I was using it with some friends last night and they commented on how fast and smooth it was.
Also I was sittting at 75% after 18 hours off the charger. Battery life seems better than CM7 by a long shot.

Once we can play HD videos, this will be an epic tablet.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk


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## Jon (aka nle) (Jan 18, 2012)

Ditto. Very happy!

I had CM7, but I kept going back to WebOs (which have many qualities that I like... especially cards workflow), but since CM9 came out I have not booted into WebOs once. I like the card-ish way you can quit apps in the "recent apps" list.

I say again: VERY happy!

Thanks for the great work Dalingren (and the rest of the team)!


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## midas (Oct 16, 2011)

I'm still waiting till Titanium Backup works on it. Once that gets fixed, I'll dive in. (Unless it's already fixed and I missed it.)


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## jsirgey (Oct 18, 2011)

midas said:


> I'm still waiting till Titanium Backup works on it. Once that gets fixed, I'll dive in. (Unless it's already fixed and I missed it.)


i'm using an older version of TB 4.0.2 and that works great! just google Titanium Backup 4.0.2 .apk


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## neowiz73 (Aug 1, 2011)

For me it works great for all I do on it, I liked to play a game or 2 when I had cm7 but it's not that important.
The one big thing you might notice is it don't mount the sdcard storage via usb in a traditional way. It currently only allows media transfer and picture transfer. But you can download airdroid from the market and access the tablet through your web browser.

Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk


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## Chakademus (Jan 21, 2012)

Like you I was skeptical and planning to wait for the bugs to be worked out, maybe till the second release, but I had some time on my hands about 24 hours ago and I decided that I would just do it. If I did not like it I could always revert to CM7. I was also just a tad skeptical of all the rave reviews from others who had tried it.

But wow! I am totally impressed! So much more beautiful polished interface. I applied Gapps 4.0.3 and the charger system fix and I have had no problems. I noticed a couple times that the wifi disconnected while it was charging but to me that is not a problem at all. I had issues with syncing the calendar but once I applied a fix recommended somewhere else in this forum I was good to go. Battery life is also quite good. Netflix does not work and I don't use youtube that much anyway so these are not problems for me at all. In fact the polish of the system overall more than makes up for these minor issues. The theme chooser has disappeared but I was told that they are working on bringing it back.

I would wholeheartedly recommend that you go for it.


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## rjl9 (Oct 11, 2011)

I was skeptical at first this being a alpha 0 build but I did a nandroid backup and dove in. I put my gapps, cm9 update and charger fix in my cminstall folder and did the acme installer 2. I installed went into cwm factory reset, and cleared both caches. It booted right up without a hitch and still works better than any cm7 I've used. Other than a few app incompatibilities which isn't a big deal I haven't seen any bugs. And the biggest thing is I haven't dropped wifi once! 

So to answer your question, it is completely worth the upgrade. Your missing out if you dont have it!


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## badnat (Jan 19, 2012)

The biggest improvement is overall speed/performance.

Other than that,
-The bottom bar is large and annoying and doesn't go away.
-The video playback is much worse in software mode, and not working at all in hardware mode... streaming videos online and youtube is always hit and miss.
-Less stability in some apps, more stability in others.
-The long backpress kill app function seems kind of finicky, the timing at least. (and I'm not sure what's been killed and what hasn't because they show up the same in the recent app menu)


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## Brawlking (Aug 28, 2011)

Yep, I haven't had any real issues yet that I couldn't solve myself. I too think when dal describes these builds as "full of bugs" he's being modest, I haven't had any issues that make the OS wholly unusable.

@badnat - I've had good luck with MX Video Player playing some of my videos well. I run everything off of my media server over my network, and depending on the movie it works well. I transcode everything to MP4s with h.264 video and AAC audio before I put it on the server to maximize compatibility.


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## 32BitWhore (Oct 9, 2011)

Turdbogls said:


> Absolutely better. Completely with the wait. I HIGHLY suggest doing a fresh install with data,system,and cache wipe. I did it that way and I had absolutely zero problems other than the known ones.
> 
> I was using it with some friends last night and they commented on how fast and smooth it was.
> Also I was sittting at 75% after 18 hours off the charger. Battery life seems better than CM7 by a long shot.
> ...


x2 -- couldn't have said it better myself.


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## badnat (Jan 19, 2012)

Brawlking said:


> @badnat - I've had good luck with MX Video Player playing some of my videos well. I run everything off of my media server over my network, and depending on the movie it works well. I transcode everything to MP4s with h.264 video and AAC audio before I put it on the server to maximize compatibility.


MX video runs my videos pretty well in fast software mode, it's just that they look a bit fuzzy/wonky.


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## asif9t9 (Oct 22, 2011)

I think it's important to move on to the next version of Google's operating system. I am still getting used to how the Menu button works, but some other features do make more sense, like uninstalling apps.

At the end of the day, so many of our tablets are used for basic features like surfing the net. And it's true you can stay on CM7 for that. The operating system won't affect your daily use.


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## Brawlking (Aug 28, 2011)

badnat said:


> MX video runs my videos pretty well in fast software mode, it's just that they look a bit fuzzy/wonky.


Yeah, it really depends on the movie for me, my single episodes of stuff like Stargate play perfectly, but larger normal movies are choppy. Maybe it has to do with the file size.


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## Liquidretro (Aug 3, 2011)

Right now I am running CM7 A3.5 and play videos that I have encoded with Handbrake with the video player in Doubletwist (Stored on the TP). This works pretty well with a pause once and a while. Is this working on CM9? Or is there a different player that is working well? I want to move to IC9 and all the other bugs don't seem like that big of deal for me right now. Any input?


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## MidnightRob (Oct 29, 2011)

For me I simply cannot make the upgrade just yet. I have heard (although not tested) that software mode for video playing is even worse than in 3.5 Other than the only thing I have catioun about is that some people have had a bit trouble of getting their tp to power back on after charging... If you use you're tablet just to browse the internet then upgrade and check it out.. just make sure to have a backup first but if you use it as a media extension then don't.


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## bigeasye (Jan 18, 2012)

So i upgraded from 3.5 and played with it for a week. I absolutely loved it but couldn't handle not being able to play netflix so i restored 3.5. Overall CM9 is awesome especially with some of the apps/widgets working and looking so much better. Love how WWF looks now and GMail (especially the scrollable widget). The ICS Browser + works great, games run smooth (e.g. trial xtreme and blood and glory), and the recent apps "card" system was a great new addition. Once the bug is worked out for omx (hardware accelerated video) i will definitely reinstall CM9 and leave CM7 behind for good.


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## thekillingtree (Dec 28, 2011)

imo, 100% worth the wait. i find it ridiculous that ANYONE would want to triple boot webOS/cm7/cm9. cm7 was glorious but cm9 has so many nice/subtle features that make using the tablet so much better. oddly enough videos play better in cm9 than they did in cm7, for me at least.


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## Sapient (Sep 8, 2011)

I find there is a lot to like in this early build of CM9. The interface is lovely. But I am having trouble getting past the slow, stuttering scrolling in the browser. On a complicated page, I can flick the screen, and it will wait a good second before jerking upwards and then scrolling a little bit before stopping again. Maybe this is due to the lack of hardware acceleration? I use my tablet for the web a lot, so I may be heading back to CM7.


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## MidnightRob (Oct 29, 2011)

thekillingtree said:


> imo, 100% worth the wait. i find it ridiculous that ANYONE would want to triple boot webOS/cm7/cm9. cm7 was glorious but cm9 has so many nice/subtle features that make using the tablet so much better. oddly enough videos play better in cm9 than they did in cm7, for me at least.


Not quite understanding you on the triple boot. Woulnd't you need to go back after installing Ics to install 3.5? I thought after using AcmeInstaller 2 it overwrote any previous version of Cm you had. Would seems silly and a waste of space then then go back and install another build. With that being said, what type of videos are you testing out? I want to upgrade to Ics so badly but I cannot without the ability to play my local media on it ( somewhat decently )


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## oswade (Oct 19, 2011)

It's 100% worth it. even just for honeycomb/ics app compatibility. but the ui is a million times better (the task manager and notification bar specifically).


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## Alphajoe (Jan 24, 2012)

I am absolutely impressed with the CM9 Alpha.

I used to install different Android versions but always came back to using WebOS, because those Android ports would feel like giant phone ports (now I know how iPad users must feel). CM9 Alpha changed everything and is my standard option on the Touchpad now. It runs smooth and without any hassles, can't believe it's called Alpha. Both Google and the CM Team (dalingrin) did a wonderful job: Google for releasing such a wonderful interface, dalingrin for bringing it to the Touchpad.

Thanks!


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## b33zu (Oct 12, 2011)

Can someone link it to me please?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## midas (Oct 16, 2011)

Well read that Alpha 0.5 no longer crashed Titanium Backup, so I tried it. It's very nice and a nice improvement over CM7.Unfortunately I decided to go back. Too many of the games I play a lot just run too slow. That and Slingplayer is basically unusable. I'll wait for them to fix the accelleration and try it again then.


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## qb123 (Dec 3, 2011)

I love it so far. My only tiny complaint is not being able to hide the button status bar.


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## Syxx (Jan 20, 2012)

MidnightRob said:


> With that being said, what type of videos are you testing out? I want to upgrade to Ics so badly but I cannot without the ability to play my local media on it ( somewhat decently )


I watch 720p mkv files on cm9 almost daily using MX Player and they play beautifully in SW mode. MX Player also has small UI tweaks for ICS and blacks out the buttons properly.


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## samleung (Dec 29, 2011)

Syxx said:


> I watch 720p mkv files on cm9 almost daily using MX Player and they play beautifully in SW mode. MX Player also has small UI tweaks for ICS and blacks out the buttons properly.


Agreed. MX player works very well whn it didnt under cm7


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## TrooperThorn (Nov 24, 2011)

I just can't give up my Netflix on CM7 yet. But I'm absolutely itching to play with some ICS goodness on my Touchpad. Can't wait for the hardware acceleration to be ironed out! Thanks to the devs for all the hard work.


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## Cullers (Nov 23, 2011)

Well after hearing so many recommendations I decided to make the leap and blast ICS on to the TP. Had a hairy start having to reinstall about three times but I think that was totally my own fault using an unupdated version of gapps. Not had any problems since it did install.
What is the tethering situation with CM9 ?


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