Samsung Galaxy S2 and Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) 4.0.4 Flawed

Last Thursday night when I turned my phone on for the first time that week, I was pleasantly surprised to find there was finally a operating system (OS) update for my phone's OS running Gingerbread. Since I had been anxious to try Chrome on my phone and it was only available on Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the OS update, I immediately chose to go ahead and update to ICS 4.0.4. Since the Jellybean update has already come out I thought I would be happy to be only one generation behind the latest OS after a year of waiting for ICS due to Sprint and Samsung being so slow to release the update.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 phone had always worked flawlessly, until...

The update went very smooth and the phone rebooted with the new OS. I used the phone for Twitter, Facebook and SMS messages that night and went to bed happy that my phone had finally been updated to the long promised ICS.

Then I woke up and found the Wi-Fi wasn't connected, even though it showed a strong signal and said it was connected to my home Wi-Fi. I restarted the phone using the new Restart choice on power off. The Wi-Fi connected after the restart. Later I noticed the Wi-Fi had quit working again. This time I chose to cycle the Wi-Fi alone rather than restarting the phone. Again the phone connected to the Wi-Fi. Being in the same room as the Wi-Fi router doesn't seem to help the problem. This pattern has continued ever since.

All other Wi-Fi devices continue to work normally.

This morning, Sunday, I was trying to add a comment to someone's Facebook entry. I tried using the "Speak Now' function and found it didn't work. I canceled the attempt and decided to try Speak Now in another application. I tried SMS texting and then tried a note taking application I had installed. Neither of these applications worked with Speak Now. I can only guess what other "features" no longer work. This update, which is most definitely not an upgrade, has turned into a disaster.

I have tried googling for suggestions to fix the Wi-Fi issue and have tried some of the suggestions. There appear to be a lot of people having related issues. I tried setting the Wi-Fi to only connect at 2.4GHz rather than the default of auto, which had the most hope, but it didn't work. None of the suggestions appear to fix the problem. Now I can look forward to dealing with Sprint and Samsung support for fixing these problems if even they know how. Given Sprint and Samsung's track record on releasing updates a year or more after they are available doesn't make the future of this phone look promising.

Makes me consider all the promises made with the Samsung Galaxy S3 that just came out. They all promise the world when they come out and never live up to expectations. All I want is a smartphone that works and uses the current operating system. Since an iPhone isn't an option since I can't stand their control-freak attitude, and Microsoft seems too incompetent to release a phone of any sort I may just go back to a dumb phone.

Romney Health Care vs Obamacare

Again, I'm dumbfounded by the news media who think they know everything. They compare Obamacare to what Romney did in Massachusetts. The liberal press doesn't seem capable (or is it willing) to point out the major difference. Obamacare is Federal and Romney's Massachusetts law was at the State level. A major difference reflecting States Rights.  Discussing States Rights is not being addressed and that's really where the issue resides. Do we want Federal law and bureaucracy involved in our medical system?

As for Romney now saying the mandate should now be considered a tax rather than a penalty, he didn't say it.  The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decided the Federal Obamacare mandate was a tax rather than a penalty. Romney merely conceded and confirmed the SCOTUS legal decision over his own personal opinion. Romney is being accused of flip-flopping and attacked by the liberal press when instead he has merely agreed with the SCOTUS decision. Why Romney doesn't defend his position mystifies me, however I understand why the press makes noise rather than report news.

As an independent voter I am not a Romney supporter. My opinion expressed here has more to do with how sick and tired I am of the press, both liberal and conservative, babbling about a non-news topics.  These people defile the concept of journalism. America has so many serious issues and real problems to address while these "journalists[sic]" distract the American people on politically motivated non-issues.  These people don't report news, they espouse editorial comments. They do America and the American people a deep and serious disservice.

The American people, including me, need to recognize what nonsense and drivel these news outlets provide and turn them off.