Note 3 Kitkat first impressions

I got my Kitkat (4.4.2) update on my Tmobile Note 3 this morning and here are my first impressions after some light use today.
– I do use my phone as a music player if I don’t have my ipod with me. I like having the full album artwork on the lock screen while music is playing. However, for some reason there is a loud pop when the player automatically advances to the next song. It is VERY annoying!!! I don’t have any sound enhancements turned on and I am not sure if I can control this with adjusting a setting or what, but it has seriously got to go!
– I also like having the camera short cut easier to get to on the lock screen without having to add a widget or anything. I have not messed with the new camera features yet, but what I have seen so far, I like.
– Overall performance does seem a little better. When typing and switching between apps, it seems to be a little smoother and more responsive. I can’t really speak to battery performance as downloading and applying the update this morning was a huge battery suck! Prior to the update this is the first phone I have had that would truly last all day on a single charge under what I consider moderate use. My definition of moderate use is emailing, texting, surfing, and maybe a total of 30-40 minutes during the day of graphics intensive game play. I will better be able to judge any battery improvements tomorrow when it is a normal use day.
I am curious why Google decided to go with the drab white notification bar color. Why not the ability to customize it to each users preference without 3rd party apps or a custom ROM? It a pretty minor thing, so whatever.
– freak out