I’ve owned a Droid since it was first released back in November 2009. Usually I’m not a first time adopter and like for others to work out the kinks before I invest in a product, but the Motorola Droid appeared to be an awesome phone and at the time was running the newest version of Android, 2.0. Since I’ve owned my Droid, I’ve rooted it, installed other roms and even beta releases of Android 2.1 and 2.2.

I’ve also noticed over the last 8 months the outcry from some people especially the techies and tech news sites the complaints about the fragmentation of android. By fragmentation I am referring to android phones running different versions of the android os. Now as a power user I understand the frustration when the Google Branded Nexus One gets Android 2.2 before everyone else but I also realize that is to be expected as it was the first phone marketed and sold exclusively by Google. It was basically the Google Reference phone, so of course its going to get Froyo before the rest of us that being said the debacle with the 2.1 upgrade from verizon for the droid has left a bad taste in some people’s mouth. But honestly ask yourself does the average consumer even care that 2.2 hasn’t been released on their droid or evo 4g. I dont think they give a rats ass, as long as they can make their calls, receive texts and do whatever else they do on their phone they could care less about an os upgrade that adds a few more features that they might never use.

As a power user I push my phone to the limit so yes I’m slighted by the fact that Nexus One gets Android 2.2 before the rest of us, but motorola has already announced that the Droid and Droid-X will both be getting Android 2.2 before the summer is over. Let us hope that Verizon doesnt muck up the release again, not that it matters to me since I’m already on 2.2 thanks to the awesome rom community that surrounds the Android community.

I guess the question is, is the Fragmentation in Android phones really that big of a problem? In my opinion its not because the average consumer doesnt care and honestly us geeks are just the very vocal minority. We have to remember that the carriers like stability over the hot newness. Plus Google has already stated that with 3.0 Android will be moving toward a more modular makeup basically making updates as easy as going to the app store.

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Ahh I forgot the joy of living in a rural area and by joy, I mean ignorance of some people. So driving home from work yesterday down my usual route, Mr. Sheriff gets behind me. I’m going the speed limit if not a few mph slower. Make my right turn and of course he is turning with me, mind you he has been behind me for about 3 miles now, on comes the lights. I’m thinking to myself WTF, so I pull over out he gets and he goes sir did you just purchase this car because the plates arent matching. Mind you all we’ve had this car for two months now and just received in the mail from the STATE of Illinois our new sticker and registration for the van. So I’m thinking to myself how in the hell is it not in your system.

Anyway pass him my license, registration, and insurance which are all current. He apologizes but at the same time compares the registration to the vin number for the van like I’m still full of sh!t. Mind you the car we had before this one was a Ford Freestyle so no way could the registration for a Quest be the same thing. So he gives me, my insurance and registration back and then goes well let me run your license and then you can go. WTH so you couldnt catch me up on insurance and registration now you have to make sure I’m super duper clean. Tell the truth thats what you really wanted to do in the first place dont sit there and lie straight to my face. So yesterday I had another case of DWB – and for all my non urban speaking friends that stands for Driving While Black . We now return you to my usual happy self.

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• "AND IF I SEE U IN THE STREETS…IM SLAPPIN U" #
• Good Morning Twitterville… #
• Looks like its going to be a nice non rainy day here in the Midwest lets keep it dry for a few days pls, God… #
• @qianabb @Brownskin_Lady @kjhinshaw Good Morning Ladies… in reply to qianabb #
• @in10seitty morning looks like I got punked rainclouds have appeared in reply to in10seitty #
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• @fuckYAtweets I was about to say nothing ever struck me as @kjinshaw being bitter toward men, she just bitter toward BS like most of us in reply to fuckYAtweets #
• patiently waits for the new #BuglessBeast by @PeterAlfonso #
• quote of the day from #Sony "gaming is having a ridiculous size tv in a small apt" #
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Can someone explain to me how the game division can make a better and more compelling story from just a trailer then George Lucas. George, I love you (no homo) for creating the Star Wars Universe, but you suck at story telling….

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I’ve been itching to use Froyo since it was announced at Google I/O back in May. Lucky for me and all the other early adopters there was leak of the Froyo build that was converted over to run on the Droid.

I’ve been using it for about a week now and I can say it makes my droid a little snappier. Now Froyo added a few things to the table:

• Tethering via USB or Wifi
• Flash 10.1
• APPS2SD
• Improved performance
• Better exchange integration
• Chrome to Phone
• Voice dialing over bluetooth

I havent used all the features yet that Froyo promises so I sill speak on the ones I have tried out. Flash 10.1 is currently in beta for Froyo and I’ve done a little testing of course little bit after froyo hit the web for all us droid users, hulu found a way to cut off the access to their widget. Currently Flash 10.1 is at beta 2 and I’ve gone a a few sites it has a few slowness issues but overall it works pretty well.

As for APPS2SD the main issue with that is the developers need to activate that function in their program now granted this was already active in certain roms but Froyo brings it to all of the android community.

I can say that overall the performance has been greatly improved on froyo.  System is very responsive and the native install gives you 5 screens instead of the current 3 in stock 2.1 release for Droid. Whether or not this will be the case on the final approved release remains to be seen but one can only hope. Still no release date on when Froyo will be available for Droid, a few lucky testers on the nexus one were able to get a hold of it for their handset but Google quickly pulled it down.

Sources:
Manifest Tech
Froyo on the Droid

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So over the weekend we did some house cleanup to prepare for a huge family BBQ we will having soon. I decided to finally install my Fathers’ day gift from 4 years ago, my char-griller side fire box .
Took a good 2 hrs to get the thing attached, mostly because I didnt have the correct size drill bit and my drill sucks. Its all attached now:

From Drop Box

And this was the results from my first smoking:

From Drop Box

Lesson learned from all of this make sure you have the proper equipment to install your hardware . Still learning how to control the temperature of the smoker.

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Spring is here in the Midwest and as typical for our area its still cold as a witch’s tit out here. I swear there is only 2 seasons you can depend on in the Midwest, Winter and Construction season.

Google should soon be announcing what enhancements are going to Android 2.2 OS. Flash 10 is included in Android 2.2 and supposedly running pretty well on the Nexus One. LG will be releasing the LG Ally soon, rumors are it will be Verizon Network at the moment yet another temptation to replace my precious droid. Ally has a strong product tie in to Iron Man 2.

Droid Incredible by HTC was released at the beginning of May and brings a Nexus One equivalent to Big Red Network, which is good since the evidently the Nexus One will not be released on Verizon or Sprint Networks. Evidently the Incredible and EVO 4G have replaced it respectably. EVO 4G looks to be the smartphones of smartphones making the droid look like its bastard cousin too bad I’m on Verizon for the next 2 years locked in.

Lg Ally Homepage
Droid Incredible by HTC
HTC Evo 4G

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Its March 1st finally only 20 more days until spring hopefully it won’t be a long cold road on the way to reaching the first day of Spring.

In Google Android news there is a rumor going around over the weekend that was posted on gizmodo that Google may be trying to release Android 2.1 to all existing Android based phones. How this is going to work with the various carriers and manufacturers is anyone guess. Unsplintering Android would lead down a much easier road for developers but will 2.1 run on the older models of hardware is something we will just have to wait to see.

Linkage

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Engadget has an article on the 2.1 OTA announcement for the droid snippet:

We’ve just gotten the inside line on the next Droid update that’s making the rounds through Verizon’s testing department from one of our trusted sources, and overall, it looks like this should take users 95 percent of the way to curing pangs of Nexus One envy. Here’s what we’ve got:

More here

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Yesterday Verizon announced the Motorola Devour the next in line of android based phones by Motorola. Devour by Motorola displays a 3.1 inch capacitive touchscreen with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. The smartphone supports Bluetooth profiles such as A2DP, HID, HSP, HFP, AVRCP and GAP. Devour comes with a 8gb sd card preinstalled, still no word on pricing from Verizon. This will be the first droid device on Verizon wireless to sport the MotoBlur delivery service.

Whats interesting is that this phone will be running Android 1.6 not 2.0 or 2.1. My thinking is that Motorola and Verizon wanted to create a mini droid with a slightly older OS. I’m sure there will be OTA updates available in the future to bring the Devour to 2.1+ land.

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