12.19.09
Posted in Hardware at 12:13 am by cliffwynne
The android market just seems to keep going and going. Current count is around 20,000 apps with about 75% of the market being free. Not bad and it will just keep growing with the addition of droid phones next year will be interesting. Don’t know what Apple has coming down the line but its going to be kinda hard to hold off the droid armada especially since the AT&T 3G network isnt the greatest.
Speaking of apps, I would like to send out my support for a nice little widget that adds a bunch of functionality to the base home screen of the droid models, Beautiful Widget. Originally Beautiful widgets brought the HTC Sense screens to other droid models but HTC was not having that so the author had to change his design. Still a nice little design and it adds a lot of widgets that make the droid even easier to use. Only 1.99 on the market and well worth the price.
Beautiful Widgets adds widgets for wifi, gps, airplane mode, vibrate, bluetooth, and a home screen addition with a clock and geolocation weather. The author is very good at updating the application especially when problems are reported by the users.
Here is the application on Androlib:Beautiful Widgets
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12.09.09
Posted in Hardware at 2:39 pm by cliffwynne
In other Droid news today, it has been announced last night by wired.com that a lab was successful in rooting the droid. The original article can be found here. Excerpt below as well as link to the forum post with instructions on how to root the droid:
Verizon’s Motorola Droid is a brand-new phone today. Like many smartphones before it, the Droid has been rooted so that owners of the Android 2.0-based smartphone can install multitouch support (including pinch-to-zoom gestures), enhanced themes and other previously forbidden goodies.
Cyanogen, a well-known Android modder, tweeted this afternoon “Droid does … ROOT” and linked to an Android message board where the exploit is posted. Zinx Verituse, the hacker who discovered the exploit, posted the essential details and links to the file so modders can get down to business.
I’ve yet to try out the exploit as I’m a wee bit hesitant to muck with my $600 phone call me a wuss all you want but bricking this thing would not make me a happy camper. I dont advise anyone to do this unless they have a clue of what they are doing nor do I take responsibility if you brick your device by following these instructions.
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Posted in Hardware at 2:31 pm by cliffwynne
This week just a month after its release Verizon has begun pushing out the OTA update for the famed Motorola Droid. The update will upgrade the droid firmware to 2.0.1 and is being pushed out by verizon, so there is no direct way to download it, well there is but I’m not gonna tell let’s just say google is your friend. Couple cavaets for the upgrade, battery life for the upgrade without being plugged in must be at 40%, if your plugged in and charging then 20%.
Fixes are listed below:
- OS stability is improved.
- Battery life is improved.
- Camera auto focus functionality is improved, and time between shots is reduced.
- Enhancements for three-way calling.
- Audio for incoming calls is improved.
- When receiving a call on call waiting, the speakerphone now remains on.
- Bluetooth® functionality is improved; background echo is eliminated.
- Improved Bluetooth phone book transfer of contacts to in-vehicle Bluetooth solutions.
- After closing a GPS application, the GPS icon will now automatically be removed from the notification panel.
- Users can now receive SMS and MMS messages after an EMS message is received.
- SMS and MMS may now be sent to seven-digit addresses.
- Google® contact merging has been updated to accommodate seven-digit numbers.
- Visual Voice Mail notices now arrive instantaneously.
- The corporate calendar widget user interface is updated
Nothing majorly announced but there is improved movement in the interface so the droid is a little more zipper than before not that I had a problem with it. Also the battery life has been improved havent fully tested it as I just upgraded today to 2.0.1 . Here are some pictures I’ve taken one before the upgrade and one after. Note the last picture was taken through my upstairs windows to the outside and the first one was taken from inside a moving aircraft after.
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