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

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

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.

I must say that I’m beginning to rely more and more on pandora for music listening in the office. For those that don’t know pandora is an application that streams music to your desktop, laptop or mobile devices. Its free to use with some data restrictions if you are using it from a computer, don’t know if there is a limit on the data if you are using it on your smartphone. Find out more about pandora here. Till next time I feel like blogging…

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

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.

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.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

I was having a strange issue where my droid would connect to my home network and I couldnt surf or do anything. While in my office I was able to connect to our wifi there and surf and do anything that I could normally do on Verizon’s 3g network.

Well tonight after some research I figured out the issue, which of course was my network more specifically my encryption protocol. I have been using WEP for encryption for years and while the droid accepts that for its WiFi connections it seems that it has problems with WEP encryption when it comes time to surf. Sure enough I switched over to the more secure WPA2 encryption and now I’m able to run speedtests and all using my wifi connection on my droid.

Now I’ve read in forums that some people have had issues where they switched from WPA2 to WEP and that fixed the problem so I’m just sharing what fixed my issue. So if your having problems with your droid surfing on your home network try turning off your encryption first to see if that improves the issue and if it does you might have to rethink your current encryption methods.

WPA2 is more secure than WEP in most cases so it was time for a change.

Recommended applications from the app store:

Better Texting – Handscent
Home and theming – Pandora or Open Home
Internet Music Streaming – Pandora and last.fm
Podcasts – Google Listen
Wifi – Wifi Analyzer is an excellent tool to help troubleshoot wifi connections on the droid
Ebay – Pkt Auctions
Weather – Weatherbug

All the applications I listed are free or have free versions in the app market.