Google pwns u and the interwebs!!!!
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
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.
Trying out a new free app from the android market place called wptogo allows you to post to your wordpress blog from your android based phone. Pretty cool little app, still no word on the ota for verizon wireless subscribers with moto droids for android 2.1. The sdk is out and I believe motorola is working on modifying it for the droid.
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
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.
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:
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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| From Drop Box |
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| From Drop Box |
Couple things I left out of the Droid review. The droid does have a built in GPS and WiFi. I would advise you to connect to wifi and use that to download data instead of the 3g network simply because using wifi doesnt count against the “unlimited” plan of Verizon which some are saying has a monthly cap of 5GB.
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.
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