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

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

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.

I received my droid on Saturday and ordered it over the telesales line instead of going in store. Why you may ask? Simple the online store actually had an instant rebate on the device instead of the mail in rebate that the Verizon Wireless stores had, in addition it was just so much easier calling in to a number instead of standing in line. I’ll take an instant $100 over plopping down and waiting 3-4 weeks, if your lucky.

On to the nitty gritty so to speak the droid comes with both a touch screen as well as a slide out keyboard which was one of the main reasons that I chose this over the HTC Eris which was released on the same day. I use to have a LG Voyager and I found the touch screen to be slightly lacking but the Motorola’s touchscreen is absolutely outstanding and find myself using it more than I do the keyboard. In fact I can count on my hands how many times I’ve actually found myself using the slide out keyboard. One issue that I’ve seeing with the droid touchscreen is that it holds fingerprints a little too well for me I would advise getting screen protector but make sure you select the right one as some protectors have been known to interfere with touchscreen functionality. This is the one I’m currently using.

The droid also includes a 5MP camera with autofocus and dual LED flash. the pictures are pretty good for a phone and I will be uploading some of the shots I took later. Some people have complained about the pictures but to me the camera is fine for what it is. Its one of the best cameras on a smartphone that I’ve used. There have been reports of faulty cameras shipping with the droid as well as a problem with its autofocus. The issue with the autofocus is being addressed with a software update in the coming months. As for the faulty camera, that is totally a hardware issue and luckily my camera was not one of the ones effected.

Droid also ships with an exclusive new version of Google maps, this is the first smartphone offered by Verizon that does not work with VZ Navigator. Which is great because for 1) Google Maps is free, 2) Google maps for the Droid has spoken turn by turn directions and 3) its free, did I mention the free part no extra 10.00 a month for a feature that you might not use that much.

Application wise there are just a plethora of utilities in the app market that are either free or relatively cheap. For better management of your textings, I installed handcent from the app market, totally free application which improves the texting UI on the droid. As for the homescreen, I’m currently using open home lite which allows for many different skins to be installed which tailors the droid’s main screen. For those of you that listen to podcasts, I’m currently using Google Listen which can either stream the podcasts to your device or allows you to download the podcasts to be listen to at a later time.

Sound quality is excellent and the built in music player is very easy to use. Droid comes with a 16GB micro sd card and you can easily sync it to any of your favorite music syncing applications on your pc. One caveat the first time you connect the droid to your PC you will have to make sure that the droid goes into mass storage mode so that the PC can see the storage and the files can be uploaded. Once its setup then your good the next time you connect.

Sorry for not having pictures but I plan on uploading some later today and seeming that this is just my little review and there are a ton more out there you guys should be fine . All in All I would say I love my new droid and probably wont get rid of it as quickly as I got rid of my voyager.

I give the droid an 8 out of 10 on the Cliff scale.

**** Edit: Uploaded some pictures