I just got the Android 2.1 upgrade from Verizon. FINALLY!
Now I’m trying to figure out what’s new about it. I do see they have the pinch multi-touch in the browser. Not sure what else is new. Post your feedback here on what you think of the upgrade.
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I got it day before last, it seems to have added a widget/app for weather and news. Kinda cool, I think that business with our maps gettin updated a few weeks back was supposed to be part of this but was instead rolled out a la cart.
I agree. In fact the maps was broken and then the next day they had another maps upgrade that fixed it.
Now if only the Sprint HTC Hero would get the 2.1 upgrade sometime this year…
There are many places to find out about 2.1 – Motorola Owners’ Forum, Android and Me, Droid Life, etc. are just some of the places.
Given I only got the 2.0.1 update for my Milestone(EU Droid) about 3-4 weeks ago I guess I’ll not be holding my breath 🙂
I upgraded my Droid to 2.1 but aside from live wallpaper (yawn) and pinch zoom for some things (that’s cool) what are the behind the scenes improvements? Better battery life? Anything?
It was fun on the forums watching people froth at the mouth because this was delayed. Just wondering what we got for the wait? Seems the best things like Google earth and more screens are not available on the Droid.
If iPhone goes to Verizon I’ll be the first customer
I didn’t wait for Verizon to push it out. I got the binary from Google’s android site and updated from a zip file a few days ago. Go to the marketplace and get some live wallpapers. 🙂
Do you have visual voicemail? That is the one iphone feature I’d like to have on Android.
How did you know you have the upgrade? I don’t see it on my droid yet.
I didn’t feel like waiting, I got the official update.zip too.
yes Droid has visual voicemail verizon charges 3 bucks a month for it
Am sorely missing the promised five home screens.
It feels faster, however, the icons from my home screens have disappeared a couple of time necessistating reboots.
Annoying crashes while downloading podcasts to the sd card are gone!
2.1 is also supposed to add native Yahoo Mail support.
As for visual voice mail…skip it. Verizon charges for it and their servers are SO BAD it can take minutes for the notification to appear – and it locks the phone up while it does it.
The update does seem to be much faster overall, which is nice. You can do voice to text in any text box which is very very useful. However the lack of the promised 5 home screens a bit of a disappointment
I hope they put that out a bit later.
Oh and we have had visual voicemail for quite awhile.
I really like my Droid and Nexus (I have lots of toys for my job). Actually I really like the Nexus and Droid is OK.
The one big weakness with Android ecosystem is the fracturing between frequent releases by Google, the handset providers, and the telcos. They all have their fingers in the pot with customization, updates, app stores, etc. It’s a pain in the butt.
Nexus One FTW!
I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but the GPS for my Droid seems to be more response since the 2.1 update. Prior to the update, sometimes it would take forever to work, or sometimes not at all.
I don’t need anything new. Just updates to make my phone faster and more reliable.
Well, it would be nice if they could work on the camera next. Too slow.
I’m suffering from Android envy on iPad day.
Really Marc Perkel, do you have a spell checker?
I bought a Palm Pre Plus yesterday. $54 (upgrade) for the phone. $30 a month for 3G with wifi hotspot capability for 5 devices at no extra cost.
Works with Gmail and Google Calendar. Not totally inconvenient with Google Voice.
GPS not too bad, placed me in the dining room when I was clearly in the living room. No turn by turn.
Woke up this morning to find the email indicator flashing. Checked mail and found that Apple had released something called a wifi iPad. Sounds like a great accessory for the Pre.
Seriously?
1) New baseband in 2.1 that is supposed to improve 3G coverage. People with sketchy coverage should be seeing fewer drops to 1X.
2) Pinch/zoom in Browser and Gallery in addition to Maps (which was upgraded a while back).
3) Live wallpapers (yawn)
4) New news/weather widget
5) Some apps now stock installed (e.g. Google Goggles) which had been in the app store for ages…
All of this apart from the new baseband has been available on rooted Droids for ages. Even the apps had been ported over a while back. Still, if you don’t want to root, you’ve got options for a bunch of the other stuff people have complained about:
Visual voicemail: don’t pay Verizon. Google Voice and YouMail have been superior free options for ages. Look in the app store.
More than 3 home screens: Home++ and Helix Launcher are both excellent free options that give other functionality as well. The maker of Home++ also has a simple app that ONLY increases the number of home screens, also free.
Enjoy. The Droid is good. When rooted, the Droid is even better.
So – how do you root the droid?
Take a look at any Droid forum (droidforums.net, alldroid.com). Easiest way to do it is with DroidMod (google it). If you’ve already updated to 2.1 it’s harder (you have to downgrade first) and you’ll have to do some research – same forums have the required info.