motorola droid

Motorola, Verizon, and Adobe (wha?) announcing the “next generation of Droid” on June 23rd

June 15

So, what happens when Motorola, Verizon, and Adobe (since when you were so into Android? Oh I forgot, you love it.) have a little pep talk and set up a press event? Well they announce the Droid X and Droid 2, that’s what. Or at least that’s what I think they’re doing. Errr, anyways, the event is being held on the 23rd of June and no doubt will bring something better than the original Motorola Droid I just got in the mail.

Get FroYo On Your Motorola DROID. And That’s An Order.

June 5

According to a colleague of mine, AKA Sir Bettiol of BGR and England, MyDroidWorld has an official Android 2.2 ROM for the Motorola DROID. All you have to do is follow the step-by-step instructions to get started, and you’ll be up to your head in frozen yogurt in no time. One thing to point out for you guys is that the ROM is completely “perfect”, except it doesn’t include Wi-Fi (read: suck), but that should be panned out before the official Moto Android 2.2 OTA comes out, right? In the meantime, hit up the source link. Another note: it’s completely your fault if it “screws up”, as the developers say.

Source: MyDroidWorld, BGR

WSJ Claims Motorola To Launch 2 New Droids This Year On Verizon

May 28

While it has been obvious to anyone reading the variety of blogs out there, the Motorola DROID Shadow is the upcoming Droid on Verizon, by Motorola. But just in due time, the Wall Street Journal has come out with a new story claiming that Motorola has made a new deal with Verizon, and will produce the DROID Shadow, as well as a new, un-named, un-seen, and unknown Android phone. Okay then, Moto. We’re ready.

The hardest cycle here though is the Droid branding, as Lucasfilm owns it from the Star Wars series, and therefore Verizon must pay them to keep their mouths tight and shut. Then of course HTC is using the Droid branding for the even more sought after HTC DROID Incredible (due to Samsung AMOLED shortages), which takes a large chunk out of the market share previously acquired through the sales of the uber-popular Motorola Droid.

Source: WSJ

Motorola: Droid Updating To Android 2.2 “In The Near Future”. That’s Nice

May 22

Motorola is already known for spitting out Android phones with old OSes, and the Droid at one point was crawling along in Android 2.0.1 for ages, until Verizon finally decided to do something about it. Interestingly, my friends at SlashGear have pinged Motorola, and got the oh-so-usual-PR-person-like-response in brief:

“We’re excited to see Google’s news of the next version of the Android operating system and look forward to integrating it on our Android-based devices as it’s made available to the open source community.”

While I can’t comment on specifics, we do expect DROID by Motorola users will receive Android 2.2 as a software upgrade in the near future.”

Well, well, well! ‘Tis wonderful good news I suppose!

Motorola Droid and Lego Solve The Rubik’s Cube In 25 Seconds

May 6

Using a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit along with a Motorola Droid, this combination known as the “Speedcuber” solves a Rubik’s Cube puzzle in 25 seconds. First off, the Motorola Droid had an app running that uses the camera to send picture to the NXT robot via Bluetooth, which then solves the puzzle.

The Speedcuber was created by the folks at ARM, which is what the Droid’s processor is based upon. Check out the video above for some quarter of a minute action.

Sirius XM app coming to Android “soon”, eh? Actually they meant Android 2.1

April 24

Hmph. So the Sirius XM app that iPhone and iPod Touch owners have probably had for a year is finally coming to Android. I’d like to make something clear with the developers making apps. When you say “it’s coming to Android”, just say it’s coming to Android 2.1 phones with fast processors, otherwise, you’ll break my heart, and probably a lot of other people’s. So yeah, that’s the requirements to run the Sirius XM app (along with either Wi-Fi or 3G data connections), which will be released on the Android Market, as Sirius puts it, “coming soon”. Strangely the press release after the cut mentions that the app will only work on the Nexus One and Droid, leaving me puzzled as to how they could leave out the EVO 4G, Droid Incredible, and other phones with 1Ghz Snapdragon processors coupled with Android 2.1. It’s a strange world.

Android 2.1 update for DROID is now on the run

March 30

Finally. For you DROID owners right now this is the time to savor every reason why you bought your DROID. Starting today, over-the-air updates that bring Android 2.1 instead of Android 2.0.1 are being served to Verizon Droid owners nationwide. Once your handset downloads the update in the background, you should receive a notification, or you could just go for the manual update option in Settings > About phone. And don’t freak out if you still don’t get it; this sort of update is rolled out gradually. We know, it sucks, but in the end it’s worth it. Here’s the changelog, after the “read more” link.

HTC Sense UI ported to Motorola Droid as fans say “yes we did”

March 22

In a strange but perfect marriage of power and looks, the HTC Sense UI has been ported to the Motorola Droid, while HTC phones everywhere cry. If you like breaking warranties and like possibly breaking your phone to see if you can port Sense UI yourself, step right up to the “source” link where there are instructions. The dirty work that made this happen was all because of AllDroid user Greek35T et al. Though you might not want to put up bricking your phone, true modders might not want to look at this ROM either; there’s no 3G for voice calls (2G only), or Bluetooth and GPS, but while these quirks are thinned out it’s nice to see some Droid with some Sense.

Source: AllDroid