Motorola has announced via their Facebook Wall that beginning later this week the Droid will be receiving the long-awaited Android 2.1 update. All is not lost Cliq and Devour owners, the post goes on to say that “we will have more information to share on other device upgrades later this week as well.”
But before everyone runs to get their party hats and balloons there is a slightly worrisome rumor over on Engadget regarding the contents of the Droid’s forthcoming update. Their tipster indicated that while many of the Android 2.1 updates were present (multitouch enabled browser, news widget, and weather widget), some of the eye candy was lost. The presence or absence of the new Gallery was not mentioned, but notably missing from the update were the 3D icon grid which replaced the existing “drawer” interface and the active wallpapers.
Now while it would probably be understandable if some of the less powerful Android devices presently on the market were unable to fully incorporate all of the 2.1 updates, the Droid was released as the top dog just 3 months ago and yet could find itself by the end of the week unable to run Android’s full operating system. Clearly these graphical touches are not integral parts of the OS, but nonetheless it would seem a bit early for the Droid to be put out to pasture unable to run with the big boys any longer.
Droid owners will find out in just a few short days if they get to enjoy the whole Eclair or if it’s missing its creamy center.
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Sean Riley
Sean has been obsessed with mobile technology ever since stealing his dad's bag phone and Android has been on his radar since its earliest days. For his thoughts on gadgets and tech that fall outside of the Android universe you can also find him blogging at Technogasms.
28 Comments
I really hope they don’t skimp on this update. The Droid still has allot of potential.
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Only as bloated as YOU make it.
I’ve been using the 2.1 launcher ported from the N1( along with 3D gallery and until a few days ago a full multi-touch maps app from http://www.droid-life.com/2010/01/current-list-of-nexus-one-21-apps.html ) for a week or so now and the droid CAN handle it…
It occasionally can be a little buggy (which could be expected), but definitely doable on the droid.
I don’t see a reason for Moto/Verizon to leave this one out of our precious 2.1….
I can see that the 3D app-drawer may not be present, since it could have delayed the release of 2.1 on the Droid. Maybe there are some contractual reasons with the ones that designed and wrote the 3D app-drawer (and Gallery).
However, the 2.1 SDK has an API for live wall-papers. It may be that the live wall-papers from the Nexus are not shipped in the 2.1 release for the Droid, but I can’t see any reason why Droid users couldn’t download these from the Android Market. I think the Droid will support live wall-papers fine.
Gah, I hope 2.1 for Droid has at least the live wallpapers. It would suck if it didn’t.
*crosses fingers for the 3D icon grid too*
I don’t care about the live wallpapers, that is just a battery killer anyway. I would like to see the 3D apparently drawer and the new gallery, that is what I am hoping for.
Apparently = App, damn auto-correct.
Right, so, when can we manually update it?
I’m wondering if the eye candy pieces just aren’t being included now but are still being worked on. And they just don’t want to hold off the update any longer?
So far it seems like the process of getting these updates out (to any of the phones) takes much longer than I would have expected given the fact that most of the code is already done.
It’s possible, but if that is the case I find that fairly concerning as well. Is Google getting so wrapped up in writing these updates to the specific “superphone” of that moment that they aren’t properly considering the existing devices?
Hopefully the answer is that the tipster just saw an earlier build of the update.
This whole Nexus One stuff has me pissed anyway. All we kept seeing was Droid commercials for months and talk of how Droid was the biggest and best smart phone ever and all the while Google was developing the N1 and released it very shortly afterward. Now all of a sudden Motorola is left trying to make Android’s latest and greatest operating system work on the Droid. If I was Motorola I’d be pissed as hell at the way Google used them to get the Android hype going and then launched their own phone as soon as it did.
And in a couple of months we will have an android phone that is better than the nexus and so on. This is the problem with open source software. You get the best android phone and BOOM rumors starts about the next best android phone. I am pissed to buddy.
I have to agree with you on that since Google probably using Motorola to boost Android popularity than Google decide to create their own phone just to make them look good. I guess money is everything. I’m not even so sure anymore if Android OS is open source anymore if leaving other phone without latest OS feature.
I share your frustration as I have pissed a many google fanboys off with my honest responses concerning this issue. However, I see verizon as the major player in pretending droid was “the” phone. It seems to me that verizon/moto used google rather than the other way around…
long-awaited? i’m still waiting for ANY update, still on 1.5!
damn you, Proximus!
Sorry for picking at the would there Jarl, I was mostly joking about “long-awaited,” we Droid owners are just an incredibly impatient lot.
I meant “wound,” apparently I need more coffee.
Wonder years rules. End of story.
Gallery3D is definitely in, since it’s part of AOSP. If it somehow isn’t, we just have to compile it, no legal stuff involved.
Yeah google kinda pulled a sneaky move on Moto it seems
Sigh
I’m still running ancient jf1.5 on my G1.
Been puuting off spending the time to move up to cyano forever now. This has got me itching to get back in the loop, but then Ill still be way behind.
Was hoping a nice qwerty phn for Tmob would come out in Q1 2010 and I could skip the root crap but no luck.
Did someone say fragmentation?
I’m happy with my Droid, I don’t care about live wallpapers, but I definitely want everything else including the 3d app drawer…but i also don’t really trust engadget, I guess we’ll see when it comes…