By Good morning Phandroidians! Those of you holding a Droid may be delighted to hear that it looks like the update to 2.1 is right around the corner. Verizon has posted update details on their website, and it looks like the roll-out is expected to begin tomorrow.
Here’s the full list:
Enhancements:
– Pinch-to-zoom is now available when using the browser, Gallery, and
Google Maps.TM
– New Weather and News application plus widget.
–The Weather and News app pulls the information you want from the
Web and brings it to your fingertips. You get weekly and hourly
weather forecasts based on your location, and news headlines.
– New support for voice-to-text entry.
–Whenever a text-entry box appears, simply tap the microphone
icon on the virtual keyboard and speak.
– New Gallery application with 3D layout. View and share photos taken
with your phone and images from your online Picasa Web albums.
– Live Wallpapers offer richer animated, interactive backgrounds on the
home screen. Access them with a long press anywhere on the home
screen. Tap Wallpapers, then Live Wallpapers.
Improvements:
– Free Yahoo!® Mail is now supported—simply sign in with your Yahoo!
email address and password.1
– Google Maps update.2
–Personalized suggestions and synchronized starring with
desktop maps.google.com.
—Starred items are stored and synced automatically between Google
Maps on your device and maps.google.com on your computer,
making it easy to search for places you’ve searched
for before.
–New night mode in Google Maps Navigation automatically changes
the screen at night for easier viewing.
– Improved pattern-lock functionality.
– Improved handset audio when disconnecting a wired headset.
– Email accounts no longer need to be re-entered after an
over-the-air update.
You can see the full PDF here. Whether or not that’s ALL the enhancements and improvements or just key bullets is anyone’s guess.. but it looks like we’ll find out soon enough! (Remember folks, these roll-outs take days so, give it time!)
Note: Yes indeed, Live Wallpapers is listed! Unfortunately no, the 3D App Drawer / additional home screens – are not.
[ BGR | AndroidCentral | VZW ]
This is exciting news!
OMG!!! Someone put a fire pit up SPRINTS @#$%!!! What’s the hold up?
Perfect..when is 2.2 coming or even 3 for that matter, sheesh I can’t believe how slow google/verizon is..what are we second class citizens..blah blah blah :-)
So tomorrow at noon the rollout starts… I’ll probably have to wait a bit, 2.0.1 took a few days for me. All things considered tho, it isn’t like 2.0 or 2.0.1 were flawed in such a way that made it annoying… just that techy-nerdy need to have the latest and greatest that’s been eating away at my soul. ;-)
So maybe I haven’t been keeping up on news about this update but I thought no live wallpaper? This is great news.
Doust mine eyes deceive me?.. Live wallpapers?.. It looks like they are giving us the full 2.1 update and not the original watered down version they had planned on rolling out. Sweeeet! Now we now why there was a big delay. ;)
@james: Still no mention of the 3d App drawer or 5 screens though :(
Yawn
While live wallpapers are a nice aesthetic, they are entirely useless. With only 3 screens, the stock interface is useless to me.
Disappointing that the flagship android device (sorry nexus owners, still the truth until your sales begin to approach the droid) will not feature FULL 2.1 functionality.
@MB: what’s a ‘yawn’ for you is exciting for some people. Like, me! :) Although, I’m REALLY bummed about no additional home screens.
@craven, so when BMW releases a new 760LI, it still isnt the flagship model because it hasnt been on the road long enough to sell more than a previous model?
before any veyrons were actually sold, it wasnt their flagship model.
Ive never used the N1, so I dont know what one Id like better. I would miss the h/w KB for sure, but I think the droids KB sucks anyways…
Im on sprint right now waiting to get another phone, but if the moment and hero(one of our lines) dont get 2.1 soon, Im going w/ webOS… I could even wait for legend or even supersonic, but if the first androids on sprint dont get any love, Im not putting any more of my money towards android.
cool … bring it on. just bought my droid last week .. got tired of waiting for nexus or incredible. voice dial??..yes, no .. ??
disregard that about voice dial … found it …
What about the Droid ERIS? I want mine too!!
@matt, I believe there was an article posted here before the new year from Sprints Twitter account saying 2.1 for the Hero would be released in the first half of 2010. Not to say it won’t get pushed back but at least they have a time frame.
I am also on Sprint and picked up the Hero when it was released. I really like the phone and would recommend it to anyone. Especially knowing they will be updating it.
If you are rooted and on Sprint, there are fully functional 2.1 ROMs already out. Their update won’t be any different except for those sprint apps.
But lets bring on that HTC Supersonic!!!!!
What about the ERIS??
@brian, yeah I have read that. I also read (not direct from sprint though) that they would get 1.6 long ago, then they decided to bypass 1.6 and go right to 2.1. then it was said it would be early this year, now it will be first half of this year… I am still looking at the moment for the KB though, I have an instinct now and I can barely use the virtual kb, I already do better in 10 seconds on her hero though, so I probably could get used to no hardware (had the rant before the instinct and really miss the kb now)
and if it was my phone Im sure it would be rooted running 2.1, but its the wifes phone, so I dont get to play with it as if it was mine. I havent been following webOS really, but it seemed like they were pumping out their updates pretty often.
@scott, didnt verizon accidentally let out some 2.1 OTA’s for the ERIS? they’ll probably put it out before sprint gets around to the hero…
for questions on other update status for other Androind phones go to Motorola’s site:
https://supportforums.motorola.com/community/manager/softwareupgrades
I am hopeful that the 5 home screens feature will be there but who knows. I don’t know if I can say, like Craven above, that the device is useless without them. To each their own.
IF however they do not have 5 home screens, then this is exactly the type of fragmentation people talk about having to get rid of. It’s bad enough that device OEMs are adding their own features, Google has an inconsistant set of features on it’s own Goolge experiance devices. Regardless of good or bad, needed or not, this confuses consumers and it needs to get under control.
I read up there you feel like 2nd class citizens!! WTF?!?! I am still running 1.6 on my MT3G. 1.6?!?!?!?! How can this be? Freakin jerkwads
KB’s are old hat now that Swype and its cousins are available. Took me a few days to get proficient, but now I love it. I can enter text much faster and with more accuracy than a KB. Would like to see an accurate voice to text app too, as the ones I tried are not that great. Either way, those that chose phones based on the KB are well behind technology.
@Everyone –
I would not over speculate here, as this is not likely a full feature list. Even if they are indeed present in the update, 5 Screens + 3D App Drawer were likely not on the list of features Verizon thought were most important to users. Live Wallpapers and a 3D Gallery sound much more appealing to the marketing people, after all.
I was thinking live wallpaper would be fun at first but a novalty in the long term. I just read a post on Giz from someone who has the N1 and they say they have an earth wallpaper with overlaying weather paterns. Now that is way cool and I now know why people were upset when it wasen’t listed in earlier update rumors.
WHAT? No Extra Homescreens? That was the single most functionality enhancing upgrade I was looking forward to. I don’t need meh-tastic speech2text or eye candy! I need a way of cleaning off my home screen. Are there embeddable folders?
@Talton – VZ and Google are behind the 8 ball on this 2.1 update. Those who are rooted have already had this update, with MANY more upgrades than the stock is apparently going to provide, for WEEKS. I’m glad you’re excited for it, but this is old news for a good portion of the community.
what about bluetooth headset functionality? am i the only one that thinks the droid is lacking in this department. you can only answer/hang up or redial. When can we do voice commands with bluetooth (voice search, voice dial, etc.)? This “smartphone” is dumber than “dumbphones” i had previously as far as bluetooth goes. Also i hate how if you answer a call using bluetooth and your phone is in your pocket it wakes up your screen and then introduces all kinds of problems. unintentional button presses like dialing numbers, muting, switching audio, speaker mode, etc.)
@ Mitch
Yea what’s up with that man! WTF!! MT3G Needs a freaking update.
will we lose existing apps already installed on the phone in this update like early versions apparently were plagued with? i want more home screens and everything eles in the full 2.1 update too. i also want a golden goose!
@Kurt…don’t get me wrong, love the phone. I appreciate the overall functionality – but when it comes to daily usage I’m currently using home++. I can get by on 3 screens, but why? It should be fairly easy for them to add at a minimum of two additional screens to the phone. My perception of this update is that it’s largely aesthetic. Hopefully, the screens will be there – if not, home++ for me.
Sounds like this has been far too much work for Google and Verizon. All for bells and whistles that don’t matter? Meanwhile the most common question people ask me when I’m talking on my Droid is, “What did you just say?”. Half the time I can’t even make a darn phone call.
all you sprint and verizon people complaining, why don’t you think about us poor souls at AT&T, we still don’t have an android worthy device to even have in our pocket. That is unless you have about $600 to buy one from google.
So think of yourselves as lucky, because my patience is running SOOOO thin on waiting for a freaking Android phone
Good. Now the 2.1 people can start having aneurysms about 2.2, and the rooted phone people can have aneurysms about 3.0.
Relax people…life is short. You’ll get it when you get it.
Why do you all have your panties in a bunch about more homescreens, download a 3rd party app like pandahome or buy one and decide how many homescreens you want….. I’m tired of people complaining about that
MB: Most of the “community” who own Android phones don’t know what “rooting” is and probably don’t know about a 2.1 update anyways so your assumption about this being old news is pure nerd-crap.
elijahblake: quit bitching about not having an android phone on ATT. If you want one, drop ATT or use an iSheep.
zach: does it really matter if you see people complain on a website? Seriously, does it. Very sad little girl you are.
GIF PLAYER???????????? WTF IS THE GIF PLAYER????????
need 5 screens (or 6,7,8- whatever…)
download the FREE Helix launcher from. rock solid. No errors. Allows you to have as many home screens as you want. Allows 4 persistant icons along the bottom of all your home screens. And you can double tap any home screen to get little ‘cards’ showing your various home screens so you can quickly move from one end to the other.
toss the guy a donation and live is good.
NEWSFLASH!!!!!!!!!! If you can’t wait for the best smartphone ever to be released (HTC Supersonic) and you want the second best, and are on sprint well GUESS WHAT!!!! Thats right, the N1 is coming to sprint.
http://newsreleases.sprint.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=127149&p=irol-newsArticle_newsroom&ID=1403426&highlight=
What they need to do isfix the problem of bringing up the wrong contact when trying to call someone. Doesnt happen too often but is annoying
Everyone that wants multiple home screens search helix on the market for the helix launcher. It supports up to 7 home screens and allows other customization. 2.0.1 droid users need to download version 1.2a.
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/29615-helix-launcher-now-available-android-market.html
@camelsnot: you shouldn’t insult little girls like that. :)
I am excited to hear about the 2.1 update.I am also wondering about voice dial with bluetooth. Like an idiot, I went and got what I thought was the best bluetooth (Jawbone) and now i cant use it on my bad a#@ phone.
OK now to wait.. At least I know it is comming!
Time to get a bowl of popcorn and watch the complaints come flooding in when many of the people who were demanding 2.1 (mostly because 2.1 is bigger than 2.0.1) realize that it won’t walk the dishes, mow the dog, or wash the lawn. That’s right, chil’uns, it’s just a point release operating system for a mobile phone. There is simply no way for it to live up to the expectations that people have irrationally placed upon it. And when it does fail to meet, they will blame everyone but themselves. This is all, of course, no importance whatsoever in the grander schemes of the universe, but may provide us some momentary entertainment.
I’m seeing it for AT&T now so Verizon is coming coming soon :-)
This is great news, but I do not see anything to address the two biggest issues with the Motorola Droid IMHO;
1. Still no full Blue-tooth voice dialing.
2. Loses Wi-Fi connection and have to restart phone to get it back.
@camelsnot – If you are on phandroid.com looking at news, you know what root is. Don’t be a dolt
I’ve got my popcorn ready :)
Updated:
Delayed
Delayed? Delayed again??? Either this is a joke or Verizon is the biggest steaming pile of horses*%t ever.
According to Motorola (MotoMobile via Twitter) it is being rolled out this afternoon (March 18th) to a random test group. If all goes well, it will be rolled out to the Droid community soon thereafter.
This would be awesome if I had a Droid. But it is good news for the future since as OTA updates become more common perhaps we’ll be getting them faster than the current system allows.
@46. “Ray”, there is no issue with the “Wifi” going off, and you needing to reset the phone, this is an issue with your settings. In Android 2.01 if you go to “Settings > Wireless & Networks > Wi-Fi Settings” and then tap the menu key you will see “Advanced” hit that, and BOOM, lookie there man, “Wi-Fi sleep policy”
APPLE SHOULD START A DUMP THE DROID CAMPAIGN OFFER US A EARLY BUY OUT OF OUR VERIZON CONTRACTS. DUE TO THE FACT THEY OVER PROMISE US ON UPDATES ALL THE TIME! DUMP THE DROID! ! SOMEONE SAVE US FROM ALL THE LIES!!
Wondering when they will correct the hands free issue. I would like to make calls from my blue tooth with out picking up my phone.
yes I can see that this was already known…but no additional home screens SUCKS!!!!!!! WTF Verizon?