Droid Today

Posts Tagged droid

Fragmentation in Android OS Market

Dec 12

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Development, Android Phones | Comments off

PC World has a perspective on the most recent Android update made available by Google and pushed to Motorola Droid owners. This could be one not-so-subtle issue that may keep software houses from focusing development efforts on the Android operating system platform and instead opt for the Apple iPhone platform.

On Friday, Sprint posted a Twitter message saying its HTC Hero and Samsung Moment phones will get Android 2.0 in the first half of 2010.

The Sprint announcement points to a potential fragmentation issue that some experts worry might plague Android. Already there are phones on the market running Android 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0. The problem with having many versions in the market at the same time is that applications may have trouble working smoothly across all the OSes.

That makes the platform less attractive to the developers Google relies on to build interesting applications, and to end-users who may find that an application they download doesn’t work on their phone.

PCW Article

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Droid 2-for-1 special in the works?

Dec 3

Posted by David Santoro in Android Phones | Comments off

BGR has reported that Verizon is going to be offering a 2-for-1 special on the Droid starting on December 4th, with the requirement that you activate a new line.  It’s definitely worth waiting a few days if you are considering buying multiple Droids.

Update, 12/4.  More details have emerged at BGR. You can only get an HTC Droid Eris as your free phone, not a Motorola Droid.

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Yes, you can tether your Droid with Windows

Dec 1

Posted by David Santoro in Android Phones | Comments off

I haven’t seen much press about this yet, but PdaNet now supports USB and Bluetooth tethering for your laptop so that you may use your Droid and its data plan for accessing the internet.   The best part is that there is no need to ‘root’ your phone.  I have personally done it with version 2.12, and it works very well.

For USB tethering you need to install these drivers from Motorola’s website.

Caveats:

  1. After a trial period the free edition of PdaNet will only pass HTTP traffic.  For full IP connectivity you need to purchase the full product at $29 US.
  2. Verizon is not likely to be to happy with this and may try to charge you more for tethering.  Use at your own risk.
  3. The fine print of your contract says your “Unlimited Data” plan is really limited to 5 GB per  month, an amount which can be used up very quickly by a tethered PC.

More info: PDANet for Android

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Google now providing instructions for Droid “high quality” video flub

Nov 22

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones | Comments off

One puzzling nuance of the Verizon Droid from the day it was released to the public is the need to change settings in the native Youtube application to display high quality video as opposed to pixelated, low-quality versions of the same stream. In the eyes of several reviewers this appeared to be a bit of an odd oversight. Why would a phone, whose resolution is a crystal clear  854 x 480 pixels, be configured to show Youtube videos at the default 320 x 240 resolution when it’s reasonably easy to configure for the much sharper 640 x 360 high quality resolution?

Google now appears to be sending email messages to new Droid owners instructing them how to change the resolution of videos on the fly. It’s obvious that the point of the messge is to provide a handful of “How-To” video tutorials for other functionality on the phone, but the seemingly-subtle configuration change is what stands out like a sore thumb in the email.

The message:
Read the rest of this entry »

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Were you an early adopter of Droid? ETF fees still $175

Nov 20

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones | 1 Comment

Marquerite Reardon over at CNet has an interesting overview of the ins-and-outs of early termination fees and one interesting point is worth noting. If you were one of those who ran out and purchased a droid within the first week of the Verizon / Motorola Droid release, the early termination fees — should you decide to cancel your Verizon contract — are still $175 and not the $350 that Verizon has instituted now.

Read the article on CNet

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Free Android app trumps $30 multimedia dock

Nov 20

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones | Comments off

A new, free application you can download (for now) from the Android application store opens the functionality that you could previously only use on the Motorola Droid by purchasing the Multimedia Dock. The application only works on the the Android 2 OS of the Motorola Droid. Search the app store for DockRunner and install.

The Motorola Droid senses whether it’s being used free-form or mounted in either the multimedia dock or the car-mounted dock through the use of magnets. When mounted in the car dock, the phone automatically launches the Google Maps Navigation application while launching the multimedia interface / clock when the device is cradled in the Motorola accessory. Although you can fire up “Car Home” on the phone without the use of the dock for your vehicle, there hasn’t been an obvious way to launch the hidden multimedia interface without the corresponding accessory for your desktop.

Found at telephonvonline.com

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Push update for Droid issues due early December

Nov 16

Posted by Brian Kelley in Android Phones | Comments off

From a leaked Verizon support document, it appears an update for several problems with the Verizon Droid phone will be pushed December 11th. The fixes appear to address a small number of issues that users are facing with Active Sync / Exchange, Text messaging, and the camera.

Having used the Droid for a little over a week, my personal experience is that stability of some platform components (if not the base OS) is somewhat questionable. I’ve experienced issues with multiple native applications (apps that shipped with the phone) that stop responding, some applications never opening to the same window twice, and even the unthinkable — having the entire phone / screen become completely unresponsive after hanging up a call forcing me to have to reboot (!) the phone. Of course, in the complex world of software development, you can’t fix what you can’t duplicate consistently and certain issues you can’t even identify, so what everyone is calling “quirks” that I and others experience will probably never be fixed. (To be honest, I’m quite amazed that functionality impaired by stability issues has gotten so little coverage in the blogosphere.)

Click the link below to see the leaked documents out of Verizon (apparently scooped by Phandroid as noted by the shameless watermark).

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