updates - 6/6 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Aug

Verizon Begins Rollout Of Flash To The Original Droid

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Droid (Sholes), Froyo 2.2, Motorola, Verizon Wireless

Sure, FroYo for the Droid Incredible was out and about this morning, and FroYo for the original Droid rolled out a while ago, and now we've got even more update news, this time for owners of the original Droid.

If you recall, (don't worry, I don't either) the first FroYo update for the original Droid brought many things, but downloading Adobe Flash player from the Market was not among them. Well, according to an email sent from Verizon to Engadget, a second OTA update will be rolling out soon that will enable the download.

Anyone seeing the update on their OG Droid yet?

Aug

Motorola Updates Timelines For Android Updates, Good News And Bad News For MOTOBLUR Phones

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Android OS, Backflip, CLIQ / DEXT (Morrison), CLIQ XT (Zeppelin), Devour, Droid (Sholes), Droid 2, Droid X (Shadow), Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Motorola

No phone manufacturer is as fast with software updates as customers would like them to be, but Motorola has been particularly bad, especially with some of their MOTOBLUR phones which are still stuck on Android 1.5. But they do seem to be taking a step forward with a new timeline that lists when each of their phones around the world will be receiving updates to a later version of Android.

USA

BACKFLIP (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 planned for Q3

CLIQ (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 - testing in process, planned for late Q3/early Q4

CLIQ XT (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 - testing in process, planned for late Q3/early Q4

DEVOUR (USA)
Will not have a software upgrade to Android 2.1

DROID by Motorola (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.2 currently rolling out in phases

DROID X by Motorola (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.2 planned for late summer.

Aug

Streaking Past Eclair - Dell Streak Likely To Go Straight To FroYo

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in AT&T, Dell, Froyo 2.2, News, O2, Streak

Last Updated: December 22nd, 2010

As our very own John Thompson said in his hands-on with Dell's Streak, the phone/tablet hybrid has some really nice hardware, like a front-facing camera, a 1 GHz processor, and 512 MB of RAM, but the fact that it runs Android 1.6 is rather disappointing.

Well, the update to Android 2.1 may never see the light of day, as Lionel Menchaca, Dell's official chief blogger, has tweeted the following message, which was just spotted by one of Engadget's tippers:

So there you have it - looks like Dell is scrapping plans to roll out Android 2.1 officially, instead gunning straight for 2.2.

Aug

O2 FroYo Update Schedule Revealed

Posted by Andrew Gould in Android OS, Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Flipout / Twist, Froyo 2.2, Milestone, Xperia X10 (es209ra)

The official German O2 Twitter account posted a tweet this weekend that the Motorola Milestone (better known as the Verizon Droid to us Yanks) will be getting Android 2.2 in mid-late September of this year. Also contained in the announcement was news that the HTC Desire will be receiving FroYo in mid-to-late August, and the Galaxy S in mid-September while the Flipout and X10 are still TBD. It’s great to see these phones receiving prompt updates to the latest OS version after the slower rollouts of some of the previous updates (We’re looking at you Eclair).

Source: EuroDroid

Jul

Android Internal Version Distribution Updated; Fragmentation Dissipating

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

Right on schedule, Google has yet again updated their Android version distribution charts.

Immediately one notices that Android 2.1 now controls 53.1% of the Android device population. This is in stark contrast to mid-May; when 2.1 accounted for little over 30% of the operating system distribution. The major changes, summarized below:

Android 1.5 and 1.6 have shrunk to a combined 44.8% of the Android population; Android 2.1 and 2.2 devices now represent the majority of the distribution.
Android 2.0.1 has all but evaporated in the wild.
Android 2.1 is run on 53.1% of Android devices.
Android 2.2 adoption hovers around 1.8% (this includes non-standard 2.2 ROM’s that can access the Market)

Fragmentation has long been the buzzword of Android critics and users alike; but it appears that the combined effort to upgrade 1.5 and 1.6 devices to 2.1, in consort with increasing sales of new Android devices worldwide, has provided 2.1 a massive boost in the Android OS share.

Jun

Google: No ETA For Official Froyo OTA

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Android OS, Devices By Manufacturer, Froyo 2.2, HTC, News, Nexus One (Passion)

A few weeks ago, Froyo started to find its way onto the phones of a few lucky journalists and random twitter users, and then eventually into the hands of the hackers over at XDA-Developers.

At the time, speculation abounded as to whether or not this was the official OTA. It wasn’t until a few days later when we received word that this was actually a release candidate, intended for a small group of testers and not consumption by the general public.

Since that revelation, users have been anxiously awaiting an announcement from Google regarding the official, final OTA. When we quoted our inside source at Google who revealed to us that the leaked build was indeed a release candidate, they made sure to emphasize that a release candidate is usually close to the final version and that unless bugs are found, it may very well end up being the final release.

Apr

Droid Owners Have A Bittersweet Week

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Droid (Sholes), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, Videos

It’s been both a good and bad news week for Droid owners.

The Good News

The coveted Android 2.1 update has finally officially arrived to the device.

Android 2.1 was first available only on the Nexus One, a move that Google took some flack for. They were instrumental in pushing the Droid, and shortly after its release late last year, Google announced their first Google branded Android device, with features that other Android owners wouldn’t see on their phones for quite some time.

The Droid is the first major phone other than the Nexus One to receive an official update to 2.1, though it’s been available through unofficial channels for both this phone and others (even the G1 has a 2.1 update available) for quite some time.