Droid X (Shadow) - 6/7 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jul

Verizon’s Motorola Droid X Uses Same Bootloader Encryption As The Yet-To-Be-Defeated Milestone. Translation: Good Luck Unlocking

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News

According to two separate sources on the XDA forums, the Droid X is loaded with the now-infamous locked bootloader present in the Milestone. If you’re unfamiliar, this site explains the current methods being deployed to defeat the Milestone, but none have managed to succeed without killing the phone functionality. Motorola locks the bootloader using a proprietary encrypted private key scheme, and without access to Motorola’s encryption method, the hope for unlocking lies in exploits. Currently, an exploit known as the “kexec” method ranks highest in terms of hopes of success.

What does this mean for Droid X users? Custom ROMs and recovery images may be a pipe dream, unless a serious vulnerability is discovered.

Jul

Verizon Ships 170 Droid X Devices A Week Early, Advise Customers Not To Activate Until July 15th Launch Date

Posted by John Thompson in Carriers, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

As you undoubtedly already know, the Droid X is set to officially launch next week, on Thursday July 15th. A lucky few who have already pre-ordered the phone, however, may be getting it a week early according to an internal Verizon memo.

Employees at Verizon have been told to advise customers who call to activate their phone early that they have to wait until the July 15th launch date, as “all of the proper network provisions for the Droid-X device will not be in place until the official launch date”.

Even so, I’d still be excited if I was one of the lucky few receiving the device almost a week before the launch.

Jul

Swype Voice Input Button Coming Soon - Already Present On Samsung Galaxy S And Motorola Droid X

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Droid X (Shadow), Galaxy S, Motorola, News, Samsung

One of Swype keyboard's most glaring omissions, especially apparent to those of us with Android 2.1/2.2 is the missing voice input button.

The voice input button, present on the stock keyboard when typing in any text field, lets you utilize Android's speech-to-text capabilities and works surprisingly well. I sure missed it when I installed Swype.

And I'm not alone - over 2000 votes have been cast by Swype users, making it the #1 requested Swype feature - the next one down is only around 600 votes.

The good news is: Swype has been listening, and the voice input button is coming soon.

Jul

Droid X HDMI-Out Is Crippled To Play Only Videos Or Display Photos Taken On The Device

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

In a blog radio interview with a Motorola developer, when asked about how the Droid X’s HDMI-out could be used, the following answer was given by the Moto dev:

"The only time that we are enabling the HDMI driver on the device is when you are in the gallery mode. [...] The HDMI driver is not active any time outside the gallery"

As Android users are aware, gallery is the native photo and recorded video viewing application on Android devices. The mechanism of controlling the HDMI-out on the Droid X remains unknown, but for the time being it appears that, without root, the Droid X’s HDMI out is extremely limited in its usefulness.

Jul

[Updated] Droid X Review Roundup: It’s Pretty Awesome

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Droid X (Shadow), News, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

[Updated – July 2, 2010 at 6:30PM EST]

Over the past day or so we’ve seen a flood of Droid X reviews published, so we've decided to round up and summarize the best of them. For any readers who may need a reminder of the details:

Coming to Verizon July 15
$200 on contract
4.3”, 854 x 480 px
720p Video Recording
8 MP Camera
1 GHz Processor
Android 2.1 (Eclair) at launch, with 2.2 (FroYo) coming later
8 GB onboard, 16 GB mSD card (24 GB total)
3 mics – front, back, and bottom
HDMI out
Swype

Pretty impressive stuff, at least on paper.

Jun

Motorola Droid X Eye Live Wallpapers Up For Grabs - Install On Any Eclair (2.1) Or Froyo (2.2) Phone

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Development, Droid X (Shadow), Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Motorola, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless

Obtaining Your Droid X Live Wallpaper

A savvy XDA forum user has taken the initiative to decompile the Droid X’s live wallpapers and provide them to the Android masses. At the moment, 6 live wallpapers of the Droid X “Eye” are available on the thread - 5 from the phone and 1 modified by one of the forum members. Links for each below:

Installing

To install your Droid X Eye live wallpaper, simply

download one of the .apk’s linked above straight from your phone's browser and click on it to install or
move it to your phone from your computer, open using Astro File Manager or another install-capable file manager, and select install

Once installed, the Droid X wallpaper is selected like any other live wallpaper:

go to your home screen
hit the settings key
select wallpapers > live wallpapers
the installed .apk should appear as “DROID X.”

The wallpapers should be installable on any 2.1 or 2.2 Android device, with or without root.

Jun

Motorola Droid X Pre-Order Begins, Get Yours Before It Sells Out

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

Can’t wait to get your hands on the next Android superphone - Motorola Droid X? Then you’ll be probably be interested to learn that Best Buy has already begun their pre-orders for the newest addition to the Droid family, which will be arriving in stores on July 15th.

The biggest difference between buying the phone from Best Buy instead of directly from Verizon is simply the bonus of avoiding the mail-in rebate, as Best Buy is selling the phone for $199.99 flat instead of Verizon’s $299.99 with a $100.00 mail-in rebate.

And before you think that you won’t need to pre-order the device, remember: the EVO sold out at launch (in fact, it is still sold out) - and that was on the nation’s third largest carrier.

Jun

Droid X Internal Files Leaked - Boot Screen and Keyboard Ports Follow

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News

Some lucky new Droid X user has leaked a Droid X system dump (the phones internal files). As a result, you can now download anything found on the Droid X – wallpapers, ringtones, apps (such as the video editor, backup assistant, and photo app), and boot animations. Not only that, but the legion of Android hackers is hard at work porting various features from the X – such as the multi-touch keyboard (which has already been ported to the Incredible) and the boot screen.

Nicely done, everyone. Looking forward to seeing some of that stuff ported to the original Droid.

[Source: AndroidCentral Forums]

Jun

Android 2.2 (Froyo) Coming To Motorola Droid In Late July, Droid X in Late August

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid (Sholes), Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, Motorola, News

The shot below, from the Verizon internal systems, shows that the original Droid will be receiving an OTA FroYo update sometime in late July. All things considered, that’s not a bad turnaround time if you ask me (especially when you consider that Samsung is just now upgrading the Behold from 1.5 to 1.6… slow as molasses in December).

The Droid X, on the other hand, won’t receive the update until late August.

Users around the web are complaining because the Droid is receiving the update before the Droid X. Considering the number of Droids sold, and the fact that it is something of a figurehead for Android (because it was the first Android device targeted at the masses), it shouldn’t really be all that surprising.

Jun

Verizon’s New Superphone - The Droid X - Goes Official. $199, July 15th Launch, All Details Now Live

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

There have been plenty of leaks and rumors about the Droid X for the past few weeks, but now that it has been officially revealed, it looks even better. Here are all the official specs:

The Specs

4.3” Screen (854 x 480)
720p recording
8 megapixel camera with Dual LED flash
1 GHz processor
HDMI out
Android Eclair 2.1 at launch, to be upgraded to Froyo 2.2 in “late summer”
A radically changed version of Motoblur on top
8 GB onboard memory, and ships with 16 GB micro SD card
3 microphones, one used for noise cancellation
Shipping with Swype

Price and Plans

The phone is going to run you the usual $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate, and the unlimited data plan will cost $29.99 a month, with the optional tethering plan to cost $19.99 a month for the ability to have up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices connect to the phone.