Year: 2010

if seeing the packaging and blurry images didn’t get you all excited about the new motorola devour on verizon, then maybe today’s announcement will.  that’s right, the devour is officially official.

specs…

Android 1.6.
3.1-inch touchscreen at 320×480.
Dimensions: 4.55×2.4×0.61 inches.
Weight: 5.89 ounces
Talk time: Up to 389 minutes
Standby time: Up to 443 hours
Horizontal slider keyboard.
3-megapixel camera.
EVDO Rev. A.
WiFi b/g
aGPS
Audio formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, MP3
Video formats: MPEG-4, h.263,
Bluetooth with A2DP
3.5mm headphone jack
HTML 5-compatible Webkit browser.
MicroSD card up to 32GB (8GB pre-installed).
Speakerphone.
VCAST music with Rhapsody.

excited yet?  these new pictures definitely make this phone a lot more appealing than those nasty originals.  motoblur also has some nice features, but i’m still finding it odd that they would be shipping and selling new android phones running anything less than 2.1.  who really cares though right?  we still have our droid!

this may not be the motorola droid update and this may just sound like great news for nexus one owners, but as a motorola droid owner you better be ready for yours any day.  this also means you better be ready for some multi-touch.  yes you just read that correctly.

the rumor mill has produced some doozies over the last month with many suggesting that the motorola droid update to android 2.1 would not happen until the nexus one was updated.  well here you go.  and you better be right.

the first major ota update for the nexus one will include the following…

Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive an over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features, and fixes a few problems that some users might have experienced, including:

Google Goggles: this mobile application will now be available directly on your device by launching it from your All Apps menu. Just use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web

Google Maps: the Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include:

• Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com – access your favorite places from your phone or computer
• Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history – makes it easy to search for places you’ve searched for before
• Night mode in Google Maps Navigation – automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving

Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone’s Browser, Gallery and Maps applications

3G connectivity: we will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones

i love how google won’t refer to it as “multi-touch.”  apple vs. google is fantastic.

engadget with early video footage.  all looks well…

apparently, every single motorola droid in the u.s. is effected by some evil voice search demon.  to be serious for a second, this is actually true.  as of this morning around 7:30AM, voice search on motorola droid devices has stopped working.

if you open the app and say a voice command, you get nothing.  no recognition, no response, no results.

the issue has been brought to the highest levels at verizon as far as we know, but there is no timetable on a fix.

stay tuned!  we’ll keep this post rolling as we have new info. and if your droid returns to correct functionality, please let us know!

update 8:33am (2/2):

voice search is now recognizing voice commands but stalling during processing. “cancel” is required to get out of the app.

update 9:26am (2/2):

still down. verizon rep confirms it is a “program issue.” whatever the hell that means. we also have users reporting now that they have never lost the voice search service.

if you leave a comment with your location and whether or not your voice search is working, that would be fantastic.

update 10:09am (2/2):

some users reporting that their voice search has been fixed. i’m in oregon and still definitely dead.

update 10:25am (2/2):

and voice search is officially back. bam.

update 4:19pm (2/2):

jumped the gun on everyone having their service back. getting reports through comments now that nebraska and california are still without voice search.

update 4:23pm (2/2):

just tested mine and voice search is now force closing.

update 7:49pm (2/2):

force closes continue and reports are coming in from all over the u.s. it looked initially like a west coast issue, but that theory has now been squashed. once we have an update reporting some sort of change, we’ll be back.

stay patient everyone. let’s just hope they are testing before the 2.1 release. (fingers crossed!)

we’re not usually one for toys and especially not ones that are replicas of the logo of the operating system on our phone, but these little android guys are pretty cool.

nice work from dyzplastic and andrew bell.  and i’ll take a box!

(via android guys)

we’ve had many readers ask about htc’s sense ui and when it will be ported over to the motorola droid.  now, i may not have the exact answer to that, but with the release of the droid eris source code today, it could be sooner than we had imagined.

of course an update on the droid eris to 2.0 would probably speed this up even more.  stay tuned…