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A small sample of Motorola Droid owners have gotten the Official Android 2.1 OTA with the rest either choosing to manually install Android 2.1 the backdoor way or wait patiently for the real deal. If you’re in the latter group, you may want to try out the manual upgrade if you don’t feel like waiting a few weeks as the Motorola support forums indicate that’s how long it COULD take to reach your device:
We are pleased to announce the much anticipated DROID 2.1 upgrade has begun rolling out. The roll out will happen in phases and will be delivered to your DROID over the course of the next few weeks.
While some LOVE the new features and others GRIPE about the lack of additional homescreens and uselessness of Live Wallpapers, I think one item absolutely makes this update amazing – text-to-speech in more places:
As many of you know, 2.1 will bring several enhancements to your DROID. These include pinch to zoom for web browsing, speech to text functionality, a new and improved photo gallery and dynamic live wallpapers.
For the pure purpose of reading text messages out loud while I drive and have them converted to text for quick, accurate and safe messaging – I’m elated to get this update. The 2.1 update has been a big topic the last few months and, although it didn’t go off without a hitch, Motorola is certainly making efforts to improve their customer experience and support, and you can’t forget that Verizon had a hand in this as well:
We sincerely apologize for what we know has been a frustrating experience for you regarding communications on the status of the upgrade. We want to reassure all of our fans that we are dedicated to providing you with the best possible service and we have been listening to each and every one of your comments.
To that end, we excited to announce we will be launching a Support tab on our Facebook page in the next two weeks as well as dedicating more resources to answer your inquiries. We hope it will become a valuable asset where we can not only directly address your technical questions but also provide a place for you to share ideas with one another, report problems and give us general feedback.
Now that you know it might take a few weeks… will you try out the manual 2.1 upgrade?
I did it manually… but if it’s only 200,000 a day, I can understand how it may take a few weeks to hit everyone. 10 business days would only hit 2 million. How many Droids have been sold in the US?
Why are all the android/droid site pushing so hard for us to upgrade manually??? I don’t trust the file some guy uploaded to the internet.. has anyone stopped to consider that it might be tampered with in some way?? How do you know its the correct update file and not some trick someone his playing on you??? The update is mostly eye candy, but sets us up for flash.. so whats the rush??
I hope all the best for all those that manually updated but Im waiting for the official untampered file to be pushed out from the only real source..
Don’t fall for the hype…
People, just do it manually. Sorry it’s sounds a lot like my personal life.
“For the pure purpose of reading text messages out loud while I drive and have them converted to text for quick, accurate and safe messaging – I’m elated to get this update.”
Are you serious? Put the phone down….it can wait.
I am a little suspicious about the fact that its April Fools day, and they release it. I might try it tomorrow. Either way, sound awesome.
A lot of droids have hit the US, we will know how many when they announce that the rollout has stopped haha. I did mine manually the moment we got the update.zip
I really would love a new lock screen for the 2.1 update… the one we have now is just shit
My Droid was updated yesterday automatically. Love 2.1!!
I went with the manual option. I had thought about rooting before so i was familiar with the process. Very simple, works beautifully. I recommend this option to every droid owner, I have been waiting a very long time and was happy to see that they released an “official” manual download option. Works awesome too!!!
I bought the Droid on 3/27.
I manually updated yesterday to 2.1 without a hitch! Took less than 10 minutes. Just follow the easy directions. Can’t go wrong.
I don’t mind not having add’l home screens; I think I have enough. Text-to-speech is great as well as Maps! Worth the price of admission alone.
Update also improved battery life dramatically for me and corrected a minor wifi issue I had.
Lovin’ my Droid!
Did it manually…Quick and easy. New gallery is very nice.
I’m calling BS on this one its April 1st how ironic is it they would post something this degrading like this on this day
Rob, are you kidding?!? Another April fools? I will be waiting patiently…my phone works just fine right now. I would not want to void any thing OR have anything go wrong due to “user error”.
I manually updated my droid to 2.1 earlier this morning. The new features are great; but, the response from the phone is DRASTICALLY slower than it was before the update. I run Advanced Task Killer and my memory seems to be ok. Are any others experiencing this issue?
The introduction of the Droid broke records. While the entire number of Droids sold is something that Verizon and Motorola have not shared, we do know that in the first 72 days on the market starting in November they sold 1.05 million Droids. (Apple’s i-phone set that record by hitting one million in their first 72 days in 2007.) Considering that it is now April and that sales are not constant a conservative estimate may have a few million of these Droids waiting for the OTA. If you are really excited about this update and don’t want to risk the manual update, you may be waiting a while…
confirmed
http://community.vzw.com/t5/Android-Devices/Verizon-Wireless-is-pleased-to-announce-a-new-software-update/td-p/179145
Verizon Wireless is pleased to announce a new software update for the DROID by Motorola.Options Mark as New
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04-01-2010 07:32 AM
Users will be able to upgrade their software to version AP: ESE81/BP: C_01.3E.03P to receive new improvements and enhancements. Approximately 200,000 users will receive the update notification each day. This schedule will continue each day for about a week, until the update has been delivered to all users.
Are you guys saying it’s a 4/1 joke serious? The link to download it direct from Google’s servers was up on this very site’s forums yesterday morning.
more incredible news from the v forums
Re: HTC Incredible
04-01-2010 03:52 AM
I spent most of all day yesterday on the phone and waiting for return phone calls from Verizon. I will have to admit that they did answer all of my questions.
The 2.1 is out for the Moto Droid. It is being put out in 25,000 groups. From what I understand. He might have said 250,000, I am not sure. I would assume the older customers are going to be upgraded first.
Now for the bad news. Us Eris users. HTC told this rep that the 2.1 would be available no later than the end of April. It should be sooner, but they couldn’t promise that. How it will be sent out, they are not sure yet. They are sure it will be sent out in “blocks” but nothing on how many at a time yet.
For those waiting for the Incredible. HTC is still testing it. They have till June to finish the testing and promote the phone. Verizon has not accepted the phone yet and not sure they even will take it. Depends on the results of the testing.
They have no plans even if they do accept it to offer it as an upgrade as of now. So… the Eris users are the ones that get the shaft this time if Verizon does pick up the Incredible
@DroidPhan The manual update has you pull the file down straight from google’s server.
APRIL FOOLS!!!
I just switched from the iPhone to the Droid and I would have to say, the one thing that would push it over the edge with an update is to allow for a change of font size and style, and to have multiple home screens, not just center, left and right. As a newbie, I would love to know if these are already possible with some apps but I haven’t seen any clear info.
@DroidPhan .. the file and guide by Trident is clean.
Did it myself, super easy. it’s not an epic upgrade, but a couple new things added. If you don’t feel good about manually updating, then wait. If others don’t wanna wait .. Tridents guide at android forums is good and clean.
@matt … i’ve had no issues with the phone being “slower”. I do kill background tasks as well, and only have 2 widgets going. But, for me .. the overall speed of the phone is exactly the same as 2.01.
This is not a joke…the update works…the new gallery is very nice…the live wallpapers are cool, and the speech to text is fantastic. I also love the pinch to zoom feature. Honestly, Im glad I manually updated…It makes the droid slightly snappier also.
For those who think this is some joke, this announcement isn’t stating anything that wasn’t in the leaked Verizon email from earlier in the week. 200, 000 phones a day works out to 2 million phones in 10 days.
***To The Article Author***
And as was stated earlier, talking to the phone to send a messages while driving is no safer than actually tapping it out since you still have to look at it and correct things. Put the damn phone down and wait!
Finally.
Hopefully we won’t see any more Droid 2.1 posts.
I wish the new gallery had more settings. I miss having a dedicated folder for videos: mixing them into the photos makes it hard to search for them.
@Rick… Thanks for the response. I thought my reduced speed was possibly due to using the new active wallpaper function – but that’s not the case as when I disable it there is no change.
Also, the only new widget that I’m running that I wasn’t before is Google(or should I say Topeka?) News and Weather. I guess I am just surprised as I’ve read many, many posting trumpeting how 2.1 is so much faster as compared to 2.0.
Matt mine is slower too. Not so sure that some folks aren’t saying it’s faster because they don’t want to badmouth their phone.
Then again something could have gone wrong with the update.
Who knows.
If you want multiple screens then give helix a try. It’s free, can do up to 7 screens, an supports live wallpapers.
Also, I haven’t noticed a slow down since manually upgrading to 2.1
@DroidPhan, the update was taken directly from google servers:
http://android.clients.google.com/updates/voles/signed-voles-ESE81-from-ESD56.fa406da6.zip
And while phandroid didn’t link directly to this, other sites did. And I just did.. so feel free to use this file and know that it’s legit.
I was surprised how easy it was to do a manual update. BTW, can anyone tell what the change to the unlocking mechanism is? The release notes say it is “improved”, but I don’t see a difference.
@matt/craig – mine *is* actually noticeably faster at times and exactly the same at others. The home screen transitions are smoother and the app tray rolls out smoother too… the only time I’ve experienced slowdown is using the smoke live wallpaper, the other live papers don’t seem to cause a hitch for me at all…
I’m not saying it to hype up my phone, nor would I say it sucks to badmouth it. I’m just not that type of guy… frankly, I just don’t have any answers for why it may be faster and/or slower… nor do I know that there are definitive answers, so why send you hunting if the only real difference is perhaps related to our usage patterns, apps we access, and so on… there’s a lot of variables to consider.
I updated manually. The thing I like the most is updating software. I used to dread seeing “8 software updates available”. It appears that not only is it faster, but it seems to queue your selections better now. IIRC, I previously could only take action on two app updates at a time.
manual update rocks… Live wallpaper a resource eater…it will lag abit occasionally. But It’s good
Ok to all the people bashing the manual update.. I too was just like you and thought “well.. what if something is wrong with the file or I brick my phone?” When 2.01 update was released for manual download I considered pushing it to my Droid as well as my husbands.. he got scared I would break the phones so I just waited. I got impatient this go around and since I have insurance on my phone I took a chance and just did it. If it were to brick your phone all you would have to do is file a insurance claim on it and say you lost it. Big deal .. I dont understand why people act like this phone is priceless or irreplaceable. I got mine the day it dropped and payed $200 for it. If you are worried about the costs of replacing your phone you really dont need it. Sure $80 is a lot to pay for a replacement but if cash is that tight why would you have a phone that requires a damn $30 a month data plan lol. Im not trying to knock anyone with financial troubles but come on your phone could break accidentally. Either the manual update is for you or your scared and just wait. My phone is running smoothly and has had NO PROBLEMS since I pushed the update.
@Rob. There are many apps that allow you to add additional home screens. Try Home++, aHome, Panda Home & my personal favorite Nexus Home. Just to name a few. Some will let you choose from 3 to12 screens, depending on the home replacement you choose. Also home switcher is nice to have to switch between various home replacement apps that you have installed. And to others that have mentioned a performance loss, I’m also experiencing lag, with or without live wallpapers running. I’ve tried reinstalling the update and doing a recovery, but still experience lag especially while typing in portrait mode, but oddly enough not in landscape. (Weird!) Maybe 2.1update 2 will fix this, if there is one. :/
For those who want more home screens – just install Launcher+. Gives you up to 7 home screens. I’ve been using it for a few weeks and it’s really stable and does nothing more or less than advertised.
One other thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post. To the people that are crying about this being an April fools joke or saying that they don’t trust a file that some Guy they don’t know uploaded. I say to you. Nobody is forcing your hand to make you do anything. Some people on here have been waiting a very long time for this and they have also been on the forums where these files have been posted, long enough to have made friend’s and have grown to trust the people on there who work there asses off to help us out with these types of things. So my advice to you would be. If you don’t trust it, then don’t do it, but will you please let others decide for themselves if they want to try this or not. After all, it’s their phone, not yours. While were enjoying our 2.1 and taking worthwhile risks in life. You my friends, can keep your 2.0.1 and stay indoors out of harms ways and just leave the risk taking to those of us that have the cccccccccourage. Have a great day!
Me, personally, I will wait for the update to show up…i am in no rush…for some looking for multiple screens, i saw that someone said HELIX…i use LAUNCHER+ for that, and only using 5 our of 7 screens…have had no problems using it…
If I manually update early can I still update when I get Verizon’s ota?
Got my upgrade today and my shlong grew a full inch! April fools, the joke is on my wife!
I did the manual update last night and loving the live wallpapers, I was rooted b4 with a custom rom but figured I try stock out for a bit.
@britney lover – try the lockbot pro app, it has an iPhone style lock screen, the old droid lock screen, HTC etc…
@ryan – updating manually will just give you the same update Verizon is pushing OTA. It’s just initiated by you instead of them. So no, you won’t get an OTA notification from Verizon… at least until another update exists.
So if more people manually upgrade, does that mean the ota upgrade will take less time to get pushed out? Or does that not have any relevance?
I have issues with the gallery now. When I try to rotate a picture, it wont rotate the correct direction(if I press left it will go right etc). Every time I try to get the picture back to its original orientation, it will not rotate back. Is anyone else having this problem?
I did the manual update but the pinch zoom in the default browser is not there/working. Anyone else come upon this problem or am I missing something?
I am unable to download apps from the app store anyone else having this trouble
Just downloaded the offical manual update and installed again, and still having the rotate problem.
Being the unlucky basterd that I am , anybody know when’s the last possible day to get the update from verizon wireless?
Just got 2.1 over the air…
I just received the OTA update and its in the process of booting.
I was one of the lucky few that received the OTA update for my moto droid at midnight tonight(I was strongly considering downloading and installing myself, but hadn’t gotten around to it) and I love it… I’ve only been messing around with it for a while now but I have noticed some problems; picture rotation isn’t correct and glitches, typing is somewhat laggy, and pinch-to-zoom didn’t work until a second power cycle. I also tried the speech to text wich worked amazingly, but it does censor innapropriate language lol..and my phone seems just a little quicker to respond in most areas.. one other thing I have noticed is that my phone seems to hold 3g service better(I live in a poor service area) but that could just be my hope getting the best of me.. ill keep messing around and keep you all posted…
I just got my update and I’m happy with it. The live wallpapers are neat but useless. I don’t mind having them. The photo viewing is nice eye candy and I can see why they limited desktops. I started using a bunch of desktops with Open home and it started to really drag down the phone. I’m sure verizon saw that problem and decided to not implement it. I would have. The new menu screen the nexus one has would have been nice though
Got the 2.1 update OTA this morning. Excellent!
Tampa, fl. I just got my update. And tryed pinch to zoom on phandroid first. 2.1 is official.
GOT My OTA at 6am EST this morning…I like it. Wish Google Earth was on it. Nice Weather/news widget. Pinch and zoom is ok…I was already used to double tapping, and think it’s better anyway. Wallpapers are cool..but will get old quick. It’s just to show off to Iphone users, especially the Google Maps active wallpaper..Eat it!! :)
This is not a funny april fool’s joke. Screw you guys.
Me too! I am getting my OTA at this very moment. Hope it doesn’t suck.
So, I have to say, lol language filter on the voice text option. Is there a way to turn that off? Because #’s aren’t very helpful when I’m not using numbers nor implying to them.
You may upload manually, but for all you Verizon customers downloading it manually will void your warrenty on your phone.
After some debate i decided to upgrade manually. i had no problems it works fine plus i love the speech to text feature i just type this whole thing by saying the words its awesome.
Got the update today. Bad news…
They have not fixed the lack of bluetooth hands free dialing.
After 16 years with verizon, I think I’m getting an i-phone. This is just lame beyond description. Not even a “we’re working on it” caveat.
Droid definitely doesn’t.
I received my droid’s update this morning. Nice to finally receive one, since I’ve had my droid since November. I’m merely waiting for flash!
and for those saying it sucks and what not, be thankful verizon & motorola are improving our phones :)
The things like live wallpapers, gallery & the few other minor (enhancements) this upgrade brought was not worth the wait & I’ve also experienced more bugs and lag with this so-called rip-off of a 2.1 upgrade than I ever did with 2.0 or 2.0.1. I wish I would’ve known, because my Droid absolutely sucks compared to how it used to be. This half assed upgrade is chocked full of bugs. As long as it took them to release it, you would’ve thought they had this worked out. Man am I sorry I didn’t root! And what’s really sad is that they basically force you to update. If you dismiss the notice, it reappears every 30 mins and if you power cycle your phone it automatically starts the update. So if your Droid isn’t rooted, then you really don’t have a say in it. When rooting is available for Droids with this downgrade (update) you can bet I won’t hesitate this go round. Root your Droid and take control of your upgrades, Without being forced into buggy software!
Hey guys, I’ve got an idea! Let’s take Android 2.0.1 and throw in lwp’s, pinch to zoom, text to speech and a bunch of bugs and called it an upgrade, yes! We’ll call it Android 2.1. How can they even call this an O.S upgrade when it 1. Slows your system down. 2. Is chaulked full of bugs. 3. Market won’t load half the time. 4. System freezes causing a battery pull. 5. Scrolling in the Browser has been choppy since 2.0.1 update. 6. While typing it jumps out of the text box and when you click back on it the cursor disappears. 7. Browser is slower at rendering pages, and the list goes on and on and on…….. There are plenty more things people will come to experience like I have, and when they do… Verizon is going to have a bunch of pissed off people to deal with. But what the hell. Were getting our beloved 2.1 now aren’t we?
Just recieved 2.1 2 days ago now on my Moto Droid, and I am highly dissapointed. Yes, I do enjoy the pinch and zoom, and the Gallery is probably the best I’ve seen so far, especially with how fast you can swipe through pictures, and the cooliris mimic is gorgeous. I don’t mind the live wallpapers, especially the interactive ones you can download. Unfortunately with hopes and plenty of ROMS downloaded of what 2.1 will be like, the apps launcher remains the same, as well as the standard 3 screens. I would much rather be using the default home screen (if the update had included 5) than using Home++ and have to deal with many force closes. Plus, with the addition of the app launcher (Nexus One) that I had loaded only a few weeks ago, it was especially upsetting to have been used to such a beautiful display for my apps and the extra buttons for screen control, and then discovering it hadn’t been added.
Not sure if this has been talked about yet, but either way I’d like someone to contact me via my email @ “[email protected]” about the file name. I noticed under the update section it has a tag noting: “2.1-update1” I’m possibly getting my hopes up, but noticing the Update1 notation really makes me wonder if there will be other updates to come with the missing promises beforehand.
STOP being big brats! You’ve got to be kidding me. First of all, we knew that what we would get in the 2.1 upgrade wasn’t too hot, but its better than what we had! If you don’t like it go get a new phone, don’t think that your b wordiness will change anything!
Geesh!
I must say, I’m very pleased with all that I recieved; perhaps, very greatful