By At what point will people stop trying to shoehorn new Android versions onto the original Motorola Droid? We applaud the effort and the if-it’s-possible-we-will-do-it spirit of the Android community, but will there really be any use in having Android 5.0 or maybe even 6.0 on a device that started showing its age when it never received an official Gingerbread port? In any case, here are the early workings of an Android 4.0 build for the classic Android handset (can we call it a classic now?).
This is a pre-alpha release based on Android 4.0.3 and CyanogenMod 9, and many of the features that would make the build useful aren’t quite working. Consider it a proof of concept for the moment, though we are sure the industrious developers behind it will eventually build it up into something a bit more usable. Just remember, folks: there is a reason the Droid isn’t getting these builds officially.
[via The Verge]
nice. Wish I still had my old droid.
Lets get it on the Droid X2 now :)
I cannot imagine this thing will run very well in the long run. The Droid just doesn’t have nearly enough RAM. It is awesome seeing this happen, though.
maybe ill throw it on my ancient OG thats just chillin at my house and mess around, until it comes out for the D3 :)
“At what point will people stop trying to shoehorn new Android versions onto the original Motorola Droid?”
What about all of the things I’ve been seeing on XDA, et al. regarding ICS trying to get shoe-horned into the G1?
ICS on the G1 is painful to watch. I applaud the effort, but the results aren’t usable on a daily basis.
It is painful, and it won’t be magnitudes better on the D1, even the D1’s GB ROMs are largely hybrids of Froyo and Gingerbread. I have to say though, I also applaud the effort.
My Droid runs better on FULL non-hybrid 2.3.7 than it ever did on any older version, and I’ve had them all from 2.0 forward. In fact, I have put off getting my full 2 year update simply because it handles so well. I can still play plenty of great 3d games with it. ICS would be fun to play with while I let the ‘new car smell’ wear off the newly realeased phones while they get cheaper.
Isn’t it crazy to look at a piece of yesterday’s technology (that was widely considered to be a very powerful device) and make it look like complete garbage? #ilovemynexus
Ya, to make us buy new phones.
They don’t owe you sh*t! You bought a phone got a discount bought it with that particular OS version.
First off competition and the market decide what’s free. IPhones are updated for free when a new IOS comes out. Thus to be competitive you should upgrade your phones for free.
Secondly, with android you bought a phone that has an open source free OS. Upgrades to that OS do not cost the carriers or the manufacturers until they put there crappy bloatware on top of it. They look kind of greedy to not give us updates when Google develops them for free. This makes it apparent that the carriers and manufacturers go out of there way to ensure you buy a new phone to get upgrades. If I didn’t have a nexus s and get upgrades immediately and for free I would root my phone and use cyanogen or something like it. ICS is awesome and it looks like most people will be waiting a long time to get it when they shouldn’t have to. I mean people who won’t pay to upgrade just to get a new os.
Just upgraded from the OG to the Nexus and in it’s final days (death throes) I had to flash CM6.1.2 to make it workable. CM7 (Gingerbread) bogged it down so badly…I can’t imagine what ICS is going to do to it.
You need to overclock the cpu
Simply amazing…. who’s the dev to high five on this one? Lol my d1 could barely post this though… I had to break out my hard keyboard lol
Not getting an official upgrade isn’t “showing it’s age,” it’s the manufacturer preferring you to buy a new phone instead of them putting money into updating the software. Heck, if not getting an upgrade makes a phone old, my Eris is(was) ancient – it never even got official Froyo love and was released at the same time as the Droid.
Please tell me you’re kidding! So many paranoids on this forum with their conspiracy theories about The phone manufacturers.
I suppose when they were making tube TVs they knew all about HD and flat panels I bet!!
Since when does a phone a manufacturer or your carrier owe you any updates anyway?
Just because you want it?
Just because you can’t afford a newer phone doesn’t mean they owe you something
He didn’t say the manufactures owe him anything. He just stated that not receiving an update from the manufacture doesn’t make a phone “old” or unable to run new software.
He also alluded to the fact that the cost of continuous updates to existing phones, without revenue, is not workable for manufactures.
Why do you always attempt to turn every point into a “conspiracy” or argument, when there is none to begin with?
The updates should be free since Google is not passing that charge on to the hardware providers. If the vendors want to do touch wiz type stuff to it we shouldn’t be penalized for it because we have to wait for them to tweak the new version of the OS. I have a nexus s and love that I got ICS last week without having to wait. I’ll pass up all the bells and whistles to have the latest purest experience.
The updates are free. However, it costs the manufactures money to make Android work on their devices.
Its true that the “skins” the manufactures add to the devices do add complexity. However, there is a lot of other complexity added just by the different types of hardware. If that wasn’t the case then we would be able to download the AOSP code, just compile it, and run it on our phones. If you follow the ROM community, there is a lot of work to get the radios, touch interfaces, USB and other hardware working with the new code.
Don’t even bother with some of these people they don’t care about logic and reason. It’s all about me me me
NEVER BE SILENCED BY CORPORATE COGS TO VOICE YOUR EXPECTATIONS AS A CONSUMER. You guys probably lobby for corporate bail out and welfare. I would bet that from one release to the next the actual driver changes are minimal. Especially on a per device cost. It’s the actual roll out and testing that is the big cost. All I know is that if the heats too much get out of the kitchen. If you can’t roll out timely updates and that’s what your customers expect then you won’t survive or shouldn’t. Google and Apple don’t have problems with this and have created an expectation of free updates. They do updates in a way that make it look seemless. I’m loving ICS on my nexus s and that’s why I bought it over samsung. Free timely updates! It’s not too hard to allocate a certain budget to keep your customers expectations being met or they will go away. It’s called doing business and there is plenty of profits in selling smart phones. What do you guys work for Samsung or some other lame manufacturer that can’t deliver updates. I’m sure the drivers on the nexus s are not dramatically different than the galaxy s. Delivery and capability are what I’m buying at this point because the nexus s isn’t or wasn’t the best hardware device when I bought it.
” The updates should be free
since Google is not passing
that charge on to the hardware
providers.”
WTF?!?!
Your logic rocketed past retarded.
Do you think the manufactures just,”poof” send the update to your phone?
There are developers, QA, support staff.etc needed to get that update out.
Should all those people work for free since the almighty Google gives the update free?
You’re a troll for sure. They make plenty of money to pay everyone. New device drivers aren’t that hard to create especially when you’re pocketing $350 a device. You sound like you’re employer doesn’t pay you for building device drivers and your sick of it. Get real!
Seriously Spicy meatball stick to cooking
BTW I thought I’d just throw this in, Google made manufacturers promise to update their devices for at least 18 months after it was released. So they do technically owe us updates.
Edit: Well they do owe us updates for 18 months hah. I’m done feeding the troll now.
” made manufacturers promise to update their devices for at least 18 months”
I laughed so hard reading this I almost drooped my phone.
Do you have something formal in writing GUARANTEEING this?
No you don’t because this was nothing formal that Google did with the manufacturers and carriers.
You are wrong they don’t owe you
I’m sorry that I decided to trust a few companies in our country. It might just be me, but I thought giving support throughout the life of a device was good customer service for a company to do. But I guess we should all be like you and just expect to get shit. I guess it goes to show that your duuuddee the manufacturers they like should tooootaaallllyyy update our phones, but like they wont because of the conspiracy! Is true. On another note I’ve never seen someone who DOESN’T like something sit all day in the place that ONLY talks about what he doesn’t like. Do you just have a sad life?
Your device is guaranteed for 1 year. That 1 year doesn’t guarantee OS updates.
You have the option of additional insurance. There is no such thing as support for the life of the product unless you purchase insurance. You are expecting something NONE of the carrie are going to give you.
You aren’t owed OS updates! Deal with that reality! There is ZERO ZILCH NONE….guarantees of updates!
I did deal with it, I rooted pre-Froyo on my OG Droid and have been up to date since then. With the exception of ICS. I’m just tired of coming onto the site I love to go on to hear about all the stuff happening in the Android world, and then to read the comments and see your pessimistic ass in here calling people idiots and paranoids when all they want is an OS update for their phone.
Hmm, wonder how much they can improve the performance. Seems to be running relatively well for it’s age.
Still waiting on a N1 build
I never had the OG Droid but geez Kev, calm down. I think the G1 should be stoned before the Droid does, I hate when people say, “i cant wait til they port it to the G1” come on, serious?
I’d imagine the OG Droid is violently lactose intolerant….
Ha ha I see what you did there!
Yet it ran Froyo fine….
What Is your point?
His point was he thought it had milk
He thinks correctly in a sense. There is milk fat in the yogurt they use to make Froyo with.
Haha ok got it. Sailed over my head at first apparently. I thought he was implying some conspiracy by the phone manufacturers.
Yes, milk in yogurt. I was injecting logic into statements. I have been told to stop doing this.
Jeb I think we need to take her outside the barn and put her down
Still waiting for a tmo gs2 build
Duuuuuuude like Google tells the phone manufacturers to like tell everyone that their phone won’t upgrade but like duuuuuuude they still update some! All phones should like be able to be updated like forever duuuuuuude! And updates should be FREEEEEE DUUUUUUUDE!
Are you illiterate?
I bought an HTC Hero (cdma) and it wasn’t able to handle the SenseUI….making it a laggy piece of garbage. It sometimes took 30 seconds for the dialer app to launch when trying to make a call. Thanks Sprint/HTC…nice QA testing. But, with the help of the dev community and various AOSP roms (and memory partition mods), that phone is still working GREAT for me. Running gingerbread smooth as hell. I’ve even flashed an alpha ICS rom, and it has looked pretty decent. Still a WIP, though. There’s not much a new phone can do that mine can’t. (oh, and the Droid is a more advanced phone than my Hero (hardware-wise)..so, don’t act like its some miracle that they could get ICS running on it)
the only comment i have ever heard about the OG Droid was that “it just works.” if anything, it shows just how good the build quality of the phone actually was. I find it ver commendable for anyone to have the know-how to get a phone as old as this to run such a program. running an overclocked processor. for a 600 mhz to buzz at 1.25ghz shows how strong it really was. it just didnt die.
I have faith that the OG Droid can handle it , bring it on .
Wow…… Are u really bashing dev’s on getting ICS on the OG droid?? This is a good thing, dev’s getting new software onto older phones. This is what happens w/ so many Android devices and you’re really trying to make that sound like a bad thing..? If we went with your saying about how the phones aren’t getting new builds “officially” then you might as well go tell many of the dev’s out there to stop building ROM’s then.
It’s no where near as old, but their is a build for my samsung captivate that’s just passing 18 months old and it works great, It’s still beta but I’m running it as a daily driver, even without overclocking the processor, I say keep shoehorning new releases on old phones until it’s not viable, if it wasn’t for these developers.
I probably would never even get ICS on my Thunderbolt which is only 8 months old without their hard work. It’s in the works, but obviously everything takes longer with a 4G LTE phone.