Hasta La Gadget!

Chatter over the Milestone’s impending Android 2.1 update has reached a rolling boil in recent days, but it’s actually the Milestone’s American cousin that’s getting the official coverage today. That’s right: Verizon’s just posted details on the Droid’s upgrade to Google’s latest and greatest cut, and you’ve got the expected host of goodies including the new 3D Gallery app, voice-to-text, news and weather widgets, pinch-to-zoom support, “improved” pattern lock, and — get this — live wallpapers, something we’d originally thought Motorola might leave out. It appears to lack the Nexus One’s 3D app launcher (which we’d expected), but it’s still pure gold for owners. Let us know when you’ve gotten it, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Leaked documentation indicates we’ll see this start to get rolled out in batches of 250,000 at a time starting on Thursday — not too long of a wait (unless you’re in the very last batch, that is).

Verizon posts Android 2.1 upgrade details for Droid originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but Android Central seems to have obtained a screen shot from a deep, dark, top-secret Verizon system that indicated that the upcoming CDMA version of the Nexus One will be “available only through www.Google.com/Phones.” That, of course, matches T-Mobile’s strategy of quietly letting Google do its thing — and Verizon’s strategy of keeping its network “open” — so you’ll just have to remember to not line up at your local store at 8PM the night before the launch, otherwise you’re going to come away very, very disappointed. What’s a whole lot stranger, though, is a mention that it runs HTC’s Sense UI, which means one of a few things: Google’s allowing carriers and manufacturers to have their way with the Android builds sold directly through its own store, the Verizon-branded Nexus One is the Incredible, or the document is just sorely confused. The way we see it, there’d simply not be enough differentiation between the Nexus One and the Incredible for them to come to market as separate products if they were both running Sense — and besides, isn’t variety the spice of life?

Update: That was quick — it seems Verizon has already updated its specs to remove the reference to Sense and change the URL from google.com/phones to google.com/phone — no plural. Thanks, ninjalex76!

Verizon’s Nexus One to be sold only through Google, have Sense UI (or not) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, you ultrafast mobile broadband zealots, whip out your calendars and draw a big red tick around the middle of 2011. Verizon’s CTO Anthony Melone has identified next summer as the carrier’s release window for its first LTE handset, which should be preceded by the 4G service being rolled out by the end of this year. If you’re wondering what you’ll be using on that “faster than 3G” network while waiting for the vanguard handset, we saw plenty of LTE-equipped gear at CES and let’s not forget about that 1080p-decodin’ NVIDIA tablet that was teased during the show. The one bit of bogus news from Melone was the statement that contracts with “as much data as you can consume is the big issue that has to change.” Verizon seems resolutely set on introducing some type of tiered or metered price plans, which is unfortunately the same path AT&T is headed down. The message from the networks is therefore clear: with great (downloading) power comes great (bill-paying) responsibility.

Verizon promises first 4G handset for next summer, foretells end of unlimited data plans originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As the clock ticks down on Verizon’s opening salvo of commercial LTE availability, PR noise is growing into a dull roar — not to say we necessarily mind, considering how desperately we’re looking forward to more 4G footprint in the States. Today, the company is reporting that engineers have managed to coax up to 40-50Mbps down and 20-25Mbps up out of its test networks currently deployed in Boston and Seattle — not what we can expect in a real-world environment where you’re on a train surrounded by obstacles and other people trying to use the network, but a pretty nice, round set of numbers nonetheless. In actual usage, they’re reporting more down-to-Earth figures of 5-12Mbps down (count on 5) and 2-5Mbps up (count on 2), which still bests EV-DO Rev. A by a healthy margin. Of course, this is just the beginning — LTE will get better over time — so this sounds like a nice start.

Verizon plays the obvious card: its 4G trials are faster than 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, Droid owners, decent multitouch performance isn’t the only thing you’ve got to brag about. As you likely know by now, 2.1’s in the works for you — and from the latest video we’re seeing of an official test build running in the wild, we’re cautiously optimistic that it’s going to be a fantastic little update. As we’d reported some time back, the Nexus One’s revamped app launcher is missing, but multitouch appears to work like butter in both the browser and revamped Gallery app and the new news and weather widgets have made the cut as well. Most notable, though, might simply be the fact that everything flies — home screen switches, opening of the app drawer, zooming, it’s all mega-fast. Granted, anyone with an Android device knows that the speed of the device depends on the number of apps you’ve got running, the moon phase, and the direction of the wind, but it’s an encouraging sign nonetheless. Now if only Moto would stop fumbling the launch, we’d be good to go; in the meantime, though, check some video of the update after the break.

Continue reading Android 2.1 looking fast, furious on Motorola Droid

Android 2.1 looking fast, furious on Motorola Droid originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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