droidStory

As previously posted, Google is discontinuing the Nexus One. Well, it only took a couple of days before the remaining stock was depleted. Incidentally, I just sold my N1 on eBay, since I have now moved on to the Motorola DroidX. The Nexus One was/is a great phone and surely helped pave the way for the rapid growth of Android.

DroidX users got their first OTA update pushed to them this morning. If you have not gotten the update notification yet, you can easily check manually via:

Home Screen -> Settings -> About Phone -> System Upgrades

The changes seem all minor and frankly not very exciting (“cleaner looking status bar for GPS symbol”… seriously!) .  I’m also not a big fan of Verizon pre-loading apps, which can quickly turn into a crap-ware nightmare of useless apps that are difficult or impossible to uninstall.  Let’s hope Android 2.2 (Froyo) makes it quickly onto the DroidX. I’m already missing the application bulk/auto update function I had with Froyo on my N1.

Improvements:

• Improved battery charging status indicator.
• Smoother transition for camera and camcorder functions.
• Redesign of weather widget icons.
• Faster Exchange ActiveSync® email loading.
• Streamlined organization of newly downloaded applications.
• Organized favorite contacts by call count.
• Updated Bluetooth® connection for enhanced video sharing experience.
• Coordinated date and time across phone displays.
• Cleaner looking status bar for GPS symbol.
• Improved sync capabilities for 3G Mobile Hotspot.
• Faster Visual Voice Mail loading.

Enhancements:

• Take advantage of the enhanced, preloaded My Verizon application.
• Preloaded Amazon Kindle® application lets you read Kindle books on your Android™ phone, including thousands of free books.

Over the last couple of weeks there were a number of hints that Verizon is working on an extensive marketing campaign for the DroidX release similar to the launch of the original Droid.

Of course there was the cool first DroidX TV commercial, followed by a DroidX YouTube video and now a Twitter based DroidX Scavenger Hunt is beginning today.

During the Promotion Period, there will be a Scavenger Hunt, where 21 Certificates for a free Droid Phone will be hidden across the country. Clues as to where the 21 Droid Certificates (“Certificates”) will be hidden will be tweeted on a regular basis from @DroidLanding. To view the tweets, visit http://www.twitter.com/droidlanding. Dates and times of Certificate placement will vary, but the final clue of each GPS location for each Certificate will be tweeted at the time it is hidden.

As it turns out FRF83 still wasn’t the final release build of Android 2.2 (Froyo).  Google has now announced the official availability of Android 2.2 on the NexusOne blog.

Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive the Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features including support for making your handset a portable hotspot and support for Adobe Flash within the browser.

If you can’t wait for the OTA update, you can get the latest FRF85B build directly from Google FRF91 build directly from Google and use the upgrade instructions found in some of the previous posts.

Some Nexus One users are reporting that they’ve received the OTA Update of Android 2.2 Build FRF83. I’m a bit skeptical about the OTA, but you can download the latest build, which is rumored to should be the official 2.2 release here:

FRF72 –> FRF83
http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-FRF83-from-FRF72.684bd56a.zip

FRF50 –> FRF83
http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-FRF83-from-FRF50.38d66b26.zip

You know the drill, or check this post on how to perform the update.

I didn’t see any noticeable differences to the prior build, but had to reinstall Swype to get it working after the update.

First things first! It looks like the Swype Beta registration is currently open again. Hurry over to http://beta.swype.com/ and see if you can grab the Android Beta version.

I admit it, I got totally hooked after installing an early Beta of Swype that was leaked a few months ago. Even though that version had some kinks and was not quite working on my Nexus One, it was such a huge improvement over the default Android keyboard. Then, without warning, Swype pulled the plug and all unauthorized versions in the wild stopped working. Bummer!

I registered for the closed Beta, but no luck until last week when I received my own Beta invite.

Yes – score!

If you have not heard of Swype, you may want to check out the video below. You’ll never want to go back to pecking your emails and text messages on the regular keyboard once you’ve experienced Swype. It does take a little practice, but swyping your words becomes very natural quickly.