droidStory

Now that the Nexus One is officially released sporting the latest version of Android 2.1 aka Eclair, many Droid owners are wondering when this update will be available to them.  Engadget had a post in December showing the video of the newest Android OS already running on Droid.

Sanjay Jha, the Motorola CEO was present at the Google launch event yesterday. His response was rather ambiguous to the question whether Droid will be getting the update, saying:  He “thinks” this will happen.

This seems strange considering that he was sitting right next to HTC’s CEO Peter Chou, who announced that other existing HTC handsets will be getting the upgrade.

One would think that Motorola ought to make a stronger statement, especially at the launch of a competing product that is destined to steal some of Droid’s thunder.

Of course, CES is starting tomorrow and Motorola (will) may have some Android announcements of their own…

The web has been abuzz since last Friday when the long rumored Google phone surfaced as hundreds of Google employees received a new HTC Android phone, called the Nexus One (a reference to the movie Blade Runner and Philip Dick’s novel).

Google VP Mario Queiroz, announced the phone as a dogfooding diet for the holidays on the Google Mobile Blog:

At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements in a process we call dogfooding (from “eating your own dogfood”). Well this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level.

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.

Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet.

Google staffers have been discouraged to discuss technical specs, but the phone seems to closely resemble the much rumored and anticipated HTC Dragon/Passion.

This “field test” of the Nexus One blows the doors wide open to much speculation and 2010 will be an exciting year for Android for sure. Here are some of the latest rumors:

• Google is planning to sell this phone unlocked online and via retail channel, possibly Best Buy.
• This is a GSM phone and should run on either AT&T or T-Mobile – however there is some question about what GSM frequencies are supported.
• Runs Android 2.1
• Expected to launch in early 2010, as early as January.

One of the big open questions is: Where is Big Red and does this squash the Passion on Verizon?

Photo credit: Cory O’Brien

The much reported camera auto-focus bug on the Droid suddenly disappeared this morning, giving much speculation to a secret OTA update, pushed by Verizon. In a strange twist, the bug turns out to be connected to the date and a rounding error causing the problem.

Huh? Why is the camera auto-focus using the date?

Dan Morrill from the Android Team confirms:

There’s a rounding-error bug in the camera driver’s autofocus routine (which uses a timestamp) that causes autofocus to behave poorly on a 24.5-day cycle. That is, it’ll work for 24.5 days, then have poor performance for 24.5 days, then work again.

The 17th is the start of a new “works correctly” cycle, so the devices will be fine for a while. A permanent fix is in the works.

The first bug-fix OTA Update is scheduled for December 11, which is before the next “funny” cycle kicks in. Let’s hope Verizon can make the date…

Still on the sidelines of the Droid frenzy? Just one week after Verizon released Motorola Droid and HTC Eris, rumors of another Verizon Droid arriving in December are appearing on many fan blogs.

BGR reports that HTC and Verizon may be launching an Android 2.0 phone with impressive specs:

• 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen
• 800×480 resolution
• 1GHz processor
• 5-megapixel camera, and
• Android 2.0 OS

How do we know this is the Verizon Wireless HTC Dragon? We don’t know anything for sure at this point. But we do know that the clock widget comes from HTC’s Sense UI, so the handset is definitely HTC hardware. The high resolution fits in nicely with what we’d expect from a 4.3-inch display rocking 800×480 pixels.

This maybe worth the wait if the Moto Droid isn’t quite the fit for you.  I’m very excited about an Android 2.0 phone from HTC and would actually prefer a device without the physical keyboard. The larger screen and the Sense UI are a nice bonus. Stay tuned for more details coming soon.

A number of web sites report a possible target date for Verizon’s first OTA (Over the Air) update for the Motorola Droid and HTC Eris in early December, followed by a second update in January. This is both good and bad news.

To start with the good news: Both Verizon and Motorola are feverishly working on resolving the problems that have surfaced since the official launch of Droid one week ago.  Perhaps Verizon has learned from the horrendous BB Storm launch experience last year. Most of the early Storm customers (me included) had to endure many months of waiting for much-needed patches, causing a significant return rate of the BB phone. Still, there is no official release date yet and the update could get stuck in Verizon’s approval process the same way we saw with the Storm.

Now to the bad news: There is a growing list of known issues and bugs, which makes you wonder if the phone was released a bit too early.  Many problems have to do with usability quirks that should be easily fixed. Others are more troublesome like the echo problem I’ve experienced on numerous calls. However, the biggest area of complaint by far seems to be Exchange Active Sync (EAS).  Corporate Email support is a must for many of us and Microsoft Exchange is the dominant platform. EAS in its current implementation just doesn’t work for many users because of its inability to support security policies. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything mentioned in the Verizon documents that is addressing this in the two scheduled updates.

Do you have problems with your Droid? Let us know what you like or dislike in the comments.