Posts tagged Froyo
Flash 10.1 Final Hits Nexus One, Coming Soon for Droid
Aug 16th
The Nexus One received an updated version of Adobe’s Flash 10.1 plugin this afternoon, cementing and making official the biggest advantage Google and its Android platform has over the iOS ecosystem. While most of the features were already in place, the final version improves the quality and reliability of video streams and games.
This momentous occasion also falls at the same time as Froyo is being distributed amongst most high-end Android smartphones, such as the Motorola Droid, Droid X, EVO 4G, and soon, the Galaxy S variants, though that won’t happen ’till September.
It’s good that Adobe had a good test subject in the Nexus One: the distribution group was small enough that they could catch any bugs before releasing the major upgrade, and the Nexus One is considered a developers’ or enthusiasts’ phone, so generally those owners were people who wanted to try the latest and greatest beta software.
Congratulations, Adobe and Google! Check out the build in the Android Marketplace.
PS. The Droid version should be available soon, according to Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen. It will distributed as a second update to the version of Froyo being released now, in the coming weeks.
(via IntoMobile)
This Week In Android 8/8-8/14
Aug 15th
This week’s big Android news mostly revolved around the launch of the Motorola Droid 2 on Verizon, but that’s certainly not all that is going on in the world of Android. Google also announced their new voice commands feature for phones with Android 2.2 as well as officially launching the service Chrome to Phone. There’s a whole lot more to read up on after the break.
Motorola’s Sanjay Jha Says MOTOBLUR Will Not Stick Around
Verizon finally announces a release date for the Motorola Droid 2
Video: Sneak Peak of TweetDeck for Android
Telus updates Milestone, but isn’t 2.2 yet
So many decisions, so little time
Google pumps out updates to Gesture Search and Voice Search for Android
Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition Launching September 30th!
Nokia maintains handset market share lead, HTC cracks top ten
Google pumps out updates to Gesture Search and Voice Search for Android
Aug 12th
[Click here for mobile friendly viewing]
Google seems to be on a roll with first-party apps these days. Not one day after they update Gesture Search to include an intuitive new way of activating the app, the company releases Voice Actions to complement the already-comprehensive voice control of the device. These updates are only available for Froyo, but we know that the OS is being pumped out to many devices as we speak. And according to Google, it will be available already on the Droid 2.
Though the app isn’t yet available in the Canadian Marketplace, I will update when I play around with it. But as it stands, this is another way Google is trying to separate itself from the iOS crowd by allowing interaction with the device anywhere the API can be activated, regardless of what app is currently being used.
Check out the available commands available with Voice Actions:
- send text to [contact] [message]
- listen to [artist/song/album]
- call [business]
- call [contact]
- send email to [contact] [message]
- go to [website]
- note to self [note]
- navigate to [location/business name]
- directions to [location/business name]
- map of [location]
While you’re at it, take a look at the updated Gesture Search functionality, which lets you rotate your phone in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction in order to activate the gesture search app. Brilliant.
Verizon finally announces a release date for the Motorola Droid 2
Aug 10th
Well it’s about time.
Verizon wireless users itching to dump their original Motorola Droid for the sexy successor finally have a date to look forward to and it couldn’t be any closer.
Starting online tomorrow and in stores this Thursday, the device will be available for $199.99 after $100 mail-in rebate on a 2 year voice and data term.
Hit the break for the official press release
[via MobileCrunch]
BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and LIBERTYVILLE, IL — Verizon Wireless, the company with the nation’s largest and most reliable wireless 3G network, and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a pioneer in the mobile industry, today announced that DROID™ 2 by Motorola will be available for pre-sale on August 11. Hitting all the right keys, DROID 2 is a feature-packed device that helps manage work and social life with an enhanced QWERTY keyboard, ultra high-speed Web browsing, 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities, full push corporate e-mail, intuitive social messaging and Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 for access to the full web – all built on Android 2.2.
“When we announced DROID X last month, we reaffirmed our commitment to continue to bring unique Android experiences to the Verizon Wireless network,” said Jeffrey Dietel, vice president – wireless device, marketing and development for Verizon Wireless. “The DROID by Motorola was our first Android device, so it is important for us to include the successor to that phone in our portfolio. DROID 2 is not only a continuation of our commitment to Android but offers customers the features and form-factor they crave on the Verizon Wireless network.”
“With the new DROID 2, we’ve taken a big leap forward from the original DROID,” said Bill Ogle, chief marketing officer of Motorola Mobile Devices and Home Business. “We listened to consumers and are providing an even more robust experience built on Android 2.2 that includes a new keyboard, increased processing power, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities to send, access and share information even quicker than before.”
DROID 2’s super-slim design helps customers e-mail, text and tweet with ease. DROID 2 offers a redesigned symmetrical keyboard with raised keys for more responsive typing to push out notes and status updates. Speech-to-text input and the virtual multi-touch keyboard allow for quick messaging; or customers can also use Swype for even easier text input. In addition, full push corporate e-mail delivers enhanced features such as remote wipe and password enforcement so that information remains secure.
DROID 2 packs power and speed. Customers can enjoy the freedom of wireless with the 3G Mobile HotSpot and the ability to connect up to five compatible Wi-Fi® devices, and watch content on the full multi-touch 3.7-inch brilliant display, or share content captured on the 5-megapixel camera with enhanced functionality and DVD-quality video capture with DLNA connectivity to share on compatible devices.
Customers can also download favorite apps from Android Market™, which has more than 70,000 applications, and store them on 8 GB of preloaded on-board memory and the 8 GB microSD™ card, which can be upgraded to a 32 GB SD card for a total cargo capacity of 40 GB. Popular apps available on DROID 2 include NFL Mobile (downloadable), Skype mobile(™) and BLOCKBUSTER On Demand® presented by V CAST Video. Customers can even manage their wireless accounts or their contacts from their phones with My Verizon and with Backup Assistant(SM).
“It’s great to see amazing new smartphones like the DROID 2 come pre-installed with Flash Player 10.1,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager, Creative and Interactive Solution Business Unit at Adobe. “With the completely redesigned and hardware accelerated Flash Player 10.1, DROID 2 users will be able to experience the full Web on the go.”
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 lets mobile users experience millions of websites the way they were meant to be seen – with rich Internet applications (RIAs), content inside the browser, including games, animations, data presentations and visualizations, e-commerce, music, video, audio and more.
R2-D2 DROID 2
In honor of the iconic Astromech Droid from the Star Wars™ Saga, Verizon Wireless will offer a limited-edition R2-D2 version of the DROID 2, available only online in September. The special version of the phone will feature exclusive Star Wars content and external hardware designed to look like the trusty Droid from the film saga. Visitors to the upcoming Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Fla., can see a preview of the limited edition phone and sign up to receive alerts when the phone is ready for sale.
Pricing and Availability
DROID 2 by Motorola will be available at www.verizonwireless.com on August 11, and it will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores beginning August 12 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. In addition to subscribing to a Nationwide Talk plan or a Nationwide Talk & Text plan, customers will also need to subscribe to an Email and Web for Smartphone plan. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access. Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.
Customers can add the optional 3G Mobile HotSpot service to their DROID 2 smartphones for $20 per month. The 3G Mobile HotSpot allows customers to turn their phones into a wireless modem for up to five compatible Wi-Fi® devices. In addition, current Verizon Wireless customers who have contracts ending by December 31, 2010, can upgrade to any smartphone, including DROID 2, without penalty.
For more information on DROID 2 by Motorola, go to www.droiddoes.com. For information about Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.
This Week In Android 8/1-8/7
Aug 8th
Even though this week was BlackBerry Torch week, that doesn’t mean Android didn’t have its fair share of news. Multiple numbers came in this week showing tremendous growth in the market share and mind share of Android handsets, the Nexus One isn’t completely dead, and there were various other Android phone release rumors and announcements. Check in after the break to see the week’s Android News.
Android is the best. Or, at least, it’s the most popular. Up 886% year over year.
Half of BlackBerry Users are Ready to Jump Ship to Android and iPhone
Froyo Hitting More Devices. Onto the next one!
Bell Samsung Vibrant launching August 6 for $149.95
Motorola Flipout Now Available From Rogers for $29.99
Android OS Takes the Lead from BlackBerry in Q2
Google Keeps the Nexus One Alive as an Official Developer Phone
Samsung Gem – a Wave with Android for Verizon?
Droid X Froyo Update Coming in “Early September”
HTC Desire Available From Telus for $79.99! Whoa!<Rumour: Bell Samsung Vibrant not unlockable
WIND Mobile Getting High End Motorola Milestone XT720 Android Device?
Droid X Froyo Update Coming in “Early September”
Aug 5th
With the HTC EVO 4G and even the Motorola Droid getting Android 2.2 recently, we all know the Droid X is feeling a little left out. Today on Motorola’s support forum we got out first official word of an early September drop date for the update. An extra special fix is supposed to be mixed into this frosty dish of Froyo, as issues with Exchange 2003 email are expected to be fixed. While we are sad to see the previous promised release date-which put the update in the August time frame-come and go, we won’t complain that Motorola wants to add a little extra stability to the build.
[Via Motorola Support Forum]
Google Keeps the Nexus One Alive as an Official Developer Phone
Aug 5th
Whew, that was a close one. Just when we thought HTC’s Nexus One was gone for good, Google’s Developer Blog has announced that the phone will still be available for Android Developers to purchase for $529. You will of course need to be a developer to be eligible to purchase a Nexus One so perhaps that $25 registration fee is worth it if you missed your chance to snag the phone earlier. Thanks Google, we were worried sick that we would lose the most hackable Android phone ever.
[Via Android Developers Blog]
Droid 2 to come with Froyo? Yes, Confirmed
Jul 21st
According to a couple sleuthy sleuths, when Verizon, the Big Red AT&T killer, launches the Droid 2 next month, it will arrive with the highly-coveted Android 2.2 (Froyo) on board. This is a good thing. Because Android 2.2 is faster and better than Android 2.1.
But not only that, Android 2.2 comes with a built-in WiFi hotspot creator… oh, wait. Verizon won’t let that happen. But should they choose to load it with Swype… oh, wait. It has a superior hardware QWERTY keyboard. In all seriousness, Froyo should bring a number of improvements to the phone, which, if true, will be the first to ship with the Froyo as a retail device, including highly-touted javascript performance improvements.
Couple that with the 1GHZ OMAP processor (faster than a speeding Snapdragon) and an actual usable keyboard, and you have yourself a winner, folks.
Let’s just hope the bootloader is hackable. Verizon? I’m looking at you!
(via TheNextWeb)
Sweet Satisfaction! Froyo Bests iOS4 in Javascript Performance
Jul 7th
You know, results like this brings a tear to my eye.
Turns out that all those grand claims from Google engineers about how Android 2.2 will literally run laps around the iPad (and iPhone 4) in terms of javascript performance was actually correct. You mean, a performance claim that is actually true? See, Steve, you don’t have to lie to get people to buy your product. I jest…
Using a Nexus One as my main phone, I haven’t noticed a dramatic UI performance boost between Android 2.1 and 2.2, but it is in the browser performance I have experienced the greatest boon to my happy fingers. Scrolling and pinch-to-zoom is smoother, and pages load much faster and, with Flash implementation, the web seems more complete compared to previous versions.
Anandtech, the industrious and scientific-minded site that they are, decided to confirm this quantifiably. Turns out the subjective speed increases are actually true. Froyo bests iOS4 by 50% on the SunSpider benchmark, and 400% on the V8 test. Both use multiple short exercises to test javascript performance in the browser.
Keep in mind this is on the iPhone 4, and not an iPhone 3GS running iOS4. So, yeah.
(Anandtech via Android Central)
FroYo Still On Its Way to Nexus One
Jun 22nd
There have been two leaked builds of Android 2.2 AKA FroYo since it was announced last month. The first came literally days after the announcement, leading to speculation that indeed it was not a final build of the OS. This was soon confirmed. Then, for weeks, we heard nothing from Google.
Last week, a new build, FRF72, was leaked into the wild, but was merely a patch to update small bugs in the initial test build.
Today, in a Nexus One support forum wherein thousands of people are protesting the long wait for the OTA update, Ry Guy, a Google employee, attempted to tame the wild herd:
Hi all,
Thanks for the responses!
Just wanted to give a heads up that the build floating around is not the official Froyo release. You will get an automatic notification when we OTA the build, no need to manually download it. You will still get the automatic notification if the official release is a newer version than the one you have, so don’t sweat…but I’d highly recommend waiting for our official release
We are striving hard to OTA the build to you ASAP, thanks for your patience!
Gaurav
Indeed, not a lot to go on in terms of a specific time and date, but it is nice to know that, despite the current build of FroYo being quite fast and stable, Google is still aiming to improve the user experience.
(via Android Police)
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