Today is a big day for Android OTA updates. Samsung, HTC and Motorola all roll out OTA updates for some of their premier handsets.
Samsung and AT&T have announced an OTA update to correct GPS issues as well as media scanning and including a full version of Quick Office as well as correcting some Microsoft Exchange 2003 policy support issues. Verizon announced that it would begin rolling out the official Android 2.2 (FroYo) update to Droid X customers today at Noon (12pm) EST though it has been available to pull and install OTA since Midnight. As far as the HTC Evo 4G update, The update is said to fix a few minor bugs including issues not allowing multiple Gmail accounts to sync properly as well as Calender event editing issues.
It looks like all that Motorola has been able to accomplish so far with its encrypted bootloader and efuse technology is coming crashing down! I for one was one of the people who said I wouldn’t buy an X or D2 because of this and the apparent inability to load custom ROMs. Thankfully the Android community has proven yet again that with enough skill and determination anything is possible! Below you will see a video of a Droid X booting into an AOSP version of FroYo, Which is called Obsidian by CVPCS and the crew over at ccroms.net. For the moment it is a long and complicated process apparently but have hope now that the boot loader is no longer an issue we should see a streamlined process soon! I might have to go buy a D X Now
Last week was a big week in open source, Samsung started off by Open Sourcing the Captivate and Vibrant software, Followed by Motorola releasing the Droid X source code. While controversy continues to swarm around Motorola and its decision to use a locked bootloader this is a step in the right direction. With these recent actions hopefully we will start to see more handset manufacturers open-source their code and allow a more open and involved community.
Several developments over the last week have come about. HTC and Motorola are starting to roll out Android 2.2 (Froyo) to some of their devices and they have both announced future plans as well as Samsung giving us some official news about its 2.2 plans.
Samsung’s Galaxy S series of phones should be seeing its Froyo update in September, The UK Samsung twitter account was responsible for the announcement which could mean only the international version, however with the recent open sourcing of US versions and the hardware & software similarity I would expect the it to be close if not the same time.
Unlocked European HTC Desire owners should have started to get updates this past weekend and will continue throughout the week, Along with Froyo there is 720p Video recording, HTC’s App Share widget and iTunes sync via HTC Sync. Carrier specific versions should roll out in the coming weeks.
HTC’s EVO 4G starts to roll Tuesday August 3rd Officially though there are reports that users started getting it over the weekend.
Verizon and Motorola Officially announced on Friday that the original Droid would start to see its OTA update on Monday August 2nd. This announcement was late in the game on Friday many think it was in reaction to HTC and Sprint announcing plans to release the EVO 4G Froyo update as noted above.
Motorola also leaked that the Droid X will get its Froyo update in “Late Summer” though there are no specifics and it wasn’t really an announcement since they just added it to the list in the link.
For those that took the plunge and bought a Droid X unless you have been in the country with no signal at all (not likley with Verizon I know) you should know that the Droid X was Rooted last week. This week brings you 1 Click Root and UnRoot access via a windows application. Its a pretty simple process from what I’ve read (I don’t have a Droid X though if someone wants to donate one to the cause I’ll be happy to take it ). Download, Unzip, Run, Click… Rooted!
Found yourself a little frightened by the original rooting method posted last week for the Droid X? As of today, you no longer have to live in fear! A user over at Alldroid has created a one click root/unroot method for the DX and early reviews appear to be very favorable.
I’ll admit that I have yet to try this and it is a brand new concept, so approach with caution, but the dev has mentioned adding bloatware removal, app installation, backup, etc. in the near future and appears to be readily available for support. This is a windows-only root tool.
). Download, Unzip, Run, Click… Rooted!