To all avid users of the Droid: We all know that the first thing that you check in the morning is your awesome Verizon Droid sitting there on the dresser. Expecting to see that missed midnight booty call, you would have receive an even pleasanter surprise. “OS Update Available.” Allll….rightttt….GIGGITY!
So what does this new update mean to me? Maybe nothing…do you even own a Droid? Get with the program and ‘Join the Network!’ (psst….Big Red has been promoting B1G1 free for the Droid nowadays). Otherwise for the cool guys, everyday I’ve been discovering something new and I might find new features even after I write this.
New Gallery: The Android Gallery application has been revamped with a new GUI. It is fully animated and everything you would expect from an Iphone killer. Click on a folder and the contents will expand from behind as if laying out all your pictures on a table. A special touch is that the pictures even reacts to tilting and rolling your phone. Your Google Picasa pictures will also automatically populate your library. This comes at a surprise, because previously to view my Picasa pictures, I would use a third party app. If I had any gripe, it would be that you can’t see the filenames of Movie Files and usually the first frame, which is all you can see from the browser, is grossly unhelpful. Only a tiny gripe, but that limitation existed even before.
Voice Input: I discovered this by mistake while pondering “there must be an easier way to text while driving” (I know…horrible, but keep in mind I commute atleast 3 hours a day in bumper to bumper…still unforgivable). So a new option popped up in Android’s Keyboard settings and it was the long awaited “Voice Input” Option. An interesting tidbit here is that voice recognition runs over the network, so imagine your voice being beamed to a Google Transcription Center every time you use this feature. A bit awkward in that I wouldn’t spew off my Social Security Number or anything over it, but I guess there’s must be a method to this madness…way of the future I guess. Technology is moving into cloud-computing nowadays.
Pinch to Zoom for Maps, Gallery, Browser: Not much to say about this other then….FINALLLLLY!
Live Wallpaper: The concept of a live moving wallpaper is barely even hitting the desktop market, but I am sure we can all agree in that it is a cool thing. Imagine a wallpaper that will show a sunny field by day and a moonlit field by night, or maybe something as simple as a spinning globe. On our super high-tech phones where battery life is the largest gripe maybe this is an unwelcome advance, but doesn’t it just sound neat. Currently on my Droid, I am looking at a frequency wavelength across the screen floating like seaweed. It’s calm, it’s serene, it’s ANIMATED. I’ve yet to test for how my battery-life is adversely affected in an already feature-rich phone but keep that sucker plugged in while in the office, and there’s really not much to worry about. My wishlist for future updates: how about a hot animated chick that lives in my phone. I promise to feed her like I did my Tamagotchi. :]
Well there you have it! That’s my take on the Android Update 2.1-update1 for the Verizon Droid. Love it or hate it, let us know. Love me or hate me, let me know too. I am immune to your insults. Coconuts have no feelings.
///Coconut:oO
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