Android 2.1 Pre-Update thread for Motorola Droid

[CallerHoller]

I have erupted in a few tirades about the lack of gif or animated jpeg support on the Droid. I have a hard time understanding why two thirds of all dumb phones support animated gifs and a Flagship Smart phone doesn't?! My dumb LG Voyager supported animated GIFs as wallpaper, in MMS and picture viewer. Even allowed video files to display as wallpaper!

Even the animated Droid eye at boot up is a series of PNG files and not really animated.

Are the improvements only on the Home screen and the Gallery? Did they fix the lack of gmail and MMS attachment options?

[phoenix9]

Just thought i might let you know, if you hit the shift key and then alt key (and then can even lock them into place by hitting them twice) you essiently get a control key and by this process if you hit what is normally the coma key you will get a vertical bar

EDIT: Im not sure if that sounded confusing lol so here ya go, if you want a vertical bar, hit shift then alt then coma keys. hitting shift then alt then any other key will always give you a third symbol or action that cannot be seen on the keyboard

Okay, that sort or worked. I had to hold the shift key down while I hit alt then the comma key. Is there any way to send a control C? I could not get that to work...

[Redflea]

I have erupted in a few tirades about the lack of gif or animated jpeg support on the Droid. I have a hard time understanding why two thirds of all dumb phones support animated gifs and a Flagship Smart phone doesn't?! My dumb LG Voyager supported animated GIFs as wallpaper, in MMS and picture viewer. Even allowed video files to display as wallpaper!

Even the animated Droid eye at boot up is a series of PNG files and not really animated.

Are the improvements only on the Home screen and the Gallery? Did they fix the lack of gmail and MMS attachment options?

2.1 is almost all eye-candy...not much substantive to it, really. There may be some OS optimizations in there as well to improve speed, but functionality (or lack thereof in some cases) is pretty much the same overall as it is w/the Droid.

I haven't seen any posts indicating that 2.1 fixes things like Gmail attachments...

[flip69]

2.1 is almost all eye-candy...not much substantive to it, really. There may be some OS optimizations in there as well to improve speed, but functionality (or lack thereof in some cases) is pretty much the same overall as it is w/the Droid.

I haven't seen any posts indicating that 2.1 fixes things like Gmail attachments...

2 additional home screens is just eye candy? not.

[CallerHoller]

2 additional home screens is just eye candy? not.

Adding extra space to Home is kinda eye candy.

There's an app that adds extra icon space. You can add four icons to the space of one on 2.0.1.

So adding two extra screens is not a major upgrade.

[flip69]

Adding extra space to Home is kinda eye candy.

There's an app that adds extra icon space. You can add four icons to the space of one on 2.0.1.

So adding two extra screens is not a major upgrade.

What is that app sounds useful.

[Humpa]

What is that app sounds useful.

More Icons
That's a nice app. They are a little too close together for me, so I use every other one. Definately give it a try though. I'm using it on 2.1, but here's a screenshot of it on 2.0.1: www.humpa.com/images/homescreens.jpg

I like BetterCuts too, for renaming normal shortcuts and using custom icons.

[CallerHoller]

What is that app sounds useful.

"More icons widget" by pcm2a on the Market. $1.99 isn't bad, if you need space.

[JLG13]

You just made me vow to use my keybd more. Not as fast as I am on the virtual keyboard but I like seeing the whole screen. I just typed this on it

yup, and the Droid screen is still the best and BETTER than N1...more pixels!

[CallerHoller]

Really the only time I don't use the key board is with SMS pop-up. Which is a whole quick convenience thing.

[daffoml]

I admit the keyboard is not perfect for this. I wish there were a control key and a vertical bar key, but it beats not being able to do what I need to do or having to drag a netbook everywhere I go.

The Droid is bigger and heavier than I like in a phone, but much smaller and lighter than a laptop!

By vertical bar key, you mean a pipe symbol? There is one on the soft keyboard, hit ?123 , then alt, it's an 'alt'ed 3

Th text gets a bit for my older eyes though

[rsantos97]

Okay, that sort or worked. I had to hold the shift key down while I hit alt then the comma key. Is there any way to send a control C? I could not get that to work...

I know the control key is the center d-pad button, or at least it is when I use emacs on connectbot.

So for C-c just hit center d-pad button then hit c.

[Icyhot1966]

More Icons
That's a nice app. They are a little too close together for me, so I use every other one. Definately give it a try though. I'm using it on 2.1, but here's a screenshot of it on 2.0.1: www.humpa.com/images/homescreens.jpg

I like BetterCuts too, for renaming normal shortcuts and using custom icons.

When you say "renaming normal shortcuts" are you saying you could change the name from Email to anything you wanted? And change the icon as well?

[bhjazz]

There may be some OS optimizations in there as well to improve speed

That would be cool. It would narrow the gap a bit. Geez, then we'd be down to comparing screen types and keyboard/no keyboard!

I ran into this today. The N1 looks a bit smoother with games (see about 3:30 into the video at the bottom) and movies looked a bit better, likely from maybe better framerates. But geez, the N1 screen looks so reflective! I'd bet it's annoying out in the sunlight. Interesting.

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbt...p?Number=35666

[CA]

Doesn't 2.1 have voice transcription(you speak, it enters the text) for email and texts? Thats way more than eye candy.