You can upgrade your Motorola DROID manually with latest version of Android 2.1. So, updating the Motorola phone with Android 2.1 is possible. There is no need to wait for OTA. By following certain steps, you can easily update your smartphone with this new Android based Operating System. The process of updating the handsets with new version of Android based OS is quite simple.

The Mobile Crunch has come up with below instructions which can be used for updating the Motorola DROID with Android 2.1 Operating System. Download the official version of Android OS on your own risk. If you desperately want to install this improved version of Android 2.1 update manually in your mobile phone then you have to follow certain steps. With the help of these steps, you will be able to download latest build of Android 2.1. As per news reports, you need to download update file from Google, rename the file and save it on a microSD card inserted in your smartphone. Now, reboot your Motorola handset in to recovery mode and apply update.zip file.

By updating your stylish Motorola handset with Android 2.1, you will get voice-to-text entry, a 3D gallery layout, live wallpapers, free Yahoo Mail support, an updated Google Maps app, a night mode for Google Maps Navigation” as per the reports circulating around the web. In addition to that, the Motorola Droid comes with Google’s servers.

As per news reports, ‘the Motorola DROID is a CDMA mobile phone equipped with QWERTY keyboard. The fully fledged slider phone comes with high resolution 5 mega pixel camera along with DVD-quality video, image stabilization, real-time color effects, scene modes, location tagging, Dual LED, 4 times digital zoom, cropping, rotating, geo tagging. The feature rich smartphone encompass with Arm® Cortex™ A8 processor 550 mHz plus Android 2.1 OS, Wi-Fi and more.

Motorola and Verizon have said that they will be releasing over the air updates for the Droid and Droid Eris shortly, although there is no timescale on when these updates will be available.
If you want to update your Motorola Droid or Droid Eris to Google Android 2.1 you can find more details about the leaked ROM over at the XDA Developers Forum.

But with consumer-oriented devices like Apple’s wildly popular iPhone slipping into the boardroom, there’s an opening for other smartphones, like those based on Google Android, to do so as well. Here’s what you need to know about Google Android.

Smartphone Platform
Android is surprisingly similar to Windows Mobile on many levels, but it features a more modern architecture and provides a native touch screen interface that’s more like the iPhone. (Though Windows Mobile 6.5.x does support multi-touch as does the iPhone.)

It’s based on a Linux kernel and runs managed code applications created with the Java programming language. Unlike Windows Mobile and iPhone, Android is an open system. And Google provides Android to wireless carriers and mobile device makers for free. As a result, there are already over 30 Android-based devices worldwide, despite the fact that Android has only been on the market for less than 18 months.

At this time, at least one Android handset is available from every major wireless carrier in the US, including the popular Verizon Droid, and Google’s own Nexus One phone, which the online giant sells directly to users from its website. This variety of devices works similarly to the range of choices one sees with Windows Mobile devices, but with some important differences.

First, Android phones tend to come in two basic form factors: pure touch-screen devices and devices with pullout hardware keyboards. What’s missing is a BlackBerry-style thumb keypad-based device, though there’s nothing stopping third parties from making one. And because of Android’s open nature, any Android user can take advantage of software updates and new OS versions, something that’s very difficult with Windows Mobile.

And Android has seen several updates since its first release in October 2008. These updates have caused Android to mature quite rapidly, and the system is now considered to be quite compatible, functionality-wise, with iPhone, while offering low-level capabilities like multitasking that the iPhone lacks.

Key updates since the initial release include system-wide copy and paste, HTML 5 support, multi-touch support, and, in version 2.x, compatibility with Exchange. It’s this capability that makes Android interesting to businesses.

Android In Business
While a Google phone platform such as Android would logically be expected to integrate nicely with Google’s Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs systems, Google has also been working to add Exchange functionality to its OS.

This work is not yet complete. In the most recent version of the Android OS, Google provides core Exchange sync capabilities for email, contacts, and calendaring. But Android doesn’t yet support Microsoft’s sweeping set of ActiveSync security policies—for complex password requirements, device level encryption, and so on—nor does it support remote wipe. Until these capabilities are added to Android, the system will be unacceptable for the enterprise.

That said, Android will likely see great traction with smaller businesses, and it’s an excellent solution for those businesses that are based around Google’s hosted services. As was the case with the iPhone, you can expect Google to improve Android’s Exchange functionality and make the system a more acceptable alternative to Windows Mobile or BlackBerry in businesses of all sizes.

Third parties could rise to the challenge as well, including wireless carriers or device makers that wish to serve this market. T-Mobile, for example, has released an Android application that helps encrypt on-device email, plugging one hole in the core OS. But it’s unclear how effective a modified Android device will be in attracting larger corporations.

Recommendations
Although Android is a surprisingly strong entry so early in its lifecycle, I can’t yet recommend any Android-based smartphones to enterprises because of the lack of key security features.

But I expect that this will change rapidly, and for those smaller businesses who are looking for cool and functional smartphones, some of the newer Android designs are quite enticing.

Android is especially attractive to those businesses that have opted out of on-premise servers and have instead adopted Google-based cloud services. This, too, is a growing audience, and one that Google will likely have great success capturing. This is a system to keep an eye on.

HTC Desire

Amongst the Android handsets, the current beloved Google Nexus One gets a cloned brother dubbed HTC Desire that may be the next preference for those consumers who won’t get to see former one anytime soon. Both phones with almost the same specifications will kind of confuse users as to why HTC offers two phones with same hardware features.

So DROID users will be getting pinch-to-zoom in the browser and gallery, and pre-installed Google Goggles, among other features that have not been made official yet.We’re happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to DROID will start to roll out this week, and we will have more information to share on other device upgrades later this week as well.

The source code for the ten-year old Symbian platform will be completely open source and available for free starting Thursday. The transition from proprietary code to open source is the largest in software history, claims the Symbian Foundation.

“The dominant operating system provider out there is Symbian,” says Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation, “and now we are offering developers the ability to do so much more.”

Symbian, which powers most of Nokia’s phones, has been shipped in more than 330 million devices worldwide. But in the last few years, Symbian has seen more than its fair share of changes. In 2008, Nokia, one of Symbian’s largest customers, acquired a major share in the company. Nokia then created the Symbian Foundation to distribute the platform as an open source project, and began the process of opening up the source code that year.

Meanwhile, the operating system has seen new rivals crop up. Google’s Android, which is based on a Linux kernel, has become a favorite among handset makers such as Motorola and HTC. And it’s based on an open source foundation too.

Symbian’s move to open source has been completed four months ahead of schedule and it offers mobile developers new ways to innovate, says Williams. Any individual or organization can now take, use and modify the Symbian code for any device, from mobile phone to a tablet.

Similar as it may sound to Android’s promise, there are major differences, says Williams.

“About a third of the Android code base is open and nothing more,” says Williams. “And what is open is a collection of middleware. Everything else is closed or proprietary.”

Symbian is also ahead of Android in that it will publish its platform roadmap and planned features up to 2011, he says. And anyone can influence that roadmap or contribute to new features.

“Open source is also about open governance,” says Williams. “It’s about letting someone other than one control point guide the feature set and the asset base.”

But will that be enough for Symbian to steal away customers lured by a snazzier and younger rival?

I’m sure it’s been a blast working on Android over the last couple of years but I’m afraid that if you don’t get a little bit serious about it then you aren’t going to take any meaningful market share. This would mean missing a great opportunity as Smartphones (or ‘Superphones’ as you call them) move from the early adopters into the mainstream market. It looks like most Android phones are really good and there is so much potential to connect them to your ever increasing on-line services that play to your strengths. 

Up until the end of last year I worked for a mobile operator and I watched the HTC Magic Android get outsold by the iPhone by over 40 to 1. This seems to line up with recently reported NexusOne sales figures. We were the only mobile operator in our market with either the iPhone or the Android and we sold them on identical plans with the same subsidies – so a perfect head to head test case. In fact the HTC Magic could get 3G across our entire nationwide network but the iPhone only in main urban areas. The Android retail price at first was between the iPhone 3G and 3GS 16GB and then we dropped it to substantially below the iPhone 3G – but this had almost no effect. Also I have heard from several of your OEM’s that in the Asia/Pac region they are getting no traction at all with their Android powered handsets (across a number of countries and mobile operators) and they are frustrated that you seem to have no plans to turn this around.

This post was initially prompted by my 9 year old son who asked me the other day: “Dad, can I play a game on your phone thing…I’m not sure what to call your Google phone, I mean it doesn’t have an easy name like your other iPhone.” It struck me that even someone who has spent quite a bit of time playing with a phone running Android doesn’t know what to call it. I can hardly imagine the confusion for your customers in the U.S. who have to deal with the G1, G2, Motorola ‘Droid’ and recently the Nexus One which is somehow more Google than the others as it is sold on-line by you. And apart from the weird names they all seem to come out with slightly different versions of software which actually have quite different features!

I assume you are wanting to get as many Android based mobile phones into users’ hands as possible because this drives up mobile web usage that you can monetize – at least that‘s my simple understanding. For this to work then you are now going after the mainstream market – as are your competitors. You want everyone to at least consider an Android when they next upgrade their mobile phone. 

Well, this mainstream market won’t know the subtleties of the Smartphone world (and neither should they) and the place they will go to compare your handsets against your competitors and get advice is the stores owned by the mobile operators or their resellers. This is partly because there will be questions around upgrade deals and contract sign-ups and waiving certain fees, but also because given the amount of money being spent they might actually want to see and touch the phones and have them explained by a real person. 

When considering any Android powered phones a prospective customer will immediately come up with a number of good questions:
- What‘s it called?
- What’s does Google have to do with making an actual physical mobile phone? Aren’t they a web company?
- What can it do and will it do everything I need it to?
- What’s the difference between these different ones that all have Android on them?
- What’s this Chrome OS I am starting to hear about – how is that different to Android?
- Why should I get it instead of an iPhone?

And the poor mobile operator or channel sales person really won’t be able to answer any of these because neither Google, nor the OEM, nor the mobile operators has clearly explained it to them. And neither has any other communications that they might have seen from Google or elsewhere. (Perhaps the US$100m spent by Verizon and Motorola went some way to addressing this in the U.S. only.)

I’m sorry Google but this situation is getting out of hand and unless you do something very significant and very soon your very capable Android powered phones simply won’t be in the running no matter how many OEM’s are supporting it and how cheap the devices become. The iPad reminds us again that this class of device is ‘Personal‘ – it is with us most of the day and performs several critical functions so we really need to be able to trust it. And we know this world is changing fast so we want to make sure we are in some way ’future-proofed’.

So guys, here’s what you need to do:  

1. Decide who your customers are:
This is easy as outlined above it is pretty much anyone even remotely considering upgrading their mobile handset – which is nearly everyone at some point in the next 3 years.

2. Nail the core proposition:
There must be a rock-solid set of features that must be in every Android handset everywhere in the world. And when a major new release comes out it will automatically upgrade on all existing handsets. Absolutely differentiate on your strengths of mobile access to on-line services but make that consistent. 

At the moment there are different features on different software versions which are coming out simultaneously on different devices. And some features (Near me now, turn-by-turn navigation) are only available in the U.S. You are Google – I thought you were about turning stuff on for the whole world at the same time?

You need to answer questions like:
- How do I get media files between my handset and my PC or the cloud? 
- What music download service is widely available?
- How can I create ring-tones?
- Are all standard email attachment formats supported (incl. MS Office and PDF) and native MS Exchange support?
- How do I tether it?

Only once all this is in place can you let the OEM’s layer stuff over the top – HTC Touch Sense or Motoblur or whatever – as long as they don’t interfere with the core proposition.

Oh, and please – what’s going on with Android and Chrome OS? This has the potential to cause real confusion. 

3. Get your Channel Model pumping:
The on-line sales play is OK but I really think it’s a bit early for that until you have much more momentum and customers are comfortable to purchase this way. As above I’d argue that the starting point for most people in selecting a new handset will be the mobile operator they are already on and even mobile operators own on-line sales efforts do a tiny number of sales compared to their physical resellers. 

Frankly you have to get some feet on the ground in each region/country to engage the mobile operators and their sales channels directly. To position the proposition to their Marketing departments and to conduct channel training sessions for their resellers. To run sales incentive and rewards programs in combination with the OEM‘s. I appreciate this is a bit old-school for you but you’ve got to get momentum underway and you can’t just leave it to the OEM’s. If you don’t do this then the OEM’s aren’t going to be aggressively pushing their devices onto the carriers.

4. Get your communications together:
This might sound trite but please tell your prospective customers about your product, its features and the benefits to them. Excite them and give them trust and confidence in any Android powered device – and of course its differentiators. You need to talk about Android – with individual phones as examples of the core proposition.

You have a number of amazing mobile features that are barely known about e.g. Latitude to follow your friends, mobile Streetview, local search in the browser, Google Goggles, heck even Google Talk and the Marketplace. Most of these are unique and there’s probably more than what I can keep up with.

What is your customer facing website with all the key info anyone could want – no matter where they are in the world? Neither android.com nor google.com/phone are up to scratch.

And perhaps you need an identifiable person or persons front and centre to represent this class of products and other similar ones that might be coming. I’ve seen some great interviews with Eric Tseng recently and that seems to work well. 

I appreciate this is quite direct and I note the irony of one guy down at the bottom of the world dishing out advice to the Googleplex. I am writing this because I love my Android mobile and find features like Latitude and Goggles breathtaking in their ambition – and everyone I demonstrate them to feels the same. 

However at the moment Android runs the risk of becoming a very interesting but fairly insignificant player in the mobile device market. This is a momentum game and at the moment I think the amount of tech media coverage is way out of step with your real world sales. 

Good luck and all the best,
Tim.

The unveiling of the Android distribution on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 47 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software and open source license.

In July 2005, Google acquired Android, Inc., a small startup company based in Palo Alto, California, USA. Android’s co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc.), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (headed design and interface development at WebTV). At the time, little was known about the functions of Android, Inc. other than that they made software for mobile phones.

A member of a modding community has come up with a way to give you the best of both worlds; dual-booting software for running either WinMo or Android.
If you are the owner of a smartphone running Windows Mobile but you are jealous of the Android-based mobiles that are swamping the market at the moment, then this will no doubt be good news.
The member of the XDA-Developers community, which has already made Google Maps Navigation available in the UK and ported Motorola’s MotoBLUR onto the T-Mobile G1, released the hack that allows the user to choose either WinMo or Android to boot with as they turn on their mobile phone.
You will need to install the Android ROM onto your mobile before you implement the hack and it will work with various WinMo smartphones including the HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro.
Dual booting is nothing new to the world of desktop computing, with Apple’s Macs now able to run Windows operating systems, but for mobiles it still requires the work of hackers to unlock the full potential of any phone.
Currently the hacker is working on an updated dual boot exploit that will allow WinMo and Android to run on phones that use the WVGA resolution, whilst the current release is limited to VGA mobiles.
This will mean that the HTC HD2 will be able to run Android, which could save those who are looking forward to the HTC Supersonic a long wait.

The HTC Hero reportedly will be getting an operating system upgrade to Android OS 2.1, but not for several more months. This smartphone is currently running version 1.5, and Hero users have been getting impatient since version 2.1 was released several weeks ago.HTC has previously committed to releasing Android OS 2.0 for the Hero, but has been vague about timing. Now there’s word that this company is going to skip directly to the newer 2.1 version>
According to information coming from the European carrier Meteor, this upgrade should be released by the end of March.
The U.S. carrier Sprint has promised it will release the 2.0 operating system upgrade when it becomes available. Verizon also offers a version of the Hero — renamed the HTC Droid Eris — and HTC has committed to an Android OS 2.0 upgrade for this model, too.  Therefore, it would be very surprising if these carriers passed on the Android OS 2.1 upgrade.