Your Verizon Wireless friends may be boasting of their new DROID 3s and making your latest and greatest feel like a piece of forgotten 2006 tech, but fret not. The latest word from the FCC is that GSM carriers will have their own QWERTY-packin’ DROID *insert number here* device too.
To the FCC, the “DROID 3″ is merely known as ID IHDT56MF2. Evidence suggesting we are in fact dealing with the 3rd-gen GSM DROID include similar specs for screen, built-in storage, processor, and battery specific to the CDMA DROID 3.
Of course at this early stage in the game it’s not certain whether or not this claimed GSM DROID 3 will ship globally, only in Europe, or in the U.S. We’d much prefer a truly global release, though remnants of the Motorola Milestone release are still fresh in our minds.
Please, Motorola. You suck at keeping promises to unlock our bootloaders. (Oh yeah, you suck at designing Android skins too.) At least get something right.
It may not be the most sought after answer — such as “soon”, “within a few weeks”, or “now”! — nevertheless, news of Froyo *officially* coming to the Moto Milestone should be enough to put at least a few Europeans over the edge, sending them into a night-long drinking fest full of celebration and happiness. Not more than a week ago, Motorola made it known that they weren’t too sure if they were going to continue supporting the Euro-Droid, giving said users a bleak outlook concerning the future of their once great handset. Granted, by the time Froyo rolls out for the Milestone, we’re all going to be talking about the new touch of style Google has added to Android 3.0 among other things.
Grim comparisons aside, the official O2 UK account has let slip the tweet you see above. Whataya say Milestone users? Are you going to sleep a bit better tonight?
**For those who don’t know German: “Milestone mitte/ende September means “Middle/end of September”.
Motorola doesn’t really care about the Milestone or its users anymore. So what? When has a manufacturers whims and wishes affected the hearts and minds of the talented hacking community? That’s right — never. While Moto sits around twiddling their thumbs wondering if they’ll grace the Milestone with aging Android software, the dev community has taken the issue to heart and delivered fantastic results once again. The Milestone haz Froyo!
Proceed with caution, however. The process isn’t exactly as easy as your standard Droid rom flash given the fact that the Milestone’s “open” nature is anything but. Making one wrong click or forgetting a step could turn your beloved device into a rather useless plastic brick. If you’re questioning exactly how the devs cracked into the Milestone’s locked bootloader, familiarize yourself with the term “second boots”.
Now that the infamously locked down cousin of the super open Moto Droid is finally starting to open up itself, all of the other Moto devices with locked bootloaders have just instantly received a second chance at life. With that said, hop inside to a see a splendid little video showcasing the latest Froyo FRF91 build up and flawlessly running (save for the camera — sorry shutterbugs) on the Motorola Milestone…
First up — the Samsung YP-MB2. You can’t really tell much by blurry photo above, but if the few rumors that are floating around are to be believed, we’re looking at a Samsung Galaxy S sans phone capabilities. Basically, it’s an Apple-isque iPhone-to-iPod Touch type of deal. The YP-MB2 will feature the same 1GHz Hummingbird processor, Android 2.1, 4″ Super AMOLED display, WiFI, DMB, GPS, 3MP camera, and of course, access to the Android Market that the Galaxy S phone variants enjoy. I for one would highly welcome a Galaxy S sans cellular contract. Though the original argument for the iPhone and iPod Touch was because of the iPhone’s limited carrier support. The Galaxy S suffers from no such thing. Exciting to say the least.
But there’s more: A new cool Live Wallpaper (No, really! It’s seriously cool!) and new doubts surrounding the Moto Milestone’s Froyo future. So hop inside…
Looking at the title, I make a pretty big assumption. From the get go I’m basically calling out Motorola for whippin’ up a nice in-house fail whale of their own. But a fail whale to what? Android. The Motorola DROID was and still is the best Android device (hell, the best phone period) to come from Moto in a long, long time. So how are they failing?
The US variant of the Moto Sholes is the Verizon DROID. For the last several months, I’ve been monitoring AllDroid, the DROID forums in particular, as it has begun filling up with some truly amazing stuff that will make you say “Android 2.1 what?” The whole beauty of Android is it’s open nature that allows devs and 3rd parties to tweak the OS ’til their hearts content.
The Eurpean Sholes (Milestone) is a very different story. Quoting Steve Jobs: “It’s a bag of hurt”. You see, the US Moto Droid doesn’t check for signed packages (in this case, ROMs) which is why it’s so easy to play around with the DROID’s digital code book. The European Milestone does check for authentic signatures however. The biggest hurdle is the bootimage on the Milestone being not all that eager to 3rd parties tampering with it’s code.
In reality, the Milestone isn’t completely void of any after market baking. There’s some program and slight performance tweaks here and there. But taking a quick trip through the dev forums for both the DROID and Milestone show two very different stories. The DROID dev forums are full of no less than 5 different custom ROM’s currently being developed. The Milestone — zero.
Why the cold shoulder for European Motorola Sholes/Milestone users? Your guess is as good as mine. According to the Motorola copy/paste PR/CS response on an official Facebook topic featuring this very same problem seems to point to Motorola basically not caring about dev channels. I mean, when you get a reponse as cookie cutter as:
Hi, everyone!
Thanks for your feedback on customs ROMs – here is where we stand:
It is Motorola’s policy that customised ROMS are not supported on our products, as it may void the warranty on a consumer device or violate the copyright on the applications that we and or others have created. If you are a developer interested in manually updating the device with custom system images, please refer to the official Android developer guidelines at http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html. If you’d like access to other tools and resources for Android development, or would like to apply to be a part of our MOTODEV App Accelerator Program, please visit http://developer.motorola.com.
We hope this addresses the questions and comments you’ve raised – post here if you have any additional feedback and we’ll do our best to respond to you all!
Thanks,
Motorola Europe
….you know you’re pretty much the least of their cares.
Pretty disappointing. Looking at the responses on that Facebook topic, while not too lengthy yet, has users sharing the same basic feelings — disgust and disappointment with numerous “my Milestone’s going on eBay” talk. I hope Motorola reverses course quick. Alienating the people that due the messy clean up work for you isn’t the smartest of ideas to choose from.
It just goes to show you — the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Sure they (European Milestone users) received multi-touch and pinch-to-zoom functionality out of the box, but they also got a digitally signed hot mess. Which would you choose? Me? I’m perfectly happy with my rooted DROID running the Milestone factory apps. You?
Android’s openness and easily tweakable nature is quickly making it a hackers dream. If you don’t like something, fix it. In regards to the Droid, the biggest shortcoming many have voiced is the lack of multitouch support within the browser specifically as the Droid does actually have multitouch. (Just look at Dolphin browser on the Droid — it’s built in, Google just didn’t take advantage of it.)
Watching the video (below) is enough to make my mouth water and get all giddy inside. But what good or use is getting giddy if I’d never be able to poke, prod, pinch, and zoom myself? Thankfully we’ll all be able to very soon — as in the next couple of days.
Thank you’s can be sent to AllDroid’s Eugene and Barakinflorida whom put their Droids’ lives on the line in order to get a working Moto Milestone build up and running on it’s American counterpart. According to the duo, the builds works well. As well as a twin’s clothing should fit anyway. And for those worried about losing Google Navigation can remain calm as the pair above retained the multitouchy goodness of the Milestone’s firmware and tacked Google Nav on top. Super.
Keep those eyes glued to Gadgetsteria for as soon as we hear about the Milestone-Droid ROM dropping, we’ll be sure to pass it along to you dear reader.
The Droid is the current “must have” Android gadget. It’s sleek, powerful, and pretty darn good all around. US users however are limited to one carrier at the moment — Verizon. Much like some people won’t switch to AT&T for the iPhone, there are many who feel the same about Big Red. Hey, whatever floats your boat folks. The tale across the big blue pond is slightly different however as GSM is much more prevalent than the ugly step child (aka CDMA). Yesterday the Motorola Milestone (European GSM Droid) launched. You could say it was with a resounding success as only 2.5 hours after being made available on eXpansys, the Milestone sold out. Ask any US Droid/Milestone hopeful and they would rebuke sad stories of Milestone sell outs with a replay sounding something like “at least you have the option to get a GSM Droid”. But that isn’t quite 100% true anymore.
Now US users can pick up a GSM Milestone without going through as many hoops or currency exchanges as they did just a few weeks ago. Instead, a simple trip on over to eXpansys or Amazon whom currently feature the Milestone unsubsidized at $700 and $790 respectively. As you all know, unsubsidized phones are a wallet raping experience to put it not quite so mildly. Is it worth it?
Don’t forget that while a GSM Milestone is much easier to grab for US GSM users, it does come with one big caveat — no 3G support. Truthfully, that’s a massive caveat that I couldn’t live without. Because of the different 3G bands used in Europe, the Milestone is nothing but a 2.5G/WiFi mini monster when brought state side.
I don’t really think too many people are going to be super early GSM Milestone adopters here in the U. S. of A. as it’s simply too expensive and only half functional. Don’t go calling the funeral home yet however as there is a wee bit of light peering out from the distant, dark end of the tunnel. Leaked documents from many weeks back show T-Mobile getting their own Milestone/Droid/Sholes at some point in the not too distant future.
Now if you don’t like Verizon or T-Mobile and Motorola hasn’t released that tri-band 850/1700/1900 3G Module that we’re already wetting ourselves over, a simple four letter explative preceded by “You’re” seems most appropriate about now. Quite a conundrum isn’t it?
Typically the iPhone is the talk of the town when sales numbers and “sell outs” are concerned as such things often include large sales volumes and quick sell outs when considering how many phones they actually push out. But they’re not the only cool kid in town anymore. For the last month, our European friends have had to sit back and watch us poke and prod our lovely Moto Droid’s in jealousy, longing for the day that such happiness can fall upon them. That day came in the form of December 10th — yesterday. Anyone who had doubts about Android’s European presence and outlook can effectively bury such fears. The Moto Milestone sold out in 2.5 hours via the exclusive sales partner “eXpansys”.
According to eXpansys, pre-orders quickly surpassed 1,00 units. In fact, pre-orders sailed past the millennium mark so quickly and easily that eXpansys had to increase their order for Moto Milestones — twice. For that feat, the Milestone has earned itself the gold medal in fastest sell outs with eXpansys claiming it’s the fastest device sell out in 11 years of operations. Those feeling bummed they didn’t order before on-hand stock dried up can cling to hope as another shipment of Milestones is set to arrive before Christmas giving eager buyers a second chance to score the Android handset of the year.
Those interested can keep checking eXpansys’s website an impatiently hitting that refresh button like it’s goin’ out of style.
Wetting your pants in excitement that AT&T is finally, finally getting on board with Android? Sorry to say that your little accident was for naught as AT&T is still stiff arming Google’s baby. Why? Well there’s many reasons why. (1) They don’t care about all of this “openness” crap. (2) Don’t want to harm exclusive agreements with Apple. Or (3), they’re just plain stupid. My vote’s for three, but this entire issue is best reserved for another article.
Don’t go just yet. I wasn’t lying when I said the Motorola Milestone was coming to AT&T. The only thing is you’ll have to do a little cross boarder magic yourself by picking up one of these GSM beauts from our friends up north. Telus Canada is launching the Milestone in “early 2010″. Since they use the same frequencies as AT&T, any interested user simply has to go ahead and purchase one unlocked. Full price isn’t going to be pretty as it looks to be easily north of $500. Still, if you want to get in on some GSM baed Android action via AT&T, this is your best and only bet for the time being.
Get online with best value broadband & home phone bundles.
Choose between our Essentials or Plus packages -
both with introductory offers - & benefit from our ground-breaking HomeSafe online protection.
Compare our broadband and phone bundles with our competitors.
We think our Essentials and Plus packages are great value -
see for yourself by checking the breakdown of costs and features versus our biggest competitors.
When it comes to marketing your product it's essential to understand the visitor patterns in your shop. Heatmap software allows you to do just that by producing reports and visualizations that help you make the best decisions for your business.
The Droid is the current “must have” Android gadget. It’s sleek, powerful, and pretty darn good all around. US users however are limited to one carrier at the moment — Verizon. Much like some people won’t switch to AT&T for the iPhone, there are many who feel the same about Big Red. Hey, whatever floats your boat folks. The tale across the big blue pond is slightly different however as GSM is much more prevalent than the ugly step child (aka CDMA). Yesterday the Motorola Milestone (European GSM Droid) launched. You could say it was with a resounding success as only 2.5 hours after being made available on eXpansys, the 
Typically the iPhone is the talk of the town when sales numbers and “sell outs” are concerned as such things often include large sales volumes and quick sell outs when considering how many phones they actually push out. But they’re not the only cool kid in town anymore. For the last month, our European friends have had to sit back and watch us poke and prod our lovely Moto Droid’s in jealousy, longing for the day that such happiness can fall upon them. That day came in the form of December 10th — yesterday. Anyone who had doubts about Android’s European presence and outlook can effectively bury such fears. The Moto Milestone sold out in 2.5 hours via the exclusive sales partner “eXpansys”. 
