The Motorola Droid was one of the first really popular Android smartphones. But at this point the 2009 era device is considered pretty ancient. Motorola has no plans to update the Droid to Google Android 4.0, and even the hackers at CyanogenMod have announced the plan to drop support for the aging smartphone when CyanogenMod 9 (based on Android 4.0) is released to the public.

But there’s always someone who won’t take no for an answer — and this time it’s xda-developers forum member kabaldan. He’s ported an early build of CyanogenMod 9 to run on the original Motorola Droid.

Some features don’t work. For instance there’s no support for hardware accelerated video and the camera doesn’t function. Because the Droid doesn’t have as much internal storage space as most modern Android phones, kabaldan’s software also carves up the storage in interesting ways and makes use of an sd card if it’s properly partitioned and formatted.

The boot animation is also disabled because it uses enough RAM to cause problems on the Droid.

If that’s not enough to scare you off, you can find download links for CyanogenMod 9 RC0 and a working version of gApps at the xda-developers forum.

via xda-developers

The CyanogenMod team is working on the next version of its popular Android software for dozens of smartphones and tablets. CyanogenMod 9 will be the first version based on Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich which the developers say offers improved speed and performance.

It also makes some of the tweaks that earlier versions of CyanogenMod had used unnecessary or impractical — and breaks graphics and camera drivers used in CyanogenMod 7 and earlier versions. So CM9 is still a work in progress.

There’s already a usable build for the Samsung Nexus S smartphone, and according to a progress update on the CyanogenMod blog, the next devices to get support will likely be those with TI OMAP4, Samsung Exynos, and Qualcomm MSM8660/7X30 chips. In other words, it might take a little while before older devices such as the Google Nexus One get support — but the plan is still to release CM9 for the Nexus One.

That’s good news, since Google has said it won’t release an official Android 4.0 update for the first Google-branded phone.

Unfortunately, another older flagship Android phone is getting left behind in the new update. There won’t be an official CyanogenMod version for the original Motorola Droid.

The system requirements for Android 4.0 are much higher than for older versions of the operating system, so it’s not surprising to see official support dropped for older devices. You can’t exactly install OS X 10.7 on an Apple IIe. But CyanogenMod and other independent developers have done some amazing work over the past few years by porting stripped down versions of newer software to run on older devices.

I suspect someone will still release an Android 4.0 custom ROM for the original Droid, but odds are that the operating system won’t run as well on that phone as on newer devices.

Adobe has increased the minimum hardware requirements for mobile devices to run Flash Player 10.1. Basically, f you’ve got a VGA display you can get by with an ARM Cortex A8 550MHz CPU, but if you have a WVGA screen you’ll need a faster, 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU. Right now, Adobe Flash is only available on Android 2.2 and up, but eventually Adobe plans to offer Flash for other platforms as well.

So what does this mean in practical terms? If you’ve got a Motorola Droid, you should be fine because while the Droid originally shipped with a 550MHz clock speed and an 854 x 480 pixel display, a recent software update overclocked the device to run at 800MHz. On the other hand, if you have a Motorola Milestone, which is physically almost identical to the Droid, it sounds like you’re out of luck because that model is still running at 550MHz.

Long story short — Droid supports Flash, Milestone doesn’t. And if you buy a newer Android device such as the Motorola Droid 2 or Droid X, or the HTC Evo 4G, HTC Incredible, Samsung Galaxy S, or Samsung Epic 4G, you should be able to handle Flash without a problem, as long as you’re running Android 2.2. All of those phones have 1GHz processors.

Keep in mind, Flash on Android is still a hit or miss experience. Some Flash content loads quickly and plans smoothly. Other sites can cause the browser to hang. And Flash-based ads on web sites that are primarily text and picture driven can cause pages to load much more slowly. I highly recommend adjusting your browser settings to enable plug-ins on demand instead of always if you do decide to run Flash.

via Android Police and Droid Forums

As expected, Verizon has started rolling out the second over the air update for Motorola Droid handsets this month. The first update brought Android 2.2 Froyo to the Droid. This update patches a few security issues, but the most noticeable change is that it adds support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1.

That means after you install the FRG22D update, you should be able to visit the Android Market, download Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for Android and view web pages with Flash content to your heart’s content. Well, as long as your heart has realistic expectations, anyway. Not every web site with Flash is optimized for viewing on a mobile device. But the update should still dramatically increase the amount of web content you can display properly on a Motorola Droid.

You can find more details about the update, plus step by step instructions for installing the update once it’s pushed to your phone, at Verizon’s Droid support page.

via Droid Life

If you have a Motorola handset running Google Android 1.6 and you’ve been wondering when you’re slated to receive a software update, the wait is over… well, the wait for a schedule is over anyway. The actual updates are just starting to roll out, with the phased rollout of Android 2.2 Froyo for the Motorola Droid in the US.

Motorola has released a schedule explaining which phones will be updated in what parts of the globe. There’s also a rough timeframe, with some updates coming in the summer, others scheduled for Q3 or Q4 of 2010, and others simply described as “under evaluation. Unfortunately, not every phone will get upgraded all the way to Android 2.2 Froyo — some stop at Android 2.1 Eclair. And tt looks like some phones will be updated in one market, but not another.

For instance, the Motorola Backflip should get Android 2.1 in Q3 2010 in the US. But it won’t receive the update at all in Europe or Latin America, and Motorola says the update is “under evaluation” in the Canadian and Asia-Pacific regions. Of course, there’s an active hacker community that will likely release unofficial updates for phones like this, bringing Android 2.1 and maybe even Android 2.2 goodness — but you’ll probably end up voiding your warranty if you install unofficial firmware.

In the US market, the Cliq and Cliq XT will also receive Android 2.1 later this year, and the Droid X should be upgraded to Android 2.2 later this summer. The Motorola Devour doesn’t get get any operating system upgrades at all.

You can find more details about Motorola upgrade plans fro Canada, Europe, Asia, and Latin America at the Motorola Support Forums.

via MobileCrunch

It’s been almost two weeks since Verizon started rolling out an over-the-air update for Motorola Droid customers, upgrading the phones to Google Android 2.2 Froyo. The update brought a faster Java compiler, better security features, the ability to install some apps on an SD card, and other features including persistent phone and web browser icons on every home screen.

But the version that’s currently rolling out doesn’t support Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for Android. The app can only be installed on devices running Android 2.2, but for some reason the first Froyo update for the Motorola Droid wasn’t enough to add Flash support. Verizon now says it will be rolling out a second update soon which will allow users to download and install Flash Player 10.1 from the Android Market.

via Engadget

Easy Root is an app that offers a one-click method for gaining root access to the Motorola Droid, Motorola Milestone, and Motorola Droid X smartphones. It was available for download from the Android Market, but this weekend Google removed the app from the Market without any explanation.

But the developer says he’s talking to Google about bringing Easy Root back to the Android Market. Failing that, he tells Android Central that he plans to launch a version that can be installed without using the Android Market at all.

Update: You can now download Easy Root directly from the developer’s site. A full license will set you back $0.99, although larger donations are encouraged.

On the one hand, it’s a bit surprising that Google would remove an app like this from the Market, since after all Android is an open source operating system and Google is pretty committed to openness. On the other and, users who root their phones lose access to over the air updates and could accidentally damage their systems by tweaking settings that Google and its partners (including Motorola and Verizon) meant to keep out of reach of users.

Update 2: If you’re looking for another easy way to root the Motorola Milestone or about a dozen other phones including the Google Nexus One, you might want to check out Universal Androot.

credit: Droid Life

The Froyo parade continues. Yesterday HTC Evo 4G users started to report that they were getting over the air updates bringing Google Android 2.2 Froyo to their handsets. Today updates are starting to roll out to Motorola Droid users on Verizon.

If you’re not the patient sort, you don’t have to wait for the update to magically appear. Some users have discovered the source of the file needed to update the operating system.

Droid Life has posted step by step instructions for downloading and installing the Android 2.2 Froyo update on your phone right now. No waiting required.

Of course, you should probably proceed with caution. If there’s one thing I learned by constantly applying pre-release updates to my Nexus One, it’s that just because we think we’ve found the correct update file doesn’t mean we actually have. My phone never exploded or anything, but it would have been a lot safer to just wait for Google to push the update over the air.