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

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

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.