The last thing you want to hear about a few short days after a product's launch is a litany of issues plaguing devices in the field, but that's not quite what's going on here -- instead, this looks to be an extension of Verizon's well-known policy of testing the crap out of devices until manufacturers are practically crying uncle. The carrier has already generated long internal lists of issues on both the
DROID and
DROID Eris, it seems, with the leaked documents revealing some five pages for the Motorola product and seven -- yes, seven -- for the HTC one; the good news is that they're all slated to be fixed in one of two firmware updates slated for December and January windows. Again, knowing Verizon, these firmware updates could very well get stuck in the testing lab for another six years, but we'll keep our hopes skyward.
posted Nov 10th 2009 4:08AM
good to know that companies are looking to fix bugs even before users start nagging for fixes.
"some fruit" company on the other hand.....
Well apple does roll out updates, just not as often as people want/need. From seeing these videos, the phone looks awesome. That or the HD2, that thing is a beast!
@prmd142 .. you must not know how software development works. When software goes GM there is typically quite a few weeks between the final build and the eventual release to consumers. During this time development continues and typically you would get a point release soon after the release.
Apple does this all the time. Microsoft does this all the time. Droid is doing this now. Nothing special.
@Nathan
What is special is that some kind Verizon employee leaked this information to us. My droid comes in today and I am very happy to know that an OTA update is coming along to fix some of these issues and I am very happy that it is only a month away. Its the communication and speed that make me surprised about this update.
@ Nathan
Stop being rational and making sense.
There's a fix for that! Hopefully Verizon Passion/Dragon has these fixes before it comes out. I am waiting to get my hands on a device that might not exist.
I have a droid. It crashes ALL THE TIME. Constantly freezing or restarting. I bought this phone knowing what I was getting into and i still think it is amazing. Firmware updates that make it work will just be exciting because it is like getting a new phone.
It did restart once while I was on the phone... I was not too happy about that.
Ohh, sorry to hear about your luck. Mine has been rock solid since Friday, hasn't been restarted yet. Can't wait for a camera fix though...
That sucks. I haven't had those problems with mine, I only have the camera app to complain about.
I'd heard someone with similar problems, he took it back to the store, got a replacement, been rock solid ever since, I think some of the phones have had hardware issues with freezing and crashing
Jeremy,
I've been spending a lot of time on Android forums and a few users had this issue. Once they took the phone back and got a replacement it cured all of the problems. You could also try to do a hard reset on the phone first if you want. I would recommend that taking it back is your best bet. I am totally psyched about the droid but I would not tolerate that on a brand new piece of equipment.
Yea, I would definitely take it back. Mine never freezes or crashes. Been 100% rock solid.
hi jeremy,
not sure if you have the moto or htc but with the moto some apps aren't compatible with 2.0 and end up making the device power cycle.
Ouch! Mine has been great. The only crappy thing is the camera, but I dont really use it anyways.
Try going to a VZW store. My local ones have always been good to me when I get a new phone and it has problems. They will normally swap it out.
ooh... auto-focus fix....
How about an update for the Omnia? Since January, I've gone through 4 phones. The screen broke on the first one after 6 months and the next two didn't see the internal 8GB storage card, thanks to the CF03 update. Now I'm on #4 and after about two months it likes to freeze occasionally (5-7 times a week). Sometimes it'll go into power save mode and not turn back on with out me removing and reinserting the battery. Also how about getting GPS working for programs other than VZ Navigator. Yes I've changed the setting to 'location on' and used QuickGPS already; sometimes it just doesn't get a fix. This is all with the stock ROM. I've also tried a few custom ROMs too (MrCapCom, Pepkilz, adrenalyne, bgill55...) Oh, and now I have to highlight every text message (even if I am in the threaded conversation) or else the phone doesn't count it as 'read.' While MyPhone is great for keeping contacts between phones, I'm done with the Omnia.
It's great to know that VZW cares about the usability of some of its phones.
Did Verizon test the crap out of the BB Storm? If so, they may need to make some changes to their testing.
LoL! I think Storm owners have probably gotten the biggest shaft of any phone on any carrier in history. I mean sure they did push out a software update 2 weeks after launch, but it took them 6 months to push out an update to make the phone usable.
Now that my Storm has 5.0 on it, I'm fairly content until the next great thing comes out. Come January, the Droid may fit that bill, but I'm thinking right now I'm going to wait until next fall.
Some of you may know this, but the native exchange support does not work for those of us that have secure connections requiring passcodes. This is apparently a known issue to google, but verizon and motorola had no idea when I called. You can sync your calendar, but not contacts or email. This is a big problem and should be noted by verizon. There is a work around with some 3rd party software. It works well, but is not acceptable. Hope this helps.
How about adding active sync security polices for exchange support... Idiots.
Seriously what phone comes out today without this ability and then claims full Exchange support, its like they don't want to sell this phone to the business sector yet they seem to be gunning for blackberry.
I like firmware updates.. just for the sake of getting a firmware update. (provided nothing gets broken in the update) I imagine my droid will be seeing updates, enhancements, and OS upgrades in it's life cycle.. and I like that it will be getting that kind of attention.
With a projected 10 million units projected for 2010, this device should get lots of love.
Updates already? WOW...Either Verizon is on the ball, or the Droid is a POS. I think it's the latter...
They've been at this thing for, what...3 years? And it already needs an update? Great testing. I think Verizon should have an ad with that idiot who wears the glasses, as he stands there, and all the customers stone him with broken Droids...LOL
Yeah, they should have just waited a year to release an update with Exchange support, that's the ticket.
Yea, because it's always smarter to wait till a few months have passed to release minor bug fix updates.
And that's exactly what most of this is -- minor.
lol
I think it comes down to the real world situation of there are just some things you can't test for. If they sold 100,000 of them, that's 100,000 people with a brand new product many of them using it in ways they couldn't imagine in testing with all sorts of scenarios and different email server set ups. I think it's good that they're already looking at fixes and identifying problems. You can argue that they shouldn't have had them in the first place, but no product is 100% perfect when it's launched. (Despite what Apple fanboys think.)
Cousin Eddie said - "Either Verizon is on the ball, or the Droid is a POS. I think it's the latter"
Eddie... Seriously - You might want to consider giving up the whole "thinking' thing, as it doesn't appear to be your forte.
"The last thing you want to hear about a few short days after a product's launch is a litany of issues plaguing devices in the field..."
Nope. The last thing I want to hear about a few short days after a product's launch is a company that does nothing to address a litany of issues plaguing devices in the field.
This is great news. I'm glad to see they're gonna add a 'characters remaining' countdown when composing texts. It's been my one fault with the droid since I got it.
I see no downside here...
My DROID has been an absolute joy, exceeding all expectaions, from day one with nary a single issue.
All this (update memo) does is reaffirm my decision to switch to Verizon, a company that obviously cares a great deal about customer satisfaction.
After using a pay-by-the-minute phone forever, I finally broke down and got on a plan with Droid. I bought it on Friday and I must say that I LOVE this thing. The only gripe that I have with it is that the native email app does not sync with my YaHoo email account through wifi - only when I'm on 3G.. very weird. I hope that the update includes a fix for this.
I have to say that i really love the droid so far. A couple things have happened tho. The messaging program freezes quite often and kicks me out. Im not sure why that is. Also i have seen the phone get a lsight bit slower since friday. Not that its really anything to complain about but just wondering if anyone knows about the freezing of the messaging program?
Went through 5 BB Storms since initial launch last year, Verizon gave me the Droid as a replacement. I have used the iPhone as well, and right now, the Droid wins hands down. It has only shut down once, and most likely due to a third party app install. I have installed some great apps and the Droid is amazing. I see that it will only get better. The android OS platform is stable and reliable, and the device is very fast. I downloaded an app for creating speed dials, only to learn that the Droid has the feature built-in. The more I work with it the better it is. I miss the seamless email integration of the BB storm, but that's about it. The Droid is less buggy than the iPhone was at release, and the fixes about to be released are going to make the Droid the device to beat.