Android 2.1 ported to Droid, no one feigns surprise
By Ross Miller 
posted December 14th 2009 11:22PM
posted December 14th 2009 11:22PM
You had to know this was coming. That Android 2.1 OS that's been circulating inside the Google's ultra-exclusive Nexus One has hit the internet, and thanks to some clever hackery, you can now theoretically put the update on your Droid handset. We say theoretically, of course, because it's not quite a perfect rip. DIY instructions were briefly posted on Sholes.info but have since been replaced with a curt advisory to wait for a ROM that properly preserves file system permissions, else risking some serious breaking. The original image file is still available, but don't say we didn't warn you. Separately and perhaps unrelated, a video has surfaced of the Nexus One's boot animation running on Droid -- feel free to enjoy that instead, after the break. 
[Thanks, Seth and Kyle]
Wow, and what wonderful proof...
PS.. I understand it's not proof, I merely thirst for it, that's all.
@AdamSpruijt
Expanded comments! Thank you Santa!
@AdamSpruijt that DROID DOES?
Want more Nexus One info.......................
@robertlibert I beg to differ. It may have Snap Dragon, but that doesn't mean it will be clocked to exactly 1 Ghz. I'm not trying to be a defensive Droid fan(I don't even own one, but I really want one) but aside from the overrated Snap Dragon Processor and the OLED screen, this device is no better than the Droid. And the OMAP CPU in the droid can match with an 800mhz cpu. More Mhz doesn't it will be fast. I don't hate HTC, but I hate it when people look at this phone and act like its the only one of its kind and all the other phones are a POS. Sure the Droid was hyped, but the hype on this phone is beyond what I've seen for the iPhone when it first came out. The more this phone is hyped, the higher the expectation, and the higher the expectation the higher the disappointment.
~From a Business man.
Yeah... given the Snapdragon is also a Cortex A8, there's every reason to believe that power, as usual, is still proportional to the square of frequency. They'll save a bit if they have the voltage cut versus the OMAP, but there is every reason to imagine they might ship with a lower clock speed. That's also likely, because the new Snapdragon is a die shrink over the OMAP 3430... 45nm vs. 65nm.
They also include a DSP... not sure how it compares to TIs. They don't have the additional video engine hardware, but that's rarely an issue on a cellphone anyway, except maybe in power consumption terms (dedicated hardware generally requires much less power than the software equivalent).
As for the rest of it, OLED is beautiful compared to LCD, but having the DROID now, I would never go back to low rez. Most of the OLED displays are 480x320.. totally worthless. If this new thing has something around 850x480, yeah, that's drool worthy... though the DROID LCD is at least laptop quality, it's not one of the cheesy ones you find on lesser units. Now, the rumors say "high res OLED", but it's phrased the same everywhere, with no numbers. Let's look at this once it's real.
The other issue... this is GSM. Which makes it worthless to me, anyway, AT&T is questionable here, T-Mobile only reaches the end of my driveway. Based on the realities of GSM, neither has a substantial 3G network (20% for AT&T, and it's full of iPhone users, less coverage still for T-Mobile).
And based on the FCC filing, they support 1700MHz HSPA+, but not 2100MHz, so that cuts out much of Europe and half of the T-Mobile network in the USA, if this is really the same phone. And while the GSM proponents love to boost the speed of full 20MHz HSPA+ (7.2Mb/s down, 2.0Mb/s up) versus EvDO Rev A (3.1Mb's down, 1.8Mb/s up), this is only in about 30 cities on AT&T... as of "sometime next year". Verizon will be rolling out LTE (4G) in as many locales "sometime next year". Sprint has that already, with WiMax 4G.
So I'm not so impressed. Plus, who cares about a few mm of thickness, where's the real keyboard? You have to learn the DROID keyboard, but once learned, it's better than my old Treo's, and it changes the fundamental nature of your device, versus the cheesy screen keyboards. For example, I can type AND see the screen in landscape mode.
@hazydave It's always fascinating to see a new gadget out from the tech-loom having its 1st bootup what's more interesting that it looks like a crayola in steroids. Ah, you can't deny its resemblance now to google, don't you? Another POV: http://bit.ly/nexus-one-bootup-and-more
Well, this may be what gets me to root my Droid. I just have to see a list of what all has changed in 2.1. Only thing I know of is that Expose like way to switch through home screens, increased home screens, and a new App Menu that is kind of 3D looking. Is there anything else?
@DJ You shouldn't have to root the Droid to install the update.
@rsmith4321
Oh, I didn't know that. Cool then. I'll wait for a tested version of it then. I like the Expose features, and if the expanded number of home screens is true too, that will be nice.
Love Android specifically for this reason.
Niice
Good proof by showing the logo! Seriously they should have shown something like an os info or some significant change in tge os toshow is 2.1. For a casual viewer on YouTube, it'd look fake. Hope it gets an official upgrade to 2.1
@lifenexus THERE ALREADY IS ONE ARE U NOT PAYING ATTENTION NOT TO MENTION I HAVE 2.1 ON MY G1 GOD IS GOOD TO ME(SORRY FOR CAPS DON'T FIRE ME FOR USING BOLD LETTERS)
@Atlantian
I hate CAPS
@Atlantian Dude I was talking about an official upgrade of droid to 2.1. There are other 2.1's but is ther one for droid? btw No hard feelings for all caps.
God I love open source.
This isn't really open source at work, as 2.1's source isn't even out. Similar things happen with Windows Mobile, such as the pre-release 6.5.X versions getting ported to current hardware
That being said, I love open source as well
@MasterTick
I love open-source backed up by major corporations. (Android by Google and the OHA, Maemo by Nokia, etc.)
Now, if only there was some way of getting this on my HD2... (Like, right now... *Jealous*)
@TT YOU HAVE AN HD2!!!!
Man that thing takes ages to boot up
@(Unverified) The iPhone does too, but really - I only actually boot the thing a few times a month.
@(Unverified)
meh, my cable box boots up slower than that. ....I am seriously not kidding you. It takes like 10 minutes.
@(Unverified)
Yea well my Blackberry Tour takes AT LEAST 3 minutes to boot up with .230 leaked OS. Before that, it would easily take 5-10 minutes. No joke.
@(Unverified)
It's actually pretty fast for a smartphone bootup. Most smartphones take ages to bootup, but it usually doesn't matter since you rarely need to.
Too bad you can't root it to remove the hardware keyboard.
@vainmicah lolwut? Why in the name of god would you do that?
@Tullsy because I love the phone but don't like the keyboard. If the Droid had no slideout keyboard, it would be ideal for me...
I still might get the Droid though - if a new Android phone doesn't come out in the next month or so.
@vainmicah
But even if you root it, you still can't remove the hardware keyboard... I don't get what you're getting at. If you take it off, well, you only have half the phone. So instead of rooting to disable it, why not just not use it?
Have you looked at the Droid Eris? It might be right up your alley. Otherwise, be patient, and HTC will come up with a newer one for you.
was it just me or did that animation repeat itself one too many times?
@nelagster I can watch this thing all day maaaaaaan-g
@Akhen
+1 for the -g.
@nelagster
i found another flaw, not only does it repeat, it makes an X, which has nothing at all to do with Android, or Google whatsoever.
It apes the Windows logo, and who knows, the big huge X on every box of Mac OS sold in the last nine years???
What's the X mean?
@Wesscoast
neXus One?
@Wesscoast X marks the spot?
any word on 2.1's general performance on Droid?
@shu
Based on the fact that the original video that was posted earlier of this boot animation was on a snapdragon processor and the droid looked like it handled it very well, I would venture a guess that its not all that bad. especially if it were tweaked specifically for the droid.
Honestly, why hasn't an actual video of the Nexus One leaked already!?!?!?
Now why would they stop the video right after the animation? Reminds of of a lot of the youtube videos where they get cut off right after someone does something stupid
The boot up is that long to so I can scratch my ego every time I power my phone on...
Let me see... I make $496.6 for the first 13 seconds, about $152 each time it makes a full "X" animation and $1,527.78 for the full boot.
http://www.webworth.info/www.google.com
and best of all I don't have to endanger wild life or spill oil tankers, or degrade the environment, sell drugs, extort anyone, war profiteer, or steal tax payer's money to do it.
@Google I have no idea what you are talking about, do you know what it is when a Android phone boots? Or IPhone or anything else. It has nothing to do with a normal power on and off.
@Google
Compared to by BB, that boot up is short.
And WTF does oil tankers and endangered wildlife have to do with anything?
I'm referring to how much money the search engine makes a second according to this website if you do the math it amounts to about $38 a second. Oh and the environmental stuff is what I remind myself when I go to sleep to let my "do no evil" conscience feel good. :P
Why so serious?
@PBB HES REFERENCING TO THIS
Website Value Calculator - www.google.com
Estimated Data
Web site Value:
$2,410,000,000.00
Daily Pageviews:
1,100,000,000
Daily Ads Revenue:
$3,300,000.00
Oooooo... So Acid Trippy, Man
man that 16:9 really does make typing on it look bad =S
@Keni
I use colemak in landscape via anysoftkeyboard.
( www.colemak.com )
..and with the 2.0.1 with multitouch, that screen might be the best keyboard I've ever had.
@ethana2 Ye, I know about alternate keyboards, but this video just makes the screen look horridly difficult to type on =S. This doesn't discourage me from purchasing the milestone(Droid) next year though.
I find it odd that there's a (mostly) functional version of the Nexus' version of 2.1 floating around that's bootable on a Droid, but still no video or indepth look at what's actually new in 2.1. Does this seem a tad off?
@DanteDiablo Chill, man. It was ported, literally, like an hour and a half ago.