Crave

The Droid doesn't do everything.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

One of the latest misconception to make its way around the blogspehere was that the Motorola Milestone features multitouch functionality whereas its Droid counterpart does not. As it turns out, Verizon's first Google Android smartphone does offer multitouch, just not in the same capacity. What's the difference and, more importantly, who made the decision to water down this feature for the Droid?

Made popular by the iPhone, pinching and pulling has become the preferred method for zooming in on a smart phone. While Verizon's Droid handset is built using the same Android 2.0 OS as the Milestone, users are left using a less-accurate double-tap.

The Milestone has multitouch built directly into the Android framework while the Droid relies on APIs that come with the 2.0 SDK. That means that it's up to app developers to implement the features.

For reasons unknown, however, Google hasn't integrated the capability into apps such as Google Maps. Though it could be added into future updates of select titles, the question remains: Who decided to leave basic multitouch off of Droid?

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Motorola Milestone

(Credit: Crave UK)

On Monday Motorola announced the first GSM Google Android 2.0 handset. Dubbed the Milestone, it's quite similar to Verizon's Motorola Droid save for a few changes.

The biggest difference is that the Milestone goes far beyond the Droid with its multitouch support. While the Droid allows you to zoom in and out on the home screen by double tapping, the Milestone also includes iPhone-like pinch capability. Squeeze your fingers together to zoom in on Web pages, maps and photos and spread them apart to zoom out. Android users have long hungered after this feature, which is why we got excited when we first heard that Android 2.0 would offer it. Hopefully, the Droid will get it since there's really no reason that it doesn't.

Another big chnage lies in the navigational software. Whereas the Droid comes loaded with the new Google Maps Navigator, Milestone offers MOTONAV, which is the company's own spoken turn-by-turn guidance and mapping system. Milestone also offers trial versions of their Easy Search, Lane Guidance, and Maps.

Meanwhile, the hardware remains nearly identical to Droid. Both have 3.7-inch 480x854-pixel resolution screens, 5-megapixel cameras with dual-LED flash, and 3.5mm headset jacks. But in a small change, the Droid comes with a 16GB microSD card and Milestone comes with an 8GB card. Internally, the only hardware difference is found in the radios; Droid is CDMA-based while Milestone is a quad-band GSM handset.

Italy and Germany will be among the first markets to carry Milestone with more countries coming later.

Initial response to the new Motorola Droid smartphone on the Verizon Wireless network have been very good, thanks in large part to the updated Android 2.0 operating system.

A look at how multiple accounts are handled in the contact list of an Android 2.0 phone.

(Credit: Google)

The new updated version of the open-source operating system offers new Android phones a series of enhancements as well as improved performance. The updated software is being credited with enabling many of the cool new features, such as the updated version of the Google Maps service, which allows for voice command turn-by-turn directions.

The Motorola Droid for Verizon will be the first device that will use the new software. Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA will also be selling Android devices this holiday season, but neither carrier has announced a device that will use the updated version of the operating system.

But that doesn't mean that the Droid will be the only device running the 2.0 software this year. A Google representative said it's very likely at least one other phone will be introduced that uses the new version of the open source operating system.

One of the features that the updated software has added allows for the integration of multiple social-networking and e-mail accounts into the phone's contact list. This means that contact and calendar information can be synced with Microsoft Exchange e-mail services and also other Web e-mail accounts, as well as, social-networking sites like Facebook.

The new version of the software has support for Microsoft Exchange, which is a huge deal because it means that corporate users can sync their work e-mail with their phones. A search function was added to the SMS and MMS messaging feature. The software has also been updated to support a camera that includes a built-in flash, digital zoom, scene mode, white balance, color effect, and macro focus.

A look at a user's combined email on the updated Android 2.0 operating system.

(Credit: Google)

The new software has also improved the virtual keyboard layout to make it easier to hit the right keys as well as improved the typing speed. The 2.0 version of software supports an enhanced browser that allows users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation. It allows bookmarks with Web page thumbnails. It offers double-tap zoom. And there is full HTML5 support, which among other things allows for geolocation applications to be developed to provide location information about the device.

Overall the new improvements to the software should make the Android devices operate much faster than the previous generation of software. A Google representative said the software is backwards compatible with older versions of Google Android hardware. But it is up the carriers whether or not they allow users to upgrade their devices to the new operating system. And the carriers will be controlling the timing of these upgrades.

As for the new Android devices coming from Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, they won't likely immediately have the Android 2.0 operating system, but it's likely these devices, along with new Android phones will come with the new version of the OS.

A Sprint representative said that traditionally the company pushes out or allows users to upgrade software when it's made available.

T-Mobile, which was the first carrier to offer an Android phone, will have four Google Android phones available for the holidays. Two are available today: the original T-Mobile G1, which launched in October of last year, and the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, which went on sale this summer and is available now for $149.99. T-Mobile is adding two more devices to line-up in time for the holidays: the Motorola Cliq which goes on sale November 2, and the Samsung Behold II, which does not yet have a launch date but will be available before Christmas.

As of November 1, Sprint will have two Android-powered devices as part of its lineup: the HTC Hero and the Samsung Moment, which costs $180 with a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year Sprint contract.

Don't try this on game day, but the new Google Maps Navigation application will show you how to take a spin past Boston's Fenway Park.

(Credit: Google)

You can almost hear the portable navigation industry swearing already.

Google is announcing plans Wednesday to release a new Android application called Google Maps Navigation. When combined with a GPS-equipped mobile phone running Android 2.0, it provides turn-by-turn directions powered by Google Maps and a slick user interface that combines features such as voice recognition and Google Street View. Google Maps Navigation, like seemingly everything that emerges from Google, will be free.

"Mobile platforms--Android and others--are so powerful now that you can build client apps that can do magical things connected to the cloud," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a briefing for reporters at Google's headquarters on Tuesday.

The standard Google Maps Navigation view.

(Credit: Google)

Companies in the cell phone navigation industry have seen this day coming for quite some time. Right now, the beta application only works on phones that will use the Android 2.0 software, which is scheduled to be available very soon with the expected arrival of Motorola's Droid phone on Verizon's network.

Google's Vic Gundotra appeared to demonstrate the application on the Droid: he wouldn't confirm it, but it was a shiny black Android 2.0 phone running on Verizon's network and bearing Motorola's stamp, so we're probably not going too far out on a limb here. (Update, 7:24 a.m. PDT: Says Google's Wednesday morning press release: "The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation and Android 2.0 is the Droid from Verizon.")

However, Google is working with Apple on bringing it to the iPhone, and it's not ruling out licensing the software to makers of portable navigation devices used in cars throughout the world, said Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google for mobile and developers. The process involving Apple is slightly different from the usual App Store submission process, because Maps is a built-in iPhone application, he said.

The application works like any navigation system that you may have used, but it combines Google Search and Google Maps functions that are normally only available on the desktop and brings them to the smartphone. Perhaps the most interesting and useful feature comes from Google Street View, allowing Google to provide a Street View image at every turn that the application suggests during your journey.

We love the unified in-box.

(Credit: Google)

As Verizon Wireless prepares to unveil its new Motorola Droid smartphone tomorrow, Google today released the SDK for the much-anticipated 2.0 update to the operating system. Code-named Eclair, Android 2.0 offers a number of feature improvements and interface tweaks. As expected, we will get multitouch support (yay!), but Google has some surprises up its sleeve. Here are the highlights that users should see.

• Syncing for multiple e-mail accounts, including Exchange accounts and contacts. According to the small print, however, "handset manufacturers can choose whether to include Exchange support in their devices." Ick.
• Developers can create sync adapters for additional data sources.
• The capability to e-mail, text, or call a contact by tapping their photo. What's more, this "Quick Contact widget" can reside in multiple apps such as such as e-mail, Messaging, and the calendar.
• A combined e-mail in-box
• Improved camera controls with digital zoom, a scene mode, white balance controls, color effects, and a macro focus
• A revamped Android virtual keyboard layout for faster, more accurate typing. Also, as Google puts it, "the multitouch support ensures that key presses aren't missed while typing rapidly with two fingers."
• A smarter dictionary that will include contact names
• Bluetooth 2.1 with object push and phone book access profiles
• Refurbished browser user interface with improved search and navigation, bookmarks with Web page thumbnail support for HTML5, and support for double-tap zoom
• Text and multimedia message search
• In the calendar app, the agenda view has infinite scrolling. Events indicate the attending status for each invitee and you can invite new guests to events.

Verizon's Droid will offer the new OS, but it's unknown at this time when, and if, it will push out to existing Google Android devices. Once we get a Droid review model, we'll consume Eclair and report back on how good it tastes.

Google Android OS 2.0 photos

Developer Luke Hutch was the first to release multitouch features on the G1.

(Credit: Luke Hutch)

Google Android fans have long been waiting for official multitouch support on Android devices, but Google has yet to offer any confirmation. Even at this year's Google I/O developers conference where multitouch was a hot topic, I only heard that "we don't know when it is coming." But after doing some digging and speaking to several sources with knowledge of the situation, it looks like Android users may finally get their wish this holiday season.

When is it coming?
Allow me to start with the rumor of the day. From what I understand, Android 2.0 will ship this year and will include multitouch support similar to what's found on the iPhone and the Palm Pre.This might sound far-fetched to some readers, but there is mounting evidence to back it up.

Several blogs have reported that Android will receive two more updates this year. I believe the first will be a minor update based on the Donut branch of Android. The second update, however, is likely to be a major refresh based off the Eclair branch.

The release schedule was recently echoed in a Reuters interview with Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms at Google. Reuters reported that Donut will become Android 1.6 and Eclair will ship as Android 2.0.

So if Android 2.0 is coming this year, when exactly will it be released? ... Read more