Motorola confirmed that Google's Android 2.2 operating system, or Froyo
build, will be pushed out to the original Motorola Droid beginning the week of
Aug. 2.
Motorola Forums Manager Matt wrote in a brief
note on the company's forum July 30:
"I'm happy to report that Verizon Wireless will start pushing Android
2.2 (Froyo) to the original Droid by Motorola during the week of August 2.
"Although I can't confirm it yet, I would not be surprised if there
were a push to some small number of users as a pre-launch test as early as
tonight ..."
Motorola's forum confirmation came just a day after Sprint said on its community blog that it will begin upgrading its
popular HTC Evo 4G smartphone to Android 2.2
Aug. 3.
In following Sprint's announcement, Motorola clearly doesn't want its
smaller rival to bask in the glory of being the first wireless carrier to offer
Froyo on a device, which is exactly what the No. 3 U.S. carrier touted in its
blog post.
Both carriers were beat to the punch by Google, which began broadly pushing out the Froyo build to its Nexus One smartphone
in June.
However, Motorola's news about the Droid stirs up another question. With the
Droid set to get Froyo this week, what about the Droid X?
Motorola and Verizon executives had promised the over-the-air upgrade by
mid-August. Is that timeline still on track? eWEEK e-mailed Verizon for a
response and will update when and if possible.
Verizon spokesman Albert Aydin told LA News Monitor that Verizon will push out Froyo this week
but did not specify what devices the No. 1 wireless carrier will upgrade.
Released to open source June 23, Android 2.2 includes faster
browser performance, including a faster JavaScript engine, enterprise
capabilities such as Microsoft Exchange support and a cloud-to-device messaging
API.
Verizon offers the full documentation for Android 2.2 on the Droid here
(via Engadget).
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