Droid X Android 2.2 (FroYo) Micro-review

So anyone patiently waiting for Motorola to release Android 2.2 for the Droid X has probably heard by now that an official build of it was leaked and can be installed on any X, rooter or otherwise. I was personally quite excited by this news, since I had been looking forward to the new release to see if it addressed some of the software shortcomings that I had found in the phone. As such, it took me all of about half an hour after I found out about the leak before I was running 2.2! (Disclamer.... voided warranty... not supported... blah blah blah...)

Now, before I continue I should note that there is a chance that this is not the final update that will be released OTA. That said, I doubt that Motorola is planning on making any major changes if they still intend to hit an early September release.

If you want to skip my earlier review essentially I think that the X is a beautiful piece of hardware that is badly hampered by Motorola's terrible software. (MotoBlur, uninstallable services, etc.) So as much as I doubted it I kept a little spark of hope alive deep down in my heart that Motorola would hear the impassioned cries of their faithful userbase and use the 2.2 update as an opportunity to strip away the bloatware that we all hate so much (or at least give power users a way to do so).

Droid X: First Week Impressions

Things have been a bit quiet on the blog lately, but not for lack of activity on my part! I've been working on a fairly involved WebGL demo that I'm hoping to post soon (I'd like to get it out by Aug. 12...) that I feel is pretty dang awesome. Hopefully the rest of the interwebs will feel the same. :)

For the moment, though, I want to talk about something non-WebGL. I bought a new phone last week after my EnV Touch started randomly powering off... again. (For the record in the last two years I have cycled through 6 EnV phones: 3 EnV 2s and 3 EnV Touches. ALL of them had power issues within about 4 months or so of receiving a replacement phone. Don't get phones from the EnV line. Ever.) This time I decided to make the jump to smartphone land, and since Apple has yet to dump AT&T (and since I like to, you know, HOLD my phone) I went with the Android powered Droid X. I will admit that it was a close race between that and the HTC Incredible, though. Better battery life on the X won me over in the end.

Well, I've had it for about a week now and thought I would do a brain dump of my initial impressions of the device. Please keep in mind that this is the first Android device that I've owned or even used extensively, and as such I'm not 100% certain of where the line is between stock Android and the Droid X's software.