What have you found new or different in 2.1?

[melmigs]

When the screen is active/lit up there are no LED notifications. Once the screen turns off, the LED blinks. Guessing this is a minor power-saving feature.

 

[johninbigd]

I love the new gallery. It's pretty darn cool. I'm also really liking the voice-to-text feature that works in any text box. However, it doesn't seem to be all that accurate, especially when you're trying to add punctuation. My co-worker has an app on the iPhone that does the same thing and his was far more accurate than my Droid. Still, that's a nice feature to have.

The live wallpapers were cool for about an hour. Now I'm back to a regular wallpaper. Why waste the CPU and battery on a moving wallpaper? Am I supposed to sit and watch it move? I don't get it. Cool, but pointless.

Pinch-to-zoom in the browser is pretty cool, although I had more than gotten used to double-tapping to zoom. This gives more control, though, so that's a good thing.

 

[bilbravo]

I've found that my signal indicator never has above 1 bar now and my phone has been dropping calls. I rebooted again and it seems to be better. I did try the helixlauncher for the first time and I think that may be to blame. The phone was eating battery and getting warm on the back.

I'll stick with stock launcher.

I like the update though. Phone is much snappier.

edit: also love the new gallery app. And pinch zooming is nice, but I find it awkward to do with one hand so I find I still use the double tap zooming much more.

 

[skunkpbguy]

And pinch zooming is nice, but I find it awkward to do with one hand so I find I still use the double tap zooming much more.

So we still can double tap to zoom with 2.1?

 

[melmigs]

So we still can double tap to zoom with 2.1?

Yep, the -/+ still appears automatically on zoom-able websites.

 

[mnmacht]

I didnt realize that the gallery was going to now load my picasa albums as well. That is pretty cool. I think that is new.

 

[thetomas]

(un)fortunately quite a few of the neat features of 2.1 were available for 2.0.1 even without rooting. I was using 2.1 music and gallery apps, as well as google earth before the update, so quite a few of the "new" features aren't so new.

Otherwise, however, I'm pretty happy with the new update. Pinch to zoom is nice to have, even if i only need it occasionally, live wallpapers are a lot of fun, and the whole system in general seems faster.

One feature that people might not notice is that the keyboard includes speech to text capability now, so anywhere you want to type, you can press the mic button and speak to type.

 

[Darkwarrior006]

I don't think Adobe dropped the ball. Don't get me wrong, I feel like we COULD have this by now but Adobe didn't say it was coming until sometime int the first half of 2010 (which REALLY means we'll have it in May or June probably). Flash was NEVER set to be part of the 2.1 update.

wellll google just recently cut a deal with adobe saying it will sport flash on a upcoming chrome OS google is working on. This could mean big things for android, meaning that flash may be in 2.2. Google seems to be taking the a enemy of my enemy is my friend approach with adobe.

 

[dmodert66]

I've had it for a while now (BB .9), but I really like the mic being on every keyboard...I don't use it all the time, but it comes in handy.

As for Flash, I think it will make the ship date (First 1/2 2010). It has been shown several times running on the Droid and the Nexus One. Now that it is clear that Droid and N1 (and newer provided the phone has the right processor and 2.1) will be the only one's to get it, I think it will be sooner rather than later. It would seem to me part of the reason they held off was there are not a lot of N1s out there, so what's the point. Now that Droid has (or will have in the next few days) 2.1, that's a lot more devices.

I do feel kinda bad for people who have Hero/Eris/etc phones. They are eventually going to get flash, but it will be flash lite (not the same as 10.1 for mobile)...

 

[nathan312]

I've had it for a while now (BB .9), but I really like the mic being on every keyboard...I don't use it all the time, but it comes in handy.

As for Flash, I think it will make the ship date (First 1/2 2010). It has been shown several times running on the Droid and the Nexus One. Now that it is clear that Droid and N1 (and newer provided the phone has the right processor and 2.1) will be the only one's to get it, I think it will be sooner rather than later. It would seem to me part of the reason they held off was there are not a lot of N1s out there, so what's the point. Now that Droid has (or will have in the next few days) 2.1, that's a lot more devices.

I do feel kinda bad for people who have Hero/Eris/etc phones. They are eventually going to get flash, but it will be flash lite (not the same as 10.1 for mobile)...

doesn't the eris already have some version of Flash lite on it? I was gonna get an eris but obviously I didn't lol, gots my Droid! and I coulda swore someone saying it had Flash lite

 

[dmodert66]

Yes, it has flash lite. I think the version of flash light will be updated for the older phones, though I'm not sure on that. They have just said that Droid and N1 (+ newer phones meeting the requirements) will get flash lite (instead of 10.1)...

 

[kevinbakon]

I noticed than, with 2.1, when I put my Droid in my home dock, the "Home" and "Illumination" buttons have switched places.
I don't really care where each of the buttons is, just an observation.
(I don't have or need dock runner, so I can't confirm whether or not it's changed there too.)

 

[e4tmyl33t]

I noticed than, with 2.1, when I put my Droid in my home dock, the "Home" and "Illumination" buttons have switched places.
I don't really care where each of the buttons is, just an observation.
(I don't have or need dock runner, so I can't confirm whether or not it's changed there too.)

Confirmed that it's the same in DockRunner. All it does is trigger the standard dock screen, so it would be the same anyway, but I double-checked to make sure.

 

[Krugger]

The Contact shortcut is different in 2.1 then it was from 2.01. It used to bring up a full screen menu (or direct dial the contact if you selected a default #) but now it pops up a msgbox with options for calling, txting, FB, email, etc. Just a slight change but I liked they old (ugly looking) way b/c there is now an extra button to hit to make your choice.

 

[hall640]

also like that now you can set up your yahoo email acct too

Why couldn't you set up your yahoo account on the older version? My yahoo account has been on my droid since I bought it, just confused, what changed??

 

[swr2000]

It looks like the media volume and the phone ringer volumn are linked now.

 

[Snowman]

my battery has improved SIGNIFICANTLY! It's quite impressive I must say

I second that, my battery lasted over 9 hours with 30% charge left yesterday. That included playing with all the live wallpapers and purposeless browsing just to use pinch to zoom!

Nice job Motorola

 

[PetiePal]

On the media dock they have swapped the dark/light mode switch with the Homescreen button. The Homescreen button is on the bottom menu bar now and easier to hit to back out of the Media Dock.

 

[johninbigd]

The Contact shortcut is different in 2.1 then it was from 2.01. It used to bring up a full screen menu (or direct dial the contact if you selected a default #) but now it pops up a msgbox with options for calling, txting, FB, email, etc. Just a slight change but I liked they old (ugly looking) way b/c there is now an extra button to hit to make your choice.

Mine has always behaved the way you're describing the new behavior.

 

[PetiePal]

Here's the pic

 

[c1808us]

Why couldn't you set up your yahoo account on the older version? My yahoo account has been on my droid since I bought it, just confused, what changed??

On the 2.1 update the yahoo mail runs alot better your files and pics load up alot faster then before i uninstalled my yahoo acct then installed it again much better

 

[stearic]

Why couldn't you set up your yahoo account on the older version? My yahoo account has been on my droid since I bought it, just confused, what changed??

Better support for it, i think (if i read it right) you can just put in your email and it'll add all the pop setttings for you or something like that. Could be wrong, but that's how i read it.

 

[pjtoadie]

On the media dock they have swapped the dark/light mode switch with the Homescreen button. The Homescreen button is on the bottom menu bar now and easier to hit to back out of the Media Dock.

Kind of a dumb question but how do you get to the media dock? Thanks!

 

[slick_old]

There are only two things that I like about the official 2.1 update and these are the only two things that will keep me from rooting again (maybe).

1) When I was on 2.0.1, I felt compelled to flash the latest ROM so that I could have all of the cool features. But here is the problem: Flashing custom ROMs and, in general, hacking the phone and doing all of the things that rooting allows is HIGHLY addictive and I was spending WAY too much time doing it. Admitedly, the official update is missing a lot of the cool features that the ROMs have, BUT it has just enough of the cool features to keep me happy so that I don't feel compelled to root/ROM (but man, those Cyanogen/NextBeast ROMs were f***ing AWESOME).

2) My phone is SUPER stable with the official, plain vanilla version of 2.1. Yes, there are many ROMs that are super stable but when you're flashing different ROMs every week (or every day) you're bound to run into some bugs. Even though it's exciting and fun flashing new ROMs with all of their cool features, it is kind of nice staying stock and enjoying a bug-free Droid experience. Sure, I could have chosen a stable ROM (like BB v0.8) and just stuck with it but when you're rooted it is virtually impossible (well, for me at least) to resist flashing the latest/greatest new ROM.

 

[slick_old]

Kind of a dumb question but how do you get to the media dock? Thanks!

You have to buy a docking station or find a dock emulator on the market.