If anyone needs their DROID Eris unlocked after all these years, you can now do so at the HTCDev.com site. Whether you are into HTC phones or not, the fact that they are going back this far to allow a phone to be unlockable is impressive, to say the least. Motorola and their “developer edition” failure of a phone cannot compare to the stellar work that this company continues to do for the developer communities.
Via: HTCDEV
Cheers Daniel!
Long live the DROID Eris! A 13.3MB update is either available right now or at least will be in the very near future and will bring one of our original family members up to version 2.41.605.6. What’s included? A bunch of multimedia bug fixes it looks like. You’ll also find better Bluetooth connectivity, Twitter authentication, 2010 Exchange support and a fancy visual voicemail app pre-loaded.
More info on the update here. Anyone receive this?
Cheers zepfloyd and everyone else!
I know, I know, we shouldn’t be surprised at the fact that someone is porting Android 2.3 to the Droid Eris, but since it’s actually at an almost working state, it needs to be talked about. XDA member punk.kaos is leading a charge to bring a stable version of the newest Android OS to a phone long past its prime, a task that HTC seems incapable of completing. They missed Froyo (Android 2.2) and will likely not even consider Gingerbread, but who needs them to when you have a developer community willing to do the dirty work. The current build is up to version 6, has Google apps, working wi-fi/bluetooth, OpenGL, audio and is seriously inching closer to a prime time release. Nuts, right?
Follow all of pk’s progress at this dedicated XDA thread.
That poor Droid Eris. According to Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney, there are no plans to bring Android 2.2 to this long lost and original family member. There are “other options in Android devices” these days meaning…well, we’re not sure what that means. Are you allowing Eris owners to upgrade early then?
Tis a sad day though, but one that ultimately makes complete sense. The update to 2.1 was a disaster, leaving many to believe the phone wasn’t even ready to handle that version of Android let alone Froyo. The Eris really was set up as a entry-level Android phone from the beginning, much like the Devour or Ally, which doesn’t mean that it isn’t a quality phone, just isn’t one that was built to stand up for years to come. And before Eris owners get angry at that statement, let me just point out that the original Moto Droid is basically in the same boat as you and there are over 2.5 million of those in the wild.
This is how the cell phone/technology world works unfortunately.
Source: ComputerWorld
We’ve heard rumors that the original Droid is nearing “end of life” status, but according to cell phone insurance machine Asurion, it’s already there. You see, we’ve received a handful of emails from frustrated readers who attempted to make claims on broken Droids, but were told that it is no longer in production by Motorola and they would have to settle for something else. (See screenshot above.)
The situation is this. Droid owners are paying anywhere from $6 to $8 per month for Asurion insurance in order to protect an investment they made knowing that if something tragic were to happen, they would be covered and a replacement would be on hand. Oh let’s not forget that a steep deductible is also required when filing your claim, although better than paying full price for a new device, it is still nothing to snicker at.
So what’s happening right now? Since the D1 is “no longer in production” claimees are left with 3 options that are essentially a slap to the face. Your choices are the Droid Eris, Motorola Devour or LG Ally. Yes, instead of another Droid you can have MotoBlur and Android 1.6.
Lesson of the day? Be careful with those D1 devices! If you expect to file a claim to receive a replacement, it’s not happening. Yikes.
Cheers Addison and Jared!
According to Verizon, Droid Eris users should expect to see an OTA update starting Friday July 16th. This update is not to Android 2.2, but does feature a bundle of OS enhancements.
Here are the details…
You haven’t been forgotten about just yet Eris users! Nice to see Verizon and HTC still supporting one of the original Droid family members.
In the screenie above, I’ve filtered Big Red’s site by smartphone>Android>HTC and you can clearly see that the Droid Eris has been removed. In fact, you can search for Eris all over their site and find nothing but past support documents and accessories. The Droid Eris has been officially put to bed. Moment of silence please. OK, moving on…
Now, this is a pretty nasty rumor to get started, but after seeing the Verizon closeout/phaseout list which floated around over the weekend featuring the Droid Incredible, we’re starting to think it may have been the real deal.
What has me concerned about the Incredible is the fact that the Eris was on that list as well as the Blackberry Tour which is now set to “Out of Stock” and appears to have been replaced by the Blackberry Bold. Yikes.
Oh and I’m not buying the SKU change for new packaging idea; that already happened.
Update: It is possible that the Incredible has landed on a closeout list because they are rumored to be switching to LCD screens over the AMOLED screens made by Samsung. Check out all the info here.
Any Incredible owners out there annoyed/frustrated/confused/completely pissed off yet?
Cheers Dave!
Sick of waiting around for the Droid Eris and its Android 2.1 update? Then manually install it! While I have not actually performed the process below, it has been outlined and proven to work on various sites throughout the Android world.
It should be noted that this will wipe your phone and then install the 2.1 OS. What exactly does that mean?
Update: Users are reporting that this is NOT wiping their apps. HTC was wrong. Yay!
Instructions for installation…
1. Download this file: Droid Eris 2.1 (alt link)
2. Rename the file to “update.zip” or just “update” if your PC does not show file extensions.
3. Drop the file onto the root of your SD card.
4. Power off your Eris.
5. Hold the “volume down” button and then power on.
6. Scroll down to “recovery” and press the power button.
7. When you see the triangle and exclamation mark, press “power” and “home” at the same time.
8. Select “apply sdcard: update.zip” and your phone will load the update.
9. Once it says “Install from sdcard complete” you are finished.
10. Official 2.1 for the Eris in the house.
Let us know if you have success or run into any issues!
*Side note* – Anyone have a spare Eris that they want to part with? I’m looking to add to the Droid family.
Cheers to everyone who sent this in!
