Here we go it's the Official thread for the upcoming "Gingerbread 3.0" update for the Droid Incredible.
Float this thread to the top of your page to always see whats new and never stay out of the loop!
Tag often!
Here is some basic info regarding the new upcoming update. If you have any new information PLEASE update this thread and attach some links for all of us to follow.
- Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released in mid- October (around 15 -16th), 2010. First handsets shipping in November/December – for the Holiday Season.
- Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5” and higher. (We all, of course, heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU’s are coming)
- New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4” and higher. (Anyone thinking about Android tablets now? )
- Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery app on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
- Android’s split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2
Just a few jabs to get the fire started. Keep it nice here please, and lets help each other be the highest informed forum on the net! GO GINGERBREAD!!!!!
I'm just hoping that whenever they do release Gingerbread for the Incredible, they package in the latest version of Sense UI with themes and offline navigation included! 
@JMKosmo, answering both your posts in one.
Yes my response was a bit strong earlier, but I guess it got my message through .
All platforms have something good to offer and some gripes to go along with that.
- Fragmentation is an issue if you want to make one of it, but remember that Android just about three years ago was not on a single device and right now there are countless devices and manufacturers who have adopted Android as their platform of choice. When something is adopted this fast and needs to meet up with customer expectations fragmentation is going to happen, unless you are a one company one device model.
- The other gripe you had was with frequency of updates. You should know that anything that is vanilla Android gets updated as soon as google releases it. It is the manufacturers who are adding their USP customizations to a device and not promising timelines for updates. It is still not that bad. Remember, the DROID Incredible came out with 2.1 and was updated to 2.2 in around a year and will be updated to Gingerbread even though it is EOL for Verizon (and HTC).
- Battery life is a common complaint for all new smart phones (yes even iPhone users cant get away from charging their devices daily). The problem here is not these smartphones, but the fact that the battery technology has simply not advanced as much as our devices. Even so, with the right balance of settings, you can still achieve enough battery to last you for 2 days. On my DROID Incredible, with the current settings, if I dont charge the phone, it can last me two days for sure.
About new Android phones, I have heard (only heard, not my personal experience) that the latest 4G devices suffer from higher battery discharge rate when using the 4G radio. Other than that, take your pick of devices. If you are looking for a dual core smartphone, DROID Bionic is supposed to be a dual core phone and is being re-worked by Motorola. HTC Sensation has currently no specific plans (that anyone knows of) for Verizon network yet. Motorola DROID X2 is a dual core phone.
As far as an iPhone goes, it's a really good device, but personally, I prefer the level of customization and flexibility Android gives me.
nimiaj wrote:@JMKosmo, answering both your posts in one.
Yes my response was a bit strong earlier, but I guess it got my message through
All platforms have something good to offer and some gripes to go along with that.
- Fragmentation is an issue if you want to make one of it, but remember that Android just about three years ago was not on a single device and right now there are countless devices and manufacturers who have adopted Android as their platform of choice. When something is adopted this fast and needs to meet up with customer expectations fragmentation is going to happen, unless you are a one company one device model. An example of this would be the iPhone. Apple makes and develops for specific hardware. When you have different companies well different paces and different levels of development standards. So it will vary greatly. Google is actually doing the fragmentation more than manufacturers. Google doesn't do very much bug fixes on their OS. Check the bug report pages and you'll see what I mean. They release updates faster than Paris Hilton going into the club. They are trying to catch up in the "feature" department before doing doing any actually bug fixes. Google also went on record last year that their update process will slow down soon, and that's when fragmentation will not be as bad as most of the updates will be bug fixes more than "features"
- The other gripe you had was with frequency of updates. You should know that anything that is vanilla Android gets updated as soon as google releases it. It is the manufacturers who are adding their USP customizations to a device and not promising timelines for updates. It is still not that bad. Remember, the DROID Incredible came out with 2.1 and was updated to 2.2 in around a year and will be updated to Gingerbread even though it is EOL for Verizon (and HTC).Actually even Vanilla Android devices are lagging behind. The only devices that get the update faster will always be developer devices like the Nexus Line as the OS is developed on those devices. If someone calls them a consumer device then I will laugh at them. Google even stated their original intent of these devices are for development purposes, but they won't stop consumers buying them if they want to.
- Battery life is a common complaint for all new smart phones (yes even iPhone users cant get away from charging their devices daily). The problem here is not these smartphones, but the fact that the battery technology has simply not advanced as much as our devices. Even so, with the right balance of settings, you can still achieve enough battery to last you for 2 days. On my DROID Incredible, with the current settings, if I dont charge the phone, it can last me two days for sure. This is true and false at the same time. I can go 2 days without charging on my iPhone 4, but some people who use their devices a lot more than I do will require charging a lot more than I do. It depends on how you use the device and how much background data processing you want your device to do.
About new Android phones, I have heard (only heard, not my personal experience) that the latest 4G devices suffer from higher battery discharge rate when using the 4G radio. Other than that, take your pick of devices. If you are looking for a dual core smartphone, DROID Bionic is supposed to be a dual core phone and is being re-worked by Motorola. HTC Sensation has currently no specific plans (that anyone knows of) for Verizon network yet. Motorola DROID X2 is a dual core phone.
That's a catch 22. Sometimes the 4G consumption will be lower than 3G consumption when you are actually using it. I noticed between the i4 and the Thunderbolt the larger the file being downloaded the more battery the i4 uses over the Thunderbolt.
As far as an iPhone goes, it's a really good device, but personally, I prefer the level of customization and flexibility Android gives me. That's all it boils down to. I don't hold it against someone if they like using one or the other. I always feel why try and justify what you buy. The only person that matters if YOU and what YOU think about what you are buying. I am good with my iPhone, but I won't push it over Android as I love some aspects of Android. I even develop for both devices.
