The announcement during MWC a couple of weeks ago that Verizon would be exclusively partnering up with Skype was quite the story.  In fact, if users actually adopt the usage of Skype, this could give VZW a pretty significant advantage and a nice little selling point to its smartphone users.  Well, as long as they have one included on this list.

Check out Verizon's fun little illustrated intro to Skype...

We are proud to release the first ever Droid Life product which comes to us courtesy of reader Chris V.  The guy simply sent us an email one night with this pack of 10 wallpapers he had created as a token of appreciation for the site.  He said he wanted a chance to give back to us and provide something to all of the many amazing readers we have.  Pretty damn cool of him if you ask me.

The wallpaper pack includes 10 brand spankin' new images for Droid Life readers which were all created from scratch by CV.  Here is a preview of some of the wallpapers included...


Download:  DL and CV Wallpapers Pack  (alt link)

*Note* - (If you are having issues downloading, make sure you have Astro File Manager installed.  Open Astro>Options>More>Preferences and check box for "Enable Browser Downloads".)

It seems like I say this in almost every other post these days, but the readers of this site are the best I've ever come across.  It's been a pleasure to continue on with this site.

Make sure to thank Chris for his amazing work!  In the future, you'll be guaranteed to see more of his releases.  And let us know which are your favorites!

as far as i can tell, that title is completely correct.  not a type-o.  not me in a late night, half asleep stupor, but the truth.  according the the motorola website, the spanish milestone is officially on android 2.1 and is already equipped with Flash lite v3.1.6.

booo!

the video of ours that seemed to take the motorola droid and mobile gadget world by storm last week was the one which showed off the android 2.1 update 1 build that was apparently leaked during its final testing stage.  (and people thought droid users didn't care anymore.)  since then, another build has surfaced and we figured we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't flash this to our phone and show it off.  you'll definitely enjoy the live wallpapers on this one...


the process i used to flash this to my phone is not recommended.  if you'd like to check out this new build on your phone, there have already been custom roms created which install the same way we showed you through our "how to install a custom rom" tutorial.

*warning* - this process could actually brick your phone and by going through with this, you are choosing to do so at your own risk.  i will not be held liable should something happen to your droid, i am only providing information which should prompt you to do further thorough research on your own before proceeding.

*note* - if you have questions about this process, i'm here to answer some, but please help me out and do the majority of the research on your own.  it is definitely all out there.

the first 2 questions will likely be:

• if i do this, will i still receive the OTA?  answer:  i doubt it.
• if i do this, how easy is it to get back to 2.0.1?  answer: not easy.  the 2.0.1 sbf is needed.

(huge props to alldroid for the release!)

this isn't necessarily groundbreaking news to take you into the weekend, but it should ease your mind a little when it comes to the android 2.1 update for your droid.  matt, the forums manager at the motorola support site (also of 2.1 release notes fame) has set up a way for everyone to receive an email as soon as the 2.1 update starts rolling out to phones.

head over to the motorola forums and sign up here.

while i won't try to read too deeply into this, i will say that this gives off the impression that this thing isn't close to being ready.  if they are setting up a notification system, i would completely rule out an update starting as early as next week.  nice trick to get people to their forums i guess?  ewww.

on a side note, doesn't he realize that we specialize in finding 2.1 update rumors?  he's really killing our mojo. 

(via phandroid)

in random motorola droid news of the week, a college student in new jersey was robbed at gunpoint while crossing the street near his campus.  apparently, there were a number of items stolen from him including his droid which the author deemed important enough to specifically mention...

The victim said that's when Carlisle arrived and the pair repeatedly threatened to shoot the dorm resident while taking his three cell phones, including a Motorola Droid, and his wallet, reports said.

while i'm not laughing at the actual robbery, i do find a few of things mentioned pretty comical.  the first being the fact that this college student had 3 cell phones on him.  who needs 3 cell phones and what college kid can afford that many?  the second thing being that the author didn't mention any of the other phones by name.  (must be a droid owner.)  oh, and the fact that his wallet, which most would consider as the most important item, barely made the list.

hopefully he read our comparison post on lookout, wavesecure and mobile defense!

after showing you the video of tat home in action just a few weeks ago, the response was incredibly positive.  this looked to be the best home replacement type of app we were going to find anywhere, anyday.  in fact, i would take tat home over a custom rom right now and i haven't even tested the product yet.  crazy i know.

unfortunately today, the tat team released some semi-bad news...

and then they heard the outcry from the world and responded...

they are also looking to release the preview version of tat home some time in april to android 2.1 users.  if you weren't one of the 30,000 people that signed up at their site for this preview, you better do that now.

cheers nick!

the german forum android-hilfe is a great source if you ever want to catch a motorola dev spewing out news on the latest android builds.  and fortunately for those of us continuing to obsess over the features of our next update, this latest post from "thyrus" should have you full of smiles.  and since it's in german, i'll do a rough translation and paraphrasing for you...

-I would like to give once shortly a status update over the standing 2.1-update1.
-The version shortly addressed by me here sees is for me ready from, and already for all versions of the countries finished.  Therefore the usual Google and provider will start soon Approval per cedar
- The 2.1-upgrade1 LiveWallpapers will support PROBABLY.  THE versions existing me do that in any case
- It PROBABLY will be preinstalled (me at least) unknown LiveWallpapers
- A launcher is used it similarly to the 2.0.1 Launcher, but with 3/5/7/9 homescreens (that is yes no novelty).  The Launcher is very fluid, very smooth. 
- It become "Facebook" accounts supported (therefore as a correct accounts mounted)
- Other Exchange rules (entsperren through motto after screen curl, therefore lower supports so the unlock requirements of some Exchange accounts)
- New applications:  - Video camcorder - Facebook app preinstalls - choice of language - new vehicle functions
- own QuickOffice application
- Camera: newly!  now Widescreen, has a new (prettier) menu, GPS and place meet, custom meet become lower supports has meet video camcorder video) 2 attitudes, D1 and QVGA
quality, custom and meet meet are also GPS/place that a from switchable
- Key feedback (z. b in Unlock) somewhat more softly (pleases me better)
- Mistake correction of the HW keyboard
- Bow fax:  MP3 aussetzer gefixt, notification problem in that noticed removed, browser lay removed, now subjectiv the fastest browser previously (tested at mirror-Online. de)

so if that was a little jumbled, blame babelfish or something.  what you should have taken from that is there will be live wallpapers, no 3d launcher, anywhere from 3 to 9 screens, widescreen camera, and quick office.

everyone happy?

the last thing i want to do is start a war between nexus one and motorola droid owners as we are all in the android family, but this video testing the multi-touch capabilities of each device's touch screen show some pretty interesting results.  anyone else completely surprised by this?


(via android central and android and me)

remember last month on february 8th when motorola dropped a facebook message which was  followed up with release notes detailing the update of android 2.1 to our droid device?  and remember the almost as swift pulling of the notes and silence from all moto social networking sites?  well it looks like they forgot one thing...the droid's user guide.

first off, they include multi-touch in the maps section...
they also made sure you understand speech-to-text...
and they even finished it off with a screenie of the 2.1 multi-touch gallery...

and so you know we didn't 'shop these, you can download the pdf from motorola's droid site here.

not that we're into pointing fingers and saying "we gotcha moto!" but this does essentially prove further that the 2.1 update was ready back in february and for whatever reason, was delayed.  many are reporting that the 2.1 update 1 we showed off the other day still had the same root exploit as 2.0.1 and could be the reason verizon rejected it.  who knows!  speculate away!

cheers anonymous tipster!

news coming out early this morning from across the nation that 3g and data connectivity for many motorola droid and droid eris phones (or all smartphones on VZW) are not working.  since i'm on the west coast and i wake up a lot later than most of you east coasters, i can't say that i've noticed anything.  in fact, i can see the blinking green light of happiness going off right now.

update 8:40am:  first off, thanks to everyone for cluing in the late waking west coaster!  verizon announced via twitter that their data issues have been resolved...

VZW resolves early AM data issue that involved parts, not all, of eastern US: mix of some out, slower service, many unaffected from 4-8 AM.

anyone still experiencing issues?  drop your location if you can.

have you developed android applications in the past?  have you submitted them to the market?  have they received at least 5,000 downloads?  do they also have at least a 3.5 star rating?  if you answered yes to all of those, then you will be receiving a motorola droid or nexus one from your friends at google any day now.

from eric chu of android...

Due to your contribution to the success of Android Market, we would like to present you with a brand new Android device as part of our developer device seeding program. You are receiving this message because you’re one of the top developers in Android Market with one or more of your applications having a 3.5 star or higher rating and more than 5,000 unique downloads.

In order to receive this device, you must click through to this site, read the terms and conditions of the offer and fill out the registration form to give us your current mailing address so that we can ship your device.

You will receive either a Verizon Droid by Motorola or a Nexus One. Developers with mailing addresses in the US will receive either a Droid or Nexus one, based on random distribution. Developers from Canada, EU, and the EEA states (Norway, Lichtenstein), Switzerland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore will receive a Nexus One. Developers with mailing addresses in countries not listed above will not receive a phone since these phones are not certified to be used in other countries.

We hope that you will enjoy your new device and continue to build more insanely popular apps for Android!

(via android and me)