Android 2.1

In general, the comments section of any article on the Internet is usually worthless and terrible. No amount of useful information an outweigh the feelings of despair and sadness about the future of the human race that come from the rest of the users. Yet no matter how many times you hear someone say "if you don't like them, stop reading", the mere existence of these worthless comments can be enough of a temptation to comb through them. Thankfully, there's an easy fix - plugins like Noscript for Firefox usually prevent most comment threads from displaying, and I find that I usually won't go looking for one if I don't see it.

"Usually" being the keyword. Every so often I decide to live dangerously, and open the comment section of an unfamiliar website. The results are never pretty, but I can't remember the last time I witnessed levels of stupidity on par with what I found on display at mobile phone/Android enthusiast sites. I've been checking them out ever since getting the new phone, in hopes of learning more about the smartphone market and Android in particular. This is something I can do without ever touching a comment thread, but the flaky release schedule of Android v2.1 for the Droid caused me to wander into the belly the of the beast.

As my coworker (and months long Droid owner) explained to me, 2.1 has been promised to release on the phone since sometime in January, and both Verizon and Motorola have not always been crystal clear as to why it was constantly delayed. This, in theory, is where a comment thread should be useful - users can share rumors or information that they have, speculation can run wild without overrunning editorial. Since I missed out on most of the update drama, I figured the comments would be a good place to get up to speed on information that is too old to cover in the news, but important enough for users to care about. Too bad the 'net never works like it does "in theory".

The most recent information about the update has been a statement that "we'll get it out by end of March", and sure enough, the update really did kick off yesterday. By this morning, zip files containing the update were all over the web, useable by anyone who wished to a do a manual installation. On a whole, not only was Motorola's statement (finally) accurate, but all it took was a good night's rest for the update to show up. There shouldn't any reason for drama, right?

Wrong. For one, these phone enthusiasts abused capital letters, exclamation points, and grammatical errors in ways that I thought had gone extinct in back in 1998. People were calling it an April Fool's joke, despite the fact that the news lined up with what we were told and it still March. There were people flipping out at the fact that no one had uploaded an update.zip file before midnight, meaning there were people who were losing precious sleep over this fiasco.

And of course, now that Droid owners all over the 'net have manually updated their phones, Twitter is awash with the sound of "meh", as the same people who frothed at the mouth over 2.1 find that it isn't that big of a fucking deal.

I guess the biggest question of all is this - I've seen things like this happen throughout the years. Why do I still let it surprise me?

In any case, it's a cute little update. The news and weather application is handy and convenient, though I'll probably keep the Weather Channel program as well, since it has a much more detailed forecast for the rest of the week. I like the new photo gallery program, since it kind of works like the one on a Playstation 3. I tried the pinch to zoom on the browser, and it's cute, but I don't know how to use it very well, so it doesn't seem any better than the standard zoom tool. The only other "wow factor" feature are the live wallpapers, which are pretty much like the ones in Windows Vista - you'll show them off to a friend, and then switch to something that takes up less system resources. Actually, I lie - the Polar Clock live 'paper might be permanent for me, since it makes the phone look like something out of Wipeout or Ghost in the Shell.

From what I can tell, this update did not up the number of home screens from 3 to 5, though hell if I would ever need that many. I guess 2.1 does a fine job explaining why people got so worked up, only to immediately burn out. Gadget enthusiasts only care about having something that is new and cutting edge. They like seeing numbers go up. Once they actually have to use their device in a productive way, they realize that they already have everything they need. I guess it's their form of entertainment, though damn if it doesn't clog up fine websites and forums.

PS - I keep hearing from folks that April Fools is starting to become a weeklong barrage of pranks, rather than one day of good fun. Thanks trolls, you ruined something else.