Motorola finally releases the Telus Milestone Android 2.1 update

While there has been no official anouncement from either Motorola or Telus, a post on the Alldroid.org forums tonight said that the Android 2.1 update was finally released yesterday. At the moment it seems the update must be done with the Motorola software updater tool, found here – there have been no reports of an OTA update yet. Since I own a Milestone I will report on how the update went soon!

UPDATE ONE: Success, though since I had a semi-rooted Brazilian ROM running on my phone, the update utility would not recognize it as a Telus phone, so I had to download the .SBF file from here, and manually update it with the Motorola RSD Lite utility. I haven’t had time to play with the phone properly, but I can say that the 2.1 browser is a big improvement over the old one!

UPDATE TWO: After using 2.1 for half a day, I can say that there is definitely a noticeable improvement in the overall ‘snappiness’ of the UI. However, other than the browser update, there are no major changes – a lot of the cool Nexus One 2.1 apps, such as the improved gallery and application tray, are MIA in this update (though both of these can be added by installing the .apk’s manually). Also if your Milestone was half-rooted with one of the work-arounds posted at Alldroid.org, you will need to re-apply these hacks. Lastly the ‘fingerprint’ of this new ROM has not been added by Google to the Android market yet, so some protected applications are ‘hidden’ until Google updates their database.

Check out this thread here, at Howard Forums, with more info.

Who Can Use This Release

All Motorola MILESTONE users.

After downloading and installing Android 2.1 software release, you will notice:

Animated Wallpapers and multiple home screens:
This additional wallpaper option enables you to select from a number of wallpapers that can move on your home screen. A selection of animated wallpapers are bundled with the software upgrade – further wallpapers are available on the Android Market.
The number of home screens you can have now also just got bigger – you can choose to have 3, 5, 7, or even 9 home screens – plenty of space for all your widgets and icons.

Facebook App and Widget:
A Free Facebook App and Widget is included in this upgrade. The Application enables contact importation including Names, Profile Pics and Status into your phones’ contacts. The Widget can be place on one of your home screens to stream live updates from your Facebook account.

Google Maps Updates:
– Personalized suggestions: Google Maps on your Android device suggests (autocompletes) locations based on your personal search history on maps.google.com.
– Sync with desktop: synchronizes starred items between Google Maps on your Android device and maps.google.com. Sync and personalized features require a user to be logged in to myGoogle account while on maps.google.com
– Multi touch is now also enabled within Google Maps.

Other Enhancements:
– Help : A new Help Center app is included that provides mobile access to your user guide, video tours of key features, tips and tricks, and FAQs to help you get the most from your device.
– Bluetooth support : support for Bluetooth headset multi function for initiating voice calls
– Security: Prevents unauthorized pattern lock bypass, allows for PIN security and local device wipe following PIN error input
– Music Player : Album art 3D gallery view supported in landscape orientation
– Battery life: ongoing battery life optimization
– Email account removal: Improvements to manual removal of email accounts

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