Verizon Begins the Android 2.1 Update Process For The Droid — Again [Motorola Droid Android 2.1 Update Rollout Beginning Today March 30, 2010]

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As of yesterday Motorola began rolling out the Android 2.1 update for the Droid’s European cousin, the Milestone, and today it looks like Verizon is going to give the update another attempt. That of course is coming after numerous false starts and delays. Lets hope this time goes a little smoother.

The release information is coming by way of a leaked internal memo that is giving a pretty detailed explanation of what users can expect. Unfortunately, this memo is leaked and that means this is not yet official. That ugliness aside, if all goes according to the memo, roughly 10,000 Droid users could be running Android 2.1 as of tonight.

Breaking that release schedule down a little further, the plan looks to be starting at noon today for a lucky 1,000 users. Afterward Verizon will update an additional 9,000 at 11:59 PM. That will be an even 10,000 for day one, at which time a 24 hour break will be taken, which will most likely be used to see how many complaints and issues occur. Assuming that goes well, the updates will then resume on April 1 with 200,000 users getting notified at 11:59pm. Finally, that April 1 schedule will then repeat each day until all Droid users have been given the option to update.

Another interesting little tidbit, and one that some users may not care about is that the build number has changed from ESE53 to ESE81.

As far as what this update will offer. New features will include pinch to zoom in the Browser, Maps and Gallery apps as well as speech to text, Google Googles and a new Gallery with a 3D layout and support for displaying the users Picasa Web Albums. One other feature includes the support for Yahoo Mail, which interestingly enough was noted as being “not available over Wi-Fi.”

Sadly though, in the end this could mean one of a few things. Users may be able to get the update, or they may be able to get disappointed. We are hoping for the first — being able to get the update.