Verizon updates Droid software; users hope it fixes echo problem

Computerworld - An over-the-air software update to the Droid smartphone started yesterday, but it wasn't clear whether the 14 enhancements address a voice echo problem that hundreds of users complained about in online forums.

The much-anticipated update, identified as ESD56, went to a "small percentage of handsets" yesterday and will be phased in over the next week or so, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman confirmed early today via e-mail.

The enhancements come from Verizon Wireless, Motorola and Google, which is behind the Android operating system that runs on the Motorola Droid. An update to the Droid Eris smartphone from HTC is "planned, but a date has not yet been confirmed," the spokeswoman added.

The Motorola Droid update is based on Google's release of a software developer kit for Android 2.0.2 on Dec. 6. The most noticeable modifications improve the Droid's camera autofocus capability and the phone's voice reception, the spokeswoman added.

However, it remains unclear whether any of the official fixes on the list will provide relief to the hundreds of customers who have complained of a voice echo heard by recipients of calls made from Droid phones. There were at least 300 comments at a Motorola online support forum in response to the subject "Droid phone sound quality is not great," with most referring to audio echo problems noticed by people whom Droid users are calling.

The spokeswoman said the update includes a fix of the echo problem, but the update hadn't reached enough users to verify its impact.

One Motorola Droid user, John Davis, said he has enjoyed all aspects of his Droid except for the phone itself. "Almost from day one there has been an annoying echo primarily with the person on the receiving end," he wrote in an e-mail to Computerworld. Davis, a physician, bought his phone the first day it was available at a Verizon store near Boston.

Despite the many online complaints of a similar problem from Droid users, he couldn't get Verizon store officials to listen to him, he said. "Each time I returned to the store, now three times, I have been treated increasingly like an Android from out of space until [a recent] Friday when I threw a nutty in the store and screamed out for attention," he wrote. "The techs were clueless."

Davis said his son, an engineer at Cisco Systems Inc., helped him decrease the echo somewhat by adjusting the phone's settings. So now, when the echo shows up, Davis can fidget with the speaker button to lessen the echo.

But Davis was still awaiting the update, which was rumored to start on Dec. 11 but appears to have started four days early. Davis said his son believes the update is designed to address the issue, and so do many on an online forum. However, the official update documentation says only that one of the 14 improvements is listed as "audio for incoming calls is improved."