As I was turning in last night, my Droid begged for attention. After finishing brushing my teeth, I peeked at the screen. I expected yet another e-mail announcement, but instead was rewarded with the alert that my system update was available! I've been waiting for the update (code-named Froyo, as in Frozen Yogurt) mostly patiently since it was officially announced to be forthcoming a couple months ago. I set it on its upgrade and turned in. I've had a little time to dork with it today, so here's my first bit of impressions.

First, I haven't noticed a huge increase in speed. It had been claimed to be 4-5 times faster than before. I'm not sure how I was going to quantify that, but there's nothing that jumps out at me. Just about every action is mired in animations, which in some cases force a delay, so that can't really seem faster. Launching applications is undoubtedly waiting for I/O, either from the flash drives or due to network use, and that isn't likely to improve too drastically. Switching between apps or returning to the home screen doesn't seem any snappier than before, and it doesn't seem to be the case that anything inside of the apps is happening so much faster as to be four or five times, which I'd expect to be noticable for some things.

I've poked with the default applications like the contact list and messaging; they seem to be the same in speed and interface. There's a few little nice enhancements to some, like in the GMail app there's now navigation buttons when viewing a message so one doesn't have to pop back to the list to get to the next one. I'm sure there's more, but that's really all that jumped out at me in my half-day regular use, in the apps.

One swell thing is that the landscape mode works when rotating the phone clockwise (anti-keyboard). This is nice for use when the USB is plugged in, and to keep the buttons from getting accidentally mashed while holding it and trying to hit something on the screen with my right thumb. Unfortunately, the home screen still doesn't rotate unless the keyboard is open. I think it's incredibly lame that isn't even a configurable option; obviously the phone can sense the rotations if the apps can do it, and the home screen supports landscape when the keyboard is opened.

There are two additional panes on the home screen. I hadn't yet filled up the three I had with shortcuts or widgets, so I guess that's just an extra for the future. The other home screen change is the addition of a persistent block of (as far as I can find) un-configurable buttons in place of the app menu swipe bar. Now there are indicators and navigators for the home screens on the outside; neatly showing how many screens are to the left or right of the current one ('though I'd rather have it just scroll around). There are buttons for the phone (I must remind myself that it is a phone...) and web browser. And what was a swipe to raise the menu is now a simple button that just pops it up now (instead of the fun slide open). The menu button is a little annoying as I've spent the last half-year swiping to open it, but now that does nothing but smudge my screen, frustrate me, and remind me that I need to tap the button.

When tethering the phone to a PC (as I do to charge it as well as transfer data between), a different pop-up (again taking the full screen) offers to connect for me, with a big picture of the Droid droid. Unlike the previous version, there isn't a "no thanks" button, and it took me a bit to realize that hitting the "back" button would dismiss the dialog blocking my home screen. I haven't connected to the PC (other than to charge), so I don't know what may have changed there, yet.

While sitting idle, the screen dims. Occasionally the buttons will light up. I'm not sure if this is due to changes in settings that I need to reconfigure. I had it set to not dim due to inactivity, but just turn off after inactivity, unless plugged-in, then just sit there. I did have the automatic brightness enabled, so perhaps there's just something in the ambient light that makes more of a difference to the Droid's sensors than I notice or care about.

I noticed there isn't a Flash application installed by default. I expected this, after all of the reviews and discussions I'd read online. I visited the Market to see both the updated app and to add it, and I found that the app looked exactly as it had, and that I couldn't find Flash in the list. Not of huge importance to me just now, but there are sites I visit that stop working because of their Flash navigations and other bother, plus some videos and such.

Nothing jumps out and screams "I'm different" like last time. In the previous update, there were changes to the gallery (which I did check) and navigation (which I haven't tried), but I haven't found anything as grand this time. Well, except the "next message" button in GMail, but that really didn't require an OS update, did it?

In all, I'm mostly happy that the phone still works, and that my apps all seem to still be there and (insofar as I've tried them) that they still work. I'll get used to the interface changes, I'm sure; heck, I haven't got a choice. The bulk of the changes are certainly in the inner workings of the Droid operating system/environment, and they're largely transparent. I guess that's a good thing.

Now, where do I find out the features and start the countdown to wanting Gingerbread? Heh.