Droid Incredible
Encyclopedia
The HTC DROID Incredible (ADR6300) (also known as the HTC Incredible) is a smartphone
manufactured by HTC Corporation using the Android operating system. The DROID Incredible was released on April 29, 2010, and is available through Verizon Wireless
only. The device is similar to the Sprint
HTC Evo 4G
. The Incredible is to be succeeded by the HTC Incredible S
and the HTC ThunderBolt
. The DROID Incredible was taken off Verizon Wireless
's website and is now selling remaining stock. The "end of life" was March 30, 2011.
, an overlay user interface for Android OS. Following the announcement of Android 2.2 (Froyo), HTC did not comment on whether the Incredible would receive 2.2 or when, although they did state all equipped devices would be updated by Christmas of 2010, and an update to the following version of Android, codenamed Gingerbread, would depend on its release by Google. The updates would come in the form of an over the air (OTA) update.
DROID Incredible has improvements over standard 2.1 devices including an FM tuner
; a Facebook
, Twitter
, and Flickr
-integrated social aggregation application called Friend Stream (as well as a Twitter client named Peep); a geotagging
application for photos called Footprints; and a redesigned appearance and functionality for stock 2.1 applications. The smartphone features an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, optical mouse and a camcorder with resolution of up to 800x480 (WVGA), which may be compressed in either MP4 or H.263
format.
The Droid Incredible optionally supports tethering by Verizon with VZAccess Manager. Other ways of tethering may be possible. The device shares the AV output with micro USB output, providing the facility to see the video/YouTube/browser on TV/Projector via an extra (not bundled) composite cable accessory.
. The change was done to keep up with the high demand for the phone. HTC claims that there are "no discernible difference between the displays" and they even expect the change to go unnoticed.
Before Verizon had officially announced the update, Verizon Techs speaking "officially unofficially" on Twitter confirmed it. On August 13, 2010 Mashable reported that HTC DROID Incredible would begin to receive Android 2.2 (Froyo) on August 18, 2010. However, statements from official Verizon sources indicated that this was a hoax. Verizon Wireless confirmed on August 27, 2010, that the device would begin receiving Android 2.2 through a OTA update beginning on that date.
Starting August 26, 2010, all new devices were shipped with Android 2.2 (Froyo). The software update from Android 2.1 v1 (Éclair) to 2.2 also includes an updated version of HTC's "Sense" User Interface, which includes minor updates to the media player, and a flashlight app which enables the camera's LED flash to operate as a flashlight. Other benefits of the update include: Adobe Flash player 10, 720p video recording, 3G mobile hotspot (US$20/mo for 2GB), and the ability to rotate the screen 270 degrees. The update also installed several applications which cannot be removed, and which run without being invoked by the phone's user: an Amazon MP3 applet, CityID, Skype Mobile, My Verizon Mobile, a stock tracking applet and VZ Navigator.
Verizon did not deploy the update as an Over-the-Air (OTA) update after it was pulled back the week of August 16.
On September 7, 2011, Verizon began deploying the Gingerbread (Android 2.3.4) Over-the-Air (OTA) update to customers. This update also fixed several outstanding issues that had been reported by customers regarding MMS messaging, Bluetooth connectivity, and the City ID app.
However, this update proved almost immediately to be problematic. Once the update was sent to some HTC phones, many Verizon customers experienced problems with receiving text messages on the Droid Incredible. HTC representatives say they are fixing the system update to correct the text messaging issue. Many Droid Incredible owners have been critical of Verizon and HTC for slowing down the roll-out process. Although the upgrade was released OTA on September 7 and HTC and Verizon promised phone owners would receive the update "in September," many Droid Incredible owners were still waiting for the update nearly four weeks later -- and after September had come and gone.
On November 15, 2011, the revised update to The Android 2.3.x (Gingerbread) was available OTA to customers. It will be automatically sent to Droid Incredible users, and attempts to fix bugs which were known with the September release, including MMS problems.
10.3.
The phone supports the following audio formats: AAC
, AMR, OGG
, M4A, MID
, MP3
, WAV
and WMA
. Supported video formats include: 3GP
, 3G2, MP4 and WMV.
Other hidden menus from dial pad: (1) ##debug+call, (2) ##program+call enter six zeros example: 000000, (3) *#*#7262626#*#* - Field test menu, (4) *#*#2432546#*#* aka *#*#checkin#*#* - checks for updates, (5) ##778 (+call for Epst menu), (6) *#*#8255#*#* - Gtalk service, (7) *#*#8351#*#* - voice dialer logging enable, (8) *#*#8350#*#* - voice dialer logging disable
Note: +call--> means to call
Root
has been achieved, initially by causing a race condition
in Google's Android Debug Bridge
(adb), and later with a "painless root" made by unrEVOked!
Since root has been achieved, several enhancements such as Wi-Fi tethering are now available.
stated: "the DROID Incredible is the best Android device that you can purchase in America right now."
PC Magazine
wrote "The DROID Incredible by HTC is an absolutely amazing device. The most powerful phone on the U.S. market today, it reflects and enhances the state of the art smartphone, with the full backing and support of the Verizon Wireless network."
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
manufactured by HTC Corporation using the Android operating system. The DROID Incredible was released on April 29, 2010, and is available through Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
only. The device is similar to the Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
HTC Evo 4G
HTC Evo 4G
The HTC Evo 4G is a smartphone developed by HTC Corporation and marketed as Sprint's flagship Android smartphone, running on its WiMAX network...
. The Incredible is to be succeeded by the HTC Incredible S
HTC Incredible S
The HTC Incredible S is a smartphone designed and manufactured by Taiwan's HTC Corporation that runs the Android 2.2 Froyo operating system...
and the HTC ThunderBolt
HTC ThunderBolt
The HTC ThunderBolt is the first 4G LTE smartphone on the Verizon Wireless network. It is a CDMA/LTE variant of the HTC Desire HD...
. The DROID Incredible was taken off Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
's website and is now selling remaining stock. The "end of life" was March 30, 2011.
Features
The DROID Incredible was released running Android 2.1 (Eclair) software, modified with HTC SenseHTC Sense
HTC Sense is a graphical user interface developed by HTC Corporation for mobile devices running Android, Brew and Windows Mobile.Based on the TouchFLO 3D design, HTC has referred to HTC Sense as both a user interface in itself and also as a user experience layer on top of TouchFLO 3D.Announced June...
, an overlay user interface for Android OS. Following the announcement of Android 2.2 (Froyo), HTC did not comment on whether the Incredible would receive 2.2 or when, although they did state all equipped devices would be updated by Christmas of 2010, and an update to the following version of Android, codenamed Gingerbread, would depend on its release by Google. The updates would come in the form of an over the air (OTA) update.
DROID Incredible has improvements over standard 2.1 devices including an FM tuner
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
; a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, and Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
-integrated social aggregation application called Friend Stream (as well as a Twitter client named Peep); a geotagging
GeoTagging
Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata...
application for photos called Footprints; and a redesigned appearance and functionality for stock 2.1 applications. The smartphone features an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, optical mouse and a camcorder with resolution of up to 800x480 (WVGA), which may be compressed in either MP4 or H.263
H.263
H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It was developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group in a project ending in 1995/1996 as one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T.H.263...
format.
The Droid Incredible optionally supports tethering by Verizon with VZAccess Manager. Other ways of tethering may be possible. The device shares the AV output with micro USB output, providing the facility to see the video/YouTube/browser on TV/Projector via an extra (not bundled) composite cable accessory.
Display change
During summer 2010, HTC switched the AMOLED displays made by Samsung to Sony Super TFT LCDTFT LCD
Thin film transistor liquid crystal display is a variant of liquid crystal display which uses thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality . TFT LCD is one type of Active matrix LCD, though all LCD-screens are based on TFT active matrix addressing...
. The change was done to keep up with the high demand for the phone. HTC claims that there are "no discernible difference between the displays" and they even expect the change to go unnoticed.
Update to Android 2.2 (Froyo)
On July 19, 2010, it was leaked from HTC that the DROID Incredible would receive Android 2.2 (Froyo) via an OTA update in late July or early August 2010.Before Verizon had officially announced the update, Verizon Techs speaking "officially unofficially" on Twitter confirmed it. On August 13, 2010 Mashable reported that HTC DROID Incredible would begin to receive Android 2.2 (Froyo) on August 18, 2010. However, statements from official Verizon sources indicated that this was a hoax. Verizon Wireless confirmed on August 27, 2010, that the device would begin receiving Android 2.2 through a OTA update beginning on that date.
Starting August 26, 2010, all new devices were shipped with Android 2.2 (Froyo). The software update from Android 2.1 v1 (Éclair) to 2.2 also includes an updated version of HTC's "Sense" User Interface, which includes minor updates to the media player, and a flashlight app which enables the camera's LED flash to operate as a flashlight. Other benefits of the update include: Adobe Flash player 10, 720p video recording, 3G mobile hotspot (US$20/mo for 2GB), and the ability to rotate the screen 270 degrees. The update also installed several applications which cannot be removed, and which run without being invoked by the phone's user: an Amazon MP3 applet, CityID, Skype Mobile, My Verizon Mobile, a stock tracking applet and VZ Navigator.
Update to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
On August 20, 2011, AndroidPolice.com obtained the official update build as an RUU, in which users wanting the latest software were to download it to their computer, put it on the SD card as a required name, and the bootloader would pick it up.Verizon did not deploy the update as an Over-the-Air (OTA) update after it was pulled back the week of August 16.
On September 7, 2011, Verizon began deploying the Gingerbread (Android 2.3.4) Over-the-Air (OTA) update to customers. This update also fixed several outstanding issues that had been reported by customers regarding MMS messaging, Bluetooth connectivity, and the City ID app.
However, this update proved almost immediately to be problematic. Once the update was sent to some HTC phones, many Verizon customers experienced problems with receiving text messages on the Droid Incredible. HTC representatives say they are fixing the system update to correct the text messaging issue. Many Droid Incredible owners have been critical of Verizon and HTC for slowing down the roll-out process. Although the upgrade was released OTA on September 7 and HTC and Verizon promised phone owners would receive the update "in September," many Droid Incredible owners were still waiting for the update nearly four weeks later -- and after September had come and gone.
On November 15, 2011, the revised update to The Android 2.3.x (Gingerbread) was available OTA to customers. It will be automatically sent to Droid Incredible users, and attempts to fix bugs which were known with the September release, including MMS problems.
Support
The DROID Incredible supports full FlashFlash
-Book:* Flash fiction, fiction of extreme brevity* The Flash , ongoing comic book featuring the titular DC Comics hero* Flash , a 2004 science fiction novel by L. E...
10.3.
The phone supports the following audio formats: AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, AMR, OGG
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
, M4A, MID
Musical Instrument Digital Interface
MIDI is an industry-standard protocol, first defined in 1982 by Gordon Hall, that enables electronic musical instruments , computers and other electronic equipment to communicate and synchronize with each other...
, MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
and WMA
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
. Supported video formats include: 3GP
3GP
3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones....
, 3G2, MP4 and WMV.
Platform development, hacking, modifications
There is a hidden "testing" menu on the device that can be accessed by typing *#*#4636#*#* aka *#*#info#*#* on the phone's keypad. It will bring up 5 categories: Phone Information, Battery Information, Battery History, Usage Statistics, and WiFi information.Other hidden menus from dial pad: (1) ##debug+call, (2) ##program+call enter six zeros example: 000000, (3) *#*#7262626#*#* - Field test menu, (4) *#*#2432546#*#* aka *#*#checkin#*#* - checks for updates, (5) ##778 (+call for Epst menu), (6) *#*#8255#*#* - Gtalk service, (7) *#*#8351#*#* - voice dialer logging enable, (8) *#*#8350#*#* - voice dialer logging disable
Note: +call--> means to call
Root
Rooting (Android OS)
Rooting is a process that allows users of mobile phones and other devices running the Android operating system to attain privileged control within Android's Linux subsystem with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and manufacturers put on some devices...
has been achieved, initially by causing a race condition
Race condition
A race condition or race hazard is a flaw in an electronic system or process whereby the output or result of the process is unexpectedly and critically dependent on the sequence or timing of other events...
in Google's Android Debug Bridge
Android Debug Bridge
__NOINDEX__The Android Debug Bridge is a tool kit for Android developers, availiable for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. Found as part of the Android SDK Platform-tools package, it consists of both client and server-side programs that communicate with one another...
(adb), and later with a "painless root" made by unrEVOked!
Since root has been achieved, several enhancements such as Wi-Fi tethering are now available.
Critical reception
In April 2010, EngadgetEngadget
Engadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Though on appearance Engadget functions much like a blog and may be defined as such, much of its editorial content takes the form of an online magazine...
stated: "the DROID Incredible is the best Android device that you can purchase in America right now."
PC Magazine
PC Magazine
PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...
wrote "The DROID Incredible by HTC is an absolutely amazing device. The most powerful phone on the U.S. market today, it reflects and enhances the state of the art smartphone, with the full backing and support of the Verizon Wireless network."
See also
- Motorola DroidMotorola DroidThe Motorola Droid is an Internet and multimedia enabled smartphone designed by Motorola, which runs Google's Android operating system. The Droid had been publicized under the codenames Sholes and Tao and the model number A855...
released November 6, 2009. - Motorola Droid ProMotorola Droid ProThe Motorola Droid Pro, also offered by Sprint as the Motorola XPRT, is an Android-based smartphone manufactured by Motorola and released on November 18, 2010, for Verizon Wireless and June 5, 2011, for Sprint...
optimized for business users, released November 18, 2010. - Motorola Droid XMotorola Droid XThe Motorola Droid X is a smartphone manufactured by Motorola Mobility, Inc. that runs the Android 2.3 software; the version of the hardware released in Mexico is called the Motorola Motoroi X. The Droid X has been distributed since July, 2010 by Verizon Wireless in the United States and Iusacell...
Android 2.3 version hardware released in Mexico. - Motorola Droid 2Motorola Droid 2The Motorola Droid 2 is the fifth phone in Verizon's Droid line. In the U.S., it is available exclusively on Verizon Wireless, and was released August 12, 2010 . It runs the Android operating system by Google, and can run Flash Player 10.1...
released August 12, 2010. - Motorola Droid X2 released May 19, 2011.
- Motorola Droid 3 released July 7, shipping with Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread).