Gingerbread is spreading. Just a few days after AT&T's Motorola Atrix got a major upgrade to Android 2.3, Verizon's Motorola Droid X2 is getting a similar boost with not just Gingerbread, but a bunch of different enhancements. Verizon's Samsung Fascinate also got a smaller software update.
Along with the new version of the Android OS, the Droid X2 update brings multi-touch capabilities on the keyboard, better copy and paste, and a "new user interface and color scheme". We don't have a Droid X2 here any more - we had to send ours back - but we're hoping that the update brings the phone some of the software from the Motorola Photon for Sprint, which has a much lighter, speedier Android skin than many previous Motorola phones.
The software update may take up to 45 minutes, and it should be done while the phone is plugged in. To start the update, go to Settings on your phone and choose About Phone, System Updates and Download.
The Fascinate's update is much more minor, but it looks critical. There's no Gingerbread here, and Samsung hasn't announced an official date for when the Fascinate will get Gingerbread. The Fascinate was the last one of Samsung's Galaxy S phones to get Android 2.2, aka "Froyo." But according to Verizon's release notes, this update allows you to "properly receive incoming calls" and make sure "SMS message reply is sent to the correct recipient," which sounds pretty critical. To download the update, go to Settings on your phone, then About Phone, Check Updates and New.
The topic of Android updates has been a difficult one for carriers and consumers. Updates for many phones typically come out months after the first phone gets a new OS; the Google Nexus S was the first Gingerbread phone back in December 2010. Manufacturers and carriers must add their own software to an OS update before it's rolled out to phones, and carriers generally insist on testing a software update as if it's a whole new phone, adding one to three months to the upgrade process. In May 2011, Google announced it was forming a consortium of carriers and manufacturers to speed updates, but we haven't heard anything from that effort yet.