It looks like Motorola has a heart after all – the manufacturer has released the source code for their best device to date, the Verizon Motorola Droid X. This is pretty exciting if you’re a developer or hacker, but there are a few hang ups.
It looks like some of the code that is needed to successfully make a perfectly functioning third-party Android ROM for the Droid X is missing from the source code. While some code is good, and developers may be able to work around it, all the code is much better, obviously. Without the lack of some necessary code, and not to mention the code related to eFuse, the open source release will make it more difficult for developers to work their magic. Not all is lost though, since this is Android, there will likely be a work around to get you a custom ROM in the future. But in the mean time, we just have to wait to see what the dev geniuses can cook up with the ingredients they’ve been given.
Something is better than nothing, and I’m sure we’ll still see some good things come out of this release. Since the Droid X had already been rooted, you can already install a suite of root-only applications, extending the functionality of the already great device. For those who’d prefer to not have a customized skin, you’ll have to wait for a new ROM to hit the Motorola Droid X. But the MotoBlur-esque skin running on top of the Android phone isn’t all that bad. It’s pretty straight forward, and for the most part, a lot of the customizations are in widgets that you can easily remove.
We’re actually pretty surprised how soon Motorola released the code, since it usually takes a while for this to happen. At least MOTO has the devs’ back on something.
Whether the source code is that useful or not, it shouldn’t matter too much for the average consumer. The Droid X is slated to get the Android 2.2 Froyo update sometime very soon, and that should keep many people happy until we start getting more information on the infamous Gingerbread release.
[Via: Phandroid]