motorola milestone europe android 2.1 update

I got myself a totally bad-ass Motorola Milestone Android phone a while ago. I was excited about it cause it looks so damn awesome with the black shiny display and all, and it’s got frigging Android on it so it rocks with all the apps and geekness it offers. After a while however I noticed some things are kinda buggy on it too and I started looking for some answers online.

At first, I wanted to figure out if I was having a broken phone (hardware issue) which I could simply return or if it was the OS/software which was the problem. After a long search online finding lots of people with the same issues on Motorola Droid & Milestone phones (and also on HTC actually) it turns out I was plagued by some Android 2.1 problems. The good thing is Motorola is currently sending out updates for these problems for Milestone mobiles all over, including Europe. The annoying thing is that it’s taking them a while and it’s unclear which countries will be next in line. First off, here’re the bugs that are to be fixed in that update. If you’re having any of these issues, that patch should fix it:

• Improved Stability Prevents the phone from random power cycling (turning off and on), and minimizes force closes in certain applications.
• Alarm Improvements Resolves issues with alarm functionality.
• Music Player Functionality
• Eliminates accidental starting of music.
• Audio Quality Enhancements Eliminates instances of choppy audio experienced by some users.
• PIN Lock Improvements Allows users more flexibility in setting the PIN Lock timer when using Exchange email.
• Proximity Sensor Enhancement
• Provides more accurate proximity sensing during phone calls.
• Flight Mode Enhancement
• Ensures phone service is restored after leaving air-plane mode.
• “My Location” Improvements
• Resolves the issue of Google Maps failing to find “My Location” when “Use Wireless Network” is enabled without using GPS.

Quite something, isn’t it? Personally I find the random reboots the most annoying, the failing clock a perfect excuse for turning up late at work and the accidental start of music the best way to scare the crap out of your cat (or yourself when you’re checking your mail in the middle of the night).

The best place to track info on where the update will be launched next for Europe is at the Motorola Europe Facebook account apparently. I’ve looked all over for this kind of info, including various twitter accounts (@motomobile, @motodev), their own owner support forums (unchecked by Motorola it seems) and even direct emails to the guys where I got the phone from. That last one was pretty crazy as they contacted Motorola UK which claimed to not even know about the restart issues which I described in quite  some detail.

For the world-wide upgrade schedule + the schedule for other mobiles like the Backflip, Dext and Quench you can look here, although it doesn’t contain a lot of details.