David Weinberger writes: “The battery cover of my Motorola Droid has started falling off. Yes, I’m sliding it up all the way until it catches. But it’s come off twice so far just in the course of wearing it in the official Verizon belt holder. Fortunately both times I was in my house. so I could find the cover. Next time it’ll be a small disaster. So, I’ve now taped it on, which is not exactly the mark of a quality piece of equipment.”
Yup. I have the problem too, and like you I was lucky when the battery cover fell off. I was on an a Virgin America flight from Boston to San Francisco. Taking pictures of the Rockies 35K feet when the cover fell off. It fell between the armrest and the window. I took off my seatbelt and reached down as far as I could and luckily felt the cover on the floor and picked it up. I haven’t taped it in place yet. It’s going to be a problem for sure. Wonder what Motorola et al plan to do about it?
Update: There’s a thread on this topic on the Motorola support forum.
November 20, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Yep, this battery cover often slides off when I take it out of my pocket. Bothersome to say the least. I don’t know if there will be some kind of 3rd party fix for this (like an extended life battery with a special cover) because the fault seems to lie in the design of the clasp.
Another problem I’m noticing is that the slide mechanism for the screen is a lot looser than when I got it. I often reach into my pocket to find it not completely closed. Not a functionality problem, but I feel like it’s increasing the potential for something to break.
Despite these two things, the phone still feels very solid. It’s a bit weighty compared to my blackberry, but it almost makes a Curve feel cheap and plasticky.
But as a geek I can overlook its caveats so far, I kind of feel like a beta tester, but this is the first phone that I really feel has unlimited potential in terms of what you can put on it. Apple was close with its apps, but AT&T ruined it with its coverage/lack of features. Android is Linux, and is breeding a community of code junkies to make applications that will be able to do everything you can imagine and more.
November 24, 2009 at 4:45 pm
You obviously didn’t own a G1 or been using Android since 1.0
November 24, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I recommend just getting a cover/skin for it. Not only will it protect the Droid and help with grip, it will also keep your battery cover right where it belongs. I noticed when I first got my droid that it was much easier to remove than most cell phone battery covers so I’m not surprised to hear about this. My cover was only $18 at the Verizon store, not a bad investment.
December 24, 2009 at 6:14 am
Nice thought, but can’t use a skin with the official holster (which I love). Doesn’t fit.
I did the fix by pulling up on the tab underneath, and hasn’t fallen off since.
http://phandroid.com/2009/12/09/motorola-droid-battery-cover-falls-off-fix/
November 25, 2009 at 8:36 am
Hmm. I have had my iPhone for several years and the battery cover has never come off.
As far as commercial success, how big is the Android app store. And how big is the iPhone app store (which includes the iPod Touch where there is no equivalent Android device)?
Lack of features on AT&T, you mean MMS? You know what I do if I want to send a few words of text to someone? EMAIL. Everyone has email, not everyone may have a cell phone that can get cross-network text messages. Pics? EMAIL. And I can get the pics on my desktop without having to sync or use special websites or other 90’s cell phone hackish crap.
Hopefully your next Android OS update will fit in the ROM of the Droid, a problem other Android devices suffer from. Almost as bad as the Palm Pre storing only 256 meg. of apps/data. I have two feature-length movies in my phone, along with tons of TV shows. On my phone!
November 25, 2009 at 9:57 am
Lack of features on AT&T … to me, the biggest is they have terrible service everywhere I need it. Home, Office, client sites – all within the DC metro area, and all have bad-to-no reception. That alone is a deal breaker.
Above and beyond that, Droid’s openness is very attractive to me and with the few gripes I mentioned below I have been _very_ happy with my Droid. (and their are a lot of apps – maybe not 100k, but how many of those do you actually use??)
/TJ
PS – as for storage, data all goes into the included 16GB flash … upgradeable to 32GB, IIRC.
PPS – a lot of things I don’t need to store locally as, having decent service, I can stream them “from the cloud”.
November 25, 2009 at 10:13 am
Jeez man, I’m am iPhone fan over Androd, but there’s no need for that comment. A failing of any other device isn’t an opportunity to rally around the iPhone and ignore it’s failings, or vice versa.
This is a website for Android and is, as far as I can tell, a great, honest, accurate resource for Android users. If this becomes and Android vs iPhone thing, I think we’ll miss out on fair, balanced coverage like this from both groups of users, for fear that any negative press will feed fuel to ‘the other side’. Take the Mac vs PC issue as an example.
I would be pissed if I was looking up an iPhone resource only to find comments talking up Android. As I expect Android users are at finding your comment (and probably this comment too)
My point being: Your comment might be valid, but this is not the place for it.
December 19, 2009 at 12:38 am
Your battery cover has never come off, right? Hehe you’re funny.
Wait, you weren’t joking? Yeesh.. You know what? Why don’t you go try taking the battery out of your iPhone. Oh that’s right, you can’t.
How about Google Voice? Good 3G coverage? Open source OS? The freedom to do anything you like on your phone?
Before you come bashing the droid or the Android software, at least bring a worthy competitor to the table.
December 24, 2009 at 6:11 am
App Store? ok Droid 10k apps, Iphone 100k. So how many different versions of a calculator do you really need? They don’t have 100k “unique” apps, they just have more and more of the same.
Your battery cover doesn’t fall off since you can’t remove your battery?
My business partner has the Iphone, and has to borrow my phone to make calls in tons of locations! I think I will take service over 2 thousand calculator apps vs 100 calculators apps any day!
November 20, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I had a few instances of the battery cover coming off when I took the Droid out of my pocket. To fix this problem, I changed my behavior, so that I now put the phone into my pocket with the lobe towards the bottom, this means that when I removed the phone from my pocket, I am tightening the cover, not pulling it in the direction to remove it (seems to work so far).
One thing I have though of, and will try if I start having battery cover problems. What would happen if you installed a thicker piece of foam rubber inside the battery case? This would exert more force on the batter cover to “seat” it in the little notches on the hooks. This might make it harder to remove the battery case, which is exactly what you want to achieve.
November 20, 2009 at 6:48 pm
The silicone cover is great, it keeps the battery cover from coming off too.
I highly recommend the silicone cover. And just use dockrunner instead of paying for the multimedia dock.
November 23, 2009 at 11:31 am
A piece of double-sided tape on the foam piece (or a rolled up piece of cellophane tape) does the job. It keeps the cover in place – a low tech solution.
November 24, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I’ve been hearing from a Verizon source that some of the covers were not installed with the black foam pad on the inside. If yours does not have the black foam pad then ask for it at the Verizon store or call Verizon Wireless and they will refer you to a Motorola contact. Otherwise, like Bob Muir said, use double-sided foam tape (like that used for posters.) Don’t use too much tape so that the cover bulges because it may be secure but the cover will be aching to pop off.
November 24, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Just put a little inward pressure (toward the vertical centerline) on the metal tabs to make them fit a little snugger against the slots. Not a lot, just a little.
November 29, 2009 at 2:37 pm
thanks TOM STREETNER…. your fix works perfectly… slightly bend tabs inward and it fixes the probelem!!
November 24, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Maybe a dab of post-it-style repositionable low-tack glue on part of the battery cover? I imagine there’s a tab or something that engages with the phone body. A little bit of low-tack glue on there to give it more grip might help.
November 24, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Funny, I’ve never had problems with the battery cover on my iPhone falling off.
Oh, wait…
November 24, 2009 at 2:50 pm
That’s strange, neither have I.
I wonder how long it will be before Microsoft release Bing in the Android marketplace?
It works quite well on Blackberries.
November 24, 2009 at 5:45 pm
@Gary
Gruber, is that you?
November 25, 2009 at 7:53 am
I think Gary beat Gruber to it by about 2.5 hours.
(Gruber’s post is at about 5pm)
November 24, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I find that superglue works wonders for a loose cover.
November 24, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I think this article is a special moment in technology journalism.
For 3 years I have been listening to people whine about the iPhone’s lack of removable battery, storage, and mechanical keyboard, while the whole time I’ve been 100% satisfied with my iPhone’s battery, storage, and keyboard.
Now Droid has arrived to show us iPhone users the error of our ways. Except that Droid’s removable battery falls out. And you can’t put apps on its removable storage, so you are limited to 200MB of apps, which means there are thousands of iPhone apps that simply can’t fit on Droid, even if they were ported. And the mechanical keyboard is too flat to type blind.
Meanwhile, I have a second iPhone battery moulded into the carrying case, which runs out first, and then the fully-charged internal battery takes over automatically with no switching. I paid $100 more than a Droid and got 32GB built-into my phone instead of 2GB. And I type 45 wpm on the iPhone keyboard.
So next time I hear any complaining about these issues I’m going to laugh at the person until they leave the room. This has been settled for me. Verizon is doing it wrong. I put 8 years of iPods and 3 years of iPhones with no battery doors or card slots against 3 weeks of Droid and I say Verizon is doing it wrong. The time and money they spent on battery doors and SD slots should have been put into the software. Except the software engineers are inside Google, not Motorola. So you are more likely to get fins attached to your phone than get better software.
The ironic thing is that if iPhone had a battery door, it wouldn’t fall off because Apple builds prototypes very early on and they use and abuse them internally for months before they ship. And if they did ship a device with a falling-off battery door, a constant line-up of angry users would be at their closest Apple Stores demonstrating that fact to the Geniuses and asking for replacement devices. Apple simply can’t treat its customers as bad as this and get away with it.
Finally, I have to point out that Droid is much more expensive to own than iPhone. I used 18GB of data one month and it cost me $30, whereas on Verizon I would have to pay extra for the top 13GB of that. So you are supposed to be getting the better experience. You’re supposed to be making us iPhone users jealous with the awesome 2010-ness of your phone, not making us shake our heads ruefully at your sad plight.
November 24, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Agreed … and already people are posting their little “hacks” on here as if it’s acceptable that they should have to.
Can you imagine that over at the Apple forums? “Oh, I just taped a bit of blu-tak to the back of my iPhone to stop the dongfabulator flapping loose, it works a charm”. Ha! There’d be merry hell; it would (literally) make the newspapers.
Everywhere else, that seems to be acceptable. How ordinary.
November 24, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Couldn’t have said it any better myself.
I suspect a lot of people complaining about the apparent “problems” with iPhone (no multitasking, no changeable battery, keyboard, etc.) have simply never used one. I admit I was skeptical at first too but soon discovered that Apple does such a spectacular job paying attention to the tiny details that it nullifies these so-called issues.
Case in point: most critics gripe endlessly about multi-tasking not being available for third-party apps without even realizing that the way Apple designed the system to launch apps quickly and save state on quitting provides about 90% of the benefit of actual multi-tasking with none of the downsides (i.e., system slowdowns, resource hogging, and rapidly draining battery power from apps accidentally left running.)
November 25, 2009 at 4:21 am
Apple is evil incarnate.
Sure, you can’t replace the battery cover, and if that’s the only thing you have to say on this forum you miss the point.
I’ll give you that Verizon has it wrong. Just as wrong as Apple had it on the crappy AT&T network. The greatest thing for AT&T was that they bent over and took it like a man for Apple, the WalMart of technology. Our way or no way.
I hope you don’t ever take your iPhone in the bathroom while you shower, or you’ll trip the wet sensor.
iPhones are cool. Great design, great look, great feel, but their single biggest flaw is that chain to the worst network on the planet. AT&T.
I can tell when someone calls me from their iPhone. You konw how? Most often than not, they’ll drop the call within a few minutes. I LOVE to say “how you like that iPhone?” when they call me back.
So, sure. Sucks that the battery cover comes off. At least we keep a signal for more than three minutes.
November 27, 2009 at 2:17 pm
To AntiApple,
It has nothing to do with the battery cover, for which I apologize, but you’re one of the millions of Americans who seem uncapable of thinking outside of their country’s box. AT&T to Apple is only a minor nuisance. There are about 79 other countries, often with multiple phone operators within a country, selling iPhones to legions of people that don’t in the least complain about their network. What we’re facing on the Internet is a vocal minority of Americans stuck with AT&T suffering dropped calls. The world does not care about AT&T. My guess is Apple cares a little. They’re not stupid either and when they look at the bigger picture then it comes down to a problem in one of 80 countries where a group of users complains about their operator. A problem they have nothing to do with and can’t do anything about.
Apple knows about it and I’m afraid USA will have to bear with AT&T until LTE arrives. Maybe you shouldn’t blame AT&T, but rather CDMA and their followers.
January 1, 2010 at 2:51 am
Oh, the iPhone. Yep, no problems with that one. No problems ever. No billing problems with AT&T. No service problems. No software problems? Do we not remember ANYTHING?
I’ve HAD two iPhones. I got one when they FIRST came out. Great design. A lot of fun games. Great for movies too.
But here is the truth, from a once loyal Apple consumer. It’s a lot of show. You can’t customize it. It’s well designed and cool to play with, but when you put it on a desk and try to type on it, the rounded edges make it bounce up and down. It has a large marketplace, but navigating it is impossible, and it’s full of a lot of the same stuff, in mildly different ways. It’s mark of open forum, isn’t open. You can scroll through your screens, but you can’t customize it. And, when stuff goes wrong with it, it’s worthless. I had to bring my first gen phone in 3 times for service issues, including the battery dying. And it cost me over 70 dollars to fix. (under warranty) Remember the bills? It didn’t happen to me, but remember the YouTube videos? The people getting bills that were in a box. AT&T, but Apple gets a cut for tech plans.
I bought a Droid 3 weeks ago. I think it’s hilarious how iPhoners who are complaining about the QWERTY keyboard being so flat on the Droid. What have we been typing on with the iPhone? A flat surface.
We have all bought into the newest and latest Apple products. Loyal Apple users preach their superiority… but it’s a cult. They associate and agree only with each other, and the people who don’t use their products, “don’t understand the truth.” The tech term for it is called “Group Think.” When people associate only with other people who agree with them, they begin to ostracize everyone who doesn’t share their perspective, and begin to hate them.
This Mac vs. PC thing has become like politics. Surrounded by ideals, and no one’s right. Opinions with nothing else.
Think what you want, but…
the iPhone isn’t personal, it isn’t an open forum, it isn’t a lot of things. Why people can’t admit it’s short comings is beyond me. What are you gaining? It’s not YOUR phone, it’s owned by a company that charges you way too much money so you can tattoo yourself with their technology.
Here is reality. AT&T sucks. Yep. The service is terrible. And when I buy a phone, I expect it to make calls… because… it’s a phone. It’s not a video game. It’s a phone.
Now if Verizon used the iPhone, I would have still switched to the Droid, because it’s open forum, customizable, offers applications like Google navigator which for comparable (but not as good) applications, Apple charges over $70. Not to mention it takes great video, has a far better camera. and you can buy an extra battery, add more memory, run widgets, etc. Yep the battery cover has been reported as being loose. (I haven’t had this problem) But when I bought my first iPhone the headphone jack didn’t work. It took forever to get it serviced.
I will say this, I miss the finger movements of the iPhone, but a loose battery cover? This is a starter problem with a first gen phone. It will be fixed.
The new iPhone comes out in July. I remember how excited I was after 2 years that I was able to receive picture messages on my iPhone this year. I mean, it took a few years to get them. And with my new Droid, I can listen to Pandora radio without having to close my email. It took the iPhone years to get picture messages… years. I doubt widgets or simultaneous applications are coming with the new update.
It used to annoy the hell out of me that I could hear my email ping, but had to finish what I was doing to actually read it.
I’m sure the iPhone will catch up at some point, and Android will try to battle the HUGE cult of Apple users. But keep in mind, nothing is perfect, and if you can’t admit that some things suck about the COMPANY you like, you’re pretty stupid.
I switched from the iPhone. I own a MacBook too, and when my screen died on my laptop, Apple told me it would be $700-900 to replace it. Yep. I replaced it myself for $180. And a new battery for an iPhone, IF under warranty is only 70 bucks? Go look up a replacement for the new Droid.
And lastly, if you are searching the Droid on the internet, hoping that things with it are going wrong, so you can talk about how some phone you BOUGHT from a COMPANY you like is superior…
What the hell is the matter with you? What are you gaining? Does it make your phone doesn’t have a battery cover?
I don’t understand the loyalty of people who are getting so obviously ripped off by, what in reality is… simply advertising.
November 29, 2009 at 2:54 pm
When I was a kid, and a friend would “one-up” me with something (be it a skateboard, a matchbox car, whatever), I would still defend my thing to the ends of the earth just to make myself feel better about my freshly outdated thing. Thankfully, now I can put that childish behavior aside and actually buy the new product put it to a real unbiased test to make a legitimate choice. I have had every iphone thus far…. I now use a Droid. Period…. But, of course, iphone will release the new version this christmas and I’ll go back… But until then, “Hamranhansenhansen” can continue to convince himself and his little wannabe iphone gang that they win the smart phone dual in the playground, when they clearly haven’t. By the way, are you 12 years old? Your snotty way of typing indicated that to be the case…. regardless, you should buy a Droid, try it for a week, and then get back to us. If you don’t like it, return it.
You have 30 days.
For the record, I’m a mac guy through and through…..
December 2, 2009 at 10:10 pm
the droids battery isnt falling off an its the cover slips off way to easy which motorola is allready replacing the New cover for free(FIXED ISSUE)… and you can run pretty much any app or the sd card on the droid you can have backround screens it has alot more capabilities then the iphone which is only pretty much connected to apple an what apple wants to do….. so while your laughing and thinking abt your iphone what happens if you drop ur phone and crack ur screen guess what your Sh*t out of luck since you need a new phone that cant be insured
touch screen just and great slide out key b. just a + capabilities much more… insured covered.. updates outstanding.. service for get about it… speed pasted ya by..
gps hello
so for now the the droid poops on the iphone but i know now apple is going to strive to try and out do the droid which is a + for you iphone lovers
oh yea we dont have to pay for and etra 100 bucks for a 32gig when we can just buy one and pop in right in
have fun
December 30, 2009 at 2:43 am
HILARIOUS.
You’ve got to love the militant Apple Fanboyz. Pretty soon you’ll be sewing firecrackers in your underwear while playing x-plane on your cool iPhone.
Well, I have an iPod touch and love it, planning to get a droid though. Let’s face it fanboyz, inspite of all this talk about how apple makes prototypes and always gets it right, what happened with these screw-ups:
1. 8GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage on my iPod but wait, but you can’t use all of that for app storage because you are limited to a certain number of pages that the UI allows for accessing your apps if you like to install lots of apps. I wast to THROW more money at apple but I can’t because Apple didn’t figure out how to create a folder interface or some other scheme to allow users to install an apps up to their max storage limit. And you have to use that goofy itunes interface to manage what’s on your device. Really? If you fanboyz say “why are you trying to install so many apps for anyway?” you’d better then stop trying to point out the issue of the onboard app storage of droid… it’s a non-issue anyway since only the executables are stored on board… the data is stored on the removable flash and if you know anything about how programs work, then that makes the onboard storage a non-issue since droid can probably install and manage more apps that an iphone/ipod can.
2. I love how itunes takes the liberty of removing apps and music from my device if I happen to have more than one PC that I sync to. They finally added a way to transfer purchase but it is STILL not part of the sync process by default. MUSIC AND APPS should NEVER be removed from my device, PERIOD. Check this out fanboyz… here is what Apple Care said about the issue… “the assumption is that most people don’t have more than one PC”… yeah good thought… thanks. Here’s another “there are several 3rd party apps that can help resolve the issue of managing music if you have mutliple PCs…”. HAHA… NICE. Apple just told me that itunes sucks and I should use a 3rd party app to manage my music. Any comment, fanboyz?
Again, I love my ipod… I think the interface was very innovative when it came out and I’m extremely happy with it, aside from the limitation on apps and the absolutely horrid and intrusive itunes. But… let’s face it fanboyz, time has passed and the sparkle on the innovation has worn off. There are a ton of phones that are finger friendly now and with user interfaces as nice. Time to stop playing with yourselves while thinking about your 45 wpm skills on the touch screen. I’m sure you’ll be able to achieve those stellar speeds on a much higher resolution screen with onscreen keyboard just as good.
Love the good laugh though. Awesome.
November 24, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Problems with the battery cover or the battery terminals not making contact reliably after several years have been the reason I’ve replaced every phone I’ve ever had. It happened to my Nokia 100. It happened to my Ericsson T10. It happened to my Siemens E65. It happened to my Sharp GX28.
I’m pretty damn sure it’s not going to happen to my iPhone and I’m very happy about that!
November 24, 2009 at 8:34 pm
One truism in the long sordid history of computers and personal electronics is that moving parts suck. That’s as true today as it was back when we had little rubber balls in our mice.
Droid is a nice phone – I got to play with one yesterday and was duly impressed, but extra attention needs to be paid to the moving parts if you’re going to have them. That extra attention costs money, and that’s why moving parts suck – those moving parts damn well better be worth the money.
November 24, 2009 at 8:56 pm
[...] several Droid forums and blogs, including Motorola’s own support forum and Dave Winer’s droidie blog. Dave’s post has a funny comment that starts out like this: I think this article is a [...]
November 24, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Actually, the cover on my Razr comes unlatched about every 5 days or so. Sorta funny.
November 25, 2009 at 12:16 am
[...] Original source : http://droidie.com/2009/11/20/the-droid-battery-co…; [...]
November 25, 2009 at 12:29 am
Guys, just get yourself an iPhone and be done with it. Android will be the next Symbian. Not a unified platform = user experience will suck.
November 25, 2009 at 3:51 am
Hey iPhone users. If you can’t say anything nice about the Droid then……
November 25, 2009 at 5:31 am
I have the same problem with my Motorola Q. Seems to be a Motorola issue not limited to the Droid.
November 25, 2009 at 5:41 am
I’ll add my Blackberry. Stupid cover fell off right after I bought it leaving me “naked” for a while. Had to buy a new one and have had the problem intermittently since. Drives me crazy. This was happening during the Great Uproar over the iPhone battery and all I could do was scream at the podcasts/pundits in question. I suppose at least the Droid has raised the profile of the opposition enough to bring Apples “errors” to light.
November 25, 2009 at 6:44 am
FWLIW – My Droid has exhibited none of the functional problems listed above, despite heavy use – and over a hundred apps have been loaded
.
Overall, I am totally happy with it, and the car and media docks (and automatic change in modes) is above-decent.
However, my gripes:
Yes, the KB is too flat. I still like having it when I need it, but it could use some texture. (Easy fix, get to it Motorola!)
(On a sidenote – the predictive text is pretty strong, lessening the need for the KB at all … still good to have).
I have had one instance of the phone becoming unresponsive – don’t know the root cause, but I do run a lot of things simultaneously (like I said – I’ve downloaded one hundred+ apps in the last <2 weeks, lots of experimenting!).
The snap-on covers totally interfere with the car and media docks – that should not be the case. The docks should be made to accommodate the cases, or the cases should be made to fit in the docks. Pick one, fix it! (Motorola, VZW and/or Google)
Some apps (like Visual VoiceMail) do not work while a WiFi connection is active. That is retarded; if the app needs VZW's network in order to work just make the app ignore WiFi. Like, now, please.
Verizon doesn't do IPv6 over their cellular network, and in fact blocks Protocol41 encapsulation. So while my Droid can do IPv6 (over WiFi), it can't do it over EVDO. (VZW, fix that – atleast permit Prot41 (and then ensure Droid can do something like 6to4) – NOW!)
/TJ
PS – open marketplace does not mean sucky user experience, it all depends upon execution. Google is good at that kind of thing …
November 25, 2009 at 9:39 am
My battery cover fell off twice, so I decided to buy a plastic phone cover. At the Verizon store, they instantly gave me a new battery cover to go with my new plastic phone cover. Unfortunately, the new plastic cover makes the phone too big to fit in my car dock. Decisions, decisions.
November 25, 2009 at 12:26 pm
The people who were really complaining about the iPhone having a built-in battery were Blackberry / Windows Mobile users.
Do you know why?
It’s simply because when your Blackberry / Windows Mobile locks up completely, and you (perhaps as a layman) phone the helpline, they tell you to remove the battery to re-set your Blackberry / Windows Mobile.
I know. I have done it. And my (now ex) colleagues have done it.
That’s it. That’s the only reason. 99.99% of people don’t carry a spare battery. They just don’t. They never have. I never have in 12 years of using a mobile phone.
The idea that I would have to use sticky tape on a supposedly top-of-the-range smartphone to keep it together is hilarious.
iPhones (and iPods, and Macs) feel incredibly solid. And that’s because they are. The Palm / Blackberry et al. handsets feel flimsy, and plasticy, and nasty. Just saying.
November 25, 2009 at 9:51 pm
my bet is that this is not a design flaw but a manufacturer/assembly mistake where the thin black rubber/tape is missing from the inside part of the battery cover.
my cover is actually difficult to remove and would never just come off from removing/inserting into a tight pocket.
i would like to see this be confirmed by those who have the problem. if it is not the case, then maybe part of the cover is broken or defected. but again, if it was a design flaw, then all droids would be vulnerable and obviously many droid owners are not having this issue.
November 25, 2009 at 9:56 pm
and please… enough of the iphone vs droid shit.
i have had plenty of apple hardware and software problems.
most notably the battery in my macbookpro exploding while i was using the computer. honorable mention to the small fire/melting of my power adapter cord where it connects to the computer. point is… it’s useless to try and mock one device or company to favor another. it’s also very childish. appreciate tech, whether you own it or not. the droid is certainly a great device as is the iPhone.
November 26, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I lust put a folded piece of paper between the battery and the door. It put pressure on the clips and keeps it locked on.
November 27, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Why are all these iphone users on the droid forum in the first place? Nothing better to do? or —maybe droid envy. If the droid is so inferior, why the need to validate yourself?
—just wondering.
December 3, 2009 at 10:43 am
maybe we’re interested in seeing how right verizon is about how the droid does everything the iphone doesnt.
so far we see the battery cover falls off.. yup, iphone doesnt’ do that.
we also see you can’t use external memory to install apps.. yup, iphone doesn’t do that either.
we see the droid has two keyboards, one useful the other not so much.. yup, the iphone doesnt do that, they just went with the useful one.
look i dont care one way or the other really. i was interested in the droid, did some reading and now, not so much. all these ‘features’ would be availiable to any android 2.0 powered phone anyway so its down to poor design as usual from motorola.
verizon opened this ‘droid does’ can of worms.. and now droid lovers and iphone lovers alike have to deal with the puns of their campaign.
December 3, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Maybe after all the pre-release (and post-release) iPhone bashing we’re enjoying a little “told you so” time?
I find it bizarre that every minor hitch or glitch of Apple’s gets reported in the mainstream press (as in a PRINT NEWSPAPER! I mean, jesus!) whereas serious issues like battery covers falling off or the core phone freezing and messaging apps crashing are treated as normal & acceptable. I mean, come on.
It reminds me of the post I read – can’t remember who wrote it – that said, “why hasn’t a senior product manager at Nokia, Sony Ericsson etc. been looking at every product they’ve released for the last five years and thrown it back at the developers saying THIS SHIT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH, GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN”. Because that’s what this is. Battery cover falling off? Not good enough. Phone crashes regularly? Not good enough.
My iPhone? Good enough.
November 30, 2009 at 11:53 am
[...] The Droid battery cover problem [...]
December 1, 2009 at 8:57 am
You can also bend one of the metal hooks a little bit, so it is much harder for it to fall of…
December 1, 2009 at 12:40 pm
[...] was too shallow and not very well thought and the phone can get slow at times. Problems with a flimsy battery cover cropped up later, which kept on falling off the device. Until Motorola comes up with a solution, [...]
December 2, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Motorola is sending free upgraded covers as long as you submit for one that sloves the issue for free
December 3, 2009 at 6:45 am
Same battery cover problem here and mine has the foam pad…. Lost it a few times around the house already and a few time in my pocket. The phone does slide open while in pocket as well, not a problem now but worried about potential for breakage.
Other issues… when unlocking phone when left in text mode, sometimes it dies freeze and tells me the application needs to be forced closed. Which is still ok because once my old phone froze it froze until i took the battery out.
December 4, 2009 at 1:39 pm
[...] Dave Winer Hah. If Droid keeps running ads like this we can overlook a few rebate scams and a battery cover that keeps falling [...]
December 5, 2009 at 1:03 am
I have an android phone but not the Motorola one, the MyTouch and love it. I would never want to use AT&T for one, there service is less than stellar and you can’t insure the iPhone so brake that fragile screene and you gotta buy a new one full price or get a normal phone.
Besides I want to be able to take the battery out to completly disable the GPS and ability of the phones mic to be turned on and listened to remotely.
By the way all phones now have this built in and taking the battery out should kill it unless they also put some kind of capacitor in it too. Did you know that law enforcement requented user GPS data from just Sprint alone over 8 million times last year. That is just one phone company, not even the biggest and ONLY GPS data, not things like texts or phone call records.
December 12, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Why would an iphone user post anything on this blog? If you like your iphone great – be happy. I like my droid – I hate ATT/Cingular customer server, I hear their network sucks but I do like apple products – too bad apple signed a lucrative deal with a horrible supplier and tied a great product with suck-ass service. I know I know, Verizon turned apple down… that was no reason not to free the product after the first agreement ran out. One other beef I have with products such as apple, and sony – proprietary connectors, proprietary memory – why? I have a Droid with a micro usb connector (i bought a second 6′ usb to micro usb on amazon foe 99¢) and I love it. I also have a an ipod – which i no longer use now that I have pandora. it was a nice little product, but now i have a phone that i like and completely takes the place of the ipod. thanks moto & google & verizon.
December 16, 2009 at 11:16 pm
when i got the droid the sales associate talked me into getting the case which im glad i did cause its a cool smooth leather case (black) (favorite) which will prevent the battery and your screen cover to come off…for $20 i think highly recommended
December 23, 2009 at 6:06 am
[...] already had one issue with the Droid (the battery cover falling off problem that seems to have made the rounds in the places online inhabited by obsessive nerds like myself), [...]
January 2, 2010 at 7:36 am
http://|tinyurl.|com/yk87g42
They fixed it
for free and overnight shipping
January 2, 2010 at 7:36 am
Without the |’s between http:// , Tinyurl. and com
January 14, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Just slip half a business card between the battery cover and the battery. Easy low tech fix and free.