The DROID Eris may no longer be available from Verizon, but that doesn’t mean that HTC or Verizon are no longer supporting the phone.  Verizon is expected to roll out an OTA update to the DROID Eris on July 16^th.  Before you get all excited, this is not Android 2.2, but a mere maintenance update which should fix some of the issues the phone has been having since Verizon pushed out the Android 2.1 update to the phone back in May.  The new 2.37.605.4 build for the HTC Eris will also include a few updates and enhancements to the contacts application which will allow better Facebook and Gmail syncing along with improved audio quality and Bluetooth accessory support. 

Check out the full list of new and improved features below. 

Enhancements:

• Improved audio – The audio controls on your Droid Eris have been updated.
• Enhanced speed dial – Save and add contacts to your speed-dial with ease.
• Improved text, video, and picture messaging functionality

Improvements:

• Your contacts now sync with Backup Assistant, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Facebook
• The Weather app/widget has been enhanced and stabilized
• Your Droid Eris will now pair with a Jabra Bluetooth headset
• Your Gmail contacts will easily sync with your Droid Eris

Source: DROID-Life

Typically, as an OS evolves over time, it becomes more bloated and bogs down older hardware. Most people don’t feel the effect since they eventually upgrade their hardware which gives them a significant performance boost. But things don’t seem to add up on the Android platform. With every new release, Google has managed to add in more optimizations into Android, giving older handset users a breath of new life. With Android 2.2 right around the corner, it would appear as though Google will again make a huge stride in improving the underlying speed of the OS.

Ian Douglas from Armor Games has just posted up images of the benchmark app Linpack running on the latest Android 2.2 build on the Nexus One. Stock Android 2.1 on the Nexus One is able to hit a 6-7 MFLOPS benchmark score, but with Android 2.2 loaded up, the Nexus One benchmark score jumps nearly 700% to 38-40 MFLOPS.

The increased performance is credited to the new Delvik JIT compiler which Google is expected to include in the core 2.2 Android Froyo update that should be released before June. Google is expected to reveal a little more info next week at Google I/O in their “A JIT compiler for Android’s Dalvik VM” session. The Nexus One is probably going to be the first handset to get the new Android 2.2 build, but we should see the 2.2 update roll out to most phones that get the Android 2.1 update. Just don’t ask us when.

Source: Android and Me