Luckily for us, Motorola includes hidden programming menus in most of its phones where we can adjust advanced settings like voice quality.

How to Change the Droid X’s Vocoder

Step 1: Open the Dialer app on your Droid X and dial ##7764726. Press the Send button (the green phone symbol).

Step 2: Enter 000000 (that’s six zeroes) as the password and click Verify.

Step 3: Bask in the glory of Motorola’s hidden programming application. When you’re done basking, open the menu entry 04 Vocode.

UPDATE 7/13/2011: A recent Verizon update has changed the menu structure. If you can’t find 04 Vocode, try these steps.

Thanks to Rlblair in the comments:

The location of the codec apparently changed with the latest software update from Verizon.    Now > select 06 – Test Mode – touch ‘Next” twice – select codec under ‘Service Option’ drop down.  When going “Back”, backing out all the way, the phone did not re-boot.  I shut down and re-started mine and checked – now using EVRC-B instead of default EVRC. Don’t know if the re-start is necessary.  Hope this helps everyone!

Step 4: In this menu, select the option EVRC-B. Press Apply.

That’s it! You will now be enjoying better call quality on your Droid X from just those four simple steps.

How come?

Your phone is set to use the EVRC (Enhanced Variable Rate Codec) vocoder by default. It was developed in 1995 and gave mobile carriers the ability to increase their network capacity without increasing their wireless spectrum or bandwidth.

I won’t say that EVRC isn’t an amazing feat of digital signal engineering, but let’s keep in mind what type of computers we were using in 1995:

EVRC-B is an updated version of EVRC that has many technical improvements over its predecessor. Besides being able to compress sampled speech into an extra 1/4 rate, it has the ability to efficiently encode unvoiced or noise frames. This increases voice quality without necessarily increasing the load on the cellular network.

A final note: while changing the voice quality of your phone is harmless, you should avoid playing around in Motorola’s programming menu unless you really know what you’re doing. Otherwise:

If you enjoyed this article, you might also be interested in other hidden menus in Android.

The post Simple Droid X Hack Can Greatly Improve Call Quality first appeared on Techerator.

Before you insert the battery into the back of the phone, you’ll notice a yellow tab with the word “PULL” written on it.  Taking this simple instruction literally, I began firmly pulling on the tab (thinking it was something that had to be removed before the phone would be operational, like the tape on new printer ink or those little plastic tabs on children’s toys).  Luckily for me, I noticed something wasn’t quite right and stopped before I pulled the whole plastic piece out.

The “PULL” tab is actually there so you can remove the battery after you’ve inserted it into the phone.

The Droid X’s battery really snaps into place, and without this tab it is very difficult to remove (although I’ve been told you can use the battery cover itself to remove the battery if you accidentally tore out the pull tab).

Dozens of people have assumed the Pull tab was intended to be completely removed, and doing so accidentally pulled out the entire black plastic piece that exists between the battery and the phone itself.  Most users have reported that the phone still functioned after this happened, but like most things in mobile devices, that plastic was probably there for a reason.  If you’re careful, you should be able to get the plastic backing into the battery recess after you’ve removed it.

Initial rumors speculated that accidentally pulling the tab out would void your waranty, but this has been found to be untrue.  Laura Merritt, PR manager for Verizon Wireless, told Examiner.com in an email:

“If the customer removes the tab, the warranty is not affected. If they can’t get their battery out, I suggest that they take it to one of our stores for assistance. They don’t want to damage the phone or battery trying to remove it.”

So there you have it.  If you’re thinking about getting a Droid X, it’s a wonderful phone – just be sure not to rip out anything important before you first use it.

The post Droid X: That “Pull” Tab Behind the Battery Cover is for Battery Removal, Don’t Tear it Out! first appeared on Techerator.

Well, it accidentally turned into Android week here at Techerator (sorry about that, non-Android people).  I’ve been running around today trying to find the newly-released Droid X with the same response from everybody: we’re sold out.

It seems like most retailers, including Verizon authorized stores and Best Buy, sold their entire stock of Motorola’s newest, 4.3″ smartphone through pre-orders.  All stores have offered to put me on a waiting list, with new shipments “hopefully arriving next week”.

Had any luck finding the newest member of the Droid lineup?  Share it with us in the comments!  My search continues…

The post Droid X: This is one hard phone to find (without a preorder) [Updated] first appeared on Techerator.