Better late than never, Verizon has finally released the much-awaited upgrade for the Motorola Droid to the 2.1 OS. This had been originally scheduled by Verizon to kick off in February but had some minor delays. Multi-touch pinch to zoom along with live wallpaper are just a few of the things Droid users can look forward to this upgrade.

Droid users will now have the same features as those users with the Nexus One. This brings the Gallery feature for viewing pictures along with Google Maps to these users where there was no access before. The Gallery portion also brings to the user the same 3D looking interface that Nexus One already enjoys.

There are new News and Weather widgets along with the ability to access the voice to text feature by tapping the microphone icon at the virtual keyboard layout. The update will also bring enhanced audio quality when the user disconnects their wired headset while on a call. There is also improved pattern-lock functionality along with an automatic feature that switches Google Maps to night mode.

There is however, one feature that will not be transferred over to the Droid and that is the 3D application launcher that comes on the Nexus One. Effectively, all the other features will transfer over so Droid users are really getting the same basic experience that Nexus One users already enjoy. The update is a welcome addition to any Droid user’s phone that has been waiting since this was originally announced.

This update will roll out over-the-air on Thursday, March 18th. This will be released in batches of 250,000 so it may take some time to get to each user. Verizon has also let it be known that any email accounts that are held will not need to be manually re-entered once the update is completed.

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