A few days ago AT&T filed suit against Verizon for its “There’s an App for That” ad campaign. Verizon’s response? Welcoming the iPhone to the Island of Misfit Toys in a new commercial that embodies the Christmas Spirit. Hit the break to check out the main attraction as well as two side shows.

We all knew that the iPhone was going to start hitting more third-party retailers at some point, but we just didn’t think it would be this soon. RadioShack, or The Shack, has announced that it will be carrying the iPhone 3G and 3GS in select stores in Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City at the end of this month. The company expects to have the iPhone available nationwide in 2010. So, for now, you’ll have to settle with Apple Stores, AT&T retail locations, Wal-Mart or Best Buy if you want to nab one. Come to think of it, there really is no shortage of suppliers so if you’re finally going to be eligible to upgrade or you want to pick one up on a whim, you can add another to the list of iPhone retailers to choose from. But just remember where all this Shack nonsense started, ok?

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If you’re a big telecommunications company there is the hard way to add 893,000 customers to your portfolio — by working to provide hardware and services that people value and want — then there is the easy way. Cutting a check. Today, the FCC gave AT&T the final go ahead to purchase US wireless carrier Centennial Wireless for a cool $944 million. The acquisition will bolster AT&T’s presence in the midwest, southwest, and Puerto Rico, although we’re not sure how, if at all, it will impact their 3G footprint. Centennial’s stockholders will receive $8.50/share for their troubles and AT&T is saying it will have Centennial’s stores re-branded by January of 2010. Any Centennial customers out there excited about being folded into Ma Bell?Read

It looks as if Dell’s Android handset is getting ready for prime time with AT&T as a new filing found on the FCC’s website has revealed the Mini 3iX. With both 850/1900 MHz bands of UMTS as well as Wi-Fi on board, the 3iX is likely to be identical to the Mini 3i which was unveiled in mid-August by China Mobile, the only difference being the aforementioned. If this is indeed the case then we’re looking at a 3.5″ 360×640 touchscreen display, 3 megapixel camera, A-GPS and support for Microsoft Exchange. The question is, will anybody even care?

[Via Unwired View]

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Alright, fellas. It has been one heck of a journey, but today, the Motorola DROID and HTC DROID Eris are finally on sale to the general public. From what we’re hearing, stock levels are insanely high so it doesn’t look like many people that want one will miss the opportunity to take one home. If you’re in line, or at the store, or already snatched one and have made the trip home, shoot us in some photos in the comments and let us know how you’re liking the new Android lineup on Verizon, ok?

One of our connects just hit us up with this shot, and it would appear that RIM has a theme going on. Step 1: make successful handset in black, step 2: relaunch said handset in white. Almost a month after the vastly popular vanilla BlackBerry Bold hit the streets, AT&T and RIM are teaming up to bring you the WhiteBerry Curve 8900 sans color, or is it the presence of all the colors? Whatever. Now, the 8900 won’t have the sensual white leather back, but the white bezel looks pretty sexy to us; as a group that enjoys simultaneously eating Cheetos and text messaging we can’t say that we’re too upset about the omission of the white keyboard either. So what do you think? Is this the BlackBerry you’ve been waiting for? Actually, scratch that, this thing is already outdated. This is the BlackBerry you’ve been waiting for.

Thanks, Gabe Jr.!

One of our connects already did one for us, but there’s nothing like having a handset (and a box) in your own possession. Also what our guy reported seems to be spot on: this thing is thinner, lighter, and a lot more pocketable than Sprint’s HTC Hero. The only other change, we’re told, is that the DROID Eris has a proximity sensor on the screen. We’ll put together something more formal in a little bit, but in the meantime check out a couple photos after the jump!

Shortly after the official announcement for the BlackBerry Curve 8530 coming to Verizon, Sprint customers were asking, “When are we getting ours?” It looks like a Sprint version may be coming around about the same time as Verizon’s 8530. There is no date for sure, but a Sprint spokesperson said that it is definitely coming and will be packing Wi-Fi and EV-DO, too. The price point should be about the same as Verizon’s, we’d imagine, though we’re hoping they give some kind of incentive for grabbing one of these over a Tour, which can currently be had at Best Buy for $99. If nothing else, this could appease all the trackball haters. Let’s just change the hue on that puppy, alright?Read

We’re sure that most of you are sick and tired of all of this Verizon news (how do you think we feel having to write about it?), but they’re on a tear. Today Verizon announced that it will be carrying the BlackBerry Curve 8530 starting November 20th. To go for $99.99 on contract after a $100 mail-in rebate, the new Curve offers the following: full-QWERTY keypad, optical trackpad, 2 megapixel camera, GPS, dedicated multimedia keys, 3.5mm headphone jack, 256MB of app memory, 528MHz processor, EV-DO connectivity and last but not least, Wi-Fi! Yes, indeedy, Verizon is definitely looking like the front runner in the smartphone arms race of the 2009 Holiday Season.Read

Here at BGR we love the underdog, so we are a little disappointed to have to tell you about the latest figures coming out of the T-Mobile camp. T-Mobile released their Q3 numbers today and suffered a net loss of 77,000 subscribers, with 140,000 customers packing up their number and shacking up with another carrier. Compare the loss with the 325,000 subscribers it gained in Q2 of this year or the 670,000 it gained in Q3 of last year, and, well ouch; it would appear as though T-Mo’s momentum might be slowing. The profits also shrunk a bit, in Q2 T-Mo posted a $425 million profit while in Q3 that number shrank to $417 million. So, will the new “Even More” plans, Android handsets, and new BlackBerry smartphones be enough to get T-Mobile back on track for Q4? Or will the comparatively meek holiday lineup make for a flat Q4? We’ll find out.Read

You already know we smashed this one, but in case you don’t…  Release date? Check. Spy shots? Yes please. Unboxing? Sure. Press release? Well, we figure we would let Verizon handle that one. Today, HTC and Verizon officially announced the November 6th launch of the DROID Eris on the “there’s a map for that” network. This handset has all the goodies: Wi-Fi, GPS, a 5 megapixel camera, 3.2″ touch screen display, and HTC’s Sense UI. The price tag is set at $99 on contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. We’ve given this puppy enough attention, but you can hit the press release for all the minutia.Read

While many tech geeks who fancy Verizon will be spending the majority of this week debating whether or not to pull the trigger on either the DROID or DROID Eris, today Verizon quietly started selling the LG Chocolate Touch, a non-smartphone with mass market appeal. Equipped with a 3″ touchscreen display and 3.2 megapixel camera, the Chocolate Touch also features support for VZ Navigator, V CAST Music/Video, Visual Voicemail and EV-DO Rev. 0 connectivity. Also of note is a convenience key that leads directly to social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter as well as the inclusion of Dolby Mobile technology, something which is claimed to deliver “audio quality that rivals MP3 players.” Of course with only 1GB of internal memory and no microSD card in the box users will be forced to drop some extra cash if they wish to listen to more than 250 songs, but at $79.99 on contract after a $50 rebate, what do you expect?Read

One of our connects just blessed us with a couple shots of the HTC DROID Eris and graciously unboxed the retail packaging. We could bore you with meaningless details about how the phone is thinner and lighter than the Sprint HTC Hero, feels much better in the hand, and is generally the best Android device besides the Motorola DROID our connect has used, but we’ll stop there. Enjoy the photos!

Thanks, Jon!

There have been rumors flying around the intertubes that Verizon is planning to charge an extra $15/month to allow your shiny new Motorola DROID to be hooked up to Microsoft’s Exchange email enviroment. Well, we are happy to confirm that, for consumer lines anyway, these rumors are false. The folks over at Gearlog received clarification from Verizon’s headquarters about the rumored $45/month data mandate, and it looks as though it’s for corporate responsible user accounts only. Individual accounts and family lines, whether you use Exchange or not, will still cost just $30/month. Good news for future DROID owners out there, and just the same as how the iPhone pricing works on AT&T.

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Our readers in both Europe and Asia have reason to smile this morning, as HTC has at long last announced that the highly anticipated successor to the Touch HD has finally begun shipping. Citizens in Europeans will be able to pick up the HD2 in the next few days while our Asian brothers and sisters will see a gradual rollout staring in a weeks time. As for the majority of our readers, Americans, HTC has formally confirmed what we reported one month ago when the device was first announced — the HD2 will be making its way to “a major US carrier” in early 2010. The only mystery is which carrier could HTC possibly be referring to. Hmm…

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Here’s what Big Red is working with: they’ve offered up a BOGO sale on all new BlackBerrys for the holiday buying season, and where some see a great deal, others see a great opportunity. Why not play a game of Flip My BlackBerry? Why not open a second line, get a brand new Tour or Storm 2, pay the cancellation fee on the new line of $175, and sell the device on eBay for $300 or more? Well it looks like Verizon has finally caught onto our the little game. A new connect has emerged with a few documents and it looks like starting on November 15th Verizon will be charging up to $350 as an early termination fee on “advanced devices.” This new “improved” fee does have a minute silver lining (if you can even say that): for every month of service completed, the $350 sum will decrease by $10. No word yet on what an “advanced device” constitutes but we can use our imaginations to figure it out. What do you think? Anyone considering abandoning plans to buy the DROID after hearing this news, or are you just going to get yours before November 15th? Or will you actually be an honest person and actually honor the contract you sign?

Thanks, GetOverIt7!

Forget the first commercial you saw, this one takes the cake. We’ve been told it should start airing on TV this week. Video is after the break.

No doubt most everyone has already seen Verizon’s “There’s a Map for That” ad campaign and had a good chuckle over it, but apparently the big wigs at AT&T are the only ones not laughing and have decided to sue Verizon. The logic behind the move? AT&T feels Verizon is attempting to deliberately mislead the public with its map comparing Verizon’s nationwide 3G coverage to AT&T’s limited 3G coverage. Granted all major cities and towns have AT&T 3G, but AT&T would really like Verizon to show its EDGE network, which according to AT&T spans 1.75 million square miles and reaches 256 million people, a little bit of love on the map. Cute move AT&T, but you might want to think about transferring some money from your legal budget to your network upgrade budget so you can bolster up your fledgling 3G network.Read

We scooped it, we previewed it, and now we’re officially reviewing it. There’s a good chance that even if you’re not into tech all that much, you’ve heard of the Motorola DROID thanks to Verizon’s big marketing push, and that’s a good and bad thing. As you’ll see in our review, the DROID is a fantastic device, but does it have what it takes to compete outside the world of the die-hard Android fans and techies in the consumer arena? You’ll see soon enough!

Hardware / Design

Design is always going to be subjective, but in a world of curves and tapered edges, it’s downright thrilling to see a handset that’s angular, retro-looking and extremely masculine. Sorry, ladies. You’ll always have Droid Eris… We just love the styling of the DROID. It’s minimalistic in a lot of ways, not cluttered with useless buttons and switches, and overall is solid as a rock. The slide mechanism is not spring-assisted, but the click is reassuring enough to warrant a comforting feeling when opening or closing the handset. One thing physically we’re not thrilled with is the looseness of the volume up and down key. It slides up, down, front and back and generally feels like it’s just going to fall off over time. Both the unit we received from Verizon as well as our older unit exhibit the same behaviors.

Contrary to other reports, the Motorola DROID exterior is actually mostly metal. The bezel around the screen is metal as is the mid-plate of the case. The only part that’s plastic is the rear back-plate and as we understand it, the reason that little chin exists is because that was the only place Motorola could fit the wireless antennas. They face out towards the plastic back as opposed to being Faraday-caged by the metal front.

Touch-sensitive keys are a, uh, sensitive area but they’re honestly fine at the end of the day. We’ve been banging on a DROID for many weeks and haven’t once had a misfire or accidental key press even though the keys are 100% touch-based. We don’t think they’re a problem even though some people have been concerned. Plus, you can’t beat the Haptic feedback. There isn’t a single key on the left side of the unit, just a microUSB port, and on the top there’s a 3.5mm headset jack followed by the power / lock /unlock button. On the right side, we’ve got the shady bi-directional volume key and a two-stage camera shutter key donned in gold. Or as Motorola likes to call it, brown sugar. Mmm, brown sugar.

When you turn the phone over, you get a rather simple but concise “brown sugar” speaker grill, battery cover with Motorola and Verizon logos, and that 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash. Oh, and the “with Google” logo, too. No, the phone doesn’t look like a billboard to us, but hey, you’re entitled to your own opinion. Inside it is packing a 550MHz OMAP3 CPU, dedicated graphics processor, 512MB of ROM, 256 of RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, a digital compass, and accelerometer.

Screen

You want one word to describe the screen? Stunning. A 3.7″ WVGA 854×480 capacitive high-quality display? We’ll take three. Like we said in our preview, it’s the best screen we’ve ever seen on an Android device and possibly in general. Plus it’s responsiveness is second to only Apple’s capacitive displays, so we’re talking about a really, really solid screen here, people. The widescreen proportion might take a little getting used to for some, but all in all, it’s roomy and sports a rather nice resolution.

On the screen there is a proximity sensor and also an ambient light sensor. Both work magically to shut off the screen while you’re on a call, saving battery and preventing your face from triggering an on screen button, and also adjusting the brightness of the display to match the lighting in your current environment. Some people asked us if the screen on the DROID was dim as it appeared that way in a couple of our photos, and our quick answer would be: absolutely not. It’s viciously bright if you ask it to be, and the backlighting is a very assuring white as opposed to a tinted red, orange, pink or blue hue on some other phones we’ve used.

As we said, it’s second only to the iPhone as far as capacitive screens go, and coupled with the rest of the DROID, it’s a real winner.

Keyboard

After using the phone for almost a month, I can confidently say the keyboard is fine for most people. It’s not a BlackBerry and the actual spacing of the keys isn’t great, but it is really livable I think. Each key has a little bubbled-texture which makes it a bit easier to define one key from another, and the tactile feedback, while not perfect, is fine. The spacebar could use a little more tactility though as it’s probably the hardest key to press when you’re trying to type swiftly and accurately. There are two things that bother us about the keyboard and that’s the directional pad stage right, and the fact that two keys haven’t quite made it through metamorphosis. Can someone please point out another phone in the entire universe that shipped with two blank keys? Is this a joke? It’s not the end of the world but uh, how about a home key and a back key? How about a bigger spacebar? There ars a million things that could have been done to improve the keyboard layout even by two keys and it’s pretty hilarious that two keys are blank.

Backlighting on the keyboard is a nice white/teal-ish tint, definitely bright enough, and comes through just the letters and symbols.

The on screen keyboard that Android-lovers are used to for all intents and purposes has not changed. It’s the standard Android affair, there are settings to enable vibration-feedback on key press, an audible sound on key press, and the usual configurational options like auto-capitalization, word suggestions, auto-correct and completion. There’s virtually no improvement from other Google Experience handsets which is a bit depressing as the keyboard in Android has a bit of a ways to go to compete with that other popular touch-based phone. The landscape on screen keyboard is obviously very, very wide and a tad more forgiving with typing since the keys are obviously larger.

OS

Oh, Android 2.0. It feels like such a huge step forward for Android and it is. It really brings the mobile Google OS into 2009 with support for Exchange, a unified inbox (for non-Gmail), more resolution support, 3D graphics, and a whole lot more. Would we classify it as mostly a face lift? Yes. But that’s okay because at the core Android wasn’t too bad and most of the open issues in our mind have been fixed in 2.0. Unfortunately, there’s no multi-touch support in here which is a major downer. There is multi-touch support in the European version of the DROID, the MILESTONE, though. You might have read in our preview that we said that in the Maps application you can two-finger tap to zoom in. Well, you can also one-finger tap to zoom in. The software was sensing one input, not both simultaneously. Our bad.

In the new version of Android it seems that we’ve been given some more fluidity and some nice shortcuts to simplify our lives and not make them more complex. You’ll notice you can tap on a thumbnail of a contact photo anywhere in the OS and have a quick-launch list of immediate correspondence options.

There is still a lot of things Android 2.0 doesn’t fix and it’s pretty annoying. For one, there’s no way to set a real password on the phone. Seriously, drawing lines, shapes and farm animals with your finger to unlock the phone was cute in Android 1.0, but in 2.0? Get it together. It’s also inexcusable that there isn’t a password timeout interval you can adjust so you’re not forced to play tic-tac-toe each time you want to unlock your phone and read your email. Also, there are still no configurable hardware keyboard settings for repeat delay and repeat speed. Openness is great for mostly everyone: consumers, developers, etc. It also, however, brings shoddy code (from some 3rd party developers), fragmentation, and other hurdles. There has been countless times that programs for whatever reason have froze and the standard Google “Wait or Force close” prompt didn’t pop up for sometimes over 15 seconds. We don’t have a program waiting, but if it does, give us a way to force close something without having to wait for you to tell us it’s borked.

Maps is greatly improved, not taking into account Google Navigation. Configurable layers are fantastic as you can overlay what you want (Traffic, Latitude, Wikipedia, Local Search, Satellite, Transit Lines, etc.) when you want to access it instead of having specific modes that only allow you to consume one group of information at a time.

Contacts have now been updated to include sorting and viewing options as you can finally combine multiple contact sources natively (Google, Exchange, Facebook). Visually it looks great and it’s functional, too.

Android’s biggest issue as a whole is the lack of decent applications in our view. Sure, there are 10,000 but do you really need 25 star gazing applications? Nothing is functional and nothing can be compared to the other mobile OS’ apps in terms of quality. It’s not a shot, it’s just fact. You can’t replicate the desktop-class applications on Android yet for one reason or another, and that is a big issue.

I have a major Exchange issue that basically prevents me from relying on the phone as far as my email is concerned. I get a pretty big number of emails a day (around 500) and it’s not that the DROID stutters or can’t handle the volume, it’s that when I configure the phone to fetch the last day, it fetches the last three days. I’ve tried to play with settings, delete and re-add the account — nothing.

I used another Exchange account on the same Exchange server and that works fine. But, even though the account works and messages come through on time, it still went back and synced the last three days of mail instead of one. There are other glitches and bugs with the Exchange implementation on the DROID, but since it is software and something rather important, we have our hopes that it will be resolved in an OTA update. For now though, mail isn’t completely useless, it’s just not something we can count on. Well okay, maybe it’s useless.

Voice:

The built in voice recognition is positively top notch. Since Google’s voice search OS-wide queries your speech with an online synthesis system, this means that first off, your results should be pretty darn good, and second, that it can always improve and “learn” from more and more users. The downside is that if you don’t have a data connection, voice searching and voice control won’t work at all.

The scope of what’s covered by the voice recognition is pretty amazing. We’re talking about getting directions, searching for something like a product online using Google search, locally searching on Google Maps for a store, restaurant or item, and looking up and calling contacts from your address book, all of which are beautifully integrated into the OS.

Music:

Sadly the music side of things in Android 2.0 didn’t get much of an update. Or really any update at all. Look, we get it, you can’t do everything and that’s fine. Google Navigation as you’ll see is fantastic, we’ve got social networks integrated, a better browser — all that good stuff. But it’s not like much had to be done with the music application. Skin it a little bit and we think people would be happy. That’s not to say it doesn’t work, but the layout is a little tired, playlists and navigation is a little cumbersome and we just think music deserves a little bit more attention then it is getting.

Google Navigation

Uh oh, Google just ate everyone’s lunch right? Well, kind of. Google Navigation is amazing at the conceptual level, and even as far as usability goes it’s great. It’s fast, clean, and hey, it’s in beta so don’t flip out. We love satellite view for navigating and we love that it’s truly an internet-connected navigation app that never needs updated. It caches your route so it’s not totally network-dependent, but there isn’t any offline maps or anything like that, so some might take issue with that.

We found Google Navigation to be a joy to use and while it lacks some of the features and functionality traditional mobile navigation applications have, we’re pretty sure that will come in due time. For a first go, it’s very usable and it’s probably something we’d buy the damn car mount just to use. Searching for places and locations along the route is great and so is the robotic-sounding lady that will actually read you the entire street name instead of just giving you basic voice readouts like, “make a left in .8 miles.” You can also add layers to the navigation program and overlay traffic, parking locations, gas stations, banks, restaurants and more for viewing on the map while you travel along your route.

Browser

It’s amazing how a simple double-tap gesture will dramatically change the usability of a touch-screen-based browser. Literally, it’s one thing (besides CPU speed, a great screen obviously, etc.) that makes a big difference. Again, there’s no multi-touch and to be honest, a simple pinch-zoom gesture is really missed. With that said, the browser has improved a lot as far as rendering, being HTML5 compliant, sometimes fast, and very, very stable. Visually, as Android 2.0 in general seems to do, there’s some spice added. Visual bookmarks are fun, the improved URL bar at the top complete with favicon is also a nice touch. In addition to being HTML5 compliant, there’s also support for offline caching for browser-based apps among other improvements. The widescreen resolution and pixel density of the screen really make the browser very friendly to use even without having to zoom.

When you look at speed, the browser is pretty good. Running over the same Wi-Fi network, the DROID performed pretty reasonably compared to our iPhone 3GS. The 3GS we’d say has about 20% on the DROID for straight page loading and rendering, though scrolling speeds are noticeably faster on the DROID. Well, loading is pretty fast. It’s an interesting thing because the browser will sometimes be incredible speedy, and other times just get bogged down on really rudimentary sites. Your mileage may vary, but the speed of the browser can easily go from fast to frustrating and we’re not 100% sure why. One thing that’s annoying about the browser is that there’s no shortcut to jump back to the top of the page when the keyboard is closed. Big deal? Nope, just little things that go a long way that Google continues to miss as far as usability and user experience is concerned. Flash support is not built in to Google Experience phones at this time, but is said to be coming in 2010.

Not having a dedicated search box by the URL bar seems to have its advantages as we love performing searches and seeing related results instantly below. It’s also great that there are little visual icons like a star, clock, and search icon so you can differentiate between your bookmarks, history and live search data.

Phone calling / speaker

It’s a little strange when you ask a group of people about Motorola’s phones and their experiences with them. The strange part is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the middle; it’s a love it or hate it affair when it comes to phone performance among other things. Thankfully the Motorola DROID is an amazing performer in the phone calling arena. It’s got “the network” sure, but the phone itself also has incredibly accurate audio reproduction when using either the earspeaker or loudspeaker on the handset. Now, there’s one weird thing about making calls on the DROID and if you hold it up to your ear and talk, you can sort of hear yourself a little bit more than you can on another phone. The DROID has noise-cancellation built in so we’re thinking it might have something to do with that and the audio routing, and it’s definitely not cause for concern, just something we’ve noticed after using it as a phone for a pretty long time.

The speakerphone isn’t the loudest speakerphone, but it’s delightfully crisp and projects sound very well. When bumpin’ some music, we didn’t notice a single distortion, crack — nothing, even at full volume. Speakerphone voice calls also exhibited from the same pleasurable and accurate audio reproduction. We love making calls on the DROID.

The phone interface has received a little upgrade as far as visuals are concerned, but it’s straight forward and damn fast. Dialing has no slow downs or hiccups, calls connect instantly, and there’s no fuss. We’re also really feeling the upgraded call screen with improved end key, dialpad button, speaker and mute button. These slightly changed icons and new arrangement make accessing the essential calling functions a lot easier and more efficient.

Camera

The camera, a 5 megapixel autofocus dual LED flash, is straight up disappointing. It doesn’t seem to be hardware-related as we’re almost positive it’s a software issue, but man… did Kodak just say peace out to Moto or? This thing couldn’t focus on any sort of scene, portrait, landscape, a close-up — nothing — to save its life. On top of pictures not coming out focused properly, the camera application is ridiculously slow, sometimes pausing up to 7 or 8 seconds after you’ve taken a picture before it will let you snap again. What’s worse is that with geo-tagging enabled, delays get even longer.

With Android 2.0 there’s a brand new camera interface which is much-needed and actually isn’t horrible. It’s just not that intuitive and adjusting settings on the fly is damn near impossible. This is a common theme with Android and that’s because most coders aren’t designers and aren’t GUI experts. It’s pretty simple. For instance, the camera will display the automatic flash indicator in the lower left of the viewfinder, yet you can’t click on it. Wait, what? Yeah exactly. The logical among us would expect to tap the indicator and be able to cycle through the options quickly. But you have to slide your finder left to right to bring out the settings drawer, flick down to the flash setting option, tap it to bring the flash setting to the forefront, tap the desired choice and then slide the options drawer back into hiding– all when Megan Fox slipped out from the club while you were fiddling with your camera settings.

There’s also no review settings, so it’s not like you can take a photo and it will show it on screen for a certain amount of time where you can see that you accidentally sneezed during the photograph and want to delete it quickly. You have to tap the recent photo thumbnail in the upper right of the application and only then are presented with the option to delete, share, or set as (wallpaper, contact icon). Like we said, the optics seem to be fine, the dual-LED flash is perfect, but if the camera doesn’t focus properly, takes a long time to launch/shoot, and doesn’t allow on-the-go adjustments quickly, it’s a pretty useless camera. And in the end, we’d take our 3.2 megapixel Bold 9700 camera with flash and even iPhone 3GS camera without flash any day of the week, month, or year over the DROID’s camera.

Battery:

The Drizzy packs a 1400mAh battery, the same one used in the Motorola CLIQ, and there couldn’t be a starker difference between the two. Our Motorola CLIQ would run out of battery if we looked at it funny. The DROID on the other hand surprisingly has some of the best battery life on a mobile device we’ve used in recent memory. It’s definitely up there with an iPhone 3GS and BlackBerry 9700 — really remarkable for such a fast-powered handset with huge display, and it’s a CDMA phone! Very impressive and like we said before, even though the battery is user-replaceable, we really doubt you’ll ever need to with normal daily use.

Conclusion

So, what’s the wrap up, you’re asking right? We absolutely love the Motorola DROID. It’s a perfect storm between awesome hardware, great software, and a great network. That’s not to say it’s for everyone. It isn’t the most consumer-friendly device off the bat and it’s going to take some time and a whole bunch of improvements before we think Android can totally compete in the consumer space like others can, but Android is getting there slowly and this device in general couldn’t be a better way to show it off. There’s obviously some compromises like a pretty flat QWERTY keyboard and a little heft from the inclusion of metal as a design element, but the pros easily outweigh any cons if you’re on Verizon. And even if you’re not, it’s the most compelling alternative to the iPhone we’ve ever used. What’s important is that this phone exists and can easily fill a big void. It bridges a big gap and will be Verizon’s star device for the rest of the fourth quarter. Probably.

The price of $199 is a great price point and we can see VZ moving truckloads of these. International roaming would have been something to put a lot of people over the edge, but besides that, (and the fact they couldn’t fit in another thing) luckily most of the shortcomings the DROID has are software-based and can be easily rectified in the near future. This isn’t the only Android phone coming to Verizon, but from what we’ve seen it’s the best so far and something you’re really going to want to try out in the store and get a feel for. It’s easily one of the fastest and smoothest phones we’ve ever used, easily the fastest Android device on the market (as of November 6th), and definitely the most impressive. Motorola’s CLIQ, as we confidently told you, is a bottom-feeding device. It’s cheap, pretty poorly made physically and software-wise, and the DROID effectively wipes any bad taste out of our mouths. The Motorola DROID is now Motorola’s most important device in recent memory, and they’ve hit it out of the park with this one. We’ve been told there won’t be a USA 3G DROID (GSM) coming anytime soon (or ever), so if you’re looking to scoop one up, your best bet is on November 6th from Big Red.

Are you thinking about jumping on the new Storm2 BOGO deal, selling one on eBay and canceling a line? Well, we already made it pretty clear that doing so really isn’t all that profitable, but just in case you were thinking of pulling something similar to this in the future, we’re hearing Verizon is stepping it up in the ETF department. The rumor is, that starting November 15, Verizon is going to raise its ETF for high-end phones, such as the Storm2 and Droid, to $350. The ETF would then decrease by $5/mo. We haven’t confirmed it yet, but it certainly makes sense because of how easy it is to rip a carrier off by purchasing a new smartphone on contract, canceling the line, paying the termination fee and selling the phone for twice or three times what you paid.  If it pans out, we really can’t blame Verizon for trying to recover the subsidies they’d lose on early contract terminations. Scammers beware!

Just a few days ago, Sprint announced its plans to release a ton of new and exciting handsets which included WiMax-capable devices. Our initial thoughts were, “Who’s gonna use these? And outside of a few cities, where is WiMax even available?” But it looks like Sprint has a plan and is sticking to it as Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth and a few other cities are going to be lit up with 4G goodness.

Sprint says, “To use Sprint 4G service, all you will need is a 4G plan and the Sprint 3G/4G USB Modem U300. Just plug in the device and start downloading mammoth attachments, uploading huge files and video-conferencing with no lag.” In case you were wondering, WiMax hits max speeds of about 10Mbps, which is faster than what some people have wired at home, and averages between 3Mbps – 6Mbps. We’re just hoping that the 4G plans are set at the right price points.Read

Motorola’s DROID might be the new darling of the Android world, but other manufacturers are still kicking about and pumping some great offerings. Yesterday Sprint pushed out one such device and that’s the Samsung Moment. It might not be benefiting from the insane amounts of hype that the DROID is enjoying, but it does have a 3.2″ AMOLED touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, 256MB RAM and a speedy 800MHz processor running on top of Android 1.5. At $179.99 after a $100 MIR, the Moment comes in at $20 cheaper than the DROID, a price we can’t help but think Sprint is already considering slashing.

[Via Engadget Mobile]Read

Yesterday, Sprint executive David Owens dropped a ton of great news for Sprint customers in a live chat. Some of the news isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s still good to know and get confirmation from Sprint directly. Read on for the list of items that were mentioned.

• Google Android OS updates are coming for the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment. While he didn’t specify a version – 1.6 or 2.0 – HTC has previously confirmed that they’re working on an Android 2.0 update for the Hero.
• Combination CDMA/GSM Android phones are also “a possibility but nothing this year.”
• They’re considering an Android phone with a built-in MiFi-type router.
• Android phones will get less expensive “as we see volume across the industry.”
• Lots of HTC and BlackBerry phones coming next year. HTC phones “will be on the Android platform.”
• Sprint will “add Wi-Fi to [the BlackBerry] Tour” and have other Wi-Fi BlackBerry smartphones going forward.
• They’re testing Windows Mobile 6.5 updates for the HTC Touch Pro2 and other Windows phones; “plan for early 2010.”
• They want Windows Mobile 7.0 “as soon as possible, but dependent on Microsoft.”
• Expect WiMAX phones next year.
• No tethering for phones that require Everything plans (such as all smartphones) from here on out.

We already know about the updates coming to the Hero and Wi-Fi for the Tour, but it’s pretty cool to see that WiMAX phones are on the horizon. Hopefully that means a faster rollout of the 4G service. Owens also mentions more BlackBerry phones coming next year — could that mean that Sprint is also getting a 85xx series Curve just like Verizon? It could be the Wi-Fi BlackBerry he’s talking about when “going forward.” Lastly, for travelers, having more CDMA/GSM world phones with Android is pretty good news, even if we have to wait until next year.

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If you’re not drooling over the DROID and Android 2.0 right now, you either have a heart of stone or you’ve been living under a rock. Motorola’s come-back device goes on sale November 6 for $199, but you know what the deal is at Verizon retail stores — mail-in rebates. Want to avoid the lines and the MIR? Head to Best Buy between October 29 and November 6 to and pre-order your Droid and you’ll be killing two birds with one stone: you know you’ll have a device with your name on it when it hits stores and you won’t have to wait around for your rebate card in the mail. This looks like a win-win situation to us boys and girls. Thoughts?

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Who’s up for one more shot of the HTC Droid Eris? One of our connects wrote us in and dropped this photo on us. They also said, “Overall the same as the Sprint Hero but for some reason it seems faster, slightly thinner and taller.” Otherwise it “seems the same” and is running Android 1.5. We already told you the Droid Eris will be powered by a 528MHz Qualcomm CPU, and while it won’t ship with Android 2.0, well, you know where we’re going with this…

UPDATE: Updated with better shot!

Thanks, PhenomenalONE!

We’ve been told that in conjunction with the DROID launch, Verizon is going to be creating a “first-of-its-kind” interactive experience in New York City. What’s the name of it? “DROID Does Times Square.” Our connect says that this experience will let people control two of Times Square’s largest digital billboards — the NASDAQ and Reuters signs — using only voice commands. What you see above is a “sneak peak” of what it’s going to look like.

Being the only people on the planet with a Motorola Droid not under armed guard was one hell of a ride, but come November 6th we’re going to have a lot of company as that’s the day Verizon Wireless will be selling the Motorola Droid. To go for $199.99 on a 2-year deal, the DROID is one hell of a steal considering that its specs include a 3.7″ WVGA capacitive display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash, 720×480 video capture at 24 fps, GPS (the DROID is the first device to feature Google Maps Navigation which provides free turn-by-turn voice navigation), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Exchange support, 6.4 hours of talk time and a pre-installed 16GB memory card — all running on top of Android 2.0. Not enough? Yes, ladies and gentlemen: Motorola is back. Hit the jump for the press release and a couple high-res pics.

Hello Humans: DROID by Motorola Arrives Next Week

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – High-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, customizable large screen, access to thousands of Android applications and hundreds of widgets and the best 3G mobile network in the country: DROID by Motorola arrives on Nov. 6.

Verizon Wireless, the company with the nation’s largest wireless 3G broadband network, and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a pioneer in the mobile industry, today unveiled DROID by Motorola, the first smartphone powered by Android™ 2.0.  DROID by Motorola features the brainpower and breakneck speed of a modern smartphone, designed to outperform where other smartphones fall short.

“We’re proud to work with Verizon Wireless and Google™ on the first smartphone to feature Android 2.0,” said Sanjay Jha, co-chief executive officer of Motorola and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobile Devices.  “DROID by Motorola delivers a rich consumer experience with warp-speed Web browsing, a mammoth screen, and Motorola’s expertise in design and voice quality.  Combined with Android’s open, flexible graphical user interface and the power of Verizon Wireless’ 3G network, DROID is a smartphone that simply doesn’t compromise.”

“This is an exciting announcement for Verizon Wireless, as the DROID by Motorola is the first device that we are bringing to market under our ground-breaking strategic partnership with Google,” said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless.  “DROID by Motorola gives customers a lifestyle device with access to more than 12,000 applications that will help them stay in touch, up to date and entertained, using the best 3G network in the country.”

DROID by Motorola has a solid exterior, intelligent interior and is one of the thinnest full-QWERTY slider phones available.  It is a no-fuss, high-tech, location-aware, voice-recognizing, over-the-air updating, multi-tasking machine – and it is available just in time for holiday wish lists.

With DROID by Motorola, you can:

• Zip through the Web: Access the Internet at 3G speeds via the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network or from any Wi-Fi hotspot.  The multi-window HTML browser with a massive processor delivers the Web the way you expect.
• See it all in cinema-style: View the Web, e-mail, Google Maps™, videos and more in widescreen on a brilliant 3.7” high-resolution screen.  Boasting a width of 854 pixels to reduce the need for side-to-side panning and more than 400,000 pixels total, DROID has more than twice that of the leading competitor.
• Run multiple applications at once: Customize your DROID with thousands of applications and hundreds of widgets available on Android Market™.  Toggle back and forth between up to six applications at a time to juggle the universe and your apps.
• Perform Google Search™ at the speed of sound: Simply tell DROID what you’re looking for using voice-activated search, and it will serve up Google search results based on your location.  If you want more, simply type what you’re looking for into the search bar on the home screen and DROID will also search content on your phone, such as apps and contacts, and the Web.
• Capture moments: Snap digital camera-quality photos with a 5 megapixel camera loaded with the works, such as a dual-LED flash, AutoFocus and image stabilization, or capture your friend’s antics in 16 million colors with DVD-quality video capture and playback.  Store it all on the included 16 GB memory card, so you always have it on hand.
• Multi-task like a master: Keep tabs on all your messages with integrated Gmail™ and Exchange e-mail pushed directly to you, but don’t let them get in your way.  With the handy Android notification panel, go straight to the message or simply ignore it, and get back to the task at hand.  And, a smart dictionary learns as you type and automatically includes your contacts.
• Get where you need to go with Google Maps Navigation (Beta): DROID is the first device with Google Maps Navigation, providing turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps.  It’s powered by Google and connected to the Internet. Use voice shortcuts and simply say “Navigate to [your destination],” and you’ll be on your way.  See live traffic, use Street View or satellite imagery to view your route, and get access to the most recent maps and business information from Google Maps without ever needing to update your device.

Pre-loaded Applications and Enhancements to Google Mobile Services:

• Google Maps: With layers in Google Maps, view geographic information, such as My Maps, Wikipedia, and transit lines, right on the map.
• Gmail: Multiple accounts support and undo for common operations.
• YouTube™: One-touch recording and playback from homescreen widget or app, one-touch sharing with friends, and the ability to view your own uploaded videos and high-resolution videos.
• Google Talk™: Easily switch between chats, search your chat history, and preview pictures and videos sent by links.
• Android Market: Browse and download applications created by third-party developers.
• Calendar: Ability to see who has R.S.V.P.’d to your meeting invitations.
• Facebook: Syncs Facebook contacts to your address book, and a live widget gives the ability to update status and view latest updates from friends.
• Amazon MP3 Store: Download the latest tracks over the air.
• Verizon Wireless Visual Voice Mail: Delete, reply and forward voice mail messages without having to listen to prior messages or voice instructions.

Pricing and Availability:

• DROID by Motorola will be available in the United States exclusively at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online on Friday, Nov. 6, for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate.  Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.
• Experience the all-new DROID by Motorola at www.droiddoes.com.
• To get the most from DROID by Motorola smartphone, customers will need to subscribe to a Nationwide voice plan and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan.  Nationwide voice plans begin at $39.99 for monthly access for 450 minutes and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan is $29.99 for monthly access.
• For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

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We were just hit up by a new Verizon connect and it looks like the LG Chocolate Touch is on the horizon. We’re told that retail stores should be receiving stock within the next two weeks, which makes sense since it was featured in Verizon’s Holiday Lineup list. In case you missed the details, the Chocolate Touch will pack a 3.2 megapixel camera, EV-DO Rev. 0 (they couldn’t get with the times and get Rev. A?), Visual Voicemail and VZ Navigator. We’re not sure how we feel about the design, especially with LG offerings like the BL20 and BL40, you’d think this fresh new touch screen wouldn’t look like it was designed in the late 90s. It also looks like it’s packing the same tired OS which will look even more dead once Droid/s hit the scene, but with the right pricing we think this could do well with those who aren’t looking for full-featured smartphones. Hit the jump for a shot of the back.