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.

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 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!

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

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.

Read

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!

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?

Read

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.

One of our connects hit us up and informed us that the much-awaited Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris will be launching on the same day of November 6th. We previously heard from another source that Droid Eris would launch on the 6th, so we’re feeling pretty confident that you’ll be able to mosey on down to your local Verizon Wireless shop and pick one up for yourself come next Friday. Is this confirmed? No, but this is the closest we’re going to get besides an official announcement.

For Verizon fans, the biggest and most anticipated device coming from Big Red is the Droid, and many of you have come to rely on your pals at BGR as your one-stop-shop for Droid news, info and pics. Now we’re bringing a little more to the plate with Verizon’s holiday lineup. Most of this stuff is old news, so we won’t bore you with what you already know, but it is interesting to see how Verizon is gearing up its employees to handle the busiest time of year. In one slide, Verizon says, “No matter what customers want. They can find it here.” Unless they want the iPhone, we guess, right?

Of course, perhaps the juiciest tidbits on all these slides is the one featured above with the new 85xx series Curve with Wi-Fi, which is called the Curve2 for Verizon, and the time line below with the private sale. What could that possibly be? Unfortunately there is no release date for the Curve2, but at least Verizon customers can rest assured that it is indeed coming. You guys didn’t think that was going to stay at T-Mobile for long, did you? Hit the jump for the additional slides and images of the Curve2!

Lovers of all things BlackBerry might want to stop on by their local Verizon dealer this Wednesday as that’s the day “a powerful new Storm rolls onto Verizon Wireless’ network” (sorry, we couldn’t resist.) Going for $179.99 on a 2-year contract after a $100 MIR — no word yet on full retail — the Storm2 is everything that Storm 9530 users could hope for in that it is reliable, dependable and has Wi-Fi. We’ve got a production unit from Verizon that we’re currently testing and will publish a review of it shortly, but for now the best we can give you is a press release couple enormous press shots after the jump.

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and WATERLOO, ONTARIO — Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that the BlackBerry® Storm2™ smartphone will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications stores, online at www.verizonwireless.com, and through business sales channels beginning Oct. 28. The BlackBerry Storm2 with BlackBerry® OS 5.0 evolves the BlackBerry® touchscreen platform with hundreds of hardware and software enhancements – including new SurePress™ “clickable” display technology and built-in Wi-Fi® – delivering the exceptional multimedia experience and communications capabilities customers have come to expect from their BlackBerry smartphones.

Key Features:

• Smooth design and premium finish with sloped edges, chrome accents, glass lens and stainless steel backplate
• Large (3.25”), dazzling high-resolution 480 x 360 display at 184 ppi
• Capacitive touchscreen with integrated functions (Send, End, Menu, Escape) and new SurePress technology that makes clicking the display practically effortless
• 3G and global connectivity support for making phone calls in more than 220 countries and accessing data in more than 185 countries (with more than 80 destinations in 3G)
• Network Connectivity: EV-DO Revision A; UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz); and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks
• Supports Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• 256 MB of Flash memory
• 2 GB of onboard media storage and a microSD™/SDHD memory card slot with a 16 GB card included

Software Updates on BlackBerry Storm2:

• Features BlackBerry OS 5.0, which includes typing accuracy and selection improvements, as well as usability and visual enhancements such as inertial scrolling, spin boxes that make it easier to set dates and times, gradient shading on buttons, and more use of animation
• BlackBerry® Browser is improved with faster JavaScript and CSS processing as well as support for Gears and BlackBerry Widgets
• Customers running BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0 will gain the ability to set follow-up flags, manage e-mail folders, access remote files (Windows Shares), forward appointments, view calendar attachments, and more

Additional Features and Specifications:

• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, Image Stabilization (IS), flash and video recording capabilities
• Premium and easy-to-access phone features, background noise suppression technology, loud distortion-free speakerphone and face detection (proximity sensor) that prevents accidental clicks and blanks the screen while the customer is on the phone
• Media player for videos, pictures and music, plus support for BlackBerry Desktop Manager for both PCs and Macs, and BlackBerry® Media Sync, for easily syncing Windows Media® Player music with the smartphone*
• 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and dedicated volume controls
• Bluetooth® (v2.1) capable with support for Secure Simple Pairing, hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals
• Built-in GPS for maps and other location-based applications, as well as photo geotagging; and Verizon Wireless’ VZ NavigatorSM service is pre-loaded
• V CAST Music with Rhapsody
• Access to BlackBerry App World™, featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones, with categories including games, entertainment, IM and social networking, news, weather, productivity and more
• Support for Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Broadband Connect tethering service
• Removable, rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery that provides up to 5.5 hours of talk time or up to 11.2 days of standby time

Pricing and Availability:

• The BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone is available beginning Oct. 28 for $179.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement on a voice plan with an Email and Web feature or an Email and Web for BlackBerry plan. Customers will receive the mail-in rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. Data plans for the BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone begin at $29.99 when added to any Nationwide voice plan.
• New Operating System for Existing BlackBerry Storm Customers
• Existing BlackBerry Storm customers will be able to update their handsets to the new BlackBerry OS 5.0 software via Web software load (www.blackberry.com/update), BlackBerry Desktop Manager, or from Verizon Wireless’ download site (www.verizonwireless.com/storm). The software is available today.
• 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. Business customers can contact their Business Sales Representatives at 1-800-VZW-4BIZ.

* Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies.

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Verizon Storm users have reason to celebrate tonight because they’re part of a very special user base — the first BlackBerry users to recieve BlackBerry OS 5.0. We’ve already gone over the benefits of OS 5.0 a whole bunch, so all there is left for us to do is tell you how to get the goods. Either fire up BlackBerry Desktop Manager for PC or Mac and accept the prompt to update your handheld, or visit www.verizonwireless.com/storm. We’re just in the process of updating our 9530, but in the meantime, what does everyone that has it loaded up think? Has OS 5.0 made the first-gen Storm the phone it should have been one year ago, or is it just polishing a turd since the BlackBerry 9550 is just around the corner?

If you’re a Droid-chaser, you’ve no doubt been hooked to BGR for the past few weeks (more than normal, maybe?). We have our very own Motorola Droid handset, and although the software isn’t final, it’s solid enough where we feel comfortable giving you a nice preview of the unit. Remember, again, this isn’t a final unit and things can and will change for the better. Read on for our Motorola Droid Preview!

P.S. As we have been doing, we’ll follow up on this preview with a review based on a retail unit at release.

P.P.S. I just want to add that this is a Google Experience phone, and my line about Verizon and GPS was a joke. Verizon hasn’t and won’t touch or control any functionality on the Droid. GPS is 100% open, there’s Wi-Fi, Android Market, etc.

Hardware / Build quality:

When the Motorola Droid is released in the coming couple weeks, it will be the most advanced Android device on the market as far as specifications go. Software too, as it’s the only one said to be running Android 2.0 until months from now, but that’s for another section. There’s a 550MHz Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor, separate PowerVR GPU, 256MB of RAM, CDMA Rev A., Wi-Fi, GPS, a digital magnetometer, accelerometer, proximity sensors, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash, notification LED, four touch-sensitive navigation buttons, a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, 3.5mm headset jack, microUSB port — jesus. In the last year or two, spec sheets really haven’t meant all that much to people. Rational people, that is. What means a lot more is the OS your phone is running since that’s what going to enable you to take bad ass pictures and immediately share them with a close group of friends, or edit work documents on your phone while conducting an online presentation, and so on. But what’s actually pretty funny is, Android devices have been a little underpowered, so the spec sheets do matter, and the Motorola Droid absolutely topples every single Android device ever released as far as the hardware specifications are concerned.

We love the build quality of this phone. It’s mostly metal, and while it’s heavy, it gives you a reassuring quality feel that you just don’t find much nowadays as handsets get thinner, lighter, smaller, and cheaper. It’s practically the opposite of the Motorola CLIQ as far as the physical attributes of the device goes. Really solid and it seems to be manufactured very well. The slider is not spring-assisted, but when you push the metal bezel around the gorgeous display upwards, you get a satisfying click. It does the same when you slide it closed as well.

Screen:

It’s the largest capacitive screen we’ve ever seen and it’s positively amazing. It’s crisp, sharp, vibrant, bright, and really, really responsive. It’s almost iPhone-level in terms of the capacitive touch. We’re not sure if the screen is glass or plastic (we’ve heard glass but it’s incredibly hard to tell), but it doesn’t seem like it would scratch easily regardless of the material. The 3.7 inch display powers a 854×480 resolution image and shows off Android’s true colors. You see what we did there?

What’s interesting is this whole touch-button phase. On the HTC Desire/Predator/Your face, it also features touch-sensitive buttons just like the Droid does. The great part about the Droid’s implementation is that there’s haptic feedback when you press a button and to be perfectly honest, we don’t mind them at all. Would we prefer physical keys? Yeah, sure, but these work just fine and we haven’t come across any problematic occurrences.

Keyboard:

Everyone is bitching over the keyboard. Well, it’s probably better than you’d think, but it’s not perfect. As has been discussed ad nauseum, the unit we have has two blank keys. They don’t press in at all, so it’s not just like there isn’t anything written on them, they are just flat. We had initially been told this was because the keyboard design wasn’t finalized, and if you’ve been Droid-chasing for a while you’ll have noticed many different keyboard revisions. Love it or hate it, this keyboard design is actually final and will be on the device you buy from your favorite Verizon Wireless store. As far as the actual ‘board goes, there isn’t as much feedback as we’d have liked from the keys, but since the phone is so darn thin, there had to be compromises somewhere. People have asked why Motorola didn’t just make the phone into a keyboard-less version, and our answer would have to be: they are. We like the keyboard on the Droid and we’re really anal about keyboards. The directional pad on the right is a little weird at first but it doesn’t hamper your typing too much, but there isn’t enough tactile feedback to make it perfect. Something that’s a little annoying is the proximity of one key to another key, but all in all we’ve been able to bang out emails, texts, and other forms of text entry very efficiently on the hardware keyboard very quickly after using the device. It’s not the best, but it certainly isn’t bad, and it’s definitely better than the T-Mobile G1’s keyboard.

And oh… a ton of people are asking, and we’re not sure why you wouldn’t assume it already, but you can indeed use the on-screen keyboard in portrait as well as landscape mode.

Phone calling / speaker / call quality:

The Droid sounds great as a phone. Calls with the handset over Verizon’s network sounded clear and the phone application itself performed really well. It’s speedy and there weren’t any hiccups unlike some other Android devices we’ve fooled around with. The dialpad is pretty standard and if you’ve used an Android device, you should be right at home as this is a straight Google affair after all. Google Voice obviously works flawlessly (we’re not sure why it wouldn’t, unless you’re talking about the animal sacrifices Verizon makes to disable GPS on the phone…) and the phone application is quick! That’s probably what we love most about it… number dialed. Call connected. Have a nice day.

OS:

Ah, Android 2.0. We’ve detailed it quite a bit, but we can definitely explore it a little more for you… I personally never liked Android 1.0. Well, that’s not true completely. I liked it, but I just didn’t see it being the OS we expected. It wasn’t polished, it wasn’t fluid, it offered very basic functionality — not a good way to start. What has happened between Android 1.0 and 2.0 is that a lot of missing functionality has been added, the UI has been made a little bit more streamlined in some places, and it generally brings the OS up to speed with other mobile platforms. Out of the box Exchange compatibility is our absolutely favorite new feature, but we’re sure people will appreciate the new unified email Inbox, voice commands / search, a new Google Maps, better multimedia support, a new browser, and the list goes on and on. Once you have a chance to use Android 2.0 on any device, whether it’s HTC or Motorola or Samsung, we think you’re going to love it.

Battery:

This might come as a shock to many, but the Motorola Droid has the best battery life out of any Android device we’ve ever tested. It completely smokes the Motorola CLIQ — obviously it’s not constantly pushing as much data, but it’s not even a fair comparison. With push Exchange configured, Facebook, and a linked push Google account (Gmail, contacts, etc.) we had no problem lasting through a whole day of usage. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi were disabled, but it’s still a pretty amazing performer as far as the battery is concerned. Yes, it has a user-replaceable battery, but it’s probably good enough to be sealed up to be honest. Motorola recently made a boo boo and let the Droid appear on their website, and official battery times are: 6.5hrs of continuous usage (phone + web + email + anything else, continually) or around 270 hours of standby time.

Accessories:

There’s a really cool accessory that we’re told will be available at launch and it’s a charging dock/multimedia station. It turns your phone into an alarm clock/weather display/music player by using a magnet to control and launch the corresponding application. We discovered that by putting the phone in our BlackBerry 9700 holster in a certain position, Car Home would launch.

We then moved the magnet and the multimedia mode launched, so we’re guessing there’s going to be some sort of car cradle/dock/thing that will be available as well in addition to the above station.

Conclusion:

You know how we roll at BGR, we don’t hold anything back — if it’s hot, it’s hot. If it’s not, it’s not, and we’re not afraid to call it like it is. The Motorola CLIQ was a pretty big disappointment for me personally, but oh man does the Droid make up for it. Sure, there’s a little hype sprinkled in because this is the first Android 2.0 device I’ve had the pleasure of using, but once you move past the initial “wow” factor, the Droid really delivers. Whether it’s Verizon’s ad campaign or Motorola’s that pits the Droid against the iPhone it doesn’t matter. The Droid isn’t an iPhone competitor because nothing at this point in time is an iPhone competitor besides the new iPhone. And things don’t have to be right now. Everyone can eat. So will the Motorola Droid be successful? Absolutely, we think. It will eat in to BlackBerry sales, Windows Mobile sales, and positively murder any lingering Palm Pre sales. It’s that good. Did you notice how Verizon still hasn’t announced the BlackBerry Storm2?

We really enjoyed using the Motorola Droid and think you’re going to love it. It’s not as straight forward as an iPhone and a little more involved than a BlackBerry, but if you’re up for the challenge, so is the Droid.

There are a couple more comparison shots below!

Uh… so much for an announcement event? Or Motorola just doesn’t know what the hell is going on (most likely the reason), because the Motorola Droid makes an official appearance on Moto’s U.S. site. It just might be that we were sent this direct link which isn’t meant to be public, but… you know how that’s going to work out. In any case, the Motorola Droid, which we have torn limb from limb (check for our preview tomorrow) is indeed a bad ass mama jama, but if you don’t want to wait for our preview, hit the jump for some screenshots!

P.S. Something to note is that the browser supports HTML5 and Motorola says Flash 10 support is coming in 2010. K.

Thanks, David!

Had enough Android goodness yet? Good, neither have we. While we don’t have many new details on this one we do have an image — and isn’t an image worth 1,000 words after all? This HTC, Verizon branded, touch-screen Android handset has been brought to light (in a very low light setting) by a new connect. All they could provide (other than the pic) was that it was extremely fast, similar in size to Sprint’s Hero, and was sporting the luscious Sense UI.

Thanks, nmc1way!

Ready for more Motorola Droid nonsense? Good. We’ve just got a couple images of a promotional mailer that went out to one of our connects. It has a pretty decent shot of the device on it (What? You need more photos?) and those ever-clever “I do” key features the Droid, uh, does. Check out another two shots after the bounce.

Thanks, The Busymind!

If you thought you were in Android heaven, think again. We’ve just been given the go-ahead from one of our Motorola connects, and what you’re looking at is the Motorola Calgary (that’s a codename you might remember) slated to hit Verizon. Let’s focus on what appears to be a pretty popular theme with Motorola’s recent comeback efforts: a decent low-to-mid range handset with BLUR, and a high-end super smartphone, both Android of course. This would give Verizon customers (mostly those fickle teenyboppers) a real smartphone completely positioned for their liking, instead of the featurephones which shall remain nameless that are currently available on Big Red. In terms of hardware, there’s three touch-sensitive Android keys on the display, an optical joystick which we’ve been told performs really well, a workable QWERTY keyboard, and it sounds decent as a phone. The Motorola Calgary also features a 3 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headset jack, GPS, digital magnetometer, Wi-Fi, microSD card slot, and spring-assisted slider.

Our connect has been testing it over the past month and said the OS builds running on it are incredibly smooth as well as responsive. It’s certainly no Droid, but hey, it doesn’t have to be. No hard release date but we might be looking at a Q4 release… Hit the jump for some more pics!

Thanks, Big Ed!

We know it’s coming — Verizon’s CEO is flashing it to random college students around NYC, RIM is updating BIS infrastructure, and there’s been a ton of release dates flying around. However, it now looks like Verizon Wireless’ web team is jumping on the Storm 2 bandwagon as well. Last night the Storm Part Deux made it’s debut on the VZW website — all 360 degrees of it. Take er’ for a spin, won’t you? Also, if you’re up for it, we’d love to know if you are an original Storm owner and are planning to get the new Storm2 over the BlackBerry Tour or Motorola Droid. Hit us up!

Thanks, Jason!

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We absolutely nailed this puppy to the wall over and over and over again, so it’s only fitting we’d be doing the first actual unveiling, right? We’re not going to get too in-depth though, that will come at a later time. Here are some brief thoughts before the photos:

• It’s running Android 2.0. Duh.
• It’s thin. Just slightly thicker than an iPhone 3GS and the thinnest QWERTY-slider we’ve ever seen.
• It is the fastest Android device we’ve ever used. (It’s running a TI OMAP3430 processor)
• The feel of the device is very reminiscent of the OQO 02 model computer. Just smaller. It’s metal with a non-spring-assisted slide, very sturdy, and half soft-touch plastic.
• Awesome capacitive display. Plus it’s huge. Easily the best screen we’ve ever seen on an Android handset, and an amazing screen overall.
• The QWERTY keyboard is actually pretty usable and has a soft-touch rubberized finish. We’ve been told the keyboard design isn’t final on this unit, thus the two no-shows.
• Have we mentioned this phone flies? It’s the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive. From what we’ve been told, Google had a direct hand in the Motorola Droid. Something to the point of almost dictating every move Motorola made when designing and making the phone. Interesting, huh?
• There’s a desktop cradle/charger that will ship with the Motorola Droid that we’ve been playing around with. It turns your Droid into a “multimedia station” and displays local weather, the time, etc.
• No one wants to listen, but it makes the CLIQ looks like a child’s toy (partly because it is, and partly because the Droid, even in its non-final form, is the most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone. It’s positively amazing).

Ok, enough of that — enjoy the photos! We’ll put together a nice little review soon.

Click on over to our Motorola Droid hands on gallery!

We just got a link to Verizon’s new campaign directly aimed at the iPhone, and boy is it awesome. Everything the iPhone doesn’t, the Droid does, huh? Hit the link for some more shots of the ad!

Thanks, ffcsquall24

UPDATE: Our faithful commenters seem to have deciphered the countdown and it appears to be counting down to October 30th. Hmm, where have we heard that date before?

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