We know what you’re thinking, the DROID and CLIQ are just too cool, I need something more lame. Well, Motorola has got you covered. Say hello the the MOTO Klassic. This new hotness oddness lameness clamshell will only be available in Korea for the time being but the specs are pretty mind blowing: blazing 2G connectivity, a 5 megapixel camera, external touch screen, and (brace yourself) an “espresso color keypad.” Truth be told, we weren’t completely sold on this one until we read about the espresso colored keypad. So put down those wallets DROID fans, you might want to just wait and see if this hot little number is coming to the good old U.S.A.

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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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Recently, TELUS issued a press release letting Canadians know that their handsets are now being offered through Black’s, the nation-wide digital camera chain. This news in itself didn’t interest us in the least, but for giggles we clicked on through to Black’s website just to see what handsets it was going to be offering considering the odd partnership. What did we see in the line up? None other than a TELUS branded BlackBerry Storm2. Unfortunately what you see above is all we have for now as this sucker has not yet been announced by TELUS, but we have a feeling that will change very, very soon.

Thanks, Tony!

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A year ago Sony Ericsson’s prominence was dropping faster than Kirstie Alley could pound back Quarter Pounders, but its most recent offerings have been successful in generating buzz in a way that the Japanese-Swedish phone maker hasn’t experienced in quite some time. Fast forward to today where pictures of the companies second Symbian S60 device have leaked out by way of Russia and again we have some buzz, this time about how its 8.1 megapixel camera might be able to record videos at resolutions up to 720p. It’s codenamed Kurara and is said to have a 3.5″ AMOLED display, but other than that we really don’t know anything about it, other than it’s likely to come sometime within the next 6 months. More pictures are available after the break.

Thanks to everyone that send this in!

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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

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

Yes, yes y’all. We’re back with Act 2. Following up on the much-loved BlackBerry 9700 Review: Part 1, we’re here to go over the T-Mobile version of the handset. We’ll give you another look at it, and clarify anything that might have changed between our previous not-final unit and what we have now (which is what you’ll be getting in stores). And of course give you some awesome pictures to drool over. After the jump, fine friends, is where the goodies are at!

Hardware changes

While not much has changed hardware-wise from a larger viewpoint, there are a couple things we’ve noticed. First off, if you look at the keyboard and the trackpad specifically, you’ll see a very small piece of plastic that’s connecting the back and menu keys. This actually broke in half on our pre-release BlackBerry 9700, and while it hasn’t affected its use, it got us a little concerned about the build quality. We haven’t confirmed whether the retail Bold 9700s use different parts or not, and we haven’t heard of this happening to anyone else, but it’s just something to look out for.

As far as the processor is concerned, we reported that the Bold 9700 was sporting an 800MHz capable CPU. RIM’s official specs say it’s a 624MHz processor, but we think it might be a newer model than what the original Bold had. It’s also quite possible it’s under-clocked as well. We’ll try and clarify this and report back. Regardless of the actual CPU specifications on the 9700 though, one thing is certain: it’s the fastest damn BlackBerry we’ve ever used. There unfortunately is no internal memory as there was on the previous Bold, and while we believe it’s carrier dependent, the T-Mobile unit ships with a 2GB microSD card.

One last thing about the hardware… honestly not a big deal, but since we’re comparing the retail unit to the other unit we had, Michael and I both noticed that the lock and mute keys are very easy to press on the retail unit. And that’s not for the best as we both accidentally lock / put our Bold 9700s in a mute coma from time to time. Again, not the end of the world, just a change from our other unit.

OS changes

OS 5.0 is finally ready to rock. The much-needed upgrade tries to bandage RIM’s aging yet nicely skinned operating system, and it seems to do a good job of it on the top layer. While dumb things like gradients, sounds for events, and other little UI improvements may look stupid on paper (read: they are), hey, us BlackBerry folk have to take all that we can get. And even though that’s not a lot, it’s still something to slightly freshen up this beast. Something we’ve noticed in the version on the 9700 is that marking messages as read takes a long, long time. This was an issue on a couple beta OS builds for the 9700, so it’s surprising to see it on a production OS. Not a show stopper, but something annoying if you mark message read fairly frequently like I do.

Keyboard changes

Oh those pesky QWERTY keyboards. Some are too small, some are too big, some are spaced too close, some have incorrect layouts — is there a perfect keyboard in existence? Well, if there’s one to be found, we’re pretty sure it is on the BlackBerry Bold 9700. A beautiful blend of the original Bold keyboard with the Tour’s keyboard, it really provides a great typing experience. Keys click but aren’t clackity, there’s enough spacing to allow a definition between keys yet it isn’t boat-sized like its older brother — and it just feels damn good to type on.

Phone changes

Using the phone as an actual phone is still really pleasurable. Calls are very clear, volume is great, and BlackBerry smartphones in general just rock as phones. There’s no fuss, you dial a number and make your call. We’re used to AT&T, but to be honest we couldn’t tell the difference between the two. This T-Mobile unit is solid and we experienced no dropped calls even in fringe areas, and 3G service was great.

Battery changes

This isn’t going to be fair because of T-Mobile’s global meltdown yesterday–the day when we were really pushing the 9700 to the floor– so, well, you know, it didn’t work. We were on SOS for the better part of a day, but Wi-Fi did stay connected to the outside world thankfully. Unfortunately however, Wi-Fi kind of ransacked our battery. The good news is that even with Wi-Fi on and connected for 12 hours straight with constant email usage, BlackBerry Messenger usage, and very light browsing, we still had around 25% of battery left at the end of the day. It’s great, and we’re really happy that RIM has further improved their battery life while making a device faster and smaller. We weren’t kidding when we said average usage is about double compared to the original Bold, and it looks to stay that way in the retail release.

Conclusion

You know, it’s sort of like clockwork. Once every six months we proclaim the latest BlackBerry to be the best BlackBerry ever. Well, we hate to disappoint you, but it doesn’t look like we’re stopping that tradition anytime soon. The BlackBerry Bold 9700, for whatever network it’s powered by, is the finest BlackBerry to date. From the gorgeous screen to the perfect keyboard, to the pocketable size and swift processor, the Bold 9700 seems like it can do almost anything you throw at it. With 256MB of RAM, you’ve got a little more room for applications and data, and the device doesn’t ever seem to get bogged down. We have never even gotten a spinning clock (yet). It’s that solid.

The BlackBerry platform has its advantages and disadvantages (what, we’re not vocal enough about it?), but if you’re an existing BlackBerry user or just don’t require a media-focused device, the Bold 9700 might be right up your alley.

Rogers, Bell, and TELUS in Canada have pretty much all started to release BlackBerry 9700 units into the wild, T-Mobile’s offering business customers a little head start, and AT&T’s looks to be near as well.

Rogers Wireless was the first carrier to bring Android smartphones to Canada with the HTC Dream and Magic — two devices that weren’t exactly cutting edge — and now it’s trying to generate some excitement with the Eve, LG’s first Android offering. Pre-loaded with the Social Networks Manager app, an aggregate for Facebook, Twitter and Bebo, the Eve is being positioned as the “ultimate smartphone for social media enthusiasts”. There isn’t anything extraordinary going on spec wise, but the Eve should get the job done for most with a 3″ touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and 7.2Mbps HSPA. All of this can be yours for $49.99 on contract or $399.99 without. You know, unless you want to wait until Thursday to see just how much the TELUS’s HTC Hero is going to set you back.Read

We don’t think we need to go over what an insanely huge day today is for Canada, but in case anyone is feeling particularly thick, we’re going to spell it out plan and simple — Rogers is no longer the only HSPA game in Canada. Bell’s 21Mbps HSPA network has at long last gone live. As with any network launch, a few awesome handsets, data cards and a few Canadian-style rip-off plans have come along for the ride. So hit the jump and check out what’s new.

Smartphones

• Apple iPhone 3G – $99.95 / 599.95 (3-year contract / no strings attached)
• Apple iPhone 3GS (16GB) – $199.95 / $699.95
• Apple iPhone 3GS (32GB) – $299.95 / $799.95
• BlackBerry Bold 9700 – $229.95 / $599.95
• BlackBerry Bold 9000 – $249.95 / $599.95
• Samsung Omnia II – $199.95 / $549.95

Non-Smartphones

• LG Xenon – $89.95 / $289.95
• Nokia 2730 – $27.95 / $119.95
• Nokia 6350 – $49.95 / $249.95
• Samsung Impact – $79.95 / $279.95

Data Sticks

• Novatel Wireless U950 – $24.95 / $174.95
• Novatel Wireless U998 – $74.95 / $174.95
• Novatel Wireless X950 – $24.95 / $174.95

SIM Cards

• $0 / $5

As for price plans, not all that much has changed (the $6.95 SAF is staying for now), but Bell did introduce some iPhone specific plans which are as follows:

Combo 45 for iPhone

• 100 anytime local minutes plus 50 bonus local minutes
• Local Fab Five: Unlimited calling & text to and from five local numbers of your choice
• 500 MB of data for personal email, Internet browsing
• Unlimited local nights & weekends (9 p.m. – 7 a.m.)

Combo 55 for iPhone

• 300 anytime local minutes
• Local Fab Five
• 1 GB of data for personal email, Internet browsing
• Unlimited local nights & weekends (9 p.m. – 7 a.m.)

Combo 75 for iPhone

• 400 anytime local minutes
• Nationwide Fab Five: Unlimited calling & text to and from five local numbers of your choice nationwide
• 2 GB of data for personal email, Internet browsing
• Unlimited local nights & weekends (9 p.m. – 7 a.m.)

Combo 95 for iPhone

• 500 anytime local minutes
• Nationwide Fab Five
• 2 GB of data for personal email, Internet browsing
• Unlimited local nights & weekends (9 p.m. – 7 a.m.)

Now to sit and wait for TELUS’ day in the sun to see what, if any, surprises it has in store beyond what we already know.

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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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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.

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.

And yet another manufacturer has officially entered the Android game as Sony Ericsson has formally announced the XPERIA X10. Powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and running on Android 1.6 “Donut”, the X10 boasts a 4″ WVGA capacitive touchscreen display, an 8.1 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and two flavors of UMTS/HSPA — one of which supports T-Mobile, the other, AT&T — in addition to quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. Regrettably there is only 1GB of built in memory, although an 8GB microSD card ships in the box. In terms of UI customization, the X10 comes with the UI overlay UX called Rachael (user experience) which extends into two premier apps: Mediascape — the media player which we’ve already seen twice — and Timescape, which more or less is SE’s answer to a MOTOBLUR type skin. Pricing and countries of availability has yet to be announced, but the XPERIA X10 will be available in Q1 2010 in Sensuous Black and Lustre White (yes, we LOL’d, too). Hit the jump for a promo video and a press release.

03 November 2009

Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X10 introduces an open and integrated world of social media, communication and entertainment

• XPERIA™ X10 is the flagship phone in a family of phones coming to market during the first half of 2010. The XPERIA™ X10 will be available in Q1 2010
• New UX (user experience) platform lets consumers organise everything and discover more with the most open, human and intuitive user experience yet

London – November 3 2009 – Sony Ericsson today unveils the XPERIA™ X10, the first phone in a family of phones to deliver a consistent user experience where communication truly becomes entertainment. Building on Sony Ericsson’s entertainment heritage and combining rich graphics with intelligence capabilities, the XPERIA™ X10   introduces a new UX platform that will evolve across the product portfolio and expand over time continuously introducing new features and capabilities.

The UX platform builds on top of the Open OS and creates a unique Sony Ericsson user experience by combining best-in-class entertainment features with signature applications, unrivalled integration of social media services and a rich graphical user interface. The XPERIA™ X10 is the first mobile phone to truly humanise the way people interact with their phones.

Bert Nordberg, President, Sony Ericsson said, “The XPERIA™ X10 and the family of phones launching in the first half of 2010 underpin our commitment to an open and multi-platform strategy that maximises choice for the consumer and delivers the best possible consumer experience. The reaction from our global operator partners to the XPERIA X10 has been extremely positive and we will be rolling out across the world including Japan from the first half of 2010.”

Rikko Sakaguchi, EVP and Chief Creation Officer, Sony Ericsson said, “The XPERIA™ X10 is a fantastic example of our make.believe philosophy because we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and demonstrating that anything consumers can imagine, we can make possible. With the X10, we are raising the bar we have set ourselves with entertainment-rich phones like Aino and Satio by making communication more fun and playful, multiplying and enriching opportunities to connect.”

Introducing signature applications like Mediascape and Timescape™, the XPERIA™ X10 lets consumers organise everything in their phone in an intuitive way:

• Sony Ericsson Timescape™ manages all your communication with one person in one place.  Browse through your conversations the bright way to check out your Facebook™, Twitter™, photos, emails, and texts all in one go
• Sony Ericsson Mediascape is the smart way to get all the music, photos and videos you want from your favourite friends and artists. It accesses content from everywhere – your phone, YouTube™, PlayNow™ – and presents everything for you

Intelligence capabilities, integrated into Mediascape and Timescape™, can automatically recognise connections between contacts, content and media. By recommending alternative ways to communicate or guiding to new media experiences, consumers can discover more in a truly open way. For example:

• Pressing the new “infinite button” guides you through the connected world, aggregating all your interactions with one person into one view
• Intelligent face recognition features recognise up to five faces in any picture, automatically connecting them with your social phonebook and all other related communications with that person.

Sony Ericsson’s open approach gives consumers maximum choice and with the XPERIA™ X10, users can download any application that they want direct from a wide variety of stores including PlayNow™ and the Android Market™, co-creating an experience that is entirely unique to them.

Sony Ericsson is also introducing the new Wireless Stereo Headset with FM Radio – MW600. Featuring advanced Bluetooth™ technology and a built-in FM radio, MW600 lets you stream music to your headset in high fidelity through sound-enhancing ear-buds. With a crystal clear OLED display, easy access controls and RDS radio station information, you don’t even need to take your phone with you to tune in to your favourite radio station.

The XPERIA™ X10 supports GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS HSPA 900/1700/2100 and UMTS HSPA 800/850/1900/2100

The XPERIA™ X10 will be available in selected markets from Q1 in the colours Sensuous Black and Luster White.

Log on to The Sony Ericsson Product Blog for more information: http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X10 at a glance

Camera

• 8.1 megapixel camera
• Up to 16x digital zoom
• Auto focus
• Intelligent face recognition features
• Geo tagging
• Image and video stabilizer
• Photo and video light
• Send to web (photo and video upload)
• Smile detection
• Touch focus
• Video recording
• Recent shot tray

Music

• Album art
• Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
• Media player
• Music tones (MP3/AAC)
• PlayNow™
• TrackID™

Web

• Bookmarks
• Google™ search (from standby)
• Web feeds
• WebKit web browser

Communication

• Sony Ericsson Timescape™
• Speakerphone
• Vibrating alert

Messaging

• Conversations
• Email
• Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync®
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Predictive text input
• Text messaging (SMS)

Design

• Auto rotate
• Gesture control
• Picture wallpaper
• Touchscreen

Entertainment

• 3D games
• Media browser
• Infinite button
• Video streaming
• Video viewing
• YouTube™

Organiser

• Alarm clock
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Flight mode
• Infinite button
• Office suite
• Phone book with dialer
• World clock

Location-based services

• A-GPS
• Google Maps™
• Wisepilot™ turn-by-turn navigation* (free trial version)

• *The service may not be available in every market. For more information, go to www.sonyericsson.wisepilot.com

Connectivity

• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Bluetooth™ technology
• Micro USB connector
• Synchronisation
• USB support
• Wi-Fi™

Preloaded applications

• Sony Ericsson Timescape™
• Sony Ericsson Mediascape
• Sony Ericsson Home with clock widget
• Sony Ericsson Sync
• Android Market™ Client
• Gmail™
• Google Calendar™
• Google Maps™ with Street View
• Google Media Uploader
• Google phone-top search
• Google search widget
• Google Talk™
• Google Voice Search™
• Network Location Provider
• Set-up Wizard
• YouTube™

Screen

• 262,144 colour TFT touchscreen
• 4.0 inches
• 480 x 854 pixels (WVGA)
• Scratch-resistant

Accessories
In-Box:

• XPERIA™ X10
• Battery
• Stereo portable handsfree
• 8 GB microSD™ card
• Micro USB cable for charging, synchronisation and file transfer
• User documentation

Optional:

• Hi-Fi Wireless Headset with FM Radio MW600
• Car Charger AN300
• Screen Protector ET902

Facts 1)2)

• Size: 119 x 63 x 13 mm
• Weight: 135 grams

• Phone memory: Up to 1 GB

• Memory card support: microSD™

• Memory card included: 8 GB

• Operating system: Google™ Android Donut, version 1.6
• Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ QSD8250

Availability and versions

• Networks

• UMTS HSPA 900/1700/2100
• GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

• UMTS HSPA 800/1900/2100
• GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

• Available in selected markets in Q1 2010

Colour

• Sensuous Black
• Luster White

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Canadians with a ravenous appetite for all things BlackBerry should take note that Rogers Wireless has begun selling the BlackBerry Bold 9700 on its website. Available for $299.99 on a 3-year with voice and data, the Bold 9700 is also being offered for $599.99 with no strings attached. As for when HSPA newcomers Bell and TELUS will be offering up the 9700, the latest word is that both carriers will offer the device the day they launch their new networks. For Bell, that’s the 4th of November with TELUS following the very next day.

Thanks, ILLIONAIRE!

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Good news for Android 2.0 hungry Europeans this early afternoon as Motorola has officially announced the European (read: GSM/UMTS) version of the DROID. Dubbed the Motorola MILESTONE, the two handsets appear to be identical spec wise save for the obvious differences in cellular radios. Oddly enough, the MILESTONE will feature one thing on every DROID lovers wish list — multitouch. The reason why the MILESTONE has multitouch while its American cousin does not isn’t clear, but the general feeling is this is directly related to some intellectual property that Apple might or might not own. If any American’s are feeling a bit snookered by this, they can take comfort knowing that they still have the market cornered on Google Maps Navigation as the MILESTONE will instead come pre-loaded with MOTONAV in its place. Italy and Germany will be the first European nations to get the Motorola MILESTONE, with the handset being available from The Phone House, O2 and Vodafone in the latter country starting November 9th.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

Back in July we fought back drool while watching a leaked video of the custom UI overlay Sony Ericsson has prepared for the soon to be official XPERIA X3. Today, we’re repeating the process all over again as yet another UI video has surfaced, this time dealing specifically with the media player. Looking wonderfully polished, well thought out and seemingly liberally borrowing styling cues from Microsoft’s Zune HD, the overall hotness cannot be denied. Yes, indeed, we cannot wait to get some hands on time with the XPERIA X3 so we can pit it against Motorola’s DROID. Hit the jump to check out the video.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

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Let’s be clear right off the bat: this is no rumor. The Motorola DROID is steaming towards a release on O2 Germany under the name MILESTONE. The news of this came from a German blog which leaked a photo of a business guide (pic after the jump) as well as an official O2 device price list which shows the MILESTONE coming in at 404.20€ or $594.93 USD before taxes (and subsidies). If that isn’t proof enough, we pulled the image above from from O2’s site after a simple Google query. No doubt there will be some people Stateside that refuse to go over to Verizon to get the DROID (we get a huge kick out of network fanboyism), so how many of you would be willing to import one of these Android 2.0 behemoths even if it lacks US 3G?

Thanks, Schreifels!

Read – Business Guide

Read – O2 Price List [PDF link]

Read – MILESTONE on O2’s website

A couple days ago, HTC tweeted the Hero would be anointed with Android 2.0, just like the DROID, and now, HTC’s website is showing us that the Hero will be offered on Telus’ network in GSM/HSDPA goodness. No specification surprises in the GSM variant: Telus’ Hero will have the same Qualcomm MSM7200A 528MHz processor, WiFi b/g, BlueTooth 2.0, and 5 megapixel camera as its CDMA cousin. There has been no indication from HTC as to whether the GSM Hero will ship with Android 1.5 or 2.0 in tow, but we’re sure it will make its way onto the handset eventually. Think HTC has developed a bit of a complex from all the Motorola DROID hoopla?

Thanks, Juicy47!

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As Bell and TELUS put the finishing touches on their Canada-wide 21Mbps HSPA network that is set to launch next week, press releases announcing their HSPA handsets are coming across the wire at a feverish pace. The latest to be announced is the Windows Mobile 6.5-powered Omnia II which is to be exclusive to Bell. Featuring a 3.7″ AMOLED WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and 7.2Mbps UMTS/HSPA connectivity, the Omnia II is definitely a nice device that will make many a Canadian happy. And so it should, as Canadian’s patriotism will be tested when they see it in shops as it has been designated the “Official Mobile Device of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.” Why? Because Bell sure earned that right after it spent an insane $200mm for the right to be the official communications sponsor of the games. Pricing and a specific release date have not yet been announced, but the Omnia II will be available starting next month. Oh, and just for the record, no, we did not edit in the photo of the curling rock. Bell actually seems to be under the delusion that people in Canada enjoy curling. Tsk, tsk.Read

That’s right, y’all! We’re back. Sorry to keep you waiting but we wanted to make sure this was rock solid, and we really wanted to add in some more features that people have been requesting. TweetGenius v1.1 is now available for purchase and supports practically every BlackBerry. That includes the Storm and Storm2! Here’s some of the new features we added:

• Send tweets
• Automatically fetch new tweets in the background
• Save tweets as favorites
• Delete tweets
• Send your GPS location
• Send photos to numerous online photo services
• Shorten URLs with bit.ly
• View trends in real time
• Search
• Mark messages as read when you’re done reading them
• Customize themes and fonts
• View photos
• View user profiles and timelines
• View users by both username and real name

That’s some of the improvements we’ve made and we’re sure you’re going to love them. So… what are you waiting for? Couple more shots after the jump!

Note: SureType handsets aren’t compatible at this time.

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A mere two days after its release, Android 2.0 SDK has already been ripped from the womb and ported over to a T-Mobile G1. Currently in the most crude state possible, the cooked ROM runs as quickly as Babe Ruth did at his heaviest (and drunkest).The mere fact it’s able to run without melting the G1 and its 192MB of RAM, though, should give hope that the fine folks over at XDA-Developers will be able iron out enough wrinkles to make it usable as a daily driver. The only question is will G1/Dream and myTouch 3G/Magic users be treated to some delicious Eclairs like Hero users, or will they be stuck stuffing their faces with Donuts? We’re thinking the latter. Hit the jump for a video.

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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!

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The Android 2.0 news keeps on a comin’! According to HTC via Twitter, the Hero will be blessed with an Eclair software update although an exact release date has yet to be determined. All signs indicate HTC will forgo the 1.6 update and focus on getting the Sense UI tweaked for 2.0 and kicking on the Hero. First the DROID, now the Hero…what handset will be next to grab a little Eclair?

“The rumors are true! Hero will be getting an Eclair update. We ask for your patience as we update Sense for the fancy new Android OS.”

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