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This is the [Droid] you're looking for - $199 with 2-year Contract, hits 11/6
Lanz
...Za?Registered User regular
...Za?Registered User regular
image from Gizmodo
So, Verizon has now officially unveiled the new Motorola Droid, which appears to be the companies' answer to AT&T and the iPhone. According to a press event today, the Droid will launch November 6 of this year.
The Droid will also come with Google's new Google Maps Navigation, a free GPS navigation app, that, well, works like a GPS navigator (though Google says it'll be open to other carriers and handsets, and supposedly they're in talks with Apple for an iPhone version)
What is it?
The Droid is the new Smartphone being released by Motorola through Verizon. The carrier seems to have been building up to it's release with it's latest series of ads that have been tackling AT&T and the iPhone, in their "There's a Map for that" and "Droid Does" ads. As well, the device is reported to be a "Google Experience" device, so here's hoping that means that Verizon's sticky past with trying to control their handsets won't be the case here.
What's it run?
The Droid runs Android 2.0 as it's operating system, reported to be a noted improvement over 1.6. Here's (spoilered for length)BGR's preview of the OS:
We hope you Android lovers out there are sitting down, because we’re about to knock your socks off. Android 2.0 hasn’t been released, announced, or even pictured. Until now. And we’re doing it like we’re doing it for TV — major screenshots and major information right here, just for you, our beloved readers.
Android 2.0 looks to be a major improvement in Google’s mobile OS and we couldn’t be more excited about it. From native Exchange support to native Facebook support (it will sync with your contacts), browser improvements, a completely updated Maps application, unified email Inbox — there’s much, much more — and a brand new UI makeover, version 2.0 starts to make Android a really viable (and interesting) platform. Bounce over the jump for all the screenshots and our walkthrough!
Please note: this isn’t the final build of Android 2.0 and the follow reporting is based on the version we have running. Things can and will change prior to release.
Microsoft Exchange compatibility looks to be built-in to the OS now, and the new unified Inbox is perfect for keeping up with your personal and corporate email. You can star (flag for the corporate world) emails, mark multiple as read or unread, delete, forward — whatever you want basically. Emails load effortlessly. Unfortunately (or not so unfortunately) the unified Inbox won’t work with your Gmail account as that uses the specific Google-made Gmail email application in Android.
Maps has been updated to include Layers. We’d imagine this will grow over time but now you can overlay search queries, Wikipedia entries, Latitude buddies, traffic, transit lines, and even load remote My Maps where you can share and receive directions with others. Android 2.0 seems to have some multi-touch gestures built-in like two-finger tapping in Maps, that will zoom in, however, there’s no gesture to zoom out and pinching doesn’t work. © Apple.
The browser has a nice little UI makeover with a redone URL entry bar which includes a Favicon. In terms of performance, no this version we have doesn’t have Flash 10, Google keeps making strides in the browser space. It’s worlds better than anything we’ve used previously on a stock Android OS, and jumps one notch higher than HTC’s customized browser. There is not multi-touch in here as of now, but, you can double tap to zoom in and zoom out which is really all we’ve been asking for since Android 1.0. Oh and did we mention this thing flies? We’re talking ridiculously close to iPhone 3GS web page speeds.
There’s now a YouTube widget you can place directly on your homescreen and that allows for literally two-click YouTube video uploads. You hit record, the video recording app launches, you type in a title and description for your newly-recorded video, and it’s up and away.
While the settings area is roughly the same overall, there’s a lot of interesting additions in 2.0. For starters, there’s haptic feedback built-in and a brand new Accessibility option. There’s also a new option for Text-to-speech and generally with Android 2.0, you’re given more control over the settings of your phone and more opportunities to customize it based on your liking. Something completely bewildering is the fact that if you set a lock code for the phone (seriously give people a choice to use numbers or letters as the passcode), there’s no lock interval option, so each time your phone turns off (about every 30 seconds when not in use), you’re forced to enter the password again on arrival. Lame.
Car Home. What? You don’t know what that is? Ok, it’s a new application that’s meant to be used, uh, in your car. Seriously it’s actually quite nice. It’s a consolidated list of icons that help you perform things (presumably using voice commands if you’re driving). Things like doing a voice search across the internet, getting driving directions, viewing a location on a map, selecting a contact, searching through your phone, etc. It’s very cool that you can say, “map of gas stations” and that will open Google Maps and show you on the map where all the gas stations are closest to you. Not exactly new technology, but hey, we didn’t say it was. We said this was all about pushing Android forward, and it is.
The Amazon MP3 application seems to work over 3G instead of just Wi-Fi now, but whether that is something done because of Android 2.0 or just because of the carrier it’s running on, we’re not positively sure.
Contacts seem to be much more roomy and there’s some great functionality built right in. Instead of hitting the contact and then diving through it to find the contact information you need, just tap the contact’s photo. Up will spring a clean and tidy sub-menu with the pertinent information which can be clicked on. Send someone an email instantly, open up their Facebook profile, or even call them! Very cool and all great things that we love seeing.
Things like the music application and gallery application don’t look to have changed too much, if at all. There also looks to be some more flexibility when defining homescreen shortcuts and things of that nature.
That’s all we have for you today, guys. What do you think of Android 2.0 in its not-final version? We’re loving it. And it could help that it’s running on a pretty bad ass piece of machinery, but hey, that’s for another day.
Specs
[Taken and paraphrased from Boy Genius Reports and leaked information from Motorola. Note: this is just a brief overview, you can find more in the links]
CPU: 550MHz Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor
GPU: PowerVR GPU
Memory: 256MB of RAM, 16GB microSD card
Wireless: CDMA 1X 800/1900, EVDO rev A, 802.11 b&g Wi-Fi, GPS
Camera: 5-megapixel auto-focus camera, 4x digital zoom, Dual-LED flash
Video Capture: 720x480 24fps
Interface: 3.7 Capacitive Touchscreen (reportedly glass), touch-sensitive navigation buttons, Full QWERTY keyboard
Ports: headset jack (3.5mm), microUSB port (USB 2.0)
Misc. Hardware: digital magnetometer, accelerometer, proximity sensors, notification LED
Media Formats: AAC, H.263, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, WMA, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR WB, MID AMR NB
Picture Formats: JPEG, GIF, BMP and PNG
Okay, so what's this going to run me
The price for the Droid will be $200 with 2-year contract, but only counting the somewhat peculiar mail-in rebate (in this case, a... debit card? WTF Verizon?)
Lanz on
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Not that I expect anyone to really know, since there's not much info out at the moment, but maybe someone's read more on it than I have.
From what I've read, this is the one you'd want to go with.
There's also a rumor going around that the Droid's design was dictated to Motorola by Google, but I've yet to find a definitive source on that that doesn't essentially amount to hearsay
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Full DVD resolution on a goddamn cell phone, people.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
I heard that too, I forget who, it's ether Gizmodo or Engadget that's got a video outta Vietnam of the thing.
Not sure if it's coming here though, the rumors I heard about it said it was unlikely [like, it'd just be a foreign territories unit]
I read somewhere that Verizon only lets you get smartphones if you sign up for a data plan. Not sure if that's true, but I just read it earlier today.
I upgraded to an HTC Imagio on Oct. 7th, and the interface is slick, but I'm having reservations since the unit is a little slow (uses an old processor) and since the Droid looks so fast and has so much potential. I had decided not to wait for it when I got my Imagio, since I'm not really a Google user (besides maps, I mean - I don't use gmail and I don't particularly want to), but now I kinda want to try to trade my Imagio in for this when it launches next week. If I bought my Imagio on Oct. 6th and activated it on Oct. 7th, I can still trade this in next week (within the 30 day limit), right? Will they not let me do the trade-in since this is going to be such a hot item? I'll probably head over to a Verizon store on Monday and make sure that this can happen. The two units are the same price, so I hope that I can just do a quick swap. I suppose I'd pick up the little desk-docking station, too (not included).
I suppose there'd be no harm in that, if it's possible.
Personally at that rate I'd just save up for a netbook or something and use that and have a normal phone, though.
We were actually discussing that in the Android thread, and you can only get smartphones with a data plan included. If you want one without it you have to pay for the full price of the phone.
Also, does anybody know a list of upcoming Android capable phones on Verizon?
I remember hearing rumors about the HTC Hero.
I'm Jacob Wilson. | facebook | thegreat2nd | [url="aim:goim?screenname=TheGreatSecond&message=Hello+from+the+Penny+Arcade+Forums!"]aim[/url]
According to Ars, the mail-in rebate is $100, so I guess you're looking at $299 overall
PSN: HooverFanPA
Steam: HooverFan
nothing else to say other than WANT
I'm sure it's twice that if he wants to get it without a contract.
A hard hit for a college student @_@
I'm Jacob Wilson. | facebook | thegreat2nd | [url="aim:goim?screenname=TheGreatSecond&message=Hello+from+the+Penny+Arcade+Forums!"]aim[/url]
Yes. Data plans do not cover all lines in the Family Plans. I have a data plan on my line but my mom doesn't on hers. Only my line is charged the 30 for data.
Steam: Car1gt // Tumblr // Facebook // Twitter
I've seen how crazy the verizon store by my house can get when a new phone is released, when the storm came out you'd think they were giving out free money or something. Is going to the store to acquire it much better than doing a preorder online? OR if you preorder it online can you just go to the store and pick it up the day it comes out?
I stayed away from Verizon just because they lock out stuff on phones and make you have to go through their Vxast thing or whatever. Is the Droid pretty free in configuration terms?
Seriously, go to a store and just browse for phones to get a feel for what you like, then order it online. The rebate is not a MIR, it is instant online, so you're not paying the extra $100 up front, and you're also not paying taxes on that $10 as well. You just have to wait two business days. And FREE shipping.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
http://androidandme.com/2009/10/news/google-fails-to-address-app-storage-issue-with-droid-and-android-2-0/
There are plenty of other members of the OHA other than Google, and they could actually try to do something about that limitation. They could even do it without Google's "blessing". There are workarounds available on the XDA forums, but none of that is even remotely useful for normal users and developers. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason is stupid bullshit because of the Android market and "protected" apps, though there is an issue of cheap (and slow) flash cards hurting performance and having the blame being put on the phone instead of the card.
I can think of one or two ways to solve this problem assuming android packages function similar to JARs, and it shouldn't be terribly difficult to implement.
Makes perfect sense to me, I don't think Android restricts applications from accessing data on the SD card (textures, sounds, etc) it just won't let you execute an application from there. Put the main executable on the internal storage, have a downloadable package (".torrent plz?") and install that in a folder on the SD card. Then open the game, and have an option that says "Location of downloaded files?"
You'd just have to have your game be tolerant of different loading speeds of SD cards.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
One thing that disappointed me, was the zoom. Since it forces you to tap to zoom, it resolves the screen each increment of zooming, so I think that causes the stuttering I saw and the slowness of zooming, compared to the iPhone where you zoom to the level you want, and then when you let go, it resolves.
I thought the menu setup was really nice though, maybe better than the iPhone.
Dignified, you might know this. The Droid is $200 with a 2-year contract and $500something with no contract. My phone is up for renewal but only for a new phone of the same price. My dad used the upgrade option that the plan had for his phone already I believe. So is there some sort of in-between option for me getting the Droid for less than $lots with the plan? Also would they have to add data for everybody or would it be easy to just set up a Data plan for one person. (it is entirely possible they've already gotten data for themselves, I need to check.)
I apologize if this is really random and all over the place.
Also, while it does look like I am almost definitely getting this, the HTC Passion looks like it might eventually maybe be awesome if/when it comes out.
If you have a line eligible for upgrade, then it's going to get the 200 price after MIR.
That said, data plans are 29.99 per line with a smartphone.
As far as the Passion, it's rumored before Thanksgiving. I'm thinking that I'm going to get an Eris for 99.99 after MIR, and if the Passion comes out within 30 days, perform a WFG and pay a $35 restocking fee. I don't care, I want it and the Droid, while being amazing, I think the brand Motorola is stopping me. I have no doubt this will revamp Moto's image, but I am in love with everything HTC and the Passion will be second to none.
That said, I might end up waiting 10 months for a bigger better phone. That, and the Eris has 7 homescreens and Sense UI from HTC. Moto Droid only has 3 and doesn't even have motoblur. That I think was a big downside. Also, Eris is flash-capable out of the box where Moto Droid is rumored to not be full-flash capable until 2010 after a software upgrade.
I really am on the fence about everything though. Android 2.0, while being amazing, hasn't impressed me.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
Steam ID: Good Life
Steam ID: Good Life
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577