Android and Me » Droid Phone

Motorola Droid box revealed

Taylor Wimberly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:52:12 +0000

We have seen some pretty interesting packaging on recent Android phones like the myTouch 3G bundle. One might expect the first Motorola Droid would feature some extravagant box to match the huge marketing campaign behind it. The guys over at Engadget claim to have a stack of Droids and they snapped a few photos of the official encasing.

The box is nothing too exciting, but I guess it’s what inside the box that counts.

iPhone 3G S vs Palm Pre vs Motorola Droid

Taylor Wimberly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:31:23 +0000

So you need a new smartphone and you can’t decide which to get (hint: go Android). The new Motorola Droid enters into a smartphone marketplace dominated by AT&T’s iPhone and Sprint’s Palm Pre. But how are consumers supposed to compare the offerings when the providers make it nearly impossible to make apples to apples comparisons on plan options?

Our friends at BillShrink have made the process a little easier by providing a nice infographic with the latest smartphones. They offer a free personalized cost-saving service designed to help people lower their spending by monitoring over 10 million wireless plans.

BillShrink has launched the first-ever handset selector interactive feature that let’s you search by features and then matches you to the best phone and plan.

Check out their comparison below and let us know what you think. I’m not surprised that VZW has some of the most expensive rate plans, but they do have the largest 3G network.

Come back later today for our own in-depth look comparing all the carrier data plans.

You know which phone we like.

Full size image here.

Google fails to address app storage issue with Droid and Android 2.0

Taylor Wimberly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:24:37 +0000

The Motorola Droid will be the most powerful Android phone to date when it launches on November 6, 2009. However, the device still features the same shortcomings of all other Android phones. The Droid ships with a 512 MB ROM which contains only 256 MB available for app storage.

Google does not support installing apps to the SD card (and likely never will), so developers are limited in what they can create.

For most applications, we want a small file size to limit the download times. When it comes to 3D games though, we need a ton of space for all the high-res textures, audio, and video.

Have you seen all the awesome iPhone and iPod Touch games? Hardly any of them would fit on an Android phone. It is not uncommon for popular titles to easily exceed 100 MB. For example, the game Myst takes up a whopping 727MB.

Motorola is going to promote the Droid as a mobile gaming device since it features the OMAP3430 platform which features a dedicated PowerVR SGX 530 GPU. This is the similar type of GPU as what was included with the iPhone 3G S, so we know it can pump out some crazy graphics.

I hope Google and Motorola find a way to resolve this problem, but the real solution is to include larger flash ROMs inside the phones.

Are other handset makers paying attention to this issue?

GSM Motorola Droid spied on video

Taylor Wimberly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:02:06 +0000

We have been saying for awhile that the Motorola Droid will appear in other countries and now that information has been confirmed. Our favorite Vietnamese site Tinhte was able to get their hands on a GSM version of the Droid (Sholes) and upload a quick music video. There is no word on which European carriers will launch the phone, but I would look to the current ones that offer the Motorola Dext (Orange).

DroidDoes site finally goes live

Taylor Wimberly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:12:47 +0000

Remember that countdown on the DroidDoes.com site? It was set to expire at midnight last night and we thought the site would go live. I was up till 3AM, but nothing ever appeared. Thankfully, the site just randomly turned on. I’m not sure what the point of the countdown was, but at least the actual site is pretty cool.

Head over to DroidDoes.com and check out their super spinning wheel of features. It also appears Verizon is sponsoring some kind of concert series called Droid Nation. If anyone was presented with a card carrying a special code, please let us know.

Anyone get their secret code?