Motorola Droid

[aazdazen]

i've heard LTE and and non LTE thrown around alot, but i didnt know what each company was planning, and i didnt know how that ties in with plans abroad. that's good information, thanks. seems kinda stupid for sprint to be the lonely fat kid out though.

a couple websites to use for info on it

www.engadget.com they also have a cell phone part to it, www.engadgetmobile.com
www.phonescoop.com beware lots of fanboys who trash anything they are not a fan of
www.phonearena.com pretty good tech info on the phones

i used engadget and phonearena more then phonescoop.

[aazdazen]

Ahh, gotcha. Will have to check up on that then. Would be a lot better than suffering with my sad little LG Decoy until August.

We have a shared plan, pretty sure it's $60 for my line and $9.99 for my wife's (+ data for her) so I should be okay on that front. Thanks for the info!

np glad I could help.

[Eamin]

but while the new sony x3 will be faster, i dont think it will have the cool docks. and most everything else will be comparable. so really, aside from upgraded specs, which probably wont be earth shattering in the next year, what reasons are there to not get the droid? this is an honest question for anyone out there. as i'd like to weigh the cons also.

Honestly, if you're a Verizon customer in the market for a smartphone I don't think there's any reason NOT to get a Droid unless you need your phone to work overseas. It looks like a very, very legitimate piece of hardware, so kudos to Verizon.

the x3 is the only one i've heard about, but i'm unsure which network it's coming to.

Pretty sure the X10 (I think that's what they're calling it nowadays) is going to be GSM. So AT&T and/or T-Mobile, but almost certainly not Verizon and Sprint. If AT&T could snag it it would be a real coup for them, since as of this moment they're pretty much a one trick pony as far as smartphones are concerned. The only other Snapdragon phone I know of is the HTC Dragon, and I have no idea what it'll be.

It looks like the N900 isn't likely to be subsidized on T-Mobile, but with their new payment plans I don't think that'll be as big a deal. I'm curious if T-Mobile will try to make it into a flagship device and help Nokia out with marketing it or not. The N900 could go a long ways if T-Mobile makes an effort to push it.

[Gemdiver]

I'm considering it too, currently on AT&T and I've had my current phone 3 years almost.

Only thing I'm hesitant about is Verizon locking out apps...I know right now everything says that it will be open and all the apps in the android store will be available, but I dont trust any phone company and might wait a month or two to see how things go.

My biggest turn-off for the iphone is Apple (with pressure from AT&T in some cases) serving as gate-keeper for what apps you can run on your phone.

If Droid is as open as all the marketing says, then I'll get one...but I want to see some questionable apps come out first that wouldn't get Apple-approved and see how Google/Verizon respond.

[Ringo]

Android has never been as open as Google has claimed.

http://phandroid.com/2009/09/25/eff-...cklash-begins/

The people who claim Android is totally open are either Google employees or haven't been paying close attention. Yes, they're more open than Apple, but they are not the great Open Platform Messiah that they like to portray themselves as being, not even close.

[Ringo]

Nice comparison chart between the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and Motorola Droid: http://phandroid.com/2009/10/28/droi...-of-ownership/

And ouch on the Pre apps.

[Northerner]

Nice comparison chart between the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and Motorola Droid: http://phandroid.com/2009/10/28/droi...-of-ownership/

And ouch on the Pre apps.

Haha! That certainly is a large disparity in app numbers.

That said though, I can't say I care if one phone or the other has thousands or even ten of thousands of more applications. I care if they have the ones I want or will actually use. Don't get me wrong, overall number of apps is a decent metric for developer involvement perhaps but it is still the "killer apps" that make or break things for me.

What the hell do I know though, I still like Blackberry

[Rolinn]

I have the G1 on Tmobile. Its not bad and I have seen the potential. This phone has me seriously considering breaking my contract to switch to Verizon...

[Solesk]

does anyone know a way to search the android market and check out the apps without actually having an android phone? going to the market website only shows top apps. with no search feature that i could find.

[Delaregar]

does anyone know a way to search the android market and check out the apps without actually having an android phone? going to the market website only shows top apps. with no search feature that i could find.

http://www.cyrket.com/

Unfortunately, all I'm seeing right now is a blank page. I'm not sure if that's because of a problem with their website or perhaps having blocked canadian visitors.

[Delaregar]

Android has never been as open as Google has claimed.

http://phandroid.com/2009/09/25/eff-...cklash-begins/

The people who claim Android is totally open are either Google employees or haven't been paying close attention. Yes, they're more open than Apple, but they are not the great Open Platform Messiah that they like to portray themselves as being, not even close.

The problem with cyanogen mod was it was distributing google proprietary applications (google maps for example) with the ROM. Google didn't like this (as you can expect). You can still download these apps from the market for free though, so I don't understand why he couldn't just remove the applications and continue to distribute the custom rom.

[Solesk]

http://www.cyrket.com/

Unfortunately, all I'm seeing right now is a blank page. I'm not sure if that's because of a problem with their website or perhaps having blocked canadian visitors.

i cant view it either, from home on firefox. a google search as to why didnt bring up any answers.

The problem with cyanogen mod was it was distributing google proprietary applications (google maps for example) with the ROM. Google didn't like this (as you can expect). You can still download these apps from the market for free though, so I don't understand why he couldn't just remove the applications and continue to distribute the custom rom.

i thought i might be missing something, because that's what i saw also. and anyone downloading a custom mod is going to know how to re-download google apps. so i don't understand what the big gripe is.

[Nadiar]

Yeah, what they SHOULD have done was worked with Cyanogen on a solution instead of sending a C&E immediately.

The solution Cyanogen has is that in his newer mods, he has a script that backs up all of those apps if you flash the relevant parts of, then reinstalls them when you install.

There are 2 different Open Source Markets available already. If you're using 3rd party firmware, you can just install them off of a website inside of the phone's web browser.


I believe that Google makes their money from the Market app availability. I don't think they cared about the YouTube app, since people already had updated versions of that available.


The only other software that isn't open source are the drivers, and Google isn't manufacturing their own phones, so I wouldn't expect them to have those available.

[Diallu]

I really kind of want one...

[Mordlu]

This is not the thread I was looking for...

[Solesk]

reading engadget today someone mentioned that even though android does have multi tasking, that turn by turn directions will still turn off if you get a call. but i dont know if this is more of an early android issue or will still happen on the droid. so i would wait and see from reviews before getting one. because if true, that's no better than the iphone. and i'll just continue to wait.

they keyboard is also getting mixed reviews. but so far no one loves it. it's either "eh, it's ok" or "this keyboard blows chunks"

rumor is google maps navigation is just an app approval away from the iphone also.

i'm still not ruling this phone out. but i'm not going to rush out and buy it on launch day.

[Voca]

Not a world phone so I'm not even considering it.

I'm befuddled that any new phone coming out isn't a world phone. How is there even a market for this?

[Vdou]

Nice comparison chart between the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and Motorola Droid: http://phandroid.com/2009/10/28/droi...-of-ownership/

And ouch on the Pre apps.

I have a hard time with the Apple app count. Should we really count stupid things like iBeer? How absolutely stupid that is. 'IT LOOKS LIEK I'M DRINKING A BEEER! OMGZ!'

How fucking stupid.

[Vdou]

I'm befuddled that any new phone coming out isn't a world phone. How is there even a market for this?

I doubt any CDMA phone can ever be a World Phone, but I could be wrong about that.

[Eamin]

I doubt any CDMA phone can ever be a World Phone, but I could be wrong about that.

Verizon and Sprint already offer Blackberries (the Storm and the Tour) with both CDMA for the US/Canada and GSM (with a simcard!) for connectivity in Europe and elsewhere. It can be done, though I'd imagine it makes the phone a bit heavier. Size constraints may be what prevented them from doing the same thing with the Droid.