I was pretty excited to go out and get my hands on a Droid yesterday. I made my way out to a local Verizon store, where a new owner was kind enough to let me play around with the phone and make a few calls. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with the device. The screen looks incredible and the whole thing operates pretty quickly. Call quality was better than my iPhone, but what isn't. What I can't understand, though, is why Motorola added the physical keyboard. It's not that a hardware keyboard is a bad idea, but that keyboard is the bad idea.

Seriously, that keyboard is terrible. The keys are too close together and so difficult to push that I found myself hitting multiple keys at once pretty often. The top row is too close to the slider, making it difficult to get my thumbs in there to push. The keyboard seems even more out of place when you use the virtual keyboard. I didn't like it as well as the iPhone, probably because of the lack of multi-touch support, but it's the best I've used outside an Apple product.

The obvious conclusion is that it's meant to be a differentiator from the iPhone. Unfortunately, it detracts from the quality of the phone, and makes it a lot thicker than is necessary. I think part of the problem is that no one wants to make anything so close to the iPhone that an exec says, "Well why wouldn't they just buy an iPhone," and that's a terrible strategy. The iPhone is great, but it can be improved upon, and there are people who just want something a little different. So give them Android, but leave the pointless differentiators on the design table.

My only other problem with the phone is the Android Market. It's still too barren to make me seriously consider a switch, even if it would mean Google Voice and Google Navigation.

If you take a look at today's most popular devices it's easy to see the shift away from specialized gadgets to universal tools. The Nook from Barnes and Noble is the not-so-missing link between ereaders and tablets, camcorders are shooting still pictures and vice versa, and of course there are our cell phones, which are screaming toward becoming the all-in-one device of the future. Martin Cooper, grandfather of cell phones, thinks that's a bad thing.

The 80 year-old has voiced his 'simple is better' opinion about the iPhone in the past, and he's said it again to a privacy conference in Madrid this week. “Whenever you create a universal device that does all things for all people, it does not do any things well." Cooper's really put me in a pickle here. Obviously the guy has made very significant contributions to the world's technological progression, but it seems he's lost his gift for foresight.

To say that a device that does all things cannot do any one thing well is just patently false. Take a look at computers, or do we classify all that they do as computing? Take a closer look at the iPhone. Sure, the phone part of it sucks - maybe even blows - but the internet browsing is pretty great (just needs flash to get my super awesome stamp of approval) and the media features are second to none. And the device is really still in its infancy. Compare where cellphones are today to where they were when Cooper made the first cellular call in 1973. Now give the technology another 35 years and imagine where things will stand.

To be fair, Cooper could be saying that universal devices can never rival dedicated devices - think DSLR versus a cell phone camera - and there he may be right, at least in some cases. But is that really what we're after? That sort of quality is just overkill for the average user, and splits from one of the features that makes combined devices so popular - convenience. Cell phone cameras can easily match point and shoot quality without requiring you to carry another device, and that's what makes them so great.

Whatever Cooper meant, the future he imagines is likely very different than the future we're likely to see. “Our future I think is a number of specialist devices that focus on one thing that will improve our lives," he said. And I think you're crazy.

Verizon might be getting cocky about this whole Droid thing, but it's becoming painfully clear that Big Red is hurting from all that missed iPhone business. In a move to recoup some of its losses to iPhone churn, Verizon may be looking at bumping that early termination fee - all the way up to $350.

To be fair, the iPhone is not the only thing to blame. People have been opening new lines on existing contracts for some time, paying the early termination fees, and then reselling contract-priced phones like the Blackberry Storm on eBay for a couple hundred bucks in profit. Well no more. The new fee will apply specifically to "advanced devices," which pretty much covers anything Verizon deems expensive enough to make you pay for.

The only good news is that the price will decrease by $10 per month over the life of your contract. So halfway through you're back to the original fee of $175.

Source: Boy Genius Report

Verizon's had some pretty clever ads lately, most of them targeted at AT&T and the iPhone. One of the latest plays on the "There's an app for that" saying that's become inextricable from the iPhone. Verizon's ad instead boasts, "There's a map for that," referring to the 3G coverage maps you see in the pictures. AT&T's taken issue with the ads - so much issue that the iPhone provider is suing - because it claims the ads are misleading.

The bulk of the accusation goes like this:

Consumers are interpreting the white or blank space on the maps to mean that AT&T customers who are not in an AT&T "3G" coverage area have no wireless coverage whatsoever, and therefore have no ability to use their wireless devices for any purposes in vast areas of the country. This interpretation is not surprising as Verizon, in its own coverage maps, uses white space to inform customers that no coverage of any kind exists.

I realize the average American consumer isn't as tech savvy as you and I, but for people to whom 3G matters I'd say Verizon's claims are pretty clear. And as someone who has recently moved a fair distance across the country, I can also vouch for the fact that AT&T's 3G coverage is at least as pathetic as that coverage map shows.

The part of the lawsuit that's truly entertaining, though, is where AT&T claims Verizon is jealous of the former's smashing smartphone sales. Sure, AT&T, everyone wishes they were selling the iPhone. You know what no one wants? The massive fallout you'll see when the iPhone is on every other provider.

I'm not sure why Peek decided to make a device specifically for Twitter users but it did, and the thing is finally for sale at Amazon. The TwitterPeek adds nationwide Twitter access to the standard email/texting device for all those Twitter users who don't currently have a smartphone. The device runs $99 with 6 months of included service or $199 for unlimited lifetime service.

The unlimited plan sounds alright, but even feature phones are starting to add Twitter service, so it seems a bit redundant to carry around yet another device for the simple service. If you need Twitter that badly, just upgrade your current plan or get a limited plan on a smartphone. It's really not so big a price difference.

The iPhone touched down in China this past Friday night missing one big feature: Wi-Fi. China's second largest mobile carrier, China Unicom, has an exclusive three-year deal with Apple to sell the phone.

Starting out sales might not be the runaway figures Apple saw in the US. After all, it's not that tough to get phones from other markets. Phones that include Wi-Fi. There have also been rumors that China Unicom hopes to sell Wi-Fi capable phones within a few months, giving Chinese consumers even more reason to hold off on buying one now.

There was still a modicum of Apple fanaticism to be had, though. The country's first iPhone owner, Zhi Xianzhong, waited almost eight hours to buy the phone.

It looks like Verizon will be launching more than one "Droid" branded phone on November 6th. According to a leaked document picked up at Engadget, the HTC Eris will hit stores the same day as Motorola's Droid at $199 with a $100 mail-in rebate.

The Eris is basically a rebranded HTC Hero, though in this case running Android 1.5 with the popular Sense UI. It's a sharp looking phone, but the processor leaves a bit to be desired. Also, no word on whether Verizon will be pushing Android 2.0 onto this thing, so you could be missing out on Google's free navigation app. Motorola's Droid, on the other hand, gives you a physical keyboard, much faster processor, and guaranteed Android 2.0.

For the price, though, it's hard to go wrong. The regular HTC Hero costs $180.

Source: Engadget

If you're going to release a great device, a gadget of any kind really, don't bog the thing down with rebates. It just gives me reason to pause before selling anything I can find just to get my hands on it. I wasn't so surprised to see Palm try the rebate thing with the Pre. The company really needed money. But Motorola? I figured they'd be a little better off. Thankfully, Best Buy's decided to just sell the thing for $199.99 outright with a contract.

This sort of thing takes a lot of the burden off the wireless stores, which tend to be small and understaffed, especially as you get more rural. It's also just nice to be able to walk in and pay the $200 without worrying about rebates. In case you forgot, the Droid launches on November 6th.

Today Verizon officially announced the Motorola Droid launch date: November 6th. The Droid will be the first phone to release with Android 2.0, which will include that jealousy-that-burns-like-the-herp-inducing navigation system. Yeah, the free turn-by-turn GPS that sent Garmin and TomTom stock into free fall. The phone will run $199.99 after a $100 debit card rebate on a two-year contract.

The phone has Verizon understandably excited (though it did seem like Verizon forgot about the Storm 2) - it's got a snappy processor, a great screen, a decent keyboard, and an excellent operating system. It's the phone Verizon's been missing, and with the free turn-by-turn announcement today, it got even better. In my mind it's the phone to have if you're trying to avoid AT&T, as I expect any reasonable person would.

Verizon had this to say about the Droid: "It is a no-fuss, high-tech, location-aware, voice-recognizing, over-the-air updating, multi-tasking machine." Sounds to me like quite a bit of fuss. Quite a bit of fuss I'd like to get my hands on - know what I'm saying?

Verizon made a quiet little announcement yesterday - the Blackberry Storm 2 will be out tomorrow, October 28th. The news follows a year of leaks, so it's not much of a surprise. It's odd, though, that Big Red is so nonchalant about the release. The original Storm wasn't quite the hit it was supposed to be, but the Storm 2 is supposed to have fixed most of the original problems.

Part of the Storm 2's problem is that it's been almost universally panned. The GPS is supposedly awful and the Blackberry OS 5.0 has a tendency to reset spontaneously on the 9550. There's also the fact that the Blackberry OS continues to age while systems like the iPhone OS and Android are doing a better job of growing alongside the devices they support.

As for positive additions, the Storm 2 finally adds WiFi and makes a big improvement on the original's touchscreen. The Storm 2 will run $179.99 on contract after a $100 mail-in rebate.

It's hard to say just how I feel about the new app from Harvard Medical School, called the Swine Flu Center. On the one hand, it's certainly important to keep the public educated about H1N1. As a national emergency level virus, people should know what they're up against. Are outbreak maps on our phone the best way to do that? Maybe not.

The new application is part of Harvard Medical School's mobile initiative to get people educated about current medical issues. At $1.99 it's pretty cheap, and certainly has a lot to offer. The app has videos, diagnostic tips, prevention tips, and an interactive symptom checker.

As with any interactive medical tool, make sure you're talking to a physician before making rash decisions. These are guidelines, people, guidelines. Let's not freak out.

Source: TechCrunch

The most recent info on Motorola's Droid suggests that the phone isn't just for Verizon. In fact, it looks like there's a GSM model that would work on AT&T's 3G network, as well as Canada's Rogers.

So it looks like the new name for the "Droid" is now "Sholes," at least pre-release. That's the name buried deep in the FCC docs that also show the AT&T 3G bandwidths. To me the big advantage of the phone would be that it's a nice piece of hardware for anything other than AT&T. If I was going with AT&T, I think I'd still stick to the iPhone. Android still has some catching up to do in the app department for me to genuinely consider a switch. Although there is that Google Voice thing...

Military defense contractor Raytheon is apparently as interested in Android as the rest of us. The company has created an application that works like a mashup between a buddy list and Google Maps, giving users the ability to locate "buddies" anywhere on the battlefield.

The system, called Raytheon Android Tactical System (RATS), was developed on Android for the openness of the platform. Raytheon sees RATS expanding to uses like biometric scanning and off-site suspect identification. By developing on Android, Raytheon was also able to keep the cost of the software down. Think a couple hundred dollars per user, versus the typical tens of thousands per mobile terminal, something taxpayers are sure to be happy with.

Source: Forbes

On Saturday night, Verizon publicly declared it would be going after the iPhone with a new Android phone from Motorola. To do so, Big Red is using the same tactic Palm did, but it will probably see a much higher success rate. The reason: the OS.

It's not just that I think Android is a superior platform (which I do), or that Palm continues to botch almost everything it tries with regard to the App Catalog (which it does). It's really that Verizon isn't trying to pioneer a new OS against the world's most successful smartphone. Android is not the thriving development community it could be, but it's not brand new either. That means there will be plenty of app support on launch day, but more importantly that developers are familiar enough to create apps that take advantage of specific features of the new Motorola phone - a big part of what makes the iPhone so good.

On top of that huge advantage, the phone looks really nice. It's sleek and slim, has a landscape keyboard that far outstrips the cramped POS on the Pre, and it's on Verizon. I don't think I need to mention all the other features Verizon's new ad points out.

This isn't something Apple will take lying down, though. We should see the rebuttal in what promises to be a snarky little ad war before long.

I've been cautiously skeptical about Google's Android operating system as a successful mobile platform. I love the features, I love the UI, but the phones were seriously lacking. Google CEO Eric Schmidt made some comments during the company's earnings conference call that may change my mind, though.

Schmidt says Android Adoption is set to blow up, and it's because of those crappy phones the system currently runs. It's not the phones themselves, but the number of them. There are currently 12 phones running Android, and more phones and netbooks coming out monthly it seems. As that number continues to grow, it gives developers more and more reason to spend time on the platform.

Mobile is Google's next great frontier, and where analysts expect most of the company's growth to come from over the next couple years. With more Android adoption, that growth is essentially guaranteed. Hopefully 2010 will see the release of a phone that might make me consider getting rid of the iPhone. I love a healthy competition.