Droid 2 Global users, your moment in the Gingerbread sun has arrived. Verizon’s put up a page with download instructions for a 103MB update, taking your QWERTY slider from version 2.4.330 to 4.5.600. Updating isn’t the most taxing of activities, you just look for a system update in the About Phone menu and then give your blessing for the download to commence. VZW will also be prompting tardy users to take their OTA medicine in due course. So what’s new apart from Android 2.3? Well, the big change is that the previously static phone, contacts and apps icons at the bottom of the UI have now been turned into a user-customizable dock, with three links of your choosing sidling up next to the App Launcher. There’s also a freshened up UI look, a Download Manager App, user-definable App Groups, encryption for data both on the device and its SD card, improvements in battery life while using WiFi and Bluetooth, and the obligatory stability fixes. If all that sounds irresistible and you have the requisite phone in hand, go get it!

[Thanks, Jon]

Droid 2 Global gets Gingerbread, customizable dock and more in latest update from Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No more stunt prices, no more premature web appearances, this (we hope) is finally Best Buy’s fully official listing for the Motorola Xoom. It brings no great surprises to those who’ve been tracking the tablet’s progress to retail shelves, offering first dibs to buyers willing to lay claim to a pre-order in-store and promising full availability on Thursday, February 24th. The $800 3G-equipped model is accompanied on Best Buy’s site by a $40 portfolio case, a $50 basic charging dock, a $130 stereo speaker dock, and a $70 Bluetooth keyboard, but there’s no sighting of the cheaper WiFi-only Xoom. There was some suspicion that the $600 SKU would launch a little later on and that is indeed what appears to be happening. One final note of caution: even if you’re intending to use the Xoom as a pure WiFi-only device, remember that you’ll be required to activate data with Verizon for at least a month first — don’t ask us why.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Xoom up for in-store pre-order at Best Buy, $800 for Thursday availability originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 03:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hardly the most exciting Palm news you’re gonna hear this week, but the company that still owns itself for the time being has just updated its WebOS software on Verizon to the extremely granular version 1.4.1.1. The helpful changelog informs us there are no new apps, but pinch-zoom now works correctly in Doc and PDF views, a lag in the camera shutter sound has been rectified, and forwarding videos uploaded to YouTube on to your friends via email has also been made to work as it should. The most important fix of all, though, is to a keyboard input issue whereby a single key press would generate a letter twice — both Pre Central and one of our readers report that this problem appears to have been consigned to the past. Good stuff, now let’s see it go global, shall we?

[Thanks, subzero and Sam F.]

WebOS 1.4.1.1 now available for Verizon subscribers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, the DROID’s getting all the attention today, but you might recall that it’s not the only thing Verizon has in the pipe has it preps its first Android assault — HTC’s got the Droid Eris in there somewhere, too, which is shaping up to be little more than a branded Hero in a slightly different shell. Against the insanely-spec’d DROID, that may not be a drool-worthy proposition, but fortunately, it’s looking like Verizon is going to be pursuing an aggressive tiered pricing strategy that might allow these phones to coexist in peace and everlasting harmony: unlike the DROID’s $199 sticker, gdgt has it on good authority that the Droid Eris will run a hundie less at $99. That spanks Sprint’s version which currently runs $179.99, but hey, if this means we’re going to see a price war down in the 528MHz trenches for the Android midrange, we’re all for it.

[Image via AndroidGuys]

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Droid Eris priced at $99 for Verizon? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew good and well this thing was coming sometime in November, and now Verizon Wireless has made it official: the Motorola DROID will hit Big Red on November 6th for $199 on contract (after a $100 mail-in rebate). Naturally, the DROID itself is just the first of what could be many Android-laced phones coming to the carrier, and Verizon Wireless CMO John Stratton even stated that the phone “is wide open” — pretty big words from a company like VZW. Android 2.0 will be front and center, along with Visual Voicemail, a 3.7-inch display (854 x 480 resolution), 5 megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash), a bundled 16GB memory card and a beta version of Google Maps Navigation(!). For those wondering, yeah — the DROID is the first phone to offer that, which transforms Google Maps into a turn-by-turn routing system that’ll have your dedicated TomTom / Garmin trembling in fear. There’s also a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3G, WiFi, voice-activated search and over-the-air Amazon MP3 downloads. With all that, who needs the iPhone, right Ivan?

Continue reading Motorola DROID official on Verizon: $199 on contract, coming November 6th (video)

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Motorola DROID official on Verizon: $199 on contract, coming November 6th (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon chief says offering the iPhone is Apple’s call originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just got some wild information from a trusted source about Verizon’s Android strategy, and let’s just say this shakes things up a little bit. Here are the big takeaways:

• Droid is the brand name being applied to Verizon’s Android devices. It isn’t a single phone.
• The Sholes — the phone we’ve been calling the Droid so far — may simply be known as the Droid.
• HTC’s Desire will be coming to market as the “Droid Eris.” (Allow us to save you the Wikipedia lookup — Eris is the Greek goddess of strife.) Interestingly, it’s already up on gdgt as such.
• Droid Eris will be released — not announced, actually released — on November 6. In all likelihood, it will not be announced or shown at Verizon’s October 28 event — that will probably just be for the Sholes.

That’s all we’ve got so far, but it’s a heck of a change in plans, isn’t it? It’s interesting that Verizon will be applying a sub-brand to its Android line — and a pretty solid sign that Big Red’s got a serious commitment to the platform going forward.

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon’s Droid is a series, not just a phone; Droid Eris coming from HTC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boy Genius Report has thrown up a full preview of the Motorola Droid — or some prototype of it, anyhow — and any way you slice it, it looks like Android fans, Verizon fans, phone fans, and red-blooded Americans alike should all be feeling pretty good that this thing is gonna kick some ass. As if feeling and looking like a rock-solid, metallic beast wasn’t enough, Big Red’s first Android outing is said to have killer battery life — surprising, considering how mediocre the CLIQ’s is — and the seemingly flat keyboard apparently performs admirably, all things considered. Android 2.0 clips along at a nice pace thanks to an OMAP3 core, and obviously, there’s not much to complain about visually when you’re staring at a 3.7-inch capacitive display sporting roughly WVGA resolution. The icing on the cake, though, might be a magnetic sensor that detects an accessory dock that’ll be sold at launch, turning the Droid into a desktop clock and weather station — perfect for those rare moments when you’re not out and about scaring little kids with the phone’s robotic red eye. Needless to say, we’re looking forward to the 28th.

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Motorola Droid gets fully previewed, ‘must-have’ claims may not be far off originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon’s on a roll with Android handsets these days, first with the heavily-advertised Motorola Droid and the reclusive / unannounced Calgary, and now with this fleeting glimpse of Android hardware progenitor HTC. Yes, it’s got 3G (or the Verizon equivalent of it), Sense UI, a trackball just barely discernible on the bottom, and from what Boy Genius Report is saying no physical keyboard whatsoever — all virtual. We’re definitely sporting a Hero vibe, but really, would it really have too hard to find a decent light source for this shot?

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Desire with Sense UI and Verizon branding spotted originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google and [insert any wireless carrier here] are the last two entities in the world that we’d expect to issue a joint statement on net neutrality, seeing how Google firmly believes the FCC should enforce it regardless of medium while carriers generally want to be exempted — but Verizon and The Goog have put their differences aside for just one day to put together a thoughtful, lengthy piece on the subject. There aren’t any surprises in the piece other than the fact that CEOs Lowell McAdam and Eric Schmidt are personally attributed to the statement, but it echoes what most ISPs have been saying since new FCC chair Julius Genachowski came into play: they generally acknowledge that a free, unhindered internet has led to a better world and that it’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure that it continues to be that way. They go on to say that “there will be disagreements along the way” — Google and Verizon don’t see eye-to-eye on the finer points, for example — but that they’re all looking forward to a spirited debate with the folks over in Washington. Ultimately, the FCC’s ability to effectively police true neutrality on wireless networks ties in deeply with its ability to free up a lot more spectrum — something the CTIA’s been pushing for lately — and Genachowski recently mentioned that they’d be looking into it, so this could all end up working out without any broken hearts or black eyes.

Filed under: Wireless

Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC’s net neutrality push originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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