Find great computer deals at StaplesMotorola Droid specs get posted then pulled
(Credit:
Engadget Mobile)
Oops! It looks like a mistake on Motorola's part is giving Google Android and smartphone fans plenty to talk about on this fine Friday morning.
On Thursday night, Boy Genius Report was sent a tip that Motorola had posted an official product page for the upcoming Droid smartphone for Verizon Wireless. The site has since been pulled but not before screen grabs were taken of the feature list and spec sheet.
Some things we already knew about, such as the Android 2.0, 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. According to the page, however, the Droid will offer a Webkit HTML 5 browser with Flash 10 coming in 2010 and Microsoft Exchange Outlook and Calendar synchronization. The smartphone will be powered by a 550MHz processor and a 1,400mAh lithium ion battery offering 6.4 hours of continuous talk time and up to 11 days of standby time.
Physically, the phone measures 4.6 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 6 ounces, while the Droid's 3.7-inch, 16:9 touch screen will have a 480x854-pixel resolution. Other notables include a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Micro-USB port, and a 16GB microSD card installed on the phone.
Motorola and Verizon will be co-hosting a media event October 28 where we presume they'll officially introduce the Motorola Droid. We'll be there to cover it but in the meantime, what do you think? Is this the iPhone killer that Verizon is making it out to be in its ads?
(Via Engadget Mobile)
Bonnie Cha is a senior editor for CNET, covering smartphones and GPS. When she's not testing the latest gadgets, you can find her chasing after her crazy lab or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California. E-mail Bonnie.
As for the phone- sounds pretty sweet to me. This IS the droid that I'VE been looking for. It's about time, Verizon!
Developers will code for whoever has a large mass of customers willing to buy their programs. And I'm sure there'll be a "convert your iphone code to xyz platform" converters. MS already posted similar instructions for WinMo. It won't be long before other app stores have just as many programs as apple. And I doubt those stores will be as an@l and hostile towards the developers as Apple has been.
As for the interface you so love, I've seen it before the iPhone and I've seen it since. So that's hardly an "unbeatable combination". Throw in the disaster that is AT&T and I think it'd be very easy to kill the iPhone.
I doubt any will "Kill" the iPhone becasue what it does, it does well. The App store is both nice and a PITA. Devices that offer an app store (a good one) and native installs will have potential.
Any developer can put their app in Google's store as opposed to Apple's where you have to get Apple's permission first before they'll allow an app on their store.
There will probably be at least about 10-20 Android phones by the first quarter of next year from various manufacturer (Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG, Kyocera, etc). And there are other devices that will run Android (ex Barnes&Noble's newly announced Nook runs on Android. Raytheon is even developing a battlefield device that will run on Android).
So for a developer (especially a small independent developer) would you rather write for a single company's phone that has one model or would you rather write for a platform that you're already familiar with, can be targeted to many different phones from many different manufactures, and even target non-phone devices? And, after all your development effort you don't have to worry about the risk of Apple rejecting your app for any reason it feels like.
I think this will be similar to why there are more applications written for non-Apple computers than for Apple. Apple's proprietary, closed system limits how many people write to their OS. And yes, admittedly that number is quite high and Apple certainly isn't suffering financially. But proprietary systems many times lose to open systems, even if it takes quite a while.
> to anotherprogrammer - I would program for the phone that has more users. Who cares if there are 500 Android
> phones on the market this time next year? Apple still still have MILLIONS more.
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By your same logic then it justifies programmers ignoring building things for mac OS and stick with windows.
Fanboys seem to think that the iphone was launch with apps full blown and ready. How many apps were available for download 18 months ago? Open source development will ensure there will be more android apps than iphones closed system because there will be a much larger army of developers.
And while we're at it why the heck are there apps anyway. Any app that requires it to be connected online should just be a web app and not some dumb platform proprietary app.
As much as I hate to admit it, the iPhone (3G and 3GS, NOT the first one) are really great looking, but I can't stand how they run.
Kind of like the computers, eh?
iPhone's weakness is Apple's weakness--enterprise corporate features. Snow Leopard did significantly advance Apple in that arena.
The device encryption iPhone upgrade fiasco killed accessibility on our corp network because we're not going to let handheld devices out in the world without encryption.
:'(
The network weakness is only in the USA, for the most part.
I wonder if he will review it?
Or just plain Apple Haters. And closet users of *multiple* iPods, no doubt.
Or else just suffering from Apple envy. It's sooooo obvious! ;-)
Aloha . . .
-Mizzikee
[CNET editors' note: URL removed.]
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by briand11
October 23, 2009 11:56 AM PDT
- I think if Apple wants to maintain it's dominance it needs to shed that deal with AT&T. Verizon's network and line up of phones stands to make a sizable impact on Apple's lead in the smartphone market. Verizon's network is just too good.
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