Amazon.com currently has the best out-the-door price on the Verizon Wireless Motorola Droid 2 Android phone: $99.
With a two-year service agreement, you can get the Droid 2 for $99 at checkout (no rebates required). Shipping is also free. If you already have an AT&T wireless account and want to upgrade to the Droid 2, you can do that too – for $149.99 at checkout.
Learn more about the Droid 2 Android Phone…
The direct Verizon Wireless price for the Droid 2 $199 with a two-year contract.
Tired of waiting for the over-the-air Android 2.2 update to hit your Droid X? Take a number. But if you’re willing to do a little work, you can have your sexy-Xey up and running with Froyo in under thirty minutes.
Interested?
Some devoted geeks at MyDroidWorld have gotten their fast-moving fingers on the Droid X Android 2.2 “Froyo” update – and they’ve posted it as a ready-to-install .ZIP file. Anyone with a Droid X can install it; all you need is a USB cable, openness to some very low-level geekery, and a few minutes of free time.
We’ll walk you through the process step-by-step.
First, you’ll need to download the 68MB update file – update.zip – and store it on your Droid’s microSD card. We’ve posted the file for download here, but you can also download it from the MyDroidWorld page. Be sure the file is stored in the root directory of the SD card (in the main directory and not a subfolder).
Next, you’ll need to restore your Droid X to factory specs. This will erase all third-party apps and any data not stored on the microSD memory card. Doing a hard wipe is not absolutely necessary to install this update, but without letting the built-in wiper do the wiping, you’ll have more work to do. And, even with that, it’s always better to start clean to avoid troubles.
We highly recommend the clean slate approach, but if you’re interested, you can read a more detailed list of what must be done before starting the upgrade at the main MyDroidWorld article. You’ll also find information there related to rooting your Droid X and upgrading already-rooted handsets if such things interest you.
To restore your Droid X to factory specs, navigate to Menu > Settings > Privacy, then select Factory Data Reset.
Once your phone is back to its pristine, out-of-the-box state (which can take up to 10 minutes), power your phone off. Then hold the Home and Power buttons down at the same time. This will boot the phone into Recovery Mode. When you see the green android beside an exclamation triangle icon, press the Search hardware button below the screen on your Droid. This will display a list of options, one of which is apply sdcard:update.zip. Use the volume-down button to select this option and the camera button (right side red button) to execute it.
The files stored in the update.zip file will work their magic and upgrade the OS of the Droid X to Android OS 2.2. This will take five to ten minutes. When complete, you’ll see a message stating that the upgrade completed. Press the Menu hardware button below the OK label.
You’re done. Froyo at last.
After the upgrade (or any factory reset), you’ll have to activate your phone again with the built-in utility. This takes a couple of minutes.
We’ve installed the update to our Droid X as described above and everything went off without a hitch. But, as is always the case with non-official upgrade procedures, be careful. If you turn your Droid into a sleek paper weight, don’t blame MyDroidWorld (or us). Try at your own risk.
Many thanks to everyone at MyDroidWorld.
Next-generation gaming has arrived. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 gives your games an adrenaline shot with the world’s fastest performance and futuristic, visually-stunning graphics. GeForce GTX 470 brings games to life through incredible DirectX 11 tessellation performance and advanced cinematic effects like motion blur and depth of field.
This morning T-Mobile announced the upcoming G2 Android smartphone and posted a teaser site for the device. The T-Mobile G2 will be the first handset from the wireless carrier to work with its growing HSPA+ “4G” data network.
Additional details about the G2 were absent the announcement. We know that the G2 will replace the aging G1, which was the first Android-powered phone on the U.S. market. We also assume that, like the G1, the T-Mobile G2 will be built by HTC.
T-Mobile announced in July that its HSPA+ network upgrades would be deployed to serve 185 million people by the end of 2010. Under perfect – but likely never-to-be-seen – conditions, the HSPA+ network can provide up to 21Mbps download speeds to handsets and wireless modems.
We’ll post more information on the G2 as it’s made available.
Those looking to up the storage of their Windows Mobile or Android smartphones to 32GB can now do so for a new low price: $128. This is the lowest price we’ve seen from an online retailer since 32GB microSDHC cards were introduced earlier this year.
The price is at Amazon.com and comes from the partner seller eTECH.
Price subject to change at any time.
No big surprises to report, but today Verizon Wireless and Motorola made the Droid 2 Android smartphone official. Available for $200 with a two-year contract, the Droid 2 will begin arriving in users’ hands Thursday.
The Droid 2 will ship with Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ onboard, complete with OS-level mobile Wi-Fi hotpost functionality (this feature will cost $20 per month for 2GB of data). Other features include a 1GHz TI OMAP 3630 processor (same as the Droid X), a slide-to-hide QWERTY keyboard, a 3.7-inch multitouch display, a 5MP camera, 8GB of onboard memory (plus an 8GB microSDHC memory card, expandable to 32GB), and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.
An R2-D2 special edition version of the Droid 2 will be sold online in September. This version will include Star Wars content (details unknown) and an external hardware makeover with the lovable Star Wars droid in mind.
You can find the Droid 2 press release after the jump.
Learn more about the Motorola Droid 2 A955…
BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon Wireless, the company with the nation’s largest and most reliable wireless 3G network, and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a pioneer in the mobile industry, today announced that DROID™ 2 by Motorola will be available for pre-sale on August 11. Hitting all the right keys, DROID 2 is a feature-packed device that helps manage work and social life with an enhanced QWERTY keyboard, ultra high-speed Web browsing, 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities, full push corporate e-mail, intuitive social messaging and Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 for access to the full web – all built on Android 2.2.
"When we announced DROID X last month, we reaffirmed our commitment to continue to bring unique Android experiences to the Verizon Wireless network," said Jeffrey Dietel, vice president – wireless device, marketing and development for Verizon Wireless. "The DROID by Motorola was our first Android device, so it is important for us to include the successor to that phone in our portfolio. DROID 2 is not only a continuation of our commitment to Android but offers customers the features and form-factor they crave on the Verizon Wireless network."
"With the new DROID 2, we’ve taken a big leap forward from the original DROID," said Bill Ogle, chief marketing officer of Motorola Mobile Devices and Home Business. "We listened to consumers and are providing an even more robust experience built on Android 2.2 that includes a new keyboard, increased processing power, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities to send, access and share information even quicker than before."
DROID 2′s super-slim design helps customers e-mail, text and tweet with ease. DROID 2 offers a redesigned symmetrical keyboard with raised keys for more responsive typing to push out notes and status updates. Speech-to-text input and the virtual multi-touch keyboard allow for quick messaging; or customers can also use Swype for even easier text input. In addition, full push corporate e-mail delivers enhanced features such as remote wipe and password enforcement so that information remains secure.
DROID 2 packs power and speed. Customers can enjoy the freedom of wireless with the 3G Mobile HotSpot and the ability to connect up to five compatible Wi-Fi® devices, and watch content on the full multi-touch 3.7-inch brilliant display, or share content captured on the 5-megapixel camera with enhanced functionality and DVD-quality video capture with DLNA connectivity to share on compatible devices.
Customers can also download favorite apps from Android Market™, which has more than 70,000 applications, and store them on 8 GB of preloaded on-board memory and the 8 GB microSD™ card, which can be upgraded to a 32 GB SD card for a total cargo capacity of 40 GB. Popular apps available on DROID 2 include NFL Mobile (downloadable), Skype mobile™ and BLOCKBUSTER On Demand® presented by V CAST Video. Customers can even manage their wireless accounts or their contacts from their phones with My Verizon and with Backup Assistant(SM).
"It’s great to see amazing new smartphones like the DROID 2 come pre-installed with Flash Player 10.1," said David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager, Creative and Interactive Solution Business Unit at Adobe. "With the completely redesigned and hardware accelerated Flash Player 10.1, DROID 2 users will be able to experience the full Web on the go."
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 lets mobile users experience millions of websites the way they were meant to be seen – with rich Internet applications (RIAs), content inside the browser, including games, animations, data presentations and visualizations, e-commerce, music, video, audio and more.
R2-D2 DROID 2
In honor of the iconic Astromech Droid from the Star Wars™ Saga, Verizon Wireless will offer a limited-edition R2-D2 version of the DROID 2, available only online in September. The special version of the phone will feature exclusive Star Wars content and external hardware designed to look like the trusty Droid from the film saga. Visitors to the upcoming Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Fla., can see a preview of the limited edition phone and sign up to receive alerts when the phone is ready for sale.
Pricing and Availability
DROID 2 by Motorola will be available at www.verizonwireless.com on August 11, and it will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores beginning August 12 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. In addition to subscribing to a Nationwide Talk plan or a Nationwide Talk & Text plan, customers will also need to subscribe to an Email and Web for Smartphone plan. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access. Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.
Customers can add the optional 3G Mobile HotSpot service to their DROID 2 smartphones for $20 per month. The 3G Mobile HotSpot allows customers to turn their phones into a wireless modem for up to five compatible Wi-Fi® devices. In addition, current Verizon Wireless customers who have contracts ending by December 31, 2010, can upgrade to any smartphone, including DROID 2, without penalty.
Qualcomm began shipping its third generation, dual-core Snapdragon SoC CPUs to device manufacturers sometime around early June. And, if new information published by AlienBabelTech is taken at face value, devices powered by these new processors are already well into the testing phase.
ABT reports discovering entries for an Android device labeled HTC Glacier in an online database of GLBenchmark test results. The benchmark scores show a marked increase in CPU performance compared to high-end smartphones on the market today. When compared to the Sprint EVO 4G, for example, which employs a 1GHz 2nd Gen Snapdragon, the Glacier’s CPU produced results that were about three times as fast.
Using comparative math, the poster at ABT seems to believe these benchmark scores come from a 1.5GHz Snapdragon rather than a 1.2GHz model (the 3rd Gen Snapdragon System-on-Chip platforms are available in both clock speeds). You can review the calculations used to guess the speed of the CPU here.
Qualcomm has only fessed up to shipping 1.2GHz versions of the new Snapdragons thus far, and a jump of 200Mhz in smartphone processors seems more likely than a 500MHz jump. So I’m betting the HTC Glacier – or whatever it’ll be marketed as – will run the 1.2GHz MSM8260 rather than its 1.5GHz sibling. I could be wrong, of course (here’s hoping).
So, what else is known about the Glacier other than its raw benchmark test results? Not much. But ABT supposes that it may be the star of T-Mobile’s Project Emerald, which promises a dual-core HTC Android smartphone. There are other theories.
Today RIM and AT&T Mobility made the BlackBerry Torch 9800 official. The new smartphone – available for purchase August 12th for $200 with a two-year contract – is a slider, which is a new direction for RIM. The Torch will also be the first phone to run BlackBerry OS 6.
Noteworthy features include 4GB of internal flash storage, a 5MP camera, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 512MB of RAM, a 3.2-inch touchscreen display with a 480×360 resolution, and an optical trackpad.
Wirefly.com currently has the best out-the-door price on the AT&T HTC Aria Android phone: free.
With a two-year service agreement, you can get the Aria free at checkout (no rebates required). Shipping is also free. If you already have an AT&T wireless account and want to upgrade to the Aria, Wirefly can do that too – for $19.99 at checkout.
Learn more about the AT&T HTC Aria Android Phone…
Amazon.com currently has the Aria for $0.01 with a two-year contract.
The AT&T Mobility direct price is $129.
Nexus One owners have been rockin’ Android OS v2.2 “Froyo” for weeks. But millions of other Android-powered smartphones have been left high and dry, still running Android 2.1, 2.0 or – condolences – 1.x.
Android 2.2 won’t be limited to the Nexus One forever, though. HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and the four major U.S. wireless carriers are each working to bring the latest version of Android to a number of existing handsets between August 1st and the end of 2010.
Here’s what we know – or think we know – about Froyo updates for existing handsets.
According to an AndroidSPIN tipster, Motorola will begin rolling out over the air (OTA) Froyo updates for the recently-released DROID X and the original Motorola DROID as early as next week. The Verizon Wireless inside source believes August 6th may be the launch date for the 2.2 upgrade for these Motorola devices.
Similarly, the DROID Incredible, built by HTC, may also receive Froyo in the next week or so. The (purportedly) final build of 2.2 for the Incredible has been leaked and is already available for download on XDA Forums, so an early August release doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility. The AndroidSPIN tipster also claimed that the Incredible would be updated alongside Motorola’s DROID smartphones.
HTC plans to update other models in its Android lineup, too. On Tuesday, August 3rd, the Sprint EVO 4G will be getting Froyo. Later in Q3, the Desire, Wildfire and Legend will follow suit (some say the Desire will get its Froyo update as soon as this weekend). The T-Mobile MyTouch family of smartphones (also built by HTC) are rumored to be getting Froyo, too, but this has not been confirmed.
Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphones – the AT&T Captivate, T-Mobile Vibrant, etc. – will be getting the 2.2 treatment, though the release schedule is pretty wide open. While Samsung has committed to upgrade Galaxy S handsets in the UK come September, there have been no hints as to when U.S. versions will be updated. Samsung isn’t talking other than to say that U.S. versions will get Froyo.
The Motorold DROID 2, which is scheduled to be released next month, will reportedly ship with Android 2.2 pre-installed.
Older and/or discontinued Android handsets including the HTC Eris and Hero, Motorola Devour and Backflip, Samsung Moment, and T-Mobile G1 are almost certain to never taste sweet, delicious Froyo – at least not officially.