Hasta La Gadget!

Yes, yes, we know you’d rather get Eclair or Froyo — but sometimes you’ve got to be happy with what you’ve got, and this is one of those times. As far as we can tell, Samsung hasn’t budged on its commitment to sunset the Behold II’s upgrade path with Donut, but at least 1.6 is finally trickling into the hands of owners this week via a rolling over-the-air update that should wrap up on the 25th. There are a few bug fixes in the mix, too — so unless you’ve got a rooted Behold II running 2.2 already, you probably want in on this action. Or… you know, dump this inadequately-supported piece for something running 2.1 out of the box.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Samsung Behold II finally gets Android 1.6 update originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The new Motorola Droid X phone, with its slim profile and striking display, doesn’t set a new standard in industrial design. But what it lacks in style, it makes up for with features, including an emphasis on high-definition video recording and playback.

The $200 Droid X (after a $100 rebate and with a two-year Verizon contract) will run Google’s latest Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and will include Adobe Flash Player 10.1, following an update “late summer.”

There’s one key difference between the Droid X and the original Droid: The Droid X doesn’t have a physical keyboard. Instead its 4.3-inch display makes it one of the biggest touchscreens available among smartphones today.

The Droid X’s screen is gorgeous and incredibly responsive to touch. The display has a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels compared to 800 x 480 pixels on the HTC Evo. Placed side-by-side, the Evo’s display seemed brighter and more vivid.

But the Droid X’s touchscreen is a treat. It’s extremely responsive without crossing over into the annoyingly sensitive territory.

Unlike the Evo, which has its four Android buttons (Home, Menu, Back and Search) sleekly integrated into the frame, the Droid X has four physical buttons at the bottom of the phone and it is jarring. The matte black finish of the phone gives it a dull appearance compared to the glossy shine of the Evo.

Look, we know that checking the Android Market for updates its a nervous habit during brief periods of downtime for many of us — but for now, you’re going to have to go back to chewing your nails or tapping your fingers on the table, because the Market’s down. Well, that’s only partially true — you can still get into the Market app on your phone without any errors, you just won’t see any apps in there, which renders it pretty useless by our estimation. Hang on, don’t panic — we imagine this won’t last long.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: It’s still down for us on a Froyo Nexus One, but if you take a gander through our comments section, you’ll see that a lot of folks are having no trouble at all — so it’s probably based on your location, your devices, and your operating system. As far as we can tell, it’s not restricted to Froyo since we’ve received a number of tips on the issue and we’re hearing of some Droids that can’t see apps. Keep the observations coming, folks!

Update 2: Google just reached out to us to let us know that it should be fixed and that the total outage was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 minutes. They’re apologizing for the inconvenience — but with the Droid X being announced today, can you really hold a grudge?

Android Market is down, showing zero apps (update: fixed) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPhone 4’s $200 price tag can be mesmerizing, but we’re all aware it’s going to cost a lot more over time thanks to monthly bills. Just how much will you ultimately spend on an iPhone 4 versus, say, a comparable Android handset? Fortunately for the non-mathletes, a website called BillShrink has done the tedious number crunching for us.

The chart at right (click to enlarge) does a nice job summing up the total costs of ownership for the iPhone 4 compared to three highlight Android phones: the Droid Incredible, HTC Evo 4G and Nexus One. Bottom line: If you opt for minimal data and voice plans, you can potentially spend the least on the iPhone 4 over two years.

That should be comforting for owners of the 600,000 iPhone 4s that were already preordered, though of course it doesn’t factor in the amount you’ll be spending on apps. Considering there are 215,000 apps in the App Store compared to Android’s 70,000 apps, we’re guessing iPhone 4 owners will be spending a lot more than Android users over time with all that additional software available.

Via BillShrink

See Also:

• The Real Cost of the IPhone 3G
• Five Ways To Slash Your Cellphone Bill
• First iPhone 4 Reviews Mostly Sing Its Praises
• AT&T Walk-Ins for iPhone 4 Begin Next Week

Image courtesy of BillShrink

Eight months after Motorola debuted its first Droid phone, the company has refreshed the device to include a bigger screen, a focus on high-definition video and Flash compatibility.

Motorola’s new Droid X phone is the successor to its original Droid smartphone introduced last October. The $200 Droid X (after a $100 rebate and with a two-year contract) will run Google’s latest Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and will include Adobe Flash Player 10.1. DROID X customers will the 2.2 and Flash updates wirelessly over-the-air in the latter half of the summer.

“It is pretty spectacular,” John Stratton, chief marketing officer of Verizon told attendees at the device’s launch. “When you have a screen and form factor like this — very thin and lightweight — it screams video.”

The new Droid X will have a 4.3-inch touchscreen (854 x 480 pixels resolution) — about the same size as the HTC EVO 4G and much bigger physically than the 3.5-inch display on the iPhone 4, which is 960 x 640 pixels.

The phone includes a Texas Instruments OMAP processor with 1-GHz processing ability, 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory that’s expandable to 40 GB using a storage card.

It also has a 8-megapixel camera, a step up from the 5-megapixel one in the earlier version. The camera can capture 720p video content and offers HD playback via HDMI. What’s missing is the dual camera that’s now a part of the iPhone and HTC Evo.

The Droid X announcement comes a day before the public debut of the iPhone 4, although Apple’s phone is already in the hands of some lucky customers as well as a few carefully chosen reviewers.

The Droid X will be the star in Motorola’s portfolio. So far Motorola has launched a number of Android phones, including the Cliq on T-Mobile, Backflip on AT&T and Devour on Verizon. But its first Droid phone remains a best-seller. Meanwhile, Apple is charging ahead with its latest iPhone, which is gathering generally positive reviews (though AT&T’s network has been criticized). Many Apple users have already started receiving their pre-ordered iPhone 4.

Droid X is Motorola’s 11th Android smartphone. The phone will start shipping July 15 and will be available exclusively on Verizon’s network.

See below for a larger image.

Top photo: Droid X
Stefan Armijo/Wired.com

See Also:

• Review: Motorola Droid
• Motorola Droid Set for Android Upgrade
• 20 Android Phones You Can Buy Today (or Soon)
• Independent App Stores Take On Google’s Android Market

Photo: Verizon