CE-Oh no he didn’t! Part XLV: Symbian’s Lee Williams rips into Android, implies Google is evil (video)

Strap yourselves in, folks, we’re about to launch the Mudslinger 3000 again and figure out if any of it sticks. Lee Williams of Symbian starts off with a few attack volleys relating to Google’s “fragmentation” of UI elements, and the resultant closed APIs being a nightmare to code for. With so many divergent UI elements and styles, he argues, developers would suffer, and the consequence would be a less vibrant app ecosystem. His major gripe with Google’s mobile OS, though, has to do with the pervasive “cookie-ing” of customers, which raises the specter of privacy concerns. When asked directly by our buddy Om Malik whether he considers Android “more evil” than Apple’s iPhone OS, Williams replied:

“I don’t view Apple as evil, they’re just greedy… Google, come on! When you have to say in your motto that we’re not evil, right away the first question in my mind is, ‘why do you have to tell me that?'”

All this must be tempered by the knowledge that Android is set to overtake large swathes of the mobile OS space, and some retaliatory trash talking is probably to be expected from the incumbent smartphone leader. Om does ask another sage question, in querying why Williams thinks companies are making such large investments into Android, and you’ll find the answer to that and much more in the video past the break.

[Via MobileTechWorld; Thanks, fido]

Read – Lee Williams interview with GigaOM
Read – New York Times: ‘Big Cellphone Makers Shifting to Android System’
Read – PCWorld: ‘Android, Symbian Will Own Smartphones in 2012’

Continue reading CE-Oh no he didn’t! Part XLV: Symbian’s Lee Williams rips into Android, implies Google is evil (video)

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CE-Oh no he didn’t! Part XLV: Symbian’s Lee Williams rips into Android, implies Google is evil (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Working on Android 2.0 Phones

IMGP5949-1.JPGIt looks like Motorola aren’t the only people to get a taste of that yummy Eclair – otherwise known as Android 2.0. The Android 2.0 software launch is going very oddly. Google hasn’t announced the OS or SDK, but Verizon says the Motorola Droid will be running the OS. The Android 2.0 Droid will be officially announced on Oct. 28 by all accounts.

My suspicions were raised because Samsung’s Moment, which came out this week, runs Android 1.5. Unlike on Motorola’s CLIQ, Android on the Moment isn’t highly customized. So it’s a little perplexing that while Verizon and Motorola are talking Android 2.0, Sprint and Samsung still appear to be on version 1.5. Was Motorola getting preferential access to version 2?

I asked Samsung and HTC, the two other Android phone manufacturers in the US, whether they were working on Android 2.0 phones. Samsung wouldn’t say, but HTC confirmed that they’ve had Android 2.0 in-house for a while and are working with it for future phones.

Motorola Sholes / Droid comes in US HSPA flavor, probably not US-bound

We’ve been led to believe in the past that there’d be a GSM version of Motorola’s mighty Sholes for markets outside the US, but this particular version that passed the FCC this week — ID IHDP56KC5, if you must know — has us particularly interested. Why? Well, it’s packing WCDMA on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, which means it’d work on AT&T, Rogers, and HSPA newcomers Bell and Telus. We’ve been led to believe, though, that this particular device is destined for Latin America where 850 / 1900 is also used in favor of the 2100MHz spectrum more prevalent in Europe. That doesn’t rule out Canada, but our instincts tell us that Verizon has every intention of locking up the Sholes as a US exclusive, which means AT&T is a likely no-go — the carrier’s been strangely silent on Android, anyhow, and we haven’t heard a peep of recent intel suggesting they’re prepping Google-powered gear in time for the holidays. Of course, enterprising individuals will probably figure out how to unlock and import this bad boy, so if you’re an American and the thought of switching to Big Red for a Droid makes you physically ill, take heart that there might yet be hope.

[Via MobileCrunch]

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Motorola Sholes / Droid comes in US HSPA flavor, probably not US-bound originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon’s Droid is a series, not just a phone; Droid Eris coming from HTC

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.

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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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Motorola Droid gets fully previewed, ‘must-have’ claims may not be far off

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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Motorola’s Zeppelin spotted, found to contain Android rather than hydrogen

Motorola's Zepplin spotted, found to contain Android rather than Hydrogen

Last week’s blurry little roadmap from Motorola gave us our first glimpse of the codename Zeppelin, and now just a few days later the back half of the thing has floated its way into the hands of someone at DIGI.QQ.com. The Android-powered handset is said to sport a five megapixel camera with flash, WiFi, a 3.1-inch 480 x 320 screen, HDMI output, and, in a first for Android, dual SIM slots marked GSM and CDMA — technically an R-UIM slot for CDMA, actually, which pretty much limits this thing to China. And indeed, rumor has it release will come behind the Great Wall sometime in the first quarter of next year, with worldwide shipments (of some other variant, we’d imagine) sometime later. Sure, that’s a long time to wait if your contract expiration is nigh, but we hear that Droid thing is pretty neat.

[Via AndroidOS.in]

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Motorola’s Zeppelin spotted, found to contain Android rather than hydrogen originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Droid’s website published a bit early, with specs galore (update: video)

A 3.7-inch, 16:9 touch screen with 480 x 854 resolution. A 5 megapixel camera with 4x zoom, autofocus, and dual LED flash. A 1400 mAh Li-ion battery for up to 385 minutes of usage time and 270 hours standby. A 550MHz processor (marginally better). A pre-installed 16GB microSD card. GPS, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g WiFi, and a micro USB port. Six ounces of weight spread out over a 2.4 x 4.6 x 0.5-inch body. We know, you were wanting the Motorola Droid‘s price and release date, too, but that’s the one detail not on this page, we’re afraid.

Update: Guess Motorola realized the error of its ways, but not to fear, we’ve got the site and specs captured in the gallery below.

Update 2: Some kind soul inhabiting middle internet managed to snag video of the Droid in action. Check it after the break.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Continue reading Motorola Droid’s website published a bit early, with specs galore (update: video)

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Motorola Droid’s website published a bit early, with specs galore (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Desire with Sense UI and Verizon branding spotted

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?

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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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Verizon Plans Droid Event On October 28

droidinvite.jpgLooks like we don’t need to bother deciphering coded countdown clocks any more. Last night Verizon Wireless sent out a bunch of invitations to a press event on October 28 for “2009’s most highly anticipated phone.” Engadget, InformationWeek and Gizmodo got invites, and we did too.

It’s safe to assume this invite is for their new Motorola Droid Android-powered smartphone, as the invite comes with the same graphic I’ve seen on other Droid-related materials — though the document never uses the word “Droid.” 

That still leaves the question of when the Droid is going on sale. Verizon’s TV commercials say November, and we received a postcard yesterday that said “11.09”. Does that mean November 9th, as I surmised, or does it mean a vaguer date sometime in the month of November, as many readers suggest? Could they change the date between now and then? Guess we’ll find out next week.

GeeksPhone One now available for pre-order, launching in Spain this December

Apparently not pushed back until January, GeeksPhone‘s Android-imbued smartphone, the One, is launching in Spain this December, recently-added physical keyboard and all. So far, the limited edition run will not be crossing Spanish borders on its own, but we doubt that’ll stop any interested parties on foreign land. Final price will be 285 euro (US $427), 22 of which is all you need to put down to reserve yours today.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

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GeeksPhone One now available for pre-order, launching in Spain this December originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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