Hasta La Gadget!

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

Motorola’s Droid X is real. Really, really giant. And it looks like video is going to be how Verizon pushes the 4.3-inch screen: VCAST, a Blockbuster download service, HDMI out and DLNA compatibility. Did I mention it’s gigantinormous? More »

In an open letter three months ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs challenged Adobe to ship its Flash software on any mobile device and prove it worked well.

Adobe, now, has an answer. The company has released Flash Player 10.1 to its mobile partners and the technology should be in the hands of Android phone users with the upcoming Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ update to the operating system.

Flash Player 10.1 will be available as a “final production release” for smart phones and tablets, once users are able to upgrade to Android 2.2, says Adobe.

Among the devices that will get Froyo and Flash Player 10.1 are the Dell Streak, Google Nexus One, HTC Evo, HTC Desire, HTC Incredible, Motorola Droid, Motorola Milestone and Samsung Galaxy S. Google hasn’t said yet exactly when Android 2.2 will be available to users, though it is expected in the next few weeks.

Adobe says Flash Player 10.1 will also be available in devices using BlackBerry, webOS, future versions of Windows Phone, MeeGo and Symbian operating systems.

If major Android phones get Flash capability it will be a push back against Apple’s efforts to turn public opinion against Flash on mobile devices.

With the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, Apple declared war against mobile Flash. Apple is supporting HTML5 and its efforts have influenced the online video landscape significantly. Many major websites are starting to use HTML5, and video players such as Brightcove are serving up HTML5 videos for devices not compliant with Flash. Separately, Apple has worked with companies like YouTube to produce iPhone-compatible versions of their sites.

“We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it,” wrote Jobs in a note posted on the Apple website in April. “Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?”

But many developers are not convinced. Adobe’s Flash standard is still widely used on the internet, for everything from animated banner ads and splash screens to infographics, educational content and games. Much of that content has been unavailable on mobile devices: The previous version of Adobe’s mobile Flash player, Flash Lite, supported only basic Flash content, such as video.

Gadget Lab’s first look at a Flash Player 10.1 beta showed that Flash on the mobile phone can be fun, unlocking sites that otherwise would be inaccessible. But it’s not a flawless experience. On a Nexus One, Flash content — especially video — took time to load, which was frustrating. And it sucks bandwidth.

Still, for Adobe, it’s a big step toward making Flash a contender in mobile multimedia.

See Also:

• Adobe Gives Up on Flash for iPhone, iPad
• Steve Jobs Claims Flash Will Kill the Mobile Web
• Adobe CEO, Ex-Adobe Engineers Weigh In on Jobs’ Flash Attack
• First Look: Flash Arrives on New Android OS

Photo: Flash Player 10.1 on a Nexus One phone (Keith Axline/Wired.com)

In case you missed the recent excitement, a “feature” of HTC’s Droid Incredible was found whereby the Sense UI bookmarking widget would take random screenshots of your web browsing experience and put them in a folder that’s nigh impossible to delete, even after resetting to factory settings. Looks like the company knows about the issue, acknowledging it in a statement and promising a fix “in the near future.” It also suggests a different reset to fix the mess, which apparently is to select “Format Phone Storage” from the “SD Card and Phone Storage” settings menu. Let us know if you have any luck with this and please, be careful about your browsing habits if you’re worried what might be hanging around.

HTC promises fix for Droid Incredible’s ne’er-to-forget browser originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like Verizon and Motorola are coming clean with the Droid X a little earlier than planned — it just appeared on the official Droid page, complete with confirmation of that 4.3-inch screen size. Interestingly, rolling over the image reveals a box that says it has a “720p screen,” which would be crazy — especially since the Droid X prototype we played with had what looked to be the same 854 x 480 resolution as the original Droid, although we couldn’t confirm it at the time. A true 720p screen res would also be far denser than the 800 x 480 panel on the EVO 4G, so we’re thinking Verizon actually means 720p out over HDMI, not anything else. We’ll see though — the official launch event is still set for June 23, and we’re still waiting to find out about the slider Droid 2, so there are a lot of potential surprises still to come.

Update: We just confirmed that the Droid X prototype we saw had an 854 x 480 display, so we’ll have to see if Motorola and Verizon have a serious surprise for us come Wednesday — we know at least one Engadget editor who’s crossing his fingers.

Update 2: Sure enough, Verizon has changed the ad to read “Captures 720p” instead of “720p screen,” so that would basically confirm the 854 x 480 display. A nerd can dream, though! See the revised site after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading The Droid X gets real on Verizon (update: 720p video capture, not display)

The Droid X gets real on Verizon (update: 720p video capture, not display) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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