Hasta La Gadget!

Hey look, it’s a Hero! We’ve got the brand new DROID ERIS for Verizon in hand, and it’s not hard to see which particular family of phones it hails from. Still, Verizon has its own twist on the form factor, almost scoring a compromise between the “shiny” Sprint Hero and the more angular, matte GSM Hero. Confusingly, the capacitive touch buttons along the bottom of the ERIS’ screen are a haphazard twist on the DROID’s arrangement (though it’s really Motorola that’s the non-standard one here), but the phones don’t look completely unrelated. In all the rounded, black matte body of the ERIS sort of “fades away” and you’re just left with a nice, bright LCD — it’s not making a statement, which is sort of the statement. There’s also an iPhone-style face proximity sensor for turning off the display during calls, and HTC has multitouch pinch-to-zoom on here, something Motorola hasn’t seemed to manage. Sure it can’t stack up to the DROID for aggressiveness or sheer specs, but it’s got it’s own sort of budget-friendly charm that’s not overshadowed by the DROID’s bombastic ways, and two out of three Engadget editors agree that the HTC keyboard beats the pants off the stock Android keyboard.

Filed under: Cellphones

DROID ERIS hands-on and unboxing! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s been a whirlwind of chatter about Apple’s multitouch patents since the Motorola DROID was released to reviewers sans any built-in support for Android 2.0’s multitouch APIs — there’s no pinch-to-zoom in the browser or maps app, and the soft keyboard is decidedly a single-touch affair. What’s even more curious is that the DROID clearly supports multitouch, as several new apps have demonstrated, and the overseas UMTS variant of the handset, the MILESTONE, has been shown on video with pinch-to-zoom in the browser several times now. That’s led to a ton of speculation that Apple’s somehow blocking Google from using pinch-to-zoom in the US, so we thought we’d step in with a little refresher on the state of Apple’s multitouch patents and some thoughts how they might be affecting the DROID. Read on!

Continue reading Some more perspective on the DROID and multitouch

Filed under: Cellphones

Some more perspective on the DROID and multitouch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you’re excited about the upcoming Motorola Droid, but you’re a bit of a rolling stone when it comes to settling down with wireless carrier contracts. The Android-based handset finally got an official month-to-month contract price, by way of the official Verizon Android Twitter account.

Interested parties will have to plunk down $559.99 for the honor of owning the phone sans-contract. The Editors’ Choice-winning handset will arrive in stores this Friday, priced at $199 for those who don’t mind contracts.

You know what’s worse than showing your Bitter Beer Face to the world after you passed on Apple’s iPhone and let AT&T enjoy the spoils? Raising your early termination fee to stratospheric heights. Just over a year ago, we honestly though this whole ETF thing was headed in the right direction, as most of the major carriers (VZW included) sought to prorate contracts in order to lessen the charge as one’s contract drew closer to an end. Now, however, Big Red is evidently gearing up to pull a 180, with the slide above showing a $350 ETF for “advanced” devices (read: probably anything deemed a smartphone). The newly hiked rate will go into effect on November 15th, and while that $350 will decrease by $10 per month over the life of the agreement, this pretty much guarantees that you won’t be adding a line, disconnecting and then flipping that phone on eBay.

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon looking to bump early termination fee to $350 on ‘advanced’ devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When the Motorola DROID debuts in Verizon Wireless stores bright and early this Friday, one nice little feature that won’t be making an appearance yet is tethering, for computing with your laptop on-the-go when that Android 2.0 interface just won’t cut it. We’re pretty sure that missing functionality won’t be lessening the early adopter crowds too much, but if you are so inclined, Gearlog’s confirmed with VZW that its “Broadband Access Connect” tethering plan is indeed coming to the device, but not until sometime early 2010. Now, how about muscling Motorola and / or Google for some of that double-finger pointing our fine European friends get to indulge in?

Filed under: Cellphones

DROID tethering? It’s coming early 2010, says Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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