Hasta La Gadget!

Exactly as suspected, the Droid Pro will start its Verizon retail adventure tomorrow, with pre-sales at selected VZW stores and the carrier’s online outlet, to be followed by its proper shelf debut on November 18th. Price is set at $179.99 on a two-year contract, provided you’re happy to take care of a $100 mail-in rebate. Moto will be hoping business types lap this offer up, as it has equipped the Droid Pro with an unusual (outside of RIM’s realm) portrait QWERTY keyboard as well as a dual-mode CDMA/GSM wireless chip. A 3.1-inch display, 1GHz of processing power, and a 5 megapixel autofocus cam fill out the spec sheet. Jump past the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Motorola Droid Pro official on Verizon: $179.99 after rebate, pre-sales begin November 9th

Motorola Droid Pro official on Verizon: $179.99 after rebate, pre-sales begin November 9th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, here’s some good news — we just received an internal Verizon pricelist confirming that the Droid Pro will sell for $179 when it hits on November 9th, a far sight lower than the $299 we’d originally heard. That’s a pretty tempting price for Moto’s Android-with-a-Blackberry-keyboard handset, although we’re assuming that it’ll be $279 with a $100 rebate at launch. We’re also seeing that the dual-display Samsung Continuum Galaxy S phone will hit for the usual $199, while the Droid 2 indeed fell to $149 last week in order to make room for the now nearly-mythical Droid 2 Global, which will come in two colors for $199. We’re also separately told that the HTC Merge won’t arrive until after the 17th, so those reports of a launch on the 11th might be premature. Either way, it looks like Verizon’s going to have a pretty loaded holiday lineup — and it looks like we’ve got some serious reviewing to do.

Verizon pricing Droid Pro at $179, Samsung Continuum at $199? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s been a lot of speculation about what’ll happen to ye olde Droid 2 when the GSM-enhanced Droid 2 Global finally busts loose, but it looks like we might now have the answer: it gets a lower price tag. The original model has now fallen to $149.99 on contract on Verizon’s site, and evidence from the carrier’s internal systems (see after the break for that) suggests it’ll be hanging around at that price until at least the tail end of January. Meanwhile, that same internal screenshot is also showing the Droid X holding steady at $199.99 until December 30, so we wouldn’t count on getting any sweet deals — or a dual-mode version of the 4.3-inch beast — at any point in 2010. Interestingly, the Droid 2 R2-D2 edition is holding steady at $250, so you’d better really want it. Go ahead and follow the break for the evidence.

Update: The Droid Incredible is now $150 direct from Verizon, too — and considering how universally well-liked that thing is, the Droid 2 might still be a tough sell at the same price. Decisions!

Continue reading Motorola Droid 2 falls to $150, makes room for $200 Droid 2 Global

Motorola Droid 2 falls to $150, makes room for $200 Droid 2 Global originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Someone’s found their way into an internal database and pulled out details on three Verizon phones — the Samsung Continuum, Samsung Zeal and Motorola Citrus, all of which will reportedly drop on the 11th of next month. We don’t have any reason to doubt that, as all three showed up on a recent rebate, but there’s more to these leaked screens than a release date. For instance, the Continuum will apparently sport a Swype virtual keyboard on top of a 3.4-inch Super AMOLED screen, to say nothing of that secondary display, and the Motorola Citrus explicitly doesn’t support tethering. The Samsung Zeal, meanwhile, isn’t a modern smartphone at all, but rather a dual-hinge device with “magic” e-ink keys that change from a standard dialer to a four-row QWERTY layout. Isn’t it nice to have all that sorted out?

[Thanks, Gavin]

Verizon nabs Samsung Continuum, Zeal and Motorola Citrus on November 11th, according to gushing leak? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What, you didn’t think Apple was just going to sit around and take it after Motorola first sued for patent infringement and then asked to court to declare some 20 of Cupertino’s patents weren’t applicable to its products, did you? Apple’s fired back with two lawsuits claiming that Motorola’s Android phones, including but not limited to the Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BackFlip, Devour A555, Devour i1, and Charm, infringe a total of six multitouch and OS patents. That would be pretty much par for the course — you sue me, I sue you — but there are a couple interesting strategic wrinkles to note:

• We’ve only seen Apple litigate one of these patents before: #7,479,949, Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics. You should remember it well — it’s the patent covering scroll behavior on multitouch screens that was hyped as “the iPhone patent” and triggered a press frenzy over a possible Apple / Palm lawsuit. As we predicted at the time, that hasn’t yet materialized, but old ‘949’s gotten pretty popular: Apple’s asserting it against Nokia and HTC as well.
• Apple might be suing over six patents in these two cases, but ultimately Apple will claiming Motorola’s devices infringe a total of 26 patents — part of Apple’s defense to Motorola’s 20-patent lawsuit will be to claim that Moto’s in fact infringing each of those patents. That’s a lot of patents across a lot of devices, and it’ll just take one finding of infringement to cause a lot of pain.
• Apple’s filed its two cases in the Western District of Wisconsin, a patent “rocket docket” that tries cases quickly and are often perceived as being plaintiff-friendly. (Part of the Apple / Nokia lawsuit is happening in this same court.) Moto’s obvious next move will be to try and consolidate all these cases into a single proceeding at one court, a procedural tactic that will take likely take months. And that’s just the first step. Don’t expect these cases to be decided for at least a year — probably many years — unless Apple and Motorola decide to settle, which is always possible.
• Apple’s now seriously engaged in litigation with the two largest Android handset makers (HTC and Motorola), largely over OS-level patents. At some point Google has to get involved, if only to indemnify its partners against further liability for using Android, and we can’t help but think Apple and Google are eventually bound to face off directly. Or perhaps not — by suing Android handset makers, Apple’s essentially putting a tax on Android without having to further muddy up its complex competitor / partner relationship with Google by adding in a major lawsuit.

We’ve added in a list of the patents after the break, if you’re interested — and we know you’re interested, right? It’s not like it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon or anything.

Continue reading Apple sues Motorola right back over six patents

Apple sues Motorola right back over six patents originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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