Hasta La Gadget!

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.

Filed under: Cellphones

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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Say you’re North America’s largest wireless carrier — how do you go about burying a product you’re about to carry that you secretly wish didn’t exist? One creative option would be to opt out of announcing it when its manufacturer does, then quietly launch it on the same day that you’re announcing the phone you’re calling the “must-have device of the year.” Tricky, eh? Yeah, sure enough, by all appearances it seems that Verizon doesn’t plan on celebrating the arrival of the Storm2 with the same fanfare it gave the Storm, despite the fact that the new device directly addresses the biggest complaints dogging the original model. It’s a “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” sort of situation, we suppose. Anyhow, it looks like pricing should come in at $179.99 on contract, though $100 of that comes in the form of a mail-in rebate that you’ll get on a prepaid debit card, so you’ll actually be laying out close to $300 before taxes when you march into the store on October 28. Hey, look at it this way: at least you can keep refreshing Engadget on your old Storm to learn about the Droid while you’re waiting in line for the Storm2, right?

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon launching Storm2 on October 28 for $179.99? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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?

Filed under: Cellphones

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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Google and [insert any wireless carrier here] are the last two entities in the world that we’d expect to issue a joint statement on net neutrality, seeing how Google firmly believes the FCC should enforce it regardless of medium while carriers generally want to be exempted — but Verizon and The Goog have put their differences aside for just one day to put together a thoughtful, lengthy piece on the subject. There aren’t any surprises in the piece other than the fact that CEOs Lowell McAdam and Eric Schmidt are personally attributed to the statement, but it echoes what most ISPs have been saying since new FCC chair Julius Genachowski came into play: they generally acknowledge that a free, unhindered internet has led to a better world and that it’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure that it continues to be that way. They go on to say that “there will be disagreements along the way” — Google and Verizon don’t see eye-to-eye on the finer points, for example — but that they’re all looking forward to a spirited debate with the folks over in Washington. Ultimately, the FCC’s ability to effectively police true neutrality on wireless networks ties in deeply with its ability to free up a lot more spectrum — something the CTIA’s been pushing for lately — and Genachowski recently mentioned that they’d be looking into it, so this could all end up working out without any broken hearts or black eyes.

Filed under: Wireless

Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC’s net neutrality push originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A box arrived for me from Verizon’s PR firm today, with a wonderfully scary little robot-eye sticker on the side. Given that the Motorola Droid launch is coming on October 28, could this be the new phone? Head to the jump to see what happened when I unboxed the contents.