Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been less than a full day since Verizon’s Droid 2 hit shelves (or two, if you count Sam’s Club) but the fine folks at iFixit have already managed to make their phone explode into… 24 pieces, if we’re counting right. Amazingly enough, the internal construction is almost exactly the same despite Motorola’s near-doubling of the horsepower (and addition of 802.11n) inside. You’ll find a nigh-identical logic board, speaker, camera and LCD screen — not to mention the exact same battery, which means original Droid owners will have a handy swap — and what looks like the exact same steps (but Torx screwdrivers required) to take the clever puzzle of plastic and metal apart. Not that you’d necessarily want to do the same to your new handset — It’s days like this we’re glad iFixit is here to take that bullet for us.

Motorola Droid 2 ripped to shreds, where’s an astromech when you need one? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you shed a tear when Verizon put the Droid Eris out to pasture, it’s time to dry your eyes; it seems the handset’s found greener fields in Florida, at Epcot Center to be precise. That’s right, Walt Disney World is reportedly testing out Verizon’s HTC Hero as a GPS navigator and tour guide for the entire park, complete with shopping discounts, special bonuses and up-to-the-minute wait times for rides. How or when you’ll get your hands on one is presently up in the air, though the man who snapped these shots told Mickey Updates the phones may be an inexpensive addition to your vacation — perhaps like the $10 BREW-based Mobile Magic application Verizon and Disney introduced last year. Here’s hoping that chunky case includes an extended battery — there’s no way a stock Eris could last as long as Nintendo’s guide.

Update: A video walkthrough of the whole shebang is posted after the break. Thanks, Matt!

[Thanks, Durango Jim]

Continue reading Disney converting Droid Eris into GPS tour guide (update: video!)

Disney converting Droid Eris into GPS tour guide (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BGR’s lined up a handful of very believable rumors for Big Red today — and if you’re an Android fan, you’re going to want to pay very close attention (heck, even if you’re not, you should probably take a look). First up, Motorola’s said to have a full-touch Android 2.2 handset in the works with global roaming capability on GSM and presumably HSPA — a first in the CDMA Android world — that apparently looks a bit like a Motorola Q (without the keyboard, of course). Interestingly, we’ve recently been clued into a global roaming Moto from a trusted tipster of ours with the codename “Venus” that’s slated to enter internal testing on the 27th of this month, so that lines up pretty nicely with this rumor — but Venus could also be another global Android smartphone allegedly in the pipeline from Motorola, the Droid Pro. As its name suggests, BGR says the Droid Pro will be a monster, featuring a 1.3GHz core (faster than the 1GHz Droid X and Droid 2) and a 4-inch screen with a target street date in November — just in time for the holidays. There are also apparently global Android handsets in store from Samsung and HTC; additionally, our tipster tells us that there will be a Motorola “Ciena” sans global roaming, a phone could possibly be that WX445 we saw not long ago. It’s entering carrier acceptance testing on the 17th.

Follow the break for the rest of the lowdown!

[Thanks, HTC Kid]

Continue reading Verizon rumors: LTE, Android 3.0 tablets, a Droid Pro, and more

Verizon rumors: LTE, Android 3.0 tablets, a Droid Pro, and more originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d broken the news of the Droid 2’s August 12 street date a couple weeks ago, and we’re now getting confirmation of that — at Best Buy, anyhow — thanks to a couple tips we’ve received today, including the screen shot above. An actual launch is going to feel like sweet release after what has become the most thoroughly-leaked phone in recent memory, but if you need yet more fodder for your overactive imagination, we’d recommend you follow the break for Best Buy’s competitive analysis of the phone, which does a commendable job breaking down all the differences between it and its direct predecessor — notably the significantly speedier core, the mobile hotspot support, 802.11n, and the onboard storage (though you get a smaller microSD card in the box). Question is, where can we get that R2-D2 edition?

[Thanks, anonymous tipsters]

Continue reading Droid 2 looks confirmed for August 12, Best Buy pits it against the competition

Droid 2 looks confirmed for August 12, Best Buy pits it against the competition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not often that we know this freaking much about a major smartphone prior to its announcement — not to say that we’re complaining. Latest in the never-ending string of Droid 2 leaks is this handy little flyer, seemingly part of internal training for sales reps, pimping a variety of features like Android 2.2 out-of-the-box (something the original Droid is just now getting), the 8GB of on-board storage with another 8GB on an included microSD card, the Droid X-like UI skin, Swype, and — this is interesting — a claimed 40 percent gain in website loading time over its predecessor thanks to the 1GHz core. Of course, Froyo’s quite a bit faster than Eclair, so if they’re benchmarking a Froyo Droid 2 against an Eclair Droid, that could account for part of the performance improvement, too — not to say that we’re complaining. Hit the gallery below for a larger version of the page.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Droid 2 flyer confirms Froyo (again), promises 40 percent boost in website load times originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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