I make no secret that I’m a fan of Verizon’s Android phone line – and I appreciate that they let me test out a lot of the gadgets. However, I get a lot of questions about the NAME. I spent 30 minutes once explaining to someone the difference between their HTC Hero Android phone and a Verizon Droid Eris – all due to naming. So Verizon, I may really like your stuff – but I question the naming convention you’ve gotten yourself into.

So here goes …

Droid is a product line of Android (Google) operating system phones from Verizon. If it’s not from Verizon, it may indeed be an Android OS, but it’s not a Droid. For instance, the Sprint EVO and Hero are both running Android OS. However, they are not Droids. A Droid phone has to be Verizon and run Android OS, but can be made by anyone. Right now, Verizon has good relationships with Motorola and HTC.

To make things slightly more confusing, the first phone released in the Verizon Droid line of phones was … the Motorola Droid. Yeah, I know. It’s basically the Droid Droid.

Verizon also has the HTC Droid Eris, the HTC Droid Incredible, the Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Droid 2. I think the Motorola Droid Devour is still available as well. Where does it get really confusing? Well, I’m not exactly sure where the Android-based LG Ally falls. Is it a Droid or just an LG?

So, is your T-Mobile MyTouch a Droid? Nope, it’s an Android phone. Is your original Motorola Droid a Droid? Yep, because it’s from Verizon.

I know this seems a bit simplistic, but the amount of times I’m asked this question is a bit out of control. So when you see those Droid Does commercials from Verizon, just remember that even if your Android phone isn’t a Droid, it still probably does a lot of what the ad mentions. In my opinion, apps really help make a phone, and those are available to all Androids.

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Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by one of her day jobs.

Have you ever had the sort of summer where everything gets away from you? That has been my summer. Back in early July, the good folks at Verizon sent me a Droid X to play with. I realized this morning that almost two months later, I still have it. They’ve been very patient with me considering that it had completely slipped my mind.

So, what do I think of the Droid X? Well, it’s a great phone. It’s also a big phone, so I won’t be trading in my HTC Incredible just yet. I need something that fits in my pockets a little more comfortably. But if you’re into bigger is better, you may absolutely love the Droid X.

Thin form, with a bump at the top to support the camera

The Droid X is everything the original Droid (it hasn’t even been a year) should have been. The keyboard, while virtual, I found extremely easy to use. It supports Swype and while I didn’t intentionally use Swype, it certainly typed easier than even my Incredible. It could just be the form factor – no matter which way you turn it, the Droid X has a huge screen.  It’s a 4.3″ FWVGA 854 x 480 resolution screen. It’s crisp and instantly responsive. Putting numbers aside, things just look pretty on the Droid X screen. It’s closest comparison would be the Sprint EVO, which has a slightly thinner, shorter form factor.

There are aspects of Motorola’s MotoBlur integrated into the Droid X, mostly apparent through a few apps and widgets. For the most part, the Droid X is pure Android though. If you’re familiar with HTC’s Sense UI for Android, then you know how different a UI can make this OS. Whatever parts of MotoBlur they added to the X, it’s few and far between. In fact, I’ve gotten so accustomed to the Sense UI, that it could be one reason I wasn’t bowled over by the Droid X.

Over the last 6 months or so, I’ve adjusted to the fact that physical buttons on phones may actually be a thing of the past. A while back, one of my favorite things about the Droid Eris was that the buttons were actually physical. There was a button for home, back, Phone, and so on. The Droid X picks up on this, with buttons for Settings, Home, Back, and Search. While the keyboard is virtual, the physical buttons are a nice switch.

With heavy usage, I’ve gotten one day of battery life out of the Droid X, which pummels my Incredible (for which I always carry a backup battery).  The most draining things on the Droid X battery are using the GPS for actual navigation and using the built-in mi-fi-like 3G Mobile Hotspot. While I believe it requires an extra plan from Verizon, you can easily replace your mi-fi or broadband stick with this feature. Running a test while traveling in Chicago, my husband and I hooked up a netbook, iPad, and full laptop to the Droid X signal and had great service.

The Droid X is a speedy machine, and I would expect nothing less. I laugh a lot about the specs of the new “super” phones. Years ago I had one of the first iBooks (in orange, with a handle). These phones at least triple the specs of that machine, if not more. The Droid X has 8 GB onboard memory, 16 GB microSD pre-installed, and supports up to 32 GB micro SD – total memory expandable up to 40 GB. It has a 1 Ghz ARMv7 processor.  Speedy. I sometimes look at my old/current MacBook Pro and think, “My phone might be faster than you.”

It has an 8 mp camera that works as fast as the camera in my Incredible. I turned my husband loose with the Droid X while we were on a Frank Lloyd Wright Walking Tour in Chicago and he got some great shots with bright colors. I find the camera button to be a bit stiff, but apparently its just a matter of personal adjustment. There is an HDMI out port on the device as well, which I didn’t get a chance to test. Note that an HDMI cable is not included in the box.

Photo taken with DroidX

As far as call quality, with and without Google Voice, I had great quality and no dropped calls. I had no trouble hearing anyone and they were able to hear me without any issue.

Overall, the Droid X is a great device. I hesitate to use the word “phone” anymore, as these devices are really uber-portable computers. I already have several friends who ordered the Droid X as quickly as I ordered the Incredible. While it’s certainly not the device for me, due to size and my apparent attachment to HTC’s Sense, it’s certainly a great addition to the Verizon Droid line.

It looks as if the latest batch of Droid X devices will be shipping by August 31. With a two-year contract, the Droid X retails for $199.

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Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by one of her day jobs.

I had Verizon’s HTC Droid Incredible for 24 hours, they took it away, and then just as quickly sent me another one so that I could spend more time with it. I’ve had it about 2 weeks, although I’ve only been using it for one. As I mentioned previously, the Incredible lives up to its name.

It sports a rubbery backing that I like, covering a bright red “racecar” interior that peeks through around the camera lens and the speaker. The indentation on the backing actually follow the lines of the internal parts. I can appreciate that HTC is calling out that they designed a lovely device both inside and out. You have to remove the backing to get to the battery (replaceable) and the memory card slot.

Photo from C|net

Not that you really need that memory slot. The Incredible has 8 GB of memory built-in. That’s on top of the 1Ghz Snapdragon processor. This phone is faster than my first iMac. Full specs: 3.7? AMOLED capacitive display, 512MB of RAM, 512 ROM, 8GB of internal storage, an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash, Wi-Fi, an accelerometer, digital compass, Bluetooth, GPS, and Android 2.1 with the latest Sense UI.

The Incredible comes equipped with a dual-LED flash 8 MP camera, fully loaded with similar customizable options that you might find on a low-end point-and-shoot camera. In fact, this phone could eliminate my need to carry a small point-and-shoot camera. Low-light photos and video aren’t bad. Not fantastic, but we are still talking about a mobile phone.

Right. It’s a phone. I haven’t had any dropped calls and it seems to have good call quality. People can hear me and I can hear them without any buzzing, hissing, popping, or blank spots. Here’s my first issue with the phone, and apparently I’m not the only one. I don’t seem to have consistent 3G. It can be sitting side by side with my Droid, which will be showing 3G, and the Incredible will not. Again, I haven’t had call quality issues, so maybe this is a display issue and not a reception thing.

As far as hardware goes, there’s an optical directional pad (which I’ve rarely used), a microUSB port and volume switch on the left, and power button on the top. That’s it. To launch the camera, you need to use the software.

I love the Android OS and have no complaints. Everything I ever used on my iPhone seems to exist in the Android market. Last night I counted up the apps on my Droid: I’ve downloaded and am using 42 apps. Now, the standard OS only gives you three screens to play with, but Sense UI adds four more. The Incredible will let me load up and easily access countless apps and widgets, as opposed to just accessing them through a pop-up menu.

Sense adds some other great features, but my favorite by far is the ability to pinch in and see all 7 of my screens – sort of an Alt-Tab fuction for the phone.

Other Sense-only widgets include a nice email viewing widget, an SMS viewing widget, and Sense’s own FriendStream. FriendStream lets you view your Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr streams without having to go to each individual app. Since it only pulls in one Twitter app, I don’t actually use it. I do like that I can post directly to Facebook and Twitter from FriendStream though – it’s a nice addition to the phone for someone who isn’t quite as account-overloaded as I am.

Sense also does away with the standard Android email app and uses Sense Mail, which accesses IMAP, POP, and Exchange accounts. As opposed to a true combined inbox, you have a pop-up view of your accounts, letting you know where you have new messages. I love 90% of the email program. It offers pre-filtered views, including the useful threaded Conversations, as well as Unread and Attachments.

This is where my second issue with the phone comes in though. I’ve posted this question to every forum, hoping there is just something I’m missing. I have gotten into the habit of starring/favoriting/flagging specific email messages on my phone to pay more attention to them when I see them on my computer later. I cannot find a single way to flag/star email messages within Sense Mail. I can do it in the Gmail app, and I can certainly download the stock Android mail app or K-9 and do it there, but not in Sense Mail. I notice that the Mail Widget on the HTC Hero (also Sense) even has a Flag option built in, so it’s not like it’s a foreign concept to the folks at HTC. So I’m working on this one. It is a dealbreaker for me in that I’d have to download and use an alternate email application.

Contacts are integrated with Facebook. This is good and bad. You can easily link contacts, as the Incredible is actually pretty conservative with its choices in linking. However, if you unlink, all sorts of weird things happen. For instance, I unlinked my stepmom’s Facebook account from the contact card for her and my Dad. Yet suddenly, my stepmom showed up as a contact all on her own, when she wasn’t originally. Weird.

HTC gives you an option to actually sync with your PC (not your Mac). Yes, you can use your Android phone and not have all of your information in the cloud. The software comes built into the phone. Alternatively, you can join me in the cloud and just allow your phone to show up as a hard drive on your computer. This worked with both my Mac and my PC. When I added a microSD card (16GB), it showed up as yet another drive.

I loaded videos, music and photos onto both the phone and the SD card without a problem. The Incredible found them, despite my slightly crazy-on-purpose filing system, and siphoned them off to the correct areas. This also included ringtones and notification sounds. (Note: The latter options had to be in specially designated folders to be recognized.) Sense makes the default music app slightly more aesthetic, which is nice, and I had no trouble pulling up and playing several episodes of True Blood on the video player.

YouTube is a little different. The Incredible automatically defaults to the lowest-resolution video on the site. You have to specifically tell it to show you the HD version. When I first watched the Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody on the Incredible, I was shocked at the low-res, until I realized I needed to just specify the resolution.

I’ve also heard complaints about the lack of brightness. But Boy Genius discovered that the Incredible default brightness setting isn’t the brightest, for battery saving most likely, which dims things a bit. Crank up the brightness setting and the colors just pop off of the screen.

Battery life is lacking a bit. Once I got used to the phone and wasn’t playing with it more than I usually might, I discovered that it didn’t last me an entire day. My default settings include turning off Bluetooth and GPS and dimming the screen, but those didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I’m hoping this is something they can fix with a firmware update, as they seem to have with the Motorola Droid.

I’m anxiously awaiting the accessories. There is a desk clock mode and car kit mode, similar to the Droid. While the Incredible doesn’t have the magnets in it, I’m hoping a rumored car dock and desk cradle will find a way to trigger those options. I’m pretty attached to my Droid accessories.

Back in the fall, I reviewed Verizon’s Droid and Droid Eris, right as they were being released. I loved the HTC Eris, but finally settled on buying the Droid for myself. Why? Because I wanted the “real” Android operating system and not the Sense UI wrapper around it.

And yet, tomorrow I’m “upgrading” my Droid to an HTC Incredible, which is really just an Eris on steroids and similar to the Google Nexus One. I’m getting an Android phone with the Sense UI wrapper. In my video review, I may have mentioned that I’m a little nervous about trusting HTC with this. After all, they haven’t (to my knowledge) released Android 2.1 for the Eris yet, even if leaked versions are available.

Regardless, I’m holding my breath and jumping in. It’s a good sign when the reviewer runs out to buy the phone.

by Michelle Lentz

For me, 2009 was the Year of the Suitcase. I traveled more, for both business and pleasure, than I ever have before. That trend looks like it will continue into 2010, which is pretty exciting. In fact, my 2010 kicks off next week with a trip to Las Vegas for CES 2010, where I’ll probably find new gadgets to lust after. Until then, however, I’m thrilled with several of the gadgets that have gotten me through the last year of travel. Some of them aren’t as new as they possibly could be, and some of them are pretty basic, but they all serve their purpose.

Amazon Kindle 2: I pre-ordered this last February. It was my first big gadget purchase of the year and I don’t regret it for a second. Sure, I occasionally lose a lot of patience with Amazon, considering that it won’t read the ePub format. I am a big proponent of ereaders, Kindle or otherwise, and evangelize them to everyone. See me in an airport and want to play with my Kindle? No problem. It has made traveling a lot easier (I used to pack tons of books and now I just pack the Kindle) and I still end up reading myself to sleep by the light of a booklight attached to the Kindle cover.

Sennheiser PXC 250 Noise Canceling Headphones: There are probably better options out there, but these Sennheisers fold up rather small and slip into my purse or briefcase. They block out just about everything, which makes flying so much easier. They’re also a whole lot cheaper now than when I purchased them, currently coming in at $62.66.

Luggage Scale: Without fail, I tend to both overpack for a trip and shop once I arrive. This means I’m always checking one bag, despite the ridiculous fees. To keep myself on the safe side of 50 pounds, I rely 100% on a portable digital luggage scale. These things retail for around $13 and have routinely saved me on excess fees and helped control my overpacking and shopping urges.

Wine Diapers / Wine Skins: Being a wine blogger, I can’t seem to travel anywhere without a bottle of wine, and I also tend to buy wine where ever I end up. This means that I not only need to pack the 750 ml of liquid in my checked luggage, but I need to keep it from breaking and turning a white designer sweater pink en route. I’ve been testing out the Wine Diaper, which works well and has the benefit of being reusable, but I rather prefer the Wine Skin.

Dell Mini: I ordered the Dell Mini 10v rather cheap (<$200) from the Dell Outlet. Not only that, I was able to score a pink one, which I quickly outfitted with a pink mouse and pink USB stick. I purposely bought a lower-end Mini, the 10v, which has the VGA port. Why? Because when I present at conferences, I need it to be as easy as possible with a low-barrier for whomever is setting me up / letting me use the equipment. The Mini 10 (no V) includes fancy items such as GPS and an internal TV tuner. I loaded up the Mini 10v with Windows 7, Word and Powerpoint, Thunderbird, Acrobat, and Firefox. With just that amount, it’s perfect for presentations, email, and surfing. However, a few weeks ago I had to write an RFP while traveling. Don’t buy a 10-inch netbook for your primary machine if you need to write anything more intensive than a basic blog post. At that point, the 10-inch screen is a hindrance. But for travel and presentations, the machine is a dream.

Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go: To complement the Mini 10V, I also picked up the Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go stick. After doing some price comparisons, it seemed the best option. Most of the places I go actually have wireless. However, occasionally the broadband or wireless in a hotel will be ridiculously expensive or just a poor connection. Sometimes I even find myself at conferences where I don’t have wireless available in the sessions rooms. Remarkable, but true. To combat this sometimes-but-not-always problem, I went with the pay-as-you-go option. I tried it out for the first time last week in Key West and it worked beautifully. I was able to do everything from surf the Web to uploading files. I bought a $20 card, which got me 250 MB (the equivalent of 2 hrs browsing, 1 hour web video, or 25,000 emails).  It was a leisure trip, so I wasn’t online much, but I still have about 150 MB left. The catch is that your data allowance expires anywhere from 10-30 days after purchase, depending on how much you buy. But if you buy strategically (in my case, before every trip), it shouldn’t be an issue. The initial hardware purchase will set you back $99 and there is a lot of freedom in being able to get online anywhere, anytime.

Motorola Droid: I realize I just got my hands on this in November, but it’s quickly become a huge part of my life. Now that I have service everywhere I go (unlike my last two years with AT&T), I am constantly tweeting, texting and emailing. I realize that might not be a good thing, but my ability to be connected has greatly increased. The keyboard makes everything easy for me and I have no problem finding free apps I like and need from the Android Marketplace. I can’t say that the Droid has changed the way I communicate. But it enhances my communications and allows me to communicate in ways I couldn’t with my iPhone.

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Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

AppleInsider is reporting the rumor that Verizon may be getting the iPhone by Q3 of next year.

Qualcomm’s new hybrid CDMA/WCDMA chip offers the potential for a single, global iPhone that users can take to any major carrier, solving the network fractionalization problem. It also solves other issues that had served as roadblocks, including the issue of user confusion that would result from Apple selling separate CDMA and GSM/UMTS versions of the iPhone.

With one phone that works on both types of networks, any differences between the two (such as in features like conference calling and simultaneous voice and data, unique to UMTS) will be more apparently tied to the provider’s network rather than to an iPhone model itself.

They’re also reporting that the Verizon iPhone will be smaller (more like the Eris in size, I imagine), with a screen size of 2.8″.

The end of AT&T exclusivity means a couple of things:

• If you were waiting for the iPhone to switch to Verizon so you can hightail it away from AT&T, your dreams may be coming to fruition.
• If you were going to get a Droid or Eris because you wanted an iPhone-like phone, but didn’t want to leave the Verizon network, you might want to wait.

Why wait? Well, if what you really want is an iPhone on Verizon, you might not want to pay the early termination fee. Boy Genius reported last week that Verizon is upping their ETF for enhanced devices to $350. That’s a hefty price to pay, even pro-rated, to switch phones. The new ETF apparently goes into effect on Saturday, 11/15. I’m bothered enough that I’m sending my husband into Verizon on Friday, before I get home, to pick up my Droid. After all, there’s a huge chance I’ll switch phones within the next year or two.

I’m curious to see how many people leave AT&T once the iPhone is available on multiple carriers.

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

by Michelle Lentz

An HTC Droid Eris (along with a Blackberry Storm 2) appeared at my doorstep yesterday, and I’ve had just enough time with it to give you my first impressions. After playing with it for a week or so, I’ll make sure to do a more in-depth, thorough post. Keep in mind – these are just initial impressions.

First off, Verizon is really on a bit of a smartphone bender, releasing gadget after gadget between now and the end of the year. Since they seem to like to let me play with their phones a bit, you’ll probably continue to hear a lot about Verizon. (If those other companies would let me test out their gadgets, it wouldn’t seem so one-sided.) Next, their marketing is a bit funky. Droid is the Motorola Droid that I already reviewed. However, Droid is apparently also a series of phones, which thus far includes the Motorola Droid (we’ll just call it the Droid) and the Droid Eris (which we’ll call the Eris). Verizon is slated to release two additional Android devices by the end of the year, so I expect those to be prefaced by the Droid series name as well.  As far as the Eris goes, Eris is the Greek goddess of Chaos. I suspect some enterprising marketer was going for Eros (love) but decided no one would pronounce it or spell it right. After all, it was originally the HTC Desire. So now the phone sounds like it’s named for a robotic goddess of chaos.  Nice.

I had some preconceived notions about the Eris, I admit it. I was so in love with the Droid, and Android 2.0, I couldn’t imagine this surpassing it in any way. In fact, I am guilty of calling it the “lower-end Droid Lite.” It just goes to show – don’t listen to preconceived notions.

Form

The Droid is an elegant little phone. It’s smaller than my iPhone in width, but about the same length. Like the iPhone, it has rounded corners, which just adds to the aesthetic. The Droid is not a large phone, and until today I had no issues with its appearance. Next to the Eris, however, it’s all square edges and chunkiness. The Eris also has a nice  trackball that adds to navigation and serves as the LED for notifications.

The Eris, unlike the Droid, has physical call and end buttons. It also has the Home, Menu, Back, and Search buttons (in the usual order – unlike the Droid) as light buttons. There is a soft, almost rubbery feel to the back, which I rather like. Again, that’s something I thought would be cheesy and instead, it actually adds to the quality of the phone.

I just don’t think I can convey how light and airy this phone seems. The only adjectives I’ve got for it are sexy and elegant. Even ZDnet finds the phone a bit sexy.

Here are the specs:

• Qualcomm MSM 7600 528MHz processor (By comparison, the Droid has a 550mhz processor.)
• CDMA/EV-DO Rev A. support
• 3.2 inch 320×480 HVGA capacitive touch screen and trackball interface
• 5.0 megapixel auto focus camera
• Expandable memory with pre-installed 8 GB microSD card (I upgraded to 16 gb.)
• Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3.5 mm headset connectivity
• Integrated GPS and a digital compass with a sensor that enables the phone to know what direction it is facing
• Smart dialer for simplified dialing by name, number or initials
• Dimensions of 4.45 x 2.19 x 0.51 inches and 4.23 ounces
• 1300 mAh Li-Ion battery (removable, by the way)

Function

The Eris is running Android 1.5. I’ve read that it can be upgraded to Android 2.0, and it would seem that the hardware could support that. It’s also wrapped in the Sense user interface (UI) from HTC, which basically takes the Android operating system to the next level. For instance, instead of 3 screens, you have seven. There are enhanced widgets. As opposed to some of the nice, but basic widgets included in the Android operating system, this adds to them. In this example, you can see the music widget available in the Sense UI. You can choose from multiple different displays for each widget available. In the clock widget, there are 12 different styles to choose from – everything from a standard clock to more of a steam punk look.

I have no love of virtual keyboards and have always blamed my discomfort with the iPhone on the keyboard. My fingers just aren’t dexterous enough. But, like on the Droid, I had no trouble with the Eris virtual keyboard. I suspect this is because I can turn on haptic feedback, which means I get some sort of physical confirmation that I’ve actually hit a key. The Eris keyboard is available in portrait and landscape, so no worries there.

It loaded web pages rather fast. I always test phones by loading my wine blog, and I didn’t notice any difference in the load time between it and the Droid. I didn’t time it, but it wasn’t slow enough to annoy me.  As with the Droid, I had no trouble pulling in any of my contacts or calendars, but that’s because Google owns me. I easily set up my mail accounts – both Gmail and IMAP accounts. I can’t seem to add, through the GMail app, more than one GMail account, but that’s easily fixed by adding the second as an IMAP. There’s also a fantastic little Sense UI email widget that lets you page through your IMAP emails.

I don’t use Exchange, but here’s what my friend at the Gadgeteer had to say about that experience:

I was not expecting Exchange support since it was added in 2.0, but it does provide support for Exchange accounts. It was easy to set up my exchange mail account. It allows you sync your Mail, Contacts and Calendar. There is also the option to sync to your PC (just your contact and calendar) in case your Outlook mail is not on an exchange server, or you cannot access your exchange server.

He mentioned to me at lunch that, unlike the Droid, the Eris calendar displays his Google calendar and his Outlook/Exchange calendar all in one view, which I consider a plus.

Instead of the standard Android pop-up menu of apps on the screen, there is an arc that also has a touch Phone button, an easy way to add shortcuts and widgets, and access to the pop-up. It actually looks nicer than the standard Android wrapper, and that’s a lot of what the Sense UI has done. It has prettied up Android. I have lovely widgets for email, Google search, my calendar, music, and even the built-in Twitter app.

Yep, the Eris comes with Peep, a built-in app just for Twitter. It only manages one account, but I already like it better than Twidroid. It has a clean interface, is very easy to use, and was obviously built with the lovely Sense UI in mind. I love that the app has an included widget.

The Eris automatically links up with your Facebook and Flickr accounts, which is a very nice feature. I love that they included Flickr, acknowledging that not all my photos are local. For Facebook, it identified 65 of my contacts that are also Facebook friends and asked if I wanted to link them. When that happened, those 65 photos updated, birthdays were added, and any new and additional contact information was added. In my Favorites list, if the contact is available in Facebook as well, a small “F” logo displays. Your Favorites list (of contacts) is also a widget that displays almost like a 9-pane photo gallery. To call someone, you tap their photo. It’s fun. I probably need to go into my Google Contacts and set a preferred primary number for each one though, as it chooses the “primary” number to call when you tap the photo.

I haven’t had a chance yet to play with the 5 mp camera/camcorder or a lot of the other features. I have read that (are you ready for this?) there is pinch-to-zoom in the photo viewer. Multi-touch! I’ve loaded my standard apps on the Eris (Evernote, Remember the Milk, Where, and several others). I also loaded Google Voice but I haven’t set it up yet to work with this phone. I was disappointed in the Google Voice SMS integration on the Droid, so I’m curious to see how it works with the Eris.

Thoughts

This is just my first look. So far I think the Eris is an oddly named but very elegant phone. I highly recommend it to someone who is not on AT&T but wants an iPhone-like device, someone who does not want a physical keyboard or wants a compact phone, or someone who is tied to Verizon (or appreciates their network) but wants an iPhone. This will fill that void for you.

Is it an iPhone killer? I hate that term. Nothing is. To me, the iPhone started the revolution of smartphones. Without the iPhone, we might not have the Droid or Eris. Nothing needs to be an iPhone killer. But it is nice to provide alternatives, right? And this is a definite viable alternative.

After 24 hours, I’d say the Droid and the Eris both rock. The Droid, with its “industrial” shape and size is a bit geekier and the Eris is slimmer and streamlined in form, less geeky. As much as I was convinced I’d buy the Droid, I’m no longer 100% on that, even with the virtual keyboard. Check back with me in a week or so for a more detailed review and maybe I’ll have made up my mind. As with the Droid, the honeymoon will end and I’ll find the not-so-great features of the phone. It happens – which is why I again emphasize – this post is only first impressions.

Droid Eris by HTC will be available tomorrow through Verizon for $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year agreement on a voice plan with an e-mail feature or e-mail plan.

Once again, screenshots are shamelessly borrowed from
Bryan at the Gadgeteer. Thanks Bryan!

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

by Michelle Lentz

Last week I offered a quick first impressions post. Now that I’ve spent some time with the Droid, I’ve tried to write a more in-depth review for the average user.

What’s in the Box?

The Droid has minimalist packaging:

• Droid
• Battery
• USB cable and AC Adapter
• 16 GB microSD card (pre-installed)
• Tiny little Getting Started Guide

Activation was easy and only took a couple of minutes.

Form

It’s flat. Even with the slider, it’s flat. In fact, it’s only a wee bit thicker than my 1^st gen iPhone. The slider seems solid, sliding straight back and forward, without the wiggle I often feel in slider phones, including both the Rogue and the Pre. Instead, this slider snaps rather decidedly into place. The whole phone has an impressive weight to it although it’s only 6 oz; you’re not petrified you’re going to break it.

Droid compared to gen 1 iPhone

There is sort of a billboard quality to the phone. The front lets you know it’s both Verizon and Motorola. Those are repeated on the back, with the addition of Google. The back slides off to reveal the battery compartment, and yes, you can replace the battery.  In my own usage, I found the battery lasted about 10-12 hours during a normal day’s use – some GPS, email, phone calls, some internet surfing … On the days when everyone wanted to play with it, the battery not surprisingly drained really fast. You can access a built-in power management widget that allows you to, with one click, turn the brightness down, and toggle on and off wifi, syncing, bluetooth, and location services. Unless I’m outside, I tended to keep the brightness turned down and the bluetooth turned off, just to help save on battery.

I’m adjusting to the keyboard. It’s rather flat and it does have two blank spots. A number of people have remarked to me that they added the directional pad at the cost of a better, wider keyboard. I can’t argue with that, really. Although I have talked to some folks who game on their phone. They’re excited about the directional pad but think it’s quite possibly on the wrong side.

To navigate, I’ve been mostly using the touchscreen and the four flat “light” buttons. I don’t mind those buttons either. Once you adjust to, in particular, heavy usage of both the Back and Menu buttons, you’re set. (The Menu button is also available on the keyboard.) The only thing I don’t like is that, because there is no tactile feedback, it’s hard to find the appropriate button in the dark.

navigation buttons

The amazingly shiny touchscreen is really responsive. It attracts fingerprints in the worst way, which drives me crazy. If I buy one, I’ll also be purchasing a screen protector to matte the screen a little and cut back on fingerprints. The screen is a 3.7″ WVGA (480 x 854 pixels) and 16:9 widescreen.

Phone

I had no trouble making calls from my house on the phone. Considering that my home seems to be an AT&T dead zone, this is always a bit of a relief.  I was told the call quality was clear. When calling using Google Voice, the call quality apparently degraded slightly, but not too much.

The phone integrated easily with Google Voice. I had three options: use Google Voice for every call (which I did), have the option with each call, or don’t use it. Every time I placed a call, the little Android robot would appear, informing me the call was being routed through Google Voice. However, Google Voice did not integrate with the SMS. In order to send a text using my Google Voice number, I had to launch the Google Voice app.

I haven’t yet figured out how to add speed dial for particular contacts, but it is possible to add favorites, similar to the iPhone. From Car Home (which I’ll get to later), you can easily say “Call John Doe Mobile” and make a call to Mr. Doe’s mobile phone. I was amazed at how well the voice recognition worked.

Camera and Media

There is a music player that instantly found the songs I had loaded, via USB, from my SD card.  When a song was playing, hitting the Menu button offered several choices, including creating your own ringtone from the song. I did this without hesitation.

The Droid sports a 5 mp camera with a dual-LED flash, activated from the Camera application or by clicking a button on the lower right side of the phone. There are a lot of options available for the camera. I was particularly thrilled with Scene mode, which pretty much offers everything except a setting for Food shots. You can manually control the flash or set it to auto. Additionally, you can control the white balance and add color effects such as sepia and tinting. Finally, there is an option for what I think is geolocation for your photos under the poorly named Store Location. (My first thought was, “What store?”) I’ve been told that it doesn’t shoot very well in low-light, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try. I do know that this could easily replace my need for a pocket camera to use when I don’t want to carry the larger one around.

Sample photo taken with the Droid

The video shoots in 30 seconds, 10 minutes, or 30 minute increments (or whenever you manually turn it off). You can easily shoot a low-quality 30 second video to send via MMS or Qik or a high-quality 30 minute video to store on your SD card just by changing a couple of settings. I filmed the 37 second video below and uploaded it directly to YouTube from the Droid. As a note, it will only upload large files such as videos when it has access to a WiFi connection.  This video has been compressed by the YouTube Gods, but it looked really great when viewed on the Droid. This is also not hi-res filming.

After a period of trial and error, I finally found the video player on the Droid. It’s pretty basic and is accessible from the Gallery (video and photos). As opposed to using the built-in player, I installed a free video player application. Both applications let me view, in high quality, the movie I uploaded to the SD card.

Operating System & Features

I don’t know enough about Android in it’s previous incarnations, or Android as a development tool, to speak about the changes in the OS. I do know that Android 2.0 is highly customizable. Like the iPhone, you can have multiple pages or screens to host your icons. Because there’s a built-in pop-up menu, you don’t actually have to use these. I customized mine with the apps I use the most, some bookmarks, and a couple of widgets.

My home screen has a calendar widget that shows my schedule for the day (the above screenshot shows a music widget). Additionally, I have icons for Gmail, Email, Browser, Phone, Contacts, Google Voice, and Messaging. In the top notification bar, I can access Twidroid, a Twitter application.

On the screen to the left, I have a Facebook widget and a Twitter widget (Twidget Lite).  I also have two bookmarks to web pages I access often. On the screen to the right, I have the Google Voice Search widget. I also have the icons for the Marketplace, Evernote (this is a beta app), Car Home, and Messaging. All of these applications, as well as more, can be also accessed from the pop-up slider on each page.  As you can tell, I’ve really sort of “moved in” and customized the phone.

Pop-out Applications Slider

In addition to the slide-out keyboard, there is a virtual keyboard that pops up whenever you tap inside a text box without the physical keyboard pulled. I don’t know if its because the keys are perfectly square or what the reason is, but I type better on this virtual keyboard than I do on the iPhone. I was pretty surprised by that. I usually don’t respond well to virtual keyboards. It also changes orientation, depending on whether you are in portrait or landscape.

Car Home is something that makes no sense until you use it. Basically, it’s to make you potentially less deadly while messing around with your phone while driving.  It lists five large icons (View Map, Navigation, Voice Search, Contacts, and Search) as well as Home. Voice Search lets you search for pretty much anything and I was pretty surprised at its accuracy. The Car Home screen is always available, but turns on by default (or so I understand) when placed in a special, non-included, cradle.

From within Car Home, Navigation launches the rather wonderful Google Maps Navigation, which all but replaces a separate GPS or subscribing to VZW Navigator. It includes turn-by-turn voice navigation and I was blown away by it.  I could even say “Find Pizza” and it would find the pizza joints near my location. It seemed to run about a 1/4 second behind, but still was able to keep up with my “wrong” turns and re-route on the fly. I didn’t notice a painful drain on the battery either.

There are a lot of thoughtful little things incorporated into the Droid:

• A long tap (or hold) on the Home button from anywhere displays a pop-up box with the last 6 applications you accessed. It helps you move easily between things, sort of like Alt-Tab on a PC.
• The @ key on the keyboard is a regular key. You don’t have to hit ALT to access it.
• The virtual keyboard (available in both portrait and landscape) has a .com easily available.
• Briefly holding down the power button lets you quickly put the phone in either silent or airplane mode.
• “Droid.” The default sound for notifications is a robot saying “Droid.” It’s hilarious. It put friends of mine into geekboy heaven.
• Locking and unlocking the phone is as simple as sliding your finger in an arc across the home screen. It’s even sort of fun.

Email, Contacts, & Calendars

Syncing works flawlessly. Because my world is owned by Google, it took no time at all to have my data at my fingertips. The phone instantly synced with my Google account, which included my contacts, calendar, and Gmail. Since Mobile Me has been inconsistent on my iPhone, I enjoyed having a calendar that was accurate and near instantly updated across all devices.  The Facebook application very thoughtfully offers choices regarding syncing. You can sync all your Facebook contacts to your address book, sync only the contacts that exist in both locations, or not sync your Facebook contacts at all. I prefer the second option as I certainly don’t want all the Facebook contacts in my main address book. It’s just too many people.

Email exists in multiple spots: Gmail and Email.  I have several Gmail accounts listed in my Gmail, and my three other IMAP accounts are listed in Email. Within Email, I can view my mail in one combined inbox, which I love. I don’t like that my Gmail and Email can’t all be in the same inbox. I tried adding my Gmail accounts as IMAP, which worked, but I then had no access to Gmail features such as labels.

Enterprise users can also set up Exchange accounts (I hear this is pretty easy) that sync with Email and the Corporate Calendar.

Remember that I’m synching over the air with my Google accounts, and I never once had to sync hardware to hardware. In fact, the only need I had to plug in the USB was to move audio and video onto the SD card. I’m not sure how that works for folks with calendars other than Outlook or Google (such as iCal).

Apps I Found and Needed

There are some things missing from the Android, and luckily, there are free apps to fill in the gaps. As they say, there really is “an app for that.”

• Locale: Allows you set your profile based on where you are, using the GPS.
• Google Voice: This integrates nicely with the phone. However, it does not integrate that nicely with SMS. I’m not sure if there’s something I’m missing or if Google just dropped the ball.
• Linda File Manager: I use this to get an in-depth look at and manage files both on the device and the SD card.
• Video Player: Truthfully, I downloaded a trial of Act 1 Video Player, which retails for 99¢. Video Player, however, is free. I could not find a way to watch videos on the Droid, but with the third-party app, I had no trouble watching the movie I’d pulled onto the SD card.
• Remember the Milk and Evernote. I pay for RTM Pro, which gives me access to the mobile apps, including the Droid. I also swear by Evernote. This particular app is in beta, but it worked really well.
• Twidget Lite: This is a widget that gives you quick and easy access to your Twitter account, including showing the latest and greatest tweet on one of your home screens.
• Twidroid: Assuming I buy a Droid in a week, I’ll probably buy the Pro version of Twidroid ($5).  The free version only supports one Twitter account and I need to maintain several. You can set an icon to display in the Notification bar to keep you apprised of tweets, replies, and/or direct messages.
• Flashlight. No kidding. I used this to put makeup on in the car while my husband is driving. It’s as basic as you can get, but quite helpful.

I also installed some fun apps, including Shop Savvy, Where, Zagat nru, and Google SkyMap. I was able to find comparable replacements for everything I use on the iPhone. For instance, I replaced UrbanSpoon with both Where and Zagats.

Minor Issues

As of right now, I only have a few minor complaints with the Droid. I found some things, such as mounting the phone to my computer via USB, to be non-intuitive to the new Android user. I also found some of the menus to be hidden. There seems to be inconsistency across what appears via the Menu button and what appears via long tap. The Settings menus are still a bit techie, and I think some non-techies will find them a bit intimidating.  I’m also not a big fan of the fingerprint-attracting surface, but that’s easily fixed by a screen protector.  Finally, I’m a bit disappointed with the Google Voice integration – or rather, the lack of Google Voice SMS integration – but I’m hoping that’s user error and not a Google Voice problem.

Multitouch? Everyone seems fixated on this. I didn’t even realize I wasn’t using multitouch as I sped through things on the Droid. I double-tapped to zoom in and out on web pages without even thinking about it and easily used the touchscreen and virtual keyboard. But if you’re insistent, here’s what I sort of know. Android 2.0 does support multi-touch, but so far, nothing has implemented it. Rumor has it that the Droid hardware also supports it, and the GSM/European version has supposedly been seen in the wild with multi-touch.

The Droid goes on sale Friday at your local Verizon store for $199 with a 2-year contract. You’ll need data and all the rest to support it. I may be picking one up as soon as I can afford it. Of course, sometime this week I should also get my hands on some other new phones, so who knows what I might buy …

Android screenshots graciously provided by Bryan at The Gadgeteer.

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

Update: Boy Genius Report has just released a Preview Review of the Droid. It answers several of the questions posed below.

I’m salivating over the Droid from Motorola. I simply can’t wait to get my hands on it – and most likely buy it. Boy Genius  reported today that Motorola had posted a set of complete specs pages on their site. Of course, that got taken down rather quickly. Estimated release date is currently October 28. The Internet being what it is, someone captured the now-removed Motorola pages and posted them on YouTube.

There seem to be some holes in the specs – for instance, the processor is listed at 550 mHz when rumor had it at 600 mHz. Folks are also wondering about the lack of Google Voice in the Google Mobile Apps section, and there are questions about what Vibracall might be (just regular vibrate?) and how much internal memory (and if it actually comes, in box, with a 16 GB microSD card). There’s a bit of laughter that the color is described as “licorice with brown sugar accents.”  Good enough to eat, yes? Finally, there seems to be a bit of disappointment that Verizon opted to make this a CDMA phone with no GSM bands. I agree. It would be nice if it was a world phone.

So it’s not quite everything you wanted to know, but there is certainly a lot of information here. I recommend blowing it up to full-screen to read the tiny print.

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.