Motorola/Verizon Droid

Look forward to seeing what these "droid" phones can do. It would be nice to see some competition for Apple.

I'm looking forward to getting mine this Friday.

I will be waiting in line Friday morning to hopefully get out of there quickly and on to work.

Been waiting for Verizon to come out with something to compete with the iPhone and I hope that this is it.

Ok, so we have a few brave first-adopters. I will see what it can do. From some early reviews I heard that the battery life of the droids is not that great. But, I am glad to see that Verizon is finally stepping up to the plate. Finally having a competitive phone in conjunction with the generally good Verizon coverage should be a nice selling point.

...my wife's going to be mad! She wanted an iPhone when they first came out but didn't want AT&T cell service over our Verizon, so she went with the closest Verizon had to offer, a BlackBerry. About six months ago, she sweet-talked them into letting her use a coupon to upgrade to a newer BlackBerry even though she wasn't really eligible for it yet under her plan. I doubt she's going to be able to pull that off again and we can't afford a Droid at full price. She's just going to have to wait awhile.

It's funny, she's not a big gadget maven. Doesn't really like GPS all that much, or laptops or netbooks. But she loves the idea of a small handheld, do-it-all device like the iPhone.

Yeah, I kind of doubt they will let her swap the phone at a reduced price again. It's still $199 with a 2-year contract.
I also like the idea of having a device that's a do-it-all kind. And it's even more attractive now that Verizon has something to offer wit the new phone.

No.

LoL

Explain a little better than one word keith! I would say of course not myself.

Here is what Verizon says!
Verizon chief says
'offering the iPhone is Apple's call'

So they are willing to bring the Iphone to verizon along with the Droid. The IPhone on a 3G with great coverage, can you imagine that, WOW.

I wonder how Motorola would think of that move. I believe they had their hopes of finally having something that competes with the iPhone on a superior network. If Verizon and Apple offer the iPhone with the Verizon network, where would that leave Motorola? For sure they would have put somekind of clause in the contract that prohibits that move.

I got the Dare when it first came out had all kinds of trouble with it the first year i think I'll wait about a year till the price drops on the Droid.

I've seen the Droid for $150 on wirefly.com (with contract). Anyone else seen a better price? Waiting for AT&T contract period to end - will take a hard look at that point.

I went to Verizon the other day, I will be eligible in three weeks. Can't wait, what a great phone and great GPS.

Hybrid Chip Means Verizon iPhone is Coming in 2010

http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97719

The keyboard is getting some not so flattering reviews-apparently it's hard to differentiate one key from another when typing because they are not raised keys. What excited me, and probably scared the heck out of Garmin and TomTom is Google Maps 2.0. I'm on TMobile with a G1 so at some point I hope the 2.0 goodness will roll my way. (Although being rooted pretty much ensures that will happen.)

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/ar...

Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGXK4jKN_jY

edit: To be fair, someone said they'd like a Droid battery that would last as long as the test drive from Mountain View to SF w/o recharging.

I'm shocked the Droid only has 256MB of internal memory/storage, for the applications and operating system.

That is amazingly stingy. You can't run apps off the external microSD card either.

Why did Motorola cripple this phone with such a ridiculous limitation?

The izombies will never let that happen.

Motorcycle touring is mostly on the roads less traveled. They're also the places likely to not have cellphone reception. That means no access to the Google Maps. Cloud applications like Google Maps might work to find a restaurant in a city, but do not seem a practical tool for touring.

True, but I'd wager a majority of the population pile the family in the mini van, hop in the Interstate and travel from one metro area to another.
Doesn't matter to me because I checked out Verizon's rate plans and they are so high as to be laughable. My TMo rates are lower. It looks like their cheapest plan is $80 per month, and the "unlimited" data plan is really limited to 5 GB per month.

it sucks when you can not change phone carriers due to the fact that your company requires me to be on At&T. even with being on AT&T they will not let itget onto i phones because they dont work with our email server

That pretty much sums it up.

The iPhone supports Exchange, POP clients and probably IMAP. What kind of server do you have that's not supported by one of these?

The Motorola Droid caches your map data in case you leave a 3G area during your travel so your turn by turn will continue uninterupted. The phone is a stand alone GPS along with assisted GPS, so uses both direct contact with the satelites and via cell towers.
I asked a Verizon rep if when you reach your destination if the cached info is retained so that if you are in a no coverage area you could get turn by turn from that point and he said no.
I have not been able to find any other documention on that subject. Admittedly the local Verizon reps are from what the ones I spoke with told me, are themselves learning the many feature of this device. If this is correct I would like to see Google allow standalone maps to be downloaded to the 16g to 32g SD card which the phone can utilize thus allowing a person to use the GPS anywhere.
This may be possible already but I don't know. I have included a couple of videos to demonstrate.

Click on the first video Droid GPS 2

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Droid+GPS+2&hl=en&emb=...

Click on the first video Droid GPS 3

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=droid+gps+3+&hl=en&emb...

Wow, the retention of map data while going through an area without coverage is great. Also the fact that it uses cell towers and satellites to track the location.

We've seen many big brother theories. Google hasn't been totally clean in the past so it may be worthwhile to keep an eye on that story as it relates to Google Mapping:
Google Latitude Gets Snoopier: Adds Location History and Alerts (http://www.pcworld.com/article/181907/google_latitude_gets_s...)

You can buy a DROID for $149.99 at a couple of places.

Would you care to mention where you found those?

If you are up for your new every two $199.99 after rebate and you also get $50.00 back if you are the primary on the contract = $149.99.

I got the Droid. GREAT PHONE. I love it. Even the Google Navigation works well. If you want a phone that can do much more than a phone. This might just be the phone for you.

I finally broke down and got the Droid. I must say I love it. At first, while it paired with my 885T, it would not transfer the phonebook, however, after a couple of days, I noticed that the phonebook appeared in my 885. Unfortunately, it still will not let me make voice activated phone calls, except from the call history.

Thanks for the info. I checked and I qualify for both.

Have been doing some research before I get my Droid the end of this month. Check out CoPilot Live 8

http://www.alk.com/copilot/

I spoke with customer support at CoPilot-the app for the new Motorola Droid hopefully will be ready to roll by the end of November. This will allow your Droid or a number of smart phones, check out website for compatible phones to connect directly to the satellites, even if in a remote area. Includes road maps for the United States and Canada.

Monthly updates of maps and POI's

http://www.alk.com/Maps/mapsure.asp

Allows your phone to perform like any standalone GPS which these phones are-Navigate to an address, Lat & Long, saved POI etc. all without any cell signal. Now this I will use while in an area without 3g and when in Canada until an agreement can take place hopefully between cell providers in the U.S. & Canada unless one has already been put in place but I am not aware of any. One time cost $34.99. Premium Live Services is 1 yr subscription of $19.99.

Check out this Youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT-2w6779rk

Should we start a new main discussion topic?

Smartphone GPS.

I find i use my phone's gps more and more, and my Garmin less and less.

Anyone try the two together and see how they compare?

Went to the mall yesterday and stopped at the Verizon store to look at the Motorola Droid. Very nice smart-phone. It feels very nice in the hand and responds well to input. The sales rep told me that the data plan would be an additional $30 on top of the plan I have now. Not really cheap!
I like the fact that you can use any WIFI signal to use the phone. The GPS features look pretty advanced considering that it is a phone. There is also apparently an app that let's you see the location of another person. Of course, there needs to be a mutual agreement between the parties to allow that and I assume that the other person needs to have a Droid as well.
Now if it would just brew my morning coffee!

My Droid is like having a Hand held Nuvi, and a Lap top. I just drove a 4 hr trip, using Pandora internet Radio on my Droid never lost music, My car has a Aux input. They have an app that is Just like the Nuvi, for finding nearest .Restaurants, Gas, Lodging, entertainment..and many other things. and It has to be using Sats and Cell towers. It has a Little Sat dish whenever you are using the Maps or the Places directory. It also can use my wifi in my house, or anywhere else it is available, which is a little faster than 3G even. There are way over 10,000 apps..and most of the popular iphone apps are already here..and since it is Unix based it is Fast..