Windows ads: "I'm a PC"... What does that mean?

[[AK]Bribo]

You can get the Droid for $99 after rebate. Here's another quick review by PM:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...s/4335459.html

In a nutshell, it's no iPhone but the best smart phone on Verizon. If you are a Gmail and Google calendar person it's a win.

[[AK]Hylander]

Is it better than the iPhone? No. Its interface isn’t quite as logical and smooth, and Android doesn’t have nearly as many applications as Apple’s App Store. But it could be the better choice for certain customers—namely, those who are fed up with the failings of AT&T’s network, who demand a keyboard or who plan on using the phone as a car-based GPS. And it’s the best phone we reasonably could have expected from Motorola at this time.

But the real ace in the hole—and the reason the phone will be a sure-fire hit—is that it runs on Verizon’s network—a network with an enormous supply of customers who love its blazing signal speeds and reliable signal strength, but yearn for a consumer-friendly touchscreen smartphone.

Yep. But I bet the App numbers for the Droid take off like wildfire in the near future.

[[AK]Bribo]

More grist for the mill:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/no-droid-for-me/

[[AK]Squidly]

Cool, you posted the link here too. I think the Android camera did a much better job captureing the details of the photo's than the iPhone.

5 Megapixels will do that for you. The focusing and color balance are clearly, clearly inferior, however.

[[AK]Squidly]

Squidly - do you know how much bandwidth you use on an average month?

Last month I used 92MB. I surf and d/l apps almost daily. You'd only hit the 5GB limit if you did a lot of streaming video, and if I was to do that I'd shift to wireless.

[[AK]Squidly]

Droid Storage Limit

"The Motorola Droid will be the most powerful Android phone to date when it launches on November 6, 2009. However, the device still features the same shortcomings of all other Android phones. The Droid ships with a 512 MB ROM which contains only 256 MB available for app storage.

Google does not support installing apps to the SD card (and likely never will), so developers are limited in what they can create.

For most applications, we want a small file size to limit the download times. When it comes to 3D games though, we need a ton of space for all the high-res textures, audio, and video.

Have you seen all the awesome iPhone and iPod Touch games? Hardly any of them would fit on an Android phone. It is not uncommon for popular titles to easily exceed 100 MB. For example, the game Myst takes up a whopping 727MB"

256meg limit is pitiful. I have over 3gigs of apps on my phone.

[[AK]Squidly]

Droid vs iPhone and Palm Pre

[[AK]Bribo]

Another tidbit: The guy at work here was using the Droid turn-by-turn GPS navigation yesterday and it was clearly superior to the iPhone's. Again, he owns both devices now and can compare and contrast directly.

[[AK]Hylander]

256meg limit is pitiful. I have over 3gigs of apps on my phone.

Not entirely accurate. As stupid as this setup seems to not allow apps to be installed on the SD card (My Q does that for goodness sake) - the 256mb limit is for the executable only.

"The 256mb limit is for executable code only. If an app has 200mb of data to access for read/write such as sound, graphics, etc - it can be stored on the SD card up to 16GB. Most executable code for an app is less than 1MB."

Sounds like a tedious requirement for app designers though.

[[AK]Hylander]

After much research, the best price I can get on the Droid is $199 after the $100 discount off the $299 price.

[[AK]Swae]

I have the G1 which runs on Android, and I don't have a single complaint except the lack of native Outlook support (which I have managed to work around). I contemplated upgrading to the new MyTouch 3G (what a crappy name!), but to be honest I would miss the physical keyboard. I have yet to think of an app that I couldn't find on the Android Market, so to me the iPhone has no advantages and one HUGE disadvantage - AT&T.

If I were on Verizon, I would absolutely consider the Droid, but I have been more than pleased with T-Mobile. They have amazing customer service and their plans are super cheap. A few months back I got a text message notifying me that we were about to go over on minutes and it was only a week into the billing cycle. I called customer service to up the minutes on my plan. Not only did they offer me an unlimited minutes plan that was the same price as I was paying, but they comped me a ton of minutes to get me through the rest of the month so that I wouldn't incur overage charges. Plus they have agreements with many, many other providers for non-roaming access, so I have yet to find an area of the country where I don't have coverage.

So, I say yay Android - it may be a bit slower to catch on than the flashy iPhone, but I think it's slowly going to turn into a major player in the market.

[[AK]Clay]

After much research, the best price I can get on the Droid is $199 after the $100 discount off the $299 price.

My suggestion is to never make a phone economic decision based solely on the purchase price. The best true comparison of phones and plans is the total 2 year life cycle cost. When you do that, you'll find that the phone purchase price is a drop in the bucket. And sometimes, the "cheapest" phone could be the most expensive.

Phone price+
Service startup fee(s)+
taxes (these can be surprising)+
Monthly plan fee+
Monthly text fee+
Monthly data fee+
- corporate discount (always ask this!!)
Monthly taxes (again, prepare to be surprised)

If this summation is less than $2000, you've got a pretty good deal. If an extra hundred dollars gets you phone or options you really like better, it's only 5% difference.

Now do the same for the iPhone.

I'm curious which one comes out on top.

[[AK]Hylander]

My suggestion is to never make a phone economic decision based solely on the purchase price. The best true comparison of phones and plans is the total 2 year life cycle cost. When you do that, you'll find that the phone purchase price is a drop in the bucket. And sometimes, the "cheapest" phone could be the most expensive.

Phone price+
Service startup fee(s)+
taxes (these can be surprising)+
Monthly plan fee+
Monthly text fee+
Monthly data fee+
- corporate discount (always ask this!!)
Monthly taxes (again, prepare to be surprised)

If this summation is less than $2000, you've got a pretty good deal. If an extra hundred dollars gets you phone or options you really like better, it's only 5% difference.

Now do the same for the iPhone.

I'm curious which one comes out on top.

Well, I'm already paying all of this. Nothing will change other than the phone - and the $199 price. So $200 / 24 months = $8.33

But again, I really can't compare it to the iPhone because it simply can't be compared until it is on the Verizon network. No matter how much the monthly plan is for the iPhone on AT&T, I put much more value on the fact I need, and get, connectivity everywhere I commute and work on Verizon. I know for a fact, that is not the case with AT&T. Hence, the value proposition - for ME - just can't be compared.

It's simply an equation of whether I actually want the Droid or not, if It's worth it to me to pay $199 for that upgrade, is there another phone on the horizon I want to wait for, or wait a year for the iPhone (based on 'rumors'). Those are my only real options right now. But I would really like to get off my Old Q and onto something non-Windows. Don't get me wrong, it works OK for what I use it for. But it's just no comparison to what is available out there now.

[Slaughter]

All signs point to a "Worldmode" iPhone next year. Should be good for AT&T and Verizon, imo.

Though if there ends up being a Sprint iPhone I may defect just for their all-inclusive voice/data plan.

[[AK]Clay]

Well, I'm already paying all of this. Nothing will change other than the phone - and the $199 price. So $200 / 24 months = $8.33

But again, I really can't compare it to the iPhone because it simply can't be compared until it is on the Verizon network. No matter how much the monthly plan is for the iPhone on AT&T, I put much more value on the fact I need, and get, connectivity everywhere I commute and work on Verizon. I know for a fact, that is not the case with AT&T. Hence, the value proposition - for ME - just can't be compared.

It's simply an equation of whether I actually want the Droid or not, if It's worth it to me to pay $199 for that upgrade, is there another phone on the horizon I want to wait for, or wait a year for the iPhone (based on 'rumors'). Those are my only real options right now. But I would really like to get off my Old Q and onto something non-Windows. Don't get me wrong, it works OK for what I use it for. But it's just no comparison to what is available out there now.

That makes sense.

To be honest, most of the negative, or at least tepid, reviews of the Android appear to be from iPhone fanboys. The most solid complaints I've seen so far are the unnecessary bulk and fragility of the physical keyboard (that isn't that great), the crappy battery cover, and the skeevy nickel and dime'ing from Verizon. iPhone's have issues too - for the most part, I'd call it a wash.