Verizon Droid

Verizon has taken a page from Apple offering free 30-minute one-on-one training for the Droid phones it sells (the Motorola Droid and the HTC Eris Droid.) and Business Week has a review of the service. Here are some of the highlights:
Making the appointment for the training was frustrating. None of the automated phone prompts at Verizon mention the training, so you’re left guessing which number to press. These free sessions are offered at Verizon’s corporate stores, but not at their retail stores.
Upon arrival at the College Park store, I informed the greeter I was there to receive a one-on-one training. A few moments later the manager of the store told me I’d be receiving my training from one of their trainers, Jennifer, after she was finished with her current customer. That’s a good sign when the manager of a store is involved so directly with customer interactions.

I first asked how I could better manage battery life on my phone. My out-of-the box experience with my Motorola Droid (which I love) was very poor. The phone was not able to make it through a single day on a battery charge. One evening soon after I bought the phone, the battery was dead when I needed to make an important call.

It turns out that there are several very useful ways to extend battery life on the Droid. Jennifer showed me how to download a program (or app) from the Android Market that identifies what programs are currently running on your Droid. By quitting programs that are running in the background, you can extend your phone’s battery life. (In addition, before the training, I independently discovered a very useful widget called Power Control that has dramatically extended the battery life of my Droid. (See http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&u=http://www.ehow.com/how_5596884_extend-battery-life-motorola-droid.html) I leave Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and synching turned off most of the time — and also make my screen a bit dimmer — so my Droid now lasts two full days (or more) before needing to be recharged.

…

As a final question, I asked Jennifer if she could recommend a Twitter client for the Droid. She told me she uses Facebook more than Twitter. Fair enough — we all choose the social networking tools that work best for us. Still, it would be good if Verizon trainers were aware of the most popular Twitter client for Android — Twidroid. I find Twidroid very helpful for following my Twitter stream when I’m on the go.

Seeing how busy this Verizon store is on a weekend, I began to understand why Verizon doesn’t want to schedule training sessions during this time. That being the case, Verizon needs to do better in scheduling trainings outside of Verizon stores. One possible location? Public libraries. I work as a public geek at a public library. All day long I answer people’s computer questions. Could I also be answering their Droid phone questions? I sure could. Would it be better if I were Verizon Android Certified? Yes, and even though such a certification does not yet exist, maybe it ought to.

Cell phone training classes in public libraries are a logical next step as cell phone become an ever more dominant part of our lives. I’m rather surprised public libraries have not begun offering this kind of training yet.

As if Android needed yet another endorsement, it turns out that Martin Cooper — the inventor of the cellular telephone who pretty much is responsible for all of us being here at this fine Web site today — is the proud owner of a Motorola Droid.

Source: Android Central.

Phones Review has a video unboxing and hands-on with the T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ XT with MotoBlur.

The phone known as the Motorola Opus One is going to be named the Boost Mobile i1. The i1 was recently spotted on the FCC web site and is expected to be announced during CTIA later this month.

Motorola is aiming for the low end and the i1 might be the lowest priced Android device at launch. Look for this phone to debut under $300.

Source: Android and me.

U.S. cell service provider and Apple iPhone partner AT&T stepped into the Google Android world with the addition of the Motorola Backflip to its mobile phone lineup.
While the Backflip’s design won’t likely lead to lower iPhone sales, the phone gives AT&T customers an Android-based option, potentially keeping at least some of its subscribers looking for an Android-based phone from moving to Verizon or T-Mobile.

Source: Mac Observer

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• Android finally invades AT&T (macworld.com)

Get on this list to be on top of the Skype on Verizon news.

And check out Verizon’s fun little illustrated intro to Skype…

Via: Droid-Life

Pocket Now has the Cliq XT, and they shared some information and pictures about it:
The device runs MOTOBLUR on top of Android 1.5 and is designed as a slate/tablet form factor for T-Mobile. Specs-wise, it uses a similar processor to the MOTO CLIQ. What’s notable is that Motorola included two back battery covers.

AT&T’s first Android powered handset, the Motorola Backflip, will use Yahoo! as its default search engine.

According to a report by BusinessWeek, the Motorola Backflip will feature Yahoo! as the default search engine, although users will be able to manually change the provider to Google if they wish. The Backflip will be the first Android handset to not feature Google as the default search engine.

Source: Talk Android

As many Droid owners know, Motorola promised the Android 2.1 update was coming “this week” which later turned into coming soon. No further updates have been provided since then, but someone leaked a near final firmware (which is expected to be used for the upcoming OTA update).

Kellex from Droid Life was brave enough to flash the leaked ROM on his Droid and found the performance to be improved.

Source: Android and Me

According to some internal docs, the Motoro9la CLIQ XT should be arriving on T-Mobile March 10th. Just yesterday, we heard some pricing details on: $139.99 for the CLIQ XT with a contract.

Source: Into Mobile