Earlier today the FCC approved Dell’s first Android phone, the Mini 3ix. AT&T is expected to carry Dell’s Mini 3iX in Q1 2010.

Initially Dell reps said the phone would just be available in China. However, with AT&T falling behind the android market share it would make sense to have a proven product.

Unlike the Chinese version the AT&T version will have Wi-Fi and 3G. The phone also comes with 850 and 1900 MHz bands, a 3.5-inch 640×360 touch screen display, A-GPS, built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, 3 MP camera with autofocus and flash, microSD card slot, and a virtual keyboard. Unfortunately, there are no specs as to the horsepower, ROM, RAM and screen type.

Picture to the left was taken from geek.com.

Picture below was taken from BGR.

For those of you lookin’ to spy on your Android-totin’ wife, bust your shenanigan-havin’ teen or simply monitor your employees – you’re now in luck! With the install of a silent application you can now monitor their every move (or enough anyway) from the interweb networks!  On the flip side.. those of you up to no good – better keep a firm grip on that phone of yours.

Yesterday Mobile Spy released the Android version of their Mobile Spy application.  It, as you can see above, keeps records of all SMS and calls made on the device. What you say? They are quick to delete everything as soon as it happens? No worries – it uploads the information immediately after the event takes place. Every 30 minutes their GPS location (assuming the devices GPS is enabled) is sent up as well.

On their website and you can see screenshots of what the logs look like in detail:

There is also a live demo available that you can log into.

Just be sure you really want to know the truth before going through with it. As quoted on yesterdays press release:

“Even though I need to keep track of my teenager, I wonder if sometimes I’m better off not knowing what he has to say to his friends, especially about his parents,” says Laurie Finn, a Mobile Spy user. Retina-X Studios CEO James Johns states, “Mobile Spy allows parents and employers to discover the entire truth. However, sometimes the truth hurts.”

..but if you do, the subscription pricing of $99.97 for 12 months, $69.97 for 6 or $49.97 for 3 – is a pretty good deal to know the truth.

[Mobile Spy, Press Release]

Round 1 of the 2nd Android Developers Challenge kicked off without a bang and ended the same way. The new element of “user testing/voting” didn’t seem to generate the level of interest some anticipated, but perhaps Round 2 will be different. Google has sent out an Email to 200 developers who have successfully made it to the 2nd and final Round of ADC2.

Why do I think Round 2 will make a bigger splash? Because there are a finite number of applications which can be individually identified. If you’re interested in Android Applications, you could easily spend some time reading the list, testing out some apps and seeing what you think. Round 1 had an open-ended nature with an unknown quantity of apps that couldn’t be identified until it was time to test it out. Not only that, but with ANYONE having access to Round 1 there were a lot of nonsense apps dilluting the quality. With this Top 200 can you can be pretty sure each one has something to offer and is held to SOME kind of standard… right?

You want the list of the Top 200… don’t you? I took the list that Google posted and categorized them as I thought it would help you find what interests you most:

Arcade:

• 4 Player Reactor (ADC)
• Atmosphere: Trainer
• Atomic Blaster
• Bazooka Rabbit Demo For ADC
• FRG
• GangWars
• Graviturn 1.0
• Head To Head Racing
• JumpyBall 3D
• Light Racer 3D Trial
• Moto X Mayhem
• PhotoShoot – The Duel (ADC)
• ProjectINF ADC
• Radiant
• Runes MMORPG – Alpha release
• Space STG – Galactic Wars
• Speed Forge 3D
• Spheremare
• Stroids – ADC2
• Subzero Challenge

Casual

• Blink
• Blockx 3D Pro (ADC2)
• Comeks Microphone Hero
• Decades
• Flick It!
• Jelix
• KUMPA
• Lucid ADC2
• Mazeness
• mPuzzle
• N. American Conquest (ADC)
• Nintaii
• Pobs
• Pocoro
• Seek ’n Spell
• Sketch Online
• Sudoku Camera
• Totemo
• UrbanGolf light
• What the Doodle!? (ADC2)

Education

• Botanica
• Celeste
• Complete Memorization
• Detexify: LaTeX Recognizer
• EarthTime
• Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab
• Flu Tracker
• FUN2Learn
• Kanji with Picture
• Learn!
• Manchego!
• mobilematics
• mobiProfessor
• MultiLex English Explanatory
• Plink Art
• Robotic Guitarist (ADC2)
• Trippo
• Voicetrans (ADC)
• Word Puzzle
• Zenith

Entertainment

• A World Of Photo
• A.D.A.M
• Daisy Garden
• DroidSpray
• Entertain Me
• Fun Buzz Widget
• g-tar
• Golfuls
• iLomo
• JAM session
• midNite movie
• Nebudroid
• SFR Postcard
• SingSong
• Solo – ADC2
• SongDNA
• Sonorox (ADC2)
• Taps Of Fire
• Who’s Calling
• Yuilop

Lifestyle

• AirPainter
• Album Art Grabber for ADC2
• AMon (adc2 version)
• aShadow Finder
• Digital Recipe Sidekick
• DJ’it
• FoxyRing ADC2
• FriendBook
• Gigbox
• InTrouble
• Mom’s shopping list
• Mover
• NetDroid
• Rhythmatics™ Alpha
• Smart Alarm Clock
• SpecTrek
• SweetDreams
• Todoroo
• Web Clip Widget
• Xeeku Photo Journal

Misc

• aLock
• Andrometer 1.0
• AndShowtime
• Animal Compass
• AnyWidget
• Calton Hill GPSCaddy
• Decaf: EC2 on your Android
• Dialify
• Executive Assistant
• FlyScreen
• KAN-BAN WORLD
• medAssist.me
• Missing Children ADC
• Office Exercise
• Open Gesture
• Personal Finance
• Rhythm Guitar
• Scribtor
• TapDialer
• WebWidget

Multimedia

• aPortaDrum
• Buzz Deck beta
• ChordBot
• Citizenside
• FxCamera (for ADC2)
• Grooveshark Mobile
• How-To Videos from Howcast.com
• Mediafly Mobile ADC Edition
• MicroJam
• Mowsic Midi-Over-Wireless
• musikCube
• Photo BURST ADC2
• PocketDJ
• PrivateMedia
• SPB TV for ADC
• Spectral Audio Analyzer ADC2
• Tesla – PC Remote Control
• Time-Lapse Trial
• TuneMagic
• Uloops

Productivity

• Alex Digital Secretary
• AppManager (ADC2-edition)
• Apps Organizer Adc
• CubeWorks
• Drocap
• Eclosion
• Event Flow
• FlingTap Done
• Fusion WebServer – Phone2Web
• Handcent Messaging
• Handy Poll ADC
• Hoccer ADC2
• Mobisle Notes
• NewsRoom
• Screebl
• Tasker
• taskTopia
• Thinking-Space
• Tracklet
• WaveSecure

Social

• A-GLOBAL-MIND
• Agile Messenger IM
• Appshare
• Bambuser ADC2
• Books-EX
• Cartoon Gang
• Ce:real – Everyday trends
• ClapCard
• Friend or Foe
• GeoNotes
• Locale Ping.fm Plug-In
• MeetByChance.me
• Phonebook Sharing
• Scribble
• SocialMuse
• SpotMessage for ADC2
• Swift Twitter App (ADC2)
• TextEZFast
• TweetAssist
• Xeeku Twitter

Travel

• Always Prompt
• AnyStop: The Transit Companion
• BabelSnap! (Trial)
• Car Locator
• Drive – AR Navigation System
• Food Canary in a Restaurant
• GPS Toolbox ADC2
• HotelsByMe: Hotel Reservations
• iNap: Arrival Alert (ADC2)
• LawLocale
• Maverick
• MoVue
• MyPosition
• PhoneHotel
• PhotSpot(ADC2ver)
• PickYouUp
• Sign Translation
• Sports Trek
• TopoDroid
• Trip Journal

Winners of Round 2 – which is the final round – will be determined by a combination of user voting and Google selected judges. When does the voting conclude and when are the winners announced? Google left that open-ended, saying they’ll decide when a sufficient number of user votes have been collected. I’m guessing that’s a nod to low participation levels in Round 1 so HEY YOU – download the application and start submitting your votes! You can do so by scanning the code to your left with your Android Phone Barcode Scanner.

I got kind of frustrated with the force closes and whatnot in round 1 apps, leading me to limited participation. But I’m eager to start judging Round 2. I’m wondering though – Android 2.0 was just released and I’ll be testing with my Motorola Droid – is it fair that these apps weren’t made with 2.0 in mind and may get negative scores since many will be judging from their Droids? Is Google taking this into consideration?

If you want to talk to others about the Apps in the contest, head on over to the ADC2 Forum!

[Via ADB]

If you never thought mobile music streaming would become as big of a deal as it already is on the Android platform, then I’m sorry to say that you’ve been sorely disappointed. Android support may be a little late to the game, but the rapid insurgence of new apps from these premier online radio providers shows me that they’re just about ready to take Android seriously.

Slacker Personal Radio is the latest to step into the market with the launching of their new app, which fully integrates with the service provided on their site. The free companion app can be found right now in the market by searching “Slacker”, or if you’re a brand new Motorola Droid or HTC Droid Eris owner, you can head over to the Verizon channel to find the download right away.

Senior Vice President of Marketing for Slacker offers this statement:

“Slacker continues to eliminate the obstacles between listeners and their favorite music. Our free app for Android provides a great way for music fans to take their favorite Slacker Radio stations with them wherever they go.”

As for other non-Verizon handsets? Slacker says that it’s also been optimized for the T-Mobile G1/HTC Dream/ADP1 and the T-Mobile myTouch3G/HTC Magic/Google ION devices. Whether or not these apps can be found in the markets of other phones such as the HTC Hero or the Motorola Cliq, I’m not too sure of, but if you own any of these phones and are able to download and use the app, don’t be afraid to let us know in the comments!

If you want to take full advantage of the Slacker experience (not to be confused with the Google experience), then you might want to consider Slacker Radio Plus. With this paid subscription service, which will run you $3.99 a month (close to $50 per year), you get some nice features such as the unlimited skipping of songs on any given station (the free version currently allows 6 per hour per station), no ads to interfere with your listening, complete lyrics for the songs (please note: not all songs have associated lyrics), and an unlimited amount of song requests for your personal station, so that you can really customize your station exactly the way you want it.

You being the awesome Phandroid readers that you are, we’ve got you covered with a giveaway! We’ve got 2 Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions (worth a full year of service) for our readers to try and win. Just a few stipulations apply, but it’s nowhere near something you have to goto the end of the earth for!

• You must already have a Slacker.com account. Head on over there and create an account now (it’s free to start).
• You must provide the email address you used for the account made above. As long as you are using the same email address for the comments form as you did for sign up, you should be fine. If not, we’ll work something out if you were one of the winners.

So just what exactly is it that you have to do? No, we won’t ask you to balance yourself on a ball for an hour, that would be torture. You do have to do a little bit of digging, though. We want to know who was the first band to wear all black on stage? Sounds random, I know, but it seems to be a fitting question for a Slacker contest, whose apps and the site itself present themselves in a nice deep black tone. Get to it and the first 2 to correctly answer will be the ruler of all that is awesome (or you might just win a free year of a Slacker Radio Plus account, who knows).

Read ahead for the full press release from Slacker.

Slacker Radio Now Available for Android

Slacker Radio is the Best Way to Discover New Artists and Hear Your Favorite Music – for Free

SAN DIEGO, CA – November 6, 2009 – Slacker, Inc. today announced that the Slacker Radio app is available for Android phones. Music lovers* can now listen to their favorite Slacker stations anywhere they happen to be on their Android-powered smartphone. The free application is available immediately by visiting http://www.Slacker.com from a supported** Android phone or by visiting the Android Market. Verizon customers using the new DROID by Motorola can locate the free Slacker Radio application quickly by visiting the Verizon channel of the Android Market on that phone.

Owners of Android smartphones can now enjoy the Slacker music discovery experience, including creating a nearly unlimited number of custom stations, over 100 expert-programmed Slacker genre, seasonal and spotlight stations, or over 10,000 artist stations.

Slacker also gives listeners the ultimate music resource by providing artist biographies, album reviews, station fine tuning, “peek ahead” song previews and song lyrics. In addition to marking songs as favorites, listeners can also ban songs and artists to create perfect custom radio stations on their phones.

Additional application features for Android smartphones i nclude an intuitive interface, support for vertical and horizontal orientation and the ability to run in the background while controlling the app from a widget on the smartphone desktop.

“Slacker continues to eliminate the obstacles between listeners and their favorite music,” said Jonathan Sasse, senior vice president of marketing at Slacker. “Our free app for Android provides a great way for music fans to take their favorite Slacker Radio stations with them wherever they go.”

Slacker Radio for Android offers:
- Free music library featuring millions of songs
- High-quality stereo playback from any wireless connection
- Create custom artist stations based on artists or songs
- Over 100 professionally programmed genre stations
- View artist biographies and photos
- View album art and read reviews
- “Peek Ahead” artist and album preview
- Multi-tasking – listen to music while using other applications
- Rate songs as favorites
- Ban songs and artists you don’t like
- Vertical and Horizontal modes
-Desktop widget

Pricing and Availability
The free Slacker Radio application for Android is available immediately in the Android Market or by visiting Slacker.com on any Android smartphone. DROID by Motorola owners can find Slacker quickly in the Verizon channel of the Android Market. The Slacker Radio app works with the free Slacker Basic Radio service, Slacker Radio Plus and Slacker Premium Radio subscription offerings.

** The Slacker application has been optimized for the new DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS by HTC and the HTC G1 and HTC MyTouch Android handsets. For more information please visit http://www.Slacker.com/everywhere.

About Slacker, Inc.
Slacker is the world’s first Personal Radio company offering “Your Radio Everywhere.” Slacker allows music lovers to play highly personalized music online at the Slacker web site or on the go with Slacker Personal Radio players and mobile phones. Slacker mobile applications are currently available for BlackBerry smartphones and the iPhone. For more information visit http://www.Slacker.com/everywhere.

For regular Slacker updates follow us at http://www.Twitter.com/SlackerRadio, become a Fan on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/SlackerRadio and for more information, please visit http://www.Slacker.com.

###

*The Slacker Personal Radio Mobile application is currently available for U.S. customers only.

Slacker and Slacker.com are registered trademarks of Slacker

Photoshop is hands down the most popular professional image editing tool. In fact, the brand has reached the pinnacle of success where the actual brand name becomes a verb like Google, Kleenex, and Xerox. When a picture is obviously edited you say it was “photoshopped” regardless of what picture editing tool was actually used.

Guess what?

Adobe is bringing a mobile version of their award winning software to Android Phones with Photoshop.com Mobile:

Transform photos with essential edits like crop, rotate and flip. Drag our finger across photos to adjust saturation and tint. Auto-upload and share your photos with a free Photoshop.com account. From Adobe, the makers of Photoshop. By downloading you are agreeing to the Terms of Use at www.photoshop.com/misc/terms.html

Here is a quick few pics that show off a before/after scenario and some screen UI stuff:

When Android is compared to Apple the main place the iPhone wins out is the App Store – in terms of quantity and quality of apps. I’ll admit it – but I still think the advantage will eventually swing in favor of android as more and more momentum is built. This Photoshop Mobile App is a great example of prime time developers/company’s recognizing the value of Android. More will follow.

You’ll definitely want to check out their Official Video Demo for which, unfortunately, I can’t find embed code. Any way you look at it this is pretty awesome. Today we had a few writers suggest applications for Droid newbies… add this one to that list. Positive comments are already piling on the Android Market listing.

[Photoshop.com - Thanks Jacob, Nigel]

Many T-Mobile fans have blamed the Deutsch carrier for not getting their hands on the HTC Hero. T-Mobile had plans to release the myTouch Fender LE, but release had been pushed back to Q1 2010.

According to production files HTC had produced two different Magic phones. The PVT32A used 288 MB of RAM, while the PVT32B only had 192 MB of RAM.

The PVT32A had a 3.5 headphone jack, which is missing from the myTouch 3G. It was to come with a 16 GB microSD card filled with multimedia goodies.

Based on the specs, it’s better if Elvis just left the building. This phone will just seem REALLY outdated if it comes out Q1 2010. The beginning of the year will be all about 1GHz phones and though 528MHz has been tolerable come 3 month from now it will not.

One can only hope T-Mobile and HTC head back to the drawing board and comes out with something truly worthy of a Fender phone, not just a disguised Hero/myTouch 3G.
Ding! Idea, what if Android gets Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Then maybe the multimedia could interact with one of those games. That would be pretty sweet.

According to this chart designed by TMoNews the Fender LE is very similar in specs to the Hero.

With Verizon’s first two Android Phone’s launching today – the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris – there will be PLENTY of Android newbs trying to soak up all the Android Application goodness they can. But with so many applications on the market now… where do they look?

I can imagine many people feel like they’re being pulled in every which way with no clue where to go – like the Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Bots.

Fear not. Five Phandroid team members did some good lookin’ out and hand picked 10 applications each that they think you’ll want to check out from Android Market. There are overlaps/duplications but I thought it would be relevant to allow them… if more than one has it in their list it MUST be good, right?

Without further adieu:

John Ashton Edgar
About Me: Behind the scenes button pusher for a group of technology websites. Love wine, food, fellowship, and Android be thy name. In vino veritas, in aqua sanitas. Follow me on Twitter @johnashtonedgar!

1. Amazon – They have a slick app and almost always the best pricing on everything. Need I say more.
2. Astro – Sad to say but Android has lacked a file manager thus far, this fits the bill.
3. Backgrounds – There is no better place to get your wallpapers to customize your desktop, sorry iPhone.
4. Google Sky Map -  Because it’s just cool!
5. Google Voice – All my telephone numbers can be run through and controlled with GV.
6. My Account – This is a T-mobile app that lets you work with your account.
7. Shazam – Ever wonder who sings that song. This does that flawlessly.
8. Shopsavvy – Scan an items bar code and it will tell you where to find it online or locally (mapping it as well) with the best pricing. Way cool!
9. TED – The best minds in the world give lectures on Technology, Entertainment and Design. Above all, the most informative app.
10. Twidroid Pro – This is a pay app but the best twitter client for Android. (@johnashtonedgar)

David Drwencke
Android History – Used G1, MyTouch 3G and have owned an Iphone.

1. Pandora – (Free) The application works nearly flawlessly over 3G, EDGE and WiFi. The application incorporates your online account saving your stations and favorite songs. The Android version of this application allows you to do multiple things while the music plays, it truly is great.
2. Facebook for Android – (Free) As a Facebook fiend there is no better option on an Android device then the Facebook for Android App. Update your status, post pictures, check out your friends profiles, make comments all from the comfort of your device. This is a must have if you have a Facebook account.
3. Twidroid – (Free and Paid Versions) My experience is with the free version which has been fantastic. For me – who is a heavy user while not necessarily being a “power” user – it is perfect. There are push updates, I can make my tweets quickly and I think the interface is pretty straight forward. I also appreciate that the developers constantly update the application.
4. FeedR – (Paid) As a fan of many different tech, sports and news pages/blogs I like to know I can gain access to all of the latest news with the click of one button. FeedR has a clean, basic layout, has many options to update on its own, or at my own leisure. Adding new pages is a snap and the pages load very quickly. If you need an RSS reader (with many other options) FeedR is your #1 option.
5. Movies by Flixster – (Free) I consider myself a pretty big movie fan and I like to gain access not only to movie times/locations but also movie reviews from the critics and my friends. The newest version of this app ties into your Facebook account so that you can see what your friends have to say and vice versa, which is a cool feature. I can also track the movies I have seen and keep a list of those I want to see.
6. Open Home – (Full & Paid) One of the best features of any Android Powered device is the ability to customize not only your “wallpaper” but also your icons, widgets and overall layout of your device. There are so many different themes and styles that just about every device can match its owners style and personality. Though there are other worthy options (Fresh Face to name one) my favorite and standby is Open Home.
7. Sportstap – (Free) I am a huge sports fan and I happen to like different teams throughout the different leagues – sports taps allows me to be up to date with scores, stats and information with fast updates tailored to my interests. The navigation is simple and once you select your favorite teams Sportstap will do the rest.
8. The Weather Channel – (Free) Its simple and straight forward but I can set a few important locations (home, work and other favorite cities) and I can always know what is coming up and will also be able to answer the question “What will the weather be like tomorrow?” The widget is plain but useful, and the “Weather Alerts” are also useful for when serious weather is heading my way.
9. Shazam – (Free) Why? Even though I happen to have satellite radio in my car I still find myself forgetting that new catchy songs title when it comes time to download it. Shazam not only will keep a list of all the songs I tag it definitely is a “wow factor” application when you can use it with your friends at a store, mall, club when the music is playing and there is no way to get the title or the artist. This is an app you may not use every day, but I am happy every time I use it.n’t? Well now you can fix both of these issues with Visual Voicemail. The application is a bit boring looking, but ti is straight forward and it works as described.
10. Wapedia – (Free) There are a few options out there when it comes to wiki-clients, however my favorite is Wapedia. The user interface (UI) is solid, articles load quickly. Likely more useful then simply “googling” a question or term.

Raji Aboulhosn
About Me: I’m a huge sports fan especially football and the Vikings. I currently have an iPhone 3GS (don’t hate me and yes AT&T sucks) and I will be getting the Droid when it comes out. I love Android because you can customize it your way and there is still so much untapped potential with this platform.

1. Twidroid – Simply put the best twitter application for Android. Comes in either a free version or pro version ($4.89).
2. Sportstap – A good-looking interface and a bundled widget make it easy to follow your favorite teams. (free)
3. Pandora – You can’t really beat free music so enjoy it. (free)
4. USA Today – The easiest way to get the latest news around the globe. (free)
5. Shazam – I’m never good with remembering artists names or song titles. This app will come in handy more then you think. (free)
6. WeatherBug – Wondering if you’re going to need an umbrella today? WeatherBug will let you know. (free)
7. Where – If you travel a lot this might be your go to app. It will help you find a good meal, some good coffee, and will help you avoid traffic. (free)
8. Movies by Flixster – Want to know what’s playing at the local theater? If not download it so you can kill some time by watching the latest trailers. (free)
9. NBA game time lite (free) – It’s great to see professional sports leagues get on the Android fun. Now if ESPN could get off their ass and gives us a fantasy football app. (free)
10. Open Home – Tired of your homescreen? Open Home allows you to customize fonts, colors, icons and much more. (not sure of the price)

Breon Nagy
My name is Breon Nagy and I’ve recently been drafted to write reviews for apps. I’m a self-proclaimed Android fanboy and others have called me a “mobile power users”. I love testing new apps and currently beta test several popular Android apps. My first Android phone was a T-Mobile G1 and I’ve since graduated to an HTC Hero on Sprint. I had a chance to test drive the Droid last week and I was rather impressed. Here’s a list of my MUST HAVE apps:

1. Twidroid (FREE/€3.39 Pro) – Twidroid is a feature rich Twitter client. The Pro version allows for multiple accounts, Bit.ly URL shortening, and video upload. Both versions include sending and receiving tweets, @replies, direct messages as well as picture uploading and URL shortening (via several services). It has full search functionality and you can save searches too!
2. Astro File Manager (FREE) – Astro is a file management tool that allows you to browse/cut/copy/delete files on your SD card (and read/copy files on the phone memory . They’ve recently introduced other features such as an application manager and process manager.
3. G-Backup (FREE Trial/$4.95 Full) – G-Backup will automatically upload ALL of your SMS, MMS, Pictures, Videos, and your Call Log to your Gmail account. It will sort them into whatever Gmail labels you specify. This is a great way to go back in time to find an old text message or a picture that you deleted off of your SD card.
4. Handcent SMS (FREE) – Handcent is an alternative to using the stock Messaging app. It allows you to send and receive SMS and MMS messages. It’s real beauty is in the customization. You can skin the app to look like other messaging apps (*cough* iphone/hero *cough*) as well as change the color scheme of all OR individual conversations.
5. Hi AIM (FREE) – The Droid that I tested did not have the stock Instant Messaging client on installed (it may ship with the final build). Hi AIM is a simple AOL instant messaging client that includes some customization. One unique feature is it allows you to set buddy online/offline notifications. (note: there are other IM clients that also aggregate Yahoo/MSN/Skype/etc services)
6. Taskiller (FREE/€0.70 Full) – Taskiller is a task manager that allows you to see all of the running apps and processes on your phone. You can kill apps/processes individually or all at once. There is an “ignore” list that will prevent your favorite apps from being killed with the “kill all” button.
7. Light Racer 3D (FREE Basic/$2.99 Full) – “Futuristic motorcycles race to the death in a 3D arena”…need I say more? If you’re a fan of a certain ’80s movie that rhymes with Fron, then you’ll love this. If you’re not a fan of said movie, you’ll love it anyway. This is by far the best 3D game on the Market and it works great on the Droid.
8. Foursquare – Foursquare is an addictive location based game. You sign up for an account at http://foursquare.com. When you go places, you check in to them. Restaurants, gas stations, retail stores, whatever! If your favorite venue isn’t on the list, you can add it for MORE points.
9. Open Home (FREE/$3.99 Full) – Open Home is a Home replacement. It gives you up to 7 home screens (versus stock 3) as well as the ability to customize the look and feel of the app tray, fonts, and icons via themes on the Market.
10. Ustream Broadcaster (FREE) – Broadcast yourself live from your mobile phone! Or you can record videos to your SD card for later upload. Ustream also allows you to broadcast from your computer as well. A great service.

Robfactory
About Me: Here are the apps I use often.

1. Shazam – Being a Dj you have to stay current and play stuff that gets people moving. Shazam hears a sample of the song through your phone and tries to recognize the Artist, Name of the song, and Album.
   
2. FML by Evan Charlton – This program logs onto Fmylife.com and picks up peoples comments. If you ever have a bad day all you have to do is open this app and laugh your ass off. The app also lets you forward the comments via text and email. It also lets you comment.
   
3. TasKiller – having the G1 had a lot of perks, but memory was not one of them. With 192mb of Ram one needs all the memory one can get so the phone does not lag. TasKiller terminates any undesired program. (EDITOR NOTE: Your Motorola DROID has this by default in Android 2.0 in the settings)
   
4. SportsTap – is a sports app that keeps you updated with sporting scores. It also lets you select which teams you want to get scores from and how often.
   
5. iMusic – searches blogs and free music site to stream or download songs. It also reads what type of music you like and builds categories with top 50 and top 100.
   
6. NubiNews- organizes a collection of news and information sites under one app and lets you switch from site to site without using the browser.
   
7. Flashlight – I know kind of weak, but its been very helpful in clubs, late at night and in the dark.
   
8. Healthy Recipes – has 5 different categories one can choose from. You can also type in which dish you’ll like to make and it will give you healthy alternatives as how to cook that meal.
   
9. My Account – is a T-Mobile app that lets the user see how many minutes he or she has spent, also texts users when they are about to go over their minutes and texts. You can also pay your bill as well as see your payment history. Lastly, it also controls the phone’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Data Roaming, GPS and Screen Brightness.
10. TV.com –is an app that connects to CBS and CBS owned channels and programming (Showtime, the CW, cnet.com, the insider, etc…). The program does not just stream previews, but full episodes of popular shows. Missed Dexter, well not anyone. You can stream through Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity.

So there you have it… a good selection of applications to start downloading and testing out, recommended by your friendly Phandroid experts. And remember… next time you feel lost in the Andoid World, tap your heels together three times… “There’s no place like Phandroid. There’s no place like Phandroid. There’s no place like Phandroid.”

Thanks to John, David, Raji, Breon and Rob for their work on this article!

Finally! You can now Buy the Motorola Droid at Verizon Wireless! We did a little haggling and you’ll see an extra special price for visitors of our Phandroid Phone Store – check out the exlusive price!

If you buy one, are thinking of buying one, have one, want to have one or anything else… I highly suggest you hit up the Motorola Droid Forums where thousands of Droid Owners are already congregating. Can’t decide? You may find comfort and a place to spend many hours in reading our Motorola Droid Review.

While the Moto Droid has taken center stage, don’t forget the HTC Droid Eris is also going on sale for $100 less, comes with HTC Sense, Android 1.5 and has been highly praised in other markets and on other carriers as the HTC Hero. We’ve got a special deal on that, too! Slight differences of course. If this is your kinda Droid don’t forget to hit up our HTC Droid Eris Forum!

Well, this is it. This is our last night together. In less than 18 hours I will have my next love affair in my hands. No offense but, do you know how freaking excited I am?!

I can barely contain it!

Sure, we had an alright run. I remember when I first got you. I was so happy, almost overjoyed!

(Me, almost overjoyed.)

Finally I was able to check my email and browse the web on an HTML browser! There was V CAST and a calender and a notepad and an Ez Tip calculator! There was an alarm clock and a (dimming) video camera and games I could download and holy moley, VZ Navigator!  I mean sure, it took me 15 minutes to get to verizonvoyager.org and get logged in but.. I could do it! Sure, checking email sucked, especially if there was anything attached or links within said email but hey.. I at least knew if I had something waiting! Right? And the calender. Awesome! I could add events that I could then lose completely every time my phone had to get replaced! Which was rockin’. BitPim tried to help but.. I’m too lazy for all that. Threesomes can get complicated anyway.

Did I mention I had to get you replaced a lot? Five times at least? Six? Seven? I don’t remember. But that’s what happens when we fight, baby. You get replaced. I’ll take none of that craziness. Trade you out when you’re bad.  So that’s what we did. So much so that I gave up on calender events and games and ringtones. Reloading calender events was a pain and re-downloading things and then having to call VZW and argue about it over and over to hopefully get reimbursed was an even bigger pain.

Suddenly, I was no longer quite as happy. In fact I became downright mad.

(Me, downright mad.)

Shh, don’t tell you but.. Secretly I couldn’t wait to break up. But I’m one of those guys that just can’t be alone, you know? I couldn’t just go solo. I needed a suitable replacement first. I’ll admit it – I was using you.

And then along she came. I took notice. At first I thought “no way”. She’s one of those hotties that you just can’t have. Way out of your league. And long distance relationships – they just don’t work! Not for me anyway. I could flirt from afar but that was it. But now. Now! She’s opened her arms wide. She’s available and willing. Oh lucky day!

It was love at first sight. And second. And 50th. I’ve spent day after day.. night after night.. watching videos and drooling at pictures galore. I feel like we’ve known each other forever. There is no denying it. We’re meant to be. Soul mates.

…My calender syncing won’t be  a problem, bad phones or not. Downloaded apps will stay mine. Tons. Free ones. I’ll have a device that can record a video that’s NOT limited to tiny sizes and time constraints all while dimming to something unbearable in all but the greatest of light. I’ll be able to actually *use* my email and… oh forget it. I could go on and on but you don’t wanna hear it.  You’re probably not even listening. Hey, look at me when I’m talking to you.

So this is it. Enjoy your last night with a companion. At least with me. What will happen to you, you ask? I haven’t decided. Your fate is unknown. Will I sell you off? Maybe. It’d help fund my newest adventure. Will I smash you into tiny bits? I dunno but that’d sure as hell be more fun! Either way.. at least I’m not breaking up with you through a text message, right?

Peace, suckafish.

The Samsung Behold II sounded like an ordinary Android phone when it first peaked its head from the depths of the hidden mobile phone world, but soon after learning about the new device, we learned something even more peculiar about it: the Behold II would be the first Samsung Android phone to house the TouchWiz interface (which already has its own implementation on select Windows Mobile phones).

Even more enthralling was the fact that Samsung went with a completely new direction with the Behold 2’s TouchWiz, bringing us cube-based goodness for navigational purposes. For a long time, this was just imagined in images and snapshots of the phone, but Tmonews was blessed with a video from one of their sources that shows the TouchWiz interface in full action.

Don’t be alarmed, the choppiness that you see is because of the poor quality of the video itself: the source assures everyone that the TouchWiz interface is in fact very smooth and usable in its current state. Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. Being a Linux user, I’ve had my fair share of cubes. While cool, I’d hope Samsung would give the option to disable the cube altogether, as I’m sure it won’t be practical for everyone (giving users the freedom of choice is never a bad thing, either).

What do you guys think about the TouchWiz interface? Feel free to talk about it in the comment section!

Verizon Wireless is launching the Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris tomorrow, but that hasn’t stopped BestBuy from pre-selling the first and plopping the latter on their website. That’s right, the Droid Eris just popped up on the BestBuy.com website listed for $499.99:

It’s only a matter of time until that “Coming Soon” is replaced with a “Buy It Now”… and when it does… will you?

[Via BestBuy, Thanks Terry!]

With all the Droid talk, I started to think about all the perks owning one entails:
Android 2.0
5 MP dual flash LED
3.7” multitouch capacitive screen
GPS
Android Turn by Turn
and many other features.

However, will the European courts view Google’s apps as a good thing or implementation of software that will create a monopoly and diminish competition?

Novell and Sun Microsytems complained a few years back that Microsoft controlled the market through anti-competitive practices. European courts deemed Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer (IE), Windows Media Player (WMP), as added on software that failed to create fair competition.

In short, a multi-million dollar Anti-Trust lawsuit ensued. Microsoft had to pay $794 Million dollars and create a separate version of Windows without IE and WMP.

This might be the reason why the Motorola Sholes, Droid, Milestone (am I forgetting one?) is running with MotoNav in Europe rather than Google Turn by Turn.

Google has stated Google apps are subject to the carrier’s discretion. It would be interesting to see how MotoNav will differ from Google Turn by Turn…and I’m not talking about the user interface (UI), but what’s powering it.

It would also be interesting to see what TomTom and Garmin LTD.’s next step will be. Especially since the Google navigation system is free and incorporated into a multifunction device.

Below is an example of what MotoNav looks like on a GPS device and a Phone Display

Not to be confused with Motorola, the MOTO Development Group today announced that they’ll be launching their Android Media Platform, a mobile device cookie cutter for Android 2.0. With AMP, hardware manufacturers will be able to work closely with MOTO in prototyping, designing, and testing their latest devices, providing an infrastructure to ensure the most rapid development cycle possible.

It’s quite difficult to explain exactly what AMP is, but the best way I can go about it is to say that the underlying hardware consists of a TI OMAP-based chipset, acting as a snowball that brings together support for many different types of hardware components that would be essential to just about any mobile device out there (including mobile phones, MIDs, tablets, and more). This means that any manufacturer looking to create an Android-based device of any sort can deal without the headaches of initial product design and prototyping by employing MOTO to help them piece together exactly the type of hardware that they envision, using only one device platform for the entire process.

Looking at the flowmap above, you can see how the platform’s motherboard is fragmented to support ease-of-use in plugging in many different types of components which would soften the testing and implementation cycle for the manufacturer. Essentially, MOTO and Texas Instruments wants everyone to believe that a 4-month development cycle, from conception to a finished product, is feasible (and why not? Surely this style of rapid delivery has progressed other technologies through extensive research).

Eli Belmond of Texas Instruments shares similar sentiments with the CEO of MOTO:

“Texas Instruments is pleased to collaborate with MOTO on the development of the Android Media Platform (AMP). Working together, MOTO completed the AMP reference design in four months including hardware design, software port and platform development. With this short development time, MOTO is able to interest customers who are looking to innovate on the Android platform today.”

MOTO provides 3 different base hardware specifications for AMP: 5″, 3.5″, and 10″ specifications are the three starting points for any given manufacturer to begin with. Currently, only the 5″ is available for development, but the other two are expected to be available starting in early 2010. You can head over to MOTO’s site to see a full breakdown of the type of hardware and software support that each specification provides.

“MOTO’s AMP platform highlights the capabilities and performance of the OMAP3430 processor while providing the tools to allow OEMS to quickly create differentiated Android devices in a range of specifications. Further, MOTO has a roadmap in place to continue to leverage OMAP technology to remain at the forefront of innovation. We believe solutions like AMP will be crucial to driving innovation in the Android market and supporting growth of this thriving operating system.”

It seems as if Texas Instruments has another motive in all of this: they want to springboard their processor architecture to be the defacto for Android devices going forward, knocking off Qualcomm as the #1 chipset manufacturer for current Android technology. Just to put things in perspective for comparison purposes, the OMAP3430 is the same processor which powers the Palm Pre.

I know some of you are probably scratching your heads right now in trying to figure out what this means for you (I know I was). It means more Android devices, whether it be a phone, a tablet, or what have you, at a faster rate and with a lot more options. With MOTO making it this easy for hardware manufacturers to grasp the Android platform, I can only drool at the thought of the sheer amount of devices we could be in for. Perhaps this can be another way out for companies like Dell, who’ve struggled up to this point with providing an Android phone worth buying, or an easier way for companies like Creative or Sandisk to provide fresh media player products to help combat Microsoft and Apple with their dominance in those markets.

We contacted MOTO regarding this to see if there were any manufacturers already working with them using AMP, but they were unable to provide any information regarding that at this time. If any more comes from it, we’ll be sure to fill you in.

Here’s a question for you readers: what types of devices would you like to see come to fruition thanks to MOTO’s accelerated platform development solution? What companies do you think would benefit most from this, and for what reason/function? Sound off in the comments below!

[Thanks Carl!]

With all the talk about DROID and ERIS many people may have forgotten about the rumors that stated that Verizon was actually set to receive THREE Android powered devices…

We may have found the phone that completes the trinity of Verizon Android devices.

Saygus VPhone V1 appears to be the third device destined for the Verizon network - early 2010 appears to be the release date. So what do we know about the VPhone? Well you can get the specs here. Or you can scroll further down.

The most exciting thing for me is the description of “2-Way Video Calling” – how this will work exactly, and just what charges may be included are not yet known but the potential sure is amazing. According to Saygus, the phone will come pre-loaded with: “Saygus Propietary Real-Time, Two-Way Mobile Video Calling Software – 24 to 30 Frames Per Second.” On top of live messaging, Saygus will be allowing for Short Video Messages (SVM’s perhaps?) for the price of $2.99 per month.

The hardware looks promising as well, you can see more pictures here.

Specs:

• Smartphone/PDA/Handset PIMS (Personal Information Management System) i.e. Day Timer, Calendar, Address Book, Remote Save, etc.
• MP3
• Media Player
• USB Sync Compatibility to PC
• Voice Recorder
• External Speaker
• GPS
• Full Color LCD WVGA Touch Screen

Saygus V Phone – V1™ Hardware/Software Features In Addition to Those Listed Above

• 2 way video calling
• Android OS (Operating System) Offering Scores of New Applications
• Saygus Propietary Real-Time, Two-Way Mobile Video Calling Software – 24 to 30 Frames Per Second (Movies Standards are 24 FPS)
• 512 MB Flash
• 256 MB SDRAM
• 624 MHz Processor
• CDMA2000 EV-DO Rev. A
• USB Host Port (Others have Client Port Only)
• MicroSD Storage up to 16 GB SDHC
• Modem Port (USB Modem Capable)
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR
• Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
• Multi Media Player
• GPS – Global Position Satellite System Capable

Services Available

• Three-Year Extended Warranty – One Year Manufacturer’s and Two Years Extended Available For One-Time Fee
• Remote Save Capability – Save ANY Information AND Live Video Calls Entered to Remote Servers and Protect Against Data Loss For Monthly Fee
• Insurance – Protect Against Loss, Theft, or Out of Warrantee User Damage For Monthly Fee
• VMS – Video Messaging Service Offering Video Messages Like Text Messaging for $2.99/Mo. Unlimited

When it rains it pours… and right now its pouring Cats and Droids. Or something. After HTC announced their Droid Eris earlier this morning, we found the specs and now Verizon is weighing in, providing a full video demo of the device:

I feel pretty confident in saying tomorrow will be a HUGE day for both Android and Verizon Wireless. And you… if you plan on buying either the Droid or Droid Eris. And when/if you do… make sure you hit up Android Forums to connect with some friends in the same boat. After all, with all that raining and pouring you ARE going to need a boat.