We’ve already had a chance to play with the HTC Droid Eris from Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless, but there’s nothing like a retail package unboxing ceremony to really get up close and personal with a new handset. As the “ying” to the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid’s “yang,” the HTC Droid Eris offers Verizon customers a fully capable Android smartphone at half the price of Moto’s headlining Droid, and it deserves some of our undivided attention.
The HTC Droid Eris is a lot like the HTC Hero from Sprint. Just like the Hero, the Droid Eris packs a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 5-megapixel auto-focusing camera, 3G data, WiFi, GPS and a microSD card slot. It also runs the Sense UI, HTC’s custom Android homescreen skin, which gives the Droid Eris a bunch of extra HTC widgets to play with – and it doesn’t hurt that Sense UI looks way prettier than the vanilla Android homescreen.
Surprisingly, the HTC Droid Eris isn’t much thinner than the Motorola Droid, which sports a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. That’s not to say that the Droid Eris is a brick, it actually sits really comfortably in the hand. Still, the Eris could stand to lose a couple millimeters around its waist.
The Droid Eris’s 5-megapixel camera is faster and less laggy than the Motorola Droid. It also supports touch-focusing, which gives it a another small but significant leg-up on the Droid. The 3.2-inch display is smaller than would be ideal, but it’s plenty big for day-to-day use. Above all, there’s no sliding mechanism on the Droid Eris, so build quality is top-notch – no jiggling or creaking here.
Unfortunately, the Eris runs Android 1.5 OS. The Motorola Droid features Android 2.0 OS, which has the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps Navigation app pre-installed. Android 1.5 isn’t bad, especially with HTC’s Sense UI riding on top, but it’s no Android 2.0.
Anyway, acquaint yourself with the Droid Eris below!
Chances are you’ve noticed one of HTC’s latest commercials on the boob-tube. I first took in one during the Yankee’s punishment of the Phillies a little while back. You can check one of the spots out above. Now, the background music you hear… you recognize it, right? For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what song it came from… I was scratching my head over and over, trying to figure out where I’ve heard that beat before…
Then it came to me this morning.
The song? ‘Sinnerman‘ by Nina Simone. I think the song was featured in the movie ‘The Thomas Crown Affair‘.
Had to share this with you folks. Was bothering me Check out the scene in the movie I’m talking about right here (fast forward to around 2:14). Great scene.
If you’ve had your eye on the Android-powered HTC Hero and its customized Sense UI, but just couldn’t bear to leave Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s warm embrace for Sprint (NYSE: S)’s network, you’re in luck! Verizon went official this morning with the Hero-esque HTC Droid Eris. The Eris is a lot like the Hero, just for the Verizon Wireless network. And, at just $99, the Droid Eris is the more affordable alternative to both the upcoming Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid and the Sprint HTC Hero. The Eris even sports the same Sense UI that we’ve come to love on the HTC Hero.
The Motorola Droid might be hogging all the hype this week, but the Eris deserves some time in the limelight. So, without further ado, here’s a hands-on look at HTC Droid Eris for Verizon Wireless.
Here’s a quick spec-sheet rundown on the HTC Droid Eris:
The T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) (NYSE: DT) BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold 9700 isn’t quite launched just yet, but we’ve already gotten friendly with RIM’s newest hardware. The Bold 9700 looks and feels a lot like the original BlackBerry Bold 9000, with some significant under-the-hood upgrades. Cosmetically, the biggest difference is the missing trackball; in it’s place is a new optical trackpad. It’s a subtle design update that makes a lot of sense – the Bold 9000 was a big hit for RIM, of course they’re going to stick with a recipe that everyone loves.
My bud David over at TMoNews has managed to get his hands (from a trusted ninja) on a video look at the Samsung Behold II’s TouchWiz interface. The custom UI ‘Cube’ is certainly a different take on the traditional Android UI. Check it out.
Last I heard the Samsung Behold II will be announced at T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) on November 12th… with availability coming November 18th. Pricing is said to be around the $249.99 mark on a 2-year contract. Would you spend that much for a spinning cube, WiFi, 16GB of storage, and a 5MP camera with auto-focus and flash? Check out the video above if you haven’t already, and leave your thoughts in the comments.
What do you think? Awesomely awesome? Or colossal FAIL?
Imagine, if you will, a squadron of stealth bombers on a grim mission to bomb their homeland with sexy, sexy, smartphones. That is the extremely awesome premise of Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s upcoming Motorola (NYSE: MOT) droid commercial, seen here. Enjoy!
Collecting business cards can be a good thing – expanding your professional network usually is. It can also suck. If you ever have the chance to wade through a stack of business cards and add those contacts by hand, give it a try, you’ll see what we mean. For those of you that share our pain, check out SHAPE Services’ Business Card Reader for iPhone. With a simple snap of your iPhone 3GS’s auto-focus camera, Business Card Reader injects contact information directly into your iPhone’s address book. It’s not free, but at $5.99, it’ll easily pay for itself after your next new business card.
The new app basically scans your business cards and analyzes the text using character recognition technology. But, the really nifty thing is the way Business Card Reader integrates with LinkedIn and your iPhone. It’ll automatically distinguish between home and mobile phone numbers, office address, website URL, job title, company and, of course, the first and last name. Once scanned, you’ll have the option of automatically adding a new contact, merging the data with an existing contact, or look up the information on LinkedIn.
Of course, the app is bound to make some mistakes. After testing five business cards, we had to specify one company name and break up a couple long first names into their respective first and last names. You’re also going to want to use this app on an iPhone 3GS. The auto-focus camera makes all the difference. The app isn’t perfect, but it’s way (way) better than the alternative.
Wanna see the app in action? Check out our demo video!
Craving a new puzzle game on your iPhone? One that you may want to check out is called ‘Penguin Break’. Like other puzzle games of this genre, the object of the game is to clear the board. You do so by tapping on penguins to throw snowballs, and each time you hit a penguin it will disappear, along with other adjacent penguins of the same color. You can create chain reactions for big bonuses (think ‘Bejeweled’)… and there are multiple power ups to be found within the game. Play in ‘Frenzy’ mode which puts you against the clock, or play a more classic style game in ‘Escape’ mode where you try and keep the penguins from reaching the top of the field of play.
For more details check out the demo video above, or pick it up for $0.99 in the App Store (iTunes link).
BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) users have to check out this interesting new app from the folks at VirtualViews. Called ‘Elertify’, this new app allows you to preview incoming email, messages, phone calls and more right on your PC. My description won’t do it justice, so listen to Drew from VirtualViews describe and show-off the app in the video above.
‘This app was designed for people who use their PC a lot. It lets you preview incoming email, text messages and phone calls on your PC so that you don’t have to be checking your BlackBerry every 15 seconds… you can turn on the voice synthesizer and actually hear who’s calling…’
Once connected it looks like Elertify works wonderfully. Alerts pop up in the bottom right corner of your monitor, and you can dismiss the alerts by simply clicking on them.
What would it take to put together 2 ‘working’ iPhone costumes? Apparently $2,000, a couple of 42″ plasma TV’s, a couple of iPhones, and a lot of work. Nothing else needed to be said here. Check out the video below.
I hope everyone had a very happy (and safe) Halloween this year!
We’ve already had a chance to play with the HTC Droid Eris from Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless, but there’s nothing like a retail package unboxing ceremony to really get up close and personal with a new handset. As the “ying” to the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid’s “yang,” the HTC Droid Eris offers Verizon customers a fully capable Android smartphone at half the price of Moto’s headlining Droid, and it deserves some of our undivided attention.
Check out the scene in the movie I’m talking about 
Collecting business cards can be a good thing – expanding your professional network usually is. It can also suck. If you ever have the chance to wade through a stack of business cards and add those contacts by hand, give it a try, you’ll see what we mean. For those of you that share our pain, check out SHAPE Services’ 
