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Droid Does

droiddoes.com

10 pointsbuugs18 comments

Wow. Verizon attacking Apple's hostility to open development? Talk about a pot and a kettle...

And the "compromise" part hits their Mac commercial as well.

They're also hitting back with a separate "there's a map for that" ad that (directly) goes after AT&T coverage, but clearly is taking a pot-shot at Apple as well...

Verizon has done an unexpected about-face around a year ago, turning from the most closed carrier (crippled phones, removing bluetooth etc) to the one who, at least on paper, embraces open everything.

My guess is that they looked at the network capacity and realized that if they push other carriers into "who's got more open access?" war they will come out on top by virtue of having more bandwidth to sustain those apps. Their latest attack ads against AT&T pretty much underscore that with point made on watching mobile video.

I may be ascribing too much to Verizon, but I know if I had more XYZ then competition I would certainly make my current and potential users appreciate XYZ more in order to gain advantage. True for any value of XYZ.

To most people I talk to (and my personal belief), Verizon's commercials are directed squarely at Apple. I was hoping to have a choice in US carriers, but this ad seems to kill that possibility.

It is a network protocol issue. Verizon and Sprint are CDMA, AT&T and T-Mobile (and the rest of the world) are GSM. Your phone will work on one spec or the other, and depending on the spec you will have two carriers to choose from if you were to get an unlocked phone.

Things change. When it comes to 4G Verizon has abandoned EV-DV (Qualcom/CDMA family) and instead committed to LTE (GSM family). What this means is that come 4G there will be one standard across all major carriers both in states and in Europe. (I can't imagine Sprint having enough money to justify further EvDv R&D so they will have to switch as well).

Verizon is hard at work rolling out LTE equipment as we speak.

Seeing that play out will be interesting. I don't know how many people (like me) stick with AT&T and T-Mobile because they insist on having a phone that will work overseas, but I'd bet we're among the more profitable consumers...

Fair enough, but, on the other hand, Verizon has always been the carrier most resistant to becoming a "dumb pipe". At bottom, that's where their hostility to open devices comes from. Their involvement in developing the Droid suggests that they're looking for other ways to escape now, but I still don't trust their instincts.

I'd like to see this but I get a blank white page on the iPhone.

I guess if they really want to poach iPhone users they'll need to make a non-flash site ;)

Is Droid really going to have 800 x 480 screen resolution? Are screens with DPI that insanely high really capable of making it into devices sold for $200 with contract?

I've been waiting for a phone with such a usable screen resolution but it never seems to actually come true; it's just rumor. At this point I'd be happy just to get 640 x400.

The Nokia N900 has that as well. Right now the instant availability of a Linux userland has me trending toward the N900, but when they're both out, I'll see how they handle. I chose the G1 over the iPhone mostly on physical use factors.

I have a Nokia n800 with a 4.3 inch 800x480 touchscreen and it looks absolutely amazing. The n900 coming out soon will have a 3.5 inch 800x480 sceen, so it looks like it is possible to shrink a high-resolution screen down to a smartphone-sized device.

My HTC Touch Pro2 (Windows Mobile) has that resolution. Verizon has already had a couple released 800x480 screens that run their BREW platform (LG EnV Touch). All are usable but none have the iPhone's hardware graphics acceleration. Kind of a shame, too.

EDIT: I should also mention that it cost me about $200 with renewal

I think we now have the answer to the question "Will Verizon ever get the iPhone?". Given how they are attacking the iPhone and Apple's temper, I would say "No".

I wonder how it compares with the two android phones sprint is coming out with. I've been out of contract a while and I won't move to AT&T do to service problems in nyc, but I'd really like a more powerful smartphone then my blackberry. I've got my iPod Touch for my iApps.

The droid trademark is owned by Lucasfilms??? I had thought it was just a generic word for robot (guess you do learn new things from commercials).

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