Engadget Mobile Podcast 029 - 11.09.2009
By Trent Wolbe 
posted Nov 9th 2009 5:45PM
posted Nov 9th 2009 5:45PM
"DRRRROOOOOOOOID." Okay, we spare you from actually playing the "DROID" alert sound at any point during the podcast, but the fact remains: Verizon's powerhouse from Motorola is a major topic of conversation on this week's show. Dig in!
Hosts: Chris Ziegler, Sean Cooper
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Solvent - Devices and Strategies (Ghostly International)
01:38 - Motorola DROID review
22:15 - Verizon's LG Chocolate Touch skips on the BL40 influence
24:33 - Verizon's DROID ERIS by HTC does Android and keeps it cheap
30:25 - BlackBerry Bold 9700 hands-on and impressions
32:36 - HTC HD2 officially coming to US, out in Europe and Asia today!
36:44 - Telus kicks off HSPA+ network with iPhone November 5th, HTC Hero, LG New Chocolate and more to follow
41:16 - Bell confirms HSPA launch on November 4
53:02 - Listener questions
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The podcast isn't showing up on iTunes in the UK. This seems to happen quite often.
I don't understand the statement about the Pixi at 15:30 where Chris says: "if they had just made a 3G GSM version and put it on Att" that Palm would suddenly be successful when Att's network is much worse than Sprint's while having more expensive plans.
I also don't understand their comments about the HD2 around 36 min saying that it's too big to hold in your hand when the device is only 4.9mm wider than an iPhone aka 0.193 inches.
How can the most popular consumer smartphone of all time be just great for like 30 million people but that additional 1/5th of an inch be a deal breaker?
Great podcast edition! Keep up the good work guys.
hgh
Rejoice!
http://www.3gafrica.org/graphical/operators/1900mhz.asp
http://www.3gafrica.org/graphical/operators/800mhz.asp
CDMA on the American Bands in Africa, but not in S. Africa.
Also a question: My G1 has been with me for 9 months but is seems to be getting long in the tooth. I've been looking at several complementary/replacement devices, mostly the N900 and the Xperia X10, but also the Milestone and the HD2 along with anything else running. No Behold, Fender edtion or CLIQ due to me wanting a bump in screen res.
The N900 is the front runner being out and me having actually played with is some. But I've been hearing bad things about Maemo 5 being a stepping stone to 6 (I don't like 6 was announced at the Meamo Summit) and given Nokia's somewhat shaky upgrade history with Maemo I don't want to invest 550 odd dollars into a device and not get much support back. On the other hand the X10 will have Android w/flash 10 (by the point its released) and media super powers. But its been announced with 1.6 and seems far from release.
I want T-Mobile 3G, a WVGA screen, a 3.5 mm Jack, a 5 mp+ AF/ Flash camera, a top tier browser and DVD quality (WVGA) video recording.
Whats your take on the X10 vs the N900 and those vs everything else I mentioned? Any Devices I missed?
Sorry for the length; love the podcast, keep up the good work! -Dpmt
I'm going from a crappy enV2 to a Droid in a few days, and I want some advice on physical keyboards. Obviously I'll be stuck with the droid for a while - the general opinion seems to be that the physical keyboard is really subpar. The enV2 was my first QWERTY and I didn't really need to get used to using it, which, from all of the complaints I hear about keyboards, makes me think it is on the good end, as far as keyboards go.
3 questions: how would you rate the enV2 keyboard in comparison to other mobile QWERTYs? What about the droid? Do you think that the cliq and droid having QWERTY keyboards will drive the android/smartphone markets into more QWERTY devices being offered at the cream-of-the-crop level?