Engadget's blurry first look at Motorola's tablet for Verion

The end of the year is coming, which means there’s a bit of a lull in terms of new gadgets. Instead we get a bunch of teasing from companies preparing to showcase their newest products at CES. Today we have two big, possibly related teases for the Consumer Electronics Show 2011.

The first big tease comes from Motorola. The company responsible for the Droid released a video today detailing the history of tablets, complete with a few jabs at competing tablets from Apple and Samsung. The video ends with the new red Motorola logo under a veiled tablet, with a bee flying around it. Seems like an obvious nod to the Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet that keeps popping up from Motorola. It was last seen on stage at D: Dive Into Mobile in prototype form {Engadget}.

The other big tease comes as a bit of a gimme, with Verizon teasing LTE Android devices on January 6 {Twitter}. January 6 happens to be date where Verizon’s CEO will give the opening keynote presentation. So, it should be expected that the devices will be on display at the show. It could even be possible that we’ll see the Motorola Honeycomb tablet as part of that presentation. Shortly after the device appeared on stage Engadget scored a few images of a very similar device with Verizon branding. Of course, the tablet won’t be ready for launch at the show, but we’ll all be able to get a bit more information on the device, and other LTE Android devices.

We all knew it was coming eventually.  Last year Verizon and Motorola saw great success with the release of the original Droid, which was the  flagship Android phone for at least a few weeks.  The Droid continues to be a great success, being that it is a great phone with a lot of advertising behind it.  Makes sense that there would be a follow up apart from the Droid Incredible and Droid X.

Today Verizon has finally made the Droid 2, the true successor to the Droid, official.  The Droid 2 looks fairly similar to the first Droid, but the corners are rounded where the Droid had sharp angles.  Gone is the bar under the screen that stayed put when the screen slides up, now it slides with the rest of the front.  Also gone is the D-pad, replaced with arrow keys and an “OK” button, which make the keyboard feel more natural to some.

For specs, the Droid 2 ships with Android 2.2 installed, so no worrying about updates.  The mobile hotspot functionality on Froyo will cost an extra $20 a month.  With the Droid 2 we also have a 5 MP camera, 8 GB of flash storage (with and 8 GB microSD card included for 16 GB of storage), and DLNA streaming.

The phone will be available for pre-order on Wednesday, and will be available in Verizon stores on Thursday for $199 on a two-year contract.  To be nice to current subscribers, Verizon is taking a play from AT&T’s book and allowing anyone who has a Verizon contract ending this year to upgrade to the Droid 2, or any other smartphone, without penalty.  You may want to wait, however, because the R2-D2 version of the Droid 2 will be available online starting in September. {Engadget}

BlackBerry Bold 9700

$49.99 {Amazon}
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the most expensive smartphone on this list, at $49.99.  As with most BlackBerrys, the Bold 9700 isn’t terribly exciting.  It has a 2.4-inch screen, and a full QWERTY keyboard, and has the newer trackpad rather than scroll button that’s been met with mixed reactions.  Be forewarned: it will likely be obsolete after the BlackBerry and AT&T press conference on August 3rd, where we’ll hopefully see a phone running the new BlackBerry 6.  But for now, and for under $50, the Bold 9700 is still a pretty good choice.

Motorola Backflip

$0.01 {Amazon}
The Backflip is a strange phone.  You’ve probably seen the advertisements on TV touting the phone’s social networking capability using the Motoblur features.  What isn’t clear is that the phone’s design is a bit… backwards.  When folded closed, the keyboard is directly opposite the touchscreen rathe than sliding underneath the screen like it’s sister phone, the T-Mobile Cliq.  Behind the screen when the keyboard is folded out is a touchpad, with can be a bit confusing to use.  It still runs on Android 1.5, but will be updated to Android 2.1 within a few months.  For those who like to spend a lot of time on social networks, the Backflip is still a good choice.

The new updates brings Flash 10.1 to the Google phone, along with a host of other features.  There’s a slightly redesigned home screen, where users will always have access to the call function and the web browser no matter what home screen they are looking at.  The Nexus One will now also feature tethering both via Bluetooth and mobile hotspot where users can connect up to 8 other devices to the phones 3G connection through WiFi.  Other improvements include automatic updates for apps if you so choose, an “update all button” in the Market, and faster speeds for applications.

Phones other than the Nexus One will get the update, but it will take time for the phone manufacturers and carriers to push out the updates.  For the Nexus One, Google handles pushing out updates on their own.  For phones like the myTouch 3G, the update could be relatively simple as it runs on stock Android without any added bells and whistles.  Phones like the EVO 4G and HTC Incredible, however, will likely take longer as they use a custom skin over Android which will have to be made compatible with the new OS version.

It also calls into question the new phones we’ve been seeing like the Galaxy S smartphones from Samsung like the Captivate, Vibrant and Epic 4G and the new Droid X, which were announced as running on Android 2.1.  Of course, this was before we knew that Google would start pushing the updates through.  It would make sense for the companies like Motorola, Samsung and HTC to attempt to put Froyo on their phones before they’re launched, but there’s no guarantee that the updates will be ready in time.  Looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of Over The Air updates of Froyo rolling out over the next few months.  Meanwhile, Google is likely hard at work on the version, Gingerbread.

But back to the Droid, with the next generations expected to have twice the memory and twice the speed (thanks to a faster processor), there are lots of small changes that could make a big difference in performance. Physically, there won’t be much of a difference in the Droid and Droid 2 – the touch pad from the first version is replaced with arrow keys {Android and Me}, so is it worth the upgrade?

Well, the Droid X will lose the QWERTY keyboard, though for some users that may be a disadvantage. If you just can’t get the hang of a touchscreen and just want the power boost, there’s still a case to be made for waiting.

For one thing, until midnight tonight, you can get the original Droid completely free at Wirefly if you’re a new or existing customer. Click here and use the code WIREFLYMEMCARD18 to also get a free 2GB memory card. It may not be the latest model, but free still isn’t a bad price for a smartphone.

The second thing to consider is what will be rolling out around holiday time this year. For one, there’s the AT&T/TMobile Samsung Captivate, not to mention the clandestine Windows Phone 7 phones. While the Droid 2 or Droid X may be an improvement on the current Droid – many bloggers consider the Droid 2 to be the fastest Android phone so far, it doesn’t seem like it will take long for other smartphones to catch up or surpass the improvements. The Droid X, for example, will get an upgrade to the camera and include 720p HD video recording and Android 2.2, but those are things that other smartphones already have, or will have soon.