Unlike other devices that turn off the device microphone if headsets are plugged in, the Droid leaves its microphone on. This in effect allows you to answer calls for you through your car's speaker system.

That being said, let's begin at the top. Today I purchased a smartphone that has:
- A Full QWERTY Keyboard
- 16GB Expandable/Removable Memory
- 5MP Camera with Flash and autofocus
- 3.7" 480 x 854pixel Capacitive Multi-touch Display
- 1400 mAh User Replaceable Lithium Ion Battery
- CDMA/EVDO/WIFI/Bluetooth/GPS radios
- Magenetic Compass, Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor
- 116 x 60 x 14 mm
- 170 grams

This phone ships with Android 2.0. In my opinion this is the best mobile OS I have used so far. While at first glance, it doesn't seem to be the most polished or even full featured, I think it demonstrates the most well thought out architecture for a phone that is meant for business.

Let's compare this to other operating systems I am familiar with:

I have used Windows mobile since it was Windows CE. Back then the devices weren't phones with mobile OS's, they were mobile devices that could come with phone capabilities.

This long history for Windows mobile still lives on. And much like compatability and code sharing with previous versions of the desktop operating system prevent Windows from really breaking free of many faults, Windows mobile suffers as well. Take for example the requirement that a Windows Mobile device needs to have a resistive display (no multi-touch) and support for a stylus. Windows Mobile was a pain to use for many years, but it was too easy to blame the hardware. The small screens, small amounts of memory, and minimal connectivity made it so that the devices could be used for small specific tasks.

Naturally being windows, they took a some design choices for granted:
- Of course we'll support a ton of configurations
- Of course devices will have differing screen resolutions
- Of course devices will have differing peripherals and connectivity
- Of course we will take our Desktop UI components and re-use them
- Of course we'll let developers decide how to write and deploy their own applications
- Of course we need to make sure we have top notch support for our own formats

In retrospect only the last bullet point has kept their devices relevant. Like how many people and organizations are reluctant to leave windows XP because of the software and office suite, I too was reluctant to leave windows mobile because it did the best job of working with Exchange. As an IT consultant, excellent exchange integration was critical.

Then comes the iPhone. Apple has realized that they can make a decent portable device. And for some unknown reason, people just really like how the devices look and they are willing to buy the devices no matter what as long as they look cool. So they decide to develop a mobile device that is more rooted in a portable consumer media player than a portable computer.

Remember when the first iPhones came out? Remember how there was no such thing as an app store? Remember how there was only one home screen?

If you took the feature set of the original iPhone and put it on paper and compared it against Windows Mobile it was easily laughable.
- Only one type of device?
- No replaceable/configurable components?
- No copy and paste?
- No user exposed multi-tasking?
- No user access to a file system?
What kind of techie would want such a device?

However, Apple managed to put in some innovations that made you forget about a lot of those faults because the devices looked so frickin cool and were so cool to use:

- Deadly simple UI
- Home screens and notifications that have limited scope
- Multi-touch and Pinch and zoom
- Accelerometers and Ambient Light sensors
- Managed file system through iTunes

They made a device that seemed really advanced, but didn't let people get lost in settings or feel like asshats when they couldn't figure out how to change a setting.

Slowly Apple started expanding more of its functionality, but ultimately did not stray far from its original core values. It's an iPod first.

This leaves us with a device that to me is aggravatingly inflexible and is hopeless when it comes to actually getting work done.

Skip forward to about a year ago. The first Android device was released. Yes, Android devices have only been around for about a year. Unfortunately when you're late to the party, people forget how long everyone else has been around and how awkward they were when they were first born.

Android again enjoyed many of the lessons learned from Apple in how to make a compelling mobile device platform in the age of connectivity, and also made a decision to develop an Open Source Mobile Operating Platform.

What does this mean? We basically have all the cool things about Windows Mobile, without the baggage. We have all the cool things about iPhones, without the dumbing down.

What are we left with:
- Devices that can support multiple resolutions
- Devices that can have differing hardware attributes (keyboards, cameras, radios etc)
- User interfaces that are finger and mobile friendly
- Application stores and an SDK that allow developers many ways to develop, but 1 way to deploy

So we end up with the device that we have today. A compelling hardware platform running one of the newest mobile OS's with the most potential. Naturally there are still some kinks to be ironed out, but hey its just software.

Gmail:
The Droid excels at gmail. This device lets you do everything you could do with your desktop web version with complete ease:
- Threaded messaging
- Archive Search
- Easy message management (tagging, moving, archiving)
- Push email

POP/IMAP:
The droid does well at POP/IMAP accounts. It now offers a unified inbox that makes it easy to manage multiple email accounts.

Exchange:
The droid does not do well at Exchange. In fact, I can't really write a complete review, because my work email servers will not let my Droid connect to my exchange servers because it does not support some security settings, (PIN lockout and Remote Wipe). The iPhone and the Palm Pre have had similar security issues with Exchange, most of these issues have been resolved via relatively quick software fixes.

Which brings me to a minor point in general:
All of these devices that are being developed now are being released in record amounts of time. These devices are being conceived, designed, developed, tested, marketed and released in a matter of months. Most often time in less than a year. Because of this, many features that impact 10% of the population or less get delayed and pushed in updates. So while it's easy to bash the Droid for not having 100% support for Exchange, it has 80% support and I imagine the rest is coming soon.

Second, there is a workaround. And because of the nature of Android, the workaround is the most elegant of all the operating systems. 3rd Party developers have developed software based solutions for exchange connectivity. While I do lose the benefit of having my email and calendar appointments placed into my default calendar and mailboxes, this solution still works:
- I still get notifications using Android's notification services
- I still get push email/updates
- Instead of locking my entire phone or wiping my entire phone, the security policies only extend to the mail application

That being said, I still wish Android supported exchange out of the box, so I wouldn't have to go to a third party, but out of all the operating systems, I think Android allowed for the best solution.

For the record, I am using TouchDown for my exchange integration.

Google Application Integration

This like gmail, is phenomenal. While each of the services on their own isn't that great or novel, they have a lot of potential when they all come together in a single connected device:
- Gmail
- Google Voice
- Google Maps
- Google Talk
- Google Finance
- Google Calendar

The operating system again allows these services to be elegantly integrated. With Google Voice, you can have it use GV to make all of your calls, only international calls, prompted with each call for a choice, or manually invoked.

Google Maps and Search have been beautifully integrated into the phone. Today, I was able to hold the search button and say "Navigate to the museum near Washington DC with the Blackbird SR-71." After thinking, my phone came back and asked me if I would like to Navigate to the Smithsonian Udvar Hazy Air and Space Hangar. That pretty much made everybody's jaw drop today.

Phone quality
I should have put this higher, but sadly on devices today, this seems to take minor importance. However, it is apparent to me that Motorola developers thought it was quite important. The Droid is the best sounding phone cell phone I have used. I talked tonight with my wife who was on a landline and halfway through the call I just had to stop and gush about how good the sound quality was. There was no difference between using the droid and a High Quality POTS handset. It just sounds incredible. Combined with the Verizon Network, it's a lethal combination. The speakerphone is equally as good. For a device of its size, it is able to produce clear and loud tones.

Multi-tasking support
This phone handles multi-tasking the best. The Droid backgrounds apps like nothing. Most apps in Android don't close. They're merely backgrounded. This works fine for most cases. In rare occurances you will need to kill processes that are taking too much battery/processor. Android fortunately has an interesting way of addressing this as well. Under Battery status, the phone lists how long the phone has been unplugged from a charger. Then it lists what percentage of the battery has been used by what process. From there you can see if you have a process that you probably want to kill.

Because multi-tasking is handled so well, most people will never use this function, but as a technical user, I love this feature.

Notifications
All of the phone's notifications come up through a sliding drawer at the top of the phone. Applications can display text and/or display icons to let you know you have a message that needs your attention. You can then expand the drawer and triage your notifications. This plays very well with multi-tasking and allows you to quickly switch back and forth between contexts.

Another interesting feature of notifications is the ability to customize. By default, all applications use the default notification setting. However, you can also go into each application's settings panel and specify how you want to be notified. This means that you can assign different sounds to your google talk messages, gmail messages, work email messages, and you can also specify whether or not you want those notifications to vibrate. This is another point that is done much better than the other operating systems.

Widgets
Google clearly took a page from its iGoogle widgets concept and allowed applications to place widgets on the home screen. This is incredibly useful in letting you check news, facebook status, email, weather, and media settings all at a glance. Windows mobile lets you do a little bit of this, Apple doesn't let you do this at all.

Random device kudos:
- The Pandora app is the best sounding Pandora App I have seen on a mobile device.
- SSH with a hardware keyboard is absolutely beautiful
- Google's implementation of voice command is jaw dropping
- The open app platform allows me to install applications that wouldnt have been "approved" on apple devices. (PDANet, Emulators, Terminal Apps, Google Voice)
- The screen is absolutely gorgeous. The pixel density makes the screen absolutely wonderful to browse full web pages on
- Verizon's 3G network performs admirable as expected.

The Motorola Droid is hands down the best phone out there. While it might not sell as well as the iPhone, this does not mean that it is an inferior phone. I find it hard to argue against the three main components for the device.
- Superior OS
- Superior Hardware
- Superior Network

And by in line, I mean in my warm car. It's 38 degrees this chilly morning and my local verizon wireless store was kind enough to hand out tickets to people as they came so that they could wait in their cars.

While I'm kind of disappointed there isnt a line of 200 here yet, It's also nice knowing I only had to get here about 45 minutes early and I'm 7th in line.

People are slowly trickling in and it looks liek there are about 15 people in line with 15 minutes to go.

So after a love/hate relationship with windows mobile since 2005. This is it.

I'll try to post my thoughts later.

However, we have a pretty strict corporate policy on our Exchange server at work. Our devices are supposed to support Remote Wipe and a pin password requirement, etc. I haven't seen any reviews online that have covered this scenario yet. So I had the idea today to download the Android 2.0 SDK Emulator.

After downloading and installing, I set up my exchange account settings. This seems to work very well. I can view all my outlook folders, my contacts are synced, and I'm allowed to sync up to a month of old email

Differences from Windows mobile I can tell so far:
- I can't search the company contacts directory
- I can't verify signed emails
- I can't send signed emails
- I can't read encrypted emails
- It doesn't seem to require me to put on a password policy on my phone

The default sdk image doesn't include the corporate calendar, so I haven't been able to test that out yet.

Overall, It seems as though I will be able to get 90% of the functionality, and 100% of the functionality I use on a day to day basis.

Again, I tested this so I could anticipate how my DROID will act, but I did not test this on any actual hardware and/or deployed software so actual mileage may vary.

However, this morning, after I landed in Chicago from Washington DC, first I received voicemail notification and then I had an incoming call. I was completely perplexed as I saw my signal strength indicator had an X through it. I thought maybe even if I answered the call, it would not go through, but the phone call went on as normal.

The way I believe cell towers works is that in order to have received that phone call today, my phone had to have registered on the cell tower first with an outgoing ping in order to receive the phone call. In this case, the "flight mode" on the phone might not be cutting off the radio but maybe just reducing the transmitting power? Either that or flight mode is a complete farce to keep stewardesses happy.

However, there are a few drawbacks to my in-vehicle unit. The first and major issue is that the device is permanently installed in my car. Therefore, when I am on vacation or in someone elses car or even walking I am without navigation. Next, the system is CD based, this means that data is spread out across several discs split by region and the data gets old.

Now that I have a smartphone with a fairly strong processor, a good amount of storage and bluetooth, I've decided to try and find a replacement.

Since the US government is always broadcasting these signals, there is no fee to use GPS. What you'll need is a GPS receiver, maps, and optionally map overlays.

In its most basic form, a gps receiver can tell you your coordinates, but to most people, that doesnt do them very much good. So a gps program translates these coordinates and places them on maps. Maps vary widely in quality. With maps you have map age, accuracy and depth of detail. You don't want to be forced to drive down an old road that doesn't exist or to be accidentally routed down the wrong way of a one way street.

Another very important feature is map overlays. This is additional information that is added to the maps beyond street information. These can include points of interest and current road conditions. Points of interest typically include restaurants, businesses, atm's, etc. Current road conditions typically show traffic conditions and road closures. Typically points of interest are included as part of the map data, but traffic conditions usually require a monthly or annual subscription.

As you can imagine, all of this information takes a lot of space. In the first car GPS units, they typically used CD's. They would take the United states and divide it up into as many as 12 regions. Given that each disc capacity is 650MB, this meant your maps could hold up to about 7.6 gigabytes of information. This is plenty to provide most of the roads in United States and for millions of points of interest. Recently, gps manufacturers have been switching to DVD. The convenience of DVD is that they can include more information on one disc, but since most manufacturers release only one disc to a user, this ends up being less complete data for the end user.

However, now with the progression of portable devices, we are now seeing a transition to other types of storage include flash media and hard disks. In recent magellan units, they have had 20GB hard drives containing maps for the entire united states as well as europe.

Now with EVDO and other high speed networks along with portable devices like the Q smartphone, we can now stream map information from a server.

This brings me to my introduction of Wayfinder. Wayfinder is a GPS program for PocketPc and Smartphones that instead of using local copies of maps, uses the device's high speed connection to pull in the most current map data. This includes street information, points of interest as well as current traffic conditions.

You would normally thing that this sort of sophistication would be far more expensive than the current system of buying a set of maps and data that can get old and outdated, but at $99USD for a lifetime subscription, it is far cheaper than most other solutions I have seen or tested.

The wayfinder has an easy to use interface that browse maps, search for addresses and businesses all fairly easily. It calculates routes using current traffic information and provides turn by turn voice instruction. My only quip about the voice prompts is that there are too many prompts when you approach a turn. All I need to know is that a turn is coming in about 300 yards and when to turn. I think I've counted 4-5 prompts for a single turn using the wayfinder.

I have also noticed that the points of interest are not as in depth as I expected from an online service. In fact, they fall behind my cd's considerably and probably compare most closely to TomTom's selection of points of interest. Relying on points of interest is probably not a good idea to find somethign specifically, but it is useful to see on the map where the nearest gas station, parking or wifi hotspot is.

The software connected to my nokia GPS receiver quite easily and finding a signal and getting the current location was quite quick. The EVDO connection worked quite well and I saw no performance difference between using the network and using local data.

One thing that the software is missing that seems to be a trend in other devices and software is 3D birds eye navigation. While this looks nice, I am still not convinced on the usefulness of this feature. If the lack of 3D makes the software cheaper, faster and more battery efficient, I'm all for it.

Overall, I'd probably recommend the Wayfinder to most new GPS users in a metro area. The biggest selling point is that you get a feature rich system at a bargain price. Because I am not sure how the software performs in non-EVDO areas, I cannot recommend this for anyone who will be spending any considerable amount of time in rural areas.

After playing around with Wayfinder, I'm guessing in 2 years or less, we'll probably seeing most of the gps devices moving towards streaming maps rather than distributing them on media.

In comparison, the Palm Treo 700w was at first $499 and then reduced to $399. However, I was quite startled to read that the cost estimate of the components for the Q is at about $158.

This makes me wonder how much is Verizon actually "subsidizing" with your two year contract and how much is Microsoft taking in for licensing?

Another question is that the memory only cost $25, does this mean that by adding 25 dollars to the price of the phone, they cuold have effectively doubled the memory in the Q?

Component/Subsystem
TFT-LCD display module $25
Memory (Intel and M Systems MCPs) $22
Applications processor (Intel Xscale) $19
Digital Baseband (Qualcomm MSM6500) $14
Camera module $7
Subtotal of main cost drivers $87
Total Materials Costs $150
Total Materials with Manufacturing $158

However after snooping around the web for a while, I was able to find a way to get a version of Skype, originally made for PocketPC able to run on the Q. As usual, do the following at your own risk.

Original Link : Skype on Motorola Q Uploaded by: bryantchoung

First you will need to get the CAB Version of the Skype Software:

The executable version of the installer will not let you install Skype to your smartphone. We will get around this by extracting the files you need from the CAB file and manually installing them on your phone.

Once you download the cab file, use a program like winrar or winzip to open up the cab file. Copy the following files to a temporary folder: 000Boing.002 000Skype.001 SKYPED~1.003.

Then rename the files:
• 000Boing.002 -> Boing.wav
• 000Skype.001 -> Skype.exe
• SKYPED~1.003 -> SkypeDialer.dll
Then copy these file to your smartphone. I decided to copy the files to my storage card in a folder called skype.

Then, using file manager on your phone, you can locate and start Skype manually.

Before you try and run skype on your phone, you’re going to need some help from your PC. Part of the login process in Skype requires you to click on a login button. While this is no problem for pocketpc users, Q users have no touchscreen. Therefore use a mouse emulation program like Pocket Controller. The Free trial version will do everything you need.

After the program starts, enter in your login information and remember to leave the box checked for Skype to remember you and to automatically log you on.

Next, I have not figured out how to dial phone numbers in Skype on the Q. I’m pretty sure I’m missing some buttons. Additionally, the “softkeys” at the bottom of the screen are useless in this program.

The only way I have found to dial calls is to log into Skype using your PC and then adding contacts. Once you have added contacts, you can then select them on the Pocket version of Skype and dial.

You can view the video to see the entire process of signing on and making a call. You can also get an idea of the phone quality. So far, I’m just impressed that I have skype running on my Q. The call quality seems to be a bit spotty, but when the audio does go through, the sound seems clear. There also seems to be a bit of an annoying lag. Hopefully either Skype or some other adventurous user will be able to make some progress in making this better. Other factors might include programs installed on my Q, network use, and my EVDO reception.

Link to Video

One great app that was originally designed for Pocket PC was PocketNester. This has been skillfully ported to Windows Mobile for Smartphone, and you should be able to get it to run on your Q.

An emulator is a piece of software which lets your Q emulate another device. PocketNesterPlus is an NES emulator for your Smartphone. By downloading "Rom Files", which are essentially the files right off of NES cartridges, you will be able to play almost any game made for NES on your Q.

If you plan on storing any significant number of Rom Files, I would recommend you using a mini-SD card. This tutorial is targeted for installing the application and files on your mini SD Card.

You should be able to download PocketNesterPlus from here:
http://www.modaco.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=18405

NOTE: This is a RAR file and you will need a program like Winrar to uncompress the file on your PC first.

You should be able to find ROMS online fairly easily. It seems as though Nintendo isn't as concerned with protecting NES Rom's now that the platform is decades old. I would recommend sites like ISOhunt and mininova. These sites often offer packs of 300 - 2000 NES rom images.

You can use either a SD card reader or you can use windows Explorer connected to your Q using activesync.
In your SD Card, make a Folder called NES. Copy the Rom files and the application to this directory. If you have a lot of Rom files, I would recommend dividing them into folders. File Explorer on the Q seems to be very slow in handling directories with lots of files.

Next, start up PocketNesterPlus.exe on your phone. Find it using the File Explorer and click on it to run it.

Before you get started, we need to tweak some settings.

First, go to Options->Preferences. Select the Check Mark next to ASsociate .NES files. This will let you start PocketNester by using File Explorer to find the rom and by click on the rom. This is very useful, because I have not been able to get the "Open Rom" feature in PocketNesterPlus to work.

Next go to Options->Display. Ensure that Landscape Left is selected. As a Note, to change the radio button selection, use left and right on the Directional Pad.

Next go to Options->Controllers. you can assign keys to the controller buttons by clicking on th grey boxes with the ... and then pressing the keys you would like to assign:
I used
P for A
O for B
K for Select
L for Start
Right for Up
Left for Down
Up for Left
Down for Right
M for Menu.

You may be confused about the Direction Mappings, but remember, the display is rotated from its original orientation.

The Menu button will allow you to pop out of the emulator at any moment and adjust settings or exit the emulator.

To play NES Games, use File explorer to find the rom you want, then you can click on the file and PocketNester should start automatically.

I have tried installing SmartNES, and while it works fine, I found it has poor performance and the display only takes up a quarter of the screen.

So I'm please to announce my first PHP WML page:
smartphonesmarts.com/dial.wml

Let me know what you think!

When you are looking for your adapter for the Q, look for the following features:
1. a mic - With this you will be able to take calls on the Q seemlessly. If your Q is playing windows media player, media player will pause and you will hear your ringtone through your headset. Because you have a mic on your cord, you will be able to talk immediately. Look for this little bump on the cord in a picture or in the item description.

2. a talk button - With a talk button on the cord, you will be able to start voice dial and also end conversations. This might be handy if your Q is in your bag or pocket.

3. stereo - Make sure your adapter supports stereo audio out.

4. 3 black bands on the 2.5 mm plug. Any more or any less will not work properly with the Q

5. A 3.5 headphone jack receiver. This lets you plug in your high quality headphones or even an adapter to plug into your home stereo. It was quite an experience hearing a phone call through my surround sound system.

5. Unfortunately, I have not found the combination of all of these qualities in any store and could only find it on ebay. And because it was hipped from China, it took about a week to ship and when I opened the envelope I hoped for only a headset and no bird flu.

Examine the picture included with this blog entry to see what the adapter should look like.

Sound quality: The Sound Quality of the Q is very good. Personally I did not care for any of the "sound enhancements" that the Q can do through software, and instead turned all of them down. While windows media player did offer a decent interface, You might also want to try tcpmp for Windows Mobile smartphone because this also comes with a graphic equalizer and support for an unbelievable number of audio formats

Sound Sources: One great thing about the Q is its connectivity options. You can get yourself a 2 gig mini-sd card, internet radio stations, Sirius, as well as streaming from your homepc using Orb.

Bluetooth: Some people have opted for bluetooth wireless headphones. While these headphones are cool, I have several issues with them.

1. I do not need another thing to keep charged
2. I already have high quality headphones
3. Listening with your bluetooth connection drains the connection faster.
4. You can't use it as a phone headset
5. PRICE!

The advantage of the bluetooth is the lack of wires and some headphones come with buttons for media player control.

This adapter will transfer your Q from a plain pda and phone to a multimedia marvel. This is a definite necessity for anyone who will have the Q with them on the train, bus or even at work.

Virtual Earth Mobile is a program for Windows Mobile that grabs Maps, Directions, and Satellite imagery from Microsoft's Virtual Earth Website. This will let you Zoom to any part of America, update using a GPS receiver, Find businesses and addresses, and get driving directions.

From there you can install VE Mobile to your Q or to the mini-sd card. The next thing I would do is to go to Menu-

Second, I would only try using this application if you have unlimited EVDO. This application will take up a good amount of bandwidth.

Now that you're all set up lets start the review:

Functionality
The software is Fully Loaded. Almost everything you can do on the virtual earth web site, you can do from this application. When you press menu you will be presented with the following options:

Zoom in:
Self explanatory

Map Type:
You can go to any place in America in either map mode, satellite mode or hybrid mode.

Locate Me:
You can have yourself be located by GPS coordinates. If you have a GPS antenna connected to your Q, i'm assuming the application will grab the coordinates and reposition itself. If you're connected to a WiFi Base station, it will use the IP address of the Wifi Connection

Find:
You can find any address in the US. You can also find places by using the Business search feature by category or name in a particular city. One cool additional feature is that you can also choose a contact from your contact list to load in. One annoying part is that unlike the website, it does not place a flag on the part of the map where your address is located.

Driving Directions:
You can get driving directions, but its a little clumsy. After you find a place, you set it as your start. After you find a second place you set it as the destination. Then when you select get destination, it takes you to the MSN website in IE to get text directions. It probably would be easier to get directions from a website.

More:
You're also able to set map cache options and go to a place by Latitude and longitude.

Usability:
Using the directional pad is easy enough to use to move around the map. Clicking the center button zooms in. the left menu button zooms you out. All of the other features are listed under the right menu button. While the entire application works and is fairly easy to use, because of the amount of data and the lack of a decent cache makes using this application a bit slow.

When you're on the PC web browser version, normaly a good amount of the map to the left right top and bottom of your current view is automatically downloaded and pre-cached so that scrolling around is faster. This is not done Virtual Earth Mobile. So after you view an area, it is cached, but not before. Although EVDO is quite fast, it is not quite fast enough to make scrolling around a pleasent experience.

Bottom Line:
While this is a cool application showing what is possible using the Q and its evdo connection it is probably only best used in a pinch. It is far too slow to be used to find anything in any kind of hurry. Perhaps if they fix the pre-caching issue on this sometime soon, it will change my impression. But because its free you have nothing to lose, so download and try it at the very least it is a fun toy.