We have recently posted a guide on how to install Android OS on your iPhone 2G and 3G and we have received a couple of requests for a guide teaching you how to install Android OS on an iPod Touch. So here it is, this is how to install Android OS on an iPod Touch 1st generation.

(All credit for this guide goes to MBFTrace)

What you will need:

• An iPod Touch 1g running 3.1.2 jailbroken with blackra1n
• Vmware Workstation (If you want to install with windows, not sure if Vmware Player works.)
• Ubuntu 10.04 Download here
• Openiboot Download here
• iDroid Download here
• Winscp Download here
• iFunbox Download here
• OpenSSH (Installed from Cydia on your iPod touch)
• Libreadline, Libusb, and pthread need to be installed on Ubuntu. (All 3 can be downloaded from the package manager.)

Alright, so I start here assuming you have the above. Please note that 3.1.2 iPods jailbroken with redsn0w may or may not work, but I recommend using balckra1n as redsn0w did not work for me.

First we will install OpeniBoot, get it from the link.
First, make a folder in your home directory named openiboot, move the files from the download above into the openiboot folder. Now, open a terminal (under applications, accessories) and type “cd ~/openiboot” without the quotes. Next, type “sudo su” (for the rest of this section, do not type the commands with the quotes around them). Enter your password that you use to sign in to linux (don’t be afraid if you don’t see yourself typing anything, its a security feature). Now then, we get to installing openiboot. Plug your iPod touch in with recovery mode (shows up as connect to itunes on your iPod). In VMware, go to the VM tab, go to removable devices, and look for anything saying apple device or iPod. On that, click “Connect (Disconnect from Host)”. Now, in terminal type “./loadibec openiboot.img3″. You should see openiboot come up on your iPod Touch. On your iPod Touch, click the top left button once, so you highlight Console. Now, click your home button. On linux, in terminal, type “./oibc” quickly after doing that last step. You should see the text on your iPod come up in the linux terminal. When you see “Welcome to OpeniBoot” type “install” into the terminal. You should it start to install, so wait a few minutes until it is completed. Congratulations, you have installed OpeniBoot and finished the first part of the tutorial!

Now then, to get Android installed
Take the 6 files from the zip you downloaded (android.img.gz, cache.img, ramdisk.img, system.img, userdata.img, and zimage) and put them in a place you will remember. Next, open up iFunbox and navigate to root file system/private/ and copy those 6 files into the var folder (root file system/private/var). Make sure that the 6 files are exactly the same size as the files on your computer, as this is an annoying part to screw up on. Now that that is done, open up winscp. But before you can do anything with that, go to your iPod Touch and find your IP address (Press the blue arrow in Wifi Settings). Now, copy the IP address into the winscp “host name” box. Then put the name “root” as username, and the password “alpine” as the password. Now, before connecting, change the file protocol to scp. Then, press login. It should take a moment, then display your iPod Touch directories on the right side of the screen. Navigate to private/var and check that all 6 files are there. Now, right click each file, select properties, and change the permissions to 777 (make sure the first 3 rows of boxes are selected).

Turn your iPod Touch off, and then on, and OpeniBoot should come up. Select Android, and it should boot. After boot, please follow the instructions below:
1. At first boot, a pop-up window will came up that ask you what launcher do you want to use. IMPORTANT! This time use Home NOT aHome. Sometimes came a windows that says “System is not responding”. Just tap “Wait” and ignore it.

2. Then connect to your WiFi network to make widget working

3. Long tap Home Screen -> Widgets -> Beautiful Home and set your weather location.

4. Enjoy!

Tips:

If you want to see animated weather, just tap the sun or the cloud or whatever is displayed on the widget

To change weather location, long tap on Home screen -> Widgets -> Beautiful Home.

If you want more themes, long tap on Home screen -> Widgets -> Beautiful Home -> Themes -> Download.

A new version of the iPhoDroid – automated installer of Android OS for the iPhone  has been released. This version supports both the iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G plus many new features that make installing Android OS seem more and more promising as an alternative to the iPhone OS.

Click to download: HERE

How to use iPhoDroid:

You are going to need the following things:

• iPhone 2G/3G on OS 3.1.2 and must be jailbroken with Redsn0w, PwnageTool or Blackra1n. IT CANNOT BE JAILBROKEN BY SPIRIT.
• SSH Installed and a FTP client ready

1. Download iPhoDroid and MacFuse from here. Install both the programs.
2. Set up SSH on your iPhone and obtain the IP address of the phone (Settings->Wifi->Litte arrow next to Wifi you are connected to)
3. Open up iPhoDroid and follow the on-screen instructions (this is when you will need the IP address of your iPhone).
4. Let it run until it says it has finished.

Your iPhone is now dual-booted with both the iPhone OS and Android OS!

Google have added a new feature to their search engine which allows you to search both the Apple AppStore and the Android Market place for applications and games.

Searching the AppStore on Google may not quite be perfect yet but it’s sure is a lot faster than iTunes is.

Don’t forget you can also search the AppStore using AllTechRelated’s AppStore search engine.

Planetbeing was the one who managed to install Android OS on both the iPhone 2G and 3G. However, the process is very complicated and with the guides posted, it is definately not accessable to everyone. However, a new program called iPhoroid has been released which install Android OS automatically with ease!

Still a Work in Progress

Although this port does everything that you expect your smartphone to be able to do, it isn’t usable for day-to-day activities just yet–I haven’t implemented any power-management functions, so a fully charged iPhone running Android will last only an hour or so.

A few bugs and performance issues remain, too, so while the phone will be usable, it won’t be fast. If you do something unexpected (such as forcing the iPhone off), there is a small chance that you may end up restoring your device. However, it is impossible for any bugs to brick or disable your iPhone permanently.

Finally, media syncing is not working, so loading your media onto your phone is kind of a pain. I’m working as hard as I can, though, and I expect to fix these issues soon.

iPhoroid:

iPhoroid takes out all the hard work with installing the Android OS. It will copy all the files over whilst keeping your device safe (as nothing needs to be installed). This also means you wont need a Linux machine to install it! Mac only I’m afraid! The program is also still in beta so use at your own risk!

Before running the program, you must turn off auto lock.

Click to download: CLICK ME

Meanwhile, I am working on some stuff that is slightly more fun. Last night, I brought openiboot for the first-generation iPod touch up to scratch so that it supports all the features the other ports of openiboot support: sound, multitouch and SDIO (for WLAN) are the notable things I had to fix. Earlier today, I figured out how to drive the piezoelectric tweeter on the iPod touch.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to roll out the iPod touch binaries with the 3G binaries and get on with the real work: power management and the little details that will make Android a truly viable alternative on our three early ports.

Once this is released, I am going to install it on my old iPod Touch so I’ll let you guys know how it works out!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJj0kHQgC9w

Shouldn’t be long before a guide is put up on how to install it on your iPhone 3G. Stay tuned as we will post it once it is released!

The port to the iPhone 3G is coming along. This is a picture of an iPhone 3G booting into a BusyBox / Buildroot shell. As you can see, wireless networking is working great. We can also talk to the baseband over the debugging channel. This might be enough to get calling, etc., working but we may need to figure out the SPI transport.

I’d still like to get the WM8991 codec working for it in openiboot (shouldn’t be much trouble since there’s a datasheet), just so we can iron out any quirks before testing it inside the kernel. We also need a new multi-touch driver (they’ve upgraded from Zephyr to Zephyr2). After that, we’ll have a working port of Android.

Also, for existing developers and testers, I’ve implemented the Android wi-fi driver extensions so WLAN should be working better now. I know people had problems associating with WPA protected networks, etc. See if this update helps!

[Linux4iPhone]

Please note that this is hard to do and if you do mess up, you will most likely brick your iPhone.

Too bad it’s only for iPhone 2G for now. Once it is release for the 3GS, I am definately going to give it a try!

The team have it fully functioning on the iPhone 2G and say that it shouldn’t be too difficult to get it working on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

I will just mention that you can dual boot your iPhone (as done in this video) meaning you can the option of both OS when you boot up your firmware.

Here is a video demonstration of Android OS running on the iPhone!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yO2KQHkt4A

Pre-built images and sources at http://www.mediafire.com/?xqjzn12igfn. Read the README. For generic openiboot instructions, there’s plenty now that you can search for.

[Linux4iPhone]

According to their data, the amount of new iPhone app development in January were triple those in December, over 1,600 to be exact.

The Android market was starting the close the gap between the AppStore and it’s own market but in January, Apple have suddenly taken the lead again and by a large margin. According Flurry, the reason can only be one thing. The release of the iPad.

You may think, but the iPad was released around the end of January and therefore wouldn’t actually affect the January results but it has been reported that most likely the reason for it is that people predicted that a tablet would be coming out from all the rumors and went ahead developing in anticipate for it.

Android Lock is a new hack for the iPhone and iPod Touch which adds a little extra to the ‘coolness’ of your device. This app replaces the password lock for the iPhone and iPod Touch and puts instead a passcode made out of a pattern you draw (like connect the dots) like on the unlock screen of an Android device.

I am using this app and am loving it. I love the idea of it and it definately makes your iPhone unique from other, non-jailbroken users.

An Android-like lockscreen where you have to draw the correct pattern to unlock.

After installing it, go to Settings > AndroidLock to set the pattern. Requires 4 or more dots to be used.

You can get it from Cydia for free.

Yesterday, if you didn’t already know, Google held an press-conference where they officially unveiled their Google Nexus One mobile phone who’s aim is to steal the smartphone market from the iPhone. Except, the Nexus One isn’t a smartphone, Google have branded it as the first SuperPhone.

The Nexus One has a 1-gigahertz processor and has more memory than the iPhone. The phone only has 512mb internal memory but has a min SD card slot which is compatible with cards up to 32GB big (as big as the largest iPhone’s capacity). Granted you do need to pay more for the SD card slot but I like having a card slot because that means you can have multiple cards (so if you have 2, then it’s 64GB) then you can switch between or for example, have one for movies and one for music and photos.

As expect, the phone has multi-tasking, a feature lacking in the iPhone, and has voice capabilities allowing you to dictate SMSs and emails instead of typing them. The phone also has a 5MB camera and will also include an LED flash. The new phone runs Google’s very own Android OS but does not include multi-touch support as the iPhone and iPod Touch does.

Where to buy it:

The phone is going to be sold for $179 with a contract through T-Mobile or can be bought unlocked for only $529. This allows users to use the phone company of their choice and means they don’t have to comite to the year of two year long contracts.

At the moment the phone will only work on GSM networks meaning mainly T-Mobile and AT&T but sadly, AT&T Nexus One users will only be allowed to access the networks slower EDGE and not their 3G network.

Google have also promised that the phone will be available on Verizon by the end of this year.

You can view a demo of the phone and use a simulator of it at: http://www.google.com/phone/

Stats:

Front and Side View:

What do you think about the phone? Will it be an iPhone killer?

The hack allows user to use widgets and skins that would normally not be allowed to be used on an unmodded DROID.

Other things this hack allows you to do is for example to be able to pinch-zoom in and out in photos with the multitouch screen of the DROID. This was not included in the Android 2.0 firmware.

The full details and a guide on how to do this hack have been posted online but it is strongly recommended that only the experienced hackers give it a try as the chances of bricking your DROID are quite high if you do one wrong step. It is more risky than jailbreaking a device such as the iPhone. The hack needs to be refined more before it is accesible to the rest of the hacker population.

Keep an eye out for additionals hacks on mods that will work on your modded DROID as it is expected that hackers will not take full advantage of the new platform to show off their skills.

I’ve always felt the mobile phone market to be different from any market.  It’s set up in such a way that there is no competition between pricing for a plan, only in coverage and the device you’ve got.  And when it comes down to buying the right device, you get what you need, then what you want.  Sometimes the bare minimums you need is just a phone that can call.  That’s what I have right now, an unlocked Sony Ericsson, with a T-Mobile prepaid minutes SIM card.  Then there’s what you want to have: texting, a data plan…This is all stuff I’d like to have but am not gonna pay for.  What I have right now is the cheapest for me, and works.

Except for one small problem: I don’t have a DROID.

See, I thought much of the DROID as I would have any other phone out there, except it’s running Android OS, a mobile operating system I know to be great, as I often used my friend’s prototype model of the G2 while on a trip.  It had the old Android OS on it, but I liked it a lot.  Did some good stuff, but I still really liked iPhone OS in comparison.  So my expectations for the DROID were that it’d be another iPhone, just with Android OS.  And I was slapped in the face today when I entered the Verizon Wireless store and picked one up.  I played around with everything there is to play around with: on-screen and physical keyboards, sound quality, the camera, 3G speeds, but also software, the Android Market, performance of games, and more.

Home Screen

The first thing I came to was the home screen.  Now, I’ve never really gotten the hang of Android OS, hell, it even took me a while to understand that each app has a menu involved with it.  However, the home screen looks very similar to the iPhone OS, and organizes very similarly.  Oh, and that’s just 25% of the mess.

When I first picked up the device, there were three pages.  The first had the Google search widget on it and a few apps, the second was app central, with the majority of shortcuts, and the third was covered in widgets: CNN, NYTimes, etc.  I began to figure it out as I went along.  On the bottom of the screen is a tab you can slide up to display all your apps in alphabetical order.  See, the home screen is only there to show the stuff you want it to show.  Moving apps around is simple: hold down the app you want to move and put it in a blank spot.  Yes, it must be a blank spot.  This is really the only problem with the home screen: you must have space to put something before you drop it there.  Besides that, this is a great organization method.  If you want a blank spot, simply drag an app out of that spot and put it somewhere else.  It makes organizing apps really easy, unlike the iPhone OS, which I feel is one of the major flaws with it: the SpringBoard.  Seriously, that thing needs an overhaul!

Moving on now to the Widgets, this is probably the single most important thing about the Android OS that gives it a real boost over all other mobile platforms.  I first got a look at them with the ones that were already on the home screen.  CNN and NY Times hadn’t updated their news articles, so they were blank, and the Google search toolbar was pretty simple.  Now, I had played around a bit with the Facebook app.  It’s the same as the iPhone version or any other mobile version of Facebook.  I had figured out how to add new things to the home screen, so I decided to add a Facebook toolbar.  Simply put: I need something like this.  It displays one news article at a time, and you can switch between them easily by pressing the arrows, or update your own status.  I use qTweeter on my iPod touch to automatically update my Facebook and Twitter, but having this accessibility easily on the home screen is extremely instantaneous.  Widgets exist for any app that supports them, and if there’s ones more extensive that Facebook’s imagine the possibilities: see your bank balance immediately, change the song playing with the press of a button, or view recent tweets.

Web Browsing/Internet Speed/QWERTY keyboard

Android 2.0 comes with a basic web browsing app called Browser.  It’s really no different from Safari, but there are some noticeable differences.  When rendering a page on the Android browser, it’s displayed better than on the Safari browser.  Elements of a page are better spaced, navigation is still as simple as before, but I still am curious as to why there’s no two-finger zoom.  Apple copyright?  I mean, the DROID is a multi-touch device.  It would be nicer than pressing a + and -- button to look around.

Testing out the 3G speed on Verizon Wireless, I must say, hands down, that Verizon has better 3G than AT&T.  You tell me though.  I tested this in San Francisco, a metropolitain area that’s bound to have good Internet coverage wherever you are.  Web pages load just as fast as they do on my iPod touch with WiFi as it does on the DROID: there’s maybe a second or two waiting time on pages (one second for AllTechRelated.com), but overall a very nice connection and speed.  There were no open WiFi networks around or at the store, but if I had to say something about it, I’d say it would be just as good, probably not much better.  Maybe better when downloading files like MP3 songs, or watching a high quality YouTube video, because when you’re on 3G it plays the video in it’s low quality version.

While we’re at it, why not discuss this new physical keyboard the DROID packs?  I’m starting to jump into hardware discussion, but hey, what’s the problem with that?  If you’ve ever used the T-Mobile G1 you’ll probably agree, it’s difficult to type with that bump underneath your right finger, and I’d continue to say that the buttons on the keyboard are smaller than I’d like.  Well the DROID packs a large keyboard, with buttons not at all difficult to press.  As with any new keyboard it takes getting used to, and I found myself using the on-screen landscape keyboard because of it’s size, but after about half an hour I took some more tries with the QWERTY keyboard and became well adapted with it.  It’s really nice to have the screen totally clear when typing out a message.  It’s also very easy to slide out into place and begin typing.  Holding the phone in your hand, a simple push of your right thumb to the left will slide it out, and when you’re typing the grip is very nice.  I’ll have to mention however, the on-screen landscape keyboard is extremely accessible to anyone without previous use.  In comparison to landscape on the iPhone OS, it’s easy to press any key without making a mistake because of how well spaced the keys are.

Camera

Now this is just amazing.  The five megapixel camera the DROID packs creates detailed images, and above-average video.  I wish I could detail this more, but I have no example pictures of video of my own.  So I’ve made my way to Google.  Here’s two great examples of the quality the DROID can capture with it’s camera (thanks to Android Central for the pictures):

Picture taken with Motorola DROID

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKTYQca9pSY

The pictures are great quality for a mobile phone.  I was surprised at the level of detail left when I zoomed in on my images I took at the Verizon store.  Definitely better looking than iPhone pictures, and you can certainly use your DROID as your regular camera for taking pictures instead of a digital one if you’re not all that picky.  It’s also aided by the great auto-focus, the same technology digital cameras use to capture pictures, and it can really do some good focusing.  As for video, it’s a good capture, above average quality, but the audio isn’t all that wonderful.  This is a mobile phone microphone, so conditions like loud noise and heavy wind will affect the input of audio.

On a different note, processing video on the DROID is brilliant.  I was talking with some people working at Verizon, and they gave me some insight on the phone’s hardware.  Apparently it has a separate processor to take care of video and possibly audio processing, similar to the dated iPod Video for video playback, which is why playback of media is instantaneous and at a good resolution.  Well, that’s also due to the display, which is high-res, but I digress.  When capturing video there’s no long save time.  Just press stop and it’s done.

Notifications

Something I found very nice was this system of notifications that was integrated into the OS and worked with most apps.  Basically, notifications are popped up on the status bar on the top of the screen, left side, with different icons for what the notification is.  It’s used in cases when you’re installing an app, downloading a file, uploading a picture in the Facebook app, a new email…Notifications will appear in the left of the status bar, and when something new pops up or a task is completed, the status bar scrolls down to show text saying something along the lines of “Photo successfully uploaded” or “File done downloading.”  Swipe down from the status bar to bring down a list of all notifications.  It’s a handy system that quickly lets you open things of interest.  Tap on a new e-mail notification and it’ll open that message, or tap on a notification for a file that’s done downloading and it’ll open it.  It’s one of the many things that makes Android OS a great platform.

Performance

Now this is also one of the key factors into why this device kicks major ASS!  Let’s begin by listing some tech specs about the device:

• 550 mHz ARM processor
• 14 Mpolys/s PowerVR SGX 530 GPU
• 430MHz DSP (digital signal processor; they use this for video playback)
• 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM

Good tech specs for a mobile device, but what’s all the hype for?  Oh, nothing really too big, except that this thing runs six apps simultaneously on the device.  So, if I’m on Facebook, then I open the web browser to check something out on a site, I can go back to Facebook and it’ll load immediately.  Seriously, immediately, and this applies for games too.  Close a game, it’ll just save its state, then open it up again and you’re back where you stopped.  Nothing slows this device down, no mater how much you touch the screen or play games or anything, something you need to be careful with on anything besides the iPhone 3GS, and even then you don’t wanna do too much at once.  We’re talking jailbroken devices here.

As for games, that’s a good area to test performance.  Well there’s nothing that was free in the Android Market that had intense graphics, and the device at the store wasn’t like an iPhone at an Apple Store, loaded with apps for you to play around with.  So I had to go for a basic 3D racer with low-res textures.  A game like this wouldn’t play easily on my iPod touch, but on the DROID that and another game like it running both at the same time creates no problem for DROID.  The processors can handle whatever you throw at them, and when they can’t, which happened once to me while trying to process a video, Android OS will handle it like a non-responsive program, let you force quit it if you’d like.

Android Market

I think the last thing worth commenting on is the App Store “knock-off” that Google has in their OS.  It’s called Android Market, and it’s great.  The first thing I noticed was when I went into the Games section of the marketplace and I saw, under “Top Paid Apps”, were three things you’re never gonna see in the AppStore: Nestoid, SNestoid, and Gameboid, respectively an NES, SNES, and GBA emulator for the Android OS.  Under no circumstance would Apple ever accept an emulator into their App Store.  Sure, the Commodore 64 emulator that’s available, but seriously, nothing more than that from Apple.  Plus many apps I’ve seen in the App Store can also be found in the Android Market.  Obvious stuff like a Facebook app, but a series of games developed by Sunflat, a popular Java developer from at least five years ago, who’s applets he has recently ported to the iPhone platform.  I was surprised but very pleased to see his games also ported to the Android OS in the marketplace.  These are popular free apps on the iPhone, and now on Android?  Going even further, I saw Gang$tar on Android OS, a very popular Grand Theft Auto style game for the iPhone OS, and now on Android OS?  Assassin’s Creed as well…

We can already see popular games making their way to the Android platform, and while there’s still room for improvement, albeit already an excellent library of apps to choose from, new ones out each day, and many free as opposed to the iPhone OS, that Android Market could easily become on par with Apple’s App Store.  I once thought this never possible until I actually saw the marketplace today, and apps you’ll find both in the App Store and the Android Market have the same level of quality.  So what stops Android Market from getting amazing apps?  Popularity of devices with the OS, but with all the DROID advertising going on it’s become a known phone in many people, and a device obviously competing with the iPhone.  I’ve got high hopes for Android Market, but in the meantime there are many apps already.  And I’d have to say, in an argument of why Android Market is better than the App Store, it’s because the quality of the apps in the marketplace is higher than that of the iPhone.  You always find “lite” apps on the iPhone, or a worthless one that’ll let you drink a glass of beer for $.99…What happened?  Where’s the quality?  Personally I think it’s Apple’s way of letting apps into their store, and on the Android many good apps are let in, or there may be some sort of point where if an app isn’t good enough it’s not accepted…

I’ve digressed too much, talking about mobile application markets on mobile devices nowadays is a point I like to stand strongly next to.  Let’s close up this review with a conclusion.

Conclusion

I’ve always been an avid fan of the iPhone and the iPhone OS, and it’s a great device, don’t get me wrong, but today has opened me up to a new level of awesome.  The device is fabulous, spotting hardware that the iPhone could really use, with a 5MP camera that can take great quality pictures, and a QWERTY keyboard that clears up a cluttered display when you’ve got a virtual keyboard, and is easy to type on.  Then we get to what I think really makes this device win: the platform.  Android 2.0 is simply epic.  It has things I’d absolutely love: Widgets, running applications in the background, the notifications system…I’ve always bought Apple products and used my iPod touch cause I know when I get an iPod, we all know in fact, that we’re getting quality software to play our media, or go online, or talk with friends.  I know I’ve had this promise since the day I got my iPod, any of the iPods I’ve owned actually.  But now I’ve found a device with the hardware I would really like, and software that I can trust in, that can do stuff I’ve always wished my iPod touch could, even with a jailbreak stuff that it still wasn’t able to do, and after using it and knowing who the software is coming from, I know that for Android OS I can have that same promise, that software I get will always have a high quality to it.

So, if you think you need to stick with your iDevice because of what it gives you, give DROID a try and see if it does what you want it to.  It does for me.

I came home from a party with some friends last night less than an hour ago.  I walked in and took a quick look at the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, only to see a gigantic advertisement for Google’s DROID phone.  And the campaign is only getting bigger.

I was watching the MLB World Series each night, simply because it’s an end of the season game between two teams, and that’s always fun to watch.  As I was watching I saw a peculiar advertisement.  A group of fighter jets in formation, that began to drop these enclosed balls down towards earth.  People on the surface of the planet began to watch as they touched down.  Two cowboys began to walk up to one, as it opened up to reveal the DROID phone.  Shortly thereafter, the text “Drop date: 11-06-09″ appeared on the screen, followed by the Google and Verison Wireless logos.  Each pane must’ve been on the screen for less than a second, just barely enough for the human mind to process.  Below is the ad as shown during the World Series.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9fXYQjwR0w

As for this morning, I was simply amazed at what Google had done to put the word out on the phone.  There was a large chunk of text on the inside portion of the ad, four page into the newspaper, which really puts things straight:

This is a world of “nope.” “Nuh-uh.” And “sorry, Charlie.”

A world of smiling denial. Petty tyrannies that have made their way into our cell phones. Into the very way we choose to speak to another human being. There are dozens of doesn’ts. Doesn’t allow customization. Doesn’t run multiple apps. Doesn’t allow you to swap out batteries. Doesn’t allow open development. These arrogant little devices are barely worth more than the pocket lint they rest upon. Because now there’s a phone so smart. So strong. So subservient to its user, it refuses to include “doesn’t” in its dictionary app.

Demo it. Ogle it. Own it.

Visit DROID Nation to experience t for yourself. Today at Justin Herman Plaza. Or visit any Verizon Wireless communications store to find out more.

In a world of doesn’t.

DROID DOES.

Justin Herman Plaza?  That’s right outside the San Francisco Ferry Building, and on the night where I did take the ferry back home from the city I saw that demo center, closed down because it was 7pm.  It was a small demo center, probably could hold 10 demo phones depending on how it was set up.  There’s demo centers like these all around metropolitan cities in America, the biggest being Times Square.

According to the DROID website, “DROID does Times Square.”  The square is covered with DROID advertisements, and there’s one that is giving people an opportunity to call in from their cell phone and search like DROID.  Using just their voice, they can say what they want to look for on Google Maps, and on the big jumbo screen advertisement, the last four digits of their number will appear, as well as a general map of their results.

Verizon and Google are going all out.  The World Series, four entire newspaper pages, demo centers, and huge ads in Times Square?  This is direct and absolute competition with the iPhone, although none of their ads mention the iPhone at all, and talk mostly about “compromise” and that all other phones are a bunch of “doesn’t”, whereas DROID can do anything.  But is it worth all the hype?

I’m going to stop by the demo center at Justin Herman Plaza sometime this week after school, and I’ll be there to let you know how this new DROID phone really does next to a jailbroken iPod touch.  A full review and comparative review will be up later this week.

Oh, and if you were wondering, no, you can’t search Apple Store in Times Square, however Verizon Wireless worked perfectly well:

Links:

DROID’s website: http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/#/home
DROID does Times Square: http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/#/times_square
Hi-res version of Drop Date DROID commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oboklt7rW0o