By looking closely at this photo the earpiece damage has impression marks, most likely made by concrete or rocks. Which could mean the man dropped it. What caused the “loud pop” Aron Embry heard is anyones guess, perhaps his eardrum burst, or he whacked his head on the side of the window, who knows. Maybe he punched himself in the face after dropping his phone?

This is of course not an official statement from Motorola, as doing so at this stage would definitely create some legal implications. What we have to consider is that anything is possible, and so is creating an impression of doubt in the minds of everyone, if this is indeed true or not.

[Gear Log]

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Thankfully, the explosion is relatively minor. It’s not like the phone was packed with C4. Instead, Aaron Embry said that he was speaking on the phone when he heard a “pop.” He says that he didn’t feel any pain at the time, but when he pulled the phone away from his head, he realized that his ear was bleeding. The pop, I guess, was his ear drum bursting.

Instead of heading straight to the hospital, Embry decided to drive over to his wife’s workplace to snap a few photos. They then made their way to the hospital to get him the proper medical attention. If he’s not in any pain, I suppose it wasn’t all that urgent. Maybe he needed the photos for insurance purposes.

In any case, photos of the phone have been released on the Internet and it looks like the screen on the DROID 2 is cracked. I’m wondering if we’re back to the whole exploding battery fiasco from a couple years ago, although the phone continued to work and receive calls afterwards. Motorola is investigating.

[Fox]

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As I was face-palming myself on Eli Manning’s behalf (slide feet first!), I noticed a very important commercial last night during the Sunday Night Football game between the Eagles and the Giants. At long last, 4G is coming to Verizon and it’s coming next month.

T-Mobile is already proudly advertising its 4G network and Sprint’s been doing the WiMAX thing for a little while already. Now, Verizon is joining the party with its new LTE network and, according to the commercial, it’s “coming December 2010.”

There’s no specific mention as to which markets will get their switch flipped next month, but it’s good to see that they’re ready to go. Big Red has seen a lot of great improvements in the last couple of years, picking up some of the most sought after Android phones, and adding LTE to the mix will surely help them even more.

On a side note, the Verizon website has removed the Motorola DROID 2, which was released just three months ago. It’s getting replaced with the DROID 2 Global, which is selling for $199 on a standard two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. [VZW]

Disclaimer: LTE is not officially 4G, it is just marketing.

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It feels like just yesterday that I was handing out chocolates to the trick-or-treaters, but the Christmas commercials have already started to populate our airwaves. One of the latest comes by way of Verizon to advertise its Droid line of phones and this almost “Nightmare Before Christmas” material.

Coke might have its polar bears, but Verizon has a big scary robot disguised as a kindly snowman. And it’s awesome. I really like the Droid commercials from Verizon, mostly because they remind me of things like Terminator, and this one adds a little festive flair to it. Bow down to your snowbot overlords.

The TV spot is used to promote the Motorola Droid 2 and the Motorola Droid X, which are shown as the “eyes” of the snowman. As one of the tree branch arms fall off the snowman, that now iconic robotic arm emerges. I’m not sure if these marketing tactics appeal to everyone, but most geeks like me probably dig it.

One other takeaway from the ad is that the price on the Droid 2 has dropped fifty bucks down to $149.99. Could it be that they’re looking to clean out the stock in preparation for a successor? You know, like the Droid 2 Global?

SOURCE: Android Guys

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What’s that? You thought overclocking the T-Mobile G2 to 1.344GHz was an impressive feat? How about overclocking another Android phone to be even faster than most notebook and desktop computers? It happened and it’s amazing.

A couple of guys from Team DeFuse took their hacking hands to the Motorola DROID X and DROID 2 smartphones, seeing how fast they could make that mobile processor go. After some mucking around, they managed to double the clock speed to a very impressive 2.0GHz… but they weren’t done.

While the release isn’t quite stable just yet, the duo felt that they could take it to the next level. Shortly after word broke out of the 2.0GHz accomplishment, Team DeFuse’s Matt comes forward with proof that he’s bumped the DROID 2 up to 3.0GHz.

Is this going to kill the battery life on the Moto smartphones? Definitely. Will it likely crash a thing or two, possibly caused by the intense overheating that will probably result? Yeah, most likely, but who cares? This is a face-melting accomplishment.

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

SOURCE: BGR

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I realize that it’s really just a regular old Motorola DROID 2 under the hood (though that’s pretty new too), but you know how official Star Wars gear makes us.  You get the special carbonite-like box, Star Wars media dock, preloaded R2-D2 content and the DROID R2 D2 smartphone.  If you’re not so inclined to buy the $250 (after mail-in rebate and contract subsidy) for the handset, all Android 2.1 phones with Verizon can atleast get the Star Wars mobile app for $2.99. That gives you a game, photo gallery, live wallpapers, widgets, and other intergalactic goodies.

On a side note, did you know that George Lucas owns the trademark to the word “DROID,” so every time that HTC, Motorola, or Verizon use it, they probably cough up some cash.  Does that explain the $250 price tag?

[via Verizon and Droid R2D2 Site]

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Your favorite droid companion who can only speak in bleeps and bloops will be making its official debut with Verizon at the end of next month. Basically it’ll have the same specs and features as its non-Star Wars counterpart, with a rad blue and white paint job and an extra stellar sound packs.

Now, I just need to land from my intergalactic voyage from Nexus11 so that I can get a dock for this thing on my X-Wing.

R2-D2 Droid 2 date pinned at Sept. 30; plus, more pictures [Android Central]
Motorola’s DROID R2-D2 Special Edition to be released September 30th [BGR]

The post Say hello to the Motorola DROID 2 R2D2 edition, no sign of Cee Threepio just yet appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Motorola Droid 2

After all kinds of rumors, leaks, and hearsay, the official word has finally been slammed down by Big Red. The Motorola Droid 2 is indeed a real phone and it is indeed making its way over to Verizon Wireless, and it’s coming real soon too.

You’ve probably seen some of the spec sheet already, but here is a quick refresher. The Motorola Droid 2 takes on the same kind of form factor as the original, with a big touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The 3.7-inch multitouch display is compatible with Swype right out of the box and it gets mated with Android 2.2, Flash Player 10.1, 5MP camera, DLNA, 8GB internal memory, and 8GB microSD card.

The Droid 2 is being listed at $199.99 with a qualifying two-year contract and you can start placing your pre-orders as of tomorrow. Thursday is the day they’ve set for in-store availability. And yes, you can do the mobile hotspot thing for an extra $20 a month.

But wait, there’s more. The special R2-D2 edition Droid 2 is also very much for real. It won’t be available until September, but they say it’ll ship with “exclusive Star Wars content and external hardware designed to look like the trusty Droid from the film saga.” I wonder if it comes preloaded with bleep-bloop sounds too. We can now expect the Droid to be killed off.

Motorola Droid 2 (and R2-D2 edition!) finally official: Android 2.2, Swype, $200 on contract [Engadget]

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