Cell Bytes

Verizon and Amazon today announce that Amazon’s Kindle app for Android will come preloaded on all of Verizon’s future Android handsets. I haven’t taken a good look at the application myself (I’m not a big fan of digital books.) but Amazon’s ridiculously extensive catalog of titles available should please the eBook fan who isn’t too big on Amazon’s actual Kindle eReader. If you aren’t a fan of this being on your device, you’ll probably have to deal with it as I couldn’t get it to uninstall on the Samsung Fascinate (unless you root your device and remove the .apk yourself, of course.) Press details sit below.

Verizon Wireless Brings Kindle Experience to Android Smartphones and Other Devices

Kindle for Android Comes Ready to Go on DROID™ 2 by Motorola, DROID X by Motorola and the Samsung Fascinate™

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and SEATTLE, Oct. 13 — Verizon Wireless and Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) today announced that the Kindle reading experience is now easily found on many Android devices running on the nation’s most reliable wireless network and will be available on more devices in the future.
Kindle for Android lets customers discover and read more than 700,000 books in the Kindle Store and is easy to find on the application screen of the new Samsung Fascinate™ – which boasts a brilliant 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen display – as well as on DROID™ 2 by Motorola and DROID X by Motorola.
Kindle for Android allows customers to browse, download and start reading their favorite books directly from their Android phone. Features of the Kindle app include:
•Buy Once, Read Everywhere – Amazon’s Whispersync technology syncs your bookmark across devices, so you can pick up where you left off.
•With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books purchased from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online, where they can be re-downloaded at any time.
•The largest selection of books people want to read. The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 700,000 books, including New Releases and 107 of 111 New York Times Bestsellers. Over 575,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 80 New York Times Bestsellers.
“We’re very excited to bring Kindle for Android directly to Verizon Wireless customers,” said Jennifer Byrne, executive director, business development and partnerships for Verizon Wireless. “Our smartphones come with great screens that make buying and reading books simple and easy, and Amazon’s commitment to reading and offering a seamless customer experience is directly in line with what our customers want.”
“Customers are already telling us they love Kindle for Android, and we think they are going to be excited to get their Verizon Wireless phones and other devices preloaded with the Kindle app,” said Dave Limp, vice president, Kindle. “We are thrilled to be working with such an innovative company as Verizon Wireless and are excited to have Kindle for Android on these three phones and on other devices down the road.”
Customers can also find the app by searching for “Kindle” in Android Market™. For more information about the free Kindle app, go to www.amazon.com/kindleapps. For more information about Verizon Wireless, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

TweetDeck has been collecting data, just like most modern companies and they’ve revealed some interesting facts recently. It appears that the Twitter client found info about some Android 3.0 devices being tested right now and also uncovered some HTC Glacier units with TweetDeck on board.

At least 3 people were spotted using the handset, while some even ran the client from their Nokia N900 and HTC HD2 units with Android ported on them. Motorola Droid 2 Global Edition was also included in the official figures. 103 TweetDeck Android users relied on HD2 units, 6 of them had Nokia N900 handsets and there was even an old HTC Kaiser in the stats, for people fond of oldies but goldies.

More info on the TweetDeck stats can be found here and we’re really keen on getting extra details on that appealing HTC Glacier.

Motorola is working on a superphone with a dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, we all know that, but we have close to zero info about it. Ever wonder why? For one, Moto is keeping the secret about the device and it’s also got a strict non-disclosure agreement with its partners, including NVIDIA.

What’s sure is that this device will come with Android 3.0 Gingerbread, after the OS gets released. Speculations claim that this superphone will make current Android devices look like toys, since it’ll provide 2x faster web browsing and up to 5x faster gaming performance, among others.

Also, Motorola wants to keep it a secret, else it would kill all the Moto smartphones available with Android 2.1 at Christmas time, because people will choose to keep their money and purchase the new phone. The company’s boss, Sanjay Jha considers this handset his baby and it most certainly will be, once Motorola splits into 2 segments and Jha leads the Moto Mobility one.

While some sources claim that the Droid superphone will only be sold by Verizon, it’s possible that the US phone maker uses a strategy similar to the one that involved Samsung Galaxy S, sold through all major carriers. To top it all, this new handset could support 4G LTE, putting the US carriers’ new networks to good use.

Amazon is continuing its streak of offering devices for the extremely low price of a single US cent, this time putting the Motorola Droid 2 up for sale at the price. For a measly 1/100 of a dollar and a new two-year contract the phone can be all yours. You will need to add the item to your cart to see the price, and it looks like you will also qualify for free shipping. That’s a savings of $199.98 from what you would pay through Verizon.

It kind of makes you want to hold off an initial smartphone purchase at launch knowing it may very well go up for a cent through Amazon. No clue how long the deal will last, so if you are thinking about it you may want to jump in quick.

TweetDeck likes collecting data. Most companies do, in fact. Not all of them like to share their data, though, but TweetDeck’s just vomited a nice helping of data regarding usage of the Android version of their Twitter client which is still in beta. I’m going to skip all of the boring stuff regarding device and version distribution, but there are a few fun takeaways to be had.

First of all: the HTC Glacier is still out there. At least three people have been using TweetDeck on the device. I’m sure this will make some of our readers (coughKELLERcough) happy, but we still have no idea about the status of this device. All we know is that it’s likely headed to T-Mobile and will be a high-end monster of a cellphone.

The Motorola Droid 2 Global Edition is also still making its rounds. We used to be keen on calling this device the Motorola Droid Pro, but we already know what happened with that. Here are the rest of the obscure pieces of data gathered from their latest report:

• Android Gingerbread is real, and there’s a substantial amount of people already testing it in the field
• We’ve all seen YouTube videos with Nokia N900 and HTC HD2 running Android. Now we have proof. 103 Tweedeck Android users had HD2’s, and 6 of them had Nokia N900. There was also one HTC Kaiser user spotted out there, too. What do you know – there still are some people running Android on the good old HTC TyTN II…
• The rumored uber fast HTC Glacier is also out there in the field, probably undergoing some tests. 3 Tweetdeck users were caught with it
• While Motorola Droid 2 Global Edition missed the CTIA announcement date, it seems that it is still out there somewhere, and may be announced soon.

Everything else they’ve found can be had at their website.

Remember @Androidevicespy? It was the same Twitter account that tipped us off to Verizon’s collection of Motorola phones long before Verizon was willing to come clean (and before any of their leaksters were willing to spill the beans beforehand.) It seems the same Twitter account has picked up on the Motorola Olympus MB860 that just passed WiFi certification a couple of weeks ago. We know the phone is out there by now, but the device tracker suggests this phone has already been in testing for AT&T.

We suspect the Olympus MB860 could be the super-duper-phone that Motorola Mobility’s CEO Sanjay Jha isn’t trying to unwrap for the time being, but we have no hard evidence to back that up just yet (just the trusty word of industry colleagues.) It was once believed that this device would be headed for Verizon and Verizon only, but later reports suggested Verizon wouldn’t be the only carrier to enjoy Motorola’s high-end goods as they’ve been keen on doing.

[via Droid-Life]

Looks like we’re moving closer and closer toward a release of Android 2.2 for those of you Milestone owners in Europe. It’s been a lengthy, drawn out process, but Motorola’s finally making progress and it seems you guys will be getting a nice gift heading into the holiday seasons.

Hello. From next week we start user trials of the European Milestone upgrade to Froyo. Once these are complete, we will know what further work is required to optimise, before going into final testing and approval stage. As previously we plan to start rolling the update at the end of this year, but wanted to keep you updated. Thanks

This was after Motorola was unsure if they would even issue an upgrade to Android 2.2 for the device. I’m not so sure they would’ve received as much backlash as they did if they hadn’t quickly issued that same upgrade for the American counterpart – the Motorola Droid on Verizon.

Everything’s well for at least one group of you now, though. We’re still awaiting their decision on the Latin American Milestone, and we’re still waiting for users on their 1.5 devices to be stepped up to Android 2.1. Let’s get this ball rolling sooner rather than later, Moto.

[via Motorola Europe Facebook] [Thanks, Richy!]

More info from our friends at Android and Me regarding the Tegra 2-enabled handset Motorola’s putting out has just rolled in. According to them, the device – which, for now, is affectionately known as the T2 (or Terminator) – won’t just be for Verizon as all of Motorola’s high-end handset have been here in the states. Latest rumors from his source suggests that the device is going to be treated by Motorola similar to how the Galaxy S was treated by Samsung: try to get this thing into as many hands as possible.

It would be a welcome change of pace from all of the exclusivity Verizon’s been enjoying lately. It’s not that I don’t like that Verizon’s getting all of the goods, it’s just that I’m rooting for Motorola to make an even bigger impact than they already have, and if they have a dual-core Tegra 2 phone coming out, I want a chance to own it on the carrier I prefer as a die-hard Phandroid like myself would jump at an opportunity to own what surely sounds to be the next generation of Android handsets. Now we just have to wait and see if Motorola Mobility (new company, remember?) will be willing to spill out a few tidbits before CES rolls around. Regardless, January’s looking to prove to be a very exciting month.

Motorola accidentally posted the specs of the Droid 2 Global online, thus confirming the rumors concerning the device’s CPU. It’ll be a 1.2GHz processor after all and in case you’re wondering, the features have already been pulled from the site, but luckily the folks of Android Guys have the screenshot below.

Aside from global roaming, the new Verizon handset also packs the following specifications:

OS: Android 2.2
CPU: 1.2GHz processor
Connectivity: quad band GSM, 3G
Memory: 40GB maximum storage, 8GB internal plus 32GB expandable
Camera: 5MP, autofocus, dual LED flash

Android Guys also uncovered that this is supposed to be a business and enterprise phone. We’re looking forward for some official confirmation, maybe an image or two, but we suppose the handset looks the same as the original Droid 2.