The Motorola Devour – previously known as the Calgary – is reportedly coming to Verizon in the next few months. This Android-based Smartphone will have a shape somewhat similar to the Droid, but without many of the high-end features.

According to the latest unconfirmed information, the Devour will debut with Android OS 2.1, an upcoming version of Google’s mobile operating system.

On top of this will supposedly be Blur, Motorola’s software that gives easy access to consumer and business e-mail accounts, as well as social-networking services like Facebook and Twitter.

On this device’s front, next to the touchscreen, will be three touch-sensitive buttons and an optical trackpad, rather than a trackball or D-pad.

Features

• Qualcomm MSM7627 processor
• Two ARM cores worked into a single chip. One core is a 600 MHz application CPU, and the other is a 400 MHz dedicated modem processor.
• 3.1″ capacitive touchscreen
• 512 MB of flash ROM
• 256 MB of RAM
• 3 MP camera
• Android 1.6.
• QWERTY keyboard.
• and many more

Exactly when Verizon is going to release the Motorola Devour is unknown, though it’s expected to happen in the next few months.

Aside from the expectation that it will almost certainly cost less than the Motorola Droid, but it will likely sell for $99 with a contract (Pixi pricing).

• Nokia 5800

Nokia have been the top seller of mobile phones for a long time now and want to revive the market with their Nokia 5800 / N97 touch screen phone – their effective iPhone killers (Nokia N97 N-series touch phone has already been announced and released this year).

• Google Android Phones

Not long ago Google announced that the source code at the core of its Android platform would be available for free to anyone wanting to use it and develop with. This open source approach has opened up the market to more phones manufacturers and developers able to make Android based phones but it also means there will be a host of application to download for it.

• Sony Rolly

The Rolly from Sony is all about fun. It is essentially a robotic MP3 playing robot that dances to the music you play. It comes with Rolly Choreographer software to create your own motions and even share them online with others.

• Intel Chip – Codename Nehalem

This is the next generation of chip sets from Intel – codenamed Nehalem. It brings a critical change not just to the processor but also in the way it communicates with memory and other processors. Intel have branded this as the QuickPath Interconnect (or QPI).

• USB 3.0

All you speed freaks out there look out for USB 3.0 coming soon. Apparently the connector, although looking very different, are back compatible – which is great news. The speeds we are looking at for this bad boy is 4.8 Gbit/s (600MB/s) which will make it the fastest consumer connector

• Touch Screen Eee PC & Eee Keyboard PC

Again the Eee PC was mentioned in my top gadgets of 2008 and due to it’s success, 4 million sales to date, and Asus have some new devices planned for next year.

• Transparent Toaster

This transparent toaster allows you to see your bread while it is toasting so you can make sure you never burn toast again.

• Nintendo DSi

I only actually got a DS lite this year but one thing that I like over the Sony PSP is that it is very much built on the more is less approach. Everything is very simple and works well.

• BMW M3 Convertible

A little bit more pricey than any of the other gadgets here but the 2009 BMW M3 is certainly one to look out for. With 15 impressive years in the world of motoring, the straight-six power unit is now giving way to a truly worthy successor.

• Blackberry Storm 9500

The Blackberry Bold 9000 made it to my top gadgets for Christmas and 2008 and the Storm 9500 sees RIM taking it further by adding a full touch screen (the first Blackberry without keys and their attempt at an iPhone killer).

Hardware Aspect:

The Droid also trumps the iPhone with its 16GB removable memory, which can be upgraded to 32GB. iPhone users are subjected to minor torture with the knowledge that their device has as much capacity on the day they take it out of the box as it ever will. However, the cloud is easing that pain, with certain services allowing storage for pictures, messages and even music.

The Droid’s battery gives users an extra 1.4 hours of talk time over the iPhone’s 5 hours. However, battery life on a smartphone can vary by the user’s sophistication. Smartphone users of all brands realize that shutting off Wi-Fi or 3G, as well as adjusting screen brightness, can dramatically improve battery life. Nevertheless, most iPhone users would give their left arm for an extra 1.4 hours of juice.

User-Interface Aspect:

Both the Droid and the iPhone are offering big multi-touch screens. Motorola says the Droid’s 3.7-inch diagonal display, with 480×854 pixels, or over 400,000 total pixels, boasts “twice that of the leading competitor.” The iPhone 3GS offers 640X480 on a 3.5-inch diagonal screen.

But there are probability of the majority of iPhone users are going to walk away from the Droid feeling frustrated. However, those who just came off a mid-range smartphone will be delighted. The Droid really does have a fairly intuitive UI. It employs certain swipe gestures and easily accessible pre-loaded Google services, including the Android Marketplace, that make it a really great and competitive addition to the smartphone market.

Operating System Aspect:

The iPhone operating system the highest scores for reliability and ease of use. The Android operating system, on the other hand, is still a relative unknown even though devices that employ it have been on the market for more than a year.

But the just-released 2.0 version of Android offers an array of key improvements: multi-touch; synchronization with multiple e-mail systems; and a new framework that lets software developers more easily exploit the core synchronization engine for their own apps.

Applications Availability:

Apple’s App Store now boasts more than 100,000 native iPhone applications, while the Android Market offers just over 10,000 for the growing line of Android phones.

But the raw numbers don’t tell the whole story. The issue is whether Android users can find the apps they need on the Market to add value to their phone.

Comparison Chart

Ranking Chart

Now you tell me, which one would you like to buy??

The Mini 3 smartphone is somewhat reminiscent of Apple’s iPhone with a full touchscreen interface. But Dell did not release any specs for the Mini 3, saying information would only be available on a partner-by-partner basis when the device is available in stores. This suggests Dell will be tailoring the Mini 3′s feature set for the particular tastes and needs of each country where the device is sold.

Dell did say the handset will be powered by the Google-backed Android operating system, and it will be coming to the carriers China Mobile and Claro.

Dell did not confirm whether the China Mobile version would have high-speed mobile broadband access. The China Mobile version is slated to be released in late November, and the Claro version will hit stores before the end of the year.

Dell comes into an increasingly competitive smartphone space filled with major players like Apple, Nokia, Research In Motion, and Samsung.

Dell did not tip its hand for further smartphones plans, but it did say it already has deals with various carriers, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless, to create opportunities in the future.

Top 10 Applications

Advanced Task Manager remains the most popular paid application and it shows no signs of slowing down. The developer Arron La recently updated his app to support Android 1.6 and is promising a “major update” in the next release. I personally love the app and consider it a must have for all Android users.

Documents to Go continues to climb the charts. They recently updated their app to version 2.0 which added support for Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe PDF files. Their latest update also reduced the application size by 25% and now supports eight languages. Dataviz offers a free version of Documents to go which allows users the ability to view Word and Excel files.

Bluex dropped three spots because the application does not support Android 1.6. Developers need to be ahead of the curve if they want to remain at the top of the best selling list.

Power Manager has fallen hard the last couple of months and I expect it will be off the charts next time. The latest Android 1.6 update adds several enhancements to improve battery life. The new Battery Use report in Android 1.6 displays exactly which applications and functions are eating up battery.

Finally, one trend I have noticed among the top selling apps is the ability to purchase the app from a source other than Android Market. Some developers have chosen alternative markets like SlideME and others are offering direct purchase from their website. Many countries still lack the ability to purchase paid applications from the Android Market so it is important to provide other payment options.

Top 10 Games

If a developer wants to remain at the top, they need to release regular updates and Lupis Labs has done this with Robo Defense. Lupis Labs recently pushed out a new version of Robo Defense which included bug fixes and added a new boss character. Robo Defense remains a popular game among its fans maintaining a 4.93 out of 5 rating.

HeroCraft released their first Android title early in September and it debuted at number seven. Farm Frenzy is a farming simulator that allows you to look after chickens, sheep and cows and produce cakes, wool, butter and cheese. It appears HeroCraft has a large library of games for other phone platforms so hopefully they will port more titles to Android.

Google just released the Android 1.6 NDK which includes enhanced support for OpenGL ES 1.1 so hopefully developers will take advantage of this in upcoming titles. We are finally starting to see true 3D games like Speed Forge 3D and I hope this is a sign more games are on the way. It really is amazing that so few developers have been able to take full advantage of the powerful hardware found inside the current Android phones.

The search giant has halted distribution of the Cyanogen custom Android build with proprietary apps like Gmail and Google Maps.

While the Android mobile operating system is open source, some of its most appealing features like tight Gmail integration and Google Maps are not, Google said in a blog post.

The search giant faced some criticism last week when it ordered developer Steve Kondik to stop distributing a custom build of Android because it utilized closed-source applications like Gmail and Google. The Cyanogen Android ROM had become popular among Android tinkerers because it added many new features from the Donut build, and it also enabled sharing a phone’s cellular data connectivity with a computer.

Google said it’s “thrilled” to see the enthusiasm from developers, but Kondik violated Google’s license when he included applications like Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube with his build.

“These apps aren’t open source, and that’s why they aren’t included in the Android source code repository,” Google said on the Android developer’s blog. “Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it’s done with the best of intentions.”

At first, Kondik said he thought the move would have a “chilling effect”on the Android community because the deep ties to Google’s online services are a major selling point of the Linux-based OS. But the developer has changed courses, and said he plans to release a “bare bones” version of the ROM that can handle normal phone functionality without Google’s apps. Some in the developer community said Google is violating the spirit and goals of Android, but Kondik is a bit more sympathetic.

“I’d love for Google to hand over the keys to the kingdom and let us all have it for free, but that’s not going to happen,” Kondik said in a written response. “And who can blame them?”

In response to the Cyanogen flap, a group of developers have created the Open Android Alliance with the goal of creating open source alternatives to Google’s apps that can be included with future custom Android builds.

It seems like just the other day when Apple announced its 1 billionth App Store download, and today they have crossed 2 billion. Are there any reasons to buy a smartphone that is not from Apple?

I cannot think of too many. And it will be hard for other manufacturers to catch-up. Not with the hardware, perhaps, but with the whole ecosystem that supports theiPhone and iPod.

Because iPhone competitors are typically hardware-only companies, it has proven difficult for them to match the software and services that drive iPhone sales. Even Google, developer of the Android smartphone operating system, has been slow to bring any sort of battle to Apple’s door.

If Google cannot or will not compete all-out with iTunes, the Music Store, and App Store, what hope does Palm have? That of finding niches where Apple does not play, I suppose. This would be broadly defined as “business,” but Research In Motion, with its BlackBerry line, still controls that market.

It’s hard to imagine Google’s Android won’t be some sort of a success, thanks to the backing of Motorola and a host of other manufacturers, but the Palm Pre and Pixi are starting too look awfully lonely–and the Pixi hasn’t even shipped.

Back to the news, the 1 billionth download took place on April 24 and the company announced on July 14 that 1.5 billion downloads took place during the App Store’s first year of operation. At that time, Apple claimed 65,000 applications were available.

As someone who has downloaded more than 100 applications, I have certainly made my contribution to the total. However, with 50 million iPhones and iPod touch devices sold in 77 countries, other folks must be contributing as well.

Apple claims 85,000 applications are available for its smartphone. It did not announce the ratio of free-to-paid apps that have been downloaded.

The combination of Apps Store and the iTunes Music Store are a formidable challenge for smartphone competitions. Both the Google Android and Palm webOS platforms have applications stores of their own, but neither is in any danger of catching up with Apple is either total number of applications or downloads anytime soon.

That’s “soon” as in 3-5 years, by my estimate, unless Apple fouls up in a very big way or one or both of the other smartphone platforms catches fire with consumers. This is Apple’s market to lose.

Of course, the other platforms–Android and webOS–don’t have to match Apple app-for-app to be considered successful, but they will have to do something to differentiate themselves in a positive “I want that and not an iPhone” sort of way.

Right now, the biggest reasons not to buy an iPhone are cost and having to choose AT&T as your carrier (in the U.S.). People who do not want to spend so much on their monthly service plan–my two iPhones average more than $80 each per month–may find another carrier to their liking.

In addition, people who do not care about downloading applications will be happy with a non-iPhone option. As will those who do not want to use iTunes or purchase music from the world’s largest music retailer, the iTunes Store.

Spotify tonight quietly saw the release of both the iPhone (1.7MB) and Android versions of itspromised mobile app. On both platforms, the free app lets those with a Spotify Premium subscription (roughly $14 per month) stream the service’s entire catalog, including music from all the major labels. They also have access to an offline mode that caches whole playlists for use when Internet access over 3G or Wi-Fi isn’t available.

It’s similarly possible to create playlists on the device itself and to have full control over track navigation and searching, unlike Internet radio apps that often limit users to a server-selected playlist and only allow searching by artist.

Apple had already approved the iPhone version of the app in late August and set a minor precedent for music software in the App Store. Critics had raised concerns that Apple’s policy of blocking apps that compete with the iPod component might prevent any on-demand music streaming app from a competing company. Although optionally for-pay services like Slacker have been available on the iPhone for some time, these have usually been radio services. 

It’s considered more likely that apps like RealNetworks’ Rhapsody will also receive approval. Therewon’t be a Napster app for Apple’s platform as the company claims licensing fees would be too high.

The app is currently available only in countries that already have Spotify’s desktop service, such as Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The company has signalled intentions to reach the US and other countries but doesn’t have definite plans in place.