Verizon’s Droid 2 has finally been rooted, by the cool cats at xda-developers of course. Those of you lucky enough to have Motorola’s latest and greatest Android powered Droid 2 be sure to check it out, but a warning: as usual proceed with caution! One wrong move, one misspelled command… Just be sure you know what you’re doing alright?

Sahil’s motivation for writing the app is clear: to always be productive, no matter where he is, and with thousands of downloads and 4+ stars he can’t be wrong.  Be sure to check out Smashing Magazine’s post for further information and a slew of screenshots!

Download

It looks like Nokia’s N900 is slowly reaching its end of life, in preparation for Nokia’s new MeeGo flagship, probably the N9. Engadget has a few stories covering the supposed leak of a prototype.

Now’s the time to buy! The N900 can be found on retail around $400 at Amazon and other places, while some slick deals can be found such as Nokia USA’s $200 deal, though it requires a trade in. NewEgg has it for $420, and throws in a free 3G router. Deals are popping up all over the net, it’s clear that the N900′s successor is just, around, the, corner… stay tuned!

Events to look out for: MeeGo Conference 2010 (November 15th-17th in Dublin) and Nokia Developer Summit 2010 (September 14th and 15th in London).

“The Nokia N97 mini brings with it a raft of new software features, alongside a diminutive stainless steel frame but still with all the things people love about its original bigger brother. [...] the N97 software [update] brings a host of optimisation tweaks, improving performance and battery life.”

James Beechinor-Collins, Nokia

“The Nokia N900 is a great example of what we and the open source community have been able to achieve with Maemo software. We are working closely with open source developers and for example, at the Maemo Summit in October, we loaned 300 pre-production units to get more feedback from the community. This feedback is extremely important to us and as such we also want to provide the best user experience with the Nokia N900. We expect it to start shipping during November 2009.”

Peter Schneider, Nokia

So to recap, the official word from Nokia is “during November 2009“. Some other sources appear to have inside info on when specifically in November. Expansys USA has the N900 listed with a November 2nd ship date, while product-reviews.net says that they got an email from MobilePhonesDirect that claims a November 16th UK release. The German Nokia store has “possibly November 25th” listed, while NewEgg has the shipping date stateside as November 14th. Who is right? Stick around…

Mike Cooper of Nokia Conversations recently published a brief, 4 minute orientation video for the N900 setup process along with a getting started intro video. It’s interesting to note that the setup process serves as a brief tutorial to get used to the haptic touchscreen functions. Nothing extraordinary, but it’s cool to see the N900 in action. The N900 is expected to hit European markets by the end of this month, with North American segments following soon thereafter. We should see more hand-on videos and reviews as the N900 starts to ship. Catch the video after the break.

The Boy Genius Report has finally gotten their hands on Motorola’s Droid. Just a recap, its Motorola’s upcoming Android 2.0 handset, which has been engineered with close cooperation from Google. Boy Genius is highly impressed with the performance and sheer speed of Android 2.0 (via Omap 3430). Other pluses cited are the huge capacitive display, sturdy construction, and a thin form-factor despite the inclusion of a full QWERTY keyboard. If priced competitively, it could be the first North American phone to give the iPhone a run for its money.

“[...] the Droid, even in its non-final form, is the most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone. It’s positively amazing”

Boy Genius

Don’t forget to check out their gallery, we’ll have more news on the Droid as we get them, and BGR should have a full review soon.

Verizon continues its aggressive advertisement campaign gunning at the iPhone, and by extensions its carrier AT&T. The aim of the latest video is to promote Verizon’s upcoming Android flagship, the Motorola Droid (codename “Sholes”), launching in November. The video calls out several of the iPhone’s limitations, with Android being cited as the solution (what iDoesn’t, DroidDoes). Mind you, these limitations are “solved” in other currently available handsets, but what makes this headline worthy is the bold jab at the iPhone, with the “solution” being a Motorola handset. Considering Motorola’s difficulties in cellular markets in recent years, this is bold. Keeping in line with viral marketing, the video ends with a quick flash of droiddoes.com, which redirects to a Verizon page. The counter on the site is programmed to end on October 30th, so we can expect an announcement either next Friday or the following Monday (Nov 2nd).

The Palm Pre is continuing its invasion of Europe, hitting the Uk today. A two-year contract will land our UK readers a free Pre @ £34.26 per month. This includes 600 minutes, 500 texts, and unlimited data. An 18-month contract exists as well, with several plans detailed after the break. Let us know how the launch goes!

O2’s 18-month contract plans

The Pre has begun its European invasion! Germany’s O2 has secured exclusivity rights for the Pre, with today as launch date. The webOS powered handset will go for 481€ without contract, or add 20€ per month on a 2-year contract to get it for “free”. UK and Spain (both under O2) will be following suite within the week.

René Schuster, CEO of Telefónica O₂ Germany, seems pretty enthusiastic of Palm and O2′s partnership:

“We operate one of the most modern mobile telecommunications networks in Europe and offer our customers a simple and transparent tariff structure. In combination with Palm Pre our customers experience top-class mobile communications. With Palm Pre the mobile internet becomes the easiest thing in the world.”

René Schuster, O2

For out German readers, be ready to grab the Pre off of Expansys Germany, and let us know how the launch goes!

The Good:

• Price: £176 (no contract)
• Solid feel
• Good construction, comparable to more expensive handsets
• 3.5″ HVGA capacitive touch screen
• Excellent screen clarity
• Well balanced UI
• Dedicated camera button
• Speakerphone: loud and clear
• 1500 mAh battery
• Out of the box useful mix of 3rd party apps

The Bad:

• Fingerprint magnet
• Low resolution video capture
• Camera performs poorly
• 2.5 mm audio jack
• Small ROM and RAM

Engadget got to take a cool tour of Nokia’s R&D lab at San Diego, just off of Scripps Poway Parkway. The section of the lab demonstrated in the above video is to test the lifetime of devices and quality of manufacturing.

First they take either engineering prototypes or production models, then they put these functional devices through several tests to simulate a product’s lifetime of abuse. Years worth of abuse is conducted in tests that last from a couple hours to several weeks.

What kind of abuse can these devices expect?

“by pressing buttons, sliding sliders, actuating hinges, heating, cooling, wetting, drying, dropping, whacking, shaking, rubbing, bending, and generally defacing the phones in every way imaginable.”

Chris Ziegler, Engadget

OK, the phone is broken, now what? Well, they check for the obvious reasons first (the LCD is no longer attached to the body…). However, if the obvious eludes the team, they’re fully equipped with a scanning electron microscope and a CT scanner. 3 dimensional problem analysis! Fun!

As much as all this smashing and microscoping must be “fun”, the interesting part is how all this R&D is actually very useful. This process allows the R&D team to find broken connections on the actual chipsets, incorrectly fabbed components. Imperfections, components that are prone to break… Whatever problems they find with the engineering of the device, it can be corrected. I always wondered how my Nokia 3220 lasted for so many years across all that abuse… now I know.

Engadget received a tip from a “good authority” that both T-Mobile and AT&T will be announcing the Bold 2 on October 21st. Pricing or retail launch date is unknown, but that should be squared away in two weeks. Wanna see some more pics and a video? Tinh te can hook you up, or grab it via Google translate (what? you don’t speak Vietnamese?). Interested in a review? Check out the Boy Genius Report.

Nokia’s official blog shared a video this morning that highlights several of Maemo’s browser functionality and features. Mikko Korpelainen, Senior Product Manager at Nokia, begins the video by explaining what makes the N900 ideal for the full internet experience, in your pocket. During the second half of the video, Martin Schüle, Principle designer of the User Interface Design team, gives us several tips and tricks regarding functionality and gestures present in the Maemo browser.

One of the major design objectives for the N900 is to blur the lines between cell phones and computers. A true convergence device, browsing the web as you would on a normal desktop computer, and then store your N900 back in your pocket when you’re done. Even the most advanced smartphones today have several limitations when it comes to web browsing. The N900 was designed from the ground up to address these issues. How? Mikko outlines five points of a full internet experience, and how they are present in the N900:

Latest Web Technologies

• Maemo browser is powered by the Gecko Engine
• Same engine that powers Firefox
• Proven code

Full Flash Support

• Nokia is collaborating with Adobe
• N900 will ship with Flash 9.4 out of the box, 10.1 as an eventual update in 2010.
• Performance and features that you would expect on your desktop

Performance

• Responsive
• Pages load fast
• Frame rate is good

Real Estate

• 800 x 480 pixels screen
• Resolution comparable to desktops

Interaction

• More advanced interaction methods
• Improved User Interface
• “Hover mode”

A quick sum up of Martin’s tips can be found in Nokia’s teaser of the Maemo browser: