Want to read up on the Droid 2 before it hits stores some time in August?  Then check out the user guide we just received which actually gives away a few key details as to what we can expect from this new Droid family member.

Download:  droid2-dl.pdf

The first is the MotoBlur skin which is already featured on the Droid X and was rumored to be included on the D2.  From the screen shot above, you can clearly see the same launcher with the phone and contact buttons sitting beside it.  We understand that builds can change and sometimes user guides aren’t always on point, but we have no reason to believe the Blur skin won’t be featured.

Next up are the keyboards and from what we can tell, the multi-touch version (which is awesome) plus Swype will come pre-installed for your using pleasure…

And the last thing is the likelihood that Android 2.2 will come preloaded.  As you can see from this shot, we’ve got the Froyo Google search menu…

Thoughts?  Can this phone still be a winner?  Is Motorola packing in a surprise to grab our attention?

With a skyrocketing number of Android device activations each day, Google is setting itself up for an opportunity to make what their CEO, Eric Schmidt thinks could be, billions.  After being called a “one-trick pony” as a company making almost all of its revenue from online ads, the next step for the search giant is one many saw them positioning themselves for long ago…

He also said Google is positioning itself to earn $10 billion or more per year in the mobile device business, thanks to its Android operating system.

Google is giving away the Android software for free to device makers, who are using it to power dozens of popular devices. By spreading Android, which is growing at a rate of 160,000 new handset activations per day, the company ensures that its Internet search, maps and other ad-supported services will endure as users shift to mobile devices.

“If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?” Schmidt asked rhetorically. All it would take, he said, is $10 per user per year. Among other things, Google might earn such sums from selling access to digital content from newspapers.

Looks like we’re on the right side of the wall on this one.  +1 Android!

Source:  Wall Street Journal

We just received some updated shipment schedules for those of you waiting on a new Droid X or Incredible to arrive at your doorstep.  Oh, we also got some sad news for the original Droid family member, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise…

Droid Incredible Orders:

• If payment was made/order placed from 7/16 – 7/28 your DI will ship by 8/3.

Droid X Orders:

• If payment was made/order placed from 7/24 – 7/28 your DX will ship by 8/4.

Droid 1 Status:

• The Motorola DROID A855 is now in an “end of life” status and no additional shipments are expected to arrive in locations. This applies to all channels.
• A replacement device for the Motorola DROID will be announced in early August.

The new breed is starting to ship in bundles and the original’s life has come to an end.  Sad?  Happy?  We already knew that Motorola had stopped production on the D1, but the replacement announcement coming in August should pique your interest a little.

Should be the Droid 2 right?

When an “official” Android 2.2 build with Sense leaked for the Droid Incredible last night, we jumped at the opportunity to check it out.  Early rumors from HTC suggested this build wouldn’t be ready until X-mas, so this came as quite a nice surprise and could mean we’ll see a major Froyo onslaught start next week for our entire Droid family.

First Impressions: The phone is fast, but it has always been fast.  This isn’t the Eris here people; it’s always had a 1.0GHz processor and specs to compete with the best of them.  Once you start seeing phones performing at this level, it becomes tough for your eye to really notice much of a difference.  The benchmarks on the other hand show quite the improvement.

Check out the rest including a full gallery after the jump!

If you want a Droid X running Android 2.2, just head over to eBay.  Apparently that’s where one of our readers picked up his brand new 4.3″ beast which is running the frozen treat we’re still hoping arrives on all devices next week.

In the gallery below we’ve got a shot of “apps to SD”, the System Info and Settings pages, plus the “About” screen.  Need more proof than that?  Oh yeah, Flash is installed.

This is likely a test build, but still nice to see.  If testers are selling their devices running Froyo on eBay, I’d guess we are getting close to release right?

Gallery:

On semi-disappointing/confusing note, he was able to send us Quadrant benchmarks and you won’t be impressed.  In fact, he ran it twice and both came in well below the numbers you get on a stock 2.1 DX…

And maybe I should have said that these would start showing up on an hourly basis.

The latest announcement from the Android team should bring a giant smile to the faces of application developers.  It’s time to finally start cracking down on Android application piracy.  A new licensing service has been provided to devs and should roll out to the market within the next few months…

This simple and free service provides a secure mechanism to manage access to all Android Market paid applications targeting Android 1.5 or higher. At run time, with the inclusion of a set of libraries provided by us, your application can query the Android Market licensing server to determine the license status of your users. It returns information on whether your users are authorized to use the app based on stored sales records.

If you need a translation on that, it’s really just saying that market servers can ping the apps on your device from time to time to make sure it is actually licensed to/paid for by you.  And no, you don’t have to worry about security, battery life, or “the man” watching over your shoulder with this new service.  This is a good thing people.

And time for a quick rant…

If you’ve been in the Android game for a while, you are likely familiar with the abundance of “blackmarket” Android app sites which only ask you to pay a small fee to join in order to get unlimited access to paid apps.  It’s sad, pathetic and obviously illegal, but part of life in general I guess.  The thing that really irritates me is the fact that developers put so much time and energy into work which supports an operating system we all hope will continue to grow past everyone, yet we still have community members willing to undermine them.  Devs need to get paid if this way of life is ever going to progress to the top.  (Damn that sounded preachy!)

Source:  Android Developers Blog
Via:  TechCrunch

Cheers Jason!

While Firefox was in the middle of showing off version 4 of their new web browser which features a fancy little feature called “Tab Candy” our readers were digging into their FTP site and finding new builds of Fennec for Android.  As of July 24th, a new build is available and as you’ll see after installing it, is much more polished than the one we wrote about back in May.

Download:  Fennec.apk

Cheers Allen!