About two months ago my brother decided to switch from Verizon to Sprint as his mobile carrier. He asked me what phone he should get on Sprint. He wanted a stock device because he had a bad experience with a skinned Android device (he was coming from a Droid Eris). I told him that there would probably be a new Nexus device out soon, but if he wanted to get a good device now, the best device would be the Nexus S.

Now that the Galaxy Nexus has been announced, I still feel confident with my recommendation. Why? He has a device that will still receive updates. Despite being almost a year old (from its original release, not the Sprint release), the Nexus S is still a great device.

Google has largely followed the same pattern as Apple in their halo device releases: one device per year. Unlike Apple, however, every Nexus device has been a major update in both software and hardware (though the Nexus S may eventually look like an exception if hardware/software innovation continues at its current rate). Despite the Nexus One being left behind in updates, buyers can be confident that when they purchase a Nexus device, they will have a top of the line device for quite a while. 

If you pre-ordered a DROID RAZR today, then you are likely looking at the massive list of accessories that can accompany it. HD Dock in mind? One of the two Lapdocks catch your eye? What about MotoACTV, Motorola’s fitness watch that can notify you of texts, calls and calendar items? Well, you now know exactly how much you will be paying for each of them on November 10 (the date Verizon told us to expect the device).

Speaking of the MotoACTV watch, it looks like you won’t be able to pick them up in stores, hence the “DF” note on there. “DF” stands for Direct Fill which means that Verizon would have to order it for you. If you want one, remember that they go on-sale November 6 at a variety of big electronics stores and REI for $249.

Cheers  ___!

Not only will the DROID RAZR launch as the thinnest smartphone around, but it will include something new that I know all of you will not be able to live without going forward – the new Backup Assistant+. That’s a joke of course. This so-far-unannounced product is Verizon’s take on cloud storage for your media (pictures and video). Anyone who purchases this phone will get 500MB of free storage and can upgrade from there at a monthly subscription if they would like. Well, +1 to free storage at least.

As far as Backup Assistant goes though, can we get rid of this product already on Android devices? All of our contacts are backed up and restored automatically through Google. Why do we need a separate service to attempt to do it for us? If you try and load them through Backup Assistant too, you get duplicates which might be one of the most frustrating smartphone things on the planet to deal with. And having to skip it to set my phone up altogether while bypassing its 2-3 verifications on why I want to skip is another topic for another day.  /end rant.

Anywho…

Cheers ___!

Looks like the newest shipments of Logitech Revues are coming with Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) and the long awaited Android Market. Us who already own the device have been waiting patiently for the OTA, but still have not heard anything. Is this a sign that all we are waiting for is the green light from Logitech? If they are shipping with all the new goodies, then let us get the ball rolling. We are hungry for Honeycomb and the Market on our TVs.  

Samsung is throwing some kind of Galaxy Note world tour event in London today and just so happened to drop word that the Euro version of the Galaxy Nexus will become available November 17. We have no idea if this means that the Verizon 4G LTE version will be released that day as well or if that November 10 date we keep seeing is the U.S. launch. With Verizon claiming all sorts of exclusivity on the phone, I would think they might try and launch earlier than the rest of the world though. Of course, “exclusive” could have always meant for the states and not the world.

Speaking of exclusive, that banner from last night has been changed:

Via:  Twitter, Facebook, Phandroid

I have to back up my ROMs constantly since I always like to flash the newest stuff out there. For example – when flashing this Ice Cream Sandwich port, I had to wipe everything. So I backed up all my info and flashed the ROM. Come to find out I have a very important text message from a certain person in my inbox which I must retrieve. Well, it’s a real pain to flash back to my old ROM, then redo all my work. There must be a way to get those texts!

Thanks to AppExtractor this task is now a possibility. Now you can reload selected applications, SMS/MMS messages, Wi-Fi settings and a good list of other essentials you might want to take from your previous flashings. Isn’t this great? The app itself is free in the Market, but there is also a key which can be purchased for $1.99, which allows you to restore more than 5 applications from previous backups at a time.

Awesome application? Yes. A new Android device essential? Yes. Go grab it. Rooted users only need apply.

Market Link (free) | Key

Hooray! One of the most asked about thingies features when it came to Google+ was for users of Google Apps (Gapps) to be able to sign up. As someone that uses it to power Droid Life, this is exactly what our team has been waiting for. You will have to enable it through your admin panel or ask your admin too, but after that it’s all smooth sailing. Same set of features as the rest of the G+ world.

Oh yeah, this also means that DL will finally be all up in G+. My page is here.

Via:  Google Enterprise

Cheers to everyone who sent this!