Hey all. Brandon checking in from the Miami R2 launch event. We’ll have coverage throughout the evening.

12:10 – 2 R2 handsets given away to raffle winner and the costume contest winner, who of course is pictured below… it took almost an hour to suit up

11:35 –

11:20 – a walker under construction….

10:50 – this is definitely a Miami Droid event! Live music and announcements… ¡en español of course!

10:45 – 2-3 R2-D2s will be given away as prizes tonight… there will be a costume contest as well as a raffle open t0 non-costumed Droid fans… phones to be given away at midnight

10:40 –

10:15 – the music’s playing and some Stormtroopers from the 501st Legion are giving us our first look at R2….
10:10 – we got to sit in on the pre-event meeting… Droid fans will be able to purchase up to 2 Droid R2-D2 handsets in-store tonight. At least one has to be activated, the other can optionally be bought at retail price of $599. Or any 2nd handset can be purchased. There are over 100 R2s available here tonight.

First Impressions

Similarly to the Droid X, we were both immediately struck by how little the phone weighs. Clocking in at 118 grams (4.2 oz), Fascinate weighs even less than the slightly smaller Nexus One. The device feels neither too big nor too small for the hand, but feels as though it may slip at any time; this is due to the lack of the soft-touch, rubberized coating on most Android phones. Rather, the bulk of the Fascinate is plastic, with an all-glass façade and a thin metallic rim around the edge of the phone. The plastic casing leaves the phone more prone to slipping than, for example, the HTC Droid Incredible. Looking at the device, we feel we cannot avoid drawing the inevitable comparison between the Fascinate’s design and that of the older iPhones. It is clear the inspiration for this phone’s lines and looks originated in Cupertino.

Hardware

One of the major distinguishing features of the Fascinate (and the other Galaxy S models), and a major selling point, is the 4.0” Super AMOLED display. The Galaxy S series, in general, is being targeted toward HD media consumers and it’s easy to see why. Capable of displaying 720p HD video, the phone’s display is bursting with vibrant colors and rich, deep blacks. A common complaint regarding AMOLED displays is difficulty viewing them in daylight. Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology rectifies by reducing the number of layers in the screen; this also results in a lower overall weight.

The Fascinate is powered by a 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, and includes 512 MB of RAM in addition to 2 GB onboard storage. The PowerVR SGX 540 graphics processor is currently one of the fastest available, and handles 3D applications and games with ease. This combination of hardware results in speedy performance, although we did notice some stuttering, particularly in places it wouldn’t be expected — for example, when turning the phone’s display on and off, swiping through menus, and launching applications.

Surrounding the screen is a body that, unfortunately, does not quite meet the build quality of similarly-priced Android devices. In contrast to the mature, industrial designs we have grown accustomed to, the Samsung Fascinate feels cheap. The entire back cover is a single piece of thin plastic, which feels as if it could be snapped in half easily while being removed. This is in contrast even to other Galaxy S models, such as AT&T’s Captivate, which has a metal battery cover. The included 16 GB MicroSD card rests beneath the battery cover, but can be removed without pulling the battery.

The SD card can be removed without pulling the battery

Around the edges of the phone are the various controls you would expect to find, albeit perhaps not where you’d expect. The power button, for instance, has been relocated from its usual place atop the phone to the right side of the screen, opposite the volume rocker on the left. There is no dedicated camera button. Along the top of the phone is a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Micro-USB port protected by a small sliding door. We like this door — we were pleased to find it was not a simple rubber swivel tab as on the original G1, but a sturdy little door that slides horizontally into the phone to reveal the port. However, we’re not too thrilled with its placement along the top edge of the device, as we feel it makes the device awkward to handle while plugged in. The device lacks a notification LED, which we found irritating, as it has been a standard feature of Android handsets from the very beginning. Seeing at a glance what sort of notification is waiting has always been one of the most convenient aspects of Android, and we did not appreciate this lack of basic functionality.

This phone suffers from shyness. It does not know how to speak up. The external speaker on this device is surprisingly quiet. Watching YouTube videos had us leaning our heads in, trying to listen. The earpiece itself, however, is not an issue. Audio came through crisply and clearly, with minimal buzz.

The Fascinate, like all Galaxy S phones, features a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, although it lacks the front-facing camera featured on international Galaxy S handsets, and Sprint’s Epic 4G. Like the Epic 4G, the Fascinate includes an LED flash. We found the camera, which features a custom UI, to be responsive and snappy. The shutter time is about one second, and lag time between shots is non-existent. Samsung’s reworked UI makes it easy to switch between various focus, lighting, and flash settings. An on-screen display indicates the remaining capacity for photos, and the remaining time for video.

The photos themselves are clear, although there are some compression artifacts. Essentially, this phone has a great camera, but it’s still a phone camera, and you can tell.

The Fascinate's camera takes very good photos

Aaron: I am not a fan of the Fascinate’s plastic body. I would much prefer a more robust, metallic build. That being said, the phone feels decent in my hand and were I to drop it, I don’t think it would shatter into a billion pieces.

Brandon:The Fascinate’s internals make it a worthy competitor to other high-end Android devices. The flimsy body and lack of a notification light aren’t show stoppers, but are worth mentioning. Also, as a left-handed person, I found myself inadvertently pressing the volume rocker when using the power switch on the opposite side of the handset.

GPS

The Galaxy S series is notorious for inaccurate GPS, often unable to create a satellite lock in situations where other devices suffer no issues. We found this to be the case with the Samsung Fascinate. Indoors the handset appeared incapable of locking on at all — at one point, it went just over two minutes without finding a lock before we continued on with other tests. Outdoors, the GPS was finally able to find a satellite and link up with it, if inconsistently, and it took anywhere from 15 to 45 seconds to do so, if it did at all. Once a lock was established, however, it seemed to remain stable.

Software

The Samsung Fascinate is currently running Android 2.1 (Eclair), buried somewhere beneath the TouchWiz 3.0 UI. Some of you may remember one of Samsung’s earlier forays into Android: the Behold II on T-Mobile. This phone ran an earlier iteration of TouchWiz, largely considered the single worst OEM Android modification due to its sloppy design choices, and buggy implementation. Samsung has clearly taken the criticism of their earlier attempts to heart; the new TouchWiz is far less intrusive and drastically better looking.

While TouchWiz may seem like a purely cosmetic modification, briefly using the device will show any familiar Android user that this is not the case. TouchWiz replaces or modifies several of the core applications in the operating system, like Messaging, Contacts, Calendar, etc. For example, Samsung’s Clock app functions not only as an alarm, but also provides a stopwatch, world clock, and a timer. Some of the changes to stock apps are not as welcome. We spent several hours under the impression that the advanced functions were removed from Fascinate’s Calculator, until we discovered that they are only visible when in landscape mode. In addition, Verizon has made VZ Navigator the default GPS navigator on the phone, although the user can still download Google Maps from the Market, which includes Google Navigation.

Let it be said that TouchWiz is very blue. While HTC’s SenseUI has a healthy yet tasteful green motif throughout, and MOTOBLUR makes good use of red in place of Android’s stock orange, Samsung seems to have tried to cram as much blue as possible into their UI. Highlights are blue, icons are blue, popups are blue, menu subtitles are shockingly teal — but progress bars, those are green.

Samsung has replaced the default Voice Search app with Nuance voice commands, which provides the Fascinate with the same set of voice commands found on many Verizon featurephones. Interestingly, our review unit also included the stock Voice Search app, but we believe this may be in error — we could not look up Voice Search in the Market, and even following a QR code to the application turned up nothing. We are not thrilled with this decision.

TouchWiz features a more robust -- and more blue -- Clock app

Samsung has purged Android of many widgets. The only stock widgets that were included with the Fascinate were Search (Bing, not Google), Data Usage, Picture Frame, Power Control, and YouTube. The News & Weather, Music, Calendar, and the original Analog Clock are all absent. Samsung has added several of their own widgets, comprised largely of various styles of clocks — no less than ten different clock widgets, in fact. In addition to the extensive clock collection, there is also a Task Manager widget, as well as a Buddies, Daily Briefing (includes weather, stocks, news), and Feeds & Updates. In addition, several of the settings found on the Power Control widget are no present in the notification shade. This is a nice addition, however we would prefer the option to disable this.

Featurephone?
Verizon has taken an odd approach with the Fascinate: rather than market it as a high-end “DROID” smartphone, we think the Fascinate is being marketed toward the featurephone consumer. Despite the presence of the Android OS and Market, Verizon has loaded the phone with several VCAST apps, selling such wares as music, ringtones, and video clips. This appears to be little more than a bid to remain relevant as a media marketplace in a time when the smartphone carrier is becoming little more than a data pipe.

We can’t say we’re thrilled with the presence of these apps, especially considering they cannot be easily removed without root access. In fact, several of the included apps aren’t actually installed, but show up in the app drawer anyway. When they are first opened, you are prompted to install them. Funnily enough, when we first opened VZ Navigator, a notice appeared indicating that an upgrade was available. In order to install the upgrade, the user is instructed to enable software installation from “Unknown sources” in the phone’s settings, demonstrating Verizon’s desire to sidestep the Android Market and remain the user’s primary source for phone-based media.

Samsung appears to have taken some steps to take the Android out of Android. While HTC and Motorola have modified the UI while remaining true to the core Android user experience, TouchWiz abandons several standard Android UI expectations. For example, the standard app drawer has been replaced with a horizontally-scrolling menu that closely resembles the iPhone’s. In fact, TouchWiz superficially resembles iOS in many ways, all the way down to the rounded square corners surrounding app icons. We can’t help but feel that this is done in an effort to try and draw iPhone users over to the TouchWiz platform, and to facilitate the leap from featurephones to smartphones.

TouchWiz borrows many visual elements from iOS

A Note on Bing
Most of you have probably heard of the Bing situation regarding the Fascinate: Verizon has replaced Google with Bing as the device’s default search engine, and there is no way to change this. The Search widget has been replaced with a Bing search widget, and the Search voice command utilizes Bing rather than Google. In fact, we could not even find the Google Search app on the Market.
Addendum: Verizon has made it clear that Google Search will be restored as an option with the Fascinate’s 2.2 update.

Aaron: As an Android purist, I much prefer the stock Android experience to the multitude of manufacturer UIs now available. I don’t have a problem with cosmetic theming, or alterations that add functionality, but Samsung has made changes seemingly for the sake of making changes. I do not find TouchWiz 3.0 to be tasteful; however, it is far more visually consistent than, say, Blur on the Droid X.

Brandon: I’m not thrilled with the presence of VCAST apps on this phone. Yes, they’ve been available on all previous VZW Android devices, but always as optional downloads from the Verizon section of the Android Market. Preinstalling VCAST apps with no easy method of removal feels like simply using up part of the advertised storage space in order to increase media sales. At least the Android Market remains available for the user, especially considering this is not a “DROID” handset.

Final Thoughts

While the Samsung Fascinate is in no way a game-changer, it is a welcome addition to Verizon’s Android lineup. TouchWiz notwithstanding, the phone runs Android 2.1 (with 2.2 coming) and provides a solid user experience. The internals are impressive and the phone runs snappily despite some minor hiccups. Would we recommend the Samsung Fascinate to you? If a hardware keyboard is not important to you, and if you don’t necessarily prefer a stock Android experience, the Galaxy S series of smartphones is definitely worth your consideration and is a valuable addition to Verizon’s Android lineup.

An e-mail dispatched to customers who opted-in for more information about the Droid 2 R2D2 edition indicates that “plans for the DROID R2-D2 have been intercepted by sinister agents of the Empire and scattered across the internet” and that “[i]ntrepid members of the Alliance who succeed in uncovering the lost schematics will be rewarded handsomely – with a new DROID R2-D2 device.”

As the second phone heralded by a VZW scavenger hunt, we’re curious to see how hyped this interesting-looking phone gets. A white Droid is definitely a cool option, but I think you have to be a real Star Wars fan to appreciate this Droid’s looks… so I will have to leave that up to Aaron. He’ll take care of giving you the details on this collectible handset once we get our grubby green paws on it.

VZW’s Droid Does site indicates that the R2 will only be available online Sept. 30… how successful do you think the R2D2 Droid will be?

SOURCES: @DROIDLANDING, VZW

Sites such as MyDroidWorld have received C&D letters which seem to explicitly refer to the Droid X screen keyboard. The multitouch keyboard has been ported to several other Android devices, but is obviously considered a Droid X selling point by Motorola.

The Droid X has already been rooted, and we’re still hopeful that a bootloader defeat is in its future. How will Motorola continue to respond to the development community? And why do they seem indifferent regarding Droid and Droid 2?

Tell the Bros. your take below.

SOURCES: PC MAG, MY DROID WORLD

Having updated and launched Voice Search, you will be greeted with a new welcome screen intended to acquaint you with the new commands at your disposal, as well as an instructional video. The video’s play button is essentially a hyperlink which launches the YouTube player and automatically loads the video. The other options can be scrolled through horizontally.

You are greeted with an instructional screen on first launch

The new functions added to Voice Search are Send Text, Send E-mail, Map Of, Note-to-Self, Go To, and Listen To, which are in addition to the commands that already existed. Each command works just about as you’d expect them to, with a few exceptions we will cover further on.

The Send Text command is probably my favorite new addition to the phone’s already stellar voice controls. After telling the phone to Send text to… your contact of choice, the voice control app will bring up its own SMS interface rather than launch the Messaging app. When you tap on the message body field, a bubble pops up with options for either the virtual keyboard or speech-to-text. After using the voice option, your transcribed text will appear.

In our tests, clear and well-spoken words transcribed very easily and surprisingly fast, even faster than I had grown accustomed to. Hasty speech was not so speedy, and was moderately inaccurate, although it appears Google’s algorithms are improving, as it was better than it has been in the past. If the phone isn’t sure about a word it will be highlighted in blue, and tapping them brings up possible corrections. Funnily enough, my Droid got most words correct on the first run, while the possible suggestions were pretty out-there in terms of accuracy.

Tapping highlighted words brings up possible corrections

It needs to be noted that when you press the Send button on the Voice Search’s SMS UI, it will ask you whether you want to use Messaging or Google Voice (if you have it installed) to complete the action, while third-party SMS apps like Handcent will not show up. This is nothing to worry about – choosing the default Messaging app is fine, as the Send button doesn’t actually launch it, it just uses it in the background. The sent message will still show up in Handcent.

Emails, on the other hand, are slightly less streamlined. The process is largely the same as sending a text, although there are added buttons for Subject, CC, and BCC. Pressing the send button, however, does not fire off your email in the background — it launches the GMail app with your message in a new composition, and requires you to press the send button again from within that application.

The Map Of… command is a useful function for quickly finding certain locations around you. Asking for a “Map of gas stations,” for example, will launch Google Maps with nearby gas stations pinned. It doesn’t provide you with directions, of course, so it is to be used in conjunction with the older Directions to command.

The Note to Self command is one of those things that shocks you with its simplicity and usefulness, which is something Google excels at. Rather than having to open a notepad app, write out a note and save it, one need only open the voice search (which can be done by holding down the search button) and start off with Note to self… before going on with your message.

Your new note will be sent in an email

When you’re satisfied with the contents of your note and press the Send button, it will pop up as a newly-composed message in GMail, as with the Send Email command. This new message is self-addressed and will show up in your own inbox.

the Listen To command is the one new feature that, as mentioned above, doesn’t quite act as you expect it to. It cannot be used in conjunction with the phone’s own music player, which we found a bit ludicrous. Rather, this command is meant to be used along with an Internet radio app such as Pandora or Last.fm. The first time you use the command, it will tell you that there are several apps it can be used with, along with a link to an instructional website. The page provides a list of different apps you can use it with.

For our test, we used Pandora. It worked very well — telling the phone to Listen to Led Zeppelin immediately searched for them and loaded Led Zeppelin Radio in about five seconds.

Overall, we’re pretty satisfied with this update. The new functionality is very welcome and executed very well overall, with the exception of just a few little kinks to work out. My personal hope is that the Listen To command is updated in the future to be compatible with the music player. As it is, though, we are very happy. You can use the QR Code below to jump directly to the application in the Android Market.

Scan this QR Code to get the Voice Search app

Interestingly, the Droid 2 includes the same 5-megapixel camera as the Droid, with dual-LED flash, as well as the same 3.7″ screen. Internal memory capacity has been increased to 8 GB onboard, and an 8 GB microSD card is included… down from the 16 GB which came with the Droid. The soft key layout has been updated to the new familiar order: Menu, Home, Back, and Search; the same layout as last month’s Droid X.

Droid 2 pre-sale begins tomorrow and you’ll be able to find them in VZW stores on Thursday. The price? You guessed it. $199 with new 2-year agreement. Stay tuned for more Droid 2 goodness.

SOURCE: MOTOROLA, ENGADGET

Facebook’s new Home screen has reworked icons, much similar to what can be found on the main site. A horizontal photo on the lower half of the screen provides quick links to recently posted photos on your friends’ Walls. The notification counter has been moved to the very bottom of the screen — no longer requiring an icon tap and leaving the Home screen — and indicates the number of waiting notifications in red, just like on the website. The notification bar slides up from the bottom, in a departure from the familiar Android UX of pulling bars down from the top. However, this makes it less likely that you’ll accidentally grab the Android Notification shade instead, so I’m OK with this change. (Compare this to the NYTimes app’s topic shade, which is directly below the main system shade and a little harder to manipulate.)

Let’s delve deeper into the app. One of the most common complaints about older versions of the Facebook app is that it opened the browser to the Mobile Facebook site (m.facebook.com) in order to complete actions not supported by the app. For instance, while the app would notify you about new friend requests, there was no way to accept/ignore them from within the app: clicking the notification would open the Mobile site where the requests could be managed. The new version of Facebook supports many more actions natively, without opening the Browser.

Facebook 1.3.0 supports responding to friend requests and event invitations from within the app. Friend requests can be confirmed or ignored, but there doesn’t seem to be any additional functionality available. For instance, when confirming a friend online, you’re given options to add them to Friend Groups in order to manage custom privacy settings. In the app, you’re only given a choice of Confirm or Ignore.

You can now respond to Event Invitations as well. By clicking on the RSVP function, a pop-up menu appears with radio buttons to send your RSVP. I did discover that if you don’t respond to an invitation, Facebook sometimes reports it as a “new event invite” in a later notification. Earlier versions didn’t exhibit that behavior.

You can also finally view Videos in the new version, although I did find that some of them wouldn’t play.

So, what features are still missing? A lot of people still mourn the rejection of Facebook Chat by the Android developers, and this version doesn’t change anything in that department. There is still no Facebook Chat support, only “Inbox” messaging. Users who manage Facebook Pages, such as me, still have no way of posting on Pages from within the app.  The Touch site (touch.facebook.com, yes, this is distinct from m.facebook.com as well as the full facebook.com) is a decent workaround for now…

…but Facebook Page support is another feature we’re still waiting for.

In all, Facebook 1.3.0 is finally a competitive app to its brethren on other mobile platforms. The user experience on Android is now much more unified, and there is almost no need to open a web browser anymore. For some people who need more advanced features, such as posting on Pages, the Touch site is still a usable workaround. And for you social butterflies who love Facebook Chat, you’ll still need to use a third-party app such as Meebo, AIM, or Beem to chat it up with your friends. Facebook 1.3.0 is definitely a big step forward, and I hope that the next steps come even faster.

(PS: there are at least 5 different ways to get your Facebook on with Android… Facebook app, the Touch site, Mobile site, and full site, and third party apps… a feature-complete Facebook app would make all those sites unnecessary on Android. –B)

Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney wrote to Phone Scoop in an email, “The Droid by Motorola doesn’t have [the] hardware to support a Mobile Hotspot. With tethering there is no Connection on the PC side that will allow you to tether the device so the answer is that option isn’t part of this update.”

Of course, the Droid Bros. are dubious. The Motorola Droid is one of the most hackable phones on the market, and is a favorite of Android users for this reason. Rooted users have been able to tether for months without issue. My old G1 could run wireless tethering without a problem. The hardware isn’t an issue here.

The official 2.2 OTA will be pushed to a small group of customers first in order to make sure it is playing nice with the device. Once all is confirmed up and running, the general roll-out will commence. Android 2.2 will bring a range of new updates to the Droid, including Flash 10.1 support, an improved and speedy browser, and improved camera performance.

Farewell, sweet prince. You were this Droid Bro.’s first smartphone.

Groupon allows users to buy coupons at discount prices

Groupon is a day-of-the-deal service that emails sales and discounts to their members. With the Android application, you can purchase their discounts (For example, $60 worth of coupons for $20) directly on the phone and redeem them electronically, without ever having to print out the “groupon.” In addition, you can access your already-purchased groupons and see which ones are redeemable nearby.

Scan to download from the Android Market

Groupon also wants your suggestions for future versions, which we are told will include such features as widgets, forum access and more. To bend their ear, head over to Groupon Blog.