Verizon will release the limited edition Motorola Droid R2-D2 smartphone on September 30th, says the carrier, making it available online and in retail stores.
The phone is a Droid 2 customized with a Star Wars theme, running on Android 2.1.
Verizon is selling the device for $350 with contract, but buyers receive a $100 debit-card rebate with the purchase.
The regular Droid 2 costs $200 with contract.
Droid R2-D2s comes in “a custom box resembling carbonite,” and is stocked with “Star Wars-related ringtones and wallpapers.”
Result for: wallpapers
Earlier this week a company called Lookout showed how several Android wallpaper apps were accessing user information, including phone number, subscriber identification, voicemail password, browsing history, text messages & the phone’s SIM card number.
The claims were made during a presentation at this week’s Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.
In a number of interviews since then the developer, Jackeey Wu, has released a statement denying most of these claims and Lookout has since agreed that only the phone number, subscriber identification & voicemail password (when stored on the phone) were accessed and sent to Wu’s server in China.
Wu stated, “I collected the screen size to return more suitable wallpaper for the phone. More and More users emailed me telling that they love my wallpaper apps so much, because that even “Background” can’t well suited the phone’s screen. I also collected device id,phone number and subscriber id, it has no relationship with user data. There are few apps in Android market has the favorites feature. Many users suggest that I should provide the feature so I use the these to identify the device, so they can favorite the wallpapers more conveniently, and resume his favorites after system resetting or changing the phone.”
He also included a screenshot from installing one of the apps, showing the permissions used. You can read the entire statement below.
Lookout’s clarification on their website says, “While the data this app is accessing is certainly suspicious coming from a wallpaper app, we want to be clear that there is no evidence of malicious behavior. There have been cases in the past where applications are simply a little overzealous in their data gathering practices, but not because of any ill intent.”
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Result for: wallpapers
T-Mobile has finally announced the pricing and release date for the myTouch 3G Slide, the successor to the first ever Android phone, the G1.
The device will be released on June 2nd, and will cost $179.99 with two-year contract.
The phone includes a 600 MHz ARM processor, Android 2.1 with HTC Sense and multi-touch support, 512MB of RAM, 512MB internal storage, a 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash, and a free 8GB MicroSD card.
The device has a 3.4-inch HVGA (320 x 480 pixel) touchscreen, and a trackpad as well.
One feature missing from the 2.1 included with the new Slide is “live wallpapers,” interactive backgrounds that can be found on high-end devices such as the Nexus One and HTC Incredible.
Swype is the default keyboard, giving users the chance to use the record-breaking text input system that has been in closed beta for some time now.
HTC noted today that the device will get the 2.2 Froyo update later this year as well, which promises a 400 percent performance boost, tethering, portable hotspot tech, built-in Flash 10.1, and Microsoft Exchange enterprise capabilities.
