Here’s the quick back story as found on the official youtube page and then video follows…

TAMPA, FLA., Reko Rivera (Left) John Savio (Right) — World’s first “working” iPhone costume created by Reko Rivera and John Savio. Specifications are 42″ Display, 1.5 Hours of Battery Life, 85 lb and the “real” iPhone can charge connected to the USB on the display. The two costumes have 3 batteries each with a total runtime of 4.5 hours before needing to be charged overnight. Please email us if you need any more information about the costume.

Now, let it be known that I laugh at the people who are putting words in Verizon’s mouth and using the term “iPhone killer“.  Even Verizon laughs at you for muttering those words.  Neither Verizon, Google, or Motorola are calling this an “iPhone killer”.  Seriously people, come on.  This is just Verizon’s best attempt at giving their customers an alternative to an iPhone.  Simply enough it’s an “iPhone alternative”.  Period.

Those of us who flat out refused to give into the [horrible] AT&T [yes still biased!] and take the iPhone bait have waited around very patiently for something worthy.  And those of us who are fully entrenched in the Google world have been waiting around even longer it seems!  Watching T-Mobile get Android phone after Android phone has been…annoying at best.

The guys over at Boy Genious Report are the phone ninja’s who have had the inside connection on this project since day one.  And even though Verizon hasn’t released any info on the Droid, they sure have!  Here’s some pics of the proposed, though NOT official yet, Verizon Droid (aka Sholes, aka Tao).

For more info hit up the BoyGeniusReport.com!

Well the wait is finally over.  For me in particular.  Ever since Apple stabbed me in the back and went exclusive to AT&T I’ve waited for this day.  For I was NEVER going back to AT&T and their crap coverage and customer service.  I said that about 6 years ago and was only very slightly waivered when the iPhones were introduced.  But I’m a man of my word and pronounced that I would hold out on Verizon and my trusty, though boring, Blackberry until they got a better phone for me.

This morning Google & Verizon held a press conference and sent out a statement (read here) announcing their matrimony.  Basically it states that the two will be joining forces to usher out new devices loaded with Google’s cell phone operating system, called Android & apps.  The guys over at Engadget held a phone call of their own with the two companies and dugg up a little more info.  They found out that 2 of these new devices will be released in the next few weeks & that one of them will be a “game-changer”.  I have no idea what that is or what it means but I’m damn excited to find out!

One of the phones was rumored out the last couple of months and I have been tracking it ever since.  It’s a phone from Motorola that’s had two names….Sholes and most recently the Tao.  You can see some blurry pics of it here. We’re pretty sure that the Sholes\Tao phone will be one of the phones to come out of this marriage in the next couple of weeks, but probably won’t be the one touted as the ‘game-changer’.

Verizon has also recently started taking off the gloves with AT&T and are finally fighting back.  Check out this ad (sorry this was the best I could find on short notice) displaying their US coverage compared to AT&Crap’s.

BTW, I’m totally biased against AT&T due to some really bad personal experiences with them.  I’m in no way trying to debated technicals between the two companies.  This is simply personal!  At least I’m honest right?

So, anyone else out there on Verizon that’s as excited as I am for this?

Hardware
As for hardware it’s an amazing device.  It’s built solid and a slick look which feels good in the hand.  It comes with 32gb’s of storage and the processor, ram, and graphics have all been upgraded.  It’s has a gorgeous screen that is both bright and vibrant.  As for the body, it is pretty much the same as last years 3G model.  I really wish they would have made a more rubber style back but it’s ok as they have different cases that are available for it.  It has Bluetooth, Wifi, Speaker, Microphone, and a 3 Megapixel camera that also does video.

4.5 out of 5

Software
OS 3.1 had just come out a couple of days before I bought the phone so instantly I had to upgrade.  I never really tried 3.0 or even 2.0 for that matter.  Overall the OS is nice but a little to simple for a power user.  I would really like to be able to dig into the OS and be able to customize it.  About the only customization that’s possible is moving the icons around.  Coming from Nokia phones especially the N Series it’s much more limiting.  The N97 allowed me much more freedom especially when it came to customization.  It’s actually ok since Apple really layed everything out nicely. I do have a complaint though.  The iPhone can only sync to one computer.  So if you plug it into another then it prompts you if you would like to erase and sync with the new computer.  Now this is very annoying as you have to sign in and be authorized to sync files.  It’s not a huge deal but really I would like to be able to add content even if it’s on my other computer seeing that I bought it with my account.

4 out of 5

Camera
The camera is another feature that has been upgraded since last years model.  It went up from 2 to 3 megapixels and now has an autofocus.  Again coming from Nokia which is known for their camera’s, I was very scared about the quality.  I like to use the camera on my phones quite a bit since it’s convenient and it’s always in my pocket and Nokia has never failed me with that.  So I went out and took some sample pictures and they came out pretty good.  It’s not the same quality as the Carl Zeiss N Series phones but it’s still pretty good.  It has and autofocus feature that allows you to touch the screen that you want to focus on.  It also has auto macro that can turn on when close up pictures are being taken.  So the pictures I took all came out pretty good but I definitely give the nod to Nokia.  One thing it’s lacking that’s big for me is Flash.  It doesn’t have any so low lit pictures don’t come out very well.  As for the video camera, I think this is where it shines.  It records VGA quality and actually looks pretty good.  It records up to 30 frames per second which is good for faster motion recording.  I did a couple of test recordings and they both came out really nice.  Between the Nokia and it, Apple definitely looks better in terms of taking video.

4 out of 5

iPod
The iPod is pretty much the same as the last two versions of the phone.  You get a full iPod built in to it.  You can even buy music and video’s right from the phone which makes it nice when on the road.  I actually really like the iPod.  It has a clean layout and flipping through music is seamless.  The phone has a speaker which you can listen to your music or podcast but to really appreciate it, you’ll want a good pair of headphones.  As far as sorting goes you can choose to sort by Artist, Album, or Song.  A nice feature that I found was that you can stream podcasts right through the phone without downloading it.  Which is nice since you can’t download anything over 10mb’s using 3g.  It has to go through Wifi, which I don’t understand why they would limit it.  So the other answer is stream.  I really hope they fix this as pretty much most podcasts are over that size.  Overall other than that the iPod is the same as the ohter iPods.  The score would be higher if it weren’t for the download cap over 3g.

3.5 out of 5

So overall I have both my likes and dislikes for the phone.  What it does, it really does well.  But it lack in certain departments.  I would a) Like to see a flash with the camera and b) Would like to see a 5 megapixel camera on it to compete with many of the other phones out there.  I would like to be able to go beyond the surface of the phone.  It’s basically a bunch of desktops with apps on it.  I wish there was a menu system and a file structure.  Coming from using Nokia’s I really miss that.  What I really like is the way the phone works.  It runs very clean and smooth.  It comes with a good suite of apps but has tons that can be downloaded.  I personally haven’t downloaded to many as I’m still trying to decide if I want to keep the phone.  I have made a list though so if I dokeep it  then I’ll have quite a few to pickup.  There’s another phone that I’ve been looking at that looks like it might be a real competitor to the iPhone and that’s the new Nokia N900.  It’s supposed to come out very soon so we’ll have to wait on the reviews to see how it does.  For now I’m still in the trial phase of this phone but I have make a choice as I only have a short time to decide.

4 out of 5

So what do you think, should I keep the iPhone or look into another phone.  I really like Android but for now it’s only on T-Mobile.  I’m really interested in the new Nokia N900 though.  So let me know what you think in the comments.

Another cool feature is that it now incorporates HD Radio.  So you can pop on the radio to just about any AM\FM station & not only hear higher quality audio, but it would do that neat thing where it tells you what artist & song is actually playing.   That was the one thing I didn’t want to give up on Satellite radio for.  You could then click a little button that will allow you to buy that song.  HD radio also allows you to see subchannels that might be playing from that broadcaster.

Some of the other basics include wifi support so you can download wirelessly from your home or a wifi hot spot.  Playback of just about any video or podcast you’d like to throw at it.  Touchscreen access and web browsing.  Much smaller design…about the same as an iPod Touch.   Integration with your X-box Marketplace (with possible Netflix syncing in the future).  DRM-free MP3 playback (available on original but still worth mentioning) so that any MP3, not just the ones purchased from their marketplace, will play on it.  Like anything purchased from Amazon or *ehem* downloaded illegally.  For shame!

Probably the biggest buzz about the Zune HD in my opinion is that you get all that for about $100 cheaper than an iPod touch.  The iPod Touch 32GB is $399 and the Zune HD 32GB will be just $289.  The Zune HD 16GB will be just $219 compared to the iTouch at $299.  So you get all that shiny-touchy music\video\wifi stuff for quite a bit of a price cut.

So all that being said does it mean you should run out and grab a Zune and ditch your iPod??  Well that’s completely objective of course based on which one you own now, or if you are looking to get one new, or if you have a crap ton of iTunes music only.  Another huge factor that should weigh in is this……there’s going to be a new iPod\iPod touch announcement before Christmas this year.  I know, I know, they always do this to us.  Some of the rumors are that a new iTouch will have a camera & microphone making it very Skype friendly, maybe even for video conferencing.  So right now is an interesting time to be looking for a new MP3 player (evolved).

Let me just leave you with my current scenario. I’ve had an iPod video for nearly 3 years now.  I’ve worn it out and have been currently looking to get a new one.  Up until this Zune HD announcement my options were an iTouch or an iPod (Video) Classic.  I’ve been HEAVILY leaning to the Classic due primarily to the fact that I can get a butt load more disc space per dollar and don’t need all the fancy smancy stuff on the Touch.  I know I sure wont need the fancy stuff on a newer iTouch either so the Zune HD presents itself as a very viable option.  The turning point for me is the fact that I stopped buying my music through iTunes sometime back and most of my library can be slapped down on the Zune the minute I open the box.  So you see where I’m leaning now huh?  But I digress…..being the super geek I am….I know that the day the Zune becomes available September 18th I’ll pick one up at the store….then set it back down somewhere in line.  My geek guilt will kick in big time and I’ll just HAVE to wait for the new iPod announcements.   UGH!  Why can’t I just buy stuff on the fly like the normal Best Buy consumers out there??  <slaps forehead>

Check out some videos for yourself

Check it out or pre-order it on the official Zune site.

Hardware

When I opened the box I was greeted with the phone and the battery.  It looked amazing.  I picked it up and could not believe how awesome this phone looked.  The build quality is amazing, and it feels solid when you hold it.  The screen slides open on a hitch system that is very smooth.  It’s hard to describe but it just feels damn solid when it opens.  Once open there is a physical QWERTY keyboard inside.  It’s actually very nice and I think other reviews are a bit too harsh on it.  It takes a little getting use to, especially with the spacebar off to the right side but it actually feels natural once you get used to it.  It has a 3.5mm headphone jack on top, a micro USB plug for charging or hooking up to a computer which is on the left side, and volume buttons and a button for taking pictures.  On the back side it has a 5 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens that has a slider to open up the lens or cover it.  The back also opens up where the “Sim” card and battery go.  It also has a microSD slot next to the lens that can go up to 16gb for extra storage.  That brings it up to 48gb of total storage.  That’s actually really nice but for me 32gb internal is just awesome.  I put in quite a bit of data and I still have over 25gb’s left.  The only thing I didn’t like about the hardware is the battery cover.  You have to pull on edge and it bends like it’s going to break.  Once you put it back on though it feels solid.  On the front of the phone is another camera for video calls and a button on the lower left that takes you to the main menu.

5 out of 5 stars.

Camera Photo/Video

Well probably one of the biggest features for me buying this phone is the camera.  I use my camera all the time.  I like the fact that I have a fully functional point and shoot camera always in my pocket.  My N95 had the same camera and it took great photos.  I have to say that even though it’s the same for the most part, this phone takes much better pictures.  Outdoor is simply amazing.  Sharp pictures that have a nice contrast to them.  Indoor pictures are ok.  Not the best and I really have a complaint for that.  Nokia chose to go with dual LED instead of Xenon flash.  Why they did this I have no idea.  Even one of their more inexpensive N series phones has a Xenon on it.  For the price of this phone, they should be putting the best nothing less.  It has a nice menu that gives you many choices when taking a picture.  It really feels like a normal camera.  It also allows you to take video with it.  I also used this on my old phone and it felt the same with this one.  One thing that I can’t figure out is on my old phone, I could edit the movies right on it but they took this out on the N97.  Why?  Why would you get rid of such a great feature?  They also made changes to the gallery.  My old phone had a neat gallery where the pictures would move around a wheel zooming the one that’s on top.  On this phone it’s gone and there really isn’t a gallery, only a grid with every picture taken.  Again why?  It’s something upsets me but isn’t really a deal breaker.  Again I just don’t understand why features are taken out of there biggest phone out there.
4 out of 5 Stars

Software

This is where it gets interesting.  When you first turn on the phone you get the classic handshake.  It then brings you to the home screen.  The only thing I can say about this is Wow.  It’s great and very customizable.  It has widgets that can be moved and you can put what you want on the home screen.  By default it has the weather, Facebook, and default apps which can be changed.  Once you click the menu button it brings you to the main menu which if you have used any Nokia phone,  it’s no different except that it has a touch screen.  This is where it gets frustrating for me.  It’s very

archaic and really needs a makeover.  I was hoping for a lot more.  I’m mean it’s not bad but with all the other phones out there with there OS’s this comes in last.  The only thing that I really like is that you can have multiple apps open at once.  Although it will look at the ones that aren’t being used and close them to save ram.  This is actually something I didn’t mention.  It only has 128mb of ram as opposed to the 256mb’s that some smart phones are coming with.  This actually is a pain because the phone starts to slow down with to much open.  So yes multiple apps is cool but it’s restricted.  By the way the phone is partitioned so that the OS is on the 100mb partition and the 2nd partition is 32gb’s.  I don’t know why they did this because they have a store and really want you to put apps on it.  More on this later.  So digging in I really wanted to check out some of the more common apps that I use.
The first thing I did was setup my email  Though it doesn’t look much or feel much different, it’s very easy to setup.  All I had to do was enter my email address and it went out and pulled the settings for me.  I really like that since my N95 required a lot more.  As for the rest, it felt like my old phone.
The next thing I checked out was the Contacts.  This app is ok.  I mean it is what it is.  I can enter all the information I need, add or remove details that I want and so on.  It let’s me add pictures and custom ringtones for each.  If you have an account with their service called OVI, you can sync it both ways.  This is nice and can save you a lot of time.  I opted to start from scratch and type in everybody’s one by one.  It took a while but my old contacts had issues.  I then put a widget on the home screen that allows me to put 4 people on it.  It’s shortcut that shows their picture and has

Head phone jack dead center!

their name below it.  You can have up to 8 on there.
Then I went into the music player.  I used my old phone as my primary mp3 player.  I do own and iPod which I really like but I listen to my phone when I drive to and from work as well as when I go running.  Now I’ve read other reviews and it been mostly mixed but I have to say I really like the music player.  It’s nothing special in that it shows the album artwork and has the typical stop/play, and fast foward/Rewind buttons.  What really makes this awesome is the built in FM transmitter.  I thought this was so nice as I occasionally download podcasts right to my phone and now I could play them through my car speakers.
Another app that ties into this is the podcast app.  I went in and subcribed to a few podcasts.  I downloaded a couple to test out the quality.  It did what it was supposed to but I thought it could use a little work.  They have an option to search for podcasts but it didn’t find some of the ones I listen to.  They are pretty popular and I was surprised not to see it there.  You can also add them manually but it requires you to go onto a computer and find the link to the podcasts then enter it and name it on the phone.  They really need to get a better search engine.  The iPhone makes it easy in that you go into the iTunes store on the phone and you can pretty much find most things since most podcasts are in iTunes.
The next app I checked out was the Nokia browser.  One big reason for me to buy this phone over others was for this.  It comes with a full HTML browser and does have support for flash.  This is a big selling point for me because I go to some sites that require flash.  Overall though, the browser is ok.  I would have thought they would have put more into this since it really is an internet device  It looks very dated and they didn’t make any significant changes from their old browser.  I really like using an RSS reader and my old N95 came with it which I used daily.  Well this one did as well but they really put it deep in the menu section.  It used to be so easy, you click internet and it’s right there highlighted.  Not any more, you have to click options, goto, then scroll down to Web feeds.  Once there though they lay it out nice and it has shortcuts to refresh whatever is highlighted or refresh everything.
Another cool feature I was looking forward to was the new Maps.  The phone comes with GPS built in and also has a compass.  I fired it up and went through the typical first time opening up an app and was on my way.  I connect quick and I setup a route and it showed and talked to me giving me turn by turn.  The only bummer part is the voice turn by turn is good for 90 days.  After that you have to pay for it.  Well I went and played around and found that they haven’t really updated their info lately.  When I went to look for fast food, it showed a restraunt that hadn’t been there for over a year or so.  So a couple of weeks ago they updated to the new Maps 3.0.  I went out and updated my phone to it and what a mistake that was.  It was taking my phone minutes to connect to satellites where it was about 15 to 30 seconds before.  So frustration #1.  My friend and I were going to lunch so I pointed it to the restaruant we were going to and it kept telling us we were on different streets than the one we were on.  It would always put us on the street we were crossing having to recalculate itself.  Very annoying and very frustrating.  Well they just came out with and update for it and I applied it and haven’t had much time to try it.  I will say it does connect a little faster but I’m not sure that’s consistant.  I tried reinstalling it but it didn’t help.  I downloaded a couple of apps but I want to talk about the store and downloading in another section.

3 out of 5 Stars

Ovi Store

Ovi Store screen shot

This is the worst part of the phone and I can’t believe that they didn’t push this harder.  Every company seems to have an app store for their smart phones and this one definitely comes in last.  It’s clunky, there’s nothing available, and I feel the biggest problem is that it’s not separated by country.  This is hard because I was looking for a city guide app and everything I found was for Europe.  It makes it hard that you can’t use some of these apps.  Another problem is there really isn’t that much there.  Nokia should have really got behind it and worked with developers to get content up there.  I did download a few apps and that part was nice, the only problem is I can’t find anything I want.  Nokia needs to restructure it and integrate it better with more support.  I mean when I open the Ovi Store app for the first time, it said it needed to install it first.  Really?  Install what’s probably one of the more important features of the phone and one that has been around longer than the phone has been out.  Another thing I noticed that I couldn’t believe is the price for some of these downloads.  They do offer somethings for free but they also have things that you have to purchase.  I saw wallpaper that cost money which should have been free.  There’s not much else can say here as my experience with it hasn’t been the greatest.

2 out of 5 Stars

Well as you can see it’s been a mixed bag for me which leads me to another big problem I encountered.  I was using my phone when all of a sudden it froze.  It finally came up and when I went to the home page, it didn’t display properly.  I turned it off and back on only to have the same problem with my home page.  I did a soft reset with no luck and my only thing left was to do a hard reset.  Meaning wipe the phone and start over.  Well I did that and it fixed it.  I backed up my contacts before hand so importing them wasn’t a problem.  I went through the rest and customized it to my liking and so far it’s ok.  One thing that is nice is that most of my gripes can be fixed with updates.  They’ve had one major one and it fixed some bugs.  Hopefully they can fix these other things as well.  One thing that I saw is that they announced a new operating system and the N97 is on the list that will support it.  Hopefully it comes sooner than later.

I’ve been playing with the phone for about 3 weeks now using many of the features and comparing it to the new iPhone.  I know everybody says that but as Dick knows I was looking at both of these phones before either came out.  The new iPhone has many great features, some that have been in Nokia’s for years, and some that Nokia could take a look at.  I’m still not sure what I’m going to do as I have 30 days to decide if I want to keep this phone.  I think I would miss the camera the most.  The iPhone only has a 3 megapixel with no flash.  I did see quite a lot of photo’s though and I am impressed.  It’s a huge difference from their old phone.  One thing with the iPhone though is it only supports one app open at a time.  Not to crucial but it would be nice to have multiple things open.  Also I would like to see some kind of flash in the browser.  Oh well this is an N97 review not an iPhone so I won’t keep going.

Overall I like the phone although it didn’t live up to what I expected for the price but again it’s things that can be fixed through firmware.  It does many things just not as good as it should do them only for the most part average.

Overall 3 1/2 out of 5 Stars

If anybody either has the N97 or the iPhone, please leave a comment on what you think about them.  I would really like to hear from you as I only have a few days to decide what to do.

Update: Got on my phone this morning to check my RSS feeds and they wouldn’t update.  Tried different things but all failed.  Only way to fix this is to hard reset the phone.  This was an issue I had on my last phone and thought it would be taken care of on this one.  I think I’ve made my decision as I am going to send this back for something different.  I’ve had way too many problems and can’t justify keeping the phone.  Not even to wait for the New operating system.  Oh well.  Any suggestions for a new phone?  Please leave them in the comments below.

Check back soon for reviews of both the phone and the OS.

E72

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