A new Droid is ready to be unleashed on the world. On Wednesday, Verizon Wireless announced it will offer Motorola’s new Droid X, beginning July 15. The companies said the newest smartphone based on Google’s growing Android operating system offers “ultra-high-speed web browsing,” HD video, a one-gigahertz processor, the ability to provide a 3G hot spot for up to five Wi-Fi devices, “intuitive social messaging,” and Adobe’s upcoming Flash Player 10.1.
Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola, said the newest member of the emerging Droid line will appeal to enterprise users as well as consumers. There is support for Exchange and Gmail, filter widgets for separating work and home e-mail, live widgets for e-mail and calendar updates, corporate directory and global lookup, and a unified calendar that syncs with Google Calendar. IT departments will be interested in the security protocols that allow remote password control and wiping through Exchange.
Optimized for Video
The Droid X offers a 4.3-inch screen, a dual-flash eight-megapixel camera, an HD camcorder for 720p capture, and DLNA and HDMI connectivity for sharing or downloading HD. The handset comes with the newest Android 2.2 operating system, and Flash Player 10.1 will be available as an over-the-air update this summer.
In a press conference in New York where the Droid X was announced, Google CEO Eric Schmidt hailed the device as the beginning of a new category of smartphones optimized for video. To help take advantage of that optimization, the new phone features a Verizon deal with Blockbuster for buying or renting movies.
The first Droid was released nine months ago, and it’s now the top-selling Android-based phone. Google’s vice president of engineering, Andy Rubin, said 160,000 new Android-based devices are activated each day, adding that the Android Market now houses more than 65,000 applications. The number and quality of Android apps is…