BGR got their hands on another picture of the Motorola Droid aka Tao aka Sholes and it's...fuzzy. Though of course, a picture of the upcoming Verizon Motorola Android handset is better than nothing, we do wish it came at a higher resolution. BGR's sources also tell them that the ROM on the Droid aka Tao aka Sholes is getting new builds daily--maybe they're trying to reach a deadline and release this puppy? Let's hope so.

Another shot after the break!

We've heard about the Acer Android Netbook for so long that it's almost surprising that it's now a reality...sort of. You can pre-order the Acer Android Netbook right now on Amazon for the netbook-ish price of $349.99. The Acer Aspire One D250 will dual-boot Android and Windows XP and pack your typical netbook specs: 1.66 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB HD, and 10.1" display. Battery life is supposed to hit 9 hours (or just around your T-Mobile G1. zing!)

There's no ship date listed but we're hoping this comes out very, very soon! Who's going to buy this Android netbook?

Here's a quick tour of the major features of the Motoblur interface and service on the Motorola Cliq. I got this tour at the Moto booth at CTIA and after fighting a recalcitrant SD card for several days, I'm happy to say I've saved the video and present it here for you slavering Cliq fans.

Overall I'm quite impressed with the Cliq - but as with the Sense UI on the HTC Hero, I worry that the proliferation of widgets, email clients, and the like will confuse new users. As a power user myself, I find them all to be a joy. Perhaps we're approaching the day where all smartphone users start to look like power users. What do you think - does Motoblur look like it would appeal to Aunt May?

By now, we're hoping that you guys are all enjoying Android 1.6 'Donut' and using all the new, unique features of 'Donut'. Google highlighted one of these features, Quick Search Box, in the above video and we think it's worth a look to see how powerful the Search toolbar has become.

Basically, Quick Search Box searches both locally on your phone and on the web. You can search through your own personal apps, contacts, and browser history as well as on the web for local businesses, weather, movie showtimes, etc. all through one search box. It's smart, it's fast, and it'll find you what you need.

Suggestions begin to pop up while you type and Quick Search Box even 'learns' your habits, providing faster access to items you search for and use most often. The microphone button can be used to both search and call contacts, a great new feature! But it doesn't end there, third party developers will be able to offer suggestions in Quick Search Box--greatly expanding the scope of Search. Imagine being able to search Twitter on your home screen via a Twitter application that supports Quick Search Box. This is going to be huge for Android.

What do you guys think?

[google mobile blog]

If you're into planning and saving the date, Google would like to let you know that Google I/O, Google's largest developer conference, will be returning to the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA on May 19-20, 2010. There's not much you can do for the event now, considering early registration starts in January 2010, but consider our calendars marked. Google I/O 2009 was the event where they gave free Google Ions aka HTC Magics aka myTouch 3Gs to attendees and introduced Google Wave. What will be in store for 2010?

The HTC Tattoo, HTC's other Android device that runs HTC Sense, is now available across the pond. Vodafone UK customers are now able to purchase this highly customizable, highly affordable Android device and immediately 'make it their own'. By heading to TattooMyHTC.com, users can either choose from a slew of design options or even dabble and create their own. Basically, you can Tattoo your Tattoo.

If you want to buy a pre-existing design cover, it'll run you €11.99 but if you want to harness your own creative nature and completely build your own design from scratch, it'll be offered for €14.99. Let us know what designs you guys come up with!

It's no secret that T-Mobile is trailing behind its competitors as the 4th biggest nationwide carrier here in the States. In fact, it seems that no matter what they do (being Android's #1 supporter for one), they can never seem to gain enough traction on the other carriers. So it comes to no surprise that T-Mobile is prepping a game changing feature that'll allow them to skip out of 4th and completely re-ignite the wireless market. The question is, what will that game changer be?

T-Mobile's Project Dark (or Project Black) is purported to be the ace in the hole for T-Mobile. There are rumors abound suggesting that it most definitely is game changing, but no one really knows what it's going to be. Some are even speculating the spectacular--that the iPhone is on its way to T-Mobile (not going to happen). But we think even the iPhone isn't big enough for this announcement --T-Mobile will need something truly shocking.

More reasonable suggestions of what Project Dark is, is that T-Mobile is prepping successive launches for their most anticipated handsets (Motorola CLIQ, Samsung Behold II, Blackberry 9700) along with a hyper-launch of T-Mobile's 21Mbps HSPA+ super-3G network. Having top-end handsets with the absolute fastest 3G network in the US is certainly noteworthy. But the best and what we think most game changing feature would be is the report that T-Mobile is planning to launch a $50 all-you-can-eat rate plan that'll give users unlimited SMS, MMS, and data along with your usual slew of minutes. Can you imagine every other carrier scrambling to respond to that? The whole industry would be shaken up (and we reap the benefits!).

As far as we know, T-Mobile is planning to launch Project Dark by the end of this month (October 25th being the date everyone is pointing to). Is it possible to fulfill impossible hype?

What do you want Project Dark to be?

 [via bgr, tmonews]

Likely in response to the launch of the HTC Hero on Sprint, Walmart has just dropped the price of the original Android phones. Both the T-Mobile G1 and the myTouch 3G received price drops and if you're a current T-Mobile customer wanting to get a taste of Android, it's as good a deal as you're going to find. The T-Mobile G1 is now $48.88 and the myTouch 3G is $98.88 (with new 2-year contract). It's a really great deal considering how many 'dumbphones' are offered for the same price.

Though the website still lists the T-Mobile G1 as 97.77, it looks like Tmonews has received confirmation of the price drops. We suggest you contact your local Walmart to see if they are carrying this low, low price.

Check the back of your Sprint HTC Hero, does it say 'with Google' or 'HTC'? Our version simply says, 'HTC' but some users on the Sprint Users forum are reporting that they have the 'with Google' branding (like the picture above). Some pictures of the box also shows the 'with Google' branding which strikes us as odd considering earlier reports indicated that HTC Sense would not available on 'with Google' aka Google experience phones.

No one really knows why there is 'with Google' branding on the HTC Hero but there are a couple user theories floating around. Some users are postulating that Hero's without Google branding were manufactured earlier and those with the 'with Google' branding were added later (this makes the most sense). Some users are even saying that those without Google branding are stuck with EV-DO Rev. 0 and those with Google have EV-DO Rev. A. Rev A has slightly faster download speeds and significantly faster upload speeds than Rev 0. The HTC Hero was marketed with EV-DO Rev. A.

To check when your Hero was manufactured, open up the dialer and punch in ##786# to get Reverse Logistics open and scroll down to the Manufacturer's Date. The date will be listed in the d/m/y format. To see which EV-DO you're connected to go to Settings > About Phone > Status > Mobile Network Type. We're not certain there's an actual difference between Hero's branded as 'with Google' and those without but if we're all using EV-DO Rev. 0, that's alarming.

Our Hero at Android Central does not have the 'with Google' logo, was manufactured on 4/9/2009 (Sept. 4, 2009), and currently reads EV-DO Rev. 0.

What about yours?

Update: According to Sprint, the Rev. 0 issue is a mere visual display bug. Even though your Hero says you're connected to EV-DO Rev. 0 and only EV-DO Rev. 0, if you live in an EV-DO Rev. A area, you'll be connected to that Rev. A network no matter what the phone says. We'll have to take their word for it and hope this visual display bug gets fixed in the future!

a big thanks to Andrew Starr & tom for the tip and the Sprint Users forum for the info!

Last week was the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference. We had coverage at a few of our sites, but Kevin Michaluk and I also sat down with Mickey Papillon of The Cell Phone Junkie to record a podcast about our thoughts on the event - worth checking out. Here's what else went on in the smartphone world this week.