And now, an epic battle between the Motorola Droid and the Palm Pre Plus -- Verizon phones, both -- in the finals of Laptopmag's March Smartphone Madness tournament. The poll closes April 5, so vote early and often. And let's not let our cousins at PreCentral.net go away with bragging rights, m'kay? Vote!!!

Final Round: Which Smart Phone is Better?answers

Ho ho! Look what we have here! According to mobileSyrup, the Xperia X10 (yes, the phone that was supposed to launch last year) is supposed to hit Rogers in Canada in two weeks' time. As the rumor goes, the launch date is set between April 7 and April 14, and the Xperia X10 will run for $149.99 with new 3-year contract (that's standard in Canada) and $549.99 sans contract. A pretty good deal considering what the price was originally rumored to be. But don't you Canadians get excited yet, because when it comes to the Xperia X10 we have to always, always consider Sony Ericsson's flakiness. Be prepared for disappointment while hoping for the best.

Skyfire, the popular Windows Mobile (and more recently BlackBerry) browser made famous for its proxy-based render-anything features, is working on an Android application and looking for a few good alpha testers. And when we say alpha testers, we mean not-ready-for-primetime, expect-some-bugs, alpha testing. If you want in, e-mail alpha at skyfire dot com with your name, country you live in, and what device you use. It's a limited beta, and not everyone will get in. So good luck! [Skyfire]

Hey everybody! Grab a seat and settle in as we take a look at some of the cool replacement keyboards for our phones. One of the best things about Android is flexibility. Don’t like the way something’s done? Well then replace it!

Since we spend so much time and effort typing out mail and messages on our phones, the keyboard is a great place to start customization. Join us after the break as we compare the different ways to get your message across.

Drop what you're doing and vote for the Motorola Droid (now with Android 2.1!) versus the BlackBerry Tour in the Final Four of Smartphone March Madness. That is all. [Laptopmag]

Now that's a first. Panasonic is passing on "Google TV" because it'll be too expensive to implement Android on their sets. In the smartphone space, manufacturers love Android because of its open source nature (read: no licensing fees) but in the realm of television it's the opposite--because Android is a powerful OS, it needs a powerful computer-type chip to power it. Intel makes those chips, and they ain't cheap. The logic is, 'televisions are used to display media, not be a computer' but it sort of reeks of 'let's keep our margins as high as we can for as long as we can'. Televisions are quickly becoming hubs for Netflix streaming, Youtube viewing, and a ton of other web content. The current options are janky and slow, Google might have a solution.

We think if "Google TV" can prove itself awesome, Panasonic and others may change their course. But TVs have been so slow to embrace the internet that we don't even know if Google can pull it off. TV manufacturers want to give us 3D. We want the Internet, and Google, everywhere, right? [businessweek via androidandme]

So now that you've all updated your Motorola Droids to Android 2.1 -- what, you're waiting for it to be pushed out to your phone and not doing the manual update? Fine -- What do you think? Was it worth the wait? Was the hype all for naught? What's your favorite feature? Let's hear it, people. ...

And the long slog that is Apple's claim that HTC violated a number of its patents continues, with the International Trade Commission deciding to hold an evidentiary hearing within 45 days. That doesn't mean we're anywhere near a resolution -- remember that there's still a federal lawsuit that alleges HTC, in its manufacturing of Android (and a handful of Windows Mobile) smartphones infringed on 20 of Apple's patents. Sit back and relax, folks. There's a long way to go. [via PC World]

OK, we'll be the first to admit that our own hands-on video of the Sprint Evo 4G is less sexy than this one from HTC's YouTube page. And we'll be the second to admit that we've been watching this one over and over now for the last 15 minutes and ended up with a small puddle of drool at our feet. Do want. Soon. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Remember the BlueAnt Q1 Bluetooth headset Android application we first showed you last week at CTIA? Well, it's now available in the Android Market for those of you with the Q1 headset and Android 2.0 or higher. Oh, and need a Q1 headset? They're (shameless plug ahead) available in the Android Central Store for $89.95.