Sixteen months ago I wrote in On Callthat I was not prepared to dance over Motorola’s grave. While some analysts and tech journalists weren’t sad to see Moto go, I wouldn’t savor a cell phone world without a company that had such a pioneering role. Over the following year, however, Moto has done little to …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung Moment (Sprint) 2:17 In case you haven’t noticed, the Google Android dam has broken. For almost a year HTC was the only manufacturer to offer handsets with the operating system, but in the past month, Motorola and Samsung almost fell over each other to offer Android smartphones of their own. Moto gave us the satisfying …

It’s not very glamorous, but this battery pack delivers iPhone power on the cheap. Meritline The older your iPhone gets, the worse its battery performs. Don’t blame Apple: it’s just the nature of rechargeable batteries that they wear out over time. Sadly, you can’t just swap in a new one–not without some warranty-voiding surgery. But you can plug in external …

As Verizon Wireless prepares to unveil its new Motorola Droid smartphone tomorrow, Google today released the SDK for the much-anticipated 2.0 update to the operating system. Code-named Eclair, Android 2.0 offers a number of feature improvements and interface tweaks. As expected, we will get multitouch support (yay!), but Google has some surprises up its sleeve. Here are the highlights that …

If news of the imminent Motorola Droid announcement wasn’t exciting enough for Android fans, it looks like Sony Ericsson is set to make a similar claim. Could it be? (Screenshot by CNET Asia) Though the message on the Sony Ericsson website isn’t Android specific, if there’s any upcoming SE handsets capable of “crossing the line” between the extraordinary and the …

It’s been a big day for Google Android news, but Verizon’s upcoming Droid phone (and the accompanying TV commercial) are only part of the story. T-Mobile put its Cliq handset on preorder and juicy tidbits leaked out from other sources. We told you last week that a GSM version of the Motorola Sholes cleared the FCC, but we failed to …

Verizon’s recent iPhone attack ad featuring its upcoming Droid smartphone has the tech world buzzing, and iPhone fans are taking notice. The iPhone Blog even posted a point-by-point reply to the commercial’s claims. While most of its arguments center on minutia (see the bit about the keyboard) the iPhone Blog makes one very good point concerning open development. “Really, Verizon, …

If you’ve never heard of Settlers of Catan, you owe it to yourself to read the Wired story, Monopoly Killer: Perfect German board game redefines genre. Then you owe it to yourself to buy a copy, as I did, and find two or three friends for one of the best board game experiences you’ll ever have. No friends? No problem: …

Correction, 5:25 p.m. PDT: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of iPhones AT&T sold in the third quarter. The company has not disclosed that information. This story also incorrectly described Verizon Wireless’ churn rate. The story has been corrected to reflect the changes. Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg said Monday during the company’s third-quarter conference call …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung Blue Earth 4:07 As it does with most trends, Samsung is pursuing eco-friendly cell phones with vigor. It already gave us the Samsung Reclaim, and now we finally have a chance to review the Samsung Blue Earth. Like the Reclaim, the Blue Earth’s shell is made from recycled materials–specifically, plastic water bottles–but it goes a …