Droid a Savvy Choice for Smartphone Fans

All looks promising, but some think OS is still no match for iPhone

(NEWSER) - Verizon's Droid smartphone—built by Motorola and powered by Google's Android—goes on sale Nov. 6 for $200. Some early opinions on the iPhone challenger:

• The phone is "almost not worth writing about," notes Chris Dannen in Fast Company . It's "fine" but "doesn't advance" the Android platform. About all it has going for it is a cool commercial, "which is cool, if you like commercials, but less important if you like smartphones that do stuff well."

Verizon's alliance with Google an obstacle for Apple

(NEWSER) - Competition from Google's Droid platform may stall the Verizon-Apple marriage, meaning the iPhone will wind up branching out to T-Mobile first. With AT&T's exclusive deal near an end, furious speculation about which provider will be the next to offer Apple's signature device has focused on Verizon. But two industry analysts are predicting that Verizon, No. 1 in US subscribers with 71 million, will lose out to No. 4 T-Mobile. A big reason: technology More»

And Android users are chaste

(NEWSER) - If you're looking to get laid by a wider range of paramours, maybe you should trade in your Android for an iPhone. A new study shows that female iPhone users have an average of 12 sexual partners by age 30, and male iPhone users 10 partners, compared with six for male and female Android users and about eight for Blackberry users, FastCompany reports. More»

Move to Android seen as real challenge to iPhone, BlackBerry

(NEWSER) - Google and Verizon will partner on a line of smartphones and software running the search giant’s Android OS and served by the carrier. Verizon is the largest-yet wireless network to back Google, and the announcement could complicate what was once a simple smartphone rivalry between Apple and BlackBerry, BusinessWeek reports. Analysts expect a handful of Android phones by the likes of Motorola and Samsung by month’s end. More»

(NEWSER) - Even a gadget as good as the iPhone isn't without its annoyances, although luckily bigger geeks than you have cooked up workarounds for most of them, Jared Newman writes in PC World. Some major gripes:

• AT&T: The carrier's stranglehold in the US is becoming even more irksome as foreign iPhone users start to enjoy better tethering and multimedia messaging services.
• Weak email management: An update has added bulk email management, but there's still no simple way to delete or move batches of messages.