Gadget: The Motorola Droid w/ AccuWeather.com
It's that time of year! I'm spending some of my time off reviewing the latest in weather-related gadgets. It was a stretch but I got our R&D folks to let me borrow some cool stuff. Coming later this Christmas Break: The New Amazon Kindle, Ambient Weather Forecaster devices, and the Davis Vantage Vue electronic weather station.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc or AccuWeather.com. AccuWeather.com is or has developed applications or widgets for the Motorola Droid and Apple iPhone.
First: The much-hyped Verizon Motorola Droid, which we already have a Widget for (screenshot below), and we are working on some even cooler stuff.
Some people say the Droid will be the killer of the iPhone (which I reviewed in a Gadget Vlog two Christmases ago, and our iPhone app earlier this year). I don't know about that, but my experience with the device was positive and it sure does a heck of a lot more than my fairly standard Samsung Gleam phone. Generally I have heard good things about the Droid. Here's a brief video review showing the widget in action:
Sure, it was nice to see actual websites such as the New York Times in miniature, and have a Facebook app that actually looks like Facebook, but many smart phones have full web features. This may be the best smart phone on the Verizon network - in my opinion AT&T's poor service has held back the iPhone from where it should be in the market (local friends report they can barely stay on calls for more than 20 or 30 seconds, an experience I had here before I switched to Verizon in 2000).
What impressed me the most about the Droid was the 5-Megapixel camera. It produced images with clarity, focus and lighting to rival mid-priced digital cameras and, should I get one of these, I may not worry about carrying a regular camera with me anymore, something I have been hoping for, for years. Check out this picture that Mike (who let me borrow the device) took of his cat. My Gleam would have slaughtered the lighting and focus but the Droid impressed.
