Basking
Ridge, N.J. – Verizon Wireless plans next Wednesday to unveil its
next-generation Motorola-made Droid.
The
carrier didn’t disclose details but said speakers at a launch event in New York
would include Verizon Wireless executive VP/chief marketing officer John Stratton,
Google engineering VP Andy Rubin, Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha, and Adove CEO
Shantanu Narayen.
Verizon
currently offers five Android-based phones: Droid by Motorola, Droid Eris, Droid
Incredible by HTC, Motorola Devour and LG Ally.
Motorola’s
current Droid features the Android 2.1 OS, but the new model might ship with the
2.2 version of Google’s Android OS, recently unveiled by Google. The updated OS
will operate faster, turn Android smartphones into mobile Wi-Fi hot spots, support
Adobe Flash within the browser and add new camera/camcorder features, Google
said during a
here.
The upgraded.2 OS also supports
voice dialing over Bluetooth, supports Microsoft Exchange for enterprise users,
and lets users make room for more apps by storing them on memory cards.
Besides turning
the handset into a Wi-Fi hot spot that can be shared with up to eight devices,
Android 2.2 phones could also be used as a wireless modem when connected to a
Windows or Linux laptop via USB cable to share a wireless data connection, the
company said.
Motorola and Verizon
last October.
