Blogsphere alive with Droid 2 release date

Rating: Verizon will pick August 12th coz it loves Thursdays

The Blogsphere is absolutely jumping with rumours that US network operator, Verizon, will release the Motorola Droid 2 (Froyo) handset on August 12th. Speculation is based on an internal Verizon blog and the fact that Verizon loves Thursdays.

The chief source of the internal Verizon (VZW) blog leaks appears to be Droidlife here. It has certainly published screenshots of the Verizon Droid 2 internal announcement.

Significantly, Droidlife has followed up with a leak from the VZW blog urging Verizon employees to make themselves familiar with the Droid 2′s facilities.

Most observers have picked up on the fact that Verizon is pushing pretty heavily on the fact that it has a Qwerty keyboard and enhanced browsing.

However, Verizon is also going pretty heavy on the fact that the Droid 2 is a powerful email device – even going so far to mention that it has enhanced support for Microsoft Exchange. So the Droid 2 is supposed to be a Blackberry killer, too.

There’s another interesting fact hidden away in the blog. The Droid 2 will come with a Swype client pre-installed. This is a kind of T9 predictive texting software for touchscreen devices developed by one of T9′s inventors.

Theoretically, Swype is available for a free download on selected Android handsets but don’t look for it on the Android Market, try going to the company’s official web site here, where you can try signing up for the beta. Again Swype will make the Droid 2 a powerful email device.

Another curiosity is that Verizon is heavily promoting the fact that – being a Froyo/2.2 device – the Droid 2 is fully capable of acting as a Wi-Fi hotspot so that other mobile devices can access the Internet via its 3G connexion.

Why on Earth a mobile network operator would want to encourage non-customers to consume its valuable 3G bandwidth puzzles GoMo News but, the facility is being strongly highlighted by Verizon.

Good news is that Verizon intends to ship the Droid 2 with 8 GB of internal memory plus an 8GB microSD card.

Plus one of the standard software clients is Skype. There’s absolutely no mention of MotoBlur, BTW.

Incidentally, GoMo News is subscribed to an official Motorola blog which duly announced on Saturday that Verizon will indeed start pushing out the 2.2 upgrade to Froyo/2.2 for the original Droid as of then.

So everybody with a Droid should start looking for the upgrade as of now [August 2nd].

Also, GoMo News checked on the official Motorola UK site and you can definitely get the 2.1 upgrade for the Motorola Milestone. Shame that we are stuck with our Dext/Cliq 1.5 handset. Bo-ho!