Flipswap will give anyone as much as $350 for their iPhone plus a guaranteed $25 bonus with Droid proof of purchase. By taking advantage of this third party promotion, your readers will not only be the first of their friends with the latest gadget – but they’ll still have enough left over to buy out their current smart phone contract or pick up a Droid Multimedia Station.

The specifics are simple: Trade in your iPhone by November 30th and use promo code “getdroid” at checkout to receive a $25 bonus credit. Include a copy of your DROID purchase receipt with your traded phone as proof of purchase to receive the bonus. You can visit www.flipswap.com/DROID to check it out.

Whoever came up with this idea is taking quite a risk, and most likely hoping the Motorola DROID is making a splash as enjoys distribution in the US courtesy Verizon Wireless.

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What do you think of the rumored interface? It looks too flashy for its own good, taking too much time to animate elements unnecessarily. No doubt the eye candy is sweet, but as our source says, it will probably grow old quickly. Maybe there will be an option to disable the more complicated UI animations? In any case, word on the virtual streets is that the Sony Ericsson “Rachael” will:

• Be part of the Sony Ericsson Xperia family, joining the Xperia X1
• Run on a modified Android OS interface
• Use the Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon platform. The processor-chipset setup promises speeds of up to 1 GHz, and is apparently capable of 3D graphics
• Support HSPA
• Feature an 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus
• Boast a 4″ touchscreen with WVGA (800 x 480) resolution
• Make use of a 3.5mm standard earphone jack and a miniUSB port

Updates to follow as they become available, so stay tuned!

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That’s just part of a three-fold plan:

• Android will be the major platform for Motorola phones. Goodbye Symbian!
• The P2K platform will power low-end models.
• Production of Windows Mobile devices may be outsourced.

Nokia should watch what happens closely. If Motorola’s Android gambit proves successful, it may push other developers relying on Symbian (LG for one) to start taking the mobile platform more seriously. The Unwired View speculates on further ramifications.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Thanks to its status as a Google product, Android is a mobile OS that enjoyed a lot of attention when it was first announced November last year. Especially since Google touted it as an open-source alternative to the closed systems dominating mobile phones, and promised to make the source-code freely available.

Interest seemed to wane as no new significant developments made the press rounds, and as a vocal sub-group of geeks went into orgasm over the iPhone 3G. But the FCC seal of approval has attracted the attention back, most of it not optimistic:

Several industry watchers contacted by Wired.com think it is going to be a challenge.

The worst thing Google can do is to rush a “half-baked product,” says Jack Gold, an analyst with J. Gold Associates.

And even Google has recently admitted that the operating system is not ready for prime time

This is actually not surprising, given the multitude of Google projects that were much-acclaimed, only to meet an eventual demise (anybody remember Google Answers?). You also have other projects that were doomed from day one.

With so much cash to burn, Google is pretty much throwing it all around, exploring new industries and trying to create new ones. It’s a sound strategy that may pay off if and when the company loses their current dominance in online search and search advertising (AKA diversification), but the side-effect is that graveyard of discontinued initiatives.

Then again, an FCC approval isn’t a launch announcement, but only an indication that a product has been approved for release into the consumer electronics market. Google’s engineers have so much time to improve on Android—let’s see what they come up with over the next few weeks, or even months.

It would be regrettable if Android ends up in that pile of ideas that never seemed to take off. Many people are excited to see what Google has to offer the mobile world. Let’s hope for their sake—and the company’s own—that ball isn’t dropped on this one.

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