[Macworld]

Post your comments for HTC Droid Eris here

[bonesb]

One element of the Eris you did not address - the call quality. The device is a mobile phone, after all?

[agrainofsalt]

I can see a lawsuit or 2, and a lot of confusion, coming over the use of the name "Droid". We now have the Motorola Droid and HTC Droid. How many are yet to come and does using the Android operating system give a company the right to use the name "Droid". There will be some rich lawyers coming out of this one, me thinks.

[People_Eater]

agrainofsalt, on 08 November 2009 - 09:05 PM, said:

How many are yet to come and does using the Android operating system give a company the right to use the name "Droid". There will be some rich lawyers coming out of this one, me thinks.

"Droid" is a trademark of Verizon.

Anyway, why is Macworld reviewing mobile phones? What does it have to do with Macs or Apple?

[lillithmaximus]

"Droid" is actually a trademark of LucasFilm. The Motorola phone is the "Droid" and the HTC phone is the "Eris." The word "Droid" is just thrown in there to reference the OS- which is Android by Google.

[People_Eater]

lillithmaximus, on 09 November 2009 - 02:26 AM, said:

"Droid" is actually a trademark of LucasFilm. The Motorola phone is the "Droid" and the HTC phone is the "Eris." The word "Droid" is just thrown in there to reference the OS- which is Android by Google.

Actually, it is a trademark held by LucasFilm, but it has been licensed by Verizon for marketing of mobile phones. It's not just a "reference" that anybody running Android can use, it's a licensed trademark.

[danielmclark]

People_Eater, on 09 November 2009 - 03:48 AM, said:

Actually, it is a trademark held by LucasFilm, but it has been licensed by Verizon for marketing of mobile phones. It's not just a "reference" that anybody running Android can use, it's a licensed trademark.

Right - and I wonder how long it will be before it becomes a generic, like Kleenex or Aspirin. Two years? Five years? If enough people reference any Android-based phone as a Droid, it could happen.

I agree with the question above: why is Macworld reviewing mobile phones? I could understand if the article was written from a "but is it an iPhone killer?" angle, but it's not. Not a major complaint, just curious why the editors decided to run the story.

[jdeg]

Another review of the phone here with comparison to the Moto Droid:
http://cellphoneforu...ris-review.html

[starstuff]

Few if any of the reviews of the new Verizon Android-based smart phones touch on the issue of syncing calendars & contacts; fewer still mention the Mac. It sure would have been useful for Macworld to do this, to talk about how the Eris integrates with the Mac. I find it baffling that this was left out of the review.