Limited edition red DROID DNA for Verizon employees pictured

Verizon has been making a habit of offering special edition DROIDs to their employees. A few months ago, it was the DROID RAZR HD / RAZR MAXX HD, and now the DROID DNA gets the same treatment. As you can see the back is the same color red as the side grills that are on the normal retail model. It’s pretty cool looking, but might be a little too loud. If you’re looking to get your hands on one of these, you might want to check out eBay since you won’t find them in stores. A couple of more pictures after the break.

HTC Butterfly shows up on HTC web site

The HTC Butterfly, which appears to be a variant of the HTC J Butterfly and the HTC DROID DNA, has surfaced on HTC’s web site. With the slight name change comes a couple other differences. Most notable is the absence of LTE capability. Although that may be a negative, on the positive side the Butterfly’s storage is expandable via microSD cards.

According to an HTC spokesperson, the HTC Butterfly is slated for release in China. However, no information regarding availability in other countries or markets has been released. At the bottom of HTC’s page for the Butterfly, there is an offer for 25GB of Dropbox space for two years if you sign-up or log-in to Dropbox using an HTC phone. The footnotes to that offer indicate the offer is only available on the HTC Butterfly device, but not in China. This would seem to imply the Butterfly will be available in other markets.

source: Android Central
more info: HTC

HTC DLX not heading to European markets

Earlier this month we reported on the pending release of the HTC DLX to global markets. The HTC DLX is virtually a mirror image of the HTC DROID DNA recently released in the U.S. market. The device is almost certainly heading to Asian markets. When we reported on a possible name change to market the device as an HTC Deluxe, we wondered whether the device would hit European markets. Unfortunately, the answer to that question appears to be “no.”

According to a Facebook posting by HTC’s German account, the device is not coming to European markets. The post was made in response to another Facebook user who was inquiring about some images that had surfaced. This turn of events is some bad news for European buyers as we have found the DROID DNA to be an extremely capable device and would expect the HTC DLX to match its performance.

source: HTC Dach Facebook
via: PocketNow

Verizon Officially Unleashes HTC DROID DNA Smartphone, Finally Gives Customers Chance To Salivate Over The 1080p Display

Rob Nazarian and I got a chance to see the special device in person during its launch last week and now friends, the time has come for all customers to finally get their hands on what is undoubtedly one of the hottest devices of 2012. Verizon is officially unleashing the HTC DROID DNA in both its stores and online today. The latest entry in Verizon’s DROID line features a quad-core processor, 2 gigs of RAM, Jelly Bean and of course the whopping, but gorgeous 1080p Super LCD3 display. Interested parties can snag the device either from their local Verizon store or order online for $199.99 on-contract or a not-too-bad $599.99 off-contract price.

Be sure to stay with us and be on the lookout for our detailed review of the device, but in the meantime– why not check out our hands-on in order to remind yourself of how awesome this puppy is?

source: Verizon Wireless

HTC DROID DNA already rooted ahead of next Tuesday’s launch

It hasn’t even been released yet, but that hasn’t stopped the incredibly efficient developers over at XDA from rooting HTC’s new superphone, the DROID DNA for Verizon. The phone itself is quite the powerhouse, sporting a 5-inch 1080p HD display (the highest resolution display on a smartphone to date), a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 APQ8064 Processor, a capacious 2020 mAh battery, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and basically every other incredible spec that an Android fan could ask for! Combine the awesome hardware with the great custom ROMs that developers will be pushing out thanks to the newly achieved root, and you have yourself quite the handset!

Surprisingly, you will be able to open the bootloader using the HTCDev tools, unless Verizon puts a stop to it with some sort of update. After that’s accomplished, you flash an unsecured kernel and ClockworkMod recovery via fastboot, and finally flash the root.zip file.

If you’re planning on picking up the DROID DNA when it comes out, make sure to head over to the source link to do some reading before you dive into the wonderful world of root!

Source: XDA

Verizon to preload Amazon app suite on Android handsets starting with Droid DNA

Thinking about picking up Verizon’s latest superphone? Well, hopefully you’re a fan of Amazon. According to Amazon, Verizon will start preloading a suite of applications on their handsets, with the Droid DNA being the first phone to receive the Amazon treatment. Now if you absolutely despise bloatware – which Verizon loves to put on their phones – this is probably awful news for you. But if you don’t mind some useful, preloaded applications, you can do much worse than what Amazon is offering. The entire Amazon experience is fully integrated into Android, and gives you access to Amazon’s enormous library of music, movies, books, etc. 

The Amazon interface allows you to sign-in and easily purchase content with one-click, as well as search Amazon’s large number of products straight from your homescreen. Applications like Amazon MP3, Audible, and IMDB are also part of this “suite.” Personally, I think the interface is well done and adds to the content already available from Google Play. The only thing that I think everyone should be wary of is how Verizon will treat this Amazon storefront in the future. We’ve already seen Verizon force Bing onto handsets instead of Google search, and I would hate to see Big Red ruin a handset like this by cutting off the Play Store in favor of Amazon’s App Store. Hopefully that’s just a misplaced fear, right?

So what do you guys think? I use Amazon for a variety of services in addition to Google, so I wouldn’t mind some Amazon integration in my next phone. Does anyone agree, or is bloatware just a bad idea in general? Let us know in the comments.

DROID DNA officially announced by Verizon and HTC at NYC event

TalkAndroid is on the ground today in New York City where Verizon and HTC have just officially announced the new DROID DNA. The new device is intended to be the ultimate DROID device and the most advanced phone on the market. The hardware specs are impressive:

• 1080p 5-inch LCD3 display running at 440ppi
• Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor running at 1.5GHz
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB storage
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with Sense 4+

HTC indicates the display has a viewing angle of up to 80 degrees and is about 50 percent brighter than the Samsung Galaxy S III. HTC has also incorporated wireless charging in the new DROID DNA, a first for a DROID device. The cameras have been improved, with both front and rear-facing cameras now sporting f2.0 lenses. The cameras are supported by improvements to the camera app that includes better face detection, smile detection, a sight-seeing mode, and auto portrait mode. HTC did not neglect audiophiles with the inclusion of two built-in amplifiers, Beats Audio, and Beats Pill coming soon.

According to HTC Design Director Jonah Becker, the DROID DNA is meant to be the ultimate smartphone. It is scheduled to go on sale next week on November 21st for $199 and the pre-order page should be available later today.

Check back here at TalkAndroid for additional updates as we get our hands on the device and check it out.

HTC DLX Renders Surfaces, Gives Clear Indication 5-Inch Device Is Headed To Asia

While we just about know everything we need to know about HTC’s upcoming beast here in the States, it seems there will be some slight differences in the overseas’ variant of the device. According to various reports, new renders have surfaced highlighting HTC’s new 5-inch device
will is likely to be identified as the DLX in Asia, likely based off the HTC J Butterfly in Japan, as opposed to retaining the DROID DNA seen here in America. As seen in the photo above, it seems as if the render matches up quite nicely with what we’ve already seen— so this tidbit of news indicates the DLX is possibly be the real deal. The render leaks also highlight some good news for those of you in the Asian markets–  the HTC DLX is expected to debut in  China on December 6th and later on in Taiwan on December 10th in white, black and brown color variations.

Ladies and gents, let the salivating of this device commence!

source: Phone Arena

More HTC Droid DNA pictures show up on Twitter

There you go, folks. That’s about as good a look as you’re going to get of the upcoming Droid DNA, short of actually holding one in your hands. It’s consistent with the earlier rendering of the device we’ve already seen, so this is more than likely going to be what Verizon reveals on the 19th. With HTC’s recent drop in revenue, superphones like this are exactly what I think they need to earn back some smartphone market.

source: evleaks

Verizon makes the HTC DROID DNA official in name only, Google Hangout scheduled for November 19

This morning Verizon Tweeted a link to the DroidDoes website announcing that they will unveil the DROID DNA via a Google Hangout next Monday, November 19 at 12:00pm EST. Of course it will be officially shown off to the press this Tuesday morning in New York City, and we will be their on hand to give you all the details. There shouldn’t be anything too surprised as most of the information about this phone has already been leaked. Plus, it’s essentially the J Butterfly, which was officially announced a couple of weeks ago for Japan.

We are expecting it to have a Super LCD 3 display with 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution and 440ppi. If that’s not enough, it will also sport a 1.5GHz quad-code Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, microSD, 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, waterproof, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It’s also supposed to come in at close to 9mm thick, which is very impressive. The only real question I have is battery. The J Butterfly sports a 2050mAh, but I am hoping for a little higher. That display will take its toll on any battery.

source: Twitter

HTC and Verizon team up in New York on November 13th

When leaks and news get rolling on a given device, it seems that it just arrives in droves – which we definitely enjoy. The hot device of late, since the Nexus 4 has died down a bit, is the DROID DNA. Seeing as the DNA news and leaks are coming fast and furious, coupled with this promo shot of a ‘collaboration’ between HTC and Verizon, we can only assume that this ‘collaboration’ will be the official announcement of the DROID DNA in some fashion. Granted, it could be an 8x event as that has happened in the past, but we’re hoping for the official unveiling of the DNA.  After all, the timing seems right, or maybe that’s just my selfish enthusiasm. In any event, we’ll keep you posted as we learn more. Also, do you find it an odd coincidence that they’re holding this event on November 13th?