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The HTC Merge (aka Lexikon/Lexicon) User Guide has leaked, and if you thought Verizon was going to let go of Bing anytime soon you can think again. The guide shows off Bing as the default search engine and also confirms that the phone will indeed carry global radios and Froyo.
DroidLife is reporting that the phone won’t carry the Droid branding despite the red color scheme that has been seen in some of the pictures of the handset. It should be landing just in time for the holiday season around early November. See the rest of the guide at the source link below.
[via DroidLife]
no droid branding wtf is dat lol den wat is it haha n bing?? u serious garbage ass fone dats all i gotta say ill keep my evo dats all i gotta say….
^ Did anyone understand the guy above me?
The mysterious htc “verizon” phone with a ffc and kickstand is for tmobile, Im calling it. The recent roadmap confirms my beleif.
Can we say “ebonics”? I guess people that talk/type like that have no clue how stupid it makes them sound. Pretty sad actually….i have a 3 y/o nephew that sounds more intelligent.
@Jonathan Drake
not at all.
@Keller
I’ve been thinking that since that article was first posted.. but I’ll give you the official “first calling it” .. I’m thinking about mid October. it will suddenly be “discovered” that this is really the myTouch HD and targeted for black friday sales. Merry Xmas to those that wait.
If Verizon doesn’t release another goddamn Google Experience phone (Droid1) that isn’t locked down, well I’m out. I have find coverage from all carriers in DC, and after 8 years with Verizon, this is what would let me leave them.
When does it launch?
Let me translate for elnene20:
.
ugh…. accidentally hit submit… anyway, here goes:
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“If there is no Droid branding on this phone, then what will it be referenced as? Also, why is Bing included on this handset instead of encompassing and embracing the Google experience? In my personal opinion, this phone is not adequate and I will continue using my HTC Evo on the Sprint network, which is capable of “4G” speeds in certain areas where said service is available.”
That’s what he said.
@Alex Very well done lol.
I really hope they do not keep using that Bing garbage. If anything give us the option to go back to google.
Verizon is going the wrong direction. Android phones shouldn’t be forced into Bing. Who the hell uses Bing anyways? I for one refuse to own a Google phone w/o Google search but uses Bing search.
As if you can’t easily revert the phone back to using Google with some root action..
It has bing as a default but you just remove the widget from your desktop, change homepage to google… or whatever you want, then get google search from the market. Done. You now have a perfect phone…. minus the glitches all new phones have. whatever they might be.
Verizon is only calling their FEATURE phones Droids.. Their higher end phones that is.. And these will come with Google
All the other phones they’re calling multimedia phones and raping them with Bing!!!
And i still haven’t figured out why they don’t consider the Galaxy S a FEATURE phone… Can anyone help me out with this..
All the more reason to root and ROM.
As long as it’s an HTC phone it will be farily well supported by the ROM community.
The enV will be interesting for my wife. She uses a BB now but loved her old enV. if it has the same hardware keypad on the outside and inside she will be sold.
This is just one more issue that will push me away from Verizon. When 89% of all mobile searches are done using Google and VZW would rather collect money from another company then give their customers what they want, then the line must be drawn somewhere.
@elijahblake
I don’t know anything about the details of what gets Bing vs what gets Google at VZW, but I can say that Verizon does not refer to it’s high-end phones as “Feature Phones”. It’s actually just the opposite. The feature phones are “non-multimedia”, “non-smart” phones by VZW standards, their “lower-end” phones to be specific. Their “higher-end” phones are classified as “smart” phones.
I would never buy an Android phone with Bing especially if it was locked down so I couldn’t change the default. Verizon’s approach takes away the biggest asset for Android…being open.
I don’t see the big deal about Bing. Google search is available in the market. Just add it and use the one you want. I see it as an extra option. I prefer Google but it’s ok to offer the other. I actually wish they didn’t put either on by default. I’ll add the search tool I want.
Thanks Dennis, haha
Thanks Dennis, haha
That’s my future phone I’m just going to download Google search google voice search and Google maps from the market!! What the heck do they even but Bing??!?!?!!
“15. elijahblake wrote on October 1, 2010
Verizon is only calling their FEATURE phones Droids.. Their higher end phones that is.. And these will come with Google
All the other phones they’re calling multimedia phones and raping them with Bing!!!
And i still haven’t figured out why they don’t consider the Galaxy S a FEATURE phone… Can anyone help me out with this..”
As David pointed out, a feature phone is a BREW phone on Verizon… it has no multimedia functions other than MMS ability and perhaps a WAP browser if you’re lucky – a flip phone is a good example of this… a multimedia phone has a limited HTML browser, your enV phones, the Dare; those are your multimedia phones… then there’s smart phones, which have their own dedicated OS that makes them fundamentally different than even competing smart phones, and is coming dangerously close to being a PC replacement.