AT&T has obviously been wounded by Verizon’s “Map” commercials.  They’ve been firing back with some speed claims that I’m sure most people didn’t take seriously.

But now there’s some evidence to back up the claim.  PCWorld has released it’s second round of speed test data taken between December 2009 and January 2010 in 13 cities, and the title of the story sums it up: “AT&T Roars Back in PCWorld’s Second 3G Wireless Performance Test.”

They also tested network/smartphone pairs, and AT&T/iPhone was the best performer.  PCWorld had this to say about the Verizon/Droid pair:

Our smartphone-based tests revealed some significant performance limitations of the Verizon network when we connected to it with a Motorola Droid. [...]

Overall, the Droid delivered an average upload speed of just 116 kbps, the lowest average of any carrier/phone combo in our smartphone tests. And in numerous tests using the Droid, we recorded upload speeds of less than 75 kbps–painfully slow if you’re trying to send data of any size up through the network.

We also had trouble establishing a reliable connection between the Verizon network and the Droid during our tests. Verizon delivered an uninterrupted signal at reasonable speed in only 76 percent of our tests–far below the success rates of the 90+ percent that the other three carriers achieved.

Download speeds to the Droid, on the other hand, were quite good, at an average of 1075 kbps; that’s not far from the upper end of the speed range that Verizon promised its customers, and ranks as the second-highest average download speed in our smartphone-based tests–behind only AT&T.

Now I may be an Apple fanboy, but I am definitely not an AT&T fanboy.  Their regular phone service has always been lackluster for me (just try calling me in my kitchen; I dare you), but this bit of news is kind of refreshing to see.

Everyone knew that the new Android 2.1 powered Nexus One phone by Google was coming to T-mobile. What was still being speculated was whether or not it would be jumping to additional carriers. There are no longer any doubts, as Google has just officially announced that the Nexus One will be headed to Verizon Wireless and Vodaphone. Pics or it didn’t happen you say? I gotcha covered my friends.

Picture taken from Engadget’s live blog of the currently ongoing Google Android Press Release at CES 2010 in Vegas.

Well I don’t think this was supposed to happen, but there’s been weirder. All that work hyping up the Droid with www.droiddoes.com (complete with an cryptic countdown that nerds later figured out ends on the 28th), attack commercials, mailing paper fliers out to specific members of the press for an exclusive invite-only event on the 28th…only to be thrown off track by the phone manufacturer? If they aren’t waiting to release the specs and features on the 28th, I wonder what Verizon has up their sleeves for the event next Wednesday.

As I was putting the final touches on my post, Motorola just took down the site. I wonder if someone made a big mistake or if they’re playing games here. Either way, I was able to snag some screenshots before it went down. Here are the specs.

By the way, Best Buy is rumored to have this phone available non-contract for $599. This number looks pretty solid considering that Verizon should knock it down to $199-$250 with a 2-year contract.

[Update] Here’s a video of someone navigating the site if you’re interested.

Official Droid page here

It’s official, the first Verizon Android phone will be called Droid. I’ve been anxiously awaiting this news for a long, long time and I could not be more excited.

Last week I posted about Verizon’s jab at AT&T and the iPhone with their “There’s a map for that” advertisement. As I suspected, it was the opener to this right uppercut. It doesn’t look like they’re going to stop anytime soon, either. I hope Apple is ready for a ruthless marketing battle, because it’s about to get real.

Hell yeah.

Verizon Wireless recently announced a strategic partnership with Google which will bring several Android powered smartphones to the “Big Red”. This is great news to people who have been waiting patiently for a worthy alternative to the iPhone on a network other than AT&T. Apparently the new partnership came with some freshly ground, bold confidence. Check out their new advertisement, which aired during House this week.

I love it.