We’re no strangers to tear down videos around here — we probably see at least one a week. This one, though… this one’s different. And by different, I mean awesome.

We’re used to teardowns being a pretty simple, somewhat boring affair. But this one has techno! And they shot it like an episode of friggin’ Gumby!

It’s amazing just how much stuff they were able to jam in there. When the bulkiest thing inside the handset is the camera lens, you know your engineering team rocks.

Google’s Nexus One phone was supposed to be the Internet giant’s big entrance into the mobile market. It was the first so-called “Google Phone” in that Google was entirely in charge of selling the thing, and it carried the Google branding in a more prominent way than other Android devices. Today, the Nexus One just got kicked in the pants — big time — and it’s Google fault.

Verizon, the nation’s largest wireless carrier, will not sell the device. Big deal, you might think — after all, the carrier also doesn’t sell the iPhone, and it seems to be doing just fine. The problem for the Nexus One though, is that Verizon had originally agreed to sell the device. In fact, Google announced the partnership at its Nexus One unveiling event in January. So what happened?

Some people will read this as Verizon potentially getting ready for the iPhone. That’s interesting, but then why continue to promote and sell other Android devices in a loud way? Others will see this as Verizon fearing Google entering its own space. If that’s the case, why agree to partner with Google in the first place? And why be more afraid now when sales through Google itself don’t look that strong? No, the real reason Verizon is dumping the Nexus One is much easier to understand: There’s simply a better Android phone coming shortly.

Just read Google’s own wording on their site that sells the device: “For Verizon’s network, you can buy the Droid Incredible by HTC, a powerful Android phone and similarly feature-packed cousin of the Nexus One.” In other words, Verizon is dumping Nexus One for another member of the Android family. Scandal!

I enjoy the way Google’s statement to Bloomberg about the move makes it sounds as if it’s Google’s idea.

Google decided against selling the Nexus One with Verizon because of “amazing innovation happening across the open Android ecosystem,” spokesman Anthony House said in an e-mailed statement.

Google was betting big on the Nexus One, and yet they’re the ones telling Verizon to sell the Incredible? I don’t buy it. Seems more like a small face-saving maneuver by the two companies who are, after all, still partners.

The HTC Incredible, by all accounts, is better than the Nexus One (which itself, by most accounts, was better than the Droid), so Verizon’s move makes absolute sense. Why not sell the best device rather than the second-best device?

For its part, Google should have seen this coming. After all, we did, and so did many others. There’s an interesting problem going on with the Android platform right now. Every few months a new device is coming out that one-ups the previous “best” device. It’s the reason I would never spend money right now to buy an Android device. If I’m buying a phone, I want the best version possible — that’s the myTouch 3G, no wait, it’s the Droid, no wait it’s the Nexus One, no wait, it’s the Incredible. As I wrote in February, “Here’s all I know about Android: if I were in the market for one of these phones right now, I would need a Xanax.“

Back in December, before the Nexus One was official, we noted that Google releasing their own Android phone made it seem as if they might be eating their own young. The problem was that Google, the company behind the Android platform, was releasing the best Android device. How would the others compete? Well, they are. And it’s actually more of a problem. The safest bet on an Android phone would have seemed to be the one Google was officially backing — nope. They’re all eating each other.

Innovation is great, and as an iPhone user, I’m happy to watch new Android phones come out and push the entire industry forward. But the problem for Google is that this internal battle to be king of the hill could dismantle an area where they really could have disrupted things. As I noted months ago, the real power of the Nexus One wasn’t the device itself, but the way Google was selling it. If Google could convince people to buy phones online, through vendors other than the wireless carriers, it could shake up the entire industry which, for too long, has been completely controlled by said carriers in the U.S.

This was going to be a slow process. When the Nexus One launched, there was only one carrier partner, T-Mobile, so there wasn’t much point to buying online. But eventually, the promise was that other carriers would sell the device this way. AT&T got on board, and Verizon was set to. This way, a customer could sign on and have the option of not only which plan to get, but which carrier to get. More competition between the carriers can only lead to good things. Except now, with Verizon backing out of the Nexus One experiment, it’s back to square one.

According to Google’s site you can’t order an Incredible through them, you have to go to Verizon to do it. Fail. Where are those “series of devices” we were promised, if this isn’t one?

[photo: flickr/snowkei]

Jonesing for a bit more info on the hotter-than-hot HTC Incredible before its April 29 release?
Well, you lucky devil, the full spec sheet has been leaked ahead of the Verizon launch, and it looks, well, you know… incredible.

On top of the already-known Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI, the Snapdragon processor, the 8MP camera with autofocus + flash, and the 3.7″ WVGA (800×480) AMOLED screen, there are a few nice surprises.

• 8GB internal storage
• There is nary a mention of the processor being underclocked to 768Mhz, so here’s hoping it’s running at the full 1Ghz.
• 802.11b/g/n compatible WiFi. Nice, especially if you’re into moving files back and forth wirelessly between your LAN and handset.

Of course, all the usual Android goodies are crammed in there, including Flash Lite 4.0 support, Google Maps with navigation, as well as the usual Google services including Voice Commands/Search, YouTube, Gmail, Calendar etc. There is no mention of an FM Transmitter in the spec sheet, so we’ll wait and see if it’s included or not.
Boy Genius Report have the full sheet for your enjoyment and perusal, so head on over and get your excitement on.

Oh, HTC Incredible, you just can’t stay off the Internet, can you? We’ve seen you in not one, but two series of spy shots, we’ve seen you leak out in alternative color schemes — hell, we’ve even spotted you roaming around Verizon’s inventory system. We sure are seeing a lot of you — and you know what? We don’t mind one bit.

According to the latest leak, we should be seeing a lot more of the HTC Incredible — as in, in the hands of the general public — within two weeks.

The word comes from DailyTech, who mentions nearly in passing that they’ve “confirmed that the HTC Incredible was supposed to begin to arrive at Verizon Wireless stores in two weeks”. It’s a fitting time, really; CTIA is just next week, so this could be Verizon going all-in on the blind to counter whatever the other carriers might have cooking up.

To recap, the Incredible is allegedly packing a 1 Ghz Snapdragon chip (clocked down to 768Mhz for the sake of battery life), an 8 megapixel , and 512 MB of RAM. HTC’s getting a bit experimental with this one, moving away from their generally flat and smooth surfaces to a hard-lined, blocky design on the battery cover. What say you, lovely reader?

HTC Incredible shown above with battery cover removed.

Verizon’s not going to be too happy about this one. From everyone we’ve spoken to, they really wanted to keep details surrounding the Android-powered HTC Incredible underwraps for a while longer. That’s understandable, given that the Incredible blows their current flagship Android device, the Motorola Droid, to smithereens on just about every count.

Alas, all it takes is one device to slip into the wrong hands — and fortunately for us, it has! A bunch of new shots of the HTC Incredible (with brand new, Verizon-brand-friendly colors) have just leaked out, and a gaggle of spec details came with it.

All of these shots and details come by way of Androidforum user/super spy NKT.

The specs confirmed so far:

• 8 megapixel camera with autofocus
• Memory: 512 MB ROM, 512 MB RAM (320 free to the user)
• Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI
• Optical Trackpad
• 3.7″ WVGA (800×480) AMOLED Screen
• 1300mAH battery
• FM Tuner
• 802.11b/g WiFi
• 117.5 mm (L) x 58.5 mm (w) x 11.9 mm (T)
• 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, underclocked to 768Mhz.

Go ahead – camp out on the edge of your seat for this one. It’s easily one of the most powerful Android handsets coming to the market; it’s a wee bit less powerful than the Nexus One, but packs a beefier camera as a trade off.

What do you think? Is this the Android handset that will rule 2010?

[Via EngadgetMobile]

Well, I guess the previous pictures didn’t have a white G1 in them. That’s something, anyway.

HTC cranks out Android handsets like candy corn – and we love that. The only downside to this, however, is that each new leak has us drooling before the last leak even has time to become a real product.

Our salivary glands were just warming up for the HTC Incredible and the HTC Legend, but now we’ve got the HTC Scorpion (possibly codenamed “Olympian”) to dream about. According to the very-latest of leaks, this thing might pack a scorchingly fast 1.5 Ghz processor and the as-of-yet unreleased Android v2.2.

The emphasis in that last sentence, though, should be placed on “might”. We’re by no means 100% convinced this thing exists. Someone hooked the guys over at AndroidSpin up with what is reportedly a build file from this “Scorpion” device. The catch here, is that this leak is purely text – no images, no video, and thus, nothing tough to fake.

We’ve dumped the full text of the build file below, but here’s what caught our eye:

• ro.product.board=cortex1.5ghz: Here’s the mention of the 1.5Ghz chip. Qualcomm just announced that they’d be making a 1.5Ghz Snapdragon chipset last month, and they’re not expected to hit devices for months – but if anyone had an engineering sample or two, it’d be HTC.
• ro.product.model=HTC Olympian and ro.product.name=htc_scorpion: The names believed to be the internal codename and the tentative sales name.
• wimax.interface = tiwlan0: WiMax!
• ro.build.id=FRE65C: Google names their builds after sweets, alphabetically. The Nexus One has the latest build, “Eclair”, with a build ID of “ERE27″. The next build is codenamed “Froyo”.

Find any other gems hidden below? Let us know.

# begin build properties
# autogenerated by buildinfo.sh
ro.build.id=FRE65C
ro.build.display.id=htc_scorpion-userdebug 2.2 FRE65C eng.xxxxx.20100206 test-keys
ro.build.version.incremental=26741
ro.build.version.sdk=8
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=2.2
ro.build.date=Sat Feb 6 13:42:06 CST 2010
ro.build.date.utc=1264645720
ro.build.type=userdebug
ro.build.user=u40000
ro.build.host=builder00101
ro.build.tags=test-keys
ro.product.model=HTC Olympian
ro.product.brand=generic
ro.product.name=htc_scorpion
ro.product.device=scorpion
ro.product.board=cortex1.5ghz
ro.product.cpu.abi=armeabi-va8c
ro.product.cpu.abi2=armeabi
ro.product.manufacturer=HTC
ro.product.locale.language=mdpi
ro.product.locale.region=
ro.board.platform=qsd8672
# ro.build.product is obsolete; use ro.product.device
ro.build.product=scorpion
# Do not try to parse ro.build.description or .fingerprint
ro.build.description=1.47.3.2 CL2***** test-keys
ro.build.changelist=2*****
ro.build.modelid=DF4732***
ro.build.fingerprint=generic/htc_scorpion/scorpion/scorpion:2.2/FRE65C/26741:userdebug/test-keys
keyguard.no_require_sim=1
# end build properties
#
# system.prop for scorpion
#
ro.sf.lcd_density=240
#
ro.home.ui.defualt.=0
ro.home.ui.media.scorpion.=1
ro.home.ui.sense.=0
ro.home.ui.define.=0
#
#
rild.libpath=/system/lib/libhtc_ril.so
wimax.interface = tiwlan0
# Time between scans in seconds. Keep it high to minimize battery drain.
# This only affects the case in which there are remembered access points,
# but none are in range.
# begin build properties
# autogenerated by buildinfo.sh
ro.build.id=FRE65C
ro.build.display.id=htc_scorpion-userdebug 2.2 FRE65C eng.xxxxx.20100206 test-keys
ro.build.version.incremental=26741
ro.build.version.sdk=8
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=2.2
ro.build.date=Sat Feb 6 13:42:06 CST 2010
ro.build.date.utc=1264645720
ro.build.type=userdebug
ro.build.user=u40000
ro.build.host=builder00101
ro.build.tags=test-keys
ro.product.model=HTC Olympian
ro.product.brand=generic
ro.product.name=htc_scorpion
ro.product.device=scorpion
ro.product.board=cortex1.5ghz
ro.product.cpu.abi=armeabi-va8c
ro.product.cpu.abi2=armeabi
ro.product.manufacturer=HTC
ro.product.locale.language=mdpi
ro.product.locale.region=
ro.board.platform=qsd8672
# ro.build.product is obsolete; use ro.product.device
ro.build.product=scorpion
# Do not try to parse ro.build.description or .fingerprint
ro.build.description=1.47.3.2 CL2***** test-keys
ro.build.changelist=2*****
ro.build.modelid=DF4732***
ro.build.fingerprint=generic/htc_scorpion/scorpion/scorpion:2.2/FRE65C/26741:userdebug/test-keys
keyguard.no_require_sim=1
# end build properties
#
# system.prop for scorpion
#
ro.sf.lcd_density=240
#
ro.home.ui.defualt.=0
ro.home.ui.media.scorpion.=1
ro.home.ui.sense.=0
ro.home.ui.define.=0
#
#
rild.libpath=/system/lib/libhtc_ril.so
wimax.interface = tiwlan0
# Time between scans in seconds. Keep it high to minimize battery drain.
# This only affects the case in which there are remembered access points,
# but none are in range

This is the so-called HTC Incredible running on Verizon. It has a Snapdragon CPU with 256RAM and a bold and beautiful screen a la the Nexus One. Interestingly, it has two rear LED flashes and appears to be clad in a red backplate which reminds me of butterscotch pudding although a video, now unavailable, shows it is really red.

Click through for a UI shot. Also, can I just say that I am more in love with Android every time I see it? It just seems fresh.

via PocketNow

Remember that leaked Android 2.1 ROM for the GSM HTC Hero from a few days ago? Looks like there was more to it than meets the eye. Tucked deep inside the ROM was a list of around 20 Android-based handset codenames, nearly all of which have never been seen.

The goods, as uncovered by maxisma over at AndroidSpin:

• Bahamas
• Bravo
• DesireC
• Dragon
• Dream
• Espresso
• Halo
• HeroCT
• HeroC
• Hero
• Huangshan
• Incredible
• Legend
• Liberty
• Memphis
• Paradise
• PassionC
• Passion
• Sapphire
• Supersonic

Some of these are handsets we’ve already seen hit the shelves (Dream = G1, Sapphire= Magic, Hero, etc) while others are codenames that were previously rumored (Passion, Dragon). Most, however, are brand new to the rumor mill. Might HTC really be working on 15+ new Android handsets? We can only dream.

Via BGR