Motorola's Droid review: It's the best phone on Verizon          The Droid marks a notable shift for the nation's largest carrier. Verizon -- often renowned for its service, not its selection of phones -- seems to be wisely minimizing its interference with handset makers. What we get is an attractive and fast smart phone packed to the brim with features for $199 (with a two-year contract). The Droid hardware is a technical feat. It has a 5-megapixel camera with a flash that doesn't perform exceptionally well but still pretty great for a phone. The speaker is pleasantly loud. The touch-screen screen is gorgeous -- larger than the iPhone's with way more pixels per inch. Oh, and it has a keyboard. After spending plenty of time with the iPhone and MyTouch, we realized just how much we don't miss physical keyboards. Granted, the Droid's isn't as nice as most Blackberry keyboards. We spewed just as many typos on the Droid's black-and-white-and-brown keyboard as we did on software keyboards. Only problem is that we're not offered automatic corrections like we get on the touch-screen keyboard.   Impressively, the slide-out keyboard doesn't add much thickness compared with the iPhone -- the Droid is only slightly bigger and noticeably heavier. The keyboard is a nice option (geeks will enjoy the pro shortcuts), but if you're not digging it, you never have to pull it out. Motorola takes a step back with its navigation buttons. Competing Android phones use a scroll ball -- you know, that little nub that makes the Blackberry so good for e-mail. Instead, the Droid opts for a four-way rocker navigation with a center button, which sits next to the keyboard and provides little utility. Under the hood, the Droid runs a version of Android 2.0, becoming the first device that has it. That means it packs features and polish you won't see on the other guys -- most notably the free Google Maps Navigation software. AT&T activated a record 3.2 million iPhones in the third quarter--amid a severe recession, no less--with about 40% of the customers new to the company. AT&T is the only U.S. carrier Apple Inc. (AAPL) allows to sell the iPhone under an exclusive deal originally signed in 2007. Since most adults in the U.S. already own a wireless device, phone companies increasingly obtain customers by taking them away from rival carriers. The rivals bearing the biggest brunt of AT&T's success are Sprint and T-Mobile. Yet even Verizon saw a noticeable uptick in customer defections in the third quarter--not all of which could be attributed to a poor economy. "That was the iPhone effect," said Jane Sweig, a wireless consultant who runs The Shosteck Group. Since Apple shows no signs of allowing other U.S. carriers to sell the iPhone, rivals have tried to match its popularity by introducing handsets with similar features, such as touch-screens and easy-to-use software. Yet few devices so far have really come close to matching the iPhone or generating the same sort of buzz with consumers. Verizon, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD, VOD.LN), has seen its selection of high-end phones come under criticism. But it hopes the new Motorola Droid will help it counter the appeal of the iPhone. Citigroup said Verizon's advertising campaign for the Droid is its biggest ever.   Android has really come a long way in a year. The software keyboard is smarter, the included apps more sophisticated and the subtleties of switching between programs more natural. But for as far as Google's operating system has come, it remains several steps behind Apple's iPhone in many respects. Even though we ripped on Apple for leaving out the copy-and-paste feature for so long, there's something to be said about how it was finally implemented. It's simple and works incredibly well. On the flip side, selecting text on the Droid drives us nuts. The option is hidden behind a menu screen; there's no clever magnifying glass to help you grab the right section; and to copy, you have to again find the option somewhere in the menus. This design choice underlines a prevalent problem that still plagues Android. Some fairly common actions are hidden, including the basic ability to delete apps. (Here's a tip so you don't look like a stooge at the Verizon store: Press the lock icon and turn to the right to open the phone. The majority of people who played with our review unit couldn't figure out how to get into the phone.) Button layouts can vary widely from app to app. Transitioning between the many programs that can run simultaneously works well enough, but some can't be closed while others gobble up battery power with no warning. Android's Marketplace offers more than 10,000 apps -- that's certainly not on par with Apple's library of 100,000, but Android's selection covers most of the main utilities. As a game system, it's severely lacking. As a media player, it's even worse. The iPhone can sufficiently replace a standalone iPod. The Droid won't. Getting songs onto the thing is a hassle. No media sync, no smart playlists, no TV shows or movies. Sure, we love some of the features Motorola built exclusively for this handset -- things that could never be done on the iPhone without Apple engineers building it themselves. For example, the Droid phone book integrates with your Facebook contacts. But these little perks don't make up for the intuitiveness and maturity of the iPhone's operating system that Android has yet to match. Yet, as a phone, the Droid is top-notch. It integrates seamlessly with Google Voice and runs on Verizon, a telecom with a superior reputation for reliable call coverage -- unlike AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone. For at least the next couple of months, Droid will wear the crowns of best Android device and best Verizon phone. But Google is constantly making improvements behind the scenes to its mobile system, so who knows how long that will last? With more phone makers on the Google bandwagon, next year could very well mark the Droid renaissance. The Droid cell phone uses Android as the OS, and I know for a fact that there are at least three different spy phone vendors currently developing spy phone software for the Android OS. If you want to be the first who gets notified when Android spy software is released, you can sign up for the Android Spy Phone notification list. My guess is that we are only a month or two away from the first Android spy software, but it’s tough to say because all the spy phone vendors are keeping their own actual release date under wraps so their competitors won’t know what they are up to. So what will Droid spy phone software feature? Based on the spy phone features planned for Android, a Droid spy phone will have the following: Text Message Interception – Ability to secretly read text messages that are sent or received from the  target’s Droid phone. View Call Logs – This will enable someone to secretly view the Droid’s call logs, such as incoming and outgoing calls with the contact name that is associated to the phone number. GPS Tracking - This is a given as well. Stealth GPS tracking will be a primary feature of Droid spy phone software. Here are a few possible Droid spy phone features based on a few rumors I’ve heard. Don’t forget that these are only guesses based on rumors I’ve heard, so if you don’t see some or all of these spy phone features available when Android spy software is released, please don’t send me any hate email.  Remote Monitoring – Turn a Droid phone into a room bug. This Droid spy phone feature will enable someone to secretly listen in on the surroundings of the Droid phone. Picture Uploads - This new spy phone feature will enable a person to remotely access the pictures in the Droid phone. Remote Camera Activation – This Droid spy phone feature will activate the Droid’s camera and then secretly upload the picture to a secure online account so the person who is spying on the Droid phone can see where their target is. Call Interception – iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, & Nokia (Symbian) phones all have spy phone software that offers live call interception, so why would Android be safe? You can almost be sure that this feature will be offered. In summary, Droid spy phone software, which is based on Google’s Android OS, is definitely coming soon. Most likely it will be available before Christmas. Keep in mind that one of the best ways to get spy phone software installed on a cell phone and be 100% sure that it works, is to buy a compatible cell phone, install spy phone software, and then give to your target as a gift. Based on the emails I’m getting about Droid spy software, it seems more than a few people out there have this approach in mind, so if your spouse surprises you with a brand new Droid phone, be careful because as the ad says, “Droid Does Spying.”