The Motorola DROID will hit Verizon on November 6th for $199 on contract. That’s after a $100 mail-in rebate. The DROID itself is the first of many Android phones coming to the carrier. There’s Android 2.0 of course, Visual Voicemail, a 3.7-inch display (854 x 480 resolution), 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, a bundled 16GB memory card and a beta version of Google Maps Navigation.

The DROID is the first phone to offer that last, which which will turn Google Maps into a turn-by-turn routing system. Some other features include a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3G, WiFi, voice-activated search and over-the-air Amazon MP3 downloads.

If that Motorola Droid that is aiming directly at the iPhone has piqued your interest, we have some good news for you today. Someone over at Motorola has posted the official Droid page live to the Motorola website and then quickly pulled it down.

Before the site was pulled, we had enough time to glean the important specs of the phone along with some clear shots of the handset. The device has a 3.7-inch 480 x 854 touchscreen, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with 4x digital zoom and dual LED flash, and gets a 1400mAh battery.

Verizon has launched a smack-talking offensive against the iPhone, with a new campaign called DroidDoes.com for their upcoming Motorola Droid Android smartphone. The handset, previously known by its codenames of Tao and Sholes, is being promoted as offering everything the iPhone can’t: an open development platform, the ability to run background processes, a flexible open App Store and replaceable batteries, etc. They really do some trash talking. Verizon has even set up a countdown timer showing that the Motorola Droid will arrive on October 30th 2009.

The teaser site starts off with some statements, all using the familiar i-prefix and in an Apple-style font. Stuff like “iDon’t run simultaneous apps”. Then a countdown page, with specs of the upcoming Motorola smartphone.

Halloween is almost here and while we all have a healthy fear of witches,ghosts,monsters and zombies, it’s robots that we should really be afraid of. Robots are capable of killing every creature on that list and then turning on us.

That’s why I’m proposing that we phase out all of the old monster decorations and Jack-o-lantern faces and replace them with robots. If you don’t fear them now, you will wish you had feared them sooner one cool October night when a red-eyed robot TPs a house with your intestines.

Sure, the obvious choice would be to buy an R2-D2 USB hub, but this guy is cool because he has that dark side look. Serious nerds know who he is already, despite the fact that R2-Q5 was only in the movie for like 2 seconds.

To the rest of you, all you need to know is that R2 was painted black and given a new name so that George Lucas could keep himself in flannel for another million years while he writes scripts in his crypt and while wearing pajamas and hugging a Jar Jar plush toy.

Our favorite droid gets a gadget makeover yet again. When is he ever going to get some respect? If he isn’t pulling aquarium duty, he’s keeping your stuff cold. And when he isn’t acting as your own personal fridge, he’s a drink server.

Well, now someone’s taken a Lego R2 and made him into a USB drive. Which is neat and all, but he still ain’t gettin no respect. Because when you plug the little guy into your usb port, he just looks like he got shot out of a cannon and got stuck in your laptop and should be flailing his legs. Such is the life of an overly merchandised droid.

Not since the Steampunk R2-D2 have we been so shocked to see the droid in a whole new way. But this time it’s droid blasphemy really. Now the robot holds a 1 3/4-gallon aquarium tank in his central compartment. We always knew there was something fishy about R2, but damned if this doesn’t make us sad. Astromech droids were not made to be used as aquariums people. I don’t care how bad the prequels are.

The domed head rotates with vocal commands and he beeps just like in the movies. But if Luke had this model with him in the Death Star, he would have had to stop and feed fish every so often. The radar eye houses the eyepiece to a built-in periscope that provides an intimate view of the tank.

The R2-D2 Whizzwatch while not heavy on style, lets you control a miniature version of R2-D2 with a special wristwatch IR transmitter. R2 is attached to it’s strap. Just unclip the little droid, put him on your desk and watch him go. The watch supposedly has a variety of digital readouts, and you can switch between 12/24 hour displays. It costs about $36. My concern with this watch would be running into some dude with a Jawa watch. If the two should fight, your little droid might end up in a Jawa sandcrawler.

This R2-D2 compact fridge is hot as tatooine outside and cold as the ice planet Hoth inside, so it will impress your friends and keep your food fresh. It was made back in 2002 as a promotional item for an Attack of the Clones contest held at 7-11 Stores in Japan. Apparently only 1000 of these rare refrigerators were ever made, making it a hot and cool collectible at the same time.

Luckily for you, you can buy one from Toyeast for $1070. Of course, that is probably your grocery money so you won’t have anything to put in it. Empty or not, you’ll have your own astromech droid. Now you’ll just need an X-Wing to put him in.

Another day, another R2-D2 doo-dad to clutter up our lives. We’ll add this one to the droid dossier we’re compiling on the little guy. And for once, R2’s dome is intact and not decapitated. Just barter with some Jawas, bring this clock home to the moisture farm and have him project the time onto your wall.

At least having the time projected onto your wall makes it easy to see at night, plus you don’t have any shelf space left since your shelves have become a landing pad for Star Wars vehicles. The R2-D2 Projection Alarm Clock from Wesco Limited will be released in October and can now be pre-ordered. Should you be cleaning him one day with a screwdriver, just ignore any holographic messages he plays. Because the hot chick is probably your sister anyway and it will all lead to a lot of planet hopping, Jedi training and bad prequels. Wouldn’t you rather just kick back and have some blue milk?

One thing about R2-D2’s design that Lucas never anticipated was that it would provide so much versatility when decapitated. From the R2 ice bucket, to R2 speakers, this little droid loses his head all the time. I’m surprised he hasn’t been in a Highlander movie. C-3PO is the prissy effeminate one and he hasn’t had so much bad treatment.

Now headless R2 will serve you up some cold drinks as a USB cooler. It goes on sale August 8. All I know for sure is that somewhere there is a huge warehouse full of R2-D2 scalps. Some nerd will likely wander in one day and have a nervous breakdown at the horrible sight.

For some reason Tomy decided to release a new See-through R2-D2 with lightsaber remote. I guess they like their droids looking like ice.

R2 does everything that previous models have done, like move forward or turn on command, rotate his dome as he rolls, beep and whistle, and illuminate his photoreceptor “eye”. All while looking “chill” this time. This version should probably be serving drinks on Hoth. Well, it is a Star Wars item, so you might want to buy one or two less comics this month with your allowance.

Here’s what you get when a mad scientist from the 19th century creates a droid. The only thing missing is C3PO in a gentleman’s suit and bowler. It was made by Deviant Art user Amoebabloke, who has mad droid modding talent.

It’s got to be one of the cooler steampunk projects I’ve seen. In fact I want this droid to have it’s own show, solving crimes in Victorian London, meeting Jack the Ripper etc. Have my people call your people.

I choose neither the light or the dark side, instead preferring to the subtle arts of the Geek side. Which is why I love these Star Wars USB hubs. Best of all, no Jar-Jar or Ewoks. Just your favorite droid and your favorite Sith Lord. The details are super nice too.

Both feature four full-speed USB ports in front. We think R2’s head moves every 3 minutes and lights up, and both have sound effects from the movies so you can re-inact scenes as often as you like. They’re Japan only for now, but it’s only a matter of time. Oh yes, I will have one.

A long time ago in a galaxy far away…someone used the Death Star plans to build a paper droid and messed up the whole rebel plan. And so can you, if you have an ink jet printer, some scissors and glue.

It’s pretty accurate for paper, looks pretty awesome, plus it’s articulated. And if you really want to prove your paper droid making skills, you can use vector-based PDF plans to print and build your own life-sized R2 unit, but don’t let the Empire get a hold of the plans.