The largest smartphone maker you've never heard of wants to capture the hearts – and dollars – of the U.S. consumer.

Motorola's (MOT) Droid phone is getting a ton of buzz, and that’s by design. Verizon Wireless (VZ) chief Marketing Officer John Stratton has said the marketing campaign behind its iPhone competitor will be the largest in its history.

But the Google (GOOG)-powered device isn't the only smartphone the company is likely to begin selling at the start of November. Though no one has officially confirmed, the carrier is expected to announce a second device that will also run on Google's  Android operating system at half the price: the HTC Droid Eris.

Haven’t heard of HTC? You aren't alone. More

Our correspondent goes to a geekfest and reports back on five new tools you need now.

Catch that mouse. Logitech's Performance Mouse MX is one to love. Photo: Logitech

I was in gadgetry heaven.

The Pepcom Holiday Spectacular in New York Thursday night was buzzing — and it wasn't just the sensation of mobile devices on vibrate mode.

With 80 companies — from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)  to Samsung — showing off their goods for the holiday season, the room pulsated with enthusiasm, competitiveness and innovation. It was like the recession didn't exist!

I can't go through everything I saw, but here are my top five picks of the most interesting, unique technology solutions for business (and then some honorable mentions). More

The way consumers use Apple's mobile phone (i.e., constantly) means big headaches for carrier AT&T. And more smartphones are on the way.

Randall Stephenson, chairman, CEO, and president of AT&T, holds up his Apple iPhone

At the South by Southwest music, film, and interactive fest in Texas earlier this year, the iPhone was all the rage — and not in a good way.

The device proved so popular with Internet-addicted attendees that AT&T's wireless network in the city of Austin buckled under the strain, all but shutting down both voice and data service for many customers.

iPhone users bashed the phone company on Twitter and in blogs, and AT&T (T) had to haul in extra network equipment just to ease the gridlock. More

Ever since Apple (AAPL) shipped the first beta version of iPhone 3.0, the new firmware scheduled for release this summer, developers have been mining it for evidence of any new hardware features that might appear in the next iPhone — widely expected to ship around the same time.

The latest discovery, via The Boy Genius Report: controls for a digital compass.

The first hints that Apple might be planning to add a magnetometer to the next-generation iPhone were reported in April by MacRumors. But this evidence is a lot stronger: a pair of screen shots with toggle switches for "Show in Compass" and "Log Compass."

What could you do with a compass-equipped iPhone? MacRumors offered several suggestions last April, including a couple prototype "augmented reality" games that combined real-world backgrounds with computer-generated characters.

But the killer app may be the one that was featured so prominently at the unveiling last September of HTC's G1, the first mobile phone to run on Google's (GOOG) Android operating system. The highlight of the press conference was the demo of a G1 running Google Maps Street View in Compass Mode.

Street View, which didn't appear on the iPhone for another two months, allows you to scroll through thousands of 360-degree panoramic street-level photographs of locations in the United States, Europe, Australia and Japan.

But the G1, which has had a built-in magnetometer from Day 1, took Street View one step further. Rather than having to drag or click to navigate the images of a particular street corner, you could just swing the phone up, down, left or right. The image on the screen shifted as the phone did, creating an effect not unlike the one you would get through a built-in camera if you were actually standing on that street corner, rather than just visiting it in cyberspace. YouTube video of an early demo is pasted below the fold.

It's pretty cool. It's been available on the G1 since that phone's October 2008 release. If the hints and rumors prove true, it could come to the iPhone this summer. More

Apple's (AAPL) iPhone took first place in J.D. Power's 2009 smartphone consumer satisfaction survey released Thursday.

The iPhone ranked highest in every category except battery life, where it was tied for last place with Motorola (MOT).

Research in Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry, by contrast, scored highest in battery life but ran with the middle of the pack in the other categories (physical design, ease of operation, features, operating system and overall satisfaction).

The survey was conducted between July and December 2008 among 2,648 smartphone users. Apple scored 791 on a scale of 1,000.

In a separate survey of 15,270 owners of traditional mobile phones, LG did best, followed closely by Sony Ericsson.

The iPhone's nearest competitors were two phones running on Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile: LG and Samsung. They were followed by HTC, running Google's (GOOG) Android. RIM, Palm (PALM) and Motorola brought up the rear.

Below: The smartphone consumer satisfaction summary. Individual scores below the fold.

More

So much for the physical keyboard — the lack of which on the iPhone was supposed to be a deal breaker for hardcore smartphone users in the business world.

Despite its much-maligned touchscreen, the iPhone ranks highest in customer satisfaction among business types, according to J.D. Power and Associates' second annual survey of smartphone users. Apple's (AAPL) device easily outscored phones with physical keys made by RIM (RIMM), Samsung, HTC (HTC) and Motorola (MOT).

Apple racked up 778 points on a scale of 1,000, according to a press release issued Thursday, "performing particularly well in the ease of operation, physical design and handset feature factors."

The BlackBerry scored highest in J.D. Power's 2007 survey with 702 points; this year it came in second with 703 points.

The iPhone didn't even make the cut last year.

"With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Apple has clearly differentiated itself from the competition in areas that are most important to business smartphone users," said Kirk Parsons, J.D. Power senior director of wireless services. "By making basic applications and features easy to use and providing functionality in a thin, lightweight device, Apple has performed well in exceeding customer expectations." (link)

Keyboards are an important factor when choosing smartphones, but not the most important factor. According to the survey, the top five reasons given for picking a particular model are Internet capability (45%), ability to use e-mail account (41%), overall design/style (39%), Bluetooth capabilities (37%) and keyboard style (37%).

Among the survey's other findings:

• Smartphones are buggy. 44% of respondents reported having to reboot their device at least once a week during the past 12 months, while 34% experienced either an application malfunction or application freeze one or more times per week.
• Prices are falling. The average purchase price of a smartphone device was $216, compared with $261 in 2007. Apple owners report the highest average purchase price at $337, while Motorola owners report the lowest at $169.
• Games are popular. 34% of business smartphone owners say they download third-party software, including games (49%), business applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel (43%) and travel-related programs (36%).

The study was based on responses from 1,388 business wireless customers who currently own a smartphone. It was fielded between August and September 2008. Overall satisfaction was measured across five factors: ease of operation (27%); operating system (24%); physical design (21%); handset features (18%); and battery aspects (10%).

See also Smackdown: BlackBerry Bold 9000 vs. Apple iPhone 3G, iPhone vs. BlackBerry 9000: The keyboard wars, round 2 and iPhone vs. BlackBerry: A battle for hearts and minds of developers

Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 3G and the G1 with Google (GOOG) unveiled on Tuesday have a lot in common.

Both are smart phones designed for users who want easier access to the Web than is offered by the current generation of RIM (RIMM) BlackBerries.

They share a lot of features — high res (320 x 480 pixel) color displays, motion sensors, support for GPS and Bluetooth 2.0, and venues for third-party apps. And they share some of the same flaws — both are locked to their respective networks, both lack video recording capability and full cut-and-paste text editing, to name just a few.

But there are real differences, which we've tried to summarize in the table below. If you spot something we've missed, let us know in the comment stream and we'll update the chart.

Detailed specs are available for the G1 here and the iPhone 3G here.

Several sites have posted side-by-side video comparisons of the two devices from the noisy demo room below Tuesday's press conference. Engadget, for example, compares the speed and responsiveness of the two Web browsers here.