A little over a year ago, the Droid Landed on Verizon Wireless.  No one knew what it was, and up until that point “Android” was something from a Sci-Fi film.  13 months ago, the “Best” phone on Verizon was a Blackberry like the Storm. (Yes, I went there).  Verizon phones had the reputation of being locked down, “crippled” and just generally “uncool.”

The concept of a smartphone didn’t make sense to a lot of people. To them, smartphone meant “getting my work email on my phone when I’m on vacation.”

Fast forward to this week and Android is the fastest growing operating system in the world, with dozens of handsets on carriers around the globe.  The term “Droid” is part of our common language now.  If I told you I was looking at a Droid, you might not know exactly what I’m talking about, but chances are good you’d know I was talking about a phone.

So what happened?  What changed the market so drastically in an insanely short period of time?  The answer is that little device you see at the top of this article, the Motorola Droid.

Join the PhoneCan staff after the break as we look at why the Motorola Droid was different, and how it changed everything.

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This is an update to our overview of the Droid Pro on October 6th.

Verizon announced today that they would be launching the Droid Pro on November 9th, 2010 (tomorrow), as a pre-sale for online customers, and through specific “select Verizon Wireless Communication stores.”  Otherwise, the phone will be available through all sales channels on November 18th, 2010.  The phone will sell, on a two-year contract, for $179.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate.

The Verizon press release can be viewed here.

Our October 6th introduction of the Droid Pro included details about this phone.

After the “what is root and how do I do it” question, the next question I hear is often “What task killer should I install?”  The short answer to this?None of them.

Task killers are an odd animal because it’s something that most reps will offer to install for you, and if you install it you WILL notice an increase in battery life.  But those same results can be had without installing a task killer, and task killers often cause more problems than they solve, especially for the average consumer.

Verizon Wireless and Motorola announced yesterday the launch of two new Android devices in their Droid/Android line of phones: The Motorola DROID PRO, and the Motorola Citrus

Many people inside the rumor mills found online thought the Droid Pro would be an alternate version of the Droid 2, also by Motorola - namely, a global version.  The rumor sites were in for a big shock when they discovered the phone had little resemblance to the Droid 2, looking more like a 2011-style Motorola Q.  (Author’s note, this is why PhoneCan doesn’t dig too far into rumors!)

Verizon hasn’t released any pricing for the phones, and their tentative launch dates are “soon” and “Q4 2010,” so expect to see pricing and availability later.

In the meantime, we thought some of you might be interested in reading some of the specs on these phones.

As we posted earlier, application prices will now properly display in local currency. This is great news for those of us who use Android because it removes one of the many confusing things about the market.

This is an extremely positive development for the market, and coupled with the 30+ new countries that finally support paid applications. The Android Market has come a long way since it first launched, but it still has a lot further to go before it’s the product that it should be.

I’m a fan of Android. I own a Droid phone, and I’ve gotten friends and family alike to adopt the platform. It’s improved significantly in just the year I’ve owned my phone, but when it comes to the market, there haven’t been many improvements, and my frustrations with it shouldn’t exist because they’re not hard to implement.

Good news for Android users: All application prices will now be displayed in local currency.

Previously applications used the currency of whatever country their developer uploaded them from, which led to confusion for consumers. Most of us don’t know how to translate Yen into USD without the aide of a currency converter, so we didn’t know the actual cost of the app we purchased until we checked our Credit Card/Bank Statements the next day.

Via [Droid-Life]

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and LIBERTYVILLE, IL  — High-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, customizable large screen, access to thousands of Android applications and hundreds of widgets and the best 3G mobile network in the country: DROID by Motorola arrives on Nov. 6.