If you are scared to ruin your precious Motorola Droid/Milestone you should seriously consider an Otterbox case: you won’t regret it.

Introduction and Installation

This Motorola Droid case is part of the Otterbox Commuter Series, will give your device added protection against bump and shock without an excess bulk (please note it is not protective against water).

Here is the review of its usage during a two weeks summer holiday, on the beach or inside the bag of a woman.

The case itself is made of three part:

• the frame to protect the sliding screen;
• the screen protector film;
• the keyboard case.

Package content from left to right: sliding screen frame, screen protector, keyboard case

Both the frame and the case are made of silicone skin wrapped in a polycarbonate shell and can be mounted on the device following the easy to follow instructions found in the box and reported below. The frame and case attach to the smartphone thanks to “teeth” which grab the sliding screen and the device body.

Mounting instructions: clear and easy to follow

Inserting the Droid into the case is easy

Examples of the “teeth” holding the case to the smartphone

Overview

The case has cuts on the shell to allow the usage of the camera and flash, as well as the proper functioning of the mic and speaker you find on the back of the device.

Details of the rear part of the case with the holes for the camera lens and audio

The case allows easy and full access to all the buttons and ports of the device: buttons are pressed thanks to the soft rubber surrounding the case, and the ports are protected against dust via the same rubber, which covers and elongates inside them for higher protection.

Camera (left) and volume (right) buttons are under a soft protective rubber

Charging port (left) and power button and headphone jack (right) find their place under safe rubber

To change the battery you will have to remove the keyboard case, which turned to be an easy to do operation.

Front view

Rear view

As you may expect, the case will not allow you to use the Droid’s docking solution. When tried with a compatible Droid’s desktop dock removing the keyboard case was enough to charge and sync the Droid, while it was also needed to leave the phone flip open to properly use the Motorola car mounter dock.

Conclusions

In the end, the Otterbox Commuter Series Motorola Droid case proved to be easy to install and well designed, with no dust found after two weeks summer holidays. The case feels well made and engineered, and guarantees full access to buttons and ports.

Docks compatibility can be regained simply removing the keyboard protection part of the case.

Finally, even if this is more about personal taste, I like the look and feel of the Droid, and the case is following its style thus I found the case nice looking, too!

Thus, if you are not “docks obsessed” at $34.95 this case surely deserves your attention.

The case protects without adding much weight or bulk

Pros

• well made and engineered
• all buttons and ports accessible
• rubber prevents dust
• in line with the Droid design

Cons

• must be partly removed to be used with docks (this is something you should expect, though)

Link: Otterbox

Ready to upgrade your music player?  Be sure to check out Sony’s new NWZ-E350 series video MP3 players which was announced today.  Coming in 3 cool colors – blue, red, and black, these players will play up to 50 hours of music (mp3 files at 128 kbps) and 10 hours of video (WMV at 384 kbps).  Using Sony’s “Clear Audio” technology, you’ll get extra deep and clear sound without distortions.  Sony’s SenseMe technology is also featured in this line of players which works to create stations from your music collection that play well together.  You’ll also be able to create play lists on-the-fly by using the “Bookmark Function”.  Supported audio formats are MP3, WMA (DRM), AAC (non-DRM), and linear PCM with the video format being WMV (DRM).  Ready to get one?  You’ll be able to beginning next month for $70 for an 4 GB model or $80 for an 8GB model.

Skooba makes great bags!  We’ve seen a number of them here at JAMM such as the:

- Cable Stable DLX
- Netbook Messenger
- Checkthrough Roller Bag
- Shuttle (My personal favorite as it’s a spacious back pack that houses my laptop).

Now, for a limited time (Expires August 14, 2010), you can get 30% off your order of $99 or more as well as free ground shipping.  Go ahead and pick up the bags you want for a price that you can’t go wrong.  Enjoy Skooba’s patented technologies which makes their bags truly unique while providing your devices the protection and care they deserve.  Remember to act soon as this deal will only be in effect for a total of 3 days.

I like buying things from the Dell outlet.  Not only do you get great pricing but you also get a full year’s warranty even though it’s refurbished.  As this is an outlet, selections will change and if you are too slow to add to cart, then the unit in question will be gone (at the time of this writing there are 8 units).  No worries though as you’ll be able to look at other units as well.

Example of a $389 system which becomes $330 after a 15% coupon code LH31NFN55C6WTT with free shipping:

Inspiron Desktop 570 MiniTower

• Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 630 (2.8GHz, 2MB)
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
• 1 TB SATA 3Gbps 3.5-in (7200RPM)
• 3 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (3 DIMMs)
• 16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability

Check out the Dell outlet today!

Looks like Apple Central has tweaked the new iOS once again. They have released update 4.0.2 which applies to all iToys: iPod, iTouch, iPhone, iPad, including 2G, 3G, 3GS, and 4.

HOWEVER, it appears there is now a block to the jailbreakme.com pdf workaround. So, for you current Desperados, and those thinking you might want to become one, you may want to sit this dance out. Apparently if you partake, there will be no way of returning to your wicked ways.