Two big Android events today

Now that Apple has had its moment in the sun with its iPhone 5 iPhone 4S launch, it's time to turn our attention back to Android, and specifically Android on Verizon Wireless. We've got a pair of events today that might provide some interest and excitement.

At noon (ET) Motorola is hosting an event in New York City. Their tagline for the event seems to be "Faster. Thinner. Smarter. Stronger." and the expectation is that we're talking about the new Droid Razr. You can decide for yourself at reveal.motorola.com, or you can just wait for a couple of hours and be sure. We're expecting a 4.3" Super AMOLED screen, 1.2 GHz dual core processor and 4 GTE support.

We might see the Xoom 2 and/or the Xoom Media Edition at the event as well, though that seems much less certain to me. All the teaser material Motorola is sharing seems focused on a handset. In fact, Droid-Life (among other sites) already has pictures.

Then on Wednesday (9:30 am local time, Tuesday evening US time), Samsung and Google are holding their Nexus Prime and Android 4 "Ice Cream Sandwich" dog and pony show. This is the event that was earlier postponed out of respect for Steve Jobs' passing. Instead of being in San Diego, the event is now being held in Hong Kong, so coverage should be interesting. Google will live stream the event via YouTube and I suspect a lot of coverage will be based on remote viewing.

There's no doubt about what they have to show us: Samsung and Google dropped the "let's be coy" shtick after the event's postponement. The phone might be called the Nexus Prime or the Galaxy Nexus, but whatever the name, it's going to be the new 'reference' handset for Ice Cream Sandwich.

But fear not! In spite of Sam-oogle telling us what they'll be showing, there are still leaks to whisper about! Launch dates! Pricing! Begin!

According to Engadget the "Samsung Galaxy Nexus" will ship on November 10th for $299.99 (with a two year contract). Remember when $300 was a lot for an Android phone on contract? Verizon apparently is going to have three at that price point. The Bionic (already out), the Nexus and HTC Rezound (aka HTC Vigor).

Leaked specs for the Nexus? That's a hot topic and one we already talked about. I'm not sure how reliable any of the conflicting sources are at this point. We might have to just wait until tonight to know for sure.