By the Way, Verizon Launches Motorola Droid X Today

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In case you're wondering what us tech writers would be writing about this week if not for the iPhone 4 drama. Here's the top of the charts: the new Motorola Droid X launches through Verizon today (Thursday, July 15th). See the bottom of the posting for other tech headlines. But in the meantime...

The Droid X is a beast. It has an 8 megapixel camera on board, with a 4.3 inch screen (the iPhone is 3.5 inches).  It records video in high definition at 720p, has a HDMI output. For an extra $20 a month, you can use it as its own WiFi hotspot for up to five devices (or you can get the bootleg app and do it for free. Oops, was that my outside voice.) It goes for the typical price point of $200 on a two year contract.

Verizon is promising that there will be no wait for the Droid X. They have plenty on hand.

One has to wonder if Apple took into consideration that the time lapse between the announcement of its big press conference on the iPhone 4 (last night) and the actual conference itself (tomorrow) just happens to coincide with (that is, overshadow) the launch day of the Droid X today.

Of course, they did. Is this why the conference is on Friday, instead of Monday (which would have given East Coast and foreign press time to fly into California)? Hmm... what's that witchy word that starts with a "b"?

By the way, in other non-iPhone 4 tech news this week:

1. HP is scrapping plans to put out an Android tablet this year. It was supposed to come out fourth quarter. Change your holiday shopping lists, accordingly. It's not happening.

2. And, I've been meaning to get to this all week. Thank you to my boots on the ground in Austin, TX, ZC who brought this to my attention daaaays ago now. (How embarassing or me). Anyhoo, Microsoft has announced that it will allow businesses to downgrade to Windows XP for free until 2020. I'll pontificate more on this later. It's a pretty amazing announcement on Microsoft's part and, oh my, Windows XP is just the little engine that could now isn't?

3. Worldwide PC sales are up 22%.  It seems IT budgets are finally loosening up enough to allow for upgrades in the workplace. That, and I'm sure the higher confidence level in Windows 7 than the dreaded Vista has a big something to with it. Another sure sign that the business world is still revolving despite the double dip recession/dare I call it a depression, Intel posted its biggest record in quarterly profits since the tech bubble. Intel chips are in about 80% of the world's computers.

As always, please feel free to follow me on Twitter @oricchio

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio