Before we chat out the Droid 4 there’s a bit of other news we need to address right quick. As you’ll surely notice, we’re doing smartphone reviews a little differently now. That said, this video and my basic hands-on impressions are just the first in a three-part series reviewing the phone. Stay tuned for what comes next!
Alright then, back to business…
The Motorola Droid 4 has spent exactly 24 hours on shelves, and from the time I’ve spent with the phone I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it’s doing quite well there. → Read More
It’s been nearly a month since Verizon officially spilled the beans on the QWERTY-packing, LTE-sporting Motorola Droid 4, and now we finally have a release date to go with it.
According to the nation’s largest wireless provider, the oft-delayed Droid 4 is due to hit sales channels on February 10 complete with a $199 price tag. → Read More
Looks like that flubbed product page turned out to be right after all — Verizon Wireless has just announced that the ever-so-slightly-tweaked Droid RAZR MAXX will indeed be hitting store shelves on January 26.
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The Droid RAZR has been one highly anticipated phone, but can its performance keep up with the hype? Is it too big to be comfortable? Is there a catch that comes along with that 7.1mm waist line? Does 4G LTE paired with a dual-core processor really make a difference? Well, it’s basically the entire point of my existence to answer these questions for you. So off we go. → Read More
Motorola fans may still be riding high on the announcement of the Droid RAZR, but Droid-Life has just gotten their hands on images of yet another Motorola handset in the works: the DROID4.
The DROID4 apes some of the RAZR’s industrial design (like the funky corners and non-removable battery), but it sadly isn’t quite as svelte thanks to the spacious slide-out five row keyboard. → Read More
Sorry, Verizon: looks like your exclusivity on the Motorola Droid RAZR might not last all that long. Based on the finer details of some docs pulled fresh from the good ol’ FCC, it looks like AT&T might be getting a RAZR of their very own.
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After the hot mess that was the Droid Bionic Saga (Delay! Delay! Delay! Screw it, release garbage.), I didn’t think I could ever like another Motorola device again. Guess I was wrong.
I just spent a bit of time with the just announced Droid RAZR, and, at least at first glance, it is… surprisingly great. Dive in for my first impressions, won’t you? → Read More
Samsung and Google got some considerable mileage out of their Nexus teaser video, and Motorola apparently wants to join in on the fun. Their own mysterious video went live earlier today, and hints pretty strongly at some impressive hardware due to be unveiled soon.
As with most teaser videos, Motorola’s latest is heavy on imagery but light on detail. In between the images of fast cars and a Douglas Adams reference, Motorola alludes to something faster, thinner, stronger, and smarter ready for a debut on October 18.
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January 5th. That’s when Motorola and Verizon first announced the DROID Bionic.
9 months grueling months later, it’s here. It’s seen delay after delay, and revisions to both its internal specs and its outward appearance have made the Droid Bionic we see launching today about as different from what was originally announced as any other Android handset hitting the shelves this month, but still: it’s rocking the Droid Bionic name, built by Motorola for Verizon, and it’s finally, finally here.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Droid HD. The previously unseen handset was known to be floating around, thanks to its EXIF data making a quick appearance on Flickr, but the Droid HD is ready for a bit of spotlight.
The Droid Bionic has been enjoying its share of attention for months now, even as its release date keeps getting pushed further and further back. Now that we have a good handle on when we can get one, the Bionic is starting to pop up in photoshoots left and right. Engadget got their hands today on what are by far most detailed shots of the Bionic taken to date, but the Droid HD was there to steal the show.
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Motorola Mobility just released its Q2 earnings and it’s loaded with fun stats. First off, the company posted $3.3 billion in net revenue with non-GAAP earnings of nine cents a share. That’s up 28% over last year’s second quarter and beats the Wall Street’s estimate of just six cents a share. The company also realized a GAAP net loss of $56 million compared to a net earnings of $80 million in 2010.
Over that time period Motorola Mobility managed to ship 11 million devices including 4.4 million smartphones and 440,000 Xoom Android tablets. That’s up from 8.3 total devices last year . Part of this growth came from the Latin America and China markets where revenue grew 40% and sales more than doubled from the previous year. Note, the company reported shipments rather than sales to consumers. → Read More
The Motorola Droid 3 just hit the shelves four days ago, but that didn’t stop the guys from iFixIt from doing what they do best: tearing out its innards and splaying them out for all to ogle. → Read More
Few folks seem to remember that it was a just a few years ago that a consortium of handset manufacturers got together to form the Open Handset Alliance, an effort to create an open, free platform. This effort would eventually become Android and, back in 2007 when the OHA began, the platform’s success was far from secure.
Between 2001 and 2007, phone manufacturers had a problem. They had very few options when it came to operating systems and Windows Mobile and Symbian were in the catbird seat when it came to popular smartphones. Palm OS was still kicking during that period but if you wanted “smartphone” or, more precisely, “PDA phone” features you went with one of those two platforms. → Read More
Every few months Google embraces another CE company. It began with HTC and G1, giving that manufacturer resources and manpower enough to produce a powerful entrant in the smartphone race. It continued with Motorola for the Droid and has cycled through to Samsung for a brief period. This bear hug essentially gives the manufacturer access to Google’s engineers and pre-release code and leaves everyone else out in the street, waiting for a software update. Now Google has set its sights on LG and, if rumor is correct, it means a Nexus S tablet is on its way from LG running a pitch perfect version of Honeycomb. It also means that anyone with a 2.x Android Tablet, the Gal Tabs included, will be severely disappointed.
Think of this action by Google as akin to training one athlete in a race to an Olympic level and then pitting her against amateurs. The amateurs could still win, but it’s going to be tough. → Read More
Maybe you heard, Verizon finally has the iPhone. Or it will, in a few weeks. And you know what that means: it’s time to advertise the hell out of that bad boy. But don’t be surprised if it’s Verizon doing more of the pushing than Apple.
Reports today have Verizon putting their significant “marketing muscle” behind the device in the coming weeks. This should be no surprise given what they’ve done for the iPad — a device which doesn’t really even directly connect to their network (though that will change). It’s also in line with what we’ve been hearing for month: that Verizon was getting ready for a huge push in Q1 around some new mobile product. The assumption has long been that this would be the iPhone. → Read More
Still rockin’ the original Droid? Sick and tired of Android 2.2 (which, by the way, most Android handsets still don’t have)? I know, I know — all the cool kids (read: Nexus One owners) are on Android 2.2.1. Don’t sweat it, Droid owners — you can get all up in that marginally improved goodness. It just requires a bit of hacking. → Read More
Today’s all about Windows Phone 7 (for better or worse). Microsoft is in New York showing off the goods, and Greg and John are there getting the goods. What I can say remotely is this: Microsoft is launching Windows Phone 7 across 30 countries, with one or two phones per country. Those of us in the U.S. are looking at an early November release date. → Read More
Here we go again.
It seems like a week can’t go by now without some company suing another company over some lame software patent. The latest is Microsoft which today announced it was suing Motorola for features on their Android phones.
As it continues to rapidly grow in size, Android is increasingly a target of such suits. But the weird thing about these suits is how they always seem to be indirectly targeting Android. That is, companies aren’t suing Google for Android, they’re suing manufacturers using Android on their phones. See: Apple suing HTC for another example of this. → Read More
Pictures of the Droid 2 World edition leaked out today, revealing a white casing with a silver bezel. This is in contrast with the blue and gunmetal that was used in the first Droid 2, but it seems that the software is going to be more or less exactly the same. [via Phandroid] → Read More
This past weekend, I wrote a post wondering if Android was surging in the U.S. market because Apple was letting it? The main thought was that by remaining exclusively tied to AT&T, Apple was driving some users to choose Android, which is available on all the U.S. carriers. In the post, I posed a question: if it’s not the iPhone/AT&T deal, why do you choose Android? Nearly 1,000 people responded, and a large percentage focused on the same idea: the idea of “openness.”
You’ll forgive me, but I have to say it: what a load of crap.
In theory, I’m right there with you. The thought of a truly open mobile operating system is very appealing. The problem is that in practice, that’s just simply not the reality of the situation. Maybe if Google had their way, the system would be truly open. But they don’t. Sadly, they have to deal with a very big roadblock: the carriers. → Read More
