According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is going to give multiple smartphone and tablet manufacturers early access to the latest builds of Android to build devices and then sell those directly to consumers through the Play Store. Google will supposedly have these devices ready in time for the launch of the next version of Android, code named Jelly Bean, which is ser to bow in November.

In the past Google has selected one company to make its “Nexus” devices. Most recently, that company was Samsung. Recently, Google began to sell the Galaxy Nexus directly through its Play Store and had a page of the store dedicated to devices plural. This, of course, begged the question as to what other devices were going to be sold there. Perhaps this new development answers that question.

According to the Journal’s source, this new plan would give Google “more control over the apps that run on smartphones and tablets powered by Android, thus reducing the influence of wireless carriers over such devices.” Gotta say, that sounds pretty good as I think carriers have way too much influence as it is.

Continue Reading →

Did any of you own a Motorola RAZR? I’m sure you did. Back in 2005 it was the coolest phone to own.

It was skinny. It was light. It had cool glowy blue buttons. It was on all the carriers. It was the phone to have. At least if you were a tech-crazed high schooler, like myself back then.

It seems that Motorola may not have done it again with the newest addition to the RAZR, but the new Motorola Droid RAZR, as it’s being dubbed, is still a really neat phone.

Sporting 4G, a 1.2 GhZ dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 32 GB of storage, 12.5 hours of talk time, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p recording, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display strengthened with Gorilla Glass and Kevlar fiber, and at only 7.1mm thick, the Droid RAZR is now the thinnest 4G phone on Verizon. And because of the kevlar, the phone will be protected against spills and other nasty accidents.

You know what else is made of kevlar? The Batsuit. I’m officially calling this one the Batphone. This thing is cool.

The phone will also be compatible with the rest of Motorola’s line of devices, including the Moto Webtop and the brand new MOTOACTIV, a pretty nifty fitness watch that was also announced today. Only downside to this phone seems to be that it’s running Gingerbread, and not the upcoming version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.

Motorola’s announcement comes just hours before Samsung announces their newest version of their Nexus line, which will be exclusive to Verizon AND will have Ice Cream Sandwich. So the Motorola Droid RAZR certainly has some competition.

You’ll be able to pick up your very own Batphone, I mean Motorola Droid RAZR, in early November exclusively for Verizon Wireless.

With the iPhone being so popular and all the speculation about the next gen iPhone 5 reaching fever pitch, it’s sometimes hard to keep in mind the other fine smartphones on the market or coming soon. One of these is the upcoming Motorola DROID Bionic from Verizon Wireless.

Even for fans of HTC devices (which many of us are), it’s easy to be impressed with Moto’s latest offering. With specs such as a dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP processor, 1GB of RAM a 4.3-inch qHD display, the Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread OS and, of course, compatibility with Verizon’s lightning fast 4G LTE network, this device looks poised to dominate Verizon’s 4G offerings.

And now, Verizon Wireless on Wednesday finally made the Motorola DROID BIONIC official and has released pricing and availability details. The new Android smartphone launches Thursday, September 8th, for $299.99 with a 2 year contract.

Check out all the info in the official press release after the break.

Continue Reading →

Some days news from the tech world is pretty amazing. Today is one of those days. Why? Read on.

Today, Google announced that it will be acquiring Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion. Yes, you read that right. Google is buying Moto.

According to reports, this move from Google will hopefully allow it to better compete with Apple’s iPhone, which owned two-thirds of profits among the world’s top-8 smartphone vendors in the second quarter. A Google-owned hardware arm would give the company complete control over the device, software and services, resulting in an end-to-end user experience that is completely under Google’s command.

Much like Apple does with the iPhone. And you know how that turned out. The deal will also give Google control of Motorola’s patents, of which there are quite a few.

“Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies,” Google CEO Larry Page said in a statement. “Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Very nice of him. Check out the full press release after the jump.

Continue Reading →

As expected, Motorola on Wednesday announced that the sequel to the popular DROID X smartphone will launch later this month. The Motorola DROID X2 will be available for pre-order on May 19th and will launch on May 26th.

The device will cost $199.99 with a new two-year contract. It features some pretty nice specs including a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, dual-core 1GHz processor, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), an 8-megapixel camera with support for HD video capture, an HDMI-out port, a case that is nearly identical to the original Motorola DROID X, and “double the does,” according to Verizon Wireless.

Sounds like a nice device. As an iPhone user I’m always interested in what the Android folks will come up with next. These phones just keep getting better and better and the Android platform keeps maturing.

Hopefully Apple will realize its got some competition and step up with some amazing new features for iPhone 5. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

In the meantime, for the rest of the scoop on this new device, check out the full press release from version after the break.

Continue Reading →

As the Consumer Electronics Show kicks off in Las Vegas this week you can expect many announcement over the next four days. Among the first is Motorola’s announcement late yesterday of a new DROID device featuring a dual-core processor, Android OS and designed for the Verizon network.

Dubbed the DROID BIONIC, the handset features a 4.3-inch qHD display, dual-core 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, Wi-Fi, HDMI-out with mirror mode, 1080p playback, 8 megapixel rear-facing camera, front-facing VGA camera, and an LTE radio. With LTE being the forefront of Verizon’s wireless push these days we can expect more announcements like this.

Heck, maybe we’ll finally get that Verizon LTE iPhone we’ve been dreaming of? Could happen. Won’t hold my breath though.

The device will be available “early” in the second quarter of this year. Click through for the full release from Moto.

Continue Reading →

Seems like there’s been a non-stop parade of hot new Android-powered phones releasing in 2010. We reported on the Droid Incredible back in April, the ginormous Droid X with its drool-worthy screen back in June, but check out what Motorola is about to release on Verizon customers now. The all-new Droid 2, an update on the Droid that started it all.

Unlike the Incredible and the X, the new Droid 2 has an improved flip-out keyboard, a must for texting and emailing enthusiasts. I have to say, as a Droid Incredible user, I long for a real keyboard every single time I have to pound out more than a few words on my virtual keyboard. The Droid X at least has a much larger screen and consequently a much larger virtual keyboard, but there just is no comparison to how efficient you can be with a real keyboard.

The specs are reminiscent of the original Droid, but updated in some key areas: Android 2.2 (AKA “Froyo”), 3.7″ touch-screen, 3G Mobile HotSpot capability, Flash Player 10.1, an enhanced 5MP-cam with image-stabilization, dual LED flash and DVD-quality video capture, 8GB of onboard memory and a 8GB microSD card and onboard DLNA media sharing.

Continue Reading →

Hot on the heels of Verizon’s Twitter campaign (follow @DroidLanding for details), as well as our own coverage of the Droid X here at The Flickcast, the wireless company has now released a sneak peek of a 60-second trailer for their hot new Android-based smartphone.

The video as well as the Twitter campaign have really served to build the hype in advance of the official Motorola Droid X launch, which begins today at Verizon retail stores nationwide. Since June 21st, Team Droid X has been tweeting tantalizing details concerning the whereabouts of  twenty of their so-called ‘Droid Designates’.

Advanced copies of the massive smartphones hidden in various states across the U.S. As the weeks rolled on, the hints became more and more specific, eventually culminating in a GPS coordinate that could be entered into Google Maps to learn an exact location.

Obligatory twitpics of the winners of the Droid X scavenger hunt began popping up late last week. One-by-one, the beaming faces of Droid X owners holding up their new smartphones really had me thinking that Verizon knows how to run a successful viral twitter campaign. And clearly, getting advanced copies of a hot new phone out in the wild only stokes the interest all the more.

Hit the jump for all of the launch-day details as well as the sneak-peek video!

Continue Reading →

A new report from comScore on U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share reveals some interesting statistics for both domestic cell- and smart-phone users. For fans of Google’s open-source Android Platform, the good news is that Android is continuing to grab ever-larger shares of the U.S. smartphone market. With the sheer number of outrageously great Android-based smartphones being released in 2010, it makes sense that devices based on Google’s OS would jump a healthy 4.0% over the previous period.

Over 234 million Americans age 13 and older are currently using mobile devices and comScore’s report ranked mobile equipment manufacturers (OEMs), smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers, and finally mobile content usage (how mobile device owners used their devices).

In terms of top manufacturers of mobile devices, manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 22.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up one percentage point from the preceding three month period. LG ranked second with 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola (21.2 percent share), RIM (8.7 percent share, up 0.5 percentage point) and Nokia (8.1 percent share).

Of all mobile device users, 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period. RIM, with their business-friendly Blackberry phones was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share and Microsoft with 13.2 percent.

Google saw significant growth during the period, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.8 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

Continue Reading →

Even though as a recent convert to Verizon and a happy HTC Droid Incredible owner I’m reluctant to see any new phone that makes mine obsolete or diminishes it in some way, it is nice to see that Verizon and Motorola keep trying to raise the bar with newer and more feature-rich smartphones. Case in point is the announcement late yesterday of the actual specs, release date and pricing for the next generation of Motorola DROID, better known as the DROID X.

Here’s the summary of specs for the device in a nice, easy to read list.

• Texas Instrument 1GHz Processor
• 4.3″ display with 854 x480 resolution, 400,000 pixels
• 8GB internal storage• 16 GB microSD card expansion (expandable to 32GB)
• 8 MP camera with dual flash, HD camcorder
• Integrated Multitouch keyboard, optional Swype keyboard
• 3G Mobile hotspot functionality with support for up to 5 devices, 2GB cap, $20 monthly fee
• GPS
• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi
• Support for Exchange and Gmail for Business
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 ready
• Android 2.1 with a “toned down” version of Motoblur

Yes, there’s no “out of the box” Flash support and no you don’t get Android 2.1 (aka Froyo) but Verizon does say they will be releasing an upgrade for both “issues” in the latter half of the Summer. So, you got that going for you if you end up getting the device, which is nice.

Continue Reading →

With Sprint’s new, shiny and huge HTC EVO 4G and the upcoming iPhone 4 hogging the smartphone spotlight, the focus is off of Verizon and their lineup of Android phones. But not for long.

Next week on June 23rd, a day before the iPhone 4 is released, Verizon, Motorola, and Adobe will be holding a press conference. That press conference, we hear, will be to introduce the world to their two newest Android devices, the Droid X (formerly known as the Droid Shadow) and the Droid 2.

The Droid X seems to be the closest competitor to the HTC EVO 4G, with a 4.4 inch screen, an 8 MP camera capable of shooting 720p video, and a 1GHz ARMv7 processor. It also comes packed with a built-in HDMI port, 8GB of storage, a multi-touch keyboard, and Android 2.1 with some form of Motoblur, Motorola’s social networking software.

The familiar touch sensitive shortcut buttons from the original Droid have also been replaced with real buttons. The device looks monstrous next to the iPhone and HTC EVO, but is also said to be rather skinny  From everything we’ve heard, this phone is going to be snappy, snazzy, and sweet, and a top player in the smartphone battle for dominance.

Continue Reading →

It looks like Verizon and Motorola have decided it’s time to give users what they really want: the ability to use Android OS 2.1. According to reports around the tech Internets, the update is now being pushed out to users of the Moto DROID smartphone. However, don’t get worried if you haven’t gotten the update yet as it will be a “gradual” rollout” which should hit most of you DROID loving folks by week’s end.

Here’s what the update does for you:

Enhancements

• Pinch-to-zoom now available when using the browser, Gallery, and Google Maps.
• New Weather and News application plus widget.
• The Weather and News app pulls the information you want from the Web and brings it to your fingertips.
• New support for voice-to-text entry.
• Whenever a text-entry box appears, simply tap the microphone icon on the virtual keyboard and speak.
• New Gallery application with 3D layout. View and share photos taken with your phone and images from your online Picasa Web albums.
• Live Wallpapers offer richer animated, interactive backgrounds on the home screen. Access them with a long press anywhere on the home screen.

Continue Reading →