Motorola - 29/56 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jun

[Update: It's Starting Now] Motorola Putting Finishing Touches On Gingerbread Update For Droid 2 Global, "Soak Tests" Could Begin As Early As This Week

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Droid 2 Global, News

Update: According the official VZW Support Twitter account, it looks like the update should be available sometime today. You can check for the update manually by hitting Settings > About Phone > System Updates, and don't forget to shoot us a tip when it hits your device. Let the frantic update-checking begin!

Motorola just released the Gingerbread update for the Droid X two weeks ago, and now it looks like the same update may be ready for the Droid 2 Global (sorry original D2 owners, you'll have to sit this one out). According to Droid-Life, the initial "soak test" could start as early as the end of the week for some lucky users.

Jun

[Rumor] Motorola Droid/Milestone 3 Will Not Be Released In The UK, But The Motorola Pro Will?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Droid 3, Droid Pro, Milestone 3, News, Pro

Rumors come and go everyday in the tech world, and some just don't make any sense. This one falls directly into that category, as the word on the street is that Motorola will not be releasing the Droid/Milestone 3 in the UK. There is no reason or justification as to why Moto may have made this decision, but (of course) there is speculation. UK tech blog Clove thinks that it could be because of the lackluster sales of the Milestone 2, or perhaps there just isn't much of a market for slide-out QWERTY devices, citing the demise of the HTC Desire Z in the UK as reasoning.

Jun

The Moment You've Been Waiting For - CyanogenMod 7 Beta/RC0 For The Droid X Available For Download

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Development, Droid X (Shadow), News

Even though it's only been two days since cvpcs first unveiled CyanogenMod 7 running on the Droid X, it seems that he has already worked out enough of the kinks to release the first beta/RC version to the masses. The flashing process is a bit more complex compared to other phone/ROM combos, but well worth the added trouble if you ask me. Everything you're seeing here today would have been impossible without the "2nd init" hack, which cvpcs explains in detail here.

"Why should I switch to CyanogenMod?" you may ask. And I'll tell you why - in fact, I'll give you more than enough reasons for doing so: 13 Ways CyanogenMod 7 Makes My Android Phone Feel Future-Proof [Deep Review]

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics.

Jun

Confirmed: Motorola To Make Bootloaders On Current Devices Unlockable In "Late 2011" - Where Carriers Allow It

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Motorola, News

A few months ago, Motorola announced that its "portfolio of devices" will be graced with unlockable/relockable bootloaders in late 2011. However, there was some confusion over whether this concerned future handsets only or current devices as well.

Yesterday, Ausdroid reported that unlocked bootloaders will be coming to all existing Motorola Android devices (or rather, those still on Moto's update schedule) later this year via a software update. Needless to say, this was excellent news, and it had many a DROID X user jumping for joy.

To confirm, we reached out to Motorola - here's what we got in response:

Motorola has announced we will enable an unlockable/relockable bootloader in future software releases where channel and operator partners will allow it.

Jun

DROID 3 Gets In-Depth Hands-On: Pentile Display And Puny Amounts Of RAM Included

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid 3, Motorola, News

The DROID 3, like the DROID 2, has been pretty lax about showing itself off prior to any sort of official announcement from Motorola. Today, the DROID 3 has been all but fully revealed by a member over at XDA China. Two things from that post immediately caught our attention: a qHD Pentile display, and 512MB of RAM. Both of them should make you queasy.

We aren't big fans of Moto's Pentile qHD displays, particularly as it appeared on the DROID X2. If your vision is good, and you hold your phone at a normal distance from your face (read: about one foot - not three), Pentile looks like crap - there's little argument.

Jun

CyanogenMod 7 Ported To The Motorola DEFY, And It's Basically Usable

Posted by Cameron Summerson in DEFY (Jordan), News

Yesterday we told you that cvpcs managed to find a way to put together a CyanogenMod build for the DROID X, despite its locked bootloader. It turns out that the DX wasn't the only locked up Moto device that was getting CM-ified, as Quarx over at XDA has ported CM7 to the Motorola DEFY.

This build is basically usable as a daily driver, with everything aside from 720p video capture and WVGA photos working. Considering it's still listed as RC0, that's not too bad - but it still has some bugs to work out, according to the source thread at XDA.

Jun

[Video] CyanogenMod 7 Ported To Motorola DROID X

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that cvpcs has achieved the impossible: he's thrown together (but not yet publicized) a build of CyanogenMod 7 that works on the Motorola DROID X!

Naturally, since no one but cvpcs has the firmware yet, there are still a few kinks that need to be ironed out before the ROM goes public - for example, GPS, 3G, Bluetooth, and the camera/camcorder have not been proven to work just yet, ~~and audio (including phone calls, speakers, the microphone, etc.) definitely isn't functional at the moment~~. However, as our own Justin Case put it, "If it boots, it can be fixed."

Update: cvpcs just tweeted that, with some help from Stephen Bird, he was able to fix the audio issue.

Jun

PHOTON_4G_Dyn_R_horiz_VideoPlayback_small

[Videos] Watch The Official Sprint Photon 4G Press Conference

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Photon 4G, Sprint

Earlier today, Sprint and Motorola held a press conference in New York City where they announced the first powerhouse phone from Motorola to land on the Now Network: the Photon 4G. It's a global-ready device that features a 4.3 inch screen, 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM, an 8MP rear shooter, VGA front camera, a kickstand, and Gingerbread. Now, both companies have updated their respective YouTube accounts with videos of the announcement, as well an official promo for the device. Here they are, all in one spot, for your viewing pleasure.

First, it's Sprint CEO Dan Hesse making the official announcement:

http://youtu.be/3rN_R-Mbj1A

Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha talking about the relationship between Sprint and Moto:

http://youtu.be/4-TPYpcqJOc

It's spec time:

http://youtu.be/t6Kx0ZlBhgE

Lastly, Motorola's official promo video:

[SprintNow, ShareMoto]

Jun

[Updated x2: False Alarm, It's Not True] Motorola Photon 4G To Ship With An Unlocked Bootloader

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Photon 4G

Update 2: Apparently, there were Moto reps spewing false information at the Sprint event today, because both Android Central and Droid-Life have received word that the Photon 4G will not ship with an unlocked bootloader. The statement that Motorola released was still rather cryptic, however:

Motorola has recognized the passion around this topic in our communities. As we’ve previously communicated, it is our intention to include the unlockable/relockable bootloader in software releases starting in late 2011, where operator and channel partners will allow it. However, this feature is not included in the software found on PHOTON 4G.

Droid-Life went on to get a second statement:

It will not contain the unlockable/relockable feature; additional details beyond that will be available when the product comes to market. As you mention, our intent is to enable this feature on devices later this year and we will share updates on that as they become available as well.

Jun

[Updated] Motorola And Sprint Announce The Photon 4G: Dual-Core, WiMAX, Gingerbread-Filled Goodness For The Now Network

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Photon 4G, Sprint

Motorola and Sprint teamed up for a press conference in NYC today, where they announced Sprint's newest beast of a phone: the Photon 4G. Check it out:

1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor
4.3 inch qHD display
1GB RAM
16GB onboard storage
8MP rear shooter, VGA front facing camera
Kickstand
Global-ready
WiMax
Mobile hotspot
Advanced, enterprise level IT security
Gingerbread
Webtop capable

This phone was previously rumored to be "the Atrix for Sprint," but while the general look of the device is quite similar, the Photon seems to be more of an evolution and less a rebranding. Judging by the pictures, it also looks to be rocking the newest version of Blur (the same one that we saw in the leaked Droid 3 videos).