Motorola

Jan

[Updated] Motorola Announces "Developer Edition" RAZR With Unlockable Bootloader Headed To Europe And Another Unlockable Device For The U.S. Soon

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Dev, Droid RAZR / RAZR MAXX, Motorola, News

Motorola announced today through its official community blog that a RAZR "Developer Edition" (evidently based on the original Droid RAZR, not its newer MAXX counterpart) is in the works. The dev-friendly device will carry an unlockable bootloader and is poised to hit European markets relatively soon, with a (yet unspecified) unlockable device bound for the U.S. "in the coming months." Oddly enough, the blog post was pulled (perhaps it was published prematurely; Update: it's live once again), but luckily the text of the post has been retained:

New Motorola RAZR™ Developer Edition will feature unlocked bootloader in Europe
We have some news for the community of people interested in unlockable/relockable bootloaders.

Jan

[Update: $199 ($100 Off) On Amazon] Deal Alert: Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX Just $230 ($70 Off) With Contract At Wirefly

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Deals, Droid RAZR / RAZR MAXX, Verizon Wireless

As promised, the ultra-impressive DROID RAZR MAXX went on sale today, but for a premium price of $300 with a new two-year contract at Verizon. Not so, says Wirefly, who is charging just $230 for the thin-yet-juiced phone.

What's so special about the MAXX? It's nearly the same as the DROID RAZR, but with one major difference: it's nearly 2mm thicker (for a total thickness of a still-svelte 9mm) to accommodate a whopping 3,300 mAh battery (versus 1,780 in the non-MAXX version).

Definitely sounds like a winner, especially for power users and road warriors. Hit up the source link below to see the product page yourself or to order the phone.

Jan

Motorola Announces Q4 Earnings: Only 200k Tablets Shipped, $80m Loss

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Motorola, News

Assuming the Google/Motorola merger goes through, Google might want to rethink that whole hands-off approach to managing its new hardware company. According to Motorola's press release, the company saw a net loss of about $80 million, after $3.4 billion in revenue. It's not the worst loss in the world, but shareholders are never happy when they see red.

The tablet sales figures are bad, though. Motorola says in Q4 of 2011, it shipped 200,000 tablets. That is not a typo. Two hundred thousand tablets shipped. "Shipped," by the way, is corporate-speak for "sold to stores." This doesn't necessarily mean that customers bought all of those tablets.

Jan

Editorial: Android May Be Winning (Or Not Losing) Battles Against Apple In Court, But Don't Expect An End To The Lawsuits Any Time Soon

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, Legal, News

Last Updated: January 27th, 2012

A recent Newsweek article has been making the rounds claiming, through an unnamed Apple "insider," that Apple has spent north of $100 million litigating its various grievances against HTC since late 2010. Verifying the accuracy of this number is pretty much impossible. But that doesn't really matter. It may just as well be $80 million, $150 million, or $300 million - the conclusion drawn would remain the same: Apple is spending quite a chunk of income on its growing lawsuit habit.

Apple currently has open suits against Motorola Mobility, Samsung Electronics, and HTC in the ITC (International Trade Commission), a number of US District Courts, and various other buildings in which judges are known to sit in ornate leather chairs for long periods of time around the world.

Jan

Motorola Motoluxe & Defy Mini Available Now For Pre-Order From Clove; Defy+ JCB Edition Also In Stock

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Motorola, News

Motorola recently announced two entry-level Android smartphones for the Chinese, European, and Latin American markets, the Defy Mini and the Motoluxe. Both devices are now available for pre-order on Clove, and they are expected to ship in late February/early March.

The Motoluxe is priced at £215 (£258 inc. VAT).

The Defy Mini is priced at £145.83 (£174.99 inc. VAT).

Additionally, Motorola have teamed up with UK-based construction manufacturer JCB to give the "rugged" Defy+ a makeover. The new "Defy+ JCB Edition" is similar, spec-wise, to the earlier Defy+ model, however it now comes cocooned in a "visco-elastic protective sleeve" to make it just a bit more rugged.

Jan

Motorola Mobility Cleared Of Apple's Infringement Claims By ITC, Faces Other Battles

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Legal, Motorola, News

International Trade Commission Judge Theodore Essex decided in Washington today that Motorola Mobility did not violate three of Apple's Patents, as the Cupertino tech giant had claimed. Two of the patents related to touchscreen features, including multi touch, and a device's ability to recognize various types of manual input, like sliding and pinching gestures. The third, as Bloomberg explains, "is for a way to add components without having to run an installation program or rebooting."

This case comes as one of many in a long saga of attacks on Android for alleged patent infringement, part of an effort by Apple across four continents to prove that Android copies pieces of the iPhone's functionality.

Jan

[Update: Install It Manually] Motorola's Xoom Update Is Ice Cream Sandwich (IML77) – Rolling Out Now To Testers

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, XOOM

Well, it's official - the "project" Xoom owners have been waiting for is an update to Ice Cream Sandwich, meant as a soak test, expected to last through the weekend. Moto has begun pushing the new software as of 9pm PST. An anonymous tipster has provided us with shots of a private section of Motorola's official XOOM support forum, which confirm that the update is going live to those lucky enough to join the test group.

As you can see, Moto has indicated that they do in fact plan on releasing this software very soon, unless "there is some extremely serious issue."

While Xoom Wi-Fi owners lucky enough to participate in Motorola's project test out Ice Cream Sandwich for the tablet that launched Honeycomb, other users can look forward to an update to Android's latest and greatest iteration any time now.

Jan

[CES 2012] Video Hands-On With The Motorola DROID 4

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Droid 4, Motorola, News, Videos

Late yesterday, we got a chance to spend some time with the Motorola DROID 4 over at the Verizon booth here at CES, and we have to say - It sure seems like Motorola has done it again. The DROID 4 will likely once again set the bar for QWERTY slider phones, and thanks to the addition of 4G LTE and a snappy TI OMAP 4430 dual-core processor (the same one found in the DROID RAZR), it's also going to be the fastest DROID yet.

Of course, the biggest feature on any DROID is the keyboard, and you can rest assured, the DROID 4's does not disappoint.

Jan

[CES 2012] Motorola To Stop Flooding The Market With Thousands Of Phones

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Motorola, News

"More wood behind fewer arrows."

That's the phrase Larry Page used to describe Google's recent shut down of underperforming products. Stop flooding the market with crap, and focus on fewer, higher quality products. Now it seems Motorola has somehow gotten the exact same idea.

AllThingsD reports that Motorola "plans to release fewer new models this year, in an effort to concentrate its marketing dollars." I hope they are concentrating their design, polish, and update efforts too.

Motorola's release schedule since they jumped on the Android train has been absolutely insane. Their 2011 US product lineup looked something like this:

Droid 3
Droid Bionic
Droid RAZR
Atrix
Atrix 2
Admiral
Electrify
Droid X2
Photon
XPRT
Titanium
Triumph
DEFY+
CLIQ 2
Xoom
Xoom Family Edition
Droid XYBOARD 10.1
Droid XYBOARD 8.2

Now this list is in no way definitive, but it should give you an idea of the crazy incremental one upmanship Motorola has been betting on.

Jan

[CES 2012] Motorola To Bring More Capabilities To Webtop, Including Google Chrome

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Motorola, News

Have you ever used the Webtop feature built into a number of Motorola's newest devices? According to CEO Sanjay Jha, not many users are actively firing up the desktop-in-a-cellphone feature - less than ten percent, to be exact. Makes sense, though, as it's basically a watered-down desktop experience, and no one really wants that.

According to Jha, Moto is aware of the issues with Webtop and wants to make it more useable. He told The Verge that the next generation of Webtop would bring more capabilities, including a new browser: Google's Chrome. In all honestly, this is probably what the company should've used in the first place, as the version of Firefox currently used by Webtop was old, slow, and outdated before it ever hit shelves.