Motorola - 50/56 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Aug

T-Mobile Killing Off Motorola Cliq, Cliq XT, And MyTouch 1.2

Posted by Nate Kimmey in CLIQ / DEXT (Morrison), CLIQ XT (Zeppelin), myTouch 3G (Magic), News, T-Mobile

In what seems like preparation for their upcoming G2 handset, T-Mobile is planning on clearing out their selection of Android handsets by ending sales of the Motorola Cliq, Cliq XT, and T-Mobile MyTouch 1.2 on October 4.

Whatever the reason, it’s probably a good thing that these low-end handsets are going off the market - hopefully, it will help keep outdated OS's like Cupcake and Donut from growing in size. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help reassure owners of said phones that their updates will come in a timely fashion, if at all. The Cliq and Cliq XT are still on track to receive Android 2.1, while the MyTouch 1.2 should be receiving the update to Android 2.2.

Aug

First Custom Motorola Droid X ROM Released, Gives (Partial) Finger To eFuse & Motorola

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, News, Verizon Wireless

Awesome news today on the Droid X front: the first custom ROM for the Droid X has been released by birdman. For anyone not living under a rock, this is a pretty big deal - Motorola was pretty serious about locking down the Droid X, and it's a relief to see that manufacturers can't completely kill the aftermarket.

The ROM seems to be based on the earlier leaked 2.2 ROM, and has only a handful of customizations:

v0.1 includes

OptiPNG optimized apk's

Deodexed

Busybox

Updated Superuser.apk (credits to chainsdd)

Removed
3g hotspot

Kindle (market app)

Blockbuster (bankrupt company)

EMERGENCY (dial 911 for emergency's...dont screw around with an app)

My Verizon (bad market app)

Maps (market app)

Voice search (market app)

Swype (removed for their constant anger towards rom devs)

Skype (market app)

Google search (market app)

The ROM can be downloaded via ROM Manager, and as far as flashing it goes, it looks like you'll need to be rooted and have ClockworkMod Recovery.

Aug

Real HDMI Unlocks Motorola Droid X's Crippled HDMI Functionality

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Droid X (Shadow), News, Verizon Wireless

A few months back (before it launched), we found out that the Droid X would have limited HDMI functionality - mainly, it would only work in gallery mode. Today, we stumbled upon a new app on AppBrain called Real HDMI that seems to remove that restriction. Check out the item description:

Warning: This only works for the Droid X.

Finally you can enable and disable the HDMI port on your Droid X. Use your favorite video players, applications and emulators on your big screen TV or Stereo.
- HDMI Video/Audio Out
- Car/Media Dock Modes

Find us at: http://www.droidxforums.com

User reviews for the app are overwhelmingly positive - it has about 4.8 stars (out of 5), and is in the 100-500 downloads range.

Aug

Motorola Charm Now Available On T-Mobile: $0 On Wirefly With New Contract, $50 On Upgrade

Posted by David Ruddock in CHARM, Motorola, News, T-Mobile

Today, T-Mobile announced that the Motorola Charm is now available, and the pricing options out there in the wild are a bit confusing to say the least.

Wirefly currently has the best deal - you can get the Charm for $0 on a new T-Mobile 2-year contract priced at $59.99 a month. But, if you're a current T-Mobile customer, unless you plan on terminating your current contract, you'll have to fork over $50 and renew your agreement.

Oddly, Wirefly's price for the unsubsidized device is $329.99 which is $60 more than T-Mobile's. Both American retailers are also being undercut by Telus Canada’s recent release price of $250 CAD.

Aug

Motorola Droid 2 Review: A Bit Of Makeup But Not A Complete Makeover

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Droid (Sholes), Droid 2, Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: October 22nd, 2011

General Overview

The original Droid was a revolutionary phone, not just because it saved Motorola from certain bankruptcy but also because it revealed the wonders of Android to the masses.

For the first time, an Android device was being marketed in a way that appealed to an average American. Not only that - the Droid was Google’s officially anointed Jesus phone, up until the Nexus One came along, meaning it was the first to get Android 2.0, the first to get Google Navigation, etc.

That sets a pretty high bar for the Droid 2, and if you read our review roundup, you already know that most other bloggers thought that, while it is certainly a worthy successor to the most popular Android phone ever, it doesn’t raise the bar or set a new standard for Droids going forward.

Aug

Motorola Updates Timelines For Android Updates, Good News And Bad News For MOTOBLUR Phones

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Android OS, Backflip, CLIQ / DEXT (Morrison), CLIQ XT (Zeppelin), Devour, Droid (Sholes), Droid 2, Droid X (Shadow), Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Motorola

No phone manufacturer is as fast with software updates as customers would like them to be, but Motorola has been particularly bad, especially with some of their MOTOBLUR phones which are still stuck on Android 1.5. But they do seem to be taking a step forward with a new timeline that lists when each of their phones around the world will be receiving updates to a later version of Android.

USA

BACKFLIP (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 planned for Q3

CLIQ (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 - testing in process, planned for late Q3/early Q4

CLIQ XT (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.1 - testing in process, planned for late Q3/early Q4

DEVOUR (USA)
Will not have a software upgrade to Android 2.1

DROID by Motorola (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.2 currently rolling out in phases

DROID X by Motorola (USA)
Upgrade to Android 2.2 planned for late summer.

Aug

Motorola Responds To Leaked DROID X 2.2 Update: Stop That, Or We'll Sue You

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News

Despite a lot of fun Motorola hardware leaks lately (even some love for AT&T), Moto would like to remind us that they aren't much friendlier than Apple when it comes to unintended dissemination of their intellectual property.

The recently leaked update to Android 2.2 for the DROID X has been quite a popular download for daredevil users, and apparently Motorola has taken notice. While the ROM is now undoubtedly in the hands of every modding and development community member who has any interest in it, that isn't stopping Motorola from issuing cease and desist letters (e-mails) to those hosting the file.

Aug

Acer And Motorola Waiting For Gingerbread To Release Android Tablets

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Acer, Gingerbread 2.3, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

If you can’t wait any longer for a quality Android tablet, this may come as a bit of bad news. Both Acer and Motorola are planning to delay the release of their respective Android tablets until the release of Android 3.0, which is expected to feature support for higher-resolution screens.

Acer’s tablet may be pushed back until the first quarter of 2011, which could put a damper on previous rumors that Gingerbread would be released some time before the end of the year. Motorola’s tablet, on the other hand, may see Gingerbread much earlier, as Google is working directly with Motorola to get Android 3.0 working on their 10.1” device (which could be the rumored “Stingray” tablet headed to Verizon).

Aug

Official Motorola Droid Android 2.2 Froyo Update (Still FRG01B) Now Being Pushed Out OTA

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Droid (Sholes), Froyo 2.2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

It's been 8 days since the original Android 2.2 Froyo update for the 1st Motorola Droid leaked out online, and Verizon has been taking its sweet time to make it available to the masses, leaving us guessing whether FRG01B was indeed the final version of this Éclair->Froyo update and whether serious stop-ship bugs were discovered.

Turns out, nothing has changed - FRG01B is exactly the version that Verizon started pushing out to the Droids a few hours ago. So if you haven't flashed the update a little over a week ago, you just missed out on 8 sweet days with the frozen deliciousness.

Aug

Motorola Droid 2 Quadrant Score Leaked - It’s A Monster

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Droid 2, Froyo 2.2, News, Verizon Wireless

A picture of a Droid 2’s Quadrant benchmark results has been released, and its score is the best stock store to date at 1,458. This is especially impressive considering the phone is apparently straight from the box.

Compared to the Droid X’s score of roughly 1,100, it’s even more impressive. Because both devices sport nearly identical hardware configurations, the difference most likely comes from Froyo - while the Droid 2 runs Android 2.2, the X only runs 2.1.

Granted, a benchmark’s real-world applicability is questionable (after all - Linpack famously runs about 400-500% faster on 2.2 compared to 2.1, but that certainly doesn’t mean the phone is 5x faster).