Apple is top manufacturer but Android is top os

According to June data from Nielsen, Google’s Android operating system (OS) now claims the largest share of the U.S. consumer smartphone market with 39 percent. Apple’s iOS is in second place with 28 percent, while RIM Blackberry is down to 20 percent.

How microsoft using patents to earn money

With exponential growth, Android announce coming of the search giant  Google on the equally exponentially growing smartphone market .Android not only fares well in the market but also leave behind mobile majors RIM’s Blackberry and of course , leader of all Apple’s very own ios  is no exception  here.
Android has seen phenomenal growth over the months from nowhere to everywhere ,riding high over  millions of smartphones have been sold so far thus farely captures 38% of smartphone market .

The Best QWERTY Android Phones in 2011 part 1

We happen to believe that QWERTY smartphones are craved by mobile enthusiasts. An Admob report in 2010 showed that 54% of Android traffic was driven by devices that feature a full QWERTY keyboard. It’s hard to deny that a huge amount of people still want a powerful smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard. Following that, let’s take a look at what’s in the store for you this year in the world of Android QWERTY Phones!

Motorola's 4.3-inch Photon 4G brings Tegra 2, kickstand magic to Sprint (video hands-on)

You know something big is about to go down when you can get the CEOs from two major tech companies to sit down together for lunch. As suspected, today's Sprint / Motorola event, presided over by Dan Hesse and Sanjay Jha, marked the debut of the rumored Photon 4G. The handset packs a 4.3-inch qHD display, 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in memory, and pre-installed Gingerbread -- plus, for better or worse, the latest version of Blur. The skinny new smartphone's got front and rear facing cameras (the latter of which is eight megapixels), a dedicated camera button, and micro USB and HDMI ports, which will hook into a soon to be announced docking device.

Droid X2 review

Would a Droid X by any other name smell as sweet? When we reviewed that phone last year we found it to be a solid performer in a solid chassis. In short: a very good phone. Now it's back with a new name, or a revised one at least, the Motorola Droid X2 offering the same basic design as its predecessor but packing a lot more heat on the inside -- a dual-core dose of Tegra 2, to be specific. Will it tickle your olfactory sensors just like the first X?

Motorola Droid 3 leaks out in tutorial vids, confirms 8MP camera and 1080p recordings (video)

Verizon and Motorola have kept a tighter lid on the Droid 3 than many recent smartphones we've seen, but a nice big leak just sprang from the bottom of the pot -- startup gadget blog PhonePads obtained three tutorial videos of the five-row QWERTY slider strutting its stuff.

Motorola Xoom hits 1.7GHz, teeters on the edge of oblivion

Just when we thought the Motorola Xoom had hit its stride at a blazing 1.504 billion operations per second, the trusty Tiamat kernel has strapped on an veritable afterburner capable of 1.7GHz.

Motorola Xoom update rolling out starting tonight, brings 'required enhancements' for Flash 10.2

In the spirit of issuing software updates with the sole purpose of preparing for more software updates, Motorola says there's about to be some brand new firmware for the Xoom, which will cross the Ts and dot the Is required to install the promised Adobe Flash Player 10.2. The company doesn't say when, exactly, to expect Flash, only that it's "coming soon," but the update will also fix a bug with Daylight Savings Time, which -- given recent history -- should find itself richly welcomed. If you're paying Verizon for 3G bandwidth, you can expect an OTA update in the days to come.

[Thanks, Bob, Jake and Oscar]

Motorola (Facebook), (Twitter)

Leave A Comment

Motorola will upgrade your Xoom to 4G LTE -- even if you've rooted it

Happy news for Android tinkerers everywhere -- Motorola has officially confirmed it will attempt to perform its 4G upgrade on all Verizon Wireless-riding Xoom tablets it receives from users, whether they've been rooted, repainted, or accessorized with fluffy dice. Naturally, the company can't guarantee successful software updates on devices that have had their OS tweaked, so it asks users to be kind and rewind to the original firmware state. For those unwilling to stretch that far back, Moto will still give it a shot and says that it'll install the 4G LTE modem at a minimum. What a refreshingly open-minded attitude. Now if Moto could give us an open-minded bootloader on its phones as well, we'd be all set.

WiFi-only Motorola Xoom appears at Sam's Club, bearing $539 price?

You might have seen Motorola's WiFi-only Xoom popping up at European e-tailers, but it's reportedly flying the red, white and blue today, having materialized at Sam's Club in the good ol' USA. Droid-Life stumbled upon several snapshots of these Xoom Wi-Fi vouchers, with a $539 price tag hanging above their heads -- plenty cheaper than a cellular Xoom, and also slightly more affordable than a similarly specced iPad 2. Of course, Sam's Club deals in wholesale merchandise, and even should this price be accurate the tablet may not be widely available at the same rate, so don't count out $599 as the Xoom Wi-Fi's MSRP. Meanwhile, let us know if you manage to find and ring one up at the register, eh?

[Thanks, Michael]

Droid-Life

Leave A Comment

iPad 2 vs. Motorola Xoom vs. HP TouchPad vs. BlackBerry PlayBook: the tale of the tape

You might recall we ran this comparison about a month back when HP's TouchPad was announced, but now we're back with a full set of 2011 devices as Apple's brand new iPad 2 has joined the fray. There's no need for excessive introductions, really, just leap past the break to get swalloped up by an avalanche of next-generation tablet specs.

Apple iPad 2

Motorola Xoom

HP TouchPad

BlackBerry PlayBook

Platform	iOS 4.3	Android 3.0	webOS 3.0	BB Tablet OS (QNX)
Display	9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD	10.1-inch	9.7-inch	7-inch LCD
Resolution	1024 x 768	1280 x 800	1024 x 768	1024 x 600
Processor	1GHz dual-core Apple A5	1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2	1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon	1GHz dual-core TI OMAP4430
Memory	?	1GB RAM	1GB RAM	1GB RAM
Storage	16GB / 32GB / 64GB	32GB	16GB / 32GB	16GB / 32GB / 64GB
Front camera	VGA	2 megapixel	1.3 megapixel	3 megapixel
Rear camera	720 / 30p video	5 megapixel AF with dual-LED flash, 720 / 30p video	none	5 megapixel, 1080p video
Cellular radio	Quadband HSPA or CDMA / EV-DO Rev. A	3G with free upgrade to 4G LTE	3G and 4G	3G and 4G
WiFi	802.11a/b/g/n	802.11a/b/g/n	802.11b/g/n	802.11a/b/g/n
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	2.1 + EDR	2.1 + EDR	2.1 + EDR
Accelerometer	3-axis	3-axis	Yes	Yes
Gyroscope	Yes	Yes	Yes	--
Battery	25Wh	6,500mAh	6,300 mAh	5,300 mAh
Thickness	8.8mm	12.7mm	13.7mm	10mm
Weight	601g (WiFi), 607g (Verizon), 613g (AT&T)	725g	740g	425g

3446

Leave A Comment

Motorola prices WiFi-only Xoom at £450 in the UK (update: €700 in Germany with 3G)

Finally Motorola gives us a chance to say something positive about its pricing of the 10.1-inch, Tegra 2-powered Xoom tablet. UK electronics retailer PC World has just put up its Xoom pre-order page, which will surprise many waking Brits with an extremely reasonable £450 ($730) asking price. That's £60 less than the direct competitor 32GB WiFi-only iPad -- the Xoom only has one storage option of 32GB and the model listed here comes without 3G -- and perhaps more importantly, is only £10 more than the 16GB version of Apple's tablet. It's common knowledge that to take on the iPad empire you'll have to at the very least match its price, and Moto is doing even better than that in the UK. There's only one worrying sign, we haven't been able to place a Xoom into our shopping basket yet, as the "Pre-order today" button seems to be malfunctioning, but we're guessing that's a temporary glitch that will be fixed without the price shooting up skywards.

Update: T-Mobile Germany has also revealed its Xoom pricing, this time for the 3G model: €699.95. Distribution will begin at the end of April and T-Mo will have a three-month exclusive on the tablet in its native land. The pricing positions the Xoom a mere 95 Euro cents above the 32GB-equipped iPad WiFi + 3G, meaning that your choice will truly come down to preference and not economics. See T-Mobile's full press release after the break.

PRESS RELEASE

Motorola Xoom™ with UMTS available for three months exclusively from Telekom

Feb 28, 2011

First tablet PC with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)

Supports HPSA with up to 14.4 Mbit/s download capacity

Fast dual-core processor, two 5 and 2 megapixel cameras

From the end of April 2011 Telekom will be offering customers the first tablet PC with Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system: the Motorola Xoom. Android 3.0 is the first version of Android developed by Google specifically for mobile devices with large displays. Some of its key features are the home screen with 3D elements, large widgets with extended interaction options and newly designed notification icons. The Motorola Xoom's full-touch display featuring a 25.6 cm (10.1″) screen and a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels is the ideal platform for surfing on the go. "The Motorola Xoom fits perfectly with our strategy for the best mobile Internet experience," said Niek Jan van Damme, member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG and Chairman of the Managing Board of Telekom Deutschland GmbH. "We are pleased to offer the tablet PC with UMTS exclusively for three months to our customers in Germany."

For all applications the Xoom's 1 GHz dual-core processor provides for its multitasking capability. HSPA technology for bandwidths of up to 14.4 Mbit/s enables high-speed mobile surfing and downloading even large files in a matter of seconds within the Telekom network. You can upload videos, photos and other content at up to 5.76 Mbit/s. A 5 megapixel camera with twin LED flash is integrated into the back of the Motorola Xoom. And that is not all: the tablet is equipped with a second 2 megapixel camera on the front. The Motorola Xoom supports HD video recording and playback and multimedia content can be streamed to your television via HDMI. Other features of the device, which is 247 x 167 x 12.4 mm in size and weighs just 700 grams, are a GPS module, a micro SD slot and a micro USB interface.

Telekom Deutschland plans to launch the Motorola Xoom at the end of April 2011 at a price of EUR 699.95. The version featuring UMTS mobile telecommunications technology for mobile data transmission will be available exclusively through Deutsche Telekom for 90 days.

PC World

68

Leave A Comment

Motorola Xoom review

As we put rubber to road on our Motorola Xoom review, it's important to note that it was only a matter of time before the Android army delivered a proper iPad competitor. Moto's partnership with Google (and use of the 3.0 version of its mobile operating system, Honeycomb), has made that assumed inevitability a very serious reality. There can be little question that the Xoom is certainly a contender for the hearts and minds of potential tablet buyers in the market. Besides boasting that fancy new software (a completely redesigned experience masterminded by the man behind webOS, Matias Duarte), the Xoom is equipped with formidable hardware. The 1GHz, NVIDIA Tegra 2-based slate boasts a sizable 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 capacitive display, 3G connectivity (Verizon on our review unit), along with front and rear facing cameras, HD video capability, and loads of wireless options. Not only is the Xoom clearly competitive (and frankly, more stacked) than most of its competition, Motorola has attempted to futureproof the device by offering a free hardware upgrade down the road which will give the tablet access to Big Red's 4G LTE network. Of course, all this power comes with a cost... literally. With a list price off contract of $799, the Xoom is quite a pricey piece of technology to own. Still, with all that's packed inside -- and more importantly with what Google has done on the software side -- the Xoom could represent the next stage of tablet evolution. Is it time to take the plunge? Read on for our definitive answer in the full Engadget review!

Motorola Xoom review gallery

Hardware

The Xoom is a handsomely built tablet, though at a glance, you'll think you've seen this before. Maybe it's that little can be done within the constraints of the tablet form factor (or Motorola isn't really trying), but the general shape and build of the Xoom comes off looking just a teensy bit like the iPad's longer, more dangerous cousin. The back and sides of the device are a similar, machined metal (though Verizon's version is painted a matte black, which is a real fingerprint magnet), the corners are similarly curved, and the front is, of course, all screen. That's not to say the Xoom isn't good looking -- it is -- but there isn't much original going on with the general industrial design that's at play here. And that's okay by us.

At 9.8 inches wide by 6.6 inches tall (with a thickness of a half inch), the device isn't massive (albeit a little unwieldy when held in portrait), and its 1.5 pound weight gives it heft without killing your arms -- though it still strains your muscles a bit if you're holding the tablet up for an extended period of time.

The Xoom is clearly meant to be used in landscape mode more than portrait (though it can be rotated any way you prefer). If you're holding the tablet in that orientation, you'll find the front facing camera sitting dead-center between the Motorola and Verizon logos along the top of the glass display. On the left side of the device, there are two volume buttons; along the top is a slot for a future LTE SIM and microSD card (more on that in a moment); on the bottom you'll find a Micro USB and mini HDMI jack, along with dock sensors. Around the back of the device, Motorola has weirdly chosen to place the power / sleep button next to the camera lens and flash -- and those components are flanked by stereo speakers. We had a lot of issues with both the volume buttons and power button on the device; we found the volume keys difficult to find and use as they're extremely shallow and placed right next to a notch in the casing of the device. The power button was even worse; we didn't mind the placement so much, but like the volume buttons the single, small circle is extremely shallow -- and worse, it got stuck a number of times when we were using it! Instead of waking the device up or putting it to sleep, we were prompted to shut down the Xoom. Hopefully this is just a random issue with our unit, but it didn't give us warm and fuzzy feelings about the build quality.

Internals / display / sound quality / battery life

As we said in the intro, the guts of the Xoom are more than competitive -- and performance on the device was really quite brisk. We did experience some slowdown when transferring files from our computer or jumping quickly between lots of apps, but we were blown away by the robustness and speed of applications like the browser and some of the included games. The general responsiveness of the UI and touch reaction was inline with the best the iPad exhibits. Besides that Tegra 2 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage, the device is equipped with WiFi 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A, along with GPS, a light sensor, and an accelerometer. As we said in the intro, the device can be upgraded to use Verizon's LTE network. That upgrade will come in the form of a hardware swap which either Verizon or Motorola will have to do, meaning your tablet will go into the shop at some point (at least, that's what Motorola reps told us). Strangely, there's a microSD slot present on the device, but it's non-functioning at this point. When we pressed Motorola, the company made it sound like it was waiting on a software update from Google to enable the slot. Very strange stuff. What that means for right now is that you can buy a 32GB tablet... and that's it.

The display on the Xoom is slightly larger than the iPad's 9.7-inch screen, and higher resolution (1280 x 800 to Apple's 1024 x 768). The aspect ratio is substantially different as well, meaning that the Xoom feels a lot longer (or taller) than the iPad. In general, we felt portrait use was slightly uncomfortable given the size, but not in any way a dealbreaker. Though the screen does look nice, pixel density seemed to suffer -- a situation that was particularly evident when using the Google Books application. Still, the Xoom's display is more than capable at making game and video content look clear and crisp. One note, however -- Motorola's auto-brightness controls seem a little extreme to us here, forcing us to manually adjust the brightness most of the time. Hopefully a software update will come along which softens the severity with which it dims the screen; it was simply too dark for our tastes.

On the sound side of things, the Xoom could produce reasonably clear audio at a mid-level volume, but cranking the tablet up created some pretty nasty distortion on basic sounds, like the email notifications. We had to reduce the volume a number of times when we felt that the levels were actually doing damage to the speakers; we're all for loud, but it seems like Motorola (typically very solid in the audio department) might have bitten off more than it could chew here.

Battery life on the Xoom was excellent. Beyond excellent, actually -- some of the best performance we've seen on a slate. Running a video on loop with the screen set at 65 percent brightness, we were able to get playback for nearly eight and a half hours (8:20 to be exact). Motorola claims up to ten, so we weren't far off the mark at all. We had a few background tasks going on, and both WiFi and 3G radios were active. We could easily see maximizing this if you're in airplane mode with a slightly lower brightness setting.

	Battery Life
Motorola Xoom	8:20
Dell Streak 7	3:26
Archos 101	7:20
Samsung Galaxy Tab	6:09
Apple iPad	9:33

Cameras

There's no question that it's nice to have a 5 megapixel camera and LED flash on the back of the Xoom, but we found little utility in actually having a decent shooter on a device of this size. It's hard to imagine a scenario where you're using the Xoom as your main camera. Besides looking ridiculous, it's not all that convenient to handle something this large when you're trying to snap away. Another issue is the sheer glare of the screen -- shooting in daylight proved to be a challenge, and sometimes we couldn't even see the display well enough to snap a photo.

That said, the rear camera produced relatively good looking photos -- about the quality we've been seeing with the company's Atrix 4G -- though the interface in Honeycomb is about a million times better looking and more pleasant to use. Again, it is somewhat difficult to hold something of this size and take really steady shots, so we found the use of the Xoom as a camera almost completely impractical in most situations.

Video turned out well, and it's nice to be able to shoot 720p with a display of this size, though we did experience a few instances where the recording video stuttered or stopped completely -- and those defects were present during playback. The included Movie Studio software allows you to fairly easily edit your creations -- though it's by no means perfect -- but it was good of Google to include the package with this device (more on that in the software section).

As far as the front-facing camera goes, you should expect pretty standard stuff. We doubt you'll be using this for fashion shoots, but for hairstyling and video chats, it does the trick. Just the fact that it's there is pretty cool, really.

Software

While the hardware of the Xoom is notable, it's not the real story. The real story is all about Android, and the next stage of its evolution -- namely Honeycomb. Version 3.0 of the mobile operating system represents a significant change for just about every aspect of the user interface, and some notable alterations under the surface as well. As we've extensively covered, UI wunderkind Matias Duarte left Palm to work for Google less than half a year ago, and seems to have immediately dived into the work that he does best -- reinventing user interfaces and user interaction for mobile devices.

The Honeycomb look and feel certainly has the work of a single mind written all over it -- while we know this is very much a team effort (something we discussed with Matias in our interview at CES), it's also clear that someone is steering the ship with far more resolve than ever before witnessed in this OS. From a purely visual standpoint, Android 3.0 comes together in a far more cohesive manner than any previous iteration of the software, and the changes aren't just cosmetic. Much of the obscurity in the OS and arcane functions of this software have been jettisoned or drastically changed, making for an experience that is far more obvious to a novice user... though we wouldn't exactly describe it as simple.

From a visual standpoint, we could most easily explain that Android 3.0 looks very much like the world of Tron. Think soft focus neon and cold, hard digital angles. A homescreen which phases between panels with a blue, ghosting glow that represents your last and next page. When you place items on the homescreens, you see a distant patchwork of grid marks, and a vector outline of where your icon or widget will eventually land. Even in the app list, you see electric blue representations of your icons before the icons themselves. The effect is angular, but the feel is still very human -- like a cross between the "chromeless" environment of Windows Phone 7, and the photorealism of webOS or iOS. It absolutely works. From the overall look and feel down to the method in which you get widgets onto your pages or change the wallpaper, everything is new here.

Unlike Apple and it's single-minded iOS, however, Android is still filled with variables and choices which make general navigation a learning process, and even though Honeycomb has made huge inroads to making that process simpler, it's not 100 percent there. The general vibe of Android is still present here -- you have a series of homescreens which are scrollable, and can be loaded up with a variety of application shortcuts, folders, shortcuts, and widgets. Unlike most mobile OSs, Honeycomb places the status bar along the bottom of the device, and then fills the left side of that bar with the constant pieces of navigation you'll use to get around the OS.

Yes, gone are the hardware buttons of yesteryear -- 3.0 replaces the familiar home and back buttons with virtual incarnations, then adds a couple of extra pieces for good measure. Along with those two main buttons, Honeycomb introduces a multitasking icon which pops open a list of recently used apps along with a snapshot of their saved state. The back button is also a little more dynamic in 3.0, shifting between a straightforward back key, and a keyboard-hider when necessary. If your app utilizes the menu key on Android phones, you get an icon for that as well. The home button will take you back to your main views, but it can't get you to your apps. Instead, Honeycomb introduces a new (and somewhat confusing) button -- an "apps" icon which lives in the upper right hand corner of your device. You might think that comes in handy, but you can only access your app pages from the homescreen of the tablet, meaning that you have to use a two step process to get to your app list. We're not totally clear on why this isn't another button that lives along the bottom of the device with the rest of the navigation, and frankly it proved confusing when we were trying to get around the Xoom quickly.

On the right side of that status bar are your battery and time indicators, along with a pop-up area for notifications. The whole structure of the status bar feels weirdly like Windows. When you get a new email or Twitter mention, you're alerted in that righthand corner with an almost Growl-like box, which fades away quickly. When you tap on that space, you're given a time and battery window where you're also able to manage notifications (though strangely there's no option to clear all notifications). A settings button present there will also allow you to change your brightness and wireless settings, orientation lock, or jump to the full settings of the device. In all, it's a tremendously convenient piece of this new OS, but not a new OS trick by any means. The desktop feels alive and well in Honeycomb.


In applications like the browser -- which is now far more like a desktop version of Chrome (with proper tabs and all) -- you also get the sense that Google is taking a lot of cues from familiar places. Besides just offering bigger views and more real estate, there are drop down menus (located in the upper-right hand corner) and far more of the navigational items exposed. In fact, in all of the new native applications, there is no menu button present. All of the key elements of navigation are front and center, usually along the top of the app's display, which should make for an easier time when it comes to getting things done, but can create confusing situations. For instance, in Gmail, your items in the upper right of the app change based on the context; that's good for managing messages in one view, but creates some head-scratching moments in others. Worse, the back button (which you use frequently) is in the exact opposite corner, meaning that your gaze is constantly shifting between two places on the tablet -- two places that are furthest apart. The experience encourages a lot of eye-darting, which makes quickly managing tasks somewhat of a chore. We wish that Google had somehow combined the app navigation and tablet navigation into a more closely related space, so that instead of jumping from corner to corner, you were able to focusing on one place for operation of the app, and another for its content. We found ourselves having this same experience all over the Xoom.

On the plus side (and it is a big plus), the Xoom feels much more like a real netbook or laptop replacement. Being able to multitask in the manner Google has devised, having properly running background tasks, and real, unobtrusive notifications feels really, really good in the tablet form factor. Additionally, the fact that Google has included active widgets that plug right into things like Gmail makes monitoring and dealing with work (or play) much more fluid than on the iPad.

One other big note: a lot of the new software feels like it isn't quite out of beta (surprise surprise). We had our fair share of force closes and bizarre freezes, particularly in the Market app and Movie Studio. Most applications were fine, but there definitely some moments where we felt like the whole device was teetering on the brink of a total crash.

That said, there are some significant changes to stock applications and new additions to the family that we thought were worth a slightly deeper look, so here's a breakdown of what you can expect -- both old and new -- when you open the Xoom box.

Browser

We loved the browsing experience on the Xoom. The included app is (as we said) far more like a desktop version of Chrome, and if you're already using the software on your laptop or desktop, you'll feel right at home. Pages displayed quickly and cleanly on the tablet, though we have to admit that we're more than a little miffed that Flash support isn't present out of the box with the Xoom. Strange considering this is one of the real advantages Android devices have over Apple's offerings.

Despite our enjoyment, there were some maddening issues, like the fact that the browser still identifies as an Android phone, meaning most sites with a mobile view end up on your big, beautiful browser tab. Given how close this version is to the real Chrome, we're surprised Google wasn't a little more proactive about this.

Gmail

Gmail has been completely redesigned for Honeycomb, and it's a big upgrade. We'd love to say that it's all rainbows and butterflies, but there are some nagging problems that come along with the changes, and we're hoping Google will clean it up a bit moving forward. The application seems to generally suffer from UI overload; there have always been a lot of hidden features in Gmail for Android, and now that those hidden elements are brought to the surface, it creates a feeling that you're never in a single place. As with other parts of the OS, we found ourselves jumping to and fro trying to locate UI elements and get work done. Adding confusion to this new layout is the fact that menus now change contextually based on what you've selected, which means that not only are you dealing with scattered navigational items, but those items can change on the fly while you're working.

Maybe we're just too addicted to Gmail as it is now, but this incarnation feels splintered to us.

Music

It's about time... isn't it? The music app in Honeycomb has been completely, mercifully rethought, and it is stunning. As you can see in the above photo, gone is the amateurish and drab Android player. It's now been replaced with a dimensional, 3D interface that isn't just good looking, it's actually useful. There are 2D views when you jump into albums and playlists, but the flipbook navigation is actually not bad for finding your music. Unfortunately, the Xoom seemed to have trouble recognizing all of our album art, and there were some issues with album art doubling up (our Engadget podcast logo seemed to get glued to another album). Minor issues aside, we're impressed with the work Google has done here.

YouTube

Like the Music app, YouTube has gotten a revamp here. Keeping in line with the 3D feel of the Honeycomb interface, you're presented with a wall of videos which you can pan through -- kind of like your own wall of TVs (if TV had nothing but clips of people dancing and / or injuring themselves). If you've always wanted to feel like Ozymandias from the final pages of Watchmen, here's your chance.

Playing videos was pretty much a standard YouTube experience... which unfortunately these days seems to mean watching for stuff to buffer. A lot.

Google Talk

We love the version of Google Talk present in Honeycomb. Not only does it provide clear, seamless integration with accounts you already use, but the way it utilizes both voice and video conversations is terrific.

The app itself is fairly straightforward, but it did take a little bit of head scratching before we figured out exactly how to move between voice, chat, and video. Our callers on the other end of the line said video quality was a bit on the low res side (see the photo above -- Xoom up top, MacBook Pro camera in the corner) even on WiFi. We're not sure why that would be the case, but hopefully it can be cleared up with some software tweaking.

Overall, however, the new Google Talk works in perfect harmony with the Xoom.

Movie Studio

We had high hopes for Movie Studio -- a competitor to Apple's iOS version of iMovie. While the software is quite powerful, our experience with it was less than thrilling. Besides being generally sluggish, clip editing is kind of an obtuse affair. We were able to get some work done with it, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as straightforward as it should. More than once while using the app, we found ourselves waiting around for clips to redraw or playback video that seemed to stall out. We're not saying there aren't uses for the software, but it feels like it needs a revision or two before it's ready for prime time. And that's too bad... since the Xoom is in market right now.

Other apps

There were a handful of applications that we had a chance to play around with which show off the Xoom (and Honeycomb's) capabilities. Google Body (an interactive, 3D body simulator), Pulse (a news reader, which you should know from its iOS incarnation), and games like Cordy all show that the Xoom and its OS are more than powerful enough to pull off iPad like experiences. Unfortunately, there just aren't many of those experiences available to users right now, and it doesn't seem like Google has gotten a big headstart on getting tablet titles into the Android Market.

There is a ton of promise on the software side for tablets running Honeycomb given the new access to 3D tools and system tweaking that Android allows, but right now it's a small island in a sea of phone titles -- and the majority of those titles do not look right on a 10.1-inch screen at this resolution.

Pricing and data

Oh, the Xoom pricing. It sure hasn't been much of a secret (we had over five pricing leak posts!), but it certainty has been the focal point of the new tablet's entrance into the market. So, what will this thing cost you? Motorola has set the price of the 32GB, 3G version at $800. Now, that is unsubsidized, however, Verizon is requiring customers pay for one month of service -- $20 for 1GB of data -- to basically unlock the device. It doesn't seem very fair, but such is life.

The other option at the moment is to buy the same Xoom on-contract from Verizon for $600. That does shave off $200, but you're not exactly saving money, considering you're locking yourself into paying $20 a month for the next two years, which comes out to $1,080. Also, don't forget the Xoom is upgradable to LTE. However, the carrier is still keeping quiet on pricing for the 4G service.

Is that a lot of money for a tablet? Sure it is, and if you opt for the $800 unsubsidized version it comes out to $71 more than Apple's comparable iPad -- the 32GB / 3G iPad rings up at $729. Unfortunately, at this point we don't have any real details on when the WiFi only version will be hitting, but Motorola's CEO has said that it will be also priced at $600. Again, that's in line with the $599 32GB / WiFi iPad.

Wrap-up

Despite the drawbacks that we've outlined in this review, there is actually a lot about the Xoom to like. Besides boasting what we consider to be the most complete and clearly functioning version of Android, the hardware which is packed inside Motorola's tablet is really quite good. The tablet is fast and sleek, and while not exactly being really futureproof, the fact that you've got a path to a 4G upgrade is tremendous (and frankly, something no one else in the industry is offering).

The problem with the Xoom isn't really about the core of the experience or the core of the hardware -- it's about the details. Too much in both the design (like those wonky buttons) or the software (like the feeling that this is all very much in beta) makes you wonder if this wasn't rushed out to market in order to beat the next wave from Apple. Regardless, there isn't much here for consumers right now. The Android Market is almost devoid of tablet applications, the OS feels buggy and unfinished, and the hardware has pain points that we find troubling. And that's to say nothing of the pricing and carrier commitments being asked of first-time buyers.

Is the Xoom a real competitor to the iPad? Absolutely. In fact, it outclasses the iPad in many ways. Still, the end user experience isn't nearly where it needs to be, and until Google paints its tablet strategy and software picture more clearly, we'd suggest a wait-and-see approach. Honeycomb and the Xoom are spectacular -- unfortunately they're a spectacular work in progress.

AT&T Motorola Atrix 4G now on sale, $149.99 at Amazon or RadioShack (update: $129.99 at Walmart)

The hotly reviewed and already rooted Atrix 4G is now on sale at AT&T. As expected, the privilege of buying direct from the carrier will set you back $199.99 with a two-year contract in the range of $39.99 per month for the Nation 450 on up to $69.99 for the Nation Unlimited with another $15 per month for a 200MB DataPlus plan or $45 per month for a Data Pro 4GB + tethering plan. Or shop on over to Amazon (or RadioShack, presumably) who lists the same HSPA+ device for $50 less with a 24-hour ship time. Remember, if you just have to have the laptop dock then you'd best do it now while it's offered with the handset in a $499 bundle (after $100 mail-in rebate and purchase of the Data Pro plan with tethering add-on) -- the same laptop dock purchased separately will cost you $499.99. No, really.

Update: Walmart is offering the Atrix 4G handset for a measly $129.99 for those of you activating a new account before Thursday.

[Thanks, Zizo and Hoodean]

AT&T, Amazon, RadioShack The Technocrat

Motorola Xoom up for in-store pre-order at Best Buy, $800 for Thursday availability

No more stunt prices, no more premature web appearances, this (we hope) is finally Best Buy's fully official listing for the Motorola Xoom. It brings no great surprises to those who've been tracking the tablet's progress to retail shelves, offering first dibs to buyers willing to make the effort and pre-order one in store today, with full availability coming on Thursday, February 24th. The $800 3G-equipped model is accompanied on Best Buy's site by a $40 portfolio case, a $50 basic charging dock, a $130 stereo speaker dock, and a $70 Bluetooth keyboard, but there's no sighting of the cheaper WiFi-only Xoom. There was some suspicion that the $600 SKU would launch a little later on and that is indeed what appears to be happening. One final note of caution: even if you're intending to use the Xoom as a pure WiFi-only device, remember that you'll be required to activate data with Verizon for at least a month first -- don't ask us why.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Xoom up for pre-order at Best Buy this Thursday... for $1,199!

What the what?! Best Buy has just put up word on when you can pre-order the Motorola Xoom -- this coming Thursday, February 17th -- and a price, $1,199. There are "great" financing offers available, but we can't get over this price we're seeing. Our only hope is that this may be a placeholder number, which will get revised soon, though it's live on Best Buy's site and there's nothing to really indicate it's a mistake. Moreover, that 1-month data activation requirement we noted recently is indeed real, meaning you'll need to pay a levy to Verizon as well before you get your Android 3.0 groove on.

[Thanks, Joe and Magid]

Best Buy

577

Leave A Comment

Motorola Atrix 4G pre-orders begin at AT&T

March 6th is the official street date, but you can lay down your money for Motorola's modular smartphone right now, as the Atrix 4G and its suite of incredible Webtop docks are now available for pre-order. $200 buys you the biometric HSPA+ smartphone on a two-year contract, and it'll cost you an additional $300 to turn it into a portable netbook of sorts -- though as we feared, you'll need to pay $45 a month for the DataPro 4GB + Tethering data plan (on top of your phone bill) to actually use it on the go. Another bummer is that the HD Multimedia Dock (enabling desktop-like functionality) will run $130, a good bit more than we thought we'd see it for. All in all, the Atrix is looking like quite an investment, so perhaps you'd be best served waiting for our full review. But don't let us tell you what to do with your hard-earned dough!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

AT&T

Leave A Comment

Motorola Devour review

While Motorola's vanilla-Android Droid has become the most recognizable Android device on the market -- thanks in part to a bombastic ad campaign -- Motorola's primary focus has been on its own custom Blur UI. At least, if quantity of devices are any indication. Hitting Verizon just as the Blur-powered Backflip heads to AT&T, the new Motorola Devour is an odd cross section of the "consumery" Backflip and Cliq, and the high-end Droid slider. We've been playing with the phone for a week or so (you can find our initial hands-on, video walkthrough and unboxing here), so follow us after the break as we walk through the triumphs and tragedy that is this device.

Motorola Devour goes hands-on

Hardware

At first glance we'd call the Devour "frumpy" in looks. It surrounds a smallish 3.1-inch 480 x 320 LCD with a decent amount of black bezel, and then encases that in some overwrought aluminum. Upon closer examination, there is still plenty of wasted space, but once in hand you can at least tell that all the bulk goes into crafting an extremely robust and well-machined device. The slider has a delightful pop and snap that's thoroughly lacking from the Droid, the entire assembly of extruded aluminum doesn't have an ounce of budge or bend to it, and the rubber bumpers on the top, bottom and sides just contribute to the feeling of robustness. If it weren't for the presumably fragile screen, we'd have no problems dropping the phone onto all sorts of concrete.

The hardware buttons are pretty minimal on the exterior, with a slightly-too-recessed unlock / power button on top, a volume rocker and voice command-activator on the right side, and a camera button below them. On the face is an optical track pad which clicks, next to capacitive buttons for menu, home and back. The row is thankfully offset from the bottom of the LCD, avoiding the fiasco of the Nexus One's easily actuated row, but you can't help but think the black expanse in between is wasted somehow. The optical trackpad is very nice and sensitive for what it is, but we hardly use it; we've yet to see an Android device that makes a compelling use case for a trackpad, D-pad or scrollball outside of the occasional textual revision. A very minimal blinking indicator light is to the left of the primary buttons on the face, trying to tell us something, though we haven't quite ascertained what yet.

There's a rather dramatic recessed headphone jack centered at the top of the device, which isn't as discriminatory in sleeve as the original iPhone, but still restricts the fattest of our 3.5mm plugs. We'd be more miffed if Android didn't make such a poor music player as to make the jack fairly pointless in use with any premium headphones. There's a relatively large speakerphone grill at the bottom of the phone, which pumps out clear if not overly loud (by Verizon's standards) audio.

At the end of the day, the phone is probably too fat and bulky to be winsome to its presumed Sidekick-familiar audience looking to graduate to a sexier device. The side loading battery is probably one of our favorite bits of the build, at last rectifying the age-old battery pop-out we used to when dropping our phones, and providing a way to get at the 8GB bundled microSD card without turning off the phone, but at the same time the unique assembly probably contributes the most to the phone's girth. Sure, the handset is really just barely thicker than the Droid, but it lacks the speedy processor or incredible screen of its big brother that might make such heft excusable.

The slide-out keyboard is another in a long line of missed opportunities from Motorola. For a company so bent on putting keyboards into its Android phones, you'd think it would be a bit more serious about being good at it. Granted, the keyboard is vastly superior to the Droid's mushy mess, with fairly well-separated keys and no D-pad to push them off center. Unfortunately, the keys feel just a little too flat to be truly great, almost like an quasi-separated membrane keyboard than an actual collection of separate keys. The other problem is that Motorola has given the numbers their own dedicated row, pushing the spacebar up in between V and B... making the keyboard extremely frustrating to learn, or to switch between this and other devices. For a regular user this probably will cease to be a problem eventually, and we could see someone getting theoretically very good at this 'board, but it's still no excuse for such a frustrating layout.

The capacitive touchscreen is nicely responsive and certainly decent in pushing pixels, but it simply pales in comparison to the jumbo-sized high resolution screens we're starting to see on other devices, and its colors seem slightly washed out, though it does offer up some pretty strong blacks for an LCD.

Software / Performance

So, another foray into Blur, and this time with a faster processor (a Qualcomm MSM7627, the same chip used to power Palm's Pixi). To be honest, Blur isn't much of anything to get up in arms over. It occupies the home screen (though its widgets can easily be moved or removed) and attempts to merge a few forms of messaging, but it has neither a far reach, nor annoying habits that might hurt the rest of the Android experience.

Of course, that's a pretty weak compliment. In reality, we just find Blur to be mostly useless due to what we'll term the "do you really care about them?" factor. Basically, while we love everyone we've ever friended on Facebook or followed on Twitter, there are simply too many people to make the home screen ever relevant. The top widget displays our latest status update (mildly helpful), but the Twitter and Facebook widgets show the face and text of the most recent update or DM by our fourth grade swim coach or our mom's old quilting circle buddy -- sure, they're fine folks, but we really wish they weren't occupying a third of our home screen at the moment. If you tap into Twitter or Facebook you get a linear, one-at-a-time view of friend updates that you can swipe horizontally to browse through before you quickly lose stamina. There is an inbox-style view for DMs that's slightly more helpful, and the "people" button at the bottom right provides the true, "core" integration of status updates and contacts available on the device in an actually usable list view, but we'd give all of Blur up in an instant for good individual Facebook and Twitter apps. We're not saying this sort of integration can't be done well, but Blur sure isn't the answer.

Luckily, some of the performance woes that typically have dogged Blur haven't been so evident here. We're not sure if that's due to recent updates Motorola has made to the software, or thanks to the peppier new processor, but we often found swiping between home screens or even occasionally jumping in and out of apps to be a tad more responsive on the Devour than the Droid. Unfortunately, the real legacy of Blur isn't its failure to be useful, but the fact that it's going to delay this phone from getting real and useful updates of Android as a whole -- it's perfectly designed for fragmentation, and if you find yourself unhappy with the initial experience, you're going to be extra-frustrated by the unpredictable and snail-paced update schedule.

We're still pretty happy with many elements of Android floating around here, like that best-in-class email experience, vibrant developer community and useful widget UI, but there's nothing about Blur or the Devour that really make them better. The browser is of course decent, but without multitouch or a "superphone" processor to make it scream, it's hardly a selling point. It does pack Flash Lite, but without support for Hulu or YouTube for Viddler, it's kind of moot.

We'd love to have that ever-lovable Verizon network to fall back on, but while we haven't done any super-in-depth testing, we'd say reception for both data and voice has been generally worse on this phone than the Droid. We dropped a couple of calls in our radio-wave-defying apartment and drops to 1x from 3G on occasion when browsing. It's not bad, but it's much more comparable to AT&T than our regular Verizon experience. Again, nothing scientific, but we're curious if the aluminum enclosure has something to do with our difficulties -- if you'll remember, the original iPhone has a plastic end to help with reception. While the Devour has rubber endcaps, they don't cover either end in all directions, which could explain some of the sporadic coverage we've experienced from a single spot.

You might've noticed that we haven't mentioned the three megapixel camera just yet. It's hardly worth mentioning, producing dark, grainy pictures in just about any lighting condition. There's no flash, and it's fixed focus. At least Android is kind enough to make video a standard feature on a low-end device like this, but there's nothing spectacular about the quality in that mode either.

Battery was completely (and thankfully) on pace with the better-case-scenario smartphones these days, lasting for days on standby, and easily making it through a regular day of use -- as long as you've got a charger by your nightstand, it shouldn't be much problem, and we almost made it through two days of real use.

Wrap-up

Eventually, we just have to ask ourselves "why?" We see why Motorola might think it needs a premium-styled slider to present its precious Blur to a crowd that might otherwise be thinking Droid, but we'd exhort that crowd: just go with your first impulse. There's really nothing to this phone outside its keyboard and a slightly superior build quality (at expense of aesthetic) that commends it over the Droid. Given the fact that both devices are going for the same price at Best Buy right now ($99 a pop), we'd say the answer is pretty simple.

Motorola Droid faces off with Devour