The Motorola Atrix 4G – Just another Android smartphone released at CES, or is it?  The Atrix is powered by Google’s Android 2.2 and sports a Dual-core processor where each core is running at 1GHz, 1GB of RAM, a qHD display offering high resolution 24-bit color, front and rear camera’s, biometric fingerprint reader, 16GB internal storage expandable using MicroSD cards, 2 microphones for noise reduction, 11mm thin, and a 1930mAh battery. It runs the full version of FireFox 3.6 and supports Adobe’s Flash. Sounds like a powerful smartphone, right? Well, it’s a lot more. Once you dock this device into the Motorola Laptop Dock, you get a larger screen and keyboard to work with. Your Android applications run within a window on the desktop while other applications are accessible through Motorola’s Webtop environment. The dock extends the power of the smartphone and provides a revolutionary interactive computing experience that empowers you in new ways for staying connected, informed and entertained.

The Atrix 4G will be coming exclusively to AT&T in Q1 of 2011. There’s no word on price, but I can’t see this priced at the low end of the scale. With specs like that, I imagine it will be around $700 or $800 for the device alone. Then you have to buy the laptop dock or the HD multimedia hub for connecting it to a larger screen. It’s hard to say if it will be worth the investment as a desktop replacement at this time. We should know a lot more as the product hits the streets in the next couple months. But it looks promising!

The full press release along with a couple more pictures are available after the break.

LAS VEGAS – CES – Jan. 5, 2011 — Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE: MMI), and AT&T today unveiled Motorola ATRIX^™ 4G, the only smartphone that allows you to carry the power of mobile computing inside your pocket. Motorola’s revolutionary webtop application changes mobile computing forever by unleashing the power of the smartphone like never before. Designed to bring unprecedented computing to your smartphone, Motorola’s webtop application runs a full Mozilla Firefox 3.6 browser and supports Adobe^® Flash^® Player to open up all the rich graphics, animations and video on the web. Motorola ATRIX 4G includes a dual core processor with each core running at 1 GHz, delivering up to two GHz of processing power. Put simply, Motorola ATRIX 4G is the world’s most powerful smartphone.

“Consumers are increasingly using smartphones as their primary digital screens,” said Bill Ogle, chief marketing officer, Motorola Mobility, Inc. “Motorola ATRIX 4G ushers in a new era of mobile computing. ATRIX comes loaded with the Motorola webtop application, and when used with one of our exclusive docks, enables consumers to extend the capabilities of their smartphones. Together, these provide a revolutionary interactive computing experience that empowers individuals in new ways for staying connected, informed and entertained at home, on the job and anywhere in between.”

“With ATRIX 4G, we are rethinking what a smartphone can be, and literally changing the game with a new device category that combines the power of a laptop with the latest smartphone features and 4G speeds,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T mobility and consumer markets. “With Motorola Mobility, we’re delivering on our commitment to provide customers with the best mobile broadband experience and best smartphones.”

Motorola ATRIX 4G is designed to essentially become a user’s primary digital hub to create, edit and interact with documents, media and content. This is facilitated by Motorola’s webtop application and incredible new accessory docks, such as the Laptop Dock, that provide users with a larger screen, keyboard and trackpad enabling them to have an enhanced and more interactive computer-like experience with their devices.

While in the webtop application users can run their Android applications in a window, browse their favorite websites with a full Firefox desktop browser, send instant messages and make phone calls, all at the same time. Calls continue uninterrupted if Motorola ATRIX 4G is removed from a dock. Users can take advantage of the ability to surf the web, view social networking, and use HTML5 web-based applications and supported cloud computing services. Plus, the new Entertainment Center feature lets you show all of the photos, music and videos you already enjoy on-the-go on a big screen in your living room. In the U.S., ATRIX 4G will feature the AT&T U-verse^® Mobile application, which allows users to schedule recordings, and for qualifying TV customers, download and watch hit TV shows on their smartphones.

Motorola ATRIX 4G provides consumers with instantaneous access to all their emails, files and media. While using the webtop application, business users with an existing Citrix account will benefit from the integrated Citrix Receiver application that provides secure, high performance access to virtual desktops as well as Windows^®, web and office applications hosted on Citrix XenDesktop. In addition to the full suite of office productivity applications and email applications, users can also access a great number of web applications such as Salesforce.com, Google Docs, and any HTML application or service from the full desktop browser.

Motorola ATRIX 4G runs Android^™ 2.2 with access to more than 100,000 apps and games in the Android Market^™.

Motorola is introducing two industry-leading companion docks for ATRIX 4G:

• The Motorola HD Multimedia Dock has three USB ports and an HDMI port enabling connections to a keyboard, mouse, speakers and HDMI-compatible monitor for working at your desk/office, or connecting to an HDMI-compatible television and home theater audio system for interacting with content and enjoying video, music, games and more in your living room.
• The Motorola Laptop Dock has an incredibly thin design with an 11.6-inch screen, full keyboard, stereo speakers, 36Wh three-cell battery that delivers up to eight hours of battery life and weighs just 2.4 pounds. Users simply dock their Motorola ATRIX 4G into the back of the Laptop Dock to turn it into an active, connected machine to experience true mobility at work, home and playing on-the-go in a form factor that’s lighter and smaller than most laptops on the market.

Key features and specifications:

• A dual-core processor capable of opening web pages twice as fast as most other smartphones, rendering games faster and displaying HD video on big-screen TVs
• A full 1 GB of RAM for twice the RAM of most smartphones to deliver effortless multi-tasking, such as watching a movie while receiving and responding to email
• The world’s first qHD display for a smartphone, offering high resolution and 24-bit color, making it easier to read indoors and outdoors
• Front- and rear-facing cameras and the ability to record in HD
• Convenient biometric fingerprint reader for easily unlocking your phone while providing extra security
• Up to 48GB of storage (16GB internal and optional 32GB MicroSD card) – enough to store thousands of songs, photos and movies
• 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11n support, enabling as much as 50 percent faster download and upload speeds in WiFi mode compared to most other smartphones
• Optional AT&T Mobile Hotspot service for connecting up to five additional Wi-Fi-enabled devices
• Under 11 mm thin with an extra large 1930 mAh battery for extended standby and talk time
• Two microphones for noise-reduction technology so your calls will be heard loud and clear in even the noisiest environments
• Supports HD video capture and replay for most multimedia standards

Availability

Motorola ATRIX 4G will be available to AT&T customers in Q1 2011. For more ATRIX 4G information visit: www.motorola.com/atrix and www.att.com/ATRIX4G. Motorola ATRIX 4G will be available exclusively in the U.S. for AT&T customers.

About Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE:MMI) fuses innovative technology with human insights to create experiences that simplify, connect and enrich people’s lives. Our portfolio includes converged mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; wireless accessories; end-to-end video and data delivery; and management solutions, including set-tops and data-access devices. For more information, visit motorola.com/mobility.

So far I have made enough to buy myself a couple coffees.  Oh boy!  Hey, not complaining, just saying.

I’m actually finding that I will carry the Charm with me more often than the Samsung Vibrant if I am just running to the store.  The Charm is just a bit more convenient and I worry less about damaging the screen since it’s so much smaller.  For anything longer than a short trip its the Vibrant for sure. Screen is fantastic, camera is worlds better and Angry Birds actually works on it.

The battery life on the Charm has turned out to be sub par.  I have done everything I can to reduce the drain, but on moderate to heavy use it will only last until about 4pm.  Not so great.  I may need to look into some accessories that help with battery life.

I got the iPod touch 4G last week and think its a great little device for the money.  It is a nice little improvement over the last touch with the higher rez screen, faster processor, sleeker design and cameras. I will say that I was a bit surprised that they limited the cameras as much as they did.  I get that it’s an inexpensive device, but having only a 0.7MP camera on the back is pretty weak.  The camera does a good job but still…

I’m looking forward to trying out the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet.  Not too sure when that will be but I gotta get at one!  They look great.

Probably the most exciting thing in mobile coming soon HAS to be the launch of Windows Phone 7!  I am really pumped about WP7: it looks great, runs very well, and is something new and interesting!

For quite a while now I have been using various Android phones and really like the OS but am getting a bit bored with it; not as bored as I am with iOS, just that it is feeling a bit…old-ish.  Once you try WP7 you will see why I say that.  It’s just so fresh and modern! (picture me jumping up and down like a three year old)

Well, bored you long enough. Get back to your lawn bowling or knitting or whatever you were doing before.  Feel free to argue with me in the comments, or to say something more friendly. 

What happens if your device won’t start up? Or perhaps it continually crashes on start up? While the problem may be the result of a badly written application, you need to get the device started to uninstall it using the above method. Since that’s not always possible, you’ll be happy to know that you can still perform a hard reset without actually booting into Android. To do this, with the phone off press and hold the camera key. Then press the power key and when you see a blue screen you need to press Alternate + L and ALternate + W. This will force a hard reset and the device will return to factory settings.

I don’t have a Charm to test these steps on, so please post your feedback below and let me know how it works.

The TELUS Motorola Charm is going to be a phone you either love or hate. It’s cute in an ET kinda way and very pocketable. Whether you love it or not, you have to love the price; $249 off contract makes it almost an impulse buy (as smartphones go) and it comes with Android 2.1, full QWERTY keyboard and more.

Here is my quick look at the Motorola Charm. Full specs are in the link below the video

Full specs (and I DO mean “full”!!) here

Apple iPhone 4 – Well, we all knew this was coming but for those that are fans, nice to see if it here. The iPhone 4 includes an all new sleeker design, very high resolution screen and a much more powerful processor.

Blackberry Torch 9800 – Just announced yesterday, the Torch is a large (huge!) Blackberry device with a slid-down qwerty and touch screen. For many this is going to be a very nice compromise allowing for a larger screen than most Blackberries (Blackberrys?) but still enjoying a nicely sized qwerty keyboard.

Curve 9300 – The Curve line of smartphones lives on with the 9300. There really isn’t a lot to write home about the 9300 other than to say it continues the line of very capable and reliable Blackberries at an affordable price point.

Motorola Flipout – Have you seen this cute little phone!? It is small and square, at least until you swing the screen around, much like the old Sidekick phones. It runs Android and uses Motorola’s Blur interface to stay in touch with friends. Very nice phone for the price for the younger smartphone user.

Galaxy S Captivate – The Juice!! The Samsung Galaxy S line of phones comes to Rogers as the Captivate, the same model as AT&T carries in the US. It’s a beautiful 4″ Super AMOLED display with a VERY thin profile, nice angles and a very fast and powerful processor. It’s a more expensive option, but with the included specs it’s worth it.

Nicely done Rogers! Keep bringing us Canadians lots of choice in phones and we will hug you!

The Flipout has a rotating screen, much like the youth-popular Sidekick, along with some decent specs. The processor will be 700MHz and the phone will include a 2.8 inch screen and 3.1 megapixel camera. Nothing mind-blowing here, but given some of the prices we are seeing at the lower end of the Android offerings this could be a very affordable option.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this article was that this phone might be more of a Sidekick replacement than Microsoft’s KIN phones. MotoBlur will be included with the Flipout which actually looks similar (at first glance) to the KIN’s OS. The big difference would be that Android has a LOT more flexibility with the derth of apps available. Add all this up with a swivel screen and it could resonate with younger buyers.

Either way, the Flipout looks like a decent new design, which is always nice to see.

All three devices are Android phones running the 1.5 version of the OS.  Not exactly inspiring, but certainly all three are capable.  All will sport MotoBlur for keeping on top of social media and your friend’s status’.

The DEXT has a slide out keyboard.  I’m not too sure how much I would like the D-pad on the left side there, but I’m sure it works just fine.

The Quench is a slate type device that is a tad ho-hum, but one that Rogers will carry will have a white front panel and looks more interesting.  While it might not be much to look at the form factor is obviously a popular one, so it will probably do well.

The most interesting of the trio is the Backflip.  As the name implies, the screens flips backward in the opposite direction of what you would expect.  The result is that you can use the phone in a slate-type mode with the keyboard underneath or opened with the keyboard ready to use.

Since we weren’t invited to the Motorola event [waves an angry fist at Moto Canada’s PR] we weren’t able to get any photos or video for you.  But head on over to Mobilesyrup for see videos of all three.

source: Mobilesyrup.com

March 03, 2010

TORONTO, Ont. — March 3, 2010 — Motorola Canada today announced that MOTOBLURTM, its revolutionary social service for Android-powered devices, is coming to Canada with all three national wireless carriers in the first half of 2010.

MOTOBLUR is the only solution to sync all your friends, posts, feeds, messages, e-mails, photos and much more—from sources such as Facebook®, Twitter®, MySpace, Gmail™, Yahoo! and work email—with continuous updates, automatically delivering them to your home screen for immediate reply. MOTOBLUR delivers these updates in easy-to-view streams, so there is no need to switch between different mobile applications to keep up with the latest content, allowing you to spend less time managing your life and more time living it.

“We are thrilled to be bringing Canadians three unique MOTOBLUR handsets with all the major wireless carriers,” said Rick Gadd, Vice President and Sales General Manager, Mobile Devices, Motorola Canada. “With MOTOBLUR, we are differentiating the Android experience and delivering phones that are truly instinctive and socially smart.”

Life: Organized, Streamed and Delivered
Only MOTOBLUR automatically delivers conversation threads, friend updates, stories, links, photos and more, to live widgets on your home screen for immediate reply:

Happenings: View your social site updates in one spot with the live Happenings application. Every friend feed, status update, wall post, bulletin and photo upload is automatically delivered and ready for immediate reply, anyway you like.
Messages: Quickly scroll through the Messages application for a snapshot of current work or personal emails, social site messages, and texts, and view messages all together in the universal inbox or separately by source.
Social Status: Blast your status right from the home screen and even save time by updating your status to one or all your social networks at once.
News Feeds: Keep track of your favorite news feeds, sports scores or even celebrity gossip without leaving the home screen.

Even cooler is MOTOBLUR’s ability to back up and restore all your contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, and email and social network messages via the secure MOTOBLUR server. Lost or stolen phones can be found with integrated AGPS from the online owner’s portal, and data can even be wiped clean. Simply enter the account username and password on the next MOTOBLUR phone, and all the information will be ready and waiting. Now there’s peace of mind!

Integrated Contacts with Context
MOTOBLUR keeps track of contacts so it’s easy to keep up. Only MOTOBLUR syncs and merges friends from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter together with your work and personal email contacts into a single phone book. Contacts are automatically synced to the phone from personal and work email as well as social network accounts, and MOTOBLUR updates any changes friends or contacts make to their information so you don’t have to. When making or receiving a phone call, your friend’s latest profile picture and status is shown on the screen. In the contacts view, see your communication history with each person and their latest social network broadcasts organized in an easy-to-read manner so you’ll always know the latest info about friends and family. Plus, communicate with them anyway you like, directly from their contact information.

Customize with Apps and Widgets
Mix and match thousands of applications and widgets from MOTOBLUR, Android Market™ or pre-loaded Google™ mobile services. Everything from messages to news feeds to sports scores to the Happenings widget to Google Maps™ can be added to create custom home screens that fit anyone’s multi-faceted life.

Canadian MOTOBLUR Line Up

The following devices featuring MOTOBLUR will be available in Canada:

MOTOROLA BACKFLIP™ — Backflip’s unique reverse flip design makes it easy to enjoy videos, music and photos, while its QWERTY keyboard allows you to blast through e-mails, texts, news feeds, social network messages and more. Navigate quickly and easily through menus and features with the new and unique BACKTRACK™ feature. BACKTRACK is a touch panel located on the opposite side of the device, offering you a new way to scroll through the web, texts, e-mails and news feeds without obscuring the home screen.

MOTOROLA DEXT™ — Flick through your latest updates and fire back a response on DEXT’s slide-out QWERTY keyboard – no apps to open and no menus to dig through, just instant social gratification. Snap photos with DEXT’s 5 megapixel camera with autofocus; upload photos simply to your favorite photo sharing or social sites; and make and take clear calls even in noisy environments with dual microphones and noise cancellation technology.

MOTOROLA QUENCH™ — This sleek, customizable touch tablet fits nicely in a palm or pocket. QUENCH’s easy-to-use touch pad and enhanced browser bring to life content rich web sites (busy banners, full videos) that many of today’s phones can’t handle. And with pinch and zoom capabilities, it’s easy to enlarge and enjoy all this great content.

Stay tuned as Motorola turns the mobile phone into a whole new kind of social in the first half of 2010. For more information about MOTOBLUR, please visit www.motorola.ca.

About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $22 billion in 2009. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.

Media Contacts:
Juli Burda
+1 847-877-7277
Juli.Burda@motorola.com
Motorola, Inc. Mobile Devices

With all the handsets created by both Palm and Moto, only 1 device ever made Microsoft’s million plus sellers list – only 1. That device was Motorola’s Q, a ground breaking device for its time, even if it had a hard time making it through a day on a charge. Just like the RAZR, Moto has tried to recapture their success with similar styled follow-up devices without much luck.

As for Palm, their users a very loyal and typically love their handhelds. However, Palm was never able to get their popular Treo handsets into the million plus sellers club. It’s no surprise that once Palm was able to release their new, long awaited follow-up to the Palm OS, dubbed the WebOS that they would toss in the towel on Windows Mobile. The new Palm Pre running the WebOS is getting mediocre reviews on the street, but Palm.afford to continue working with 2 mobile operating systems. They need to curb the cash flow and cutting the mobile license fee that Microsoft asking for Windows Mobile is one sure fire way to save a little money in the short term. Can they last purely on their WebOS? We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

For me, I’m more looking forward to what Samsung, HTC, HP, etc… are going to release next, and what LG is going to bring to the table when they get their first devices out of the gate later this year.

The following list is in no particular order.  Other than some minor formatting changes, it’s exactly how I received it.

• Samsung Omnia (SGH-i900/908/SCH-i910/M490)
• Samsung Blackjack II (SGH-i617)
• Samsung Blackjack (SGH-i607/600)
• Motorola Q
• HTC Touch Diamond (Diamond/Diamond-C)
• Audiovox SMT 5600 (HTC)
• HTC Dash (Excalibur)
• HTC xv6800  (Titan)
• HTC TyTN II (Tilt/Kaiser)
• HTC Touch (Elf/Vogue)
• HTC P800W (Artemis)

There’s a total of 4 different manufacturers on the list, 3 if you consider that the Audiovox device was made by HTC.  Of the top 11 best selling Windows Mobile devices, 7 are from HTC including the Audiovox device, 3 from Samsung and 1 from Motorola. Further, there are 6 Windows Mobile Pro devices (touch screen) and 5 Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch) devices. And of those non-touch screen devices, 4 out of 5 are messenger style devices – that’s devices with a front facing QWERTY. Another interesting fact is that 7 out of 11, or just over 63% of these devices have a QWERTY on them. 

I really have to wonder if the current trend by carriers and manufacturers to focus on iPhone like devices is such a smart move. With QWERTY being so predominate on the top selling devices, and over 45% of the top selling devices are non-touch screen, there is a definite trend of successful non-iphone like devices. I hope the manufacturers and carriers can see past the iPhone and work towards being original and different once again.