Android smart phones are coming out in droves this year. With the launch of the Google Nexus One in January until the very end of the year, the 2010 calendar is marked full of product launch dates that would make plenty of other folks cringe with all the sudden updates.
Of course, keeping track of so much news is quite confusing. So to make the whole thing so much easier, here is a quick heads up on two new devices from mobile phone maker Motorola.
Motorola made its’ mark on the Android community with the end-year launch of the Motorola Milestone (DROID) last 2009. The device featured a massive touch screen display, a slide out QWERTY keyboard and the Android 2.1 Éclair operating system.
Now, it has been confirmed that the Motorola Milestone 2 is coming and that it brings all of the great things from the first handset and will offer the new Android 2.2 Froyo operating system. According to initial reports, the new handset will once again be centralized on the Motoblur user interface and social networking tool. It has also been reported that the smart phone will come packed with a 5 mega pixel camera with HD video recording and dual LED support.
Another upcoming Motorola Android smart phone is the Motorola Defy, which is a pretty interesting handset because it has been specifically designed to “defy life” (hence the name). The device features a slight degree of water proofing and dust resistance. But do not submerge the handset in an aquarium and still expect it to work afterwards.
According to Motorola, the Defy will be able to withstand the daily rigors of life and that the device is designed to last through events such as accidental liquid spills and other similar situations.
Motorola Offers Two New Androids
September 2nd, 2010Sony Ericsson Brings Android Éclair this September
September 2nd, 2010
It is always a great thing when mobile phone makers live up to their promises. More often than not, most of us in the mobile tech industry wait for long time for these to be fulfilled and seeing these confirmed is always a great thing.
Anyway, Sony Ericsson announced that the Android 2.1 update for its mobile phones will be available this month of September and that owners of the XPERIA X10, X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro and the X8 need only wait for a few more days before the Android OS gets boosted from the original 1.6 Donut version.
For those not familiar with the Sony Ericsson devices (or have opted to wait out until Android updates are available), here is a quick rundown of all four mobile phones.
First on the list is none other than the original XPERIA X10. This is a high end Android smart phone and is basically the device that has set the tone for most of the high end devices we see today. Announced late last year, the X10 was confirmed to be the first Android smart phone to use a 1GHz Snapdragon core processor. It was also one of the first to sport a massive 4 inch TFT touch screen display as well.
Anyone looking for a more budget friendly alternative, the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro devices are always recommended. As one would guess from the name, these two devices are much smaller than the original X10. Both also have watered down specs while the Mini Pro has the slight advantage of having a slide out QWERTY keyboard for those who love to type.
Lastly, the XPERIA X8 (also named as the X8 Shakira), is basically the handset that is between the X10 and the X10 Mini in terms of overall specs. While being more of a mid range device than a high end phone, the X8 still provides the user with plenty of functionality.
Android Update Delays Plague Smart Phone Users
September 1st, 2010
As much as we are quite impressed with the actually Android operating system, Google’s OS suffers from one major issue that really needs to be fixed: compatibility with mobile phones.
The great and bad thing about the Android is that it runs on so many devices. This means that the open source mobile platform is truly versatile and can handle the needs of a wide variety of users.
At the same time, it also means that a large variety of the Android also exists. While the differences are only known to developers and the rest of the people working on the backend side of things, consumers still see the effect and heaviness of the effort needed to bring the Android to different phones in the form of delays.
Android 2.2 Froyo has already been out since June and until now, only a few devices have been updated. While the Google Nexus One gets the update on the same day launch, devices from other manufacturers did not fare so well.
According to reports, O2 has recently confirmed an Android 2.1 update for the Dell Streak (not quite 2.2, but any update is good enough) while Orange Mobile UK has announced that their HTC Desire will not be updated until later in September (a slight delay from the previously stated early September launch).
In both cases, it is understandable that many Android smart phone owners are certainly going to be unhappy. As great as the Android platform may be, if it is not updated in time, it will be left behind by its competitors.
This is why the Windows Phone 7 has a great advantage over the Android. Despite not targeting the low end users, WP7 has a good grasp of the high end market. They did this by having a great spec sheet on the minimal hardware requirements of the platform.
Upcoming Phones: Motorola XT300 Slider, LG E900 and E720
September 1st, 2010
It’s a great day for new phones and we have three impressive handsets right here that are waiting to be unleashed to the world. With two new Androids and a Windows Phone 7 device ready, Motorola and LG are certainly bringing in some heavy hitting handsets for their end game this 2010.
It has been previously reported that LG’s performance for the first half of the year has been pretty bad. While we all knew that they were developing Windows Phone 7 devices, it was pretty surprising to realize that the Korean phone maker has stayed on the down low for a whole six months.
Just recently however, things began to change and LG has been coming out with plenty of new handsets and announcements for upcoming phones. The Optimus Android series devices were updated and a couple of phones were added to the list and that has continued to grow with the LG E720 Optimus Chic. This sweet new mobile phone is being seen in leaked images though details are still unknown.
LG’s other phone, the LG E900 WP7 handset, is rumored to be sporting a powerful 1.3 GHz processor. So far, nothing has confirmed those rumors but with the QSD8650A hardware already confirmed to exist, it would not be surprising to see the processor on many upcoming phones.
Motorola is also bringing up an interesting surprise in the form of the XT300. Much like the BackFlip and other Motorola phones, the XT300 has an interesting form factor. While not unique, this phone looks like a square touch screen when the keyboard is not slid out (it does resemble the Flip Out in some ways.
So far, initial specs are still unknown, but images have shown the Android platform with the Motoblur user interface. The device also sports the “back track touch panel” which would be interesting to see in application.
Dual Data Input Versatility on the Nokia X3 Touch and Type
August 31st, 2010
It used to be that mobile phones can be quite easy to categorize based on form factor. You can have a conventional candybar, a clamshell, a slider, a QWERTY slider or a touchscreen.
You also have those so-called PRO models with a hybrid touchscreen and full QWERTY landscape sliders. Blackberry recently came out with its latest Torch flagship that made the Blackberry-esque signature style into a hybrid touchscreen slider. It’s no longer as easy.
Now, the Finnish mobile phone giant and world leader Nokia has brought out its first candybar handset with touchscreen and branded aptly – the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type.
Merging the intuitive touchscreen, the new X3-02 comes with Nokia’s debut of its most anticipated S40 Touch UI to make this hybrid handset a reality.
Ergonomics to Match Versatility
The supreme utilitarian ergonomics of an alphanumeric keypad on a candybar handset has been the hallmark success that catapulted Nokia into world leadership standing among mobile phones since the 90s.
Its timeless styling now gets innovated with the addition of a touchscreen functionality on a 2.4-inch TFT LCD screen to make the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type not just the first of its kind for Nokia, but also the first in the world in the last couple of years.
Yes, it’s basically a revival as Sony Ericsson had the same touchscreen and keypad hybrid with the G700 and G900 that was released in mid-2008. Hopefully, Nokia does a better job and do not repeat the lackluster performance of its rival’s handsets.
With a resistive touchscreen on a QVGA resolution and 256k colors, the Nokia X3-02 enjoys a 4-row alphanumeric keypad minus the usual 5-point navigational buttons that usually take the form of the trackball, joystick or touchpad as well as the confirm key.
The omission is understandable as you can just do scrolling and menu selection more intuitively with the touchscreen. People with large fingers need not worry as the menu icons are made larger on the S40 Touch UI so you can still do a one-hand operation that people have accustomed to in conventional candybars.
The Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type is clearly positioned to a trendier younger crowd as its cosmopolitan sharp cornered X6 styling gets a variety of colors like petrol blue, dark metal, lilac pink and white silver.
It’s also one of the thinnest mobile phones on the planet regardless of form factor with a body measuring 106.2 x 48.4 x 9.6mm. Its remarkably lightweight 77.4 makes it almost inconspicuous inside any pocket.
Features at a Glance
Based on the latest S40 rel 60 UI, the S40 Touch user interface makes the touchscreen hybrid a reality. Promised as an answer to its Korean rivals’ dominance in the touchscreen category, Nokia plans to use the S40 Touch UI in forthcoming handsets.
This is with or without touchscreen as it is just a matter of activating the feature in tandem with a touchscreen display like what the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type.
But outside of the touch sensitivities, there’s really nothing outstanding in the handset.
- With a slew of radio connectivity technologies, international roaming on the GSM networks is seamless on either 2G or 3G. The Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type gets on a quad band radio on both UMTS and GMS. Data connectivity is likewise extensive with HDDPA/HSUPA data speeds on 3G and class 10 GPRS/EDGE data speeds of up to 2368 Kbps on 2G. That means you get broadband internet speeds on either, but HSDPA/HSUPA affords a fast no-wait surfing experience rivaling what you get on the desktop PC.
- As a concession to better design affordability, you won’t get GPS but you still get local high speed data connectivity with its WiFi 802/11 b/g/n for hotspot surfing while local data transfers and synching get Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0 for the wireless and wired alternatives, respectively.
- Among its more competitive features is its digital camera which boasts of an upscalish 5 megapixel imaging resolution. Again, affordability in its product design gets the better of the handset so you won’t find autofocus, LED flash or any of the fancy features you may be expecting from the more sophisticated imaging phones out there. But you still get 4X digital zoom and a competent video recording with VGA resolution at 18fps frame rates. You also won’t get a secondary 3G video call camera.
- Like all slim handsets, its slim battery suffers in terms of power with less muscle to spare. The Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type is powered by relatively impoverished 860 mAh li-ion battery but does a good job of delivering up to 5.3 hours of talk on 2G, 3.3 hours on 2G and up to 408 hours on standby.
- It’s socially aware and comes preloaded with Facebook and Twitter apps, along with IM support for Gtalk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It supports Adobe Flash Lite v3.0.
A Competent Music Phone
Leveraging on Nokia’s XpressMusic and Comes with Music heritage, the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type has what it takes to be a top notch music phone as any on the markets or even better than many trumpeted as an entertainment phone.
With a 3.5mm headphone jack that many so-called music phones miss out and dedicated music playback keys on the body that easily betray its music pedigree, this one sports the requisite stereo FM radio with RDS and the media players for popular audio and video files.
Its A2DP profile support for wireless Bluetooth stereo headsets completes its entertainment prowess.
Preparing the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type with multimedia files to entertain you on a long trip won’t benefit from its meager 50 MB of onboard memory. But you get all the storage you’ll ever need from its microSD external memory expandability of up to 32GB.
Your long trip will also benefit from its battery that delivers up to 28 hours of uninterrupted music listening on a single charge. You can read some more Nokia X3 reviews to help to come to a decision on whether or not to purchase one of the Nokia Touch and Type deals compared here on Moby1.
Samsung’s New Devices and HP’s Teasers
August 31st, 2010
HP is keeping everyone in the dark about what exact products the company is developing. But from a recently released image, it appears that the company is currently pursuing development on a wide range of products.
The image shows Phil McKinney (current CTO for HP) with several new devices on hand. As to specifically what devices he is holding, nobody knows. The image has all the new gadgets blocked out with black boxes leaving only a size references to determine what kind of gadgets these things could be. Anyway, one of the devices stands out: what appears to be standard sized smart phone.
HP’’s attempt at a smart phone has long been awaited for since the company took control of former smart phone manufacturer Palm. The Palm WebOS and keyboard layouts are quite famous and successful in the tech industry and many have been waiting to see what HP would actually do with the resources.
In other mobile handset news, Samsung has recently been teasing the world with a couple of new devices: one Android and the other a Bada smart phone.
Many are already quite familiar with the recently uploaded site for the Samsung Galaxy Tab teaser website and from the looks of it, the Korean phone maker will be pushing full steam ahead with their new touch screen tablet device.
It might have a smaller screen than that 9.7 inch display of the iPad, but even with 7 inches, the Tab is still quite a tempting choice –particularly because this device is reported to be able to take and make calls.
This potentially makes the Galaxy Tab the largest smart phone. The other device is the Wave 723 which is a new Bada based smart phone that looks a lot like the Wave 2 devices but only with a better camera (5 mega pixels).
More Bada Fun with the Samsung Wave 723
August 31st, 2010
It is certainly surprising how the first Samsung Wave handset managed to sell well. With the market already dominated by many other operating systems, it seemed pretty much of a big gamble for the Korean phone maker to create their own mobile platform. And while others may argue that a large bulk of the sales happened within Korea, one cannot help but see the impressive design and work running with the Bada OS.
Anyway, the Bada mobile platform is set to come out in several new devices, and among these phones is the Samsung Wave 723. New to the lineup of Wave handsets, the S7230E is an addition that certainly deserves a little bit of mention.
Admittedly, the specs are not all that impressive –differing only from the Wave 2 and Wave 2 Pro in minimal details. But there is something about this handset that some users will appreciate; a better camera -the 5 mega pixel camera on the Wave 723 is a notch better than the 3.15 lenses of the Wave 2 phones.
While this will not matter much to most users who simply use the phone for snapshots, the additional specs certainly give the handset better value.
In terms of other hardware features, anyone who has seen the Wave 2 and Wave 2 Pro will easily see the similarities of the two devices. First off, all of the phones pack a nice 3.2 inch TFT capacitive touch screen display. While this is nowhere near the 4 inch screen of the Galaxy S, it is certainly more practical for the general user.
Expect to get decent quality visuals on the 240 x 400 resolution screen and fast response times from the touch screen interface. For those hesitating with the Bada platform, worry not –the TouchWiz user interface makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable.
Android News Bits: Everything Android this Week
August 30th, 2010
It seems that the Samsung Galaxy S is getting a new accessory. A quick look at our German neighbors has revealed that there is an add-on battery pack available for Samsung’s powerhouse of an Android smart phone.
The EBB-U10 is currently available on retail for 70 Euros and is packing some serious power updates for the Samsung smart phone. The new battery pack is external and from the way that the body wraps around the handset and seems to have an odd bulk on the top, many suspect that it connects to the phone through the mini USB port.
According to the tech specs, this new battery buff up will add a full 8.5 hours of talk time. That is a lot of power to enjoy your Android phone. Of course, with more power comes more bulk. This hefty little upgrade will weigh your down by an extra 70 grams and will definitely add a lot more size to the Galaxy S.
In other Android news, Mozilla has announced that the Android version of the Firefox is officially ready for downloads. Fennec Alpha, which was originally launched for the Nokia Maemo has finally been ported over to the Android OS. Mozilla had announced the new version earlier.
Lastly, the newly announced Huawei mid range Android smart phone capable of running Android 2.2 Froyo has finally been confirmed. The device will be named Ideo and will be arriving by next week on September 2. The device sports a 2.8 touch screen display, a 3.2 mega pixel camera and a 500MHz CPU.
So far, this handset is quickly proving to be a great cause mid range smart phone alternative for anyone who goes for basic handsets. If you plan on getting a contract from an operator, better stick to the high end devices.
Orange Froyo Delayed to September
August 30th, 2010
In what has to be one of the saddest announcements of the week, Orange Mobile UK’s PR manager has Tweeted that the update for the HTC Desire will not be available until later this coming September.
With Vodafone UK launching their Android OS update just recently, this announcement from Orange Mobile is a little disappointing. But only a little, with the middle of September just a couple of weeks away, a little bit of waiting time are not going to be such a big issue. The only thing that is heavily scarring Orange’s reputation is the fact that the update is already available on another network.
In any case, knowing about the delay ahead of time makes a big difference for those who are already waiting. While delayed, the Android 2.2 Froyo is certain to come and knowing a good estimate of the launch period is also comforting to many.
For those not familiar with the Android operating system, the term from Froyo stands for frozen yogurt. Google has been naming Android versions after deserts and sweets. The most recent version, 2.1 Éclair is currently the standard for many high Android smart phones including the HTC Desire.
2.2 Froyo brings a performance boost to the operating system (as well as plenty of new features as well). According to Google, Froyo will enhance the speed of the user interface up to three times faster while web browsing is now five times faster. This is thanks to better kernel memory management and the use of a new Java API.
The Desire is currently HTC’s best Android handset. While other devices are also going to be released, the Desire is considered to be the pinnacle of Android smart phone standards and sits alongside the Google Nexus One in terms of its’ importance in the Android community.
Nokia C7 in Images, Samsung Galaxy S in Trouble
August 27th, 2010
It seems that the Samsung GT i9000 Galaxy S Android smart phone is having some issues when it comes to connecting the handset to a computer –sadly, the problem’s symptoms come in the form of completely wiping the device’s memory and content storage. This means that the Korean phone maker better have some quick fix on the way.
According to reports, the Galaxy S Android smart phone will connect to a computer through the use of special software. However, when this software detects files in the Galaxy S that uses filenames that are over 16 characters long (we assume that the count also includes the file extension as well) a memory wipe is activated.
Now, this little function could be functional as a remote feature on the handset which would allow owners to easily wipe the data clean if the device is left behind in a public location. But right now, Samsung needs to help out their users; and considering how important the Galaxy S is, they should be cranking out a solution as soon as they can.
In other news, images of Nokia’s upcoming C7 Symbian smart phone have been circulating online and from what we have seen, the device looks a lot like your typical Nokia touch screen smart phone and in terms of specs, it truly is a lite version of the upcoming Nokia N8.
Still, smart phone fans on a budget might want to try out the C7 thanks to its sleek design, ergonomic form factor and of course, the new Symbian^3 operating system. According to reports, the new OS focuses heavily on the touch screen UI and of course, media playback.
According to reports, the C7 will be launch shortly after the Nokia N8, which places the launch window sometime between October and November this year.