Motorola announced XT316 budget Android QWERTY phone

Motorola has announced a new budget smartphone based on Android. The XT316 has a candybar form-factor and a full QWERTY keyboard and is likely to compete against the likes of the Nokia E5 and the BlackBerry Curve 3G.

The XT316 has a 2.8 QVGA touchscreen display, 3 megapixel, fixed focus camera, 600MHz CPU ARM 11 with Adreno 200 GPU, 256MB RAM and 512MB built-in memory expandable with microSD cards. The XT316 supports 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The XT316 will be sold in Europe as ‘Fire’ and in Latin America as ‘Spice Key’. The phone is already on sale in China and is coming to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Latin America starting mid-July and Asia later this summer.

Motorola announced XT316 budget Android QWERTY phone

Motorola has announced a new budget smartphone based on Android. The XT316 has a candybar form-factor and a full QWERTY keyboard and is likely to compete against the likes of the Nokia E5 and the BlackBerry Curve 3G.

The XT316 has a 2.8 QVGA touchscreen display, 3 megapixel, fixed focus camera, 600MHz CPU ARM 11 with Adreno 200 GPU, 256MB RAM and 512MB built-in memory expandable with microSD cards. The XT316 supports 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The XT316 will be sold in Europe as ‘Fire’ and in Latin America as ‘Spice Key’. The phone is already on sale in China and is coming to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Latin America starting mid-July and Asia later this summer.

Motorola Droid 3 for Verizon is finally announced

This is definitely not a surprise to us. After a series of rumors, including leaked tutorial videos, and aChinese launch three weeks ago, the Motorola Droid 3 finally got officially announced for Verizon Wireless.

You can already purchase the dual-core packing, Android Gingerbread device online, directly from Verizon. All you need to do is sign a two-year contract with a qualifying data plan, and give away 199.99 of your hard earned U.S. dollars. In case you are already a Verizon Wireless customer, the price of the smartphone sans contract is the highly affordable for a device of this stature $459. Interested? You can go ahead and make your purchase here.

Motorola Droid HD gets leaked by its own camera

This one is definitely close to the top of the list of our favorite rumors of upcoming devices, which we have encountered to date. A mysterious, yet unannounced handset by Motorola found its way on the popular photo sharing site Flickr through its camera unit.

As you can see from the above picture, the device in question bears the name Droid HD. What makes this rumor so relevant it the location where the picture was taken (by the way, it is no longer online) - Libertyville, Illinois is a location of a Motorola campus. This fact makes the rumor as legitimate as it gets these days.

Now on with the Motorola Droid HD. As far as specs of the phone are concerned, we currently know, well, pretty much nothing. The name creates certain associations with an HD capable screen, much like the one which is rumored to land in the third Nexus phone in terms of resolution. Of course, it might just be a large 4.5" qHD unit as well.

There is a word in rumorland that the device in question might be the highly anticipated Droid Bionic for Verizon Wireless - an LTE packing, dual-core beast which is still yet to come.

At this point however, our guess is as good as yours. Feel free to tell us what you make of this picture in the comments section below.

Motorola and Sprint announce Photon 4G dual-core droid

To our great pleasure, Motorola just won't stop with the announcements of new devices these days. The latest offering from the company is called Photon 4G and will be launched sometime this Summer on the Sprint network in the United States.

The Photon 4G is a dual GSM/CDMA device with a pleasant octagonal design. Its spec sheet shows that, aside its screen size and network support, it is closely related by another Tegra 2 powered device by Motorola - the Atrix 4G. Along with the dual-core CPU, the Photon 4G offers a cool gig of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage which can be expanded via microSD card (up to 32GB). There is an 8MP camera on the back with 720p video capture capability, and a VGA unit in the front for video calls. Connectivity has all bases covered with Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi b/g/n, and an HDMI output. The Photon 4G will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread dressed in MOTOBLUR.

The screen of the Photon 4G is a 4.3" with qHD resolution. The device is the first Motorola offering to come with a built-in kickstand for watching videos. Like the ATRIX 4G, the Photon can be connected to a Motorola accessory dock and offer a laptop-like experience.

The phone will be available sometimes this Summer for a yet undisclosed price (we think in the $200 range with a contract).

The Motorola Wilder is a splash and dust resistant dumb phone

Slated for a July release in the UK, the Motorola Wilder promises to be a smart-dumb phone aimed at an active lifestyle.

The newly announced Wilder is designed to bring all the basic functionality from your average smartphone in a tiny package with a rugged exterior. Not all the specs are available yet but we know it's going to be a compact device with a capacity of just 88 cubic centimeters and a low weight of just 92 grams.

A rubberized outer casing helps give the Wilder its splash and dust resistive attributes but you can still interact with it on the 2.8" TFT resistive touchscreen (with a resolution of 240x360 pixels). Sitting just below the main display, is a secondary OLED 0.7" screen for notifications, a nice touch and something seldom seen since the days of the flip phone.

Being a feature phone, connectivity is limited, but the Wilder does come with Bluetooth 2.1, a 3.5mm headphone jack and has a physical microUSB (v2.0) port on the left side of the device covered by a rubberized tab. It also comes with a 2MP camera on the back that can shoot video at 15fps and an FM radio.

We're not sure exactly what UI the Wilder will run, since Motorola doesn't have a feature phone UI in place on current phones - especially a touch one.

Anyway, software-wise the Wilder will have pre-installed Opera Mini for web browsing, social networking integration with Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and YouTube, embedded games including Tetris and Need for Speed and 5MB of internal storage with a microSD slot that can take anything up to 32GBs.

The Motorola Wilder is expected to come to Carphone Warehouse in the UK from July and will cost around £49.95.

Motorola Atrix 4G for AT&T drops to $99.99 on 2-year contract

It was only a matter of time - dual-core droids are getting cheaper. The Motorola Atrix 4G has dropped to $99.99 on AT&T with a 2-year contract, down from the $199.99 that they originally asked for it.

You can snatch an Atrix 4G from AT&T now but there are two things you need to consider - you need a data plan (starting at $15/month) and you really should look at the docks.

The HD Multimedia dock for the Motorola Atrix 4G can be had for $129.99 and the premium laptop dock costs $199.99 (after a $100 mail-in rebate). Unfortunately, those are the prices for buying either dock separately - no discount here.

Motorola XT882 Android phone comes to China, the king of dual

The Chinese market for smartphones is not known for its particularly exciting local device offerings. It looks however, that Motorola is about to change this state of affairs with the release of its latest Android phone - the XT882.

The Motorola XT882 is a truly unique device - it is powered by a Tegra 2 dual-core processor, it has dual-SIM capability, and dual GSM/CDMA network support. All in all, it is the king of dual in smartphones.

The rest of the device's specs resemble closely it's ATRIX 4G cousin. Along with the NVIDIA Tegra dual-core CPU, there is a 4" qHD display, an 8MP camera with 1080p recording capability, and 8GB of internal storage which is expandable through a microSD card slot. Unlike the Atrix 4G though, the XT882 runs with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, dressed in the latest version of MOTOBLUR.

The dual-personality droid by Motorola will be available in China only for around $830. The price definitely appears steep until one gives it more thought. After all, having an XT882 saves you the trouble of carrying one more device with you - along with its dual-network and SIM support, the Motorola device offers dual-standby as well. We say that such a level of comfort might actually make the Motorola XT882 a successful project for the company.

We can also think of more countries where such functionality will be highly appreciated so, hopefully, a similar device will be released by Motorola for other markets as well. Hit the source link below for the full press and tell us what do you think in the comments section.

Motorola Droid 3 for Verizon leaks out in tutorial videos

Verizon Wireless and Motorola did a great job in keeping the highly anticipated Motorola Droid 3 a well guarded secret. Until today at least. The upcoming Android handset showed itself completely in a series of tutorial videos and left nothing to our imagination, at least as far as looks are concerned.

The videos confirm the 8MP camera on the handset. It will be capable of recording 1080p videos as well. On the left side of the device, you get a microUSB and HDMI connectors much like another Droid by Motorola - the X2. The right side of the device will host two volume keys. There is no camera shutter button on the smartphone.

There is a five-row QWERTY keyboard with a dedicated row for numbers only. In case you get bored with it, there will be a virtual keyboard at your disposal too.

There is no info on the CPU in the Droid 3, or the screen resolution. We suspect, they will be Tegra 2 and qHD respectively. The Android version is unknown too since all the videos note that the software shown is not final.

Motorola BACKFLIP Android based stylish Phone with QWERTY keyboard

Motorola has always been recognized distinctly for style. At the style forum, Motorola BackFlip stands tall on this reputation. It is a combined package of style and functionality. This perhaps, is by far the best looking Android phone that one will be able to purchase. The Motorola BackFlip features a full QWERTY keyboard that opens in an unusual way, that was the most stylish thing that i noticed in the phone.

Hardware and Operating system

The Motorola BackFlip has a 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor, a 5MP camera and LED flash, a 3.1 inch 320 x 480 256k TFT touchscreen, 512 MB ROM, and 256 MB RAM.It has supports up to 32 GB microSD.

The phone’s processor however, is not excellent. It is expected to be launched with the Android 2.1 OS and i fear that the phone may begin to lag.

Software

This phone will come with the MOTOBLUR service feature. Motoblur is a user interface developed over Android by Motorola for Motorola’s mobile phones especially.It is a wedged based system for social networking portals like Facebook, MySpace and twitter.Friends to use MOTOBLUR service you must first create a MOTOBLUR account.Via MOTOBLUR service you get RSS news widgets which keep you up to date and also get new widgets on your phone.

Motorola BackFlip has Other softwares like Photobucket, Picasa,Android Media Player and Android Webkit. Android Webkit is a engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages.Therefore its web browser is fastest.

Release and price

We expect the price of Motorola Backflip to be in the 500-570 $ range and according to the press release Motorola Backflip will be released in the first quater of 2010 all over the world. In USA it will come with the service of AT&T. It is largest provider of local, long distance telephone services in the United States.

Motorola Charm Touchscreen with QWERTY Android Smartphone in India

Motorola is trying very hard to make its way back in the Indian market and Motorola Charm is its latest initiative. It’s a Android 2.1 based Phone with full physical QWERTY keyboard support along with a 2.8” TFT capacitive touchscreen display.

Motorola Charm Features and Specification

Motorola Charm comes with an innovative BACKTRACK touch panel on the back side of the phone which enables the user to interact with the elements on screen with out obstructing the display. Below mentioned are its full technical specifications.

• Runs on Android 2.1 OS with TI OMAP3410 600MHz processor.
• Multiple network support of WCDMA 1700/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps (Category 5/6), EDGE Class 12, GPRS Class 12.
• 3MP camera with digital zoom with video capture rate of 24FPS.
• aGPS (assisted GPS) with Google Maps, Google Latitude, Google Maps Street View and eCompass.
• Connection: MicroUSB, WIFI, 802.11 b/g/n, Stereo Bluetooth Class 2, version 2.1 + EDR.
• 2.8” TFT capacitive touchscreen display with full physical QWERTY keyboard.
• Internal memory of 512MB with expandable upto32GB.
• Standard battery, Li-Ion 1130 mAh.

Motorola CHARM Aircel Offer

Motorola ties up with Aircel to offer Free Data usage upto 3GB/ per month and 150 Aircel to Aircel local minutes up to 3 months for prepaid subscribers. To activate the offer one can SMS ‘SMARTPI’ to 54343 from Aircel with Motorola Charm.The Postpaid subscriber also get Free Data Usage upto 1 GB for 6 months.

Motorola Charm Price and Verdict

Motorola Charm is currently available in India at a nominal price of Rs.13,299.Looking at the specifications, looks and features, to me it’s a fair deal.

Motorola CEO blames Android Market for performance issues

Ever wondered why your Andriod smartphone isn't working as well as it should be? Well, Motorola's CEO, Dr. Sanjay Jha, thinks it's because of the open Android Market.

He says that because the Android Market is open, anyone can upload almost any type of applications. Users then download these applications that may have the potential of bringing down the performance or battery life of their devices. He also said that 70% of the phones that are returned are because of issues caused by applications.

Jha claims that the solution lies in MOTOBLUR, Motorola's proprietary software layer that runs on top of their Android phones. Motorola is using BLUR to collect data on the applications that people use on their phones and the way they affect the performance of their devices. Thanks to this information, they will soon be able to issue warnings if an applications, say, is going to have a dramatic effect on the phone's battery life.

Now all that is fine but we must say we aren't particularly big fans of MOTOBLUR. And for all we know BLUR itself could be one of the reason for many of the performance issues. Perhaps Motorola should fine tune their own application before passing the blame around.

Motorola spills the beans on a Xoom 2 and four new phones

Don’t you just hate it when you redesign your site and accidentally leak a couple of unannounced devices? I know I would be pissed off if that happened to me. And probably Motorola does too as just such a mishap struck the US manufacturer, resulting in the leakage of four phones, a Xoom 2 tablet and a watch-phone. Rookie mistake!

The photos don’t reveal much other than the names and design hints but they’re still worth it to look at as they might give a clear idea of where Moto is headed in 2011. The first picture reveals a watch, acting as a standalone phone, dubbed the Tracy XL after Dick Tracy (a comic-based police detective, no less).

Next up we have two slim devices, the Slimline (the one with its back to us) and below it, the front of a phone, named Zaha (codename, I hope).

At the bottom of the pictures we see a corner-shot of an alleged Xoom successor, of which we only have a supposed name – the “Xoom 2”, yeah, a no-brainer, but could be a codename too.

Finally, we see another phone on the page bottom-right corner and right in the middle too, called the Motorola Pearl, of which we have no information.

That’s about it for now. Motorola has pulled the page from its site so we can’t dig deeper for now. Hopefully soon we’ll get to see what all of this is about.

Motorola Atrix gets a simultaneous US/UK update

The Motorola Atrix is a pretty impressive device with its dual-core 1GHz processor and a beefy Tegra 2 chipset to boot. Even though it's been out in the US as the 'Atrix 4G' for about a month it's already technically showing it's age as it was released with Android Froyo 2.2. What is more, the Atrix is hitting UK shelves in the next few days and as a new premium handset, Froyo just doesn't cut it anymore. Even when going up against hardware-wise less capable devices such as the Xperia Arc who have come sporting Gingerbread as standard from day one.

To rectify this, Motorola's VP of International Marketing, Andrew Morley confirmed, when asked if there were plans for the Atrix in the UK to receive a Gingerbread update with, "Yes, there are. We haven't announced timings but we have announced plans for intentions". This vague confirmation does promise a better start for the Atrix than previous Motorola handsets in Europe, which have seen poor/slow Android support in the past, especially in contrast to their more proactive US counterparts.

What is more, Morley hinted that we would be likely to receive both the US and UK updates simultaneously, almost unheard of for Motorola. So your Atrix or Atrix 4G depending on where your from should be getting a true taste of Gingerbread in the not too distant future.

Motorla Mobility improves revenue, still posts a small loss

Motorola Mobility is out on its own in the world – Q1 of 2011 was its first quarter as an independent company. Its net revenue went up by a third year over year but Moto is still in the red. On the upside, the number of units shipped increased.

The Mobile Devices division of Motorola Mobility (they also have a Home division) reported $2.1 billion net revenue for the first quarter of 2011, up 30% from last year’s first quarter.

Moto shipped 9.3 million mobile devices, including 4.1 million smartphones and only 250,000 Motorola XOOM tablets. Last year those numbers were 8.5 million mobiles, only 2.3 million of which were smartphones (and no tablets then either).

However, this quarter Motorola Mobility posts an operating loss of $89 million – better than the $192 million loss of last year’s Q1 and within expectations, but still a loss nontheless. The next quarter, they expect to at least break even and maybe make a small profit.

Motorola Mobility acquired a company that specializes in enterprise mobile security and device management for Android and plans to integrates the technology into their own smartphones and license it out to other makers.

Motorola BACKFLIP: Android based stylish Phone with QWERTY keyboard

Motorola has always been recognized distinctly for style. At the style forum, Motorola BackFlip stands tall on this reputation. It is a combined package of style and functionality. This perhaps, is by far the best looking Android phone that one will be able to purchase. The Motorola BackFlip features a full QWERTY keyboard that opens in an unusual way, that was the most stylish thing that i noticed in the phone.

Hardware and Operating system

The Motorola BackFlip has a 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor, a 5MP camera and LED flash, a 3.1 inch 320 x 480 256k TFT touchscreen, 512 MB ROM, and 256 MB RAM.It has supports up to 32 GB microSD.

The phone’s processor however, is not excellent. It is expected to be launched with the Android 2.1 OS and i fear that the phone may begin to lag.

Software

This phone will come with the MOTOBLUR service feature. Motoblur is a user interface developed over Android by Motorola for Motorola’s mobile phones especially.It is a wedged based system for social networking portals like Facebook, MySpace and twitter.Friends to use MOTOBLUR service you must first create a MOTOBLUR account.Via MOTOBLUR service you get RSS news widgets which keep you up to date and also get new widgets on your phone.

Motorola BackFlip has Other softwares like Photobucket, Picasa,Android Media Player and Android Webkit. Android Webkit is a engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages.Therefore its web browser is fastest.

Release and price

We expect the price of Motorola Backflip to be in the 500-570 $ range and according to the press release Motorola Backflip will be released in the first quater of 2010 all over the world. In USA it will come with the service of AT&T. It is largest provider of local, long distance telephone services in the United States.

Motorola XOOM tablet update arriving soon

A software update for the Motorola XOOM Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet on Verizon Wireless that will address some bugs and add new features is expected to arrive soon. A change log for the update has been found on Verizon's website.

The change log reveals that the XOOM will get added security features and bug fixes in the web browser, Bluetooth support when using Google Talk, Bluetooth mouse support, and other bug fixes throughout the system.

It is unknown as to when the XOOM will get the update, but we expect it to arrive sooner rather than later. Hopefully the browser will decide to crash a little less often with the new update.

Android 2.2 Froyo update hits the T-Mobile Motorola Defy

For some owners of Motorola's resilient smartphone the Defy, the wait is finally over. Those on T-Mobile in US are finally getting the Froyo 2.2 update that some Android users have been enjoying since as far back as summer last year.

The Defy shipped with Eclair 2.1 and, at the time, offered plenty of bang for your buck. However as time passed and competition improved the smartphone started slipping down the ranks. Fortunately now Motorola are bringing the Defy's first update, which will help it regain some ground.

The Android 2.2 Froyo update is available over the air. You can get it by going to "About Phone" in the device's Settings menu and hitting "System Software Updates". The download itself is around 112MB so it's advised to get it onto your handset whilst connected over Wi-Fi or using an appropriate data plan.

The Defy's Android Froyo 2.2 update brings benefits such as Wi-Fi Hotspot functionality (up to 5 devices), Flash support and allows you to install apps to the SD card as well. On top of these blanket improvements, Motorola have also been tinkering and tweaking the Defy's performance and have added new profiles, each with three customisable home screens, contacts search from your dialler, LinkedIn account integration to your contacts, social networking and messaging updates and revamped gallery UI.

Across the pond, European Defy owners should soon too be able to start getting Defy updates, according to Motorola's update schedule.

Motorola Droid Bionic not scrapped, coming later this year

Rumors had been circulating that the Motorola Droid Bionic, one of the four next-generation Android smartphones shown off by Verizon Wireless at CES this year, was canceled and possibly replaced with another model. Motorola has said that the phone is still planned to be released, but later on this summer. Originally anticipated to be released in the second quarter, Motorola pushed back the launch in order to add more features to the phone. "Based on compelling feedback since the show, we are incorporating several enhancements to make this an even better consumer experience," said Motorola. The Droid Bionic shown off at CES was powered by a dual-core processor and had a 4.3-inch touchscreen. It was also capable of running on Verizon's 4G LTE network. We will have to wait until this summer to see what changes Motorola has made to the device before launch.

Motorola Atrix for Orange UK in May, reduced price for the docks

The Motorola Atrix 4G launched in the US a week ago and now the euro version (called just “Atrix”) has a launch date for the UK where it will be exclusive to Orange. The two cool docks will be available at reduced price with certain plans.

We’ve covered the Motorola Atrix in our review (actually it was the Atrix 4G) so all that remains to say is that the difference between the Atrix and the Atrix 4G is the name (and FM radio support). Both have the same network speed, the 4G (HSPA+ in reality) is a marketing gimmick.

Anyway, you can reserve a unit in Orange shops or just sign up for updates about the Motorola Atrix here. The phone will be available in May on a £35/mo 2-year contract with 600 minutes and 750MB data.

The plans get you a free Atrix and the option to buy the Work and Play kit (includes Multimedia Dock, keyboard, mouse and remote control) for £50 (it usually costs £130) if you’re a new customer that is – existing customers who choose to upgrade get it for free!

The Laptop Dock for the Motorola Atrix is priced at £300 but with certain plans can be had for a reduced price and business customers can get it free if they choose the Solo 55 plan.