Hasta La Gadget!

One day, you’ll have a little tablet or phone, and carry it everywhere. It’ll be your only computer. When you need to use a “real” PC, you’ll dock it. Motorola’s Atrix is a little glimpse at that day. More »

LAS VEGAS — After all the ruckus at CES 2011 over Motorola’s Honeycomb-dedicated XOOM tablet died down, I got a chance to get my hands on the latest in the company’s Droid series of smartphones, the Bionic.

Like its Droid X predecessor, the Bionic is definitely not small. The 4.3-inch screen is one of the largest on the smartphone market right now, and if you’re wearing tight jeans and hoofing it around the Vegas strip all day like I’ve been doing, a fat-bodied Bionic in your pocket might bring on a bit of chafing.

But the screen’s aesthetic appeal makes up for any inconvenience its size may bring. Shooting pictures with the back-facing 8-megapixel camera was made easier by the extra screen area for planning and viewing shots.

Whereas Apple’s iPhones are all about the smooth-backed covers, the Bionic goes the way of rubberized grip-style case. The phone’s backside has ample tooth to it, another line of defense against clumsy phone-droppers like myself. But the gripping doesn’t make the Bionic feel bulky or weighed down. It’s a nice touch, even if it may add to the aforementioned pocket-chafing.

We weren’t allowed to pop open the hood to see the phone’s 1-GHz dual-core processor insides, but by the looks of flipping through the Android 2.2 menu screens, the Bionic’s guts seemed to be doing their job well. No visible stuttering was to be seen in the few apps I ran, and load time was minimal. It was, however, a brand new phone with its 16 GB of on-board storage still relatively empty. I’d like to see how it runs after an app-hungry tween has had her hands on it.

All in all, I dug what I saw of the Bionic. It may be a bit large for my taste, but for the crowd that’s into the big and powerful (and prefers a Motorola handset over a Samsung offering) the Bionic is surely worth a second look.

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

LAS VEGAS — After months of sneak peeks and speculation, Motorola has finally unveiled its iPad competitor. Accompanying the tablet, the company introduced the latest version of its popular Droid smartphone.

Dubbed the Xoom, the tablet will indeed be running Honeycomb, the OS described by Motorola as the first version of Android designed entirely for use on a tablet.

Unfortunately, a fully-functional Xoom wasn’t made available for playing around with, but the short demo played onstage at Wednesday’s press conference gave audience members something to think about. From what we’ve seen, Honeycomb’s user interface is very sexy, and very different from the Gingerbread UI we’re used to.

Although price points weren’t disclosed, the details that were shared made the Xoom a tablet worth watching. It boasts a dual-core 1-GHz processor, 10.1-inch widescreen HD display, a 2-megapixel front facing camera for video chat capability and a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera, which captures 720p HD video.

The Xoom will launch with 3-G and WiFi connectivity in the first quarter of 2011. In the second quarter, it will be available for the next-generation 4G LTE network  Fret not, early adopters – those that buy early can upgrade the tablet to 4G later.

Motorola did not announce an official release date or price.

Also noteworthy was the latest addition in Motorola’s Droid series, the Droid Bionic. The Bionic has a 4.3-inch screen, a dual-core processor under the hood (like the Xoom), and  512 MB of RAM. It will be compatible with Verizon’s new 4G network.

The Droid Bionic joins the earlier announced Motorola Atrix and LG Optimus 2x, two other smartphones with dual-core CPUs.

Brian Chen contributed to this report.

Android 2.3, get your Android 2.3! A Gingerbread ROM for the Droid Incredible that’s been cooking on xda-developers for a couple of weeks is finally looking ready for mass consumption. It hit version 4 overnight, fixing a few niggling issues and enabling the 8 megapixel camera, which leaves only its video recording and GPS functions on the to-do list. Otherwise, it’s looking like a very slick implementation of Google’s latest OS, and it’s particularly pleasing to see how its responsiveness has improved between builds. Hit the source link for more info, though don’t expect to find out why HTC, Verizon et al can’t do things this quickly themselves.

[Thanks, Stuart]

Continue reading Droid Incredible takes a stable bite out of Gingerbread (video)

Droid Incredible takes a stable bite out of Gingerbread (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Gingerbread freely distributed to the open-source masses, it probably won’t surprise you to hear there already a custom ROM for Google’s darling Nexus One. But what if we told you Android 2.3 is now available for the HTC HD2 as well? That’s right, the Windows Mobile 6.5 powerhouse can now snap off a sugary piece of the same Android code, and from what we hear in the XDA-developers forums, it works pretty decently, too. Like the Samsung Galaxy S we saw getting the green tie treatment this morning, the HTC HD2 and Nexus One don’t exactly have stable, fully functional builds, but as long as you know what you’re doing and don’t need petty luxuries like cameras, GPS receivers and official Google apps, you’ll probably be just fine. Find files and a modicum of instruction at our source links below.

Update: While these cookies are half-baked, unconfirmed and potentially dangerous to those not well versed in the art of Android hackery, we’re hearing that the HTC EVO 4G, original Motorola Droid and HTC Desire are now sporting early Gingerbread ROMs too. It seems the source code is relatively easy to compile for other phones, so with any luck there’ll be a compatible build for your device soon.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HTC HD2 and Nexus One get some Gingerbread crumbs (update: EVO, Droid and Desire, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Gadgets, Android Central  |  XDA-developers, Chris Soyars  | Email this | Comments