During Motorola’s keynote on Wednesday, the company announced a nice little bonus for loyal fans — should your 2011-or-later handset not receive a Jelly Bean update, you’ll get $100 if you upgrade to one of its new models. Well, a website for the deal has gone live and the initial Ts&Cs don’t make it sound like an immediate discount, but that the Benjamin will instead be reimbursed as a gift card, carrier credit or a cash equivalent of Motorola’s choice. We’re still in the dark about which specific phones will be denied a taste of Android 4.1, although the list is expected “very soon.” In the meantime, you can sign up at the source link below to receive details of how to update, or how to claim the rebate once the fate of your old handset has been decided.
For the second time, we’re seeing specs leak out from what would no doubt be HTC’s flagship phone, the One X+, but this time there’s a lot more detail. An anonymous XDA developer called @Football4PDA, who has shown reliable form in the past by outing the HTC Accord Windows Phone, has tweeted the impressive specs for the possible HTC One X successor. He claims that the phone will be about 134 x 70 x 9.3 mm in size, weight in at 129 grams and pack the new Tegra 3+ AP37 1.6GHz quad-core / 1.7GHz single-core processor with 1GB of RAM and a 32GB ROM. The tipster also said it’ll be skinned with HTC Sense 4.5 on top of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, while still sporting the rather anemic One X 1800mAH battery. Naturally, a tweet out of the blue accompanied by no other proof shouldn’t be taken as gospel, but it does reinforce another recent leak regarding the high-end device. Either way, we’ll probably find out at HTC’s big event on September 19th.
Well, well, would you look at that? Staying true to what we’d heard yesterday, it appears that long-awaited Android 4.1 refresh is finally making its way to Sprint’s own flavor of the Galaxy Nexus. As expected, the Jelly Bean update brings a slew of familiar, but rather marvelous features to the Now Network’s GNex, including Google Now, an improved notification and voice search system, offline dictation and, of course, a smoother UI that’s made possible by Mountain View’s now-famed Project Butter. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same about the Nexus S 4G, as the 4.1.x goods are still MIA for this device — however, we’ll be sure to let you know if that changes any time soon. In the meantime, those lucky Sprint Galaxy Nexus owners can eagerly “check now” for updates on their handset, and don’t forget to tell us how much you’re liking it so far.
Update: We’re receiving tips that Android 4.1 is now available to Nexus S 4G users, too. Word is that it’s a phased rollout, so check now and then check often. [Thanks, Jesse]
Ice Cream Sandwich is now found on over a fifth of active Android devices, Google has revealed, gradually squeezing out Froyo and Gingerbread. According to Google’s own distribution stats, Android 4.0.x is currently found on 20.9-percent of active phones and tablets running the platform, while Jelly Bean (4.1) is on 1.2-percent. For the latter, it’s a slow rise from the 0.8-percent penetration at the top end of August.
Google bases its numbers on which devices access the Play download store within a two week period, in this particular case the days leading up to September 4, 2012. Honeycomb – Android’s tablet-specific version of the OS, since eclipsed by Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean – also decreased in use slightly.
Gingerbread remains the significant hurdle for Android to overcome in terms of fragmentation, however, though that might not be something Google itself can address. Many manufacturers and carriers have opted to leave older devices running 2.3, out of either a shortage of development time to devote to an upgrade ROM, or concerns about the performance of ICS or Jelly Bean.
Still, the balance will shift, even if it takes new users buying Android phones (rather than existing users upgrading them) to do it. Yesterday, Google’s Eric Schmidt revealed that the company was seeing 1.3m Android activations every day, with more than 500m Android devices worldwide.
We’re getting ready to wrap-up coverage for this Wednesday, and what a day we had. First up we had Nokia’s highly-anticipated Windows Phone 8 event, where it revealed both the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. There was a lot to take in during the event, and you can find everything you need to know in our Nokia wrap-up. It’s there that you can check out product announcements and hands-on posts with Nokia’s new devices, so be sure to give it a look.
That’s all for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up! Remember to check in with us tomorrow, as we’ll be at Amazon’s press event, where it’s expected to reveal a couple of new devices in the Kindle line!
We haven’t heard much from the Now Network about upgrading its handsets with some Jelly Bean goodness, but see that picture up there? That leaked screenshot says that Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S 4G owners on Sprint will be getting Android 4.1 on September 6th, which is tomorrow. So celebrate, Sprint customers — if accurate, that means that your Nexi will be the first stateside CDMA phones enjoying Mountain View’s latest buttery smooth mobile OS. Let’s just hope Big Red follows suit with a final release for its Nexus owners sometime soon.
Has all of this talk about the RAZR M, RAZR HD and RAZR Maxx HD made you unreasonably excited? Well get in line, because so are we — which is why we’ve just broken down the specifications of each handset for you to compare and contrast the key features. Head on past the break to find out what you’ll expect to find when you open the box (which doesn’t include Jelly Bean, which isn’t coming until later in the year).
The Motorola DROID RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD may have been the biggest talking points during Motorola’s press event today, but the DROID RAZR M kind of stole the show in its own little way. Motorola has made a big deal about the RAZR M’s edge-to-edge screen, which is something we didn’t expect to see in a budget-priced handset. That’s the thing, too: despite its rather noteworthy features, the RAZR M will be available from Verizon for just 99 smackers.
In comparison to the original DROID RAZR, the RAZR M is a bit smaller while keeping the same dimensions on the screen. The 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced Display will undoubtedly be turning some heads as it spans almost the entire width of the device. The DROID RAZR M will come running Ice Cream Sandwich at first, but Motorola was promising Jelly Bean updates during its press conference, so it stands to reason that we can expect an update to the elusive Android 4.1 at some point in the near future. Additionally, the RAZR M is one of the first devices from Motorola that comes with Google Chrome pre-installed.
On the inside, we have a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, just the like the leaks before today claimed. There is also 1GB of RAM to work with, along with 8GB of internal storage – a nice boost considering that most budget-handsets only come with 4GB. The 8-megapixel camera is capable of shooting video in 1080p, and with Kevlar backing and Gorilla Glass on the front, the RAZR M should be able to stand up to a few tumbles, just like we would expect from present-day Motorola devices. To top it all off, this device comes complete with NFC and 4G LTE functionality, with Motorola looking to take advantage of Verizon’s 4G LTE network.
All in all, it seems like the DROID RAZR M isn’t a bad handset for the budget-minded consumer, especially if you like the fact that the screen takes up most of the front. It’s available for pre-order today from Verizon and it will be launching next week, so you don’t have to wait that long to get your hands on one. Keep it right here to SlashGear for more news on the Motorola DROID RAZR M!
The DROID RAZR M has suffered numerous leaks in the past few weeks, leading us to believe that Motorola would unveil the new device at its press event today. Sure enough, Motorola has officially announced the DROID RAZR M at Gotham Hall in New York City. It may not be as major as the announcement of the Motorola RAZR HD, but one look at the specs and you’ll probably agree that the DROID RAZR M can hold its own.
The most noteworthy feature of the DROID RAZR M is the new edge-to-edge screen. The 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display is touted as having “almost no borders,” so that should capture some attention. Just as interesting is the fact that the RAZR M will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, but Motorola promises that it will be getting an update to Jelly Bean. Other features include an 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p video capture, a dual-core processor, NFC and 4G LTE capabilities, 8GB of storage, and 1GB of RAM.
This phone is also ready to take a beating – though we don’t suggest that you go out of your way to try to damage it. With that Motorola Kevlar backing and Gorilla Glass featured though, it’ll be a good handset for the more clumsy folks among us. It looks pretty sleek too, with Motorola touting the fact that the RAZR M is “significantly shorter and narrower than the original DROID RAZR” even though it features the same size screen. Not too shabby if you ask us.
Surprisingly, Motorola says that the DROID RAZR M will be available starting next week for only $99. It’s up for pre-order at Verizon starting today at 5 PM Eastern. Google has wasted no time putting Motorola to work after the buyout earlier this year, and now Motorola has a few of brand new devices ready to offer the full Android experience. This team up marks the beginning of “the new Motorola,” so we should be seeing some exciting things coming up soon. Stay tuned, because we’ll have a hands-on with the DROID RAZR M coming up shortly.
Motorola hasn’t been known for being very timely when it comes to Android software updates for their smartphones. Between the countless times we’ve heard buyers upset, and the fact that Google has now taken over it appears that they’ll be turning the page on those complaints. Motorola has just announced that they’ll be offering timely updates to all devices announced today, and even talked cash.
While Motorola’s new CEO Dennis Woodside was wrapping up he made a huge statement on device updates. Claiming that the new Motorola will offer timely updates to “most” devices released in 2012 to Android 4.1. Jelly Bean. He then followed that up by stating any devices that do not get updated before the end of the year will come with a bonus.
If your Motorola handset from 2012 doesn’t get updated to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean before the end of the year Motorola will be offering all customers a $100 credit towards any of the new devices announced today. That means the DROID RAZR HD, RAZR MAXX HD, or the new budget-friendly RAZR M. The RAZR M is only $99 with a new 2-year contract so that means you DROID 4 owners could possibly get it free with that $100 voucher.
Between developer edition smartphones, HD devices with all day better life, and now timely updates with a guarantee this is indeed the “New Motorola.”
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