Hasta La Gadget!

With the G1 on its last legs, the CLIQ stands as T-Mobile USA’s only QWERTY Android set — and for a carrier that seems as committed to Android as T-Mobile does, that doesn’t seem right, now, does it? Indeed, that rumored myTouch Slide looks like it’s going to get real here pretty shortly now that we’re seeing shots of the thing in the wild, and… well, it looks nothing like the original myTouch 3G (and even less like the Fender edition). Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder — and we’d want to wait until we see this in the flesh — but the myTouch Slide appears to lack the old model’s attractive contours, sticking with a spartan design strangely paired to a chrome-ringed earpiece. Besides the clear addition of an optical pad here (something we’d previously heard HTC would be pushing hard in 2010), it’s apparently got an HVGA display, externally accessible microSD slot, camera with flash, and unfortunately, an old-school ARM11 processor. We’re holding out hope that T-Mobile has plenty of higher-end gear waiting in the wings, but for now, this looks like the G1’s true spiritual successor.

T-Mobile myTouch Slide in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earnings calls tend to be about as exciting as a stale piece of white bread, but every once in a while something juicy falls through — and morsels are filtering out of the earnings call that Motorola held this morning. Here are the biggies:

• We hope you like Blur, because it’s not going anywhere. CEO Sanjay Jha says that “the majority of our new smartphone [sic] this year will feature” the platform, and that it’ll “include enhancements to address the prosumer segment of the market.” They’re looking to rope in media (music, photos, and so on) the same way they did social networking, boost enterprise compatibility for white collar types that only have one phone, and improve network efficiency to ease up on battery drain. All good things, we reckon.
• Feature phones in Moto’s range will “meaningfully decline” as it heads toward planned profitability in the fourth quarter through higher-margin smartphones. Android isn’t the only game plan, though — it’ll continue to develop its ultra low-end handsets for emerging markets.
• Following the Nexus One’s lead, Jha said that it’ll launch “at least one direct-to-consumer device with Google.” That matches up nicely with a statement he made during our CES interview that “there will be multiple devices [launched through Google] and I think that we said ‘yes’ today that probably this next device is our device.”

All told, we have every reason to believe that this’ll be an exciting year for Moto fans — and that HTC needs to keep a close eye on these guys.

Motorola will ‘broaden the scope’ of Blur, sell a phone through Google this year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We wouldn’t rate the ability to tune FM radio highly on our wishlist of missing features on Motorola’s CLIQ, but nonetheless an Android tweaker by the name of Eugene has figured out how to deliver it. The necessary receiving hardware for pulling down the Weekly Top 40 was actually there all the time, Eugene just needed some binary files — and to believe. Once he believed hard enough, clapped his hands, and copied over those files, presto he was groovin’. He hasn’t released a working version of his tweak to the world just yet, but we presume that will be coming soon enough.

Moto CLIQ hacked to enable FM radio, easy listenin’ coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology spokesperson has today delivered a statement affirming China’s willingness to allow Android devices to operate within the country without restriction so long as they adhere to the nation’s laws. This means that whatever China’s response to Google no longer obeying its censorship edicts may be, it won’t be to disallow Android — which kind of makes sense considering the growing roster of OPhones out there, all running a remixed version of the dessert-loving mobile OS. Then again, Google’s latest power play was to hold back Android handsets from entering China, so we’re not entirely sure how much the Mountain View outfit cares about the Middle Kingdom’s apparent benevolence.

China says Android can stay, misses Google’s point originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First, a disclaimer: we’ve heard the “Zeppelin” name before, both from Motorola and from Palm before that — we have no idea why it keeps coming up, particularly given the obvious references to epic disasters. That said, mobil.cz is reporting that this rather shapely device is an all-new Motorola smartphone bearing Android and the Zeppelin name that’s scheduled for unveiling at MWC in Barcelona next month. It’s said to have touch-sensitive buttons below the display, a 5 megapixel cam, 3.2-inch HVGA display, GPS, and Blur, presumably (well, hopefully) based on Android 2.0 or 2.1. In other words, it won’t be the highest-end phone on the block, but it won’t be the lowest, either — and it could very well be the most stylish. If this is legit, we shouldn’t have too long before we find out.

Motorola Zeppelin spotted hopping train to Barcelona? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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