Motorola publishes schedule of Android upgrades for its handsets, steers clear of specifics

Remember last week, when Motorola said it was releasing an Android 2.1 update for the Droid, but then totally didn’t? Moto tried to “explain” the situation in forums, but didn’t really, edited its long-erroneous Facebook post retroactively, and ended up breaking a lot of hearts. Well, now Motorola has a new “Software Upgrade News” chart detailing planned upgrades for its Android devices. While this is certainly helpful going forward, the lack of clarification on the Droid update doesn’t exactly solve the confusion that got them into this mess: Motorola is merely saying that the OTA upgrade will roll out “soon.” As previously promised, we’re also going to be getting a Cliq update to 2.1 eventually as well, which is now being pegged for Q2. Sadly, upgrades for non-US handsets are decidedly less expedient — or not even assured — but at least we’ve got something.

[Thanks, Glenn]

Motorola publishes schedule of Android upgrades for its handsets, steers clear of specifics originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hands On: Case-Mate Naked Case for the Motorola Droid

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If you’re looking for a case for your Motorola Droid, you’ll need to search pretty hard. And Droid cases that also offer touch screen protection are even more rare. Luckily, Case-Mate has got your back, with the Naked Case ($29 direct), a clear-polycarbonate shell that covers and protects everything while leaving all ports, slots, and buttons accessible.

The pros: The plastic shell protects against drops and nicks, and the touchscreen is still very responsive even through the screen protection (and even with an invisible shield already on the screen).
The cons: -I could do without the full protection of the side of the screen closest to the keyboard, because my fingers hit it while typing. The case adds a little more bulk to the phone, obviously. And the screen protection adds a lot of glare, jacking up the brightness on the screen is a must to cut through it.
The bottom Line: If you’re like me, you’ll likely cry if anything happens to your new Droid. The Case-Mate Naked Case will give you peace of mind.

More images after the jump!

Motorola Droid gets official multitouch support — in Google Maps, anyway

When it rains, it pours, huh, Google? Not even a week after announcing the big multitouch update for its own Nexus One, Google has turned loose a new version of Google Maps that enables pinch-to-zoom support on the Droid. Of course, it was no secret that Android 2.0 had the framework in place to support this kind of stuff — Moto enabled it all by its lonesome on the Euro-spec Milestone — but it looks like this could be the watershed moment where multitouch finally becomes a must-have feature on Android devices across the board, as Moto CEO Sanjay Jha recently suggested would happen. The new version 3.4’s available as a software update in the Market right now, so grab it if you’ve got your Droid handy.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Droid gets official multitouch support — in Google Maps, anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android display battle: In the end, there can be only One

It’s not everyday you get to see six (6!) Android devices pitted against each other in a display-quality grudge match. No, not that sensor sensitivity nonsense again, rather, just a plain ol’ video playback comparison for your subjective observations. Fortunately, the Android-loving kids over at HDBlog shot a video of the MyTouch 3G, HTC Hero, Motorola Milestone / Droid, Acer Liquid, Nexus One, and Samsung Galaxy (laid out clockwise in the image above). In our opinion, the Nexus One with its 3.7-inch AMOLED display packing a 800 x 480 pixel resolution comes out on top with the best overall image (though slightly on the red end of the color spectrum) — good thing the video wasn’t shot outdoors where that AMOLED is all but unreadable. But hey, that’s our opinion, form your own in the video after the break.

Continue reading Android display battle: In the end, there can be only One

Android display battle: In the end, there can be only One originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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50 Android games demonstrated in one video — who says Android can’t game?

50 seems to be a pretty trendy number right now, what with Palm’s Pre Plus and Samsung’s i8910 HD both showing off the ability to run more than 49 concurrent processes. Joining that number party, albeit in a different fashion, is this video demonstrating 50 games running smooth as butter on a Motorola Droid handset. If you thought you had to have a Zune HD, iPod touch or one of them webOS thingies to get your mobile gaming on, maybe this will serve as a competent dissuader. See it after the break.

Continue reading 50 Android games demonstrated in one video — who says Android can’t game?

50 Android games demonstrated in one video — who says Android can’t game? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC attendees getting free Droid or Nexus One, perfect for Palm’s training session

Unless you’re press or a booth worker, major industry trade shows can be educational, enlightening, relaxing… dare we say even fun events that actually don’t fill you with dread at their mere mention. Of course, the trade-off is that you (or your employer, if you’re lucky) are then responsible for fronting the hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars that organizations command for passes to those events. So what do you get in return apart from a few days of schmoozing with some of the most important people in your line of work and the opportunity to play with cool stuff and steal as many promotional pens and USB sticks as you possibly can? In the case of GDC this March, attendees who sign up for either the Mobile / Handheld Summit, the iPhone Summit, or the Independent Games Summit will be gifted with their choice of a Droid or Nexus One, representing the hottest, latest Android gear from Motorola and HTC, respectively — potentially prime targets for the yet-to-be-tapped 3D gaming market on the platform. With Palm onsite, it should make for some interesting dynamics — but then again, they’re giving these things to people at an event called the “iPhone Summit,” for crying out loud.

GDC attendees getting free Droid or Nexus One, perfect for Palm’s training session originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FiOS Mobile app comes to Android

FiOS Mobile app for Driod

Every decent DVR today supports remote scheduling via the web — well except Windows 7 Media Center — and Verizon’s FiOS TV DVR is no different. But of course web apps don’t compare to real apps like this new one for Android users. The new FiOS Mobile app features a guide for remote scheduling as well as VOD browsing so you can mark what you want to watch later, as well as parental controls and a free space indicator — something TiVo doesn’t even offer on the DVR itself. Of course there’s no way to actually watch content from your DVR, and we’re not surprised. Now before you get too jealous of Android users with Verizon’s FiOS TV DVR, we’d like to remind you that the FiOS DVR has a measly 160GB hard drive and no external disk support, and as you can see from the screen shot, FiOS users don’t have any free space left for new recordings anyway.

FiOS Mobile app comes to Android originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Droid more valuable than Nexus One or iPhone 3GS according to iSuppli

Ah, here we go again: another report from iSuppli breaking down the bill of materials (BOM) for one of our favorite smartphones. This time it’s the Droid / Milestone under scrutiny, Motorola’s beefcake slider that currently sells for $560 month-to-month on Verizon ($199 on contract). According to iSuppli’s analysis, Droid brings a $187.75 bill of materials that breaks down into $179.11 worth of components and $8.64 in manufacturing costs. Naturally, the BOM does not include licensing fees, software costs, accessories, or the massive outlay this device has received in advertising support. Nevertheless, it makes for interesting apples-to-apples fodder when comparing costs with the Nexus One ($174.15 in materials only), iPhone 3GS ($178.96 materials and manufacturing), and original Palm Pre ($138 materials and manufacturing). The single most expensive component on the Droid is the 16GB removable microSD card ($35) bundled with the Droid. And after a controversial MOTO report that demonstrated a lackluster capacitive touchscreen on the Droid, it’s interesting to compare the Droid’s 3.7-inch TFT LCD ($17.75) and capacitive touchscreen overlay ($17.50) with that of the iPhone 3GS ($19.25 spent on a smaller 3.5-inch LCD and cheaper $16 touchscreen overlay) and Nexus One (whopping $23.50 for 3.7-inch AM-OLED display and $17.50 for the touchscreen assembly). Rounding out the top-end costs are the Droid’s 5 megapixel autofocus CMOS sensor ($14.25), Qualcomm baseband processor / RF chip ($14.04), and TI application processor ($12.90).

Droid more valuable than Nexus One or iPhone 3GS according to iSuppli originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Multitouch coming to ‘majority’ of future Motorola devices, says CEO

Native app multitouch, you say? It’s a dream that most US Android users have failed to experience, but Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha has let loose some promising words. In an interview with Laptop, he asserted that the company will be more proactive in getting the two-finger (or more) shuffle into its Google devices — more specifically he said, “I think you will see us deliver multitouch in the majority of our devices going forward. There’s a complex set of factors, not all of them technical.” That last bit’s pretty ominous, but nothing we haven’t surmised before, and frankly, it all sounds a lot better than “we’ll consider it.” Also discussed in the interview is the inevitability of tablet experimentation, and the (un)likelihood of a Motoblur phone landing in Google’s online store. “I think clearly the bias is towards Google Experience devices.” Perhaps, but we’ll be interested to see what HTC has to say about that.

Multitouch coming to ‘majority’ of future Motorola devices, says CEO originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Droid security flaw makes lock screen a mere inconvenience for evil-doers

You might recall Apple having a hard time keeping its lock screen locked at one point, and it looks like we’ve got a common theme brewing here now that Android’s suffering from the same drama. Turns out that Android 2.0.1 — the build currently deployed on the Droid — suffers from a flaw whereby you can back out to a locked phone’s home screen simply by pressing the Back button after accepting an incoming call. Of course, you’d either have to know a phone’s number or wait for a call to actually take advantage of this, but we’d argue that it’s a pretty low barrier of entry. The bright side of the story, we suppose, is that the phone goes back to being locked as soon as the call ends, but then again it doesn’t take much time to peep your juicy emails. Google’s aware of the issue, so we’re thinking this’ll make it into the Droid’s next software update; we don’t have a launch window for that just yet, so in the meantime… you know, just make sure no one ever calls you and you should be good to go.

Droid security flaw makes lock screen a mere inconvenience for evil-doers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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