Hasta La Gadget!

If you happen to reside just north of the American border, you might have heard that Canadian carrier Bell is now offering the Motorola Atrix from $169.95 on a three year commitment, all the way up to $599.95 sans contract. While this groovy smartphone is a welcomed addition for local Android fanatics, the early adopters have learned that — much like its AT&T counterpart — it lacks HSUPA. This is confirmed by xda-developers members who see a mere 400kpbs upload speed on their maple syrup-flavored Atrix, which is bad news for YouTube celebrities and the likes on Bell Mobility. Alas, we’ve yet to hear from the carrier regarding this issue, but let’s just hope that the Atrix will be set free before Bell’s headquarters gets taken over by furious green robots.

[Thanks, Steve and @Shift3r]

Bell’s Motorola Atrix also has HSUPA disabled, Canadians frown upon 400kbps uploads originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 06:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileSyrup  |  xda-developers, Bell Mobility  | Email this | Comments

Want some more Droid 3 eye candy? If you just recently bought a Droid 2, the answer is probably “no, please, no” — but nonetheless, we’ve got some for you. A couple more shots of the rumored refresh have popped up on HowardForums once again, showing off a QWERTY keyboard that looks largely similar to the one it’s replacing with one very, very notable exception: it’s a 5-row deal this time around with what appear to be half-height keys for the numeric row. People love 5-row keyboards, so if this is legit — and we really have no reason to doubt that it is — that feature alone could move a lot of phones. More on this soon, we hope.

Motorola Droid 3 for Verizon breaks cover once again originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BGR, Droid Life  |  HowardForums  | Email this | Comments

Sanjay Jha and various leaks already told us as much, but here’s the official word: the WiFi-only Motorola Xoom is launching on March 27th for $599. Retail availability will be truly widespread, with Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Staples and Walmart all offering up the Honeycomb tablet. Other than the omission of the 3G and 4G radios of the original Xoom, you’re basically looking at an identical hardware package. That includes a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, and a 10.1-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution.

Continue reading Motorola makes WiFi-only Xoom official: $599 on March 27th

Motorola makes WiFi-only Xoom official: $599 on March 27th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

The road to Android 2.1 may have been a long and treacherous one for Milestone users, but the one to Android 2.2 wasn’t even certain of reaching its goal. Thankfully, Moto has managed to conclude its “exhaustive testing process” and is now making a Froyo firmware update available to Milestone users wishing to step their software up a notch. Flash Player 10.1, a faster browser and mobile hotspot capabilities await the intrepid updater, but Motorola warns that any DRM-locked media you have on your SD card will be lost. Weirdly enough, there’s also a caution that “users may experience some adverse effects associated with the upgrade which could include slower operation of some phone functions and applications.” Once you’ve read and understood all the warnings, smash the source link to download the new software.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Milestone achieves Android 2.2 milestone at last, Froyo update ready for download originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Motorola Europe (Facebook)  |  Motorola  | Email this | Comments

The HP TouchPad, one of this year's crop of new tablets. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

With the iPad 2 finally available, do other tablets stand a chance?

Last week, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps made the assertion that although this year’s non-Apple tablet offerings are “solid products,” they have “fatally flawed product strategies.”

The post called out iPad 2 contenders like the BlackBerry PlayBook and HP TouchPad, as well as Android Honeycomb tablets by manufacturers such as Toshiba and Motorola. Such tablets, Epps claims, won’t be able to compete with the low price point and in-store experience that Apple can provide, leading to Forrester’s prediction that Apple will score upwards of 80 percent of the U.S. tablet market in 2011.

Will that actually happen?

Motorola CFO Francis Shammo said that “the XOOM pad is selling extremely well” at the Deutsche Bank Media and Telecom Conference on Tuesday. Samsung’s original 7-inch Galaxy Tab had good reception, selling over a million units. But the iPad reached three times that number in only 80 days, and early reports suggest the iPad 2 may have sold over 500,000 in its first weekend.

So if tech giants like Samsung and Motorola can’t compete with Apple’s tablet, is there anybody that can? Epps points to Amazon as a possible underdog.

According to Forrester’s data, consumers would rather purchase a tablet from a retailer like Amazon than a carrier like Motorola (24 percent versus 18 percent). Amazon has the incentive — and ability — to develop a product that would rival the iPad. Apple’s updated subscription policy has garnered the ire of publishers and app makers alike (Amazon and its Kindle app not excluded). And Amazon’s hardware chops have already been proven with the success of its Kindle e-reader.

Microsoft, Vizio and Sony also have the resources to become major players in the tablet arena.

In the meantime, tablets that target niche markets like business folks, gamers and kids could be manufacturers’ best way to slowly chip away at Apple’s dominance. Steve Jobs already branded the iPad 2 as a device for creation.

It’s up to the tablet makers and marketers to show that their solid products can shine. Their product strategies may be flawed, but they’re not fatal … yet.

– – –
Why iPad 2 Won’t Have Much Competition [Forrester via Forbes]