The Motorola CLIQ is hailed as Motorola (NYSE: MOT)’s first stab at reclaiming some of their lost mobile phone market share, and it just might be able to live up to expectations. Motorola and T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) announced the CLIQ a little over a month ago, showing off the Android phone’s innovative MOTOBLUR interface and its ability to magically update its homescreen widgets with information from your social networks and news feeds. Today, T-Mobile has gone all official with the Motorola CLIQ in the US. No more pre-order, folks – the CLIQ is live!
T-Mobile’s CLIQ has the distinction of being Motorola’s first comeback handset as well as the company’s first Android phone to hit market. The CLIQ is decidedly more curvy than its evil brother, the Motorola DROID, but it packs a cutesy-punch. The CLIQ sports a 3.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, GPS, WiFi, 3G data, 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot. But, the CLIQ’s highlight feature is its MOTOBLUR UI. Motorola created its custom MOTOBLUR Android UI to work with special MOTOBLUR servers to constantly monitor your social networks and news feeds. When something new happens or someone posts an interesting (sometimes not so interesting) tidbit to their profile, MOTOBLUR pushes that information to one of your homescreen widgets. Social butterflies, take note, MOTOBLUR will help you stay connected!
And, to help celebrate the Motorola CLIQ’s launch, Motorola and T-Mobile have announced a contest for college students. The college to sign-up the most Facebook fans to T-Mobile’s fan page will win a free campus concert by Weezer, and up to $25,000 for their school. Even better, you don’t even have to buy a CLIQ to enter the contest! Find out more here.
Fans of Motorola’s curvy Android phone can walk into any T-Mobile USA retail store or go online to nab their very own Motorola CLIQ for $199.99 with new 2-year contract and mail-in rebate. The CLIQ comes in your choice of White or Titanium color schemes.
China isn’t just some foreign country with a penchant for censoring their citizens into oblivion and peddling counterfeit handsets on the cheap. The land of dim sum and stubborn Communist politics has become the latest country to launch the iPhone. As expected, the iPhone is now ready to cater to the single-largest wireless market, by way of China Unicom’s network (China’s No. 2 wireless network). The 8GB iPhone 3G will cost $732, with the 32GB iPhone 3GS commanding a $1,025 price tag.
Now, considering how all that hard-earned cash will only buy a China Unicom iPhone that lacks WiFi support, it’s hard to see the handset making it big in China. There are gray-market iPhones that cost less, come unlocked and actually support WiFi. Good luck, China Unicom.
The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid is all the rage right now. It’s chock full of Android 2.0 goodies like Google Maps Navigation and enough smartphone hardware to satisfy even the hardest core of mobile enthusiasts – all wrapped in a slim, yet masculine, package. But, Motorola is going to have to look beyond Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s CDMA network to go truly global. In fact, Motorola’s already got O2 (NYSE: TEF) Germany in its sights. Yup, O2 will soon launch the GSM version of the Motorola Droid/Sholes as the Motorola MILESTONE.
O2 lists the price [PDF link] of the MILESTONE at €404.20 ($595), but that number should get a nice little price-chop after some carrier subsidies. The O2 website shows the Motorola MILESTONE looking every bit the GSM Droid we expected it to be, which is a good sign that German’s won’t have to wait too long before picking up their MILESTONE.
We’ve already seen the GSM Droid pass through the FCC and pop up in Vietnam, so it’s not surprising to see it going official in Europe. The only question is, when will Motorola release a US-spec GSM Droid?
The Motorola Droid is as hot as it gets in the smartphone space right now. It’s the first Android phone for Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless and it’s the first (that we’ve played with) to sport the newly announced Android 2.0 OS. It’s not just the slim-and-trim Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid’s impressive 3.7-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and slide-out QWERTY keyboard that make it a force to be reckoned with – the Android 2.0 OS blesses the Droid with integrated turn-by-turn GPS navigation with voice guidance and street view through the new Google Maps Navigation application.
Unfortunately, the closest you’ll be able to get to a Motorola Droid at this point is Best Buy’s pre-order. Us? Well, we’ve had the pleasure of playing with the Droid for a few days now. The Droid’s massive display is as good as it gets. The vanilla Android UI responds without any lag. Despite the huge display and full keyboard, the Droid is as comfortable in the hand and pocket as the similarly-sized iPhone 3G/3GS. And, with a respectable 5-megapixel camera and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps Navigation adding icing to an already impressive handset, we have to say the Droid is living up to the hype.
So, how does it fare as a competitor to the HTC Hero and a possible candidate to unseat the iPhone as the de facto leader in the smartphone space? Check out our unboxing/hands-on video to see for yourself!
Here’s a quick rundown of the Motorola Droid’s spec sheet:
3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen at WVGA (854 x 480) resolution
Full HTML5 browser that supports Flash and will be upgradeable to Flash 10 once it becomes available
5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash; video capture at 720 x 480 resultion, 24 frames per second
The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) droid has been turning a lot of heads since its launch yesterday, and no doubt some folks are hankering to pick up the super-thin, full-QWERTY, Android-powered slider as soon as possible. The officially-announced launch day was November 9, but apparently Best Buy has it in stores today for $199.99 on contract. Considering the hype and the early release, I doubt stock will hold up for long, so get ‘em while they’re hot. If you’ve had a chance to swing by your local Best Buy store, what’s the inventory like? For those that can’t get out to a brick-and-mortar store to pick up a droid, keep an eye on Best Buy Mobile’s online store, or if your palate isn’t sufficiently whet, take a look at our hands-on impressions.
The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid went live as Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s first Android phone earlier this morning. Then, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) announced that their Google Maps app for Android 2.0 now supports GPS turn-by-turn directions with voice guidance. The two announcements merged, like that those really big storms in that one movie involving a fishing boat of some sort, to form one of the biggest product launches of the year. I just got a chance to put my hands all over the Motorola Droid and thought I’d let you in on my initial impressions (and from-the-hip pics). The short version: Verizon’s Motorola Droid is badass. Keep reading for the long version (and a massive hands-on photo gallery.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is set to unveil their new Android hotness tomorrow, and we’ll be there to witness history in the making. If you’re calendar isn’t already marked, remember to keep an eye out for out of Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid coverage from Verizon’s Android shin-dig!
For those of you that haven’t yet caught wind of the Motorola Droid or Verizon’s Droid advertisement blasting across all forms of media, the Motorola Droid is the first (of many) Android phones from Verizon. And with the way things are shaping up, the Droid could very well turn out to be the baddest Android smartphone on the planet!
In just a matter of hours, well be putting our crusty fingers all over the Droid’s 3.7-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera outfitted with dual-LED flash and low-light shooting capabilities, and the Android OS 2.0. Will the Droid have what it takes to reign supreme among worthy Android competitors like the HTC Hero. Will it give the iPhone something to lose sleep over? Well see soon enough…
The Android revolution has begun, and you know what that means – loads of Android smartphone spy pics! We’ve already seen the Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) XPERIA X3 (Rachel) doing its thing in the wild, and we even have video demonstrating the Rachel’s customized Android UI concept. But, we still can’t get us enough of the Rachel. So, we’re happy to see another round of Rachel spy pics coming to light. This go ’round, Mobile Crunch is calling it the Sony Ericsson “X10.” What happened to all those other “X’s” is beyond us.
The X10 you see in these pictures is reportedly running the vanilla Android UI, and not the “Rachel” UI that we’ve seen before. The lighting here is way better than we’ve previously seen in X3/X10 spy photos, but it’s as blur-tastic as most other spy pics. Maybe whoever took these pics thought it would be funny to use a Motorola (NYSE: MOT) RAZR as a camera.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3/X10 (Rachel) is still expected to launch in the first quarter of 2010 with its 4-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, 8.1-megapixel camera, 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, GPS, WiFi, 3G data and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Android 2.0 OS (Eclair) will likely be on tap to battle the well-endowed HTC Dragon.
By now, you’ve probably heard of the Motorola Droid and how it’s going to rock Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s socks with all kinds of Android goodness. Turns out, though, the “Droid” brand might represent more than just a model name for the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Sholes/Tao. Word has it that Verizon will stamp their entire Android lineup with the “Droid” brand. The Verizon Motorola Droid will be the first in what Verizon wants to be a long line of high-powered Android phones. The second Verizon Droid? Well, we’re hearing that the HTC Desire will launch as the Verizon Droid Eris.
So, the Motorola Droid might kick off the attack as the “Droid.” And, according to Engadget Mobile, the HTC Desire will go live as the Droid Eris on November 8. The launch of the Eris (Greek mythology’s goddess of strife) should follow hot on the heels of the Droid (Sholes), which is expected to be unveiled on October 28.
The Motorola Sholes and HTC Desire are shaping up to be a pair of seriously cool Android phones. Watch out, it’s the attack of the Droids!
Bet you didn’t know the HTC HD2 supported multi-touch in its Internet Explorer Mobile web browser. Well, consider yourself officially put on notice. The HD2 you see in this here video shows the gorgeously slim, yet incredibly well endowed, getting all multi-touchy with pinch-and-stretch zooming on its 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen!
The multi-touch feature seems to be slightly laggy in the video. It’s not clear if the lag issues will be fixed as HTC puts its finishing touches on the HD2 prior to launch. Still, even with buggy multi-touch, the HD2 is high on our wishlist. We had a chance to put hands on the HD2 earlier this month, and we can say that the HD2 is worth putting up with Windows Mobile 6.5 and a slightly quirky multi-touch browsing feature. With a little luck, we’ll see the HTC HD2 going live on T-Mobile USA shortly after its November 11 launch in Europe.
China isn’t just some foreign country with a penchant for censoring their citizens into oblivion and peddling counterfeit handsets on the cheap. The land of dim sum and stubborn Communist politics has become the latest country to launch the iPhone. 
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