Following Rick Osterloh’s exit and eventual hire by Google in April, Motorola’s long-time head of design Jim Wicks is leaving Lenovo for Northwestern University. Wicks was at the company for over 12 years and most recently responsible for the design of the Moto X and Moto 360.
via skattertech.com
Since acquiring Motorola for $13 billion last May, Google has been expected to launch a Motorola smartphone running stock Android, but the most recent Google-branded Nexus 4 device was made in partnership with LG.
Motorola’s design chief Jim Wicks tells PC Mag, though, that Google and Motorola have been working closely during that time on multiple devices running stock Android with less overlay that we should expect later this year.
Verizon just revealed the Droid Razr HD and Droid Razr Maxx HD would soon upgrade to Android’s latest operating system, Jelly Bean, starting next week in phases.
Check out Verizon’s page for more details on next week’s rollout.
[tweet https://twitter.com/vzwnews/status/274548604209856512]
The answer to the question of “what would happen if you slapped a keyboard on the back of a Droid Razor” just showed up for a brief moment on Verizon’s DroidDoes website. The Droid 4 “only” has a 4-inch screen compared to the RAZR’s 4.3″ but pretty much everything else lines up the same. Perhaps more importantly, yes, that is a 5 row keyboard (4 rows is for suckers) and of course the speedy LTE comes along too. DOES below.
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Last week (ending today), Amazon had a pretty incredible Penny Pincher sale where it offered just about every Android and otherwise phone (except Apple’s iPhone) for a penny with a two year plan. That’s what we call a game-changing, evening of the field. Sure, carriers and the plans matter, but if every phone is free, you can get a pretty good idea which are the most sought after phones in the “price not being an option” category.
From our Amazon Affiliate account we can see just how many of each phone our readers picked up, thereby getting a pretty good sample of what are the hot phones out there. Here are some stats:
Overall, no huge surprises, especially at the top, though we’re somewhat surprised that Sprint’s Galaxy SII beat both of AT&T’s combined. Toward the bottom, we started seeing some unlocked Nokias (5 C6’s) Windows Phones (3 HTC Titans, 3 Samsung Focus Ss) and a few BlackBerry Bolds.
The big question is: How will the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon upset the line? Whatever the outcome, Verizon is already the clear winner with the RAZR and Rezound (and Bionic) already topping many granted holiday wish lists.
Fuller results below:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7ridjtcza7E]
Motorola Ad
I’ve been enamored with the Droid RAZR since the unveiling event last month. It is everything about the “anti-iPhone” Droid message multiplied by 100. From the excellent commercials to the handsome styling to the robot-y motif. Where Samsung and to a lesser extent HTC make efforts to assimilate to the smartphone (read: iPhone) norms, Motorola’s Droids try to differentiate.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yj9yisLa4ao]
On hardware alone, this is probably my favorite Android device so far. It is incredibly thin but also much more sturdy than the typical Galaxy handset. Somehow, however, it manages to be just as light. Compared to HTC’s latest offerings (including the monstrous Beats Rezound that I am also testing now – see pictures) and frankly Motorola’s previous Droid Bionic, Droid X, this thing is in a totally different class.
Droid Bionic (right) is thicker at its thinnest point than the RAZR at its thickest
And about that Bionic. Pity the people who bought that device in the previous months knowing that Amazon sells the Droid RAZR for $111 on launch with $100 gift card for tethering. Effectively, that is the best Android phone you can have for $11…
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tP9duHWDmLc]
It’s Droid Razr launch day today and in addition to a price tag of $111.11 ($11?) for today only on Amazon, Motorola also gave us a look into the engineering behind the device’s 0.28 inch “impossibly thin” design, and now Verizon is hitting the streets to hand out free Droid Razrs to probably the last remaining original Razr owners. You can check out our full review of the Motorla Droid Razr here.
Yesterday Verizon launched their ‘Payload’ commercial for the Razr where they continued with their typically masculine ad style in an ad appearing more like a Hollywood action movie trailer than the usual iPhone commercial clone.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGyp6dS6zqk]
Following the announcement of the RAZR in partnership with Verizon yesterday, Motorola has released the official commercials for the new Android device. Motorola has released both a U.S. and Europe version of the ad. Check out the European version after the break:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FYLL1zWT0zk]
The Droid RAZR was announced yesterday afternoon with a killer set of hardware. We were worried, however, when it came to software seeing as the device packed Gingerbread, and Ice Cream Sandwich was going to be announced that evening. Well Ice Cream Sandwich is now here and looking wonderful, but don’t fear though, TechCrunch is reporting that the RAZR will be seeing its Ice Cream Sandwich update in Q1 of 2012.
You can check out the RAZR in our hands-on above (it doesn’t really do it justice) and check out the Ice Cream Sandwich screenshot tour for all of the details on that. ICS + Droid RAZR = perfect match.
We just got back from the Motorola/Verizon event where the Motorola RAZR was announced. Along with the RAZR, Motorola announced a full line-up of accessories (as seen above). The most notable, as we mentioned on 9to5mac, is the lapdock that looks closely to the MacBook Pro. There are two versions of the Lapdock: the Lapdock 100 and Lapdock 500 Pro (hmm..). The Lapdock 500 pro features a larger 14-inch screen, VGA out, and wider keyboard.
Other accessories include a Bluetooth headset, Universal Travel Charger, Portable Power Pack, Navigation Dock, Wireless Keyboard, and Wireless Keyboard w/ touchpad. For TV connectivity, Motorola has unveiled the HD Station, HD dock, and Smart Controller. What a perfect combo for the living room.
Pre-orders for the RAZR start October 27 for $299 with an expected launch sometime in November. We’ll have a full review up then, and it’s sure to be a good one!
Droid Life has discovered the above image in Motorola’s teaser site we told you about this morning. The above image confirms what we already know: a thin, 4G enabled device, that features a kevlar coating and a relatively large screen. For now gaze on this picture in awe, but tomorrow Motorola and Verizon will ease our waiting by officially announcing this device.
Motorola has sent out invites to 16 different blogs to unlock more pieces to their new RAZR teaser site. The RAZR is the next Android device to be featured on Verizon Wireless. As each blog enters in their unique code a new piece of information about the phone will be revealed. Motorola did something similar with the Bionic, revealing a video that told all about the LTE beast.
The only blog to enter in their code so far is Mobile Burn who learned that the RAZR will feature a kevlar coating. We’ll be looking out for more websites as they come.
The Motorola RAZR will be announced the day before the Nexus Prime and Ice Cream Sandwich, which will be announced by Samsung/Google in Hong Kong.
