Wednesday 7 July 2010

Android Community

Android Community


Motorola CHARM gets official: hits T-Mobile USA this summer

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 08:04 AM PDT

After a number of leaks, Motorola has officially announced its latest Android smartphone, the Motorola CHARM.  Headed to the US exclusively to T-Mobile, the CHARM is a full-QWERTY candybar running Android 2.1 with Motorola’s own MOTOBLUR social networking integration.

Above the QWERTY thumbboard is a 2.8-inch touchscreen, while on the back is a 3-megapixel camera that’s paired with Kodak “Perfect Touch” processing technology.  There’s also a trackpad on the rear of the CHARM, used for navigation as on the Motorola BACKFLIP.  All the usual Android apps are in place – together with Android Market access – and there’s CrystalTalk noise processing.

No word on pricing, but the Motorola CHARM will drop on T-Mobile USA this coming summer.

Press Release:

Motorola Announces its Newest Device with MOTOBLUR™: Motorola CHARM™
Exclusively for T-Mobile USA, Motorola CHARM packs smartphone features and social graces into a pocketable design with Android™ 2.1 and MOTOBLURTM enhancements

July 07, 2010

Libertyville, Ill. — July 7, 2010 —Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today announced the upcoming availability of Motorola CHARM™, a touch screen smartphone that packs a social networking punch with Android™ 2.1, MOTOBLURTM enhancements, a compact design and a BACKTRACK™ feature that makes screen navigation even more intuitive.

Motorola CHARM is expected to be available this summer exclusively in the U.S. for customers of T-Mobile USA, Inc.

"Motorola strives to provide an increased customizable user experience, which is enabled by our latest enhancements to MOTOBLUR and featured on the new Motorola CHARM," said Jean Pierre Le Cannellier, vice president, Americas Marketing, Motorola Mobile Devices. "Combine that with a compact design, easy handling and all the features you would expect from a smartphone, and we believe that CHARM with MOTOBLUR adds the social ability and workability consumers are looking for."

Motorola CHARM provides consumers all the features of a smartphone with the intuitive navigation of a 2.8 inch touch screen – all in a compact, pocketable design that makes messaging a snap using the combination of a full QWERTY keyboard and touch screen. The BACKTRACK navigation pad, located on the back of the smartphone directly behind the home screen, is similar to a laptop touch panel and enables an unobstructed view of the Web, texts, e-mails and news feeds. Plus, with Android 2.1 and enhanced MOTOBLUR features, CHARM offers new customization and filtering options.

"Being social with friends and family comes naturally for T-Mobile customers, and we think mobilizing their social experiences should be effortless," said Saj Sahay, director of product management, T-Mobile USA. "With the new Motorola CHARM and enhancements to the Android and MOTOBLUR experience, we're bringing more social skills to our broad portfolio of Android-powered smartphones."

Motorola CHARM will be the first device in the U.S. to feature an enhanced version of MOTOBLUR built on Android 2.1, which syncs contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more in easy to manage streams — from sources such as Facebook®, MySpace, Twitter™, Gmail™, work and personal e-mail. MOTOBLUR now allows for even greater customization, providing users more options to follow who and what really matters.

MOTOBLUR filters can be selected from a single social networking account, contacts, group or messaging account so that users can select only the information they want to stream live to the Happenings and Messages widgets. Users can move and resize pre-loaded home screen widgets to personalize up to seven home screen panels for an even more custom experience. Lastly, consumers can manage their phone's battery consumption by selecting different power modes to conserve battery.

Contacts in MOTOBLUR are automatically synced to the phone from personal and work e-mail and social network accounts. MOTOBLUR will continue to provide convenience and peace of mind, as lost devices can be located from a secure personal information portal and even remotely erased if necessary. In addition, one user name and password brings back contacts, messages and connectivity to previously configured networks and e-mail providers.

Last, but not least, Moto Phone Portal enables you to access and manage your phone's data from any browser through a USB or Wi-Fi connection. Edit content and view important phone information while at home or on-the-go. Leave pictures on a friend's PC, share a video at the local Internet café or share a presentation during an important business meeting.

Additional features on Motorola CHARM include:

Adobe® Flash® enabled Web browsing experience to view most of today's content-rich sites
Full suite of Google™ services including: Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™ and access to thousands of apps on Android Market™
Pinch to zoom functionality and two-finger swipe to easily surf the Web and sort through photos
Capture sharp photos with a 3MP camera and KODAK PERFECT TOUCH technology for better, brighter pictures
One-touch social media uploads to Facebook®, MySpace, PicasaTM and PhotoBucket®
CrystalTalkTM PLUS for enhanced audio and call quality with a second microphone for increased voice quality while filtering out background noise
Corporate email pushed immediately to the device for instant inbox updates
Availability

Motorola CHARM with MOTOBLUR is expected to be available exclusively to T-Mobile USA customers this summer. For more information on Motorola CHARM with MOTOBLUR, please visit here. To view images please visit here.

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Twidroid Bought by TweetUp, Becomes Twidroyd

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 03:22 PM PDT

Twidroid will now be known as Twidroyd. Why? Because TweetUp Incorporated just bought them. And, if that’s not enough, they’re actually trying to shy away from any licensing issues that may come up from Lucas Films, considering that whole “droid” part in there. The company said that Twidroyd will become standard on millions of upcoming Android phones from five different manufacturers.

There’s no doubt that Twitter clients all over the place are showing their relevance in the marketplace. They’re being bought up all over the place. But, now that many people have their favorites, and Twitter has their own official client that actually syncs your contacts, will the new Twidroyd stand a chance? What do you think? Check out the full press release below.

Press Release:

On July 6th in Pasadena, California, TweetUp, Inc. announced that they have bought Twitdroid, creator of the most popular and highest-rated Twitter client for Android phones. They also mention that they will renamed Twitdroid to Twidroy to ensure the confusion with products of Lucas Films and will comes standard on million of upcoming Android devices from five different leading manufacturer. Another part of the transaction is that TweetUp will obtains populrs which will provide TweetUp with a broad distribution network that test and refine its platform for finding the world’s leading tweeters.

“Acquiring Twidroyd provides TweetUp with a number of strategic advantages,” said Bill Gross, CEO of TweetUp. “Twidroyd (www.twidroyd.com) is widely considered the best Twitter client for Android phones and it leads in market share, so its growing base of users will be a valuable source of well-informed feedback on TweetUp search on mobile devices. In addition, the popurls website (www.popurls.com), which attracts users looking for a convenient guide to the most popular sites, news, videos and blogs on the Internet, will be a natural spot to display TweetUp search results and gain user feedback. This combination should enable us to more rapidly refine our offerings, generating better user experiences for distribution partners and for users searching for the world's best tweeters regardless of their choice of devices.”

TweetUp opened their registration for real time search for the world’s first marketplace On April and the company launched its search capability at TechCrunch, Topic.com, and Businessinsider.com on May. TweetsUp’s new search algorithms to combine address for the needs of both users and tweeters in a single search mechanism. Also tweeters will also be able to bid on the keyboards in a competitive marketplace like what occur in Internet search engine.

“We are extremely fortunate to have been able to join forces with TweetUp,” said Thomas Marban, founder of Twidroyd and popurls. “With their resources and experience along with the bundling deals we have developed with a number of the leading device manufacturers, we believe Twidroyd can widen its lead as the top Android client for Twitter users and aggressively grow our distribution while taking advantage of TweetUp's business model for uncovering the best tweeters on topics of interest to our users.”

TweetUp’s search result will be apply to hundreds of millions users through revenue sharing agreements with a wide range partners. Those partners includes TweetDeck, Seesmic, and Twidroyd; they also do not left behind the leading provider of custom browser and desktop toolbars, Conduit; the leading personalization platform for the web, Netvibes; one of the leading sources of tweets, TwitterFeed; one of the leading social media authority and influence ranking systems, Klout; as well as popular web sites including BusinessInsider.com, Answers.com, TechCrunch, Topix.com and popurls. With all of this there will be no problem to serve and search quickly.

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Motorola Pulls Back Their Maintenance Update for Motorola Milestone

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 03:11 PM PDT

The Motorola Milestone, the international version of the original Droid, is getting some update love. Except, well, they’re not. Before we get to the bad news, take a gander at what the update was supposed to fix. Stabilization and improvement of the device’s overall performance. It fixes force closing issues, bug fixes for the alarm, random reboots, and improved music player functionality with enhancements to the device’s audio quality. Also, they have tweaked the proximity sensor to be more accurate during calls to prevent the screen from staying on while you are on the call.

Additionally, PIN Lock improvements have been made so there will be more flexibility in setting the lock timer when you are using Exchange email. Airplane mode’s performance has also been improved to make sure your phone will picks a signal back up when turning the feature off. And lastly, Google Maps has been fixed on their “My Location” feature. We’d love to say that all of this good stuff is, as of right now, rolling out to Motorola Milestone owners, but it looks like it’s just a tease. Motorola pulled the update soon after launching it, due to some bugs that they found in the release. So . . . More waiting. Android 2.2 has to be looking even better now.

[via Phandroid]

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T-Mobile Sidekick to Reincarnate with Android?

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 02:59 PM PDT

You remember the Sidekicks that were offered by T-Mobile, right? It’s been awhile since anyone’s heard anything about Sidekick, considering it’s been discontinued. Well, apparently not all good things stay dead, because rumors have it that the Sidekick line of devices may be reborn — with Android under the hood.

Obviously, this would mark a stark departure from the original OS that the Sidekick featured. And considering T-Mobile owns the name Sidekick, they could very well release a new line-up of devices with the old moniker, but with the insides all switched around. There’s plenty of folks out there that would love to see the Sidekick and Android come together, but then again, many consider the myTouch Slide 3G pretty much that exact thing. What do you think? Should T-Mobile bring back Sidekick, even if it is featuring our favorite OS?

[via AndroidGuys]

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Droid X Shows Off the Future with Flash 10.1 Demo

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 02:41 PM PDT

Adobe’s Flash 10.1 might not be something new to talk about in of itself, simply because there’s been plenty of leaks for the Nexus One and even the Droid, but seeing it demoed on the Droid X is still something to get excited about. That’s a 4.3-inch screen of beauty. And seeing what the future holds for this device is good. Really, really good.

The Droid X will launch with Android 2.1 on the 15th of this month, but will get upgraded to Android 2.2 some time in August, we hope. As for the original Droid? Well, if those rumors of July 13th pan out, they’ll be rolling in the Android 2.2-goodness even before the launch of the Droid X. Enjoy the video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via Droid-Life]

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HTC Expects to have Android 2.2 Updates Finished by Christmas

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 11:39 AM PDT

According to HTC, the Desire is getting a Froyo-based update in August, but unfortunately other smartphones like the Wildfire, Incredible and EVO 4G will not be as lucky. The global PR and online community manager at HTC, Eric Lin, believes they will be done with Froyo testing before Christmas, so that’s when those other devices should expect an update. He also explained that it takes a lot of time to port all of their applications over to Froyo, and make sure that it runs well on all of their devices.

That is not like a one week kind of project or small task to do (which is true and reasonable). He also said that they need to make sure that all the applications are taking advantage of the Froyo features. Apparently, the HTC official said that Gingerbread (Android 3.0, reportedly) will be coming in the first quarter of 2011. So unless HTC already has an idea for their launch device, it may be a few months into 2011 before we see an HTC manufactured device with Gingerbread. Contrary to popular rumors, of course.

[via UnwiredView]

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