Motorola DROID RAZR Hands-On

via PhoneDog on YouTube

The RAZR name is coming back, and it's coming back strong! Aaron gets some hands-on time with the Motorola DROID RAZR, an impressive 4G LTE device that's coming to Verizon Wireless in November. It packs a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced qHD display, 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording capabilities, an HD front-facing camera, 1,800 mAh battery, and Android 2.3.5 with Motorola's custom UI. As if being the thinnest 4G LTE device (7.1mm thin) wasn't enough, it's an absolutely gorgeous device, with metal accents, water-resistant coating, and a KEVLAR-coated back. It'll be available for pre-order on October 27th and available in retail stores sometime in November for $299.99 with a two-year contract.

REVIEW: Droid Bionic by Motorola

My son, Cameron, is up for an upgrade to his longtime Verizon Droid phone. He's eying the newest, most powerful Droid Bionic from Motorola. He hesitated for a bit when the iPhone 4S hysteria hit, but this very thorough review by phandroid gives some solid support to moving up to this powerful, awesome Android phone. With a SUPERFAST dual-core processor and I believe it uses Android's Gingerbread OS, this is a phone that definitely takes it up a notch! What do YOU think? Target Mobile has a terrific $219 upgrade price for this phone (not too bad).

Motorola DROID Bionic Hands-On

Courtesy of PhoneDog

Aaron takes a first hands-on look at the Motorola DROID Bionic, the next Android phone in Verizon's "DROID" lineup. It's a high-end, feature packed device, with a 1 GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 4G LTE connectivity, 4.3-inch display, Android 2.2, 8-megapixel camera, and front-facing camera. It's one of many next-generation Android devices.

This phone is available at Verizon beginning 9/8.

iPhone threatens Android rule

iPhone threatens Android rule

By Athima Chansanchai

As the iPhone starts to proliferate on other carriers after being released from AT&T's exclusive hold, it threatens to encroach upon the once-comfy rule Android phones have enjoyed in the smartphone market.

One analyst, Needham & Co.'s Charlie Wolf, says that a recent decline of Android's market share in the U.S. — from 52.4 percent to 49.5 percent in first quarter of 2011 — signals the beginning of the end of the Google mobile operating system's unrivaled ascent to the top of the smartphone heap.

GigaOM's Ryan Kim quoted from Needham's note, which points to a possible surge in iPhone 5 sales once the new model arrives this fall on Verizon.

In a report released in May, the addition of the iPhone to the Verizon network accounted for a boost in sales for Apple (16.9 million iPhones sold to fanboys and girls in 90 countries, doubling its sales from the same time last year), but Android held onto the No.1 spot at 36 percent of the market share worldwide.

In just a few short years, we've seen Android — with its prolific installment on so many models over so many carriers — shoot by leaps and bounds over other systems, until finally it surpassed Symbian for the No.1 spot during the first quarter of 2011.

But faster than a medieval coup — the king is dead, long live the king — it looks like Apple's iOS may be poised to hoist iPhones over the palace walls with big gains in the first quarter of 2011 (29.5 percent, up from 17.2 percent in the previous quarter), and with the iOs bumping up from 19 percent to 28 percent (thanks to CNN Money's Philip Elmer-DeWitt for providing more snippets from Needham's note).

More reason to think that Apple may very well overtake Google: cheaper iPhones? That's what GigaOM's Kim writes, and that would make for some interesting jousts since Android phones have historically been more accessible to the more cost-conscious consumer.

Still sliding: Nokia and Research in Motion (which recently started issuing pink slips), which bolsters the reality that the smartphone wars are really between Apple and Google at this point.

Verizon offering AT&T iPhone trade-in program?

Technolog - Verizon offering AT&T iPhone trade-in program?: "Are you so unhappy with AT&T's iPhone service that you'd trade the phone into Verizon Wireless, get up to $360 in credit for it and buy a new iPhone 4 and sign up for a two-year contract with Verizon?

That's what Verizon is apparently offering, according to an e-mail shared by MacRumors.com.

Verizon is 'allowing some existing AT&T iPhone customers to trade-in their iPhone for credit when buying a new Verizon iPhone 4,' the site said:

We not sure if this will be offered to non-corporate accounts, but the trade-in price list is as follows:
iPhone 2G — 16GB: $60
iPhone 3G — 16GB: $105
iPhone 3Gs — 32GB: $160
iPhone 4 — 16GB: $280
iPhone 4 — 32GB: $360

We're waiting to hear from Verizon on whether this is true, and if it is, whether it applies to all customers, or just corporate types.

Again, the amounts represent a credit you'd get with Verizon, not actual cash for your iPhone.

It's hard to imagine anyone who now has the iPhone 4 with AT&T trading it in: Remember, earlier this year (knowing its exclusive run with the iPhone was ending) AT&T upped the early termination fee for the iPhone — and other smart phones — to a whopping $325 from $175.

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Motorola's First Android Tablet to Retail for $800

Motorola's First Android Tablet to Retail for $800 [REPORT] - Yahoo! News: "According to information leaked from an anonymous Verizon employee, Motorola's Xoom, a tablet running the long-anticipated Android Honeycomb, will sell for $800.

We got a good look at Xoom during CES this year. It is unique for several reasons.

First, it, along with the Droid Bionic and a lineup of other smartphones, is one of the first Verizon 4G LTE devices.

Second, the tablet is one of the first that will be running Honeycomb (Android 3.0), the tablet-specific fork of the Android mobile operating system. While we've seen Android tablets running version 1.6 and even 2.2 (Froyo), this will be the first instance of an intentional and elegant Android approach to the tablet form factor.

In addition to the new OS, Xoom features a 1080p screen resolution, front- and rear-facing cameras (2MP and 5MP, respectively), an HDMI output, and an accelerometer.

Motorola also says the device 'delivers console-like gaming performance on its 1280×800 display, and features a built-in gyroscope, barometer, e-compass, accelerometer and adaptive lighting for new types of applications. It also features Google Maps 5.0 with 3D interaction and delivers access to over 3 million Google eBooks and thousands of apps from Android Market.'

The first 3G and Wi-Fi-enabled Xoom units should be available around the end of Q1 2011, and according to new reports from Android Central, the minimum advertised price for the units will start at $800 -- a hefty price tag compared to other gadget options currently on the market.

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HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon's 4G LTE

This awesome phone is the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon—for all intents and purposes, this is the equivalent of the very popular Sprint EVO with its large touchscreen, 8 megapixel camera, and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. NerdBoyTV likes this one...BIGTIME!

NOTE: This videoclip was taken by AndroidPolice at this year's 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Verizon to carry iPhone

Verizon to carry iPhone: source - Yahoo! News: "Verizon Wireless will sell the iPhone, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

There was no specific date for when Verizon would sell the phone in its stores, the paper reported on its website. The announcement will be made on Tuesday at an event in New York, WSJ said.

Verizon declined to comment. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Shares of Verizon rose 2.5 percent in after-hours trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Apple shares rose 0.6 percent in after-hours trading on the Nasdaq.

Verizon, Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, delivered cryptic nontransferable invitations on Friday to an event to Tuesday's New York event.

The in-box invite to journalists was skimpy on details: 'Join us as we share the latest news from Verizon Wireless.'

AT&T Inc is currently the exclusive carrier of the iPhone.

On January 6, AT&T announced it will cut the price of its older iPhone model, the 3GS, to $49 from $99.

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Verizon reveals first '4G' tablet and phone

Verizon reveals first '4G' tablet and phone - Yahoo! News: "The first portable devices announced for Verizon Wireless' new, high-speed wireless data network are a smart phone and a tablet from Motorola, both designed to take advantage of network's speed with cameras for videoconferencing.

More devices for Verizon's '4G' network, which went live for laptop modems in December, are expected to be announced Thursday by the CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

For the moment, Verizon has the fastest wireless network in the country, and it's hoping to capitalize on it by selling data-hungry tablets and smart phones. There are unconfirmed reports that Verizon will also get to sell version of the iPhone, breaking AT&T Inc.'s exclusive hold, but analysts don't expect Verizon to reveal one at the show.

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Apple's absence to be felt at CES gadget show

Apple's absence to be felt at CES gadget show - Yahoo! News: "What do you call it when you have 120,000 people and an elephant in the room?

The International Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off this week in Las Vegas.

The elephant is Apple Inc. It won't be at the show this year, but its tablet computer, the iPad, is the most important new product for an industry that needs to once again excite consumers. Sales of the iPad have been strong since its April debut, and the whole industry is now trying to mimic Apple's success.

With the iPad, Apple single-handedly cracked the code for the tablet, a device that dozens of manufacturers have tried to take to the masses for two decades, with little success.

Apple itself doesn't do trade shows. When Apple has new products to reveal, such as iPads or iPhones, it stages its own events.

But nearly every other company in the industry will be there for CES, which runs Thursday to Sunday and is the largest trade show of any kind in the Americas. A good many of them will show off their tablets — computing slabs with touch-sensitive screens. Big names expected to do so include Motorola Inc. and Dell Inc.

DisplaySearch analyst Richard Semenza estimated that a hundred different tablet models are in development, though not all of them will reach store shelves.

Competing tablets will have a hard time catching up to Apple's lead, at least this year. Certainly, no one managed to do so last year, even though a lot of manufacturers, including Dell, brought out tablets. Samsung did have some success with its Galaxy Tab, but sales didn't come close to the iPad's.

'For the next year or two, we expect there to be a lot of false starts, failed attempts, and disasters,' Richard Shim, another DisplaySearch analyst, said in a blog post.

Apple sold 7.4 million iPads through September, in the device's first six months on sale. That means they're already outselling Apple's Mac computers, but not iPods or iPhones.

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The big tease: Motorola, Verizon drop hints about 4G, Android and tablets

CLICK to read article on Yahoo! News: "A 'Honeycomb'-powered tablet from Motorola? 4G-ready Android smartphones on Verizon? Well, neither Motorola nor Verizon Wireless have anything official to say about what they've got in store for the Consumer Electronics Show next month, but that hasn't stopped the mobile giants from teasing us on Twitter and YouTube.

First up is Verizon, which took to its official Twitter feed to hint — oh so subtly — that Android fans hoping for a dose of 4G speed in their next smartphones won't be disappointed.

Verizon won't have anything official to announce until January 6, the day of its CES 2011 press conference, but the carrier was happy to stir the pot Monday with this tweet: 'Jan. 6 at #CES: #Android and #LTE - could it be like peanut butter and chocolate? YUM!'

It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together and make a bold prediction: to wit, that we'll be seeing some 4G LTE (short for 'Long Term Evolution') Android smartphones during Verizon's CES presser, which will focus primarily on the carrier's just-launched 4G data network.

Among the possible 4G Android phones we might see from Verizon next month: this mysterious LG smartphone, which may or may not be a version of the dual-core, Tegra 2-powered Optimus 2X. (The backs of the two phones look slightly different, but hey — you never know.)

Another possibility: the long-rumored HTC Mecha, a.k.a. the Droid Incredible HD — an enticing possibility, although HTC's Peter Chou recently told Mobile World Live that an LTE-ready handset from HTC might not arrive until the second half of next year.

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Nine things you need to know about 4G networks

CLICK to read article by Howard Wolinsky | Appolicious ™ iPad and iPhone App Directory

"Imagine having a mobile phone that matches what you can do on your home PC or laptop. That’s the power of 4G - the term for fourth generation mobile service - which was rolled out by Sprint (S) earlier this year and will soon be available for Verizon (VZ) subscribers. Here are the most important things you need to know about 4G.

1. It’s fast. Sprint, the first mover in the 4G market, says its 4G is up to 10 times faster than 3G, which was introduced eight years ago. Sprint promises peak downloads of more than 10 Mbps (megabits per second), with average downloads of three to six Mbps. Verizon announced on October 6 that it plans in the fourth quarter to launch its 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network with downloads to range between 5 to 12 Mbps.

A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals that 4G speeds may vary. Sprint says that 4G can be 10 times faster than 3G. But read the fine print in Sprint’s promotional material: Sprint bases this claim on speed comparison between 3G’s low-end 600 kilobits per second (Kbps) vs. 4G’s max 6Mbps. Sprint notes that 3G can reach 1.7 Mbps, while 4G may drop down to 3 Mbps. So that’s less than twice as fast. We will know more specifics about Verizon’s network in the weeks ahead as it rolls out its service.

2. Regardless of how much faster 4G might be, the increased connection speed lets you do more things with your phone. Early users are already enjoying features like uninterrupted video conferencing, high-definition television streaming and of course lightning fast web surfing that smartphones on 3G networks are unable to provide. Power business users and other early adopters of the new technology who experience 4G will never want to go back.

3. Casual users mostly interested in talking, texting and occasional web surfing on their cell phones don’t need to rush into buying a 4G-enabled phone (and it is not possible to upgrade existing 3G models to the new network.) Even if you are ready to buy a phone and wanted to upgrade to 4G, the network is not available in all parts of the country (see below). It will take years for 4G to roll out into every rural area, and residents of big cities could get shut out due to big restrictions on new cell phone towers.

4. You can easily find out if 4G is available in your area. Sprint says its 4G network reaches more than 268 million people in 50 markets in the United States “and counting.” To see whether 4G is available in your hometown, go here.

Verizon says its 4G LTE network initially will cover 100 million people in 38 markets by the end of 2010. The first markets with access to Verizon’s 4G network include Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Below is a full coverage map for Verizon's 4G Network:

Current and would-be iPhone owners dissatisfied with AT&T's (T) network would of course love the rumors of an upcoming Verizon iPhone to be true.

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Will users flee AT&T if Verizon (or another carrier) gets the iPhone?

Will users flee AT&T if Verizon (or another carrier) gets the iPhone? - Yahoo! News

"As (unconfirmed) reports continue to trickle in claiming that Apple is preparing to churn out millions of CDMA-ready iPhones, analysts and execs in the wireless industry are scrambling to predict what might happen if AT&T loses its exclusivity deal with Apple in the coming months.

The latest evidence suggesting that another U.S. carrier — perhaps the biggest of them all, Verizon Wireless — is about to get the iPhone comes from wireless analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro of Susquehanna Financial Group, who (in a note to investors snagged by AppleInsider) writes that 'checks with overseas supplies' indicate that Apple is gearing up to build about 3 million CDMA iPhones in December alone, which would put Cupertino 'on track' for the launch of a CDMA-ready iPhone in 'early' 2011.

For now, Apple has only been making GSM versions of the iPhone, which are compatible with AT&T’s GSM cellular network. With a CDMA iPhone, however, Apple would be free to jump to a CDMA carrier like Sprint or Verizon Wireless — assuming its exclusivity deal with AT&T is expired or otherwise kaput. (GSM carrier T-Mobile is another option that’s been bandied about.)

The prevailing wisdom is that frustrated AT&T iPhone users would immediately jump ship for Verizon or any other carrier that gets the iPhone here in the states — the only question is how many, and naturally enough, the number varies wildly depending on whom you ask.

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VIDEO: Top 5 smartphones, not the iPhone

Yahoo! Finance - Financially Fit

Don't care for an iPhone? Here are the top choices on the market. Click on the link above to watch this video I found on the Yahoo! Finance site.

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Report suggests iPhone will launch on Verizon

Report suggests iPhone will launch on Verizon - CNN.com: "Evidence continues to mount to support expectations that Apple's iPhone 4 will finally launch on Verizon this coming January.

The latest: Sources close to Apple's hardware suppliers say that Apple has ordered millions of CDMA chipsets from Qualcomm. CDMA is the wireless technology used by Verizon.

The report comes from TechCrunch contributor Steve Cheney, who says that the chipsets are due in December, implying a January launch for the Verizon device. This follows a rumor from seven months ago that Qualcomm hadlanded a deal to provide Apple with chips.

You might also recall that AT&T dedicated a significant portion of its recent SEC filing to assurances that it would be a-okay without U.S. iPhone exclusivity, a probable sign that the carrier is expecting to lose said exclusivity before the original5-year deal runs its course.

TechCrunch doesn't disclose any details about its sources for this rumor; it describes them only as 'sources with knowledge of this entire situation,' a reference to the long chain of manufacturers from Apple on down through Qualcomm and other component-makers.

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Google's Android army: Droid X 'sold out'; Nexus One sales to end

Google's Android army: Droid X 'sold out'; Nexus One sales to end - San Jose Mercury News: "Motorola's Droid X — the newest smartphone running Google's Android operating system — 'sold out virtually everywhere' over the weekend at Verizon Wireless stores, an analyst reported Monday.

In an e-mail to clients, Gleacher & Co. analyst Mark McKechnie said his team called 20 Verizon stores across the country over the weekend to find the phone sold out by Friday or Saturday at most locations. All 20 stores were sold out by Sunday, McKechnie said. The Droid X debuted Thursday.

'We are encouraged by positive early feedback, strong initial demand, and general acceptance of Motorola's Droid X,' McKechnie wrote. 'Our first weekend checks, along with expectations for a Droid 2 follow-on for the holidays, increase our confidence that Motorola can meet or exceed its 12- to 14 million unit target' for Android phones sold this year.

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Review: Motorola's Droid X

The first thing you'll notice about Motorola's new phone is its size, Mark Milian says. Read his review at http://bit.ly/c6my36

Microsoft to kill off Kin messaging phones

Microsoft to kill off Kin messaging phones - Yahoo! News: "In a stunningly swift about-face, Microsoft has reportedly decided to stick a fork in its youth-oriented Kin messaging phones, not even two months after the handsets went on sale and just two days after Verizon slashed prices on the devices.

Microsoft will cease development on the phones, instead focusing its energies on its upcoming Windows Phone 7 handsets, according to CNET's Ina Fried, who adds that Microsoft has nixed the Kin's planned debut in Europe.

In a statement to CNET, Microsoft confirmed that the development team behind the Kin will be folded into the Windows Phone 7 group. That said, Microsoft will 'continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current Kin phones.'

Rumors have been swirling for weeks that the Kin One and Kin Two, a pair of QWERTY slider phones aimed at young, social-networking-savvy mobile users, had seen disastrously low sales, with some estimates as low as a mere 500 units.

Microsoft hasn't given out precise sales figures for the two Kins, but on Monday, Verizon Wireless slashed the two-year contract price of the formerly $99 Kin Two in half, while the Kin One saw a 40 percent price cut, to just $29 with service.

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Joshua Topolsky Shows Off The Droid X and The iPhone 4

Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky stopped by the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Show to show off a very special item that very few people have in their hands: the hotly-anticipated iPhone 4, plus Motorola's Droid X!

First Look: Motorola Droid X (Verizon Wireless)

Verizon added a new member to its Android army today and if you thought the Droid was a beast, then wait till you get a load of the Droid X. Check it out in our First Look.