Posts tagged Motorola at Switched

Motorola Announces 5-Megapixel, Wi-Fi-Enabled Camera Phone

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jun 24th 2008 at 2:14PM

Hints of Motorola's new MOTOZINE series of devices have gone back as far as last year, but yesterday marked the first time that Moto's officially spilled any beans on the goods. The headlining feature on the first model, the ZN5 candybar, lies on the backside: a 5-megapixel sensor courtesy of a partnership with Kodak, featuring autofocus, a xenon flash, image stitching, and on-device integration with Kodak Gallery.

Otherwise, you get Wi-Fi (score), Motorola's so-called "ModeShift" technology for morphing the keypad depending on device mode (a la the E8), and a run-of-the-mill quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. China's the first country to get the hookup starting next month, but Moto expects to take the ZN5 on a world tour over the course of the remainder of the year.

Motorola Splits, Spins Off Mobile Phone Division

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 26th 2008 at 8:37AM

Last month came the surprising news that Motorola, a leader in the cell phone industry since its inception, was looking to cut ties and get out. It was looking for a buyer for its handset business so that the company could continue on to focus on other, presumably more profitable things. Those plans have apparently not come to fruition just yet, so the company is taking another route: spinning its mobile devices wing off into a wholly separate corporate entity.

Motorola will now be two separate and publicly traded companies. The first will be called Mobile Devices, a company focusing on cell phones and other gadgets that fit in your pocket. The other company will be Broadband and Mobility Solutions, focusing on the company's sizable business relating to home, corporate, and government networking.

What the future holds for the two companies remains to be seen, particularly given the company's recent attempts to sell the mobile wing. A sale could still be in the cards for the newly independent RAZR makers, which could mean the end of the angled M on handsets. Or, perhaps the newly liberated designers and engineers will come up with a new, even thinner phone that will take the market by storm, making the big wigs at Mobility Solutions wish their attentions had never strayed.

From Engadget

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Hot New Phones Unveiled at Barcelona Congress

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 13th 2008 at 2:11PM

Mobile World Congress Coverage and Highlights

We couldn't make it out to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona -- a big international cell-phone conference focused mainly on GSM-style world phones -- but our good friends over at Engadget were able to make the trek and are sending back reports from the front line of cellular and mobile computing technologies.

All the usual suspects are there, Samsung, Nokia, even Motorola are showing off some of their 2008 handset lineups. The most innovative stars of the show, however, are unquestionably the new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 and the Google-backed, Linux based smart phone operating system Android.

Take a look at Engadget's comprehensive coverage, and check back here for some more selective highlights.

From Engadget

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Motorola Looking to Exit the Cell Phone Business

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 1st 2008 at 4:20PM

After roughly 25 years of selling hand-held cellular phones, Motorola is getting ready to exit the business. Though Motorola did not officially say they were selling off their mobile phone division, it did announce it is searching for "alternatives" for its handset business, a euphemism for "looking for a buyer".

Motorola has struggled to keep its mobile division profitable, and has failed to replicate the success it had with its ubiquitous RAZR. Motorola has a long history of being at the forefront of mobile technology but has failed to keep pace competitors such as Nokia.

According to one source, Motorola is deep into talks with Dell, which lends credence to rumors that the PC manufacturer will be entering the mobile phone market with its own handset based on the Google-backed Android phone OS.

Take a look at the gallery to check out some of the innovative and industry shaping phones Motorola has released since their first entry into the market in 1983.

Gallery: Motorola's Cell Phone Legacy

From CNBC

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Google Announces gPhone? Not Quite.

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 5th 2007 at 1:28PM

Well after months, -- nay, years of rumors the Google Phone (or gPhone) is upon us... almost. On a conference call this afternoon, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; Andy Rubin founder of Danger, the company behind the Sidekick and founder of Android, a mobile software company gobbled up by Google; and representatives of Motorola, HTC, T-Mobile, and many others revealed an open-source mobile platform that may actually, finally, live up to the title "iPhone Killer."

Today's announcement was not the unveiling of an actual gPhone, but the announcement of a mobile platform, called Android, to be used by the 33 companies that make up what is called the Open Handset Alliance.

The Android mobile OS is built on Linux and comes packaged with a user friendly interface and applications. In addition, the open nature of Android means plenty of powerful third-party applications will follow.

The software will be made freely available within a week and we can expect to see phones sporting the OS in the second half of 2008. Part of the draw of Android is a "very robust HTML web browser," according to Eric Schmidt, likely based on Firefox.

Schmidt also left the door open on the question of whether Google is still planning on developing its own branded cell phone. "We're not announcing anything, but this is THE (perfect) platform for building a gPhone."

Oh Google, will you ever stop playing coy?

Contrary to speculation, the platform will not be completely ad-driven (note the "completely"). Instead we expect Google is hoping that by giving away a full-featured OS with a "very robust" browser they can draw more users to their web services where they will be served advertisements.

Using Android will save handset makers money that would normally be used on purchasing licenses for Symbian or Windows Mobile, or for developing their own platform. We can only hope that this will allow them to spend more on phone hardware or cut the price of the handsets.

Android sounds promising, but only time will tell if Google has another Gmail on its hands, or a failure like its lagging social network Orkut.

From Engadget

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Soccer Stud David Beckham Gets Naked for the MotoRAZR2

by Tim Stevens, posted Sep 14th 2007 at 12:29PM

David Beckham Gets Naked for Moto's RAZR2

Motorola's original MotoRAZR was a huge success, making waifish cellys all the rage. The cell phone manufacturer has been hoping for similar returns on that iconic handset's replacement, the MotoRAZR2, launched here in the U.S. last month.

To build buzz and sales, Motorola has been pulling out all the stops for advertising on the RAZR2, especially in South Korea, where the phone launched first. There, Motorola enlisted U.K.-export and current L.A. Galaxy soccer player David Beckham to pose "naked" with the phone, which seems to be only slightly thinner than he is. The ad is part of a "Become Beckham" campaign that somehow is supposed to make you think you'll be the soccer star by purchasing a series of stylish products.

As much as we like the RAZR2, we suggest you spend your money on gym membership if you want to look more like Beckham.

And while we're at it, Becks isn't the first celebrity to hawk gadgets, though he might be the first male star to strip for technology.

From TechDigest

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RAZR2 Phone Now Available for All U.S. Carriers

by Tim Stevens, posted Aug 13th 2007 at 9:17AM

Motorola's RAZR redefined how thin a cell phone could be when it launched in 2004, but in the years that followed, the iconic slim phone was so mass produced that it turned from trendy to tired.

Now, with the competition regularly releasing phones that are as thin or thinner, Motorola is finally updating the RAZR with the RAZR2. The phone was announced back in May to much fanfare, and has since been released in South Korea and reviewed in detail. All nice, but it doesn't compare to actually buying the phone, which Motorola says you should be able to do any day now.

The company has announced that the the RAZR2 will be available at nearly all domestic mobile carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Alltel are mentioned) very shortly. Of those AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint have announced pricing. The first two will be charging $299, while Sprint will come in slightly cheaper at $249. Sprint will also be selling the phone first, available starting August 22, while AT&T and Verizon subscribers will have to wait until sometime in September.

We expect sales to be brisk, given the RAZR2's new, sleeker design, larger screen, and two-gigabytes of internal memory for music and video playback.

You can get the full specs from our earlier coverage of the phone's announcement.

It's great that this phone will be available to all phone-carrying Americans, but we're wondering just how long it'll be before this next-gen iconic device will lose its new-gadget cool -- probably not too long....

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2007's Other Highly Anticipated Phones

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 3rd 2007 at 3:17PM

With the launch of the iPhone officially out of the way, Tech Digest has gotten down to business talking about things other than the iPhone. The first order of business: taking note of the fact that other anticipated cell phones do exist.

The Tech Digest guys have compiled a list of the most hotly anticipated phones, all of which are slated to be released later this year.

Included on the list is the LG KU-580, which many online followers of phone news believe is the precursor to the Google Phone. The follow-up to the mighty popular Chocolate is sleek, pretty and comes preloaded with tons of Google Apps.

The RAZR II: The Return of Slim, also makes an appearance, as does the simply drool-inducing Sony Ericsson W960. The W960 (pictured) comes packed with a large touch screen, a five-megapixel camera, 3G, Wi-Fi ... it's about as close to an iPhone-killer (with a way better camera) as you're likely to see for a bit. Follow the link for the rest of the list.

From Tech Digest

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A Photo History of Cell Phones

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 11th 2007 at 1:04PM

The history of cell phones is a big and clunky one, as witnessed in a historical slideshow featured on MSN Tech & Gadgets (via PC World). From landmark dialers like the two-pound Motorola DynaTAC 8000X all the way up through to the iPhone, the list is a fun and sometimes embarrassing skip down memory lane. In addition to predecessors of great things to come, like the first Treo or BlackBerry, the list also includes famous flops, such as the N-Gage and Motorola ROKR.

Enjoy the many, many "I can't believe I actually owned one of those" moments.

From MSN Tech and Gadgets

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Motorola's iPhone Killer Coming Tuesday

by Terrence O'Brien, posted May 11th 2007 at 1:49PM

Competition is the heart of the capitalist system. Just ask Motorola CEO Ed Zander, who says that the iPhone is helping to stimulate the cell phone market.

Zander has accepted Apple's challenge and announced that Motorola will introduce a media-centric iPhone competitor on Tuesday. Unlike the iPhone, the Motorola phone will feature 3G capability for blazing fast Internet. The phone will also come with an SD slot, which Motorola plans to fill with preloaded video and audio.

It seems like everybody and their mother wants in on the iPhone action these days. We'll just have to wait until Tuesday to see if Motorola has a worthy competitor, or just another flashy wannabe.

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Motorola Announces 5-Megapixel, Wi-Fi-Enabled Camera Phone

Motorola Splits, Spins Off Mobile Phone Division

Hot New Phones Unveiled at Barcelona Congress

Motorola Looking to Exit the Cell Phone Business

Gallery: Motorola's Cell Phone Legacy

Google Announces gPhone? Not Quite.

Soccer Stud David Beckham Gets Naked for the MotoRAZR2

RAZR2 Phone Now Available for All U.S. Carriers

2007's Other Highly Anticipated Phones

A Photo History of Cell Phones

Motorola's iPhone Killer Coming Tuesday

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