by Mark Walsh

Boost Mobile, Sprint’s prepaid unit, today touted the release of its latest handset-the Motorola i410-a no-frills flip phone for anyone not in the market for an iPhone. Boost offers several other Motorola phones, including the higher-end Clutch, sporting a full Qwerty keyboard. But like other prepaid services, it doesn’t offer a true smartphone, like the new Motorola Cliq or HTC Hero sold by Sprint for contract customers.

With its $50 a month all-you-can-eat plan covering voice, text and data, Boost has among the best service plans out there. Since launched last year, the plan has proven a hit with customers. Boost has added 2.1 million customers in the first three quarters of 2009 even as Sprint continued to hemorrhage contract subscribers.

T-Mobile has just come out with a no-contract BlackBerry offering as part of its new prepaid Even More Plus plans that start at $50 a month for unlimited voice.

The move capitalizes on two of this year’s biggest trends-widening use of smartphones and the consumer shift from contract to prepaid plans as a result of the economic downturn. Further, mobile consulting firm Chetan Charma estimates that 50% to 60% of those who’ve made the switch aren’t going back to contract plans anyway.

As more people become accustomed to no-contract plans, they’re also getting used to more versatile handsets. Boost could unite what are now seen as two distinct markets-prepaid customers and smartphone users-with the launch of a prepaid smartphone. As it is, Sprint and other wireless carriers want to use the hottest devices to lure more lucrative contract subscribers.

But a prepaid smartphone wouldn’t necessarily have to be subsidized. T-Mobile is selling the BlackBerry Curve 8520 for $299, for example. Consumer pay more upfront but perhaps less over the life of what would have been a one- or two-year contract. While the more limited range of Boost’s push-to-talk (iDEN) network could make adding a smartphone more challenging, analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis expects prepaid smartphones won’t be an oxymoron much longer.

“There is tremendous competition at the low end of the smartphone range, and Moore’s Law ensures continued falling prices, making prepaid smartphones more palatable over time,” he said. Call it the democratization of the smartphone.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 has recently been announced with the awesome inclusion of the Android OS, but with multiple brands jumping on the bandwagon is Android treading a familiar and dangerous path?

Android operating systems are infiltrating the world’s handsets. Starting quietly on the innocuous HTC, the monster OS is sneaking its way onto giant brands such as Samsung, Philips, Motorola and soon Sony Ericsson. The consolidation of multiple brands to a single OS has rarely been seen before and is a testament to the usability of the system. It’s also a unified backing against the brilliant iPhone, whose exclusive operating system is showing no signs of migration and threatened to dominate the market before the multi-tasking Android made a case for itself as a serious contender. Placing Android alongside Palm’s WebOS, there are seemingly no other platforms which present a decent alternative to the iPhone’s utility and ease of use.

Frighteningly, the only previous operating system to successfully migrate between multiple brands is the limited and stagnant Symbian. Its original and usable design got stuck in the mud and was incapable of progressing at the same rate as the hardware; a bit like a Bugatti Veyron with a wind up choke or Michael Bolton. With the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 comes the responsibility of power, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor lurks inside the recently announced Android phone. Surprisingly the X10 is only going to run Android Donut, placing it firmly in the rear view mirror of the Motorola Droid and its Android Eclair upgrade despite possessing a sizeable chunk more power.

The very fact that the Eclair upgrade exists is proof that Android is still very much on the move, let’s hope that other brands see fit to employ the added goodness that Google, Android’s developer, have granted its OS. However, if major hardware makers like Sony Ericsson are unwilling to adopt upgraded operating systems, there’s a chance that development could slow just as it did with Symbian. Here’s hoping that Google doesn’t drop the ball on this OS and continues to push the boundaries of mobile technology or it might become a dinosaur like Symbian.

Charles Thompson

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Um vídeo vale mais que um milhão de palavras:

Especificações:

• Plataforma Android
• Câmera com estabilização de imagem, geotagging, zoom digital 4x, 5 megapixels, dual led
• Captura de vídeo 24 fps qualidade de DVD
• Bateria de 1400mAh Li Ion
• aGPS e bússola
• Jack 3,5 mm
• Acelerômetro
• 3.7" WVGA (480 x 854 pixels); 16:9 widescreen
• 169 gramas
• 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm
• 16 GB internos, expansão microSD

Contra: basicamente tudo que o iPhone tem com alguma liberdade a mais, alguns softwares a menos. O povo vai aguardar a Apple inovar de novo?

Ние сме били жадно играе с Verizon дроида “Моторола от създаването си в сряда, и докато ние смятаме, че все още е твърде рано да се даде окончателно становище за Android смартфон така или иначе, ние искахме да споделя някои моменти. В Motorola дроида може да бъде един от най-важните смартфони на 2009 г., така че проверете нашите мисли началото на живота на батерията, на QWERTY клавиатура, камера някои разочарования и повече, след намаляване.Очевидният начин да се пести енергия, тогава би било да се превърне задно осветяване на дисплея надолу, и ние ще се експериментира с този през уикенда, за да видите какъв вид го прави разлика. Докато сме на темата, на 3,7-инчов 854 х 480 LCD е изключително ярък и свеж, а капацитивен сензорен екран е достатъчно гъвкав. Липсата на MultiTouch, което не предвижда навсякъде роден в Android 2.0, е разочароващ.
Ние ще се продължава да се проучи Verizon дроида “Моторола този уикенд в навечерието на пълен преглед SlashGear следващата седмица. Ако сте някакви въпроси относно смартфон, който бихте искали да видите, обхванати в прегледа, оставете ни бележка в коментарите по-долу. Липсата на MultiTouch, което не предвижда навсякъде роден в Android 2.0, е разочароващ.
Ние ще се продължава да се проучи Verizon дроида “Моторола този уикенд в навечерието на пълен преглед SlashGear следващата седмица. Ако сте някакви въпроси относно смартфон, който бихте искали да видите, обхванати в прегледа, оставете ни бележка в коментарите по-долу. Ние ще се опитаме да обхване колкото можем.

Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, have launched their own socially conscious fashion label

Not long ago, ethical fashion had an image problem. No one wanted to wear baggy-bottomed Thai fisherman’s trousers or an ecru smock top. Unflattering and unappealing, eco-fashion was best left to eco-warriors.

But there has been a definite swing over the past year. Ethical consumerism – from buying products made from recycled or renewable sources to supporting companies that adhere to fair trade principles – is on the rise. It is now cool to care.

So cool in fact, that the latest edition of Vogue has devoted 10 pages to ethical clothing. And London Fashion Week, which starts next week, will include an exhibition space dedicated to 13 ethical labels.

But it’s the celebrities behind the movement who are really making a difference. They’ve made ethical consumerism sexy. One is Bono. Last year, along with his wife, Ali Hewson, and designer Rogan Gregory, he launched Edun, a socially conscious fashion label.

Its clothes are made in locally run factories in Africa, South America and India and the company promotes trade rather than aid. The range is brilliantly designed: this autumn there are beautiful Art Nouveau printed silk dresses, elegant tie-neck chiffon blouses, urban skinny jeans and denim trench coats.

This year Bono also launched Project Red, a collaboration between Armani, Amex, Converse, Motorola and Gap. Each brand markets covetable and ecologically sound products under the Red banner; profits are donated to a fund fighting Aids, malaria and TB in Africa.

Project RED’s unofficial face is Scarlett Johansson, who appears in October’s issue of Vogue wearing Armani’s designs for the charity. The actress told the magazine: “We don’t have to live in a teepee and wear a hemp skirt to be conscious about what’s going on. Maybe somebody thinks, ‘It’s cool that she’s wearing the Red T-shirt, I’ll hop over to Gap and pick one up’.”

Gap, which launched the T-shirts in the spring ( parkas, hoodies and jeans will follow) isn’t the only store turning out fashionable and ethically produced clothes. Last week saw the launch of Adili, a website devoted to the top 25 ethical fashion labels, including Ciel, Patagonia, HUG and People Tree, which has a concession in Topshop, Oxford Circus.

People Tree has given the movement a boost with Trudie Styler as its new face. It has designed T-shirts in conjunction with Action Aid; 10 per cent of profits will go to help raise Fair Trade awareness in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Small, independent fashion labels have also furrowed the green path. Brighton-based Enamore sells everything from pretty hand-made kimono tops to delicate hemp knickers ( far more appealing than they sound).

Chic shoes can be found at ethical boutiques such as Terra Plana, which designs shoes with recycled materials. And rather than squeezing into jeans made from cotton cultivated with pesticides, consumers can now choose brands such as Loomstate, whose eco-friendly designer jeans are sold at Harvey Nichols and Urban Outfitters.

Larger companies are catching on. Timberland, which sells eco-friendly footwear made with vegetable tanned leather and recycled rubber soles, is launching a reforestation project – it will plant one tree for each pair of boots sold.

And Marks & Spencer, which recently commissioned a survey that found that 78 per cent of shoppers wanted to know more about the way products were made, has just launched its own Fair Trade line.

Tesco, meanwhile, is to sell a range of organic clothing designed by Katherine Hamnett, a long-time crusader for ethical fashion.

Of course, it can be argued that eco-fashion is an oxymoron. How can eco-friendliness fit with so ephemeral an industry? The most significant progress should perhaps come from consumers: buying less, and more ethically, could be the most ecologically sound way to shop.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, Author: Clare Coulson

AdMob, a mobile advertising network, which has been releasing mobile metrics for a while now and touting the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch metrics as headlines, is instead focusing on RIM, Symbian, Android and even Windows Mobile devices in its October 2009 mobile metrics report. I guess when you are soon going to be part of Google, why give arch-nemesis, Apple and its iPhone any airtime. AdMob is in the process of being acquired by Google for $750 million. The report has some interesting facts about Android and gives a rough breakdown on the success or lack there of of various different Android devices. As always, the data from AdMob which serves display and text ads on 15,000 mobile websites and applications, is limited in scope but is broad enough to be a barometer for the larger market trends.

* HTC has taken an early lead, thanks to availability of three different devices.
* Motorola Droid launched on November 6 already represented 24 percent of all Android requests in AdMob’s network worldwide even though the device is available only in the US.
* Worldwide requests from Android devices increased 5.8 times since April 2009 in the AdMob network.
* In the US, Android has 20 percent share of smartphone traffic versus 7 percent in April 2009.
* The Motorola CLIQ generated 6% of Android traffic worldwide as on November 18th 2009.
* Worldwide requests from RIM devices increased 44 percent over the last six months in the AdMob network.

Just to be sure, AdMob does include data about iPhone in its report. the iPhone and iPod Touch collectively accounted for about 33 percent of total requests up 6.9 percent for the month. In US, the total share of Apple is about 35 percent, up 7.5 percent for the month.

via AdMob Data Reveals Android’s Growth, Device Market Share.

Що се отнася до сензорен екран, е лекотата на докосване, че сме свикнали от капацитивни панели, но – в САЩ дроида най-малко – липсва каквато и да е MultiTouch подкрепа. GSM версии на телефона за Европа очевидно ще получи MultiTouch браузър, но Моторола и Verizon са провели на разстояние от добавяне на такава функция в САЩ CDMA дроида. Ние сме впечатлени от издръжливост на екрана, все пак; сме я остави в предната и джобове обратно и там не е една видима драскотина.
Единственият друг хардуер на дроида са леко-прекалено твърда мощност / заключване укрепена бутон в горния край, обемът на контрола върху страната и къс камера, а обратно, търсене, менюто и ключове дома под дисплея са всички чувствителни на допир. За разлика от твърде фирма сила клавиша на звука се оказа твърде лесни за натискане при разширяване на клавиатура, на няколко пъти сме пропуснати обаждания като по невнимание в стаята на дроида да мълчи.
Докато MOTOBLUR не може да присъства, това не означава, социална мрежа е напълно отсъства от дроида. Android 2.0 интегрира Facebook, например, в контактите, теглене в ел. поща или номер информация, заедно с най-новите им статут се актуализират и снимка на профила. В новата операционна система също роден подкрепя Microsoft Exchange за електронна поща, календар и контакти, но има разцепление в съгласуваност по отношение на какво се държат отделно и какво се слеят. Емайл обмен и контакти се слива в с останалата част – индивидуални вписвания адресната книга са обединени, а не причинява дубликати и почукване върху снимката на лицето издърпва плаваща Контакти Бързо бар с команди за електронна поща, SMS или каквото и да са на разположение методи – но на борсата Календарът е отделен от личен календар. Междувременно Gmail е corralled в собствения си апартамент, отделно от борса, POP и IMAP сметки.

È apparso stamattina sul sito Wind il Motorola Milestone a un prezzo annunciato di 499€.

Ancora nessuna data di disponibilità nei negozi.

La confezione comprenderà anche una microSd da 8 GB.

Fonte: AndroidWorld

According to this article, the Motorola WX395, powered by Mediatek (MTK), will be released this month.

Motorola will launch its WX395 handset in November 2009 targeting the markets in Asia, the Chinese-language Commercial Times quoted an analyst of JP Morgan Chase as indicating.

The WX395 is powered by chipset solutions coming from Taiwan-based IC design house MediaTek, with the finished products to be rolled out by China-based TCL, the paper noted. MediaTek also confirmed that it has begun shipping chipset solutions to Motorola, the paper quoted the company as saying.

For over 10 years I was a Alltel customer in North Carolina. Their mobile service was wonderful, but there choice of phones was somewhat lacking, particularly in the smart phone department. When Verizon purchased Altell I was one of the first customer to move over to Big Red. By then Google had announced their intentions to release a mobile phone operating system known as Android. As I was already a fan boy  of Google, I was over the moon about the idea of soon owning a Google Phone! Imagine my dismay when the first Android device landed at T-Mobile instead of Verizon. Much grumbling was issued under my breath I can assure you.

Last month Verizon released their first Android device known as the Droid. (cue the heavens opening and the angels singing!) I have been the proud owner of my Droid for a little over 2 weeks now. My impressions thus far is that it is a solid built phone. Coming from Motorola I would expect nothing less.

So lets talk about the negatives of the phone.

The physical keyboard is somewhat lacking. My previous phone was a Blackberry 8330, so getting used to the physical spacing of the keys as well as the layout of the keys themselves has been a learning curve. It is also true that the keys give little feedback to you when pressing them.

The droid comes with a micro USB connection for charging and/or connection the phone to your computer. Not a major drawback, but you I just get tired of having to toss my car charger every time I switch phones.

I have noticed a lag in the screen rotating when moving the phone’s screen from portrait to landscape mode. It does not always occur, but another minor annoyance. I have also noticed an issue with the screen reacting to my touch inside of the screen text input boxes. This problem seems more prone to occur when using the screen in landscape mode.

Now for the pluses, and man are there pluses!

The 854 x 480 screen is absolutely one of the highest resolution screens on any phone on the market today. I own a Ipod Touch, and I must say that between the two Droid wins hands down! Watching videos on this screen is a joy.

The onscreen keyboard is great. Currently, it does not support multi touch, but if you believe the rumors an update to the firmware in the next month or two will take care of that. Other than that, I believe this keyboard is as good as Apple’s iPod Touch or iPhone keyboard.

The built 5mp camera takes descent photos. Motorola fixed the issue of blurry photos with a recent firmware update. The dual LED flash can be sometimes overbearing, but does a pretty decent job in most situations.

As for the video the Droid can record… outstanding! Don’t get me wrong its not what you would want to use to record your wedding with, but for those quick moment videos, junior hits his first home run at a little league game, you would be hard to find any other phone that captures video as great as this one does.

If you use any of Google’s apps, such as Gmail, Calendar, or Google Apps this is the phone for you. Droid syncs seamlessly with your Gmail and Calendar accounts. Simply type in your Google Accounts info, and within minutes it has synced your mail and calendar.

The default contacts app on the Droid phone can not only sync and display your Google contacts, but also can do so with your Facebook account as well. If the contact is Facebook based, the contact app will also display the contact’s current news feed within the contact’s details.

I have browsed the Android Market, and I am impressed with the apps that are available considering the Android operating system has only been in public use for a little over a year. Some of my favorite apps either from Apple or Blackberry have not made the crossover to Android yet, but I have found some substitute apps to use until they do. One app I have found particularly amazing is Google’s sky mapping app. For anyone remotely interested in knowing what the bright little dots are in the sky over your head at night this app is sure to please. Turn on the app, point your phone toward any point in the sky, and Google Sky will show you what each star is. Move you phone left, right, up or down, and Google Maps will rotate the sky shown on Droid’s screen with you! Want to know what stars you might see in the next hour or so? No problem. Google Sky will show you. Just move you phone down so that it is pointed below the horizon of the sky. It will display the stars below the horizon as well! Hard to believe I can do things like this with a phone, and software that is free!

My conclusion? I love this phone! Sure it is the first in a long line of phones that will increasingly become better as the Android operating system evolves, its physical keyboard leaves something to be desired, and the current selection of apps is minimal compared to what you can get on the iPhone.  I believe in within the next year many of these issues will be resolved and the Droid line of phones will become the ‘must have’ smart phone.

Wishing you could get a Motorola Droid and stand out from all your Android-toting friends at the same time? Then you might just want to consider bidding on this “limited edition” Droid prototype that just turned up on eBay, which has a reasonably good chance of being an actual Droid, and a slight chance of being an actual prototype. If the seller is to be believed, however, this particular Droid is one of only five produced, and is different from the standard issue Droid in a few respects — including a chrome bezel instead of a black one, silver buttons instead of gold, and some “enhanced LED lighting” on the front buttons. It also apparently works just fine, and is ready to be activated. Willing to take the chance? Bidding starts at $485.

found @ www.endgadget.com

Hot on the heels of the Motorola Droid, the friendly people at Verizon sent me an HP Mini 311-1037NR review unit!

It’s a netbook with an Intel Atom N270 processor, NVIDIA ION graphics, and an 11.6″ screen. Of particular interest to me is the Gobi radio from Qualcomm (built-in WWAN) which supports both EVDO and EDGE/HSDPA networks…

The Mini 311 is rather large for a netbook – even the Acer Aspire 1410, a regular notebook with a similar price, yet more powerful hardware, is slightly smaller and thinner. I recently wrote:

I think current netbooks are too big and bloated – 11.6″ screens and full keyboards are great but how about smaller packaging? To me, older netbooks with 9″ screens are still the ideal in terms of system size and weight.

Take a look at my unboxing pictures, and stay tuned for some mods – contrary to the Sony VAIO P, the Mini 311 already features a SIM slot, so enabling GSM/UMTS is only a matter of hacking the software

Ok, so this is the latest offering from Motorola’s high-end offering.  The predecessors to the H17 were the H12, and H15 which in their time made ripples in the industry due the their metallic finish and respectfully incredibly small size. The H17 boasts of Motorola’s CrystalTalk noise cancellation technology, a flip open boom mic that’s actually it on-off switch, multi-point technology which allows the headset to pair and work with 2 phones at the same time. Oh and did I forget to mention that the headset actually talks to you??!!!

Yes!! Yes!! It announces how to pair the phone straight out of the box… so much for read the manual. While you can chose to turn of voice notifications, I think its a great feature especially when it lets you know the remaining charge on the battery and when it announces an incoming call from phone 1 or 2!!

I happened to use this head set and thought it was pretty good, the CrystalTalk is clear. The total charging time was 30 mins to deliver 5 hours of talk and roughly a week of  standby time. It comes with a couple of clear hear hooks or if you prefer the rubber ear buds that fit snuggly in the ear. Booth hooks and rubber ear buds come in 3 sizes S,M,L.

As for the Price… well currently its selling online between 59.99 to 99.99; our price is $54.99 + S&H.

Motorola H17

 

Packaged

 

Slowly but surely, the Motorola Motus is coming into focus — sort of. Hot on the heels of that super blurry shot we saw yesterday, BGR has some specs for the mid-range Android set, which seem to indicate this one’s not much more than an AT&T-oriented variant of the Cliq: 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 3.1-inch capacitive 480 x 320 display, microSD expansion, MOTOBLUR, and a Qualcomm MSM 7201A CPU, which will undoubtedly be clocked at 528MHz. Unfortunately, there’s no word on what version of Android is on this thing, but we’ve got the sinking feeling it’ll be 1.6, given the last-gen hardware and Blur UI. Not the most impressive first Android set for AT&T — let’s hope there’s a better surprise in store.

nce upon a time I got sick of not having a smartphone. I kept my calendar and task list on my laptop, and when I didn’t have it open, I didn’t know what to do next to make the best use of my time. So, I broke down and got a Motorola DROID from Verizon. Before you ask, I never even considered getting an iPhone, because there is no way I am switching to AT&T. On Verizon, we can get away with having the cheapest plan, because almost everyone we talk to also has Verizon, and let’s be honest, they have the best network. BlackBerry also wasn’t an option, because I hate them. The DROID is the first phone on Verizon that I consider a reasonable alternative to an iPhone. Here is a list of the pros and cons I’ve found so far. I’ll try to keep it updated and hopefully it will be useful to someone looking to buy.

Pros:

• Giant screen (bigger than the iPhone)
• Integrates well with Gmail (which I use at home and school), and other email sources.
• Calendar syncs to Google Calendar, and you can also sync with Outlook (you have to install Google Calendar Sync on your PC if you don’t use Exchange, but if you do, Exchange support is native)
• Task list syncs to Google Tasks (use the gTasks app)
• Excellent web browsing
• Wide array of useful apps (I don’t really care that the iPhone has 100,000 apps, most of them are useless)

Cons:

• No voice dialing through Bluetooth. I’ve read that this is coming in a future software update. Unfortunately though, this feature lack is a dealbreaker for some people that make a lot of calls in the car. (I put in a ticket to Motorola on this)
• Touch screen can be unresponsive when plugged into a PC via USB. (I put in a ticket to Motorola on this.)
• No Flash video support. This is supposedly coming in early 2010. You can still watch YouTube though, because they have published an app.
• Limited video support. It can play MPEG4 and H.264, but not anything fun like xvid/divx. I have read that Divx is planning android support soon.

The Motorola Motus is a new android phone that rumored heading for AT&T in the first quarter of 2010. If you look at the pic, it looks like its a CLIQ taking the pic and there are some ceiling tiles up ahead, but it’s not, it seems that its  QWERTY keyboard is actually a reverse flip keyboard with a “rear directional pad.” 

-The motus’s full Specifics including:
-Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
-Tri-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100MHz)
-5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
-256MB RAM
-aGPS
-Wi-Fi
-3.1″ capacitive 480×320 display
-Bluetooth 2.0
-Weight: 133g
-1400mAh battery
-microSD slot
-Qualcomm MSM 7201A CPU
-MOTOBLUR
-AndroidandMe:Motorola Motus Specs:
-528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A
-512 MB ROM
-256 MB RAM
-3.1 inch display 320 x 480 (HVGA)
-5 megapixel camera with LED flash
-WiFi / Bluetooth 2.0 / GPS
-OS Android 1.5 with Motoblur
-GSM 850/900/1800/1900 W-CDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100
-Reverse flip keyboard

Rear directional touchpad I’ll take this as a step in the right direction for att. I feel once they get at least one Android phone, they’ll start to bring more in. Here’s to hoping we’ll see the Droid sans keyboard some time next year.

Esta sí que es una sorpresa agradable. El Motorola DROID salió a la venta a principios de noviembre en los EEUU, y resulta que con sólo pocas semanas en el mercado, ya representa el 24% del tráfico de móviles Android. La información viene de AdMob, que muestra como en octubre el DROID simplemente no existía, y antes del final de noviembre es el segundo teléfono androide en el mercado. El móvil con la mayor cantidad del mercado, un total de 36%, es el HTC Dream, que como recordarás, fue el primero con el sistema operativo móvil de Google en salir a la venta.  Con esto no sólo se confirma que el DROID es un móvil que atrae a la gente, sino que además los millones de dólares en publicidad que ha invertido la operadora Verizon han dado buen resultado.

Fuente de Información: Engadget