Android Tablet Update

Motorola’s first Android 4.0 updates have yet to roll out, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get an official look at what the Ice Cream Sandwich build for the Motorola RAZR will look like. Motorola Japan has put up an Android 4.0 page on its site, giving consumers a preview of Motorola’s Android 4.0 customizations and the new Webtop 3.0 UI.

We’ve seen several leaks of Moto’s ICS build in the past, and it doesn’t look like much has changed. Last time we checked, the Verizon DROID RAZR and RAZR MAXX were scheduled to receive their Android 4.0 update before the end of Q2. That gives Motorola roughly five more weeks to deliver the update. Once the RAZR is updated to Android 4.0, updates for the BIONIC, ATRIX and DROID 4 should trickle out in quick succession.

Take a look at the videos below and let us know what you think of Motorola’s Android 4.0 customizations.

Goodbye, Moto. And thank you for a wonderful 85 years of business.

After China removed the last hurdle to Google’s takeover of Motorola Mobility, we knew it was only a matter of time before Google deemed the acquisition process complete. As part of the completed acquisition, Motorola Mobility will cease trading on the New York Stock Exchange effective immediately.

Motorola Mobility employees are likely sitting around this morning trying to figure out exactly what a takeover means for them. In the past few days, we’ve heard rumors of the customary massive layoffs that tend to result from two companies merging together. Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha is out, paving the way for long-time Googler Dennis Woodside to take the reins.

As Google now owns a major handset maker, the company needs to decide what approach it’ll take when it comes to the hardware business. They’ve previously suggested that they will take more of a hands-off approach to hardware, running newly-acquired Motorola Mobility as a true separate entity and largely letting them maintain the status quo. As part of the approval process, China required that Android stay open for at least another 5 years, which coupled with the rumors of multiple Nexus OEM partners suggest that Google doesn’t intend to play favorites with Motorola.

Time will tell how long that lack of a tight partnership with its own company will last. We’re looking forward to seeing what comes out of Motorola Mobility now that Google is running the ship. More stock Android devices will hopefully be Google’s top priority, and get those Blur developers working alongside Google engineers on Android 5.

Show Press Release

It’s been a few months since we last checked in with the official Android 4.0 update list for Motorola, and in light of recent changes to that list (as well as comments from Motorola on the Android 4.0 update, which we will get to in a moment) it seemed like a good time for a status update.

Will my device be updated?

Motorola has perhaps been the most candid and comprehensive of the major manufacturers when it comes to their Android upgrade process. They outlined their 4-step updating process for everyone back in December and have pretty dutifully maintained the device update page found in their forums.

Unfortunately this has not translated into being the most expedient in actually delivering upgrades to their customers’ devices. To date, the only device that has received its update to Android 4.0 is the WiFi-only XOOM (and only the versions in the US or Canada at that). All other devices remain in either the Development, Evaluation & Planning or Testing phases.

Now, as previously mentioned, there was a blog post from Motorola in the last few days which was designed to make clear why some devices won’t be getting Android 4.0.

You may be wondering why all devices aren’t being upgraded to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Here’s the deal. We work very closely with Google and cell phone carriers for every software update. And, obviously we want the new release to improve our devices. If we determine that can’t be done—well then, we’re not able to upgrade that particular device.Motorola

I know that statement has some people riled up and it’s always irritating to hear that your device won’t be upgraded, but I think it’s a fairly reasonable position. Now, if they start pulling the update plug on popular devices that have the specs to support the next OS, then I’ll pick up a torch and join the angry villagers.

Latest News from Motorola

• 04/06/12 - Android 4.0 update for the Motorola RAZR delayed as HTC Rezound update confirmed for today
  The Best Buy leak proved to be either false optimism from Best Buy or a poorly timed April Fools joke.
• 03/31/12 - Motorola DROID RAZR and HTC Rezound Android 4.0 update scheduled for next week
  A leaked screenshot from an internal Best Buy system pointed to the DROID RAZR and RAZR MAXX receiving their update on April 4th.
• 03/22/12 - AT&T is the first US wireless carrier to issue an Android 4.0 update, 10 more devices to be upgraded
  AT&T issued their first official list of their devices that would be updated to Android 4.0. The Atrix 2 and the Atrix 4G were the two Motorola devices to make an appearance on that list.
• 02/20/12 - A closer look at Motorola’s Android 4.0.3 build for the Verizon DROID RAZR
  A leaked build of Android 4.0.3 for the DROID RAZR provides a tantalizing glimpse of the future for Moto handset owners.
• 01/18/12 - US Motorola XOOM WiFi-only tablets receive Android 4.0 update
  Becoming the first Motorola device with Android 4.0, the US XOOM WiFi-only tablet started receiving its delicious update during January. It is a bit simpler for Motorola to do this, as it has no UI overlay, and the manufacturer does not have to go through a carrier to get the updates out.
• 12/07/11 - Motorola details their 4-step updating process
  Soon after Google released the source code for Android 4.0, Motorola decided to go ahead and let us know how things work (on their side). This explains why updates can take a good amount of time before reaching the consumer, and is a great way to get an idea of how they make it to your devices.
• 10/24/11 - Motorola promises Android 4.0 updates to be released 6 weeks after Google’s release
  Aiming a bit too high, Motorola promises that updates would start being rolled out 6 weeks after Google releases the Android 4.0 OS. Most devices still haven’t received the update, and won’t for a while, so it is evident that Motorola was overestimating its abilities.

Motorola devices that have Android 4.0

• Motorola XOOM WiFi-Only (USA, Canada)

Motorola devices that will receive Android 4.0 during Q2

• Motorola XOOM WiFi-Only (Asia Pacific, China, EMEA, Japan & LATAM)
• Motorola XOOM (Verizon)
• Motorola RAZR (Asia Pacific, Canada, China, EMEA, Japan, Korea & LATAM)
• Motorola DROID RAZR (Verizon)
• Motorola DROID RAZR Maxx (Verizon)
• Motorola MT917 (China)
• Motorola XT928 (China)

Motorola devices that will receive Android 4.0 during Q3

• Motorola Atrix 4G (USA)
• Motorola Atrix 2 (Asia-Pacific, LATAM, USA, and selected other markets)
• Motorola XOOM Family Edition (USA)
• Motorola XOOM 2 (Asia Pacific, EMEA, and LATAM)
• Motorola XOOM 2 Media Edition (Asia Pacific, EMEA, and LATAM)
• Motorola Xyboard 8.2 (USA)
• Motorola Xyboard 10.1 (USA)
• Motorola DROID Bionic (Verizon)
• Motorola DROID 4 (Verizon)
• Motorola DROID Xyboard 8.2 (Verizon)
• Motorola DROID Xyboard 10.1 (Verizon)

Motorola devices that will receive Android 4.0 during Q4

• Motorola Photon 4G (USA)

Phones under evaluation and planning: Might or might not get update, no estimated dates

• Motorola Atrix/Atrix 4G (Asia Pacific, EMEA and LATAM)
• Motorola Electrify (USA)
• Motorola Photon 4G (Japan)
• Motorola XOOM WiFi + 3G (Asia Pacific, EMEA and LATAM)

Motorola devices that will NOT get updated to Android 4.0

• Motorola Admiral
• Motorola Charm
• Motorola DROID 3
• Motorola DROID X2
• Motorola Flipout
• Motorola Milestone A854/A953
• Motorola Milestone XT720/XT701/XT711
• Motorola XT605
• Motorola XT615 / XT685 / MOTOLUXE
• Motorola XT882
• Motorola MT870
• Motorola Milestone 3
• Motorola Milestone X2
• Motorola Pro+
• Motorola Devour
• Motorola Cliq XT
• Motorola i1
• Motorola Dext
• Motorola Quench MB501/XT5 XT502/XT3 XT502
• Motorola Defy Mini
• Motorola Defy MB525 (Europe & MEA)

Just a little over three months after Google got the green light from the US Department of Justice and the European Commission they have finally received the blessing of Chinese regulators to acquire Motorola Mobility.

Google did have to agree to one fairly major stipulation in the process however — Android must remain freely available to other manufacturers for the next five years. Now it seems likely that this is exactly what Google has in mind anyway, but this should assuage any lingering doubts for other manufacturers.

According to WSJs sources the purchase could be finalized within the week. What, if anything, we will see happen once the deal goes through has been a bit of a mystery ever since we first heard of the planned buyout over nine months ago. There’s been no shortage of rumor and news surrounding Motorola’s future with a shake-up at CEO, a potential sale to Huawei, a complete firewall between the two companies and now a potential US importation ban in the coming months. The only seeming guarantee is that it is unlikely to be a boring year where Motorola is concerned.

We’ve asked you before, but now that we are in the home stretch for this purchase it feels like it’s an appropriate time to ask again. What do you think Google should be doing with Motorola? Should they be a full-time Nexus manufacturer? Should Google allow them to continue as a separate entity? Should Google allow them to continue as a separate entity but insist that Blur and any otherwise named permutation of it be killed off? (I’m only slightly kidding.)

Hot on the heels of US customs imposing an International Trade Commission ban on select HTC devices we have yet another exclusion order from the ITC, but this time around it’s Microsoft winning their patent claim against Motorola.

The patent in question dates back to 1998 and relates to scheduling a meeting with a group using a mobile device and having that event sync across mobile devices and PCs. As with many of these claims this sounds like fairly ridiculous feature to be able to patent, but the key is always in the exact implementation of the feature so it’s possible that Motorola will be able to come up with another way of handling the function (that is the tactic HTC employed in their case).

As you may recall from the HTC ruling this exclusion order doesn’t have any immediate ramifications for consumers as first the order goes to President Obama, who has 60 days to overturn the ruling should he so desire. My understanding is that the likelihood of this is just slightly higher than the next iPhone running Jelly Bean. Motorola also indicated that they may seek to appeal the ruling which would further delay an actual ban being put in place.

For Motorola the immediate repercussions are that they must pay Microsoft 33 cents per device during the 60 day review period with the President. A per device licensing fee is one of the potential resolutions to this matter and likely the option that Microsoft would prefer considering they are already pulling in licensing fees from the majority of Android manufacturers.

With Google finally receiving the necessary approval in China for the Motorola acquisition there may well be a different legal team at the helm for this matter by the time the 60 day review period is up — whether that will result in a different strategy going forward is anyone’s guess at the moment, but we’ll be keeping a careful eye on this one as the summer progresses.

Motorola has a new series of videos on YouTube that focuses on people who switched to the Droid RAZR. Meryl tells us she decided to switch to Motorola because, “My Droid RAZR doesn’t make my butt look big.” Watch the video after the break.

Talk time up to 21 hours. Watch movies 2.5x longer than you can on Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Browse 93% longer than you can on the HTC Rezound.

This week Motorola is releasing a series of videos to show how the RAZR MAXX is besting the competition. They placed the RAZR MAXX against the iPhone 4S and LG Spectrum to show how the devices stacked up when using turn-by-turn navigation. To no surprise, both competing devices died within hours, while the RAZR MAXX still had 40% battery left at the end of the trip.

HTC says consumers would rather have thin phones, but Motorola managed to stuff a 3,300 mAh battery inside a phone that measures only 8.99 mm thick.

The battery life on the Droid RAZR MAXX is freaking amazing, so why haven’t more handset makers copied Motorola?

Well that was quick. Just eight months ago, Google announced plans to acquire Motorola, and all the patents they own, for $12.5 billion. In that time, Google has gone from country to country getting the acquisition approved with great success (China is the only country that hasn’t approved the deal). But for what? To keep Motorola afloat, pumping money into the once-mobile-giant until they can get back on their feet? To eventually totally merge the two companies, creating real, honest-to-goodness Google manufactured Android devices? (Rubin promised this wouldn’t happen, so don’t bet on it). Or is Google simply looking to off Motorola as soon as the acquisition is complete? If the latest rumors out of Asia are right, Motorola might be a Huawei-owned company before long.

According to an article from the Wall Street Journal today, no one at Google really knows what to do with Motorola. Or the 20,500 Motorola employees working in 92 facilities across 97 countries.

While Andy Rubin says the two will operate as entirely different companies, Larry Page is “excited about the opportunities” Motorola would bring to Google. Other rumors suggest that Google might be looking to sell Motorola to Huawei, who has been hell bent on breaking into the smartphone market in a big way. Which one do we think makes the most sense? If the price is right, Motowei is a definite possibility.

It’s no secret why Google really wanted Motorola:  for the patents. It’s also no secret that Google makes their money by giving out free software to distribute their ads. Google couldn’t give out free software to make money on ads if they were being sued into oblivion. So they bought a bunch of patents to use as a security blanket. The way they see it, the patents alone are worth $12.5 billion. If Google is able to sell Motorola, while still keeping the patents, it’s a theoretical win-win.

Not only do they not have to worry about managing a sinking ship, they get back some of the money they spent on patents. Of course if Google’s real intentions are to use Motorola’s hardware division to make their own handsets, selling wouldn’t make sense. But there’s a very slim chance that will happen.

We’ve been waiting for some kind of sign indicating what Google will end up doing with Motorola, and selling to Huawei makes quite a bit of sense. What would you like to see happen to Motorola?

Like many Android users, the original DROID was my introduction to Android and while I’ve bounced through a half dozen other devices since then I’ll always have a soft spot for the DROID line. With that said the DROID 4 has launched into a very different landscape with devices literally half its thickness available and others offering twice its battery life. Despite all that, should the latest installment in this venerable line still warrant consideration as your next Android device?

1. Battery Life

My last review was for the DROID RAZR MAXX with its 3,300 mAh battery so the next competitor didn’t really stand a chance. The DROID 4 comes back down to earth with a 1,785 mAh battery and a more pedestrian 12-14 hours with regular use to go with it. I’m sure with liberal use of Smart Actions you could boost that a bit more, but basically don’t expect any miracles from the DROID 4 battery. It’s also definitely worth noting that while the DROID 4 battery compartment is accessible the battery is not meant to be user replaceable so just tossing a second battery in your bag won’t be an option.

2. Performance

The DROID 4 is packing the same 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM as the DROID RAZR MAXX. This is enough to run basically anything in the Play Store and keeps the OS flowing pretty smoothly. Sure there are quad-core devices powered by Tegra 3 and Exynos on the horizon, but for the time being the DROID 4 is offering plenty of muscle to get the job done. If you are heavily into gaming on your Android device I doubt the DROID 4 would be on your shortlist anyway, but I’ll go ahead and confirm your suspicions that this isn’t the device for you. If on the other hand you are looking to sling some fowl around the stratosphere or just draw something this will get you where you’re going.

I’m going to slip this in under ‘performance’ as it doesn’t really fit anywhere else, but the Droid 4 has 8GB of internal memory, which is a bit more of a tight squeeze than we are accustomed to lately. You do have a microSd slot should you need it, but be aware of this if you take a lot of photos or video with your phone.

3. Call Quality

I’m a bit of a broken record at this point, but I’m consistently pleased with the sound quality and signal strength offered by Motorola’s smartphones and the DROID 4 is another fine example. While I don’t question that there is room for improvement generically in cell phone call quality^[1], Motorola is definitely doing all that it can with existing standards.

4. Display

The DROID 4 offers a similar qHD PenTile LCD to that found in the DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX, albeit shrunken down to just 4-inches rather than the now more customary 4.3. As with the DROID RAZR MAXX I didn’t feel that the screen on the DROID 4 warranted quite the level of dislike that it seemed to garner from many reviewers, but it is clearly not a top-end screen. When viewed at a normal distance text and images look crisp, but the colors aren’t as vibrant as what I’ve seen on any of the recent Samsung or HTC devices.

5. Build Quality

The DROIDs may not be the thinnest or the lightest of devices, but they are remarkably well constructed. Ignoring the ludicrous offerings from Casio if I had to lay money down on a device holding up to a substantial drop it would be the DROID 4.

While I was impressed with the slide mechanism found on the DROID 3 I think that the DROID 4 easily eclipses it. The keyboard slides with an ease and fluidity that I didn’t quite feel in the previous renditions and it solidly locks into place. Obviously I can’t attest to how this will perform over time, but it certainly feels like it will hold up for the long haul.

6. Aesthetics

I gave the DROID RAZR MAXX a little bit of static for its world-devouring bezel and unfortunately the DROID 4 is cut from almost exactly the same cloth. I’ll again warn that this may well be something that doesn’t bother you in the least, but I’m unable to get past it when looking at either device.

The DROID 4 has finally banished the lip or chin that should be familiar to any owner or fan of the previous DROIDs and I’m actually sad to see it go. For one thing it was the one part of the DROID that you could usually depend on being pretty thin, but it also was part of the distinctive look of the DROID line. After this bit of cosmetic surgery the DROID 4 with it’s keyboard closed is just left looking like a particularly portly version of the DROID RAZR or even the DROID RAZR MAXX. While it isn’t grossly out of line with it’s predecessors the DROID 4 is slightly thicker than the DROID 3 and in a time when the Verizon Galaxy Nexus is being cat called for it’s 9.3mm thick frame the 13mm DROID 4 begins to seem like a throwback device.

7. Software

The DROID 4 ships with Android 2.3.5 (aka Gingerbread) and ‘The Overlay Formerly Known as Blur.’ Motorola has only indicated that the DROID 4 is under evaluation for an Android 4.0 update and there is no timeline at present. I’d be more hopeful for the DROID 4 than others as it shares quite a few traits with the DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX which are both slated to receive the update, but if you are dead set on having Android 4.0 it may be a good idea to wait for further word from Motorola or to look elsewhere.

My feelings regarding the Blur overlay remain the same as they did with the DROID RAZR MAXX. I don’t see any way in which it is improving the basic Gingerbread experience and I’m reasonably certain that it is slowing some pieces down, but the places that I noticed the slow downs the most were in tweaking settings in the menus and that isn’t really an area that the average user finds themselves mucking about in that often. Day to day I don’t see it as detracting from the users experience significantly.

8. Cameras

Again I found the DROID 4 to be quite similar to the DROID MAXX in this area. In daylight the DROID 4 was more than capable of taking a nice snapshot, but under even moderately difficult lighting the photos become noisy quickly. Shot to shot time was quick, but as with almost any smartphone you probably aren’t going to be capturing any quick moving targets such as squirrels or children. Another complaint that I reiterate from the RAZR MAXX is that I think the standard setting for Motorola’s cameras is way too dull. The average smartphone user will take the more colorful picture over the “real” capture any day.

9. Keyboard

The keyboard on the DROID 4 is an absolute pleasure to use. I think Motorola has finally dealt with all of the complaints the have been levied against the various incarnations of the DROID keyboard and are left with a polished gem. The backlighting is an incredibly welcome addition as without it the keyboard was rendered fairly useless in the dark which was a significant blow against it in the battle against onscreen keyboards. The separation between the keys, while a bit of an illusion, does seem greatly improved this time around as I experienced a very limited number of accidental key presses, which considering I only use a smartphone keyboard about once a year when a new DROID is released is fairly impressive. I also think Motorola has found the right responsiveness for the keys after at least the first two DROIDs suffered from extremely mushy keyboards.

10. 4G LTE

4G LTE is fast…mmmkay. Yeah I don’t really know what else to say about it at this point. The lack of 4G LTE in the DROID 3 was one of the big complaints when that phone launched back in July and perhaps correcting that lapse is one of the reasons that we saw such a rapid turnaround on the DROID 4 release. I had no problems with 4G on the DROID 4 and was consistently receiving speeds in line with the rest of my 4G LTE devices.

Final Thoughts

Each new release of the DROID line seems to be greeted with less excitement than the last despite the fact that the device does seem to at least subtly improve with each release. This is definitely the best version of the DROID yet, but I haven’t exactly heard anyone clamoring for it. Now in part that could be because it was released only about 7 months after its predecessor, however Android users are somewhat accustomed to turnabouts like that by now so I doubt that is a significant factor.

Most of us have just grown accustomed to Sywpe or some other onscreen keyboard and if that’s the case then there is no reason to opt for the DROID 4 over the DROID RAZR MAXX or Galaxy Nexus. Now if you just can’t get by without a hardware keyboard, and I know there are some of you, then by all means the DROID 4 is probably the best Android device available for you today.

Can Android 4.0 replace a desktop PC? We have already examined that question, and now it appears Motorola believes the answer is yes. Their Droid RAZR is expected to see a software update to Android 4.0 as early as next week, which delivers a totally new Webtop experience.

Previously, Motorola’s Webtop software allowed a phone to plugin into a smart dock that launched a custom Linux desktop that featured Firefox for as the browser. We thought it was an innovative feature when it debuted at CES 2011, but the actual experience turned out to be pretty sluggish and frustrating.

We predicted that the Motorola Atrix 4G and Webtop software were a good indicator of where Android was headed, and now it appears that has come true.

A leaked copy of the Android 4.0 update for the Droid RAZR reveals a new “Webtop 3.0 beta” that does away with the limited Linux desktop and provides users with a full Android 4.0 tablet UI when a device is docked to a larger display.

I’m pretty excited to see that this different-UI-for-different-displays feature is finally coming to Android phones. Hopefully handset makers will enable it over HDMI, MHL, and eventually WiFi Display.

This is similar to the functionality of the new ASUS Padfone, but it’s interesting to see Motorola go this direction after the acquisition by Google.

We now expect that Motorola will include this feature on all their new high-end Android phones. Check out the quick video below to get a sneak peek of what it will look like.