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How would you change Motorola's Atrix HD?
Back in the day, the spec list for Motorola's Atrix HD made for impressive reading. After all, the $99 handset shipped with a 720p display, Ice Cream Sandwich, 8-megapixel camera and AT&T LTE. While its real-world performance couldn't match our hopes, the low price more than compensated for our gripe that it couldn't hold its own against the Galaxy S III or One X. We're fairly sure plenty of you out there bought this handset, so it's to you we ask: what parts of this phone's design to you love, what parts do you loathe and what, if anything, would you change?
Motorola reveals Atrix HD Developer Edition, highlights unlockable bootloader
Digging the idea of picking up an Atrix HD, but bummed about that whole "locked bootloader" situation? Problem solved. Motorola has just introduced the Atrix HD Developer Edition, which offers up the exact same specifications as the original, but allows near infinite customizations thanks to an unlockable bootloader. For the laypeople in attendance, that allows tinkerers to install custom ROMs on the phone without any additional hackeration, thus giving them to power to overhaul Android's look and feel in a major way. As of now, Moto's not talking pricing or release, but you can follow the source link to sign up for updates. (Oh, and if you're hoping for a quick turnaround, don't even think about looking at how long it took the Galaxy S III Developer Edition to finally go on sale.)
Motorola phases out Webtop, points to a Lapdock-shy world
When Motorola launched its Webtop concept alongside the original Atrix 4G, it had grand visions of replacing our PCs with a smartphone, a Lapdock and some optimism for a mobile-focused future. Most of us don't appear to have shared that rose-tinted view, as Motorola has confirmed that devices from the Photon Q 4G LTE and Droid RAZR M onward don't carry Webtop and won't get it in the future. The firm is blunt in explaining the cut and says that "adoption has not been strong enough" -- we just weren't buying those desktop- and laptop-oriented docks in the large numbers Motorola would need to devote further attention. As CNET explains, the move isn't surprising in light of Google's cost cutting as well as an initial $500 Lapdock price that likely chilled any momentum, even after prices dropped to as little as $200 in the Atrix 2 era. We'd also point to a market that still favors budget laptops and tablets: when $400 will get you an entirely separate Transformer Pad TF300, albeit without a keyboard, it's hard to justify buying what amounts to an empty shell. At least we'll still have our PadFone to keep us company while you read the full statement below. Motorola's Webtop app helps users extend their smartphone experience to larger screens. While consumers around the world have adopted Webtop and the concept spurred a lot of innovation in the industry, the adoption has not been strong enough to justify continued resources being allocated to developing Webtop on future devices. We have also seen development of the Android operating system focus on the inclusion of more desktoplike features. Beginning with Photon Q and Droid Razr M/Droid Razr HD/Droid Razr Maxx HD, we will no longer be including Webtop on our products moving forward.
Fujifilm sues Motorola over broad camera and phone patents, claims RAZRs and Xyboards are at fault
Motorola won't have had much of a break following the dismissal of a key Apple lawsuit, after all. In a low-profile move, Fujifilm has sued Motorola for allegedly violating four particularly broad patents on camera and phone technologies -- we're talking basics such as transmitting data outside of a cellular network. The camera designer has supposedly been pushing for a licensing deal since April of last year without much success, and it's asserting that "at least" a wide swath of Motorola devices released both before and after that time are the key offenders, including the RAZR MAXX and Xyboard lines. The complaint is scarcely into the docket and makes it difficult to gauge just what kind of chance Fujifilm has to win in court; we just know that Motorola's (and now Google's) patent lawsuit headache is developing into more of a migraine.
Motorola Atrix HD now on sale at AT&T: $100 on contract for LTE, 720p and ICS
Well, lookie here. It didn't take long for Motorola's latest Atrix variant to go from unveiled to launched, as the Atrix HD is now on sale at AT&T for a wallet-pleasing $99.99 on contract. Sign the dotted line for two years, and you'll be getting a 4.5-inch Android superphone, complete with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), a true 720p display, Kevlar-infused backing, a "splash resistant" casing and an LTE radio. Those who indulge quickly are set to grab a gratis Vehicle Dock for "a limited time," and you'll also enjoy the first Moto handset to bring the outfit's Circle Widget to the homescreen -- which is engineered to take owners directly to their AT&T account info, displaying data usage, battery status and more. The phone's listed right now in AT&T's smartphone section in Titanium and Modern White, but the link to buy it seems deactivated for the moment. Still, it's all square to go on sale today, so keep a close eye on the source link if you're dead-set on an upgrade. Psst... you can learn more about the Atrix lineage through our original Atrix 4G and Atrix 2 reviews.
AT&T Atrix HD priced at $99: coming July 15 (video)
While we've already stared down the specifications, AT&T's announced that it will bring Motorola's big and skinny slab to the US later this month, while Bell will do the honors in Canada "this summer." Priced at $99, the Atrix HD will tie together LTE connectivity with a 4.5-inch 720p display, available in both Modern White and Titanium colors. Better still, it's all arriving later this week, on July 15. If you're thinking about becoming an early adopter then you'll want to move quickly, as a free Vehicle Dock will ship with each one for a "limited time", designed to work perfectly with the included Smart Actions. Finally, this is the first phone to feature Motorola's "circle widget" on the home screen, designed to take owners directly to their AT&T account info, displaying data usage, battery status and more. Check after the break for a quick video walkthrough from AT&T plus a press release with all of the specs and details. %Gallery-160067%
Motorola Atrix HD revealed with 4.5-inch Colorboost HD display, ICS and Droid RAZR looks
The next Motorola Atrix phone has been revealed on the company's website as the Atrix HD, with an MB886 model number matching the "Dinara" we saw pass through the FCC. According to the listed specs, it features a 4.5-inch HD Colorboost (720 x 1,280) display, 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, and will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and (predictably) looks very much like the Droid RAZR. There's no carrier mentioned (other than the blatant logo at the bottom), but judging by the radio bands mentioned in the specs, it comes off very much as a Droid RAZR for AT&T with quad-band EDGE, quad-band HSPA+ and dual-band LTE. It has a 1780 mAh battery, 8MP rear camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage (up to 32GB external) and measures 8.4mm thick. The construction is as you'd expect, with Gorilla Glass and Kevlar fused to make the "business ready" handset, while the Atrix 2's Lapdock 100 is listed as an accessory. There's no word on when the third Atrix will be launched, but you can find out all about it and sign up for updates right now at the source link.
Android Army: US soldiers to leverage portable battlefield network and smartphones
Smartphones: the future of wartime communication? That is the goal of the US Army through the development of its portable wireless network, dubbed Warfighter Information Network-Tactical or WIN-T. The Army hopes to leverage WIN-T to bring near-instant digital communication to the battlefield by outfitting soldiers with Motorola Atrix handsets running a heavily modified version of Android. An exposé by Wired explains that the system's main goal is information and intelligence sharing; between both soldiers and central command. Friendly troop positions, suspicious vehicles or persons and surveillance video from unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs) can all be mapped and shared with servicemen and women in the field. It's been a dream of the Pentagon since the mid-nineties, but has only recently become monetarily and technologically feasible due to advances in smartphone processing power. It's nerdy, it's fascinating... and this is the stuff the Army is willing to talk about. Hit the source link for the full write-up.
Motorola Atrix 3 'Dinara' powers through the FCC en route to AT&T
The Motorola Dinara, also known as the third-generation Atrix, has been making the occasional stop at the rumor mill to drop off knowledge bombs, but now it looks like we have some official FCC documentation to supplement the intel. Going undercover as the MB886, it sports the proper LTE bands for AT&T and even uses the same model naming convention as its two predecessors. Naturally we don't get much more information than the usual measurements and radios (of which include HSPA+ / WCDMA 850 / 1900 as well as quad-band EDGE), but the phone is rumored to include an LTE-friendly Snapdragon S4 processor and a 720p display.
Purported Motorola Dinara press shot slips out, carries a whiff of Atrix 3
We're taking this with a big block of salt, but we may have just had our first real peek at the Motorola Dinara's American form. A claimed press shot has the possibly Snapdragon S4-powered Android 4.0 phone carrying a fairly plain shell, but also sporting a 720p display and an all-touch interface borrowed from Motorola's recent Chinese introductions. The tip to The Verge hasn't produced any shocks, including the mention of LTE and preloaded AT&T apps, although the badging does give us some room for skepticism: AT&T rarely if ever leaves its three-letter name out of phone branding, and that front camera position is slightly odd. As long as no wool has been pulled over eyes, however, the Dinara could be a candidate for another Atrix sequel that keeps Motorola on Big Blue.
How an AT&T smartphone comes to life: behind the scenes (part one)
Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes to get a smartphone pushed to market? If you have, congratulations on advancing to the next echelon of mobile geekhood. We've often pondered the same thing ourselves, but the industry has been historically tight-lipped about the ins and outs of designing, testing and launching a smartphone. Fortunately, our thirst for knowledge was quenched by none other than AT&T, which happily loaned us the time of two senior product managers, the folks that make the magic happen. AT&T Foundry innovation center walkthrough On the ground with AT&T's Network Disaster Recovery team Verizon Application Innovation Center walkthrough Dante and Chris (last names withheld, per request) have the ultimate geek dream job: they don't just play with the latest prototypes, they're the ones who make sure they get made. Pretty plush gig, right? They're the ringleaders -- the decision makers responsible for making AT&T's smartphone lineup come to life, and their duty is to do it in a way that keeps the carrier at the front lines of innovation. So what drives these two men? What goes into their thought process, and what exactly happens behind locked doors in order to produce a groundbreaking smartphone? Join us in this two-part series as we learn some of their secrets.
Switched On: Motorola's manic modularity
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. When newly independent Motorola Mobility introduced its Atrix handset on AT&T at CES, the smartphone was generally well-received. But what drew more attention was the range of accessories that the company has continued to support through other high-end launches such as those of the Photon on Sprint and the Droid Bionic on Verizon. These products now include a car dock for navigation, HDMI dock for entertainment, and lapdock for enhanced productivity. Motorola wasn't the first company to introduce an HDMI dock, and Asus' Padfone embeds a handset more directly into another device than do Motorola's products. Taken together, though, the Motorola dock derby best positions the handset as the heart of a mobile lifestyle -- one that can be easily transplanted so that it can overcome the limitations of its native form factor. It is a fitting push for one of the few smartphone companies not vested in other traditional electronic devices such as PCs or televisions.
Motorola Atrix 2 review
Lapdock 100 brings a Webtop IQ boost to Moto phones on Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T Sony Music Unlimited arrives for Android tablets, bearing gifts of unlimited music Motorola Atrix 4G, HD multimedia dock, and laptop dock hands-on We've seen a lot of game-changing devices this year, haven't we? 2011 has already witnessed the first Honeycomb tablets, the influx of LTE and the introduction of a boatload of smartphones with dual-core processors. One of those groundbreaking devices was the Motorola Atrix 4G, which we called the best smartphone at CES 2011 because of its powerful Tegra 2 SoC and simply innovative Webtop operating system with an accompanying Lapdock. It was new, and it was powerful. Not even ten months after the Atrix's February 22nd launch, we're already seeing its successor, aptly named the Atrix 2. At the risk of sounding blunt, it's not a groundbreaking device -- aside from a few bumps in specs, larger display and a fresh redesign, it doesn't offer the same level of showmanship or innovation so eagerly demonstrated in the first iteration. But does the sequel compensate for the lack of sizzle? How much does this improve over the original? Does the newest version of the Lapdock satisfy? We'll answer these questions and so much more after the break. %Gallery-137617%
Motorola Atrix 2 hands-on at CTIA E&A 2011 (video)
Motorola and AT&T are at it again with their Android shenanigans, this time following up the Atrix 4G with something a tad more... Atrix-y. Indeed, we're referring to the sequel of February's smash hit, honorably called the Motorola Atrix 2, announced at this week's CTIA Enterprise & Applications. We had the opportunity to get some brief time with it, and it's a fair device worthy of the family name: the 4.3-inch device feels good in the hand, and closely resembles the Photon 4G, only without the cutout corners. The sequel swaps processors, trading the 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU for a TI OMAP model with the same clock speed, and offers a full gigabyte of RAM to go along with it. Fortunately, the qHD 960 x 540 display looks gorgeous without its predecessor's Pentile clothes. Also gone? The fingerprint sensor. Oh, and don't be fooled by the missing "4G" moniker in the title; this little ditty packs a 21Mbps HSPA+ radio, up from 14Mbps in the first version. All in all, we like what we see here -- we enjoyed the brief time we had with the sequel. It seems as though Motorola learned some important lessons from the original device, but we'll reserve total judgement until our forthcoming review. Check out the full gallery and hands-on video (complete with bonus psychedelic carpet!) below. %Gallery-136335% Myriam Joire contributed to this post.
Skype 2.5 for Android brings video calls to 14 new devices, including Honeycomb tablets
...And then there were 41. Oh, sorry, we're talking about Android devices here. Specifically ones that support video calling over Skype. With the update to version 2.5, the VoIP service has tacked on another 14 Goog-powered gadgets to its list of officially supported handsets and tablets. Yes, that's right, we said tablets. In addition to bringing support to phones like the Atrix, Bionic and Nexus One, Skype is inviting the Xoom, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Acer's Iconia to the party. We've even received reports that video calls are working on other Honeycomb slates like the ASUS Transformer. You'll find the full list of officially supported devices in the PR after the break.
Motorola's Atrix 2 (Edison) flaunts qHD display, hands-on reveals no PenTile matrix
It seems that Motorola's successor to the original Atrix has emerged in the streets of Chicago prior to being officially unveiled by AT&T. The crew at The Verge recently scored some hands-on time with the device, and in the process, cleared up much of the speculation regarding Ma Bell's upcoming Atrix 2 -- also known as the Edison. First, we know the device will indeed have a qHD display, although unlike Moto's other 960 x 540 screens, this one discards the PenTile matrix and features properly proportioned sub-pixels, which delivers crisper text in the process. Additionally, there's now further evidence that the handset will not be a member of AT&T's LTE lineup, and thus will be limited to its HSPA+ network. Notably, this revision adds a shutter button along the right edge of the handset, although like the Photon, it's only a single-stage mechanism, which is quite a bummer. Similar to the Bionic, it features a dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP CPU and delivers comparable benchmarks in the process. Looks like it'll be a fine contender for battle with the biggies from Samsung and Apple, eh?
Motorola Atrix 2 peeks out (again) from the wild, destined for AT&T's faux-G?
Now that the tidal wave of Bionic hype has crashed upon Verizon's shore, it's time to focus our anticipation on Moto's other beast phone -- the Atrix 2. Leaked shots of the AT&T-branded update came to light this past July, giving us a glimpse of its Blur-ified UI and some tentative specs. Well, we still don't have any official confirmation that these new images over on BGR are the real sequel, but the details are lining up with what we know. Purportedly, this handset refresh will not be a member of AT&T's new LTE brigade, although that could very well change. Expect a dual-core setup, 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture and Gingerbread 2.3.5 baked-in. Rumor has it the orange-colored carrier intends to ship this before year's end, but will it be enough to sway you from this?
Motorola Droid Bionic to include Webtop accessories
Back when we first caught a glimpse of the Droid Bionic, we speculated that the post-Atrix placement of the micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports might make it compatible with the updated Photon Webtop dock and accessories. Judging by the screenshot grabbed by Droid Life, we might have a winner as the add-ons look to be interchangeable, possibly a first step towards CEO Sanjay Jha's promised improvements. The product page also says the accessories will be "affordable" for those "curious about the Webtop application" -- count us in. [Thanks, Chris]
AT&T's fall and winter 2011 roadmap leaked in spreadsheet glory
Summer is in full swing, but if you happen to take a peek at AT&T's leaked roadmap for the upcoming two quarters, you might just sense the chill of winter in the air. While this doesn't appear to be official from Ma Bell, or entirely exhaustive, we've gotten a spreadsheet that goes in-depth to out the carrier's upcoming smartphones. A host of Android devices are on the list -- all with Gingerbread -- along with two handsets that strut Windows Phone 7.5 and another duo with BlackBerry 7. Of particular note, we see the Samsung SGH-i777 (otherwise known as the Attain), along with the SGH-i927 for you QWERTY slider lovers. Both Sammy's sport Category 14 HSDPA, or (up to) 21Mbps downloads. Curiously, the Impulse -- Ma Bell's rumored LTE phone -- is nowhere to be found. The Motorola MB865, with a full gigabyte of RAM and 8 megapixel camera, aligns very well with the rumored Atrix refresh. You've seen the two phones from RIM before, and while Samsung's Mango handset spent a brief moment in the wild, little is known about HTC's counterpart. Hopefully we won't need to wait for the actual change of seasons to learn more.
Motorola Atrix sequel gets candid with the camera, heading for AT&T?
With all of the hype building for the Droid Bionic's arrival, we can't say we were expecting to see an unannounced Motorola device receive love from the camera instead. But sure 'nuff, we beheld our gadget-lusting eyes on a handset that's likely AT&T-bound in the near future -- the carrier's logo is flaunted on the front, at least -- and may even be the next-gen Atrix 4G. Sporting a coincidentally similar design to its supposed predecessor, we only know of a few specs so far: the mystery device offers an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture, HDMI connectivity, Moto's new Blur UI replacement and a curved display similar to the Nexus S -- though this time there's no fingerprint scanner onboard. It looks and sounds great, but let's just hope that this one really is the "world's most powerful" smartphone. The gallery below shows the device in all its glory. %Gallery-129376%
