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Google acquiring Motorola Mobility
Happy Monday to you, and happy Monday to Motorola Mobility, which Google has announced is about to become its next acquisition. This comes hot on the heels of a $56 million Q2 net loss for Moto -- and CEO Sanjay Jha's less than subtle hints about going fishing for Android-related patent royalties. Now, at a price of $40 per share for a total of about $12.5 billion, Big G will be making Moto a "dedicated Android partner" to "supercharge the Android ecosystem" and "enhance competition in mobile computing." Larry Page had this to say about the deal: Motorola Mobility's total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers. What happens next? While this will of course strengthen the ties between hardware and software, Google is pledging to continue offering Android as an open platform -- Moto will license it and others will be able to as ever. Additionally, Google will continue to operate its new toy as a separate business and not morph it into an in-house hardware wing. But, one has to wonder what this means for companies like Samsung, which partnered closely with Google on the Nexus S, and of course HTC, which released the Nexus One and the iconic G1. And then there's the big question: just where does Moto Blur fit into this equation? Update: More quotes from Android partners after the break.
Motorola Droid 2 stars in its first video, touts 1GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM?
It was inevitable, really, that a phone as widely leaked as the Droid 2 would end up caught on video. Doing the honors for us today are Android and Me, who've compared the new Droid to the classic variant. Funnily enough, they didn't find too much deviation from Motorola, describing the two handsets as "virtually identical," with the major physical change being the replacement of the previous keyboard's navigation pad with arrow buttons. The front end's soft buttons have also changed to Moto's Blur options, but otherwise you're still looking at a 3.7-incher with a 5 megapixel imager. The big improvement seems to have been under the hood with a new 1GHz TI OMAP3630 processor and 512MB of RAM (PowerVR SGX530 graphics unit remains the same) driving the Droid 2 to some robust benchmark scores. Of course, we don't see the handset booted up in this hands-on video, so treat these specs and results as provisional until we hear from the official horse's mouth in a couple of days. [Thanks, Naveed]
Motorola Devours seven minutes of your life with a phone demo (video)
We're only a few breathless days away from the Devour hitting some retail locations ahead of nationwide US availability in March, so what better way to fill that gap than with an official teaser video? Moto's Rick Osterloh is our tour guide in a seven minute hands-on demo of the device, which takes us through the major attractions on offer. He firstly calls out the Qualcomm CPU inside and points to the phone's responsiveness, which is (quite naturally) followed by a couple of instances of perceptible lag between his input and the phone's reaction. All the same, it does look like a sprightly little machine, and the inclusion of Blur, Google Maps Navigation with turn-by-turn voice instructions, and Moto Phone Portal makes for a compelling software package. Head past the break to see them in action and to catch another eyeful of the hardware as well. [Thanks, Zach A.]
Motorola Backflip promo spot reminds us what rock and roll is all about
Remember when men were men and guitar riffs were boring and mindless? Moto does. The company has thrown together a little animated spot demonstrating its new Backflip handset. If you're the sort of person who has trouble conceptualizing objects in 3D space -- particularly objects that run Moto Blur and have an oddly oriented keyboard that flips backwards to face out from the back of the device -- this video should work wonders for you. If you're the sort of person who burned your Big Muff fuzzbox in effigy on New Year's Eve, you might want to rip your computer speakers out right about now. Video is after the break, and don't forget to check out our hands-on with the phone for a deeper, more staid look.
Motorola Calgary / Droid Devour spotted in silver, Bluring it up
There's another Motorola "Calgary" device (also known as the Droid Devour) making the rounds, and this time it's showing a silver paint job and an obvious Motorola Blur home screen. Word is that the trackpad to the upper right of the keyboard is great, and the keyboard supposedly bests the Droid -- not a challenging feat, to be sure. Obviously it's headed for Verizon, and Boy Genius confirms that WiFi and GPS are onboard, but it's still a little unclear what the low-end differentiators between it and the Droid might be, outside the three megapixel camera and what appears to be a smaller, lower resolution screen.
Video: Motorola CLIQ quick hands-on
It was all too brief, but we managed to grab a few snapshots of the Motorola CLIQ less than an arm's length away and shoot some shakycam footage before the PR rep re-cloaked it and promised more at a later event -- what a tease. Video after the break.
