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Motorola pits Voice Actions against Siri, claims to take the title belt (video)
Siri may be the media darling and, admittedly she's the one with the winning personality. But Motorola wants to remind you that Android has a voice control app of its own and argues it's better than its iPhone 4S exclusive competition. In a series of videos, which we've embedded after the break, Moto pits Voice Actions against Siri on a trio of handsets -- the Atrix 2, Photon 4G and Electrify. A faceless taskmaster tells the handset to send a text, pull up driving directions and load a website. In each of the tests, Voice Actions bests the polite lady inside the iPhone and gets crowned the champ. Though, we can't help but think things would have turned out differently if the competition involved finding the meaning of life.
Motorola outs Android 4.0 upgrade schedule, adds Atrix 4G, Photon 4G and others to the ICS party list
Ever since the debut of Ice Cream Sandwich, the masses of Motorola owners have yearned to discover when (if?) their devices would receive Android's latest and greatest. Well, Moto's finally let the cat out of the bag, setting out domestic and global timelines for its tablets and phones to get Android 4.0. Xoom WiFi owners here in the states have been enjoying ICS for a month, and Family Edition owners can expect the same tasty treat in Q2 of this year. Folks with RAZRs (including the Chinese MT917 variant) or XT928 (the Chinese evolution of the Droid X) in areas outside the US will be getting ICS in Q2 as well. Atrix 4G, Atrix 2, and Photon 4G owners around the world will have to wait until Q3 of 2012 for theirs, as will Xoom 2 and Xyboard owners. Motorola's blog, Inside Motorola, states that the Bionic, Droid 4, RAZR Maxx, and Electrify will be getting in on the action, too, but its engineers have yet to set a date for their upgrades. Head on down to the source links below to take a gander at the good news yourself.
Mobile Miscellany: week of September 19, 2011
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of September 19, 2011: Opera Software, builder of the popular mobile browser, announced it was acquiring Handster, an app store platform that supports Android, WP7, BlackBerry, and Symbian. [TechCrunch] Samsung unveiled three new HSDPA feature phones destined for India: the Champ 3.5G (S3770), Primo (S5610) and Chat 527 (S5270). [UnwiredView and SammyHub] A leaked image indicates the HTC Hero S will be coming to US Cellular in the near future. The device appears to be the Kingdom, and is expected to feature a 1.2GHz single-core Qualcomm CPU, 768MB of RAM, a 4-inch qHD display and Gingerbread. [PocketNow] Speaking of US Cellular, the Motorola Electrify officially became available for purchase online this week (expected in stores on September 26th), and can be yours for $200 after a $100 mail-in rebate. [AndroidCentral] Wirefly accidentally outed press renders of the Samsung Stratosphere -- on the retailer's Pantech Breakout page. The images have since been removed. [OwenJohnston] A white version of the Samsung Galaxy S II is making the rounds in the UK, but we learned this week that Bell Canada will be launching it well before the holidays. Interestingly, the device in the image (seen above) has retained the international version's three-button layout. [MobileSyrup] Among the barrage of new phones Sprint's releasing on October 2nd is the BlackBerry Curve 9350, according to another leaked employee memo. The price will likely be $80 after a $50 mail-in rebate. [CrackBerry] T-Mobile MVNO Simple Mobile announced a new unlimited prepaid plan for BlackBerry devices for $60 / month, which includes access to T-Mo's HSPA+ network. [N4BB] Huawei appears to have outed press images of the Honor, which is said to have a 4-inch FWVGA LCD, Gingerbread, 1.4GHz CPU (no specifics known yet), and an 8MP rear camera accompanied by a front-facing cam (again, no details on the resolution here). [EuroDroid] A member of the iPhone Dev Team has released a new version of Redsn0w, its popular iOS jailbreaking software, known as 0.9.9b1. Check the link to get the full list of new features. [Technobolt]
Motorola Electrify coming to US Cellular this month as a rebranded Photon 4G
We shouldn't be completely shocked by the news, but it's great to hear regardless. US Cellular announced the upcoming availability of the Motorola Electrify, which is essentially its rebranded version of the Photon 4G -- sans WiMAX, of course. The device will be ready for your purchase sometime later this month for $200, which is the same starting cost as Sprint's variant provided you don't factor in the initial $100 mail-in rebate. The Electrify is a 1GHz dual-core handset with Android 2.3, a 4.3-inch qHD display, webtop support and 8MP rear / VGA front-facing camera set. We definitely love seeing powerhouses like this make it to the smaller carriers, so if you're an interested US Cellular fanboy or girl, just be sure that you're not dying to see what the company will offer when its LTE network launches. [Thanks, ChuckyTee]
