A telling leak has uncovered at least tentative dates for Verizon's long-in-waiting Android 4.0 updates. The HTC Rezound would go first, according to an anonymous Reddit user, with a test theoretically active now and wrapping up May 7. Customers would start getting the update over the air two days later, on May 9.
The German version of Motorola's RAZR MAXX could be one of the company's first phones to carry Android 4.0. A mention of Android 4.0 in the fact sheet shows the OS by name. No mention is made of any changes to Motorola's own interface layer along with the 4.0 upgrade.
Rumors of an updated Motorola RAZR received a bit more support today, with the emergence of several photos purporting to show the Droid RAZR HD running Android 4.0. The photos show the RAZR HD and its 720p screen in addition to a previously unannounced Motorla handset.
Verizon is planning to quickly follow up on the Sprint Galaxy Nexus launch with a steep price drop. A leaked minimum advertised price guide at Droid-Life has Samsung's Android 4.0 phone dropping to the same $200 on April 23, a day after Sprint stores get their examples. While it could be a storage cut ike the 16GB RAZR, it's more likely to remain the 32GB edition.
Newly leaked photos and corresponding EXIF data indicate from Japanese site Ameblo indicate that the leaked Droid Fighter smartphone from Motorola will be called the Droid RAZR HD upon launch. The EXIF data of the captured photo contains both the Droid RAZR HD name and the earlier Vanquish codename for the handset, then known only as the Fighter. The phone may retain the Fighter name for some markets, though if whether that's true isn't known.
The Droid RAZR from Verizon may very soon get its expected software update to Android 4.0, if some newly discovered YouTube videos (below) are any indication. They are tutorial videos that are apparently bundled in the phone, though it likely came from a leaked Android 4.0 build that's not yet official. If they do indeed represent the final product, then it appears Motorola won't implement as strong a custom interface on its Android 4.0 update as in the past.
Best Buy has informed its staff that planned ICS updates for the Motorola Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX have been delayed. Originally scheduled for April 4, the company has not said when they when users can expect to receive it. Best Buy did, however, confirm that the HTC Rezound will be updated OTA to ICS as planned this Friday, according to Droid-Life.
Last week, rumors, partially fed by an internal Best Buy website posting, indicated that the Motorola Droid RAZR and Droid RAZR MAXX would be getting their Android 4.0 updates today. This was given additional credibility when a test build of the update was leaked on Sunday. The update still has not been distributed and other than Tweeting "We'll share more details soon," Motorola continues with its silence.
The Motorola RAZR MAXX is due to arrive in Europe and the Middle East this May, the electronics company revealed on Tuesday. The phone is thus far offered exclusively by Verizon as the Droid RAZR MAXX. Naturally, Motorola is boasting the handset's long battery life as its biggest selling point, claiming a 17.6-hour talk time from the 3,300mAh battery.
Samsung should retake the edge in the smartphone space as of the first quarter, Canaccord Genuity said in early estimates. Analyst T. Michael Walkley saw Samsung going back to 28.2 percent share on the back of 41 million smartphones. Apple would have its strongest winter ever, but at 32.6 million iPhones would have a more modest 22.4 percent.
Motorola may be on the verge of releasing its Android 4.0 upgrade, at least in test form, for at least the Droid RAZR and Droid RAZR MAXX. Just days after notice of a soak test of an unknown update for willing early adopters, a leaked build has emerged of Android 4.0.3 for the extra-thin Verizon smartphones. The firmware seen at DroidRzr was clearly unfinished and risky, but was also apparently official as it had an updated cellular radio baseband and a new version of the Webtop pseudo-desktop interface.
A new round of smartphones may be getting Android 4.0 shortly. Phone Arena reports from a source that Best Buy has supposedly said on one of its an internal employee websites that the Motorola Droid RAZR and Droid RAZR MAXX, as well as the HTC Rezound, will be getting updates over the air (OTA) next week. Motorola's official position still has no official timing for the updating these Verizon phones in the US.
Motorola's rumored Droid Fighter has been spotted for the first time with a sign of an at once familiar and new strategy for Motorola. Chinese forum MFunz's lone photo shows a smartphone very similar to the Droid RAZR, but with a 4.6-inch "HD" (likely 720p) screen that's pushed more to the edges. No physical touch buttons are in sight, suggesting it will use Android 4.0's onscreen keys like the Galaxy Nexus.
Motorola has expanded its Android 4.0 upgrade timetable, suggesting Droid RAZR owners in the US market will have to wait until after Q2 for the update. The company has confirmed that its Droid RAZR handsets released in any other international market are expected to receive the update sometime in the second quarter, however.
Verizon has just revealed which of its devices will be getting an upgrade to Android 4.0. While no dates were revealed, the carrier only promised that the updates will arrive sometime this year. Only 4G LTE-compatible hardware appeared to be enjoying the update, however.
The HTC Fireball may have been given a more definite name after new tips on Friday. Befitting its looks, the Android 4.0 phone should be called the Incredible 4G, Droid-Life said. The hardware would get the according LTE as well as a dual-core 1.2GHz processor.
Keeping up its tradition of giving out a smartphone connected to the Oscars, Motorola on Wednesday showed a special Red Carpet edition of the Droid RAZR MAXX. The new version comes in its namesake red, a color previously only available to a handful of Verizon staff. Their version is identical to the dual-core, large battery Android 2.3 device on the inside, but comes with an Elite Silver Bluetooth headset.
Motorola's Ice Cream Sandwich development may have been exposed ahead of schedule, as several leaked images are claimed to show the company's Blur interface running on Android 4.0.3. The images, which surfaced on a DroidRzr forum, appear to show the Ice Cream Sandwich and the Blur UI running on a Droid Razr from Verizon.
Verizon has seized on the strategy behind its Droid RAZR price cut and applied it to the Droid Bionic on Wednesday. Motorola's older 4G Android phone has had its price cut by at least $50 to $100 on a contract by sacrificing storage. While it still has 16GB built-in, the 16GB microSDHC card has been dropped both to lower the immediate price and let only those who need it pay for a card themselves.
Motorola was unusually critical of its likely future acquirer Google late Wednesday in an interview. Senior enterprise business VP Christy Wyatt claimed to PCMag that Google made timely Android OS updates difficult because of its tendency to target each major release against a reference phone like the Galaxy Nexus. Since the initial release only supported that hardware, no other Android partner could get started on drivers and other code they needed to get moving.
Verizon has just released a slew of software upgrades for its Android-powered gear, including the Droid Xyboard tablets which are getting the 1.6.0M_279 update. It promises to enhance third-party pen and native touch performance, better browsing, maintaining a data connection while swapping from Wi-Fi to broadband, and in a twist now has global roaming for data. The update is nearly 84MB.
Motorola has released software updates for its Droid Razr and Droid Razr Maxx smartphones, bringing a number of minor tweaks and bug fixes. The Android 2.3.6 build, which was announced in December, resolves issues related to mobile hotspot functionality and visual voice mail, while improving stability when switching through the home screen panes.
Motorola on Sunday night briefly teased (now pulled) a special Developer Edition of the modern RAZR. The new version will make the promised unlocked bootloader readily available so that users can easily load custom firmware or otherwise go beyond what carriers and Motorola allow. It should ship this week in Europe, and a "developer device" that may or may not be the RAZR should come to the US in "coming months."
Some users over on the droidrzr forum have shared images of their Motorola RAZR using Android 4.0.3. What's unique about the OS, however, other than that build number, is that this is the first instance of Android 4.0 with a very slight customization from Motorola and its own Blur interface.
Following unintentional slips, Verizon on Tuesday confirmed that the Droid RAZR MAXX will be on shelves this Thursday, January 26. The extra-long lived 4G smartphone will be the new high-end version of the RAZR and carry the 32GB that was cut in half to lower the price for the original design. A RAZR MAXX wil cost $300 on a contract like the original 32GB version.
Verizon on Tuesday posted a rare loss for its fall quarter despite an otherwise upbeat result defined by the iPhone. It lost 71 cents per share through pension compensation but had its best subscriber additions in three years, adding a net 1.5 million new customers. Having shipped 4.2 million iPhones, the credit could go primarily to Apple for the record performance.
On Wednesday, Motorola unveiled its latest high-end 4G LTE smartphones, the Droid RAZR MAXX and Droid 4. The company didn't provide a release date but has inadvertently ">posted on its own product page that the new Android hardware should ship January 26. The mentions aren't consistent but show that the date may have already been locked before CES.
The iPhone 4S held off the Galaxy Nexus for the top spot in smartphones on Verizon, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley found through channel checks. Apple's newest phone still had the top sales spot on every major US carrier that sells it in December, keeping the first Android 4.0 phone at second place. As before, the only carrier where Apple didn't lead was T-Mobile, where it doesn't participate.
Verizon may be on the edge of replacing a large swath of its device line if a rumor floated on New Year's Day is an indicator. Among other withdrawals, a lone source for The Verge had Verizon stopping shipments of the Motorola Droid 3 in January. The exit would likely be in prep for the delayed Droid 4 launch the following month.
Motorola's mobile device VP Christy Wyatt in an interview Friday committed her company to the Lapdock concept. In speaking with AllThingsD, she saw notebook docks like the Lapdock 100 still being important to consolidation. People don't want to be "carrying 52 cords and 52 chargers and multiple data plans," she said, so it made sense to give them a way to extend the main device they have.
Verizon has detailed a new software update (PDF) for the Motorola Droid RAZR. A number of bugs will be addressed with this software, including the SIM Error notification and better stability in menus, the browser, the phone dialer, video playback and the music player to cut down on the Force Close errors and freezes. The camera's features and quality have also been addressed.
An upcoming new Motorola smartphone called the Droid RAZR Maxx is nearing release, as yet another indication of its existence has been leaked, Droid-Life found. First spotted in EXIF photo data as the RAZRMax, though it has now shown up in a Verizon system as the Droid RAZR Maxx, in line with the naming scheme Motorola used years ago for its flip phone. The December 15 date isn't a shipping date, however.
Apple and Samsung have been gradually taking over the US smartphone market, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley said in a research note Tuesday. Based on channel checks e saw all three iPhone models gain real-world sell-through share in November and the iPhone 4S continue to be the top seller at AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. Samsung had achieved a rare feat, however, and saw the Galaxy S II take the second-place spot away from the regular iPhone 4 on AT&T.
A new leak supports notions that the Galaxy Nexus will cost $300 on contract. The tip to the Wall Street Journal didn't say more than to give the two-year price and have the phone on shelves in December. The price was expected given Verizon's typical policy of pricing phones like the HTC Rezound or Motorola Droid RAZR at the same level.
Japan’s KDDI has announced the Fujitsu Arrows ES IS12F that measures in at just 6.7mm at its thinnest point, and 8.5mm at its thickest. The Arrow also only weighs 105 grams despite being fitted with a 4-inch (480x800) AMOLED display. This makes the device thinner than the Motorola RAZR and lighter than the Samsung Galaxy S II.
A tentative leak may have narrowed down the release dates for Verizon's last wave of devices for 2011. The tips to Droid-Life had the Galaxy Nexus arriving a day later than widely reported, on December 9. The Motorola Droid XYBoard tablets would arrive just days later, on December 12.
Motorola is believed to be working on a revised version of its Droid RAZR smartphone with a more capacious battery to deal with the power-hungry LTE network. PocketNow found some photos whose EXIF data reveals they were taken by a phone called the Droid RAZRMAX. More digging returned a story on a forum that had a Verizon employee tell the user that such a phone is coming soon.
Motorola recently introduced two Android 2.3 smartphones due for release in China. The XT928 and MT917 share hardware specs that are an upgrade even over recent devices, using the same 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM but with a new 4.5-inch, 1280x720 display and an upgraded 13-megapixel camera capable of shooting 1080p video. There is also a 1.3-megapixel camera up front.
Amazon has just launched a limited-time PennyPincher deal, offering all Verizon, Sprint and AT&T phones for just one cent. It started at midnight on November 21 and will finish at 11:59PM on November 28. Free, two-day shipping is included in the price. Buyers can choose from 97 handsets, with some standouts including the Droid RAZR (review), Epic Touch 4G, BlackBerry Torch 9810, and HTC Arrive. New contracts are required with each handset, however.
Early benchmarks of the Galaxy Nexus have shown it to be the first Android phone that can outperform an iPhone 4S on the web. The AnandTech tests show that Google's late addition of dual-core processor support gave the phone the edge over Apple both in the SunSpider JavaScript test and Rightware's BrowserMark. The only other Android device to get close, the Droid RAZR, slightly won in one test but lost in another.
The rule of thumb for 4G Android phones in 2011 has been that they must be tanks: bulky, rounded-off devices that show exactly what sacrifice you're making to get the faster speeds. Motorola with the reborn Droid RAZR (just RAZR elsewhere in the world) not only bucks that, but has what it claims is the world's thinnest smartphone. However, it's coming into especially fierce competition with the Galaxy Nexus, Rezound, and the iPhone 4S. We'll see in our Droid RAZR review if it's competitive enough to swim with the pack.
iFixit has, once again, published one of its device teardowns, this time turning its tools on the Motorola Droid RAZR. The team found the ultra-thin 0.28-inch design of the phone cost it a strong repairability score, with the handset posting a 4 out of 10 lower than most Apple devices. This was due to a lot of glue to hold it together, an LCD fused to the glass, and lots of fairly delicate plastic throughout the construction.
Amazon Wireless is now offering the Motorola Droid RAZR handset at a steep discount. At $111.11, it's a savings of nearly $189 from the original $300 price tag on contract. The price is symbolic and lines up with the November 11, 11:11AM release date at Verizon's own stores.
Adobe's plans to drop mobile Flash came quicker than expected as it rolled out the last update, Flash Player 11.1 (Android Market) late last night. The new version is a maintenance update and switches on support for 1080p Flash video on Tegra 3 devices like the ASUS Transformer Prime. Those with the Galaxy S II also see a bug fixed where video would refuse to play.
Motorola's near-shipping Droid RAZR will back off of the tendency towards non-removable carrier apps, Electronista and others can confirm. Apps that Motorola and Verizon install, even the Blockbuster video and GoToMeeting apps, can be uninstalled outright. Others, including on other carriers, can be hidden to get rid of unwanted apps from the view without technically deleting them.
Verizon confirmed a data plan promo on Monday to help kick off the launch of the Droid RAZR, which it now says will get its leaked November 11, 11:11AM release. Anyone with an LTE-equipped smartphone who gets a $30 data plan from November 8 will have the bandwidth cap doubled from its normal 2GB to 4GB. Existing subscribers have to ask Verizon to change the plan.
US Cellular has become the next major US carrier to plan out an upgrade to LTE-based 4G. The regional carrier plans to deploy the faster network starting from early 2012 and plans to cover a handful of cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, Texas, and Oklahoma. Among the highlight will be Des Moines, Greenville, Milauwkee, and Portland, although most will have more than one city covered.
(Update: confirmed) Verizon may be intentionally holding off launching the Motorola Droid RAZR in stores a day until Friday, November 11. Android Central has posted an internal document showing that the smartphone would get an 11-11-11 11:11 AM arrival. The Verizon pre-release order website, however still shows November 10 as the ship date for pre-orders.
An uncovered marketing focus memo has hinted that Verizon might not sell its version of the Galaxy Nexus until the end of November. The segment at Droid-Life showed the carrier only advertising the Android 4.0 phone on or around November 28, just after the Black Friday weekend following Thanksgiving. Other phones, including the iPhone 4S, Droid RAZR, and Rezound, either stop marketing then or overlap.
Verizon on Wednesday outlined a special strategy for pre-orders of the upcoming Motorola Droid RAZR. Its extra-thin Android option will be available to pre-order on Thursday from an uncharacteristically specific 8AM. All pre-orders should ship by November 10 at the latest.
