The Android Site

A recent PowerPoint slide (shown below) revealed that the Motorola Zeppelin (shown above), named the CLIQ XT should be coming to T-Mobile USA launching on March 10th. It’s been described as a “CLIQ without a keyboard”, and should appeal to users that want MotoBLUR, but in a much slimmer design. Specs include MOTOBLUR running on 1.5 (why oh why?), a 3.2-inch HVGA screen, GPS, 5 MP camera with flash, and touch sensitive trackpad and navigational buttons. The price point is rumored to be at or below the current CLIQ, making it an attractive option for new smartphone buyers that don’t need to the high end specs of more expensive models.

[via PPCGeeks]

Ben Marvin Hardware, Motorola, News, T-Mobile 1.5, CLIQ XT, Hardware, leaks, MOTOBLUR, Motorola Zeppelin, News, Photos, Rumors, T-Mobile

At CTIA, Kyocera has announced that they have plans to bring an Android handset to market. They didn’t get into specs or details, but we can expect it sometime next year. And it will be a higher end offering than previous Kyocera phones in the US, as they mostly stick to low end phones from smaller carriers going for quantity over quality.

On the other side of the coin over at the Nokia booth, a Nokia rep was overheard as saying that Nokia will never put out a handset with Android. Nokia has a lot invested in Symbian and Maemo, but their recent attempts to penetrate the US smartphone market have been “just the tip” at best. Maybe as Android grows bigger in the coming months they may change their attitude.

Ben Marvin Hardware, News, Rumors CTIA, Hardware, Kyocera, News, Nokia, Rumors

Samsung and Sprint announced the latest Android offering from both companies, the Samsung Moment. Available November 1st for $179.99 on a two year contract, undercutting Samsung’s latest offering from T-Mobile, the Behold 2, by $20. This is the device previously thought to be called the InstinctQ, but obviously they wanted to differentiate it from the Instinct lineup. Featuring a 3.2-inch AMOLED touch screen, slideout 4-row QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5MP camera with a flash, proximity sensor and accelerometer. But one of the most important specs is the 800Mhz processor, which makes this one of the best spec’d Android handsets to date. At least until the rumored 1Ghz HTC Dragon or the Sony Xperia X3 come onto the scene.

Anyone planning on passing on the HTC Hero to get the Samsung Moment?

[Read via BGR]

Ben Marvin Hardware, News, Samsung, Sprint AMOLED, GPS, Hardware, InstinctQ, Moment, News, press releases, qwerty, Samsung, Sprint, Wifi

All cheesy post titles aside, TmoNews is reporting that T-Mobile US is starting to deliver OTA Donut (Android 1.6) updates to select G1 handsets as of midnight last night, and select myTouch handsets later on tonight. As with the previous Cupcake update, it’s very slow at first, presumably to catch and issues before everyone can be affected. And if all goes well, everyone (excluding rooted, custom ROM phones) will get a delicious box of Donuts in their inbox. It comes as no surprise since they updated the My Account application just last night to be Donut-compatible.

Drop us a comment if you have gotten an update yet, or if you haven’t and just want to share your excitement. And we’ll keep you posted once we dig up a link to the official firmware for those wishing to do manual updates.

And in case you’ve been under a rock, here’s what the update brings:

• An improved Android Market experience that makes it easier to discover great applications.
• An integrated camera, camcorder, and gallery interface.
• Updated Voice Search, with faster response and deeper integration with native applications, including the ability to dial contacts.
• Updated search experience that make it easier to search various sources, such as browser bookmarks & history, contacts, music, and the web, directly from the home screen.

[TmoNews]

*UPDATE* There’s now an official announcement on the T-Mobile forums.

Ben Marvin News, Rumors, Software, T-Mobile Android 1.6, donut, Firmware, OTA, Rumors, T-Mobile, updates

Yeah, so what we’re a little late on this announcement. But the T-Mobile website is live with a countdown to the preorder date of October 19th, just over 18 days left. Pricing is $199 when signing a new 2 year contract, so it looks like Boy Genius called this one first, when every other blog was shouting it was going to be free on contract. The CLIQ will be available in stores starting November 2nd. As an added bonus, T-Mobile is running a little contest where you can win a free CLIQ and some sort of vacation, I’d almost rather have the phone.

T-Mobile customers and potential buyers, are you excited? Is this your next smart phone?

And in case you’ve been under a rock, here’s some gratuitous shots and a spec sheet:

- Networks: GSM Quad-band phone capable of global roaming (850/900/1800/1900 MHz); UMTS tri-band global 3G (900/1700/2100 MHz); GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA 1.8 Mbit/s/HSDPA 3.6 Mbit/s/HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s
- Display: 3.10 inches HVGA screen, 320 x 480 pixels, Color, TFT
- Camera: 5 megapixels with AF
- Operating system: Google Android MOTOBLUR
- Input: 5-way navigation, Capacitive touch screen, QWERTY keyboard, Virtual keyboard
- CPU: 528MHz MSM7201A
- Memory: 256MB
- Memory card: microSD/microSDHC
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, 3.5mm HeadPhone Jack
- Misc: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WAV, AMR
- Media: MPEG4, 3GP, H.263, H.264
- Form factor: Slide-out
- Battery: 1400mAh
- Talk Time: 6 hours (360 mins)
- Standby Time: 324 hours (14 days)
- Dimensions: 4.49 x 2.28 x 0.62 inches (114 x 58 x 16 mm)
- Weight: 5.75 oz (163 g)

[T-Mobile]

Ben Marvin Hardware, Motorola, News, T-Mobile CLIQ, Motorola, preorder, T-Mobile

Today is a good day for Android fans on the Verizon network. First we got word that the Motorola Sholes aka the Motorola Tao got FCC approval. And now we see the HTC Desire (also known as the ADR6200) is FCC approved, and WiFi certified. There is still little known about the HTC Desire bound for Verizon Wireless. We don’t have the roadmaps leaks for HTC that we were so lucky to have last year, and the only other thing acknowledging the handset is the screenshot from an internal Verizon spreadsheet that you see below. And per usual with these FCC filing, the goodies like photos, and user manuals have been held back by request of HTC (and presumably Verizon) till long after the phone is released. We’ll keep you posted as soon as more details, photos and specs come out.

Verizon customers, are you excited for Android yet?

[via BGR]

Ben Marvin HTC, Hardware, News, Verizon ADR6200, ADR6200VW, FCC, HTC, HTC Desire, Motorola, sholes, Tao, Verizon, VZW, Wifi

The long awaited Motorola Sholes (A855), bound for Verizon has received the FCC’s stamp of approval, sporting EVDO Rev A, and a dose of WiFi as well. The reported release date is around the end of October, and these FCC reports are typically a month ahead of phone releases/announcements. Not many other juicy details from the FCC filing. The above shot is still just a render, and we’ve seen early prototypes, but have yet to see the final product. Also PhoneArena is reporting the Sholes name will be dropped and it will be called the Motorola Tao. The reported specs according to MotoFan.ru are:

• Dimensions 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm
• Weight 169g
• Battery Li-ion 1400mAh.
• Standby 450 hours, talk time 420 minutes
• Display 3.7-inch touch-sensitive with a resolution 480×854 pixels, displays 16 million colors. Physical screen size is 45.72 mm by 81.34 mm.
• 16 GB Memory (FLASH / RAM): 512MB/256MB memory card microSD / microSDHC up to 16 GB
• SMS, MMS, E-Mail Messaging: SMS, MMS, E-Mail
• Complete embedded HTML browser
• Camera: 5 MP autofocus
• Connectivity: USB2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR 1, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g)
• Supported audio formats: AMR-NB/WB, MP3, PCM / WAV, AAC, AAC +, eAAC +, WMA
• Supported video formats: MPEG-4, H263, H264, WMV
• GPS navigation

[Read FCC]

Ben Marvin Hardware, Motorola, News, Verizon A855, FCC, Motorola Sholes, Motorola Tao, sholes, Tao, Verizon, Wifi

Announced nearly 2 weeks ago, this T-Mobile promo material clearly shows the Motorola CLIQ preorder date is set for October 19th. At nearly a month from now it seems like forever to wait. And the rumored November 11th launch date is 3 more weeks to wait. But for T-Mobile’s third Android phone, and it’s second featuring a full QWERTY keyboard, waiting is a small price to pay.

[via]

Ben Marvin Hardware, Motorola, News, T-Mobile CLIQ, launch dates, Motorola, qwerty, T-Mobile US

Yesterday Orange UK announced the Motorola DEXT (known in the US as the CLIQ). It will be the second Android smartphone from the European carrier, coming in behind the HTC Hero.

Francois Mahieu, Director of Devices, said “We’re really pleased to be exclusively offering the DEXT to UK consumers. The device builds on our commitment to bring the latest innovative multimedia handsets to market and fits perfectly with our existing portfolio of products and services – allowing consumers to make the most from their social networks on the mobile”.

You can score the DEXT free on plans from £34.26 per month, on a 2 year contract. Which includes 900 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited data and unlimited Orange Maps. The DEXT will be available from Orange in early October.

[read Press Release]

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The Android 1.6 (aka Donut) SDK was announced today on the Android Developers Blog.

I know the question you have all been asking is: When will I see Donut on my phone? Well here’s the answer, straight from Google: “You can expect to see devices running Android 1.6 as early as October.”

As far as the features of Android 1.6 itself, we have QVGA and WVGA screen resolutions, new telephony APIs to support CDMA (Like the upcoming Sprint Hero), gesture APIs, a text-to-speech engine, and the ability to integrate with Quick Search Box. A more in depth list of updates is outlined here on the Android Developer’s site. Or you can watch the video below:

Ben Marvin Google, News Android 1.6, developers, donut, News, SDK