SmartPhones

Playing catch-up to the likes of Samsung and HTC, two other top smartphone makers - Motorola and LG - have both just unveiled their respective inaugural Google Phones, that is the first Motorola smartphone and the first LG smartphone to run on the Google Android OS for mobile devices.

The first at bat was Motorola, working on a Sunday to announce on September 13 its new touchscreen smartphone aimed at social networking and social media lovers - called (appropriately) the Motorola Cliq (i.e. clique). Also known as the Motorola MC9500, this device that one online reviewer called "a lifestyle phone" will be offered by T-Mobile sometime in mid-October.

Integration with Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace is a major part of the Cliq's feature-set; the 5 megapixel camera, meanwhile, lends credence to the other interpretation of the word cliq (or click). Synchronization of these elements with a user's personal data (i.e. contacts, calendar, photos, blog posts, emails, and RSS feeds) into a feature called "Motoblur" is a highlight of this device.

Then yesterday, Monday September 14, 2009 - LG Electronics revealed its LG GW620. Featuring a 3" touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the GW620 is the best of both worlds (at least in the controls department). Little else is known about this tightly-guarded coming attraction.

Don't expect LG to dig its heels too deeply into the Google Android platform, though, as LG still remains a Microsoft Windows Mobile loyalist, with 13 new WinMo smartphones coming out from LG in the next year-and-a-half. In fact, the next LG Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone will be coming out on October 6, that is before the LG GW620 hits European shelves.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Google, LG, LG-GW620, Motorola, Motorola Cliq, social media, Windows Mobile, WinMo 6.5

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HTC is finally getting rid of Windows Mobile in place of the new and improved Google Android mobile platform, Android 1.5 Cupcake, with its HTC Lancaster, billed as "The Consumer Social Messaging Device".

The Lancaster is not HTC's first Android smartphone, but it is its first to be carried by AT&T. To boot, the HTC Lancaster is AT&T's first Android device. It's got most of the usual features you would expect from a modern smartphone, plus a slide-out keyboard and HTC's own unique social messaging interface.

Other big releases coming out from HTC any day now include the HTC Warhawk (aka the Touch Diamond2) and the HTC Fortress (aka the Touch Pro2). And other big upcoming releases from AT&T include the Palm Eos (the WebOS-enabled successor to the Palm Centro), the touchscreen Samsung Infinity, and two from Motorola: the feature-filled Sawgrass with built-in blogging interface, and the Heron, as it turns out another premiere Android smartphone from AT&T.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Android 1.5 Cupcake, AT&T, blogging, Cupcake, Google, HTC, HTC Fortress, HTC Lancaster, HTC Touch Diamond2, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC Warhawk, Motorola, Motorola Heron, Motorola Sawgrass, Palm, Palm Centro, Palm Eos, social messaging, WebOS, Windows Mobile

This year's Consumer Electronics Show--not typically a place where mobile phones generally stand out--saw a smartphone, namely the new Palm Pre, win the CNET Best of CES Award.

And that was only 1 of 3 awards Palm's new iPhone-killer (the most promising looking contender for that position in 2009) which also won:

• the Best of CES Award in the Cellphone category
• the People's Voice Award

The LG Watch Phone, however, probably walked away with the Wow-Factor award of the year.

Meanwhile the Motorola Surf A3100 touchscreen smartphone earned itself a Best of CES nomination, at least. Motorola also rolled out its "Green" smartphone--in that it's built from recycled water bottles--the Renew W233 and it's rough-and-tumble AT&T Tundra A76r.

Other highlights of the introductions made at the 2009 CES include:

• RIM and T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve 8900
• T-Mobile Shadow
• HTC S743
• as US version of the Nokia E63
• and the eagerly-anticipated Nokia N97

The quietest voice on the CES smartphone stage this year was no doubt Samsung, who barely had a thing to show but for the T-Mobile SGH-T119.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: AT&T, Best of CES Award, Blackberry, Blackberry Curve 8900, CES, CNET, Consumer Electronics Show, green smartphone, HTC S743, iphone, iPhone-killer, LG, Moto, Motorola, Nokia E63, Nokia N97, Palm Pre, People's Voice Award, recycled water bottles, Renew W233, RIM, Samsung, SGH-T119, Shadow, Surf A3100, T-Mobile, Tundra A76r, Watch Phone

Despite all the iPhone 3G, the Samsung Blackjack II got the top rating in Consumer Reports’ 2009 issue which, among other features, looks back at the best smartphones of 2008.

The media-darling iPhone and the equally hype-laden T-Mobile G1 (the HTC Google Android smartphone) didn’t even make the Top 5, instead tying with one another for 6th.

The remaining Top 5 behind the Samsung Blackjack II were:
2.  T-Mobile Wing
1. Motorola Q9C
2. T-Mobile Shadow
3. BlackBerry Pearl Flip

There is, however, a HUGE caveat to this list, albeit not one that affects the iPhone’s status any (or the HTC G-1’s for that matter), that being that the following contenders were released too late in the year to be considered in the running:
• BlackBery Bold
• BlackBerry Storm
• HTC Touch Pro and all its variants

Surely, that would have made a big difference to the results.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, BlackBerry Bold, Blackberry Pearl Flip, BlackBerry Storm, Blackjack, Blackjack II, Consumer Reports, G-1, G1, Google Phone, HTC, HTC Touch Pro, iphone, iphone 3g, Motorola, Q9C, Samsung, Shadow, T-Mobile, Wing

Motorola sure is busy. Fresh off announcing the latest in the Motorola Q series, the MOTO Q11, a pared-down, budget smartphone, both in features and price, the same company has now anounced that it is working on its own Google Phone.

Following fast on the heels of HTC, the first company to release a smartphone running on the new Google mobile OS, Google Android, with its HTC G1, Motorola is looking to market more on Google's mastery of the web with the heavy integration of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace into the device.

The Motorola Google phone will be similar to the HTC G1 in a number of ways, not least of which is that they'll both have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a touch screen both. The Motorola Google phone, however, will reportedly cost just $150, $30 cheaper than the HTC G1.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Facebook, Google, Google Android, HTC, HTC G-1, HTC G1, Motorla Google Phone, Motorola, MySpace

Motorola has just announced the upcoming release of the latest in its “MOTO Q” series of smartphones, the MOTO Q11.

Intended as a more affordable alternative to the abundance of top-line smartphones, the Q11 is more reasonable “mid-shelf” model, with no 3G support.

The Motorola Q11 does offer:

• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• 3.2 megapixel camera with flash
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Push-email
• 128 MB expandable memory (up to 32 GB with its microSD card slot)
• 2.5” QVGA display

Running Windows Mobile 6.1 on the AT&T EDGE network, the device looks a lot like the BlackBerry Curve, clearly one its key competitors.

Customers in South America are already enjoying the device, which will be released to North American users in time for the 2008 holiday season.

For some, this will be seen as a step backwards from the popular Q9 that came before (what, no Q10?), but as long as the price takes an equivalent step back, who can really complain?

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: MOTO Q, Moto Q11, Motorla Q11, Motorola

RIM is finally putting out its first flip phone model Blackberry with the soon-to-be-released Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220. The new Pearl Flip promises all the same features and conveniences of the traditional candybar Blackberry in a more compact flip phone style. This in response, no doubt, to the statistics showing that 70% of smartphone users own flip phones, originally made popular by the industry-changing Motorola RAZR.

If the new Blackberry Bold is designed for the business customer, the Blackberry Pearl Flip (as with the original Pearl) is geared more towards the gadget-hungry consumer set. Also as with the original Pearl, the new Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220 will feature the deft and dexterous SureType keypad.

On another note: RIM has also announced a partnership with AOL to incorporate AOL Instant Messenger, AOL Mail, and ICQ Services to future BlackBerry handheld devices, flip phone and candybar style alike.

Though the release date for the device is still under wraps, the price point looks to be $150 with a 3-year contract.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: AOL, AOL Instant Messenger, AOL Mail, Blackberry, BlackBerry Pearl, Blackberry Pearl Flip, Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220, candy bar, candybar, flip phone, ICQ, Motorola, Motorola RAZR, RAZR, RIM, Sure Type, SureType

In this face of broad-sweeping success with their HTC Touch Pro and HTC Touch Diamond series handsets, the smartphone maker has announced that they are still on course to release their first (and possibly the first) Google Android OS powered device by the fourth quarter of this year.

Expected to be called the HTC Dream, the new smartphone from HTC flies in the face of recent rumors about possible delays in the launching of any Google Android powered smartphone.

Promised to bear both a large touchscreen and a complete, slide-out or swivel-out QWERTY keyboard, the HTC Dream will be about 5” long and 3” wide with controls for online navigation placed on the handset itself, beneath the touchscreen.

The HTC Dream is readying to face its biggest competition, at least initially, from Samsung, which seems poised to put out the 2nd Google Android smartphone to be scheduled for release (with Motorola not far behind).

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Google, Google Android, HTC, HTC Dream, HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Pro, Motorola, QWERTY, Samsung, touchscreen

The CEO of Symbian, the company, producer of Symbian, the operating system, OS for such popular smartphones as the LG Joy, Motorola MOTORIZR Z8, Samsung SGH series, several Sony Ericsson smartphones, and dozens of Nokia smartphones, has suggested that collaboration with search giant Google, and makers of the long-awaited (by users) and feared (by competitors) Android mobile OS, would be more than welcome by him.

Avoiding specifics as to whether the releationship would remain in the realm of applications or venture into OS territory, chief Symbian-ite Nigel Clifford points out that Google and Symian have already been working closely together for a while now, mainly on search and mapping applications for Nokia smartphones.

It would be quite difficult for the two to merge their operating systems, so the likes of RIM and Apple don’t have too much to be nervous about, but the mutual back-scratching of the two giants in their respective industries leaves a lot for fellow partners Motorola, LG, Samsung, and others a lot to be excited about. Only time will tell however, what such a collaborative venture will produce.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, apple, Google, LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Symbian

That's right, there's a new smartphone coming to market - two actually - and they're not from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Palm, RIM, nor any of the familiar old diehards - not even Apple. No, this one is from Velocity Mobile.

Who? That's what I said.  

Formed by Invantec and some folks from Microsoft, this new dialer in the great, big smartphone conference call in the wireless skies is set to give its forerunners a run for their money. With the new Velocity 111 (which looks a lot like a BlackBerry) and Velocity 103 (which looks a lot like an iPhone), Velocity plans to improve on what's been working so well for its competitors and getting rid of all that doesn't meet up. It will have more icons and interfaces familiar to Windows PC-users and promises to be the most customizable smartphone yet.  

As might be expected, both devices will be running Windows Mobile 6.1.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: apple, Blackberry, customizable, Invantec, iphone, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, PC, Research in Motion, RIM, Samsung, Velocity Mobile, Windows, Windows Mobile 6.1