Motorola Razr Review

I got my hands on a Motorola Razr recently.  First off—wow! This is pretty fast and I love the size, feel and weight.   I was going to turn in my loveable, but dated Motorola Droid X for a Samsung Note, but now I’m not so sure—this is a serious contender.  I will need to try these side by side now.  On the Razr, the download app speed is great and bringing up Google Maps is scary fast.

I am a fan of the android platform; I like the flexibility of using an Android device as a thumb drive and getting to the file system to share data between apps (something Apple does not readily do).  Furthermore—not being locked into iTunes for everything.  As for Siri—Google’s voice recognition still seems much more accurate than Siri, albeit not as cute.

PROS:

• Speed  seems like a canned app it is so fast (Verizon 4G LTE)
• Size
• Dual Core processor
• Kevlar case making it sturdy and light
• Excellent battery life (two day charging)
• Ice-cream sandwich – upgradeable
• Excellent camera (8MP) with rear facing for video skyping
• Great video capture size (1080p)
• Very light.

 CONS:

• Does not come installed with Ice-cream sandwich – still no confirmed date.
• The buttons do not feel as nice as my Droid X, although they work perfectly.
• So light it feels cheap and you get sucked into giving it a protective case (counterproductive)

 

Motorola Atrix 4G – The Legos of Smartphone Tech

Once in awhile something comes along that is game changing.  I think Motorola is onto something with their CES Best of show 2011 Atrix 4G Smart phone.    Snap your Android Atrix smart phone into a Hi-Def Screen and voila!  The phone provides the CPU, Memory, Disk, and 4G Internet on the go access to a sleek, thin laptop shell–brilliant. 

What’s very cool is that Motorola also sells the accessories (Atrix Dock) so you can hook up your Atrix phone to your TV or monitor.  This is game changing for business professionals on the go. 

I’m thinking one step ahead and trying to figure out if I can attach the dock to my Yamaha HTR-6240  as my Internet connection on a 55 inch LED…. Hmmmm….. Now that would be impressive… I will need to contact Yamaha on this ot see if they can fit this into their firmware release schedule….

AppBrain for your Android

A friend’s son turned me on to this Android application AppBrain.  In overview, it allows you to install Android applications from a web site, without ever touching your Android phone.  It’s easy, clean and problem free.  It is a very nice way to keep track of all your Android Phone’s installed applications

AppBrain uses your gmail account for registration and requires you to create a session name to be used in AppBrain.  It seems part social network, part App store.  I suppose you can see what your friends are installing… slick marketing… “If they have it… I want it”

GETTING STARTED:

1.  Go to www.AppBrain.com
2. Click on the [Join AppBrain Today] link

 

AppBrain uses Google Accounts for Sign In.  However, Google is not affiliated with the contents of AppBrain… see disclaimer

 Once you register, AppBrain sends out an email with the install URL to get started.

Open the email (On your Android Phone) and click on the link.  You can install either from Android Market or your Browser.  I chose Android Market and waited for the download to complete

Once the app is installed, launch it and select [Manage And Sync].  This will  register all your phone’s apps on-line–more clever marketing… now they know what I have and what I might like in the future, as well as allow me to share my list with my friends…devious.  I am not against this.  The more intelligence on the net that knows what I might be interested in the better for me… but the 1984 aspect will eventually catch up to me.

 

NOTE: Do not forget to set this list as Private (lower right corner of screen) if you do not want others seeing your list.

 

PROS:

• Web interface offers links to forums, facebook, pandoara radio
• Shows what apps are hot,  all-time popular, top rated, recommended
• Allows you to share your list with your friends
• Allows easy reading/adding of app reviews
• Allows you to uninstall apps from the web
• Shows overall stats of your phone: make, model, mem size, total apps, total cost of paid apps, etc.
• You can push wallpaper to your phone
• Shows total memory size of app installed
• Shows if app was free or purchased
• Shows breakdown of app types: i.e. tools, social, multimedia, shopping, etc.
• If you loose it or it is stolen, you still have some remote control and can drop a good locating app on it… the prey becomes the predator

 CONS:

• I cannot find a way to see what apps need to be upgraded on the web interface
• Web page does not show current version of app installed on your phone
• I am sure you are loosing a bit more privacy about yourself to the Panopticon.
• Adds another layer of hack-attack if someone gets into your account

Android 3.0 – Gingerbread

A lot of posts just came on line about Google’s next version of Android, dubbed Gingerbread for now–3.0.  From what I can distil from multiple articles, gaming and a standard Google skins might be in play.  The SDK kit could be out as early as next week.  When the product goes into the wild–late this year most likely early 2011, it seems like the street is saying it will be called 2.3 or 2.5.  A lot of sources seem to think the UI will get some major botox–possibly 3D desktop looking like the Nexus One before that started to snorkel.

If you want to understand why Google picks the names they do for their mobile OS:  FroYo, Honeycomb, Gingerbread, click here

Now this is interesting interface:

Motorola Droid X

HOW TO – If you already have one:

The Motorola Droid X through Verizon was distributed with Google’s Android 2.1 platform.

PROS:

• Large Screen (4.3 inches), while remaining ultra thin and light
• Fast (3G) web page screen draws with built in Flash for viewing web pages as a web page and not a snippet for a smart phone.  Pages load as fast as most laptops.
• GPS
• Consolidated email views (configure up to 10 email accounts)
• IMAP for listening to voicemail WAV files (e.g. Cypress voicemail)
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (act as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to (5) devices)
• 8.0 Mpix camera with loads of effects, great for using it as a magnifying glass too.
• Large virtual keyboard with word recognition for fast typing
• Video Camera rocks
• Both mini USB and an HDMI ports (play directly from your Droid X to your HD TV
• Voice response recognition – like having your on genie
• 4 home screens to customize the appearance and sort your icons
• Loads of free applications for android
• Multi-tasking – multiple applications can run at once
• Prints to Bluetooth enabled printers
• Goggle Android 2.2 came out in the early Fall with promise of more speed and features
• Works great in my hands-free dialing navigation system in my car
• All Android phones can get the 2.2 upgrade in the fall.

CONS:

• No forward facing camera for true video skyping ease – it does support Skype, so use a mirror–I have not yet tried a USB camera… hmmmm.
• Get use to plugging it in daily for a recharge – although better than any previous android phone.  Considering all it can do – this is not an issue for me.  tuen of fbluetooth if not in use to save some juice.
• Does not come with a mini-HDMI cable (go to Amazon.com)
• High Geek factor for the first week – even for a techie, but the interface becomes very intuitive–just stick with it and explore.
• The screen has locked up on me a few times, but a re-boot seems to work – nothing out of the normal for smart phones.
• Some may think it is too large to carry around.
• Because of the large screen, it is easy to get face smudges on it when using as a phone, so carry some LCD wipes.
• Easy to have a lot of great applications running, and they will drain it – so learn to shut things down that you don’t need always running

NOTE: The Motorola Droid 2 (R2-D2) is out out in the fall with Android 2.2.  This is a remake of the original Motorola Droid with an enhanced keyboard (needed update).  There is also a hint of the Android 3.0 that is both phone and PS2 Player – no word on which wireless vendor will be the lucky one.

THINGS I HAVE TESTED OR STILL WORKING ON (not sure if these work in our environment)

• Integrated Corporate email lookup (working)
• Integrated Corporate Exchange Outlook Calendar (working)
• Citrix connections (working)
• Wireless terthreing from laptop (requires laptop to have Bluetooth enabled)
• VPN
• Setting up voice activated tasking (working)
• Remote server access for network administrators
• Corporate Personnel Lookup (working)
• Corporate MS Office Applications through Citrix (working)
• Home Theater integration (turning lights out in my home from my droid)

WHERE TO BUY:

• Any Verizon store
• Costco (best deal going – comes with 100 free print uploads – send picture on-line to Costco and have your mom pick up the hard copy pictures.. for free)
• Continental One-Pass was running a deal where they will give you 5K frequent flyer miles (only good for switching to Verizon and not a good deal if you already are)

FAVORITE APPLICATIONS

• Task Application Killer (easy to stop run-away apps)
• Keyring (scan in all your discount card bar codes , i.e. BestBuy, Duane Reade, ShopRite, A&P, etc.)
• Scanner (scan a product, then hit search and find the best price)
• Doc Scanner (scan a document to PDF format, while on the road)
• DropBox (share files between multiple devices)
• LauncherPro for Android 2.2 is a must.
• Google Sky (navigate the sky and find planets and constellations easily)
• Theft Aware (locate your droid if lost or stolen (phones home)

Android 2.2 upgrade.

• I have one report of a Droid user upgrading from 2.1 to 2.2 (beta) who ran into a couple of issues with Facebook and viewing video files not working properly after the upgrade.  It required a re-install of some applications.
• The 2.2 install ran flawlwssly on my Droid X.  However, I had to delete previously installed apps as well as put back the custom widgets and shortcuts.  That was a bit annoying, but not difficult.  I had one run-away process and had to pull the battery to stop it and re-boot.  after that it has been working perfectly.

PROS:

• 2.2 is a faster OS
• Better wireless reception (reported by someone)
• Nice gadgets (closer to what the Droid X has)

CONS:

• A few minor bugs need working out
• Although the facebook app worked, facebook news stopped working upon upgrade, but then started working
• Media player stopped working.  It was suggested that a download of “Rock Player” media player is a good solution and better player.  I started to do this and hated it, so I un-installed the default player, re-installed it and it works great.