Motorola Glam – Dual Sim Android Phones in India

Motorola planning to launch first dual-sim Android phone in India next week. Dubbed as Milestone XT800, is actually a renamed Motorola Glam XT800.

The Glam has one GSM and one CDMA slot, so users have some flexibility in terms of choices for phone and data functions. The 3.7-inch (854×480) touch screen phone also has an HDMI-out port, GPS and a 5 megapixel camera. Bluetooth, Wi-fi, 3G, EDGE and GPRS round up the connectivity options for the phone which is supposedly coming pre-loaded with Android 2.2 Froyo. It powered with TI OMAP3430 550 Mhz processor, 256 MB RAM. It also enables users to view and edit documents in popular formats including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and Zip. The handset has built-in GPS satellite navigation using Google Maps, which helps the owner find their current location and chart routes to various destinations quickly and accurately.

The phone will be priced at Rs. 31,999 which, Motorola has already released an upgraded version of the phone, the XT800+, in China.

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Motorola Photon 4G Phone

The Motorola Photon 4G is Sprint’s latest specimen; it’s a right super phone with a dual-core processor, large qHD display, and WiMAX with a gimmicky 3D camera. Motorola further flavored things up with a dash of WebTop functionality.

Display and Hardware:

•     158g (5.57oz) and 12.2mm (0.48 inches)
•     Cut-off corners, subtly curved top and bottom edges.
•     Sheet of Gorilla glass that protects the 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen
•     It’s reddish black over the display and blueish grey around it
•     Sensors, earpiece, front-facing camera and notification light above the screen, plus the space housing the primary microphone and four capacitive buttons (menu, home, back, search) below the display. Hard plastic coated in a glossy gunmetal-colored lacquer that wraps around the left and right sides.
•     A pair of secondary microphones.
•     Widget Clock and the home-screen.
•     1,650mAh battery, a SIM slot for the GSM / HSPA radio and a microSD card reader and 16GB built-in storage.
•     Volume rocker and camera button (both ridged for grip) are located on the right side, power / lock key, headphone jack on the top edge, and a pair of micro-HDMI and micro-USB connectors
•     NVIDIA’s snappy 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 SoC, a 1GB of RAM, eight (!) radios: WiMAX, CDMA / EV-DO, GSM / EDGE (quadband), UMTS / HSPA (tri-band 850/1,900/2,100MHz), WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS / AGPS and… FM (phew).
•     4.3-inch qHD (960×540 pixels) TFT panel the screen is bright even in direct sunlight, with beautiful colors, ink-like blacks and wide viewing angles.
•     Call and reception typically high standards Audio playback sounded with the loudness and clarity of the built-in speaker.
•     Battery lasted 5 hr and 54 min and a full day on a single charge.

Camera:

•     8 megapixel auto-focus cameras takes lovely pictures and a dual-LED flash ,glass pod with the same two-tone coating
•     The mechanical shutter on the original Droid X and Milestone XT720, three microphones (one on the front, two in the back).
•     No night mode and pictures shot in low light just end up looking dim even when adjusting exposure offers a rather limited number of settings.
•     The digital zoom can be controlled by pressing the volume rocker, touch-to-focus, flash mode (auto, on, off), scenes (like sport), effects (sepia, etc…), picture modes (including panorama) and a few additional options in the menus (such as resolution and exposure).
•     For video, the scenes setting change which of the three microphones are active
•     Photon captures video in HD (720p) at a smooth 30fps
•      No auto-focus of any kind when recording videos, making close-ups nigh impossible.

Softwares:

•     Latest version of Gingerbread (Android 2.3.4)
•     Motorola-specific widgets and apps (such as Gallery, Messaging and Music) with variety popular social networks.
•     In addition to seven home screens, the UI features four dock icons customized like in TouchWiz.
•     The leftmost icon brings up the app tray, which can be organized in groups (defaults are All apps, Recent, Downloaded and Sprint).
•     Gingerbread, 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM
•     Needing improvement is WebTop, which remains sluggish.
•     News, Social Networking, Rich Location, and Tasks, file manager, Quickoffice (with support for editing documents), Skype, a task manager and TeleNav.
•     Car Dock app different from Google’s
•     Including NASCAR, Sprint ID, Sprint Mobile Wallet, Sprint Music Plus, Sprint Radio, Sprint TV & Movies, Sprint Worldwide and Sprint Zone (useful for managing your account).

Speaking about overall performance, the Photon 4G is fast. With its stunning display, impressive battery life and solid performance, Motorola’s and Sprint’s best handset ever. Motorola Photon 4G is a good deal but at $200 (on contract) the Photon is definitely the first superphone.

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Android Ice Cream Sandwich Coming Soon – One OS to Rule Them All!

Eric Shmidt, Google’s Executive Chairman, more popularly known as “droid daddy”, recently confirmed Android’s next iteration, Ice Cream Sandwich at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. The time frame for the release for this version is slated to be sometime between October and November this year.

“We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason, which is being released in October/November, which everyone’s really excited about”, said Shmidt.

One of the most striking features of Ice Cream Sandwich is the fact that it combines the functionality of Honeycomb (Android’s tablet OS) with that of Gingerbread (Android’s current smartphone OS). This means that when you buy an Android device – be it a tablet or smartphone – you will be guaranteed of a streamlined experience.

While most features of the new OS remain under tight lock and key, some of the features demonstrated were real-time face tracking and voice recognition, greatly enhancing the camera’s focus shifting feature.

According to reports, the first device to tout the all new operating system from Google will be Samsung’s Nexus Prime. Sony Ericsson will follow suite, as it is expected to bring all of its existing 11 Xperia smartphones (all touting Android 2.3 Gingerbread) to the latest Andriod OS.

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Acer Liquid Metal - Rs 20,500

Acer has launched a new Android handset in India in the form of the Acer Liquid Metal. The Android 2.2 phone is powered by a Snapdragon processor and boasts of HSPA 14.4 Mbps support. It has a 5 MP Camera which also records video in 720p. The battery life promised is about 8 hours of talktime.

Here are the interesting features of the Acer Liquid Metal

•     Powered 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Core Processor
•     Android 2.2 Froyo OS (5X faster than the earlier versions)
•     Display : 9.1 cm (3.6-inch) TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors,480 x 800 pixels resolution
•     Fastest Connectivity Suite : HSPA 14.4 MBPS , 3G (3G + Wi-Fi), GPS, Mini USB
•     Record video in HD at 720p (30fps) and watch more high-resolution videos in Xvid format (Record is possible even on low light conditions)
•     Dolby Surround technology , EQ profiles and Dynamic Bass Boost
•     Push Mail
•     3 Predictive Dialers (3 KB with XT 9)
•     Superior Battery Life up to 8 hrs of talk time (1500 MAH Battery)
•     Top LED Indicator
•     Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
•     Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, UPnP
•     Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP
•     Camera : 5 mega-pixel, auto-focus, LED flash ,Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization
•     Unique Acer Interface
•     Pinch to Zoom option
•     8GB Micro SD Card FREE (up to 32GB)

Acer Liquid Metal Price and Availability

The handset will be available in 3 colors – Silver, Brown and Tiffany Blue at a Maximum Retail Price of Rs.20500.

Press Release

ACER LAUNCHES SLEEK, ANDROID™ 2.2 – POWERED ACER LIQUID METAL SMARTPHONE

Mumbai, 17th March 2011:  Acer today announced the launch of the Acer Liquid Metal, the latest generation smartphone offering from Acer that combines power and style in a striking metal casing. The Acer Liquid Metal leverages the power of Android™ 2.2 (Froyo) platform and is further strengthened by the  Qualcomm Snapdragon Core processor enabling the user to enjoy uninterrupted web navigation at a super speed. The Acer Liquid Metal has been carefully designed keeping in mind the current requirements of today’s modern and dynamic individuals who need a fully integrated handset to support their lifestyle.
The Liquid Metal is equipped with a curved 3.6” display with a TFT capacitive touch screen aimed at providing users with a fast, responsive, multi-touch control of the phone. The curved back gives an exceptional look to the phone enabling the users to slip the Liquid Metal easily into ones pocket or in ones hand. The materials chosen, like the stainless steel of the battery cover, are solid and resistant and the chrome trims give a sense of high quality for extreme tactile and visual pleasure. The Liquid Metal utilizes HSDPA for on-the-go Internet access at speeds upto 14.4Mbps as well as WiFi allowing data transfer 10 times faster than previous devices. The LED signal on the upper part of the telephone notifies the user of missed calls, the need to charge the battery, and new incoming messages clearly.

Acer Liquid Metal’s 1500 mAh battery coupled with intelligent power management means you have up to 8 hours talk time and 550 hours in standby mode. Acer Liquid Metal comes with 3 popular keyboard layouts so you can choose the one most comfortable for you. Clever XT9 predictive text support saves you typing unnecessarily and lets you send messages as fast as your fingers can move.

The Liquid Metal is built in with a pinch to zoom feature, 5-megapixel camera with digital zoom, LED flash with a maximum resolution of 480 x 800 pixels ensuring sharp pictures and videos that can easily be uploaded to the social networking sites.  The usage of four touch sensitive control buttons below the touch screen display has meant that the phone is easier to control and operate with ease. The control buttons gives the user the access to all basic functions of the phone without having to use the touch screen display. The 5-megapixel camera offers 720p HD video recording as well as autofocus and smile recognition and the Dolby surround sound enhance the video-watching experience.

Liquid Metal shows its excellence not only in its style and power, but brings delightful user experience by the intuitive interface and software developed by Acer. Breeze, the new Acer interface is developed to manage applications even more efficiently and effectively. With this feature, information is visible even when the screen is locked; helping the user to view the application history and easy access to frequently used applications. Breeze also allows the user’s to customize their home screen and re-arrange their applications according to their specific needs. It’s not just a widget, but offers a whole new way to use an Android device. There are two layers – the first one appears when you unlock the phone and lets you look through a whole lot of widgets which give you information about social networks, the weather and the like. Flicking this over (literally) leads you to the second home screen, which lets you flick through your recent apps and video and music collections on your device.

Announcing the launch, Mr. S. Rajendran, Chief Marketing officer, Acer India, said, “We have always enhanced our product portfolio keeping consumer needs in mind. Powered by a new breed of processors, the Android platform and wireless connectivity, Acer Liquid Metal enables fast and efficient web browsing while providing a host of other unique features that makes it an ideal Smartphone.  We will be launching more smartphones in the near future to meet with the growing demands of our consumers.”

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