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Bleeding Edge TV 399: Motorola Droid Bionic review
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Cell Phones, Features, Handhelds, Podcasts, Product Reviews, Videocasts, Videos,
We give you a look at the Motorola Droid Bionic in this episode. The Droid Bionic is a 4G LTE smartphone on the Verizon Wireless network, sporting a dual-core processor, 8 megapixel camera, and 1080p recording. The front camera even allows you to take part in Google Hangout sessions. ZumoCast allows you to stream content from your PC directly to the device. The Droid Bionic has a 4.3-inch qHD display. We explain the features and give you a look at the device in this episode.
Big thank you to GoToMeeting and JackThreads for sponsoring the show - be sure to check them out! As for JackThreads, we've got exclusive invite codes that give you $5 to use towards anything you'd like.
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Amazon Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire wrap-up
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Hot Deals, Software,
Today Amazon announced a slew of new Kindle hardware, and we covered it all extensively. We wanted to make sure you knew where to find the details on each new device, as well as how to order (or pre-order, depending on the device you want) the new goods as well. Here's what went down today:
Amazon Kindle Fire
Announcement: Kindle Fire: Amazon's $199 tablet e-reader
Pre-order: $199 at Amazon, ships November 15th
Amazon Kindle Touch
Announcement: Amazon Kindle Touch: Multi-touch, 3G, $99
Pre-order: $99 at Amazon, ships November 21st
Amazon Kindle
Announcement: Amazon launches new $79 Kindle
Order: $79 at Amazon, available now
In addition to all that new hardware, the company also announced its new Amazon Silk web browser.
Motorola Droid Bionic unboxing gallery
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cell Phones, Features, Galleries, Handhelds,
After much delay, the Motorola Droid Bionic has finally launched, and we've got one in at Gear Live HQ to review. While we play with the 4.3-inch display toting, 4G LTE packing, 1080p video shooting, Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread smartphone, we've got a gallery of photos that we've taken to show it off. Go ahead and peep the images in our Droid Bionic unboxing gallery, and be on the lookout for our review soon!
[Camera: Chris Aarons]
Gallery:
Motorola Droid Bionic now available
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, Handhelds,
Motorola's long-awaited Droid Bionic smartphone is finally here.
The device, Verizon's first dual-core, LTE phone, is available now at Verizon stores and online at verizonwireless.com. It doesn't come cheap, though: the Bionic will set you back $299.99 with a two-year contract.
For a limited time, those who purchase the Lapdock accessory, which essentially turns your smartphone into a 11.6-inch laptop, will get a $100 mail-in rebate when subscribing to the $50, 5GB data plan or higher. That Lapdock, however, is also $300.
Click to continue reading Motorola Droid Bionic now available
Samsung Galaxy Note 5-inch smartphone, 7.7-Inch Galaxy Tab announced
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, Handhelds,
Samsung expanded its Galaxy family with the announcement of a 7.7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet, and the Galaxy Note, a smartphone that blurs the tablet-phone line with its sprawling 5-inch screen and bundled stylus for quick memo-taking, or what Samsung terms "free-idea capturing." The Galaxy Note combines a Galaxy Tab tablet with a Galaxy S smartphone and adds the benefits of pen and paper, the company said in a briefing here at IFA.
Running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the 6.8-ounce Galaxy Note is .37-inch thick and packs an unspecified dual-core 1.4GHz processor, an 8-megapixel back camera that captures HD video, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 2500-mAH battery. Battery life was not disclosed.
But the most notable aspect of the Galaxy Note—which, again, is a slab-style smartphone, with an earpiece and a microphone, not a tablet—is its big 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED 1,280-by-800 (285ppi) WXGA display. Five inches, Samsung believes, is the perfect size to allow for 24/7 portability and single-handed operation, but still offer a large-enough display that eliminates the need to carry a tablet in addition to your phone. Consumers want to carry a single device when they're on the go, the company said.
Click to continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note 5-inch smartphone, 7.7-Inch Galaxy Tab announced
Samsung Galaxy S II hands-on with Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile models
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Features, Google, Handhelds,
The galaxy has landed. Samsung, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile today announced three Galaxy S II smartphones for the three carriers. We got some time with the AT&T and Sprint models (T-Mobile was playing coy) and even ran some benchmarks.
The Galaxy S II has been Samsung's fastest-selling smartphone so far, with more than five million sold in 85 days, according to Samsung's press release. This model is coming out on fewer carriers than last year's Galaxy S did, with Verizon Wireless the most notable missing piece (Verizon is going with the Nexus Prime.)
But remember, Samsung is the master customizer of phones for carriers; just because a "Galaxy S II" isn't coming out for Verizon (or for Boost, for that matter) doesn't mean another phone won't appear soon with very similar features and a slightly different name on those carriers. The company is just introducing the first three models today.
Just like with the Galaxy S, the three Galaxy S II models are all a little different. The AT&T model looks a lot like the international Galaxy S II to which we gave an Editor's Choice award back in May, although Samsung traded the single home button at the bottom of the phone for the four standard Android action buttons.
Click to continue reading Samsung Galaxy S II hands-on with Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile models
Video: Motorola begins teasing the Droid Bionic
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, Handhelds, Videos,
The Droid Bionic is a woman! Motorola on Wednesday released the teaser video, "Rule All Machines," for its upcoming Droid Bionic smartphone.
And like in previous ads, the video personifies the device rather than show any part of the actual phone (see below); the latest Droid incarnation is a black leather-clad assassin with a bit of a Black Widow-meets-Droid logo edge.
No, no details yet on an actual launch date or price. The Droid Bionic is arguably Motorola's most highly anticipated product this year, perhaps because it has been delayed since, well, January. The Bionic was hit with one delay after another, forcing Verizon to release a statement explaining that it was undergoing some design revisions. No price has been announced, but an alleged advertisement pegged the phone at $300.
Click to continue reading Video: Motorola begins teasing the Droid Bionic
Samsung Galaxy S II set to take on iPhone 5
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Google, Handhelds,
Holding out for the iPhone 5? There's some strong temptation coming out of South Korea at the end of the month: the Samsung Galaxy S II.
An announcement for the super-slim, super-powerful, and super-popular Android smartphone is expected on August 29. Samsung sent out invitations for a "major product announcement" in New York that day and on Friday, Samsung Mobile U.S. tweeted: "Samsung Update: Hey Guys! Big announcement on the 29th ; )"
The Samsung Galaxy S II is Samsung's fastest-selling smartphone to date, based on its April debut in South Korea and parts of Europe, selling one every three seconds between April and July.
Click to continue reading Samsung Galaxy S II set to take on iPhone 5
FCC filing shows Droid Bionic won’t be a global phone
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Handhelds, Rumors,
A draft of the Motorola Droid Bionic's user manual surfaced on the Federal Communications Commission's website, confirming most of the specs that were pulled from Motorola's website last week.
On paper at least, the dual-core smartphone built for Verizon's super-fast LTE network looks like a beast. The filing confirms that it will sport a 4.3-inch qHD display, a GHz TI OMAP 4430 dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, a microSD card slot, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a VGA front-facing camera. It'll have an HDMI 1.4 output for mirroring the phone's display on a larger screen and support wireless charging. Furthermore, the Bionic will run Android 2.3.4 "Gingerbread."
Click to continue reading FCC filing shows Droid Bionic won’t be a global phone
How good (or bad) are apps for Android tablets?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Google, Handhelds, Software,
The following is a column sent to us by Skip Ferderber. We though it hit home on a lot of points, and decided to republish it with his permission:
Let’s start with a popular tech-talk premise especially among Apple iPad afficionados: Among the reasons Android tablets come up short is because there are only a handful of apps specifically optimized for them.
If there’s no big bucket of optimized Honeycomb apps, then it’s too soon to get an Android tablet ... not when you can get an iPad with more than 100,000 tablet-optimized apps.
The tech blogosphere (including yours truly) reported early on that only 10 apps were specifically redesigned to take advantage of the Honeycomb operating system, the Android software specifically engineered for a new generation of powerful tablets with heavy-duty processing power and bright high-resolution screens such as the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. A March Wired article reported it had found only 50 Honeycomb-optimized apps.
Well, hold on there, buckaroos.
What happens when non-optimized apps — the same apps you use on your Android smartphone — are run on a Honeycomb tablet? What’s the user experience like? Can you live with it? I decided to find out.
Click to continue reading How good (or bad) are apps for Android tablets?
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