From the press release:

“The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.”

One of the biggest aspects that attracted Google to Motorola was the bevy of patents that they owned – all 17,000 of them. Larry Page, CEO of Google says that this “will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.”

Wonder what other handset manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson, and LG are thinking about all of this? Surprisingly, all of them approve of the acquisition and welcome it with open arms. Then again, this whole thing is about protecting the Android platform and it does not negatively affect the ecosystem for other manufacturers.

The post Google To Acquire Motorola Mobility For $12.5 Billion first appeared on Techerator.

Then I started thinking:  My desktop computer usage has been cut in half since I purchased a Droid Incredible. Since my phone practically does everything I need, on a daily basis, what more could the mobile world offer me?  Motorola, yet again, had an answer to my question:

The Motorola Atrix.

Motorola claims the Atrix is the world’s most powerful phone. Okay, but I’ve heard that before. But when they add, “and the Future of Mobile Computing,” what do they mean? I kept reading article after article and watched video after video on the Atrix. I couldn’t believe it. Motorola has brought the mobile market into the future.

The Motorola Atrix is a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 powered smartphone with a 4-inch qHD (quarter high-definition) screen with a resolution of 960 x 540, 1 GB of ram, a huge 1930 mAh battery, a 6 mega-pixel rear facing camera and a front facing VGA, a fingerprint scanner, and Android 2.2.

These stats are trivial at CES. Almost every device has similar specs coming out this quarter, but the specs are not that mind-blowing unless you lived under a rock for the last year. With the Atrix, though, Motorola sold me with its Web-top. (I know, it’s a terrible name for a future in the mobile market.)

Web-top is Motorola’s idea of the future of mobile computing. Right now, the average technologically savvy person carries at least two devices, a laptop and a phone. The reason is our phones, although very powerful, cannot run full operating systems like Windows, Linux, or Mac. Or at least they couldn’t before Motorola’s Atrix. Motorola has taken those two devices and created one device to cater to both mobile and desktop users under the Web-top platform. The Atrix will function as a regular, yet powerful Android device on a daily basis. Yet when you get to home or to the office, you plug the Atrix into a “dumbtop,” also known as a laptop shell with only a battery and a screen. It has no processor.

This is where the magic happens. Within seconds, the “dumbtop” comes to life. Using the processing power in your Motorola Atrix and charging it at the same time, Web-top opens into a customized Linux OS with the desktop version of Mozilla Firefox and other supported programs Motorola has built-in. You can navigate through this interface via the typical laptop touch pad and full keyboard.

Using Web-top, you can go about the daily work you do with your laptop or desktop. At the end of the day, pull the phone out, go home and load the EXACT same environment you were running at work to your screen at home with either the laptop dock or the HDMI dock that allows you to connect to any of your HDMI enabled screens. The Atrix will remember everything you had open last! It becomes, in every sense of the word, a “pocket computer.” The very concept makes your phone become your ONLY powered device you need anywhere.

Conclusion

I think I see the future of mobile computing clearer now than ever before. It will not need to be called “mobile” computing anymore because everything will be mobile. The fact that Motorola can get Linux to run well on a Tegra 2 processor means that all those hard-working open source Linux gurus like the Ubuntu team will be hard at work very soon to create an incredible operating system that could be used in the amazing and powerful future of mobile computing. Microsoft also sees this as they are building their Windows platform to run on ARM architecture now.

This phone is available for pre-order through AT&T, but just keep in mind that smart phones are pricey when they first hit the market. The Atrix sells for $199.99 with a two-year contract and a bundled package gives you the laptop dock as well for $299.99 with a tethering add-on and after a $100 mail-in rebate. If you don’t want to pre-order, the phone should be available in stores on March 6.

More Information

• Take a video tour of the Atrix
• View more photos

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Luckily for us, Motorola includes hidden programming menus in most of its phones where we can adjust advanced settings like voice quality.

How to Change the Droid X’s Vocoder

Step 1: Open the Dialer app on your Droid X and dial ##7764726. Press the Send button (the green phone symbol).

Step 2: Enter 000000 (that’s six zeroes) as the password and click Verify.

Step 3: Bask in the glory of Motorola’s hidden programming application. When you’re done basking, open the menu entry 04 Vocode.

UPDATE 7/13/2011: A recent Verizon update has changed the menu structure. If you can’t find 04 Vocode, try these steps.

Thanks to Rlblair in the comments:

The location of the codec apparently changed with the latest software update from Verizon.    Now > select 06 – Test Mode – touch ‘Next” twice – select codec under ‘Service Option’ drop down.  When going “Back”, backing out all the way, the phone did not re-boot.  I shut down and re-started mine and checked – now using EVRC-B instead of default EVRC. Don’t know if the re-start is necessary.  Hope this helps everyone!

Step 4: In this menu, select the option EVRC-B. Press Apply.

That’s it! You will now be enjoying better call quality on your Droid X from just those four simple steps.

How come?

Your phone is set to use the EVRC (Enhanced Variable Rate Codec) vocoder by default. It was developed in 1995 and gave mobile carriers the ability to increase their network capacity without increasing their wireless spectrum or bandwidth.

I won’t say that EVRC isn’t an amazing feat of digital signal engineering, but let’s keep in mind what type of computers we were using in 1995:

EVRC-B is an updated version of EVRC that has many technical improvements over its predecessor. Besides being able to compress sampled speech into an extra 1/4 rate, it has the ability to efficiently encode unvoiced or noise frames. This increases voice quality without necessarily increasing the load on the cellular network.

A final note: while changing the voice quality of your phone is harmless, you should avoid playing around in Motorola’s programming menu unless you really know what you’re doing. Otherwise:

If you enjoyed this article, you might also be interested in other hidden menus in Android.

The post Simple Droid X Hack Can Greatly Improve Call Quality first appeared on Techerator.

Before you insert the battery into the back of the phone, you’ll notice a yellow tab with the word “PULL” written on it.  Taking this simple instruction literally, I began firmly pulling on the tab (thinking it was something that had to be removed before the phone would be operational, like the tape on new printer ink or those little plastic tabs on children’s toys).  Luckily for me, I noticed something wasn’t quite right and stopped before I pulled the whole plastic piece out.

The “PULL” tab is actually there so you can remove the battery after you’ve inserted it into the phone.

The Droid X’s battery really snaps into place, and without this tab it is very difficult to remove (although I’ve been told you can use the battery cover itself to remove the battery if you accidentally tore out the pull tab).

Dozens of people have assumed the Pull tab was intended to be completely removed, and doing so accidentally pulled out the entire black plastic piece that exists between the battery and the phone itself.  Most users have reported that the phone still functioned after this happened, but like most things in mobile devices, that plastic was probably there for a reason.  If you’re careful, you should be able to get the plastic backing into the battery recess after you’ve removed it.

Initial rumors speculated that accidentally pulling the tab out would void your waranty, but this has been found to be untrue.  Laura Merritt, PR manager for Verizon Wireless, told Examiner.com in an email:

“If the customer removes the tab, the warranty is not affected. If they can’t get their battery out, I suggest that they take it to one of our stores for assistance. They don’t want to damage the phone or battery trying to remove it.”

So there you have it.  If you’re thinking about getting a Droid X, it’s a wonderful phone – just be sure not to rip out anything important before you first use it.

The post Droid X: That “Pull” Tab Behind the Battery Cover is for Battery Removal, Don’t Tear it Out! first appeared on Techerator.

Well, it accidentally turned into Android week here at Techerator (sorry about that, non-Android people).  I’ve been running around today trying to find the newly-released Droid X with the same response from everybody: we’re sold out.

It seems like most retailers, including Verizon authorized stores and Best Buy, sold their entire stock of Motorola’s newest, 4.3″ smartphone through pre-orders.  All stores have offered to put me on a waiting list, with new shipments “hopefully arriving next week”.

Had any luck finding the newest member of the Droid lineup?  Share it with us in the comments!  My search continues…

The post Droid X: This is one hard phone to find (without a preorder) [Updated] first appeared on Techerator.

Two things initially impressed me after receiving this phone.  First, Verizon’s speed and ease of transferring my number, and second, that I didn’t have to copy any data off my old phone.   The first point has nothing to do with the phone, but the second is where I think Android and all handsets that use it are going to start dominating the market.  Since my last phone was the HTC G1, which also runs Android, all of my contacts and voicemail (thanks to Google Voice) were already stored with Google.  This allowed me to turn on the phone and have all of my previous numbers already on the phone, but this is also where I ran into my first hiccup.

When you log into the Facebook application on the phone it asks you if you want to sync all your contact data, which is an amazing feature of the phone.  This syncing allows you to not only see the profile pictures of your friends as their contact picture but it also allows you to view any information they have publicly available on Facebook, the two most important being e-mail and phone number.

This was my first problem. I am a chronic misspeller and nickname giver, so when Android/Facebook went through my contact list very few people’s information actually matched up.  The only way I found to solve this was to go through all of my contacts and rename them to match their Facebook names (hint: middle names don’t count).  It took me roughly an hour to copy and paste all of my contacts from Facebook to Google Contacts.  After this everything synced perfectly.

One other small problem with the Facebook syncing is that when you do a full sync, the phone will import information of people not currently in your address book. If you try to add information to those contacts later, it won’t let you. You can only add info by creating a new contact which is automatically paired with the Facebook one.  This seems a little backwards but I’m more then willing to put up with it for the rest of the functionality syncing offers.

Now that I have my only true complaints out of the way I will talk about the pros of the device.  First, this device comes with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, which is the single greatest hardware improvement over the G1.  This allows applications such as Pandora and Stitcher to be used with standard audio devices and greatly improves the versatility of the device.  Originally I was planning on purchasing an iPod Touch on top of this phone, but after downloading a few applications I now have streaming podcasts, both standard and web radio, and music on demand.

Like the G1 and all other Android phones, another huge selling point is the seamless integration of just about every service Google offers, making the phone into a truly unique productivity platform.  Add to this the completely open Android Market offering 20,000+ applications (according to Google) and you can turn the Droid into anything you want.

These are my thoughts after my first 48 hours with the device.  I will come back later with a more in depth look at this device, but everything so far makes me believe this is the best phone I have ever owned.

The post First 48 Hours with the Motorla Droid first appeared on Techerator.

[ad name=”Amazon Motorola Droid X”]

A friend of mine recently asked if she should buy an iPod Touch or a Motorola Droid.  While these are two completely different products, one being a wifi-enabled MP3 player and the other being a full-featured smartphone, a choice definitely still exists.  So without any further adieu, here’s what I had to say about the two of them!

I bought my 16GB iPod Touch two summers ago and I used it like crazy.  Since I didn’t have a smartphone back then, I basically used it for everything.  The apps are fantastic, battery life is great, and let’s not forget that the Touch is still a really nice MP3 player.

On average, I used my Touch 90% of the time for apps and the internet, and the other 10% was for music/audiobooks.  The one real downside of the Touch is that a wifi-only device, so once you hit the road you won’t be able to use most of the internet apps.

I bought a Droid about two weeks ago.  It’s amazing.  It’s exactly the type of phone I’ve always wanted – highly customizable, very fast, and has huge potential for growth.

Since you’re trying to figure out which one to buy, here’s some things to keep in mind about the devices:

– Both have apps.  Touch has way more, but Droid’s app store (called the Android Market) is steadily increasing.  The nice thing about Android phones is that the app market is completely open, which means there are no barriers to entry for a software developer (unlike Apple, who requires an arduous approval process).  If a developer wants to make something for Android, boom, it’s done.  Huge potential for growth here.

– Both support the basics.  They can both play music (although the Touch is probably more refined when it comes to a straight MP3 player).  They both have apps like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, web browsers… pretty much anything you can think of.

– Battery life will be much longer on the iPod Touch, but keep in mind the Droid is also a full-featured cell phone which uses most of the juice.

Here’s where they’re pretty different:

– Touch has Google Maps, but no GPS (and you can really only use the maps when you have a wifi connection).  The Droid uses your cellular network and has a built-in GPS, so not only can it show you maps, it can also do turn-by-turn navigation (which is free!).  It’s a straight-up GPS, and I used it on my last trip to Minneapolis as a total replacement for my old GPS.

– Droid has a cellular network. This was implied before, but this means you’ve got an internet connection anywhere where you go.  Verizon’s network is really impressive, and you’ll browse websites on the Droid just like you would at home.

– Touch is much simpler and easier to use.  For a person like me this can be frustrating (I like menus! And settings!), but you can’t beat it for ease of use and using it for what it was intended – enjoyment.  The Droid, on the other hand, lets you customize basically every facet of the phone (and the things you can’t change can typically be modified with apps from the Android Market).  This is a blessing and a curse – even I found the Droid to be a little daunting when I first started using it.

– Droid has a camera (5 megapixels), the Touch has no camera.

– Both are touchscreen devices.  They both have “virtual keyboards”, which are keyboards on the touchscreen, but the Droid has an actual slide-out physical keyboard.  I’ve never had one of these before and I really like it.  A lot of people complain about the keyboard though, so your mileage may vary.  The Droid offers both landscape and portrait virtual keyboards in almost all applications, but the Touch only offers landscape virtual keyboards in applications that support it.

– As for size, they’re about the same dimensions but the Droid is much thicker (again, the cell phone is the reason for this).  The Droid is heavier than the Touch.

– Droid supports a bunch of Google services out-of-the-box (Android was designed by Google).  This means that Gmail, Google Calendar, your Google contacts, and several other services are automatically synchronized to the phone and are deeply integrated.  This makes it really easy to manage your data.  Touch can do these things too, but it’s more “added on” and not as smooth in my opinion.

– Total cost of ownership: the iPod Touch costs around $300 and that’s all you’ll every pay to use it (excluding purchases from the app store). The Droid costs $200 with a new 2-year contract, and you’ll need a voice plan (starting at $39.99/month) as well as a data plan ($30/month). That puts the total cost of ownership for the Droid at about $1,040 for the first year (includes price of the phone) and $840 for successive years (network charges). Plus tax.

[ad name=”Amazon Apple iPod Touch 32GB”]

[ad name=”Amazon Motorola Droid X”]

Overall, I’ve loved both of these devices.  I still use my Touch (mainly because Audible.com DRM-encrypts their audiobooks and they don’t support Android yet – that’s another rant altogether) but for all intents and purposes, the Droid gets all of my attention.

I love being connected everywhere I go, and the Droid does a fantastic job of integrating all my Google services, Facebook, Twitter… everything.  It’s a fantastic device.

The post Comparison: Motorola Droid vs. iPod Touch first appeared on Techerator.

Enabling high quality YouTube playback is very easy, but the option to enable it is hidden in a few menus.  It is mentioned in the “Getting Started” guide provided with the phone, but who reads those things, anyway?

Enabling High Quality YouTube

Step One: Touch the Menu button (it’s the touch-sensitive button with the series of parallel lines).  Then select the ‘More’ button.

Step Two: Select the ‘Watch in high quality’ option.  Your video will now reload in beautiful, high quality.

It’s a bit of a surprise that high quality playback isn’t available by default, especially since one of the Droid’s biggest selling points is its 3.7″ high resolution screen.  Check out the comparison below:

The post How to View YouTube in High Quality with the Motorola Droid first appeared on Techerator.