Droid Life

Year: 2010

  • motorola shadow or google nexus two?

    many people were wondering why motorola ceo sanjay jha was at the google launch of the nexus one.  well, pictures of a new phone looking strikingly similar to the motorola droid have appeared that may answer any questions that we’ve had.

    these motorola shadow pictures were released and many are now speculating that this phone could be the new nexus two.  that sure as hell didn’t take long did it?

    so what do you think?  definitely looks like the droid, but that white keyboard is definitely sexy.  i’m also hoping that they remove that lanyard slot…protruding plastic pieces are not high on our list of device must-haves.

  • isuppli deems motorola droid more valuable than iphone and nexus one

    the isuppli team did another “teardown” of a top smartphone and came out with some interesting results.  this time they took on the motorola droid finding it the most valuable of all the smartphones including the nexus one and iphone.

    Motorola Inc.’s Droid smart phone carries a $187.75 Bill of Materials (BOM) and manufacturing cost, according to a dissection conducted by iSuppli Corp.’s Teardown Analysis Service.

    The Droid contains $179.11 worth of electronic components and costs $8.64 to manufacture, as presented in the attached table. This total comprises only component and manufacturing costs for the Droid and does not take into consideration other expenses such as software and royalties.

    now, you could look at that as the more expensive option compared to the iphone and nexus one, but purchasing the phone is what makes it the most valuable.  with a price point equivalent to the iphone, and a higher bill of materials, it comes out ahead.  see how we did that?

  • video: review lookout security for android

    continuing on in our video review series of android applications, we stumble onto a fantastic security application called lookout. if you are not aware of lookout, it has gained fame over the last week after being used to return a stolen phone back to its rightful owner.

    we had a request to review this app and can’t thank the reader enough for asking. what a great app! not only does it backup your contacts and photos, but it also scans your phone for viruses. and the best part is obviously the fact that it can help you locate your phone should you lose it or have it stolen.

    check it!

  • multi-touch coming to future motorola devices?

    the ceo of motorola, sanjay jha, in a recent interview with laptop magazine, said he expects to have multi-touch in the majority of future motorola phones because of user feedback…

    I think you will see us deliver multitouch in the majority of our devices going forward. There’s a complex set of factors, not all of them technical. But I think you’ll see us being proactive on multitouch because the user feedback on multitouch is very good.

    just bring us multi-touch already.  and enough with people saying “dolphin has it!” because i could care less.  i want the capability everywhere in the phone, not just in the browser.

    he also provided his interesting opinion on the oddly-timed launch of the nexus one vs. the droid…

    The consumer satisfaction rate on the Motorola Droid has been really good. And if you look at the return rate, and I won’t go into the numbers, it has been very, very good. It talks to our ability to ramp volume production with quality. Increasingly it’s not about the hardware but the experience we deliver, and I really have to thank our partnership with Google there. We really delivered a good experience on that device. People have this sense that there is no information that they can’t get. The turn-by-turn navigation is incredible. It’s a tool that enables users to solve some of the problems that in some sense they didn’t even think that they had. The feedback has been very positive.

    and if you haven’t heard, the nexus one has reportedly only sold about 20,000 units since its launch. eek.

  • motorola confirms droid update to android 2.1

    just 4 hours ago, the motorola droid twitter account gave us all some very welcoming news.  they have officially confirmed the android 2.1 update coming to your motorola droid.

    no set timetable, but at least we can start dreaming about things to come.

  • video: review seesmic twitter on android

    the first of our many application reviews!

    seesmic is the newest twitter application that is worth your time and its release provided the perfect opportunity to start off our application review series.  without getting into written details, we’ll just say that you should go download it in the market for free and follow along in the video…

  • android 2.1 sdk released

    for you programmers out there, be happy to hear that the android 2.1 software development kit (sdk) is now available.

    from google…

    Today, we are releasing the SDK component for Android 2.1, so that developers can take advantage of the new features introduced in Android 2.1. Please read the Android 2.1 release notes for more details. You can download the Android 2.1 component through the SDK Manager.

    In addition to the new SDK, a new USB driver that supports Nexus One is also available today through the SDK Manager. The USB driver page contains more information.

    does this mean that the update for motorola droid’s to android 2.1 is on the horizon?  it better.

  • security flaw on motorola droid 2.0.1

    update:  video proof from us over at droiddog.com!

    for those of you using the lock pattern on your motorola droid running android 2.0.1, understand that it is not completely safe.

    if your phone is locked and you receive a call, you can hit the “back” button and jump right into your phone without ever unlocking it.  (yikes!)  if you hit the “home” button it will lock, but the “back” button has left the phone wide open. 

    to test it, try this:

    1.  set the lock pattern on your phone
    2.  call your phone with someone else’s phone
    3.  answer the call
    4.  press the “back” button while on the call
    5.  bam!

    and i’ve tried this myself and can assure you that this works.  let’s hope there is a patch soon to fix this issue.