Motorola has released a list of phones and tablets that will be getting Google’s latest version of Android operating system as well as those that won’t be receiving an update.

According to a post published on the company’s official blog forum, most devices released in 2011 or later will be getting Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean. These include Droid RAZR MAXX HD, Droid RAZR HD, ATRIX HD and Motorola XOOM. Although, the company did not mention any timeline, the devices are slated to get the update some time before 2013.

However, not all phones and tablets will be getting these upgrades. Commenting about the update, the blog post read:

Though we are working hard to deliver that upgrade, not all of our devices will receive it.

A complete list of devices that will or will not be getting Android updates is available at Motorola’s official blog (link for which is provided in the source below).

In addition to that, Motorola has also introduced a special trade-in promotion program for customers with old handsets that are not receiving Jelly Bean:

In the United States, we have created a program for owners of qualifying devices that will not receive Jelly Bean. We are offering a $100 rebate when those eligible trade up to a new Motorola smartphone.

Source: GizmoCrave | Motorola

Motorola fans should be happy to know that the Google owned company has announced to release Android Ice Cream Sandwich update for its Atrix 2 smartphone.

Motorola soak tested anonymous updates for Android Ice Cream Sandwich last week, which means that the official update release should be just around the corner now. Motorola also released some details on their website regarding the update availability:

We are pleased to announce the new Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) software upgrade for Motorola Atrix 2. The software upgrade includes numerous enhancements and improvements.

Motorola Atrix 2 originally runs Google’s Android OS v2.3 (Gingerbread).  Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade will offer a host of additional features to the smartphone including a brand new lock screen which provides shortcuts to unlock directly to messages, camera, phone or any other customizable feature. Users can personalize home screen and widgets, and can make use of a new People app which gathers all information about contacts at a single place.

Other features that will be included in the update are – a new faster browser which gives the option to sync bookmarks from Google Chrome browser from your PC or notebook, new icons for features, apps and tasks, and an improved Webtop screen interface.

Motorola, in a separate announcement, cancelled Ice Cream Sandwich rollout for Motorola Atrix 4G, Photon 4G and Electrify.

Source: GottaBeMobile

Great news for all Motorola and Intel fans out there as the Google-owned manufacturer has just introduced the world’s first smartphone bearing Intel Atom processor technology.

The latest smartphone is known as Motorola RAZR i, where the letter ‘i’ may be a subtle reference to Intel. The most interesting feature this new release has to offer is Intel’s powerful 2.0GHz Atom CPU manufactured on a 32nm process. The processor boosts operation of RAZR i’s impressive 8.0 Megapixel camera especially in continuous photography mode thus allowing users to capture up to 10 images in a second.

Talking about camera capabilities, Eric Reid, GM Intel Mobile and Communications, said:

You can be ready to take a picture in less than one second, which is about twice as fast as other products on the market. A lot of times you want to take multiple pictures – and you can take up to 10 pictures in a second, which is faster than many DSLRs (digital single lens reflex) cameras on the market today.

The smartphone models an ultra-durable body made of aircraft grade aluminium and showcases a 4.3-inch screen that comes with Corning Gorilla Glass along with DuPont Kevlar fiber. It also offers a powerful battery. The BBC reports:

Motorola said it had also included its own Smart Actions software to help the device achieve about a 20-hour lifespan between charges. The utility is not offered to other Android device makers.

The only downside of this feature-rich new device seems to be its lack of support for Chrome browser, a fact acknowledged by Jim Wicks, VP Motorola customer experience design.

Chrome is not ready for pre-loading on this device. We don’t want to do that unless we have complete chipset optimisation at that level.

Source: BBC

After deciding to reorient current facilities and operating strategy earlier this month, Motorola Mobility is finally beginning to swing into action and reports say that it will be shutting down facilities in India and Asia Pacific.

Motorola recently cut down 20% of its workforce and announced closing 30% of its facilities around the world owing to heavy losses in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters despite coming up with some very powerful and stylish-looking smartphones.

According to BGR India, all current Motorola operations in Asia Pacific region will be closed down with the exception of Australia and South Korea. However, despite these closures, Motorola products will remain available in stores.

Motorola will continue to sell its products till stocks last and its service centers will continue to function.

BGR further added:

Dennis Woodside (Motorola Mobility CEO) had earlier indicated the company would exit unprofitable markets, stop making low-end devices and focus on a few cellphones instead of dozens.

Commenting on the report by BGR, Motorola Mobility spokesperson emphasized that Motorola maintains significant presence in important Asia-Pacific regions including China, home to Motorola Mobility R&D.

… Asia-Pacific is an important part of Motorola Mobility’s future.

Source: BGR via GSMArena

Less than three months after Google Inc. formally completed its long-time-due acquisition, Motorola Mobility has turned over a new leaf and has taken a bold decision to restructure its facilities and strategy.

Motorola Mobility has announced that it will slash 20% of its global workforce by terminating 4000 employees. It also revealed plans to close or consolidate around 30 of its current facilities out of a total of 90. These steps are being taken to improve Motorola’s financial standing and to shift focus completely from feature phones to more profitable smart devices.

This information has been revealed in Google’s latest U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Explaining about the proposed changes, Google’s statement read:

These changes are designed to return Motorola’s mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters. That said, investors should expect to see significant revenue variability for Motorola for several quarters. While lower expenses are likely to lag the immediate negative impact to revenue, Google sees these actions as a key step for Motorola to achieve sustainable profitability.

Google expects to spend around $275 million for employees’ severance. Commenting on the decision to layoff record number of employees, the statement maintained:

Motorola understands how hard these changes will be for the employees concerned and is committed to helping them through this difficult transition. Motorola will be providing generous severance packages, as well as outplacement services to help the employees find new jobs.

On the brighter side, Google has brought in Regina Dugan, the first female director of US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to lead a newly created group at Motorola known as Advanced Technology and Projects. The primary aim of this new unit will be to focus all energy on innovative hardware design and to turn the world’s first commercial mobile phone maker into a leading smartphone market competitor.

Source: PhoneArena | NPR

The wait is finally over as Motorola has started rolling out Android OS v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) to international GSM models of Motorola RAZR and Motorola RAZA MAXX.

According to GSMArena, the roll-out started today and has been made available as an optional software update to the owners of these Motorola handsets. The following image shows the update notification as received on one Motorola RAZR device:

Although, the update is so-far only available to selected users, it will reach others eventually. If you own any of these Motorola phones, you should go ahead and check the settings menu to see if the update is available for you. Motorola has assured that a broader distribution of the Ice Cream Sandwich update will commence from next week.

Android OS v4.0 offers great improvement as compared to v2.3 Gingerbread, currently running on Motorola RAZR and RAZR MAXX international models. Ice Cream Sandwich features include new lock and home screens, better camera functions with time lapse, faster browser and much more. All these features were previously showcased when Motorola released videos of Ice Cream Sandwich running on Motorola RAZR phones.

Source: GSMArena

According to reports, Motorola is developing a brand new Android tablet under the new command of Google. The device is said to feature a high screen resolution.

Fudzilla cites inside sources that have already tested the prototypes of the new device in question. Fudzilla writes:

We got confirmation that Motorola is working on 4:3 format tablet for a while. It gets better, the prototypes are out and our sources who have actually played with one of them claim that it’s a 4:3 format device.

Their sources have confirmed that the prototypes boast an impressive screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, almost double the resolution of Motorola Xoom 2, a chic and extremely efficient 3G tablet. The new tablet is said to be thinner than Xoom 2 and will come with Android operating system installed – Ice Cream Sandwich, to be precise.

Although, there is no information available regarding the type of processor that will run the gadget, it is likely that it will either be NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon (with S4 already in great demand).

Motorola have neither given any official word nor announced any release date for this new tablet; however it is expected that the device will be completed and made available by year-end for the holiday season.

Source: Fudzilla via TheDroidGuy

Google has unveiled the latest version of the massively popular Android operating system at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. It is called Jelly Bean. The new operating system is superior to its predecessor Ice Cream Sandwich in terms of speed as well as features.

Here’s a little sneak peek:

The most prominent update that users get in the new Android OS is super smooth graphics. Google initiated Project Butter to rebuild the graphic system for Android resulting in flowing animations and scrolling, faster navigation screens and apps and more efficient swiping for smartphones.

Other cool features of Jelly Bean include Google Knowledge Graph, which makes your search more efficient by returning appropriate and related results in the form of ‘cards’. These cards may include image, text, video and other data related to your search query. You can also swipe the card away to view simple old-school links to the search. Google has also introduced a smart search assistant named Google Now which automatically detects your proximity and maps out routes for your selected destination. It can tell which routes are the shortest, estimates time required to reach there and a lot more.

You can find out more about this exciting new feature in the following promotional video from Google:

Moving widgets on home screens has also been made easier in Android OS 4.1 Jelly Bean. Icons on the screen make space for the moved widget, which resizes automatically to fit in. Another new addition is predictive text input to the keyboard on screen. Users will see recommended words as they type on the keyboard. The new operating system also offers extended support for notifications and NFC enabled devices.

For now, the devices that have been confirmed to get Android Jelly Bean upgrade include Google Nexus S which is Google’s own handset, Galaxy Nexus manufactured in partnership with Samsung and Motorola Xoom tablet by Motorola, which Google acquired recently.

Source: Liliputing

If you’re a Motorola RAZR MAXX or Motorola RAZR (Spyder) user / fan and you haven’t yet installed a custom ROM to ‘force’ ICS on to your phone then Motorola has a pleasant surprise for you. It has released video sneak peeks of how the latest Android OS v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) would look on these devices.

The first video shows the new Ice Cream Sandwich lock and home screens for Motorola. You can now swipe to unlock directly to the phone’s camera, text messaging, phone dial or home screen. The lock screen has been upgraded in such a way that music controls are now available on it during music play and there is no need to unlock the phone to pause, play, change tracks etc. There’s also a new more detailed battery indicator on the home screen and the favorites tray now features an app button in addition to four icons for phone, people, messages and camera.

The second video shows two new camera features for Ice Cream Sandwich – Time lapse and high resolution photo snapping during video shoot.

Finally, the third video shows how it’s like navigating around the latest Android operating system. The video is in Japanese since it was released officially on Japanese Motorola website. However, there’s nothing to worry about if you don’t understand the language. You can turn off the sound and let Android do the talking. Yes, it is that phenomenal.

Source: PCMag

Motorola released a lot of devices in 2011, but Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said that will change in 2012 and that the company will focus on marketing dollars. At CES, Jha said, “A lot of products that are roughly the same doesn’t drive the market to a new place.” Jha makes this statement despite announcing the successor to the Motorola Droid Razr (Spyder), the Droid Razr Maxx. The new device will include increased battery life.

Jha was asked if the company would be better off if others did the same and he responded, “I made this decision independent of what the others will do. We’re doing what we think is the right thing.” What do you think? Do you think Motorola will get it right in 2012?

Source: All Things Digital