Google

In today’s smartphone world, most of the handsets currently available in the market are full touchscreen devices. If you happen to be a part of the population that still prefers to do your messaging chores on physical keys that give tactile feedback, then your options are going to be a bit limited as smartphones with physical keyboards are not quite a common sight today. It doesn’t mean that you will have a hard time looking for one, it’s just that those that pack these keyboards are usually mediocre devices.

Buy the Motorola Droid 4 starting at $99.

If you happen to have Verizon for your wireless provider of choice, then you are in luck because the carrier has the Motorola Droid 4 in its lineup of Android-powered smartphones. This handset packs a slide-out QWERTY physical keyboard that will make doing your messaging chores a whole lot easier for that matter. And not only that, the handset belongs to the higher end of the spectrum so you can expect the whole

Article source: http://www.mobilebloom.com/motorola-droid-4-gets-a-sub-100-price-point-at-online-retailer/2213936/

Android has captured more than half of the Australian smartphone market, while Symbian devices and Apple’s iPhone have recorded a year-on-year decline, according to a new report.

The report reveals that Android’s marketshare has grown on a year-on-year basis from 32.2% in 2011 to 52% in 2012, while the marketshare for Apple iOS has fallen from 35.6% to 35.3%.

Most of the growth for Android has come at the expense of Symbian (traditionally used by Nokia), which has seen its marketshare collapse from 23.6% to just 5.6%.

The report also reveals that competitors to Apple and Android are struggling to gain traction in the Australian smartphone market, with statistically insignificant figures reported for RIM/BlackBerry (1%), Windows Phone 7 (1.6%) and Windows Mobile (1.7%).

It is important to note, however, that while Apple’s share of the Australian smartphone market has dipped, the growth of the market in Australia means that Apple’s overall volumes have increased during the period.

Related Items :

• Google Play now allows US customers to pay for downloads through their phone bill
• Apple iOS users view more mobile ads than Android users, despite smaller marketshare
• New iPhone will have four-inch screen, Wall Street Journal claims
• Google’s Knowledge Graph to boost search results, SEO experts say no dramatic strategy changes forseeable
• How to use Outlook and Exchange effectively

Article source: http://www.smartcompany.com.au/information-technology/049728-google-android-captures-half-of-the-australian-smartphone-market-as-apple-iphone-sales-slip.html

By JR Raphael (@jr_raphael)

When it comes to Android 4.0 upgrades, Motorola hasn’t exactly been leading the pack.

The manufacturer scored a big fat “D” in my Android 4.0 report card for the first quarter of 2012, and from the looks of it, its second-quarter score may not be a heck of a lot better.

After months of silence and inactivity, Motorola is finally speaking up about its Android 4.0 upgrade plan and what’s going on with its devices. Here’s what’s new from the company’s latest software update page refresh:

• Motorola’s Droid Razr is now scheduled to get Ice Cream Sandwich sometime in the second quarter. Previously, the phone had been down for an “early 2012″ upgrade — a time frame I think we can all agree has long since passed. The second-quarter upgrade schedule now applies for the international Motorola Razr model, too, as well as for the Droid Razr Maxx.

• The Motorola Xoom international Wi-Fi model and U.S. 4G model may actually get ICS one of these days; both tablets are now slated for second-quarter upgrades.

• The Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 and 10.1 models finally have ETAs for their Ice Cream Sandwich arrivals: Both Xyboard models are set to get ICS in the third quarter of the year. The same applies to the international Motorola Xyboard tablets.

• Owners of the once-heavily-hyped Motorola Droid Bionic can expect to get Ice Cream Sandwich “early” in the third quarter of 2012. Moto had stayed mum about the Bionic for months up till now: The company last talked about the Bionic in late 2011, when it promised

Article source: http://blogs.computerworld.com/20195/motorola_android_40_upgrade?source=rss_blogs

Even though the device hasn’t even hit the street, noted Android developer Chainfire has obtained root on the Samsung Galaxy S III. Chainfire doesn’t actually have the device in hand, so don’t start berating him with questions on that matter. Rather, he got root on a firmware build that was leaked to him, and has a few juicy tidbits to share with everyone.

It appears that the Galaxy S III isn’t going to be locked down in any significant way. All Chainfire had to do was repackage the kernel with a modified adb binary and install SuperUser manually. Samsung chose to use the standard boot.img kernel format as well. Previous phones used the much harder to modify zImage kernel. There is a recovery partition available in this firmware that should allow recoveries to be flashed separately from the kernel. There is, however, a counter in the bootloader that detects the modified kernel, but that is par for Samsung devices and doesn’t negatively affect things.

Chainfire has decided against releasing the insecure kernel for the time being. He worries that the build he is working with could be traced back to the individual that leaked it. Additionally, this was all done with release candidate software, and things could technically change in the final firmware for devices. Carrier-specific versions of the Galaxy S III might also be more locked down.

[XDA Forums]

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AndroidPolice/~3/y_WiUAB3CyE/story01.htm

According to an exclusion order issued by the ITC, some of Motorola Mobility’s smartphone devices are in violation of four claims in a Microsoft patent related to scheduling meetings in a calendar. The specifics really aren’t important – basically, the ITC found that Motorola infringed a Microsoft patent related to mobile software for creating and sending meeting invitations.

Motorola and Google had argued that an exclusionary order banning the import of offending Motorola devices wasn’t in the public interest, but the judge didn’t buy it. More importantly, it’s unclear exactly which Motorola devices fall under the scope of the exclusionary order, which should go into effect roughly 60 days from now. This probably isn’t enough time to cause device supplies to go uninterrupted, but then again, Motorola isn’t exactly selling them by the pallet-full here in the US lately – the DROID RAZR really being the company’s only truly popular smartphone.

However, as HTC has learned, it may not matter whether your phones actually violate the patents cited in ITC orders, so much as whether US Customs decides they want to “investigate” them. Most likely, US Customs will give Motorola the same treatment it has given HTC once the order goes into effect and err on the side of “caution” – if we get that far, that is.

Motorola does have one option here: settle. While the Google-Motorola deal isn’t officially closed yet (China is lagging on approval), I’m sure there’s plenty of closed-door discussion going on about what conceding to Microsoft’s patent claims would mean for Google’s image. If Motorola settles, other would-be patent trolls may start coming out of the woodwork looking for a piece of the action, and Google’s

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AndroidPolice/~3/HzvvCNFqp-o/story01.htm