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droid-blog.com Motorola Droid X First Look Hands On Includes Specs (Official Video)

First look on Motorola Droid – www.unlimit-tech.com التقنية بلا حدود Source:gizmodo

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This past week Google’s developer’s conference was one of the first demos of the Android mobile phone operating system.  Announced last year by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of mobile phone manufacturers and software houses who want to have one unilateral platform for all mobile phones to run on Android looks to be one of the most interesting revolutions in the Mobile phones market.

Being developed by Google the phones are highly likely to blend well with other Google-ware like the popular Maps service and Google Mail service.  The stand out feature is that the operating system is being designed to run on a wide range of mobile phones regardless of their feature set.  In a similar way to how PC operating systems are made to work on a wide range of computers with varying specifications Android will take advantage of specific phone features such as built in GPS and touch screen interfaces.

This past week had the operating system running on a touch screen unnamed handset and it was sporting a number of new features since it was last shown off earlier in the year.  One exciting feature was how the handset was unlocked; the user had to draw a specific shape on the touch screen to unlock the keypad.  Another feature took advantage of the GPS function by having an on screen compass which had been tried on other handsets such as the GPS enabled S60 phones offered by Nokia but attendees said the example shown by Google seemed to work much more fluidly than other attempts.

The decision to show off the software at their developers conference was obviously to entice the collective minds into coming up with some ideas for possible applications for their operating system, with it being open-source software, a factor popular with the programming masses, it looks promising that any mobile phones sporting Android’s operating system would have a lot to offer the stale mobile phones market.

Obviously a lot of comparisons were made between the software and Apple’s stand out mobile phone the iPhone, the interface seemed to bear some of the Apple hallmarks such as saving Youtube links as icons on the main screen and a touch based interface.

The Android operating system is currently nearing completion with handset manufacturers Motorola, HTC and Samsung all volunteering to use Android on their forth-coming mobile phones in the next year.

Google is breaking away from the virtual world this autumn with the launch of its first mobile phone. Not content with dominating the search and online advertising arenas, the innovative company has developed a phone that has as much power as the desktop computers in use just a few years ago, and is clearly intended as a serious challenger to Apple’s iconic iPhone.

There’s a three megapixel camera, one-touch access to YouTube and instant messaging service Google Talk, and as well as listening to music users will be able to download tracks from a new service, Amazon MP3.

All of which shouts loud and clear that the G1 is targeted firmly at consumers. In fact when it’s launched in the UK in November on the T-Mobile network, there won’t even be a business tariff at first.

The phone, officially called ‘the T-Mobile G1 with Google’ will be free on a £40 tariff, including unlimited data for browsing. T-Mobile expects the device to appeal to some business users as well, however, and there are some features that make the G1 an interesting option for the growing number of mobile workers, wherever they are.

The phone, known as the G1, runs on Google’s own operating system, Android, which is designed to bring the experience of desktop computing to mobile devices. It connects to the internet through Wi-Fi and 3G and, like the iPhone, making calls, sending emails via Gmail, surfing the web and using contacts and calendars are a touch of the screen or a click of the trackball away.

Although the G1 has the same 3.2 inch screen as Apple’s iPhone and a similar touchscreen keyboard that takes up much of the screen space, it has one major difference: a slide-out qwerty keyboard. Although the keys are tiny this arguably makes email on the move easier and more realistic as you can type in a message of a decent length and view it on a large screen. The G1 is the first phone to have a built-in compass with motion-sensing technology, and users can navigate by using street-level Google Maps: no more getting lost on the way to meetings, interviews, or lunches.

Users will be able to download additional programs onto the G1 from the Android Market, an online software superstore. Android is open-source, so anyone can develop programs for the phone and make them available to other users without going through a Google approval process. Google claims Android effectively makes the phone future-proof, as users will be able to get frequent updates to the operating system as well as new software. And somewhere among the seriously practical and seriously playful applications that are sure to be developed, there will be some that make the G1 more useful to businesses and professionals.

Android is another step towards the current obsession of technology companies: providing the perfect mobile experience. Everyone in the industry is working on finding a way to harness the computing power tucked up in those little handsets to allow everyone from students to mobile professionals to do much more with their phones.

At the moment, however, while the G1 supports Microsoft’s Word and Excel, it doesn’t support Exchange for enterprise email. You need a Google Gmail account to use the email service and it won’t synchronise with Outlook, although it is possible to automatically redirect work email to a Gmail account, and its likely that one of the first third-party applications will be support for Exchange.

Other applications available to download at launch will include cab4me, which finds and books a cab based on your locations, PedNav, which helps you find the best walking or public transport route to where you want to go, and Shopsavvy, a program that turns the phone into a bar-code scanner that can give you instant price comparisons.

The G1 will run on a version of Google’s new browser, Chrome, offering easy searching of the internet, and fast results, but the phone won’t have Apple’s patented multi-touch technology that lets you enlarge and zoom in on web pages simply by making pinching and expanding movements on the screen with your fingers.

Google’s first phone, made by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, also loses out to the iPhone in the looks department, with most reviewers saying it’s an ugly duckling to Apple’s swan. There’s no doubt that the iPhone is the prettiest phone around, but this could change once future Android-based design-led handsets made by the likes of LG and Samsung are released in the next year or so.

Ahead of its launch, the critics have given the G1 a mixed reaction. The consensus seems to be that it’s a good first effort, fast and responsive, and probably the first serious contender to the iPhone, but it just isn’t as sleek, exciting and sexy.

Despite the inevitable, and not always favourable, comparisons with the iPhone, gadget and Google lovers are enthused about the G1: some reports estimated that ahead of its US launch in October, the entire initial US allocation of 1.5 million handsets had been pre-ordered, with another two million earmarked for high-street retailers. T-Mobile won’t start taking pre-orders in the UK until a couple of weeks before the phone’s release, but it says tens of thousands of people have already registered their interest.

The ‘Google phone’ might not be getting people buzzing about its design, but the use of Android as its flexible foundation will grow the global smartphone market hugely. The day when we’re all using fast, powerful, easy and practical mobile devices in our day-to-day lives and at work, wherever that might be, is getting ever closer. This time next year, the G1 and its offspring could well have dealt another fatal blow to the desktop PC.

To learn more about the G1 and register an interest, go to www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/whats-hot/

Unbeknownst to many in the mobile phone community, there’s a mobile phone company called Emblaze Mobile based in Israel that is poised to do battle with entrenched smartphone makers starting this year.

It’s a nine-year old company that operates under the group umbrella of Emblaze Ltd., a small Anglo-Israeli IT company in the business of providing software and communication solutions since 1994.

A Little History

Emblaze Mobile has been specializing on designing cutting-edge technologies for mobile telephony since 1998 even before getting incorporated.   It has been marketing low cost feature phones that commands a fairly good size of the Israeli and Middle Eastern markets, especially its Touch & which was also marketed in Europe in 2006.

Emblaze Mobile is now known as Else Ltd shifting to the new name after announcing its Emblaze Mobile First Else smartphones back in November 2009.  Emblaze Mobile embarked on the “Monolith” project that had a Japanese company as a strategic partner, Access, which is one of the world’s leading providers of mobile software solutions and is best known for its net browser NetFront as well the Access Linux OS used by many companies worldwide.

It is also the maker of Garnet OS derived from the Palm OS.  The joint project produced a unique Access Linux-based platform called Else Intuition.

High End Features

Finally out from its classified Monolith product, the new smartphone’s all-black slab 116 x 57 x 13mm body comes out as an unabashedly inspired design form the monolith in the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey.  What sets its Else Intuition OS apart is its gesture-controlled UI that is similar to what the iPhone has but goes a step farther with more menus controllable by thumb gestures and a unique dial-up graphic menu calls “sPlay.”

In addition, it has complete multitasking capability and a media store available for Apps developers on the new platform as Emblaze will be releasing is API together with the handset.  It’s good to know that for a company starting out to venture into smartphones, it recognizes this early that a successful smartphone needs a good online apps store

Demoed at a launch event in Japan last December and launched in London this week, the First Else looks like a Nokia N900 but without the QWERTY keypad. It’s designed to be operated with just one hand courtesy of its capacitive touchscreen and a persistent display of controls on the right side of the screen.

What immediately strikes you is its 3.5” Wide-VGA (854 x 480) display and a high end 5 megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilization.   It’s a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone on 2G with UMTS/3.5G and HSDPA data connectivity, WiFi, GPS, accelerometer and proximity sensors, Bluetooth 2,0 and USB 2.0.

Internal memory comes at 16 GB though a 32 GB version is being readied.  Neither version seems capable of microSD expandability. It is powered by the same Texas Instrument OMAP 3430 processor powering the iPhone 3Gs, Motorola Droid and Nokia N900.  Incidentally, these three smartphones would be its main competitors.

Availability

The Emblaze Mobile First Else Linux smartphone is expected to reach European markets by the second quarter of 2010 and will be making its product debut in the UK.  Emblaze Mobile is already negotiating with the major mobile network providers in Europe and the US.  Pricing information has yet to reach the public but this is now affordable handset. With its feature set and a remarkably unique OS, expect this to compete in the high end upscale markets.

Launched in London this week is the new Emblaze Mobile First Else smartphone.  It doesn’t ring as loud a bell as an HTC or Blackberry smartphone, but you have the promise of a very capable and remarkably unique handset that, if the Israel-based Emblaze Mobile company plays its cards well, could give the major players a run for their money.

The Smartphone Challenge

Emblaze is not new to the business as it’s been there over the last decade, providing its markets with low cost featured phones and providing mobile telephone technologies to other companies as an OEM.  Recently, it embarked on an ambitious project called “Monolith” teaming up with Japanese Access, known for its NetFront browser and co-developer for the Palm OS.

The result of this 2-year joint technical collaboration is another new Access-flavored Linux-based operating system called Else Intuition to run the new First Else smartphone sporting a slab design inspired by the monolith slab in Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001:A Space Odyssey.

The challenge for the Emblaze Mobile First Else is convincing the tech savvy smartphone market that it is as good, if not better, than the emerging Android smartphones sweeping the market. The world of smartphone may still have room for the new Else Intuition side by side with the Android and other platforms that are slowly losing favour in the market.

For sure, the First Else’s UI is nothing like any UI in the market today. It sports a unique menu set arranged in a dial-up-like fashion and is designed to be operated with just one hand courtesy of its gesture-sensitive multi-touch capacitive touchscreen and a persistent control points on the right side of its large 3.5-inch WVGA display.

The new handset is not wanting of upscale features found only in expensive smartphones.  You get a 3/3.5G data connectivity on a quad band GLSM handset powered by the same Texas Instrument OMAP 3430 engine that is found in the iPhone 3Gs, Nokia N900 and the Motorola Droid.

It has WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, mini USB 2.0, GPS, accelerometer and primary sensors 3.5mm headphone jack, and a high end 5-megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilization. There’s an internal Flash memory of either 16 GB or 32 GB but without expandability options.  It has a generous 1450 mAh LI battery but the talk times remain unreleased

Lastly, Emblaze Mobile knows the value of having an online apps store like what iPhone has.  It knows too well that iPhone’s success has been largely due to its hundreds of thousands of apps and games downloadable to make the handset as exciting to use as it was when taken out of the box the first time.  It has readied its apps store with an API it is releasing with the handset for developers to start developing mobile application software on its new platform.

Availability

Emblaze Mobile has recently renamed itself as Else Ltd.  It can be a bit awkward referring to the new smartphone as Else’s First Else.  But that’s just how it should be called.  It is expected to debut in the UK this spring and made available to the European and US markets thereafter.  Else Ltd is already talking with various major network providers in Europe and the US.  Pricing has yet to be announced though we expect this to be anything affordable.

Just as the year is opening to a slew of Android smartphones emerging as the platform of choice among the world’s leading mobile phone makers, there’s another new and exciting platform on a new smartphone carrying a radical look and feel.

It comes from an Anglo-Israeli mobile phone maker that has yet to make a dent in the mobile community.  Enter the Emblaze Mobile First Else smartphone. It is nothing like anything on the smartphone landscape.

Meeting the Challenge with Unique and Upscale Features

At first glance, there’s nothing striking about it.  It’s another of those black monoblock touchscreen slabs.  This time, it unabashedly gets inspiration from the monolith structure in Kubrick’s movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Not surpassingly, it is the product of two years of a joint technical collaborative project called “monolith.”

On closer look, what came out of that project is a defining product from the Emblaze Mobile company with its First Else, it’s first foray into the smartphone world with a new Linux-based platform it calls Else Intuition. Its Japanese partner Access, known for its NetFront web browsers, Access Linux products and the Palm OS, made possible the new Else Intuition platform that brings gesture-controlled UI to a higher plane.

It is designed to be navigated with just one hand, the First Else sports a 3.5” Wide-VGA multitouch capacitive touchscreen with a persistent control menu on its rightmost screen edge that can be activated with your right hand.  You only need your thumb gestures to scroll and rotate its dial-up menu arrangement.

Its UI clearly shows that the smartphone world has room for another feature-rich OS that has all the promise of challenging the Android.  We hope to get hold of a trial unit and await the market verdict if indeed it is a serious Android challenger.  When it reaches the market, it will meet headlong with iPhone 3Gs, Motorola Droid and Nokia N900 as its main rivals.

Interestingly enough, the First Else is actually powered by the Texas Instrument OMAP 3430 processor that powers its rivals.  It would be a revelation to check whether the Else Intuition does a more competent job than the Android.

The upscale features are nothing new and are quite common in high ends smartphones.  Apart from a gorgeous capacitive display, you get the usual accelerometer for auto-rotate viewing consistent with the handset orientation.

There’s a proximity sensor for disabling touchscreen function when held to the ear in a call.  You bet a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilization as well.  The First Else is a 3G/3.5G UMTS phone with HSDPA and a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE on 2G.  It has WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP, MiniUSB 2,0. 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS receiver and comes with either 16 GB or 32GB internal memory versions.

It doesn’t seem to support microSD expandability, though.  Talk times and standby times have not been published but we expect its 1450 mAh LI battery to be up to the task.

Availability

Emblaze Mobile is releasing an API together with the unit and this should populate its online app store which the company is readying in time for the market launch this spring.  It certainly knows the advantage of having an app store – a feature missed by many smartphone makers in the past.  The Emblaze Mobile First Elseis now known as the Else First Else, after the company recently changed its name to Else Ltd.