Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt's newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.
Filed under: Misc
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
After roughly nine months of almost complete radio silence, Google-owned Motorola suddenly sprang into action by announcing four devices in the space of eight days. The lineup of new smartphones included the much-hyped Moto X and a fresh crop of Droid-branded handsets for Verizon. Interestingly enough, this quadruplet shares many of the same specs; aside from exterior design, screen and battery size, there's very little to distinguish Motorola's latest offerings. The first out of the gate is the Droid Ultra, a 5-inch 720p model wrapped in Kevlar. All told, it's more of a mid-range phone, though its on-contract price of $200 would suggest otherwise.
The Droid Ultra is arguably the closest cousin to the Moto X, and because the two have basically the same specs and price, we've been scratching our heads trying to figure out why Motorola needed to make both. Still, we did our due diligence in giving the Ultra the full review treatment. How does it differentiate from Moto's flagship, and does it hold any sort of advantage? Is the device worth paying $200 and agreeing to a two-year contract? Read on as we answer these questions and more. %Gallery-slideshow73296%
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Google, Verizon
After countless months in hibernation, Motorola has arisen from its deep slumber in a rather major way. The phone maker not only unleashed a full trio of Droid devices last week, it introduced the Moto X, long known as the company's not-so-secret weapon. We've already discussed our impressions of the firstfruits of post-acquisition Motorola, along with its interesting array of color customization options, but we've put together a handy comparison sheet that shows off how the Moto X fares against its Droid-branded brethren. When it comes to components, the suite of smartphones are actually quite similar to each other. Take a look after the break to see how it all breaks down.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
What do you need after getting your very own Droid Mini / Ultra / Maxx? Why, accessories to go along with them, of course. Big Red introduced a slew of add-ons to accompany the newly announced phones this morning, which include cases from Speck, Incipio and Otterbox, a set of SOL Republic headphones, a SOL Republic Bluetooth speaker and matching 4,000mAh and 2,000mAh external batteries to extend the life of your just procured handsets. The speaker features something called Heist mode, which lets up to five people log on via Bluetooth. Unfortunately that's all we can share about these for now, as they've yet to announce pricing, availability or anything else for that matter. We'll be sure to share more once we have more information. To get a closer look at some of these accessories, have a peek at our eyes-on gallery below.
Update: We've learned that the battery packs have been out for awhile now, and run anywhere from $39.99 to $79.99 depending on desired capacity.
Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
If you're anything like us, you've been wringing your hands jealously at the few thousand Google Glass-enabled humans wandering around commanding "OK Glass" as their bidding is done. We'd like to say that the solution we've found is to give everyone a free set of Google's latest indulgence, Oprah-style, but that's not the case -- instead, Verizon's new trio of Droid phones enables very similar voice-powered functionality on its Droid Mini, Ultra and Maxx handsets.
Employing Google's popular (and delightful) Now app, Droid owners can enact a variety of (unnamed) operations, including waking up the Droid by saying "OK Google Now." It's also targeted at folks who are prone to losing their mobiles, as the command, "OK Google Now, call my Droid" will do just that. It's also possible that people nearby will think you're a crazy person, but perhaps they already did considering you're prone to losing such an expensive and important device to your life, eh?
The Verizon-created software enhancements don't stop there, with the trio also getting "Touchless Controls" and "Active Display"; the duo apparently work together to "let users make calls, send texts, get directions, play music, set a reminder and preview notifications hands-free without having to unlock the phone, giving Droid users a whole new way of interacting with their phones." All three phones are available for pre-order starting today and arrive at Verizon starting on August 20th (the Mini lands August 29th).
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Software, Mobile, Verizon
Source: Verizon Wireless
Like clockwork, Motorola and Verizon have refreshed their joint Droid lineup, and we're here to check out all three devices. The two more premium handsets, the Droid Ultra and Droid Maxx, are the most promising of the bunch for advanced users, replacing last year's Droid RAZR HD and RAZR Maxx HD and offering the requisite 4G LTE connectivity. Both of those smartphones were at the top of their game in 2012, and that trend appears to continue here -- the Ultra and Maxx are very similar, with the latter boosting the battery capacity, enabling power users to make it through a full day.
Like its predecessors, the Ultra and Droid Maxx (pictured above) sport Kevlar bodies, both of which look sleek and feel sturdy. The Ultra we saw has a glossy red finish, which Motorola helpfully suggested is "a lot like a sports car." The Maxx, on the other hand, has a soft-touch black finish. At any rate, we prefer the Maxx's look; as we've said about Samsung's Galaxy lineup, a glossy, plasticky finish tends to look cheaper. Both phones feature a 10-megapixel camera with a f/2.4 lens; we'll have to wait for our review units to test the shooter's mettle.
What the Ultra's design does have going for it, though, is an extra-thin profile. At 7.18mm, it's already being touted as the "thinnest 4G LTE smartphone available." At 4.94 ounces, it feels very light, and though it sports the Droid family's usual boxy form factor, the edges are gently curved to make for a nice fit in the hand. It packs a 5-inch, 720p Super AMOLED display, which, while not quite as pixel-dense as the Mini's 4.3-inch TFT panel, offers crisp images, vibrant colors and wider-than-average viewing angles. The Ultra is priced at $199, 100 bucks higher than the Mini and 100 lower than the Maxx.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google, Verizon
As expected, the star of the show is here: Verizon has unveiled the Motorola Droid Ultra at its New York City press event. The 5-inch smartphone is "all about thin," according to Moto, and sports a glossy, unibody Kevlar shell that makes it thinner (7.18mm) yet stronger than its predecessors. It's also speedier: a new dual-core X8 Mobile Computing System delivers about 24 percent faster processing power than the previous generations, graphics that are twice as quick and dedicated chips for both contextual computing and language processing. It sports the software tricks we've seen in leaks of the Moto X, such as hands-free voice control, Active Display notifications and Quick Capture. Google's augmented reality game Ingress comes preloaded for more adventurous owners. The Droid Ultra ships August 20th for $199, and pre-orders are starting today.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google, Verizon
Source: Verizon
It may not be the much-hyped Moto X unveiling, but today's Verizon press event will likely bring some big announcements of its own. It's been nearly a year since Motorola unveiled its trio of Razr handsets for the carrier, and it's all but certain that the company has at least a phone or two in store for us today. Will we finally get acquainted with the Droid Ultra, not to mention a Droid Maxx variant? Heck, rumors say there's also a Droid Mini on the way. Stay tuned as we bring you the latest from Verizon's event in Lincoln Center!
Filed under: Cellphones, Verizon
