Motorola Inc.'s much-awaited unveiling of the Cliq, no one talked about making a call.

Motorola Inc.'s much-awaited unveiling of the Cliq, no one talked about making a call.

Instead, Thursday's presentation by co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha touted the device's ability to keep hyper-connected consumers tethered to their social networks while they're on the go.

The introduction of the Cliq as "the first phone with social skills" underscores the mobile phone industry's rapid evolutionary path. What started out as a way to make phone calls from anywhere has turned into a mobile computer, designed to manage reams of real-time information at consumers' fingertips.

Jha cited research from Gartner Inc. projecting that mobile social networking users worldwide will number 800 million by 2012, compared with 180 million in 2008.

"As consumers, our lives are spread across the Internet on different platforms, services and formats," Jha said at an industry event in San Francisco. "We use various ways to communicate with various audiences that we need to stay connected with."

The Cliq is the company's first phone in a lineup of devices powered by Google Inc.'s Android software. The gadget is important both for Motorola, which needs to regain its footing in the mobile-phone industry, and Google, whose Android platform is just getting off the ground.

Jha has been working on the portfolio since he joined Motorola last year in a bid to turn around the company's flagging mobile-phone sales. The technology giant hasn't produced a hit since the Razr in late 2004, leaving it far behind competitors such as Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

Now, under Jha's leadership, the company is pinning its hopes not on a single phone, but on the Android operating system. Although Android is open to any manufacturer, Motorola has built its own technology on top of the platform.

Cliq is the first phone to use Motoblur, a service that Motorola also announced Thursday. Motoblur, which will be available on multiple phones next year, aggregates and organizes content from popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The company hopes Motoblur will set itself apart from its competitors.

Jha demonstrated how the Cliq's home screen displays a live stream of Facebook status updates, photo uploads and Twitter posts. Users can update their status on one site or all sites at once from the home screen. Motoblur also offers a universal inbox that collects all messages, whether through Facebook or multiple e-mail accounts.

Andy Castonguay, director of mobile devices research at the Yankee Group, said Motorola and other companies such as Palm are trying to solve a modern-day communications dilemma.

"If you want to contact a person, you have to decide whether that's a call, e-mail, text or (instant message)," Castonguay said. "Therefore, in order to get to that person, you have to navigate the application structure of the phone.

"It looks like Motorola is taking a nice step forward here … to really think about how people connect to each other, and removing some of the artificial nature of the application hierarchy."

Motorola is entering a crowded field as the critical holiday season, the busiest time for handset manufacturers, approaches. Earlier this week, Palm introduced a new smartphone for Sprint called the Pixi. T-Mobile recently announced the MyTouch, an Android phone by Taiwanese maker HTC.

Motorola also will be introducing a second Android phone for the holiday season.

Cole Brodman, T-Mobile's chief technology officer, said Thursday that the carrier will aggressively promote the Cliq into early 2010. He said the phone is ideal for "connected socializers," or thirty-somethings who favor smartphones and want to seamlessly blend their personal and professional lives.

"We expect (the Cliq) to be one of our hottest selling devices in the fourth quarter," Brodman said.

Jha said the integration of the Motoblur service into the phone will distinguish his offering from the iPhone, whose users flick through several screens of icons to find applications. Cliq's address book, for example, shows a person's Facebook profile photo and latest status update alongside contact information.

Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research, said Palm has a similar feature on its Pre smartphone.

"The days of a simple, static address book and static data are gone," he said. "For people who are tied into social networks and other live services, that's a foreign concept. The real information about the people you care about is live, and you want to see those changes in real time."

Neither Motorola nor T-Mobile provided a release date or pricing details for the Cliq.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-motorola-cliq-smartphone-android-sep10,0,1529630.story

Google plans change to Android Market?

Google is promising changes to the Android Market, the same week that a prominent application developer complained about issues with the store.

The changes, to be introduced "soon," address some of the common developer complaints, but not all of them.

With the updated store, developers will be able to better market their applications by featuring screenshots in the description of the application, Google said in a blog post. That was a simple shortcoming that Larva Labs wondered about earlier this week in a blog post where it outlined the poor revenue potential for games in the Android Market.

Google will also make it easier for users to find paid apps in the store. Currently, it's extremely difficult to find the folder in the Market that includes applications that users must pay for. "It is possible to get to the paid-only apps in the Market now, but it requires some tricky navigation through a submenu," Larva Labs' John Watkinson wrote on the blog.

The Market will also include new subcategories for applications including sports, health, themes and comics.

The update does not address a couple other issues that developers have long complained about, including the application return policy. While the policy, which lets anyone return an application for any reason within 24 hours, sounds great for end-users, developers say that it's too easy to game.

The policy "would make sense for expensive, involved productivity apps; if the user is unsatisfied with the product, paid good money for it but won't be using it, then a refund is warranted," Watkinson wrote. "However, for many fun apps and simple games, the user isn't expected to get more than a day or so of use out of it."

Another common complaint from developers is that the only payment method available to users is Google Checkout, a system that is not widely used. They would prefer to offer users multiple payment options so customers can choose the most convenient. Google has hinted that other options may come.

Larva Labs pointed out the deficiencies of the Market as possible explanations for why it is earning so little money selling apps in the store. It has two high-ranked games in the Android Market but is averaging £38 in sales per day. The company compares that to some of the well-known success stories in the iPhone App Store, where developers of popular applications have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Techworld.com

HTC announces HTC Tattoo Android-powered smartphone "for the masses"

HTC has introduced the HTC Tattoo, an attractive Android-powered full-featured smartphone that will supposedly be affordable to the general public. The HTC Tattoo is the official name of the long-rumored HTC Click device that first appeared this summer.

Under the hood, the Tattoo features a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor along with 512MB of ROM and 256MB of RAM. A 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen(INFO) display with QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) resolution is something a bit new for Android devices, in that most devices so far feature half-VGA resolution capacitive touchscreen(INFO) displays. The Tattoo uses the HTC Sense based user interface, which consolidates voice calls, emails, texts, photos and status updates for individual contacts under one view.

HSDPA and WiFi data connectivity are included onboard for high-speed transfers and GPS is bundled in for navigation features. On the multimedia front, users can snap photos and shoot video with the Tattoo's 3.2 megapixel camera. Storing music on external microSD(INFO) cards, users can listen to their tunes with 3.5mm headphones or with Bluetooth 2.0 for use with wireless headsets and headphones.

The name Tattoo was given to the device because users can also create custom covers or select from popular designs to personalize the look of their device.

The HTC Tattoo will be available in Europe in early October with additional markets in coming months. Pricing for the device has not been announced, but HTC says it is bringing the device to the "masses."
http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=7777

Android and HTC preps for Touch Pro 2

Taiwanese handset maker HTC, known for its success selling phones powered by Google's Android platform, may be prepping its updated Touch HD to run the OS as well Handset maker HTC is reportedly working to release currently running on the Windows Mobile operating system (OS), which is instead powered by Google’s fledgling Android OS. Technology blog Register fledgling Android OS. Technology blog Register Hardware Hardware quoted sources from the company saying the company is making the switch for the handset, for which a release date hasn’t yet been set

The source also said the updated handset will use a faster 628MHz Qualcomm chip and feature a 3.8-inch touchscreen. HTC’s decision may not come as great surprise to some, as the company has launched previous handsets with Android, including T-Mobile’s G1 (the first phone to the market that used the Android mobile device platform) and the Vodafone Magic, unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and Hero (the first Magic, unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and Hero (the first Android device to support Adobe Flash) Earlier this month,

wireless carrier Sprint announced the availability of the long-awaited HTC Touch Pro2 on September 8, this Tuesday, when customers can contract. The device offers Windows Mobile 6.1 TouchFlo user interface and entertainment option ike Sprint TV with live and on-demand programming, as well as Sprint’s exclusive sport programming, as well as Sprint’s exclusive sport applications NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprin Cup Mobile Google’s platform, which has experienced a relaxed rate of acceptance in the mobile ecosystem, i nonetheless establishing a foothold. In April, T Mobile, the U.S.’s fourth-largest wireless network operator with 32.1 million customers, announced i operator with 32.1 million customers, announced it had sold one million G1 Android smartphones since its debut in October 2008. Facing intense competition from the Apple App Store, Google also bolstered Android on the application side. Earlier this year,

Google announced a mobile bolstered Android on the application side. Earlier this year, Google announced a mobile friendly version of its Product Search application, emphasizing its utility for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Product Search allows users to type whatever they’re searching for into the search bar and receive results pulled from a variety of shopping sites However, HTC isn’t quite ready to migrate completely over to Android, if the company’s recent announcement in collaboration with Sprint is any indication. Announced earlier thi month, the HTC Touch Pro2 features a 3.6-inch WVGA variable-angle tilting touch-screen, wide, slide-out keyboard that is larger than its predecessor—and the Windows Mobile 6. OS. Features like TouchFlo 3D bring information important to the user—such as quick access to contacts, messaging, e-mail and weather—to the top level of the user interface and battery life has been expanded by 20 percent Sprint claims their mobile broadband network (inclusive of data roaming) reaches more than 271 million people, 18,652 cities and 1,838 airports. The company boasts it has three times the coverage of AT&T’s current 3G network and more than 20 times the coverage of T Mobile’s current 3G network, both based on square miles Reader Comments: HTC Touch HD to Run Google`s Android OS?

HTC galaxy android powered device, hands on.

Those of you familiar with Android devices will appreciate the sweet, delicious irony in the photo above. Yes, there are indeed Heroes, and they're made by HTC. But they've got some competition because Samsung has an Android-powered phone now, and it's called the Galaxy i7500.

We've been playing with one here at IFA. With its all-glass capacitive touch screen and lush interface, sweeping through the Galaxy's menus was unlike anything we've experienced on a Samsung phone before. Its 3.2-inch AMOLED screen's colors are rich, its menus are responsive, and wrapped in the 12mm-thick chassis it feels like one of the finest Android phones to date It's impressive inside as well: a 5-megapixel autofocus camera; GPS navigation; 7.2Mbps HSDPA Internet connection; Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth; support for DivX H.264, and MPEG-4 video, plus MP3, WMA, AAC, and iTunes Plus music files; 8GB of internal memory expandable with microSD cards; and a real 3.5mm headphone socket Plus it runs Google's Android OS, meaning it's open to a world of application downloads from the Android Market. One of the only things we can criticize at this point is the LED flash, which could've been a xenon But really, that's nitpicking when it comes to smartphone

Courtsey of cnet.com

Developers Complain About Android Sales

The Android Market probably produces less than US$5 million a month, despite a recent report that issued that estimate, one successful application developer says.

On Monday, games developer Larva Labs revealed its sales figures for its Android apps and complained that Google needs to make some changes to help developers improve their prospects. It suspects that the Android Market probably produces far less than $5 million per month, as estimated by the AdMob report. That same report estimated that the iPhone application store generates $200 million a month, the veracity of which also has been the subject of much developer debate.

Larva Labs joins a chorus of developers, many of whom have been long clamoring for changes in the way the Android Market works in hopes of earning more from their applications.

One of Larva Labs' games, RetroDefense, was ranked first among paid apps in the Market and is now at number two. Another of its games, Battle for Mars, is ranked number five. Both games have been featured at the top of the Market and on the Android Web site. Yet the games are averaging $62 per day in sales combined. "Very difficult to buy the summer home at this rate," Matt Hall of Larva Labs noted in the blog post.

He compares Larva Labs' experience in the Android store to some of the better-known success stories on the iPhone. The game Trism, for example, earned $250,000 in its first two months in the iPhone store, according to its developer at Demiforce. Over about three months in the Android store, Trism falls in the rank of applications with 100 to 500 downloads. At $2.99 per download, that's a maximum of less than $1,500 in sales.

One issue is that there are far fewer Android phones than iPhones in the market. But developers say there are bigger problems with the Android Market than that.

Since the Market began accepting paid applications, developers have complained about a number of items that haven't yet changed. One is that the only way that users can buy applications is using Google Checkout, a payment system that isn't widely used. Developers want to be able to offer customers more payment options that they might find more convenient.

They may get other options in the future, although it's not certain when or in what form. In the terms of service that Android users must agree to before using the phones, Google says that it may make available various payment processing methods for buying products from the Market.

Larva Labs and other developers also complain about some other somewhat basic limiting features of the Market, such as a short maximum on how many characters a developer can use to describe their application and the inability to include a screenshot in the description.

In a follow-up blog post on Tuesday, Larva Labs pointed to additional issues such as Google's policy of allowing users to refund an application for any reason within 24 hours. The "refund process is just too simple," one developer agreed in a Google forum thread titled "sad application sales."

Developers say that users can too easily game the return policy. "If my plane is delayed and I get a solid two hours of enjoyment from a $3 jumpy game, I shouldn't be able to refund it 24 hours later," Larva Labs' John Watkinson argues in the Tuesday blog post.

Google did not immediately reply to a request for comment about Larva Labs' complaints.


Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

Sprint Launches HTC Hero Android Phone

On Thursday, Sprint and HTC announced the upcoming launch of the HTC Hero, Sprint's first Google Android-based smartphone. The Hero is the first Android phone with a redesigned user interface called HTC Sense, which offers a multi-panel, customizable home screen with Internet-based widgets.

The HTC Hero will cost $179.99 with a two-year contract and after $150 in rebates when it goes on sale Oct. 11. That's a slightly lower price than Sprint's other flagship smart phones, the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Tour 9630, which both cost $199 after rebates.


MoreAs we discovered in our earlier hands-on with the Hero, Sense means a lot of personalization (you can choose between ten clock designs for your phone), a heavy focus on contact integration (flipping easily between contact cards and all the e-mails you've received from a person, for instance) and the occasional cute, unexpected touch. When you open up the Weather app and it's raining, raindrops appear on your screen and are then wiped away by a virtual windshield wiper.

A related innovation, HTC Scenes, lets you set up different home screens for different situations (such as work and home, for instance.) The Hero also features HTC Footprints, a GPS-based diary app which lets you associate photos, audio and notes about places you've been with a GPS location to form "digital postcards," according to HTC.

The slab-style Hero is better than the other two Android phones on the market, the T-Mobile G1 and the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G, in various ways. The Hero has a real 3.5-mm headphone jack, so it's a viable music player. It also has a 5-megapixel camera, versus the 3.2-Mpixel versions found on the other two phones. Finally, the Hero's other advantage is a fingerprint-resistant coating on its screen similar to the one found on the iPhone 3GS.

Most of the Hero's other specs are similar to those other two phones: a 528-MHz Qualcomm processor, stereo Bluetooth, a MicroSD memory card slot, a 3.2-inch, 320x480 capacitive multitouch screen, Wi-Fi, GPS, and all the standard Android applications, including support for Microsoft Exchange push email. The phone connects to Sprint's EVDO Rev A 3G network, which typically produces download speeds around a megabit per second.

The GSM version of the Hero, available from some European carriers, includes Adobe Flash in the Web browser, but we couldn't find anything about Flash on Sprint's press release or fact sheet.