Category: Moto

Edit : Can Motorola Make A Comeback?

In the 2004-2007 period, if you would’ve asked any teenage boy/girl about that one phone they wished they had, the answer would’ve been simple – the Motorola MotoRazr.

Right from its sleek, futuristic design to that V3i advertisement where a guy dressed like 007 (but travelling in the “metro”), uses his blade (read : MotoRazr) to cut through a woman’s dress and then fight her when she retaliates, everything about Motorola spelled success.

It was a period where when you looked anywhere, you would see someone on a Motorola RAZR. The company sold over 120 million units of that phone, making it the second most popular phone in 2005 and then along came the iPhone. Motorola who?

Last year, the company shut down operations in India altogether, after being bought by Google. So we ask ourselves, can we see Motorola charming us with its devices once more?

How It All Began

Motorola is an American company with many “firsts” in the field of science and technology. It started in Chicago in 1928. Company founders Paul V. Galvin and Joseph Galvin created the brand name Motorola for the car radio – linking “motor” (for motorcar) with “ola” (which implied sound)

Founders Paul V. Galvin and Joseph Galvin.

The Motorola car radio was released by the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1930, two years after the company’s founding in Chicago, kicking things off with a battery eliminator, aimed at letting battery-powered home radios run off of household electricity. In 1947, the company dropped its name for simply Motorola.

[pullquote_left] Motorola provided the radio technology for APOLLO 11’s moon landing. [/pullquote_left]

In 1973, Motorola took some major steps toward the technology that would define it in the decades to come, showing off the DynaTAC and demonstrating the phenomenon of cellular telephones to the world. It wasn’t until 1984 that the brick-sized phone would actually start making its way into the hands of consumers.

The Motorola DynaTAC Photo: Dan Forbes

Fast forward to 2004, the MotorRazr became the best selling clamshell ever made.

The Fall

Post 2007, after a certain turtleneck sweater aficionado introduced the iPhone to the world, everyone forgot about their love for Motorola and turned their attention towards Apple.

Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone in 2007.

And could you blame them?

According to the NPD Group, which released the sales numbers, four of the five best-selling handsets at that time were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features. The only one that wasn’t? The Razr.

At the high end of the market, Motorola’s designs didn’t keep up with consumer expectations, and the game-changing iPhone set back the company further. Motorola also got squeezed out by competitors at the lower end, where the cell-phone business had the most potential for growth globally.

Motorola failed to use its huge advantage in the early days of higher end handsets to become one of the leaders in the emerging smartphone business, which is now dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Motorola failed to make an impact in the tablet market with the Motorola XOOM.

After a stint with Android, including it’s XOOM tablet, Motorola gave up altogether and closed down operations in India last year.

The result? In August of last year, Google announced that it would be acquiring Mobility for around $12.5 billion, a deal that would close nearly nine months after it was first made public.

Who’s To Blame?

What Motorola failed to realize was that the cellphone market changed their buying decisions from “hardware”, to a “software decision”. People wanted to run real, native, apps on their phones.

In 2009, Motorola joint-CEO Greg Brown blamed Motorola’s own decisions for the company’s decline. While Brown did make the obligatory hat-tip at the economy – for exacerbating the situation – the executive mainly criticized Motorola’s planning, products and blindness to the changing needs of consumers.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Brown highlighted the absence of a RAZR replacement as a key failure for Motorola. That, together with a misplaced focus on the developing market and over-investment in budget handsets, meant Motorola missed the growing messaging trend.

[pullquote_right] Warren Buffet once said that when a manager with a great turnaround reputation encounters a company with a reputation for dysfunction, it is the company that will keep its reputation. [/pullquote_right]

Warren Buffet once said that when a manager with a great turnaround reputation encounters a company with a reputation for dysfunction, it is the company that will keep its reputation. And that’s how it panned out. Post Geoffrey Frost’s death in November 2005 after putting Motorola on the road to success, Garriques tried to build the next hit with the system.

Then after being unable to conjure up the same magic, Garriques left for Dell and the Motorola machine ran back to the security blanket of processes. Constant “safe pairs of hands” were used to replace him. Casey Keller was brought from Nabisco to do a job and failed too. The succession of replacements for Garriques just made things worse.

What Now?

Everyone loves a good comeback, whether it’s Manchester United stealing a win in the final minute of the Champions Trophy in 1999 or Mickey Rourke snagging an Oscar nomination for The Wrestler.

In Google, Motorola have their own version of Sir Alex Ferguson to take it back to the top.

In Google, Motorola have their own version of Sir Alex Ferguson, the recently-retired Manchester United manager who broke the “Old Firm’s” dominance in Scotland with Aberdeen, and Liverpool’s dominance in England. Google has the expertise and means to take Motorola back to the top.

The rumoured comeback phone, called the Moto X, will be built at a 500,000 square-feet facility in Texas that will employ 2,000 people by August.

Though Motorola boasts of a long, impressive history of mobile innovation, the present CEO, Dennis Woodside, acknowledges how challenging it is for the company to reach the same state of glory it enjoyed some time back. The company aims at hiring a large number of employees to manufacture a new generation of mobile phones.

“We like to be the challenger. So we’re filling the company with people who want to transform the company into a winner,” said Woodside.

There’s still a lot of life left in Motorola, which, bruises and all, remains one of the grand names in world technology.

“Motorola is still a huge business and an iconic company,” Brown says.

If things go according to plan — and Brown says he’s confident they will — the Motorola mobile business could again find itself on the leading edge of wireless, setting the pace of global innovation for the next century and beyond.

The company recently unveiled their new logo, with a clear emphasis on it now being a Google enterprise, and I personally think that the road to its comeback will be long and hard, but Motorola will reach its former glory in the coming years.

What do you think? Will Motorola be able to charm consumers again? Let us know in the comments section below!

July 10, 2013
Motorola Droid Ultra Makes An Appearance In A Leaked Photo

A photo of the Motorola Droid Ultra XT1080 has appeared on the XDA Developers forum as leaked by user xavierk75, according to Engadget. Earlier this week the first press images appeared of Motorola‘s upcoming DROID MAXX.

There is absolutely zero details to go along with the leak, but hopefully more will be coming. A random 1-post user over on XDA revealed the photo, so we’re stuck waiting for more. Right out the gate we see Motorola has changed their mind from last year, and they’ve returned to capacitive touch hardware buttons.

The Motorola Droid Ultra in the photo shows a white face plate with thin bezels. It has a speaker and sensors on its top and a power button and volume controls on one side. Just beside the display, the smartphone is labelled “Motorola confidential property.” It also sports the new Motorola logo that was launched some time ago, the same one which has been seen on other purported photos of leaked Motorola phones. White is expected to be one of the color choices that will be available for the handset, along with red and black, so there may be a chance that this is a real image of the device.

Rumoured specs of the Motorola Droid Ultra include a Dupont Kevlar coating, various color options, a 4.3-inch, 540 x 960-pixel Super AMOLED Advanced qHD screen, Dual-Core 1.5GHz processsor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 8GB of memory, 2000 mAh Li Ion battery, NFC, and 8 MP/0.3 MP cameras.

@evleaks says that the Motorola Droid Ultra has the product code XT1080, whereas the Droid MAXX has the code XT1080M.

[Via]

July 8, 2013
Motorola Droid Maxx Images Leaked

EVLeaks, the source of almost all major leaks of the tech world, has just released an image of the rumoured Motorola Droid Maxx.

EVLeaks has also posted a tweet with the names of several upcoming Motorola smartphones and their corresponding model numbers. According to the leak, the XT1030 is the Droid Mini and the XT1080 is the recently-leaked Droid Ultra. The tweet also claims that a Motorola Droid Maxx is coming with the model number XT1080M.

The render shows a device with the same angled corners as previous Motorola Droid Razr devices and a kevlar coating that wraps around to the front of the phone. Interestingly, this DROID MAXX also appears to have ditched the on-screen keys found on its DROID RAZR MAXX HD predecessor in favor of a set of capacitive buttons. We can also see a front-facing camera near the top of the phone as well as a power/lock button and volume rocker on its side. We expect the device to have a massive battery, similar to the one seen on the Motorola RAZR MAXX.

Along with the trio of Droid devices, @evleaks says that the Moto X will come to market carrying the model number XT1060. No specs are available yet.

[Via]

July 6, 2013
Leaked : Rumoured Moto X Back Panels In Different Colours

We now understand what Motorola says when it claims the upcoming Moto X is “designed by you.” The company will fulfill orders within two days from its Texas-based plant, allowing buyers to customize the backplate colour and, presumably, add lettering or even pictures to the polycarbonate body. In total there will reportedly be about 16 different flavours to select, such as blue, purple, green and red.

A leaked photo of what appears to be three backplates in garish neon colours reaffirms the reports we heard this week and earlier today, and lends credence to the idea that Moto X will indeed be a mid-range device with broad appeal, not a barnstormer flagship with enormous gigahertz counts.

It’s unclear what other colors will be offered, but we’d guess Motorola’s new Google-fied logo is a good indication on what to expect. If that’s the case, we might be saying goodbye to the typical black and white.

The Moto X is firmly tipped as a mid-range device. Considering the constantly growing buzz surrounding the smartphone, we reckon its launch isn’t too far away.

Rumoured specs are that we’ll see the new Android run OS 4.2.2 and come with a 4.7-inch full HD screen, NVIDIA Tegra 4i processor, 16MP camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, and some sort of “smart” technology.

[Via]

July 4, 2013
Motorola : Moto X Phone Will Be Customizable

The Motorola Moto X will be released this summer and their early marketing efforts declare it’ll be “designed by you.” Rumoured specs are that we’ll see the new Android run OS 4.2.2 and come with a 4.7-inch full HD screen, NVIDIA Tegra 4i processor, 16MP camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, and some sort of “smart” technology.

Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s CEO, previously confirmed that the new “hero” device will “know when it’s in your pocket, we know when it’s in your hand, it’s going to know when you want to take a picture and fire up the cameras… The device will know when you’re in the car and it’s moving at 60mph and you’ll interact with it differently, more safely.”

New details emerged today that reveal deep personalization. According to sources at ABC, the Moto X – which they say is a ‘mid-range phone’ – will be available for sale via a website – similar to Google’s Nexus 4. In addition, “buyers will be able to select from a palette of different colors.

One color can be used for the back case and another can be selected for the trim of the phone. Users will also be able to engrave a name or message on the back cover as well as upload a personal photo through the site to be used as the wallpaper on the phone’s screen.” The engraving portion is similar to heading to the Apple’s online store where they give you options to laser engrave your iPod or iPad, but the wallpaper will certainly add a personal touch to the device.

No word yet on whether Motorola will bring the device to the Indian markets.

[Via]

July 4, 2013
Unannounced Motorola Droid Ultra Shows Up On Its Website

We know something is happening at Motorola, Google’s beleaguered handset manufacturer it purchased in 2011 for $12.5 billion. First, we got confirmation of the rumoured X Phone, Motorola’s foray into next-generation smartphone. Next we saw the redesigned, simplified and be-Googled Motorola logo.

And now we’re seeing hints of a device called the Motorola Droid Ultra, leaked briefly on Motorola’s own website. The page provides almost everything you could want to know about the phone, except what it looks like, as the main image is sadly missing. The device is expected to be fairly mid-range, with a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, a 4.3-inch qHD display, 8GB of internal storage, an 8MP camera and 2000mAh battery.

The landing page paints the Motorola Droid Ultra as “available in a bunch of glossy colours,” with a “high-grade DuPont Kevlar body” that’s “even thinner and…tough as steel.” At 122.5 x 60.9 x 8.3 mm, the Droid Ultra should be a very compact device, seemingly a follow-up to the RAZR M that was released last year.

Unfortunately, there is little to differentiate the Motorola Droid Ultra from the rest of the market at this point, so unless Motorola pulls something drastic from its hat, this will be just another mid-range Android.

No release date is mentioned, but an official announcement can’t be far away, seeing as the webpage is almost completely ready to go.

[Via]

July 3, 2013
Leaked : Motorola X Phone Image, And Ad Campaign

After last night’s cryptic leak about a possible ad campaign for Motorola, the internet is back today with some more info. Once again posted on B.A. Bäkken’s Behance page, these pictures present a different story. A story of Motorola’s return; emphasized with the phrase “hello again”.

The company is understood to be undergoing some sort of rebranding, re-emerging with its new Motorola X Phone on August 1.

“The Motorola that returns will not be the company you once knew. But we have some work to do”, reads one of the images. “So until we’re ready, we’re going away. No new ads or tweets. No site updates. Just silence until we begin the next chapter. Until we meet again, goodbye Moto.”

The most recent specs leak that we have seen came from an often-reliable source though, and these included a 1.7GHz MSM8960 Pro dual-core processor, 720p HD display, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, a 10-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front-facing shooter. Along with these specs we also heard that the Moto X phone would run the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system, but we must remind you that all of this is not yet confirmed. If accurate though, then the specs are decent enough, but we feel that many potential customers are hoping for a lot more.

PhoneArena also posted an image of the Motorola X Phone, which you can see above.

Google and Motorola have also indicated that the Moto X phone will use the phone’s sensors in interesting new ways. We’ve heard Motorola talk about how the Moto X phone will be able to know when you’re driving and it will dynamically adjust the interface based on that information.

[Via, Via]

June 26, 2013
Motorola X Smartphone To Feature Great Battery Life And Kevlar Backing

If you’re a fan of Android devices then you will probably already have heard the rumors surrounding a new X Phone from the Google/Motorola stable. This has also been referred to as the Google X or Motorola X although the name will probably be changed before release. It’s rumored that this X Phone will be the first device to launch running the next overhaul of the Android operating system, 5.0 Key Lime Pie and today we have some snippets of specs claimed to be coming to the X Phone.

To start it looks like Google’s I/O event on May 15th is when the Motorola X-Phone will be revealed to the world, but read on for more details.

Rumors have been floating around on the X-Phone since the WSJ originally leaked the details, and today sources claim to actually have a friend using and testing the new smartphone. Yup, according to PhoneArena’s tipster the device is in the wild and being tested by a few lucky souls.

This source says Motorola and Google have decided on a 4.8-inch 1920 x 1080p full HD display, will reveal it at I/O on May 15th, and it will even sport the impressive Sony Exmor camera sensor. Apple’s exclusivity contract has ended, and we can expect that camera sensor to make its way into multiple handsets early this year.

Google’s big focus lately on Android smartphones has been for durability, and battery life. The X-Phone will address both of those. Using Motorola’s excellent Kevlar design for extreme durability and splash-guard water-resistance mixed in with a battery like the RAZR MAXX HD (3,300 mAh) the new X-Phone will reportedly rock. It will have the latest and greatest hardware on all levels, the newest Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, amazing battery life, be extremely durable, support up to 128GB of internal storage and come with a micro-SD slot, and all of this will hit multiple carriers. Not to mention be sold on the Google Play Store.

Looks like a winner to us!

[Android Community]

February 3, 2013
Motorola X Phone Confirmed By LinkedIn Job Posting

Motorola posted a job opening on LinkedIn this week searching for a product manager for an upcoming smartphone called the X Phone.

There was a pervasive rumour going around last year that Google and its newly-acquired Motorola Mobile division were working on a phone that would rival the iPhone, both in terms of sales and quality. While Motorola hasn’t had the best 12 months, repeatedly losing money quarter over quarter, the company is poised for a comeback in 2013.

The job posting on LinkedIn was for a “Senior Director of Product Management” to work on the X-Phone project and this is the first time Motorola directly referenced the X-Phone. The listing did not reveal anything about the phone itself, but at least it seems to prove its existence. It also indicates that development is still at an early stage, so don’t expect to see it anytime soon.

Motorola is trying to regain its strength in the smartphone market, and Google is attempting to get its $12.5 billion money’s worth. During Google’s earnings call last week, they deflected blame that they haven’t yet been able to turn around Motorola’s mobile business, stating that all the devices the company released since the acquisition were planned and executed without Google’s intervention.

We’re excited about the potential for Motorola’s success this year; the company is in better hands with Google than it was before.

February 1, 2013
Top 10 Fails Of The Technology World – 2012!

When you look at the tech world this year, there have been plenty of innovations, but of course where there are successes, there are certainly going to be failures. Coming up with a list of the top 10 tech fails of 2012 was a bit of a challenge however, not because there weren’t enough, but because there are so many. And most of the entries on this list are debatable to some extent.

1. Aakash Tablet!

In October 2012, Indian politician Kapil Sibal called a press conference. Indian politicians call press conferences all the time, even those with a last name that is not Gandhi. And with two portfolios–he is both India’s minister of human-resource development and its minister of communications and information technology–Sibal typically has a lot he wants to talk about.

But this time he actually had news that would be noticed beyond New Delhi. With a phalanx of reporters and photographers gathered in a government auditorium, Sibal, a Harvard Law grad with a halo of white hair, held up a device he called the Aakash, which is Hindi for “sky.” It looked like an iPad.

The most remarkable Aakash data point was its price: $35. Meant for the millions of students who can’t even afford textbooks, the Aakash is supposed to be India’s iPad knockoff. “There are some moments in history,” Sibal said, taking a long pause, “that will be milestones recognized by future generations. This is one such moment.”

Indians take a certain pride in making things cheaper. The Hindi word to describe this is jugaad, roughly translated as “frugal innovation.” However, the Aakash, never made it to market.

I’ve yet to come across any college student who bought the tablet, either at the subsidized rate or the normal cost. So it tops our list as the biggest fail for 2012!

2. Apple Maps

Along with the rollout of the much anticipated iPhone 5 in September 2012, Apple overhauled iOS, the operating system that runs the phone, its iPad and other mobile devices. A much-hyped feature of the change was Apple’s first effort at its own mapping app — after dumping rival Google’s map software.

The result was so bad that a few days later Apple’s CEO was essentially telling customers to use Google Maps.

Entire cities appeared in the wrong place. Landmarks such as the Washington Monument showed up submerged in bodies of water, and big chunks of the globe appeared as roadless wastelands.

It was a little more than a month later when Scott Forstall, vice president in charge of iOS, was ousted from the company, reportedly, in part, for not wanting to apologize for Maps.

Apple fails are few and far between, but Apple Maps were a definite fail!

3. Motorola India

Motorola Mobility, which is totally independent from Motorola Solutions, had incurred heavy loss last year. Google took over the company for $12.5 billion in May this year. Google had earlier said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Motorola Mobility shut down its India-specific product website as part of its global streamlining process.

“We are streamlining our business and support systems, and unfortunately, we’ll no longer have a dedicated website for India,” a message on Motorola Mobility India’s website said.

“Your local support site will remain open well into the future, and we’ll continue to provide support for our existing products,” it added.

This move seems to be a part of the company’s global downsizing process. In August, it had confirmed its decision to cut off 20 percent of work force and shut down operations in many countries.

So after capturing the Indian customer’s imagination with devices like the MotoRazr and the MotoRokr, Motorola finally bid adieu to the country, leaving many disappointed.

4. HTC One X Wi-Fi Issue

HTC did extremely well for themselves with their new line of Smartphones, the One Series. In June, several reports of WiFi issues on the HTC One X came to light, issues that led to difficulty connecting to Wi-Fi networks and annoying lag when playing games. The issues, which can also negatively affect the handset’s battery life, may have been related to a flaw in manufacturing, was actually confirmed.

Taiwanese manufacturer, HTC, officially confirmed that the device was infact suffering said issues. But having finally come clean on the issue, the Taiwanese Smartphone Giant also claimed to have found its fix, and had changed its production process for the One X to tackle the problem.

It replaced many handsets in the process, earning itself a place in our top 10 fails.

5. Stop Online Piracy Act ( SOPA )

The new law was supposed to be about fighting online piracy. Who’s going to be against that, right?

Answer: Pretty much the whole Internet.

Members of Congress sponsored the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and related bills to make it easier to shut down websites that illegally share music, movies and other content.

But opponents argued it went too far and could end up shutting down legitimate sites while stifling free expression in the process.

Unfortunately for backers of SOPA, Web heavyweights such as Google, Facebook, Reddit and Wikipedia joined the fight against the bill. Sites went black on January 18 to raise awareness. Members of communities such as Reddit put intense pressure on lawmakers (including soon-to-be GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan) until they dropped their support or went on record opposing the bill.

The unprecedented backlash eventually caused supporters to shelve SOPA, and quite possibly ushered in a new age of Web activism.

6. Blackberry Outage

This tweet just about sums it up!

It was a case of worst possible timing as BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) confirmed it had suffered a significant outage across Europe and Asia, just as the iPhone 5 was launching to the now familiar queues in Apple stores around the world.

An October outage at a data center caused users to lose messaging ability in parts of Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, Latin America and North America. (To their credit, RIM ultimately gave away a pile of free apps to the folks affected).

The outage lasted for several days and was the final straw for some users, who abandoned ship for other phones. Add that to a list of Blackberry fails.

7. Zynga

Zynga was riding high. Love them or hate them, its games like “Mafia Wars” and “FarmVille” were everywhere, clogging up Facebook pages and spurring millions of bored casual gamers to pay real cash for virtual cows. Then, it all came crumbling down.”

OK, maybe “crumbling down” is an overstatement. But things in The ‘Ville definitely didn’t go Zynga’s way in 2012.

In October, Zynga announced it was laying off 5% of its employees, Facebook, which gets a cut when people spend money on games such as “FarmVille,” said that income from Zynga was down 20% over last year.

And yesterday, the company announced that it was closing down 20 of its game titles in order to cut costs. FAIL!

8. Windows 8

Many eyebrows were raised on November 12, 2012 when Microsoft announced that Stephen Sinofsky—the president of the Windows division, a driving force behind Windows 8, and a long-time leader at Microsoft—was leaving his post, effective immediately. The odd timing and abrupt announcement led to a rash of speculation. Was Sinofsky fired or did he quit? Was it planned? Are Windows 8 sales that bad? The answer is yes!

Aside from the app selection, many early criticisms targeted the modern UI itself, which throws everything you know about navigating Windows, well, out the window. Early adopters—especially nontechie types—have reported running into issues with the overhauled interface, which is made worse by Windows 8’s near-complete lack of instructions when you boot it up for the first time.

Microsoft hasn’t been forthcoming with sales numbers, and the company declined to comment when asked by various journalists. That institutional reticence makes it hard to divine just how well Windows 8 is actually selling on the streets.

All that said, sporadic leaks, whispers, and data from third-party channels help us paint a partial picture of Windows 8’s sales success—and what we’ve learned suggests that the OS is stumbling out of the gate.

A fail so far, we’re afraid.

9. Facebook IPO

Maybe the dumb money wasn’t so dumb this time.

From the point of view of the company, Facebook itself, of course it was a roaring success. They were able to raise a good chunk of capital to develop and expand the business. That’s what an IPO is, at heart, about. Early investors in the company did well too: they were able to cash out some portion of their earlier investment at good prices. But things went horribly wrong!

If the market were to judge Facebook not a a potential promise but as actual worth today, the stock should be trading around $4.50. It could lose over 85% of its current value (90% from the IPO price, which started at $38) and still have room to fall further. That’s how big a fail the IPO has turned out to be!

10. IPC Sec 66A Of The IT App

The Section 66 (A) of the Indian IT Act continues to haunt the cyber population of India. At a time when a public interest litigation has been filed in the Supreme court questioning the constitutional validity of the section, questions are also being raised about the need for such “draconian” section.

Section 66A of the IT Act criminalises any person who electronically sends any information that is deemed grossly offensive, has a menacing character, which he\she knows to be false but still transmits to cause annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will, persistently by making use of the electronic communication medium. It also includes emails or text messages that have been sent with the deliberate purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or mislead the recipient. The punishment can be a fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years.

The act has been in the eye of the storm after it caused the arrest two Palghar girls for allegedly posting Facebook comments against a political party. Earlier, the police had used the same law to arrest Aseem Trivedi for allegedly mocking the Indian Constitution through cartoons that had been put up as banners during Anna Hazare’s rally in Mumbai.

It definitely earns its place in the top fails!

Epic Fail

But the biggest fail of 2012 has to be the inability of our nation to respect women. The recent gang-rape and eventual death of the girl, named by the press as “Nirbhaya” (or fearless) is a BIG black dot on our society. Change is needed, not only in our laws and government, but within ourselves.

So many Big Statements coming in. Where are the big actions?

Have we missed any? Let us know in the comments section below!

January 2, 2013
Motorola Mobility Indian Website Shut Down

Motorola Mobility has shut down its India-specific product website as part of its global streamlining process.

[quote]“We are streamlining our business and support systems, and unfortunately, we’ll no longer have a dedicated website for India,” a message on Motorola Mobility India’s website said.[/quote]

“Your local support site will remain open well into the future, and we’ll continue to provide support for our existing products,” it added.

This move seems to be a part of the company’s global downsizing process. In August, it had confirmed its decision to cut off 20 percent of work force and shut down operations in many countries.

Motorola Mobility, which is totally independent from Motorola Solutions, had incurred heavy loss last year. Google took over the company for $12.5 billion in May this year. Google had earlier said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company is likely to continue its sales in India till the stocks lessen. It is rumored that India may not see any new products from Motorola. It was reported that the existing customers would continue to get the service centre support.

This move seems to be a part of Motorola’s global downsizing process. In August, Motorola had confirmed its decision to cut off 20 percent of work force and shut down operations in many countries.

Motorola Mobility, which is totally independent from Motorola Solutions, had incurred heavy loss last year. Google took over the company for $12.5 billion in May this year. Google had earlier said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, “These changes are designed to return Motorola’s mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters,” as reported by IBN Live.
The company is likely to continue its sales in India till the stocks lessen. It is rumored that India may not see any new products from Motorola. It was reported that the existing customers would continue to get the service centre support.

November 26, 2012
Motorola and Intel announce the new Droid Razr i (PR)
The Motorola and Intel mating has delivered the RAZR i , and it runs on ntel’s latest mobile chips (2GHz processor),Motorola calls it their biggest phone since the Razr.

Motorola Razr i features:
- “Edge-to-edge”4.3-inch AMOLED display
- 2,000mAh of battery a
- Kevlar coating + water repellent design
- Intel’s 2GHz processor inside
- 8-megapixel camera
- New User interface
- One second start-up to get the camera with dedicated camera butto
- NFC
- Android Beam
- Unlocked bootloader
The phone will come with Android Jelly Bean out of the box and will be available starting next month in Europe. We doubt it will hit the Indian market anytime soon, especially since Motorola started shutting shop in India.

[toggle_box title=”Press Release” width=”Width of toggle box”]

Introducing the Powerful Motorola RAZR^™ i with Intel Inside^® and an Edge-to-Edge Display

Say hello to the full-screen phone

Motorola Mobility in partnership with Intel Corporation introduced the powerful Motorola RAZR™ i with Intel Inside®: the new full-screen smartphone that fits in the palm of your hand. Its Super AMOLED Advanced 4.3-inch display spans from edge-to-edge with virtually no border – giving you more screen with less phone. RAZR i is the first smartphone that can achieve speeds of 2.0 GHz thanks to a fast Intel® Atom™ processor. Jump from a game to a text and over to a playlist, then off to browse the Web – all without stopping and on a long-lasting battery that is 40 percent more powerful than the competition1.

The power of Intel Inside means you also get an instant-launch 8-megapixel camera that can load in less than a second2. Just use the dedicated camera key so you get the shot you want. When there’s action involved, multi-shot mode lets you snap 10 pictures in less than a second. And with the illuminated sensor located on the back and High Dynamic Range (HDR) capabilities, you’ll get a great shot, even in challenging lighting conditions.

“Together with Intel, we’re redefining what people can expect from a mobile device. A camera that launches in an instant, Web pages that load blazingly fast and a device that’s the perfect balance of screen size and fit in hand,” said Jim Wicks, senior vice president, Consumer Experience Design, Motorola Mobility. “RAZR i delivers just that when you put an Intel-fast processor in a beautifully designed phone and add in extra long battery life.”

“Motorola RAZR i with Intel Inside naturally blends together the value propositions of high performance Intel Architecture and great battery life, Motorola Mobility device innovation and the Android™ platform,” said Erik Reid, general manager, Intel’s Mobile and Communications Group. “Intel’s goal is to provide compelling technology options that translate into great user benefits and experiences. RAZR i is a great proofpoint in the collaboration and we’re thrilled to be working with Motorola to bring this edge-to-edge experience enhanced with Intel Inside to people around the world.”

Powered by Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich (upgradeable to Jelly Bean), RAZR i puts the Google universe in your hand. Google Play™ gives you access to more than 600,000 apps and games, millions of books and thousands of movies. Get where you need to go with Google Maps for Android™ with free turn-by-turn directions and voice guidance. And when your hands are full, use Voice Actions for Android™ on RAZR i to compose a text, get directions, make a call, play a song…or simply Google something. RAZR i also features near field communication (NFC) technology so you can send contacts, links, maps and more directly to compatible phones with Android Beam™. Just hold the phones together and tap the screen.

Designed with premium protective materials, RAZR i is built to go everywhere. A diamond cut aircraft-grade aluminum4 frame surrounds the display, which is made of Corning® Gorilla® Glass, to deflect both scratches and scrapes. On the back, RAZR i is made DuPont™ KEVLAR® strong3. Spilled coffee? Caught in the rain? Don’t worry. RAZR i is protected with a splash-guard coating-even on the electrical boards inside.

RAZR i already has a long battery – and when you set up the SMARTACTIONS™ battery savings rule your phone will automatically adjust to squeeze more out of each charge. Whether you want to maximize your last ounce of power, or prevent your phone from ringing during a meeting, SMARTACTIONS will automatically trigger specific actions. Motorola’s exclusive Guide Me app comes preloaded with interactive, swipe-by-swipe tutorials for tons of features – no instruction manual required. Also unique to Motorola, the interactive Circles Widget allows quick access to notifications, weather, time and more.

Availability and pricing
Motorola RAZR i will be available in black beginning in October in select European and Latin American markets including the U.K., France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico with more to be announced. A stand out white version will also be coming to select markets. Pricing and availability will vary by country, so please visit www.motorola.com/razri for the latest information.

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September 18, 2012
Motorola Atrix HD Receives Major OTA Update For Battery, Wi-Fi Improvements, But Not Jelly Bean
Motorola has announced a new software update for the Atrix HD, and while there’s no Jelly Bean to be found quite yet, there are a number of improvements that users ought to appreciate. Included in the update are things like enhancements to Wi-Fi connectivity, optimized battery performance and improved low light performance in the camera. The full changelog from Moto is available at the bottom of this post.

There are also a bunch of apps updated to their latest versions, including Google Chrome, Google+, GMaps, Gmail, and Street View, while the number of pre-loaded software will be increased with Quickoffice, Smart Wi-Fi, and YPmobile.

The OTA update should have already started rolling out to Atrix HD owners, but if you haven’t got yet a prompt message to download the new software package, go ahead to “Settings” – “About Phone” – “System Updates”, and perform a manual check.

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Improved Features
- Wi-Fi: Improvements in WI-FI to allow for stronger connections in more places.
- Battery: Optimized Battery performance and metering for longer battery life
- Camera:
  - The camera changes include improvements for low light performance, reduced blurriness, and better color accuracy.
  - Bar code scanning applications like AT&T code scanner will have a higher rate of accuracy on 1st scan.
- Games/Apps:
  - Optimized EA/Gameloft games performance.
  - With Spotify Market Application, when skipping to the next song, the player will no longer pause.
- Streaming: Optimized playback of Widevine streaming content which does not impact most of the streaming content available today.
- Live Wallpaper:
  - Removed Not Supported Live Wallpaper 1) Color Bands, 2) Forest 3)Triangulations.
  - Software update will revert to Factory default Wallpaper if one of the above three is user selected prior to the update.
- Location: Corrected functionality for Fixed pictures being Geo Tagged when settings has it disabled.
- New and Updated Apps: Added latest versions of AT&T apps (Smart Wi-Fi, YPmobile), Pre Loaded apps (Quickoffice), and Google apps (Chrome, Google+, Maps, Gmail, Play Store, Street View).
- Security: Implemented Latest Google Security Patches.
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September 13, 2012
Motorola files biggest complaint against Apple for iOS devices

Motorola’s biggest ever complaint against Apple involves 7 technologies that are now owned by Motorola, such as syncing messages between devices and bookmarking media playback on one device to resume on another. Although Apple has been using these technologies since 2005 in podcasts and Movies from iTunes, Motorola’s complaint only targets the newer iPad, iPhone 4s and other devices in the bottom line of Apple’s retail chain.

The complaint may take 6 months to over a year to resolve. By then Apple’s new lineup of technologies should be out. But, the question on everyone’s mind remains whether Apple, with their billions of dollars of corp warfare funds, will let this go easy.

August 21, 2012