AGRS Tech News

Epic Win: Tim Cook Will Violate Your Every Hope and Dream.

Zephaniah Washington — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:30:48 +0000

We saw this picture and simply could not resist. Hope you enjoy.

~Zephaniah Washington
Editor-in-chief.

This is an Outrage!

Zephaniah Washington — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:45:27 +0000

So just after the largest internet protest in history, the US government gives us all the middle finger and takes down MegaUpload. This is what SOPA/PIPA will do. We MUST KILL BOTH BILLS NOW! Please read the following from Demand Progress. Also SPREAD THE WORD ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA SITES!

Yes, we know — another email. But this news is urgent UNBELIEVABLE:

One day after history’s largest online protest, the U.S. Government nonchalantly responds with the middle finger. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The FBI shut down Thursday one of the world’s most popular file-sharing websites, MegaUpload.com, and announced the arrest of four of the people behind it in a global crackdown against the suspected online pirates.

Please click here to tell your lawmakers to cut it out: No SOPA, no PIPA, no more website seizures.

Here — check it out: If SOPA and PIPA pass it’ll just broaden the government’s power to do things like this: MegaUpload.com. (And make it illegal for us to link to sites that are seized — like we just did in the last sentence.)

As MegaUpload’s website notes — er… noted:

The fact is that the vast majority of mega’s Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue.

This is what we’re up against. Please tell President Obama and your lawmakers to put an end to it. NOW.

Thanks,

Demand Progress

Updated: Motorola XOOM WiFi Receiving OTA to ICS NOW!

Zephaniah Washington — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:15:36 +0000

Looks like our Managing Editor and Android Correspondent Nicolas Wiggins just was OTA’d ICS (Android 4.0.3) to his Motorola XOOM. I however have not been so lucky. Start hitting that “check for updates” button. We’ll be back with our first impressions soon.

NOTE: Nicolas is not a member of the Motorola Users Forum which leads us to believe the first wave of ICS is rolling out on a large scale.

All Images Credit To: Nicolas Wiggins.

Update: We decided to ask Motorola what the deal was. So far now official reply, but some of their fans are commenting in.

Update 2: My tablet finally was able to pull the ICS update about an hour ago. So far I’m love it, especially the option to force GPU acceleration, it just makes everything run very smooth. However I’ve noticed I chew through battery a lot quicker, this could be because of GPU acceleration, but I’ll have to do some test’s to be sure. Tell us, do you have the update? How’s it running for you?

~Zephaniah Washington
Editor-in-chief

UPDATED: Site Related Notice (SRN): Availability Notice

Zephaniah Washington — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:18:37 +0000

The following is a message from AGRS Media LLC:

Due to GoDaddy’s support of SOPA and PIPA, AGRS Media LLC will no longer be doing business with the company. As such, we are in the process of transferring all AGRS Media LLC owned domains to a new registrar. Our new registrar is Namecheap, who has a clear anti-SOPA/PIPA stance. AGRS Media LLC strongly opposes SOPA/PIPA and all censorship bill’s. As such, we will NOT conduct business with ANY company that supports SOPA/PIPA/Censorship in general. Our sites may or may become unavailble during the transfer process. Please follow and watch @AGRStech to stay up to date on the transfer.

Thank you.

~Zephaniah Washington
CEO/Founder – AGRS Media LLC.

UPDATE: AGRSTECH.COM is no longer registered under GoDaddy. The transfer to our new registrar Namecheap has finished and things are working perfectly.

Via Americans For Free Speech: DO THIS!

Zephaniah Washington — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:14:16 +0000

[Updated]Gaming: Xbox Live Down?

Zephaniah Washington — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:32:03 +0000

Service Alert in Test Connection Page.

As many gamers know, today is the day that Microsoft rolls out the new Dashboard. Well, it’s causing a few problems. I went to sign into Xbox Live pre-update and got “unable to connect”, I went to “Test Connection” and was prompted to download the update. I was able to download and install the update, but am unable to sign in. More and more repports of this problem are coming in (as well as a rumor the the entire network is down, though that is only a rumor). We will keep you up to date with information as we get it. Follow @majornelson on Twitter and keep your eye’s on this status page to learn more.

Update: I personally have made it into XBOX Live. Just keep trying. As always, we will let you know more, as it becomes available.

Update 2: Everything should be fine now, let us know if you are still having problems.

~Zephaniah Washington
Editor-in-chief.

LIVE Blog: Google/Samsung “Whats new with Android” Event.

Nicolas Wiggins — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:53:33 +0000

Today Samsung and Google announce the Galaxy Nexus. The most advanced and revolutionary phone I’ve ever seen. They also spent a great deal of time in Android 4, and so will we. Read the live blog below and pick one up in November.

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And we are out.

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Sorry technical glitch on our part.

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Looks like that is all, folks!

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Galaxy Nexus will be available next month, the SDK is now available on Google’s developer website

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PLaying game (minecraft). Share market link with friend by touching phones!

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Android beam is a sharing app that shares info via NFC instantly.

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Android Beam is now like Bump, where you can share apps and information between two devices

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Call screen.

Phone

Instead of declining a call you can swipe up and send a quick premade text.

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You can now send a “quick response” text message as soon as you decline a call

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Quick contact cards.

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People.

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Video

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Time lapse photos are now baked in to the camera application

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Panorama shots are now taken with many, many pictures, just by moving the device

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Panorama is now built in.

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You may now tag people in your photos, too

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Built in advanced photo editing. Edits are saved as copies.

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Built in photo editing

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“Zero shutter lag, literally instant”

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Instant sharing.

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Talking about photo’s

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You can now see a graph of your data usage and cap, and you can also set a warning when you want to stop using data.

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Hugo’s now talking about data usage. There will be data usage tracking built into the OS!

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Calendar now offers pinch-to-zoom to get a closer look. A few “oohs” and “aahs” actually. Yes, for a calendar app.

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New Cal

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You can now look though your email while offline

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You may now swipe left or right to go forward or backwards in the Gmail application instead of using your back button

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“The text is a pleasure to read”. The new Roboto text does look pretty nice.

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Redesigned Gmail inbox, now with two line previews — and the new font, of course. There’s a new action bar at the bottom that lets you compose a message, search, and access labels.

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“Best mobile email, anywhere”

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GMAIL

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You may now request a desktop version of the website you visit, so you don’t have to go in to settings and turn off mobile view. You can also save entire webpages for offline view.

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Browser has now been improved and redesigned, up to 14 tabs may be open at once, and you can use the “flick” gesture again to get rid of tabs

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Hugo Barra is now on stage

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Aww, and it didn’t work…

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Ice Cream Sandwich includes “Face Unlock” — “Ice Cream Sandwich literally knows your face.”

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FACIAL UNLOCK!?

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Voice recognition is also improved, you may now state your punctuation and it responds by placing the correct marks.

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We’re doing some live speech recognition. Matias just sent off a message by voice. It didn’t quite get it right (it said “Map” and not “man”) but he was even able to say “question mark” and “smiley face” and it put in “? ”

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Words may now be highlighted and dragged

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Cut, Copy, Paste, and Spell Checker have all been improved

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“We gave the keyboard a lot of love in Ice Cream Sandwich.” There’s improved error correction and an inline spell-checker. Just tap the word and, bam, suggestions.

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Right from the lockscreen you may enter your notifications bar, and go straight in to the corresponding app

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That “flick” gesture also gets rid of notifications one by one

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Now, you can flick any of those apps off to the side to free up memory — yes, it’s a task manager, but it looks nice. They didn’t blow it.

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Screen shots are now included

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Task killing is now as easy as “flicking” the apps off of the Recent Apps menu

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Folders as well as any application can be placed in to the dock at the bottom now

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You can customize the launcher too, dragging apps or folders down there.

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“Folders are for more than just apps.” You can add contacts into a folder for a speed dial

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Folders are now included, you can pinch them open to see your apps that are inside

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“It is really YOUR space” He is talking about your home screens

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Widgets are now listed in a similar list as the apps. It’s a new tab, just hit that and you can page through your widgets. Just drag it onto the homescreen and, bam, you’ve got clutter

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You can swipe left and right to go through home screens, just like before. “Android’s home screen is more than just a place to launch applications — it’s a home for widgets.

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Android 4 now has a lot of gestures so you don’t have to use “boring” buttons

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We’re starting with the new lock screen. Roboto font on the clock and there’s live wallpaper with some “really rich, gorgeous, subtle animations.”

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Android 4 aims to have a “totally new look”

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“Meet Robato. It’s a totally new typeface for Android — modern yet approachable. It was built from scratch for high-definition paper density displays.”

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“We started by looking at every screen and thinking about it like a magazine layout.”

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Nice slam on custom UI’s

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“Enchant me, simplify my life, and make me feel awesome”

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“People like Android, and they need Android…but they don’t love Android. We want to change that”

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“We asked ourselves for the first time: what is the soul of Android.”

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“It’s hard to believe, but Android was born only three years ago. In that time it has been evolving in an amazingly fast and furious rate.”

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Transition in to Ice Cream Sandwich

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NFC has been put in to the device, too

“Starting in November, it will be launched in America, Europe, and Asia”

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Full HD and zero shutter lag, less than a second between the press of a button and the snap of a photograph

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The back is called “hyperskin” — a soft grip texture. It looks like the backing on the T-Mo GS II.

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“We have made the screen bigger, but the device is the same size”

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8.94mm thin!

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.01 of a second response time on the display

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Full 720p resolution on a 4.65″ display

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This is the largest smartphone display at 720p

This is “the most colorful display on the market” and has the “highest contrast ratio.” That’s 100,000:1, if you’re looking for numbers.

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“…the battery will take you even further”

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Now they are moving on to screen. The screen is the largest I have seen on a device, and the resolution is the “best display in the industry”

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“The screen is critical, because the experience begins and ends with the display.”

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Apparently, the LTE variant will be able to pull up to 100 megs!

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Speed, Screen, Design, and OS are the four major things they want to show with this device. The Galaxy Nexus will be running on LTE and HSPA+, depending on which carrier you purchase it on.

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There are “several unique aspects” of this device, categorized into speed, screen, design, and OS.

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He’s talking about the Galaxy S last year, S II this year, and of course all the tabs.

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Long pause for photos

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“Everyone, we are proud to announce: The Galaxy Nexus!”

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“We want to go beyond smartphones, we take all our innovation at Google and our cloud services and we make it available on your cellphone.”

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Simplicity, Beautiful, and Beyond Smart..the three pillars of the Android strategy

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Andy Rubin just took the stage

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Andy Rubin is here.

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HSPA+ might be coming too, depending on demand.

19.06

Looks like every “rumored” spec is now true, as the CEO of Samsung has just announced everything on the list!

19.06

“Today Samsung and Google unveil the first Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwhich phone”

It has LTE.

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“The Android platform is the most popular mobile platform in the world.”

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“Take a moment to imagine a collaboration, where Samsung and Google join forces to form a creation that capitalizes on the strengths of both companies.”

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Kim Titus, Director from Samsung PR is on stage.

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This is that same “Better together ad”

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Oh, where have we heard this music before?

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And we are live.

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Andy Rubin’s here!

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“Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Our program will begin in two minutes.”

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Five minutes and counting

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The suspense… >.<

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NOTE: Images courtesy of Engadget.

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Some pretty nice bass and other interesting/spooky sounds are playing right now.

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We will begin shortly

Then new Motorola Lapdock 500 Pro.

Zephaniah Washington — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:56:30 +0000

The Lapdock was something Motorola first showed off to us back when the Atrix was announced, it also launched with the Droid Bionic. It was not really a great device. Not Motorola has decided to try again, this time adding a 14 inch more MacBook Pro style Lapdock 500 Pro to the line. The 500 has a much larger track pad, what appears to be a bettery keyboard and of course a larger 14 inch screen. No word on pricing yet.

~Zephaniah Washington.
AGRS Editor-in-chief.

LIVE Blog: Motorola “Big Innovation”

Zephaniah Washington — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:01:53 +0000

Motorola just announced the Motorolas Actv — a fitness device much like the iPod nano, but running android — and the Motorola DROID RAZR (once thought to be called the Spydr or Droid HD). The Droid Razr is a slightly faster Bionic in a much sexier package. The Droid Razr will be available for pre-order October 27th for $299.99 on contact. You should have it in your hands sometime around “early november” Images and previously live blog below. More info and video’s soon.

09.45

Correction. 0 for the DROID RAZR and Actv. Sorry about the typo.

09.44

And the event is over. Stay tuned for more information in a bit.

09.43

0 for the whole package

09.43

Quote The Verge After all the iPod nano watch hype, it really seems like Motorola beat Apple to the punch here.

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You can sync your RAZR with Moto ACTV to receive texts and calls on the ACTV without breaking stride.

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Sanjay’s back. “Today we announced two incredible devices. One that will change the well being and fitness category, and another that will change the smartphone.”

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Pre orders start October 27th, available in November, price is 9.

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“We’re not in a lab, we’re not in a test market, and we’re certainly not in a marketing department.”

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I want to take a minute to really talk about 4G LTE… by the end of the year we’ll be in over 178 US markets, over half the population. We’ll blanket the country by 2013.” I sure hope so.

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Right now just talking about how great LTE is.

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“Motorola and Verizon are united again to create another gamechanging device. The best of the best.”

You know a lot of what this phone can do sounds like the Galaxy Nexus, tonight at around 6PM, things could get strange.

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“Droid stands for quality, and state of the art performance.”

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“Two years ago Verizon and Motorola leveraged our partnership to bring a device to market that changed the game for Android. That was the original Droid.”

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Introducing Marnie Walden from Verizon.

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“Here in the US market we’ve brought two iconic brands together: Droid and RAZR.”

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Nothing about this is any different than the Bionic, by the way. Just a thinner case and that Super AMOLED display so far.

There’s a new 14-inch Lapdock, called the Lapdock 500 Pro.

“We have managed to create a 4G LTE device that’s thinner than 3G smartphones and delivers full 4G LTE speeds.”

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He’s saying it’s “business ready,” with corporate email, remote wipe, and password enforcement.

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“The fourth area that’s important to us is driven by the consumerization of the enterprise.”

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And now he’s going to take a video on the phone and send it to the PC.

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And it works on the backup device. Everything is better now.

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Trying to load a presentation now, but it’s not working. “The PC is offline. Why has the PC gone offline?”

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Moto Cast lets people access their content in a “personal cloud,” securely. You connect the phone to a PC with a USB cable, create a secure account, and select the files you want to share — like music and images.

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Jha is going to stream some 50 Cent for us from his iTunes.

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You install the PC client right from the phone, and then select all the files you want to share. I wonder if their is a Mac version?

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As The Verge notes “Think dropbox.”

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“It’s all about all of your files residing on all the devices you control.”

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“While we all believe that all of our content will be in the cloud someday, only 15 percent of people store content in the cloud. The rest of us use PCs.”

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“The most important feature I want to talk about today is MotoCast.”

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He’s talking up Smart Actions now, to automatically shut off applications and functionality, to save your battery life when your home or the battery is dying. You can get up to 30 percent more battery life using the feature.

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“It takes care of things you don’t always do — it can turn off Bluetooth and GPS when you’re at home on Wi-Fi.”

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12.5 hrs of talk time.

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Gorilla Glass screen with Motorola Splash Guard nanotechnology coating — “even the boards inside are protected.”

“One of the lightest smartphones available today.”

Dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM.

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The phone is 7.1mm thin. Looks like thin is in for Motorola again.

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Stainless steel core, Kevlar back, splash guard screen, 1.2Ghz processor, qHD screen.

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It’s coming out on October 18th, looks like.

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“I’d like to introduce you to the best smartphone on the planet today: the Droid RAZR by Motorola.”

And we have a video. Super thin.

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“What does it take to make the best smartphone on the planet? It must look amazing, be thin and durable, but still hold a battery charge that lasts an entire day.”

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“While having the latest technology is crucial, just as important is look and feel.”

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Moto Actv will be available nationwide November 6 — 8GB 9, GB 299

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Apparently the device will figure out which songs you workout the hardest to, and build a special playlist. Interesting.

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“The fact that it’s extremely cool-looking is another motivation for me.”

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“I think that Moto ACTV is a game changer. You need tools, information, and motivation. Moto ACTV tracks my calories every single day.”

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Sanjay’s back. “You have to remember Dean spends an unusual amount of time running… but not everyone is a high performance ultra athlete.” Brining Bob Harper from The Biggest Loser.

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“This is the technology for tomorrow, and we have it today thanks to Motorola.”

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The ACTV will even post updates to twitter and facebook, as well as be sweat and liquid proof, scratch proof, and outdoor readable.

Moving on.

Bringing up Dean Karnazes to talk about fitness now.

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Really, a rist band.

MotoACTV.com

09.08

This dare we say iPod nano on steroids track your heart rate with the SF700 Bluetooth headset, interesting to say the least.

09.07

Image courtesy Engadget

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We have created the ultimate fitness device.” 46mm square, 35 grams, 600MHz processor, “built on the fundamentals of Android.”

09.06

(Images courtesy of Engadget)

MotoACTV

09.05

“We can change way you work out. Introducing Moto Active.”

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Talking about the importance of fitness. “Today you have to carry an MP3 player, a GPS-enabled watch, you have wires all over your body.”

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“Smartphones have become incredibly personal devices. 1 in 4 people told us they were more prepared to share their toothbrush than share a smartphone.”

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“It’s a sad statement, but I think it’s true. Three quarters of people use the smartphone in the bathroom.”

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“Over 40 percent of US adults now own a smartphones… How many of you look at a smartphone as the last thing you do before you fall asleep? And then reach for the phone bleary-eyed before you get out of bed?”

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“Let’s talk about smartphones.”

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Sanjay Jha coming on stage.

[QUICK HIT] Android 4- The XOOM Calls “Firsties!”

Nicolas Wiggins — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:32:09 +0000

Remember earlier this year how the Motorola XOOM was the first device to run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb? Well, the XOOM will also be the first tablet to run Ice Cream Sandwich. Android 4, as it will be officially known as, will be showcased along side the Galaxy Nexus on Wednesday morning in Hong Kong (it will be 6pm Tuesday night here in Seattle), and the XOOM should be the first device to get it OTA within the next few weeks, but it isn’t clear whether it will have it before or after the Galaxy Nexus drops in early November on Verizon.

Stay tuned for more ICS info, tomorrow night on Google’s Android YouTube page they are expected to have a live stream of the event and you can expect us to do a live blog of it all.

~Nicolas Wiggins

Android Correspondent