Two of the best Android handsets money can currently buy in the US – the HTC EVO 3D and the Motorola PHOTON 4G – got lowered to $99 on Amazon for new contracts.

What’s more, until midnight today, your activation fee for Sprint is waived as well, which makes the deal $36 sweeter.

We can’t argue with the phrase that good things come to those who wait, but in this case you might have to wait for the holiday season for these two handsets to become free on contract, so if you have been eying one of them, now might be the time to pull the trigger.

Just a reminder, the HTC EVO 3D is the first 3D-capable Android handset to hit the US shores, carries a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and a 4.3″ qHD display with true RGB matrix. The Motorola PHOTON 4G, on the other hand, also sports a dual-core chipset and 4.3″ qHD screen, and we found its camera and battery life to be a tad better than the EVO 3D’s.

You can read our extensive comparison between the two Android monsters on Sprint here, and watch the video comparison below.

source: Amazon (HTC EVO 3D) & Amazon (Motorola PHOTON 4G)

Right after the big news about getting acquired by Google, Sanjay Jha and company announced the latest addition to their smartphone lineup – the tough and powerful Motorola Defy+. The handset does not only deliver the latest of Android Gingerbread, but just as you’d expect from the successor of the Motorola Defy, it’s well built and protected from water, scratch and dust with its IP67 rating. This combined with its 3.7-inch Gorilla Glass-enhanced screen is what makes the phone stand apart.

Under the hood, the Motorola Defy Plus packs a 1GHz TI OMAP 3620 chip powering Gingerbread 2.3.4. skinned with Motorola’s UI skin still referred to as Motoblur. This is a slight upgrade over the original Defy which sported an 800MHz processor and was only updated to Froyo. On the back, there’s a 5-megapixel auto-fous camera with flash. A 1700mAh battery allows the phone to last 7.1 hours when talking and 16 days in standby.

Previously, we’ve heard rumors about AT&T getting the handset stateside, but the official press release doesn’t explicitly confirm this. What we know for sure, though, is that the Defy Plus will be made available in Asia, Latin America and Europe this fall.

source: Motorola Mobility

Coming to the Clove UK network sometime this September is a QWERTY-packing, Android-powered handset known as the Motorola Fire which will be available for £215 with no contract needed.

While we don’t know the exact September release date yet, at least we can tell you a little about this phone that just recently launched in China. The device is a slab-style smartphone that has a 2.8-inch display. The form factor is similar to that of the Motorola Droid Pro.

Running the show behind the scenes is a 600MHz processor and 256MB of RAM which won’t excite too many people, but it does feature the latest and greatest from Google in the form of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Around the back of the device is a modest 3 megapixel camera.

This smartphone is only a month or so away and will be a nice mid-range option at a fairly cheap price point for those who do not want to deal with a contract. Tell us what you think of this device in the comments below.

source: Into Mobile

Well, that’s what we call a good start of the week – Google and Motorola Mobility have announced a $12.5 billion deal under which the search giant will acquire the phone maker. This translates into a per share price of $40, meaning that Google is ready to pay 63% over Motorola Mobility’s share price as per the company’s Friday’s closing price. This puts the search company on the same foot as Apple and other Android handset makers as Google will turn into more than just a platform maker.

The deal is expected to close by the end of 2011/beginning of 2012. But it’s not just Motorola’s handset expertise that this deal brings – it’s a transaction which is equally about patents. Just a couple of days ago Motorola said it wants a piece of that patent pie and that might have been one of the reasons for the acquisition. Motorola Mobility reportedly owns more than 17,000 patents and is among Google’s best options for defending its mobile OS. Google’s Larry Page himself points out:

“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.” Page was also excited about the possibilities this brings for Android, “supercharging” the platform.

Andy Rubin heading Google’s mobile efforts reaffirmed the company’s commitment to Android as an open source platform as well as to the open source community. The deal would only elevate the platform, while Google itself will continue to work with its Android partners and continue distributing devices running the OS.

What were the reverberations among Motorola Mobility’s fellow Android phone makers? The chief executives of HTC, LG and Sony Ericsson all welcomed the news as the move both defends and strengthens Google’s case for the platform. But this opens a ton of questions starting with the future of Motorola’s Blur skinning and ending with how this affects rival platforms and most notably Microsoft’s Windows Phone. Not all answers will come right away, but Motorola Mobility’s conference call is live now and will definitely add more clarity to the picture – we’ll update you soon, so stay tuned.

source: The Official Google Blog

After a fair amount of delay, the Acer Iconia Smart tabletphone seems to be nearing a September launch in Germany, where the updated Motorola DEFY+ will launch that month as well.

Perhaps this has everything to do with the fact that the biggest European electronics expo IFA will be held September 2-7 in Berlin, although we have already played around with the Acer Iconia Smart in particular, when the phone was announced way back in February.
Nothing was heard about it until now, and Acer might have run into production problems – after all, you don’t make a phone with 4.8″ 1024×480 pixels display very often, and rumor has it that the Japanese earthquake is also to blame.

The internals will be a bit outdated when it hits, though, as it will sport a 1GHz single core chipset, and 5MP camera. The European pricing at launch is scheduled to be the respectful  $700 (EUR 499) off-contract, but this is surely to go down pretty fast, as we don’t imagine a lot of people inclined to lug around such a display at all times just to enjoy videos or browsing more.

The other phone that is expected to appear in Germany next month, is an updated version of the rugged Motorola DEFY. The Motorola DEFY+ is to have the same 3.7″ display and 5MP camera, but a faster processor at 1GHz (the original sports 800MHz), and Android 2.3 Gingerbread, whereas the first DEFY is still stuck with Froyo.
A German site listed the phone as heading to O2 in the third week of September. Price is expected to be $430 (EUR 300) for the Motorola DEFY +, and this is without a contract. AT&T is also expected to land the updated ruggedness at some point.

via Electronista & GSMArena

It has been brought to our attention that some units of the Motorola PHOTON 4G are causing headaches to their unlucky owners. More specifically, a number of PHOTON 4G smartphones have been reported to be experiencing the exact same symptom – when placing calls, the other party cannot be heard in the earpiece when speaking. Quite a serious issue for such a high-end device, don’t you agree?

Sadly, the “silent call” problem, as it is popularly known on the forums, has already been the reason for a 911 call to not go through so you can imagine what consequences the issue is capable of leading to. Some PHOTON 4G owners suggest that rebooting the phone takes care of the glitch, at least for about a day, yet that is anything but a solution to the problem, especially when every second is of importance.

According to affected Motorola PHOTON 4G users who have contacted Sprint for help, the carrier is well aware of the issue and is working hard on resolving it. It has been said that a software fix will be released in the upcoming days and will take care of the problem once and for all. Those of you who are willing to try out an unofficial fix, however, can check out what the guys over at XDA-Developers have to offer. Below, we have provided a link to a thread on the fourm where a leaked maintenance update can be downloaded from.

If you are a Motorola PHOTON 4G owner yourself, please, drop a comment below and let us know whether your smartphone is acting up as well.

Thanks to our anonymous tipster!

Download the unofficial software fix for the Motorola PHOTON 4G from here.

Those New York Mets fans among our loyal readers should know that they are not imagining things. Perhaps you thought that you have seen so much of the Motorola DROID Bionic lately that the image of the phone is permanently seared into your eyes. The truth here is that with a Verizon store at Field Level in Citi Field, there are pictures of the Motorola DROID Bionic all over the ballpark.

What you are seeing in the picture below is a sign on a wall at the stadium that promotes the Verizon location at Citi Field, home to the Mets. And what phone is pictured? Why, it’s none other than the Motorola DROID Bionic, even though the phone has not yet officially been introduced. And who is staring back at us from the DROID Bionic’s 4.3 inch qHD screen? It’s the Big Apple’s favorite baseball headed character, Mr. Met.

We wonder how many of the nearly 25,000 in attendance at the game spotted the ads and noticed that it was the Motorola DROID Bionic that was pictured. It is just another sign that we are getting close to the launch of the long awaited device. When it comes to the DROID Bionic, it’s time for Verizon to “Play Ball!”

source: AndroidCentral

Mr. Met stars in a promotional ad for the Motorola DROID Bionic

Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha spoke Tuesday at the Oppenheimer Annual Technology & Communications Conference. Jha made some news with his comments. Speaking about the mythical Motorola DROID Bionic, Jha says the long awaited beast is important, but not the only device in Motorola’s lineup. That could be a tip of the hat to some of the manufacturer’s recent launches like the Motorola PHOTON 4G and the Motorola DROID 3. Or, perhaps it foreshadows a quad-core Ice Cream Sandwich powered monster far beyond our thought capabilities at the current moment, that will be presented at next year’s CES.

Motorola’s tablet offerings are going to have “much more aggressive form factors” in the second half of this year with cheaper models offering Wi-Fi only connectivity and bringing features for the enterprise user. Jha also told the attendees that his company will have less fragmentation with a more streamlined world-wide branding in order to save big bucks on advertising and promotion. Sounding as though he would act immediately to implement a new marketing campaign, Jha wants to copy Samsung’s brand strategy. For example, the Galaxy line is known around the globe and encompasses different phone and tablet models. Jha wants to be able to have a number of global launches among carriers world wide and then use a singular ad and marketing campaign to drive sales. The CEO said that,”You will see with global launches, much greater consistency.” It all brings new meaning to Motorola’s announcement the other day about the company registering some domain names with the word “Kore” used in all of them. There was some speculation that Kore could be the title of Motorola’s successor to the Xoom tablet, but in light of Jha’s comments, it could have an entirely different meaning.

The Motorola DROID was the first Android handset with 2.0 aboard, and that helped drive sales which helped spawn Androidmania. But what about being the first with Ice Cream Sandwich? The CEO said, “It depends. I would say by and large I would like to be the first. But there are times when being the first to launch has greater schedule uncertainty. You are taking more chances with new innovation in the beginning and sometimes that has negative impact. By and large, largely it’s a very positive thing.”

source: DroidLife

Ah, the Motorola DROID BIONIC – easily our best candidate for most delayed device in recent history. From January 5th when it was unveiled at CES all the way until August it has become more and more mysterious.

Let’s start with some history – Motorola announced and showcased the phone eight months ago. With the passing of time rumors started appearing that it will be delayed. Motorola silently confirmed this, saying that it will release the phone with improved specifications (and design) – a different device, which we knew under the codename Targa.

Details remained a secret and with so much mystery we could hardly be certain about anything when it comes to the Bionic. Up until recently that is, when what looks like the final Droid Bionic hit the FCC as Motorola XT875…

Read the full article at PhoneArena

Oh, you gotta love those tipsters for all the leaks that they kindly share with the World. Sure, the spicy rumors that they bring to the table are anything but guaranteed to be true, but they can surely spark the imagination of pretty much every smartphone enthusiast out there.

Today, we came across a leak revealing the alleged names of three devices, all of which are said to be destined for Sprint. Starting with the most interesting among the bunch, the Samsung Epic 4G Touch is what Sprint’s version of the almost iconic Galaxy S II smartphone will be known like, according to the rumor. That, of course, lines up well with other insider tips that we’ve stumbled upon, so the leak that we are dealing with today might be onto something after all.

The leaked image revealing the names of the three upcoming devices

The second smartphone that we are getting familiar with today is known as the HTC EVO Design 4G, which is the name suggested for the upcoming HTC Kingdom. Now, we are witnessing somewhat of a paradox forming here as the Kingdom might also hit the market as the HTC Hero 4G, yet this monicker has not been officially confirmed either. What is said about the HTC Kingdom is that it will pack a 4-inch qHD display, 1.2GHz Qualcomm chipset, 5-megapixel camera and, of course, a WiMAX radio.

Last but not least, the Motorola Admiral is rumored to be another Sprint-bound cellphone, and by the lack of the 4G designation in its name we are assuming that it will not be sitting anywhere near the carrier’s top-tier smartphones. Sadly, the leak remains silent and does not reveal any further details about the device.

Bear in mind that all there is to back up the alleged names of these three devices is the black and white image you see here, so it would probably be wise if you file this under “rumors” for now. Chances are, however, that if the leak is on the right track, we will be hearing more news about these phones pretty soon.

source: Engadget