Only a day after Google released Android version 4.0.3, one XDA developer has already installed it on his Motorola Xoom WiFi tablet — making it the first slate to run the frosty Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. Of course, trendsetting is nothing new for the Xoom, which was also the first to ship with Honeycomb’s sweetness back in February. Being first does have its disadvantages, though, as some of the features like the camera don’t work, and there seems to be a green overlay on the screen from time to time. If you’re willing to overlook these early adopter flaws, head on over to the source to satisfy your ICS-inspired sweet tooth and try it for yourself

via: engadget

Droid fans, the Droid 4 is coming in a few days and it’s everything the Droid 3 should have been, but wasn’t.

It’s barely been five months since the Droid 3 was released and the Droid 4 is already preparing for its big debut. Whereas the Droid 3 was greeted with disappointment by a lot of consumers (myself included), the Droid 4 looks to be a device with cut corners (that seems to be Motorola’s new style) and a sweet LED edge-lit QWERTY keyboard.

The changes run deeper than the skin, though. The Droid 4 is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and runs on Verizon’s ultra fast 4G LTE network. Inside is 1GB of RAM (up from 512MB), a Gorilla Glass qHD (960×540) resolution screen, HD front-facing camera for video calls, a larger 1785mAh battery (up from 1540mAh), and 8-megapixel rear cam with image stabilization.

Like the Droid Razr, the Droid 4 is also splash-proof, so you can spill your morning coffee all over it and it won’t fizzle around in agony. The Droid 4 doesn’t have the Kevlar body that the Droid Razr has, but its rear looks nice and grippy (you now get a little camera hump).

Overall, the Droid 4 looks like a great boost for the Droid faithful. The Droid smartphones have always been known to be durable little devices, and there’s no reason to believe the Droid 4 won’t be of the same high quality.

via: dvice

Motorola’s latest Android smartphone lives up to its name.

Fast, big and light, the Photon 4G is Motorola’s new powerhouse smartphone, another in a trend of increasingly powerful handsets debuting this year. We had some hands-on time with the phone before its debut next week.

Picking up the device for the first time is a bit strange. With its 4.3-inch screen and considerably large physical dimensions (2.63 by 4.99 by .48 inches), you’d expect the Photon to possess some degree of heft. And yet, it doesn’t — at least, not to the degree that its appearance suggests.

At 5.57 ounces, the Photon’s weight feels more like its titular particle than anything else (aptly, an actual photon has no mass). That’s the result of the plastic construction that composes the phone’s body, complete with a slightly matted rubberized back panel to make for an improved grip. While it’s nice not to lug around a brick in my pocket, the phone seems almost too light for what ultimately feels like a cumbersome shape. It felt bulky yet still fragile in my hands — and I’ve got pretty big hands.

Flip the Photon over and you’ll notice a nod to HTC’s Thunderbolt — both devices come with a metal kickstand on the back, ostensibly for watching video on the phone for an extended period of time. It was a clever flourish, though I can’t see myself using it on surfaces other than airplane tray tables. And besides, if I decide to use the multimedia dock (not included) to hook my Photon up to a larger monitor, why worry about the 4.3-inch screen at all? Still, it’s fun to flick open and shut, and it may appeal to the frequent flying crowd.

Whether or not you want to view media on the phone’s screen, it’ll display brilliantly. I watched a few YouTube music videos with the brightness cranked up to 11, and clips ran beautifully. It’s like a miniature drive-in, sans popcorn.

One of the main perks of the Photon is its dual-core processor innards. It’s sporting the same Nvidia Tegra 2 1-GHz chip that debuted in the Motorola Atrix earlier in the year. Like the Atrix, the Photon is zippy. Applications launched swiftly, and I zoomed in and out of menu screens with relative ease. Backed by a gig of RAM, a dual-core smartphone is the way to go (until Nvidia debuts its quad-core chips for mobile, that is).

Another big bonus — for the Photon, Sprint’s Wi-Max connection works swimmingly. Page-load times were cut into fractions of what we’ve seen on rival networks like T-Mobile or AT&T. The Thunderbolt — which runs on on Verizon’s 4G LTE network — was the last phone we’ve tested that performed at speeds like these.

It’s worth mentioning that the Photon ships with Android version 2.3.4 — the latest iteration of the operating system for smartphones. While being super up to date may not be crucial to you, it’s nice to see at least one manufacturer not shipping an out of date OS directly out of the gate.

The Photon hits the street on Sprint’s 4G network on July 31, and will cost you a cool $200 with a two-year contract.

Via: wired