Oh my. We thought the Casio G’z0ne was a beast of a phone, and then someone sent us the official G-Shock device that was apparently shown at CES a couple of weeks ago. It clearly runs Android, is reportedly able to hang under water up to 10 meters, can withstand a 10 foot drop, and can hold up a full ton of weight. It might be the ugliest thing on the planet, but you can’t tell me that you don’t want one to go trudge around in the woods with one, acting like a real man. 

Via:  Facebook, G-ShockZone (images)

Cheers GreeKNastY!

Official G-Shock Phone Runs Android and Can Survive a 10 Foot Drop, Is Also Incredibly Ugly is a post from: Droid Life

During Samsung’s 2012 CES press event, a number of their new products were on display including their point-and-shoot camera lineup. While walking through the demo of them, the Sammie representative on stage kicked off a video, showing that you will soon be able to remotely control things like zooming and picture taking from your smartphone. The phone that was used in the video has got the tech world all excited this morning, as it appears to be some sort of ultra-thin Galaxy S device. Could it be the Galaxy SIII?

Chances are that it is not. Sure, the device has an edge-to-edge screen, is unbelievably thin, and includes that famous physical home key (that we wish would disappear forever) – all things we expect to see on the SGS3. But if you continue to watching past the quick viewfinder demo, a Galaxy SII appears on the screen. This phone is likely just a render and nothing official. We should know for sure next month at Mobile World Congress.

Hit up the 7:00 mark to see the phone in action.  

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via:  SamMobile

This is Probably Not the Samsung Galaxy SIII, But It’s Fun to Imagine That it is is a post from: Droid Life

The DL team left Las Vegas Friday afternoon, after a week long journey from press room to convention center to booth to party to bed to everything all over again. It was the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in case you were wondering – a gathering of 140,000+ tech industry players, that happens every year in the desert. It’s a time for companies to tell the world what they have in store for the coming year. Some of it “wows!” while most of it leaves you wondering why on Earth anyone would ever need such a product. This year, we had had one from that first category, followed by a bunch of stuff that a few may need, and most may never lose any sleep over not having. 

 Star of the Entire Show

During NVIDIA’s press event last Monday, they invited Asus onto the stage to unveil a new product called the Memo 370T. What could be so special about another 7″ Android tablet? Well, it just so happens to have NVIDIA’s new Tegra 3 quad-core processor on the inside, an IPS display, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, an HDMI port, rear camera, and weighs next to nothing. Again, you ask, “Why do we care?” Because Asus plans to introduce this tablet at $249.

In an era where tablet manufacturers think that they can’t succeed unless they tie their products to carriers and paste ridiculously high prices onto them, Asus is going to prove them all wrong. The name may be unofficial, along with the final build, but all signs point to this puppy landing in Q2 of this year. Dear Motorola and Samsung, please take note.

Best Phone

At a CES filled with a handful of phones that failed to surprise or blow anyone away, there was one that stood out above them all and that was the DROID RAZR MAXX (our hands-on) by Motorola. Sure, it runs Blur, has a locked bootloader, and looks identical to the RAZR that was released only a few weeks ago, but the highlight here is the battery. Motorola packed in a 3300mAh battery into this device, yet managed to keep it under 9mm in thickness. For reference, you can’t even buy a 3300mAh battery as an extended for most phones.

And while most of us that picked up the original RAZR feel completely insulted by this release and like we deserve an apology or the opportunity to trade ours in for this battery beast, we can still admit that this device is impressive.

A Whole Bunch of Shoulder-Shruggers

After the Memo 370T and the RAZR MAXX, we were left with a whole bunch of products that looked nice and will likely perform at top tier levels, only none of them broke new ground on any front. We had the LG Spectrum (our hands-on) and its 4.5″ IPS HD display, dual-core processor, and wallet-friendly $199 price. On paper this phone would have made the world drool in 2011. Heading into 2012 though, it just feels like another skinned dual-core LTE device that isn’t running Ice Cream Sandwich.

Followed by the Spectrum, we had a couple of additions to the DROID lineup thanks to Motorola. The first is a purple version of the RAZR (gallery) that is identical to the original RAZR, only it has a purple exterior. Nothing you haven’t seen before. Moto also introduced the DROID 4 (our hands-on) though, as the world’s thinnest 4G LTE slider. We know that many of you have been waiting almost 2 years for this device, but after just a few minutes with it, we came away feeling on the fence. Sure it’s nice to have a dual-core processor, keyboard and LTE in one package, however, it just feel like it needed a little something extra.

Then we had the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE (our hands-on), which for the most part, is one of the more impressive tablets we have seen to date. It is incredibly thin, has a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, vibrant Super AMOLED Plus screen, and dual cameras. The only thing not “wowing” us with this new Tab, is the fact that it is tied to a carrier which likely means a bloated, sky-high price tag on a 2-year contract. This is another of those that we hope goes WiFi-only in the near future.

Asus may have stolen the show with their 7″ quad-core tablet, but they certainly pissed off every single new Transformer Prime owner when they announced an upgraded model that has fully working GPS and WiFi. Petitions, social attacks and all of that fun is already under way.

Acer announced their first quad-core tablet which should drop at a reasonable price, that is if they follow their original Iconia Tab model.

Toshiba unveiled their 2012 lineup of tablets in a variety of sizes including a 13.3-inch behemoth. Their Excite X10, which will be the first of them all to hit stores, currently holds the title of “world’s thinnest tablet.” Overall, we liked what we saw from Toshiba, but again, we kept waiting to be blown away by some ground-breaking new tech. You can view our quick write-up on their tablets here.

Fujitsu had the world’s first Tegra 3 on display, only it was locked up tight behind a box as a “prototype.” There is an above average chance that we will see it at Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month in a more finalized state, but at CES, it was tough to really have any strong impressions of it one way or another.

Random Stuff

We got our hands on the Galaxy Nexus portrait dock while hangin’ with Samsung. Unfortunately, they could not give us a date as to when it would be released. We handed them our contact info and they hit us back by the end of the week with a “it should be available now at the Samsung store.” Of course, we all know that not to be the case.

Motorola announced that it would release far fewer phones this year and focus more on marketing better products. They also announced a new multi-year partnership with Intel to be able to include their Atom processors in Moto phones. The jury is still out on whether or not this means much, but I think we all know the history of Intel and the fact that this could be a game changer down the road. And speaking of Intel, we went hands-on with their “Medfield” developer phone. It was nice, for a developer kit.

The folks at I’m Watch finally showed off their Android watch product – we were not all that impressed. Being Italian, it had plenty of style. Other than style though, it lacked any sort of speed or OS polish and was a lag monster.

Gorilla Glass 2′s strength was put on display. We captured the demo on video.

Completely Random CES Notes

• On a completely random note, Motorola interviewed us briefly at their booth, asking what we love about Android. Let’s just say that the video will likely never go public after I tossed in “unlocking bootloaders” within the first 20 seconds.
• Two booth girls from Wicked Audio nabbed us to try and sell us on the quality of their headphones when compared to Skull Candy’s. It took me an extra listen before I could tell the difference during their blind sound test, but Tato got it wrong. Boy was that booth girl not happy with him.
• The number of times you get run into at CES by people walking with their head down, staring at their smartphone is uncountable.
• Tato made it into the Intel press event, but I was locked out after sitting through LG’s entire presentation. He had saved me a seat, but when they shut everyone else out, he moved over onto the seat he was saving for me to let a girl take his spot. This was also right next to our pal Phil from Android Central. At the end of the event, Intel announced that they had stashed 50 Asus Zenbook ultrabooks under select seats for press to take home. The Zenbook was under Tim’s chair. I was jealous all week until Friday when Tim found a card in the box that read “this is a loaner and is not yours to keep.”
• Justin Bieber made an appearance, and we ran into a couple of our fellow industry personalities who were ecstatic about the news, even bragging about getting pictures with him. We will do our best to keep their names from this post. Love you guys!
• Say Media threw one of the better parties of the week at the Mirage’s 1Oak nightclub, even introducing an indie band named GIVERS. As a predominantly older crowd, their 5 song encore was not exactly accepted by the entire room. While there were no boos, calls for the DJ to return could be heard in dark corners…or just next to us at the bar.
• Dear dueling pianists at the Palazzo, talking trash to the tiny crowd because they aren’t digging your rendition of Katy’s Perry’s “Fireworks” is not going to fill that tip jar.

Final Thoughts

Again, the star of the show was clearly the Asus $250 tablet. We talked about it constantly throughout most of the week. After that, we saw a handful of nice products that will likely never create as much buzz as I think these companies think they will. Most of our focus is now on MWC in February, where the world will focus all of their attention on Samsung and the possible unveiling of the Galaxy SIII. Also, a number of companies kept asking us if were going to be at MWC as they had saved some of their spice for it.

So overall, CES 2012 was another fun time as a tech geek, but it just didn’t have the same buzz as 2011 where we saw LTE, dual-core processors, Honeycomb, Android tablets and so much more for the first time. Here’s to hoping MWC brings it.

CES 2012 Round-up: A Whole Bunch of the Same Alongside One Shining 7″ Quad-core Tablet is a post from: Droid Life

And we are off to the airport, officially closing out our time at CES 2012. While we will have a recap of sorts later on, I did want to say that I’m coming away a little disappointed. This wasn’t even close to the CES of 2011 where we saw the introduction dual-core processors, the first wave of tablets, 4G LTE and more. It sort of felt like an in between year for mobile technology, at least at this event. From what we heard throughout the week, MWC in February could be massive.

We still want to ask though, if you came away impressed by anything? Was their a best moment of CES for you? Are Verizon’s new LTE phones top tier or so-so? Are their too many tablets on the market now, or not enough? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Friday Poll: Most Memorable Moment From CES 2012? is a post from: Droid Life

Smartphones are so 2011.  This year it’s all about the smartwatch.  If you have been looking to combine your watch and your smartphone, then definitely give i’m Watch a look.  i’m Watch has combined all your phone features into a classy looking watch that fits just perfectly right on your wrist.  With a dedicated Bluetooth connection, i’m Watch can make calls, check emails, and all the other great features you would expect from a smart device.

The watch was designed in Italy and it shows.  With classy colors and silicone bands, the i’m Watch is definitely a conversation starter with anyone next to you.  Depending on which color options and materials you choose, price varies.  But the pricing starts at about $350.  The watch runs Android 1.6 and I don’t think it’s the type of device that you should worry about being updated to Ice Cream Sandwich anytime soon. Gallery down below followed by a link to i’m Watches site. 

We had a few minutes to play with the product and you can definitely tell that the device runs Android 1.6. You can feel a bit of lag scrolling from screen to screen, but let’s hope that the company who makes the watch has a few more kinks to work out before they officially launch the watch for global sales. Would anyone be willing to rock this sporty piece around town?

Online Store.

i’m Watch – The Newest Android Watch On The Streets Is Here, Finally is a post from: Droid Life

In our last booth tour of the week, we hung out with the folks from Toshiba to see what they have in store for 2012. There were 4 tablets on display, some that will come to the U.S., others that will stay over in Japan. The most eye-popping was clearly the 13.3″ behemoth that you are seeing above. It current remains nameless and has a mystery list of specs, but our mind is already running through ways to put such a massive portable tablet in action. Assuming of course that it is portable at that size. It had all of the standard ports such as micro-HDMI and USB. There were dual cameras and a similar back material to what you will find on the Excite X10.

To see more of the beast, along with the rest of their 2012 works, jump past the break.  

Excite X10

The Excite X10 will most definitely be in stores during the first half of this year. Of all the tablets on display in the Toshiba booth, this is the most ready and was actually available to be held. If you follow us on Google+ then you probably saw this device already. It boasts a 1.2GHz OMAP4430 dual-core processor, 10.1″ Gorilla Glass display and just so happens to be the world’s thinnest tablet (for now). The build quality of the device feels top notch, is ultra light, and bears no resemblance to their two Thrive models. It currently runs Honeycomb, but depending on launch, it may see Ice Cream Sandwich.

The last two tablets we saw were on the smaller side. One was a 7.7″ OLED tablet made specifically for the media hog. The screen being OLED is much more vibrant for watching movies or viewing photos, but it’s also ultra portable at that size for the traveler who needs entertainment. The second was a 5.1″ tablet (not a phone) that will likely stay in Japan and not come to the States. It rocked a 21:9 ratio to give you an almost edge-less viewing experience.

Overall we liked what we saw from Toshiba. As with all tablets we seem to see these days, their success depends almost solely on price. Let’s hope they come in with something ultra-competitive.

Quick First Look: Toshiba’s 2012 Line of Tablets, Including a 13.3-Inch Beast is a post from: Droid Life

The Intel booth marked one of our last stops here at CES 2012, and what better way to start wrapping things up than by looking at one of the future chipsets you will see in Android phones this year. It’s called Intel’s “Medfield” processor and is a single-core chip clocked at 1.6GHz. Don’t let the single-core part throw you though, so far from some of the benchmarks we have seen around the interwebs, this thing looks powerful enough.

For demo and display purposes, they slapped it into a Lenovo casing that may or may not ever see the light of day here in the States. The device itself ran Android 2.3 and had an 8MP camera that Intel’s chip was able to use to shoot up to 15 pictures within a single second. It also ran some of the more processor intensive games on the market without a hiccup.

We listened and watched a live demo of the device for a few minutes, but then quickly grabbed it to see how it performed. What did we think? Tough to have any strong opinions on it since this was really just a dev device, but the design that Lenovo went with was decent. The fact that the camera can take burst shots in a single second is a bonus, along with the fact that this processor is supposed to use far less energy than some of its competitors.

Pics after the break, including details on Medfield.  

Quick reference guide:

What do you guys think? Excited for Intel to enter the Android game?

Quick First Look: Lenovo and Intel’s Medfield Android Phone is a post from: Droid Life

We have been hearing all sorts of good news about Corning’s newest creation: Gorilla Glass 2. Surrounding the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) are ads and posters promoting Gorilla Glass 2 that is 20% thinner and even stronger than the previous version of Gorilla Glass.  Down below we have filmed Corning’s full product demo that happened right at their booth. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: Corning Introduces Gorilla Glass 2 At Their 2012 CES Booth is a post from: Droid Life

Both the DROID 4 and LG Spectrum that were announced this week at CES have global radios inside, but because of a network issue, they are not active. To this point, none of Verizon’s LTE phones have active global roaming, however, that is about to change according to VZW spokesperson Brenda Raney:

 ”The LTE phones work globally in over 40 countries that currently use CDMA technology…. For the new LTE phones to provide global roaming voice and data in non-CDMA countries, we are working on a few network enhancements so we can provide customers with the best voice and data roaming experience. We anticipate this capability to be available this year, likely the first half of the year.”

You can see our first looks at the devices here and here.

Via:  Phonescoop

Cheers Tim!

Verizon: Global Roaming on the DROID 4 and LG Spectrum to be Enabled Later this Year is a post from: Droid Life

Our good friends over at ASTRO launched a public beta for their newest service, cloud storage. It allows you to backup, access and download your files from any device you might own. To begin, the amount of storage you have is limited, but they told us that this is just for initial launch to test the waters. ASTRO has been one of the apps that we have used since the beginning, all the way back to the “OG” days, so be sure to check out their newest services.

We spoke with their CEO earlier and here’s what he had to say about the cloud:

“ASTRO Backup is simply the easiest way for any Android user to store their mobile content to the cloud. There are a lot of services for backing up and syncing to the cloud. However, we are focused solely on users of Android devices and since our 25 million users are already using ASTRO to organize and manage their files, we are giving them the easiest way to store them in the cloud without having to open or connect to other applications.”

Sign up for the public beta here.

ASTRO File Manager Launches Cloud Storage Public Beta is a post from: Droid Life

At a round table discussion with reporters at CES yesterday, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha mentioned that his company plans to release fewer devices this year than it did in 2011. Their focus will be on “marketing dollars” and trying to make more devices “stick.”

All I have to say to that is, “Thank you!” While we love to cover a constant flow of devices as media, we also realize that Moto’s flooding of the market was a little much, this year. Jha echoed that thought, saying “A lot of products that are roughly the same doesn’t drive the market to a new place.” This is coming from the company that released the DROID 3, Bionic, RAZR (in 3 colors over 3 months), RAZR MAXX, DROID 4 and two XYBOARD tablets over a 6 month period.

In 2012, we know that we will see phones from Moto with Intel’s Atom processor, but other than that, most of their roadmap is a mystery. One thing that will be interesting to watch, is how quickly they can close their merger with Google and how that affects their product line.

Via:  AllThingsD

Motorola Plans to Release Fewer Phones This Year, the World Says “Thank You” is a post from: Droid Life

Before day 2 (well, day 1 of the open show floor) ended, we had a chance to sneak into the Verizon booth and grab a quick hands-on with LG’s latest device, the Spectrum. This phone is headed to store shelves on January 19 for $199, has a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 8MP camera, LTE connectivity, and most notably, a 4.5″ True HD IPS display. The Spectrum is a great effort at a comfortable price from LG, a company that had what we would consider a rough 2011 in the Android game here in the U.S. This could be the device that helps them turn things around. 

Gallery:

Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

LG Spectrum First Look and Hands-on is a post from: Droid Life

Last night at PepCom’s Digital Experience, we swung by the Fujitsu booth since there were rumors of them having some sort of a quad-core Tegra 3 phone in Vegas. While they didn’t have it with them, they said to stop by their CES booth today because it would be on display. They weren’t lying, you are looking at it above.

Keep in mind that this is a prototype and may not be anything close to the final product. It was hooked up via HDMI to a TV though, running Riptide for Tato to ball out on. Overall, it ran incredibly well, we just wish we could have actually touched it.

Thankfully, they did have a life-sized flyer of specs for it. According to Fujitsu, this phone will sport a 4.6″ “HD-quality” liquid crystal screen, 13MP camera, Tegra 3 quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, and is “LTE-compatible.”

Their plan is to show off a much more finished product at MWC next month. Also, from what we heard around CES this afternoon, there may be a handful of quad-core devices to drool over come February 27. While CES so far has been sort of uneventful for the most part compared to last year, February should be nutty.

More pics below.  

Fujitsu Shows Off the World’s First Tegra 3 Quad-core Phone, Behind a Glass Case is a post from: Droid Life

GooMotel, anyone? Motorola and Intel announced this evening at CES that they have agreed to a multi-year partnership that will pair Moto’s use of Android with Intel’s Atom processors. The goal is to “collaborate across hardware, software and services to deliver complete solutions and disruptive new user experiences that offer long battery life, increased computing performance, advanced imaging and video capabilities, and seamless wireless connections.”

They fully expect products to ship some time this year, likely in the second half.  

Intel and Motorola Mobility Strike Multi-Year Strategic Mobile Partnership

Motorola Mobility to Begin Shipping Intel®-Based Smartphone in 2H 2012

LAS VEGAS – Jan 10, 2012 – INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW – Intel Corporation and Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) announced that the two companies were entering into a multi-year, multi-device strategic relationship that includes smartphones which Motorola will begin shipping later this year using Intel® Atom™ processors and the Android™ platform.

The collaboration, which also covers tablets, will combine Intel’s leadership in silicon processor technology and computing innovation with Motorola’s mobile device design expertise to deliver products that have the high performance, long battery life and convenience necessary for increasingly mobile lifestyles.

“When great silicon and software technology meets great mobile and design innovation, amazing things can happen,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “Our long-term relationship with Motorola Mobility will help accelerate Intel® architecture into new mobile market segments. We expect the combination of our companies to break new ground and bring the very best of computing capabilities to smartphones and tablets, which in turn will help to create powerful new experiences that connect and enrich people’s lives wherever they may be.”

“We are delighted to be partnering with Intel to deliver smartphones and tablets based on Intel’s Atom processor to consumers and businesses,” said Sanjay Jha, Chairman and CEO, Motorola Mobility. “Though there are 5 billion mobile subscribers in the world, less than 800 million are using a smartphone today. With Android as the leading smartphone OS globally and advancements in computing technology we see tremendous opportunity for the converged devices market.”

Smartphones and tablets are quickly becoming an indispensible part of people’s daily lives — making them constant companions. The strategic relationship between Intel and Motorola Mobility will expand opportunity for continued innovation in these areas as they work closely to leverage Intel’s low power system-on-chip (SoC) roadmap for Motorola Mobility’s converged mobile device portfolio. The companies will collaborate across hardware, software and services to deliver complete solutions and disruptive new user experiences that offer long battery life, increased computing performance, advanced imaging and video capabilities, and seamless wireless connections.

About Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE:MMI) fuses innovative technology with human insights to create experiences that simplify, connect and enrich people’s lives. Our portfolio includes converged mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; wireless accessories; end-to-end video and data delivery; and management solutions, including set-tops and data-access devices. For more information, visit motorola.com/mobility.

Motorola and Intel Announce Multi-Year Partnership to Produce Android Mobile Devices is a post from: Droid Life

Along with a few new smartphones, Verizon is going to launch a new 4G LTE enabled tablet from Samsung, called the Galaxy Tab 7.7. This tablet has an amazing Super AMOLED Plus display, 1.4GHz dual-core processor, and a super-thin sexy body.  It’s the ultimate one hand tab.  Video down below. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE is a post from: Droid Life