Yelp Comes to Motorola Android
The latest company entering the Android pool is Yelp. Yelp already has mobile apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and WAP phones.
Yelp for Android determines your current location (either using built-in GPS or a Wi-Fi-based location) and then lets you search for nearby businesses, read reviews of establishments and access a moveable Google map that can help you easily redefine your search based on locale.
Source: Ma
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Smartphone shootout: Motorola Droid versus iPhone 3GS
[1] Size and Weight: Motorola Droid measures 115.8 x 60 x 13.7mm and weighs 165gm while iPhone 3GS measures 115.5×62.1×12.3mm and weighs 135gm.
Winner: Tie. Though similar in size, iPhone 3GS is noticeably lighter as Droid’s extra weight is primarily due to the slide-out full Qwerty physical keyboard.
[2] Display: Motorola Droid has a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen with 480×854 pixel resolution display and multitouch and gesture support. On the other hand, iPhone 3GS boasts of a 3.5-inch capacitive multitouch screen with 320×480 pixel resolution display.
Winner: Motorola Droid. The touchscreen of both the phones support multitouch and gesture. In other words, with both the phones, you can flick and swirl your fingers across the screen for intuitive navigation. You can also scroll and flip through web pages, photos, spreadsheets, pinch to zoom and do more. However, Droid has a bigger screen, which means it is more enjoyable to watch movies and browse on Droid than on iPhone. In fact, it feels nice to have a larger display on Droid – it gives users the sense of working on a real computing device and not just a small smartphone.
Droid’s display also has 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and has a higher resolution – it has 267ppi compared to iPhone’s 163ppi. In other words, it can support higher resolution images and videos without distortion or pixilation.
[3] Camera and video recording: Motorola Droid boasts of a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, 4x digital zoom, dual LED flash, image stabilization, night shot support and geo-tagging. It also supports DVD quality 720×480 pixel resolution video recording (@24fps). On the other hand, iPhone 3GS has a 3.15-megapixel camera with autofocus and offers features such as video capture (VGA@30fps), tap to focus and photo and video geo-tagging.
Winner: Motorola Droid. Droid has a more powerful camera (5-megapixel as against iPhone’s 3-megapixel) and it has useful features such as digital zoom, flash and night shot support which iPhone lacks. Unfortunately, both the phones lack a front facing camera that allows you to enjoy the video calling fun everyone’s having these days.
[4] Connectivity and Wireless: Both the phones are quadband and GSM-based. Both the phones boast of features like 3G, WiFi, GPRS and Bluetooth and both lack infrared port. However, a useful addition in Droid is inclusion of microUSB port which iPhone 3GS lacks. Droid also boasts of higher 3G speed (HSDPA 10.7Mbps as against iPhone’s 7.2Mbps.
Winner: Motorola Droid. Inclusion of the useful microUSB port and higher 3G speed makes Droid a sureshot winner here.
[5] OS: Motorola Droid runs on the latest Google Android 2.0 mobile platform while iPhone 3GS runs on the proprietary iPhone OS 3.0.
Winner: Motorola Droid. Probably, the biggest drawback of iPhone 3GS is its OS as it does not support multitasking. It is rather ironic as iPhone OS has won accolades year after year for its stability and reliability. On the other hand, Droid is the first phone to come with Android 2.0 OS which promises enhanced functionality and improved usability.
Thanks to Android 2.0, Droid can multitask with ease. In other words, with Droid you can open a dozen applications, watch a listen to music and take a call at the same time without encountering any lag or freeze.
[6] Processor: Motorola Droid is powered by Arm Cortex A8 550MHz processor while iPhone 3GS is powered by ARM Cortex A8 600MHz processor. Both the phones have PowerVR SGX graphics that promises stunning multimedia experience.
Winner: iPhone 3GS. Though Droid is the fastest Android-based device currently strutting in the market, iPhone’s processor is more powerful. At least on paper.
[7] Browser: Motorola Droid has a Webkit browser while iPhone 3GS comes with a Safari browser.
Winner: Motorola Droid. Droid’s browser can support Javascript and Flash-based webpages (the HTML browser is Flash 10-ready) unlike iPhone’s browser. In other words, with Droid, you can see Flash-heavy websites like Hulu and Webkinz and view rich web content as their designers intended.
[8] Music and Video: Both the phones come with media player that supports multiple audio and video playback formats. However, iPhone can double up as an iPod.
Winner: iPhone 3GS. iPhone doubles up as an iPod and allows you access to iTunes Store where you can shop millions of songs, movies and TV shows and download them via WiFi.
iPhone also boasts of proprietary features such as Genius Mixes (this feature automatically searches your library to find songs that sound great together and then it creates multiple mixes you’ll love, just like a personal radio station), Genius Playlists (this feature finds other songs on your iPod Touch that sound great with the one you were listening to and makes a Genius playlist for you, which you can listen to right away or save it for later) and Voice Control (a feature that gives you the ability to control music playback with spoken commands).
[9] Keyboard: Both Motorola Droid and iPhone 3GS have onscreen virtual full Qwerty keyboard. Droid also has a slide-out full Qwerty physical keyboard.
Winner: iPhone. Though Droid offers users the choice of a virtual onscreen keyboard as well as a physical one, users have complained that the physical keyboard of Droid is a waste of space and just adds excess weight. Motorola boasts that Droid is the slimmest slider phone in the world and we’re not surprised as Droid keyboard is flat and hard to use for many people. In other words, users who have large chubby fingers will find it more difficult to type on the Droid than on devices with more raised keyboards, such as the BlackBerry Tour. So don’t expect Blackberry-isque experience.
On the other hand, though iPhone lacks a physical keyboard, it more than makes up with its virtual onscreen keyboard. For instance, iPhone’s keyboard can be used both in landscape as well as portrait mode. Moreover, its keyboard is “intelligent” i.e. it can accelerate your typing because it tracks what you type, then suggests words, corrects spelling, and inserts punctuation for you. It even learns the words you use most often.
The iPhone software keyboard is also adaptable, allowing you to switch between more than 40 international layouts. iPhone also features sophisticated character recognition software that lets you draw a Chinese character with your finger and tap to choose the matching result.
[10] Storage and Memory: Motorola Droid comes with 1GB onboard memory and has a microSD card slot (expandable up to 32GB). On the other hand, iPhone 3GS comes with 256MB RAM and a choice of 16GB/32GB internal storage. However, iPhone lacks an expansion card slot.
Winner: Motorola Droid. The absence of a microSD card slot in iPhone makes it look so ‘un-smart’ as the expansion slot ensures that the phone can always keep up with your ever expanding needs.
Read the full article at IB Times
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10 Things We Love And Hate About The Droid
Business Insider has a post on the things they love and hate in the Droid. Their baseline of comparison was an iPhone 3G.
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T-Mobile USA offering $50 discount on Moto CLIQ, BlackBerry Bold 9700, and Samsung Highlight this weekend
T-Mobile USA has announced that it will be offering 3 of its most popular phones for US$50 less than normal this coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (November 27, 28, and 29). The sale is part of the carrier’s big push for the Black Friday weekend, the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season in the U.S.
Two of the devices on sale are hot smartphones. Both the Android-powered Motorola CLIQ and the brand new BlackBerry Bold 9700 will be available this weekend for $149.99, when picked up with a new contract. The third device is Samsung’s Highlight, a full touchscreen equipped feature phone. The highlight will be available for $49.99 this weekend, with a 2 year agreement.
The $50 discount also applies to phones purchased for full retail price without a contract, for those users interested in saving some money with a contract-free T-Mobile Even More Plus plan.
[Source: Mobile Burn]
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