moto

Motorola gets new direction, lease on life under Google

Say hello to the new Motorola Mobility.

Motorola, which struggled as a standalone company competing in the cutthroat smartphone business, gets a second chance under Google, a parent with loads of cash and even more patience.

The changes start with Dennis Woodside, an ex-Googler who now runs Motorola. Under Woodside, the company reshuffled and brought on new key managers, shifted resources away from its basic phone business, and focused more on the smartphones it believes resonates with power users.

Today's announcement of not one, but three different Droid Razr smartphones -- Motorola's first as a part of Google … Read more

Motorola and Verizon to put new devices 'On Display' (live blog)

Editor's note: This live blog has concluded. You can replay it by clicking on the link below. Or click here for a post summarizing what happened.

Tune in to CNET's live blog from Motorola's "On Display" press conference starting Wednesday at 11 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. ET.

NEW YORK -- Mere hours after Nokia introduced new Windows 8 devices, Motorola and Verizon Wireless will attempt to shift the tech spotlight tomorrow, September 5, with their own special event in New York City.

There's not much to be gleaned from the invitation, but … Read more

Top side-scrolling racing games on iOS

Yesterday, I posted a review of Mad Skills BMX, an excellent sequel to the popular Mad Skills Motocross game that uses a completely new control system. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend Turborilla's latest game.

There are a ton of side-scrolling racing games in the App Store that I've played and reviewed over the years, but only a few can match the level of polish and challenging gameplay found in the Mad Skills games. I've added a couple more to the list here, but if you have a good one you're playing, let me know in the comments.

This week's collection of iOS apps consists of two excellent side-scrolling racers that I recommend wholeheartedly. The first offers a Trials-like experience that has you restarting tracks over and over to get the best time. The second is a recent release with (mostly) lifelike physics as you race giant four- and six-wheel drive vehicles.… Read more

Contour launches activity-specific camera mount kits

One of the draws of HD sports cameras like the ContourHD series (or the GoPro HD Hero) is that they feature a wide variety of mounting options, making them useful in a wide variety of activities. However, purchasing all of the available mounting accessories can get expensive, which is why Contour has announced a series of activity-themed mounting kits that bundle specific mounting accessories at a 10 to 20 percent discount over buying the bits separately.

The Moto mount kit that Car Tech fans are no doubt most interested in sells for $99.99 and features a rotating surface mount, … Read more

Motorola's Blade could continue Droid Razr design

Thanks to a number of leaks, the preliminary details and images for three unannounced Motorola smartphones have arrived online. Likely to end up in international markets, the three models bear the familiar form factor that is seen in handsets like the Atrix 2 and Droid Razr.

Up first, we have a device that looks strikingly similar to the recently leaked Droid Fighter. Details are light for this model, though the display appears to be in the realm of 4.5 inches or larger with space across the bottom for soft keys. … Read more

Putting Nike's FuelBand (and me) through the paces

I have to hand it to Nike for its unique take on the growing fad of fitness-tracking devices.

The FuelBand is Nike's stab at this segment, which others including the Jawbone Up and Motorola Mobility's MotoActv have already tread. But with production of the Up halted for a battery issue, and Motorola's product still a little-known niche device, there's a big opening in the market.

Unlike some of the other devices, the primary crux of the FuelBand is its Nike Fuel reading, a metric that Nike put together on its own that matches a person's movement through the wristband's accelerometer against data collected on how rapidly oxygen is consumed. As with other fitness monitors that rely on an accelerometer, the readings vary greatly depending on how much you move your arm. Cycling and certain kinds of weight lifting, for instance, wouldn't register much as simply sitting on your couch and waving your hands.

But chances are, if you're spending $149 on a FuelBand, you're going to want to pay attention to the Nike Fuel readout.

Following a press conference that Nike held yesterday to unveil the device, the company took the media on a little field trip to test out the FuelBand in a variety of activities. The following are my early impressions after a day with the device. … Read more

Sprint Motorola Admiral review: Hoping to lure BlackBerry users

If you're a longtime BlackBerry user (so, likely a big fan of that hardware keyboard), but are looking to switch to the Android platform, Sprint's Motorola Admiral is for you.

The smartphone is one of a few on the market that offer a full QWERTY keyboard and a touch screen that both work incredibly well. The coolest thing about the phone, however, is not its input method, but its push-to-talk capabilites via a Direct Connect (DC) button right in the middle of the left side of the phone.

By pressing and holding this button you can instantly call people who have phones with the same DC feature (up to 20 preset numbers). You can call them regardless of distance, the way you would with a walkie-talkie. In my tests, this feature worked very well and was fun to use. The Admiral is the first smartphone to support push-to-talk on Sprint's CDMA network. If you don't like push-to-talk, however, the DC button can be reprogrammed to quickly bring up any app or other feature. … Read more

Motorola Xoom 2: Second time's the charm?

Motorola is hitting the market with all new Xoom tablets.

Dubbed the Xoom 2, the new Android tablets will make their debut this month for consumers in the U.K. and Ireland. The tablets come in two flavors--a traditional 10-inch Xoom 2 with built-in options for business users and an 8.2-inch Xoom 2 Media Edition.

Both tablets are powered by dual-core 1.2 GHz processors, run Android 3.2 Honeycomb, and offer Wi-Fi connectivity. The displays are strengthened with Corning's Gorilla glass and come with a special splash-guard coating designed to make them more durable and stain resistant.

Motorola is certainly crossing its fingers with the Xoom 2, hoping for better results than the original Xoom has delivered. Launched in February, the Xoom got off to a slow start, with some analysts estimating that the company likely sold around 100,000 tablets during the initial couple of months.

The situation certainly hasn't improved over time.… Read more

Fun and challenging motocross

Mad Skills Motocross is a fun and addictive game that started on desktop computers, but seems much more suited to the iOS. Sort of in the vein of arcade classic Excitebike, Mad Skills Motocross is a side-scrolling racer in which you race against a single opponent on several challenging tracks. The default controls give you buttons for throttle and brakes on the lower left and buttons for tilt control on the right. You can switch tilt controls to the accelerometer in the settings, but both variations proved to work well after a bit of practice.

You will need practice, by … Read more