Regulators Green Light MotoGoogle – “Official” Google Phone On Its Way?

Here comes Motogoogle! Even though regulators claim they will keep a “close eye” on Google, I don’t think anyone is surprised that U.S. and European regulators approved Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the arm that focused on portable devices. Most people think that this is Google finally getting into the patent war that has thus far been dominated by Apple and Microsoft. Those people are probably right, as Motorola has a ton of mobile patents (upwards of 17,000) that are included in the 12.5 billion purchase. But nobody really wants to talk about patents – Well, not me anyway. What I think is on everybody’s mind is will Google tap the Motorola talent to finally develop its own mobile device to coincide with its own mobile platform? Read More

Ultimate SBGM Contest: Win a Sony eReader Pocket Edition PRS350, BlueAnt S4 headset, or an AT&T Smartphone

Getting free gadgets is what makes the web so much fun, right? That’s why we’ve got an endless treasure chest of things we’re putting in your stocking this holiday season.

This time around, we’ve got three killer items we’re giving away: the PRS350 Pocket Edition eReader from Sony, a BlueAnt S4 headset, and the AT&T Motorola Backflip Smartphone. Head over past the break to find out how to enter. Read More

Google is Acquiring Motorola—But What Does it Mean?

This week’s big news is Google’s proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility.  There’s been a barrage of news and analysis surrounding this announcement, so we here at SmallBizGoMobile are going to distill it all down, and try to separate the facts from the hype, and the PR buzz from the players’ “real” motivations. Read More

Motorola Tablet Teaser Video

Motorola Tablet Rear View?

Word on the street is that our very own Mario Armstrong will be reporting live from Vegas at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

(Jealous much?)

If I could add one request to the many devices, gadgets, and products that Mario has on his “I must demo this” list for CES, It would be the new Motorola Tablet that will be unveiled during the event. Right now, all I’ve have been able to dig up about the Tablet is that it will have the new Android Honeycomb OS that is tailored specifically for tablets, and will have a 10″ screen – That should put it in DIRECT competition with the Apple iPad that even with some of the latest tablet releases (Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy Tab) STILL sits alone at the top of “Tablet Mountain”

Motorola hopes to change that, and has released a down-right sexy teaser ad that goes right at the iPad…and pretty much every single type of tablet in recorded history in order to create some buzz.

Check out the video and tell me what you think

Stay tuned to SmallBizGoMobile as more details surface!

The “Dark Side” of Android

Android has its dark side too

Some would say I’ve been waxing lyrical about Android in the last few weeks as I compared iphone vs android, I am a fan, no doubt, but –lest you think that I’ve lost my sense of objectivity– here are some worrying trends that have recently emerged about Android phones:

  • Some new Android models have been getting so-called JunkWare: gratuitous apps that are shoved into the standard distribution of the OS whether the user likes them or not. Mark Milian highlights some of the abuse in a recent LA Times article.
  • There are unconfirmed reports that the new Motorola Droid X (a very cool phone by technical standards), contains hardware preventing users from installing their own homebrew version of the Android Operating System. While most users won’t be doing any of this kind of hacking, it’s just bad style on the hands of a manufacturer.

So just because the Android platform has been making a lot of progress in competing with iPhones, it doesn’t mean that it’s devoid of its own dubious practices… remember, use your best judgement when picking a phone for your business.

image credit – scifi cool