Android and Me » sholes

Motorola Droid (Sholes) headed to Europe

Taylor Wimberly — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:38:08 +0000

Mr. Kumparak from MobileCrunch has confirmed an old rumor we posted back in August. The FCC has approved the Motorola Droid (Sholes) phone for 3G bands outside the United States. I’m not exactly sure why the FCC needs to approve devices not intended for the U.S., but it is still a cool find.

The device name was hidden in the FCC reports, but it can be found on page 7 of test report (PDF).

Sholes is the codename for the Motorola Droid.

The issue of 3G bands is clarified in the supplemental response (PDF).

Look for the Sholes to appear in multiple countries.

As far as we know, this could be the new Sholes tablet that was spotted last week. The tablet version of Sholes will lose the keyboard, get an 8 megapixel camera with xenon flash, and support 720p playback via HDMI.

Android rumor report: Donut, Sholes, and Tao

Taylor Wimberly — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:04:28 +0000

People either love it or hate it when we post Android “rumors”. No large company will ever comment on product that has not been announced, so there is no way to officially confirm this information. However, we have a lot of friends from these companies and they like to talk. Whenever I get a juicy rumor from a reliable inside source, I will share it and let you decide how credible we have been.

The follow is a collection of tips we have received over the last few days:

Rumor 1: As of next week, Motorola is expanding the rollout of developer units of the Sholes by a factor of 3. There should hopefully be more info in the wild shortly after the new batch of them go out to testers at Motorola and Google. Also, a Motorola representative was dispatched to Google’s (removed) building last Friday, with a briefcase carried under guard. Said briefcase did not happen to have any Sholes in it, but something even newer by the Moto crew. I’m not sure what. Yet.

Comment: This is in line with what I have been hearing. The “Sholes” hardware is practically finished and Motorola and Google are working to finish off Android 2.0. This batch of new units could offer a slight hardware refresh. We first reported the “Sholes” would feature 512 MB of internal storage, but later speculated it could be as high as 16 GB. I have no idea what the new hardware is, but we did report that Motorola is working on 10 Android phones.

Rumor 2: Donut should be released by Google by the end of next week. It will be made available to (but not necessarily released in an update) T-Mobile and HTC in phone images. This is assuming the schedule doesn’t slip yet again.

Comment: Once again, this confirms what we have been hearing from other sources. Much of the Android 1.6 code is already available in the AOSP, so this is no surprise. Once T-Mobile has the images, it should be a month before we see the OTA update. Look to late October for the official Android 1.6 rollout.

Rumor 3: The Sholes’s CPU officially supports Neon. Granted, this is very weak news by itself, until you know what Neon is but if you’re a developer looking forward to making use of it, it’ll make you jump for joy.

Comment: We already reported this back in August and now another source confirms it. You can read more about Neon technology on the Arm site.

Rumor 4: The Motorola “Sholes” will launch on Verizon as the Motorola Tao.

Comment: I’ve seen some internal documents from Motorola that had the phone name blocked out and it was only three letters, so Tao is a definite possibility. Give me a couple hours and I should be able to confirm this with another source.

Got some inside information? Tip us on news.

Motorola Sholes the most desired Android phone

Taylor Wimberly — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:09:35 +0000

Last week we introduced our first weekly Android poll and asked you, “Which upcoming Android phone are you looking forward to the most?” There were many phones we could have listed, but I chose the three that we know are launching in the United States by the end of this year.

Verizon should launch the Sholes in December.

To no surprise, the Verizon Motorola Sholes came in first place capturing 43 percent of the vote. The Hero and Cliq were tied with 22 percent each and “Other” finished with 12 percent.

Both the Hero and Cliq are essentially first generation devices since they feature the same Qualcomm chipset as the T-Mobile G1. On the other hand, the Motorola Sholes is expected to be a second generation phone and the first to ship with Android 2.0. The Sholes is rumored to feature a Texas Instruments OMAP3430 chipset and offer twice the performance of any competing Android phone.

The top response for “Other” was the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 which is rumored to feature a 1 GHz Snapdragon chipset. The Xperia X3 is said to be coming in 2010, but it remains unknown if any United States carrier will pick it up.

Some other random responses to “Other”:

Anything w/o an old Qualcomm in it.
T-Mobile UK Pulse
HTC Tattoo
Cellular South Hero
Samsung Instinct Q
HTC HD2 Running Android
Anything with Nvidia Tegra
SciPhone N12
I’d rather hear that Donut is compatible with G1
ANY Android phone that even thinks about coming to ATT
Your Mom

Check back tomorrow for our next weekly poll. Enough people complained about the hidden results that we decided to display the voting percentages while the poll is live.

What is the thinnest Android phone?

Taylor Wimberly — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:46:55 +0000

With all the new Android phones that are coming out, I thought it would be cool to compare the thickness of each one. When the first Android phone launched, many people criticized the T-Mobile G1 because of its bulky size. Look at the following Android phones to see how they stack up. I chose the two current phones that are for sale in the United States along with three future phones that are expected to go on sale later this year.

* Contains slide-out QWERTY keyboard

I think it comes as no surprise that the G1 is the thickest phone. It was the first Android phone released and features a full QWERTY keyboard. The second thickest phone is the myTouch 3G which was HTC’s second Android device. Stuck in the middle is the Sprint Hero. We can see that HTC has made size improvements with each Android phone they produce.

The Motorola Sholes measures in at 13.7 mm thin. This one actually caught me off guard because it also features a full QWERTY keyboard. Motorola was somehow able to fit a full keyboard in and still deliver a device that is slimmer than any HTC Android phone. I will have to do some more research, but it could be the thinnest phone ever with a full slide out QWERTY keyboard.

Coming in as the thinnest Android phone is the Samsung Galaxy. There is still a debate if this phone will ever go on sale in the United States or if it is too late to release it. I went ahead and included it just because it was so thin.

I own a G1 and I don’t mind the size, but it would have been nice if it was a slimmer device. I found the myTouch 3G fit perfectly in my hand and I prefer the device, but I still miss the physical keyboard. It is really impressive to see a device like the Motorola Sholes that still offers the full slide out keyboard, but makes no sacrifices in size.

How important is thickness to you?

5 reasons we think the Motorola Sholes will appear at Mobilize 09

Taylor Wimberly — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:51:50 +0000

Motorola has scheduled an event on September 10th at the GigaOM Mobilize 09 conference. We know Motorola will make some Android announcements, but no official word has been given on which phones will appear. Some sites are speculating the Motorola Sholes will be absent because Verizon is not participating on that day. I have a different take on the event and I’m going to try and convince you otherwise.

The following is a short list of reasons I think the Motorola Sholes (and Android 2.0) will be unveiled on September 10th, 2009.

1. During Motorola’s earnings call last month, CEO Sanjay Jha responded with the following when asked about potential advertising for new Android phones.

“In terms of when you will see ads, well, let me tell you, around mid September timeframe we hope to be able to let you play with these devices more and get your feedback as to where you think it fits into the marketplace.”

Devices is plural.

2. When GigaOM sent an email to Motorola PR last week, they responded with the following.

Motorola Mobile Devices CEO Sanjay Jha will be making an announcement regarding the company’s Android portfolio during his keynote that day at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference.

Portfolio implies more than one Android device.

3. I was recently talking with an inside source at Motorola about the September 10th event. When I asked about which phones would be present they responded, “Morrison definitely, Sholes maybe.” If Sholes was not going to make an appearance, I think I would have been told “no” by now.

4. I’ve seen internal Motorla documents that discuss the Sholes features. They had a release date of September 10th, 2009. Obviously this is not the date the phone is going on sale, but I believe it was referring to the date when Sholes would be revealed.

5. Andy Rubin, the father of Android, is a speaker at the Mobilize 09 event. Google has been working closely with Motorola and I think Mr. Rubin will finally announce that Android 2.0 will debut on the Motorola Sholes.

If anyone has evidence to the contrary, we would love to hear what you have to say.

Motorola to unveil Android phones in September for Verizon and T-Mobile

Taylor Wimberly — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:25:36 +0000

The stakes are high for Motorola. Many people have questioned if their bet on Android can turn the company around. I’m no Wall Street analyst, but I’m here to tell you the answer is yes.

Imagine the following scenario: Verizon, America’s largest wireless carrier, releases Motorola’s first Android phone (based on the Snapdragon platform) just in time for the crucial holiday shopping season. Would that get you excited?

Images of the Moto "Sholes" leaked this week.

It might sound far fetched, but it is closer to reality than you think. Motorola has told everyone they are making Android phones, but have been very tight lipped about the actual handsets. Reports had placed the rumored Motorola Calgary as Verizon’s first Android phone, but it was unclear on the exact specs or time frame of the device.

The picture got a little clearer today when new images of the Motorola “Sholes” were leaked by a Russian fan site. The design is an updated version of the Calgary renders we saw and now has the Verizon logo clearly displayed on the front. The specs were impressive, but conveniently left out the CPU.

Highlight of the Motorola “Sholes” include:

3.7-inch touch-sensitive display with a resolution 480×854 pixels
Memory 512 MB Flash ROM / 256 MB RAM / micro SDHC slot
Camera 5 MP with auto focus
Dimensions 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm
Weight 169g
Battery Li-ion 1400mAh
3.5 mm headphone jack
802.11g WiFi

Expect more details of the phone soon. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said on Thursday’s quarterly earnings call that we would see their first devices soon. “Around mid september time frame, we hope to be able to let you play with these (Android) devices more and get your feedback as to where you think it fits into the marketplace.”

Mr. Jha made it clear the phones will go on sale in the 4th quarter. “We will have two Android devices in stores for the holiday season. We have deals that are signed and we will launch with two major carriers in North America and multiple carriers outside the US.”

All signs point to Verizon launching the Motorola “Sholes” and T-Mobile offering the Motorola Morrison. It is clear the “Sholes” is the higher end device and it could be Android’s flagship phone for 2009. Verizon has been trying to get their hands on the iPhone, but it won’t be happening anytime soon. The “Sholes” is Verizon’s best opportunity to have a device that directly competes with Apple.

There are hints floating around that suggest “Sholes” could provide real hype for Verizon.

Why was the CPU info mysteriously left off the leaked specs of “Sholes”? Could it be that the phone will be based off the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform? This would provide the needed fire power to speed up Android. We know a CPU bump is coming after getting four Android phones in a row with the older Qualcomm MSM72xx processor. The Snapdragon platform, with a 1 GHz CPU, is the next logical step for Android.

Before recently joining Motorola as its new CEO, Sanjay Jha spent over a decade working at Qualcomm. He led and oversaw the development of five generations of modem and cell site chipsets, before becoming COO of Qualcomm. I believe Mr. Jha has been so secretive about Motorola’s handset design because they have a big surprise for us.

We have seen Windows Mobile phones (Toshiba TG01) based off Snapdragon already pass the FCC. Is it that hard to believe Motorola will unveil a 1 GHz Android phone? They need to make an impression with their first Android device and I believe it will be the Snapdragon platform.

The possible addition of the Android 2.0 stamp could add even more momentum to Motorola’s first Android phone. As we have learned over the last month, Android 2.0 is just marketing fluff and Google can whip it out whenever they choose. Who knows if the Donut branch will even be a release. Google could choose to hold off their next update to include new features being worked on in Eclair and Flan.

All of these Android releases are carefully coordinated between Google, the carriers, and the handset manufacturers. Google could have promised Verizon the Android 2.0 moniker to launch their first phone. This may explain why they stopped updating their roadmap if marketing deals are still being done behind closed doors.

All we can do is wait till September as the speculation builds. What do you think Motorola has up their sleeve?

Update 7/31: Motorola could preview their upcoming devices at the Mobilize 09 event on September 10, 2009. The keynote lineup includes Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha and T-Mobile CTO Cole Brodman. Qualcomm COO Len Lauer is also on the speaker lineup. That sounds like an event I would like to attend.

The Motorola Sholes could be this years flagship Android phone.