The war between the iPhone and the various Android smartphones has been hot for half a decade now. The various battles between Apple and Samsung in particular have been fierce. In recent months, Samsung and its Galaxy S line of smartphones have been making strides towards edging out the worldwide leader, but a recent study by FixYa will have Apple fanboys rejoicing. As you can see, Apple has the highest reliability score overall by a mile. The score, in which the higher the number, the better, is calculated by “taking manufacturer problem impressions divided by sample problem impressions (impression…

It isn’t too common for Wall Street analysts to be very wrong. They have good indicators and past performances upon which to generate their predictions and it’s often more accurate than the weather. With Google’s Q4 2012 analysis, they were wrong by a mile even at Google’s revenue standards. They reported $14.42 billion in the last quarter and earnings per share of $10.65 on a non-GAAP basis. Analyst had expected that Google would have revenues of $12.3 billion. “We ended 2012 with a strong quarter,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “Revenues were up 36% year-on-year, and 8% quarter-on-quarter….

Patents shift hands almost as often as companies change their lunch menus. Mobile, software, and hardware patents are of particular importance as both deterrents and protection against the litany of lawsuits, frivolous or not, that chase big tech companies on a regular basis. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Motorola (who just sold 17,000 patents as part of their deal with Google) stockpile patents, spending lots of money in order to save lots of money. It’s much like insurance – you pay a little now over time to prevent the big hits from coming all at once.. This graphic by Visual.ly attempts…

Google announced they intended to purchase Motorola Mobility last August. Nine months, a go-around with China, and $12.5 billion dollars later, the deal has been completed according to a post by CEO Larry Page. “It’s a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term,” Page said. “Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound–as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone.” Along with the handset giant, Google…

Google cleared its last big hurdle, the Great Wall of China. Now, the search giant will be able to move forward with its purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The caveat is a minor one that would have likely been the case anyway, but China wasn’t going to take any chances. As part of the approval, Google must agree to keep Android free and available to other device makes for 5 years. They also joined the US and Europe in voicing the sentiment that Google must make Motorola patents available for fair licensing. “Our stance since we agreed to acquire Motorola has not changed and we look forward…

Smartphone season unofficially started last week with the release of the iPhone 4S. As Android phone makers try to capture their share of the lucrative Christmas market, the volleying for differentiators takes different angles to be as appealing as possible to consumers. For the Motorola Droid Razr, their gimmick is thickness (or lack thereof). This “impossibly thin”smartphone is equipped with a stainless-steel core, a Gorilla Glass screen and a nanotechnology Splash-guard. Motorola Mobility President Sanjay Jha said the 7.1mm-thick device is the world’s thinnest. Here are some of…

Feels like only yesterday we were all rooting for Motorola’s Xoom to deal some damage to (or at least share some of the market with) the iPad. The Xoom looked – and, to be honest, still looks – like a decent piece of hardware. I, for one, would still be proud to sport it about the town in a man-purse, whipping it out at a fancy coffee bar while I slurp down a beverage with a sentence-long name. Of course, once it was revealed that the Xoom would in fact cost more than the most comparable iPad model, people began singing a different tune. 800 bucks is not worth a tablet of the Xoom’s capabilities. Or, in this case,…

The latest “buzz” in the tablet race comes from a video released yesterday by Motorola. “Tablet Evolution” walks us through a virtual museum with the progressing forms of tablet “technology” represented, starting with Egyptian Hieroglyphics. The format is clever, listing a positive element of each followed by the drawback that plagued them. Their jab at the iPad was particularly clever, saying that, “It’s like a giant iPhone, but… it’s like a giant iPhone.” We’ll know more about it next month at CES, but the presence of a bee at the end of the video has many speculating that it is the predicted…

Why bring a pistol to a gun battle when you could bring a rocket launcher instead? That was the question on my mind before this year’s release of some impressively sized Android phones. It’s clear now that consumers desire just a little more ass kickage in the palm of their hands; the Motorola Droid X just so happens to be in mine. So does it deliver the explosive experience that you would expect? Let’s find out. It might be difficult to believe, but I didn’t fully know what to expect after I had made my purchase of the Droid X. I had tinkered around with it at my local Verizon store, but I had some reservations….

Apple has been fighting hard against the jailbreak community for years now. Every update Apple dishes out feels like its a direct punch to the kidney to those wishing to install third-party applications to their device. Another heavyweight, Motorola,  is taking large steps to lock down their new devices as well. Efuse Chip The new Motorola Droid X which touts impressive specs such as a 1ghz processor, 4.3” high resolutions screen, an 8 MP camera, and an impressive HDMI output up to 720p. It is currently running the latest version of Android (2.1), with the understanding that when Froyo (2.2)…