Here is hip-hop mogul, Just Blaze, posing with the Motorola Canary. Just Blaze is well known for being a connoisseur of all things cellphoney, so it is no surprise that he managed to get his hands on the Canary. Thanks, Adam. – Travis Hudson

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

Filed under: Features, Motorola, Verizon Wireless

Once again the Boy Genius came through, this time giving Engadget Mobile an exclusive first look at the Verizon Motorola Canary / KRZR. Yes, you heard us, the KRZR's coming to Verizon; this version of the handset dropped the violet-blue case and switched to a strikingly hot black-clad exterior. Thanks to BengalBoy for the hookup!

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Others, Panasonic, NEC, Sharp, NTT DoCoMo, UMTS

NTT DoCoMo – in an apparent bid to not just out-do, but humiliate the rest of the world’s carriers – has dropped yet another six 3G flips on its home crowd.  The new handsets are part of NTT’s “7 Series” of fashion-oriented phones, and include entries from Mitsubishi, Panasonic, NEC, Motorola, and Sharp. Moto has actually contributed two models here, one in the V3x vein and the other apparently a let’s-see-how-long-we-can-milk-this port of the original V3. All six of the phones support the typical i-mode goodness, FOMA, video calling, and an array of functions that sound like science fiction to the non-Japanese among us.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, CDMA

Filed under: Cellphones

The guys over at PhoneScoop have sure made the site live up to its name today: not only did they get some serious hands-on time with Motorola’s upcoming RAZR slider — codenamed Capri — they also got to preview the next version of Moto’s much-maligned Synergy UI that will show up in such models as the Canary and the SCPL. At least on paper, the Capri seems to offer a very compelling feature set that will probably attract anyone into the RAZR lifestyle- you’re getting a model only slightly thicker and heavier than its clamshell counterpart, but which sports a 2.0 megapixel camera, A2DP-capable Bluetooth, and what sounds like a greatly improved user interface. Especially noteworthy in the overhauled Synergy is an address book that seems to work much more intuitively than past iterations (remember the one on the StarTAC?), allowing you to organize entries by name and search for contacts using multiple letters. Although Phone Scoop was only testing a pre-production model, they have identified some potential problems to watch out for on the final version, such as the unusually crappy quality of what should be a decent camera, and most importantly, a spring-assisted slider that’s difficult to activate due to the raised antenna bulge so familiar to RAZR owners. Click on if you want to peep a few more snaps, but you’re really doing yourself a disservice if you don’t head over to PhoneScoop for the full gallery and a very thorough write-up…

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Filed under: Culture, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, Misc

Reaching deep into its bag of marketing tricks, Motorola is working with Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs to install its i580 iDEN clamshells at Wrigley Field to create the ”League’s first wireless bullpen communication system.” We’re hard-pressed to find the difference between a “wireless bullpen communication system” and “a couple of Nextels mounted on the wall,” but as the name implies, the phones will give managers the capability to get through to the bullpen from the dugout without all those pesky wires that plague traditional systems. Tonight’s game marks the first for the new system, after which the phone used to make the first call will be immortalized for all to see at the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (no, seriously). For the record, the i580 supports Bluetooth, so don’t be surprised if you catch Dusty Baker sporting a chic headset in the dugout.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Cingular, Verizon Wireless, Windows Mobile, GSM, EV-DO, UMTS, CDMA

Filed under: Handsets, Features, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

When word got out that Motorola’s “pop-up store” on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile would be called “Destination Q,” we all knew it would be focused on their newest pride and joy, the Q. Perhaps we didn’t realize just how focused it would be.

Destination Q fills a portion of the space formerly occupied by the Terra Museum of American Art, located at 666 N. Michigan Avenue. It’s an attractive facility both inside and out and was, in our opinion, a great place for Motorola to set up shop. Sadly, the property is too hot — the building is slated for demolition next year to make room for residences.

Curious onlookers mingle outside the store. The joint was pretty dead by the time we rolled in around lunchtime, but apparently, the real action was in the morning when Moto gave away a Q every five minutes for two hours. Rumor has it there was a line stretched down the street of screaming fanatics hoping to get a free Q, or at the very least, a glimpse of Ed Zander. It would’ve been nifty if they had shot the free Qs out of cannons into the gathered throng.

This is what the would-be Q owner sees when he or she first walks in. You immediately get the sense that the place was thrown together in some haste, but that would fall right into Moto’s “pop-up store” strategy. The public portion of the store consists of the first floor alone, which isn’t terribly big. There are additional facilities on the upper floors for conferences and private events. The Motorola staff was energetic, friendly, largely knowledgeable, and they could be found in every corner of the facility; we avoided the Verizon reps, on the other hand, at all costs. For what it’s worth, we were told that although no future pop-up stores are planned, Motorola’s ready to plan and open one quickly wherever and whenever it makes sense to do so — like when Nokia decides to open a shop in your hometown, for example.

The concept of Destination Q is to showcase a different aspect of the Q’s capabilities at different kiosks, like this one. All the Qs were on, activated, and accessible to the average Joe coming in off the street.

Like we said, Motorola was not shy about this store existing solely to showcase the Q, and they were everywhere. Yes, this is a wall of Qs. And yes, they are all operational.

Bluetooth is a major theme here. Motorola is showcasing every Bluetooth headset they manufacture, and they were quick to point out the Q’s A2DP support, as well.

Not an XPRT with vowels, apparently, but this gentleman knew his stuff about the Q. He let it slip that AKU2 is still in testing, but yes — it’s definitely on its way.

Most of the staff were sporting slightly different Qs with light silver bezels (as opposed to VZW’s dark bezels) that we were told were pre-production. We had hypothesized that they might be GSM units (gasp!), but we caught one of them without the battery installed and there was nary a SIM slot to be seen.

An entire kiosk was devoted to the Q’s media capabilities — video in particular. Orb (pictured) and Sling players were loaded on several of the units here. Video was mostly clipping along at 9 fps while we watched, but it spiked up to 15 fps on several occasions. We’re told that the average user can expect 15-17 fps, and to be fair, we have no idea what a hundred in-use Qs in close proximity do to EV-DO speeds.

You can use this, uh, “Brand X” MPEG recorder to get video to your Q. We thought the lack of capitalization on “motorola” was interesting here.

Drop the kiddies off in front of Destination Q’s posh Xbox 360 setup while you sign away the next two years of your life to Verizon.

Centrino laptops and promotional materials were strewn about; we were told that the tie-in with Intel would be strong at Destination Q, with a future co-branded event of some sort in the works.

Motorola’s other CDMA phones are afterthoughts here, but they’re available for sale along with the Q. Their GSM contingent, on the other hand, was missing in action.

The Motorola staff were too wrapped up in their Qs to pay much attention to a grubby Engadget editor. Can’t say we blame them. Thanks for the hospitality, guys!

(Cue Jaws theme.) It’s coming, Motorola. Right down the street. We can’t wait to watch the sparks fly.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Nothing like a lighthearted trademark lawsuit to break up the gloom-and-doom stories of hot phones that aren’t bound for US shores, eh? It seems that Razor USA – the scooter company – was understandably concerned back in 2004 that Motorola might encroach on the lucrative, burgeoning scooterphone market and penned an agreement to license the “RAZR” name through October of this year. Motorola figured they could sidestep the agreement by prefixing “MOTO” to “RAZR” and wash their hands of the encroaching expiration date. Razor — again, the scooter people – disagreed, prompting Motorola to file the lawsuit. In the meantime, Motorola “will continue to expend substantial funds to complete the transition” from RAZR to MOTORAZR, apparently confident they can overpower a bunch of kids on two-wheeled scooters. How much money can the “transition” from four letters to eight really cost, anyway?

[Thanks, CoreyTheGent]

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Filed under: Cellphones

This thing just gets prettier and prettier every time we see it. We don’t have any solid deets on specs for Canary, the RAZR’s heir apparent, but the rampant speculation mill currently has her getting a 2 megapixel shooter, 17 measly megabytes of internal storage, a MicroSD slot, and the all-important Bluetooth 2.0. We’re seeing conflicting reports on whether we’ll get UMTS, but we gotta be honest, quad-band EDGE alone just isn’t going to cut it for a high-end phone by the time Canary likely drops in 2007. More shots of Canary doing its thing after the break.

[Thanks, dk]

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

This release may not have us salivating uncontrollably like the Q did, but for what it’s worth, the V3m is a marginal upgrade to the outgoing V3c it replaces, giving you a MicroSD slot to rock the new inbuilt music player — and not much else. Step right up, folks; the V3m is available now for $149.99 with contract — but as we’ve learned, availability and price could vary nonsensically in your area.

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Filed under: Cellphones

For anyone who puts much stock those reports of cellphone radiation causing cancer, we recommend you set down your Moto and back slowly away. Turns out Motorola managed to score the top eight spots in a list by CNET of phones with the highest radiation levels -- as tested by the FCC. The phones are rated by SAR level, which measures the quantity of radio frequency asbsorbed by the body. Of course, a lot of these phones are nearly a decade old, but the two-month-old C290 makes an appearance, and the list is headed by the SLVR L6 at a whopping SAR level of 1.58W/kg (1.6W/kg is the max allowed). This could have something to do with the light weight of a phone like the SLVR -- though Palm's much heftier 650 managed a 9 spot -- but we're cooking up a few conspiracy theories right now if that turns out not to be the case. In all fairness, the top ten lowest-radiation phone list had a couple Motorola appearances, with the Audiovox PPC66001 leading the group at a SAR level of 0.12. Now where did we put that aluminum foil hat...

[Via Healthbetold]

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

What’s a lazy Friday afternoon without a bit of completely unsubstantiated rumor mongering? Sure, it’s possible that Ed Zander himself wrote this SCPL mockup on a napkin over a recent lunch, but we’re thinking it more likely the doings of a fanboy with too much time on his hands. Anyways, the specs are as set above: 0.2-inches thick (compared to the 0.27-inch chubster X820 from Samsung), QVGA display, 512MB flash memory, MicroSD slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio (pushing it), Bluetooth 2.0 and a titanium-alloy build. We’d be pretty happy with about half of that, but we’re sure this won’t be the last savory rumor to drool over before we find out for reals.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Wireless

It is truly a great day for Verizon customers. The kind of day you'll tell your grandkids about. Fifteen years from now, people will be asking each other, "Where were you when the Q order link went live on Verizon's site?" Anyway, after "just 2 easy steps" -- committing two years of mobile freedom and your firstborn child -- the Motorola Q will cost you $199.99. Why are you still reading? Get 'em while the gettin's good.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

Last time we checked in on Motorola's V3m -- a slight music-centric update to the EV-DO V3c -- we weren't quite sure if this was going to Verizon or Sprint, but it looks like Verizon won out in the end, and are now offering the handset for $150 with a 2-year contract. The phone features a microSD slot for music and video storage, and a 1.3 megapixel camera, but there doesn't seem to be a lot else new going on here. Music-wise, the phone is designed to work with Verizon's V Cast music and video services, but we're not sure of codec support beyond those downloads, though MP3 seems a given and PlaysForSure is likely.

[Thanks, Ryan]

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

Last time we checked in on Motorola’s V3m — a slight music-centric update to the EV-DO V3c — we weren’t quite sure if this was going to Verizon or Sprint, but it looks like Verizon won out in the end, and are now offering the handset for $150 with a 2-year contract. The phone features a microSD slot for music and video storage, and a 1.3 megapixel camera, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot else new going on here. Music-wise, the phone is designed to work with Verizon’s V Cast music and video services, but we’re not sure of codec support beyond those downloads, though MP3 seems a given and PlaysForSure is likely.

[Thanks, Ryan]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Cingular, GSM, GPRS

We’re not entirely sure when it’s to hit the streets, but we got our grimey gadget groping mitts on some internal Cingular launch docs for the Motorola RAZR V3i — that’d be the RAZR with iTunes and MicroSD. Yep, that 100 song cap is still present, and the phone isn’t anything more than it used to be (1.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, quad-band GSM / GPRS), but at least somebody’s bringing the damned thing to the US.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Talk about a tease: Motorola’s head honcho for cellphones, Ron Garriques, revealed the existence of an upcoming handset called the SCPL (that’s scalpel, in case the lack of vowels made it unclear) during a recent company investment conference — but kept all the important details to himself. All that’s known about the SCPL (which we hope no one will mistake for the surgical tool pictured here), other than the obvious fact that it will be quite slim, is that it will sport five features that promise to set it apart from the pack — which we’ll take to mean WiMax, GPS, 3CCD HD camcorder, 30GB hard drive, and probably a DirecTV dish as well. At this point, we can’t even say for sure that the SCPL is not the same as the supposed RAZR 2, or “Canary,” that’s been fluttering around recently, but whatever they’re working on, we’ll have to wait until next year to get our hands on one.

[Thanks, Shamste]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola

Talk about a tease: Motorola’s head honcho for cellphones, Ron Garriques, revealed the existence of an upcoming handset called the SCPL (that’s scalpel, in case the lack of vowels made it unclear) during a recent company investment conference — but kept all the important details to himself. All that’s known about the SCPL (which we hope no one will mistake for the surgical tool pictured here), other than the obvious fact that it will be quite slim, is that it will sport five features that promise to set it apart from the pack — which we’ll take to mean WiMax, GPS, 3CCD HD camcorder, 30GB hard drive, and probably a DirecTV dish as well. At this point, we can’t even say for sure that the SCPL is not the same as the supposed RAZR 2, or “Canary,” that’s been fluttering around recently, but whatever they’re working on, we’ll have to wait until next year to get our hands on one.

[Thanks, Shamste]

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Filed under: Motorola, Nokia

Nothing like a bit of handset maker rivalry, and who better to epitomize that war than #1 Nokia and #2 Motorola? With Nokia slowly rolling out their retail plan, which started with a store in Moscow last December, Motorola is jumping into the fray and hopes to open their first store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The strip currently houses an Apple Store, but more relevantly is the future site of Nokia’s store, which should open a block away from the proposed Motorola site. Moto is hoping to open their space by June 5, which seems a bit rushed seeing how they haven’t even closed on their prospective space yet, but since they’re getting the former Terra Museum of American Art, perhaps they think there won’t be much construction needed. If Motorola can stay on target, their store will open before Nokia’s, which apparently means a lot to Ed Zander and co. — and who are we to stand in their way?

[Thanks, Joe D.]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

We were (then weren’t) expecting it any day now, but it looks like Motorola and Verizon have finally done the deed and made the Q official. Final specs include EV-DO (duh), Bluetooth 1.2, stereo speakers, Pocket Office, and the rest of the spread we’ve come to know all to well about this thing. The best part, however, is that you’ll be able to order online starting May 31 or buy in store June 5th for a paltry $199 (after $100 instant rebate and two year plan, of course), with EV-DO enabled data plans to run between $80 and $170 per month, depending on your usage. And don’t you even think about tethering this thing, mister.

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We were (then weren’t) expecting it any day now, but it looks like Motorola and Verizon have finally done the deed and made the Q official. Final specs include EV-DO (duh), Bluetooth 1.2, stereo speakers, and the rest of the spread we’ve come to know all to well about this thing. The best part, however, is that you’ll be able to order online starting May 31 or buy in store June 5th for a paltry $199 (after $100 instant rebate and two year plan, of course), with EV-DO enabled data plans to run between $80 and $170 per month, depending on your usage. And don’t you even think about tethering this thing, mister.

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