Verizon gives Droid Razr HD and Maxx owners some Jelly Bean for the holidays

Verizon has announced that its second generation Droid Razr handset will be getting the long-awaited update to Android 4.1 next week.

A few days age we reported that Verizon has slashed the price of Motorola’s Droid Razr M for the holiday season, but that’s not the only surprise for Droid fans. On Friday, the carrier also announced that all three Motorola phones – the Droid Razr HD, Droid Razr Maxx HD, and Droid Razr M will be eligible for the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update as soon as next week.

The software upgrade will be pushed out to Droid Razr M owners in phases over the course of next week, Verizon said. The update will come to users over the air (OTA) but customers who wish to manually download Android 4.1 through the settings menu will be able to do so as well. Android 4.1 should take between 10 and 15 minutes to download and install, and users can manually check for the update by heading to Settings > About phone > System updates > Download.

Verizon has a support page detailing instructions on how to install Android 4.1 and outlining the benefits of using Jelly Bean. Some major improvements include Google Now, a Smart Keyboard that predicts the next word before a user types it, better notifications, and improvements to overall speed and usability.  To check out Verizon’s full list of features or for more instructions, view its support page here.

This is the Verizon’s second smartphone series to get the highly anticipated Jelly Bean update. Back in September, Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus received Google’s mobile operating system upgrade. These are the only devices on Verizon’s network that have been confirmed for the Jelly Bean update at the moment. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2, which just saw its Verizon launch on Thursday, comes with the updates software out of the box.

The Droid Razrs will also be getting ISIS NFC capabilities. This mobile wallet feature allows owners of the device to turn their smartphone into their own personalized digital wallet. Users can make payments simply by tapping their phone at ISIS compatible merchants, though ISIS is only up and running in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas at the moment.

This news also comes just after Consumer Reports named Verizon as the top cell phone carrier in the United States, although AT&T was ranked as providing the best LTE service. 

View the original article here

Droid Razr M now only $50 at Verizon with two-year contract

Verizon is now offering Motorola's Droid Razr M for $50 as part of a holiday promotion. Be sure to check it out. It's one of our favorite handsets on the market.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be over, but that doesn’t mean the holiday sales are finished. Motorola just announced that its Droid Razr M is on sale for $50 with a two-year contract. Motorola slashed the handset’s price in half for the holidays (down from $100). This is one of the cheaper high-end devices on the market right now, especially for Verizon users who don’t have many options in that price area. By point of comparison, phones such as Nokia’s Lumia 820 are typically priced in that $50 range.

On the whole, Motorola’s Droid Razr M is a rather impressive device.  It may not have the same attention-grabbing flash as Samsung’s Galaxy S3 or Apple’s iPhone 5, but for $50 it has a solid battery life, a speedy Snapdragon processor and it feels great to hold. We praised it in our full Razr M review.

The device comes equipped with a 4.3-inch AMOLED display and Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), which is one of the most recent iterations of Google’s Android software. It also features an 8-megapixel camera, 1GB of RAM, and 4G LTE connectivity. The only downside is its rather paltry 8GB of internal storage, but it features a microSD card slot for expanded storage. For those who like to customize, the Droid Razr M offers users the ability to create and add home screens as needed, rather than stocking a bunch of blank ones that usually remain empty. This isn’t found in other Android-powered phones, nor is the Quick settings menu Motorola has implemented.

Check out the promotional video from Verizon below.

View the original article here

Rumored Verizon roadmap features LG Spectrum 2, HTC Droid Incredible X, and others

A fresh batch of upcoming release windows for Android devices on Verizon has been leaked, giving us a rough idea of what to expect all the way to the new year. The supposed source document identifies the HTC Droid Incredible X as the ADR6435LVW, and is due to launch in November with LTE connectivity. The LG Spectrum 2 should be available in early October. The Samsung Stratosphere 2 is expected by the end of the month, while something called the Pantech Perception, a follow-up to the Breakout, didn't get a solid release date or specs. There are also two ZTE tablets on the roadmap, though the 10-inch one may have been canceled. Finally, the Motorola Droid RAZR HD should be landing in the middle of Q4, with the Droid RAZR MAXX HD dropping sometime in the middle of November. 

As with any rumor provided without any kind of documentation to back it up, take this information with a grain of salt. That said, how likely do you guys think it is that this roadmap will pan out?

Source: PhoneArena

View the original article here

Droid RAZR HD video tutorials leaked (update - and now they're gone)

Update: Well, looks like the YouTube account that uploaded the videos has been closed. That's the way it goes with leaks sometimes. 

A few video tutorials have leaked out, very similar to ones we've seen before for other Motorola devices, showing basic functions of using what we presume is the Droid RAZR HD. Although the device isn't actually properly called out as such, it's a pretty safe bet at this point given the design, Verizon branding and timing. Leaks like this line up with what we're assuming will be the launch of the device at a Verizon and Motorola event on September 5th.

The videos are pretty run of the mill, showing off basic functions of the latest Motorola UI over Ice Cream Sandwich -- which looks extremely similar to what we've seen on the Atrix HD. Unfortunately they don't give away much in the way of specs or a look at the rest of the device, but we'll know soon enough. Take a gander after the break at the rest of the videos.

Source: Droid Life

"Forever tinkering with gadgets."

View the original article here