Galaxy Note LTE or Motorola Razr?

Will Samsung's Smartphone Beat The Motorola's Best Bet? The Samsung Galaxy Note LTE was released in January and comes with the trademark large screen that allows users to view more with less scrolling and transitions. It also features the S Pen stylus, which integrates with the device's native apps to offer a richer and more interactive experience.

The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is a feature-packed smartphone that offers a powerful battery as well as high-speed 4G LTE compatibility. Check out how the Galaxy Note LTE's specs do against the Droid Razr Maxx:

Display
Samsung's Galaxy Note LTE features a gigantic 5.3in Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels at 285 pixel per inch (ppi). It includes the TouchWiz User Interface. The Droid Razr Maxx comes with a 4.3in Super AMOLED Advanced capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 960x540 pixels at 256 pixels per inch (ppi). It includes Corning Gorilla Glass which protects the screen from damages, as does the Galaxy Note LTE.

Processor
The Galaxy Note LTE is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon chipset with a dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion processor. Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx is powered by a 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU and TI OMAP 4430 chipset. Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx sport 1GB of RAM.

Camera
Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx boast an eight megapixel rear-facing camera with auto-focus and LED flash. The sporting features are geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection and image stabilisation. Both smartphones allow users to record video of 1080p. The Galaxy Note LTE features a two megapixel front-facing camera, whereas the Droid Razr Maxx includes a front-facing camera of 1.3 megapixels.

Operating System
Both smartphones run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which is upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

Storage
Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx have 16GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot with additional memory space of 32GB. Connectivity
The Galaxy Note LTE features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi hotspot. It offers support to Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and EDR. The Droid Razr Maxx comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot. It supports Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, LE + EDR technology.

Battery
The Samsung smartphone packs a Li-Ion 2500mAh standard battery that allows for talk time of up to 10 hours and stand by time of up to 252 hours. In comparison, the Droid Razr Maxx comes with Li-Ion 3300mAh standard battery that provides for talk time of up to 21 hours 30 minutes. It allows for stand by time of up to 380 hours.

Ice Cream Sandwich for Motorola Moto RAZR

Ice Cream Sandwich or Motorola Moto RAZR? We have all been waiting a long time to see how the latest version of Android, the Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, would look on the awesome Motorola Moto RAZR. But unless you have a leaked custom ROM already installed on it, you would not know. And if you have installed a leaked custom ROM, you would not know how the Motorola touch to Ice Cream Sandwich would look like on the device. But before all this, the wait for the official release of the Ice Cream Sandwich for the Motorola Droid RAZR was not scheduled to be any time soon. 

But thanks to the newly released timeline by Motorola, the smart phone is sure to get the Ice Cream Sandwich treat before the end of June for sure, that is before the end of the second quarter. If you think, even that is a lot of delay compared to other manufacturers in releasing the Ice Cream Sandwich update. But now that it is on its way, the joy for Motorola Droid RAZR owners who have not installed any custom ROM is uncontrollable. 

But how does the smart phone look after the update to Ice Cream Sandwich with the manufacturer’s Blur custom user interface on top of it? We are talking about Webtop 3.0, screenshots, the new lock screen, time lapse video, navigating around ICS, the browser, dialer, notifications, and more. Well, we seem to have got an introduction to that. The official Japanese Motorola Droid RAZR website has released a series of video on the website where it describes how the phone will function after the update to the new Ice Cream Sandwich, and also, the videos detail different features of the new operating system. A few of the videos uploaded are in Japanese, unfortunately, but a few others are in English. 

So you do not have to worry about not understanding anything at all. These videos will most probably be made in other languages as well by the time the update gets ready for seeding over the air. It is just a matter of time. So, are you excited?

Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility this week

Google's Motorola buy seen boosting Android in workplace. With the closing of Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility this week, talk of the possibilities for Android in the enterprise has spiked. While Android has taken the consumer market by storm - the OS runs 59% of smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012 - IT managers remain wary that maintaining security and control of consumer Android devices devices used by workers may be difficult if not impossible, according to various surveys.

IT managers say they can't get the Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools they need to control Android devices brought into the workplace by employees, analysts have said. Gartner recently reported that it has found adoption of Android tablets and smartphones in large business has so far been "severely limited" because of the complexities of managing devices from multiple vendors running different versions of Android.

A Gartner survey in April found that only 9% of enterprises have made or plan to make Android their primary mobile platform in the next year. That compares to 58% of enterprises that use or plan to use Apple's iOS and 20% who favor Research in Motion's BlackBerry OS.

Some analysts say they are hopeful that Motorola's 2011 purchase of MDM software maker 3LM will improve IT's ability to manage and secure Android, perhaps in time for the release of the coming Jelly Bean and/or Android 5.0 versions.

Analysts say 3LM is not true MDM, but that its software includes a layer of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that could make Android work better with third-party MDM software, analysts said.

Though Google is expected to use 3LM to improve Android manageability, the company wouldn't comment on its plans for the software. Many analysts expect to gain insight into Google's plans at its Google I/O conference in late June. Today, IT shops rely mostly on Exchange ActiveSync to manage Android devices used by workers for job tasks. However, analysts have said that ActiveSync lacks the sophistication required by IT shops.

"ActiveSync is a really low-end solution for MDM," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates.

"Now that Google owns Moto (Motorola Mobility), I expect the Moto folks to start feeding back into base Android some of the technology they have developed. This is the primary reason that Google bought Moto, in my opinion," Gold added.

Gold predicted that the addition of Motorola Mobility will provide Android with "much more capable management interfaces and APIs." While that won't help current and past Android versions, it will mean enhanced security at enterprise standards for future Android versions, he added.

"None of this helps the Android enterprise users in the short term, unless they decide to work with MDM from Enterproid and others like Good that have a 'two-persona' capability on a device," Gold said. He explained that "two-persona" refers to the ability to partition data on a smartphone or tablets so that a user's personal photos and music won't be destroyed if an IT shops wipes off sensitive corporate data from a mobile device.

For now, IT shops still need to specify makes and models for users to buy if they want to use them on the corporate network, Gold said.

"For the short term, only enterprise level adaptations of Android are safe enough for corporate use, in my opinion," Gold said. "Longer term, in one to two years, this won't be an issue."

Phillip Redman, an analyst at Gartner, was less sure that Android will become a mainstay of corporations, though IT concerns will be eased if Google decides to add MDM APIs or incorporate 3LM software broadly, he said.

"Still, the many versions of Android is an inhibitor," Redman warned.

Google is expected to begin direct sales of Nexus smartphones and tablets through a new process that provides multiple manufacturers - not just Motorola - with early access to future Android versions.

Google would sell the Nexus devices directly to consumers, partly to avoid restrictions or add-ons from carriers.

It is conceivable that Motorola, which will be operated as a separate unit within Google, could become the originator of Nexus devices so that Google could dictate the standard for other vendors to follow, said Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst.

The new Google unit's CEO, Dennis Woodside, has not publicly discussed Nexus or plans for 3LM, but did say in a statement after the deal closed that: "Our aim is simple: to focus Motorola Mobility's remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world."

Gold said the Nexus concept makes sense for Google, whether it's done through Motorola or not.

"Google needs to limit the fragmentation in Android that is causing the market a lot of heartburn, and even more so in the enterprise space," he said.

The Motorola acquisition means Google can use Motorola's "expertise to move into the enterprise market so as to take advantage of [the] 'Bring Your Own Device [movement]," Milanesi said.

Samsung, the biggest maker of Android devices, is already trying to sell both tablets and smartphones for workplaces, while Lenovo is doing the same with tablets, she said. Moving Android into the enterprise is "certainly key for Google, considering the growing trend of BYOD and the decreasing number of people that carry separate devices for work and play," Milanesi added.