Android Mobiles

We’ve finally got Episode 5 – the final of a five part series on the making of the Nexus One (view them all here). This one is called “Nexus One: Day One” and pretty much just acts as a 2-minute “Day In The Life Of” type of commercial:

In many ways, you could view this as the “extended play”, Nexus One version of Google’s Parisian Love commercial that aired during the SuperBowl. Very similar style and they’ve made a bunch more of these for their search team. Did they purposefully follow in the footsteps of that ad?

Personally, I would have loved to see the Nexus One commercial air rather than the Google Search commercial but I liked the Parisian Love one more than the Nexus One Day One spot.

PS: Have you used all the apps/features seen in this video? Can you name them all? (Shouldn’t be too hard)

This is a pretty cool look into the future of Android capabilities and with those new Bluetooth APIs I’m sure we’ll be seeing stuff like this come out for consumers as well. The LEGO Mindstorms robot below is controlled with an HTC Hero accelerometer and actually it connects via Wi-Fi (not Bluetooth). Check out the video:

Call me a dork but I’m really eager to start using my phone to control other physical objects. Home entertainment systems, lights, security cameras, coffee pots, toy robots, you name it!

[ENEA, Recombu, Gizmodo]

We’ve seen Episodes 1, 2 and 3 so you should know what comes next: here is Episode 4 (Manufacturing the Nexus One):

I remember going to the Coors Light brewery/plant tour in Colorado and seeing all those cases and cases of beer made me feel like I was in Homer Simpson heaven. Well… seeing all those Nexus One’s at one time looks equally, if not more, magical.

If the beer and phone plant shared a building, the world would be in so much trouble.

What type of testing goes on behind the scenes to ensure that when a phone hits the market, it is strong and sturdy enough to live a long life as your numero uno compadre? In the third episode of Google’s Nexus One video series, they show us just that:

I found some of the specific tests pretty interesting:

• Button Test: simulates lifetime use of the trackball (the video shows 6,000 presses at the time it was filmed… how many represents a complete lifetime?)
• Tumble Test: Multiple drops probe phone’s structural integrity (would love to know how high it’s dropped from, what material it lands on, and how many times they drop it. Also, what is the success/non-break rate they consider acceptable?)
• Drop Test: Drops device from multiple angles based on the Tumble Test results
• Compression Test: Simulates interaction stress caused by objects in pocket
• Bend Test: Simulates maximum bend phone can withstand (I’d like to see them snap it in half just to see at what point it breaks and then snaps)

I’m not sure I could work in a place with such Android brutality present!

I was happy to see Megan Fox in a tub during the Motorola SuperBowl advertisement – trust me I was. But overall I was disappointed in the ad and I’ll tell you why after you watch:

Overall the ad was good. Hot celebrity. Funny approach/integration. But why would Motorola show a BRAND NEW PHONE and not even mention the name? Why would MOTOBLUR be the “product” they are trying to sell/push? If you ask me… it’s just confusing to consumers, not to mention it isn’t magnetic.

If I were directing this ad campaign I would have had Megan Fox mention the phone she was holding was the Motorola Devour instead of saying “He” and at the end I would have showcased all of the phones with MotoBlur. Just have each fly by for 1 second and use 5 seconds… still with the “Motorola.com” at the bottom, with the phone and phone names flying across the screen.

I don’t know – I just feel like Motorola spent a few million dollars and didn’t sell anything. I get the idea of “branding” and I know they’re big on MotoBlur but I feel like they could have better showcased their portfolio and explained that ALL these phones had MOTOBLUR.

What did you think about the Ad?

Oh yeah… PhoneArena is reporting the phone will launch on February 25th for “indirect channels” and in all sales channels no later than March 15th. That’s just an anonymous tip but since Verizon and Motorola have already made it official, right around the corner is a good timeframe guess.

PS: I like how PhoneArena said “too bad it doesn’t come bundled with Megan Fox.” We were all thinking the same darn thing.

This year’s SuperBowl had a few ads very relevant to phone lovers and Android lovers specifically. But since the SuperBowl is all about ads (and football), we thought we would embed this neat little HULU widget that allows you to watch every single advertisement shown during the big game!

Included of course are the Motorola Devour Ad, Google Search Ad, and Boost Mobile:

I was pretty disappointed by the commercials this year. Dorito had a couple goods ones early on… but then I started wondering how/why they spent so much money on the SuperBowl once the fifteenth ad aired. The Google Advertisement was pretty good… although I’m still a bit surprised they had one in the first place. I would have like to see some sort of “in game” sponsorship where, when they mention stats or information on a player, they say – “We Googled it and” etc…

What was your favorite commercial?

PS: Thoughts on the Motorola commercial are coming up in the next article!

We just told you about the upcoming accessories for the Nexus One spotted in a Google-made video. Well, perhaps we were getting ahead of ourselves because we hadn’t even told you about the video series itself! Right now there are only 2 “Episodes” but since you can see there are 3 more episodes on the way:

Episode 1: Concept & Design

Episode 2: Display & 3D Framework

Episodes 3, 4 and 5 coming February 6th, 7th and 8th (respectively).

When they are published you can find them here.

Any of you Nexus One fans seen the video below of the creation of the Google Nexus One? Well, keep your eyes peeled because they give you a shot of some already available, and, hopefully, soon to be available accessories. There appears to be a dock with a slot to charge a spare battery also what looks like it could be the car dock.

Shall we hazard a guess as to when we can expect to see these new Nexus One accessories?

[via AndroidCentral]

For starters, let me just say that this is a service that I can DEFINITELY see myself using even WITHOUT the Android application. The fact that Dropbox is coming to Android is pretty awesome and if you don’t know what it is… I think you’re really going to like it.

Essentially Dropbox is syncing software. On any computer/phone to which you install Dropbox, a “shared” folder will be created. Add stuff to that folder from 1 device and it will be synced across ALL devices. The app is already out there for the iPhone and the folks at AppVee did a pretty good/helpful review/summary:

Apparently the folks at Dropbox sent out an E-Mail to their customers saying something to the extent of, “Android users have a lot to look forward to!” We followed up with them and they said they are working hard on the Android app and also said if we know any developers who might want to work on it… let them know.

The developer part makes me think a release is anything but imminent, but I can tell you as SOON as Dropbox launches on Android Market I’m going to become a customer. I have a desktop computer, 2 laptops and a phone and having documents on some and not others is a HUGE pain in the butt. I have been reluctant to find a solution but it looks like the solution may have found me!

Any current Dropbox users out there that this excites? Any future Dropbox users based on learning about the service?

FYI Dropbox pricing is as follows:

• 2GB = FREE
• 50GB = $9.99/month
• 100GB = $19.99/month

I’m unsure if the app will have to be purchased or whether it will be a free app that is only usable if you’ve already got a paying Dropbox account… or something else. But I’m eager regardless!

Earlier today we told you about the announcement of Samsung’s first Android Phone for the Korean market, the Samsung SHW-M100S running Android 2.1. Now a few videos of the device have popped up and they look rather promising – that display looks great!

Near the end of the first video they compare the iPhone to this device in terms of size and this looks MUCH chunkier than the iPhone. But then again, some people like that more bulbous, Palm-Pre-ish stone in your hand feel instead of a thin slate-like experience.

Thanks to eNuri.com for the videos!