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Nov-03-2009Motorola Cliq Available on T-Mobile's Network(topic overview)
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T-Mobile USA has officially announced that Motorola CLIQ is available exclusively in their stores starting today. Although a bit delayed by the fact that the DROID had to get its moment of glory and that the Android 2.0 Eclair had to be introduced, the CLIQ is Motorola's first Android device to roll out of production lines and the only one to feature MOTOBLUR this holiday season. [1] T-Mobile was the first U.S. carrier to offer a smartphone with Google's Android mobile operating system, and with the Cliq it adds still another Android device to its roster, which now includes the HTC G1, the MyTouch, the Samsung Behold II and a 3G Fender Limited Edition version of the MyTouch, which features a guitarlike wood grain finish and was introduced with T-Mobile's holiday lineup. The Cliq is the first Android phone to use MotoBlur, and it is the only device to feature MotoBlur this holiday season, according to T-Mobile.[2]
Feeds from various sites are integrated on the Cliq interface, which could make sorting updates and photos and emails a little easier. "Smartphones are fast becoming the primary way many consumers engage with social networking services, e-mail and the Web, which makes the Motorola CLIQ with Motoblur the right phone at the right time," said Travis Warren, director of product marketing at T-Mobile USA. "T-Mobile continues to expand upon its industry-leading lineup of Android smartphones for the holiday season with the launch of the CLIQ, and we expect it to be very popular among our highly connected customers."[3] The Motorola CLIQ is now available in U.S T-Mobile Stores for $199.99, this is the first phone with MOTOBLUR and the CLIQ will deliver your contacts, e-mail, messages, photos and updates from social sites and more.[4]
"Beginning today, customers can now purchase the CLIQ in T-Mobile retail stores, partner locations and online at www.T-Mobile.com/CLIQ. To celebrate the CLIQ'''s arrival in retail, T-Mobile also launched the T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ Challenge today, a nationwide contest to build the largest college fan club on Facebook". For those who don't know it Motorola CLIQ is available in two colors (titanium and winter white), features a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 3.1-inch HVGA full touch-screen display and has support for T-Mobile's high-speed 3G network.[1] Motorola CLIQ Features: 5 Megapixel Camera, 3G Network, Wi-Fi access, MOTOBLUR, Bluetooth, Visual Voicemail, Full QWERTY keyboard, GPS built-in, Micro SD memory slot, Touch screen and so much more.[4]
T-Mobile is offering the Motorola Cliq for $199 with a similar agreement.'' Both phones offer slideout QWERTY keyboards but the Cliq boasts a 5.0 MP camera over the Moment's 3.2 MP picture-taker.[5] The Cliq currently retails for $199, with a two-year contract. The phone, which comes in two colors ''' titanium and white ''' is outfitted with both 3G and Wi-Fi access; features include QWERTY keyboard, a3.1-inch HVGA full touch-screen display, a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with video capture, a 3.5mm headset jack, a music player with pre-loaded Amazon MP3 store application, and a pre-installed 2GB microSD memory.[3]
The Cliq features a 3.1-inch touch screen, a slide-out QWERTY keypad, a full HTML browser, a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with video capture, a music player, a 2GB MicroSD card and access to Wi-Fi connectivity in addition to T-Mobile's 3G network. It supports multiple e-mail sources, including Exchange, and is integrated with applications such as voice-activated Google Search, as well as Google Maps, YouTube and Picasa.[2] Outlook synchronization: The CLIQ will be T-Mobile's first Android handset which supports Outlook calendar, contacts, and mail synchronization (with accounts that use Outlook Web Access). Built-in RSS Feed Widget: Faster than other RSS reader applications I've used, this built-in app has a very easy set-up process which will find and fill in a website's feed URL for you if you do not know it. Better email: Yahoo fans rejoice! The email client features several updates, such as font editor, compatibility with HTML formatted emails and embedded pictures, and ability to download attachments directly within the Email application (not just through Gmail or via web browser).[6] Welcome to our newest Monday feature ''' Android Ecosystem! The week kicks off today with the general availability of Motorola’s CLIQ. You should be able to walk into a T-Mobile retail store and leave with this Android handset in either Titanium or Winter White color.[7]
As expected, T-Mobile has launched the Motorola CLIQ social-networking oriented Android device for new customers after an exclusive upgrade period for existing customers late last month.[8] MSU students have the chance to bring the band Weezer to campus for a free concert by voting in a Facebook poll contest sponsored by T-Mobile to promote the new Motorola CLIQ phone. The T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ Challenge is asking students at colleges across the country to vote to bring the band to their school.[9] In a statement on the Cliq's release, T-Mobile described MotoBlur: "Updates to contacts, posts, messages, photos and more are streamed together and synced from sources including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, work and personal e-mail, and automatically delivered to the home screen of the Cliq in easy-to-view streams." In addition to MotoBlur, T-Mobile launched a T-Mobile Motorola Cliq Challenge, encouraging students, alumni, fans and faculty of four-year colleges and universities to create the largest Facebook fan club for their schools.[2] On top of that, it also comes with Motorola's innovative MOTOBLUR technology that streams together your work e-mail, social networking activity, contact updates, messages or photos directly from your favorite social networking website (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, etc).[1]
In a statement timed to coincide with the release of the Cliq, Motorola said that the phone pulls data from "Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, work and personal email," and "automatically delivered to the home screen of the Cliq in easy-to-view streams.'''[3]
The Droid is already widely touted by Verizon Wireless, and Cliq by the likes of T-Mobile USA. Of course, one or two phones won't be enough for a lasting turnaround, even if they are successful. Motorola scored a huge hit with its sleek Razr phone, introduced in 2004, but the company suffered as it failed to follow the success with additional strong phones.[10] The Cliq isn't the only Motorola smartphone to churn up a good deal of blog buzz. Consumers in the U.S. will finally be able to get their hands on the Verizon Droid, a smartphone driven by Google'''s Android 2.0 operating system. As we noted last week, early tests of the Droid have been enthusiastic ''' reviewers like the Droid'''s navigation capabilities, the state-of-the-art OS, its full QWERTY keyboard, and its 3.7-inch display, which is said to be a major improvement on the resolution offered by the Apple iPhone.[3] Interesting. People have been wondering why Verizon is planning on releasing so many more phones after the Droid this holiday season. I guess this means that they don't have exclusive access to the Droid (only first dibs), which means they will quickly lose any sales advantage that specific handset would bring. It's never a good idea to base an entire marketing campaign on one single product, at least not in the wireless carrier world, so it looks like their strategy is truly going to be a massive update to their entire smartphone arsenal, which includes Android, Blackberry, and even Windows Mobile devices. Things could get quite interesting very soon, depending partly on what gets announced in their holiday lineup this Thursday.[11]
Verizon's Motorola Phone Boosts Android Google's Android smartphone software has garnered way more attention from hard-core techies than the general public because the range of handsets and carriers was uninspiring.[10]
The T-Mobile G1, made by HTC, was the first phone that ran Google's new Android operating system, but the phone was chunky and clunky. Motorola ' well, it's been looking for a hit ever since the Razr phone.[12] The keyboard is plenty big, but something about the domed square keys makes it harder to type on than it should be. HTC Hero If RIM got sick of hearing how buggy the first Storm was, then HTC must have gotten sick of hearing how homely and bulky its first Google Android phone was (the T-Mobile G1).[12]
The phone is already available for purchase on T-Mobiles website, today Nov. 2. My wife has had this phone for over 2 weeks now and happens to love it. Yes there are some minor issues as stated above (which to her are non relevant as this is her 1st smartphone), and some other areas that took time in setting up and managing (like "linking" same said persons into one account). If you are on Facebook, google, and Myspace it first places your contact in three separate accounts that you have to link together so they are all in one grouping.[6]
The Cliq is available with a two year contract for $199.99, not a bad price to pay for a Google Android based Smartphone.[13] The Cliq, which is powered by Google's Android operating system, uses platform called Motoblur, which Motorola is billing as a social networking "solution."[3] The CLIQ features an HVGA resolution widescreen touch display QWERTY keyboard with five-way directional pad, triband HSPA access, quadband GSM/EDGE, Android 1.6, MOTOBLUR social networking frontend, Bluetooth with stereo audio support, 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB port, Wi-Fi radio and microSDHC expansion slot.[8]
The on-screen keyboard, with pop-up auto-complete suggestions, is as good as on-screen keyboards get. While the Android store offers only a fraction as many apps as the iPhone store, there are still 10,000 apps to choose from. (They work on the Motorola Cliq, too.)[12] To celebrate the Android-running phone's MotoBlur social skills, T-Mobile announces a college-focused Motorola Cliq Challenge.[2] "The social fanatic's dream." That's the tag-line for the Cliq, a new smartphone built by Motorola ''' and T-Mobile is hoping it will be enough to pry a swath of young consumers away from their iPhones.[3] Now, finally, Motorola is showing real signs of progress. This month, the company debuted two impressive new smartphones, the Cliq and the Droid, which appear to be viable competitors for Apple's popular iPhone and RIM's BlackBerrry.[10]
There's good news if you lose your phone, too. Motorola lets you locate the phone on a Web-based map, and even erase its memory by remote control ' just like the iPhone, but without the requirement for a $100-a-year MobileMe membership.[12] Motorola's big-deal new phone ($200 from T-Mobile with contract) is the only one here with a slide-out keyboard.[12] Suspected specs are a 4-inch 852 x 480 touchscreen, 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, slide out keyboard and 8.1 megapixel camera. We don't see too many SE phones in my neck of the woods, but I'd go looking for one if these specs pan out. That reminds me: folks don't have to look too far for the Samsung Moment. This new Android handset arrives at Sprint today for $179.99 and sports a 3.2 AMOLED display.[7]
The Samsung handset comes loaded with stock Android while Motorola's has the new MOTOBLUR UI on top.''[5] I'm still wondering what all of that social BLUR networking will really do to the 1420 mAh battery. MotoBLUR is a custom user interface and we're starting to see more of those coming to Android. HTC of course has their Sense UI but the newest that I've seen comes from Sony Ericsson. Here's a look at their Rachel UI that's allegedly set for an Xperia handset running Android 2.0. Note that the demo video repeatedly indicates this a concept for internal use only.[7]
Of course, the proper launch has been dampened somewhat by the emergence of the DROID (alongside Android 2.0), but hey, MOTOBLUR ain't nuthin' to scoff at, right? Feel free to locate your nearest T-Mob retail location, waltz in with $199.99 and get yours today.[14] Sure the launch has suffered a bit thanks to the DROID, but it's MOTOBLUR you want right? All you need to do is find your nearest T-Mobile retail location and have $199.99 ready.[15]
The Cliq is available in either Titanium or Winter White for $199 with a two-year T-Mobile contract. [2] The Motorola Cliq is now available to the general public on the T-Mobile network.[2] The Motorola Cliq is now available in wide release on the T-Mobile network.[2]
You know what? We'll be honest. The fact that the T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ is now available to anyone who wants one (rather than only existing T-mo customers, as its been for a week or two now) is only a small part of the reason we wrote this post. We primarily wrote this because we wanted to be able to use the "298 minutes away from cake" graphic one more time. It's just too damn intriguing. Are they saying its just short of 5 hours until their birthday, or are they en route to their unfortunately named friend, Cake McCool? It truly is one of life's great mysteries.[16] Existing T-Mobile customers have been able to pick up the Motorola Cliq (Moto Cliq) for a short time now, however the general public has been left pre-ordering and waiting.[13] While existing T-Mobile customers gained access to the Cliq on Oct. 19, the general public can begin purchasing the Motorola phone as of Nov. 2.[2]
Motorola's Android-laden CLIQ has been available to existing T-Mobile USA users for a hot minute now, but not until today has the handset been widely available to all that care to take notice.[14] There is one subtle difference between the two pages: The Cliq indicates that it is exclusively available at T-Mobile whereas the Droid lists no exclusivity at all. Clearly they are aiming at the iPhone with this thing.[11]
Unfortunately the Cliq is more than likely going to be outshined by the November 6th release of the Motorola Droid on the Verizon Wireless network.[13] "Verizon will get first dibs on the Sholes phone, but it is set to come to multiple carriers. Our source tells us a UMTS/W-CDMA version is already in the works and almost to appear on AT&T. W-CDMA is the same technology that T-Mobile uses for their 3G network so they remain a possibility as well. These other versions of the Sholes are likely to come a bit later(2010).[11] The Storm 2 can now exploit the speed of Wi-Fi wireless Internet hot spots and boasts an impeccable checklist of goodies: autofocus camera, voice dialing, memory-card slot (a 16-gigabyte card is included), and so on. It even works overseas (for added cost, of course), thanks to a slot for a GSM account card (the network type most countries use).[12] All have cameras, video recording, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, five or six hours of talk time, and standard headphone jacks. That doesn't mean they're all the same. Here's how they shake out. BlackBerry Storm 2 Brothers and sisters, if there was one thing last year's Storm made clear, it's this: You don't rush a product to market just because it's the holiday season. That's what RIM did last year, and the Storm was a mess.[12]
The HTC Hero ($180 from Sprint with contract) is thin, sleek and a pleasure to hold. At 4.5 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches, it's far narrower than the Storm 2 and far thinner than the Motorola Cliq.[12] The Android-powered Motorola Cliq is being billed by T-Mobile as a social-networking machine.[3] According to Android and Me quite a few owners of the Motorola Cliq have reported a glitch that stops several popular apps from working.[17]
Atop Google's Android phone software, Motorola has built an ingenious, if initially overwhelming, archipelago of social-networking 'widgets' (little floating windows).[12] You can now head down to your local carrier and grab your new Android phone.[5] I am wondering why don't we have more keyboard equipped android phones, I for one would love to have one.[7]
I don't know if I can hold myself back long enough. T-Mobile better get it official soon if it's true. Good to see that the original and best carrier to carry the android platform on their phones is still getting love.[11] It's a pretty good phone, i got mine about 4 days ago, and i love the fact my applications run in the background, and multi-tasking is pretty good too, but of course thats Android for you.[14]
You may have heard of the two main features of the MOTOBLUR software, Messages and Happenings, applications which pull updates and messages from all your sources of communication into two respective self-updating widgets. [6] In one place, you get a complete picture of your online social network and can post your own updates, too. The address book fills itself with information and headshots from those online worlds, and the awesomely powerful History tab shows you a complete list of recent communications with each person: text messages, calls, e-mail and so on. (It's simple to contact that person using any of these channels.) When someone calls ' your brother, say ' you see not only his photo on the screen, but also his latest status broadcasts from Twitter and Facebook. At the very least, this display provides a built-in conversation starter; at best, you have advance warning about your caller's mood.[12] Each reports the latest updates from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, along with incoming text messages and e-mail notes ' all on the Home screen.[12]
With an iPhone, for instance, a Twitter application would remain separate from the MySpace application; the Facebook app would not be integrated with email. [3]
With Droid, the thinnest Qwerty keyboard slider smartphone around that can also run mobile apps like Facebook, Motorola might be able to build greater brand presence with a younger crowd. "If you energize the under-30-year-olds and bring them to Motorola's brand, that's huge," Mahoney says. During the earnings call, Jha said he is looking to invest in rebuilding the brand, which could mean a major marketing campaign.[10] If you go to the consumer section of the Motorola U.S. website, you should face an ad for the Droid.[11]
Motorola's first entry in the Android arena will be available in just a few days. [6] Sanjay Jha, the Motorola co-chief executive who oversees the mobile-phone business, says the days of retrenchment are likely in the past and the company can now focus on one clear goal: revving up sales of mobile phones.[10] Michael Mahoney, senior managing director at Falcon Point Capital, bought some Motorola shares earlier in October. He expects the stock to rise as high as 12 if Motorola manages to revive and stabilize its handset business and eventually split the company into two or more pieces, as it still plans to do. "I think they may have a real winner on their hands," he says.[10]
I truly is a social butterfly. My only real beef is why is it running on version 1.5 and not ship with 1.6 or the newest 2.0, giving its timing of coming out? I am hoping they are jumping 1.6 and going to 2.0, but when I talked to a customer rep. He said as far as he knows they had some issues with the update working on Motorolas blur interface.[6] The mobile-phone giant has struggled for years as rivals from Nokia to Research In Motion to Apple have stolen away its customers. To get back on track and win over dispirited investors, Motorola has undergone a painful overhaul, chopping expenses and laying off employees, including 9,700 workers this year.[10]
The original Storm's big gimmick was that the entire screen was clickable, like a mouse button ' but it wound up requiring way too much effort to press the on-screen keys, like a manual typewriter. The Storm 2's redesigned clickable screen requires far less effort and no longer leaves alarming gaps around its edges; magically enough, it also loses its clickiness when you're on a call or the phone is off. [12] The BlackBerry Storm, the first touch-screen phone from Research in Motion, was a buggy, sluggish, counterintuitive mess.[12]
The bug apparently stops the phone from accessing the OpenGL API VBO. Developer Hexage states that their popular games Buka and Totemo won't work with the Cliq as a result of this issue. There's been no comment from Moto as of yet, but the fact that Hexage has commented on it means that this bug does exist.[17] Share a comment or problems with phones and networks.[4]
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.[6]
Normally we don't like to post news that we're a little behind the power curve on ''' but this one seems worthy of a mention. Now we're not saying this is anything more than a rumor but hey, we like to bring hope to the masses. All you T-Mobile subscribers who've been droppin' tears over the fact that the Droid ''' err. Sholes. is on VZW, have a look-see at this. [11] What I think is funny is that with Tmo's new plans, you can no longer get MyFaves. Now this logo is on these devices to indicate compatibility with a grandfathered feature.[14] Hardware Design A compact (compared to the alternative) full-qwerty slider, textured back surface, gunmetal bezel (only on black model) and raised keyboard are all subtle yet significant features which together add up to a quality handset design.[6]
Now, if you're not that into online networking, the Cliq is a wasted opportunity. The slider keyboard makes the whole thing bulky, and the two halves feel like they don't fit especially well together.[12] For example: the CLIQ is either $199.99 upfront or spread out over $50 payments with the Even More plan.[7]
SOURCES
1. T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ Available Today [Moto CLIQ in T-Mobile Stores, Brings MOTOBLUR to the Masses] » TFTS Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities
2. Motorola Cliq Available on T-Mobile's Network
3. T-Mobile pushes Motorola Cliq into wide release | csmonitor.com
4. T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ in U.S Stores with MOTOBLUR, Price & Details » Phone Reviews
5. Samsung Moment and T-Mobile Cliq Available Now | AndroidGuys
6. Four Reasons Why the CLIQ Just Clicks | AndroidGuys
7. Android Ecosystem This Week in Android
8. T-Mobile Launches Motorola CLIQ | PhoneNews.com
9. The State News : Facebook hosts vote for concert
10. NewsFactor Business | Motorola's Promising Comeback
11. T-Mobile + Sholes = | Android Phone Fans
12. Telegram.com - A product of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette
13. Motorola Cliq Now Available At T-Mobile Stores For All Customers | IndyPosted
14. Motorola CLIQ lands in T-Mobile USA stores today
15. Motorola CLIQ in T-Mobile USA stores today - SlipperyBrick.com
16. Motorola CLIQ now available to all
17. Motorola Cliq Ships With Bug?
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