Free phone fans take heed.  Android phones are now free at Cincinnati Bell through the end of May.  If you activate a new line on Cincinnati Bell you’ll be able to choose a free phone from their wide selection of Android phones including the HTC Sensation, LG 2X, Alcatel One Touch 918, Dell Streak 5 and many other devices.  If you’re switching from another carrier Cincinnati Bell will buy out your contract and give you a free month of service as well.  That’s a whole buttload of free at Cincinnati Bell.

Hip Street may be known for making iPod accessories  and MP3 players but with the introduction of the TITAN, they are now setting their sites on the burgeoning tablet market.  The TITAN won’t knock your doors off but at only $119.99 it is the lowest priced Android 4.0 tablet currently on sale.

The [...]]]>

Hip Street may be known for making iPod accessories  and MP3 players but with the introduction of the TITAN, they are now setting their sites on the burgeoning tablet market.  The TITAN won’t knock your doors off but at only $119.99 it is the lowest priced Android 4.0 tablet currently on sale.

The Hip Street TITAN features a 7″ capacitive TFT-LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480, a 1.2GHz processor, 4GB internal memory, 512MB RAM, an HDMI output, a microSD card slot and, as I mentioned previously, Android 4.0.  Coming in at $119.99, the TITAN undercuts the Ematic eGlide Pro III by $10 and the Visual Land Prestige 7 by $30 in the race to be the most affordable Android 4.0 tablet.

Based on the specs, all 3 of these low cost options are very similar with the Prestige 7 bringing double the storage as the other two competitors but at the most expensive price point.  Then again, you can always get a microSD card that will more than make up for that missing space for much less than $30 which makes the Hip Street TITAN a very appealing Android 4.0 tablet.

I probably haven’t spent enough time on this site writing about the Droid 4 but I’m starting to regret it now.  I think I initially just looked at it as a Droid RAZR with a keyboard (which it is) but didn’t really pay attention to the fact that this phone is a Droid [...]]]>

I probably haven’t spent enough time on this site writing about the Droid 4 but I’m starting to regret it now.  I think I initially just looked at it as a Droid RAZR with a keyboard (which it is) but didn’t really pay attention to the fact that this phone is a Droid RAZR with a bloody keyboard.  That makes the Droid 4 a pretty freaking awesome Android phone in my book.

Wirefly is now offering the Droid 4 for $99.99 with a two year contract, which is a really good price for such a high quality device (hey, that rhymes).  On top of that Wirefly is also giving you a $40 bill credit on your Verizon wireless bill.  That’s like getting $40 off of one of your monthly bills.  This is a limited time offer so don’t waste anymore time reading my brilliant prose.

Alcatel and Cincinnati Bell are at it again.  The latest Alcatel Android phone running on Cincinnati Bell’s network is the Alcatel One Touch 918, an affordable Android 2.3 phone that’s more sleek than the Alcatel One Touch 990S and provides a nice compliment to the physical keyboard of the One Touch [...]]]>

Alcatel and Cincinnati Bell are at it again.  The latest Alcatel Android phone running on Cincinnati Bell’s network is the Alcatel One Touch 918, an affordable Android 2.3 phone that’s more sleek than the Alcatel One Touch 990S and provides a nice compliment to the physical keyboard of the One Touch 909S.

The One Touch 918 features a 3.2″ Touchscreen display, a 3 megapixel camera, 4GB memory, microSD card slot, GPS, Bluetooth and, as I mentioned earlier, Android 2.3 Gingerbread.  The Alcatel One Touch 918 is now available at Cincinnati Bell for free with a two year contract or $229.99 without.

In the last few weeks there have been two major news stories regarding Google that I can’t help but think are linked together.  First, news broke that Google would be selling multiple Nexus devices from multiple manufacturing partners through the Google Play Store by the [...]]]>

In the last few weeks there have been two major news stories regarding Google that I can’t help but think are linked together.  First, news broke that Google would be selling multiple Nexus devices from multiple manufacturing partners through the Google Play Store by the end of the year then, just today, Google officially took ownership of Motorola Mobility.  The two might not be connected but, to me, there it is just too much of a coincidence that these two stories are breaking so closely to each other.

When Google announced plans to purchase Motorola they made promises to their other Android hardware partners that they would not be showing Motorola any favoritism once they took control of the company.  There was initial speculation that Motorola would always be first in line to get the next Nexus device giving it a leg up on the competition.  But what if Google’s way of keeping their promise to their partners and taking a little more control over the hardware of some Motorola devices was to expand the Nexus program to multiple manufacturers?  Makes sense, right?

If this was their intention then Google could create a Motorola Nexus phone and a Motorola Nexus tablet at least once a year while allowing their partners to do the same.  The result would be a huge step forward for Android as a whole.  More devices running stock Android means quicker updates and less fragmentation and selling them directly from their own online store front takes the carriers and their influence out of the equation to a certain extent.  In some ways that would put more power in Google’s hands than ever before while also giving the consumers a more enjoyable Android experience.

Time will only tell if I’m right but I just can’t think of a way that Google and Motorola don’t start delivering a pure Android experience as soon as they can and by expanding the Nexus line of devices to multiple carriers they’ve found a way to keep their promise while becoming more involved with the hardware design process.  No matter what their intentions, the expansion of the Nexus line of devices is a massive step that could potentially change the way that we buy our phones in the future and that is something that is sorely needed.

Source: Android and Me

Now that regulators in China have given their blessing to the marriage of Google and Motorola it’s officially time to start thinking about what Google’s plans are for the mobile phone giant.  Google has indicated that they wouldn’t favor Motorola over their other Android manufacturing partners but they will surely take steps to [...]]]>

Now that regulators in China have given their blessing to the marriage of Google and Motorola it’s officially time to start thinking about what Google’s plans are for the mobile phone giant.  Google has indicated that they wouldn’t favor Motorola over their other Android manufacturing partners but they will surely take steps to improve Motorola’s products and the overall profitability of the company.  How they going about doing that is the big question.  What’s next for Google and Motorola?  Here’s how I think things are going to go down in the short-term.

• Restructuring and Layoffs – This is inevitable although there is no way to determine how big the impact will be until Google’s new leadership team finalizes their plans.  The one thing I’m sure we will see is a major push to make Motorola a more efficient company that will eventually turn a profit for Google.  While Google may have purchased Motorola for their huge patent portfolio (As I predicted a year prior to it actually happening) now that they own Motorola they will surely try to make it as profitable a company as possible.  It is a business move after all and anytime you plunk down over $12 billion for something you’d like to get as much of that back as possible.
• Stock Android – I’m hoping that this move will finally bring the end of Motoblur or Blur or whatever it’s called these days and brings a stock Android experience to every Motorola device.   This would be a huge advantage for Motorola since they would be able to push updates quicker without having to wait for their skin to be updated after each Android update.  Less fragmentation is good for Android and quicker updates are good for consumers.  Win-Win.
•  Better Phones and Tablets – Lets face it, Motorola was starting to fall way behind HTC and Samsung in both sales and innovation.  Sure the Droid RAZR is freaking awesome but prior to its release Motorola had a string of failures that surely set them back from a competitive standpoint.  Google will probably help Motorola from a research and development standpoint whether directly or indirectly which will help Motorola catch up to HTC and Samsung on the phone front and Asus and Samsung on the tablet side of things.
• The death of Motorola feature phones – Google is heavily invested in smartphones so it wouldn’t really make sense for Motorola to continue to produce feature phones which are becoming less and less relevant as time goes on.  Also, this move would surely reduce costs and allow the company to focus on creating the best smartphones money can buy.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is now officially up for pre-order at various online retailers but Expansys-USA has the lowest price on the hottest phone of the summer.  Amazon is currently offering the Galaxy S III for $799.99 but Expansys-USA is trumping them by over $100 as the Galaxy S III [...]]]>

The Samsung Galaxy S III is now officially up for pre-order at various online retailers but Expansys-USA has the lowest price on the hottest phone of the summer.  Amazon is currently offering the Galaxy S III for $799.99 but Expansys-USA is trumping them by over $100 as the Galaxy S III is available for pre-order for only $649.99.  This is an unlocked version with 16GB of internal memory (same amount of memory as the Amazon one) there are links for you to pre-order the 32GB and 64GB versions from Expansys-USA as well but the price for those units has not yet been announced.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks then let me be the first to tell you that the Samsung Galaxy S III is the Android equivalent of a supernova meaning this shit is fire.  Samsung has pretty much put their best foot forward in nearly every sense with the creation of the Samsung Galaxy S III.  The HD display is big, bright and brilliant, the quad-core Exynos processor might be the most powerful mobile processor on the planet and the camera will most likely be near the top of the Android heap as the previous Galaxy S cameras have been.

Basically, until further notice the Samsung Galaxy S III is the phone that you should buy if you are buying a phone this summer.  And if you’re not willing to wait for your carrier to bring it to American shores then Expansys-USA should be your first stop.