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Motorola Droid 2 Review Roudup
Aug 18th
from Notebooks.com by Carter Sprunger
Motorola Droid 2 Review Roudup: ”
Motorola recently released the Motorola Droid 2 for Verizon Wireless. This new Android-based smartphone is the successor to the ever popular Motorola Droid, sporting a sleek new look, improved keyboard, more power under the hood, and a new operating system. However, many reviewers have found that the Motorola Droid 2 falls short of perfection.
Motorola Droid 2 Specs and Features:
- Android 2.2 Froyo Operating System
- 3G Mobile Hotspot Capable – Connect up to five WiFi devices
- 5-megapixel camera
- Slide-out full QWERTY keyboard
- DVD quality video capture
- Exchange Email support
- 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP processor
- 512MB of RAM
- 8GB of internal storage
- 8GB micro SD card pre-installed (Support for up to 32GB cards)
- Flash 10.1
- Swype
- Skype Mobile
- Blockbuster On Demand
The Motorola Droid 2 is currently available from Verizon Wireless for $199, after $100 mail-in rebate and new two-year contract.
Review Roundup
Generally, those who have reviewed the Motorola Droid 2 have found it to be a solid Android smartphone. Most reviewers thought the Droid 2 was a step up from the original Motorola Droid, but there is still much room for improvement. Among the Droid 2’s shortcomings include its crippled operating system, cheap build quality, buggy WiFi, mediocre call quality, inconsistent Flash performance, and new but not necessarily better keyboard.
Engadget – Droid 2 review: “Motorola and Verizon knew they needed to bring the old model up to spec if they wanted to keep a quality physical QWERTY Android device on the shelves. The problem is that in doing so, they’ve killed off one of the Droid’s most endearing features — the fact that it ran stock Android — and have failed to make any improvements compelling enough to warrant an upgrade. In other words, Droid owners, don’t feel bad that your phone has been replaced here; in fact, we’re pretty sure we’d rather have a Froyo-equipped Droid over a Droid 2, especially since the 2’s new processor fails to translate into huge performance gains that you can feel in your day-to-day usage.” – Chris Ziegler
LAPTOP Magazine – Motorola Droid 2 (Verizon) Review: “The Droid 2 is a very good sequel, boasting slicker design with a more comfy keyboard, a speedy processor, and a highly functional version of Android 2.2 (with Motorola’s custom widgets). However, this phone also has some drawbacks, including buggy Wi-Fi, mediocre call quality, and inconsistent Flash performance. Assuming Verizon Wireless and Motorola work out these bugs, we’ll give this phone an Editor’s choice award.” – Avram Piltch
Boy Genius Report - Motorola DROID 2 unboxing / impressions: “The handset unfortunately feels a little bit cheaper than the original. It creaks along the sides a bit, and we’re not in love with the design identity of the phone.”
“Android 2.2 doesn’t really feel like Android 2.2 since it’s been BLUR’d and MOTO’d. We’d have loved this to be a stock Android 2.2 handset. This is basically a DROID X in a different form factor.”
“All in all seems solid, and a great product refresh, though we do wish that Motorola would have pushed the bar a tad bit higher.” – Boy Genius
Fortune Tech (CNN) – Droid 2 review: Slightly better than last time: “There isn’t much difference between the Droid 2 and the original Droid that debuted last year. In fact, besides the better keyboard, bluer back and longer lip on the front, you probably won’t notice a difference. But that’s not such a bad thing. The original Droid was (and still is) a damn fine piece of equipment.” – Seth Weintraub
PC Magazine – Motorola Droid 2 (Verizon Wireless) Review & Rating: “While the Droid X and Droid 2 are quite similar, the Droid X has a few more positive attributes.”
“That said, we’d recommend buying the Motorola Droid 2, and it is our new Editors’ Choice for keyboarded smartphones on Verizon. The Droid 2’s processor is much, much faster than the Ally’s and the Devour’s, and that makes for a phone that will feel more current throughout its two-year lifespan.” – Sascha Segan
CNET – Motorola Droid 2 (Verizon Wireless): “As the successor to the Droid, the handset offers a number of improvements, including a sleeker design, better keyboard, faster processor, and the latest version of Android OS. It lacks some of the higher-end features of the Droid X, but it’s still an outstanding device on its own. There are enough improvements to make it worth the upgrade, and it will certainly satiate the need for those who want a physical keyboard.” – Senior Editor, Bonnie Cha
Click here to view the embedded video.
Related posts:
- Motorola Droid 2 Up for Sale on the Verizon Wireless Website
- Motorola Droid 2 and Droid X Rumored Specs
- Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition Coming September 30th
“
The Blackberry addict’s guide to UAE
Aug 9th
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Droid Control
Jul 21st
Security Watch
A weekly roundup of news and developments in data security and their impact on the financial services industry
By Daniel Wolfe
Bad Timing
A method of cracking passwords called a “timing attack” may be much easier to pull off than most security experts believe, according to an article Computerworld ran July 15.
A timing attack works by judging the amount of time it takes for a website to reject an incorrect password. By repeatedly trying to log in, using different configurations of characters and measuring how long it takes the computer to respond, hackers can eventually arrive at the correct password. Since some systems check passwords one character at a time, a password that’s wrong from its first letter will be rejected faster than one that only begins to be incorrect at its fourth letter.
“Cryptographers have known about timing attacks for 25 years, but they are generally thought to be very hard to pull off over a network” because of how precisely the password rejections must be timed, the article said. “The researchers aim to show that’s not the case.”
Such attacks work when the hacker has physical access to the computer being cracked but are thought to be more difficult over a network because the network itself can slow website responses, making the interval at which a password is rejected hard to measure.
Nate Lawson, the founder of the security consultancy Root Labs and one of the researchers who discovered this vulnerability, said the concern about network timing is based on a false assumption. Algorithms can be used to avert the delays attributable to the network, he wrote.
Part of the reason timing attacks can work is that many Web applications are written in interpreted languages that are slower to respond to queries, Lawson wrote in the article.
The fix for this problem is easy, he said: Add six lines of code that instruct the website to return failed login notices after the same interval regardless of which character in the password proved false.
Stinky Sniffer
An add-on for the Web browser Firefox called “Mozilla Sniffer” may have stolen the passwords of 2,000 people.
Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit that makes the popular Firefox browser, said the Sniffer slipped through its screening for add-ons that Mozilla makes available for users to download, Computerworld reported July 14.
The add-on has since been removed from Mozilla’s servers, and the Firefox browser should automatically disable the Sniffer without user intervention.
Mozilla typically scans add-ons for known malware, the article said, and is developing a way to take a deeper look at any add-ons it receives to prevent sneakier programs like Sniffer from being distributed.
Sniffer was already categorized as an “experimental” program, which meant users were required to view an extra warning before installing it.
Mozilla is also advising anyone who installed Sniffer to change any of the passwords the program might have observed.
Another add-on, CoolPreviews, was discovered to have a vulnerability that attackers could use to take over computers running it, Computerworld said. The current version of CoolPreviews, which displays a preview of a Web page when users hover the mouse cursor over a link, does not have this flaw; Mozilla has disabled the earlier versions of CoolPreviews that did.
Malicious Shortcut
USB drives are becoming an even more perilous virus carrier.
The devices are already commonly used to spread malicious code because Windows computers can “autorun” any program on a USB device. In response, many security-minded computer users disable the Windows autorun feature. However, a new way has been discovered to launch malicious code without launching a program in the conventional way, Brian Krebs reported July 15 at “Krebs On Security.”
Hackers have found a way to launch malicious code by hiding it in — but not actually running — a Windows “shortcut,” file, which is normally just a link to a file stored elsewhere.
“Ideally, a shortcut doesn’t do anything until a user clicks on its icon,” Krebs wrote. “But VirusBlokAda,” an antivirus company in Belarus, “found that these malicious shortcut files are capable of executing automatically if they are written to a USB drive that is later accessed by Windows Explorer,” the file navigation system built into Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system.
Though this method has not yet been observed in use to steal bank passwords, “it could soon become a popular method for spreading malware,” Krebs wrote. “But … this threat seems fairly targeted.”
An independent security researcher, Frank Boldewin, said the malware samples he examined seem to target computers used to run manufacturing and power plants.
“Looks like this malware was made for espionage,” Boldewin told Krebs.
Droid Control
Motorola Inc. says a security feature of its new Droid X phone is being misinterpreted as a way to exert excessive control over how its customers can use the phone.
The Droid X phone, which runs Google Inc.’s Android mobile operating system, includes a technology called eFuse that prevents the phone from running if it detects any flavor of Android that Motorola has not yet approved — such as the most recent version, nicknamed Froyo — the tech news blog Engadget reported July 16.
“It amounts to a really, really hard slap on the wrist for anyone trying to hack … Froyo onto it,” Engadget wrote.
Motorola defended its use of eFuse as a security precaution. “Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats,” Motorola told Engadget.
It stressed that the phone would work again if the user restored its original software.
“So in other words, yes, eFuse will shut down a phone with an unapproved” operating system, Engadget wrote, “but it won’t brick the phone.”
The blog stressed that this may be only a temporary setback for anyone hoping to tinker on the Droid X handset.
“Knowing the wealth of talent in the Android development community, we’re still really hopeful this nonsense is going to get circumvented,” Engadget wrote.
Security Watch is a weekly roundup of news and developments in data security and their impact on financial services companies.
Please e-mail us any comments, ideas, and suggestionsabout this column.
Please e-mail us any comments, ideas, and suggestionsabout this column.
Run Android Apps on Your Windows PC – A Few Words About Android Apps – How To by ExtremeTech
Jul 10th
Run Android Apps on Your Windows PC – A Few Words About Android Apps – How To by ExtremeTech
Jul 10th
Apple iPhone vs Google Nexus One: iPhone Wins First Round Or Why Shouldn’t You Buy a Nexus One Android Smartphone Now
Jun 7th
This is turning into a deja-vu feeling that I am not particularly fond
of. Ever since Apple launched the first iPhone I was waiting to see the
response of the competition. No cell phone maker was able to deal with
Apple s blow and come up with a decent, fun to be around, iPhone
competitor.Apple, who didn t make any phones until the iPhone, managed
to climb atop of the smartphone business with one simple yet very
complicated gadget. We ve seen the BlackBerry Storm announced as the
true iPhone competitor. Then came the Palm Pre which everyone was
waiting for in the first half of the year. Then came the Motorola Droid,
which is, in my opinion, the only gadget that can truly stand a chance
in front of the iPhone. And then most people anticipated, including
yours truly, that the Google Nexus One was finally going to be the phone
that could affect the iPhone dominance.
Don t get me wrong, the iPhone had and still has its flaws, only it
still manages to make a better impression than everyone else s phone!
In other words, I was wrong again! You will notice how I left handsets
like the HTC HD2, the Nokia N97, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 or the
Samsung Omnia and Omnia II out of this comparison. They are all great
devices but they are simply not running a competitive enough OS.
The Nexus One still has 3G problems and support forums are filled with
complaints about it. Furtermore it lacks multitouch in the U.S. and the
Android Market simply can t be compared to the App Store. Will Google
fix everything? I would imagine so, but the Nexus One failed to make a
good first impression as two major requirements in the modern smartphone
business: 3G support and multitouch, have not been flawlessly delivered.
Maybe Google hurried to launch the phone at the beginning of the year.
Maybe a later launch would have given us a better device. While Android
is still a major threat for Apple, Cupertino can rest assured for now
that it will still dominate the smartphone business with its iPhone. And
in less than three weeks, iPhone OS 4.0 could be unveiled and Google
will have even more things to deal with.
The moral of the story is not to buy the Nexus One yet unless you want
to chat a lot with customer care reps. Better sit on that cash and wait
for everything to be fixed. In the mean time other phones will come out
as MWC is right around the corner.
How a Silly Phone for Teens Reveals Microsoft’s Plan for Us All
Jun 6th
How a Silly Phone for Teens Reveals Microsoft’s Plan for Us All
- By
- June 6, 2010
Acer To Rival Nexus One With Their Stream Device
May 27th
Acer also releases their Stream Android device to get head-to-head with Google’s Nexus One.