Mobility Digest » Videos

Verizon’s 4G LTE Swamp Commercial Trendy but Dumb

Doug Smith — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:03:23 +0000

So if you happen to be at 30.000 LAT / –90.375 LONG and you are a major US Wireless Carrier what do you do? Easy, find yourself the first alligator you can find which won’t be too hard since you are in the middle of a Louisiana swamp and show off your 4G LTE service like Verizon did! Cashing in the very popular reality TV series Swamp people, Verizon sends out a pitiful Crocodile Dundee wannabe with the same style huge bowie knife he is carrying on his side and asks him to wrestle the alligator while bidding on a 1979 Dukes of Hazard lunch box. (I hope it at least has Daisy Duke on it).

Sporting a Motorola Droid RAZR which took me a few rewinds to finally confirm, but definitely the Kevlar back paneled, Gorilla Glass, and water-repellent nanocoating, Alligator Al here won’t have to worry about the splashes of water killing his device. It looks like the point of the commercial is to demonstrate how fast Verizon’s 4G LTE Network is while under tough situations performing crucial internet task like buying a Dukes of Hazard lunch box.

I hope Verizon does better the next go around because this commercial should have been left in the swamp.

Netflix 2.0 update for iPad has new look

Doug Smith — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:53:44 +0000

Netflix has certainly gotten a lot of bad press with some of their decision making with pricing. Then even more bad decision making when they tried to fix their initial mistake, hello Qwikster. They have also had their share of problems they couldn’t control like Starz pulling out to start next year leaving them a hole in their movie content. But the one thing Netflix has done that is a home run is redesign the iPad App and give a whole new look! Also in version 2.0 that was released yesterday is:

Netflix now available in Latin America for iPhone and iPad
New iPad UI for all regions – US, Canada, Latin America – requires upgrade to iOS 5
Addressed stability issues
For support questions please contact us at mobilesupport@netflix.com

Now you can swipe left and right in each category and scroll through larger artwork to easily find content you want to watch. This is much better of the smaller icons and vertical scrolling the old version had. So head on over to the Apple App Store and get your update and enjoy a much nice user interface with the Netflix version 2.0 iPad App.

Mobility Digest Review: Motorola Droid RAZR Video Unboxing

Doug Smith — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:44:35 +0000

In the third quarter of 2004 Motorola made history by releasing the most popular flip phone which took the world by storm. Thin, with sharp lines, this clamshell device would become a fashion icon and sell more than 130 million units in it’s four year lifespan. That devices was the Motorola RAZR. Several variations of the RAZR would follow but none of them would match the original in sales. Soon after the RAZR dynasty would be laid to rest while the iPhone and BlackBerry gained momentum with their smartphones. Fast forward to October 2011. After regaining much of it’s lost glory, Motorola returns with a vengeance and begins selling high end Android Devices with cutting edge hardware. Motorola would call these devices “Droid”. Motorola regained past glory with string of very successful devices packing them with specs second to none while Android, an open source platform, quickly evolved and matured releasing major updates to the OS in rapid succession. Impressed with Motorola Mobility’s success, they would be bought by Google. A perfect alliance may not be the best description but what would is for sure is that Motorola shows no signs of falling asleep at the wheel like they did after the original RAZR. In October of 2011 Motorola Mobility, a Google company would call upon the name of it’s former glory once more and create a device second to none, Motorola would release the Droid RAZR for Verizon. The legend continues.

The Motorola Droid RAZR for Verizon is equipped with the latest in network technology which is called 4G LTE. With real life download speeds that I have seen as fast 25mbps and upload speeds of over 13mbps, the RAZR would need more than just that to make it’s presence felt in a smartphone market at war with each other. Utilizing material used by soldiers in war, the Droid RAZR would feature a KEVLAR Fiber back panel. Motorola would not stop there, they would further arm the RAZR with a Nanoparticle coating inside and out that would make even the electronic boards water repellant. Strength continues as Motorola used Corning’s Gorilla Glass to make sure the RAZR would not succumb to scratches or scrapes. It’s 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Advanced Screen would well protected behind it’s Gorilla Glass shield and have a resolution of 540 x 960 making it a qHD quality.

Power would be applied to the RAZR by a 1780 mAh battery and feed the TI 1.2 GHz dual core processor with 1GB of RAM. The Cameras on the Droid RAZR are an 8 megapixel rear with video capture capabilities of 1080 HD with 30 FPS. (1920 x 1080). The front facing camera would be a 1.3 megapixel camera and take video at 720HD making video conferencing on the RAZR much more than it’s competitors.

The Motorola Droid RAZR is amazingly thin at 0.28 inches think, and still maintains Motorola’s superb build quality. The RAZR comes with Gingerbread 2.3.5, but Motorola has been very vocal that it will see the Ice Cream Sandwich update almost immediately upon it’s release after the first of the year. Motorola has done everything in it’s power to rebuild the RAZR dynasty and with specs like this, it’s hard to argue with that. Verizon has sent me a demo unit to test and I have got to say I am really impressed. I am not quite done with my complete review but thought I would share with you my video unboxing and first impression video. In the video I compare the Droid RAZR to the HTC Titan Windows Phone and the iPhone 4S in a size. Check out the video on the Motorola Droid RAZR and stay tuned for my full review.

Survivalcraft shown off on the HTC Titan

Doug Smith — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 06:36:09 +0000

Got an email from Dave who just shot a video of Survivalcraft on his HTC Titan and I got to say it looks pretty cool. The HTC Titan, here in our neck of the woods on the AT&T network, is a brilliant Windows Phone with a 4.7inch screen and a 1.5GHz processor. We have a review already posted on the Titan that you can check out here: Mobility Digest Review: HTC TITAN. Dave cranks out almost 7 minutes of gameplay that you can expect on your Titan.

Pretty cool video, check it out and leave us a comment on your own thoughts playing Survivalcraft on the HTC Titan.

Thanks Dave!

Samsung takes a swing at the iPhone in video ad

Doug Smith — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:23:53 +0000

I don’t think this is as good as the “I’m a Mac” commercials that featured a Bill Gates look a like actor and a young Steve Jobs (sorta) looking actor duking it out over who’s better. The same commercial spurred T-Mobile to jump on board as well as Virgin Mobile. The T-Mobile was pretty good mainly because Carly Foulkes was in it, but the Virgin versions were not that great. Well it looks like we have a new commercial taking a jab at Apple from Samsung! Apple has obviously been a huge thorn in Sammy’s side of late with all the tablet injunctions they managed to get Germany and Australia to place against them. So why not thumb your nose at them, flip them the bird, and generally tell them to f$%& off by making a video poking fun at the hordes of people waiting in line for an iPhone that is basically the same as last years, no 4G service, and has questionable battery life! The video has Apple customers happily standing in line signing songs and acting quite smug about it while a Samsung Galaxy S II device owner walks buy going about his business when the device catches the eye of the people standing in line with 12 hours left to go!

Great video ad I hope to see on TV and props to Sammy for having to the grapes to have a go at Apple!

Motorola RAZR’s Smart Actions further highlighted

Doug Smith — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:55:07 +0000

A week ago I posted a short 1 minute video on the Motorola RAZR’s app called Smart Actions that basically helped you manage your smartphone experience and better enhance battery life. Motorola has released a second video narrated by a British accented speaking woman that winds on for over three minutes and gets more into the nuts and bolts of what Smart Actions can do for you. One of the cool things is that when you insert your headphones it automatically starts your music player and fires up your GPS in case you are going for a run. It also has as I mentioned before the ability to learn from your usage of the device and make adjustments and recommendations. Another feature I thought was cool was that it can pull up news at a specific time in the morning so it waiting for you ready when you wake up if that is your morning routine. Teach the damn thing to make coffee for me and we are really on to something big!

The video also explains how to set up rules for Smart Actions and further explains how to customize it. Check out the video below for more details on Smart Actions on the Motorola Droid RAZR!

Create a custom shortcut on your iPhone without Jailbreaking

Doug Smith — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:10:15 +0000

One of the biggest criticisms about the iPhone has always been the locked down OS and not being able to tweak very much on the phone. The best and only way to get access to the OS and make changes has been to Jailbreak it and head to Cydia. With Cydia, there are TONS of very cool things you can do with your iPhone. Before iOS 5, notifications were a huge pet peeve of mine. So I “Jailbroke” my iPhone 4 prior to iOS 5 and had a lot of fun with all the options that were available. But since iOS 5, the AT&T tethering police, and the lack of a untethered Jailbreak, I have not Jailbroken my iPhone 4S, and really haven’t thought about doing so. There are some things I would like to do sure, but it has not been worth the time so far.

If you are not inclined as I am to Jailbreak your iPhone 4S, and would like to add some custom shortcuts and create your own icons on your home screen, then check out IconProject. This app allows you to custom create icons that you can link to a setting or app and allow you to spice things up. The app is $0.99 and is available at the app store. There is a list of preferences that you have to type up below the video. Make sure you type them in correctly, they are case sensitive. It’s pretty easy to do.

About — prefs:root=General&path=About
Accessibility — prefs:root=General&path=ACCESSIBILITY
Airplane Mode On — prefs:root=AIRPLANE_MODE
Auto-Lock — prefs:root=General&path=AUTOLOCK
Brightness — prefs:root=Brightness
Bluetooth — prefs:root=General&path=Bluetooth
Date & Time — prefs:root=General&path=DATE_AND_TIME
FaceTime — prefs:root=FACETIME
General — prefs:root=General
Keyboard — prefs:root=General&path=Keyboard
iCloud — prefs:root=CASTLE
iCloud Storage & Backup — prefs:root=CASTLE&path=STORAGE_AND_BACKUP
International — prefs:root=General&path=INTERNATIONAL
Location Services — prefs:root=LOCATION_SERVICES
Music — prefs:root=MUSIC
Music Equalizer — prefs:root=MUSIC&path=EQ
Music Volume Limit — prefs:root=MUSIC&path=VolumeLimit
Network — prefs:root=General&path=Network
Nike + iPod — prefs:root=NIKE_PLUS_IPOD
Notes — prefs:root=NOTES
Notification — prefs:root=NOTIFICATIONS_ID
Phone — prefs:root=Phone
Photos — prefs:root=Photos
Profile — prefs:root=General&path=ManagedConfigurationList
Reset — prefs:root=General&path=Reset
Safari — prefs:root=Safari
Siri — prefs:root=General&path=Assistant
Sounds — prefs:root=Sounds
Software Update — prefs:root=General&path=SOFTWARE_UPDATE_LINK
Store — prefs:root=STORE
Twitter — prefs:root=TWITTER
Usage — prefs:root=General&path=USAGE
VPN — prefs:root=General&path=Network/VPN
Wallpaper — prefs:root=Wallpaper
Wi-Fi — prefs:root=WIFI

[video: iDownloadBlog via Cult of Mac]

Droid RAZR “Strong Blade” part 2 video for Verizon

Doug Smith — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:52:55 +0000

Yesterday I posted about the new video for the Motorola Droid RAZR called “Payload” which was was met with some criticism from some of our readers . Basically saying the video was over the top and lacked relevant information about the device itself. Android videos for Verizon all seem to be made into a series like the Droid Bionic was. So today, we have another new video on the Droid RAZR that takes a deeper look at the device and still maintains a very high tech over the top production quality that I really like. The video opens where “Payload” left off with the device being suspended by 4 blade points rotating and the narrator starts in about he Gorilla Glass front screen and the Kevlar back plate. They also talk about the water repellant nanocoating and how thin it is. So this is a great part 2 in my opinion that continues on with their advertising direction and really drills down the device features. Check out the video for more on the Droid RAZR and drop a comment if this video hits the mark better for you.

Droid RAZR “Payload” Video continues excellent advertising for Verizon

Doug Smith — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:03:09 +0000

I think there are a lot of reasons that have gone into the success of Android’s marketing plan and one of them is great advertising. We are pretty accustomed to seeing Apple subtly advertising with a somewhat subdued but pointed message, but it’s Android that is in your face with awesome video ads. The new Motorola RAZR for Verizon continues that tradition and moves away from the Bionic Heroine and introduces us to a black outfitted motorcycle thief who uses Mission Impossible type methods to break into a caravan of stealth type armored vehicles. Some great affects and story line conclude with the motorcycle guy opening a crate and seeing the Droid RAZR held in front of him by four pointed holders.

Pretty cool video, check it out below.

Motorola Smart Actions can save you up to 30% battery life

Doug Smith — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:32:12 +0000

Even though I think Android has made progress in making their OS more efficient and saving precious battery power, let’s face it, it’s not where it needs to be. Motorola has apparently noticed it and created their own app to help manage several different functions and give the device owner options to control power consumption. Moto claims that by “choosing a few Smart Actions” , you can improve battery life up to 30%. You can optimize some other tasks like auto-launcher, ring tone management, and screen brightness. Smart Actions has custom rules and even preloaded rules and the app will learn your usage patterns and make suggestions based off of them. Nothing new here, but the UI of the app looks pretty cool as we see here on the Motorola RAZR. Check out the video below.