Just last Friday we covered news regarding a very possible Droid 4 launch on the 10^th of this month. The good news is that we now have official word for Verizon that this is indeed the correct launch date.

The Droid 4 was first introduced at CES earlier this year as a very thin, dual-core beast that also features a slide out five-row QWERTY keyboard, and edge-lit keys that deliver fast, precise typing. Overall it looks to be a rather impressive phone all except for one flaw, it doesn’t run ICS (at least not right out the door), instead coming with 2.3.5 gingerbread.

For those looking to get their hands on the Droid 4, you will be able to purchase it on the 10^th from either brick and mortar locations or online. The device will cost $199.99 with a new 2-year contract.

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Motorola has confirmed that out of 6,200 refurbished Xoom Wi-Fi tablets, 100 of them were still bearing previous customers’ data when they were sold on Woot.com. That means data such as email messages, passwords, bank account details, and media like photos and videos could have been on those devices when they reached the hands of new customers. If such info reaches the wrong hands, the original users might end up having a lot of sleepless nights in the future.

Motorola hasn’t so far given out details regarding how exactly this happened. They are just saying that the “information that may be accessible to the purchasers of the impacted refurbished tablets may include any information that the original user elected to store on the tablet”.

But to make sure that the previous customers do not end up becoming victims of information abuse, the company is offering a free 2-year subscription to Experian ProtectMyID identity theft alert service. (If you returned a Xoom between March and October 2011, you can sign up for the service by calling (866) 926-9803).

Motorola intends to retrieve the data loaded tablets from the new buyers. If you bought a Xoom tablet from Woot.com between October and December 2011, you can check whether your device is one of those 100 devices.

And to stay away from such troubles in the future, we recommend you to reset your device to factory settings before returning it to the company or selling it to someone, if it powers on that is. You can also keep the memory card with you or just erase everything on it.

Just yesterday, Droid-Life received a new tip that claims the Droid 4 is on its way very, very soon. In fact, just days away with a release date of February 10th. Supposedly this model will cost for $199 with a 2-year contract. The rumor seems at least somewhat believable considering it includes a screenshot from a Verizon equipment guide.

So what does the newest member of the Droid family bring to the table? A dual-core 1.2GHz Processor, 1GB of RAM, a 4-inch qHD display, Android 2.3.5, 8 MP rear-facing 1080p camera, a 720- front-faing camera, 4G LTE, and a 5-row slid-out physical keyboard. This phone will also feature GSM global roaming capabilities.

Is the 10^th is the real launch date for the Droid 4? We’ll find out soon enough.

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Ever wanted to see a showdown between voice assistants? You can do just that by taking a peek at the video (posted below) which has been released by Motorola. It shows the duel between Siri on the iPhone 4S and Google Voice Actions on the Droid RAZR.

The reason behind Droid Razr’s better performance might be the device’s LTE connectivity. As you might know, an internet connection is needed for both the voice command systems to function. A remote server processes the voice commands that you give and sends the “translated” commands back to your device. The faster the connection, the better the performance will be. But we are unable to tell whether the devices in the video are having good coverage because of the clip’s low resolution.

We do know that both the voice assistants are doing a good job. The difference is that Siri is taking a bit more time to execute commands and also pulls up Google search instead of the Motorola website in the last test. But that’s not so bad, right? And we wonder how Siri’s sister will perform in a similar combat.

Just a few days ago we got wind of a new Motorola Droid Maxx ad. To me, it meant a release of the Maxx was imminent, and apparently this hunch proves true.  The Motorola Droid Maxx has officially been confirmed to be available in Verizon stores this Thursday. While there is plenty to get excited about in regards to the Droid Maxx, it’s the 21-hour battery life on one charge that is the most epic feature being touted. So for those out there that are really, really social: be prepared to talk, text, and browse you hearts out with the Droid Maxx.

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The Motorola Xoom just got a whole of a lot more appealing thanks to a new OTA update to ICS. This update replaces the stock Honeycomb OS and comes just a week after Asus started its rollout of ICS to the Transformer Prime.

For now, only American Wi-FI users are receiving the update, though international and 3G/4G models should still be in line for this upgrade shortly (though no official timeline has been revealed). This could mean that the beginning of a huge shift of upgrades to ICS could be heading our way for all Tegra 2 tablets, our at least we can hope. Of course its really up to each manufacturer whether or not they choose to update its devices or not. Of course, even if you Honeycomb tablet never gets official support, you can pretty much guarantee that an ICS custom ROM will eventually arrive.

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Recently, many major tablets like the Asus Transformer Prime, have begun receiving Android 4.0 updates. In response, Motorola is bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to Motorola Xoom tablets – at least for a few lucky ones out there.

As part of a pilot program, only a few thousand select Xoom Wi-Fi owners will receive the update as part of the initial and private test. The way that Motorola approached this update was somewhat on the sly, without mentioning ICS in its emails sent to select Xoom owners a few days earlier.

The wording was as follows:

Thanks for your patience as we’ve waited for this project to begin. Because we are dealing with a Google Experience Device (GED) we have less insight to timing than we would usually have. However, I’m happy to announce that we will start the update this evening. Because it was delayed a few days, we will also have additional time to test; we will let it run through the weekend.

For now, this means that only lucky users get a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich, but I suppose the positive side that if something does go wrong, they have less users affected. If everything goes off without any major hitches, Motorola will shortly begin deploying ICS to all Xoom users en masse, although a specific timeframe for this wider launch has yet to be announced. Have you got ICS lately?

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From the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Verizon Wireless along with Motorola have announced many new additions to the Droid Razor Family. One of the new members added to this family is called RAZR MAXX.

The android powered device is 8.99mm, slightly on the thicker side when compared to the Droid RAZR which is just 7.1mm, but don’t let that discourage you the RAZR MAXX is not over weight by any means.

The device is designed for customers who spend long hours multi-tasking and promises a whooping 21 hours of life straight on a single charge. Motorola claims that is the longest-lasting SmartPhone on the block, but we are unsure as to what the battery life is being claimed for. Are we talking about 21hrs of gameplay? or 21hrs of video streaming?

There is certainly a difference between 21 hours of intense use on one charge and 21 hours if you don’t do anything except keep it on. Most likely it is 21 hours with light use, if we had to take a guess.

The Droid RAZR MAXX comes packing 32Gb of total memory. To get your hands on this one, you will have to shell out  $299.99 with a 2-year agreement.

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We have heard your voice and starting now, we will allow our bootloader to be unlocked for 2011 models going forward. We plan on releasing the updates that will allow you to unlock your bootloader in the coming months, please keep an eye on this website for more details on which devices will be adding this feature. We are extremely pleased to see the energy and enthusiasm from our fans and loyal customers, and we are excited to see what you are capable of. HTC eagerly anticipates your innovations.

The not so good news is that this step undertaken by HTC is followed by a flurry of caveats and disclaimers of any HTC responsibility for the customers unlocking actions. Even if that brave customer uses an official unlocking tool designed by HTC themselves. Then, the unlocker will work first for the HTC Wildfire S, Wildfire, Salsa, Merge, and Desire brands that account for 22 models. Now, by PDADB data base reports, HTC has more than 500 phones, and it remains to be seen how many of them locked and how many will be presented with an unlocker tool in good time.

Then, the FOTA option for deploying unlocker tool is quite dubious at best: if its designed as FOTA with unlocker, it certainly much safer to have a FOTA upgrade option with factory unlocked bootloader.

Even if the HTC unlocker tool is already available as a separate download, there are some problems with deploying it over what hackers did to their HTC devices already, that is, without HTC help.

But don’t get me wrong, the movement to unlock their devices’ bootloaders widens across manufacturers, and it’s a very good thing. We need to shout this news out to Motorola for the RAZR and Barnes & Noble for the NOOK Tablet.

Motorola Mobility has announced two new smartphones to launch this spring, the Motoluxe and Defy Mini. Both devices will be available in China, Europe and Latin America, with no word on U.S. launch. The larger Motoluxe will feature a 4-inch display, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1,400 mAh battery and a VGA front-facing camera. Branded by Motorola as being “life proof” DEFY MINI is water resistant, and dust and shock proof. This smaller, rugged device features a 3.2-inch display with a 3-megapixel rear camera, a 1,650 mAh battery and a VGA front-facing camera. Both devices will be on display at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012) and will be running Android 2.3 with a variation of Motorola’s custom MotoBlur skin that apparently has got a new monicker: “MotoSwitch”.  MotoSwitch is focused on a user’s social graph. The more frequently a user communicates with someone, the bigger their icon becomes on the homescreen widget.

‘No matter what device you choose, Motorola’s MotoSwitch user interface changes the way you manage your life. With MotoSwitch, your smartphone learns who you talk to and which apps you use and keeps all of that information front and center. The Social Graph feature gives you easy and fast access to the people who really matter. It learns who’s most important to you and uses that information to populate the home screen. The more frequently you communicate with someone, the bigger their icon becomes. The Activity Graph gives you quick and easy access to your favorite apps, automatically changing to reflect the apps you use the most.

Motoluxe also offers another interesting feature: a lanyard slot that has a lighting effect, such as you can see when you’ve missed a call, received a text or have an email waiting for you.

No pricing for these phones was disclosed just yet.

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