Motorola–or “Moto”, as your faithful Gear Diary crew often calls it–almost always makes some kind of splash at CES.  It’s a big company, after all, and they’ve been doing electronic gizmos for a long, long time.  Last year, for example, our own Dan spent quite a bit of time checking out their (then-) new Xoom.

What about this year?  As you might expect, Moto is rolling out a batch of new items, including:

• DROID RAZR MAXX by Motorola is the overachiever of the family of DROID RAZR by Motorola products. It’s the longest-lasting smartphone on the block offering 21 hours of talk time, and at just 8.99 mm, the device is still

When it comes to mobile devices I tend to be fairly platform agnostic, owning Android phones, iPod Touches (well, iPods since the original one in 2001), and both iPads and Android Tablets. But there is one place where I have clear bias (well, aside from gaming performance), and that is my preference for physical keyboards. Listing the smartphones I have used over the last few years, there is the original Droid, Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, HTC Touch Pro 2, HTC 7 Pro, and Droid Pro.

What do all of those phones have in common? A physical keyboard. I even stuck with PDAs with keyboards to the end – the Palm Tungsten C and HP… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The battle for “World’s Thinnest” presses on with the release of Motorola’s latest flagship. Resurrecting the name of a phone that became an icon, the RAZR is back, but aside from the name, it bears little resemblance to the phone-in-skinny-jeans of 2004.

The new RAZR, or the XT910 as Motorola define it, is an Android slate measuring a trim 7.1mm at its thinnest point, handily eclipsing the Galaxy S II’s now portly 8.49mm figure. Make no mistake; this is a seriously thin phone.

But like a Lamborghini, it may hug the ground when laid flat, but it’s seriously wide. At 69mm its wider than the G S II’s 66mm, and completely dwarfs the iPhone 4S at 58.6mm.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Today is 11/11/11 – or in Europe 11/11/11 – and Verizon and Motorola are releasing the cool looking ultra-thin Droid RAZR Android smartphone – at 11:11:11, naturally. Never one to be left out of a chance to overuse a gimmick, Amazon Wireless is getting in on the fun, offering the Droid RAZR for … yep, $111.11!

But … there is a catch. The image above is from when I select ‘New Customer’. As soon as I indicate ‘Exiting Customer’, THIS is what happens.

So much for a good deal – I guess they figure if they… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’ve mentioned it many times:  PDAir cranks out a simply amazing quantity of cases on a regular basis.  HTC or Motorola or Apple or Toshiba or you-name-it comes up with something new and BOOM! PDAir is right there with a case.  I never know whether to shake my head in admiration, or weariness.  I mean, how do they keep up?

But keep up they do, and today’s info is on their new aluminum metal case for the Motorola Droid Bionic XT875.  Do you have one?  Well, PDAir has a case for you, pal.  Available for an MSRP of $29.99… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

(image courtesy ThinkG33k)

As regular readers of Gear Diary may know, I used an original Droid for almost two years. In fact, up until a few months ago, I was totally convinced my next phone would be an Android device. But Android and I had a falling out, and I picked up an iPhone 4s on Friday. Why? And is the learning curve tough? Read on for my thoughts!

First, there’s the “why”. A few things dragged me away from my little robot friends. One, Android is becoming increasingly fractured. It seems as though the only way to guarantee timely updates and continued support is to pick up a Nexus device. Otherwise… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It is big. It is bold. It is Bionic! It’s the Motorola Droid Bionic 4G smartphone for Verizon and it is today’s Gear Deal.

The Droid Bionic isn’t a smartphone. No, it is a super-smart phone. It has a 1GHz dual-core processor, a 4.3″ qHD (960×540) display, dual-facing cameras with an 8MP rear camera, and 16GB built-in memory plus the inclusion of a 16GB microSD standard. It is hotspot capable, offers 4G LTE/3G connectivity, runs Android 2.3OS, and, of course, has WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. It has all that and it still offers up to 10.8 hours talk time.

The full price of the Droid Bionic is $679.99. At Let’s Talk it is just… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I have been angsting over a new phone for some time now. My original Droid is barely hanging on, and I am due for an upgrade. It was disappointing that Verizon didn’t pick up the Galaxy S II along with the other carriers, but the Motorola Droid Bionic hung on the horizon. I have been trolling various sites for reviews, but they all seemed to sum up with one word: Meh.

All of them are quick to reassure readers the Bionic isn’t a bad phone, it is just…not great. In fact, most of the reviews seem to end with similar sentiments.

Slashgear concluded:

Meanwhile, there are faster phones on the horizon. Samsung’s freshly-announced Galaxy S

Given how much I love my iPad and iPod Touch, and that I have constantly had a top-end Mac laptop as well as a PC laptop for nearly two decades, many people assume I would use an iPhone. I don’t – I have used an Android phone since I got the Motorola Droid as my first smartphone when it was released. Since then I have tried the HTC Touch Pro 2, Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi Plus, and Droid 2 before settling on the Droid Pro as my ‘go to’ device. The Droid Pro is nearly a year old yet hasn’t been replaced or matched in the market, and is only now being… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I have been an Android user since 2009, and have no intent on switching. But let’s be honest – in many ways the OS mirrors DOS and Windows. For example, on my original Droid, the split between the internal storage and SD card was absurd – I would have 14GB of memory on my SD card, but get ‘low memory’ warnings trying to install a 2MB app because nothing would let itself be installed in ‘HIMEM.SYS’.

Another Windows-like behavior? The Add/Remove Control Panel – or, the ‘Manage Applications’ system item. This is the place you go to move apps to and from the SD card (when allowed), clear data, stop services, or… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Just so you know, I spent one whole year as a stay-at-home Dad.  We had just adopted my son Joseph from Taiwan and wanted someone at home full-time to take care of him, and since my wife Sami had better stock options and was making more money than me, why not me?  One thing I never got used to, though, is the fact that no matter how “liberated” this country is supposed to be, no matter that the feminist movement is now old enough to be in the history books, no matter that I lived in the liberal, liberated bastion of the San Francisco Bay Area, I was still viewed with various combinations of shock, derision, surprise… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of PDair

Since we are big fans of PDair here at Gear Diary we are always happy when they bring new products to market. I have to say that PDair is great when it comes to phone cases especially since they are one of the few companies that offer cases almost immediately after a new phone is released. Android phones clearly don’t have all the protection options that the iPhone gets, but its nice to see companies like PDair giving you some options when you pick up your shiny new scratch free phone.

If you’ve looking for an aluminum case option for either the HTC Incredible S or Motorola Atrix, then… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

PDAir makes cases, and no bones about it.  Reasonably-priced, reasonably-solid cases that cover your precious device in the substance of your choice, be it aluminum, leather, or some kind of vinyl something-or-other.  Cases.  PDAir.  That’s what they do.

And as you might expect, they haven’t been just sitting around, watching devices get released and saying, “Gee, nice device!”  No, they see a device, and they want to encase that sucker, darn it!  And this week’s encasement list is all about the Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9003 and the Motorola Xoom.  Cases.  For you.  Take a look.

Full information below.

• Leather Case for Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9003 – Flip Type (Black)
• Leather Case for

‘Round these parts, we’ve been paying a lot of attention to the Motorola Atrix.  Judie and Dan got to see an interesting demo at CES, and you’ll no doubt see one of them review the gadget right here in our humble pages.

So let’s say you’re an early adopter, and bought one.  How do you keep your new 4G free of the bumps and bruises that life is no-doubt about to throw at it?  Why, you consider getting an OtterBox case for it, of course.  And why?  Let me put it this way:  when I finally allowed my ADHD son to have his first iPhone–graduating him from the most bullet-proof flip-phone we could find–the case… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Everyone seems to be freaking out about the recently revealed pricing for the upcoming Motorola XOOM tablet. On the surface that seems silly: the XOOM has a dual-core processor, a 1280×720 10.2 inch touch screen, two cameras (a 5MP rear camera with flash and a 2MP ‘webcam’), as well as the latest Android 3.0 operating system. On paper it seems like the XOOM completely blows away the iPad, but as we have learned with the fictitious Samsung Tab sales numbers, having better specs means little.

An article at eWeek lists 10 reasons why the XOOM is overpriced, but there was one that caught my attention:

3. Apple can get away with it, but