Most Motorola devices won't get Android 4.0 update anytime soon

Google
Android Ice Cream Sandwich
By Athima Chansanchai
If you own a Motorola phone and are waiting for the upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, get ready for disappointment: A handful of tablets and phones will be upgraded by this summer, while the hottest models, such as the Droid Bionic or Droid Razr and Razr Maxx, have no slated upgrade rollout dates.
Motorola unveiled the schedule (or lack thereof) in its Owners' Forum under Motorola Android Software Upgrade News.
For phone models, Motorola's Ice Cream Sandwich rollout begins in "Q3," that is, sometime between June and September of this year. For now, that only includes the Atrix and Photon. When it comes to tablets, only the U.S.-based, Wi-Fi Xoom has received the new software; the other three versions of Xoom will have to wait until April to see ICS, while the Xyboard and Xoom 2 get it in the summer.

Droid Razr Maxx
When the big moment does arrive, Motorola customers can follow these instructions:
In most cases, consumers will receive a notification on their device that the OTA upgrade is available. An available upgrade or update may be rolled out over a period of time in order to best manage the deployment volume and experience. At times, a small testing group is provided the upgrade before it's made available to a larger group. On your Motorola Android Phone or Tablet, you can go to Settings ⇒ About Phone/Tablet ⇒ System Updates to manually check for an OTA upgrade. All estimated release dates are based on available information and are subject to change.
That bit at the end about being "subject to change" may be something Motorola would do well to heed. This schedule reveals delays that may not sit well with its consumers, who may fall behind Sony, LG and HTC, which all have planned ICS rollouts by early this year.
Motorola should learn from the Samsung snafu that kicked up in December, when the company that regularly plays tug-of-war with Apple as the world's biggest smartphone vendor announced that its popular first-generation Galaxy S smartphones would not be getting Android 4.0. In doing so, they deprived 10 million customers from having ICS.


And even when they do get ICS, the upgrade may arrive right on the heels of the next Android rollout, 5.0, apparently bearing the "Jelly Bean" moniker. There's only been one report of that upgrade coming out in the spring, so we're not going to start salivating yet, but it's certainly poor coordination on the part of Google and its newly acquired mobile handset maker, and it's no way to treat customers.

==================================================================================================================================
By Aaron Kirchfeld, Jacqueline Simmons and Matthew Campbell
(Updates with closing share price in eighth paragraph.)

Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany’s largest telephone company, is evaluating options for an exit from the U.K. as it seeks to raise cash after failing to sell its T-Mobile USA unit, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Bonn-based company is in the early stages of deciding whether to sell its half of the Everything Everywhere wireless venture it owns with France Telecom SA, the people said, declining to be identified because the discussions are private. Deutsche Telekom has yet to hire investment banks and any decision on an exit is unlikely before later this year as it focuses on improving operational performance first, they said.

Mobile operators are re-evaluating their operations as revenue growth stalls in developed markets and regulators set limits on fees from services like international roaming. Paris- based France Telecom began a review of its European portfolio last year as part of an effort to concentrate on emerging markets, and has agreed to sell units in Austria and Switzerland in the past two months.

For Deutsche Telekom, “more cash might have to be allocated to the U.S. market” in the mid-term to cover potential investments in high-speed network infrastructure, said Jochen Reichert, an analyst at Warburg Research in Hamburg. “And then there could come the question of how Deutsche Telekom can raise more cash.”

Options

Options for Everything Everywhere may include France Telecom buying out its German partner’s stake, or a process to seek a third-party buyer for the entire operator, such as a group of private-equity firms or other phone companies, the people said. The French company could face financing challenges that would make taking full control of the venture difficult, they added.

An initial public offering of part or all of Everything Everywhere may also be an option, said Robin Bienenstock, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein in London. The operator may be valued at 12 billion euros ($15.6 billion), based on a multiple of about seven times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to Espirito Santo analyst Nick Brown.

Deutsche Telekom spokesman Andreas Fuchs declined to comment, saying the company has a “long-term commitment” to the U.K. market and that its venture is “competing successfully.” A France Telecom spokesman declined to comment.

Telecommunications companies’ stocks have declined amid price competition and costs tied to network upgrades. Deutsche Telekom shares have plunged 12 percent in the past year to 8.85 euros today, while France Telecom shares have fallen 31 percent in the same period to 11.26 euros on the Paris exchange. The Bloomberg European Telecommunications Index, which tracks the share prices of the region’s largest phone companies, has slid 17 percent.

Called Off

Deutsche Telekom and AT&T Inc. in December called off a $39 billion deal to sell T-Mobile USA to the U.S. phone company after concluding it would be too difficult to overcome opposition from regulators.

The former German phone monopoly had planned to use the proceeds to cut debt by 13 billion euros and repurchase 5 billion euros of its own shares. Deutsche Telekom also needs funds to upgrade fiber and wireless networks in Germany and other European markets.

France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom agreed to merge their U.K. operations in 2009, creating the country’s largest mobile operator by leapfrogging Telefonica SA’s O2 unit. The deal took the U.K. from five full-service mobile operators to four, in line with Italy, Spain, and Germany. At the time, the venture was valued at between 6 billion pounds ($9.4 billion) and 7 billion pounds, one of the people said.

Everything Everywhere announced a management shake-up in September, cutting the number of directors from 25 to 10 as Olaf Swantee, the former head of France Telecom’s European operations, took over as chief executive officer. In that month, Deputy CEO Richard Moat, a Deutsche Telekom executive, left the operator along with five other senior managers.

The venture reported a 4.3 percent decline in third-quarter sales as it lost clients amid a push to shift them to longer- term contracts.

--With assistance from Cornelius Rahn in Frankfurt, Marie Mawad in Paris and Jonathan Browning in London. Editors: Chris V. Nicholson, Kenneth Wong

To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Kirchfeld in Frankfurt at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net; Jacqueline Simmons in Paris at jackiem@bloomberg.net; Matthew Campbell in London at mcampbell39@bloomberg.net

========================================================================================================
When Research in Motion’s Playbook tablet first began to show signs of struggling, analysts suggested one of the only ways to rise from the grave would be to offer some way of bringing Android apps to the platform. The Blackberry App World marketplace simply wasn’t attractive to developers, and consumers were not impressed by the limited selection. So RIM has managed to fulfill that call to action, but there are increasing limitations that lead to more questions about whether the Playbook is sustainable.




In the latest development, RIM has revealed that Android apps carried over to the Playbook will not be able to contain advertising. This means developers who made a free app on Android and collect the advertising revenue that it generates will have absolutely no monetary incentive to offer those apps to the Playbook. And in a society where free apps are of significant importance, that is quite a blow. This may be something that can be altered in the future, but it won’t be ready when the Playbook 2.0 software launches later this month.

The Playbook has become so crushed that it is now being offered to app developers for free. There is a serious lack of interest, even though RIM continues to try to peddle it as a good enterprise-level iPad alternative. Playbook 2.0 may help ignite new interest in the device, especially among those who were turned off by the fact that in its original state, the Playbook couldn’t even access Blackberry Messenger or things like a calendar app unless it was tethered to a Blackberry phone. More details are sure to be revealed at the Mobile World Congress.
=====================================================================================================================================

As you advance through the grid, you’ll find that your ability to move to different squares changes based on what move you made last. If you head straight through several of your moves, you may find yourself crashing into a wall because you don’t have the ability to gain a great enough turn radius. If you don’t advance enough squares by moving as far from your current space to the next, your opponents may out-race you.


And your opponents can block your moves as well. Any player can potentially figure out where their opponent is going to land next by checking the amount of squares and direction they last moved. Blocking an opponent is as simple as moving into the selection of points your opponent was bound to head into next. Once you’ve mastered the art of blocking, you’ll be good to go to win almost any race.



This game is out on the iTunes App Store right this second for a grand total of $0.99, and its worth every penny. You can play against a robot, against an opponent you’ve got sitting next to you by switching your phone back and forth between one another, opponents on a wi-fi network, and opponents through the web on Game Center. It’s fun stuff!