Hey! Got a mobile and want to know what the weather’s like? All you have to do is leave your phone in your pocket and look at the sky. It’s failsafe.
Enough flippancy though. What if you want to get actual weather forecasts on the go, from anywhere in the world, in Celsius OR Fahrenheit, hmm? This is where Motorola hopes to tempt you, having signed a deal with Paragon Software Group to preload its Handy Weather application on the MOTO Z8 and Z10 handsets.
You pick a location, and then set how often you want the application to update its forecasts (for example, every four, eight, 12 or 24 hours). Worried about data charges? They’ve thought of that - it only uses 7kb of data per city forecast. More application makers should provide this kind of information.
There is a caveat, mind. If you buy a Z8 or Z10, you can use Handy Weather free for three months, but you’ll then have to subscribe for a year for “an additional fee”. Looking on the application’s website, I think Paragon charges $10.95 for subsciption renewals, which over the course of a year isn’t too bad.
Motorola has followed Sony Ericsson’s lead in going handset crazy at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
There are the mid-range W230 (candybar) and W270 (slider), but the headlines will surely be grabbed by the new touch-screen E8 and the long-delayed Z10.
The ROKR E8 (right) might only have GPRS/EDGE, but its selling point has got to be the ability to switch between camera, music player (including Windows Media Player 11 compatibility), contacts and phone calls at the touch of your fingertip, using a haptic vibrating touchpad.
The other handset, the slider Z10 (below), is being pitched as a “mobile filmstudio[sic]”. Aside from the dodgy spelling, it does at least have HSDPA connectivity and 3.2-megapixel camera. Oh, and it runs on Symbian, which is a good alternative to Motorola’s infamously Marmite-like OS.
However, the ‘mobile filmstudio’ aspect comes from the phone having the ability to let you instantly upload photos and videos to YouTube, Google, Yahoo and Shozu. So it’s not quite a proper ‘film studio’ but its still an appealing new handset.
After being mistakenly leaked by O2, then appearing as a few 3D computer-generated 3D images, it’s great to see Motorola’s upcoming Z10 in the flesh, courtesy of IntoMobile. With a 3.2-megapixel camera and running the UIQ OS, the Z10 looks like a nice stablemate for its Z8 little brother.
Last week’s alleged leak of four ‘08 Motorola handsets caused a minor transatlantic spat across the internet, with US blog Boy Genius Report refuting Dutch site GSM Helpdesk’s original story.
Now both sides have come bouncing back into the ring, with GSM Helpdesk restating its belief (via Unwired View) that the handsets are real. The site also quotes Motorola marketing director Fergal Donovan as saying that, “the Motorola Skarven will become the new flagship of Motorola. Eight megapixel cameras and optical zoom will be the main points of Motorola in 2008. The Motorola Skarven will be a kick-slider, just as the Motorola RIZR Z8.”
But BGR has swung back with info from its ‘Motorola insider’, claiming that:
- The Z10 will be out before Christmas
- Motorola’s interfaces are shifting from Linux-based to UIQ
- There will be a 3G touch-screen and QWERTY entry-level smartphone that runs Windows Mobile 6
- There’ll be a high-end Moto with an NVIDIA graphics processor for 3D gaming and smooth video playback
- A touch-screen slider is in the works with a five-megapixel autofocus camera, GPS, QVGA 2.8″ screen, running UIQ 4.0
- Overall, Moto will release nine UIQ devices next year, two of them with 5MP cameras, and the remaining seven with 3.2MP cameras
So is the Skarven the ‘touch-screenslider with 5MP camera’? Is Genghis the ‘entry-level smartphone’? Whichever site is right, 2008 is shaping up to be a promising year for Motorola fans.
