Android Phones
Motorola and Sprint announce i1 Android phone for “those who work and play hard”
March 22, 2010 | by Andrew Kameka
Motorola
Motorola and Sprint today announced the Motorola i1, the first Android-powered push-to-talk phone. The i1 will be the first Android phone with iDen features when it debuts this summer (no specific date or pricing information available yet).
Other features available in the Motorola i1 include a 3.1-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Opera Mini 5 as the default browser, and Motorola’s custom Android MOTOBLUR user interface. This will be a big push for Motorola on Sprint’s network, which has a number of U.S. workers who communicate through the Nextel Direct Connect service. Now they’ll be able to quickly reach others even when sneaking a few moments on Facebook or their favorite Android website – wink, wink. Here are some other important features.
- Motorola pitches the i1 as a business-first phone for “those who work and play hard.” The phone has military-grade protection against dust, shock, vibration, and blowing rain.
- Swype is pre-installed as the phone’s keyboard, though users have the option of disabling it.
- The device has a 5MP camera with LED flash, autofocus, and 4X digital zoom
- The phone will include Opera Mini 5 and the ability to use Flash 8 websites (older than the Flash 10-level content seen on the Droid and Nexus One).
- It runs Android 1.5 (face-palm!) but you’d have to imagine that Motorola would wise up and put 2.1 or at least Donut on there, right? Right?
- Bluetooth 2.0, microUSB, 2.5mm headset jack
- Adobe Flash, MP3, WAV, WMV, MIDI, MP4, and H.263/H.264 media format support
- Up to 32GB microSD card supported, 2GB card included
It's so hard to keep up with all these new moto phones. No such thing has having the latest and the greatest as they change every week. Slow down a bit and let me enjoy my old phone. You know the one I carry in the duffel back that's hooked up to a battery and has a long cord on it. The one I take the night clubs and stand on the wall pretending to be talking to someone.
The phone looks awesome, although I don't understand the 2.5mm headphone jack. Wasit that hard to put in a 3,5mm?
The tidbit that caught my attention was the phone is going to run Android 1.5 (face-palm!). While I wholeheartedly agree with the level of emotion, this is the reality of Android world. It's too tempting for a smartphone manufacturer to go the easy way of reusing the existing software for new hardware – a zero-dollar no-time investment vs potentially extensive and costly R&D. Android fragmentation harms the application ecosystem badly. For a development shop on a budget it translates to a hard choice between enhancing the product with new features and maintaining a less feature-rich application set split over multiple platform legs. My decision was simple and effective – since December 2009 ActionComplete requires Android 1.6. Kind regards, Borys Burnayev actioncomplete.com GTD for Android and Web