![]() In addition to the MotoBlur features, you also have access to all of the useful Google applications like Gmail, Google Maps with Navigation, YouTube, Google Search, and so on. And since all of your data is stored in the cloud, you won’t have to reload everything into your new (MotoBlur) phone. My favorite element of MotoBlur is its ability to track your lost or stolen phone via GPS and remotely wipe it. In addition to the standard Android widgets (Music, Clock, Calendar, and Search, to name a few), you’ll see four MotoBlur widgets: Messages, Status, Happenings, and Weather. Fortunately, you have five homescreens to fill with the widgets and applications of your choice, which helps reduce the clutter. And the text and icons lack the pop of iPhone OS or even Palm’s WebOS. You can view your communication history with a particular contact as well as viewing that person’s activity on different social networks.Īesthetically, I find MotoBlur a bit overwhelming: Text, talk bubbles, and images fly out at you in every direction. You can then see each of your contacts’ current information–birthday, status update, current profile picture, e-mail address, phone number, and the like. If you’re friends with the same people on multiple networks, MotoBlur condenses all of their information into a single listing to avoid duplicating data on your phone. MotoBlur also collects and organizes all of the contacts from your various social networks. You then choose which social network accounts–such as such as Facebook, Last.fm, MySpace, and Twitter–you want to associate on your Devour. This establishes a registration record of your phone on the MotoBlur servers so you can receive updated information without interruption. When you start up the Devour for the first time, you have to register for a MotoBlur account. In my review of the Motorola Cliq I covered MotoBlur extensively, so here I’ll only briefly touch on some of MotoBlur’s most important features. The Devour (along with other MotoBlur devices) runs Android 1.6, but Motorola says it plans on eventually upgrading the phones to version 2.1. Motorola has two more MotoBlur devices coming to the United States later this year, the Cliq XT (the carrier will be T-Mobile) and the Blackflip (carrier not yet announced). This is Motorola’s second MotoBlur device, following the Motorola Cliq on T-Mobile. The Devour, on the other hand, runs Motorola’s social networking interface for Android called MotoBlur. The Droid runs Android 2.0 with Android’s vanilla user interface out of the box. Perhaps the biggest difference between the Droid and the Devour is in the software. On the bright side, the touch keys are quite responsive, and the optical mouse is a good alternative to the touchscreen. ![]() Overall, it makes for a lot of unused space, which is unfortunate when you have only 3.1 inches of screen real estate to work with. Then, for whatever reason, Motorola placed the touch controls in two rows: The Menu, Home, and Back keys are on the right side of the top row, with a thumbpad/optical mouse below them on the left. ![]() ![]() There’s a sizeable gap between the bottom of the display and the touch controls. I found the layout of the Devour’s touch controls a bit awkward, however. The Devour also has black rubber panels on the top and bottom, keeping the phone from feeling slippery. To remove the battery, you just tip the phone, and it slides out. For example, rather than a back battery plate, the Devour’s battery and microSD slot can be accessed by removing the rubber siding on the phone’s left spine. Yes, this thing is a brick, but it feels quite solid in the hand and has some unique design elements. After some hands-on use though, the Devour began to win me over.
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