Motorola has joined the Android OS team by unveiling their Motorola Cliq cell phone at their press event last month and it ain't looking too shabby.
The Cliq puts heavy focus on social networking and messaging which are two of my top priorities in a mobile device. I know. Making calls SHOULD be top priority, but who does that with cell phones anymore? The device functions on Google's Android OS so you'll notice similarities with the G1 and MyTouch 3G.
Motorola also debuts their Moto Blur function, which allows you to manage and login to just about all of your social networking apps from one platform, sort of like IM+, BeejiveIM, etc. The Cliq takes a page from the HTC Hero device (also Android-based), connecting together a lot of the social aspects and functions of the phone instead of having them spread across multiple apps.
All of the information I read on the phone said that it had a slide-out keyboard and those of you that know me and listen to Geek Aggro know that slide-outs are a turnoff for me. BUT, as I was catching up on my Phonedog cell phone reviews, I found the above video that shows off Androids Cupcake virtual keyboard on the device! Now I'm excited. I don't mind the option of a slide-out keyboard for text input as long as it's not the ONLY option.
The Motorola Cliq is rumored to hit T-Mobile in October. I'm sure once it gets closer to launch, T-Mobile will also announce a price on the device. Stay tuned.
Phone specs here.
Labels: Cell-Phone, Douceswild
My next step was to actually use the pho...device to make a couple of long distance calls. I found the keypad actually nice to use as the keys were backlit [good] and the numbers much larger than the letters on the keypad. This helped me tremendously as I am used to the layout on my Treo smartphone so most phones that do not have QWERTY keyboards piss me off to no end. I have no love for multitap interfaces, period. I still don't like multitap for this phone, but I understand it's not mean to be a smartphone so I'm not going to hold the multitap against Helio. The keypad layout is nothing new, nav button in the middle flanked by the call approve/deny buttons, two buttons at the top in the left and right hand corners as "menu" and "select" options. This part of the pho... device is nothing remarkable. What is worth noting are what are on the sides of the device, that's where some of the fun stuff resides when it comes to the Kickflip. 
For me, the greatest fun that I have had while using the Kickflip has been in taking pictures. Because I can hold the device horizontally like I am used to with my digital camera, and use the button on the side to quickly enter picture mode, it's extremely easy for me to take pictures with the thing on the go. Add to this that the camera in the Kickflip is 2 megapixels, can take a single image at up to a 1600x1200 resolution or a series of "snaps" at 320x240 with a flash, and ninja is a very happy little girl. I love being able to take a snapshot of things as I'm on the go because weird shit seems to happen all the time in my area. [Especially when I'm in the district] So having a camera that I can snap a picture or series of pictures with and immediately send it to a friend so they can share in my WTF? moment is just plain cool. It's at this moment of playing around with the device [haha, got it right that time] that I start understanding what Helio means when they say this thing is not a phone... and I do agree with them on that. When it comes to being a phone, the Kickflip is lackluster. 
![](/images/blog/otter_treo_sm.jpg" "OtterBox")
The case shell comes in two pieces... the front which has all of the keys [which line up perfectly with those on the front of my device] and screen protector while the back piece has the latch you use to hold the two pieces tight together in effect creating a Treo cocoon of safety. It works well. The latch is quite heavy duty and in all my test "oops I dropped my Treo" tries it never un-latched itself. Double cool. The case has a see-through hold in the spot where the camera is, a vent over the speaker location, and an opening at the bottom to allow me to charge or sync the device while it's in it's protective encasing. So no functionality is lost at all. It even has a "grip" on the side to put my stylus in so I don't have to take my Treo out of the cocoon in order to use all of it's functionality. Triple cool.
Now I have one friend that was terrified that the guy she had been seeing for a couple of months was going to ditch her when he found out she was a gamer. I don't know why but she was absolutely positive he was going to think she was some kind of masculine chick hiding in a petite girl body. I know, it's stupid, but as she went on and on about how she was hiding her game systems before he came over, I realized it was a serious fear in her mind, so I had to help. I told her instead hiding all of her OPM and Computer Gaming magazines, leave a couple out on the coffee table. When the boyfriend comes over, let him in and offer him a seat on the couch by the mags, then excuse yourself to the bathroom to finish getting ready and leave him there with nothing but the gaming mags to keep him entertained while you are away. When asks when you got into gaming [because he's never seen this stuff before] just be honest. Say you've been into gaming for a while and why, and then just say that you put all that stuff away because you didn't want him to think you were weird. I'll all but guaranty that 10 times out of 10 he'll be excited and cool about it. 
If you've got the ability to surf the internet with your cell phone, you'll soon be able to start reading the latest blog entries by the Sistahs on the same phone.