Motorola Gets Into Social Networking?

Blackberry users have been offered the ability to chat and share files with other Blackberry users through the Blackberry Messenger. Now, if the indications are true, Motorola may be going a step ahead and launch a comprehensive social network for their customers.

In a patent filed recently with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Motorola has described a social networking service over their telecommunication network that will enable users to discover new friends, share pictures and videos, comment on others messages, etc.

Interestingly, it appears that Motorola could be partnering with existing social networks to kick this feature off. The inventors explain

“In another embodiment of the invention a third party service provider may provide the social networking service to the user using the telecommunication network “

Much like the friends discovery tool in most of the social networks, Motorola’s invention too talks about making use of the users’ contact information like phone number and email address to search for other friends who are already in the network.

Motorola has been gaining traction in the smartphone segment since the launch of Droid and it is likely that the company sees a social networking service as a way to showcase their handsets to a cluster of a population rather than sell it to individuals.

With social networking apps already available, do you see this strategy picking up?

Motorola Developing The Nielsen Ratings Equivalent For Mobile TV Broadcasting

The Nielsen ratings is one of the best known tools for tracking television viewership and audience composition. This is widely popular across the world and is taken as the benchmark when it comes to assessing the popularity of television programs.

However, with mobile TV getting prominence over the past few years, there does not exist a standard to track viewership from the mobile devices. Motorola seems to have taken the first step as a recent patent filed by the company shows.

In this filing, titled “Method for Collecting Usage Information on Wireless Devices for Ratings Purposes”, the inventors write about a technology that will enable them to assess viewership ratings from mobile devices. The inventors explain

“An illustrative system and method are described herein that enable the collection of information from mobile devices that are used to receive broadcasts of television or video programming over a wireless network. According to one illustrative embodiment, one or more ratings servers collect information associated with the use of one or more mobile devices to view broadcast video or programming. The collected information can then be used to calculate ratings.”

We are not sure if Nielsen already methods in place to track mobile TV viewership. A CNET article that dates back to 2005 talks about Nielsen working on something similar though it is not clear if Nielsen’s technology, if it exists, would be regarded prior art.

What do you think?

Motorola MOTOSPLIT Revealed?

Folks at Engadget have got hold of a pic that the source claims is of Motorola’s upcoming device MOTOSPLIT. This is a SnapDragon powered Android handset that is expected to be released by AT&T in Q3 of this year.

While the credibility of the rumor is not yet ascertained, it nevertheless looks like a great device. It is one of the thinnest sliding phones you’ll come across. Here is the screenshot of the device

What do you think of the device. Let us know in the comments.

[via Engadget]

Is Motorola Shadow Google Nexus Two?

Google Nexus One has largely impressed the tech world, though there have been a lot of early complaints. It is now believed that Google is already working with Motorola for the release of Nexus Two.

According to a post on Engadget, Google is looking at Nexus Two as a complete business phone and Motorola Shadow shall be the handset of choice. This device will come with a beautifully designed QWERTY keyboard that will serve as a great Android 2.1 alternative.

[via Engadget]

Motorola Backflip To Be Priced At $324 Pre-Subsidized

The folks over at Phandroid website are citing anonymous sources as claiming that the Motorola Backflip, AT&T’s first Android handset shall be launching on March 7 at a pre-subsidized price of $324.

The Motorola Backflip was demoed at the CES and is called the “ultra-flexible, double jointed, ridiculously bendable version” of Motorola CLIQ by Phandroid. Here is a video demo of the device from the website

What do you think of the $324 price-tag? Is it a tad cheaper than you expected? And do you think this will affect its positioning? Let us know in the comments
[via Phandroid]