Smartphones can be rugged, too.  So if an Android with outdoor-ready durability is what you're looking for, the Motorola Titanium might just end up as your next purchase.

Physically, it's uncharacteristically burly for a modern smartphone.  With rubberized padding on the sides and back, it sacrifices some appearance points in exchange for durability.  Built tough, it meets mil-specs 810G for dust, shock, vibration, low pressure and extreme temperatures, although it's not water-resistant.

The look is very masculine, which should suit most of the phone's intended audience just fine.  Screen is a 3.1-inch capacitive touch panel (320 x 480 resolution), managing colorful graphics, crisp lines and a bright overall display.  It does wash out when directly under sunlight, though, which defeats the outdoor usability just a little.  Below it sits a somewhat tightly-packed keyboard that's surprisingly easy to thumb-type on (keys are sloped towards the center).

As a phone, the Motorola Titanium makes for  clear calls with plenty of volume.  Everything sounded wonderful from both ends, even through the speakerphone.  Battery is rated at 6.8 hours of talk time.

It runs the older Android 2.1, which will probably disappoint a lot of users.  If you need an Android phone that works on iDEN, though, it's about as current as you can probably hope for.  Do note that having 2.1 means it has to do without Flash support, microSD card app storage, Facebook syncing and more.

All the usual smartphone features are onboard, including basic and advanced messaging, wireless connectivity (GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth -- no 3G, though), and a cavalcade of applications.   It has a number of push-to-talk services (Direct Talk, Group Connect, Direct Send and more) onboard, as well as separate walkie-talkie contacts list and call log.  The 500 MHz processor is good enough for regular app switching, but will likely give you headaches if you try power-hungry applications.

Multimedia experience is just average.  The screen is on the smaller side, though, so it's far from the best handset for playing videos (plus the processor is paltry).  The 5.0 megapixel camera takes average photos, although color seems consistently too soft.

Overall, the Motorola Titanium isn't your average everyday smartphone.  If you use it for that, in fact, you might end up frustrated because of the low-muscle processor and the older Android build.  If you need a capable smartphone that runs on Sprint Nextel, though, it's probably your best bet, with some capable durable qualities to boot.  It's available now, priced at $149.99.

Plenty of apps offer a ton of customizations for shooting photos on the iPhone.   For video, though, they come few and far between.  And even fewer do the job quite as well as the MultiCorder.

A video recording app, its main purpose is to give you a whole lot more options for your live action captures.   Whether for saving precious storage space or achieving a particular aspect ratio, it's exactly the tool to rely on.

By default, the iPhone 4's HD video consumes about 85MB per minute and there's nothing you can about it.  With MultiCorder, you can play around with options that allow you to change that.  From the Settings panel, you can adjust the frame rate, aspect ratio (plus resolution) and compression level, all of which allow you to effect changes in both the resulting file size and how your videos appear.  The options aren't simplistic either -- there's a whole lot of them (for example, you get 20 different choices in aspect ratios/resolutions alone).

Quality will vary, of course, depending on your choices.  Overall, though, they remain good even after dwindling the size much lower than 85MB per minute (a testament, perhaps, to the quality of the iPhone 4's camera).  Two other notable features include a digital zoom (you can close in on subjects during live action shots -- to slight quality degradation, of course), a stealth recording mode (posts a static screen), and shifting recording between the front and rear cameras (it adds a brief animation during the switch).

If you use your iPhone's camcorder a lot and wish to have better control of it, there's really no better app available than MultiCorder.   You can get version 2.1 for $2.99.

[Mirage Labs, iTunes]

Want a rugged smartphone to satisfy all your adventurous outdoor Android cravings?  Look no further than the Samsung Galaxy Xcover, a sleek-looking rugged handset ready to take on your Motorola Defy in a head-to-head battle.

Designed for outdoor use (as the mud-covered product shots make obvious), the phone is fully IP67-certified.  That means, it can survive through dust, dirt and water submersion up to 1 meter.  Plus, it still looks good when covered in dirt, so that can only be a good thing.

Details of the Samsung Galaxy Xcover include a 3.6 inch capacitive touchscreen display (800 x 480 resolution), a 3.2 megapixel camera module with LED flash, aGPS, 3G with HSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and microSD card expansion (up to 32GB).   It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with a host of what looks like bundled apps centered around sports and other outdoor activities.

No word on processor or RAM, but we imagine this isn't falling on the high-end in terms of hardware specs.  For now, the Samsung Galaxy Xcover has only been announced for Germany with an October release date.  No pricing was given, but it sounds like a strictly mid-range device.  The rugged shell could raise prices just a little, though.

[via Press release]

Verizon announced the latest rugged feature phone to join their ranks.  Called the Samsung Convoy 2, the handset packs everything you need for staying connected in the rugged outdoors.

Clad in a clamshell form factor, it measures 3.89 x 2.01 x 0.85 inches and weighs 3.9 oz.  Designed to survive the field, it meets military specs for shock resistance, sand, dust, extreme temperatures and all the usual hassles of the outdoors.

Details of the Samsung Convoy 2 include two displays (1.3 inches outside and 2.2 inches inside), a 3.2 megapixel camera module (with flash), aGPS, Bluetooth, push to talk, dual mics with noise cancellation, microSD card expansion (up to 32GB) and a 1,300 mAh battery  (rated at 6.5 hours of talk time).   There's no WiFi or 3G, so it’s strictly the utilitarian communicator.

The graphical UI looks decidedly old-school, but does offer quick access to the phone's various functions.  Software features include Verizon's numerous media applications, Verizon Navigator, Opera Mini, Mobile IM and Mobile Email.

The Samsung Convoy 2 is far from the prettiest or the most feature-rich phone available.  If you're shopping for a rugged handset with PTT, though, this could very well fit the bill.  It’s available now from Verizon, priced at $79.99 on a two-year agreement.

[Verizon]

Samsung officially introduced a new Android smartphone into their line-up today.  Called the Samsung Galaxy R, it's a step down in tech from the Galaxy S II, but packs respectable hardware all the same.

Most notably, this is Samsung's first handset to pack NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chipset, giving it a dual-core 1GHz processor for muscle, aided by a GeForce GPU for handling all those fancy Flash graphics and high-res video.  Like other Tegra devices, you can partake in the ever-increasing number of Tegra-optimized apps that you can find through the Tegra Zone in the Market.

Details of the Samsung Galaxy R include a 4.2-inch Super Clear LCD touchscreen (800 x 480 resolution), aGPS, dual camera modules (5.0 megapixels in the rear, 2.0 megapixels in the front), WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G with HSPA, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage and microSD card expansion.    It can record 720p videos, as well as play 1080p content.

It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with TouchWiz UI.  No word on additional bundled software so far, though.  Phone dimensions are 125.7 x 66.7 x 9.55 mm, with a weight of 131 grams.

The Samsung Galaxy R is now available in Sweden (as the Galaxy Z), with North America, Europe and Asia on the way.  No exact pricing has been given, though.

[via Engadget]



A new Samsung Galaxy S II variant just showed up around the blogosphere and… it looks like another Samsung Galaxy S II variant.  Leaked by a Korean outlet, the upcoming handset is codenamed the Samsung Celox.

Getting tired of the endless variants of the Galaxy S II?  Same here.  This one's packing the gift of an LTE radio (up to 100Mbps down / 50Mbps up), though, so those considering an S II but are hankering for faster broadband speeds should find it of particular interest.

Rumored details of the Samsung Celox include a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor, a 4.5-inch SuperAMOLED Plus touchscreen (800 x 480 resolution), an 8.0 megapixel camera module, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, aGPS, a 3G radio, 16GB of internal storage, microSD card expansion, a 1,750 mAh battery and the rest of the hardware suite its Galaxy S II cousins are hiding.   For software, expect Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a heaping of TouchWiz 4.0 for the UI.

Granted, the photo they procured is more suspect than anything.  It's the best anyone's got right now, though, and it's so ugly it can’t possible be a serious Photoshop job.   Plus, we all know people don't make up stuff on the internet, right?  Right?

[via SammyHub]

Many iOS games try to be funny.  Quest Runner, though, is genuinely funny and is possibly one of the wittiest games ever to set foot on an iPhone.

If entertainment is what you're looking for, this won't disappoint, starting from the well-designed cartoon-style 2D graphics to the hilarious dialogue to the casual but enjoyable gameplay.  While the premise is formulaic (it's a traditional RPG where you walk around town and stuff), the delivery is really a bundle of fun.

In Quest Runner, you start off picking a character, as well as throwing in a few limited customizations.  The tongue-in-cheek references to older games is strong with this one, so don't be surprised if you see familiar costumes from a game you used to play years ago.  If you're a longtime gamer, you'll love those little bits, which are peppered throughout the game (not just in the outfits).

Action is side-scrolling, so there's no need for a d-pad, which, admittedly, felt odd for the first few minutes.   To move, just tap the spot you want and your hero walks there.  Littering the bottom of the screen are easy access buttons for potions and attacks, with small icons on the top right side indicating your quests and status.  It's a neat, orderly design that maximizes the iPhone's limited screen space.

In town, you can chat up people to help pick up clues for your mission and get basic quests from NPCs, as with the classic RPG formula.  Veering slightly away from that, the game allows you to hire mercenaries and adopt pets, both of which can really help you down the line as the difficulty ramps up.  The witty dialogue and comedic situations will be in full force throughout the adventure, making the game all the more engaging.

Like all RPGs, there's a bit of grinding involved to gain necessary levels, but Quest Runner exactly the type of game you can put down and return to later without feeling like you've forgotten what's been going on.  I blame the clever humor for that.  It's a no-brainer download for the $1.99 App Store price.

[Trident3D]

Doesn't matter how much of an analog purist you are.  Chances are, you've taken a snap or two with your smartphone's camera.   If you've been trying to come up with more organic ways to fancify your shots (not those… ugh… apps), you might want to try Photojojo's Smartphone Camera Lenses.

It's not a gimmick. These are real high-clarity glass lenses designed to work with your phone's teeny-tiny optics.  Photojojo hypes them a bit, billing them to be just "like pro lenses for your camera phone, giving you crisp and clear shots every time."  We don't know if that's true, but the sample photos over at the site sure do look swell.

The Photojojo Smartphone Camera Lenses use a detachable magnetic ring with an adhesive backside that sticks around your phone's optics.  With that in place, you can then alternate among the available lenses, attaching and detaching them as needed.  The set consists of three lenses: Fisheye (for 180-degree angle shots), Telephoto (doubles your camera's zoom) and Macro/Wide Angle (10-23mm focus, 0.68x wide).

According to the product page, the lenses should be compatible with majority of camera phones, give or take some compromises depending on your handset.  Most notable is the iPhone 4, whose slippery back cover just doesn't play nice with the adhesive.  If you use a case, though, then the ring could be attached, although it adds another caveat -- the ring will cover your iOS phone's LED flash.

If you use any other handset than an iPhone 4, though, the Photojojo Smartphone Camera Lenses should play nice.  It's available now, both as individual lenses ($20 to $25 each) or as a set ($49).

[Photojojo]

Sprint just announced their latest sub-$100 Android smartphone.  While we've had many handsets fall in the same price range before, the Samsung Conquer 4G is one of the few to actually come with a 4G radio for high-speed broadband access.

Why the cheap price?  Nothing special really -- the phone is really just modestly-equipped, save for the access to the carrier's high-speed data network, which will see it automatically switch between 3G and 4G connections, depending on what is available in your area.

Details of the Samsung Conquer 4G Include a 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen display *480 x 320 resolution), a 3.2 megapixel camera in the rear, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing webcam, aGPS, Bluetooth, WiFi (with mobile hotspot for up to five devices), microSD card expansion  and a 1,500 mAh battery module.  A 1GHz processor provides the muscle.

Contrary to past rumors, the handset doesn't have a slide-out keyboard, so a nudge in the head to whoever first reported that.  Oh yeah, it runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, along with the usual Google Mobile Services and Sprint's roster of bloatware applications.

The Samsung Conquer 4G will go for just $99.99 with a new two-year service agreement from Sprint.  You can get one beginning August 21.

[via Sprint]

Motorola just announced a new affordable Android smartphone.   And for a budget-friendly handset, the Motorola XT531 doesn't look half bad.

For one, it's got the sleek appearance down pat.  With rounded edges and a youthful design, the 114 x 62 x 11.95 mm frame is actually easy on the eyes.  Plus, it's quite well-serviced in the actual hardware, too.
Details of the Motorola XT531 include a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display (480 x 320), a 5.0 megapixel camera in the rear, a VGA webcam in front, aGPS, 3G with HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM tuner with RDS, microSD card expansion (up to 32GB) and a 1540mAh battery (rated at up to 8 hours of talk time and 28 days of standby).   A modest 800MHz processor provides the muscle, paired with 512MB of RAM.

It will come running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, along with Motorola's considerably scaled-down Moto Switch UI.  All the usual Google Mobile Services should be onboard, along with a copy of Qik Video Connect so you can video chat right out of the box.

The Motorola XT531 will be available in China late this month, along with the rest of Asia in the Fall (a dual SIM version will be made available).    It will be released around the same time in Europe and Latin America as  the Motorola Fire XT and the Motorola Spice XT, respectively.  Price should be around $220 off-contract.

[via Motorola]