According to Eric M. Zeman over on the phonescoop.com website, AT&T will be making the Motorola Atrix 4G handset available for pre-order as from February 13th. The device – which then launches on March 6th – will cost $199.99, with a new two-year service agreement.

As Peter Chubb previously mentioned here, Motorola revealed last month that a Laptop Dock would be available upon the Motorola Atrix 4G’s AT&T launch, although no pricing details were given. However, AT&T has now released details on not one but two accessory bundles.

The first bundle – which cost $499 after a $100 mail-in rebate – includes the Atrix 4G handset and the Laptop Dock accessory, but does require a tethering add on and a subscription to AT&T’s Data Pro smartphone plan. The laptop dock can be purchased on its own for $499.

Customers also have the option of a second bundle, which will cost you $189.99 and comes with a Motorola HD Multimedia Dock, a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and a remote control. If you’d prefer to buy the HD dock separately, it will cost you $129.99.

As Bonnie Cha over at cnet.com recently reported, the laptop dock accessory allows users to connect their Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone to a laptop shell, enabling them to send emails, view media and browse the web on a larger screen and with a bigger keyboard.

In case you need reminding, the Motorola Atrix 4G runs Anroid 2.2 OS and comes with a 4-inch qHD touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera/720p camcorder, an HDMI out and 16GB of onboard memory. Will you be buying the Motorola Atrix 4G handset?

However, it now looks like a new tablet PC isn’t the only device that Samsung will be showing off at the event. According to Adam Hartley over at techradar.com, recent reports have suggested that the electronics company will also be unveiling a new 4-inch, Android-based Galaxy Player.

Reports suggest that the device will feature a 4-inch LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480, a 1GHz CPU and will be running Android 2.2. The Samsung Galaxy Player will also feature a 3.2-megapixel camera on the rear as well as a front-facing camera, making it ideal for video calling.

A recent article over at Samsunghub.com provides a little more information about the upcoming music player, including the fact that consumers will have a choice of 8 GB, 16GB or 32GB storage capacities. Other features are said to include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, HD video playback and a MicroSD card slot.

Don Reisinger from eWeek has listed 10 reasons why he thinks that iOS 4.2 has the edge over Froyo. However, let us not forget that Google is already hard at work on the next version, 2.3 Gingerbread.

One reason why Android 2.2 does not perform as well as iOS 4.2 is because Google never had the plan to move into software – they have come a long way, but there is still a long road ahead of them.

Another reason – one that I am not too sure on – is that Apple understands their customers. They know what they want and most of the time they deliver; well we want the White iPhone 4 – look how that has gone?

One of the biggest issues with Android is too many variations. Knowing what Android handset to get is like a minefield, something that you do not get with Apple and the iPhone. This is a valid point, but having choice is great as consumers have certain budgets, so are able to decide which handsets best fits into that.

Visit eWeek and read all ten reasons why iOS 4.2 is said to be better than Android 2.2.

Do you agree with these findings?

Vlad Savov from Engadget sounds a little sceptical over this date, and we would have to agree. However, we should not discount it, it could happen and would be very welcome to fix a number of issues with the current mobile OS on the original Droid.

The Android 2.2 update will come one-month after the release of the Droid X, which will be made available via an over-the-air update. We are not certain why Google and Motorola did not work together to offer the new OS version right from launch?

Having used the original Droid, it is clear that it will benefit from the latest update the most, as it is need of an increase in performance.

If you are an Android user, and have been drooling over the prospect of installing Android 2.2 on your phone, better known as Froyo, then you might want to take a look at this list below, where we will tell you which phones will definitely be on the update list, which phones could receive the update, and which ones not expected to get Froyo.

Confirmed Froyo Phones: - The Google Nexus One is a certainty to receive the update. Although it had recently closed it’s online store, Google’s flagship phone has been used in a limited test group who received an early copy of the software. It has since been worked on for minor tweeks, and an OTA download is scheduled to be released any day now.

Three HTC devices – the Droid Incredible, the EVO 4G and the Desire are all scheduled to receive the update. The Incredible has already confirmed that the update will be available “sometime in the second half of this year,” with the Desire also set to follow suit. The EVO 4G, the hottest new property and seen as direct competition with the Apple iPhone 4 will also be getting the update.

Two other devices, the Motorola Droid which started the Android craze is set to be second in line after the Google Nexus One to receive the update, along with the MyTouch 3G and 3G Slide which are on track to see the update before the end of the year.

Unconfirmed Phones Not Expected To Get Froyo: - So far, there are only two phones not expected to receive the update. The T-Mobile G1 and the Samsung Behold II are said to be non-upgradable and far too limited in their hardware to gain full support of Froyo.

Phones That Could Receive The Update: - – Only four devices make up this list, but if you are an owner of either a Motorola Devour, a Motorola Backflip, a HTC Droid Eris and a HTC Hero then you can file this under “maybe”.

Other phones that we have failed to mention are the Motorola Cliq, Cliq XT and Samsung’s Moment Android device. With the Cliq, who were supposed to receive the 2.1 treatment before the end of the summer , might just get bumped up to 2.2 instead. As with the Samsung Moment, it has only just received the 2.1 update, so the future is uncertain when it comes to 2.2.

Source: PC World

In a hands-on-look at the Flash support (it’s about time!), PC World have said that overall, the experience is good although they did encounter a couple of issues. One the whole though things were good, such as playing Facebook’s Farmville, a range of games on Kongregate and trailers that are available on the Warner Brothers website.

One interesting feature that has been included to get the best out of your flash experiences, are the recommended websites that are situated on the homescreen. These include BBC, Sony Pictures, Armour Games and many more. You can find these on TechCrunch who got hold of the lists for the Droid and the Nexus One, where the latter is far bigger than the Droid.

Another disappointment is the non-inclusion of Hulu. While trying to watch an episode of “30 Rock” on the Nexus One, they were sad to find out that Hulu does not have distribution rights for content on mobile devices. Lets hope Hulu see this as an opportunity to expand their horizons.

Are you looking forward to the Flash inclusion in the Android 2.2 update? What websites do you hope are supported?

Source: PCWorld

Only Kent has been taking a closer look at Google Android 2.2 FroYo and some of its new features – thanks to an article over on PCWorld. The latter website has done all the legwork and learned from TechCrunch that the new mobile OS will act as a kind of Wi-Fi hotspot for other Wi-Fi enabled devices.

Only Kent pointed out in another article that Android 2.2 FroYo has made the Google Nexus One 450 percent faster than 2.1 – that and the fact that it will offer full Adobe Flash support is a much-improved upgrade. It has been suggested that this upcoming upgrade will allow for applications to be installed on an SD card.

We recently wrote an article wondering how long the delay will be before Google and HTC will work on an Android 2.2 upgrade for the DROID Incredible and the soon to be released EVO 4G? The reason for the delay is because of the custom HTC Sense UI.

If FroYo makes the Nexus One 5x faster, just imagine what it will do for the latest HTC Android smartphones?

All of the screenshots can be seen by checking out this link, they do not reveal anything amazing as they were taken during a video demo of Adobe Flash on the upcoming FroYo platform, however they do at least give you a sneak peak at Google’s next offering.

We are currently unsure of a release date for FroYo, however it has now been almost 7 months since the release of Eclair, therefore you would think that Google would be keen to release their next version.

Remember to see these early screens of FroYo check out the source link below.

Source: FoneHome