Motorola Droid Razr Review

You might have read about Motorola's newest addition to the Droid series: the Droid Razr.  You may have also heard it has off the charts performance specs, a brilliant display, 4G LTE service, yadda yadda yadda.  The aspect of the Razr we're most excited about is Bluetooth 4.0, but then again, our company designs Bluetooth software.  

However instead of covering all the bells and whistles, I want to focus on what's wrong with the Razr (like a proper pessimist should).

First off it's just too big.  The screen size is great for navigating the web, but I feel like I'm holding a etch-a-sketch up to my head when I'm talking.  My last phone was the original Motorola Droid, and maybe it's just because I'm familiar with it, but I like the size of that.  I also like the size of the iPhone.  It fits neatly into your jeans without having corners clearly jutting out.

(To avoid feeling like I'm talking into a tablet, I would get one of those Bluetooth headsets, but I hate those people that natter away on those things while walking down the street.  I hate even more the people who just wear those things around even when they're not yammering into it.)

Another problem I have is on the home page.  Thing are getting too convoluted.  I want an interface with icons for a few of the apps I use most.  The Droid Razr has a large screen and instead of making the old Android interface larger and icons more manageable, the Motorola and Google people have just tried to cram more stuff in there.  My advice to Motorola: larger icons, simpler views, and less crap. My advice to Google: keep your tablet and phone platforms separate.  Make the development process basically the same, but force devices to choose whether they want to be one or the other.

Problem #3: it's fricken expensive.  I believe the iPhone 4S should still be the gold standard, but the Razr costs 50% more PLUS you don't have a choice of carriers.

Considering these problems my recommendation is not to buy the Razr.  Either wait a few days (two new A-list Android phones are reputed to be coming out on December 8th) or buy an iPhone 4S.  Unfortunately for me, I'm stuck with this thing for two years.

Cheers.

Top Tech Accelerators

Since I've done some research on tech startup accelerators, I thought I'd put it down on paper.  There are no statistics behind these rankings.  It is just my subjective list based on reputation, hearsay, successful graduates, mentors, and other rankings.  I've excluded accelerators that have a more focused approach (for example they're only interested in companies that deal with music or the cloud), as well as those that were outside the U.S., and those that require companies to be at a more advanced stage.

For the most part these programs provide $10,000 - $25,000 in exchange for their guidance, expertise, office space, and 5-10% stake in the companies they accept.

In order:
1) Y-Combinator - Silicon Valley
2) TechStars NY - New York
3) 500 Startups - Silicon Valley
4) TechStars Boulder - Boulder, CO
5) AngelPad - San Francisco
6) TechStars Boston - Boston
7) Excelerate Labs - Chicago
8) TechStars Seattle - Seattle
9) NYC SeedStart - New York
10) DreamIt Philadelphia - Philadelphia
11) DreamIt NY - New York
12) LaunchPad LA - Los Angeles
13) The Brandery - Cincinnati
14) BetaSpring - Providence, RI
15) i/o Ventures - San Francisco
16) LaunchBox Digital - Durham, NC
17) Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator - New York
18) Tech Wildcatters - Dallas
19) MuckerLab - Los Angeles
20) LaunchPad New Orleans - New Orleans
21) AlphaLab - Pittsburgh
22) Boom Startup - Salt Lake City
23) The Next Big Thing - Greenville, SC
24) Founders Co-op - Seattle
25) Capital Factory - Austin

Motoral Razr and Blue Smart

Motorola's newest Android phone is the second phone (behind the iPhone 4s) to be enabled with a Bluetooth 4.0 chip.  We're very excited about the product and particularly the Bluetooth ability, but disappointed that it comes with such a hefty price tag  -- $300 with a 2 year contract with Verizon.  By comparison, a 16-GB iPhone 4s is $200.  While the Razr boasts 4G LTE, it may price itself out of a lot of sales.  It's available for pre-order starting today, and will ship by the November 10th.  (I'll provide a review when I receive mine.)

In other Bluetooth news, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group is re-branding Bluetooth 4.0 as Blue Smart.  I love the move of distinguishing Bluetooth 4.0 from older versions, as I believe the low energy aspect of 4.0 will make this technology revolutionary.  But really, Blue Smart?  I think they could have done a little better with the name.  

Our new Android App

We have completed an alpha version of our new Android App SpotLoss.  The free app uses Bluetooth Low Energy to tell the user when a device comes into or leaves a relative area.  The app will alert users when a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) enabled fob or BLE cell phone either comes in close proximity to the user or leaves proximity (depending on the users settings).  Uses for this include telling the user when his or her friends might be close by, notifying the user that they have left their keys or cell phone behind, or alerting a parent if their child wanders too far away.  We are very excited about this new app, and believe it will be revolutionary.

The main problem is that there aren't any Android smart phones that support the Bluetooth Low Energy specification yet.  (Though there should be soon.)

In the mean time, we're developing an iOS version of SpotLoss as well as the hardware fobs that can be used with our apps.  The new iPhone 4S is the first cell phone to include Bluetooth 4.0, which has BLE abilities.

SpotLoss

We recently shifted our company's focus from OlderSibling, which is proving to be relatively bug free and self sufficent, to something we call SpotLoss.  SpotLoss uses cell phone apps and Bluetooth Low Energy chips to keep users from losing things (like their keys, their phone, or their children), and to help user find the things they've lost.  SpotLoss is an innovative technology based on a simple, straight-forward design.  If anyone would like a web presentation, please call us at 607-222-8641 or write to our marketing director Kelly Wiess at kelly at oldersibling dot com.  We truly believe it will be a revolutionary product when we introduce it at the end of the 2011.

In other news, we had an exciting week networking out in Silicon Valley.  We met with one of the employees of Y-Combinator (okay, he's technically an intern and he's my cousin...but we still met with him) and the wife of Larry Page, the founder and CEO of Google (yeah, she's my cousin too).

Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding

We are experimenting with crowdfunding because, while we believe we have an excellent idea, we don't make any money. Zilch. Plus, until we become profitable, we'd like to pay the people who come up with all of our great ideas. Right now we don't.

So to bridge the gap, we've created a funding campaign on IndieGoGo, a crowdsourcing site for startups. You can check it out at http://www.indiegogo.com/OlderSibling?a=80148&i=addr. Of course, this feels a little like begging, so to counteract this we have some gifts for investors. If you're interested in adding your bit to our fledgling (but growing) company, please check us out here. We're working hard to make sure every penny counts.