Motorola is shaking up the smartphone market with the drop of two new MOTOBLUR handsets – DEXT and BACKFLIP – built on the Android mobile OS. But just what exactly is MOTOBLUR, how does it work, and why should we care?
What is it?
MOTOBLUR is “the first and only mobile experience to deliver your social life straight to your mobile phone, in the one handy stream.” Powered by Android and developed in-house by Motorola, MOTOBLUR features a multi-layered, personalised home screen that houses customisable widgets.
How does it work?
When you purchase a MOTOBLUR handset for the first time, the phone will prompt you to create a MOTOBLUR account, which you log in to just once for the life of the phone after you’ve added all your social networking services, such as Twitter, Facebook, Picasa, etc. Your MOTOBLUR account automatically syncs contacts and streams status updates, tweets, emails and messages to your handset, which can then be accessed directly from the home screen. MOTOBLUR even links contacts together by proactively looking for “handles” or data that may suggest that two separate contacts are the one and same person. Kinda like Xobni.
But what happens if you lose the phone? Or it gets stolen? MOTOBLUR backs up contacts, customisations, emails, tweets and messages on its secure server. So if you happen to lose your phone, or it gets stolen, you just jump onto the owner’s online portal, locate the phone with aGPS trackers, and do a remote wipe of the phone if necessary. When you move to another MOTOBLUR phone, simply enter your login details, and all your personal information and customisations will sync up exactly the way you had it.
Why should we care?
MOTOBLUR mashes with Android to equip users with the ideal platform for both content creating and content consuming. If you’re looking for a smartphone that can handle all your social networking demands, DEXT and BACKFLIP have a lot to offer, and they’re available now exclusively through Optus on a range of new plans. Take a closer look at Optus’ website.