Motorola RAZR Also Known As the Motorola Droid RAZR Announced for Release

Motorola has now announced the release of a new handset which many will recognise the name of, the new Motorola RAZR - which is also to be called the Motorola RAZR Droid in America takes on the branding from a previous phone sold some years ago called the Motorola RAZR V3.

The new Motorola RAZR is a very different phone to the V3 and it looks like the manufacturer is aiming to gain interest from one of its best-selling mobile phone models of all time by using the RAZR name tag once again.

There is some exciting new technology being used in the manufacture of the new RAZR, this includes a laser-cut Kevlar back cover which is the same material used in body armour and 'SplashGuard' which is a nano particle-based water repellant system that not only covers the outer casing but also the electronic innards of the phone.

Getting down to the bare bones in terms of features, the Motorola RAZR is a powerful smart phone with a 1.2GHz dual core processor along with 1GB of RAM at its heart, the main touch screen measures 4.3 inches and uses the same Super AMOLED display technology found in the Samsung Galaxy S2.

On the reverse of the phone the Motorola RAZR again matches the Galaxy S2 with an 8 mega pixel camera supporting full 1080p HD video capture and there is a secondary 1.3 mega pixel camera on the front of the phone facilitating video calls.

Another Motorola phone may spring to mind whilst looking at these specifications which is the new Atrix 2 which is due to upgrade the existing Motorola Atrix very soon, however the Atrix 2 is not going to be sold in European markets and so the new RAZR will be the manufacturers flagship device in this area.

One point that may go against this new phone is that although it runs the very latest Android 2.3.5 operating system known as Gingerbread it will be up against competition from the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus which will be running the Android 4.0 system known as Ice Cream Sandwich, which could hurt sales.

To counter this Motorola have included some new software features of their own including one called 'Smart Actions' which allows the user to completely personalise their experience from changing the menus around to launching different applications within certain features.

The Motorola RAZR is extremely sleek which again points back to the days of the slim V3 model, this new phone measures a mere 7.1mm thin at its slimmest point but manages to pack in a multitude of features.

Connectivity is provided by Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and fast download speeds via HSPA+ as well as 3.5G support and Motorola have also addresses the problem of power drainage from the Android system by installing a large 1780mAh battery for a longer life between charges.

This new Motorola phone is due to be released in November.

To keep up with the latest news as well as see Motorola RAZR deals as they are announced or to take a look at the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, take a look at our website: Phones Limited.

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Arctic research funding of $67M finally announced

The federal government formally announced $67.3 million for research on Arctic climate change Thursday, though the funding has already been flowing for months and an official website has long since divulged it.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis said the money would keep ArcticNet, a Canada-wide network of mostly university-based researchers, operating through 2018.

The 145 investigators run projects looking at topics as diverse as Inuit access to post-secondary education, to how global warming is affecting marine life on the floor of the Arctic Ocean.

ArcticNet's first round of funding came in 2003, and researchers have known it would be renewed since last fall, when the federal government quietly extended its financial commitment.

The exact amount of the second round of funding was later posted to the federal government's website for the Networks of Centres of Excellence, which supports national research collaborations.

But there was still no formal announcement from the government. The Prime Minister's Office said in August that Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver would make the official announcement in the fall, even as Industry Canada was already at work planning something for that month.

"It's a matter of opportunity," said Louis Fortier, a Laval University marine biologist and ArcticNet's scientific director. "We agreed with the Industry Department that we wanted to do the announcement in the North, and in the wintertime it's impossible, so the first favourable window was in August. We had something planned for the beginning of August in Resolute Bay, but things are always complicated in the North, and this is just one more example."

In the end, Paradis made the announcement Thursday alongside Fortier at Laval University in Quebec City, where he said the funding was the single largest amount Ottawa has doled out as part of the Networks of Centres of Excellence program.

All the machinations haven't been detrimental to ArcticNet's researchers, however, several of them said.

"The research community knew, when we had our last annual scientific meeting in December, that the decision had been made," said David Hik, a University of Alberta biologist and ArcticNet project leader.

"The fact the official announcement was delayed isn't a big deal. It hasn't delayed the flow of the funds, and none of the investigators would have been adversely affected at all. Probably with the election in May, a lot of these timelines got set back."

Fortier agreed there has been no adverse effect. "This is something the 145 of them were expecting. We were confident we would get funding," he said.

He added that the federal contribution is only a part of ArcticNet's budget. The government cash has a "leveraging effect" that allows the program to raise further funds from universities, granting agencies and elsewhere, for a total over the next seven years of between $400 million and $500 million, he said.

About $2.7 million a year of that goes toward operating the Canadian Coast Guard ship Amundsen, a 98-metre-long icebreaker that Arctic researchers use every May to December to travel to the remote North to study Inuit communities and the environment. Accessibility Links

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