I honestly considered not even covering this because I honestly can’t remember anyone talking to me about the Motorola Cliq 2 in some time. Well, here goes the news anyway as Motorola’s last smartphone to grace T-Mobile is now the proud recipient of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. If you want to perform the upgrade and still have the “honor” of being stuck in a two-year contract with one: grab that micro-USB cable. The update requires the installation of Motorola’s Software Update application onto a Windows PC to perform the update. Motorola says no OTA update is expected and that Mac OS X is not supported.
Anyone out there still rocking a Cliq 2? Bueller, Bueller?
Enhancements:
- Improved Cursor Control: Now you can just touch where you want the cursor to be and then move the blue cursor arrow icon to find the exact spot you want.
- Improved Word Selection and Copy Functionality: Words can now be selected via press-hold. A second press of the selected word copies the selected characters.
- Number and Symbol Shortcuts: When entering text on the virtual keyboard, certain numbers and symbols shortcuts are available by pressing and holding letter keys.
- Sleep Mode: New power off option puts your phone in a low power, wireless-off mode that allows for instant bootup when returning to powered-on mode.
- Dock Icon Functionality: The icons at the bottom of each homescreen have been updated. The new customizable Dock includes the app launcher icon on the far right of the four icons, while the other three provide shortcuts to common phone features. These three icons can customized via pressing and holding an individual icon or by dragging an icon on top of them.
- App Groups: New App Menu allows creation of custom app groups, in addition to 3 default groups:
- All Apps, Recent and Downloaded.
- Rich Location App: New app from Motorola compiles thousands of the Internet’s most powerful websites, streaming only the most relevant suggestions, activities, promotions, based on your unique preference and location. You can use Yelp reviews and Facebook check-ins to find out what others are recommending.
- App and Power Management Details: Manage Applications now provides improved information about what apps and services are running, how much memory and CPU time each are using, and the ability to close individual apps and services.
- Download Manager App: New App will manage all of your downloads from web browsing and other apps.
- New User Interface Icons: New icon style has been introduced to refresh user interface design.
- Tasks App Enhancements: The app has been enhanced to include a Task dashboard interface that lets users filter tasks in new ways and share tasks with others.
- Browser Search Engine: Browser address bar search options now include Google, Yahoo or Bing.
- Emergent Groups and Smart Contacts: Based on usage, participant and addressee suggestions are made in Calendar entries, emails and text messages. You can create groups instantly based on the context of what you’re doing. For example, quickly create a group based on a suggestion from a Calendar invitee list or the group of people with whom you’re texting.
- Updated Calendar Options:
- Calendar and event times can be displayed in your home time zone when traveling.
- Individual reminders can be dismissed, such as dismissing one meeting reminder without dismissing other meeting reminders.
- Easy conference dialing allows you to dial the conference number and the meeting code will be automatically entered directly from your Calendar.
- Device Control Capabilities: Through 3LM, new device control options are available including application blacklisting/whitelisting, microphone control, and enabling/disabling enterprise applications.
Improvements
- UI performance Improvements: Various fixes were made to improve stability and performance, including faster phonebook, widget, and wallpaper load times.
- Battery Fixes: Improved battery performance due to several bug fixes.
- Wi-Fi Calling: Implemented fixes to improve reliability.
- Wi-Fi Hotspot Signal: Improved WiFi hotspot signal strength.
- Visual Voicemail Greeting: Greeting can be updated from visual voicemail application