Today AT&T and Motorola announced that the Motorola BACKFLIP ™ with MOTOBLUR™ will be available in AT&T stores nationwide and online at www.wireless.att.com beginning March 7. BACKFLIP features a unique form-factor with an original reverse flip design, spacious keyboard and BACKTRACK™ touch panel, allowing the display to be hands-free while one’s fingers work behind the screen. BACKFLIP runs on the nation’s fastest 3G network and is powered by MOTOBLUR™, Motorola’s Android-powered content delivery service created to make phones more personal and socially smart. Customers can see photos and learn more at www.att.com/backflip.

BACKFLIP is the first Motorola device to feature the new and unique BACKTRACK™ feature which gives AT&T customers the ability to navigate quickly and easily through Web sites, menus and more with a touch panel located behind the screen when the device is folded open. BACKTRACK offers a new way to scroll through the Web, texts, e-mails and news feeds without obscuring the home screen. Flip the keyboard backwards into table-top mode to listen to music, watch videos, view pictures with the digital picture frame or to turn BACKFLIP into a digital, bedside alarm clock.

BACKFLIP comes with a full HTML browser that can be viewed on the 3.1” high-res, touch screen display and makes use of 7.2 HSPA 3G technology on the nation’s fastest 3G network. Android Market™ has access to more than 20,000 apps and widgets, in order to customize the device to fit each consumer’s personal style. Customers can easily shoot photos and video with the BACKFLIP’s 5 MP camera and flash, and upload them to their favorite photo sharing or social media site.

The Motorola BACKFLIP features Wi-Fi connectivity and AT&T customers receive AT&T Wi-Fi access at U.S. hotspots included as part of their unlimited data plan. AT&T’s has the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network with more than 20,000 U.S. hotspots.

Pricing and Availability
The Motorola BACKFLIP will be available March 7 at AT&T retail locations nationwide or at www.wireless.att.com for $99.99 after $100 mail-in rebate. (Pay $199.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $100 AT&T Promotion Card. Two-year agreement and smartphone data plan required.)

For more information on the Motorola BACKFLIP, visit www.att.com/backflip or join the conversation on Facebook at www.facebook.com/att.

Today Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced QUENCH with MOTOBLUR, Motorola’s Android-powered content delivery service, which organizes messages and synchronizes contacts to keep conversations in constant motion. QUENCH’s sleek touch-screen design, combined with great navigational features such as pinch and zoom and a touch pad, as well as the inclusion of Adobe Flash Lite, make browsing the web on its 3.1” high-resolution display a breeze. Motorola QUENCH™ will be available beginning in the first quarter of 2010. In the U.S., it will be called CLIQ XT™ and be available next month exclusively through T-Mobile USA. This is the eighth Android-powered device launched by Motorola around the globe.

“As we continue to expand Motorola’s portfolio of Android-powered devices, we remain committed to delivering more of what people want from their handheld devices in easier ways,” said Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices and Home business. “QUENCH with MOTOBLUR showcases Motorola’s design heritage by offering a compelling differentiation from the traditional Android experience, giving people an easier way to have more messaging, more Web and more music.”

MOTOBLUR is Motorola’s Android-powered content delivery service created to make phones more personal and socially smart. It is the first solution to sync contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more — from sources such as Facebook®, MySpace, Twitter®, Gmail™, work and personal e-mail and Last.FM — and automatically deliver them to the home screen. Content is fed into easy-to-manage streams allowing you to spend less time managing your life and more time living it.

Messaging is made easier on QUENCH with the combination of MOTOBLUR features, a palm and pocket-friendly design and Swype, a new feature that makes responding to messages and entering text easier than ever. MOTOBLUR keeps happenings, messages, news feeds and more readily available for browsing and responding on the customizable home screen. Contact information, such as email addresses, profile pictures and phone numbers, is automatically synced whenever the details change online, so there’s no need to manually update.

QUENCH delivers a complete Web experience on a full touch-screen device with pinch and zoom capabilities. Navigation is enhanced with a front-facing, centrally-located touch pad, so it’s easier and more intuitive to flick through the Web. Adobe Flash Lite enables rich media content such as banners and videos to be displayed and fully enjoyed on the 3.1” high-resolution display.

The innovative new connected media player on QUENCH is not only connected to the Internet but your social networks as well. QUENCH connects you to your music with a new style of media player that lets you buy and instantly download music from an MP3 store while integrating third-party apps such as TuneWiki, SoundHound, GoTV, and YouTube™. The music search feature makes finding your songs easy while synchronized lyrics in any language you choose make learning songs easier than before. Share your favorite tracks, discover new ones2, find lyrics, watch videos, and stream FM radio.

QUENCH enables clear calls using dual microphones and noise cancellation technology, while crystal clear pictures are enabled by a 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. Finding information online or within the device is made even easier with voice-activated search (English only). Simply say what you are looking for and QUENCH will find contacts, serve up Google™ Web search results based on location, or launch applications. Android Market™ provides fast access to more than 20,000 apps and widgets for limitless customizations and enhancements to QUENCH. Extras such as 3G and Wi-Fi® access, aGPS and stereo Bluetooth®1 make QUENCH a solid Android-powered device.

Finally, MOTOBLUR provides end-users with convenience and peace of mind, as lost devices can be located from a secure personal information portal and even remotely erased if necessary. Then, one user name and password brings back your contacts, messages and connectivity to your previously configured networks and email providers. Plus, with over-the-air updates, Motorola has the ability to improve current features and add new ones to QUENCH, ensuring the overall experience is continually enhanced.

Availability
QUENCH with MOTOBLUR will be available in multiple regions around the globe beginning in Q1 2010. In the U.S., the device will be called CLIQ XT with MOTOBLUR and will be available exclusively through T-Mobile USA beginning next month. For specific regional availability and pricing, contact your local Motorola representative. For more information, product specifications and images of QUENCH, please visit Media Center Fact Sheets. For multimedia assets from Mobile World Congress, visit MWC 2010 Press Kit. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

TELUS and Motorola today announced the availability of the much-anticipated Motorola Milestone in Canada. Motorola Milestone, powered by Android, delivers a rich mobile web experience, superior messaging and top-of-the-line multi-media features in an innovative design that could only come from Motorola. Milestone features the best of both worlds with a full QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen navigation, as well as the opportunity for users to customize their mobile with widgets and the freedom to run multiple applications at once.

“We are excited to bring the Motorola Milestone to Canada,” said Rick Gadd, vice-president, Motorola Canada Mobile Devices. “Canadians will now have the chance to experience a smartphone with no limits; harnessing the power of the mobile web with the latest version of Android, plus Google Search, simple messaging and extreme multi-media features.”

The Motorola Milestone is available only at TELUS for as little as $199.99 with a three-year commitment. For more information please visit www.telusmobility.com or www.motorola.ca.

Every quarter the NDP Group releases a top 10 list of mobile phones purchased by US consumers.  What makes Q4 2009 so special is that all 10 top-selling phones packed a touchscreen, a QWERTY keyboard or both – can someone call Nokia and tell them standard key pads are dead?  Topping the list again this quarter was the BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models), followed by the LG enV3, Apple iPhone 3GS, Apple iPhone 3G, Motorola Droid, LG enV Touch, BlackBerry Tour, Samsung Intensity, Samsung Solstice and Samsung Impression.  As my relationship continues to go strong with my Motorola Droid it’s news like this that makes me excited for the Q2 2010 results.  As Turtle from Entourage said it best, “We got a monster Vince”.

[Via Cellular News]

Next up in the Verizon Wireless Android takeover is the Motorola Devour – a full QWERTY Android slider featuring Motorola’s MOTOBLUR UI.  The Devour will be available in March and besides being the first Verizon Wireless phone to feature MOTOBLUR, the handset comes with a 8 GB microSD card pre-installed to sweeten the deal.  Notable features include a touch-sensitive navigation pad (like the Droid), 3.1-inch capacitive touch screen, Bluetooth A2DP, the Happenings Widget, Universal Inbox, full QWERTY keyboard.  As with any Verizon Smartphone, the Devour requires a Nationwide Talk or Nationwide Talk & Text plan and a Data package for smartphones.  This means the cheapest you can get your foot in the door is $39.99 for Talk and $29.99 for Unlimited Data, but we’d recommend going with the $59.99 Talk & Text plan if we were calling the shots.  A price point and exact release date were not included in the Press Release, but check back a little later and we’ll see what we can dig up.

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[via Motorola]

Our buddies over at Technobuffalo have just released a series of Motorola Droid videos pitting the device against other high-end smartphone and comparing their core functions.  In this video Jon compares compares the iPhone 3GS web browsing and typing speeds to the Droid with surprising results.  It is safe to say there might be a new smartphone champion in the room for the time being.  At least until the next generation iPhone and Snapdragon-powered Android devices are released next year, right?

[via]

The game-changing feature in Android 2.0 is clearly Google Navigation which has set out to replace standalone GPS units for a price anyone can afford, free.  Unfortunately the GSM-based Motorola Droid which will be called the Milestone when it launches on O2 and Vodafone in Europe will not offer Google Navigation.  Instead the device will ship with MOTONAV, Motorola’s navigation application since at this point Google Nav is only a US-based service.  The other big news coming from the Motorola Milestone is that it will feature multi-touch which has really become more of a catch phrase than a live or die benefit lately.  Yes we’d like to see Multi-touch on the Motorola Droid here in the US, but if it means losing Google Navigation then that is a deal we just can’t accept.

[via]

Verizon Wireless will launch the Motorola Droid this Friday November 6th, but European users hoping to get their Motorola Android fix also have plenty to be happy about.  The eagle-eyed fellas over at BGR have spotted a landing page on O2′s website for the Motorola Milestone, the GSM variant of the Motorola Droid, complete with a photo that confirms the device.  According to a German Blog which originally leaked the news of the device, the Motorola Milestone and will cost 481 euros.  With the Motorola DEXT and now the Milestone hitting Europe you have to wonder when our friends to the east will start seeing some Motorola Android love.  As of now Motorola has not announced that either device will be coming to Asia despite billions of potential sales.

You can see the Motorola Milestone on O2 Germany’s website here.

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Contrary to popular belief the iPhone 3GS might be at risk of losing its crown as the web browsing champion of mobile devices.  In a video posted by Engadget today, the Droid and 3GS were put side-by-side to compare browsers in a short but informative video.  The iPhone 3GS was able to render Engadget’s website faster but when it came to sheer scrolling speed, an area where most devices have failed before specifically Android-based devices, the Droid took the cake.  While this is not indicative of all browsing situations, especially real-world situations where At&t service suffers, it does demonstrate that Android 2.0 is a huge improvement for Google and all their devices that will see the Eclair update.  Let’s just hope we can get HTC to figure things out with the Sense UI so we have Android 2.0 running on our HTC Hero sooner rather than later.

[via]

First thing in the morning on November 6 most of us will be at the Verizon Wireless store with our $199.99 in hand ready to sign away our lives for the next 2 years for a chance to experience the Motorola Droid.  Before you pony up that cash we wanted to clear the airwaves and end the debates about what may or may not be packed inside this feature rich device by giving you the full spec rundown.

The Motorola Droid features a slide-out keyboard which we’ve seen in both videos and pictures and runs the unreleased Android 2.0 Operating System.  For those of you planning to develop applications for Android 2.0, the Droid has a level 5 API and features the following input types: Capacitive touch screen, directional pad, home/menu/back/search touch-sensitive buttons, physical keyboard and virtual keyboard (on screen).

The capacitive touch screen runs at WVGA resolution (480 x 854 pixels) with up to 16 million colors and a pixel density of 240 dpi.  To power such a beautiful display is the TI OMAP3430 processor which can run at up to 600 MHz.  Multi-taskers will be happy to note that 256MB RAM and 512MB ROM is included, with 256MB available for user storage.  When you fill up your 256MB of memory (which we would imagine you will, quickly) the Droid accepts up to 32GB microSDHC Class 6 FAT32 formatted cards.

When it comes to the sensors behind the Droid there is a 3-axis accelerometer which allows for four-way screen rotation, a magnetometer, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.  Like CDMA devices before it, the Droid is dual-band CDMA with support for 800/1900MHz and EVDO Rev A.  WiFi includes b/g support 802.11i (WPA2), WEP, and WPA.  Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR takes care of all your headsets and wireless speakers and a USB 2.0 connection lets you sync with your desktop.

Music lovers can sleep well knowing the Droid packs the soon-to-be standardized 3.5mm headphone jack while those looking to replace their GPS units will be happy that both A-GPS and a Standalone GPS with internal antenna are in tote.  If you do manage to get lost even with both Standalone and A-GPS, you can rely on the E-compass to navigate your way through the woods.

Business users concerned about corporate email have also been covered thanks to Exchange ActiveSync 2003/2007 native support in Android 2.0.  Standard IMAP4 and POP3 account support is also included for those not looking to wear a suit everyday.

Now let’s move onto the Media portion of the Droid and in our opinion the true measure of this impressive device.  A 5-megapixel camera (2592 x 1936 pixels) with autofocus, color effects, dual led flash, geotagging, image stabilization, picture quality, scenes, white balance, 4x digital zoom has you covered.  Images will be saved as JPEG with EXIF 2.2 as the native capture format while videos will be H.264 and record at 720 x 480 pixels (D1) @ 24fps and playback at 720 x 480 pixels @ 30fps.  If you are looking to stream media from the Droid your core audio playback format is WMA, while you have the ability to playback AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, H.263, H.264 and MPEG-4.

That pretty much wraps up everything you could possibly want to know about the Motorola Droid when it comes to features.  We hope that you now know exactly what you are getting yourself into next Friday and hopefully you are totally geeked like us.  Feel free to add your questions to the comments section below.