T-Mobile UK today unveiled the latest addition to its market-leading AndroidTM range: the T-Mobile Pulse Mini, which will be available on pay as you go, priced at £99.99. The device is the sixth Android smartphone for the network and follows the Samsung Galaxy Portal (i5700) and LG InTouchMax (GW620) announced last month. The Pulse Mini is a slimmed-down version of the T-Mobile Pulse, which became the world’s first pay as you go Android handset when it launched last October. Manufactured by Huawei, the new version boasts a 2.8 touch screen, 3.2 Mega pixel camera with LED Flash and runs on the latest Android 2.1 software. Unlike its predecessor, it also features a 3.5mm headphone jack, with a memory expandable to 16GB for storing music, photos and movies.

The Pulse Mini, manufactured by Huawei, runs on the newest Android software (Android 2.1). It features a 2.8 touch screen interface, 3.2 Mega pixel camera with LED Flash and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It will be available to pay as you go customers for £99.99.

[via T-mobile UK]

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.

Orange today announced it will be launching the much anticipated HTC Desire, the next Android device to be ranged by Orange in the UK. Available this spring across all Orange consumer retail and business channels, the HTC Desire will be free on selected consumer pay monthly and business price plans. Offering a rich, intuitive browsing touch interface and premium design, the 3G+ enabled Desire is the latest device to feature Google’s 2.1 Android operating system, allowing users unrestricted access to thousands of amazing tools and applications which can be downloaded straight to the handset.

Created for those wanting an optimised mobile customer experience, the Desire comes equipped for users to make the most out of the internet. The device features the superfast Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor and as part of Orange’s Signature range, users will be able to access great Orange services direct from the home screen, including Orange’s own sat-nav product, Orange Maps, as well as Orange TV, Photography, Games and Orange Windows Live.

The Desire also comes with a choice of specially designed unique user interface options courtesy of HTC Sense and an integrated five mega-pixel, auto-focus camera featuring camcorder capability, a gravity sensor, A-GPS, a digital compass and 512 MB of memory with space for a 32Gb MicroSD card. What’s more, the 3.7 inch WVGA capacitive display features anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge resistance and a longer lasting, clearer display. Orange will be offering the HTC Desire for free to customers on selected pay monthly price plans. The HTC Desire will be available from Orange shops and www.orange.co.uk/shop in April 2010.

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]

With 20 devices on 59 operators in 48 countries using 19 languages, Android has made its mark on the smartphone market. Today Google made the Nexus One official and while we released specs for Google’s Nexus One last week, at Google’s Press Event today they made both the device and the spec chart a reality. If you’ve seen our previous coverage things remain the same with a few additional details on the battery life, display and confirmation that the device will be running Android 2.1 Eclair. Oh yea and we were off by $1 on the prices, it’s actually $179.00 with a 2-year contract on the T-mobile Even More individual 500 Plan and $529.00 without contract.

Here’s what Google had to say about the Nexus One:

Manufactured by HTC, the Nexus One features dynamic noise suppression from Audience, Inc., a large 3.7″ OLED display for deep contrast and brilliant colors and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ chipset for blazing speeds. Running on Android 2.1, the newest version of Eclair, the software includes innovations like a voice-enabled keyboard so you can speak into any text field, fun Live Wallpapers, a 3D photo gallery for richer media experiences and lots more. Of course, it also comes with a host of popular Google applications, including Gmail, Google Voice and Google Maps Navigation.

Today, the web store allows you to purchase the Nexus One without operator service or with service from T-Mobile USA. We expect to add more operators, more devices and more countries in the future, including Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Vodafone in Europe. To learn more about the Nexus One, and our new web store, we recommend checking it out for yourself by visiting www.google.com/phone. We look forward to seeing how our new program and the Nexus One contributes to accelerating innovation on mobile products for the benefit of users worldwide.

[via Google]

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.

Wednesday is D-day for all things Google as Verizon Wireless is set to make the Motorola Droid official.  Included in the announcement will be a release date and the formal launch of the Motorola Droid website.  Luckily a few watchful eyes over at BGR noticed that the Motorola Droid site came up in Google Searches and the site was temporarily live for a short time.  You might be asking what the significance of this was but let me be the first to tell you, it was huge.  The Droid landing page spilled all the beans on the Motorola Droid and we can now put any rumors about the Droid specs to rest.

The Droid features a 550MHz processor, HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, an HTML5 compatible webkit browser, a 3.5mm headphone socket, and it will be bundled with a 16GB microSD card in the US. The Droid sports an impressive 3.7-inch touchscreen with a 480×854-pixel resolution and will run on the latest version of the Android OS, version 2.0.   So now that you know what’s behind the Motorola Droid and early reviews claim it’s the best device since the iPhone launched in 2007, we only have one question ‘can you hear me now’?

http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-DROID-US-EN.alt