Video: Motorola FIRE

The Motorola FIRE.. or is it the Motorola SPICE Key.. or the Motorola XT316. Well, actually all of them.

To be honest, it's not a really sexy phone as it is basically a low-end Android with a QWERTY keyboard, looking to take some sales away from the BlackBerry Curve line. However, BlackBerry sales are ripe for the picking as RIM are showing signs of imploding.. and just perhaps Motorola can eat into RIM's market share?

Video: Motorola XT883

A bit of an odd way to announce a major handset, but a couple of days ago Moto launched the XT833 on China's third largest mobile phone network, China Telecom. So far, so meh.. but the XT833 is actually the DROID 3  or Milestone 3, so a pretty major announcment.

Think of it as an ATRIX with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a better camera and more up-to-date OS and you get the picture. Probably due out some time after the summer.

More Motorola DROID 3 / Milestone 3 rumours

The original Motorola DROID (or Milestone depending on where you live) was a landmark Android device (a milestone even!) which left the competition struggling to catch up.. which of course they did.

Things move pretty quickly, and the DROID 2 / Milestone 2 came back with a faster processor and better keyboard, but things are moving pretty quickly and the DROID 2 stands out as being about the only high-end Moto device without a dual-core CPU.

The latest rumours indicate that the DROID 3 / Milestone 3 will have a new type of dual-core CPU plus an nHD display and Android 2.3 plus a very usable keyboard with a row of number keys.

It looks good, but when will it be announced? Well, there was only ten months between the announcement of the DROID and DROID 2, so it could be in the works very soon..

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Moto has quad core Androids in the works

Here are some fairly detailed rumours of a couple of quad core.. yes.. four core devices possibly coming out early next year. The Motorola Bullet and Jet seem to be the inevitable next step up from the current high-end dual core devices that we're seeing. If Moto can get these out ahead of the competition then they will certainly have stolen a march on them.

Personally.. I'm waiting for the rumoured dual core Motorola Milestone 3...

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Video: Motorola ATRIX

Moto just raised the stakes with the new ATRIX - dual core, shedloads of RAM and a large "quarter HD" display that beats almost all the Android competition.

Moto's $10,000 tablet runs Android 3.0

While we're still waiting for the first phone to come out with Android 2.3 (the Samsung Nexus S), Google have gone one step further with a look at Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" running on a Motorola tablet device.. which a Google VP jokingly said would cost $10,000 (although this is probably an accurate price tag for an engineering sample like this).

Android 3.0 is built with tablets in mind, a big plus point to anyone who has felt a bit disappointed by the Samsung Galaxy Tab which is just like a scaled up smartphone.

Obviously, all this is going to appear sometime next year.. and hopefully it will give some serious competition to Apple's highly-polished tablet offering, whatever that is called.

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Video: Motorola BRAVO

Exclusive to AT&T in the US, the BRAVO is a bit less powerful than the DROID on Verizon, but it's still a pretty capable Android phone.

Video: Motorola SPICE

Perhaps it's a bit cheeky to compare this with the BlackBerry Torch.. but it does most of the same things and is likely to be a lot cheaper!

Video: Motorola FLIPSIDE

Bound for AT&T in the US, the FLIPSIDE is an evolution of the familiar "Morrison" line. It makes a useful choice for AT&T customers and marks continuing progress by Motorola in the US market.

Video: Motorola DROID PRO

It's a DROID inside.. but not on the surface where it looks like a mutant BlackBerry. Cleverly it supports both CDMA/EVDO and GSM/UMTS networks at the same time, a useful thing for Verizon customers (who get this phone exclusively)

Video: Motorola DEFY

An unexpected announcement from Moto yesterday was the Motorola DEFY, which is basically a rugged Milestone-style handset with the same display, but with an 800 MHz processor (halfway between the original Milestone and Milestone 2) and for some reason Android 2.1 rather than 2.2. Off the top of our heads, it is about the only tough touchscreen smartphone that we can think of, and if you've ever dropped and broken one of these expensive gadgets then this could be for you.

Video: Motorola Milestone 2

More about the new Motorola Milestone 2..

Motorola Milestone 2

No surprises.. just a welcome relief that the Motorola Milestone 2 is actually coming to Europe during Q4. It's a straight port of the DROID 2 with a 1 GHz processor, more internal storage, Android 2.2, HD video recording, data tethering and a much less awful keyboard. Best guess is that this will set you back about €500 or so at launch.

The Milestone 2 also includes the MOTOBLUR social networking / bookmarking / whatever which frankly we can live without, but many users of other Motorola handset say that it works well.

Moto have more information about the phone here.

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Motorola QUENCH XT5

The original QUENCH was launched by Moto last year, but this (as yet) unannounced update takes the existing "Morrison" platform device and adds Android 2.1 and a trackball to the existing design. It didn't make much market impact though, and was mostly restricted to North American markets.

The QUENCH XT5 is pitched to compete against the Nokia X6 and HTC Wildfire in the market. It sports a 3.2" 480 x 320 pixel display, a 5 megapixel camera with flash, FM radio, HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100 support, WiFi and GPS. Talktime on 3G is quoted as over hours with 22 days standby time, and the whole package weighs 114 grams.

Pricing will probably be around $350 - $400 retail in the US, €250 - €300 in Europe. There's no exact word on the date yet, but we think that the official announcement of this handset it likely to be very soon.

Is there a Gorilla in your smartphone?

Who knew that glass could be so interesting.. if you own a Motorola Android phone, or certain LG, Samsung or Sonim phones then your handset probably has Gorilla Glass. This is one of those inventions that didn't really have a market when it was invented, but right know there's a huge demand for lightweight but tough glass that works well with LCD screen.

Gorilla Glass was original invented in 1962, and is the result of a painstaking research program and is very carefully made - the whole story is quite interesting and you can read more about it here. If you want to find out if your device has Gorilla Glass, then the manufacturer Corning has a list here. It's obviously quite tough because you can find it in ultra-rugged handsets like the Sonim XP2 Spirit.. although there's some debate as to how difficult it is to scratch over at the Motorola forums.

My best advice is that even if you find that your phone has Gorilla Glass, you still want to get yourself a nice case for it because your Android phone is not indestructible.

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Droid 2 dummy gives the game away

Do you want a Motorola DROID 2 for just $29.99? Well you can.. as long at you don't mind it being this dummy phone.

There have been a few leaks about the DROID 2 lately, but the dummy probably gives the best idea of what it different. The main change is a much larger and better looking keyboard, otherwise the changes are quite subtle. We do notice that the DROID 2 still has a 5 megapixel camera on the back though.

What's inside is more interesting.. we can only speculate about the internals, but Motorola really need to put a 1GHz processor and more RAM into the DROID 2 to make it truly competitive. And we also imagine that this means that the MILESTONE 2 is just around the corner too..

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Video: Motorola CHARM

The Moto FLIPOUT.. without a FLIP.

Motorola CHARM

GSMArena has the scoop on another upcoming Moto, the Motorola CHARM.

Looks familiar.. well, yeah.. because it's basically the Motorola FLIPOUT without the flip, making it a BlackBerry-style messaging device.

Now, although we're very happy to see Moto pushing Android so hard with some excellent devices, the CHARM is really just another version of the "Morrison" platform used of the CLIQ, BACKFLIP and other Motorola devices. Perhaps it's time for something different.. like a clamshell?

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Motorola DROID X

The Motorola DROID X was pretty widely leaked before yesterday's official announcement from Verizon and Motorola,  so all we were waiting for really were some details.

The monster 4.3" display is the most obvious thing, but this Android 2.1 phone also has a 1GHz processor, an 8 megapixel camera, HD video capture  and an HDMI output for playback.

There's no keyboard though, and an annoying-looking bump on the back where the camera is housed means that it won't sit flat on a table. Hopefully Moto will have a docking station solution in the works, although obviously that's going to cost more.

If you want one of these then you have to live in the US and be on Verizon to use it. There's no word on a GSM version though, and in some ways it competes with the Milestone XT720, so the situation is unclear.

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DroidX teaser trailer

How cool is this? Well, very cool we think.. but you have to be in the US to get one.

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