At long last, the Motorola BACKFLIP has finally been made available to the starved customers on AT&T that have been eager to get their taste in Android’s goodness. We managed to get our hands on the Motorola BACKFLIP and pleased to already find AT&T going through with some of their commitments in being more green friendly as the packaging was extremely compact without all the usual hefty cardboard. Underneath it all was the Motorola BACKFLIP which really has this mystical aura surrounding it – seeing that it has been given the duty to launch Android’s push into the final frontier. You can check out our video below in our unboxing experience and get a first hand glimpse of what to expect with the Motorola BACKFLIP. Check back soon as our full in-depth review will be up shortly!

There have been projects that involved using a mobile phone to control a robot, but there have been little that makes the phone act as the brains of everything. Android’s name can only hint to the marriage between technology and robots, but these two things clearly inspired the “TruckBot” – a robot that is controlled by a phone as opposed to using an Android phone as a remote. When you root out the foundations of artificial intelligence, you can seemingly comprehend how a T-Mobile G1’s built-in compass can be used to help the TruckBot to roll around on tabletops in a specified direction. Although it’s constructed out of the most inexpensive parts, roughly $30 worth of materials, it only acts as a hub for the G1 that works as the brains for the entire thing. Granted it’s limited in some aspects in the short term, it’ll probably be fine tuned to enable more advance functions such as being able to avoid obstacles and recognize both faces and voices. You never know, as we’ve seen with the Spirit and Opportunity Mars robots, the G1 powered TruckBot can lay the foundations to something more spectacular.
via Android Guys

Remember when Motorola told DROID owners to expect the Android 2.1 update by the end of the week? Of course you do. The update never came, and DROID owners have been waiting ever since for Android 2.1, like a jilted lover who keeps waiting for her/his beau to return. But imagine what your handset would be like had Motorola actually done what it promised to. Web site droid-life was able to update a DROID with what they believe to be the official Android 2.1 update that the phone will actually receive-when it finally does come down from the heavens above like manna. What you are about to see is not some custom 2.1 ROM. And, as droid-life warns, following in their footstep could easily brick your DROID, make you miss the OTA upgrade, and turn the universe upside down. Note how smoothly the device runs, especially scrolling and the pinch-to-zoom feature. The handset seems to run faster, too. Now back to reality. The update still is MIA, but hopefully it will be coming soon.
source: droid-life

Motorola is going all out by making its trio of Android handsets enter the market to our friends to the north. Consumers in Canada can really jump up for joy as Motorola has announced that the QUENCH, BACKFLIP, and DEXT are all slated to be available for sale some time within the first half of the year. That looks pretty promising because we’re already heading into the last leg of the first quarter – so there’s a slight possibility it could be released within the next few months. These Android powered smartphone will undoubtedly offer MOTORBLUR to keep owners connected to various social networking sites all from their home screen. The trio of handsets is scheduled to be available through the three major Canadian wireless carriers – that consists of Rogers, Bell, and Telus. One specific thing to point out is that Motorola didn’t exactly specify if all three handsets will actually be available on each of the carriers or if one gets some kind of exclusivity on a handset. Motorola’s latest Android offerings will supplement its growing presence in the Canadian market as the Motorola MILESTONE is already making some headlines over there.
source: Motorola via Unwired View

Eerily similar to the events that unfolded between Google’s Android launch in China, AT&T executed a move that makes some people scratch their heads – they opted to go with using Yahoo for the default search provider as opposed to Google. This is similar to how Motorola ended up choosing Baidu as the search engine of choice in its Android phone in China as Google and the country were still not in good terms over some recent events. As AT&T customers will soon have their chance in purchasing the Motorola BACKFLIP in stores, rumors also suggest that AT&T might take out some of the native Android apps in favor for their own – this would include AllSport GPS, AT&T Maps, AT&T Music, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Wi-Fi Hotspots, Mobile Banking, MobiTV, MusicID, Where, and YPmobile. It may seem a bit foreign to some customers as they begin to comprehend why a Google Android phone uses Yahoo as its default search engine – we’ll see how it all pans out as the BACKFLIP makes its way to Android starved AT&T customers.
source: Engadget via Android and Me

There were some unhappy campers after the latest Motorola CLIQ update went live – it caused some people to find their usually happy smartphone turn into a worthless paper weight; expensive one actually. In any case, these bricked Motorola CLIQ handsets were probably the last thing that most owners expected to see. It seems that Motorola has gone on the record to finally acknowledge the problems that occurred with the CLIQ 1.3.18 update. Now that the damage is done, Motorola is setting their eyes on making things right for the affected owners. Let’s just hope that future updates from Motorola are smoother with less headaches as we’ve seen recently. The following statement from Motorola was made available to the blog These Are the DROIDS:

Last week, the CLIQ 1.3.18 over-the-air software update began rolling out to consumers.  While the vast majority of updates were successful, a very small number of consumers reported a date error and found that, after factory resetting their device, their phone was not functioning properly. We have identified a workaround solution for these consumers, which can be found on the Motorola support forum (http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/us/support/tmo/index.html).

To our consumers, we apologize and are working swiftly to reconcile the situation. We are also revising the over-the-air software update so that this workaround solution is no longer needed. Consumers will be notified on their device when the revised update is available.
If you would like to provide more guidance to your readers, below is additional information for consumers:

To our consumers who downloaded the update and their device is working properly, no further action is needed. To our consumers who never received a notification to download the update, please do not take further action. You will be notified on your device when the revised update is available to you. To consumers who received an error or whose device date reads December 31, 1969, please visit the support site listed above for assistance.
source: These Are the DROID via TmoNews

Those wacky kids at AllDroid have knocked some Sense into the Motorola DROID-Sense UI that is. In addition to the HTC overlay, Flash was also downloaded onto the DROID although it is running very slowly. Besides a couple of videos, some screen shots were released including one of  entertainment site Hulu. There are still some bugs on the ROM, so it looks like more work is needed. The Verizon flagship model is supposed to get Flash straight from Adobe in the first half of the year, so you should be a huge fan of Sense and HTC’s style to even consider doing this to your DROID once all of the work is completed. The ROM used was made for the HTC Desire, for those who would like to know. So,if you Desire some Sense be added to your DROID, be patient. It’s still early in development.
source: AllDroid

With the many Android handsets that received some kind of major or minor update recently, the original starter to all those handsets is getting a minor update as well. Before you start jumping for joy, this isn’t the kind of update you’re probably expecting – instead it will only improve the G1’s calling performance and does not include any other feature enhancements. It’s actually quite similar to the minor update that the original T-Mobile myTouch 3G received almost a month ago. The Android 1.6 update (DMD64) is expected to roll out through an over-the-air process starting today and will eventually make it to everyone by March 15th. Owners of the original Android smartphone will receive a notification on their device prompting them to either “install now” or “install later.” Once the update is completely installed, the unit will restart and owners can expect an improvement on call performance  – and that’s all. You’ll have to look elsewhere if you really want a piece of the latest version of the platform.
source: TmoNews

It’s not to say that the stock web browser found on the Nexus One and Motorola DROID aren’t bad, but the two handsets were recently seen running Mozilla’s Fennec mobile browser. Mozilla has been in the web browser game for quite some time and really knows how to make the experience impressive for its users, but it’s slowly coming together for the Android platform. The Mozilla team provided some teaser photos of the mobile browser at work on both handsets on their Facebook page – still, there is no confirmation regarding the time line of when a public build of the mobile browser will become available. Even if it does take some time to come around, it’s going to have to compete against some other well known browsers on the platform that already proven themselves to meet the needs of handset owners.
source: Facebook via BGR

The Motorola DEVOUR is now available at Best Buy. With a 2 year Verizon contract, the aluminum clad Android phone is $99.99.  Off contract, you’ll be reaching deep for the $499.99 that the big box retailer is asking. For Big Red, this is the first MOTOBLUR device that they have offered, and it is expected to be available from the carrier starting on March 15th. But if you have got to have the handset today and become the envy of all of your friends, well, Best Buy would be happy to oblige. The DEVOUR’s display is packed with 3.1 inches of updates from your social networking sites, is powered by Android 1.6 and has a Qualcomm 600MHz MSM7627 processor-the same one featured in the Palm Pixi. So far, the reaction from those who have had hands-on experience with the phone say that it is quite zippy. And no, the DEVOUR is not waterproof so if you are planning on copying Meagan Fox, better keep the water off until you’re done with the phone.
source: BestBuy