The Motorola Mirage might just be the best Android phone yet

Oh, Android – how good you have been for Motorola. It was only months ago that they were teetering on the edge of obscurity; one 350-person Android task force later, they’ve got the most popular Android handset in the lands and are being name dropped on a nearly daily basis around the rumor mill.

A Chinese leakster managed to get his mitts on this (confusingly obscured) shot of an unreleased Motorola handset, and was nice enough to
share it with the world. According to the original source, the handset you see up there is called the Motorola Shadow (or “Mirage”, depending on who’s translation you believe.)

What the tipster lacks in well-framed pictures, they make up for with knowledge of the specs: coming in at a ridiculously thin 9mm, this baby supposedly packs a monstrous 4.3 inch screen running at a resolution of 850×484, an HDMI port (shown in the pic), and an 8 megapixel camera ready to shoot video in 1080p. They don’t mention an operating system, and the pic doesn’t help much in that department – but unless Motorola’s doing something crazy, it’s a pretty safe bet that we’re looking at a UI mod of Android.

Swype For Android Beta Unofficially Available For Motorola Droid

When Swype was nice enough to give us the world’s first hands-on with their ultra-nifty alternative keyboard on the Motorola Android platform, I wasn’t about to leak the installation files. It’s just not my style. Now that someone else has gone and leaked them, though, I’m more or less obligated to show you how to get it up and running. I tell you, folks — this blogging thing is one endless inner conflict.

After coming up with an awesome name for
their blog, the guys over at DroidMuff.in got their hands on a beta copy of Swype for Android and uploaded it for all to share. This specific installer won’t work on every Android handset — in fact, it won’t work on most. This one’s tailored to work with WVGA phones, so it’ll work fine on the likes of the Motorola Droid and the Xperia X3, but not the Droid Eris or HTC Hero.

If you’re ready to dive in, here’s how to get it done:

1. Download and install the Astro file manager from the Android Marketplace
2. Download this zip file
3. Unzip that file, which will give you a file called “[mfhs]Swype-SwypeReference-WVGA854-trial-release.0.35.3959.apk”
4. Copy the APK file to your handset’s SD card
5. On your Android handset, go to Settings > Applications > and check the box next to Unknown Sources
6. Use Astro to browse for the apk file on your SD card, install it.
7. Go to Settings > Language and Keyboard. Enable the Swype keyboard.
8. You should now be able to switch between the standard keyboard and the Swype keyboard by tapping-and-holding on any text input field.
9. Enjoy!

You’ve heard what we think of Swype, so be sure to tell us what you think down in the comments below.

Motorola MILESTONE review

The Motorola MILESTONE is the GSM version of the Motorola DROID, and is tipped to be the first Android 2.0 smartphone to be released in Europe.

There are a handful of differences between the DROID and MILESTONE, the most obvious one being that this is a
GSM / UMTS device.

Just in case you missed the fuss over the DROID last week, we'll recap briefly: the Motorola MILESTONE has a large 3.7" 480 x 854 pixel touchscreen display, a five megapixel camera, 3.5G support, WiFi, and GPS. Inside is a 550 MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor which is reportedly as powerful as the CPU in the Apple iPhone 3GS. There's a fairly conventional slide-out QWERTY keyboard , and Motorola say that this is the slimmest device like this coming in at 13.7mm.

Although the camera seems a little basic, it does have autofocus, dual LED flash and can capture widescreen 720 x 480 pixel video at 24 frames per second. The new version of Android also has significantly improved camera software.

Android 2.0 is a big improvement over previous versions, but one major difference between the software on the DROID and MILESTONE is that the MILESTONE doesn't have the new version of Google maps with turn-by-turn navigation, and instead it comes with a trial version of Motorola's MOTONAV application. Presumably, Google Maps will be upgradeable when it becomes available in Europe.

There's a little confusion over the MILESTONE's touchscreen features, Motorola's product data sheet shows that it might have multi-touch capabilities that are apparently lacking from the DROID. The rest of the software suite is comprehensive and appears to be the same overall features as the DROID.

Most major video and audio formats are supported on the MILESTONE, and there's a 3.5mm audio socket and stereo Bluetooth as well. As standard, the Motorola MILESTONE comes with an 8GB card in the box (the US DROID has a 16GB card), and this is expandable up to 32GB using a compatible microSD card.

This is a quad-band GSM phone with 900 / 2100MHz UMTS support, HSPA (3.5G) high-speed downloads and uploads, plus 802.11b and g WiFi. The large 1400 mAh battery gives up to 6.5 hours talktime and 14 days standby time, although it is not clear if these are GSM or 3G figures. Measuring 116 x 60 x 13.7mm and weighing 165 grams, the MILESTONE is quite a large device, but then it does come with a large screen and QWERTY keyboard.

There's no exact word on availability, except that we know Germany and Italy will see it first. O2 Germany's page indicates a SIM-free price of €481 which seems to be good value for such a high-end handset. With a bit of luck, the MILESTONE will be available in some regions before Christmas, although when it will turn up in the UK is a mystery.

One optional extra is the MILESTONE Multimedia
Station which is a combined docking station and charger, and there's also a Phone Holder so that the MILESTONE can be used as an in-car satellite navigation system.

This is an impressive looking device, and crucially it seems cheaper than the Nokia N900 and the new version of Android closes the gap somewhat between this type of phone and the iPhone. If Motorola can get the MILESTONE to market quickly enough, and if they can make sure that everything works properly.. then this handset could well be a winner.

Motorola MOTOROKR E8

Introducing a music phone that morphs to fit your desires; be it for tunes, talking, texting or taking pictures.

Motorola's advanced ModeShift™ technology makes the MOTOROKR E8 whatever you want it to be. A touch of a button transforms its keypad and display from phone to music player to camera to phone to
music player…you get the idea.

And what's more, the unique FastScroll™ touch-sensitive wheel enables you to actually "feel" your way through your content.

With a built in 2GB memory (expandable to 6GB), a 2-inch TFT display, a 2 megapixel camera and a high-speed 500MHz processor, dare we say one thing? This rocks.