Motorola Sholes (Tao) powered up and spied in the wild!

We expected Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to bust onto the Android scene with a one-two punch that included the Motorola CLIQ and the Motorola Sholes at Mobilize 09. Alas, the Motorola CLIQ was Sanjay Jha’s only announcement at the recent conference. But, all is not lost. Today we’re seeing newly leaked pics of the Motorola Sholes all powered up and looking fine in the wild. There’s also talk of the Motorola Sholes taking on a new “Tao” branding, but we’re going to take that with a grain of salt.

The Howard Forums post makes reference to the Motorola Tao/Sholes running the Android OS 2.0 “Eclair” build, but seeing as how the Android OS 1.6 “Donut” hasn’t yet gone public, that’s a hard pill to swallow. The leaked pics don’t show the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but at least the front face of the device is looking as sexy as ever – minimalist design and metallic accents have a way of looking nice. And, there’s also an image of a 1390mAh battery which is sure to make for some healthy battery life.

We’ll keep a close eye on the Sholes, Tao, whatever it’s going to be called. The FCC has already signed off on the smartphone, so it’s only a matter of time before it goes live. For now, enjoy the pics!

[Via: HoFo]