UIQ, Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) held a press conference today, which I had the pleasure of attending, where they announced their new strategy to become an open platform. What exactly does that mean? Anyone can own a piece of UIQ, in fact as of today Sony Ericsson no longer owns 100% of UIQ, but instead they split the company 50/50 with Motorola. Why would they want to do this? To make other companies interested in building devices on top of UIQ less frightened of the fact that the future of the operating system they’re using sits in the hands of one company.

There have been relatively few non Nokia (NYSE: NOK) products based on S60, why would a manufacture want to push an operating system that is so heavily influenced by the hand of a major competitor? UIQ on the other hand, after being purchased by Sony Ericsson in February of this year, has been implemented on a Motorola device called the Z8 with more hardware being expected in 2008.

Among the tidbits of information announced at the show was the fact that UIQ is now going to gain a picture and movie editor:

As well as the user interface being extremely customizable. The text is blurry, but in the first picture it says “draw your symbol to unlock,” and in this case it is a heart. The second third and forth images are all showing the same thing, someones contact information, but it shows how versatile and robust the future presentation foundation of UIQ will be in letting phone manufactures present data to the user:

This is a brilliant move and is sure to put some pressure on Nokia to open up their S60 platform as well. I’m hoping Samsung joins this new UIQ foundation because when you have three of the top four companies in mobile phones working together then you are undoubtedly going to plant the seeds for a beautiful flower to blossom that could not have otherwise grown from one entity.

Let innovation cross breed, in the end we win.

The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) RAZR 2 V8 has just left the starting gates Motorola’s already pushing a special edition version of the new hotness that is the RAZR2 V8. As we expected, the Motorola RAZR2 V8 “Luxury Edition” brings “18k gold-plated accents against an ebony vacuum metal finish” to the EDGE-only handset. The diamond-etched nav wheel, chemical hardened glass, and soft-touch backside give the RAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition that extra touch of class.

And, in exchange for your hard-earned cash, Motorola is bundling this Luxury Edition RAZR 2 V8 with a Motorola H680 Bluetooth headset with included leather pouch. Just how much hard-earned cash, you ask? Well, if you have to ask….

Either way, we’re sure the Motorola RAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition is going to turn some heads when it goes live. Gold-plating tends to attract attention.

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Motorola’s reinvigorated support of the fashion-forward PEBL lineup of handsets is pretty refreshing. The ailing mobile phone giant really needs to do something to boost their bottom-line, and the new Motorola U9 PEBL handset might help them do just that. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has taken the wraps off their new Motorola U9 handset – not that we didn’t already know everything about it.

That chromed-out, mirrored exterior is really something else. Especially when you combine it with borderless external display (that lights up from underneath the mirrored finish) and touch-sensitive music controls. And, when you add a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM radio with EDGE data, Stereo Bluetooth, microSD card slot, 2 megapixel camera, you’ve got an incredible beauty with some surprising brains.

Check out Motorola’s U9 promotion site. They’ve got “The Dutchess” Fergie reppin’ the Motorola U9. Is it just us or does she look kind of strange/weird in that picture? Regardless, the Moto U9 looks like it’ll be launching in your choice of Black (it’s hard to tell from our previous live pics, but the mirrored exterior is actually Black), or Fuschia – both with that cool, chromed/mirrored finish.

Keep reading for the press release.

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I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this leak was planned. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has been kicked, repeatedly, in the nuts recently by technologists, financial analysts and the stock market in general. Many people said that Motorola fought a good fight, but they don’t have anything left in them to compete and take that number 2 spot in market share back from Samsung. Let it be known that in Amsterdam Motorola sent out a distress beacon, these are the devices that will bring them back to being a profitable company:

Above we have the SKARVEN, 8 megapixels, optical zoom, 2.8 inch screen with 16 million colors. Kick slider form factor similar to the Z8.

The X PIXL is the 5 megapixel baby co-created by Motorola and Kodak to compete with the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95, Cybershot K850i and Samsung G600/800. Will having the Kodak name on the device mean anything? Name will probably be changed to Z12.

TEXEL is a monoblock music phone, 3.5 mm headphone jack and all (when will Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) learn?) and the buttons are context sensitive, changing to better suite the task you’re trying to accomplish at hand. Expect it to be announced in February or March of next year, most likely February at 3GSM.

GENGHIS is a lower end BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) form factor device. Not for professionals, but something to compete with the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Centro and other similarly priced handsets.

[Props to GSM Help Desk who scored this most delicious scoop.]

Boost Mobile has announced two stylish Motorola (NYSE: MOT) iDEN candybar phones – i425t and i425e. Unlike most other walkie talkie handsets on the market, these two are distinctively slim, measuring a mere 0.5″ in thickness while weighing 3.88 oz. As for the specs, both devices feature wireless Internet access, MMS, GPS, Java support, and the built-in instant messaging software that can communicate with popular IM networks such as AOL, Yahoo! and MSN. In addition, both handsets are eco-friendly, as they’re made out of 100% recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate material. As for the differences, the i425t comes in titanium gray/black slate trim, while the i425e is white in color with an espresso trim…

Interested? Prepare to pour out $39.99 and also get $5 of free call credits.

[Via; uberphones]

Motorola is really working on their overseas infrastructure build-outs. The struggling mobile phone once-giant has announced that it has secured two WiMAX infrastructure contracts for Taiwan’s M-Taiwan project, which aims to create a “ubiquitous mobile” network in Taiwan. The project would have Taipei’s two largest counties, Jhonghe and Banciao, in WiMAX, 3G, and WiFi in addition to the local wireless infrastructure

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) will be building the WiMAX infrastructure for Taiwan’s Far EasTone Telecom (FET), which covers about one-third of Taiwan’s wireless market. By the end of next year, Taiwanese residents should be enjoying all kinds of broadband goodies that only a super-high-speed network like WiMAX can provide.

We’re looking at WiMAX deployment in the states around roughly the same time, so it looks like east and west will be united in the same 4G WiMAX services. For once the US isn’t too far behind the rest of the world.

[Via: Yahoo]

Motorola’s Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA) lineup of business-oriented smartphones is getting a much needed refresh today. The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) MC70 EDA will be getting a spec-sheet boost with some integrated GPS goodness.

The addition of GPS to the Motorola MC70 will “allow organisations with field-based employees, such as postal companies, to track and manage dynamic, real-time tasking, as well as verify specific locations of activities and provide mobile workers with pinpoint navigation support to improve location-based productivity.” With an already impressive feature-set, boasting features like quad-band GSM/EDGE, WiFi a/b/g, barcode scanning, signature capture, Bluetooth, Windows Mobile 5.0, and a blazing-fast 624MHz PXA270 processor, the updated MC70 is sure to appeal to business that rely on employees “in the field.”

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Earlier we’ve reported that Motorola Q9h is coming soon to Rogers Wireless, and now it’s live on the carrier’s website. Unfortunately, it’s still not available for purchase, but even the “Coming soon” sign tells us we — or that’s actually our source — were/was right. I would guess that withing a week or two, you’ll finally have a chance to get your hands on one of the coolest lookin’ full QWERTY keyboard equipped smartphones on the market today…

[Via: Boy Genius Report]

Guy in Russia was driving, hit something, hilarity ensues. Don’t talk or text while driving, please.

[Via: Engadget]

Remember that Motorola Z6tv VCAST TV slider-phone that recently passed through the FCC? Well, it looks like Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless is going to launch the mobile-TV slider on October 5 – missing our speculated launch window of “late August” by a fairly wide margin.

The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Z6tv will complement Verizon Wireless stable of two MediaFLO-based mobile-TV phones with a slick slider form factor. We’re expecting the Moto Z6tv to rock a 2 megapixel camera, 50MB onboard storage, stereo Bluetooth, and microSD card slot. Look for Verizon to drop the Z6tv on us October 5, for about $180 (after $50 rebate with new contract).

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