During the first episode of the new season of Criminal Minds, FBI agent and resident neat-freak David Rossi just couldn't shake the unsolved double homicide that he never could close a score ago. Oddly enough, that wasn't the only mystery involved, as we're still scratching our heads trying to figure out what's so important on the lid of Mr. Rossi's RAZR2. Maybe a super-secret 4G icon? Tommy Tutone's most favorite dame's number? The infamous Sad Moto face? Whatever it was, we're fairly certain a highly concealed RAZR2 is superior to the lowly RAZR Derek Morgan is still getting issued. What's a man got to do to get a leg-up, anyway?

Like peanut butter and jelly, oil and vinegar, and Benny and Joon, some things just go together. If you thought the words "Blade Runner" and the industrial design of the RAZR were always "meant to be," your day has finally come. Enter the Blade Runner MP4 player -- the PMP that looks like a phone, but acts like far, far, far less. The device has lots of familiar media player features, but let's be honest: all the information you need about this baby is up in that photo above. Own the magic today for $49.99.

[Via Crave]

We still think it's a little early in the RAZR 2's life to be changing up colors and trimmings and turning it into a special edition, but what do we know? As expected, Motorola's announced the "Luxury Edition" of the EDGE-only RAZR 2 V8, trimming the phone with 18 and 24 karat gold accents, a black "vacuum metal" finish, etched sides and nav wheel, and a soft-touch posterior endowed with a snakeskin pattern. A bundled H680 Bluetooth headset (trimmed with 18 karat gold, naturally) and a leather carrying case round out the package, fit for the aspiring Vertu owner who hasn't quite yet reached a Vertu salary. Look for it to start showing up in "select regions" -- the US included, we suspect -- before the year's out.

What a refreshing change of pace! AT&T actually beat its estimate of "early September" for its variant of the Motorola RAZR 2, the V9 -- albeit in a rather bizarre shade, "mahogany" (where we come from, that's called purple, but whatevs). Though it's not showing up on AT&T's online store just yet, it's showing up for their business "premier" customers (note the screen shot above) and seems to be filtering into brick-and-mortar locations as we write this. The premier site shows a rather shocking off-contract price of $749.99, though with a combination of discounts, rebates, and contracts, it should fall into a far more reasonable price range for pretty much everyone involved. Seriously, $750? Sheesh.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It's August 29th and that can mean only two things: Nokia is about to drop a slew of handsets and the Motorola RAZR 2 V9m just went live on Verizon. As expected, $250 (after online discount and 2 year contract) takes home all the V CAST Music and Video downloading you can handle over EV-DO with microSD expansion, 2 megapixel shooter, and Bluetooth stereo in tow. Yeah, nothing groundbreaking but this is as good as it gets for Moto fans.

[Thanks, Jon]

As expected, Verizon and Sprint have given Motorola a venue for its latest and greatest hardware today, releasing the Q9m Windows Mobile smartphone and RAZR 2 V9m flip respectively. Though the media centric Q9m's $350 price on a two-year contract ain't exactly pocket change, it's interesting to note that it whittles right down to a more manageable $250 after rebate -- a mere $20 more than you'll pay for an old school Q Black. Meanwhile, minions from the other side of the CDMA camp (yes, we mean Sprint) have prepped the V9m for launch today at the same $250 price point after rebate, making it the first of several US carriers committed to a RAZR 2 launch to actually get it out of the door. If everything goes the way we expect it to, both of these devices will land on the other carrier in the next few weeks, so the "grass is greener on the other side" effect should be kept to a bare minimum here.

[Thanks, Dan and Boy Genius]

Read - Verizon Motorola Q9m
Read - Sprint Motorola V9m

Neither carrier has launched it just yet, but yes -- the RAZR 2 V9m has now officially found a home on both Sprint and Verizon, with both promising availability in the next few weeks. To split hairs, Sprint will be beating its sworn enemy by a few days, launching its variant on August 22, while Verizon's just promising "September" at this point. Unless AT&T manages to pull a rabbit out of its hat, it looks like the two will be the first in the US to launch what Motorola hopes will be the centerpiece of a turnaround for its flagging handset business. Thanks to EV-DO, attractive styling (yes, we realize we'll be really tired of it in a couple years, but it's still hot for now), and a gargantuan external display with touch controls, the phone is being positioned on the higher end of both carriers' dumbphone offerings -- and the price reflects it. Look for it for $300 with a $50 rebate on Verizon, $250 on Sprint, both on a two-year agreement.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Looks like AT&T didn't want to get left out of this little party after all! The carrier joins Sprint and Verizon in announcing its version of the RAZR 2 today, the HSDPA-powered V9. Look for it in "early September" for $300 on contract. Check the release here.

Read - Sprint press release
Read - Verizon press release

WildCharge has updated its website with more information about its pad-based wireless WildCharger solution. The company has revealed that adapters for the Motorola RAZR (which replaces the back cover) and the iPod nano (via a dock adapter) will set you back $34.99. The dock itself will be $59.99, meaning that it could cost you as much as $130 to wirelessly charge -- assuming you own both an iPod and a RAZR -- your phone and MP3 player. Still interested? If so, you should be able to pick up all three sometime this month.

[Thanks, David; via Slippery Brick]

MobileBurn got themselves a hands-on with the hot new Motorola RAZR 2 V8 --- if you don't think it's hot, at least admit that it's what the original RAZR should have been. The most notable change is obvious, and very welcome: no more hump, chin, or lump used to accommodate the chunky internals. The semi-touch screen is also an interesting variation on the usual touchscreen style, with tactile buzzing feedback when one of the three touch buttons on the external screen are pressed. The pre-production model had a poor shutter button, which is a bit of a disappointment since this is usually a well used button, and considering the effort put into the external screen. (Let's hope that this'll get fixed for production models.) The reviewers found that the main keypad was great, with a not-too-rubbery feel, and the UI is an improvement in all the areas that count -- snappy, clear, and customizable. The refinements make the RAZR2 V8 sound like a winner to us: a pity it had to be such a long time coming.

Motorola has today officially unveiled the successor to one of the most iconic mobiles ever made, the RAZR 2. Available in 3.6Mbps HSDPA, EV-DO, and GSM / EDGE variants as the V9, V9m, and V8 respectively, the GSM and CDMA versions of the device comes in 2 millimeters slimmer than its predecessor and -- on some versions, anyway -- will be the second to use Motorola's new Linux-based platform (the first being the Z6). It includes something Moto is calling "Crystal Talk" technology that automatically adjusts volume and tone based on ambient noise. Other features include external music controls, haptics (read: vibration) for tactile feedback when external touchscreen keys are pressed, a full HTML browser, 2 megapixel cam, the full suite of Bluetooth profiles, Windows Media Player sync, a 2-inch QVGA external display, 2.2-inch QVGA internal display, and twice the screen resolution of the original RAZR. GSM versions start shipping in early July, with CDMA following up later in the summer.

Shots of what is apparently the CDMA version of Motorola's hotly anticipated successor to the RAZR have appeared on Phone News. To be designated as either the V9m or the V9c, the 2-inch external display on this thing looks positively huge in comparison to the KRZR's stamp sized external screen, and the first side shot of the phone makes us really appreciate the trimmed design: no more hump! Phone News says that Motorola's flagship will feature internal and external touchscreens and the BREW user interface with Flash support, and that it'll launch on Verizon Wireless first. We can't attest to the accuracy of these claims, but we certainly wouldn't say no to the former two's inclusion.

And just when we thought "LAZR" was about the least creative name Motorola could've possibly dreamed up for its shiny morsel with the giant external screen, Boy Genius reports that the handset will roll out the door with the "RAZR 2" moniker instead. The choice of verbage there is actually very interesting, because it indicates that Moto views this clamshell as the true successor to the RAZR -- not only one of the first true fashion phones, but the singular device that pulled Motorola out of its rut and back into the manufacturer big leagues. Whether the RAZR 2 will be able to perform the same magic trick, of course, remains to be seen. Boy Genius also reports that the phone will be available in both GSM and CDMA versions (cross your fingers, Sprint and Verizon customers) and will in fact rock a memory expansion slot by the time it makes it into stores. We're wearing our lucky baseball caps today in the hope we see it in official form this week at CTIA in Orlando, and we suggest y'all do the same.

We don't know whether he was pushed out or left of his own accord, but the news has just hit the wires that Ron Garriques is out as the head of Motorola's mobile devices business. It's not totally shocking to see a change of leadership, Moto's cellphone unit has definitely been through some rough times lately. Profits have fallen as the company struggles to followup the success of the RAZR and they recently announced that they were laying off 3500 employees. Whatever happens, hopefully whoever succeeds him (Ray Roman, senior vice president, global sales, and Terry Vega, senior vice president, global devices, are filling in for now) will recognize that the cellphone game is way too competitive these days to think that rolling out the RAZR in new colors is an acceptable substitute for innovation.

UPDATE: He's off to Dell to head up their Global Consumer Group.

While we figured the NYPD could just install Magic Message Mirrors in every mafia hotspot in the Manhattan area, the Genovese family has proven quite the eagle-eyed bunch when it comes to spotting wiretaps, tailing, and other (failed) attempts of bugging their conversations. In order to tap into critical conversations by known mafioso and other, less glamorous criminals, police are utilizing a "roving bug" technique which remotely activates the microphone of a crime lord's cellie, giving the boys in blue convenient access to their secret agenda(s). The presumably controversial tapping was recently approved by top US DoJ officials "for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques." Software hacks (and actual phones, too) have previously allowed such dodgy eavesdropping to occur, with "Nextel, Samsung, and Motorola" handsets proving particularly vulnerable, but this widespread approach in tracking down criminal conversations could hopefully pinpoint future targets where prior attempts failed. Of course, if mafia members hit the internet every now and then, they're probably removing those batteries right about now anyway.

Alright, we know Moto had some mild success with this "RAZR" phone of theirs, but we're pretty much done with comparisons already. Sony Ericsson is prepping a thin new candybar phone for March of next year, the 9.4mm thick "Ai," and while stock holders and rumor mongers might like tossing the "RAZR rival" spiel around, we're just not seeing it. What we are seeing is a pretty sexy sounding phone from a company on the rise -- Sony Ericsson recently overtook LG to slide back into fourth position. The phone, which hasn't actually been confirmed by SE yet, but which seems to be a fairly open secret by now, will be coming in silver and black editions, and purportedly will be positioned as a high-end Walkman camera phone. We'll be sure to keep an eye of out for spy shots of a handset that looks absolutely nothing like Motorola's flagship offering.