You heard the rumors now it's official: Telus is getting the Motorola Milestone. The Android device is the same 2.0 QWERTY slider already announced for Europe and set to run exclusively on Telus' new 3G+ network in Canada sometime in early 2010. Unfortunately, that means no Google Navigation unlike those pesky North American neighbors to the south. Hmm, in that case maybe you should just wait for the beefier Sholes Tablet expected in Q1 -- just sayin'.

After weeks of buildup the day is here: the DROID (and his little HTC buddy, the DROID Eris) is now for sale on Verizon's website. As expected Motorola's new flagship will set you back $200 after $100 online discount and two-year commitment while his underhyped Eris little bro is a penny shy of $100 after the same discount and contractual prostration. If you're looking to shed your contractual duties then you can hand over $560 in non-Android green for the option of going month-to-month.

[Via Gearlog, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read -- Motorola DROID
Read -- HTC DROID Eris

It looks like Canada's Rogers will be among the first carriers in the world to offer LG's first Android device, the GW620 Eve -- and for North Americans, this is particularly notable since it means there's a version of the device at retail that'll theoretically work on Bell, Telus, and AT&T in addition to Rogers proper. We have no indication that AT&T's about to actually pull the trigger on this thing (or on any Android device for that matter), though, so if you're into the 5 megapixel AF cam, full QWERTY slide, and 7.2Mbps HSDPA capability, we'd recommend putting your unlockin' pants on. For Rogers customers, we're not seeing a release date just yet, but it looks like you'll be paying a downright reasonable CAD $49.99 (about $47) on a three-year deal when it launches.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

In the world of Android, it's not yet clear who's going to come out victorious -- QWERTY sliders or their keyboardless brethren -- but does there really need to be a winner? We say there's room for just about everyone in this open-source party, and Sprint is starting to round out its Android offerings by introducing the keyboard-equipped Samsung Moment to saddle up alongside the HTC Hero that was released a few weeks ago. In the scheme of things, the platform is still extraordinarily young which means that virtually every new handset that's announced brings "firsts" to the table; in the Moment's case, it's both the first Android device with an 800MHz ARM11 core and the first Android QWERTY phone with an AMOLED display (you'd have to go back to another Sammy, the Galaxy, to find the first AMOLED Android phone regardless of input method).

Being able to stuff Android, AMOLED, QWERTY, and 800MHz all into one sentence certainly sounds like a winning combination, but does the Moment deliver? Let's find out.

We've just heard some pretty sour news. Peter Schneider, head of Maemo marketing, has waxed official about the N900's release and quite casually noted that it'll "start shipping during November 2009," which as you very well know is a whole month later than originally expected. An interesting tidbit to his post is that he notes Nokia had lent out 300 pre-production units to the community, and he stresses the importance Nokia places on the feedback received. Connecting the dots might suggest that feedback wasn't quite as hot as Espoo had hoped, and a few last-minute refinements are now being applied. Either way, you're gonna have to refill your patience for potentially another month of waiting.

[Via Chronicles of N900; Thanks, Habib Q]

We'll spare you the obvious cheap jokes, but grabbing hold of NTT DoCoMo's Touch Wood concepts at CEATEC was a true, honest-to-goodness pleasure. Engineered in cooperation with Sharp and Olympus, the kidney bean-esque touchscreen phone was accompanied by a TV tuning smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Both units were in the early prototype stage, with the bean shaped fellow being a mere mock-up that failed to do anything when pressed. The other guy is based around the SH-04A, and while the wood trim could've certainly encompassed more of the chassis than it did, we dig the direction DoCoMo is headed here. Have a look at Ma Earth's favorite phone (next to the Reclaim, of course) in the gallery below (and video after the break, if you're feeling extra saucy).

Fujitsu has been wowing us with cellphone concepts for quite some time, but this year's round at CEATEC is undoubtedly a show-stopping bunch. Some of the hottest ideas to come from the outfit's most recent mobile phone design contest were on display here in Japan, and we went end to end capturing the lot. The clear pebble mock-up (shown above) was easily the crown jewel (in our mind, anyway), with a small black blob able to morph into different screens (media panels, a keypad, web browser, etc.) depending on which corner you drag said blob into. There was also a design reminiscent of paper mache, not to mention one with a circular vibe that just has to be a long lost cousin to Motorola's AURA. Have a gander at the masterpieces in the gallery below, but don't bet on these hitting your favorite carrier anytime soon.

AT&T wants you to know that you don't need a smartphone just to get a rich, full web experience from your handset -- theoretically, anyway -- with the introduction of four new models from longtime partners Samsung and Pantech alongside a new featurephone browser. First up from Samsung comes the Flight (pictured left), billed as a "next-generation messaging device" on account of its full QWERTY portrait slide paired with a full touchscreen up top; it'll be available next month for $99.99 on contract after rebate -- that is, if you didn't buy it on Craigslist already. That silvery slate in the middle that's more likely to be catching your eye is the Mythic, rocking TouchWiz on a 3.3-inch display along with AT&T Mobile TV, making it a fitting successor to the Eternity and big brother to the Solstice; like the Flight, it swings onto retail next month, but you'll be paying a stiffer $199.99 on contract after $50 rebate.

Turning our attention to the Pantech side of the table, we've got the Reveal (pictured right) that lets you have it both ways with a numeric keypad up top twined with a QWERTY slider underneath. It's 3G-capable, AT&T Navigator-equipped, and available for your enjoyment on October 18 in red and blue. Finally, the Impact (not pictured) has an OLED touchscreen up front, but when the texting gets hot and heavy, the phone opens up to reveal a second display along with a QWERTY keyboard. It'll be available in pink and blue, though neither pricing nor availability are being announced just yet.

Gluing everything together is AT&T's new mobile browser, described as "a rich hybrid experience that gives you a HTML experience similar to your PC browser at home" that "works really well on a feature phone." Additionally, users visiting att.net from their PCs will be able to send bookmarks to their phones' mobile portals -- kind of a neat trick, especially when you're trying to minimize the number of URLs you have to mash out on an on-screen keyboard. Of course, featurephone browsers have a reputation for generally sucking, so considering that AT&T bills its new line of devices as "full web browsing phones," it'll be interesting to see how close they actually come to delivering on the claim; it's said the phones use "advanced data compression from Opera Software," which we're thinking is very likely some variation of Opera Turbo -- not a bad start.

You know, if it weren't so early in the morning, we might just think Samsung's latest Armani slider (more formally known as the SPH-W8200) was a gilded Instinct HD with a pull-down number pad. We're going to do our best to pretend there's really something more here, starting with the fact that the Giorgio Armani logo beneath the screen is probably worth more than half of our belongings... at least according to Craigslist. At any rate, the first glimpse at this here phone's specifications has finally emerged, and while some tidbits are still up in the air, we do know that it'll arrive with a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, a DMB TV tuner, 5 megapixel camera, HSDPA, Bluetooth and a microSD expansion slot. Too bad the price will inevitably overshadow all of that, but hey, fashion ain't cheap -- ya heard?

Our amateur sleuthing skills tell us there might be a tiny bit of excitement about this N900 device. With the Maemo 5 environment already measured up, it's the turn of the hardware to get exhaustively previewed. The My Symbian team took a look at a prototype unit and were immediately impressed by the 800 x 480 display and relatively compact dimensions for such a loaded phone. The resistive touchscreen was on par with the N97, though it picked up scratches too easily for their liking ( a screen protector is recommended), while the keyboard was deemed small but still a major improvement over the N97's. Internals rated well, with the 600MHz Cortex-A8 CPU and "superb" video recording grabbing plaudits. Perplexingly, there was only 256MB allocated to application installs (see image after the break), which can be altered by those with Linux knowhow, but this may draw plenty of ire from mainstream, app-hungry consumers, considering the device is capable of holding 48GB of total memory. On the outside, the camera cover was found to scratch the case around the lens (but not the lens itself like on some N97 units) while sliding, and removing the stylus from its slot revealed some bare electronics, both of which rather undermined the overall feel of a well-built device. They did find connectivity on the device a pretty dreamy and trouble-free affair, but we're still only scratching the surface here -- hit up the read link for the whole enchilada.

[Via MobileTechWorld]

Update: Nokia has expressly stated that the retail phones will come with repartitioned memory, which will provide "plenty" of space for app installations and obviate the storage issue noted above. [Thanks, sockatume]

For all its good looks and lickable icons, the BL40 hardly feels like a "Chocolate" phone -- abandoning the featurephone functionality and slider form factors that are usually associated with the moniker. Well, the newly surfaced BL20 (previously spotted as the BL42) is here to solve all that. The slider handset has capacitive touch controls below the screen, but the screen itself is not a touchscreen. The functionality has also been trimmed back from the BL40's app extravaganza, but the interface looks and actual hardware seem very similar. We had a little trouble getting around in the German interface, but if you can handle our bumblings you can check out a video of the phone after the break.

In backwards order, Nokia has finally launched the N900 after we've already seen a review and countless leaks. Nevertheless, it's good to have the new Maemo 5 Internet Tablet out in the open and official-like. The specs include a 3.5-inch 800x480 pixel (resistive) touchscreen, sliding QWERTY, 32GB of on-board storage expandable to 48GB via microSD, GPS/A-GPS, FM transmitter, TV-out, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, 1320mAh battery, and 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash. Better yet, this monster MID brings the power of the ARM Cortex-A8, up to 1GB of application memory, and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration to make quick work of polygons and what Nokia promises will be a "PC-like experience on a handset-sized device." It also brings a Mozilla-based Maemo browser with Adobe Flash 9.4 support. As expected, it'll be on display at Nokia World next week before this quad-band GSM/EDGE, 900/1700/2100MHz UMTS/HSPA handset heads to select markets in October for €500 (pre tax and pre carrier subsidy). And by the looks of that 1700MHz band, this baby's heading to T-Mobile USA.

Update: Videos added after the break.

Going off mere clues, hypotheses and shreds of evidence, we've been trying to wrap our brains around the InstinctQ for a while now -- and finally we've got a picture that firms everything up: it's definitely an Android-powered landscape QWERTY slider for Sprint. We know the Hero's in the pipeline, too, so between these two, Sprint could be poised to catch up to T-Mobile in a big, big way (as far as Android goes, anyhow) this fall. We think we're digging the touch-sensitive Home, Menu, and Back buttons, and the expansive keyboard looks plenty usable. The screen isn't looking quite as vibrant as its autobahn-driving European cousin, the Galaxy -- but we'll wait on passing final judgment until it's in our hands, of course. Any chance that's happening soon?

[Thanks, Justin]

Remember that slightly stouter but still rather obelisky-looking Black Label cousin of LG's BL40 we spied earlier this morning? We've now spotted a lot more pictures of the thing -- and its crimson slide-out keypad. Dubbed the BL42, it sports light-up nav buttons, a 240 x 320 screen, and what looks to be the same five megapixel camera found in its slightly taller brethren, specs that should allow it to slot quite neatly into the Chocolate lineup -- at some indeterminate time and place in the future.