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It was announced just a week ago that Sprint would be announcing the RAZR, KRZR, and SLVR in time for holiday shopping this year.  Now we’ve got word that they plan to launch a red RAZR to join the Red Campaign in a fight against AIDS in Africa, and show support for The Global Fund.  The Red Campaign was started by Bono and Bobby Shriver back in early 2006 to raise awareness of issues people are facing around the world.  They’ve got many other product manufacturers and companies along for the red-ride including Giorgio Armani and American Express.  Sprint’s new phone will come with your standard RAZR offerings, including 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a microSD slot.  It is expected to drop in November for $289.99.

For more about other red offerings, visit joinred.com.

Via [Gizmodo]

WOW, $1.65 billion dollars of stock, that is a ton of money. Will Google’s purchase of YouTube really payoff? And how did these rumors make their way to the headlines? All these years since America Online 2.5, can AOL make it back onto your desktop even for free? What has taken so long with the Sprint - Motorola relationship to develop? Can T-Mobile actually launch a Q killer? This is just a slight overview of the antics that take place in what is hopefully the last episode before our redesign and possible the only Appless podcast thus far (if you don’t believe us listen till the end).

This podcast was once again sponsored by GoDaddy.com and comes with a 10% off coupon. It was also made possible by Gizmo Project, PodServe, and Plantronics’ extremely high quality and comfortable .Audio 510 USB computer headsets.

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Hosts: Doug Berger, Adam Berger
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File size: 19.8MB
Length: 00:28:53

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All of you T-Mobile folk out there will be happy to hear that there was some brochure leakage today keying in on the T-Mobile Dash and Motorola RAZR V3t.  The Dash is a Windows Mobile 5 HTC Excalibur with WiFi, EDGE, and is myFaves enabled.  And the V3t is a rebranded V3i with a t instead of an i.  You see what they did there?

The Excalibur is being touted (like all smartphones these days) as the Motorola Q killer.  It’s smaller than the Q and does pretty much the same thing.  It’s a shame the Dash is only going to be carried on GSM providers at first.

Read [Gizmodo]

Sprint has finally made all you Motorola-lover’s dreams come true.  How’d they do this?  They just announced plans to launch the Motorola RAZR V3m, SLVR L7c, and KRZR K1m on their network...that’s how!  The RAZR and KRZR will be almost the same phones that are already on Verizon except for differences in GUI and of course Sprint’s live TV and Movie services.

The SLVR L7 is traditionally known to sport iTunes, but since Sprint’s got a competing music store, they’ve replaced it with their own interface and called it the L7c.  It will also have EVDO, and the rest of the Sprint high-speed offerings.  Included are a VGA camera, Bluetooth, and a microSD slot.

According to our friends at Gearlog, Sprint’s Michelle Leff says that prices will be “incredibly competitive.” And they’re going to have to be to compete with Verizon’s versions of these phones.  Verizon is currently selling the KRZR for $199 with contract and RAZR for as low as $69.  The phones are all expected in November in time for holiday shopping.

Read [Sprint] Via [Gearlog]

Seeing stripes? Vaja certainly is in their latest incarnation of their leather cases. Stripes’ funky design boasts all the features of the Vaja leather suit, such as speaker mesh, camera cutout and access to all functions. Fully personalizable and made from genuine high quality Argentine leather these cases will have you wanting to take a safari (if you have money after the $70 case).

Read [Vaja]

Sprint’s got a RAZR coming soon, and it’s not one of those old V3 models that everyone and their grandma has.  The newest member to the RAZR lineup, the KRZR K1m, is expected to hit both Sprint and Verizon around the same time - supposing Verizon’s not going to slap down another one of those annoying exclusivity agreements.  PhoneScoop got in one hell of a preview with the device covering everything from basic features to deep down in the menus… and they’ve got screenshots to prove it.  They talk about how Motorola has fully customized the software to meet Sprint’s requirements - welcome screen and all.  The device sports EVDO and will likely be released in time for the holiday season.  Click on to PhoneScoop for the round-up.

Read [PhoneScoop]

Motorola, as of today, has shipped the 50 millionth Motorola RAZR V3. To celebrate the 50-millionth-unit milestone, Motorola and U.S. Cellular are hosting a series of exciting events at the U.S. Cellular store located at 30 North La Salle Street in downtown Chicago. Consumers who visit the store can get a chance to win a variety of prizes, including a free Motorola RAZR. Every 50 seconds this morning between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Central Time, the U.S. Cellular store at 30 North LaSalle Street will give away a Motorola RAZR.

Noted by industry experts as a game-changing feat of design and engineering, the Motorola RAZR measures just 13.9mm thin. The mobile handset’s radical and revolutionary design transformed consumers’ expectations for how a mobile handset should look and feel.

Read more on the RAZR’s history, celebrity status, accolades, and the trend it has started.

History in the Making
The Motorola RAZR launched on the global stage in Hong Kong. The game-changing handset made its U.S. debut with Cingular Wireless and created a sensation among consumers. Since its introduction in the fourth quarter of 2004, Motorola posted an industry-leading performance in handset sales up 42 percent versus fourth-quarter 2003 shipments. And in its second quarter 2005 sales, the Motorola RAZR V3 had sold more than five million units globally, a record that was topped in the third quarter of 2005 with sales of over 12 million units globally. By achieving the 50-million-unit milestone today, the Motorola RAZR has claimed its place as a global cultural design icon.

Celebrity and Fashion Status Symbol
As the “must-have” in mobile communication, the Motorola RAZR has appeared in the hands of celebrities and on the pages of every fashion magazine since its launch in November of 2004. Riding on the success of the RAZR in Silver, Motorola introduced the special-edition RAZR in Black at the 77th Annual Academy Awards in early 2005.

In September 2005, the iconic mobile was created in hot pink – being seen in the hands of Hollywood’s “it” girls, including tennis pro Maria Sharapova. In November 2005, consumers were able to purchase the Motorola RAZR Magenta at T-Mobile. By February 2006, two other varieties of pink were offered at Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless stores across the U.S.

Recently, the Motorola RAZR has continued its course as a fashion-forward mobile device via the new MOTORAZR V3i DOLCE & GABBANA edition. Motorola has teamed with high-end fashion designers, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana to dress-up the MOTORAZR V3i DOLCE & GABBANA with a spectacular gold and silver finish and engraved it with the signature Dolce & Gabbana logo.

Awards presented to Motorola in honor of the ground-breaking RAZR V3 include:

• 2004 Editor’s Choice Award – “Fashion Phone” Category


• CES 2005 Best of Innovations Award – Wireless Communications Category


• 2005 GSM Association Award – Highly Commended Mobile Handset


• Andrew Seybold’s Outlook for Mobility Innovation Award


• 2005 IDEA Winner


• 2005 Wireless Week Excellence Award – Special Recognition Honor


• SID 2005 Display of the Year Award – Silver Award


• PC World’s 2005 World Class Award – Mobile Phone Category


• Laptop’s 2005 Mobile Innovation Award


• 2005 Chicago Innovation Award


• IPO 2006 Inventor of the Year Award

Phone of Firsts
A major accomplishment in design and engineering, the Motorola RAZR V3 leads the industry in space-saving technology. With multiple patents, a combination of metals and new advances such as an internal antenna and a chemically-etched keypad, the Motorola RAZR is now a household name. Its revolutionary design continues to influence and inspire Motorola’s comprehensive portfolio of mobile handsets, as is evident in the Motorola SLVR candy-bar line-up and the new and ultra-revolutionary Motorola Q device, which is transforming the QWERTY experience.

The RAZR has since been emulated by LG, Samsung, and Sanyo. The Q has been emulated by Nokia and Samsung. Let’s just say that we expect the “thin-is-in” trend to stay for a while.

Read [Motorola]

When originally discovered the Motorola RAZR replacement, the “Canary”, was going to be released with five new features sometime in 2007. Since then we have seen live shots of the camera, but still limited details. The thought that this model would take until 2007 seemed unlikely. Now we have even more reason to believe that the handset will be released sometime this year, as the FCC has signed off on the model, classified as the K1. It is a quad-band GSM phone with EDGE support, not 3G. Suspected specs still include a 176x220 pixels 262k color LCD screen, 2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, a microSD slot, and Bluetooth v1.2 (providing stereo audio and Generic Audio/Video Distribution).

Read [FCC]
Via [Phone Arena]

I don’t know about you guys but I get pretty tired writing about every single color option that comes out for Motorola products. We get it, Motorola and Crayola must share designers. Now for my sake, can we go back to black boxes?

PS. The Nintendo DS will now be available in black too.

Read and Read [New Launches]

What make one cellphone rise head and shoulders above the rest? I would assume that the RAZR is one of the first phones that comes to peoples minds if I asked you to name the most iconic/popular/stylish handset of all time. Forgetting about opinions the sales figures agree with this statement. Motorola is about to sell more units of the RAZR than Apple has sold iPods, and in less time.

Check out Forbe’s list and slide show of the most noteworthy and iconic mobile phones. I would add the Motorola v60 as well as a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone to the list as well, and maybe even the v70 (picture above), but in the end its just another conversation on another already obsolete cellphone.

What model will be the next mobile icon?