You may recall that a lot of us here at Android Australia got just a little excited with rumours of the development of an alleged X-Phone, designed and built by Motorola who of course is owned by Google.

If you haven’t been following the news, the Motorola X-Phone will allegedly carry cutting edge specs, probably with a near bezel-less design that is both very durable and has long battery life, and will basically revolutionise the smart-phone industry.  The influence of Google on Motorola we’d hope and expect will also result in faster Android updates and perhaps carry Google’s pure vision of what an Android device should be.  Various rumours also suggested that this alleged device could be announced at …

The more rumours I read about the X-Phone, the more excited I get.

Much like the ill-fated movie John Carter, sometimes there is hype (even if it’s about the cost) around a release but little substance leading to a flop; whilst sometimes a movie delivers on leaving a big impression like the epic Lord of the Rings which has The Hobbit prequels underway.

After all the small rumours and even the Motorola X-Phone Senior Direct Product Development job advert the probability of a game-changing X-Phone is looking more and more promising and of all the tech-savvy places in the world, it seems as though Australia is the latest source of potential X-Phone rumours.

According to a source of SmartHouse, …

Got a Motorola RAZR M?  It’s time to start checking for system updates. Today we received a press release advising that Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean is available as an Over-the-Air update for the Motorola RAZR M.  The upgrade to Jelly Bean from 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich brings the smoothness of Project Butter, as well as new features like Google Now and Google Voice Search (a feature Motorola is quick to point outis faster and superior to certain competitor products). You can view each of the main upgrades at the following YouTube links:

• Google Now
• Voice Search
• Notifications
• Gallery

If you haven’t got a Motorola RAZR M, and you would like a Telstra version, you should check out the …

Remember how we wrote about a rumoured new phone by Motorola called the X-Phone – a smartphone that, despite the lack of detailed concrete evidence, quite possibly would change the way we saw smartphones, incorporate cutting edge technologies and may include a virtually bezel-free design?

Well it turns out that someone at Motorola has spilt the beans, and might be laying low right now.

Just like those accidental “Reply All” emails that get sent only to be quickly followed up by a “Recall” email (and I’ve seen some beauties in the past), a job advert posted by Motorola Mobility on LinkedIn sought a Sr Director Product Managment, X-Phone (sic).  The moment of realisation probably occurring after someone realised the advertisement …

Did you read our reviews on the Motorola RAZR HD or RAZR M and think to yourself “I really want one”, “wow, I would love my phone battery to last that long” or “if only my phone would fly like the RAZR M”; only to then be dismayed by the rational side of yourself saying “I’ll wait for it to get a bit cheaper” or “my current (slow, shortened battery life or nearing death row) phone still works”?

Well, Motorola is introducing something in Australia that may be enough to entice you over the line.

Come tomorrow, Motorola is offering a $100 cash-back to the first 3,000 customers who purchase one of these RAZRs and lodge within 10 working days …

Is Google I/O  2013 set to be the first time we get to see the fruits of the Google/ Motorola marriage? And is the first child destined to be the much vaunted bezel-less Motorola X-Phone? Is this first child destined to bring Key Lime Pie to the masses?

We feel it is! So do the guys over on Droidforums who have posted up some rumoured specs to get us salivating.

So according to the mill the Motorola X-Phone will feature:

• A 5 inch HD screen most likely 1080P, with an edge to edge or almost bezel-free design, so in the hand Motorola will be aiming for the same chassis size as a Galaxy SIII
• The X-Phone will not carry Nexus

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Did you purchase a Motorola RAZR HD from Telstra? Were you told that they’d get an update to you before Christmas? Good, because Telstra/Moto have made us all very happy by beginning to roll out the Jelly Bean update for the flagship Motorola RAZR HD handset.

You know the drill. Head over to the Settings -About -Software Update -Check Now to see if the update has arrived at your door. If it’s not there yet then do not worry – we can almost be certain that the update will be rolling out in stages.

If you’re lucky enough to have gotten the update then be sure to let us know in the comments below how it goes! …

In a press release, Gartner has estimated that Android sales represented 72.4% of total global smartphone sales in the third quarter (up from 52.5% in the same quarter last year).  This represents over 122 million sales of Android smartphones in the third quarter alone!

Interestingly, despite an increase in overall sales, iOS dropped to 13.9% to remain as the second highest smartphone OS.

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q12 (Thousands of Units)

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One of Motorola’s earlier ‘doeverything, go everywhere’ phones, the Defy+, has received a nice price drop. The Defy+ is one of Moto’s scratch and water resistent phones that is now a whole lot cheaper.

The Defy+ is now going for just $99, making it one of the cheapest phones on the market. At such a cheap price then this phone is definitely worth it for those of you who are after a phone that can get you through the day. The specs are nowhere near high-range, but why should you expect that for a $99 phone anyway?

If you’re interested in grabbing it then head over to Telstra’s online store.

As expected by the Android community, root exploits for the Motorola RAZR M and the RAZR HD are available. An XDA member by the name of Dan Rosenberg posted yesterday the exploit to root most of Motorola’s new Android phones.

The root exploit works on the Atrix HD, and is claimed to work on the RAZR M and RAZR HD, as well as the Photon Q and RAZR i. If you’re considering buying any of these phones then this should help tip the scales. The instructions are simple and straight forward.

Remember to always practise precaution.

Editor’s Note: Make sure you take precaution before tinkering with your phone. We are yet to test this on the Australian variants and there …

Motorola has let out quite an interesting statement late last night about Motorola, Android and customizations. While the statements are quite loose, they can mean a few things.

For starters, Moto’s  Senior Vice President, Product Rick Osterloh made a few statements pertaining to Motorola’s view on pure Android and the carrier presence. Here’s the biggest chunk of it:

Going forward, we’re going to try to be as close to the base as we can be, because we think that’s the right thing for users. We think users also want fast upgrades and upgrades for their phones over the long haul, so we’re going to be focus on that as well. It’s a little bit different than what a lot of

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Motorola’s RAZR M (which we got some hands-on time with a month ago) is now up for pre-order from Telstra’s online store. Head over here to check out what Telstra is offering. The phone is Motorola’s edge-to-edge screen device with close to zero bezel.

Telstra says that the phone will be available for delivery from October 30th onwards. Stay tuned for this afternoon, when we’ll unleash our full review of Motorola’s RAZR HD.

If you want to learn a bit about the RAZR M before diving in then head over to our full hands-on report from Motorola’s launch event. If you ask me, the RAZR M is my choice for recommending a phone that has a large amount …