Nothing says "I love you" like sending every single one of your hot new handset models your way, and that's pretty much the beautiful romance that's going on between Moto and China as of late. The A1600, A1800, and A810 have all induced various levels of lust from outsiders who can't get their paws on 'em (not yet, anyway), and now we've got another little bundle of Linux-powered joy to drool over, the VE75 slider. It'll happily swallow a pair of SIMs (as so many Asian market handsets tend to do) and offers EDGE data, a 2 megapixel camera, WQVGA display, and microSD slot. It'll be available -- and we use the term "available" loosely until a more global announcement is made -- in black and white.

[Via Unwired View]

If you're a Linux fanboy with a hankering for some mobile action, you'll be pleased to know that buyers of the retail, North American version of OpenMoko's Neo FreeRunner have started getting shipments. If you hit the read link, you'll be able to see one lucky owner unboxing his new toy, complete with a spares kit and debug board (this guy is getting into it, okay?). This set of photos should be a nice companion to that in-depth look at the OS we saw recently. Now we're going to be on pins and needles finding out what gets cooked up for that spacious 480 x 640 screen.

[Via Slashdot]

For those folks who don't mind -- nay, who strongly prefer -- a terminal screen on their smartphone, we know you've already thrown down the plastic on OpenMoko's FreeRunner. If you're going insane waiting to get your hands on it, what better to do than read through a remarkably thorough writeup detailing the user interface and all the goop behind the pretty scenes that makes this thing tick? Oh, and if you're just now getting up the courage to see what the brouhaha is all about, you've chosen the perfect time to get schooled. See that read link? Hit it.

[Via BoingBoing]

The new A1600 and A1800 out of Moto's touchy MING series have already been fully outed, but it turns out Moto wants to bundle a third touchscreen Linux piece in there to make a complete set: the A810, which goes to retail without that MING name attached. In the press release, Motorola comes right out and calls it "entry-level" -- and considering that the 2 megapixel camera and polarizing styling fall well short of the more elegant, luxuriously appointed MINGs, that's no big shocker. It's available in black and white, features an integrated 3.5mm headphone jack, and is available now in Chinese retailers.

July 4 was the date, but hey, what's the harm in opening up the floodgates just a handful of hours early? Get past the lack of 3G, EDGE, camera, and a rock-solid set of tested, commercialized apps, and open-source phoning nirvana can now be yours for $399 on the plastic.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Quick: name a Linux-based Motorola touchscreen phone that isn't widely distributed in North America. Oh, wait, that's all of them! In this case, "all of them" includes the little A810, a phone that's been kicking around the rumor mill since way, way back in February of this year. EDGE data and a 2 megapixel camera should help keep this one priced somewhere in the midrange, and while not necessarily attractive, it's definitely interesting to look at. Come on, you've got to give it that. Click through to the gallery if you don't believe us.

Last we heard form Openmoko, it was packing and shipping the open-source FreeRunner for an early July release. So, here we are in early July and wouldn't you know it, the FreeRunner will be available for order starting Friday, July 4 with shipping to begin on Monday, July 7. As for details, we got 'em. The shipped version of the phone will come in both 850Mhz and 900Mhz Tri-band GSM flavors with a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen, WiFi, AGPS, GPRS 2.6G, Bluetooth 2.0, 128MB WSDRAM, and 256MB NAND flash. If you're down with all that, look to pay $399 on Friday at www.openmoko.com.

Looks like there's only room for one mobile Linux standards body in these here parts, and LiMo's recent momentum and partnership deals have apparently swept up the members of the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) -- the two groups just announced that as of July, LiPS will be folded into LiMo. That'll give the Foundation even more ammunition as it gears up to do open-source battle with Android and that fruit-flavored mobile whose name we keep forgetting. There's no word on what's going to happen to LiPS's 1.0 specs, but we'd guess they'll be folded into the LiMo platform -- now all we need are some actual phones.

Hints of Motorola's new MOTOZINE series of devices have gone back as far as last year, but today marks the first time that Moto's officially spilled any beans on the goods. The headlining feature on the first model, the ZN5 candybar, lies on the backside: a 5-megapixel sensor courtesy of a partnership with Kodak, featuring autofocus, a xenon flash, image stitching, and on-device integration with Kodak Gallery. Otherwise, you get WiFi (score), Motorola's so-called "ModeShift" technology for morphing the keypad depending on device mode (a la the E8), and a run-of-the-mill quadband GSM radio with EDGE. China's the first country to get the hookup starting next month, but Moto expects to take the ZN5 on a world tour over the course of the remainder of the year.

Unless you're very, very special, you haven't yet had an opportunity to run your hands over Openmoko's latest open-source creation, the FreeRunner, which was announced several months back with the hope of a spring release. Unlike the Neo1973 before it, the FreeRunner's said to be chock full of enough spit and polish to take on an audience larger than the original's hardcore developer base, and while a springtime date with destiny is now out of reach, it looks like they'll only miss the mark by a few days. A recent message from Openmoko's VP of marketing on the community listserv said that the retail phones should be packed and shipped by tomorrow and -- if all goes well, of course -- should clear customs by the first of July, meaning buyers should be able to get them delivered in the first week or two of the month. If they'd been able to squeeze in 3G, we'd hardly be able to contain ourselves, but even as it is, we suspect there's enough buzz to get units sold; let's just hope they're already hard at work on version three.

[Via The Inquirer Spanish]

The FreeRunner is FreeRunning a little late on its way into devs' hands, but that's not stopping OpenMoko from shipping out a few units early to VIPs, apparently. Monochrome Mentality was the lucky recipient recently of one of the very first FreeRunners served piping hot off the assembly line, and the impressions are generally positive. Buyers will notice the spit and polish the second they lay eyes on the box the FreeRunner comes in, a sign that OpenMoko's trying to move their open-source model away (well, not necessarily away) from the hardcore geeks and toward a broader consumer market. WiFi and motion sensors are the hallmark features the FreeRunner boasts over its Neo1973 predecessor, but visually, the new model takes a more subdued approach with black rings replacing the silver ones. Minor modifications include programmable LEDs embedded in the buttons, host mode support for the USB port (pretty cool!), and a whole pile of accessories in the box -- a good thing, considering the $399 price tag.

Tranzda is starting to step up its game and really push its Newplus Linux stack in earnest, debuting four new models on its site -- plus a fifth, the T818, that it's being a little more secretive about. The TGP-369, TFX-326, TGP-802, and TFX-320 cover both the CDMA and GSM bases, and include some notable features like a fingerprint scanner on the 802, GPS, and RFID capability on certain models. In terms of appearance, all of the shown models seem to be modest upgrades from the Newplus-powered PM328 we've seen in the past, though the UI still looks like it could use a little more work.

[Via LinuxDevices]

One-half of Motorola's refreshed MING line over in China, the A1800, has made its official entrance. Like the A1600 and the original A1200, the A1800's main claims to fame are a Linux-based operating system, full touchscreen, and a trick translucent flip that doubles as an earpiece. Where the phone does one better than its siblings, though, is with support for both CDMA and GSM networks -- albeit with nothing more than 1xRTT and GPRS data, respectively. Other goodies include a 3 megapixel autofocus cam, GPS, and big, heapin' scoops of envy from the rest of the world's citizenry.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

While Palm's CFO Andy Brown wasn't exactly forthcoming with details about its elusive next-gen OS, a recent interview with top dog Ed Colligan revealed quite a bit about codename Nova. As if it wasn't official enough already, we're told that Palm OS 2.0 (which is also not the final moniker) will indeed be Linux-based, and Ed continued to say that it would be "driven around the internet and web-based applications." Of course, a Palm interview wouldn't be a Palm interview without at least some mention of the now-defunct Foleo, and the bigwig left a crack in the rumor drawer by stating that he "still believed the idea would be vindicated some day." Trust us, there's way more where this came from, so head on down to the read link if your interest is piqued.

Taiwanese site ePrice managed to put an example of Motorola's upcoming A810 Linux phone for Asian markets through its paces recently, and while it may not carry the mystique of the also-inbound A1600 MING 2, it's still a whole heck of a lot more Linux than Moto gives us 'round these parts (pardon the bitterness in our voices here). Sounds like it's a really solidly built device -- despite the fact that it's a prototype -- and features like a 3.5mm headphone jack and physical lock switch are going a little way toward helping us forget that there's no 3G on board. The user interface looks a little cartoonish, but we certainly wouldn't be surprised if it could be skinned to suit the user's fancy. ePrice's little pictorial is about the closest any of us will get to this China special, so we definitely recommend the read.