The up-scale AURA might be Motorola’s last attempt to remain relevant in a post-RAZR mobile world and yet the dudes at Mobile Review got their grubby hands on the $2k cell phone. It sounds like they were impressed with the build quality and the round LCD, but Moto might have dropped the ball on the GUI by simply reworking a standard square LCD menu rather than, you know, designing something new. Still, we’ll hold our judgment ’till we can smudge up the screen on the so-called luxury mobile phone ourselves.

Flickr’d

Several people on the “Internet” are making a big deal out of recently released numbers from J.D. Power and Associates that shows nearly one-quarter of Motorola Razr users switched to the iPhone. I don’t know what’s so surprising about that. If people had gotten the Razr in 2005, when it was popular (I swear, every two-bit jerk had one at my school; I pitied them), by the time the iPhone rolled around in 2007, their two-year contract with whatever wireless carrier they had would have been about to expire. And since people bought the Razr based on looks as much as anything else, who’s to say these same people weren’t similarly interested in the iPhone because of its looks? Exactly.

You could also use the numbers to justify the conventional wisdom that Motorola is about to die an ignoble death, but that’s been done before.

Then there are those who say there’s not too much difference between a Razr and an iPhone. But saying anything untoward about the iPhone is grounds for a tar-and-feathering, I think.

It’s been a few months since the iPhone first graced the world stage and I’ve owned mine since September, entering the fray only after the price drop made it worth picking up. So here we are, holidays upon us, and the iPhone — actually, probably the Touch — promising to be a big seller for the 16-to-95 set.

Well, friends, I’m going to make a case against the iPhone. Although I believe it’s a break-through product, it is not, in fact, all that and a bag of chips. Even if the chips were good.

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A quick look at Sprint’s new RAZR 2 V9m. Full review to follow. Cool little phone — not quite Zander’s folly but it’s no iPhone.

The last RAZR in Japan. Act now!

Buenos días, readers. For reasons I can’t get into just quite yet, I’m currently in Tokyo which, it turns out, is unmercifully far from New York. While I’m here, I’ll be on the lookout for all the high-tech gems that I’ve read and written about over the years. The funny thing about Japan is that the people here love fish. Unfortunately for me, I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to fish. It gets me sick at any rate. Whatever, I like to live on the edge.

Do you have a janky old phone? Take a picture of it and send it to contest@crunchgear.com with the subject line “RED RAZR.” We’ll pick one winner at random to receive this hot Red RAZR from Sprint — sorry, no service included. Read on for specs.

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WildCharge has finally gotten its act together and the first wireless charging station, the RAZR, will be released this month. It’s a fairly strange design, but I guess the ‘wireless’ charging aspect is cool? It actually sounds like a complicated progress and I’m not so sure it’s worth the $89.99 you’d be shelling out.

If you’re feeling adventurous then take the back piece of your phone off and set it on the charging pad. Once your RAZR is on the pad, you then have to connect the charging arm of the pad to the phone’s power port. Sounds simple doesn’t it? I guess so. Does this sound appealing to anyone? How is this even revolutionary or wireless?

Product Page

Check out this fancy new slider from Motorola. The handset sports styling reminiscent of the Razr 2, 3G data, 2MP camera, and expandability in the form of a microSD card. Although the phone already looks very stylish it is a prototype model so expect revisions in the future. All AT&T branding, so maybe this thing will take over for the iPhone hype in the next few months. Or maybe not…

Motorola Z9 unveiled! Can ya feel it? Huh, huh? [BGR]

Until June 29, it’s hard to tell too much about the iPhone, but I can tell you with near-certainty one thing: the product was almost certainly rushed to market before Apple’s engineers would have liked.

At MacWorld, Jobs said: “We’re shipping them in June”. Had the phone release date been set in July or August, the entire tech world’s collective red flag would have swung. So they set the release date as June 29 — a Friday, and the last weekday of the month. This, coupled with the fact that Apple has never, in recent memory, released a product on a Friday, should make everybody say “Hmmmm,” and suggests they took a calculated risk of releasing a product that might be a little buggy (probably about as bad as the first run of screen-flickering, case-cracking, motherboard-busted MacBooks), rather than suffer the embarrassment of not keeping their word.

Which means that when the iPhone comes, Digg will likely be full of horror stories from the poor saps who camped out at their local AT&T store, only to find their purchase was buggier than a camp cabin.

Here’s what we’re predicting will go wrong with the iPhone, and a little about what may go right.

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Mark this down in the “Obvious” bin: more and more cell phones are using real names in recent years. It was only a few years ago that virtually every cell phone was identified by a serial number-esque stream of numbers and letters that, while I’m sure they made plenty of sense to a company’s on-hand staff of engineers and marketing pros, were more likely to leave consumers scratching their heads.

Hence the rise of the RAZR, the Chocolate, and the Treo—instantly-recognizable brands that bring up images that have been finely crafted through millions of dollars of advertising and marketing muscle.

But there’s a logical end to this name game. And it can be summed up quite simply as “more of the same.”

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For once T-Mobile users will have an EDGE (that was SO funny) on AT&T users. AT&T is getting the Motorola RAZR V3xx in gold without the D&G. Yup, you’ll be getting a seriously played out RAZR that’s gold and is exactly the same at T-Mo’s D&G RAZR – except there’s no D&G content anywhere. I can see it now:

Guy 1: ::pulls out gold RAZR at party::
Girl: “Oh my god! Is that the D&G RAZR?”
Guy 1: “Yeah, uh, wait. Sort of. It’s a gold RAZR.”
Guy 2: ::walks up and pulls out D&G RAZR:: “I think you meant this?”
Girl: “Shut up! That IS the D&G RAZR! Do you want to sleep with me?”
Guy 2: “I’d love to.”
Guy 1: “Damn. Should have stayed with T-Mobile for the ladies.”

In case you you’ve been under a rock for the past few months, the V3xx has a 1.3MP camera, Bluetooth with A2DP, and microSD, among other things. If you like being second banana, the gold RAZR V3xx will be $99.99 after a two-year contract with AT&T.

Cingular Goes Gold With The RAZR V3xx! [Mobility Site]

It’s understandable that someone would want to skin their smartphone with an iPhone skin while they wait for the real thing to drop. A number of iPhone themes have appeared and a few of them actually look decent. But a Motorola RAZR? I guess nothing says “iPhone” more than a cheap, crappy phone that every person in the country has. Completely useless? Totally.

Still want it? You can grab it here

iPhone Theme Invaded Motorola Razr [Slashphone]

ROKR, an iTunes-compatible musicphone. The thing was a STNKR, but it did prove that people wanted music on their phones, but didn’t want to be locked into a second music store.

While PlaysForSure is still playing second fiddle to iTunes as far as legit music downloads go, that could change if more carriers and manufacturers start loading their phones up with the non-Apple competitor. PlaysForSure works just like iTunes, the available music is roughly the same, and the quality is just fine. The key, however, is that there are far, far more cellphones than iPods, and if they all worked with the PlaysForSure store of the user’s choice, then it could be the first real threat to iTunes and the iPod.

RAZR maxx For Verizon Hints At New Music Strategy [PhoneScoop]

Not sure why you’d buy a RAZR with HSDPA, but if you’re into gauche phones with terrible operating systems, then this must be your lucky day. After being given the FCC nod, the Motorola RAZR V3xx is now available through AT&T. Aside from HSDPA, the phone features Bluetooth with A2DP, microSD, and a 1.3MP camera for taking blurry glamor shots of you at the Jersey shore.

You can also use it as a decent modem for your lappy. 3G doesn’t come cheap though – the phone will still set you back $80 after rebates, contracts, and all that jazz.

AT&T launches MOTORAZR V3xx HSDPA clam [Engadget]

Motorola V3XX Coming to Cingular [PhoneScoop]

Moto has a Linux-based ROKR ready to go that’s already cleared the FCC labyrinth of regulation, so it’s likely that the RAZR in this shot will sport some Linuxy goodness.

Also on the page, which is from an isreali gadget blog we can’t read, are photos of a “glowing PEBL”, and uglyized version of the popular T-Mobile PEBL. We’re not exactly sure what “glowing” refers to, but this PEBL does have what appears to be dual outer displays, and it looks like one’s color and one’s monochrome, which is confusing as hell. We’re going to comb through the FCC database now and see if we can find anything on these guys, but for now we’re calling it a Halloween mystery.

Motorola Spy Pics [Gadgetim]

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Product Page [Sprint via Engadget Mobile]