Boost Mobile launches Motorola i1 on June 20

Since the Android-powered i1 was originally announced for Sprint's Direct Connect service, you might've assumed that it'd be the first to get a hard launch date -- but subsidiary Boost Mobile is breaking that news first for some reason with the announcement today that the phone is coming June 20 in Boost retail stores plus Bust Buy locations. Pricing hasn't been announced, but Best Buy had previously teased it for $350, so we wouldn't expect this to be a cheap purchase; then again, you've gotta remember that it's coming at you contract-free. Not like you'll be unlocking it and taking it to another iDEN network either way, right?

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Motorola makes i1 official, melds Android and push-to-talk this summer on Sprint

Right on cue, just after the aptly-timed teaser poster, Motorola signs on just the right dotted lines to make its i1 push-to-talk Android handset official. Let's run through the specs quickly, shall we? A 3.1-inch HVGA (320 x 480) touchscren, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 4x zoom, WiFi, and microSD expansion -- no mention of the processor, so we'll have to find out on our own later. The OS version is 1.5 and, while there's oddly not a single mention in either the press release of fact sheet, given the official images and unofficial leaks, it's definitely got Motoblur. The browser of choice is Opera Mini 5 with support for Flash 8, and if you're worried about Mother Nature's wrath, the i1 meets Military 810F standards for handling averse weather conditions. iDEN lovers can pick up the call sometime this summer on Sprint, with price yet to be named.

Update: Motorola's just sent word that the i1 does not have Motoblur, despite the presence of the traditional green call / blue contacts buttons. That begs the question, then, of what exactly defines Motoblur here (is just the Happenings widget missing?), and what Android skin is on the i1 -- the press images here are definitely not showing vanilla 1.5. We're still awaiting a response to that, stay tuned.

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Motorola i1: we've seen it, it runs Blur, and it'll likely be out soon

Well, that was quick: thanks to some new information we've received, we're now able to confirm that the Motorola i1 is indeed the so-called Opus One that the company has been rumored to preparing for its iDEN carrier partners with Android on board -- and it's exactly the leaked device we saw back in December. We don't know much in the way of specs, but it sounds like we should expect Blur running atop Android 1.5 (sigh), a 3 megapixel cam, and a possible announcement within a couple weeks -- a time frame that would line up splendidly with CTIA toward the end of the month. Naturally, you can bet your little green robot we'll be there.

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