Today AT&T announced the availability of its first Android phone, the MOTOROLA BACKFLIP. You may remember our hands-on with the BACKFLIP back at CES. This phone runs MOTOBLUR which is powered by Android. MOTOBLUR syncs yours contacts with your social networks and delivers the content right to the homepage. The phone will be available on March 7 at AT&T stores and online for $99.99 after mail-in rebate with a two-year contract.

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The folks over at the Google team decided to give us a couple of invites for their newest project, Google Wave, which is still currently in beta form. At this moment, you’re probably asking yourself what a wave is and I’m here to answer that question for you. Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Us folks here at SmartPhoneNation already have Google Wave and for the most part of our usage, it’s pretty neat. Here’s what Google Wave brings to the table:

• Live conversational email
• Options to add people to current conversations
• Organize events
• Live document sharing
• Meeting notes
• Brainstorming

So who doesn’t love contests, I know I do. There are only 25 invitations and you could possibly win one. To win an invitation, all you need to do is drop a line in the comment box on this post folks. Enter only once, duplicate entries will be excluded and winners will be notified shortly after we draw. Good luck to all.

Optimization is Google’s (NSDQ: GOOG) game and yesterday they proved it once again. Yesterday they’ve updated both mobile versions of Google with location based data. If you haven’t noticed, now at the bottom of the webpage there is an indicator showing where your location is. That’s useful in many ways. What if you wanted to search for a mall, bar, movie theater but don’t know the exact location where you’re at. Google’s new indicator uses the GPS location from where you are standing (or sitting) and locates the nearest facilities you are looking for. It beats actually going into Google Maps or using another application like Telenav. Great thinking Google, I’m sure someone would have thought of that sooner or later…

Motorola announced its new phone the Motorola BACKFLIP at CES. The BACKFLIP features MOTOBLUR which allows its users to sync all of their social media, contacts, messages and more, directly to the home screen. The BACKFLIP is unique because it has a reverse flip design that no other phone has. We got to play around with the phone and decided to post up a hands-on gallery!

[View with PicLens]

The Google Nexus One phone is no secret to bloggers. Unlike Apple, Google did not seem to be very strict with its employees leaking information and pictures of the phone. However, today Google made the phone official with a press conference at its headquarters in California. The Nexus One will be running Android 2.1 as its operating system meaning it will have the latest version of Android. The phone is manufactured by HTC, however it is going to be sold through Google. The Nexus One has a 5 megapixel camera, a trackball, and a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen. The phone has GPS, Wi-Fi, a compass, and accelerometer.

The phone is available to customers today for $549 unlocked to T-Mobile’s bands (meaning no AT&T 3G). It is also available on T-Mobile with a two-year contract for $179. Google didn’t forget about the Verizon customers though, the Nexus ONe will be available on Verizon this Spring. It will also be available on Vodaphone in the future.

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Pictures of what is rumored to be the first iDEN Android phone have leaked out. What is pictured is called the Motorola Opus One and there are not too many details so far. We will let you know if anymore details get leaked out in the near future. Check out the rest of the leaked pictures after the jump.

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Verizon announced today that it would be launching another Android device on November 6. The DROID ERIS by HTC will be launching with Android in hand. This phone comes the same day as the Motorola DROID, which will be the first device to run Android 2.0. The ERIS will feature a 3.2″ touch screen and trackball, Wi-Fi, Pre-installed 8GB microSD card. The ERIS will run $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate.

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We have heard a lot about a Android device called the Motorola DROID. Motorola has finally released a press release making the phone official. The phone will be the first phone to run Android 2.0, Google’s latest update to the Android operating system. It will also be the first phone with Google Maps Navigation, which gives turn by turn voice directions. The DROID is launching on Verizon on November 6 and will cost $199.99 with a two-year contract and mail-in rebate. Check out the full press release and photos below.

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Today Verizon and Google announced a partnership that is going to lead to some Android devices on the “nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network”. This is exciting for Verizon customers who have been left out of the Google action. Now on speculation of phones, you can see the picture above which is from Verizon’s press site. From what we can tell, the device that Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, is holding is a version of the HTC Hero that may launch on Verizon.

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