More info on this phone at Engadget.

Well now this is a pleasingly rapid transition from announcement to review samples to market availability. Motorola’s Android-loving CLIQ (already on sale under the moniker DEXT in the UK), its QWERTY keyboard and all the apps you could desire are now ready to be had, should you already have an account with T-Mobile, the device’s exclusive US carrier. It was expected that only pre-orders would be taken today, but it appears for all the world that T-Mobile is ready to start shipping the CLIQ to its loyal customers ahead of the November 2nd full release date. Prices start from the previously reported $199.99 on a two-year agreement — a move that will give you plenty of time to wonder if you shouldn’t have waited for more details about the Droid mashup from Verizon, Motorola, and Google.

Microsoft has had distinct problems in branding itself, especially to a consumer audience. (For the most recent example, see the company’s weird HostingYourParty video on how to hold a Windows 7 launch party, which has all the believability of a 1950s instructional film.)

Microsoft’s most recent attempt may be a bit more successful. Today, the company announced a new line of Windows phones — mobile phones that use the latest version of what is technically Windows Mobile 6.5. The line consists of a range of different types of handsets from a variety of manufacturers and for most of the major services — to begin with, in the U.S., the company announced two AT&T phones (the HTC Pure and HTC Tilt 2), the HTC Imagio from Verizon Wireless and the Samsung Intrepid from Sprint.

It’s an interesting approach. I got a quick glimpse of the new mobile OS today, and it looked, on first glance, like a strong contender. New features include an easily navigable Today screen that uses Flash to let the user scroll quickly (via the touch display) to e-mail, text messages, the day’s schedule, and other “need to know now” data. There’s also a Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which will allow consumers to purchase Microsoft-approved applications with a 24-hour return policy attached. And a new free service called My Phone will allow you to back up all your data to the cloud; for $4.99, you can also find a lost phone via GPS mapping, remotely lock it or even wipe it.

Obviously, Microsoft is going lock, stock and barrel after Apple’s iPhone and Google’s new Android platform. Microsoft certainly has got its work cut out for it; Apple’s iPhone has a strong and loyal customer base — it’s only weakness being it’s attachment to AT&T — and Android has the attraction of being new, interesting, associated with Google and, not least, open source.

I don’t think we’ll really know how well Microsoft — or Google — will succeed in their attempts to unseat Apple’s iPhone until after this coming holiday season, when consumers will be choosing between them (those consumers that still have an income to purchase new mobile devices, of course).

At least, Microsoft didn’t call it the mPhone.

Adobe has promised betas of a mobile-ready Flash 10.1 for Windows Mobile and Palm Pre late this year, and early next year for Android, Symbian, and BlackBerry phones, as well as NVIDIA-powered netbooks. The only hold-out? The iPhone, of course.

Adobe describes Apple as “closed device” and continues to offer a fig leaf, but given Apple’s general stance on opening up new development platforms on their device, it seems a tad unlikely. As Gizmodo points out, though, that might become a selling feature for those annoyed by memory-hungry Flash apps and advertisements.

More notable than even the ability to watch YouTube and Hulu clips on your phone, though, is that Flash 10.1 will support graphic chip acceleration on systems with NVIDIA graphics cards, allowing full-screen viewing on netbooks whose processors might otherwise choke, and giving laptop and desktop users perhaps a bit more performance from low-quality clips. Adobe AIR, the cross-platform app engine that powers apps like TweetDeck, will also see improvements with the release of Flash 10.1.

Promises of multi-platform support “by the end of this year” might not be bank-able, but it’s reassuring to hear Adobe’s firm expectations on all but one platform. Tell us what you’d like Flash to do, or stay away from, on your own smartphone or netbook in the comments.

Take the most daring Android phone yet, but make it faster, stronger and better (but blander). You have the Sprint take on the HTC Hero, which happens to be the best Android phone you can buy.

I said the original version of the Hero was “daring” and “ambitious, but tragically flawed.” (Read that review first.) If it was Batman, the Sprint Hero is Superman: Nearly perfect, but goddamn boring. HTC has taken the striking, aggressive angles of Hero v1 and flattened them out into a rounded, far more generic looking phone. It’s not hideous, but it’s lost its power to captivate as a geek fetish object.

Everything else about this version of the phone is better: The software, which is exactly the same content-wise on the HTC front as the first Hero, has been seriously optimized, so it doesn’t suffer show-stopping slowdowns anymore, even with a full set of HTC’s widgets running. Speedwise overall, it’s about the same as a G1 running the stock Android OS—bearable, but not exactly a blitzkrieg. (The iPhone 3GS is way faster, to compare.)

Interestingly, while HTC says the hardware is exactly the same—except for the CDMA chips to get it on Sprint’s network, obviously—there are some differences we noticed. The screen, while the same size, actually seems to look a little bit better on the Sprint model. Not worlds better, but if you look close, the difference is there. The colors are a bit more saturated, the viewing angle a little wider. Also, it’s got a bigger battery: 1500 mAh, compared to 1350 before. The bigger trackball is a plus, since it takes less thumb movement to get around, meaning less carpal tunnel problems in the future.

And, while it’s very possibly firmware at play, the 5MP camera shoots, on average, about twice as fast as the first Hero, and the metering in low light seems to be way better, too. Both of the shots above were taken using the same settings on each phone, with the old Hero running the original firmware it shipped with. (Still not great, but better.)

The only real new bits, software-wise, are a handful of pretty standard Sprint apps: Sprint Navigation, NFL Mobile Live, Nascar, SprintTV and Device Self-Service. Everything else, from the keyboard to the multitouch browser looks the same, just faster (and in the case of Flash in the browser, more reliable too, since we could actually watch videos this time around). Which is dandy, since HTC’s Sense UI, with its multiple desktops, social networking integration, widgets for weather, Twitter, settings and other enhancements, made Android great.

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The real power of this Hero is that the best Android phone you can buy—it’s everything good we said about the first Hero, but with our biggest complaint, speed, fixed—is on Sprint and its solid 3G network—making it the first U.S. Android phone outside of T-Mobile—and it’s $180. Plus, the required Sprint Everything now has free calling to any mobile number, not a bad perk.
The princess might not kiss this Hero because it’s kinda ugly, but at least it’ll actually get the job done now. If you’ve been waiting for an Android phone not on T-Mobile, or one that’s finally just about ready for primetime, this is it.

HTC’s Sense UI makes Android way more usable and adds useful features like social networking integration

Almost all of original Hero’s problems are fixed

Android kinks, like no easy way to update all apps, meh store interface aren’t polished over

Jumbo trackball and more logical front placement marred by cheap front plate

Hardware blobbified into something boring and dull, not daring and awesome

Still not as polished as iPhone or Palm Pre
[Sprint]