Milestone Goes (More) Official!
| by Talton "Phases" Pettigrew on November 2nd, 2009 |
A couplafew of our readers have sent in a couple links relevant to our interests. For those of you who can’t be bothered going through all the comments on articles, I’m bringin’ them to ya.
First, we have the press release from Motorola:
“BASINGSTOKE, United Kingdom – October 28, 2009 –– Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), today announced MILESTONE™, the first Android 2.0 powered phone in Europe.
Designed to deliver Android without compromise, Motorola MILESTONE is a blend of form and function that offers the thinnest QWERTY slider on the market (13.7mm) and a hi-resolution, multi-touch and pinch display with twice the pixels of the leading competitor.
And second we have the phones’ little corner of real estate on Motorola’s website.
Now I’m not in Europe, but if I was – I would be super-uber excited about this! How are our European readers feelin’ now? Let us know!
Also, it’s worth mentioning that it looks like Gizmodo is reporting it may have pinch-zoom multi-touch.
Edit: To point out: No Google Maps Navigation. Instead it will be loaded with MOTONAV.
[Thanks Enzo, Chris, surfalex2000!]



1. surfalex2000 wrote on November 2, 2009
Damn great the Pinch zooming
2. Tom Robson wrote on November 2, 2009
No word about a UK release date for the Milestone… even though Motorola issued the press release from the UK!
3. janus wrote on November 2, 2009
I’m from europe…
And I can tell ya I just crapped my pants ;)
4. janus wrote on November 2, 2009
AND WE HAVE MULTITOUCH!!!
I don’t care about the Navigation! We have multitouch take that Droids hahahahahaha!
5. CLB wrote on November 2, 2009
“Now I’m not in Europe, but if I was – I would be super-uber excited about this! How are our European readers feelin’ now? Let us know!”
I’m from the Netherlands, Europe =p
And I was following the Moto Droid for weeks now!
Started my own (dutch) topic at:
http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1373756
And in my humble opinion it’s the best Androider there is!
Massive screen, qwerty keyboard, Android 2.0, nice look!
And the European version has got:
- GSM AND CDMA!
- Standbytime is 350 hours (USA version is only 270)
- It support Multi-touch! (check: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSyy-uGv-JA)
So hellll yeah I am excited!
Now I have to wait for a Dutch release date!
And otherwise I’m gonna import it from Germany!
6. Julien wrote on November 2, 2009
Can’t wait to get it !
7. Decon wrote on November 2, 2009
So one of the main features is taken out (google maps turn-by-turn is not in this version, wtf?) and we get some multitouch… Might not buy this phone afterall.
Is there any good reasons why the turn-by-turn won’t make it to EU?
8. a wrote on November 2, 2009
AWESOME!!!
9. Docteur Cinoque wrote on November 2, 2009
Bonjour,
I’m from France and yes, I’m really excited.
ThePhoneHouse (Carphone Wharehouse) and Vodafone should ship the Droid to Germany and Italy. Means that France will get it soon. ThePhoneHouse is one of main cellular actor in our market and Vodafone is a part of SFR (2nd provider, Orange is the 1st).
2 chances to get the Droid.
I’m not sure France will call it “Milestone”. Droid is easier to pronunce.
10. Julian wrote on November 2, 2009
The turn by turn navigation is rumoured to being put on hold in europe as they do not have enough data for the street view etc :
“Google can provide directions in Europe but has only limited Street View support.”
from http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/11/02/moto.milestone.due.for.europe.nov.9/
11. Morten wrote on November 2, 2009
From slashgear:
A Google spokesperson has told us that the reason turn-by-turn is absent from the MILESTONE is because currently the beta is US-only.
So we’ll probably have it. Kinda makes sense to complete the product before you launch it worldwide.
12. Terran wrote on November 2, 2009
so the Euro-model can have pinch zoom, but the American model can’t? Does this have something to do with Apple and patents? or is it something completely different altogether?
13. Docteur Cinoque wrote on November 2, 2009
NB : the video provided by Motorola Germany and Italy shows a device with a Motorola logo and not “Motorola” text next to the speaker.
http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/DE-DE/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-Milestone-DE.vertical
14. Hab wrote on November 2, 2009
“No Google Maps Navigation” wtf? I’m not going to buy this w/o the google navigation
15. tommy wrote on November 2, 2009
and it’s 8gb only!
16. Ratcom wrote on November 2, 2009
with Verizon being part of Vodafone corp. I’m hoping they pick this one up before Christmas but I’ve got a horrible feeling they will let it slip by ……….
17. audiophile wrote on November 2, 2009
The Droid supports multitouch. See:
http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/38c2d04055896f1c/8d65cc71608f5094?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=droid+multitouch#8d65cc71608f5094
18. vincent wrote on November 2, 2009
i really hope to be able to choose the carrier in france.
19. Terran wrote on November 2, 2009
@audiophile – yes, 2.0 does have multitouch support, but the Droid doesn’t have pitch zoom. It has some kinda multi-tap zoom. I wanna know if maybe a dev. could put an app that allows pinch zoom?
20. Olli wrote on November 3, 2009
Hello from Finland – The Land of Nokia!It’s great to see that Droid is hitting our continent as well. Here in Finland, HTC Hero and Samsung Galaxy are only Android phones at the moment. Luckily phones are sold without contract here, which is great.
21. Ken Wright wrote on November 3, 2009
I’m in the UK and absolutely the main feature I want on a damn phone is navigation. No idea what Moto Nav is like, but as long as it has turn by turn then I can wait for Google I guess. No turn by turn means no sale.
22. Ken Wright wrote on November 3, 2009
And it’s not going to help Motorola that the xperia3 looks so damn sexy!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.sonyericsson.com/whatsnext
I like, I like, I do, I do!!!!!!!
23. Herman wrote on November 3, 2009
This is supergood news. I don’t really care about the nav missing, it seems like a useful feature, but I mainly use it when I go abroad and that would be too expensive with the use of internet and all.
Plus my girlfriend needs navigation too sometimes, and she sure as hell isn’t going to do that with my phone.
So a seperate navigation for me, and a lot of awesomeness on my new Milestone.
I’m already working in the Android SDK. It’s awesome!
24. abezap wrote on November 3, 2009
another dutchie here, and i’ve been putting off my new purchase for over 2 months.. (and am stuck in the meantime with a very crappy nokia) for this one.. if only we had a release date!
as of the google maps, sice they purchased a new set of maps witch includes the posibillity that turn by turn will be possible without paying a ton of extra money we will see it in a couple of months.. (just a educated gues)
I WANT THIS PHONE!!!
25. mcv wrote on November 5, 2009
I’m from Netherland too, and the Droid/Milestone definitely tops my list. I heard it’s going to be less than 500 euro in Germany without a contract, so that looks like a definite buy for me. (I’ve also been considering the XPeria X3/X10, but I can’t find anything recent about it.)
About the navigation, I heard MOTONAV is free initially, but after a while requires payment. But won’t we be able to simply install Google Navigation?