It has been a long time coming but the Motorola Defy owners in the UK can now finally get some taste of Froyo on their phone that others around the world have been enjoying for some time now. Motorola has released a software update v34.177.3 for the Defy, which will upgrade the phone from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2.

Along with the update you get the usual list of features in Froyo, which includes Adobe Flash Player 10.3 support, ability to install applications on the memory card and speed and performance enhancements. You also get other stuff such as smart dialling, improved keypad, task manager, updated gallery, profiles for the home screen and LinkedIn app built-in.

If you are a hardware manufacturer pumping out Android smartphones, then chances are you have decided to tweak Google default user interface so your user experience does not look anything like what the competition offers. Samsung got TouchWiz, HTC has Sense, Sony Ericsson has Timescape, and Motorola has MOTOBLUR. Mobile enthusiasts hate all of them, but its MOTOBLUR that receives the most amount of criticism. 

Motorola has a knack for making brilliant devices, but then it all goes to hell once their software engineers load up whatever it is they coded up in an effort to appear "unique". At the recent Sprint/Motorla event where thePhoton 4G and Triumph were announced, the word MOTOBLUR was never mentioned. Curious as to the reason why, I asked around and were by Motorola officials that they are "moving away from the name", in part due to public feedback. In other words, people despise MOTOBLUR so much that the brand itself will die, yet the software will live on.

This is not the first time the public has taken a shit on Motorola. Back in April they asked their customers, via Facebook, which applications they would like to see Android developers create. The top 7 requests were pleas to offer an unlocked bootloader, something that would enable people to easily load custom ROMs on their device, freeing them of the tyranny of MOTOBLUR. Request number 8 was an option to remove MOTOBLUR all together.

Motorola is off to a bit of a slow start with its 4G smartphones. It delayed the release of the Droid Bionic on Verizon months ago, and today the company finally announced its first WiMax smartphone for Sprint, the Photon 4G, at a New York press event. The company also announced the Triumph, its first Virgin Mobile smartphone.

While it stands to be one of the most powerful phone on Sprint when it arrives this summer, the Photon 4G comes more than a year after HTC released its super popular Evo 4G in fact, HTC is gearing up to launch that phone successor, the Evo 3D, later this month. Samsung also beat out Motorola with the launch of its Epic 4G on Sprint last August.

But perhaps Motorola’s 4G phones will be worth the wait. The Photon shares most of the Droid Bionic specifications– including a 4.3-inch screen, dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 camera, and 8 megapixel rear camera. Motorola also saw fit to include 1 gigabyte of RAM in the Photon, twice as much as what the Bionic holds. It will come with Android 2.3 installed, and as with most 4.3-inch monster phones, the Photon will be equipped with a kickstand.

Motorola is touting increased enterprise security with the Photon, thanks to its purchase of the mobile security startup 3LM earlier this year, as well as business-focused tools in its Blur software. The phone is also capable of working on GSM networks internationally, which coupled with the above enterprise features makes it a good Android phone for road warriors.

As for the Triumph on Virgin Mobile, its certainly less sexy than the Photon or Motorola other flagship smartphones, but it seems to be a solid phone for a prepaid carrier. The Triumph sports a 4.1-inch screen 2 gigabytes of storage and will be powered by Android 2.2 "Froyo" when it lands this summer.

Slated for a July release in the UK, the Motorola Wilder promises to be a smart-dumb phone aimed at an active lifestyle. The newly announced Wilder is designed to bring all the basic functionality from your average smartphone in a tiny package with a rugged exterior. Not all the specs are available yet but we know its going to be a compact device with a capacity of just 88 cubic centimeters and a low weight of just 92 grams.

A rubberized outer casing helps give the Wilder its splash and dust resistive attributes but you can still interact with it on the 2.8" TFT resistive touchscreen (with a resolution of 240x360 pixels). Sitting just below the main display, is a secondary OLED 0.7" screen for notifications, a nice touch and something seldom seen since the days of the flip phone.

Being a feature phone, connectivity is limited, but the Wilder does come with Bluetooth 2.1, a 3.5mm headphone jack and has a physical microUSB (v2.0) port on the left side of the device covered by a rubberized tab. It also comes with a 2MP camera on the back that can shoot video at 15fps and an FM radio.

Ever wondered why your Andriod smartphone is not working as well as it should be? Well, Motorola CEO, Dr. Sanjay Jha, thinks its because of the open Android Market.

He says that because the Android Market is open, anyone can upload almost any type of applications. Users then download these applications that may have the potential of bringing down the performance or battery life of their devices. He also said that 70% of the phones that are returned are because of issues caused by applications.

Jha claims that the solution lies in MOTOBLUR, Motorola proprietary software layer that runs on top of their Android phones. Motorola is using BLUR to collect data on the applications that people use on their phones and the way they affect the performance of their devices. Thanks to this information, they will soon be able to issue warnings if an applications, say, is going to have a dramatic effect on the phone battery life.

Now all that is fine but we must say we are not particularly big fans of MOTOBLUR. And for all we know BLUR itself could be one of the reason for many of the performance issues. Perhaps Motorola should fine tune their own application before passing the blame around.