Motorola partners with Microsoft to use the software giant’s Bing search and mapping services on its Google-powered Android smartphone. Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services at Motorola Mobile Devices, said “We believe that consumer choice is one of the most critical components to ensuring a rich and seamless client experience”, while Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at a media summit in Abu Dhabi, “We are in active negotiations with the Chinese government.”

Today MetroPCS unveiled a special edition Motorola MOTO VE440 phone that boasts of Mister Cartoon rear panels. The VE440 is available in black and chrome, and comes with 1 GB microSD card loaded with 2 unreleased Snoop Dogg tracks, two exchangeable Mister Cartoon back covers, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and a 2-inch display. It also has external music controls. Mister Cartoon is a tattooist, car customizer, illustrator, and designer. The $129 VE440 will retail in select MetroPCS locations and at on MetroPCS’ promotional site.

AT&T will start distributing the Motorola BACKFLIP with MOTOBLUR by March 7. The BACKFLIP is powered by the Android 1.5 OS and comes with a 3.1-inch 480 x 320 resolution display, a 5 megapixel camera, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, and a 1400mAh battery for up to 6 hours of talk time. Its MOTOBLUR feature allows you to incorporate your social network contacts with your address book, and view status updates on the home screen. It supports AT&T’s 7.2Mbps HSPA 3G network and owners can take benefit of free WiFi at over 20,000 AT&T WiFi hotspot locations. The BACKFLIP will retail for $99.99 after a $100 mail-in-rebate and a 2-year contract.

Motorola finally announced that it is now offering its Chinese consumers the choice to use a different default search engine on Android-powered Motorola devices. Consumers in China can use the well-liked Baidu Chinese search engine as a default option as a substitute of Google Search, Motorola said on Thursday in union with the opening of its SHOP4APPS application marketplace. In the face of the tensions involving China and Google’s censorship, Motorola told Reuters that it’s not unusual for it to trade the default search engine on phones for more commonly used engines, depending on the country the phone is selling it.

Motorola announced the new MOTOROI, South Korea’s first Android 2.0 device. The phone features a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen display with an 854 x 480 WVGA resolution, an 8-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The camera is capable of shooting 720p high-definition video. Other features include support for T-DMB(INFO) television, up to 8GB of storage, and smart homescreen widgets. The MOTOROI also supports HDMI. The handset will be available this February through SK Telecom.