At this point we don’t know if any United States carrier will pick up the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, but it wouldn’t surprise us if it shows up at this month’s CTIA (on AT&T or T-Mobile). It appears the phone is very near to release because Sony Ericsson has posted an unboxing video of the final retail packaging. Unfortunately this high-powered phone will ship with the older Android 1.6, but CNET Asia is reporting a Sony spokesperson said the X10 will be upgraded in the 2nd half of the year to a newer firmware. “It will be an Eclair variant, so it could be 2.1 or even 2.2″.

According to Reuters Motorola and Microsoft [MSFT] have formed a partnership that will see Microsoft’s Bing as the default search on Motorola handsets, and also bring Microsoft’s Maps to their smartphones.

It looks like the first phone which will feature the new service will launch in China within the next few weeks, with the possibility of expansion into other countries.

As China and Google are in dispute over Google’s search, this deal makes sense as Motorola will be able to launch smartphones with search built in in China.

It is not clear whether we will see Bing as the default search in other countries like the US and the UK, although this could be a possibility as we have already seen AT&T’s first Android powered smartphone launch with Yahoo Search.

As Android is an open platform, manufacturers can choose exactly what sort of applications and default search providers they want to install on their smartphones when they are shipped.

If Microsoft are obviously paying manufacturers to use Bing we could end up seeing more and more Android smartphone makers switching from Google Serach.

Opera Software today releases a beta version of Opera Mini 5 for Android smartphones, delivering web browsing through server side data compression by up to 90 percent before sending content to the phone. Similar to Opera Mini 5 for other mobile platforms, the Opera Mini 5 gives you tabbed browsing, Speed Dial, password manager and bookmarks. To download, simply visit m.opera.com/next with the Android browser or search for Opera Mini 5 in the Android Market.

“Android users should not have to compromise when it comes to surfing the Web on their phones. Opera Mini will give Android users a fast and cost-efficient access to their favorite Web sites and services,” said Dag Olav Norem, Vice President of Products, Opera Software.

LG’s first Android in South Korea will be called either Andro-1 or LG-KH5200. The company has yet to make it’s way stateside but they have several Android phones in different markets around the world. It has a 3-inch touchscreen, slide out QWERTY keyboard, GPS, HSDPA, EDGE, GRPS, Social Networking, 2MP Camera, Radio Tuner and MicroSD input and Android 1.5.

KT will offer this phone for $530 outright or free on a contract paying $40/month or more. There has been rumors that LG will have 20 Android Phones available by the end of the year. This phone has some tough competition with the iPhone and Motola’s MOTOROI already being offered in Korea.

Already available on the Samsung Behold II from T-Mobile USA, the Evernote Android app will be pre-installed on selected upcoming Samsung Android phones.

In case you don’t know yet, Evernote is an application that lets users create notes, record audio, snap photos, track to-dos or clip web pages. Users have the ability to quickly find any note previously created and synchronized across platforms (desktop, phone, web).

Evernote is free, but there’s a premium service available, too, which provides additional functionality.

“We’re incredibly excited to be working closely with Samsung on their line of Android phones. Android represents Evernote’s fastest growing mobile platform. This partnership helps Evernote reach a huge new audience with our promise of perfect memory for everyone,” declared Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote.

Evernote is currently also available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows and Mac OS X.

We know that your Android obsession knows no bounds. So while trying to collect all of the various toys and stay abreast of all the latest devices rocking the platform, why not rest your head on this soft Android pillow.

The little green bot will lull you to sleep and make all of your dreams come true. And if you can’t sleep, just count bots instead of sheep. The pillow measures 12 x 12 inches and each are handcrafted by Craftsquatch for about $20.

What do you think about Android Pillows ? And I’m waiting for iPhone Pillows

The Dell Mini 5 mondo-phone seems like a mobile internet device/slate that just happens to make calls. Thanks to some Dell internal documents and promotional materials leaked to Engadget, we know a few more choice details about the upcoming device.

The Dell Mini 5 seems poised to launch with a Kindle eBook reader app, Amazon MP3, and a range of Amazon’s digital video streams. Device owners will be able to purchase and use Amazon’s content – books, music, and movies – directly on their 3G-enabled device.

The leaked documents also reveal that the Mini 5 will come in a variety of colors and designs. There are artistic designs, bold colors, or standard black for people who don’t want to be too flashy. Add that to what we already knew about the device – a 5 megapixel camera with flash, front VGA camera for video chat, 5″ WVGA capacitive screen, and a 1GHZ processor – and this phone becomes even more appealing.

Someone I follow on Twitter claimed that his friend – a manager at a T-Mobile store – was being trained on several phones slated to come to the carrier this year. Among those phones was a little device known as the HTC Desire.

I reached out to a couple of contacts I have at T-Mobile retail locations and both told me similar stories: their managers went for training on new devices, and they strongly suspect that the HTC Desire was one of those devices. Neither person I spoke to could definitively say that the Desire is coming to T-Mobile USA, but both have reason to believe it. One person told me:

“My manager said that [he/she] trained on a phone but was sworn to secrecy. It’s probably the Desire…[he/she] said it was awesome and it was Android.”

The second source’s manager also copped to testing a new Android phone but wouldn’t tell the employee the phone’s name. It was all touchscreen and large, so it’s definitely not the CLIQ XT, according to the source.

The Desire has been confirmed for virtually every major carrier in the UK but not for any carrier in the U.S. I don’t consider this news as confirmation because phones usually don’t carry the same branding in the U.S. as they do in Europe. The fact that a retail manager would call a phone by its European name is cause for concern. However, I’m excited that three different people who have no knowledge of each other would share near-identical stories.

As expected, Rogers has officially announced the availability of the Samsung Galaxy Spica. And due to the previous rumors and leaks this announcement comes mostly as a refresher but here goes.

Feature wise, the handset offers a 3.2-inch (320 x 480) touchscreen display, an 800MHz processor, 3.2-megapixel camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and ships with a 2GB microSD card.

As far as the operating system, the Galaxy Spica will ship with OS 1.5 but will be upgradeable to 2.1 in the future.

Price wise you can expect to pay $79.99 with a 3-year agreement, $349.99 with a 2-year agreement, $399.99 with a 1-year agreement or $449.99 contract free.

I wish this beautiful device was in my hands but it isn’t. This unboxing is done by a few guys from the Sony Ericsson team that run the company’s product launch blog.

There isn’t much to see in this video since the device is not running, but you do get to see all the goods that comes with this phone. This will be one of the hottest Android devices to release and should propel Sony towards the top of the Android heap. There is also two mini devices releasing shortly after this monster hits. A few specs of this device, in case you haven’t heard, 4.0″ screen, 1GHZ CPU and Sony’s own custom UI, Rachael.