The Motorola A1000 is a 3G smartphone from Motorola. It uses the Symbian 7.0 operating system, enhanced with the UIQ 2.1 platform. One of the phone's most notable features is its built-in A-GPS. The A1000 is the successor to the A925 and A920. A variant device, named the M1000, appeared in 2005 for the Japanese market, distributed by NTT DoCoMo. The M1000 has a similar spec to the A1000 but supports Wi-Fi instead of GPS/A-GPS. History The A1000 was released in Q4 2004, but was available only on contract through the 3 network, in just a few countries (mostly Australia, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Singapore[SingTel], Sweden and the UK). Although two colour schemes were available for the device at the time of release, 3 only offered it in the matte dark & light grey combination. Also, the phone was locked and its firmware contained 3 branding. The phone raised interest of enthusiasts due to its advanced capabilities, and a few dedicated internet forums appeared. An unbranded firmware became available in these forums, but presented multiple problems and many considered it a leaked beta version. Also, software was developed to overcome limitations of the branded firmware, including an 'application picker' , a 'GPRS account editor' , and the ability to install software on external storage ). When, after a whole year, the unlocked and unbranded A1000 appeared, its new firmware version made most of these applications obsolete, as it included their functions. This version of the A1000 was available in a glossy black finish. The A1000 was among the first phones to use the TransFlash memory format as external storage. The device on its own only supports the smaller capacities of these cards, however it supports the use of adapters to use larger-capacity micro SD cards. Features Java Java ME MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.0 PersonalJava Opera 7.5 Internet browser (735 for English version, 744 for Chinese version and 817J for Japanese version) Cameras: Outer: CMOS camera Effective resolution: 1.31 megapixels Recorded resolution: 1.22 megapixels Inner: CMOS camera Effective resolution: 310,000 pixels Recorded resolution: 300,000 pixels Built in Picsel Viewer to open Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, PDF, etc. files Works with multiple e-mail accounts Bluetooth compatible for hands-free telephone calls (using wireless headset) and wireless connection to PCs Preinstalled with personal information management (PIM) software Free software development kit (only beta version available) Reported software issues Autoformat - Early firmware releases