Motorola Milestone 3 tutorial videos hint at close release date

A trio of tutorial-style videos for the Motorola Milestone 3 (known as the Droid 3 in the US) have shown up online, prompting speculation that a launch date is not far off. So reports our sister site CNET News.

When we're not perusing leaked photos we're watching leaked videos on YouTube instead. These look like professionally produced bite-sized instructional videos for the forthcoming phone -- which we found basic specifications for last month.

The narrator kindly confirms the rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p high-definition video recording, the keyboard's fifth row of dedicated numeric buttons, plus micro USB and HDMI ports.

The videos cover the basics of the phone -- switching it on and off, using the touch buttons, searching, selecting keyboard input method, viewing contacts and so on. Motorola has still tacked MotoBlur on top of Android Gingerbread, which isn't surprising given its CEO's recent comments on using the software to troubleshoot poor app performance.

We still can't tell whether the processor will be the Nvidia Tegra 2, as per the Atrix, or Texas Instruments' OMAP, as found in the LG Optimus 3D. Without getting our mitts on it, we also don't know if it has improved upon the Milestone 2. It almost certainly won't have superfast LTE, which is likely to irritate our US friends, but is no bother for us laggards.

If you believe the calendar shown, these videos were filmed in early May. It's interesting to note the caveat at the bottom of each clip stating that the software shown isn't final.

Who are these videos aimed at? It might please Nvidia's CEO if sales staff received better training on using new devices. These could be intended for new users but recorded before Motorola had finished tweaking its software. Perhaps an official launch, at least in the US, isn't far off after all.