He did it, British climber Rod Baber made a cell mobile phone (apparently using a MOTORIZR Z8, not a satellite phone) call from the top of Mount Everest. In fact, he made the record breaking call twice: the first to a voice mail account, the other to his wife and children. He even sent a text message to Moto which read, "One small text for man, one giant leap for mobilekind - thanks Motorola." Real cute, Rod. The Motorola sponsored "world record" was made possible by a Chinese mobile base station installed with a line of sight to the north ridge. Officially, the calls were made at 29,035 feet (about 8,848 meters) in temperatures of -22 degress fahrenheit (-30 degrees centigrade) -- so cold that Rob had to tape the batteries to his body just to keep them active. We're not sure where he stored the banana-shaped Z8. Of course, anyone who has ever made a call from a commercial aircraft (hey, it happens) knows that it's really not a record, but who are we to argue with Guinness?

[Via BBC, thanks Mook]

Yeah, the RAZR 2 is alright, we guess, but we're not idiots -- and that's exactly what Motorola appears to have taken us for over the past week leading up to today's announcements. Not only did Motorola's team drone on endlessly about the MING, GSM Q (now known as the Q8), the Q9h, the Z6, and the Z8 -- even daring to cast some in a new-announcement light -- but it now seems that the multimedia powerhouse CEO Ed Zander was getting us all fired up over last week was the aforementioned Z8. Yes, the very same Z8 that was announced months ago at 3GSM. Next time, Ed, cut to the chase and let us know when you're going to be rehashing an old phone to hype your conference, kthxbai.

We just got the chance to go mano a mano with the MOTORIZR Z8 here at 3GSM. Whether you call it a kick-slider or banana, one thing's for sure: it feels good pressed up to the face. Just check the pics to see how greasy close it's been to the legions of sweaty geek-cheeks here in Barcelona. Eww, man sweat -- but ohhh Symbian.