Motorola Mobility will layoff a quarter of its workforce. The Google subsidiary filed plans with the SEC to cut 4,000 jobs from its payroll, bringing its employee total from about 20,000 to fewer than 16,000. Two-thirds of the layoffs will happen at offices outside of the U.S.

U.S. Cellular has launched a pair of Motorola Android phones today. The regional carrier announced that the Motorola ELECTRIFY 2, running Android 4.0, and the weather-resistant DEFY XT will launch in stores this week.

Low-cost service provider Republic Wireless has revealed that it is now offering the Motorola DEFY XT smartphone to those enrolled in its beta program. Republic Wireless offers pre-paid monthly service for very low rates and encourages its users to take advantage of Wi-Fi networks when browsing the web or even placing calls.

Motorola announced today that the promised Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for the Wi-Fi version of the XOOM tablet is now available. The update offers improved performance and touch response, as well as enhanced notifications, text-to-speech capabilities, and search features. Users should receive a notification on their tablets when the update is ready to be downloaded and installed. The company did not say when the update will be available for the cellular-equipped versions of the XOOM.

Yesterday, Motorola revealed that the just-announced PHOTON Q 4G LTE smartphone for Sprint will ship with an unlockable bootloader. An unlockable bootloader allows owners to load custom software versions on the phone. Motorola has been promising to offer unlockable bootloaders on its smartphones for a long time, but this is the first time it has followed through on its promise. The company says it plans to release more devices with unlockable bootloaders in the future.

After teasing its existence in a conference call this morning, Sprint has officially announced the Motorola PHOTON Q 4G LTE smartphone. The PHOTON Q is the first LTE smartphone for Sprint to feature a physical QWERTY keyboard, and it also packs global roaming capabilities.

During an investor conference call this morning, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse revealed that the carrier plans to launch the Motorola PHOTON Q smartphone in the near future. The PHOTON Q is said to be a 4G LTE smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and world roaming capabilities. Hesse did not say exactly when the phone would launch, other than that it would be coming "very soon." Pricing information was also not revealed.

An import ban on a number of Motorola's mobile devices is due to take effect today, but the company says that the devices will remain on sale in spite of it. Motorola provided Reuters with a statement saying that it has taken a range of "proactive measures" to make sure that its devices no longer infringe upon Microsoft's patent, which is the reason for the ban.

A German court has ruled that the Motorola XOOM tablet does not infringe upon Apple's design patents for the iPad. Apple had sued Motorola for allegedly infringing three of its design patents, and was looking for a sales ban on the XOOM across Europe.

The Motorola ATRIX HD is the latest member of the ATRIX line of Motorola smartphones for AT&T. Do its upgraded features make it worth a look for new smartphones shoppers? Read our review to find out.