Flashing a moto ME501

[Pengyou]

Background: I had my cell phone stolen while in Guangzhou this past August. For a variety of reasons I needed to replace it quickly so chose to buy a Moto ME 501. This phone is an iphone look-a-like with the Android OS. Unfortunately it comes with only android 1.5 As I understand, this phone is identical (hardware) to the Quench or the Quench XT sold in North America and other places. The moto website has not yet released an OS upgrade for this (to Android 2.x) but they have for the phone sold in North America.

Questions:

1. If someone is familiar with this phone can they tell me exactly which North American phone it (the hardware) is identical to?

2. Can someone tell me which kind of software I need to flash this? There are some really nice apps that will not run on 1.5 Also, the phone does not come with the android marketplace app (boooo, bessy, boooo!) and I want to replace the Chinese apps with English ones. Also, if you know of some place in Shanghai that will do this for me, that would be a welcome option as well.

Thanks for any help you can provide

[roddy]

What I would do - get online and find a shop selling the US version 水货. It'll likely be a stall in a 电子城. Go there, and ask them to do it. In Beijing I'd find the shop via zol.com.cn, not sure how well they cover Shanghai.