The bad news is Motorola’s new CEO didn’t show up at the evening press conference. Too bad, since the company that invented the cellphone showed off two interesting new models.

The first one is the Z10, which executives said would turn cameramen into producers. Aside from competition-trouncing photo taking speeds, it also allows users to edit video directly on the cellphones.

The video below is likely to be the more conceptually exciting of the new phones. It’s the ROKR E8 music phone, which looks like a candy bar, or a black slab of glass. Although it is not a 3G phone, it’s got other tricks up its sleeves.

It features no actual buttons on its screen, but in phone mode, the phone vibrates when you touch a key. The E8 features “ModeShift” technology that lets users change the configuration of the screen depending on whether its being used as a digital music player, a camera, or as a phone. Mining its expertise in sound technology, Motorola claims to have engineered a phone that features better sound technology than the typical MP3 player using earbuds.

Are they making a serious run against Apple outside of the United States?

Motorola also said it has agreed to buy pan-Asian online music firm Soundbuzz to bolster its ROKR line.

We got a demo of it shortly after the presentation ended.

(Videos: Reuters/ Ken Li)