

Google To Spend $500 Million To Market Moto X Phone - 0cool
http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2013/07/11/in-one-big-nudge-google-to-spend-500-million-to-market-moto-x-phone-report/

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catenate
Don't really see the point in getting another Motorola phone. I paid a premium
for my Photon, and it really annoys me every single day with how long it takes
to wake up and actually do something, and how often it crashes. That might be
due to the fact that I have no choice but to still run Gingerbread, because
Motorola decided to lock the Photon to that version.

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ok_craig
Because, you know, once a company makes one bad move, its impossible to
change. We should only support companies who have never made bad choices or
aggravated us personally. Especially those companies whose leadership, product
vision and circumstances in general have changed dramatically since the
offense.

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omni
The Photon came out around a year ago. That's a really short time in terms of
corporate lifetimes.

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ok_craig
It was closer to two years, according to Wikipedia.

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omni
You're right. I seem to have forgotten which year it was. :(

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ippisl
<rumor> I have a guess about the motoX phone: It will have a modular hardware
component. Probably something similar to the jolla phone , which is build from
two different parts stuck togheter by magnets. One part if your phone , and
the other one is a replaceable hardware card.

This also fits the motoX ad saying "design your own phone".

The replaceable part could be designed by anyone, and it opens a lot of places
for innovation: think of a microscope, or a fingerprint scanner, or nose on a
chip, or high quality audio interfaces ,or unique sensors or any number of
niche hardware.

Anyway , i really hope that's the case. If will be really fun to play and
design with such phones.

</rumor>

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psbp
All the current rumors on the phone point to boring superficial changes like
color and customized wallpapers (for real). They're not spending $500mil
advertising a phone for hardware geeks.

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ippisl
But if they designed it with 5/10 optional popular hardware modules , and
marketing about future modules that will come from community, this could
really appeal to early adopters , and people with specific niches that need to
be filled.

And technically , if this is the right way to build more innovative phones, it
has a good chance to win in the general population.

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wes-exp
I look forward to being annoyed with a Moto X ad every time I use a Google
service.

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bsaul
or maybe they're realizing that samsung Is starting to compete with google on
the OS so they need to compete with samsung on the hardware. This ways samsung
will never be in a position to impose its new OS.

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spacecity1971
From what I've read, the main feature is a low power, always on, sensor array.
My guess is that this phone will break new ground with comprehensive and novel
Google Now integration, and push further towards the goal of a device that
actively assists its user. Think of it as a robotic system that is integrated
into the growing AI/expert system service that is Google.

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codex
Slowly, Google is transforming into Apple faster than Apple can transform into
Google.

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Geee
Sponsored by the NSA? Some of the weird tech acquisitions start making sense
when the NSA is factored in; Motorola, Skype, anything else? It's completely
possible in this time and age to have back-doored hardware in Motorola phones,
so I think everyone should advice against buying those.

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mathgorges
If I recall correctly Skype was working with the NSA before it was acquired by
anyone.

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Geee
Microsoft changed Skype's architecture drastically, which helps making
wiretapping easier. See HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4254925](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4254925)

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sz4kerto
Wiretapping was possible even before MS has re-engineered Skype. The main
reason behind using central servers is to increase reliability and decrease
power usage on mobile devices (as they do not need to serve as supernodes
anymore).

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MacsHeadroom
>Wiretapping was possible even before MS has re-engineered Skype.

Wrong. Skype was bullet proof, completely end-to-end encrypted, before the MS
takeover.

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flyinRyan
This is not completely true. Even back then, certain computers running skype
could become "super nodes" that handled incoming connections to devices e.g.
behind NAT. All you needed to do to wiretap was become one of these nodes,
which wasn't hard to do.

But yes, if you made sure neither computer had NAT and used no super nodes it
was possible to be pretty protected (except for the problem that PRISM is tied
to the network hardware and can read anything anywhere on the internet).

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aviraldg
This should've been called the Google X Phone not the Moto X Phone.

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flowerntea
This could be a good win for Google if they do it properly.

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Sven7
I hope they compete on price. $600 phones are ridiculous.

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gcb0
I'd gladly pay 1k for decent battery (2 days actual use) and a keyboard. No
&$@#+=! Soft touch "buttons" for back, etc.

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aviraldg
I like my Nexus 4's soft touch buttons, thanks. It really depends upon
personal taste.

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AjithAntony
Nexus 4 doesn't have any soft keys, it has the onscreen UI

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AndreasLuckey
U think they will be able to position themselves on a satisfied market like
this? I don't think they will make it!

