

Inside story of the Moto X - kisamoto
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/08/inside-story-of-moto-x/

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pcunite
Quote: "Motorola’s Moto X, the first smartphone fully assembled in the United
States".

Congratulations to Google for this! I respect all nations, but we have to take
care of business here too and grow our own economy.

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simonebrunozzi
Protectionism has never worked well.

~~~
adamrt
I'm not sure what protectionism has to do with Google manufacturing a phone in
Texas. Could you elaborate?

Protectionism: The theory or practice of shielding a country's domestic
industries from foreign competition by taxing imports.

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nakedrobot2
What is to stop someone from shouting "Ok Google Now" on a bus or in a crowded
room?

I'm curious how the "always listening" will fly. This is another example of
technology that is far ahead of the sociological issues which will take a
while to resolve.

(On that note, I feel like every day our newest technologies stretch farther
and farther away from regular people, and it will become a major issue of our
generation.)

I am personally most excited by quick access to the camera. I'm curious what
10 megapixels will look like, but typically this is total BS, and a waste of
pixels, you can usually reduce phone photos to 70% of their original size,
which means throwing away 1/2 the pixels (and file size).

Now, my biggest issue: upgrade my terribly creaking Nexus S to a Nexus 4 right
now, or wait a month or so for this swanky new Moto X?

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eco
It fingerprints to your voice to some extent. Not sure how good it does this
but on The Verge they had one guy program his Moto X using his voice then the
other two hosts tried to activate it and couldn't get it to recognize them.

This is apparently a problem with Google Glass though. Anyone can say, "OK,
Glass...show me pictures of Rick Astley" and any nearby active Glass will
follow the command.

~~~
hypersoar
The problem with Glass isn't quite that pronounced. it's not always listening;
the wearer needs to wake it up before it'll take commands.

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kailuowang
I wonder how many Google developers were pulled into this project or is this
mostly done by Moto developers. If it's the Google developers that gave this
phone the software edge, it could mean that Android becomes a half open half
close platform. If you deem the OS running on Moto X as a whole system, part
of it is open to all manufacturers, while the other part of UX was implemented
in a way with liberty of controlling both software and hardware design, the
same kind of liberty Apple has with iPhone.

This is something new. and I can see that Moto wants this boundary between the
open part of this OS and the closed part shifting towards the close end while
the rest of the industry wants the opposite - demanding Android project
include all the cool features MotoX provides.

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skaevola
The article says:

"In addition to the core of remaining engineers, Woodside brought in Googlers
eager to sign up for the reclamation product, pitching Motorola’s revival as
an underdog, startup-style enterprise. Seventy made the move."

Although it doesn't specify if the 70 googlers were developers or not.

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swamp40
So this is the first I've heard of the upcoming NFC plastic tokens which
automatically keep your phone unlocked.

If you're too busy to build those Moto, I could handle that for you. And I'm
in the Chicago area...

[Edit] Looks like they are just making an appearance today.

Motorola Skip. Also comes with three dots (NFC stickers) to put by your
bedside, etc.

[http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2013/08/hello-skip-
goodbye...](http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2013/08/hello-skip-goodbye-pin-
introducing.html)

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hamburglar
They really need to get their shit together on the Moto X website and store. I
am in the market for a new phone and after reading that article, I'm ready to
buy it, but I've spent the last 10 minutes going around and around on their
website trying to figure out if there is a way to order/preorder. They don't
mention when it'll be available and most of the material is written as if it's
available now.

The only clue I have is that the marketing page for it only has a "Notify"
button prominently displayed where I'd expect a "buy" button (weird verb
choice in "Notify", btw...) and that button takes me to a page that makes me
think I'm just signing up for generic motorola marketing junk. They even have
it listed in the store for $199 and when you click "buy" you're just taken
back to the stupid marketing page.

They'd have my money right now and I'd be happily waiting a few weeks to
receive my phone if not for this experience. They got this handjob of an
article from wired and no way for readers to act on it. How did they screw
this up?

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achompas
The article came out 2 weeks ago, fwiw, when it was clearly unavailable for
purchase (I hit the page then, it said "Sign up to find out when the Moto X
will be available").

If you're still interested, the Moto X is available on ATT on 8/23:
[http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/16/4627716/moto-x-
available-a...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/16/4627716/moto-x-available-
att-august-23)

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bound008
Thank you Wired Magazine for a 5 page google ad.

