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Motorola Unveils 4.7-Inch Moto X Smartphone with 24-Hour Battery and Touchless Controls

jabingla2810 said:
Yeah this article is wrong.

This phone isn't even stock Android, according to Motorola they are being treated like every other OEM, even though Google owns them.

This doesn't even have the latest version of Android on it. LOL.
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How was the Nexus One all Google? The hardware was built by HTC. I think the point was that this is the first Google device that isn't technically OEM'ed since they own the OEM. Their hands off approach is stupid though. It is almost like they don't want to really compete with Motorola because they know how much Motorola sucks...

Is it just me or does the front and shape of this thing look like a Samsung Galaxy? The back is different, but it is also ugly. The back looks more like a Nokia Lumina. But hey, they didn't copy Apple. :)
 
bushido said:
well with NSA and everything i am sure google is the least of our problems
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Is it?

They more or less INVENTED NSA style datamining, and if Google's data ever, willlingly or not, ends up in the wrong hands...

Since the Snowden leak I have been cutting down on using Google, and other cloud-like services for that matter. Even decided to set-up my own mailserver, located in my European attic instead of in some vague US datacenter.

I now see cloud computing as a large step towards a totalitarian society.
 
Jalu said:
Is it?

They more or less INVENTED NSA style datamining, and if Google's data ever, willlingly or not, ends up in the wrong hands...

Since the Snowden leak I have been cutting down on using Google, and other cloud-like services for that matter. Even decided to set-up my own mailserver, located in my European attic instead of in some vague US datacenter.

I now see cloud computing as a large step towards a totalitarian society.
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Is this sarkazem? i hope it is :confused:
 
BvizioN said:
Question though! Wouldn't this open the possiblility of it being activated by anyone in a close range? Let's say in a coffee table, or in your bedroom, 2 same devices.... yours and your partners. You say the comand while you to lazy to touch it, 2 activations on both phones.... no?
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This is where the iwatch will come in im betting. Once synced to the phone you just press a watch button, or just talk.
 
I think I know why the Android fans think Moto X is flawed.

For one, they expect Google to rewrite the rules. Instead Google went for marketing speak. Longer battery life is good, but deliberately targeting 24 hour battery life is pretty empty. It's more like a sound bite.

People need to sleep after all. 12 hour solid use + quick charging + solid display and performance is much better. Now the phone feels gimped for this 24 hour battery life claim.

Apple is usually very good at balancing needs (no fluff), and being true to themselves. That's why their products have the least flaws.

The Google Now thing sounds sexy but I don't think it will be used often in the public. It can be awkward to speak to a phone in front of a group of acquaintances. Or for the phone to speak up in the middle of a business meeting. It's like Google Glasses; not so acceptable to "do it" in many occasions.

Plus it reminds people of Microsoft's Kinect, which doesn't fare well with the gamers.
 
I don't imagine I'd actually ditch my iPhone for this, but it was one of the first phones since I've owned an iPhone that I actually looked at and even considered it. Bravo Motorola/Google, if you can build upon this as being the 1st gen phone you might be able to make a sizable dent into the market.
 
viacavour said:
It is usable away from a plug socket. :)
I don't carry around a charging cable too.

I just plug my iPhone 5 to the home charger when I get home, office or to my car charger if I remember.

If iPhone 5S is similar to iPhone 5, then there may be performance and battery improvement (like 4S vs 4).




... on paper. In typical heavy use, the battery life will be shorter.

The 24 hour battery life is achieved with a low power CPU core, plus mixed use. If we use it heavily, the low power CPU won't be effective.
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Apple never really shows its CPU on its tech. People find out, but they don't shout about it. We know they use dual core processors, but really these A* processors are now a bit long in the tooth, especially when the Moto X has done something clever with dedicated low powered cores to deal with the speech and motion. An A7 chip in an iPhone is a bit "old School" these days. Anyway, if Apple where to stay with dual cores, and not even ones that run faster than competitors, then i'd expect better battery life.
 
captain kaos said:
Apple never really shows its CPU on its tech. People find out, but they don't shout about it. We know they use dual core processors, but really these A* processors are now a bit long in the tooth, especially when the Moto X has done something clever with dedicated low powered cores to deal with the speech and motion. An A7 chip in an iPhone is a bit "old School" these days. Anyway, if Apple where to stay with dual cores, and not even ones that run faster than competitors, then i'd expect better battery life.
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That's the thing ! People don't have to worry about specs imbalance. Apple always get the specs right.

Apple's processors, especially the GPU, always lead the competition at launch. They don't cheat in benchmarks like Samsung does too.


Now the Moto X is like a low-mid end phone (by next year) but with high price and an overshot 24 hour battery life sound bite. It's worse than Apple.

It will be intersting to see how Apple position their low end phone if one is coming.
 
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cclloyd said:
I'm still confused as to how having a second processor saves battery life in any way.
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Im guessing that not having the one CPU dealing will all the tasks stops it from ramping up its speed and battery use, and the things that need the contestant CPU use have the low powered cores. Probably equals out to less better this way.
 
They keep one or two low power cores to manage the phone when idling and listening. Then wake the regular cores up for regular use.

If you're not doing anything, it will last longer. If you're actively doing stuff, then the regular processors will still consume juice.

But because the design is complex, it will have overhead.

If they worked with the advanced CPU process, like Apple and Samsung do, they could have saved battery life by going to smaller process and keep the design simple. It's kinda like the difference between Xbox One (esoteric) and PS4 (simple). It may not hit the strawman 24 hour life, but battery life should be good.

----------
Miguel Cunha said:
When iPhone, iPad and portable Macs reach this battery life, I might consider bying them. Period!
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Huh ? My iPad mini lasts a week in mixed use. Motor X will be shorter (up to just one day on paper) since its batteries are much smaller.

It is probably unfair to compare a full blown computer with a simple phone. The computer does a lot more, like compiling stuff and working on large spreadsheets and photoshops.
 
MacOG728893 said:
Nice phone, but I think the HTC One is cleaner and haven't seen too many around or heard too much about it anymore.

This is standard for the Android camp.

A little off topic, but I easily pull 12-16 hours on my iPhone 5 with moderate-heavy daily usage. While this isn't 24 hours, it's still pretty darn good. I'm sure with light usage, I could definitely get to the 24 hour mark. With that said, I'm always up for better battery life though!
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I agree about the HTC One. Good phone, well designed (not as well as the iPhone 5, since the rounded and streaked back of the HTC is a bit chintzy) and overall with much better feel than the Galaxy.

I also agree on the iPhone battery live. I just wish OS 7 had come 2 years ago and the iPhone was 4.7" or even a little larger.

But, I have had a Lenovo K900 for about a month and a half and the latest update increased the battery life dramatically: after somewhat light use for just over 15 hours I am at 80%! Pretty impressive for a 5.5" 1080p phone!

(Yes, I am finding that 5.5" is a tad too large single-hand operation and although I am used to it now, my next phone will probably be closer to 5".)
 
the future said:
Why is this frontpage news on Macrumors? Just another Android phone, only this time under-specced and over-priced. Read the comments on Verge et al., the disappointment among the Fandroids is immense. They thought they'd get a flagship phone with zero margin for 200-300$ without contract; now they found out that Moto actually needs to make some profit as Google is not ready to cover their losses indefinitely...
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$
 
Still a little on the large side, wish it was half an inch smaller, but looks pretty good.
 
Jalu said:
Is it?

They more or less INVENTED NSA style datamining, and if Google's data ever, willlingly or not, ends up in the wrong hands...

Since the Snowden leak I have been cutting down on using Google, and other cloud-like services for that matter. Even decided to set-up my own mailserver, located in my European attic instead of in some vague US datacenter.

I now see cloud computing as a large step towards a totalitarian society.
Click to expand...

You still send e-mail over the internet from your home server which can be tracked/monitored/intercepted just as easily as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc.
 
And my iPhone 4S contract is coming to an end... gah! It sounds great. That's pretty much the only thing I'm looking forward in a new feature specsheet: a good battery.
Considering Apple are the ones who breathed new life into laptop batteries, I'm amazed they haven't attempted to improve the iPhone battery.
 
Dagless said:
And my iPhone 4S contract is coming to an end... gah! It sounds great. That's pretty much the only thing I'm looking forward in a new feature specsheet: a good battery.
Considering Apple are the ones who breathed new life into laptop batteries, I'm amazed they haven't attempted to improve the iPhone battery.
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Well, we don't know about this year's iPhone yet. :)

The happiest people today is probably Samsung. Moto X appears to be a non-event to them. And Google feeds them with free OS and services. Apple gives them h/w contracts.

Samsung also have their own plans to make cheap phones using FireFox stuff. Essentially, they have hijacked Android from Google as I predicted 1-2 years ago. Now they will extend it in their own ways, plus throw in low end phone OS (too small for Android to fit).
 
Apple eat your hearth out! It's pretty clear to me that Apple is no longer 'the only' first class smart phone provider any longer. The HTC One was already impressive and even new projects for new awesome smartphones starting to emerge...

Apple is loosing the moment, as they all ready have with it's marketshare on operating systems (Android hits the amazing 80% marketshare now while Apple has to share the last 20% with other companies).

It's true. Where Apple have been cool, and line-ups of people in front of the shops wanting to buy a new iPhone the reality is now is so much different. No line-ups at all and where I saw many people using an iPhone I see now more people using Android phones instead.

I stick to Apple tough, simply because I work on Apple computers and love the fact how everything is combined using iCloud. That's a big plus for me why I stay with Apple. But Apple should come up with expressive new enchantments. Yes enchantments, I'm not stating new features, but enchantments like impressive battery life. My phone needs to be refilled with power each single day before the day is over, even after switching off blue-tooth and various other features that enables me having more battery life. I want a phone that I can use for 24 hours straight without having to worry about battery life.

So next to come up with cheaper plastic iPhones to "save" a little bit of what's left of the market I truly hope Apple will keep on focussing how to drastically improve it's iPhone in general.
 
dragje said:
Apple eat your hearth out! It's pretty clear to me that Apple is no longer 'the only' first class smart phone provider any longer. The HTC One was already impressive and even new projects for new awesome smartphones starting to emerge...

Apple is loosing the moment, as they all ready have with it's marketshare on operating systems (Android hits the amazing 80% marketshare now while Apple has to share the last 20% with other companies).

It's true. Where Apple have been cool, and line-ups of people in front of the shops wanting to buy a new iPhone the reality is now is so much different. No line-ups at all and where I saw many people using an iPhone I see now more people using Android phones instead.

I stick to Apple tough, simply because I work on Apple computers and love the fact how everything is combined using iCloud. That's a big plus for me why I stay with Apple. But Apple should come up with expressive new enchantments. Yes enchantments, I'm not stating new features, but enchantments like impressive battery life. My phone needs to be refilled with power each single day before the day is over, even after switching off blue-tooth and various other features that enables me having more battery life. I want a phone that I can use for 24 hours straight without having to worry about battery life.

So next to come up with cheaper plastic iPhones to "save" a little bit of what's left of the market I truly hope Apple will keep on focussing how to drastically improve it's iPhone in general.
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Buy a battery case. If they have a low cost iPhone 5, then the total package should be reasonable.
24 hour battery life on paper is useless. You can charge your phone while you sleep you know. :-D
It is more important to get say... a 12 hour solid battery life, and a better spec.

HTC licenses technologies from Apple. So in a sense, they work with each other to cover a bigger market.

Apple need to stay focus on whatever its vision is. I have a feeling their final goal is not a cellphone. iPhones and iPads are more and more like an all-in-one computer.

But they need to execute their strategies for growth markets quickly and steadily.



Dagless said:
Yup, and if I don't find out something soon enough, once my contract is up I'll be going elsewhere (no point in buying an iPhone 5 now).
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They will have to show good progress. But then again, I have seen friends heading towards Android, and then come back again. So in the long run, it's more important to build the ecosystem in a solid manner rather than hype one phone with empty marketing speak after another.
 
Xiroteus said:
Thought Siri should work the same way.
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I want both manual mode and always-on mode, 'specially for iPad.
Not so much for phone (coz it's a very private device). Would hate to talk to it, revealing my schedule, preferences, etc. right in front of everyone.

Watch out Google. Samsung will patch their S Voice to match your Google Now in phases. They already took the base OS and enjoy the free services. They are building their own value added services as we speak.
 
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