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Google Skunkworks Working on 'X Phone,' Reports WSJ

The Wall Street Journal says that Google is not quite content to be just a name printed on certain Android phones, and has set some of the cellphone engineers from Google-owned Motorola Mobility to work on a high-end project known internally as the 'X phone.' The rumored phone, says the article, "is due out sometime next year," and is meant as a technology flagship for Android phones, incorporating more innovative features than typical phones, such as advanced gesture recognition. Some of those features, like a flexible screen, have reportedly already been dropped from the design, though. If the X Phone materializes, a tablet is expected to follow.

26 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Duh! by mspohr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would be real news if they weren't working on a new phone.

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    1. Re:Duh! by swillden · · Score: 4, Informative

      It would be real news if they weren't working on a new phone.

      It would be real news if Google's Motorola division weren't working on a new phone, but this implies that the Google X labs (which are working on Google Glass, self-driving cars and other projects) are working on a phone. That's different. Motorola is clearly working on the next incremental improvements to the smartphone, but Google X is all about radically-different directions. I find it hard to think what could be done differently enough to justify Google X interest, myself.

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    2. Re:Duh! by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, it's going to be a self driving phone hooked to a eyeglass case.

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  2. I hope the TV ads are better by alen · · Score: 2

    Than the stupid MoTo ones where you rule all the machines or you're a secret agent if you buy their phone that will be outdated in a month by a newer model

  3. Ex Phone by rossdee · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just the thing to call your former spouse on

  4. The real long term plans unfold... by jkrise · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So Google is not only content with releasing an open source operating system which other hardware vendors can use to build phones and tablets. They are also parallely working on their own designs and implementations to take full commercial benefit of the platform they have created. Good to see.

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    1. Re:The real long term plans unfold... by tooyoung · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And if Google's new phone is successful enough, Samsung and other phone makers can incorporate the design elements into their phones.

    2. Re:The real long term plans unfold... by jiteo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm pretty sure the only long term plan Google has it to own all the data. Phones and phone OSes are just ways of achieving that.

  5. technology flagship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In other words, a lawsuit magnet.

  6. Will this be our N900 sucessor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Will we finally get something open and completely hackable?
    Bomb proof like Nokia with crazy great features like FM radio transmitter or IR remote control?
    I vote for FRS radio tech too, that would be a great way to zap GPS coordiantes or low res pics between users even out of service area.
    At the end of the day though there will be the bloated commercial apps which plague the Android/IOS communities,vs the grassroots stuff that is still buildinggreat stuff for Maemo/Meego.
    When will there be another N900 with all of the apps alll of the tech but not the bloat and spyware.

  7. Re:I bet that name sticks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Google xPhone.

    Shouldn't it be a gPhone (Google), mPhone (Motorola) or aPhone (Android)? I see xPhone being too easy to confuse with "my ex-phone" (previous phone) or "my ex's phone" (previous relationship). Of couse the they could call it the [a-hj-z]Phone.

  8. Could it be?! by Buzzsaw5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    If it's going to be anything at all like THIS X Phone then I want to pre-order RIGHT NOW. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0RqPhr-hdA

  9. The next awesome phone... by Overzeetop · · Score: 2

    The next awesome phone will not be a tech geek's wet dream. It will not have 40 custom notifications types. It will not be "customizable" or "programmable" as we currently know it. If Google shoots for the technology demo handset, it will miss the entire modern use for electronics, which is to simply be an extension of your mind. I don't mean that is some telepathic, sci-fi way, but rather a device which is so well integrated that the actual interface never gets in the way and doesn't require set up.

    And geeks will hate it.

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    1. Re:The next awesome phone... by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "The only 'intuitive' interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned." — Bruce Ediger

      What you wish will never be. Unless you want to suck on your phone, of course. But other than that, there is no interface that won't "get in the way". Until you learn it. Then it will be sublimely easy to use. To you. Not necessarily to anyone else.

      The best we user interface designers can do is to try to minimize the number of times you have to poke your finger at your phone to get it to do what you want. Unfortunately for us, we have to do that for 6 or 7 different usage patterns, so nobody is ever happy. Teenagers text exhaustively. Old people want to make phone calls. Geeks want to tether all the time. Somebody in there mostly uses their phone to play games. Somebody else mostly uses their phone as a camera. And everybody thinks every feature they use are the important features and none of the other features are important.

      Do we try to make the phone learn you? As it turns out, that's even more obnoxious. About when you've learned where everything is, it adapts, and changes things. Trying to guess what you want is counterproductive, to say the least.

      So.... we give you set up options. Move stuff, change stuff, rearrange stuff, until the stuff you use most often is easiest to get to. Or not. You could just leave it alone.

      Anyway, quit complaining, or we'll make your next phone shaped like a boob. Intuitive.

    2. Re:The next awesome phone... by swillden · · Score: 2

      "The only 'intuitive' interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned." — Bruce Ediger

      And the nipple isn't all that intuitive, either. Babies have to learn how to latch on correctly. In recent years, where young mothers often don't have the support of their mothers and other older women around to help them teach their babies, this has led to the creation of a new career: Lactation consultants are employed by hospitals to help teach mothers how to teach their babies to use the nipple.

      It's all learned.

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  10. Re:An important ingredient to achieve "Touchdown!" by binarylarry · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thanks, we were going with the generic ugly slab approach but after reading your comment, we've decided to make it look good.

    -- Google xphone team

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  11. Found 2 story links by SternisheFan · · Score: 2
    Not an awful lot of detail yet, just that it's probably going to be officially announed in March 2013.

    http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/21/motorola-x-phone-x-tablet-rumor-android-smartphone/

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413528,00.asp

    1. Re:Found 2 story links by SternisheFan · · Score: 2
      From NDTV: " Google Inc is working with recently acquired Motorola on a handset codenamed "X-phone", aimed at grabbing market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Google acquired Motorola in May for $12.5 billion to bolster its patent portfolio as its Android mobile operating system competes with rivals such as Apple and Samsung. The Journal quoted the people saying that Motorola is working on two fronts: devices that will be sold by carrier partner Verizon Wireless, and on the X phone. Motorola plans to enhance the X Phone with its recent acquisition of Viewdle, an imaging and gesture-recognition software developer. The new handset is due out sometime next year, the business daily said, citing a person familiar with the plans. Motorola is also expected to work on an "X" tablet after the phone. Google Chief Executive Larry Page is said to have promised a significant marketing budget for the unit, the newspaper said quoting the persons."

      http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/google-reportedly-working-with-motorola-on-x-phone-x-tablet-308598

  12. microSD card by kc8tbe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe in addition to flexible screens, a brain scanner, and antigravity, this Nexus phone will finally feature the latest in high-bandwidth media transfer technology. An unnamed source tells me this wireless technology will take the revolutionary form of a small, fingernail-sized chip that can be easily inserted into and removed from the phone. Many gigabytes of data from the cloud can be stored on the chip and then transfered between the phone and other compatible devices such as phones, tablets, and notebooks. Some media sources have speculated that this pioneering technology may even allow users to access their media when an Internet connection is not available, although experts have cautioned that the technology to implement such a feature will not be available until 2015 at the earliest...

  13. "such as advanced gesture recognition" by fermion · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Isn't this a software feature that can be incorporated in all phones? Is this the beginning of Google keeping the best for itself, as MS used to do, and only releasing the second rate product to others?

    It is inconceivable that Google can't release software and technical specs to the OEM and have these phones produced. The only thing I can think of is this is going to be another incompatible version of Android, i.e. most phones are not going to upgrade to it, so the best way to handle the PR is to make it sound like a new special version.

    Apple really screwed the pooch by making smart phones look like computers, in terms of the ability to upgrade the software. It would have better to simply have the expectation of upgrading the phone every two years to get an upgrade, with simple updates given between those times. It would have made the carriers much more happy, knowing users would have to sign a new two year contract to get the latest software. Even better if updates were every 18 months so customers would just build up contracts. As it is, I my phone is two years old and still run current OS and has many of the current features. I will upgrade soon because it makes no sense not to if you are paying monthly tarrifs.

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  14. Re:pay wall by SternisheFan · · Score: 4, Informative
    "AMIR EFRATI of the Wall Street Journal writes: Engineers at Motorola are hard at work on a sophisticated handset—known internally as the "X phone"—but the Google Inc. unit is running into some obstacles in its effort to provide more potent competition for Apple Inc., said people familiar with the matter. Seven months after being acquired by Google for $12.5 billion, Motorola is designing its marquee handset with cutting-edge features to stand apart from existing phones when it is released next year, these people said.

    But while Google is known for swift execution on the Web, its new hardware unit has run into hurdles associated with manufacturing and supply-chain management that have caused the company to rethink some initial plans for the X phone, such as using a bendable screen, these people added. The previously undisclosed development effort is a key facet of Google's strategy for boosting the minuscule market position of the cellphone pioneer, based partly on bolstering quality while reducing the quantity of Motorola products.

    Motorola is primarily working on two fronts: devices that will be sold by carrier partner Verizon Wireless, such as the "Droid" line of smartphones, and the X phone, these people said. Motorola is also expected to work on an "X" tablet after the phone, the people added. Meanwhile, Google must manage complex relationships with smartphone makers that use its Android mobile-device software—particularly with Samsung Electronics Co., a Motorola rival that has become the No. 1 smartphone maker with Google's help."

  15. this comes to mind by nimbius · · Score: 2
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  16. A tablet is expected to follow? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

    What is the Google Nexus supposed to be if it's not a Google Tablet?

  17. Customer service worse than the wireless carriers' by msk · · Score: 2

    Unfortunately, if both my own experience and that of Consumerist submitters is accurate, Google is even less responsive to individual customers than the big wireless carriers.

    It's sad.

  18. Probably for the best by wicka_wicka · · Score: 2

    This is great news. It's frustrating to look at the lineup of Android handsets and see all the different ways the various OEMs have taken a good platform and ruined it. It's even more frustrating when you find the magical Phone That Doesn't Suck and ask yourself if/when it's going to get OS updates. Android is a mess and Google needs to take back some control.

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  19. I got a feeling by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 2

    that Google will be adding all sort of 'sensors' to the cameras and microphones using a special DSP chip to process the information. You won't just have voice commands, but you will be able to make gestures with your hands in an ASL type of control using the camera. It would come in handy for the deaf and possible it can translate ASL into text as well for faster typing. Non-Verbal commands I think is what they might call it. There will most likely be ASIC chips added for SHA-256 hashing so it could process Bitcoin mining and solve SHA-256 hashes for other reasons as well.

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