Slashdot Mirror
Motorola Building "Self-Aware" Smartphone
Nerval's Lobster writes "Back in the ancient days of 2009, Motorola Mobility earned considerable buzz with its Droid smartphone. Marketed as an iPhone alternative, the device featured a sliding QWERTY keyboard and a chunky black body that seemed positively Schwarzenegger-esque in comparison to its svelte Apple rival. But Motorola failed to translate that buzz into sustained momentum in the smartphone space. Instead, Samsung became the dominant Android smartphone manufacturer, battling toe-to-toe with Apple for market-share and profits. Even Google acquiring Motorola for the princely sum of $12.1 billion didn't really seem to alter the equation very much. Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside wants to change all that. In a May 29 talk at AllThingsD's D11 conference, he told the audience that Motorola has a 'hero phone' in the works, dubbed the Moto X—and that it's self-aware. 'It anticipates my needs,' he said, according to AllThingD's live blog of the event. But what does that actually mean? Thanks to embedded sensors, the phone knows when the user removes it from his or her pocket; in theory, that capability could serve broader applications, such as the phone recognizing where the user is located within a city and serving up content and applications accordingly. In fact, it sounds a bit like Google Now on steroids—or like the smartphone precursor to SkyNet, the supercomputer from the Terminator movies that's so intelligent, it decides that the world would be better off if it ruled over humanity."
Who knows, maybe too much automation isn't such a good thing. For example, your phone anticipates you wish to make a phone call, but will it anticipate your emotional state at that time? It's much like e-mails. In the heat of the moment we can send stuff, but when we cooled down, often, we kinda wished we hadn't. So, in that same vein, sometimes, you have to wonder in this day and age, if certain actions should not be limited to a human decision. I don't think a machine should anticipate an action. But that's my 2 cents.
Reality, self aware, marketing jargon for a way to differentiate an Android phone at the top of mobile phone price spectrum, as we have hit the wall in terms of size and resolution. Goals Waterproof to 3m. IR blaster
Additional frequencies to control more things in your environment, roller doors, electric locks. Dock with everything, notebooks, PCs, big screen TVs. Secure docking, dock with bank terminals, phone to act as credit card, no more plastic card.
What ever other features people can come up with to differentiate phones at the top end of the mobile phone spectrum. I like the credit card one but that is up to the credit card companies and the chip they use to insert in the phone and replace the piece of plastic, better ID verification finally a picture and selected finger/thumb print, plus pin code.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
why ?
Because in Australia, "to root" also means "to fuck".