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."
The Motorola Skynet?
When the customer buys one and turns it on for the first time, it start noticing its surroundings and its owner. Pretty soon it will brick itself out of despair and the customer will be left with a dead phone.
Just from reading TFS, nothing that can't be achieved presently with a well-written bash (or python) script. Self-aware me bollox, phone probably can't recognise it's own plastic Chinese mass manufactured casing in a photograph
I always lol when I see the big hype drummed up when yesteryear's nerd-tech goes mainstream
It's a phone with a light sensor and maybe an accelerometer that can turn itself on when you pull it out of your pocket. Woo hoo. All the current mainstream smartphones could do that if they wanted to but most people don't seem to want their phones deciding when to turn themselves on.
By the posted definition every light that goes on when the sun goes down is "self aware".
I mean the other day I highlighted two cells and dragged them, it added numbers in a squence! It must be self-aware!
Mostly random stuff.
Battery Life ..and a huge asterisk added to the end: Strip your shitty bloatware "custom UI" off it and leave it stock Android.
Camera quality
Display quality / size sweet spot
Build quality / hand feel
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
KIRK: Why is it called Moto-X and not Moto-I?
DAYSTROM: Well, you see, the multitronic units one through nine were not entirely successful. This one is. Moto-X is ready to take control of your life.
KIRK: Total control?
DAYSTROM: That is what it was designed for, Captain.
KIRK: There are certain things men must do to remain men. Your phone would take that away.
DAYSTROM: There are other things a man like you might do.
KIRK: (quietly) Spock. The Moto-X is not responding to him like a computer. It's talking to him.
SPOCK: I am most impressed with the technology, Captain. Doctor Daystrom has created a mirror image of his mind.
MOTO-X: Consideration of all programming is that we must survive.
DAYSTROM: We will survive. Nothing can hurt you. I gave you that. You are great. I am great. Twenty years of groping to prove the things I'd done before were not accidents. Seminars and lectures to rows of fools who couldn't begin to understand my systems. Colleagues. Colleagues laughing behind my back at the boy wonder and becoming famous building on my work. Building on my work.
MCCOY: Jim, he's on the edge of a nervous breakdown, if not insanity.
KIRK: The Moto X must be destroyed.
DAYSTROM: Destroyed, Kirk? No. We're invincible. Look what we've done. Your mighty smartphones, Four toys to be crushed as we choose.
(Spock neck-pinches Daystrom.)
KIRK: Security, take him to Sickbay.
(Daystrom is carried off the Bridge.)
SPOCK: Fascinating.
KIRK: Take care of him, Doctor.
(McCoy leaves)
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.
"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."
Oh, good, well, I'm glad we're not overstating it or anything :) Lots of sensors != self-awareness. For my part, I'm more concerned about Wikipedia achieving sentience before my smartphone does. The last thing humanity will see is a teeming swarm of nanobots tearing apart the civilized world in search of the Ultimate Citation.
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of"-TMBG
nothing they say is anything remotely self aware. it's just marketing bullshit.
using sensors to detect if the phone is against cheek or pocket or face down on table is nothing new and neither is searching based on where you are. neither are terribly useful features though.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
From TFA:
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.
No mention of the fact that they crippled their own devices by not supporting them with updates, and locking the bootloaders so users couldn't update them either? If Motorola wants to rule the smartphone space, that is the attitude they need to change. The Milestone (non-Verizon Droid) was an amazing piece of hardware, crippled by stupid policies and lack of software support.