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Motorola Building "Self-Aware" Smartphone

Posted by samzenpus on from the listen-to-your-phone dept.

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."

10 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Proposed name by Alter_3d · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Motorola Skynet?

    1. Re:Proposed name by BrokenHalo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Heh. If it's self-aware, then it should be able to anticipate when I'm going to swear at it for "correcting" my perfectly spelt text to something ridiculous or meaningless.

      Fat chance.

  2. It will have high return rates by Spy+Handler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:It will have high return rates by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Funny

      Marvin? Is that you?

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  3. Self aware - blah by ickleberry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

  4. Summary by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Summary by YukariHirai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      Basically, yeah. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of my phone making decisions on its own. On paper it sounds like a good idea to have your devices anticipate your needs and do things to minimise how much you need to manually operate them, but these things at best never quite work right, usually get something or other hilariously wrong, and at worst entirely fuck everything up.

      And in any case... if we're talking inconveniences we must eliminate, needing to press a button on my phone and drag a finger across its screen before I use it for something is pretty far down the priority list. Likewise needing to scroll across a screen to launch the app I want. If it was something that I could program some "do not disturb" hours into and have it automatically reject any incoming calls during those hours (after ringing briefly so I'm not completely oblivious that someone's tried to contact me), then that'd be something I'd like. Or if I could set up some home automation and the phone could log in and switch things on when it detects I'm almost home (probably possible now as a DIY project, but requiring more electronics and programming skill than I have).

  5. Skip the gimmicks, focus on the 4 pillars: by Scot+Seese · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Battery Life
    Camera quality
    Display quality / size sweet spot
    Build quality / hand feel ..and a huge asterisk added to the end: Strip your shitty bloatware "custom UI" off it and leave it stock Android.

    --
    THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
  6. I'm curious, Doctor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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)

  7. mmmmm.. by houbou · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.