Hands On With Motorola's Moto X

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Hands On With Motorola's Moto X

Posted by timothy on Thursday August 1, 2013 @10:20AM from the variable-names-never-change dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "After months of speculation, leaks, and cryptic tweets, Motorola's new flagship smartphone is upon us. The Moto X runs Android 4.2.2 and is powered by the new Motorola X8 mobile computing system that includes several chips: a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, as well as a natural language processor and a contextual computing processor that handles the sensors. The phone carries a 4.7-inch, 1,280-by-720 display with 316 pixels per inch. Also since the phone features an active display, time and other selected alerts — text messages, missed calls, etc. — are shown without having to wake up your phone. Among the other features that Motorola talked up was the touchless control. Once activated, you can talk to your Moto X from up to 15 feet away. The Moto X differentiates itself from the other droid phones with customization options, and since Motorola is assembling the Moto X in Fort Worth, Texas, the company expects users to have their customized Moto X within four days of placing an order."

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yes but.... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-08-01 10:24 · Score: 1

yes... but does it run carrier-mandated bloatware that you can't remove?
1. Re:yes but.... by cheater512 · 2013-08-01 10:37 · Score: 1
  
  No. Android 4.2 added a feature to hide any app regardless of whether it is put on by your carrier or not.
2. Re:yes but.... by Archangel+Michael · 2013-08-01 10:47 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Hiding is not the same as removing.
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
3. Re:yes but.... by cheater512 · 2013-08-01 11:02 · Score: 1
  
  If the carrier installed app can't do anything any more and doesn't show up anywhere, its essentially the same.
4. Re:yes but.... by contrapunctus · 2013-08-01 11:11 · Score: 2
  
  it still takes up space. and does hiding it mean disabling it? or does it still use up the battery if it runs in the background?
5. Re:yes but.... by Mike+Buddha · 2013-08-01 11:32 · Score: 1
  
  They did announce a Google version a la the HTC One 7 Samsung Galaxy S4 with no crap on it.
  
  --
  by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
6. Re:yes but.... by amRadioHed · 2013-08-01 11:52 · Score: 1
  
  The apps are disabled and can not be run when you hide them. I wish they could be removed entirely, but the ability to hide the apps works very well still.
  
  --
  We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
7. Re:yes but.... by Adult+film+producer · 2013-08-01 13:03 · Score: 2
  
  No.. but it does listen to you 24/7. That's a nice feature.. don't worry about the NSA or anybody else snooping on your conversations.
8. Re:yes but.... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-08-01 13:18 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I'm tired of excuses from people like GP. If a binary still exists on the storage medium. It is not hidden, uninstalled, or anything else. It is still prone to being executed. This is basic IT folks.
  What does "prone to being executed" mean? You can't launch it. The OS won't launch it. I suppose you could root the phone and launch it from the debug shell?
9. Re:yes but.... by Miamicanes · 2013-08-01 14:48 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  > I suppose you could root the phone and launch it from the debug shell?
  This is Motorola we're talking about. I'd strongly advise NOT taking that for granted if it's a factor in your purchasing decision.
  Motorola has a long, sordid history of locking down bootloaders, then abandoning once-flagship phones less than a year later. Did I mention that the Photon & Electrify have the nearly-exclusive notoriety of being just about the only known modern Android phones with a real risk of getting bricked while rooting?
  Personally, I'd buy a pocket hostpot and haul around a wifi phablet for the rest of my life before I'll *ever* willingly buy another Motorola Android device with a locked bootloader. I totally bought into the mass delusion at XDA that Google would somehow clean house at Motorola, make them non-Evil, and turn our phones into de-facto (if officially-unsupported) Nexi. Obviously, we were wrong.
  Motorola (with Google's blessing) didn't just abandon us... they chained us up first, then shoved us face-first onto an anthill just to make sure we were *really* fucked.
  Don't buy a Motorola phone unless you're 100% cool with buying a dead-end phone that you'll never be allowed to fix when it ends up sucking.
10. Re:yes but.... by iluvcapra · 2013-08-01 17:21 · Score: 2
  
  Yes, but does Motorola know it yet?
  
  --
  Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
11. Re:yes but.... by davester666 · 2013-08-01 18:08 · Score: 2
  
  Yes. Motorola is the reason why Google's evil bit got set to 1.
  
  --
  Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
12. Re:yes but.... by Jane+Q.+Public · 2013-08-01 18:10 · Score: 1
  
  This was my thought.
  
  "Now you can run EVERYTHING on your phone, not just searches, directly though Google's servers!"
  
  How convenient.
13. Re:yes but.... by betterprimate · 2013-08-01 19:49 · Score: 1
  
  With motox, you'll always be caught smiling.
14. Re:yes but.... by jkflying · 2013-08-02 01:09 · Score: 2
  
  The Moto X ships with an unlocked bootloader. Take that as you want, but to me it is a sign of change. I know, personally, I swore off of Moto after one particularly bad experience, but this might change my mind.
  
  --
  Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
15. Re:yes but.... by rwise2112 · 2013-08-02 01:55 · Score: 1
  
  Motorola was caught red-handed sending *all* data you put on the phone back to Motorola over unencrypted HTTP. The data included passwords, pictures you have taken, etc.
  Motorola is now right next to Sony on my "do not trust" list.
  You should maybe take into consideration, that this phone is really the 1st from Motorola where it's been owned by Google. Others have been released, but those would have been disigned, at least partially, before the acquisition.
  
  --
  
  "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
16. Re:yes but.... by Miamicanes · 2013-08-02 02:22 · Score: 1
  
  > The Moto X ships with an unlocked bootloader.
  Link to reference(s), please? I'll believe it when I see it confirmed at XDA & somebody has Cyanogen or OpenKANG running on it.
  Motorola is the psychopath of the mobile phone industry. It tells lies that would have made Hitler's propaganda team blush, then lashes out at its customers & blames them for making it angry. Google didn't buy Motorola for their patents... Google bought Motorola because it needed an evil proxy to do their dirty work for them.
17. Re:yes but.... by jkflying · 2013-08-02 06:37 · Score: 1
  
  Hmmm, it seems my memory fools me. I'm sure I read that all of the unlocked-sim models are unlocked-bootloader as well, but I can't seem to find it now. Regardless, they are also planning to have a Google Play version (which will be unlocked, if the S4 and One are anything to go by) and a developer version, which will be bloatware-free and unlocked. But we might have to wait longer for those.
  
  --
  Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
18. Re:yes but.... by jc42 · 2013-08-07 03:50 · Score: 1
  
  Motorola was caught red-handed sending *all* data you put on the phone back to Motorola over unencrypted HTTP. The data included passwords, pictures you have taken, etc. Motorola is now right next to Sony on my "do not trust" list.
  You should maybe take into consideration, that this phone is really the 1st from Motorola where it's been owned by Google.
  Well, maybe, but it might be a few years too late for that. I recall a few years back, when I stumbled across some warnings that the Google toolbar acted similarly. Out of curiosity, I set up a simple test. I created a honeypot directory, hidden behind an active index.html file, and linked a few files into it. I watched for a few days, and while the index.html file was downloaded at the usual couple thousand hits per day, the honeypot didn't show up in the server's access_log file.
  Then I installed the Google Toolbar in a couple of browsers on another machine, and waited another day, and verified that the honeypot still had had no accesses. So far, so good. Then I went to one of those browsers, typed in the URL for the honeypot, got a list of its files in the browser's window, and started checking the access_log file over on the server.
  After about 3 minutes, the access_log showed an access to the honeypot from a googlebot. I verified that the IP address was owned by google. A few minutes later, all the files in the honeypot had also been accessed by other googlebots. The only possible explanation for this is that the toolbar had reported the URL back to the google database.
  I removed the Google toolbars, and have never installed them (or any other toolbar) in any browser that I use "for real" (as contrasted with those used for web testing). I verified that the honeypot was still being accessed by googlebots. I removed the honeypot.
  A check a year later showed that the honeypot and its files were still findable via google. This tells me a lot about google's policy on such backdoors. If you trust anything that came with them to keep your data private, you may be in for some unpleasant surprises.
  
  --
  Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
How about the big question... by mlts · 2013-08-01 10:26 · Score: 1

How unlockable (if at all) is the bootloader? Just an OEM unlock (like the Nexus line), sign in and get an unlock key (like HTC and Sony), or a special "dev" edition like previously.
I love the quality of the radios on Moto products, but for a decent Android ROM, unless Motorola opens their devices up, I'll probably pass this round of their offerings.
1. Re:How about the big question... by alen · 2013-08-01 10:44 · Score: 1
  
  i have an iphone 5 on AT&T and a Galaxy S3 on Verizon in NYC. both phones the LTE goes in and out all the time.
  wait a few years for total LTE coverage if you want LTE 100% of the time
2. Re:How about the big question... by Tailhook · 2013-08-01 10:46 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  How unlockable (if at all) is the bootloader?
  It's a fully locked device. This is not a Nexus successor.
  How conventional. Google could have thrown a grenade into the portable world. Instead they make a Samsung wannabe, complete with bloated marketing budget.
  Not interested.
  
  --
  Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
3. Re:How about the big question... by Anonymous+Psychopath · 2013-08-01 10:46 · Score: 1
  
  How unlockable (if at all) is the bootloader? Just an OEM unlock (like the Nexus line), sign in and get an unlock key (like HTC and Sony), or a special "dev" edition like previously.
  I love the quality of the radios on Moto products, but for a decent Android ROM, unless Motorola opens their devices up, I'll probably pass this round of their offerings.
  If you buy an unlocked version of this phone, the bootloader comes unlocked as well. Reportedly.
  
  --
  Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
4. Re:How about the big question... by Peristaltic · 2013-08-01 10:50 · Score: 1
  
  I had similar issues with a Bionic.
5. Re:How about the big question... by mjwx · 2013-08-01 11:33 · Score: 1
  
  How unlockable (if at all) is the bootloader? Just an OEM unlock (like the Nexus line), sign in and get an unlock key (like HTC and Sony), or a special "dev" edition like previously.
  I love the quality of the radios on Moto products, but for a decent Android ROM, unless Motorola opens their devices up, I'll probably pass this round of their offerings.
  This, Hardware wise the Motorola Milestone (Droid in the US) was the best Android phone I've ever owned. However the software was lacking... Badly. No updates from Moto, locked bootloader, crapload of hacking to get an unstable version of 2.2 on there. I'd be happy to replace my GNex with a Moto X as long as the bootloader is unlocked. Even though this device comes with 4.2.2 and my GNex was just updated to 4.3, as long as I can load a ROM of my choosing that is fine.
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
6. Re:How about the big question... by Nemyst · 2013-08-01 11:57 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Engadget's preview claims that any custom Moto X ordered from their Moto Maker site comes with an unlocked bootloader. I'm guessing carrier-sold phones would have a locked one.
7. Re:How about the big question... by synapse7 · 2013-08-02 00:26 · Score: 1
  
  Will have a hard time claiming that if Samsung beats Moto with a 4.3 rom. Maybe the ties between Moto and google are not so strong.
Android 4.3? by KugelKurt · 2013-08-01 10:30 · Score: 3, Insightful

So a Google subsidiary can't use Google's latest OS? Lame... I rather get a Nexus instead.
1. Re:Android 4.3? by AuMatar · 2013-08-01 10:48 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Believe it or not, validation testing for carriers takes a long time- months. Switch a major piece of the software and you have to restart from scratch. This device probably entered testing before 4.3 was announced.
  
  --
  I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
2. Re:Android 4.3? by Anonymous+Psychopath · 2013-08-01 10:52 · Score: 2
  
  So a Google subsidiary can't use Google's latest OS? Lame... I rather get a Nexus instead.
  My guess is they were already well into the carrier qualification/test process with 4.2.2 when 4.3 launched. It seems reasonable that a 4.3 upgrade would be forthcoming. And since the unlocked versions are supposed to have an unlocked bootloader, I imagine CM10 will be available pretty quickly, so you can get your 4.3 goodies that way instead.
  
  --
  Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
3. Re:Android 4.3? by figleaf · 2013-08-01 10:56 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I don't understand.
  If Nexus and iOS devices can be updated without carrier interference, why can't everything else be similarly updated.
4. Re:Android 4.3? by Sir_Sri · 2013-08-01 11:43 · Score: 2
  
  You take the chance on your end that your phone accidentally uses 50MB of data a day doing that, or no longer works or the like.
  Well, apple I'm sure has a special deal. But with a droid, that's your problem if you do that. But if the carrier is pushing it out they want control over it.
  This is definitely somewhere MS or one of the big Android players could have gone for the jugular in the market and said 'the carrier is a dumb pipe and you control updates to YOUR device".
5. Re:Android 4.3? by tlhIngan · 2013-08-01 17:30 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Well, apple I'm sure has a special deal. But with a droid, that's your problem if you do that. But if the carrier is pushing it out they want control over it.
  This is definitely somewhere MS or one of the big Android players could have gone for the jugular in the market and said 'the carrier is a dumb pipe and you control updates to YOUR device".
  Except Apple has pretty much DONE that. Hell, they've gotten carriers to bend over and take it too - see Russian carriers dropping iPhone support because of onerous terms.
  Samsung is officially larger than Apple now - they beat Apple at their own game - turning $600M more profit than Apple in mobile devices. Profit, not revenue - $5.2B vs. $4.6B. Yes, over 10%.
  And Microsoft was smart enough to be able to do this too - while their Windows Phone rollouts are more phased rather than Apple's just-click-upgrade-yourself method, but they control those updates as well.
  Hell, Apple still does two things that few Android vendors do - they provide the OS update file so you can update it on your PC (Nexus devices have images you can flash, but it's not as easy or convenient as just clicking "Upgrade" in iTunes). Second, with iOS apps, you can download them on your PC and sync it over to your phone. If it's a large app, it's a lot more convenient to use your PC to download it over its wired connection rather than your phone to do it over wifi. And you have a backup too - doesn't matter if Apple removes it or anything, you always can reinstall it via iTunes sync.
  Yes, iTunes is hated, but it certainly has some useful features.
6. Re:Android 4.3? by kllrnohj · 2013-08-01 18:41 · Score: 1
  
  I don't understand.
  If Nexus and iOS devices can be updated without carrier interference, why can't everything else be similarly updated.
  Nexus devices aren't sold on a carrier, and those that are (Verizon Galaxy Nexus) *do* go through carrier testing.
  Who says iOS devices don't go through carrier testing? It's quite possible that iOS 7 is actually in carrier testing right now, hence the several month "betas" that Apple does. That could just be the carrier testing cycle right there.
7. Re:Android 4.3? by Miamicanes · 2013-08-01 18:44 · Score: 1
  
  The really sad part: AT&T and T-Mobile are theoretically GSM, yet AT&T customers with a Galaxy S3 are *still* waiting for 4.1.2. I mean, Jesus Fsck'ing God, even VERIZON got 4.1 several MONTHS ago.
  Time for Samsung to port new version of Android to every GSM phone on earth, except those running on AT&T or T-Mobile: N months.
  Time for Samsung to port new version of Android to AT&T and T-Mobile: N + X months.
  Time for AT&T to "validate" that the crippled AT&T-specific S3 camera app had "fixed focus to infinity" removed as an option, leaving only "autofocus" and "macro": N + X + F months.
  Hacking your phone to make Google Wallet work, then using it to buy lunch at McDonalds using it and smiling when you realize that AT&T or Verizon is completely cut out of the revenue stream because they wouldn't cooperate with Google: priceless.
8. Re:Android 4.3? by tanveer1979 · 2013-08-01 18:53 · Score: 1
  
  Most android phones I have used have an option(unchecked by default) which says download updates only on WIFI. So unless you went to the settings and enabled that, you won't download a software update over 3G or whatever
  
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9. Re:Android 4.3? by MachineShedFred · 2013-08-01 23:48 · Score: 1
  
  So Google doesn't have enough resources to concurrently test 4.2.2 and 4.3 on the same hardware, so that if issues are discovered in 4.3 they have a backup plan?
  It must suck to be so cash strapped that your QA team can't get that done.
  
  --
  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
10. Re:Android 4.3? by rwise2112 · 2013-08-02 02:21 · Score: 1
  
  I don't understand. If Nexus and iOS devices can be updated without carrier interference, why can't everything else be similarly updated.
  It's because of all the extra crap that the carriers put on the phones. Google releases the OS to the carriers, then the carriers test/update their crap to make sure ir works, then they release it. In Apple's case, they don't allow any carrier modifications AFAIK and Nexus devices don't have that either.
  For the new X, it has a customized camera app and possibly other things that, I guess, need to be tested.
  
  --
  
  "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
11. Re:Android 4.3? by Anonymous+Psychopath · 2013-08-02 04:58 · Score: 1
  
  So Google doesn't have enough resources to concurrently test 4.2.2 and 4.3 on the same hardware, so that if issues are discovered in 4.3 they have a backup plan?
  It must suck to be so cash strapped that your QA team can't get that done.
  I said carrier qualification, meaning Verizon, AT&T, Spring, T-Mobile, and Rogers. If they had all started their QA testing prior to 4.3, they wouldn't start all over again. You do understand that the carriers all have their own test processes to complete prior to selling a new device, right? Frankly, a multi-carrier launch like this is an incredible feat of logistics and project management to execute.
  
  --
  Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
12. Re:Android 4.3? by MachineShedFred · 2013-08-02 05:15 · Score: 1
  
  Then, like so many others have asked, how does Apple do it?
  They release new software and baseband firmware for 3 year old phones routinely.
  
  --
  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
13. Re:Android 4.3? by Sir_Sri · 2013-08-02 16:16 · Score: 1
  
  Except Apple has pretty much DONE that.
  
  yes, exactly. Someone else should have done that. Handing control to the carriers is a bad idea. Apple understood that.
  I'm sure Apple assumes a certain amount of the risk for accidentally breaking the network with the carriers though.
  
  Samsung is officially larger than Apple now
  
  And have been for a while. Of course they're huge because hacker geeks loved them for being easy to root and they have great hardware. If you were trying to enter the market against samsung having a 'the carriers don't control your updates' policy would be a big competitive advantage.
  I singled out MS for a reason. They had (have?) a developer programme, where you could pay 100 bucks and do whatever you wanted to your device. Right idea, wrong implementation. If you attract hackers who will do interesting things on the phone you'll attract customers to but the phones that do the most interesting things.
  Apple is where it is, and has the market it has because there's a minimum of carrier bullshit to go with it, it's simple - great for some people. Samsung is where it is because it has the most power and the most options in phones. But we'd all be better off if there was someone in the market had the best of both worlds, with a wide offering of phones and a 'minimal carrier bloatware interference' policy. The obvious candidate for that would have been Microsoft after none of the Android guys did it, though it philosophically makes the most sense on android.
  Google kinda does it, but well, google seems to be happy to take a back seat to samsung.
  
  Yes, iTunes is hated, but it certainly has some useful features.
  
  Well it's bloated. iTunes was really excellent grandma and technically illiterate user software for a long time and it I agree it definitely has its uses.
14. Re:Android 4.3? by Sir_Sri · 2013-08-02 16:19 · Score: 1
  
  I was making a not so subtle reference to a yahoo mail bug that caused the app to redownload all of you last 50 messages every day, and not cache them.
  I'm not talking about specifically downloading a new OS. However you get the OS, what it does day to day on 3G *could* be a problem. Naturally, it generally isn't because people actually test these things, but mistakes happen and if you push out an update to 10 million users who all accidentally do 1gig of 3G downloading before you fix it you're going to have a LOT of very unhappy customers.
  My guess it that Apple has a deal with the carriers that if they do that, Apple has it covered. No one else seems to have been willing/able to make such a deal.
Active display? by uglyduckling · 2013-08-01 10:36 · Score: 2

"Also since the phone features an active display..." - as opposed to all the phones with inactive displays? Nice slashvertisement, with almost no technical details.
This got me, too. by aussersterne · 2013-08-01 10:43 · Score: 1

What, exactly, does this mean, and how is it different from my current Android phone and widgets to show me these things on the lockscreen?

--
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
1. Re:This got me, too. by Anonymous+Psychopath · 2013-08-01 10:48 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  What, exactly, does this mean, and how is it different from my current Android phone and widgets to show me these things on the lockscreen?
  It uses the screen instead of a notification LED, but only powers the portion of the screen necessary for the alert instead of turning the whole display on. I'm not sure how this works, but that's what they're claiming. It's not at all like a lock screen.
  
  --
  Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
2. Re:This got me, too. by safetyinnumbers · 2013-08-01 10:51 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  My Nokia C6-01 does this. It has an oled display, so presumably it only uses power for the illuminated pixes, with little power drain (as opposed to backlighting an entire LCD screen). So it always has a clock and other notifications on-screen all the time, without needing to press anything.
3. Re:This got me, too. by Intropy · 2013-08-01 10:52 · Score: 1
  
  It tries to determine when you're looking at it, and it shows the screen then instead of waiting for you to press the power button. Obviously since it can't really know when you're looking at it it guesses based on movements and touching the screen.
4. Re:This got me, too. by Nerdfest · 2013-08-01 10:56 · Score: 1
  
  The S4 does the same, I think. There are cases available that have a little window in them that shows an 'active' subset of the screen.
5. Re:This got me, too. by timeOday · 2013-08-01 11:12 · Score: 2
  
  That is really cool. With the advent of 4K TVs, it has occurred to me that it will be awesome to watch video games, sports, or movies on a 70" 4K display with surround sound and a big subwoofer, but that's way too much for watching news, or kids shows, or anything that should be background for at least some of the people nearby. It would dominate the whole living area and waste a lot of power. So it would be nice to just use 1/4 of the area in the middle for a non-upscaled 1080p display.
6. Re:This got me, too. by hawguy · 2013-08-01 11:41 · Score: 1
  
  What, exactly, does this mean, and how is it different from my current Android phone and widgets to show me these things on the lockscreen?
  It uses the screen instead of a notification LED, but only powers the portion of the screen necessary for the alert instead of turning the whole display on. I'm not sure how this works, but that's what they're claiming. It's not at all like a lock screen.
  I thought this was how AMOLED worked on all phones - only the pixels that are lit use any power so if you have a mostly black background with a few lit pixels, the screen uses little power. Does an "Active Display" do things differently?
7. Re:This got me, too. by drinkypoo · 2013-08-01 12:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  And then your 1080p stream can be surrounded by 3 more 1080p's worth of adverts
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
8. Re:This got me, too. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-08-01 12:20 · Score: 1
  
  This doesn't seem to be the case on my RAZR. At various point during boot and usage, the entire screen may be black but I can see light emitting from the entire screen when viewed in a dark environment.
  (Posted anonymously as I haven't been over here in ages and don't recall my login)
9. Re:This got me, too. by thegarbz · 2013-08-01 12:25 · Score: 1
  
  While that's great in theory OLED suffer from dimming over time. My old SGS screen spent a lot of its time off yet if I turn it on and make a white screen then you can see the faint imprint of the android notification bar at the top. Hopefully they haven't got the time turned up too bright or too blue both of which accelerate the dimming.
10. Re:This got me, too. by windwalkr · 2013-08-01 12:57 · Score: 1
  
  To be fair, Apple devices (at least, first and second gen iPads) have similar screen burn-in problems. Run the device with the same app too frequently and you will start to see minor but permanent panel degradation.
11. Re:This got me, too. by modmans2ndcoming · 2013-08-01 13:39 · Score: 1
  
  OLED Screens let you locally illuminate parts of the screen while other parts are completely off (that's why Black is really black and not just dark grey on OLED screens)
12. Re:This got me, too. by thegarbz · 2013-08-01 14:45 · Score: 1
  
  This is nothing about being fair. It's a function of the current state of technology. In Apple's case it is just outright poor. No modern LCD should have burn-in, that's a problem solved many years ago, and Apple shouldn't have accepted the poor panel from it's supplier (Samsung? dunno back then).
  OLED burn-in on the other hand is a function of the technology. It hasn't been solved. All vendors suffer from it, but steps can be taken to minimise the problem such as move things around the screen, don't use blue (it dims faster than any other colour). The idea of having something permanently displayed on an OLED when no one is looking at it seems like a bit of an engineering snafu. Samsung recognised this and displays the time and some minor notifications on the screen only when the phone is gestured, and only for long enough to read the screen. The downside there is it's so sensitive that my cat walking past the phone sets it off.
13. Re:This got me, too. by safetyinnumbers · 2013-08-01 18:07 · Score: 1
  
  The clock display on my C6 moves around, screen-saver fashion, and it is pretty dim.
14. Re:This got me, too. by thegarbz · 2013-08-01 19:13 · Score: 1
  
  Excellent. Good to see some companies still apply a little forethought to their products.
15. Re:This got me, too. by turp182 · 2013-08-02 00:03 · Score: 1
  
  Already been done:
  http://codinghorror.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a85dcdae970b0120a86dd2e5970b-pi
  Given the constant on-program ads I'd actually prefer such a layout. Then I could cover the advert parts with black paper and enjoy the show...
  
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  BlameBillCosby.com
$575- 16GB, mid-range CPU, AT&T-only 32GB/colo by CritterNYC · 2013-08-01 11:04 · Score: 5, Informative

It's $575 for the 16GB ($630 for the 32GB which is AT&T only at present) and no microSD so you're locked to that size. The customizations options are similarly on the worst-rated carrier in the US, AT&T. T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon get a black or white 16GB version. That's it. It's $199 for the 16GB one on a 2 year contract, which is the same as you'd pay for a top-tier phone like the HTC One 32GB or the Samsung Galaxy S4 16GB (with microSD so you can add up to 64GB more space on the cheap).

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Yawn by Dracos · 2013-08-01 12:24 · Score: 1

Unless a phone has a full QWERTY hardware keyboard, I don't really care. Unfortunately, the handset makers and carriers seem to think there's little to no market for such devices, so I'll be keeping my Epic 4G for a while.
1. Re:Yawn by Prof.Phreak · 2013-08-01 14:08 · Score: 1
  
  Try using Swype. It's surprisingly easy to type things really fast and accurately with just a thumb.
  
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  "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy
2. Re:Yawn by foniksonik · 2013-08-01 16:51 · Score: 1
  
  http://www.boxwave.com/apple-iphone-5-cases-and-covers/keyboard-buddy-apple-iphone-5-case/bwpdd/pkz-zvwt/
  
  --
  A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
3. Re:Yawn by MrNiceguy_KS · 2013-08-02 01:56 · Score: 1
  
  Unless a phone has a full QWERTY hardware keyboard, I don't really care. Unfortunately, the handset makers and carriers seem to think there's little to no market for such devices, so I'll be keeping my Epic 4G for a while.
  Fellow Epic 4G user here, and yes, I'll give it up when it is pried from my cold, dead hands. (Or, more likely and less dramatically, when the device itself is dead.)
  I've worked with dozens of phones, and have never found a keyboard that was as easy to use as the E4G. Yes, I have used the supposedly fantastic keyboard on Blackberries, but really wasn't impressed. And while Swype is good for jotting out a quick text message or email reply, but when I'm using my phone to SSH into a box, or trying to google the exact error message something is throwing up, or doing just about anything where I would like to be able to use my screen to actually display stuff, nothing beats a physical keyboard.
  I don't understand the phone makers' obsession with thinner and thinner phones. At least give us an option for one that's twice as thick, but has an actual keyboard. Especially now that 4.7" screens seem to be the standard for high-end phones. That gives a lot of room for a very usable keyboard. One thing that sets the E4G keyboard apart - an actual row of number keys. They could fit them in because, at the time, the E4G was one of the larger phones out there. Imagine how nice a keyboard you could fit behind the huge phones of today.
  
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  Redundancy is good And also good.
Apple manages, why not Google? by SuperKendall · 2013-08-01 13:04 · Score: 1

Believe it or not, validation testing for carriers takes a long time- months.
Apple manages to do this with most phone launch, have a new version of iOS released along with the phone.
If you were talking about a phone from any other company - yes I would buy they could only validate against a version they had somewhat prior to launch. But Motorola is Google. They should have been validating against a beta version of the OS in the same way Apple does before launch.

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"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Re:Apple manages, why not Google? by symbolset · 2013-08-01 14:19 · Score: 1
  
  Apple makes both the OS and the phone, so they can hold the OS release until their new phone is done testing and then push it out to the other phones. Motorola is owned by Google but they're keeping an arm's length relationship - i.e. they don't get early access. What you want is for Moto to crawl up inside the Android team, do the vertical integration thing with bidirectional engineering, ruin all the partner relationships. Obviously that is not going to happen. Boo hoo. Moto is not as dumb as you want them to be.
  The Moto phone will get 4.3 when it's done testing. They'll put a lot of work into pushing it out as fast as they can, but they're not getting an earlier peek than any other OHA member.
  Nexus phones are different. The Nexus phone maker gets special access, Google gets special influence. These are the closest thing to Apple's vertical integration there is in Android.
  
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  Help stamp out iliturcy.
Not close to essentially by SuperKendall · 2013-08-01 13:06 · Score: 1

If the carrier installed app can't do anything any more and doesn't show up anywhere, its essentially the same.
Not on a device without expandable storage its not.
And really not even then.

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"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Re:Not close to essentially by kllrnohj · 2013-08-01 18:38 · Score: 2
  
  Not on a device without expandable storage its not.
  And really not even then.
  Yes it is, because it sits on /system which is a fixed size partition. Actually deleting the APK would get you exactly 0 bytes more storage *and* would break the factory reset option *and* breaks incremental OTAs.
No difference by SuperKendall · 2013-08-01 14:28 · Score: 2

Apple makes both the OS and the phone
In this case, the same is true of Google. They wholly own Motorola and designed and produced the X.
Nexus phones are different.
Yes they are - they are re-badged phones made by someone else!!! They are not AS close to Google as the X phone and yet they always get the latest release.
What you want is for Moto to crawl up inside the Android team
Do you really mean to say the Motorola team was not working hand in hand with coreOS developers? No way is Google that stupid.

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"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Re:No difference by symbolset · 2013-08-01 18:52 · Score: 1
  
  I guess the only possible response to this is, "yes, they are that stupid."
  /Where stupid is doing the right thing.
  
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Ingress... by __aagmrb7289 · 2013-08-01 16:04 · Score: 1

Ya, but how well does Ingress play on it?
1. Re:Ingress... by shuz · 2013-08-01 18:21 · Score: 2
  
  Likely better than most other phones. You'll have a much better chance to be able to run both ingress and either a G+ chat or something like ITTC mobile/Ingress intel map. All other non-nexus 4 phones, as far as I am aware of, have the Android 4.2.2+ dual app feature restricted to using only about 12 apps, non of them worthwhile to ever run two of them at the same time. Unless of course you really enjoy being in a G+ chat while watching youtube or looking at google maps while chatting or watching youtube...
  This could be a good phone, we will just have to wait until people have more time to play with it, break it down, and develop for its unique features.
  
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  There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
Re:Agreed by foniksonik · 2013-08-01 16:51 · Score: 1

http://www.boxwave.com/apple-iphone-5-cases-and-covers/keyboard-buddy-apple-iphone-5-case/bwpdd/pkz-zvwt/
Voila.

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A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Re:Agreed by Dracos · 2013-08-01 18:10 · Score: 1

You nailed it.... I want to see the keyboard and my screen contents at the same time. I've been considering the Photon Q, but the non-removable battery and hardwired SIM card give me pause. Also, what's it like moving away from an AMOLED screen?
Google please... by ctrl-alt-canc · 2013-08-01 18:34 · Score: 1

...tell us about the NSA customization options that are shipped with the phone.
1. Re:Google please... by turp182 · 2013-08-02 00:08 · Score: 1
  
  Complete tracking, as with all other devices/computers that use the internet or public phone systems, worldwide.
  At this point it's not even a question worth asking.
  Being tracked should be a tacit assumption at this point.
  
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  BlameBillCosby.com
Re:Agreed by vecctor · 2013-08-01 18:56 · Score: 1

Same poster - wasn't logged in above.
The resolution on the Photon Q is higher than the Epic 4G, so there is that, but overall I like either. The AMOLED has a certain "pop" to the colors that LCD doesn't, but it seems to me like the colors are more accurate on the LCD. AMOLED probably uses less power, but the Photon Q also has a bigger battery.
The nonremovable battery and hardwired sim are indeed poor choices - this would be a great international phone. There is a guy on one of the android forums who will wire in a sim slot - the contacts are there for it. It does require surgery though.
I never replaced the battery on my Epic, but if I had kept it any longer than the two years, I would have wanted to (it was holding less and less charge).
My contract was up and I wanted ICS and newer hardware, so I went for the Photon Q. I absolutely recommend it. Motorola makes a very good hardware keyboard (the various droid phones) and the Photon is no exception. The GPS is miles ahead of the Epic (SGS GPS was crap). It is also much snappier and of course has the newer android.
I typed this post on the Photon :-)

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Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.
Really? by bunkymag · 2013-08-01 20:17 · Score: 1

"since Motorola is assembling the Moto X in Fort Worth, Texas, the company expects American users to have their customized Moto X within four days of placing an order."
FTFY. Or should it be Texan users..
One very important question to take note of... by SolomonLallie · 2013-08-01 20:59 · Score: 1

will it blend?
Stereotypical objections to the MotoX by jkflying · 2013-08-02 01:33 · Score: 2

ERMAGERD LESS CPU CORES SUCKS!!! I RUN 4 CPU INTENSIVE TASKS AT ONCE, ONE WITH EACH OF MY INDEX FINGERS, AND ONE WITH EACH OF MY NIPPLES.
I LIKE TO KEEP 1BAJILLION MOVIES ON MY PHONE IN HIGHER RESOLUTION THAN THE SCREEN! I NEED A 1TB SD CARD.
I CAN TELL BETWEEN 1080p AND 720p AT NORMAL VIEWING DISTANCES ON A 4.7" SCREEN!
I NEVER EVEN USE MY PHONE, I JUST DROOL AT THE SPEC SHEET!
Yep, that pretty much summarises all the complaints I've seen.
If you look at the benchmarks, it does better than or equal to a Galaxy S4 on everything except GeekBench, where it still ties for memory speed. So I wouldn't call the CPU/GPU 'mid-range', like everybody seems to be saying.
People want 1080p on a 4.7" screen - are they crazy? I really don't understand where that sentiment comes from. It's just more pixels for the GPU to push around, and it means your games will run worse.
So, they have 'just' 2 cores and a 720p screen, this gives better battery life without making the phone massive. I can totally live with that. I really like what they've done here. They've looked at the system as a whole, and instead of loading it with pointless shit like Samsung, or going with massive bezels on something that's meant to fit in your pocket like HTC, they've made almost the entire front of the phone a screen, make it fit in your hand nicely, given it great battery life, and great performance. And it's customisable and made in the USA. It even has 802.11ac.
What else do you want? And be reasonable, this is today's tech we're talking about.

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