Motus
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Raleigh's expanded Motus e-bike line offers more power and range
Raleigh has launched a revamped Motus e-bike line with more power and choices.
ICYMI: Pigeon cancer detection, pill stethoscope and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362475{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362475, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362475{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362475").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers were able to train pigeons to choose whether medical images contain a benign or malignant tumor with 99% accuracy. MIT scientists made a biomonitoring pill that patients can swallow to collect their pulse, breathing rate and internal temperature. And musicians have a new option in the form of the tiny Motus instrument, which recognizes shaking and twirling to create music out of movement.
Smart sleeve helps pro baseball players avoid injury
While the average Joe might use a wearable to see how many calories he burned on the way to Starbucks, such devices can be infinitely more useful for pro athletes. The Motus Sleeve (shown below) can even help Major League Baseball (MLB) players, especially pitchers, to perform better and avoid injuries or possible career-ending Tommy John's surgery. It has a removable 3D sensor sensor with six accelerometers and gyros that's placed in a pouch on the player's elbow. The Sleeve then collects data like arm speed, pitch counts, elbow torque and other pertinent data for hurlers, and swing data for batters.
Motorola Backflip / Enzo bringing Android contortions to AT&T
Just when we though this decade had run short on phone form factors, Motorola comes along to blow our minds with this new Backflip / Enzo / Motus device. Amazingly, the most interesting part of this device might not even be the reverse hinge design, which flips the keyboard back behind the screen and faces out when not in use, but the fact that there's a clear-as-day AT&T logo on it -- something we'd heard rumored, but dared not believe until we saw it with our own eyes. The rest of the leaked photos go on to corroborate earlier rumors: there's a touchpad on the back of the keyboard to aid in no-look scrolling, it's running Blur on top of Android 1.5 (with a few AT&T apps, Yahoo search and no Gmail), and it runs the same 528MHz processor as the CLIQ. Hard to believe this very same company builds the Droid. [Thanks, Jeff B.]
Motorola Motus AT&T rumor gains momentum
We can't confirm the details here, but we've received some pretty in-depth information about the Motorola Motus' possible launch on AT&T that would seem to largely corroborate what we've been hearing so far: Sure enough, the keyboard flips backwards so that it's facing out when the phone is "closed." When it's open, the underside of the keyboard has a trackpad that allows you to scroll the screen while typing with your thumbs (it's unclear how well this'll actually work in practice). There's also a third hinge position that keeps the phone upright -- perfect for use as a video display or alarm clock. There's a 5 megapixel cam and LED flash mounted on the keyboard (notice that white spot in the lower left?) designed to be used as a webcam, but we don't know whether this'll function as a traditional 3G video call (we'd doubt it) or over some other service. It runs Blur. If you like Blur, congrats; if you hate it, our condolences. The keys are backlit and said to be "domed" -- that's not really conveyed in this spy shot we've seen, but it's hard to say for sure. It's said to be about three-quarters of an inch thick, "enough to be bulky in your pocket." Our tipster says he thinks he was told it runs Snapdragon, which would run counter to our current intel that has it running the CLIQ's 528MHz MSM7201A. At any rate, he says it "seemed very responsive," which is a good sign. Now here's the bummer: apparently our guy was told that it wouldn't be ready until April or May of 2010, which would truly suck if AT&T really intends this to be in its first batch of Android devices. He couldn't get a market name out of his contact, but we're guessing "Motus" isn't going to stick. At least, we hope it isn't.
Motorola registers 'Backflip' name, could be for the Motus
We think there's probably a really good reason why landscape QWERTY handsets don't hinge in reverse, but hey, everyone gets a little wild and crazy once in a while, right? Cellpassion has discovered that Moto has recently secured rights to the "Backflip" name in Europe, which would dovetail nicely with that allegedly leaked image of the upcoming Motus a few days back -- we hadn't really considered it the first time around, but on second look, we can imagine how this wouldn't be your average mechanism here. Sadly, the latest rumors have this thing based on Android 1.5 when it hits next quarter, suggesting that Motorola's having a hell of a time updating BLUR for newer builds -- and that could be a huge sticking point for 'em going forward.
Motorola Motus specs leaked, headed for AT&T?
Slowly but surely, the Motorola Motus is coming into focus -- sort of. Hot on the heels of that super blurry shot we saw yesterday, BGR has some specs for the mid-range Android set, which seem to indicate this one's not much more than an AT&T-oriented variant of the Cliq: 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 3.1-inch capacitive 480 x 320 display, microSD expansion, MOTOBLUR, and a Qualcomm MSM 7201A CPU, which will undoubtedly be clocked at 528MHz. Unfortunately, there's no word on what version of Android is on this thing, but we've got the sinking feeling it'll be 1.6, given the last-gen hardware and Blur UI. Not the most impressive first Android set for AT&T -- let's hope there's a better surprise in store.
Motorola Motus spied, snapped by the worst camera in history?
Given what we've heard and seen so far, we wouldn't say we're "excited" about the upcoming Motorola Motus -- it's just a midrange Android set, after all, and the Droid has taught us that Moto's capable of so much more -- but a spy shot's a spy shot, and we'll take what we can get, right? We can't confirm the authenticity of this positively awful photo spotted on motofan.ru, but it looks roughly like what we'd expect for a 2010-spec Android phone designed to appeal to the masses. The usability of that trick keyboard is an open question -- the Droid has already proven that the company isn't afraid to sacrifice a little usability for +5 points in the thin and sexy departments, so we'll just have to wait and see where this puppy lands. [Thanks, Vitala]
Motorola Motus gets FCC approval, Sholes Tablet looking legit
Whenever a Moto with triband HSPA hits the FCC, we're naturally going to end up scouring the documentation -- what can we say, it's in our blood -- and today we've found a model claiming to be the rumored Motus. As a refresher, this is a device we'd heard would rock the Android midrange with a 5 megapixel AF cam, 3.1-inch QVGA display, and HSPA for a Q1 '10 release, so it's not much more than a tweaked CLIQ as far as we're concerned -- but the big news here might actually be that the Motus filing adds legitimacy to the leaked roadmap where we'd originally heard of it. That document made mention of a "Sholes Tablet" that takes the already-high-end DROID / MILESTONE further upmarket with an 8 megapixel cam and xenon flash, and as you can imagine, we'll be listening to our friends at the FCC pretty intently over the next few weeks to see if we can catch that one sliding through.
Purported Motorola roadmap uncovers Sholes Tablet, Motus and other mythical mysteries
Okay folks, this is the moment where hauling a spoonful of NaCl down the chute would be highly recommended. DialAPhone seems to have unearthed what looks like a Q4 2009 - Q1 2010 Motorola roadmap, and while the finds are certainly intriguing, we're still hesitant to believe this thing is legit. For starters, this is obviously a European plan, so what we're viewing here may never make the tedious journey across the pond anyway. Secondly, how many of you honestly believe Moto's cooking up a Sholes Tablet? Exactly. That said, we'd be the first to drool should that device (or the Motus and / or Zeppelin) launch early next year, and you can bet your bottom dollar that we'll be scraping the floor for details when CES kicks off in just a few months. [Thanks, dejan]
Rumor: Motus Games' Darwin is Xbox 360's motion controller
Here we go. Various outlets today began redirecting readers to Motus Games' page, who have been working on Darwin, a Wii remote-like motion controller that doesn't need an infrared sensor bar to work. The device is slated to come out at the end of the year for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Of course, we've known about Darwin ... since February, so why is this coming out now? As far as we can tell at the moment, the Xbox 360 connection can be summed up like this: Darwin shares a similar color pallette with the Xbox 360 pad There are similarities in the name Darwin and the purported codename for Microsoft's motion controller, Newton E3 is days away and everyone is getting antsy We're not denying the possibility that Darwin is, erm, Newton, but we're not sure what, if any, revelations have come out in the last four months. (Microsoft, if you recall, has a definite deal with Qmotion over active gaming controllers.) So for now, sit back, relax, print out your bingo card and wait for Monday's press conference.%Gallery-27366%Update: We've placed Motus' video demos after the break.[Via X3F]
Motus Darwin controller to bring that Wii feeling to the PC
We've seen plenty of Wiimote hacks that involve interfacing the controller with a PC, and a ton of Wii KIRFs, but an outfit called Motus is aiming to bring it all together with a new PC gaming controller called Darwin. Based on an existing Motus golf club controller called the iClub (very original, guys), the Darwin tracks motion using gyroscopes, accelerometers and a compass, which allows it to track absolute motion without the need for a sensor bar like the Wiimote. Motus also says that the Darwin is more accurate and faster to relay motion data than the Wiimote, which allows games to more accurately simulate real world activities. That's certainly interesting, but seeing as a Wiimote costs $40 and you can go buy one right now, we'd say the Darwin has quite an uphill battle in store when it hits next year.
