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Moto X review
One year ago, Motorola, fat and fed by its Google acquisition, inched quietly into a silicon-spun cocoon to gestate. The subsequent passage of time allowed it to transmogrify and re-emerge a thing of red, yellow, blue and sometimes green beauty; a Google thing made by a Google company. The Moto X, its newborn monarch, arrives in an array of different colors, made possible by the NikeID-like Moto Maker site. It also comes with a homespun narrative: it's assembled here in the USA. Time to empty your wallets, patriots. This is America's smartphone and it costs $199 on a two-year contract. If I'm right in reading between the lines of Google's marketing speak, the Moto X was made in the image of the everyman. It's the product of a democratic process -- you can take that future design poll on Facebook as proof of this point. The 4.7-inch screen size, the curvature of its back, the composite materials, its weight and front-face look were focus-tested for maximum inoffensiveness. The Moto X exudes no tech halo like the Galaxy S 4 or the HTC One because it is the sum of averages. Here's how I see it: You know those people who own iPhones, but don't know which model number they own and also refer to all Android phones as Droids? This phone is for them. %Gallery-195299%
Moto X preview: A Google phone assembled with you, the user, in mind
Motorola. A Google company. It's time to commit that to memory. With the Moto X, a 4.7-inch phone going on sale later this summer for $199 on contract, the company has officially started the shot clock for the "new Motorola"; this is the first Moto product designed from scratch with Google's direct oversight. And it shows, from the packaging to the messaging to the features aimed at mainstream users. Most importantly of all, there's Moto X's standout feature: personalization. We've been hearing for years from various OEMs that smartphones are a personal statement, a reflection of the individual, but aside from the occasional color option, the wallpaper and case have been the only real opportunities for personal expression. Well, you can kiss those days goodbye. Motorola's keyed in to a core part of the user experience -- self-styling -- and we expect its rivals to follow suit. But all of that backstory can wait. We need to talk about the Moto X. The company never explicitly said so when it showed us the phone behind closed doors today, but this is clearly a mainstream phone (it's geared towards the "majority of users" several execs told us). To that point, its spec sheet and feature list (Touchless Control, Active Display, Quick Capture) won't dazzle the technorati. And, from what we can tell, it's not supposed to. To hear the company tell it, the Moto X's journey began one year ago with a whiteboard listing all of the most common user problems, ways to address those issues and a plan to get the device into as many hands as possible. You won't be able to assess that for yourself until the phone launches on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular later this summer. For now, though, if our initial hands-on time is any indication, it appears Motorola's succeeded.
'OK Google Now' comes to Verizon's 2013 Droid trio
If you're anything like us, you've been wringing your hands jealously at the few thousand Google Glass-enabled humans wandering around commanding "OK Glass" as their bidding is done. We'd like to say that the solution we've found is to give everyone a free set of Google's latest indulgence, Oprah-style, but that's not the case -- instead, Verizon's new trio of Droid phones enables very similar voice-powered functionality on its Droid Mini, Ultra and Maxx handsets. Employing Google's popular (and delightful) Now app, Droid owners can enact a variety of (unnamed) operations, including waking up the Droid by saying "OK Google Now." It's also targeted at folks who are prone to losing their mobiles, as the command, "OK Google Now, call my Droid" will do just that. It's also possible that people nearby will think you're a crazy person, but perhaps they already did considering you're prone to losing such an expensive and important device to your life, eh? The Verizon-created software enhancements don't stop there, with the trio also getting "Touchless Controls" and "Active Display"; the duo apparently work together to "let users make calls, send texts, get directions, play music, set a reminder and preview notifications hands-free without having to unlock the phone, giving Droid users a whole new way of interacting with their phones." All three phones are available for pre-order starting today and arrive at Verizon starting on August 20th (the Mini lands August 29th).
