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The Moto X and Nexus 6 have never been cheaper in the UK
Motorola's no stranger to flash sales in the UK, but its latest price drop could well be the one that clears its remaining stock ahead of a hardware refresh. Following the phone maker's two-day sale back in May, which saw it introduce healthy price cuts to the Moto X and Nexus 6, Motorola has gone even lower in an attempt to get you to buy a new phone. Third-party sites may have slashed its RRP briefly, but the company has officially cut the price of the Moto X by an impressive £166, pushing the 16GB model down to £229 and the 32GB version to £269 (with Moto Maker customisation included). The newer Nexus 6 gets an £80 reduction, meaning you'll pay £399 for 32GB and £469 for the 64GB model. It's a significant drop when you consider that you would have paid an additional £70 for the Moto X and £50 more for the Nexus 6 during last month's sale. If Motorola has piqued your interest but want a little time to think things over, it's giving you until the end of June to make your mind up.
The Android M Preview makes for a surprisingly usable daily driver
Late last week, I fired my up Mac's Terminal, pecked out a few half-remembered commands, looked them up, typed them out more slowly and that was that. After a few moments of silent finger-crossing, I was the proud owner of a Nexus 6 running the Android M Developer Preview. I then did something I didn't really expect to: I turned off my iPhone and made the snap decision to use Android M -- unfinished as it is -- as my main squeeze until Google I/O came to an end. The show's long over by now, but I've still (mostly) left my iPhone off to see how this highly incomplete version of Android stands up in day-to day-use. And you know what? For something that's very clearly a preview, it doesn't make for a bad daily driver.
Motorola's holding a two-day sale for its top devices in the UK
If the latest flagships from Samsung and HTC haven't impressed you, now might be a good time to reconsider a Motorola phone. Starting at midnight on May 18th, the company is holding a 48-hour sale in the UK with hefty discounts on the Moto X, Nexus 6 and Moto 360 smartwatch. The Moto X is being cut by £96, pushing the 16GB model down to £299 and the 32GB version to £339. The gargantuan Nexus 6, meanwhile, is being dropped to £449 (32GB) and £519 (64GB), which is just £30 less than the current asking price.
How Touch ID thwarted Motorola's plans to incorporate fingerprint technology on the Nexus 6
Apple's 2012 acquisition of the fingerprint technology firm AuthenTec reportedly thwarted Motorola's plans to incorporate fingerprint recognition into the Nexus 6. The news comes straight from former Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside who explained as much during a recent interview with The Telegraph. Indeed, the 6-inch Nexus 6, he can now admit, was stymied by just one of those big players. A dimple on the back that helps users hold the device should, in fact, have been rather more sophisticated. "The secret behind that is that it was supposed to be fingerprint recognition, and Apple bought the best supplier. So the second best supplier was the only one available to everyone else in the industry and they weren't there yet," says Woodside. Nonetheless, he adds, the addition of fingerprint recognition, "wouldn't have made that big a difference. Interestingly enough, if one goes back and looks at the inside story behind Apple's acquisition of AuthenTec, one finds that that the US$356 million purchase was quite the frenzied affair. Negotiations between Apple and the Australian-based AuthenTec began in earnest in February 2012 with Apple making it clear that it wanted to seal the deal as quickly as possible. In somewhat classic Apple negotiating fashion, the folks in Cupertino indicated that they were dead serious about the deal and had no interest in getting into a protracted bidding war. As a result, Apple said that if AuthenTec wanted to start soliciting bids from other major tech players, it would rescind its offer. Apple and AuthenTec ultimately inked a deal in July of 2012. A little more than a year later, Touch ID was introduced with the iPhone 5s. Since then, no company has yet been able to implement a fingerprint authorization scheme that can match the reliability and ease of use of Touch ID.
Motorola returns to China with the Moto X Pro, a repackaged Nexus 6
After Lenovo's acquisition, it's a given that Motorola Mobility would eventually be making a comeback in China; and now we have confirmation of this, along with the announcement of a new, but familiar-looking model. After the Chinese New Year holidays (so toward the end of February), the phone maker will be launching the Moto X Pro, which is basically a rehashed Nexus 6: 6-inch QHD display, 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805, front-facing stereo speakers, a 13-megapixel main camera and a 3,220mAh battery. Interestingly, the Moto X Pro will be running on pure Android, but it'll obviously be lacking Google services as per local regulations. The latest Moto X and Moto G will also be headed to China, with the former launching in early February (with Moto Maker going live after the Chinese New Year), and the latter around the same time as the Moto X Pro.
Google's Nexus 6 is back in the UK Play Store
The UK launch of Google's Nexus 6 has been a mess, but finally the pure Android smartphone has a stable presence in the Play Store. Well, sort of. The 32GB Midnight Blue model is now available, but the Cloud White variant and both 64GB configurations are still MIA. If you're happy with what's on offer, you can order one for £499 with an estimated dispatch time of three to four weeks. Of course, that rules it out as a Christmas present, but at least it's now possible to leisurely buy one from the big G. The Nexus 6 has been available in the Play Store before, but only for frustratingly short periods of time. Today, it appears to be sticking around, so here's hoping we've seen the last of its little disappearing act.
Uh-oh, Moto: AT&T is sending back early Nexus 6 units over a bug
If you're an AT&T customer eager to get your hands on the over-sized Nexus 6, get ready to wait a bit. AT&T stores are apparently returning the first crop of Nexus 6 units to Motorola over a software bug, Droid Life reports. And it'll likely be a while until their stock is replenished. The bug reportedly kills network connectivity on affected phones after displaying a black screen. We haven't seen too many complaints about the issue yet, but they've only started shipping out to preorder customers a few days ago. In any case, be prepared to hop it back to an AT&T store if the bug hits you. While the recall doesn't inspire much confidence, it could be worse. Just imagine if Motorola had to issue a widespread recall after thousands of people had their phones for weeks. For now, would-be Nexus 6 owners an AT&T can keep a giant candy bar or block of cheese nearby to train their hands for the phone's massive proportions.
The curious case of the disappearing Nexus 6
For a moment the page changes, the default "out of stock" message replaced by an estimated shipping date. Quickly, you move your cursor across the screen and hit the order button, only to discover the device is no longer available. You close the tab. Better to try again later. This is the frustration many Brits have experienced trying to order a Nexus 6 from the Google Play store. One model (32GB, Midnight Blue) has been available there for just a few fleeting moments, allowing only the most eagle-eyed customers to complete a reservation. The rest have had to wait, or consider buying a unit from elsewhere.
Motorola's march toward mobility
We owe a lot to Motorola and its team of inventors and engineers. The company made breakthroughs in portable radio and brought us one of the first-ever cellphones. It launched the flip phone, the clamshell and the wildly popular RAZR V3. There have been some ups and downs along the way, and the company's endured more than its share of corporate hand-changing, but with its Moto series and Nexus 6, it's now back amongst the smartphone elite. In this week's Rewind, we take a look at some of the milestones in Motorola's quest for portable communicators.
Nexus 6 review: Google shows it can make a big-screen phone
Which is easier to juggle on your daily commute: a small smartphone and tablet together, or a 6-inch phone that merges features from both? Consumers once leaned toward the former, but many have lately changed their minds. The so-called phablet has come a long way since Samsung came out with the first Galaxy Note in 2011, and now it's not uncommon to see several of them as you walk down the street. Nearly every manufacturer has at least one or two such devices in their lineup, so it's about time Google stepped in with some outsized hardware of its own. The company just launched the Nexus 6, a 6-inch phone made in collaboration Motorola that comes with a winning feature list and is just as glorious as the Moto X it shares a likeness with. Aside from being a strong handset in its own right, it's meant to be a blueprint to inspire Google's partners as they work on their own devices. It's not as affordable as Nexus phones from the past two years, but at $649 it's still less than most premium-grade flagships of similar size. With that in mind, let's find out if the Nexus 6 serves as an encouragement... or a disappointment.
Google's Nexus 6 finally gets priced in the UK: £499 for 32GB, £549 for 64GB
It's been almost a month since Google officially unveiled the Nexus 6, but UK fans have been left in the dark over a price and a release date. Today, we can tick one of those off the list. In preparation for its local launch, the search giant has finally updated the Play Store to show how much the Motorola-made Nexus phone will cost. You'll need to pay £499 to get your hands on the 32GB model or £549 is the 64GB variant is more your style. Google is staying quiet on when the Nexus 6 will actually go on sale, but with Vodafone and other resellers recently announcing they will stock the device, we bet that a release is just around the corner.
Philip K. Dick's estate lawyers up, says Nexus One name is 'clear infringement'
We'd been hearing that Philip K. Dick's estate wasn't too pleased about Google's riff on the Nexus-6 name from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner for the Nexus One, and now it looks like they're doing something about it -- Phil's daughter Isa told the Wall Street Journal that the name is a "clear infringement of our intellectual-property rights" and that their lawyers are "dealing head-to-head" with the situation. We're not exactly sure what that means: unlike George Lucas and the Droid trademark, Dick's estate doesn't have a trademark on the Nexus name -- and even if it did, we're not sure consumers would somehow be confused into thinking there was some association between Dick and Google. That said, we're pretty sure the smart move for Google is to just cut a check and earn some feel-good PR here, but we'll see what happens.
