Motorola already has a rather unique setup with the Moto X, specifically, with the Moto Maker side which allows users to customize their handset. And while many look towards the web and are starting to move away from print, Motorola has stepped up with a show of just how interesting a print advertisement can be. This one will be found in the January issue of Wired and is interactive.
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The Moto X Wired advertisement will be full page and showing the back of the handset and several color options. The phone will be sitting centered on the page with the back showing. The interactive portion comes in with those colors. Motorola has a row of colors sitting along the bottom of the page and they will allow readers to change the color of the phone in the advertisement.
Motorola has recently dropped a short YouTube video showing off the ad. They refer to this as being a “print experience like no other” and while they do not spill all the specifics on how this works, they do show the need to pull a tab to get it working for the first time. The tab pulls out from the row of colors. They also give a brief look at the internals for this.
Simply put, this isn’t your basic print advertisement and does contain some electronics and wires. Perhaps not as surprising, it appears the hardware required to put this together is still on the minimal side. Anyway, the advertisement will be running in the January issue of Wired. The catch with that, it doesn’t seem this will be running in each and every issue sold.
In fact, according to Mashable, Wired will have this Motorola advertisement available for roughly a quarter of the readers. There was mention of this being distributed in 153,490 magazines that will appear in the New York and Chicago metro areas. On the positive side, this issue should begin appearing this week.
Source : Android Community
Motorola Mobility was forced to postpone its Cyber Monday Moto X deal after perspective shoppers overwhelmed the purchase page.
The handset maker planned to offer a limited number of online shoppers the opportunity to purchase the new smartphone off-contract at a $150 discount. But the crush of consumers quickly rendered the MotoMaker customization site largely unusable, preventing many shoppers from taking advantage of the deal.
Motorola Chief Executive Dennis Woodside apologized for the outage:
Here is what we are going to do: Starting at 12 pm EST/9 am PST this Wednesday, we will relaunch the $349 promotion. To help make up for this major inconvenience to shoppers, we will also add an additional promotional day on Monday, December 9. We will double the quantity of phones available, while supplies last, to allow as many people as possible to take advantage of the promotion. We're also extending the 30-percent-off offer on accessories to these two days....
On behalf of all Motorolans, I apologize for what occurred today. I appreciate your understanding as we get this fixed in time for Wednesday and Monday.
"We're currently restoring online services. Some may have site-access, but Cyber Monday deal prices won't begin until all systems are a go," the company said in another tweet.
Source : CNET News
AT&T Moto X owners, here we go! The Android 4.4 “Kit Kat” update has been approved and is now rolling out to all devices. We had initially expected a soak test to begin and marinate for a few days, but Motorola and AT&T appear to be happy with their work. Our AT&T unit is not a part of the soak and we were able to pull the update with a single check.
As you can see, the update is a sizable 326.5MB, but it is indeed Kit Kat. To pull the update head into Settings>About phone>System updates.
As of this update, three separate Moto X variants (Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T) have all been upgraded to Android 4.4 just three weeks after Google made it official. There are Nexus devices that only received the update yesterday, so consider us impressed with Motorola’s quickness.
Via : Droid Life
Motorola did not offer any specific sales figures to battle against the recent reports suggesting poor sales, however they did say they have seen a boost in sales given the recent changes. Those changes of course, dealt with Moto Maker opening to all four major US carriers and the pricing cuts. Perhaps more important for current Moto X users though, Motorola did mention Kit Kat.
To that point, they have said the handset would be updated to Android 4.4 Kit Kat within a “matter of weeks.” As we often see, this will likely be dependent on carrier timelines and approvals, but it is refreshing to see that Motorola will have it ready in weeks. That is assuming there are no issues that pop-up to cause a delay.
Source : Android Community
The idea behind Republic Wireless makes a lot of sense. Your phone is configured to use WiFi whenever it is available, minimizing the cost of connecting to a cellular network. This keeps the plan prices low, but up until now, the handset selection has left a lot to be desired. That changed today.
The Motorola Moto X has been added to the Republic Wireless lineup, giving you a seriously good option for getting on board with the unique wireless carrier. The cheapest plan, at $5/month, only includes Wi-Fi coverage. The three other plans add cellular talk and text, 3G data and 4G data, respectively, topping out at $40/month for unlimited everything.
As far as the Moto X goes, this will be the same phone that you’ll find on other carriers, except it has been pre-configured to work with the Republic Wireless “Hybrid Calling” system of relying first on Wi-Fi. So, you get a 4.7-inch 720p display, a dual-core 1.7GHz Snapdragon processor, 2GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU, 10MP rear camera, 1.4MP front camera, and touchless controls.
You can order the Moto X now for $299 through Republic Wireless with no contract required a 30-day money back guarantee. That’s about half the outright price at any of the other carriers.
Source : Geeky Gadgets
Full auto
Every smartphone has the “default”setting. The pre-loaded point and shoot setting that is the most commonly used setting on any smartphone, especially when it comes to needing to quickly pull your phone out and take a shot. With the OIS-enhanced Nexus 5 this becomes a great deal easier, because there’s less time needed to pause for the shot. Unfortunately, right now any time you save not caring about motion is eaten up by the slightly longer focus time. This puts the Nexus 5 on the same page as everyone else, so instead of a motion test we went for a tap-to-focus test.
When put up against the Nokia Lumia 928, HTC One, and Moto X, the Nexus 5 did a great job. It’s not the best photo of the group — that title goes to the Lumia in this round — but it’s a far better shot than the HTC One or Moto X.
What made this photo complicated was multiple light sources. The light from the rear window combined with direct sunlight from the window to the right made it difficult to choose what would be the best way to compensate. The HTC One let in way too much light, while the Moto X just looks washed out. The Nexus 5 does a great job of being color accurate, but didn’t handle the light quite as well as the Lumia.
HDR outdoors
Being able to take HDR photos is supposed to be something the Nexus 5 should be really good at. Qualcomm has included burst-mode computational photography in the Snapdragon 800, which allows multiple photos to be taken and stitched together to form an HDR photo instead of just using a software blending. This should mean that the phone will take great HDR photos that would be much better for editing and enhancing.
Compared to the iPhone 5S, Motorola Droid Maxx, and HTC One, the Nexus 5 took great HDR photos. The color accuracy was much better than the over-saturated HTC One and the washed out Droid Maxx, and managed to be quite similar to the photo taken by the iPhone 5S. If you look up in the top left corner of the phone taken by the 5S and compare it to the Nexus 5 you can see that the iPhone did a better job capturing the sky, but otherwise they are both great photos.
Low light
Over the past year, low light photography is a topic that has come up a lot. Nokia, HTC, Motorola, and many others have used the ability to take low light photos as a big selling point for the cameras on their smartphones. In fact, in a low light shootout done earlier this year on Geek.com we found that the HTC One was at the head of the class when it came to shooting in the dark, where other top phones (like the Galaxy S4) fell far behind.The Nexus 5 makes no bold claims regarding superior low light performance, but it’s still an important thing to look at.
The end result was more than a little surprising. While the Nexus 5 is the darkest of the four photos, it is by far the most accurate. HTC cranks up the ISO to reveal light that even the human eye can’t see, while the Moto X just looks like a blotchy mess. The Lumia 928 cheats a little bit with its Xenon bulb that fires even when the flash is turned off, revealing a clear and bright foreground photo but completely unrealistic and inaccurate sky in the background. The Nexus 5 is almost exactly what I saw in the foreground, but is unfortunately grainy and blurry in the background.
Technically the winner here in the HTC One, but the Nexus 5 did a much better job than I had anticipated
Source : Geek.com
Image : Geek.com
The iPhone 5S has been making waves in the international market with more than 6.5 million units sold, and by the looks of it the figure is set to rise drastically in the time to come. While Apple is having a go at it and Samsung is still ruling the Android market, Google is leaving us stranded without a new phone for us to play with. The Nexus 5, rightful heir to the Nexus series is a highly anticipated phone for various reasons, and the delay to launch this one does make sense, but why is there such a monumental burden over it, you ask? There are more reasons than one. Let's find out!
1.The KitKat Showcase
Apple launched the brand new iOS 7 and the world is already going gaga over its technical prowess while the ones smartened by Apple's sly techniques are well aware of the fact that all Apple did was finally accept their flaw and blindly copy various properties Android has been flaunting since years and simply adopted them for its new iOS. This gave Apple a much-needed boost and put them a step ahead of Google. Google on the other hand gave the world a glimpse of their new Android instalment, the KitKat. This will not only help Google in arming itself with newly upgraded weaponry, but will also help various Android-compatible devices to go under the knife. Add to that that the Nexus 5 will be the torchbearer for KitKat, making it all the more necessary to have all the clockwork in the right place and at the right moment.
2.The Moto X Guffaw
We can already hear the muffled snickering from Apple camp over this one. Moto X, helmed to make waves and shatter the smartphone market into smithereens, Moto X proved to be a downright dud for what it was proclaimed to be. Google purchased Motorola and thought of nurturing Moto under its wings and deliver a world-class product. Ripe with speculations, many thought it would be at par with the Galaxy series and Apple's iPhone, or frighteningly better. They were horribly wrong. What the users got was a simple run-of-the-mill smartphone with features that weren't as captivating as we predicted them to be. Keeping that in mind, Google definitely has to step up its game and gives us the rightful throne of the smartphone market. The Nexus 4 was everything that a user could ask for, and more. Time for Google to recreate the magic.
3.Who's The Boss
Let's face it, Google has been the befitting competitor against the almighty Apple since Google ventured into the smartphone market. Android as of today holds more than 45% of market share as opposed to Apple's 28% and looking at the numbers itself reiterates the capabilities and reach of Google as a tech giant. Unfortunately though, the competition is heating up and Google seem to be losing their foothold, and Nexus 5 might be just the right thing needed to remind the world of what Google is capable of. Even more so since Apple is equipped with the swanky new iPhone 5S and Samsung with the Galaxy S IV. Bottomline being, the world needs a shot in the arm, and the Nexus 5 happens to be just that.
Source : mensxp.com
Apple fanboys and Samsung believers aren't going to like this: Google's Moto X has been crowned the king of durability.
The latest "breakability" score by protection plan company SquareTrade claims Moto X is the best surviving smartphone when it comes to drops, slides, and water dunks. Coming in second place is Apple's iPhone 5S, then Apple's iPhone 5C, and lastly Samsung's Galaxy S4. SquareTrade only tested these four smartphones, so its unclear how other brands and models would rate.
Every year SquareTrade tests the durability of new smartphones to see how they fair during everyday accidents, like toilet plunges, counter drops, and unintended table slides.
SquareTrade first examines the phone's front and back panel design, edge construction, materials, size, weight, friction quotient, water resistance, and grip-ability; and then subjects the devices to break tests. Using robots to drop the phones onto their corners from five feet high, slide the smartphones across a table, and dunk the devices into water for 10 seconds, SquareTrade rates the breakability of each smartphone.
This year, Apple's iPhone 5C suffered a cracked screen in the drop test and finicky response after being submerged in water. The iPhone 5S fared better, with just a dented corner in the drop test and good response after the water dunk, but it failed the slide test by being the only device to glide right off the table.
In years past, the iPhone 5 did better than the Samsung Galaxy S3 and it appears this year wasn't much different. Despite Samsungbeefing up the durability of its Galaxy S4, the smartphone still came in last -- being rendered unusable -- in both the drop and dunk test; and, it very nearly slid off the table in the slide test.
While Apple's new iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy S4 got a bit tattered in the tests, Google's Moto X came out unscathed minus a small dent on the corner. SquareTrade said the smartphone's concave backing also "set a new bar" for the durability of its back panel design.
"We were expecting that at least one of the new iPhone models would up its game but surprisingly, it was the Moto X that proved most forgiving of accidents," SquareTrade CMO Ty Shay said in a statement. "This is the first time we've tested the breakability on a Motorola phone, the only phone we've ever tested that's made in the USA. We were pleased to find that it withstood our drop, slide and dunk test with only the slightest dent. It looks like Google is giving Apple and Samsung a run for their money."
Source : CNET
Motorola seems to have vastly underestimated the demand for these phones and their unlockable bootloaders, even at the hefty unsubsidized price of $649.99 for all three models. (It probably doesn't hurt that the Moto X models were the only 32GB versions available without buying a locked-down phone for AT&T.) That being the case, there's no telling when they'll be available for purchase again. Motorola's US factory for the Moto X in particular is probably using the vast majority of its manufacturing capacity for branded phones for AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. If you managed to get an order in while the Moto X Developer Edition or DROID MAXX Developer Edition was still available, consider yourself lucky.
Source : AndroidPolice
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