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Ahead of the first Ara Development Conference on 15 & 16 April, Google has released a teaser video showing a few glimpses into the project to create a phone with swappable modules, allowing customers to configure a phone to order and update individual components at a later date …
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Kantar Worldpanel has released its latest report on smartphone marketshare for the last three months. Android share is up significantly compared to a year ago, with Kantar calling out two devices in particular for their contributions to this increase: the Moto G and the LG G2.
In the US, Kantar says that Android has a 55% share of smartphone OS sales share, up from 51.1% in February 2013, an increase of 3.9 percentage points. This compares favourably to iOS’ performance, which fell 4.9 points year-on-year to a 38.7% share. Incidentally, Windows Phone was the only other platform to grow in the US, rising from 4.1% in 2013 to 5.3%.
If hardware quality was the only factor in buying a phone, you could stop reading right here and go out and buy the HTC One M8 – it is the best looking, best built (AFAICT after 3 days) phone out there, bar none.
The front will look familiar, if elongated, to current One owners. It still has separated stereo speakers which incidentally are again the best you’ll hear in a phone by a long shot, but the screen is bigger and unfortunately so is the bezel around the screens.
That extra length tallies to a centimeter taller than its predecessor making an already big phone now almost phablet-like in stature. Add to that HTC’s insistence of putting a power button on top of the phone which you must shimmy up and down to reach and you’ve got yourself some usability experience issues before you even turn on the phone.
The back of my gray “stainless steel” unit matches up nicely with my fridge in the kitchen. I mean that in the nicest possible way. It looks gorgeous, though I’m not sure I’d say the same for other color variations offered, particularly the gold model. The improved curves are super nice in the hand and also look the part. You’d almost forgive how long this thing is…almost.
The M8 may not be terribly repairable by iFixit standards, but HTC has your back with a pretty impressive repair plan called HTC Customer Advantage. In it, you get a free screen repair within 6 months, a somewhat vague promise to keep Android updated to the most recent version (the website says “We are committed to keeping you current” but at the show they said 2 years of upgrades), and 25-50GB of extra Google Drive space.
Besides the length coupled with the power button, I’m still a huge fan of the exterior. But then there is the interior with HTC’s insistence on Sense 6.0 and this new 3-camera system…
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LG has posted an image of its upcoming smartwatch on Twitter, perhaps trying to deflect attention away from the Moto 360. The watch will run on the Android Wear platform, but unlike Motorola, LG has opted to use a traditional square screen for the ‘G Watch’.
Other than teasing that the device is ‘coming soon’, LG is still reluctant to release detailed specifications about the device. However, the Wall Street Journal is reporting some more concrete technical specifications according to ‘a person familiar with the matter’. The Journal says that the device will feature a 1.65 inch display with a resolution of around 240 pixels per inch.
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Motorola has just wrapped up a 25 minute Google Hangout where it showed off its recently announced Moto 360 wearable device and answered some frequently asked questions. During the event, Motorola discussed some of the inspiration behind the watch’s design, as well as revealing some more details about the device as a whole.
One instance in which Motorola’s Moto 360 is unique is its rounded design. Many other smart watches, including the Pebble and Gear are rectangular or square. Motorola says the decision to round its device was due to the iconic shape people associate watches with. The company also notes that 80 percent of watches sold today are still round. Another detail regarding the design is that the straps will be interchangeable, although Motorola says there will only be “several different options” the the bands. Ultimately, we’d love to see it use the common 22mm strap like the Pebble, but that’s unclear at this point.
There wasn’t much else revealed during the Q&A. Motorola says the device will work equally as well with left handers as it does with right handers. The device is also “aimed at women” too, which seems rather obvious. Motorola also confirmed that there is no camera in the device. As far as technical details go, the company said the Moto 360 will require Android 4.3 and BlueTooth 4.0 to be functional. In terms of size, the device is about 46 mm in diameter, which is rather large for a watch. But Motorola notes that the rounded design makes it seem a lot smaller than it really is.
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Motorola announced today on its blog that its releasing a new “College Collection” of customization options through Moto Maker that will allow those purchasing a Moto X to apply custom school colors and logos for a long list of schools in the US. It’s also offering a discount on the device for students.
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Motorola this evening has released an update for its Touchless Control app that adds a few new features. Most notably, the update adds a new feature that allow you to ask your phone “What’s up?” to have your notifications read back to you. Simply say “Ok, Google Now, what’s up?” or “Ok, Google Now, read notifications” and the app will read your notifications back to you, allowing you to make the decision of whether they are important or not. Obviously, this is most useful while driving and can help you find out why your phone is buzzing without putting yourself or others at risk.
In addition to the “What’s up?” command, the update enhances end-of-speech detection for improved accuracy and faster responses and includes some bug fixes. The full change log is below:
What’s New
- Enhanced end-of-speech detection for improved accuracy and faster responses
- New “What’s Up” / “Read Notifications” voice command that reads out new notifications so you never miss a thing
- “What’s Up” / “Read Notifications” fully launched for U.S. English, Spanish, and Italian and in beta for other languages / regions.
- Compatible only with Android 4.4 KitKat
- Bug fixes
The update is live on the Play Store now. It’s important to note, however, that Touchless Control is only compatible with the Moto X, DROID ULTRA, DROID MAXX, and DROID Mini.
After announcing its acquisition of Motorola late last month, Lenovo is ending the month with another big bit of news. According to a new report from Re/Code, Lenovo has inked a deal with Ashton Kutcher, star of “Jobs” and “Two and a Half Men”, to release a line of smartphones later this year.
In an interview with the publication, Lenovo Chief Marketing Officer David Roman noted that while the deal does sound kind of odd at first, Kutcher is an engineer and fits the role very well.
“I know on one level, it sounds corny, but it is real. He not only sees himself as an engineer, but he is an engineer. If he sees a problem, he wants to solve it.”
Lenovo and Kutcher have been working together since October, with the actor taking on the role of developing and promoting the company’s Yoga line of devices. Kutcher won’t have much of a say in terms of the design of the phone, but look and feel of the software experience will very much be his.
Kutcher studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa, so he certainly is qualified. Although, he did drop-out to pursue a modeling career before graduating. He’s invested in numerous technology start-ups, however, including FourSquare and Uber.
Project Ara, the modular phone project announced by Motorola’s ATAP team last year, will be getting its own developer conference this April. Google announced the event on the Project Ara website (via AndroidPolice) and noted that a live stream with “interactive Q&A capability” will be available online for those that can’t attend. The conference will take place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View and Google says there will be a limited number of attendees. The event will focus heavily on a new Ara Module Developers’ Kit that will be released online in early April:
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A day after Motorola revealed that it is working on a smartwatch for release later this year, Android Police posted low-resolution photos of what it says is an early prototype from some point last year. The unnamed source claims that the watch was code-named Gem but known to the development team as the Google Watch.
With Motorola having now parted company from Google, and Google believed to be working on an LG-made Nexus-branded smartwatch to be announced next month and launched at Google I/O in June, the one certainty is that this device won’t be launched as the Google Watch …
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During a panel discuss during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, Motorola senior vice president Rick Osterloh revealed the hardware company is working on a smartwatch with plans to ship later this year, CNET reports.
Osterloh didn’t reveal much more in terms of specifics about what Motorola’s offering will present, but did hint that its smartwatch would consider fashion in its presentation:
“Right now, there are non wearable products you actually want to wear, and it’s because they’re all extremely ugly,” Osterloh said at an event at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday.
Google, which recently announced a deal to unpack Motorola onto Lenovo in a multibillion dollar deal, is also reportedly working on its own smartwatch offering through a partnership with LG.
While Motorola offered no specifics on when to expect its smartwatch aside from later this year according to CNET, Google is expected to reveal its smartwatch next month before it’s launch in June at Google I/O.
If you happened to miss out on that recent Valentine’s Day sale from Motorola, the company announced on Twitter that it’s offering the Moto X for 1 cent on contract through Verizon or $70 off unlocked. That means you can pick up the 16GB Moto X customized through Moto Maker starting at $329 off contract. The penny deal will require you to sign up to a two-year contract through Verizon, and an additional $50 on either of the deals will bump you up from the 16GB to the 32GB model.
An even better deal is available through Amazon, however, with an additional $100 bill credit for those activating a new Verizon line on-contract. You might also be able to take advantage of that bill credit through Moto Maker for devices activated on Verizon, but there’s no mention of the offer on the site.
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Last night, it was reported that Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside would be stepping down from his position to become the chief operating officer at cloud storage company Dropbox. Woodside has now confirmed this decision in a blog post on the Official Motorola Blog, saying that he will step down as CEO at the end of March.
Woodside goes on to announce that Jonathan Rosenberg, who was the SVP of Products at Google from 2002 until 2011, will step in as COO at Motorola Mobility on April 1st. Rosenberg worked closely with Woodside and was “intimately involved” with decisions at Motorola. Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora will remain Executive Chairman of the Motorola Operating Board and continue to oversee strategy at the company. It looks as if Motorola will be going without a CEO after Woodside leaves, leaving Lenovo with a lot of control.
Woodside says he is leaving Motorola Mobility “in great hands” and that he is immensely proud of what the company has accomplished in the past 18 months. He also notes that he is excited for the next chapter for the company under Lenovo, who purchased it for $3 billion last month.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston has also issued a statement on the news.
“We’ve long admired Dennis’s leadership at Google and Motorola where he ran multi-billion dollar businesses and built amazing organizations around the world. We’re so happy to welcome Dennis to our team — I can’t imagine a better person to help us bring Dropbox to global scale.”
Read the full resignation letter after the jump:
According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Dropbox plans to name Motorola CEO and 10-year Google veteran Dennis Woodside as its first chief operating officer. Citing people “familiar with the matter,” the report says that Woodside will focus on further expanding Dropbox services into businesses and schools, as the company faces stiff competition from other services, such as Box Inc.
Woodside joined Google in 2003 and was tasked with helping manage the search giant’s relationships with partners and advertisers internationally. He became the CEO of Motorola Mobility when the company was acquired by Google in 2011. Of course, Google just sold its Motorola Mobility unit to Lenovo last month for $3 billion, meaning that Woodside’s rein at Google would be coming to an end.
This is a big loss for Motorola. Even though Woodside didn’t return the company to profitability in his short tenure as CEO, he did release several very well-received smartphones, including the Moto X and its lower-cost sibling the Moto G. It remains to be seen who will take over when Woodside officially steps down from his post at Motorola.
At Dropbox, Woodside will be the business veteran of the team, working under chief executive Drew Houston chief technology officer, Arash Ferdowsi. Dropbox has reportedly been slowing down in terms of growth, with its sales slowing and questions being raised about whether it is profitable or not. Woodside will certainly have his hands full at Dropbox.
Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang spoke to CNNMoney about his company’s recent acquisition of Motorola from Google today. In the interview, Yang was asked if his goal for Lenovo was to eventually catch up with more established competitors in the mobile space, such as Apple and Samsung.
With Motorola, Lenovo will be the No. 3 smartphone maker worldwide. Do you think your company can catch up with Apple or Samsung, who are still far ahead of you? And how long will it take?
Definitely, over time. Our mission is to surpass them.
Yang says that Lenovo’s smartphones will probably be released under the Motorola banner, a smart branding decision given Motorola’s existing name recognition and popularity in the U.S. and other countries.
The branding choice combined with the infrastructure and personnel from the Moto buyout could help propel the company to the top of the market, but it will be a hard road to the level of success that Yang is after—especially with Apple and Samsung already locked in a fierce, years-long battle for the top spot.
Throughout the interview, Yang continued to note that several decisions still need to be made with regards to how phones will be branded in certain countries and whether the Lenovo name will be associated with Motorola at all. It will certainly be interesting to see how Yang uses the Motorola brand to push Lenovo forward.
Google CEO Larry Page (centre) with Nest co-founders Matt Rogers amd Tony Fadell (photo: technologyreview.com)
Tony Fadell and the rest of the Nest team will become Google’s “core hardware group,” working on a variety of hardware projects and given access to “as many resources as it needs,” according to an unnamed source cited by TechCrunch.
The new division will still work on hardware devices, but not necessarily thermostats or smoke detectors. In fact, Google would like Fadell to work on gadgets that make more sense for the company. Will it be a phone or a tablet? It’s unclear for now […]
When it comes to budget, Google is willing to let the Nest team use as many resources as it needs. In other words, the company is getting serious about consumer hardware, and Motorola was just a false start …
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Even after Google announced that it was selling Motorola to Lenovo, there were still many questions surrounding the deal and what exactly Lenovo would be getting for the low price of $2.91 billion. We now know that, not included in the deal, is the Advanced Technology and Projects group led by former DARPA director Regina Dugan. This was revealed during a conference call with Lenovo. The Verge reports that the group will be integrated into Google’s Android team. Dugan will report to Sundar Pichai, but will still run things relatively independently.
This team consists of around 100 people, who will all make the move to Google’s Mountain View office now. The group is most well known for the Project Ara modular phone. This technology allowed for different phone configurations to be constructed from various parts. Google plans to scale the project and use its plethora of resources to speed up the process. Google will also work to accelerate other projects led by Dugan, such as ones pertaining to security tattoos and biotech sensors.
Google will hold onto all of the patents obtained by the Advanced Technology and Projects group, although Lenovo will have a license to them.
One of the biggest selling points of the Moto X since its launch has been the ability to totally customize the device with Motorola’s MotoMaker website at no additional cost. Of course, with more customization options comes some harder decisions for buyers. Moto Maker presents users with a plethora of color combinations for the back, front, and accents on the device. With all these options, it can be quite confusing for a smartphone buyer.
A new site, however, aims to make the design process a little easier. Moto X Randomizer is a simple site that provides random Moto X designs. You can either choose that you “Love it,” which will take you directly to the Motorola site for that specific design, or you can say “Nah” and move on to the next randomized design.
As we’ve noted before, this is a great time to buy a Moto X, as Motorola is holding a $70-off sale through Valentine’s Day. Although, the future of the company as a whole is a tad uncertain…
Google CEO Larry Page and Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing
Update: Motorola and Google have both confirmed the acquisition of Motorola by Lenovo for $2.91 billion. Google will, however, retain the “vast majority” of Motorola’s patents. Google CEO Larry Page says that Motorola will be better unitized and more beneficial to Lenovo. This will also give Google more time to drive “innovation across the Android ecosystem.” The deal still has to pass regulatory approval in China and the U.S., and until then, Google says it is business as usual for the two companies.
According a tweet from Reuters reporter Gerry Shih, Lenovo is nearing completion on a deal to purchase Motorola from Google for around $3 billion. A report from China Daily news corroborates Reuters, but claims the deal is closer to the $2 billion mark. China Daily claims that the deal will be announced to the public Thursday morning in Beijing, which is just a few hours from now. Google is also holding an earnings call tomorrow, so it’s very possible that the information will officially drop during the call.
TechCrunch has “confirmed reports” of the acquisition, saying the terms of the deal have not yet been revealed, but that it was around $3 billion. It’s also important to note that the deal includes Motorola Mobility, which Google paid $12.5 billion for, not the entire Motorola company.
Motorola has just announced via its Twitter account that it will be offering the Moto X without contract for $100 on January 27th. The deal will apply to any Moto X, meaning that the 16GB will run just $299 and the 32GB will cost $349. That’s just $100 more than Moto G. The catch, however, is that the deal will only run for one hour and “while supplies last.” The offer will be available from 3PM ET to 4PM ET on the 27th of January.
Xtra sweet deal alert: Jan 27 3-4PM ET $100 off any #MotoX w/o contract while supplies last… (1/2)
— motorolaus (@MotorolaUS) January 24, 2014
Motorola also notes that, until Valentine’s Day (February 14th), the Moto X will be available for $70 off, should you miss out on the $100 off offer. That means that the 16GB model will be available for $330 and the 32GB for $380 It looks like that offer will kick in after the $100 off offer sells out on the 27th.
If you miss out, you can still get $70 off any #MotoX w/o contract until Valentine’s Day. (2/2)
— motorolaus (@MotorolaUS) January 24, 2014
These are certainly amazing deals. Let’s just hope that these sales go better than the Cyber Monday deal the company attempted to hold…
Motorola has launched a new program for employees that allows them to offer friends and family discounts of up to $50 on the Moto X and Moto G. AndroidPolice detailed the “Friends with Moto” program that lets Motorola employees send coupon codes to friends and family for $50 off the Moto X, $40 off the 16GB Moto G, or $30 off the 8GB Moto G. The discounts are for the off-contract devices available through Motorola’s online store and require friends and family to fill out a short form (pictured above). After the form is completed the Motorola employee will get a coupon code they can forward to the person to use at checkout. The discounts bring the off-contract price of the Moto X down to $349 and the Moto G down to $149/$159.
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It’s no secret that 2013 was the best year that Motorola has had for quite a while, even contending for the crown of the best OEM of the year. Much of the company’s success is thanks to its CEO, Dennis Woodside. Woodside has made headlines for his comments before, and just recently, he conducted an interview with Trusted Reviews, during which he made some very interesting comments regarding the pricing of phones, as well as customization. Motorola has revolutionized both of these categories already, with Moto Maker and the Moto X and the $179 Moto G (via Droid Life).
First, Woodside commented on how even the $179 price tag for the Moto G is considered a lot of money in many parts of the world. He adds that the company is looking for ways to further trim down the prices of devices.
“In much of the world $179 is a lot of money so there’s a big market at a price point of less than $179. We’re going to look at that and just delivering on that value promise is super important. I mean why can’t these devices be $50? There’s no reason that can’t happen so we’re going to push that.”
Motorola has added iCloud support to its Motorola Migrate app, making it far easier to switch from an iPhone to a Moto X, Moto G or Droid handset than the longwinded process Eric Schmidt described back in November. Previously, it was necessary to go via Gmail or to use the online migration app.
With this update, you can pull in your contacts and calendar events by simply entering Apple ID and password directly into the app. The app the connects to iCloud and downloads your data automatically.
The app is powered by mark/space, a company specialising in sync technology and behind many consumer and corporate synchronisation tools.
