The Official MOTO X 3pm est. Announcement Thread

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[Rohiggidy]

New App] Motorola Migrate Android App Posted To The Play Store, Syncs Files And Settings To New Phones

In addition to the Connect Chrome extension, yet another of Motorola's specially-built pieces of software has gone live before today's Moto X press event. This time it's an Android app, apparently designed to easily sync between an old phone and a new one. It's called Motorola Migrate, and it's available now for all phones running Android 2.2 or higher.



The idea is pretty simple: log into the Motorola service on your old phone, select among call history, text messages, SIM card contacts, media, and some very basic settings, open Migrate on your new phone, scan a QR code, and get going. It looks like Motorola is trying to cover all the important bases that aren't handled by Android and Google themselves - for example, while Google will sync your phone contacts to a new device, SIM contacts are not supported, causing some users to play musical chairs with phones and SIM cards. The Migrate app will likely be installed on new Motorola phones for the foreseeable future.

It's not clear how the larger bits of data such as the nebulous "media" are transferred. If, say, a 1GB collection of music should be sent over the user's mobile network, a good chunk of their monthly data could be eaten away, to say nothing of the fact that most users will only have one active SIM card available at any given time. WiFi support would seem to be the answer here, and is heavily implied via the app permissions. Tablets are not supported.

Look for more detailed information on Motorola Migrate, not to mention Motorola Connect and oh yeah, that Moto X thingy, following today's announcement.

 

[Rohiggidy]

Motorola Connect Chrome Browser Extension Goes Live Before The Moto X Announcement

Link https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/motorola-connect/kigmoblgooahdmdibodmcnffgnejlndh

Motorola was probably hoping to save at least a few surprises for its Moto X press event in New York later today, but someone at headquarters pulled the trigger a bit early. The Motorola Connect extension went live in the Chrome Web Store late last night, and it's currently available to install. Not that it will do any good: you'll need a Motorola DROID MINI, DROID Ultra, DROID MAXX, or the Moto X to use it.

The Connect extension allows owners of the latter DROIDs and the X to see phone calls and texts on their desktop browser or Chromebook laptop, using Chrome's fancy new notification system. You can reply directly to texts, but calls will still need to be handled with the phone itself. It should work no matter where you are or what network you're on.

From the extension description:

Motorola Connect allows you to see text messages and calls coming into your Connect enabled phone on your computer’s Chrome browser. You can read and respond to texts using your keyboard and even know who’s calling before deciding if you should reach for your phone.

Motorola Connect is currently supported on Moto X, DROID ULTRA, DROID MAXXand DROID MINI.


Of course, dedicated Google users will know that this is duplicating at least some of the functionality of both Google Voice and Google Hangouts (if you've connected your GV number to Hangouts, anyway), and no small number of third-party apps and services. but the Connect extension should let you see incoming messages without opening Google Voice's rather clunky web interface, which is a nice plus.

Just a few more hours, and Motorola will bare all. Also note that only the four latest Motorola devices are mentioned - that probably means there won't be any standalone hardware besides the Moto X announced at the event.

 

[Rohiggidy]

Moto X8 explained: software optimized, 50% better than competition in battery benchmarks

Motorola revealed some more details about the X8 “computing system” that powers the Moto X and Verizon’s new Droid lineup. Extensive software optimization enables better performance with low battery consumption.
TechCocktail/Flickr


The Moto X is a little more than 24 hours away, and it’s good to finally get some official information on what has to be the most hyped device of the year.

Motorola’s SVP for engineering, Iqbal Arshad, talked to PCMag about what makes the X8 computing system at the core of the Moto X special. Especially since neither Verizon, whose Droid devices are powered by the same chip, or Motorola were forthcoming about the X8 until now, our interest was piqued.



SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE, LOW BATTERY CONSUMPTION, AND “INTELLIGENT, PROBABILISTIC COMPUTING.”

First, the Motorola engineer specified what the X8 isn’t – a SoC in the traditional sense of the word. The goal for Motorola was to move away from the CPU-based paradigm in order to achieve superior performance, low battery consumption, and “intelligent, probabilistic computing.”


To achieve these goals, Motorola paired a “regular” dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC clocked at 1.7GHz and optimized it at a firmware level. According to Arshad:

We've done additional optimizations on top of that such as optimizing the entire Linux user space to move it to an ARM instruction set, cache optimization, Dalvik just-in-time optimization, and we've changed the file system {…} It's full hardware-software integration to deliver best-in-class performance.

In addition to this software-optimized Snapdragon S4 Pro chip, Moto added a contextual computing processor and a natural language processor, which Arshad says Motorola designed in-house, although they were manufactured by a third-party.

Combining the optimized SoC with custom processors for language and sensors supposedly allowed Motorola to achieve big battery savings – Iqbal Arshad claims that without the two custom cores, the phone would have needed two additional batteries to achieve the same functionality.

Even better, the power savings don’t affect performance – PCMag quotes Arshad saying that the X8 outperforms competitors in battery rundown benchmarks, while delivering superior frame rates. (Benchmark claims, however, shouldn’t be taken at face value.)

One final interesting note – Moto’s engineering boss says the company could opt for any other processor, from Qualcomm or other chipmaker, which signals that the company wants the spotlight on its own work, rather than let a “legacy CPU” supplier get the credit.


- See more at: http://www.androidauthority.com/moto-x8-software-optimized-50-battery-251310/#sthash.ULu2Bl8T.dpuf​

 

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Recent Verizon Roadmap Still Shows Moto X Arriving on August 23 at Verizon


A couple of weeks ago, a Verizon roadmap showed a potential launch date of August 23 for the Moto X.

 

[Rohiggidy]

WSJ: Moto X will be available on all major US carriers, backed by $500M marketing blitz

Availability of the Moto X is expected to be widespread for US buyers. All four major mobile carriers in the United States — Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile — will carry the Moto X sometime this fall, The Wall Street Journal report claims. Even better, under Google's ownership, Motorola has reportedly convinced the providers to dial back the amount of bloatware that will ship on the hardware. We've collected everything we know (so far) about Moto X and Motorola's other upcoming products here.

 

[GoldenGlove]

That flick the wrist twice gesture to launch the camera looks stupid breh.

 

[Rohiggidy]

That flick the wrist twice gesture to launch the camera looks stupid breh.

can be turned off. I have the camera app

 

[Rohiggidy]

Eric Schmidt originally shared:

I love the Moto X. Check it out - it’s the first Motorola device developed after the acquisition. It’s designed by you, it responds to you, and it’s the first smartphone assembled in the USA - ever. (Fort Worth, Texas, to be precise.)

Motorola has a new mandate to think big and take risks. A lot of people talk about innovation in mobile as if the big stuff has already happened. That’s a lack of imagination.

 

[Rohiggidy]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/1/4578550/the-verge-live-moto-x-the-vergecast-video

 

[Rohiggidy]

pre-sale

http://www.motorola.com/us/consumers/home

 

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[Krazy]

how much WITHOUT contract?

 

[CTech83]

how much WITHOUT contract?

If it's $199 on contract, then it's probably $499 off. I'm waiting for the Nexus 5.