WARNING: If you
are allergic to rumors, speculation, or leaked phones, then do not click
on this story. We just received another round of hot tips about the
upcoming Motorola X Phone, and several other devices that are in the
pipeline. Read on for the latest gossip.
This post is clearly labeled as a RUMOR and it includes my
speculation, so please keep that in mind before you crap your pants.
Like with any rumor, there is always the chance this could be some
elaborate hoax, but information from our source has been backed up by
reports from external sites. Note: The post image above is of the
bamboo ADZero, but we used it to illustrate one of the casing options for the “X Phone.”
There has been a steady stream of
Motorola X Phone rumors since
last year,
but we received our first real details of the secret project only last
month. Our sources told us Motorola would offer some type of “user
customizable” phone and also mentioned that Google was working on a
smartwatch.
Motorola’s Guy Kawasaki hinted at the
X Phone customizations rumor and the Financial Times confirmed the
Google Watch rumor,
so we are starting to believe that our sources can be trusted. Once
again we went back to the well and returned with a bucket full of new “X
Phone” rumors.
An early prototype of the rumored Motorola “X Phone”
Rumor: The first “X Phone” is scheduled to launch in August,
and another delay is unlikely. AT&T will have an exclusive launch
period of three months and then it will appear on other carriers in
November.
Response: I seriously hope this is not true, but it wouldn’t surprise
me. AT&T has become the top carrier for exclusive launches, so I
bet they made some back room deal with Google. We normally think of
Verizon as the number one carrier for Motorola smartphones, but we
previously reported that there are several more Droid phones in the
pipeline for this year.
If this rumor is accurate, AT&T might have allowed Google to ship
this first “X Phone” as an unlocked device. This would be similar to
how T-Mobile was the “exclusive launch partner” for the LG Nexus 4, but
the device was still unlocked and sold online direct to consumers.
AT&T has a much larger LTE footprint (and marketing budget), so this
might explain why they were chosen over T-Mobile.
Even though the first “X Phone” might be exclusive to AT&T, it
could still work on T-Mobile’s LTE and HSPA+ 1900 MHz networks since
they share the same bands. HTC just shipped their One Developer Edition
as an unlocked device and that still operates on T-Mobile’s
and AT&T’s and LTE network, so there is precedent for this to happen
again.
Rumor: The “X Phone” will feature an always on listening mode
that allows users to issue it voice commands and wake up the device.
Response: Qualcomm already announced an always-on “
Voice Activation”
feature that allows users to wake up their device, so it is possible we
could see this on the first “X Phone.” The only problem with this rumor
is that Qualcomm says this feature is slated for their upcoming
Snapdragon 800 chip.
We expect to see the Snapdragon 800 appear in devices by the second
half of the year, which falls in line with the August launch window, but
we were not expecting the “X Phone” to include this high-end chip.
Other rumors had suggested the “X Phone” would be more comparable to the
HTC One and Galaxy S 4, so we were expecting to see the Snapdragon 600
or 400.
This always-on rumor suggests that the “X Phone” could be powered by a
Qualcomm chip, but we are not sure which one. It might be that the
“Voice Activation” feature works on other Snapdragon chips, and it is
not exclusive to the Snapdragon 800.
Rumor: The “X Phone” will feature predictive intelligence
that is able to launch applications and commands based on how you hold
and use the device.
Response: This sounds like some hybrid of Motorola SmartActions and
Google Now. We are told that the phone will automatically figure out
what you want to do before you do it, something described as a little
“creepy.” If you take your phone out of your pocket and hold it
sideways, it will open up the camera app to take a picture. Pick up the
phone with the display facing you and the lock screen will come up and
display the time and notifications.
We have seen both HTC and Samsung include actions that were based on
movement, but this sounds like the concept has really been fleshed out.
I’m curious to see what other common tasks the phone could perform
without any input from the user.
Update: A reader pointed out that Google was just granted a
patent
for a machine learning service that sounds like what our source
described. One example includes predicting a phone number to be dialed
at the onset of utilizing a phone dialing application, based on
location, time, calendar entries, prior behavior, etc. Another example
includes generating example photo names and photo album names for a
camera application utilizing the mobile platform.
Rumor: The “X Phone” will be “always connected” to the Google Chrome browser.
Response: With Chrome OS boss
Sundar Pichai taking over Android, it’s no surprise we will see tighter integration between Android and Chrome. There are already apps like
Airdroid that provide this type of functionality, but we would love to see an official solution from Google.
Motorola had similar functionality with an Android app called
Motorola Phone Portal, and they also explored the concept with the
Lapdock. Chrome
Browser already syncs up tabs between devices, but this new feature
could allow you to respond to text messages, access your content, and
possibly locate a lost phone.
Rumor: As previously reported, consumers will be able to
customize their phones with a number of different materials for the
outer casing. A new option just added includes wood. An array of color
and material options will produce thousands of custom combinations.
Response: Last time we were told that material choices
included plastic, metal, and carbon fiber, so this sounds like an
extension of that. We have seen some wood phones in the past like the
ADzero, but no big mobile devices have ever attempted this and been successful.
Another rumor said the “X Phone” would be available in
20 colors,
but it could be much more than that. We are not sure how there could be
a thousand different combinations, so it sounds like users might be
able to pick the colors of several different parts of the phones.
WRAP UP
Be sure to read up on rumor dumps
one,
two and
three
if you missed our previous “X Phone” reports. Only the customizable RAM
option has been debunked, so there’s a good chance that most of the
other details could turn out to be true.
I know a lot of this stuff sounds a little bit crazy, but it would
definitely deliver the “wow” factor that Google and Motorola are aiming
for. Like I said before, I have never carried a Motorola phone as my
daily device, but that could finally change if I’m able to customize my
own Android phone.
With every passing week, it is sounding more and more like the “X
Phone” will not be officially announced at Google IO. There is a chance
that some Google employees might be carrying around the device, but we
expect that Motorola will hold a separate event in June or July to
finally unveil this thing.
Experience tells us that one big leak encourages another, so hopefully more information will be coming soon.
