Google Skunkworks Working on 'X Phone,' Reports WSJ 97
The Wall Street Journal says that Google is not quite content to be just a name printed on certain Android phones, and has set some of the cellphone engineers from Google-owned Motorola Mobility to work on a high-end project known internally as the 'X phone.' The rumored phone, says the article, "is due out sometime next year," and is meant as a technology flagship for Android phones, incorporating more innovative features than typical phones, such as advanced gesture recognition. Some of those features, like a flexible screen, have reportedly already been dropped from the design, though. If the X Phone materializes, a tablet is expected to follow.
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The Google xPhone.
Shouldn't it be a gPhone (Google), mPhone (Motorola) or aPhone (Android)? I see xPhone being too easy to confuse with "my ex-phone" (previous phone) or "my ex's phone" (previous relationship). Of couse the they could call it the [a-hj-z]Phone.
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Plus G....just reminds me of grandma and grandpa, which makes me think it's for old people.
G-spot ?
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Not so great in Japan, where a very similar symbol means wrong answer [wiktionary.org] -- contrast to a circle, which means correct answer [wiktionary.org].
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G-string? No, don't picture your grandma in a G-string, please.
pay wall (Score:1)
ugh.
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ugh.
Hmm, no paywall issues for me... I got to read the whole article at WSJ, and I'm not a subscriber or registered with them in any way. Perhaps you should check your cookies or javascript settings.
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Once it's released, it'll be the "Y phone".
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The joke works better if the name isn't easy to sound out and doesn't consist mostly of high-frequency letters, the first 15 of those being ETAON RISHD LFCMU.
(BTW, my source for that nugget of info is Herbert S. Zim's Codes and Cryptography, which I read as a kid. Still remember that bit from it, thirty-odd years later. Wow.)
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AMIR EFRATI
That's not a name. That's a bad scrabble hand.
you sir, are a moron
Duh! (Score:5, Insightful)
It would be real news if they weren't working on a new phone.
Re:Duh! (Score:5, Informative)
It would be real news if they weren't working on a new phone.
It would be real news if Google's Motorola division weren't working on a new phone, but this implies that the Google X labs (which are working on Google Glass, self-driving cars and other projects) are working on a phone. That's different. Motorola is clearly working on the next incremental improvements to the smartphone, but Google X is all about radically-different directions. I find it hard to think what could be done differently enough to justify Google X interest, myself.
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Re:Duh! (Score:5, Funny)
No, it's going to be a self driving phone hooked to a eyeglass case.
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I find it hard to think what could be done differently enough to justify Google X interest, myself.
The rate of growth in phone technology has been impressive enough lately that there's probably still a lot of room for new ideas. I can't personally think what major new advances are possible, either--but I'm willing to bet that someone can. The smartphone is a long way from being a mature technology.
Well, okay, actually I can think of something that I'd like to see: a device that looks like a phone, which can then be unfolded into a tablet, which can then be unfolded into a laptop, which can then be unf
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Yes, but no matter how new and novel the ideas are, Apple will claim that they infringe on their patents. Unless - - - a phone that looks and feels like a jellyfish? I dunno - maybe Google can make the idea sound appealing. I'm somewhat averse to the idea of holding a jellyfish to my ear.
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I find it hard to think what could be done differently enough to justify Google X interest, myself.
Maybe it'll be like the Q - it'll do Google Chat and Gmail video calls really well, but it won't make regular phone calls nor do SMS.
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Paywalled (Score:1)
I hope the TV ads are better (Score:3)
Than the stupid MoTo ones where you rule all the machines or you're a secret agent if you buy their phone that will be outdated in a month by a newer model
Ex Phone (Score:5, Funny)
Just the thing to call your former spouse on
The real long term plans unfold... (Score:3, Interesting)
So Google is not only content with releasing an open source operating system which other hardware vendors can use to build phones and tablets. They are also parallely working on their own designs and implementations to take full commercial benefit of the platform they have created. Good to see.
Re:The real long term plans unfold... (Score:5, Interesting)
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How does that follow? Many Android phone makers are content with just doing enough to compete with closed platforms of competitors; and not implementing many possible features taking advantage of the 'open' nature of Android, and Google's other offerings besides Android. Some like HTC have caved in, screwing their customers in the bargain, which is a long term setback for Google's Android platform.
By building a complete phone themselves, other patent wielding companies would have to sue Google (or Motorol
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Samsung, for one, innovates: they leave wide-open memory access holes, enabling third-party applications to do anything with the user's phone, potentially going beyond what the user intended them to do.
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And if Google's new phone is successful enough, Samsung and other phone makers can incorporate the design elements into their phones.
The purported Microsoft model, in other words.
Personally I think Microsoft (and now Google) are just trying to figure out how to keep their partners happy until they're ready to cut ties with them - so long, and thanks for all the fish!
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Re:The real long term plans unfold... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Own ... not really, but have access to as much as possible, absolutely. It's what they do. Once again, you don't need to install any of the Google software on Android, nor do you need to use their search engine. Ad tracking is a separate matter, and applies across browsers and OSes unless you block all cookies and javascript. That doesn't just apply to Google's ads either though.
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Except that the early versions of Android weren't iPhone competitors (copies), they were Blackberry competitors (copies).
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I'm referring to the prototypes demoed in a Google video.
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technology flagship (Score:3, Insightful)
In other words, a lawsuit magnet.
Will this be our N900 sucessor? (Score:3, Insightful)
Will we finally get something open and completely hackable?
Bomb proof like Nokia with crazy great features like FM radio transmitter or IR remote control?
I vote for FRS radio tech too, that would be a great way to zap GPS coordiantes or low res pics between users even out of service area.
At the end of the day though there will be the bloated commercial apps which plague the Android/IOS communities,vs the grassroots stuff that is still buildinggreat stuff for Maemo/Meego.
When will there be another N900 with all of the apps alll of the tech but not the bloat and spyware.
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That's a separate phone from the one being discussed here.
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Didn't the Nextel phones have a built in frs mode for when you were out of cell service range.... Pretty sure they did
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Didn't the Nextel phones have a built in frs mode for when you were out of cell service range
As I understand those were not FRS functions. FRS, being 450 MHz, ,won't even work with higher band antennas.
I had a Sprint phone right around the time of acquisition of Nextel (I was using Sprint from 1999 to 2008, I think,) and the phone (Sanyo something) had the PTT button. I read the manual about what it does. The function was entirely tied to the cellular network. (Why would a carrier compete with itself b
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Yeah I know the ptt worked over cell tower, and but I swear I remember my friends one Nextel Motorola phone also had basically a frs mode (not sure if it was compatible with standard frs radios but I doubt it) that basically worked ad hoc with other Nextel phones with the same capability. I it had a 2 mile range I want to say and I don't recall if you had to 'pair' the devices you wanted to be able to communicate or not.
I really wish I could remember which model of phone he had
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Will we finally get something open and completely hackable?
Bomb proof like Nokia with crazy great features like FM radio transmitter or IR remote control?
I vote for FRS radio tech too, that would be a great way to zap GPS coordiantes or low res pics between users even out of service area.
At the end of the day though there will be the bloated commercial apps which plague the Android/IOS communities,vs the grassroots stuff that is still buildinggreat stuff for Maemo/Meego.
When will there be another N900 with all of the apps alll of the tech but not the bloat and spyware.
Hmm. Let's look at your TV remote. Yup, just as I suspected, 500 buttons.
An important ingredient to achieve "Touchdown!" (Score:2)
The phone should be aesthetically beautiful. I know the internals will be well taken care of.
In othewords, the phone should be catch one's eye. Not some generic ugly slab.
Re:An important ingredient to achieve "Touchdown!" (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks, we were going with the generic ugly slab approach but after reading your comment, we've decided to make it look good.
-- Google xphone team
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It's funny because it's true!
Though I do like Motorola's slab designs, and at least some aspects of Google's Nexus devices (though it's not all that clear how much of that is Google's doing).
Could it be?! (Score:4, Funny)
Another winner! (Score:2)
Here [digitaltrends.com] is a leaked photo. Revolutionary! Put it up to your head: hello? HELLO? allo?
The next awesome phone... (Score:3)
The next awesome phone will not be a tech geek's wet dream. It will not have 40 custom notifications types. It will not be "customizable" or "programmable" as we currently know it. If Google shoots for the technology demo handset, it will miss the entire modern use for electronics, which is to simply be an extension of your mind. I don't mean that is some telepathic, sci-fi way, but rather a device which is so well integrated that the actual interface never gets in the way and doesn't require set up.
And geeks will hate it.
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Geeks absolutely LOVE what never gets in the way. A thing which is as powerful as a 10 year old laptop and doesn't do half of what a 10 year old laptop could do, has something that gets in the way.
Example: I want NOT to give an app I just got from the play store access to my friggin contacts, so maybe if i make a chroot for it somewhere... except i have no root by default, and to get root I have to download a random blob from teh internets.
This gets in the f.ing way.
Re:The next awesome phone... (Score:5, Insightful)
"The only 'intuitive' interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned." — Bruce Ediger
What you wish will never be. Unless you want to suck on your phone, of course. But other than that, there is no interface that won't "get in the way". Until you learn it. Then it will be sublimely easy to use. To you. Not necessarily to anyone else.
The best we user interface designers can do is to try to minimize the number of times you have to poke your finger at your phone to get it to do what you want. Unfortunately for us, we have to do that for 6 or 7 different usage patterns, so nobody is ever happy. Teenagers text exhaustively. Old people want to make phone calls. Geeks want to tether all the time. Somebody in there mostly uses their phone to play games. Somebody else mostly uses their phone as a camera. And everybody thinks every feature they use are the important features and none of the other features are important.
Do we try to make the phone learn you? As it turns out, that's even more obnoxious. About when you've learned where everything is, it adapts, and changes things. Trying to guess what you want is counterproductive, to say the least.
So.... we give you set up options. Move stuff, change stuff, rearrange stuff, until the stuff you use most often is easiest to get to. Or not. You could just leave it alone.
Anyway, quit complaining, or we'll make your next phone shaped like a boob. Intuitive.
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"The only 'intuitive' interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned." — Bruce Ediger
And the nipple isn't all that intuitive, either. Babies have to learn how to latch on correctly. In recent years, where young mothers often don't have the support of their mothers and other older women around to help them teach their babies, this has led to the creation of a new career: Lactation consultants are employed by hospitals to help teach mothers how to teach their babies to use the nipple.
It's all learned.
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Geeks only hate easy to use things which are "an extension of the mind" when those things fail to extend geeks minds. If the geek tries to use the device and finds it inadequate but with just a small modification it would be great, and then finds the device is not amenable to modification, that's when the geek hates it for lack of customizability.
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Wasn't Motorola the company that picked up one of the lead developers of CyanogenMod a year or so ago?
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Wasn't Motorola the company that picked up one of the lead developers of CyanogenMod a year or so ago?
No, that was Samsung.
microSD card (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe in addition to flexible screens, a brain scanner, and antigravity, this Nexus phone will finally feature the latest in high-bandwidth media transfer technology. An unnamed source tells me this wireless technology will take the revolutionary form of a small, fingernail-sized chip that can be easily inserted into and removed from the phone. Many gigabytes of data from the cloud can be stored on the chip and then transfered between the phone and other compatible devices such as phones, tablets, and notebooks. Some media sources have speculated that this pioneering technology may even allow users to access their media when an Internet connection is not available, although experts have cautioned that the technology to implement such a feature will not be available until 2015 at the earliest...
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what took them so long? (Score:1)
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Motorola already made the absolute best hardware handsets out there. Their problem was the complete lack of after sales support, and their awful software customization, and lock down. Those 3 things are things that Google knows how to fix. Not sure why nothing decent has come out yet...
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When I said support I meant more like software updates and such, but you are right on that part, Google doesn't provide any real support for their products.
"such as advanced gesture recognition" (Score:5, Interesting)
It is inconceivable that Google can't release software and technical specs to the OEM and have these phones produced. The only thing I can think of is this is going to be another incompatible version of Android, i.e. most phones are not going to upgrade to it, so the best way to handle the PR is to make it sound like a new special version.
Apple really screwed the pooch by making smart phones look like computers, in terms of the ability to upgrade the software. It would have better to simply have the expectation of upgrading the phone every two years to get an upgrade, with simple updates given between those times. It would have made the carriers much more happy, knowing users would have to sign a new two year contract to get the latest software. Even better if updates were every 18 months so customers would just build up contracts. As it is, I my phone is two years old and still run current OS and has many of the current features. I will upgrade soon because it makes no sense not to if you are paying monthly tarrifs.
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Considering the S3 already supports some gesture features such as swiping the screen from leftto right wwith the side of your hand takes a screen shot, but double tap the top of the phone to go to the top of a page, place phone face down to mute any audio (say if you're in a meeting and forgot to shut the ringer off), and while in text just put the phone up to your ear to dial, plus others I haven't used yet and/or forgot about
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They have already started keeping the best for themselves. They touted PhotoSphere and the new tracing keyboard as a part of Android 4.2, yet those features are not part of AOSP and can only run on Nexus Devices (without hacking or fiddling with APKs).
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A tablet is expected to follow? (Score:2)
What is the Google Nexus supposed to be if it's not a Google Tablet?
Customer service worse than the wireless carriers' (Score:2)
Unfortunately, if both my own experience and that of Consumerist submitters is accurate, Google is even less responsive to individual customers than the big wireless carriers.
It's sad.
Probably for the best (Score:2)
I got a feeling (Score:3)
that Google will be adding all sort of 'sensors' to the cameras and microphones using a special DSP chip to process the information. You won't just have voice commands, but you will be able to make gestures with your hands in an ASL type of control using the camera. It would come in handy for the deaf and possible it can translate ASL into text as well for faster typing. Non-Verbal commands I think is what they might call it. There will most likely be ASIC chips added for SHA-256 hashing so it could process Bitcoin mining and solve SHA-256 hashes for other reasons as well.
How about a better battery? (Score:2)
XPhone will always mean Windows (XBox) Phone to me (Score:1)