Be careful, the cell phone is listening to you. Let me be clear, nothing to do with environmental interceptions or calls made inadvertently. The last frontier of smartphones, after the touch screen, is the permanent voice command. In other words, whether you need to make a phone call, send a text message, surf the Internet or open an application, all you have to do is open your mouth and give the order to your device.
Google, in this sense, beat everyone by unveiling the smartphone that listens to you, the first built entirely by Motorola, since the company was acquired by the Mountain View giant last year.
The Moto X – this is the name of the device – is designed to be in permanent listening mode, in order to provide directions, weather forecasts or telephone numbers at any time and without having to use your hands.
The smartphone uses a technology similar to that of Google Glass. Just say "Ok Google now" and the phone wakes up and starts working for you. "It's the world's first self-driving phone," Motorola's Dennis Woodside said triumphantly.
The system has little to do with Siri, the voice feature of the iPhone, which doesn't integrate with other applications on the phone and must be activated with your fingers.
Google thus wants to expand the potential of voice control, even if there will always be a motion sensor (to activate the camera, for example, just shake your wrist).
Furthermore, the company is betting everything on the “Made in USA” label, in open controversy with Apple's recent and older Chinese scandals. The Moto X, in fact, will be assembled in the Motorola plant in Texas.
With a 4.7-inch screen and a 10-megapixel camera, the listening smartphone will cost $199 with a phone contract. However, Google does not currently plan to launch in Europe. It will be available in the US, Canada and Latin America in September.
