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.
Duh! (Score:5, Insightful)
It would be real news if they weren't working on a new phone.
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.
Re:The real long term plans unfold... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.