Check out our full review of the Motorola Moto X smart phone.
The rumor mill for some upcoming tech products turns slowly, hardly making a noise, bothering no one. For other products, like the iPhone, it can turn wildly, almost spinning out of control as media outlets try desperately to make sense of confusing slivers of information, some of it outlandish, some of it seemingly bang on the money, none of it official.
The yet-to-launch Moto X smartphone has, in recent weeks, been carefully edging towards the latter category, with Motorola Mobility and owner Google doing their bit to ensure the much-anticipated handset stays in the news. Take, for example, the recent full-page newspaper ad that received much attention but gave little away.
Then, late last week, Google chairman Eric Schmidt was spotted playing about with the device at some media conference in Idaho, obviously hoping no one caught him using it because it might end up being talked about.
On Thursday, Google CEO Larry Page said in an earnings call that after trying out the Moto X for himself, he was able to confirm that yes, he’s “very excited” about it.
And then, of course, we witnessed the extraordinary sight of a Google Glass-wearing Sergey Brin shooting a video of himself juggling three Moto X handsets on a New York subway train. OK, that hasn’t happened yet. But it might.
August 26?
For those caught up in the Moto X hype – Motorola even posted a photo on its Twitter feed Thursday of a guy building the handset – it seems we could be in for an August 26 launch, with US Cellular, at least. The news comes via Android Central, which claims to have come into possession of an internal memo (below) from the wireless carrier.
The website says the ‘Wave 1, 2, & 3’ part “could refer to stores in US Cellular’s LTE markets getting first dibs on the devices, with non-LTE markets to follow.”
Besides it being pushed as “the first smartphone designed, engineered and assembled in the US”, and as a device that consumers will be able to customize prior to purchase, Google and Motorola have so far given away only snippets of information about the Moto X in an effort to build interest. Once the covers do come off, watch as the marketing machine really kicks in with the Mountain View company set to spend an estimated half a billion dollars on trying to convince us that the new smartphone really was worth the wait, and the hype.
