The smart watch is growing fast, and Motorola has made some splashes recently. The Moto 360 is taking the world by storm as everyone wants to know more. Though we may not know everything just yet, so let’s pull together what we do know, and ask the questions that we still want answers to. Here is a list of 5 things we know, and 5 questions we have.
Let’s start with the obvious, this is a smart watch from Motorola, just in case you haven’t heard anything about the Moto 360. Motorola has taken their own approach to the smartwatch, as said by Jim Wicks, lead designer of the Moto 360, they wanted to bend technology to fit the consumer and not bend the consumer to fit the technology. Surely there will be some people who don’t like the idea of a smart watch, or see a need in it, but when we take a look at this smart watch, and it’s design, wow is all we can say. Which brings us to our next known fact, going back to traditions.
Immediately when you look at the Moto 360, you see something you haven’t seen in a smart watch yet. Taking the smart watch back to where we are comfortable with a traditional round display seemed to be the biggest goal. Wicks did say that the design was not to sacrifice display real estate, but to make the watch more comfortable to adopt. We all have worn watches at some point, and so we are used to the round design of the watch. Following that tradition brings us to our next bit of facts that are known, the band.
Most watch enthusiasts know, that a great feature of some watches is the customizable band. Switching from a brown or tan leather to a black leather is almost a necessity for those wearing suits on a regular basis. Motorola has fashion in mind, not only in the round build, but in the bands. Using premium leather in a variety of colors, as well as metal, the Moto 360 will be customizable. Wicks speaks about how the Moto 360 band can be easily changed by the consumer or by a trained professional. In that band, there will be no camera, as Motorola feels there is not a big enough reason to sacrifice design and space for a camera. Instead we get a beautiful watch, that doubles as an accessory for our Android devices, which brings us to one of the biggest things we know about the Moto 360, Android.
The Moto 360 is packing some things that we may have seen before, but not in this form. Android Wear, is Google’s new OS specifically designed for wearables. This software is essentially Google Now on your wrist. Since the Moto 360 will have a mic, using voice controls on this OS seems to work smoothly. Search, respond, remind, navigate, Android Wear takes all of the best features of Google Now, and makes it look very nice on the Moto 360. After the announcement of Android Wear, is when Motorola announced the Moto 360, but they weren’t alone. LG announced their very own Android Wear smart watch, but didn’t expect to be overshadowed by the Moto 360. We also will see other OEMs use Android Wear later on down the line. Samsung, HTC, Asus, Fossil, just to name a few of the OEM’s that will be using Android Wear “later this year” according to the Android Wear developers site. Now that we know about the Moto 360, and we know other smart watches are headed our way later this year, when can we get the Moto 360 ourselves?
The release date is where we will draw the line between what we know and what we don’t know yet. The reason for that is because this is one of the things that we only know half of the facts about. We know that Motorola has said the Moto 360 will be available Summer 2014, but they haven’t given us a date. We will just have to wait a couple of months until Summer 2014 hits and see if we get any leaks from now until then. So until we get closer to the release date, here are the things that we don’t know about the Moto 360. There are plenty of things we don’t know, so instead of listing them all, we are picking the most interesting 5 things. The top things that everyone won’t stop asking only to get a PR response, that essentially means, we will not answer that question. Let’s kick this off again with the most obvious, pricing.
We have no idea what the price range of this smart watch is, but we do know where Samsung may have messed up with pricing on the Gear 2. We see that Samsung will be releasing the Gear 2 with a price of $299, and it is getting mixed responses. In the case of the Samsung Gear 2, part of the reason could be due to limited compatibility, but the Moto 360 is said to work with any Android device running Android 4.2.2 or higher. Still, we think Motorola may hit around the same price range. We will just have to wait and see, however there is another question we could ask that may give a better idea of what price we will see. That question is who will be selling this Moto 360? We are not talking about what store you can get it at,Instead we are talking about the company who will be supporting the Moto 360. Google owned Motorola, until they sold to Lenovo, and though that deal is not all the way finished and is still awaiting some final approvals, Google may have started the Moto 360. This brings up possibly the most important question, will Lenovo keep up support on the device after they fully take over? Only time will tell.
The Moto 360, as we know has a mic, which allows for voice commands but what else does it have in regards to sound? It could be argued that the device will obviously have a speaker, but will that speaker have music playback capabilities? We haven’t seen much in regard to the sound of the Moto 360, and it could be a very big plus or minus on the smart watch. However, putting too many things inside could cause for an uncomfortable device.
We don’t know much about the specs, like what’s inside, but we are more concerned at the moment with weight. We don’t want to wear a watch that is going to feel too heavy around the wrist, but we want to make sure the insides are up to par. So how much will the device weigh? I guess the most interesting questions revolve around what’s inside, like the battery.
There hasn’t been much said officially about the battery and power of the Moto 360. All we know is that there are no charging ports anywhere on the device. Which brings up the debate, how will the Moto 360 charge? There is one of the most popular ways, which is kinetic energy. Simply put, motion could charge the watch, but there is another less talked about reason pointed out by one of our readers. Motorola has in their possession, a certain patent that revolves around a display, that is capable of solar charging. Makes sense that a device made to be on your wrist instead of your pocket, charge by sunlight. This also, brings up the point that a device charging either kinetically, or by solar power, will last all day, everyday, as long as it is on your wrist. So the question here is, how will the device charge, and will it last all day?
There are so many more questions to be asked, and we don’t even know when we will for sure know more. However, leaks are still a thing, and it is possible that we will hear more that way, or we just wait until Summer time. What are your questions for Motorola, is there anything you want to know more so than anything else?