The first of September Motorola showed off a new ‘hearable’ device – the Moto Hint…a Bluetooth earbud. This isn’t one of those clunky headsets, but an actual earbud that is small and fits very comfortably and discreetly in your ear. Motorola is even selling them so that you can get one to match your Moto X. When you use it with the Moto X, all you have to say is “OK Moto X, how’s the weather” and you will hear the answer in your ear via Moto Hint. The Moto Hint was designed to be discreet and when Motorola showed it off in a demonstration, nobody could tell the spokesperson was wearing the device.
The Moto Hint functions as a typical Bluetooth device and will be able to receive phone calls and issue basic commands. You will be able to have the Moto Hint in your ear, you on a trip, and have all of the turn-by-turn commands pop up in your ear without ever having to take out your smartphone. The Moto Hint is not cheap – we were told it will set you about $150. The Moto Hint has been available from AT&T since November 7, but we were wonder when it would make its way to Canada and while we do not have an exact date, it should arrive on TELUS in early December – plenty of time for a Christmas gift and it will be available for $164.99 CAD in their retail stores.
The Moto Hint can work with any enabled Bluetooth smartphone and will initiate calls and commands through either Siri or Google Now, but it is optimized to work with the Moto X and its always-listening features. The commands and features found in the Moto X can be activated through Moto Hint without touching the phone. Although Motorola insists that the Hint is not a replacement for true headphones, but you can listen to music through Hint. An internal sensor can ‘sense’ when the Moto Hint is in your ear and only turns on when you need to use it. It has a very sensitive microphone and can even discern the user’s voice in busy or noisy location. The battery should last between four to six hours on a charge and it can be charged on a portable docking station with enough juice to give you two charges before the docking station itself needs charged.
We are anxiously awaiting the Moto Hint so we can do a full-review – it seems like a great, although expensive, idea and we are anxious to see what you have to say about Moto Hint on our Google+ Page…as always, we would love to hear from you.