Heads up: Talking to yourself just got a lot cooler.
Motorola is preparing to make an even stronger case for dropping everything for the seriously cool Moto X with their latest advancement in mobile phone tech: Moto Hint.
What, exactly, is Moto Hint?
Let’s start with what it isn’t.
Moto Hint isn’t a bluetooth headset. Well, perhaps it is technically, but it’s not like the cringe-worthy over-the-ear, halfway-across-the-face devices of yore. It doesn’t advertise it’s presence and it’s not likely to get in your way.
Moto Hint is a Bluetooth-enabled earbud that’s designed to stay out of your way and blend in as you go about your daily activities.
It’s as inconspicuous as one could possibly hope for a wireless “earable” device to be in 2014, and when paired with the Moto X, creates a more powerful mobile experience than you’ve likely encountered up until this point. Better yet, it is going to be available this fall (and available globally in time for the holidays) for $149.99.
Moto Hint is only compatible with Moto X (for now, anyway), but is designed to enhance the user-friendly features that make Moto X popular.
For example, Moto Voice (previously Touchless Control) integration allows you to talk to your phone and interact with specific apps without taking it out of your pocket. Moto Assist allows you to hear your text messages read aloud through your Moto Hint as they arrive.
Moto Hint, Moto 360 and Moto Voice all come together as part of Motorola’s vision for being able to interact with your phone at any moment without even having to touch it. Even Moto Actions (which utilize some ultra-cool sensors on Moto X’s exterior) lets you control certain functions by waving your hand near and/or over it.
While you can’t yet book airline tickets or prepare dinner parties with your voice through Moto Hint, its design and functionality hint at a very clear direction for both Motorola and smartphones in general.
Slowly-but-surely, we’re moving towards a world where our phones exist with us harmoniously, letting us live our lives without looking at a screen each time we get a call or a text message, each time we need directions, or each time we want to check the weather or set an alarm.
With the addition of Moto Hint to the smartphone game, we step closer to the future depicted in films like Her (and yeah, Moto Hint does bear a striking resemblance to Joaquin Phoenix’s earpiece in the film), where our tech is all around and constantly available, not just in our hands and pockets.
But, for the record, we’re still totally going to take our phones out of our pockets and pretend that we’re looking at super important e-mails when we encounter people we don’t want to talk to on the street. We’re still human, after all.
