Motorola's first major release under Google's ownership looms near as the company recently sent out media invitations to an August 1 event in New York. Unlike cryptic invitations from Apple that are open to interpretation, Motorola made no effort to hide what they plan to reveal on the first of the month - the Moto X smartphone.
One source claiming to have used the handset told The Verge it features a display that's roughly 4.5-inches in size and is powered by a dual-core 1.7GHz Snapdragon MSM8960T processor, 2GB of system memory and has a removable Kevlar rear shell. Additional rumors from around the web point to 16GB of internal flash memory, a front-facing 2-megapixel camera and a 10-megapixel rear camera - all running Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2.
As you can probably tell by the specs, the device isn't exactly a powerhouse. Instead, Motorola is expected to push the customizable smartphone as a more affordable alternative to other handsets like the Galaxy Note 2, iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S4.
Many believe Motorola will rely on innovative software features as a key selling point for the phone. There are several reports of an "always-on" listening mode which will recognize voice commands after the user says "OK Google Now." It's worth mentioning that this feature will be disabled by default for privacy concerns.
Other software features include the ability to launch the camera app with the flick of your wrist and a summary of recent notifications when you pick up the phone after it has been idle for a while.