[Android General] dragontology:
Google: Motofail! In short, post-Google Moto isn't impressing Google at all. Apparently Google is worried about Samsung, and Motorola was supposed to be their tool to combat Samsung's growing influence. And Motorola has failed to live up to their expectations. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with their treatment of the Photon, Electrify, and Atrix, and more to do with Razr/Razr Maxx not toppling the GS3. They said Motorola has an 18-month pipeline (including stuff they haven't released yet) and *none of it* is up to snuff. AP speculates we're halfway through, and from that we might infer that the alleged "X Phone" could be not happening at all, or not happening until 2014. Galaxy S4 is just going to destroy all, and Note 3 is going to pick up the scraps. Both will pick up Photon early adopters vowing to stay away from Moto.

If you're wondering about the above post, I retracted a statement I made about a Motorola Bluetooth earpiece I bought (I know, I know, but it was by far the best-reviewed one, the price was right, and nobody expects aftermarket support for a damn earpiece). It arrived DOA and I b****ed about it. Then I got talking to a Moto rep and they said they would replace it. Not wanting to poison the well, I retracted my post. Not only did Moto replace it (though I had to eat $12 for shipping), they gave me one that was much, much better. Look up "Motorola Silver Elite". This thing has a case the size and shape of a wedding ring box, and it charges in the case. The case can charge the earpiece fully twice. The case also has an NFC chip that will pair an NFC-enabled phone to the Bluetooth. It's pretty amazing all around. So Moto isn't all bad... but I never said they were. They make some of the best phones (and I've never denied that), they just aren't ready to support them like the others are. Moto is still basically cool in my book, but I've learned my lesson and will not own a smartphone by them again. I still recommend them to people who don't care about updates. My wife is still happy with her Electrify, unrooted, stock ROM, and until this week, the stock launcher. I replaced that with Holo Launcher and recreated her whole setup for her, and it works a little better (and has a little ICS flair to it).

But, I got a GS3 last Friday, and sold my Electrify Sunday, so I'm pretty much out of the whole Moto/ICS thing anyway. It's pretty much a done deal, they don't support their phones and that's just that. They do have a deal on the Electrify M (Electrify with JB, CPU might be a little faster but specs are basically the same) where you get 2 for $100 at US Cellular. Battery's nonremovable though. I would have bought a pair, but my wife doesn't want to trade up yet. So I got a GS3, and it's pretty rad. Does every single thing I used JB for on the Electrify, except the tablet-mode stock browser. Everything else works great. And it ships unlocked. Blew my mind. You guys should all upgrade to one or a Note 2 or 3 or GS4 when you can. Samsung started out weak -- I had the Acclaim, aka Moment, and it was horrible. It was an abomination. 160MB of RAM. Samsung's been great since the S2, possibly also the Mesmerize (Fascinate on Verizon, not sure Sprint had a version of it). 800MHz, 512MB RAM, and I'm pretty sure there are 4.2.2 ROMs for it. It's at least a full year older than the sunfire. In short, Motorola is a bad place to be if you love Android. The grass really is greener on the other side.