Google-owned Motorola has announced a phone that is “always listening”. Saying “OK Google now…” will prompt the Moto X’s Touchless Control system to listen for instructions. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23536936   The device is the first to have been designed from scratch since Google’s $12.5bn (£7.9bn) takeover of Motorola last year. While the company has released handsets since then, they had all been at least partly in development before the takeover.

The Moto X will be released in the US, Canada and Latin America starting in late August or early September

“A completely different ecosystem could be built overnight. Google needs to keep Samsung very close. What made Android popular was not the just the operating system itself – it was the money Samsung put into their devices.”

“For Google, it’s a question of not letting Motorola die, making it profitable as soon as possible.

“Before Motorola they had no strong experience with building hardware, but now they are learning how to develop a high-end smartphone.