14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, when we wrote about the secret charging technology in Motorola's Moto 360 smartwatch, we thought we'd have to wait until next week at the earliest before we learned more about the device, but that has turned out not to be the case.
Whether because some people are incredibly good snoopers, or because Motorola's controlled leak tactic is one of greater frequency than usual, we have some more information to share.
The data was published on Weibo, which not only managed to find out more details about the lack of USB charging technology, but also managed to uncover some other things.
For one thing, we have confirmation, of sorts, in regard to the type of screen that the Moto 260 smartwatch uses.
We weren't sure before, whether it was a LED-backlit LCD or an OLED of some sort, but Weibo says that it is an OLED panel protected by Sapphire glass.
Maybe it will even be an AMOLED panel, since the Moto X had one, and Moto 360 retains some of its features. The legacy as it were.
The processor will be one from Qualcomm, most likely, since Google names it as one of the first partners for Android Wear, the operating system made especially for wearable gadgets.
And Qualcomm provided chips to Motorola, LG and their kin many times in the past, so it makes sense that it would do so again.
Moving on, the battery charging technology is described as “magnetic induction wireless charging,” but we're not really sure what it means.
Maybe it will need to be perfectly aligned against a flat surface, in which case we're looking at inductive wireless charging. Maybe it will only need the device to be near the wireless charging pad, which means magnetic resonance. Motorola really could go both ways.
Of course, the latter will probably demand some extra cost, and the watch already has the round screen and sleek, stylish look as probably price enlargers. Sure, USB isn't included, so one corner gets cut there, but the wireless charging tech costs more than the amount saved that way, so we may as well not take it into account at all.
On that note, AMOLED display technology might be quite likely, since it's very energy efficient. Especially since the watch is supposed to be always-on and voice-enabled (an extension of a smartphone after all), so energy will always be consumed in some measure.
According to all reports, the Motorola Moto 360 will be in short supply, at least at first, because the round screen needs specially modified equipment to be made, equipment that exists in limited supply at present.