MasHD Blog

If you saw the “always listening” feature on the Moto X this summer and wondered if it would be coming to all Android devices soon, you may be in luck: a leaked build of the next version of Android, 4.4 KitKat, has a clue. This version of the software will likely be released within the next couple of weeks – or as soon as the 15th of this month – and inside is found a reference to homepage-based “ok Google Now” abilities. Where before today this spoken-aloud command ability was limited to the speaker button on the Google Search widget and/or inside Google Search itself, this push expands the ability to your homescreen. This is the next big step between what we had before Android 4.4 KitKat and what the Moto X works with. Motorola pushed this ability to anywhere – even while the Moto X’s display is off – using a unique bit of processor architecture called the Motorola X8 compute system. Inside this, you’ve got a unique CPU core dedicated specifically to low-power listening. With t...