Mobile Technology

Moto Mod contest winners push digital sticky notes, Hi-Fi sound

Moto Mod contest winners push digital sticky notes, Hi-Fi sound
Abigail Brown and Yousef Alsayid are the team behind Macay TrueSound HiFi and one of the contest winners eligible for up to $1 million in investment funding
Abigail Brown and Yousef Alsayid are the team behind Macay TrueSound HiFi and one of the contest winners eligible for up to $1 million in investment funding
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Andrius Valentukonis and Ilja Laurs of Digiframe
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Andrius Valentukonis and Ilja Laurs of Digiframe
Abigail Brown and Yousef Alsayid are the team behind Macay TrueSound HiFi and one of the contest winners eligible for up to $1 million in investment funding
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Abigail Brown and Yousef Alsayid are the team behind Macay TrueSound HiFi and one of the contest winners eligible for up to $1 million in investment funding
Moto Z
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Moto Z
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Lenovo has announced the winners of its Transform the Smartphone Challenge, in which developers pitched concepts for Moto Mod accessories that add new functionality to Moto Z smartphones. The teams behind Digiframe and Macay True Sound HiFi are each eligible for up to $1 million in investment funding.

The team behind Digiframe has billed it as an "always-on sticky note" that syncs to the Moto Z. It's a display with a magnetic back that provides customizable at-a-glance info like weather and calendar events. Since it supports open web standards for third party widget developers, there is potential for many types of content. It can be stuck on the back of the Moto Z, hung on the refrigerator or anywhere else.

Andrius Valentukonis and Ilja Laurs of Digiframe
Andrius Valentukonis and Ilja Laurs of Digiframe

The Macay TrueSound HiFi team created an interface for adding professional quality hi-def audio ports to the Moto Z. Ideal for musicians and audiophiles, this mod would allow high-end audio input and output.

These two winners will be joined by several other runners-up at the upcoming Moto Mods accelerator program headed by Lenovo. Other projects include the Ultimate Wireless Charging mod (a minimal shell that adds an IR remote and wireless charging capabilities), a QWERTY keyboard attachment, the Edge mod which displays notifications around the edge of the Moto Z, and a solar-rechargeable battery mod.

Moto Z
Moto Z

Concepts that complete the accelerator program are expected to eventually hit Verizon stores, though only winners are eligible for investment funding.

For more info on the Moto Z and its modular format, check out our full-length review.

Source: Motorola

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2 comments
2 comments
zr2s10
Pretty sweet. Now, can we please not have this stuck as a Verizon exclusive??
Daishi
The idea of MotoMods is so cool. I know someone with the projector one. The idea of a phone with an e-ink display on the back is maybe overdue. YotaPhone showed a really cool design with e-ink back at CES 2015 but I haven't seen much uptake from other manufacturers. Maybe if Amazon would have done that for the Fire phone it wouldn't have been such a dud.