Wednesday 8 January 2014

Motorola Skip – Accessory that Unlocks the Moto X Screen by Tapping

Motorola has recently announced a thumb sized clip that comes handy to unlock the screen of the newly introduced Motorola Moto X device, and the term tapping generally applies to the NFC, which is the main communicator here too. This is yet another step from the company to enhance the user experience, where the general pressing of the unlock button and then swiping the screen to unlock the screen is gone, and you get to place the Skip anywhere and just tap the back of the phone on the Skip to unlock it.


According to Google, 39 is the average number of times a person unlocks the screen of the phone every day, and its around 100 times for a power user. Next to the few seconds spent by the user in pressing the unlock key and then pressing in the 4-digit key to unlock the screen, it wastes quite a lot of time. “Hello Skip. Goodbye PIN” as said in the Motorola Blog, clearly shows how good the accessory could help in passing the passkey for unlocking the smartphone.
The skip can be placed anywhere, such as on the belt or the jeans and the usage can be taken to the next level if you have a proper idea of what can be done here – touchless controlling of the device. You can use the Skip to unlock the screen, and then use the voice controls to guide the device to perform different actions. The Skip comes with three dots, which are the NFC stickers which can bypass a lock screen.
There would be an official app too available to take the right advantage of the Skip, and the pricing of $19.99 for which it is selling, can be an issue because an NFC chip usually costs no more than $2-3, and you are getting that along with a metal clip to hold the jeans / belt / shirt. Still, for those who are looking to have one, there’s no alternatives for it.

But yes, Motorola has made an exception for those who are trying to purchase a Motorola device through the Moto Maker website, you would get this interesting accessory for free of cost, and this applies to all the devices that are ordered through the Moto Maker.
If you are looking to take one for trying it out, this is quite worth it. But when you would be looking for at least 4-5 units, it’s better you make them on your own as those stainless steel clips are easily available, and there’s NFC tags available (5 for around $10) which would make it a lot cheaper, and there’s nothing special apart from this that you get from the Skip.
The Moto X faces criticism already for the pricing at which it is entering the market, thus the additional costs of these accessories could take the thoughts to the other way, where the similar price could give you a device with brilliant specs, although no other brand except Sony has made some good looking NFC accessories.

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