Motorola Announces an Alexa Mod, a Gamepad Mod, a Wireless Charging Mod, and More

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At Mobile World Congress 2017, Motorola unveiled a plethora of new additions to its Moto Mod family, including an Alexa Mod, a Gamepad Mod, and a Wireless Charging Mod. Motorola also took this time to tease a few interesting Mod prototypes to boot.

During the press conference, Dan Dery, Motorola’s head of Moto Mods, re-iterated the company’s commitment to the Moto Mod program, promising that the company will support Moto Mods for the foreseeable future. This is consistent with similar comments made by Mr. Sharay Shams, Lenovo’s General Manager for Middle East Smartphones. But Mr. Dery went even further, and suggested that Motorola could even slow down their production of new smartphones due to the power of the Moto Mod program. Here are the Mods that are new so you can decide for yourself whether Mr. Dery’s comment has any merit.

Alexa Mod

Alexa, the voice service that powers devices like the Amazon Echo has been recently expanding into the smartphone market. First, Huawei announced that Mate 9 devices sold within the United States would be shipped with a voice assistant powered by Alexa.

And now, Motorola has announced an “Alexa Mod” for the Moto Z. This mod will connect your phone to Amazon Alexa once it’s docked to a Harman branded speaker.

If you’re not aware of what Alexa is, it is Amazon’s voice control system that responds to certain voice commands. Playing music, turning the lights on, and controlling your smart home lights/thermostat are some of the more common commands that Alexa is capable of.

More Charging Mods

Motorola sure loves their charging mods. We do, too, since many of us feel that OEMs have been sacrificing too much battery capacity for the sake of shaving off tenths of a millimeter every year. The company has announced a Wireless Charging Mod, a Fast Charging Mod (that uses Motorola’s proprietary Turbo Power, not Qualcomm’s Quick Charge), and a charging mod that charges other Moto Mods.

Moto Gamepad

It’s been a long while since the Sony Xperia Play was relevant, but it looks like it may finally see a spiritual successor in the form of Motorola’s Gamepad Mod. This Mod extends beyond both the top and bottom of your device to introduce a button layout that you might expect from a handheld game console.

You’ll get dual analog sticks, a directional pad, four (hopefully customizable) buttons, and what appears to be a few menu buttons. There’s even a cradle that you can use to easily carry the entire device. Pretty nifty for any serious gamers on Android.

Prototype Mods

Motorola has also teased three interesting Moto Mod prototypes. The first is a portable printer Mod that attaches to your phone so you can quickly print a document while on the go (because why not). The second is a robot-building Mod, which looks like it works with LEGO Mindstorm, which could be interesting for use in the classroom (though that would require an entire classroom with a Motorola flagship, so good luck with that). Finally, there’s a more functional multi-SIM card holder so you can swap between up to 4 SIM cards at any time.

Honestly, at this point we don’t even care if these prototypes never make it to market – they’re still just so damn cool. But we’re still interested in hearing what you guys think. Let us know your thoughts about these Mods, and the future of the Moto Mod program, in the comments below!