It looks like somebody at Best Buy, the national electronic retailer, violated a nondisclosure agreement by spilling some of the beans on the forthcoming Moto 360 smart watch.
On Sunday, a listing for the Motorola product was published on Best Buy's website, revealing specifications that included the price ($250), a 1.5-inch backlit LCD touch screen, 320x290 resolution bearing 205 pixels per inch. The display is constructed of Corning Gorilla Glass 3, not the hoped-for, four times harder Sapphire glass. As a whole, the watch is water-resistant but not waterproof
The rogue page has been removed from the site within the last 24 hours.
The Best Buy reveal also declared the smart watch will be voice-activated, include an optical heart rate monitor, pedometer and feature Bluetooth 4.0, the current standard.
The Moto 360 is compatible with devices running Android 4.3 or later, including the Android L OS that is coming up next.
It is likely Motorola will debut the smart watch at a "Moto Launch Experience" event on Sept. 4 in Chicago. If so, then Best Buy helped itself to a two-week jump on getting the word out. That's if the watch is available on or close to Motorola's launch date.
Motorola will be making the Moto 360 intro amid its move from Google ownership to becoming an asset of Lenovo. The Moto 360 is based on Google's Android Wear app for wearable technology.
Now that it is known that the display technology is LCD and not the OLED that had been presumed, it will be interesting to see how the LCD's better readability in bright light scenarios will offset OLED's lower power consumption. The screen is always on, although dimmed for power consumption. Speculation on power usage is in the two-day range between charges. Power replenishment will occur via an innovative wireless Qi magnetic system -- no charging ports or contacts to be found on the watch. Only a purple backside on the watch provides a tip-off on its charging system.
The Moto 360 will be customizable with either metal or leather straps. The screen uses an orientation-free design so that the watch can be worn on either wrist.
The Moto 360 will share its Android-ness with current offerings from Samsung and LG. All three devices will not bunk up with Apple products. For that, Apple fans must hope that yes, Virginia, there really is an iWatch.
