SlideShow: Google's Moto G smartphone and first impressions

Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The Moto X's younger brother, the Moto G, is Google's attempt at capturing customers in emerging markets and covering the feature phone void once dominated by Nokia.

The Moto G is an impressive smartphone which looks and feels very much like the Moto X except it is slightly heavier and thicker. Performance is surprisingly speedy for most functions and call quality is superb on the TELUS network.

The Moto G runs on Android 4.3 and features a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage space (around 5.2 GB of which is usable) although users automatically receive 50 GB from Google Drive. No contract price for this smartphone is $200 without a contract.

On the flipside, Moto G has no LTE connectivity, no NFC, one less microphone and lacks all the gesture-based controls, the Just Talk voice functionality and the active notifications that were showcased with the Moto X. You don't even get a wall adapter, just the USB cable to charge. Motorola has had to make choices on what to keep and what to feature and so far, it looks like they made the right choices.

Motorola launches Moto G smartphone

Motorola launched its second device created under Google's stewardship. The Moto G is the follow up to Moto X and will be made available in then US unlocked for $179 for the 8GB version and $199 for the 16GB version. Featuring a class leading 4.5" display, an Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB of RAM. Motorola is challenging the idea that cheap smartphones offer inferior experiences by making a smartphone thats affordable but which can offer users premium experiences at one third the price. Motorola is also pushing customization with removable backs, bumpers and various cases and accessories. The Moto G will ship with Android Jelly Bean 4,3 and will get an update toK KitKat in January 2014. Stand by for more information, Canadian pricing and first impressions.

Save attachments directly to Google Drive from Gmail

Aside from adding new quick action buttons, Google has also introduced the ability to save email attachments right into your Drive account without having to leave Gmail. You could preview attachments before but now this integration lets you transfer files without the need to download documents, photos, and the like to your PC. You can only access this feature using Gmail native app and it will be available to Gmail users starting next week.

Vine lands on Windows Phone platform

While the announcement was made a while back, Vine now officially lands on Windows Phone with same functionalities on the Android and iOS versions of the app. You can record videos with tap and hold feature, have access to camera tools, and use Explore feature to find popular Vines. Windows Phone users can pin their favorite accounts to the homescreen so they can easily access them.