Despite reports of a sales shortfall, the customizable Moto X has some dedicated fans, and it’s fair to say they overlap pretty well with the target audience of Wired. And so, for anybody who hasn’t yet tried their hand at designing a phone in the Moto Maker, Google is making the process a little easier. Some copies of the January 2014 issue of Wired — according to Mashable, that means those sold in Chicago and New York — come with an interactive ad that mimics the Moto X design tool: tap one of the colors shown at the bottom of the page, and the phone’s backplate will change to match it.
Google puts an offline Moto Maker in the pages of Wired
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
It’s done with some LEDs and a single panel behind the page, so you won’t exactly be able to try out different combinations of backplate and highlights, but it’s a great implementation of the concept behind the phone. Unfortunately, unlike at least one other smartphone ad, the Moto X in the picture doesn’t actually work.
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