At Motorola, we are here to bring people together by connecting them to each other wherever they are. And for one summer every four years, the world comes together for the game of soccer (football, for some)—and what better reason to celebrate?

So when you’re not busy at home watching soccer (perhaps even using our new home mode in Motorola Assist, which we launched last week), check out our new soccer startup animation, which we rolled out Tuesday to Moto X, Moto G, and Moto E globally.

We wanted users everywhere to connect with our animation, so we decided to spotlight the different types of fields where people can play soccer across the world. After all, unlike other sports, you don’t need specific wood courts or tennis stadiums or 100 yards of grass. You just need yourself, a ball, and a wide open space, whether grass, concrete, asphalt, or packed dirt.

Taking our users to the various soccer fields—from dirt lots, to school practice fields, to concrete back alleys, to official turf in Brazil—meant creating four different globes in addition to the ball in a 3D computer environment—which we manually rotated to capture the finished story.

And thus our final animation was born:



The animation started rolling out Tuesday, but if you haven’t received it yet on your Moto X, Moto G, or Moto E, be sure to download the latest Motorola Boot Services and restart your phone. We hope you like it.

Posted by Meet Jariwala, Motorola Boot Services Product Manager

An amazing phone experience is more than just the physical device you hold in your hand. We know that the complete phone experience is about both the software and the hardware. And we believe that your software should continually evolve to get better and better and keep you on the cutting edge.

We are excited to announce some icing on top of the, well, KitKat. Starting today, we are rolling out Android™ 4.4.3, KitKat®, which was just released by Google.

This week we begin rolling out to:

• Moto X T-Mobile users
• Moto G users who bought online in the U.S. (includes Moto G 4G LTE) and at retail in Brazil
• Moto E users who bought online in the U.S. For Moto E users, you are still up for the next major Android update as well. Consider this the cherry on top.

This latest software update brings an improved dialer with a new interface and new colors to enhance consistency and usability, as well as several stability, framework, security fixes, and enhancements to the power profile capabilities.

Motorola users will also enjoy:

• Improved camera image quality for Moto X including better consistency of exposure, more realistic flash coloring, and improved photos in low light conditions using front camera. 
• For Moto X and Moto G, pausing for video recording with a convenient pause/resume button on the viewfinder.
• Motorola Alert in this update for Moto X and Moto G users. This new app helps give peace of mind by sending periodic messages to the contacts you choose.

Check our release notes for Moto X, Moto G, and Moto E for more detailed information.

Wondering when new software updates will come to you? Please check our software upgrades page for the latest information.

Posted by Steve Horowitz, SVP, Software Engineering

Now more than ever, people are playing and streaming music on their phones, not just from dedicated mp3 players or CDs. While great for on the go, connecting your smartphone to previously purchased home speaker and stereo systems can be a mess of cables and wires and new wireless speaker systems can be expensive. Set your music free with Moto Stream™, the portable wireless adaptor that simply plugs into your existing speaker or stereo system, and allows you to stream music via Bluetooth from any smartphone, tablet, or computer. Play music from the song library on your phone or launch apps like Google Play™, Pandora™, and Spotify™. With Moto Stream you can wirelessly listen to your favorite songs in all their glory from your home stereo system - no expensive upgrade required.



With Moto Stream, not only can you make your music wireless, you can make it social as well. With Heist Mode™, Moto Stream can pair with up to five devices to control any speaker. There’s no setup and it’s universally compatible with all Bluetooth® devices so anyone can jump in and drop a track. And if you don’t like their choice, heist it. When you’re not “heisting” with family and friends, you can still link five devices simultaneously to any sound system meaning you can unite your home setup, without the tangle of wires. Smartphone, tablet, or computer; what you connect and how you use it is totally up to you.

And if that wasn’t liberating enough Moto Stream features 300 feet* of Bluetooth range so your speakers are easily within reach. Switch songs from the sofa. Launch playlists from the patio. With NFC pairing, connecting devices is easy. Just tap to pair any compatible device, it’s as simple as that. We made it easy so you can enjoy more of what makes wireless music so great.

Moto Stream will be available starting today for just $49.99 at Motorola.com and in stores at RadioShack starting on June 6th. Now getting a great wireless speaker experience is both easy and affordable.

*Extended range when paired with a Bluetooth Class 1 phone.

Last week we hosted our Moto E Hangout on Air, and your questions and comments had an energizing effect on us. It inspired us as we’ve worked on the most recent slew of updates. These have included Help, Contextual Services, and even Alert, which we’re expanding after just announcing it two weeks ago.

Here’s the latest Download:

More languages for Motorola Alert - After launching Motorola Alert on Moto E a few weeks ago, we added seven more supported languages with this latest update. This increases the number of additional languages and dialects supported from 28 to 35, adding support for Nordic languages, as well as for Arabic and Hebrew.

Under the hood optimization - We’ve made some under-the-hood improvements to Motorola Contextual Services and Motorola Modality Services, which power many of the experiences in Motorola Assist. Look forward to some news coming for Assist soon!

A new design for Help - We built Moto E with the idea of increasing access to smartphones for people everywhere. To welcome our new users, we thought we’d make Motorola Help even easier to use. This new update provides a new, cleaner home screen design that’s easier to navigate. We also added new topics specifically geared toward providing information for new Android users (welcome!).

Kernel Sources for Moto E - We are happy to announce the kernel sources for Moto E and RAZR-M/HD (Android™ 4.4.2, KitKat®) are now on Github. Knock yourselves out!

Many of these updates were inspired by feedback from you. We really value your feedback. So, please tell us what you think on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter using the hashtag #askMoto.

Posted by Punit Soni, Product Management

You could say it’s been an exciting past few weeks for us at Motorola. Just days ago, we hosted launch events in six countries across the world to introduce the latest addition to our smartphone family, Moto E.

But we’re not stopping there. We want everybody to have the chance to learn more about Moto E. That’s why we’re hosting a Hangout on Air next week Thursday, 5/22, at noon PT. VP of Product Marketing Steve Sinclair and Product Manager Bill Park will be here to answer your questions about Moto E’s hardware and software experiences.

This is your chance to ask questions, share comments, and converse with our product experts in real time. To submit your question, all you have to do is include your question or comment on our Google+, Facebook, or on Twitter using the hashtag #AskMoto.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the latest software we’ve announced in the past few weeks:

• MMS with Motorola Connect - Now you can do more with Motorola Connect, the desktop extension that allows you send and reply to texts from your phone. The new update lets you receive and reply to pictures and group messages (MMS) from your computer, so you can stay on one screen instead of juggling many. This is in addition to other enhancements, like contacts matching and number formatting.
• Seasonal startup animations! - We launched two new startup animations recently for Moto X and Moto G globally. Which one your phone gets depends on the season for your hemisphere. So, for example, if you’re in Sao Paulo you will enjoy a fall bootup animation, while those in San Francisco will see a spring one. They’ll swap when the season changes. 
• Find peace of mind with Motorola Alert - We all have people in our lives who care about us and want to know that we’re safe. Motorola Alert will put them at ease by keeping you in touch with your closest contacts. This new software experience does three things: 1) Automatically alert those closest to you when you’ve left or arrived at a specific location; 2) Send an SMS to close contacts when you want them to meet you somewhere or if you want to keep them updated on your location periodically; 3) Quickly sound an alarm when or speed-dial an emergency number that you set up in an emergency. Alert will be available first on Moto E and will be coming to other devices soon via the Google Play Store.
• SIMS get smarter - As another example of Motorola experiences that solve consumer problems, we created a solution for our dual SIM devices which are available in several key markets. With Moto E, we’re introducing Dual SIM with intelligent calling. This new feature learns from your patterns of use and automatically selects the preferred SIM when calling a specific contact. For example, if your call history shows that you always use SIM 1 to call your parents, Moto E will make sure to automatically use SIM 1 whenever you call them. In Brazil, we’ve taken this experience even further. Dual SIM with intelligent calling will automatically select a SIM based not only on your usage pattern, but also on your contact's carrier. Read the FAQs to learn more.

Let’s not end the conversation here. Ask us your questions and tell us what you think for the Hangout on Air Next Week. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Posted by Punit Soni, Product Management

Motorola was the first company to bring consumers the cellular phone, the flip phone and a really, really thin feature phone. Now we want to radically transform the mobile industry once again by making quality smartphones that can do great things available to practically everyone.

For a long time, touchless voice control was considered the holy grail of mobile devices. We knew it would make the experience on our phones irresistible—for our users driving in the car, cooking in the kitchen, glued to the TV watching that last episode of Breaking Bad—or whatever other reason you have for not wanting to pick up your phone.

Today we were very happy to welcome Mayor Rahm Emanuel and local community and business leaders as we publicly unveiled our new global headquarters in downtown Chicago, ushering in a new chapter in Motorola’s transformation.

This is a homecoming for us. Nearly 90 years ago, our story began as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation at 847 West Harrison Street in Chicago. We were downtown until 1976, when we moved our headquarters to the suburbs, where it stayed for nearly forty years.

Now our story has come full circle. We believe that there’s no better place to stay at the forefront of innovation than in a thriving global hub like Chicago -- a city that has become the epicenter of a technology renaissance.

Located inside the historic Merchandise Mart alongside the Chicago River, the new headquarters encompasses more than 600,000 square feet, including 75,000 square feet of dedicated lab space, making it one of the premiere R&D and prototyping facilities in the world. The office is home to nearly 2,000 Motorolans and is within a mile of 71 of the top 100 digital companies in Chicago. At the Mart, our neighbors include the tech startup incubator 1871, advertising and creative agencies and more, creating opportunities for chance encounters and collaboration.

The office pays homage to our Chicago roots while also reflecting a thoroughly modern approach to collaboration. In addition to the best-in-class engineering labs, the space also features nine microkitchens designed in different themes, shared workspaces, a game room for when a little recharging is needed, a rooftop plaza and more.

Our move to downtown Chicago has been more than a year in the making. It took a lot of work by a lot of people, and a great deal of patience and understanding from employees, many of whom have built lives and raised families in northern Illinois. I appreciate all the support.

As we look ahead to the future, we have a clear vision for our company and we’re proud to be back in sweet home Chicago. A truly global city for a global company.

Rick Osterloh


For images and b-roll click here.

Here’s a not-so-secret, early Easter egg for you: This week, we’re celebrating 50 app updates since we released Moto X!

We’re excited to announce that Rick Osterloh has been named as President and COO of Motorola Mobility. Rick will assume the role today, reporting to the Motorola Operating Board at Google until the Lenovo acquisition is complete.

Rick is a Silicon Valley veteran and a familiar face across Motorola, where he has been leading all product management and helping to define the ‘go forward’ strategy for the past two years. Rick first joined the company 7 years ago when Motorola acquired Good, and he started Motorola down the Android path while managing product and engineering teams. Between stints here, Rick joined Skype, where he oversaw design and product for more than 250 million monthly users until it was acquired by Microsoft.

Since his return, Rick’s had a key role in the company’s reinvigoration. He’s been a guiding visionary on the entire product front and a passionate advocate for our philosophy to focus everything we do on the consumer experience.

I believe that Rick’s appointment provides the focused leadership and business continuity needed to steer the organization into the future, and I look forward to continuing in my role as Google liaison and advisor to Motorola through the transition period supporting Rick.


Sincerely,
Jonathan Rosenberg

We strive to design beautiful products that people love. After all, consumers are our most important jury. But we appreciate it when that work is recognized within the design community as well. This year, Motorola received an unprecedented four ‘Red Dot’ Design Awards for several of our latest products, including Moto X and three of our Bluetooth-enabled devices, the Motorola Roadster Pro automotive speaker and the Motorola Whisper and Motorola Sliver II headsets.

Red Dot is an international design competition that’s been around since 1954. Each year, products are judged by a group of design experts and winners are selected based on their ability to exemplify the highest level of design in innovation and execution.

The Red Dot awards validate all the time and effort our Consumer Experience Design team puts into making sure our products look and feel great and are a pleasure to use. Design has always been central to Motorola, and we’re proud to have a tradition of iconic products that extend back through the RAZR flip phone, the StarTAC (the original “flip phone”) and all the way back to the DynaTAC. That same spirit is guiding the design of our current products, like the ones honored by Red Dot, and upcoming ones like Moto 360. It’s an honor for our design team to be recognized in such elite company.

We celebrated April Fools’ this week by enlisting the help of some of our favorite mysterious creatures. A UFO, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Yeti all pitched in to create Motorola’s surprise stop-motion animation for users who powered up their phones on April 1 (it will be available for 11 more days!). But the story of our boot up began with a creative animator and a vision to bring the art of stop-motion to the new medium of phones. For this week’s Download, we want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to bring our latest Motorola Boot Services animation to life.

With Motorola phones, we are always working to deliver highly personal experiences customized for you. And that meant starting from the very beginning: the time you start-up your phone. If you haven’t noticed, we like to change these boot-up greeting animations often to make them timely and seasonal for you.

“We said, how about we give a life to the boot up, make the animation richer, and tie it to what our users care about,” said Motorola product manager Meet Jariwala.

Ultimately, it took 192 frames—that’s the number of individual pictures used to create this week’s April Fools’ stop-motion animation start to finish. It’s a beautiful, centuries-old craft that involves masterfully stitching together a series of photos to create a story.

“For this project, stop-motion was a fun choice,” animator Kirsten Lepore said. “It had a handmade feel for the canvas of the phone, and you could really develop things like fur for the Yeti. It’s always more fun when you can see small details.” Stop-motion gave the animation a human touch and fit the personal nature of phones, which are always updating.



It began with developing the characters in 2D sketches then creating each of the characters as 7-inch puppets by hand. Then Kirsten designed a set for the puppets and, frame by frame, took pictures of the puppets to make the animation.
“As a stop motion animator, you almost have the job of a director because you have to capture the performance of the puppet,” Kirsten said. “So you give personality to it in the way it moves and acts.”

Want to meet each of the characters? Kirsten introduced us.


The Loch Ness Monster - 6” x 2” - “The Loch Ness Monster is very happy. He’s also playful because he sticks his tongue out as we zoom up, almost teasing the audience. The Loch Ness Monster was clay because I knew he would move a lot, and clay is very flexible.”


The Alien - 6” x 6” - “The Alien is mischievous. He smiles a little wider before he shoots his alien beam. I actually laid LEDs into the Alien ship so that he could light up, and it gave more dimension to the puppet, especially since the rest of the material was reflective.”


The Yeti - 7”-tall - “He looks tough, but he’s also kind of a scaredy cat when he gets caught in the act and runs away once the spotlight is on him. I built the Yeti more rigid because he’s more human, a little stiff, and intimidating. He chickens out in the end, so I also made him furry. I applied all the hair on him by hand. I gave him a clay face to make his face very expressive.”

Watch these characters come to life with the latest Motorola Boot Services from Google Play Store when you restart your phone. And be on the lookout for more exciting start-up animations to come.

Just another week of software updates. Stay tuned for more, and let us know what you think on our Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.

Posted by Punit Soni, Product Management

It’s only been seven months since Moto X launched, and ever since then our team has pushed hard to execute on a strategy of releasing apps quickly and then iterating nimbly. This was our strategy from the beginning, and we hope our fans are feeling the benefit across all our products. With our Camera update today, we mark 48 updates since that August launch!

But that’s only one of the updates that we’ve turned out the past two weeks. And fear not, there is still more to come.

Here’s the latest Download.

Press to Snap - We designed the Camera app to help people take pictures more quickly and more naturally. That’s why you can easily snap a photo by touching anywhere on the screen and on Moto X you can launch your camera with two twists of your wrist. For those that prefer the click of a physical button, though, this new update lets you take a picture by just pressing the volume button on your Moto X, Moto G, or Droid Ultra.

Scroll Down Memory Lane - Our new Motorola Gallery update brings a new way to browse through your photos in the timeline, making it easy to navigate galleries large and small. Just swipe though each event to see your photos. This, along with other changes, streamlines our interface across the app. The result is a more beautiful and more elegant gallery, and you’re able to see more of your own photos and videos wherever you look.

It’s time for a watch that looks and feels great and gives you the information you need, when you need it.

It’s time for Moto 360, a truly modern timepiece, designed by Motorola, powered by Android Wear.

The wristwatch has been through several evolutions since it first became a popular fashion accessory more than a 100 years ago. From mechanical to electronic movements, analog to digital faces, the wristwatch has been reinvented several times over, but the basic design has endured for a century because of its elegance and usefulness ‘at a glance.’ Our vision for Moto 360 was to celebrate that history as we reimagined the wristwatch for the future.

Moto 360 keeps you on time and up to date without taking you out of the moment or distracting you, telling you what you need to know before you know you need it through subtle alerts and notifications. With just a twist of the wrist you can see who’s emailing or calling, what time your next meeting is or a friend’s latest social post.

Moto 360 also responds to your voice. Just say “Ok Google” to ask questions like who won the Stanford vs. New Mexico game or what time your flight leaves, or to get stuff done like scheduling an appointment, sending a text, setting an alarm or taking a note.

Most importantly, Moto 360’s iconic design, featuring a round face and premium materials, feels comfortable and familiar on your wrist. It’s everything you need, with a look that you want.

Moto 360 will be available in a variety of styles globally in Summer 2014, starting in the US. To learn more about Moto 360 and stay up to date on product news, click here.




Posted by Lior Ron, CVP Product Management


IMAGES: Click this link for images (you agree to our license terms when downloading images).

Media Note: To learn more about the unique design elements of Moto 360, join Jim Wicks, head of Motorola Consumer Experience Design, for a live Hangout on Air on Wednesday, March 19 at 1pm CT. During the Hangout, we will share more specifics on the unique design elements of the watch and answer related questions. To participate, you can register on our Google+ page here.

Developer note: We want to hear what you think! We can’t wait to see what great apps you’ll create for the distinct round face of Moto 360. Share your ideas with us here.

Moto Maker lets you express yourself and your style through your phone. Now, you can express your school spirit too! Just in time for the tournament, we’re introducing the College Collection, a range of college-inspired Moto X customization options that allow you to showcase your favorite school colors. We took a look at college colors across the board and added nine new back colors and three new accents to our Moto Maker palette so you can create the ultimate fan phone.

Starting today you can visit our College Collection design gallery and select from pre-configured school color combinations and clear cases1 with school logos and team names for up to 40 schools and counting. Don’t see your favorite team? Mix and match with the new color palette to create your perfect combination.

A custom Moto X from the College Collection is now available starting at the everyday price of $399 off-contract or $49 with a new two year contract. Currently in college? We’d like to sweeten the deal with a student discount2. Register at motorola.com/college with a valid .edu address and you can get an off-contract Moto X for the discounted price of $339.

The College Collection is just one of the many ways to get customization inspiration for your Moto X. Visit the new design gallery curated by our Moto Maker team and designers for more ideas and create yours today!


Posted by Ravi Thakkar, Group Product Manager


1 Officially Licensed College cases by Uncommon, cases available at an additional cost
2 Must have a valid .edu email address to receive discount

We’ve got a bunch of new updates to share with you all. We’re keeping the momentum going this week with a swath of new enhancements that both tighten up the backend and bring some new goodies to the user experience.

Last year, on October 29th, we introduced the world to a mouse, a hat and a little windy trouble brought to life by immersive storytelling technology. That was the first Spotlight Story. It was called Windy Day.

Ready for another story? It might be the same forest, but things are definitely different once the sun goes down.


Continuing our work with award-winning storytellers, Buggy Night was directed by veteran animator Mark Oftedal along with much of the Windy Day team, including Caldecott winning illustrator and writer Jon Klassen and Academy award-winning producer Karen Dufilho-Rosen.

With each Spotlight Story we’re uncovering more ground -- both technologically and creatively. We’re continuing to explore novel storytelling possibilities for mobile. Possibilities that are revealed when mobile is considered a true medium, rather than just a smaller screen. We’re finding out what happens at the intersection of hardware, software, and content.

Technologically, Buggy Night takes interactivity and immersiveness to the next level. For this story, we created seamless interactivity by leveraging Android 4.4 KitKat graphics capabilities applied to a true 360-degree environment. Creatively, this meant that we had to tell a story that unfolds where you choose to look -- and where you don’t.
Keep an eye on your Moto X and see what happens when your phone catches the latest Spotlight bug going around.

If you missed our first Spotlight Story, Windy Day, you can check it out in the new Library section of Spotlight Player. And to keep up to date on all things Spotlight Stories, follow our Tumblr or join our Google+ Community.

Posted by Rachid El-Guerrab, Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP)

It’s been an exhilarating few weeks for our team, and it’s hard to believe that it was just days ago that we launched Moto G in India. We promised that we would deliver KitKat quickly, and today we’re thrilled to share that we were able to start rolling out that update within a day of making the commitment. It’s official: Moto G phones in India are now being updated to Android, KitKat 4.4.2. This very latest build brings a number of cool, new features to Moto G, like an improved phone dialer, new photo editing options in the Gallery app, the ability to print documents and photos, and more. For more information, check out the release notes and our updates page.

At the end of March I will step down from my post as CEO at Motorola Mobility to join Dropbox as COO. This was not an easy decision to make, but I leave knowing that Motorola is in great hands - now and in the future.

In the last 18 months, Motorolans have built two of the company’s best loved phones ever, introduced customization to the industry, brought unprecedented quality and performance to a value-priced smartphone, and created experiences that changed how people use and interact with their smartphones.

It was a reinvention the likes of which many 85-year-old brands could not have achieved. And it was astonishing to be a part of.

I'm excited about what the next chapter in Motorola's storied history will bring under the new ownership of Lenovo. While Google imbued simplicity and software sensibility into the company, Lenovo will bring it the scale it deserves. I have no doubt the two companies together will be a force for good in the mobile industry

To ensure that Motorola maintains its current momentum and successfully transitions to Lenovo ownership, Jonathan Rosenberg, a longtime Googler and SVP of Products from 2002 to 2011, will step in as COO at Motorola Mobility as of April 1. Jonathan worked very closely with me to build the leadership team at Motorola and has been intimately involved in steering business and product decisions alongside with the current leadership team. Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora will remain Executive Chairman of the Motorola Operating Board, and continue to oversee the strategy.

With their support, the entire Motorola management team remains focused on our current strategy and on creating great mobile devices that deliver the mobile Internet to millions more people around the world.

That's something we can all rally behind.


Sincerely,
Dennis Woodside