Wednesday, October 15, 2014
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Meet the Indiegogo "Transform the Smartphone Challenge" Finalists
For the last few months, developers and entrepreneurs have been busy sharing their ideas for creating the next generation of Moto Mods through our...
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Unlimited Possibilities: Moto Mod Innovation Goes Global
When we launched the Moto Z family of smartphones and Moto Mods, we opened up a new world of possibilities. We shared our commitment to innovation...
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Magnifying Community Impact: Moto Dedicates Music Studio in São Paulo, Brazil
Our mission: to promote the social inclusion of low-income youth in Brazil through cultural entrepreneurship. The result? “Estúdio Moto” (Moto Studio)...
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Mod the Future Visits the Big Apple: Behind the Scenes at the NYC Hackathon
What do 53 developers, 18 entrepreneurs, three designers, one surgeon and a dog named Goose have in common? These eager participants (and K9) all...
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From New Releases to Hackathons, Moto Mods Gain Momentum
Six months ago, we took a stand against incremental innovation with our Moto Z family of smartphones and Moto Mods™ – and we’ve never looked...
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Nexus 6 from Google and Motorola: More Android. More screen. More everything.
At Motorola we’ve been big believers in Android since the very beginning. We love its power, its flexibility, and how it gives you the freedom to choose the experience that’s right for you. In fact, the only thing that would be better than Android is...more Android. That’s why we’re so excited to have been able to work with Google’s Android team to bring you the new Nexus 6, featuring Android 5.0 Lollipop.
With Nexus 6, we’ve worked with Google to bring you a bigger phone with more everything. More screen. More speed. More power. And, it’s the best Android experience ever with:
- More room to view: With a six-inch Quad HD display, Nexus 6 is great for watching, reading, playing and doing.
- More doing, less charging: An around-the-clock 3220 mAh battery gets you through your day and more. Plus, the included Motorola Turbo Charger gives you a quick burst of power when your battery needs it the most. All it takes is 15 minutes to get up to an additional 6 hours of battery life.
- More epic shots: The 13 megapixel camera with Optical Image Stabilization and HDR+ lets you take your best possible photos with the least possible effort.
- More sound in stereo: With dual front-facing stereo speakers, you’ll get an immersive stereo sound that is great for experiencing music, movies and games as you should.
- More with Lollipop: Nexus 6 comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop - a sweet new take on Android. Lollipop introduces Material Design so that content responds to your touch, or even your voice, in more intuitive ways, and transitions between tasks are more fluid. Plus, new call and message notifications allow you to act on (or dismiss) them without interrupting what you’re doing. And much much more.
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Nexus 6 will be available for pre-order through the Google Play Store in late October starting at $649. There are two colors to choose from - Midnight Blue or Cloud White - and two memory options - 32GB and 64GB. Nexus 6 will also be available on motorola.com and through carrier partners starting in November. You’ll hear from our carrier partners soon with additional pricing and availability information. In all, Nexus 6 will come to 28 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America starting later this year and as we head into Q1.
More Android All Around
It’s no secret we love Android. That’s why every one of our Moto phones is built on a foundation of pure Android - it’s easier to use, delivers amazing performance and lets you choose how you want to use your phone. So we have more sweet Android news to share...
Once Android 5.0 L is officially released, we intend to bring this latest upgrade to many of our other Motorola devices, as well. This includes Moto X (1st and 2nd Gen), Moto G (1st and 2nd Gen), Moto G with 4G LTE, Moto E, Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx and Droid Mini. We're still working out the details on timing and the upgrade depends on our partners' support so stay tuned to our software upgrades page for the latest and greatest.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
It’s Official: Android 5.0 Lollipop Coming to Moto X, Moto G, Moto E and More
Now that Android 5.0 Lollipop will be going to the world with Nexus 6—a product of some of our own engineering—we are excited to confirm that this latest and greatest Android release will also come to our other devices as part of our ongoing software strategy to provide fast updates to our pure Android experience.
While Google has not yet publicly released Android Lollipop, we are happy to confirm that the upgrade will come to:
While Google has not yet publicly released Android Lollipop, we are happy to confirm that the upgrade will come to:
- Moto X (1st Gen. & 2nd Gen.)
- Moto G (1st Gen. & 2nd Gen.)
- Moto G with 4G LTE
- Moto E
- Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx, and Droid Mini
Please stay tuned for more information on timing and other products, pending the public release and working with our various partners. And, you can always check for the latest on your specific device by going to our software upgrades page.
Posted by Steve Horowitz, SVP Software Engineering
Thursday, October 09, 2014
The Download: The Creative Opportunities of Designing for a Round Watch
One of the things that excites us about round watches is not only the iconic, beautiful design. It’s also unleashed cool, new opportunities for software development and new experiences. So for today’s Download, our regular spotlight on software, we wanted to get a little deeper into the benefits of designing for round watches.
Though for decades designers have created software experiences for squares and rectangles (LCD monitors, mobile phones, tablets, and even TVs, to name a few), a round watch provides a new canvas. Rick Hoobler, a user interface designer for Moto 360, and I have talked about how it provides fresh experiences in a few ways:
- A smooth, sweeping experience for your eye. Rectangular form factors typically require left alignment to look good according to traditional design principles. But circular screens create a smooth, race-track like behavior that is soothing to the eye. There is no starting or stopping point. It’s fluid and elegant.
- It’s a delight to experience new technology in a classic form factor. The blend of old and new create a deeply satisfying aesthetic. The classic round shape meets brand new technology to create a design duality that feels original without trying too hard. Tableware, plates, glasses, handles—these are all classic round shapes. When we bring this to the watch, you can see things like someone’s photo that fills up the beautiful, locket-like round shape or maps with solid fields of color in a round compass shape.
- The circle is a natural shape for tracking progress. From a design perspective, it is a very compelling experience for users to be able to use sleek progress meters that track all around the edge. You can see all-day progress, instead of a tiny standard-looking chart. The heart rate monitor, for instance, easily curves in a circular shape to show how fast your heart is beating.
Hear Rick share more about what it’s like creating experiences in a round space, instead of a square one.
What else is new in software this week?
Hope you enjoy. Let us know what you think.
Posted by Lior Ron, Product
What else is new in software this week?
- Hot off the presses is an update to Motorola Camera that brings you a remote shutter for Android Wear watches, so you can trigger a shot from your wrist. It also brings numerous performance improvements and bug fixes across Motorola products. We’ve now had over 1 billion shots captured by Moto G users and will continue to bring improvements to our customers!
- Motorola Assist was updated with important bug fixes for Talk to Me and Drive Mode. FM Radio has been updated on Moto E and Moto G to provide lockscreen controls and to support playback to Bluetooth speakers.
- Motorola Connect and the Motorola Connect Chrome extension have been updated to improve stability and support emoji (Chrome extension).
Hope you enjoy. Let us know what you think.
Posted by Lior Ron, Product
Friday, September 26, 2014
The Download: #MotoTips for Your #Moto360
When we designed Moto 360, we focused on building a modern timepiece. It not only fits your look but also assists you in everyday tasks as you make your way through the day. Just like our phones, we want you to have an experience that gets better and better over time, so Wednesday we shared our first update to Moto 360.
The new update enhances our Bluetooth connectivity and adds a new message that confirms Moto 360 is charging even when the battery is depleted. We also squashed a few bugs.
There are also some simple tricks to help make the most of your Moto 360. So, for today’s Download, we’ve devoted our regular spotlight on software to #MotoTips for #Moto360.
Here are two. What are yours?
Changing and Customizing Your Watchface
Simply long press to change the face and then use Motorola Connect (don’t forget to download it here!) to customize the colors and look to your style.
Access to Settings
Holding down your button for four seconds.
Posted by Howard Shen, Product Management
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Mark Your Calendar! Pre-Order Begins Tuesday for New Motorola Products, Moto 360 Back on Sale
Choose to beat the crowd. Starting Tuesday, September 16, pre-orders will open for some of the new Motorola products we announced earlier this month, including Moto X for AT&T, Moto X - Pure Edition, Moto Hint and Motorola Turbo Charger. All four products will be available for pre-order on motorola.com starting at 11 a.m. CT. Shipping dates vary by product and will be provided at checkout.
Moto X for AT&T - Order the AT&T version of the new Moto X starting on Tuesday.
Moto X - Pure Edition - The off-contract Moto X is available SIM unlocked and with an unlockable bootloader for $499.99 USD.
Moto Hint - Our discreet wireless earbud gives you complete control of your phone and allows you to access everything you need by just using your voice. It will be available for $149.99 USD.
Motorola Turbo Charger - Our fastest charger ever takes just 15 minutes on the latest Moto phones to get up to 8 more hours of battery life. It will be available for $34.99 USD.*
Plus, we have more great news... Moto 360 will be back in stock starting Tuesday in the U.S. on motorola.com. You’ll want to hurry as quantities will be limited.
And don’t forget about our Trade In program, making it easier than ever to purchase a customized Moto X using Moto Maker. Just send in your old device, and we'll mail you a Motorola Visa Prepaid Card worth up to $300 depending upon the phone you send in. Visit motorolatradein.com to learn more.
You’ll hear more from other U.S. carrier partners soon and from our partners around the globe regarding additional Motorola product availability. For those in France, Germany and the UK, take the new Moto Maker for a spin and design your own Moto X in advance of availability at your local motorola.com site.
Our newly enhanced Moto Maker site features:
- More choice - new leather finishes, FSC-certified wood finishes and Moto X - Pure Edition
- New rendering engine - get a better feel for what your customized phone will look like with our new new photo realistic rendering engine
- New tools - now compare several designs side-by-side or start off with options curated by our designers
Choose choice and happy shopping!
*must be purchased separately due to longer pre-order time
Friday, September 12, 2014
The Download: Bringing Home and Drive Modes to Moto G and Moto E
We don’t know about you, but last week was a whirlwind of excitement as we shared five new products with the world. With all the activity, in this week’s Download, we wanted to highlight something for Moto G and Moto E users, so that you don’t miss it: You can now use many of the Motorola Assist features on your Moto G (1st and 2nd generations) and Moto E!
When we launched Moto X, we introduced simple but useful experiences based on the different places and situations we find ourselves in. Driving was the natural place to start. To make it happen, we used a low-power sensor hub in Moto X that constantly analyzes inputs from sensors like the accelerometer, GPS, and audio. We eventually expanded these features to Meeting mode (when you don’t want to be bothered and want an automatic message for those who are trying to get in touch), Sleep mode (letting you sleep in peace with only the people who matter getting through), and Home mode (so that your phone automatically knows when it’s home and can read your texts and callers aloud).
When we launched Moto G and Moto E, however, we thought that without the low-power sensor hub in Moto X, these types of experiences would likely not be possible. The phones had fewer microphones for speech recognition and a smaller processor. We couldn’t do it the same way.
But when Drive mode and Home mode became some of the most popularly requested updates for Moto G and Moto E, we decided to revisit.
Challenging our own assumptions, we decided to try to create the same experiences but in a different way, relying on algorithms running on fewer microphones and no sensor hub. The team spent three months creating prototypes and writing algorithms and models that could possibly create contextual experiences for Moto G and Moto E. When the test results came back, we were optimistic. The team then spent another two months tweaking and refining the application so it could hit our quality benchmarks. We are so happy that an alternative approach could provide this requested experience to our users!
Again, we're so glad to be able to share this feature with our users. Tell us what you think. We look forward to keep working on making it better and better.
Posted by Mark Rose, Product Management
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