Duet is an interactive animated story. It is a synthesis of the most ground breaking virtual world technology and the most ancient of all art forms—drawing. From the beginning of this project we knew it would be a celebration of life through line. The entire production was a creative adventure. We are a small team of artists and programmers working together to accomplish the charge of ATAP’s Regina Dugan set before us. “I want you to make something beautiful and emotional,” she said. “You push yourself creatively and that will push us technologically.”

Duet is a love story between two characters, Mia and Tosh, whose paths cross throughout their lives. Different than the traditional linear story, Duet employs a multi-layered approach that could best be described as a double helix in which the characters’ story arcs literally spiral around one another. Figuring all of this out was enough to make our collective heads spin! Fortunately we were blessed with an incredible ATAP team of technical engineers led by Rachid El Guerrab. The artistic half of our creative suite was led by our producer Gennie Rim and Production Designer Max Keane. Together, my assistant Sarah Airriess and I drew over 10,000 drawings to create the animation for Duet.

Again and again, we were surprised by the freedom this interactive storytelling provided. Jan Pinkava, who pioneered and directed the first Spotlight Story, “Windy Day”, continually encouraged us to put the camera into the hands of the audience. However this is not an easy or natural thing for a filmmaker to do. The tendency is to want to control the visual composition, but with Duet we learned to coax rather than control. Because of the nature of this virtual world technology there were no individual shots cut together. It is all one continuous living moment. I think of it less as a traditional film and more as a visual poem.

Our music composer, Scot Stafford, may have had the greatest challenge of all. Not only was he tasked with creating an emotional score, but it also needed to respond at any moment to the viewers' choice and seamlessly switch themes from one character to the other. Duet is in every way a partnership between the visual and the musical.

Throughout my 40 year career as an animator I have benefitted each time new technology crossed my path because it invariably forced me to become a better artist. In a similar way, Duet has stretched all of us creatively who worked on it.

We have learned that when it comes to storytelling, everything is possible. There still remains so much more to discover.

We are thrilled to share Duet with you today.

Glen Keane
Director / Animator of Duet

Editor's note: We made a mistake in earlier version of our blogpost when it said "Duet" would be supported on Moto G (2nd gen.). Unfortunately, that was incorrect. It is currently only supported on Moto X (1st and 2nd gen.) and Moto G 4G LTE. We're very sorry for getting that wrong.

So you’re a Moto user and one of the first in the world to use Android 5.0, Lollipop, which we began rolling out recently—what should you do next with your phone?

How to Quickly Dismiss Your Notifications

Does anyone else, before leaving the house, recite the trinity? Keys, wallet, smartphone. Our phones travel everywhere with us—in all types of weather and situations.

These days, our phones must be as visually appealing as they are durable. Which is why we’ve equipped our new DROID Turbo with ballistic nylon, a first for any smartphone.

But Just What Is Ballistic Nylon?

Ballistic nylon is the strong, lightweight, tightly woven material used on the back of DROID Turbo. It’s a tough aesthetic that matches the hardcore features of the device: a 48-hour battery, a top-of-the-line quad-core 2.7 GHz Snapdragon™ 805, a 565 ppi screen, and a 21 MP camera.

The material’s history goes all the way back to World War II. Ballistic nylon was originally developed for use as flak jackets to protect airmen from flying debris in combat and served its purpose well.

But ballistic nylon didn’t disappear after that. Through the years, the materials have been used in everything such as:

• Extreme weather backpacks
• Tactical bags for the military troops
• The US Army’s combat boots
• Hunting supplies
• Super durable watch straps (Take it from this guy.)
• Skin-on kayaks (Warning: This video may be too awesome for kayak enthusiasts or ballistic nylon lovers.)
• Motorcycle jackets and pants

Why Ballistic?

Ballistic nylon, unlike other nylons, is not only known for use in tough situations, but it is also versatile. The military uses it because the fabric is resistant to tears, holes, and high temperatures, not to mention it provides a level of water resistance. Companies use it for some of those same reasons, but unlike some other highly durable materials, ballistic nylon also offers more flexibility in design and execution. We love it because of the material’s association with all of those things.

When it comes to phones, ballistic nylon offers unique visual and tactile aesthetics. It looks sleek and feels strong in your hands. Which is why bringing the ballistic fabric technology to phones for the first time makes sense.

Because why can’t your phone be built to last with a tough look to match?

Posted by Jenny Schroder, Product Marketing

Get ready for something sweet! Android^TM 5.0, Lollipop is officially here for some of our Motorola devices!

We’ve started to roll out Lollipop in phases just a week after the public release of the software to the following devices in the US:

• Moto X (2nd Gen.) Pure Edition
• Moto G (2nd Gen.) US GSM 
• Moto G (2nd Gen.) Global GSM retail versions sold in the US

The most ambitious release yet, Lollipop brings a number of tasty enhancements, including:

• A new look and feel. Google brings its all-new Material Design to life with a bold, new visual style. The new user interface is designed to enable better, more natural touch screen interactions and introduces vivid new colors, typography, and edge-to-edge imagery to make using your phone more fluid.
• Your device, your rules. Catch up with notifications on your lock screen and even dismiss them without unlocking. New "Downtime" and "Interruption" settings also allow you to decide what people and what notifications get through at times that you choose.

• Share your device. You know that moment when your kid plays with your phone or a friend needs to borrow it? Use "Guest" mode or another account you’ve set up to share your device. You can also pin a view to limit the user to a particular application. 
• Let there be light. Shine a light by using the new flashlight in Quick Settings. Just swipe down with two fingers from the status bar to see it. 
• Battery saver. The Battery settings panel now shows an estimated projection for how much time you have left even while you're charging. You can also enable a new battery saver mode that will save power by reducing performance and most background data operations to extend your battery life. 

For more about these new features, find details at our Lollipop support page and on Google’s official Lollipop page. We’re working hard with our carrier partners to bring this update to more of our devices as soon as we can. You can always check out the latest upgrade status for your phone by visiting our software updates page.

Hope you find the update as sweet as we do.

Updated November 24, 2014

Earlier this year, thousands of you participated in our Moto 360 Design Face-Off, a competition in which users submitted their ideas for watch face designs and then voted on their winner. The talented victor, David Pascual, won a Moto 360 and the chance for his design to be officially included on the watch.

The winning watch face, along with four additional new watch faces, is available to all Moto 360 owners through an update on the Motorola Connect app. Also available with this new update is the ability to create your own custom watch face, selecting everything from the background image to the style of the tick marks and watch hands.

We sat down with David to chat more about the nuances of his design, how he came up with the idea, and what advice he has for other Moto 360 designers.

What do you do for a living?
I am the Director of Web Content Development for SiriusXM Satellite Radio. I’ve been at SiriusXM for roughly seven years working on just about everything that touches our site. Our service has an incredibly wide variety of content and it makes for a consistently challenging and fun job.

I’m also a student at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business working on obtaining an MBA. I’m focusing on entrepreneurship and marketing, two areas I’ve long been interested in. This contest actually validated one of the reasons I elected to go to Georgetown—the close supportive nature of the students. During the voting period, I posted my design to a class Facebook page and received overwhelming support. I’ve been stopped many times by students asking if I’m “the watch guy” and to let me know they liked and voted for my design.

What inspired the design you submitted to the contest?

I started following Moto 360 ever since the original announcement in March. I think that, like so many people, I loved that the form was being focused on as much as function. For many guys, a watch is essentially the primary—perhaps only—piece of “jewelry” that they wear. With that in mind, I wanted to create a face that followed classic design cues and would look good on an analog watch. Then I wanted to enhance it with the functionality that digital enables. For me, the biggest opportunity was the integration of a glance-able calendar. This really pushed the final design that has essential markings along with a prominent calendar ring.

I was pretty excited to create a design that I thought fulfilled that simple yet useful objective. Still, I didn’t imagine it would go on to be in the top 10, let alone win. There were a ton of great designs, so it was particularly rewarding to see so many people seem to share the vision I had of a watch face.

Were their any particular experiences that either led to you design or that had an impact on you as a designer as a whole?
David with the Moto 360 team at Google I/O

Calling all football superfans! Don’t get sidelined with a boring phone. Up your smartphone game with the limited edition Moto X in football leather. Featuring the same Horween genuine football leather trusted by college and pro athletes, the new “football” phones will be available exclusively at Verizon Wireless stores and on verizonwireless.com beginning today. Or, if fans want to put their personal touch on it, they can also visit MotoMaker.com to further customize the Moto X with Football leather starting November 14.

Either way, nothing connects you to the game quite like the feel of genuine leather in your hands. So whether you’re checking your fantasy stats, texting about the next tailgate or reading the latest on your favorite team, bring yourself closer to the game you love with this limited edition Moto X.