Moto G Google Play edition is getting Android 5.1, OTA link available
The differences between the regular Moto G and the Play edition version are minimal, but fans of Google’s firsthand vision of Android undoubtedly prefer the latter. If you are rocking a Play edition Moto G, you’ll be happy to know that Google has begun pushing the Lollipop 5.1 update to the device.
The update is rolling out in stages over-the-air, and, as usual, that means you may have a little to wait. With that said, there are probably not that many units of the Moto G Play edition in the wild, so the wait shouldn’t be too long.
The update brings the build number to LMY47M and weighs 171MB.
Android 5.1 has been unveiled last month, following more than a few leaks spotted in the wild. This version is supposed to fix and tweak various issues found on 5.0, but it also adds features like multi-SIM card support, device protection (the device will remain locked even after a factory reset), and HD voice calls support, as well as various small enhancements to the user interface.
If you can’t wait, you can install the OTA file manually, as long as you’re on the latest firmware (LRX21Z). Download it from here.
Google Play Edition Moto G Receiving 5.1 Update
If you’re currently using a Motorola Moto G Google Play Edition, you’re in for some sweet Lollipop delight. The 5.1 update is now rolling out, so if you haven’t gotten it yet, get started spamming the “check for updates” button. If you’re too impatient to even wait for your OTA update, try downloading from here: download. You may have to clear up some space, since the update is all of 171 MB.
The update is virtually the same as the one that has already been sent out to the Nexus devices, so if you also own a Nexus or know someone who does, the new software should be similar. Based on previous update patterns, we can expect the rest of the GPE devices to be receiving the 5.1 update fairly soon.
Source: Android Police
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Motorola offering $140 off the unlocked Moto X (2014), today only
Earlier today Motorola unveiled a selfie stick that it said customers would be able to customize with leather, real wood, or even your favorite colors. While this was an obvious April Fool’s day hoax that made its way onto our April Fool’s roundup post, Motorola isn’t fooling around when it comes to saving you real money on the Moto X (2014).
On the April Fool’s page for the Selfie Stick, Motorola has revealed it is offering up the unlocked Moto X (2014) for $140 off, today only, with the deal ending on April 2nd at 11:59 EST. Additionally, any accessories purchased with the Moto X will be 30% off. Not a bad deal at all!
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For more details, be sure to head on over to Motorola’s official website. Not sure if the Motorola Moto X (2014) is right for you? Be sure to check out our full review.
[Deal] Score a Moto X for just $359.99 for the next 23 hours
For the next 23-hours, Motorola is offering all customers $140 off a Moto X (2014) if they purchase a 32GB model through Moto Maker. This means you can pick one up for $359.99. That, coupled with 30% off all accessories and free shipping, makes this a deal not to be missed.
Just in case you need a refresher on its specifications, this Moto X packs a 5.2-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset, 2GB of RAM, an Adreno 330 GPU, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2,300 mAh battery.
The promotion will expire tomorrow, Thursday, April 2, at 10:59am CST — so if you want to pick up a Moto X, best act fast.
Source: Motorola
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Roundup: the best tech-related April Fools’ hoaxes
It’s that time of the year, folks. Outlandish news, imaginary products unveilings, and outrageous announcements – tech companies are trying to one-up each other with the wildest April Fools’ day hoaxes. Some have even jumped the gun by a day, or in the case of OnePlus, by a few weeks.
If you don’t have the time or patience to sift through all the fake news today, we’re doing the hard work for you. Here’s what transpired so far.
Chrome Selfie
The Google Chrome team thinks it’s too damn hard to share what you really feel when you read the news online. So it’s fixing things with a new feature available now in the Chrome for Android app. Chrome Selfie lets you take a selfie, along with a screenshot of whatever your reading, and send it to whomever you want. Handy! All kidding aside, we can totally see some cash-flush venture-funded startup trying to make this into a real product.
Google Panda
Google Japan thinks the best way to spur the adoption of Google Now is to put Google’s virtual assistant in a cute and fluffy panda body. They even got bigwig Chris Yerga to introduce in on stage at a press conference where Android Authority has, somehow, not been invited.
Google Panda has three main functions: cuteness (“soft, rounded design”), mobility (it hugs you!), and durability (fluffy fur absorbs shock! if only smartphones had fur as well…). More about the groundbreaking new Google Panda here.
Google party horn keyboard
Typing is too hard! How about if, instead of pushing inconvenient keys, you could spell out words by blowing into a party horn? Not satisfied with Panda alone, the Google Japan team is introducing a Bluetooth-enabled party horn that will make tedious key pushing a memory.
Google Smartbox by Inbox
“Introducing a new way to interact with the mail you love. The good old-fashioned kind of mail that you touch with your hands… and smell with your nose.” Thank you Inbox team!
Moto Selfie Stick
Hipsters of the world, rejoice. You will definitely appreciate Motorola’s new product: handmade, leather-bound, custom selfie sticks. Because when you have to embarrass yourself with a selfie stick, you should at least do it in style.
T-Mobile Pets Unleashed
Your carrier hates puppies! So put it in the doghouse and switch to T-Mobile, where Pets Unleashed lets your favorite furry friends get their paws on their dream devices, starting at five bucks a month. What would your pet do with a smartphone or tablet, you ask? Easy – swipe through Pet Tinder, use FitPet, and watch zebra porn. Yes, really.
MS-DOS Mobile
Microsoft has had a hard time with its mobile operating system, so it’s going back to basic with MS-DOS Mobile. Black and white text has never looked so good! Launch apps or send messages, with a simple text command!
Reddit invasion
Visit r/Android today, that bastion of all things blessed by Duarte (okay, that’s r/AndroidCircleJerk actually) and you’ll be in for a nasty surprise. At least r/Apple users are probably just as confused.
Imagination PowerVR Vogue GPU – it can run Crysis!
“Yeah, but can it run Crysis?” That perennial favorite question of trolls everywhere now finally has a resounding “Yes!” answer, thanks to Imagination. The chip designer just unveiled a mobile GPU that can run Crysis, and only that. Look at those graphics! Plus, more cool features like Vogue magazine caching, the Romulan API (will “further decrease the efficiency of graphics and compute on modern GPUs, providing no control over GPU acceleration for minimized performance and absolutely no predictability”), and a 1000-bit CPU.
com.Google
com.Google is like Google.com, but backwards. That is all.
Samsung Exynos ExoBoost
You can’t ever have too many cores in your phone, am I right? If you feel inadequate in this department, Samsung Exynos is here to help you, with the new ExoBoost, a line of add-ons that give your phone some extra processing oomph. Again, this is something quite a few people would buy.
Updating with more silliness as it comes! Missed anything? Tell us in the comments.
Motorola’s April Fool’s effort gives birth to the Moto Selfie Stick
If you had to name the biggest (and perhaps unfortunate) trend in the tech world in the last 12 months, you’d probably have to say it was the selfie stick. Despite what side of the fence you are on, it’s hard to admit how big the seemingly simple accessory has become, so big that Motorola decided […]
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Motorola announces the customizable Moto Selfie Stick, available in either wood or leather
You can customize your own Moto X smartphone or Moto 360 smartwatch with Moto Maker, but a new accessory from Motorola is sure to excite you. Introducing the Moto Selfie Stick.
Selfies are more about you than even your phone so why not make it as unique as you are? Starting right now, you can customize your own Moto Selfie Stick with wood or leather.
Motorola can’t guarantee that you will capture fantastic shots of your kisser, but you will have fun holding your new stick!!
Watch Motorola explain the precision and detail behind the greatest selfie stick ever in the video below…
Click here to view the embedded video.
Happy April Fools’ Day
source: Motorola
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Motorola adds red leather backing to the Moto X 2014
If you like the look of Motorola’s leather backs on the Moto X but wanted a more unique color, you might be interested in the brand new red leather back that’s recently been added to MotoMaker for the Moto X 2014 edition. The new shade joins a few other colors and the football leather that was announced a few weeks ago.
Like the other leather options, opting for a leather back adds $25 to the base price of the Moto X. Still, $425 for a leather Moto X, sans contract, doesn’t sound like a bad deal at all.
source: MotoMaker
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Moto X (2014) now available in red leather, via Moto Maker
While the latter part of 2014 saw the release of a number of stunning devices that are still very much worthy of purchasing even now, the reality is that many of these devices have become overshadowed by upcoming 2015 flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the HTC One M9. In order to steal back some of the spotlight, many times OEMs will employ a few different strategies to make their “no longer brand new but still relevant” flagships stand out such as introducing aggressive price cuts or new color configurations. That’s exactly what Motorola is doing.
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Motorola has already employed the former strategy through various sales and promos over the last few months, and now they’re going the latter route by introducing red leather to the Moto Maker. The new red leather option joining existing choices including various wood, leather, and plastic backs. As with other leather backs (and straps, in the case of the Moto 360), Motorola is teaming up with Horween for the new red leather back panel. Upgrading to red leather costs the same $25 charge as other leather/wood options.
Not sure if the Moto X (2014) is right for you? Be sure to check out our full review.
Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen) (2015) review
Announced and made available on February 25, the new Moto E is one of the cheapest off-contract smartphones you’ll find. But, does cheap mean low quality or shoddy craftsmanship? Hardly. Not only is this one of the least expensive models you can buy without a service plan, it happens to be one of the better choices for various user needs.
The second generation Moto E is definitely an evolutionary take on its predecessor and doesn’t stray far in overall design and approach. Looking very much like a late edition Motorola it would be easy for an average person to confuse this one with last year’s edition – or the different Moto G and Moto X models.
Design
Pick the Moto E up and you’ll notice it has a nice, soft finish that doesn’t grab oils, dirt, or fingerprints. Available in black or white, the phone feels like it can take a bit of moderate abuse. Throw your phone in a pocket or purse without much thought? No worries, the Moto E is forgiving.
Along the outer edge of the phone you’ll find a textured grip in either of the default colors. Not only does this give you some extra bite when in hand, it can also be used to accent your design. You can purchase additional color options that add a hint of color or pizzazz to the phone. No, it’s not on the same level of the Moto Maker stuff for the Moto X, or even the replacement battery covers on the Moto G, but it’s nice to know you’re not stuck with what you bought.
Popping the edge ring on and off proves no challenge; interestingly, the volume and power buttons are included as part of the grip. It’s quite something how a little strip of blue or pink might change the overall aesthetics.
Android
As is the case with other Motorola smartphones of late, the Moto E features a nearly stock Android software experience. As of this review the Moto E ships with Android 5.0.2 which is just about the absolute latest in releases. For what it’s worth, Android 5.1 was announced and began deployment right around the same time as the phone’s debut.
Motorola has opted to include a handful of its own apps and services; present here are Migrate, Assist, and Moto Display. You’ll also find minor tweaks to the user experience such as flicking your wrist to open the camera. In short, none of these really duplicates anything found in the Android OS and each can be user-defined or left alone.
Does all of this mean that the device moves along without snags or stutters? No, we did find the occasional burp or minor pauses in response. Nothing crazy, though, and there were no force closing problems. Unless you have spent a lot of time with more powerful phones or are doing head-to-head comparisons, you may not even see the difference.
Display
Slightly larger than its predecessor, the second-gen Moto E features a 4.5-inch display. It doesn’t sound like much and doesn’t feel all that different in hand, but it’s nice to see more screen for the money. On the other hand, it provides the same overall resolution (960×540) which means less pixels per inch. Does this matter to you? We venture to say it shouldn’t – especially because of its price.
Motorola has opted for Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection atop of the display. Additionally, there’s a water resistant coating to help guard against life’s little spills. It’s not a true waterproof finish but it’s all you’ll need in the event you’re caught out in the rain.
We did find that the screen is not quite as bright as we might have hoped. We do like to dial down brightness to preserve battery; however, the higher settings are still a little darker than we’d hoped. Dealbreaker? Hardly.
Storage
Motorola has doubled down on internal capacity for the Moto E 2015. Customers now get 8GB to work with and there’s also microSD expansion. It’s worth noting, however, that you are limited to 32GB cards for an all-in total of maximum of 40GB. But, thanks to the ever-growing list of cloud storage options and online backup services, this capacity isn’t quite the dealbreaker it would have been two years ago.
Camera
One area where less expensive smartphones tend to pull up short is in the camera. Indeed, the first-generation Moto E suffered from a less-than-desirable experience that had somewhat justified its lower price point.
Thankfully, Motorola has moved the needle for this year’s model by integrating auto-focus and an Auto-HDR mode. Between the two of these we found the camera was able to capture images quickly and fairly accurately. There’s nothing worse (ok, there are plenty of things worse) than whipping out the camera to snap a few pictures and the phone not locking on to the subject. The Moto E 2015 was much quicker and more precise than we expected.
Video recording gets a boost this time around, jumping from 480p to 720p. It’s the low end of HD, sure, but we’ll take it. Sadly, there’s still no flash to be found so you’ll want to ensure you have good lighting.
Also new in this generation, there’s a front-facing VGA camera. Absent altogether in the previous model, it’s just enough to say it exists. If you’re looking for something HD for video chat you’ll not find it here.
Battery
Coming in with 2390mAh capacity, the battery is a 20% increase over last year’s power supply. What does that mean to you, the user? How about more than one day of juice and a downright incredible standby time?
We were blown away by the way the Moto E sipped at its battery over the span of a few days. In our mixed usage we found that the battery was able to give us all-day life plus more. Light users, we imagine, could get 2-3 days or more from this one. Things could get even better if you’re using the 3G model or don’t spend much time utilizing high speed data.
Conclusion
We are extremely impressed with the Moto E. Considering the $150 price point we would have been happy with a slightly larger screen over last year’s model. Or, perhaps just adding in 4G LTE support. Fortunately for us, we get both of these as well as the latest release of Android. Throw in the better camera details and battery it’s all bonus.
At $120, the 3G variant is still plenty of smartphone for someone making the leap from feature phone. Both are attractive enough in price to consider one of these as a backup or replacement for a lost or damaged model.
It’s going to be hard to recommend any other brand over Motorola at this price range. Sure, Blu, Huawei, and a few others are treading into that space and offer compelling devices, but we’ve got to give the nod to Motorola. There’s more than enough here to merit the money and the brand is one we’ve been all too pleased to learn to trust again.
The Motorola Bands and Grip Shells are a nice touch that help users get a more personalized design. You’ll spend a few bucks to do so, yes, but you’re still walking away with a semi-personalized, low-cost smartphone with leading edge Android. Oh, and it’s also unlocked and waiting for your micro-SIM card.
If this is indicative of what a post-Google and Lenovo-owned Motorola is going to do then we’re on board.
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AIVAnet 