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What is Motorola Ready For?
Motorola wants your phone to replicate a full-fledged PC, gaming console, and smart TV
Motorola is making good phones worth gaining your attention again. But what value do you get for your money besides the brand's name, clean Android skin, and some solid hardware? Your phone can outperform its current use case, and Motorola thinks you can turn it into a giant computer by connecting to a big-screen TV or display.
You'll actually want to buy a Motorola phone at these Cyber Monday prices
Cheap phones get even cheaper during Cyber Monday
Motorola's mid-range and budget phones tend to attract more customers than its flagship offerings because they offer more value for money and pack quite a punch despite their modest price tag. For Cyber Monday, you can get some of Motorola's excellent mid-range phones at heavily discounted prices, making them an even more attractive proposition.
Motorola's upcoming super low-range phones, the Moto C and C Plus, were first leaked yesterday. With even worse specs than the Moto E lineup (with presumably a far lower price), the phones likely won't even be sold in the United States. Now more photos of the Moto C phones have leaked, in addition to two other upcoming Motorola devices.
CyanogenMod has seen better days as an organization, but the team behind the open-source Android custom ROM doesn't seem to be slowing down its prodigious output. In the last week new nightly builds have been added for no less than ten new phones and tablets, including notable models from Motorola, Samsung, OnePlus, and Amazon. All of them now have CM 14.1 (based on Android 7.1.1 AOSP code) builds available.
Got an old phone that the manufacturer or carrier has stopped pushing updates to? Chances are, there's a CyanogenMod ROM that will breathe life back into it. This week, CM maintainers have brought CyanogenMod 14.1, which is based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat, to the AT&T and T-Mobile versions of the Samsung Galaxy S III, the LTE model of the second-generation Moto E, the Moto X Play, and more.
TWRP is an awesome tool for us Android enthusiasts; it allows users to make and restore backups, flash ROMs and other files, and is often the stepping stone to root access. Now, TWRP has become available for three smartphones and one Android TV device.
The HTC One A9 was HTC's first device to ship with Android Marshmallow, but despite a relatively clean version of Sense, there's still reason to want to flash a custom ROM. Maybe you want the genuine stock Android look. Maybe you want to cut down on the number of pre-installed apps. Either way, you now have the option to flash CyanogenMod and keep Android 6.0 thanks to the arrival of CM 13 nightly builds.
Google and the various major Android device vendors and carriers are scrambling to patch the recently-discovered Stagefright exploit, a weakness in Android's multimedia processing that can allow remote access via a simple MMS message. Google has already begun patching Nexus devices, and Samsung is working its way through its extensive product range starting with flagships. Yesterday Motorola released its plans to update its phones.
Motorola is slowly making its way through its current product line, updating all its phones to the latest version of Android. (My poor, neglected DROID MAXX from 2013 is still waiting, Moto.) That means releasing the open source kernel files for said phones and each update as well. The latest device to get the treatment is the 2015 version of Motorola's low-cost wonder, the Moto E. The phone itself was updated with an OTA package back in May.
If you've got a Moto G or Moto E, your phone has an FM radio built right into the design. Motorola's official app for using the FM tuner isn't much to write home about, but it's become considerably better today. The updated app (version 02.00.0045, according to the Play Store) updates the player's user interface to a fresh Material Design theme, now with a fetching teal and white color scheme.
Motorola's David Schuster is just a wellspring of information lately. After announcing the official start of the 2014 Moto X 5.1 update and the Verizon soak test, he's offering a little heads-up on the first gen Moto G and Moto E.
Looking for a quick and easy way to set someone up with a smartphone? Then head over to Groupon, which is currently offering an impressive entry-level bundle for just a Benjamin. The current deal offers the original Moto E (2013), a SOL portable Bluetooth speaker, and a Tracfone SIM card with 1200 minutes for $94.99. Is that still not enough for you? Fine, take a car charger as well.
Motorola posted the Android 5.1 changelog for the second gen Moto E earlier this month (along with the 1st and 2nd gen Moto X). A week later, we saw over-the-air updates go out. What about the older Moto E released a year before? As it turns out, Motorola isn't leaving the phone behind. The company is currently soak testing Android 5.1 on the device in India.
Even while the more corporate side of CyanogenMod makes new deals with smartphone makers and OEMs, the original "CM Team" continues to expand the ROM's lineup of officially-supported phones and tablets. Today the original Moto E (from 2014) and the Oppo N3 both get their first nightly software builds, and yes, both of them are CyanogenMod 12 (based on Android 5.0 Lollipop AOSP code). You can download and flash them now.
Good news, Motorola owners! Your phone's maker is getting ready to give a taste of Lollipop to more devices, but before rolling it out to everyone, it wants to test it with select users to iron out any possible quirks.
Motorola hasn't officially announced a 2nd generation Moto E, but the company has every reason to make one. The budget device was a big seller last year, and we got a leaked image of the new one just last month. Now the phone is on Best Buy's website, priced at $99 for Sprint prepaid service. However, you (probably) can't buy it just yet.