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Android 8.0 Oreo rolled out to the unlocked Moto Z in May. Now, the Verizon "Droid Editions" of both the Moto Z and Moto Z Force are getting the update. It comes with all the expected Oreo goodies — picture-in-picture support, notification improvements, and the like.
Smartphones are getting more and more expensive, but flagships from a year or two ago are still good devices - I should know, my main phone is still a 2016 Google Pixel. If you've been looking for an inexpensive phone, or even a secondary/backup device, today might be your lucky day. Daily Steals currently has several refurbished Motorola phones on sale at steep discounts, when you use our exclusive coupon codes.
Projector phones always seemed like an idea that made more sense in science fiction than in present reality, which is probably why the Galaxy Beam failed to gain much traction. Such as it is, the benefit of the Moto Mod design allows anyone with a compatible phone to add on a countless number of peculiar peripherals... one at a time. Now, at Verizon, you can get a free Insta-Share Projector Moto Mod for free when you purchase any other Moto Mod. At $300 off, it's quite the bargain.
Motorola has struggled to come up with compelling Moto Mod accessories, and its latest attempt is a partnership with Polaroid. The new Insta-Share Printer Moto Mod plugs into your Moto Z device so you can print your snapshots instantly on 2x3-inch adhesive sheets. Does that sound vaguely fun? Well, you'll pay $200 for the privilege.The Moto Z camera gains a few new capabilities with this mod attached. You can take Polaroid photos with filters and borders, then print them immediately. However, the prints come out in front of the camera, so that's going to slow you down. You can also print older shots or grab images from Facebook, Instagram and Google Photos. The photos are small, but they're also stickers. I mean, who doesn't like stickers?[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/O23ISH8Fd0w[/EMBED_YT]The Insta-Share Printer uses the ZINK inkless paper system from Polaroid's other mobile printers. In fact, this Mod is really just one of Polaroid's existing printers that sticks to the back of your phone. It's twice as expensive, though. The paper is spendy, too. A 20-pack of ZINK paper is $9 on Amazon.The Insta-Share Printer Moto Mod goes on sale at Verizon this week. It'll be exclusive there for a while, but the printer will launch elsewhere at a later date. Motorola is taking pre-orders and will ship them at the end of the month.Source: Motorola
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- Motorola has published a blog post confirming all the devices above, along with the as of yet unreleased Moto X4. We also forgot about the Moto Z Play Droid - whoops. We've added both to the list above.
Back in the days when the Moto X could be used with one hand and Moto Maker was a cool new thing, Motorola was one of the best manufacturers with software updates. Since their skin is so minimal, anything else would be disappointing. But Motorola is not what it once was, and it's fallen behind in terms of software support. The Lenovo-owned company has just released its update roadmap for Android 8.0 Oreo.
Six new Moto Mod concepts announced, including DSLR lens, DirecTV, and "Moto 360 Camera" attachments
Back in 2016, Motorola committed to releasing twelve Moto Mods per year - a rather ambitious amount. However, it appears that the Lenovo-owned company hasn't forgotten about that promise, as it revealed six new Moto Mod concepts a few days ago at an event in Ghana. Moto has shown off Moto Mod concepts in the past (alongside production Moto Mods), but these are new.
Remember when Motorola had a simple three-device lineup: E, G, and X? Those days are no more, and a leaked presentation slide courtesy of master leakster @evleaks is here to prove it. According to this, Moto will now have five levels of smartphones, each with their own target buyers.
Motorola took a leap with the Moto Z this year by focusing on the modular accessories known as Mods. That meant a few design sacrifices had to be made, including a small-ish battery on the Moto Z and a non-ergonomic flat back panel. I don't think these phones stand up to the competition at full price, but at half price or free, it's hard to complain. That's the deal at Best Buy right now for the Verizon-branded versions.
In most cases, buying an unlocked Android phone means faster updates, because (in most cases) it sidesteps the carrier approval process. Motorola's 2016 flagship, the Moto Z, was updated to Android Nougat almost two months ago. In addition to all the lovely features that Nougat brings, the update also added Daydream compatibility. The only problem? The unlocked US variant of the Moto Z still hasn't received the update, only the Verizon-exclusive Moto Z Droid and Z Droid Force.
Motorola's latest Moto Z flagship phones are modular, designed to accommodate add-on modules that snap to the back of their cases for extra battery life, more complex camera modules, pico projectors, et cetera. Critical and consumer response to the change has been mixed, as it was for LG's modular G5 designs. But in a recent meeting with technology journalists, the Lenovo subsidiary doubled down on the modular approach. Motorola committed to at least 12 new Moto Mod add-on products per year.
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- Motorola has made the update official on its company blog, announcing that Android 7.0 Nougat will be rolling out this week to the Moto Z and Moto Z Force (not just the Droid editions). Motorola seemed to forget about the ZTE Axon 7 when it called the Z and Z Force, "the first smartphones from another manufacturer to be recognized by Google as Daydream-ready devices." Oops.
Despite being released on August 22, hardly any devices outside of Google's Nexus and Pixel lineups officially run Android Nougat. In fact, only about 0.3% of all Android devices with the Play Store actually have it. Many Verizon customers have reported that their Moto Z Droid and Moto Z Droid Force phones have received OTAs to Nougat.
The new Moto Z line is divisive. It's probably the best example in a limited field of new "modular" phones, consisting of only the Z variants and LG's G5... and LG already dropped the modular design for its more recent V20. But if you've been eying either the Verizon-exclusive Moto Z Droid (or the Moto Z Force Droid with a bigger battery) or the unlocked Moto Z, the sticker shock of the phones and the Moto Mod add-ons may have been a disincentive. Now Motorola is giving a generous 0 off all of them on its web store.
Motorola picked a pretty busy day to release its list of phones that are slated to be upgraded to Android 7.0 - make of that what you will. After previously confirming that the new Moto Z , Moto Z Droid, and Moto G4 lines would be upgraded to Nougat "starting in Q4," a more complete list was published to the company blog today. The list is fairly predictable, with some notable exceptions.
It's a frequent woe of Android users: you buy that fancy, top-of-the-line phone in the summer or fall, and you just know it's going to take the manufacturer months to get around to releasing the updated software that Google pushes out soon. They tend to issue press releases or Twitter posts promising support for the new update, though dates are typically either absent or vague. Such is the case with Motorola's commitment to Android 7.0 on its latest phones.
The response to Lenovo's new Moto Z Droid and Moto Z Force Droid has been mitigated at best. Most of us think they're good phones overall, but the wrong corners have been cut and the Mods strategy isn't convincing enough to sway the decision in their favor.
Motorola was the first major smartphone maker to start putting its stock apps in the Play Store. Before that, OEMs would only update those apps as part of an OTA update. It sounds positively barbaric by today's standards. Motorola isn't done yet, though. Just today it added its stock file manager to the Play Store. You won't see much in the way of improvements this time, but who knows what the future could bring?
The Moto Z and Moto Z Force have launched today as Verizon-exclusive devices. The Moto Z will come out as an unlocked device in the not too distant future, but the Droid phones are the only game in town when it comes to Moto Mods. And there are settings apps for the Mods in the Play Store—two of them, in fact. I guess that's cool.
Pre-orders for Moto's new flagships went up last week, but today is the day the phones go officially on sale. Both the Moto Z DROID and the Moto Z Force DROID are available for purchase at Verizon's website and the prices are like we discussed earlier.
Motorola is trying something new—it's like a whole new company with new owners, new phones, and a new approach to making money on said phones. The Moto Z and Z Force (currently only available as Verizon exclusives) are "modular" phones with a series of snap-on rear panel accessories. They're also very thin and lacking a headphone jack. There are certainly reasons to be skeptical of these devices, but they're also very interesting in an industry that has had trouble innovating beyond the standard black slab.