The Download: The Creative Opportunities of Designing for a Round Watch

Assist - You need to decide whether you’d prefer to have a super-sharp screen or killer battery life. The Lenovo Yoga 920 lasts hours longer than the HP, and performs better in benchmarks and games with the same CPU (although if this is thanks to the Meltdown vulnerability, the playing field is effectively levelled). lasvegas, well we have collected a lot of data from the field directly and from many other blogs so very complete his discussion here about Assist, on this blog we also have to provide the latest automotive information from all the brands associated with the automobile. ok please continue reading:

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?

• 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

The Download: Bringing Home and Drive Modes to Moto G and Moto E

Assist - You need to decide whether you’d prefer to have a super-sharp screen or killer battery life. The Lenovo Yoga 920 lasts hours longer than the HP, and performs better in benchmarks and games with the same CPU (although if this is thanks to the Meltdown vulnerability, the playing field is effectively levelled). lasvegas, well we have collected a lot of data from the field directly and from many other blogs so very complete his discussion here about Assist, on this blog we also have to provide the latest automotive information from all the brands associated with the automobile. ok please continue reading:

We don’t know about you, but last week was a whirlwind of excitement as we http://lasvegasin.blogspot.com /2014/09/motorola-gives-you-power-to-choose-with.html" target="_blank">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