Motorola today announced it is rolling out Android 4.4.3, which was just released by Google, to the Moto X, Moto G, and Moto E this week. You can check the availability for your phone on this page as well as check out the individual release notes for each device: Moto X, Moto G, and Moto E.
The plan for this week is to treat these device owners first:
- Moto X T-Mobile users.
- Moto G users who bought online in the US (includes Moto G 4G LTE) and at retail in Brazil.
- Moto E users who bought online in the US and Canada. For Moto E users, you are still up for the next major Android update as well.
For those who don’t know, Android 4.4.3 is a bugfix release. It includes an improved dialer with a new interface and new colors “to enhance consistency and usability,” enhancements to the power profile capabilities, but the rest are mainly fixes around stability, framework, and security.
That being said, Motorola has included its own improvements in this update, though there aren’t any big highlights for the Moto E. For example, Motorola Alert has been bundled for Moto X and Moto G users. The new app sends periodic messages to the contacts you choose, which should be useful if you want to let people know you’re okay.
The company is also promising improved camera image quality for Moto X (better consistency of exposure, more realistic flash coloring, and improved photos in low light conditions using the front camera). Moto X and Moto G owners can expect a new pause/resume button on the viewfinder for taking a break when video recording.
It’s great to see Motorola on top of Android updates. We can only hope the trend will continue once it’s no longer under Google ownership.
See also – Google confirms it’s selling Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, but keeps ‘vast majority’ of patents and Motorola will close the Texas factory where it assembles Moto X smartphones in 2014
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