Motorolas – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com Latest Crypto News Sun, 11 May 2025 01:25:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.8 https://i0.wp.com/earlybirdsinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/cropped-New-Project-2024-12-17T235703.455.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Motorolas – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com 32 32 240146708 Motorola’s Moto Watch needs to start living up to the brand name https://earlybirdsinvest.com/motorolas-moto-watch-needs-to-start-living-up-to-the-brand-name/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/motorolas-moto-watch-needs-to-start-living-up-to-the-brand-name/#respond Sun, 11 May 2025 01:25:23 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/motorolas-moto-watch-needs-to-start-living-up-to-the-brand-name/

The Moto Watch Fit is a fascinating case study. Motorola left smartwatches behind for years, licensing out its watches to another company. Now Motorola seems to be stepping back into the fray with the Moto Watch Fit. But it needs more than the Moto Watch name to make its budget squircle watch stand out in a crowded field.

Long-time Android fans still think fondly about the Moto 360, which was ahead of its time with its cool gesture controls and seamless design in 2014. I wrote in March that Motorola should return to Wear OS with a spiritual successor to the 360.

Instead, a month later, we got the budget Moto Watch Fit, with its 1.9-inch squircle display, 16-day battery life, 100 sports modes, and “real-time fitness stats and intelligent sleep tracking.”

It’s the fifth Moto Watch tracker after the Watch 40, 70, 100, and 120, a mix of circular and squircle watches with the same basic fitness software and Google Fit integration.

Two weeks ago, I sent Motorola a series of questions. I wanted to know how the Watch Fit’s “advanced fitness and wellness assistance features,” how the companion app would work, and other basic questions. I’m still waiting on answers, and the more I research the Moto Watch brand, the more confused I get.

It’s unclear how involved Motorola is in its own watches

The Moto Buds Loop next to the Moto Watch Fit

(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)

The Moto Watch Fit isn’t on sale yet, but the Motorola UK site says this new model is “designed and manufactured by/for Motorola Mobility LLC.”

Given the Moto branding, that should be obvious, right? But the official Moto Watch site lists Calgary-based CE Brands, Inc. as an “official brand licensee of Motorola” that “ensures global sales and support for the products found on this site,” like the Moto Watch 120, 70, and 40.

CE Brands, or Vitalist, says on its site that it “designs, manufactures, and sells” wearables, and lists Moto Watch as “our brand.” And this 2024 Vitalist press release explicitly says the Moto Watch 120 is “the latest addition to [CE Brands’] line of Motorola smartwatches” as Motorola’s “strategic brand partner.”

If you look at the Moto Watch 100 app and Moto Watch 70 app on the Play Store, both are managed by CE Brands, Inc. These apps have some pretty brutal ratings too, with many users calling them “barely functional” because they stopped syncing with Google Fit or allowing phone notifications on the watch without constant resets.

A CE Brands-made Moto Watch app (rated 2.2/5 on the Play Store) (Image credit: CE Brands)

After a little digging, I realized that CE Brands owned eBuyNow, the subsidiary that made the Moto 360 (3rd Gen) in 2020. CE Brands went bankrupt in 2023 before rebranding eBuyNow as Vitalist in 2023, promising to “deliver biometric and biomarker insights to consumers.”

The Moto Watch Fit isn’t listed on the Moto Watch site, and Vitalist didn’t write a press release about this model, either. That suggests Motorola may have taken over the brand, while ditching the numbered names for a Moto Watch revamp.

But it’s also possible that Motorola Mobility designed the old Moto Watches, while CE Brands handled the health and software tools. It’s hard to say, as the licensing deal makes it nebulous. Maybe Vitalist will make the Watch Fit health software, too?

Regardless, that’s really all besides the point. My main point is that Motorola is best known for making flagship phones from everyone else look overpriced by offering similar perks in cheaper packages. However, the Moto Watch lineup has never really stood out against Android watches or fitness watches, and Motorola has a lot to prove with the Watch Fit when it launches.

How will the Moto Watch live up to the Moto name?

The Motorola Watch Fit in its Trekking Green band color.

(Image credit: Motorola)

Look at the budget fitness trackers out there: companies like Amazfit and Xiaomi have put intense effort into full-fledged health suites, AI coaching, and dedicated fitness tools in an affordable package. And you have bigger names like the Galaxy Fit 3 and Fitbit Charge 6 that sync directly with the biggest health apps, with their own AI insights and (for Fitbit) Google apps.

Motorola phone fans will see the Moto Watch branding and look for something affordable, long-lasting, and straightforward. However, the Watch Fit needs some kind of signature feature to stand out and keep these users happy.

CE Brands had an interesting Effort Points system that, like Fitbit Cardio Load, scored your all-day effort based on your time in HR zones. But the Moto Watch Fit might use an entirely different system, and it’ll have to compete with watch brands that invest huge amounts of money in health & fitness R&D.

Moto Watch Fit frame

(Image credit: Motorola)

One sign of Motorola taking more direct ownership is how the Watch Fit can use Moto AI text prompts to generate watch faces. That’s a unique trick, one I’m hoping Google emulates on Wear OS 6 this year. We’ll see if people see it as a highlight or a five-minute gimmick; however, it’ll depend on how good these AI-made faces are.

Otherwise, the press release mentions “seamless smartphone integration,” but only mentions notifications, music controls, and camera controls. An RTOS watch can rarely do much more than that, even though many people will buy a Moto Watch hoping for actionable notifications and replies. The Amazfit Balance pulls this off with text-to-speech and a keyboard, but I don’t expect it from the Moto Watch Fit.

Ultimately, aside from the Moto AI gimmick, the Moto Watch Fit sounds pretty generic. The built-in GPS on a cheap tracker is a nice perk, but it’s not uncommon these days — see the $99 Amazfit Active 2 — and most fitness trackers have 100+ sports modes and IP68 water resistance.

That said, we’ve reached out to Motorola for more information about the Watch Fit, and we will update this article when we hear back.

Making a watch isn’t as simple as it used to be

The Motorola Adaptive Display concept phone at MWC 2024

A Motorola concept device for a wearable, bendable smartphone at MWC (Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

The Moto Watch brand is like a time capsule to an early smartwatch era when they didn’t try to squeeze dozens of features and a full AI-backed health suite into a device. Some people will appreciate its simplicity, affordability, and longevity; others will be frustrated by the lack of Motorola flair they’ve come to expect from its foldable phones like the Razr 2025.

It will ultimately come down to whether this Motorola-made wearable delivers a higher standard of quality than past Moto Watches.

I’m not sure why Motorola has been so hands-off with wearables up until this point, selling budget trackers through its licensee for years while spending R&D on wearable phone concepts like the one above.

Maybe Motorola was truly so burned by its Android Wear experience that it never wanted to go back; clearly, Lenovo phone sales are strong enough despite not having a full “ecosystem” of devices. Or maybe it isn’t willing to spend the money on health & fitness necessary to compete with Samsung Health and Fitbit.

Whatever the reason, the Moto Watch Fit needs to be a stepping stone to bigger and better things if Motorola wants to make an impact in the wearable space.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/motorolas-moto-watch-needs-to-start-living-up-to-the-brand-name/feed/ 0 35546 Motorola’s Playlist Studio just ruined Spotify’s algorithm for me https://earlybirdsinvest.com/motorolas-playlist-studio-just-ruined-spotifys-algorithm-for-me/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/motorolas-playlist-studio-just-ruined-spotifys-algorithm-for-me/#respond Mon, 05 May 2025 05:31:41 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/motorolas-playlist-studio-just-ruined-spotifys-algorithm-for-me/
Motorola Razr Ultra with earbuds on top of logo

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

As a longtime Spotify user, there’s plenty that I love about the streaming giant. It knows my music tastes better than I do, and I start shared jams almost every time I hang out with my friends. Yet, I often find myself a little frustrated and somewhat bored by my carefully tuned algorithm — I like the songs it picks, and it knows I like those songs, so it just keeps picking the same ones.

But now, there’s an AI-powered solution on the table, and it comes from an unexpected place. Motorola just introduced the playlist generator I’ve been waiting for, and I think it just might get me to rethink my relationship with Spotify. Here’s why.

Have you tried an AI-powered playlist generator?

171 votes

It’s like an image generator, but for music…

Motorola Razr Ultra pay attention transcript

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

When OEMs decide it’s finally time to enter the AI race, they seem to do so with a familiar set of features. There are almost always tools to help you write better, keep you more organized, and generate images based on prompts or photos of your family and friends. Motorola is no exception. It’s come up with clever ways to take notes and voice recordings on your new Razr, and its Image Studio falls right in the sweet spot between Google’s Pixel Studio and Samsung’s Portrait Studio.

However, the feature that I think people will like to use most is the Playlist Studio. It’s a lot like an image generator in that you feed it prompts and spit back creations, but instead of a single image (or a series of images), you get a customized playlist of around ten songs to stream and save.

Motorola’s go-to example during our short time with the Razr 2025 series was to ask for “Y2K pizza party jams,” which might have been a little before my time, but it’s hard to argue with Beyonce’s Crazy in Love or Nelly’s Hot in Herre. I chose not to subject the briefing crowd to my preferred flavor of sad music, but I fully plan to test the feature further once I have time to dig deeper into the Razr Ultra in my day-to-day life.

Who knew a playlist generator without years of data would work so well?

Of course, Motorola isn’t the first to create an AI-powered playlist generator. Spotify debuted something similar in beta testing in early 2024 for subscribers in the UK and Australia before eventually expanding it to other English-speaking countries. I’ve since tried the feature (which remains in beta testing), and it works pretty well. However, it falls into the same problem that most of my other Spotify playlists suffer: It already knows my tastes too well.

For example, I pulled up Spotify’s AI Playlists menu, asked for “sad songs that would fit in the woods,” and got a playlist of 30 songs that are almost all on my Spotify-generated Moody Mix already, and I didn’t even have to ask for that one. I might not get as many songs at one time on Motorola’s side, but I’m weirdly grateful that the Playlist Studio is going in without an idea of my taste.

There’s just one little problem with exclusivity

Amazon Music with Echo and headphones stock photo 8

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Unfortunately, there’s one sticking point to all the neat things I love about Motorola’s Playlist Studio: It only works with Amazon Music. Yes, that music streaming service that sits in a distant third place behind Spotify and Apple Music in terms of how many people I know who use it. I have a premium subscription thanks to my ongoing Amazon Prime membership, but I don’t think I’ve ever touched the platform outside of the few weeks I use a Fire tablet each year.

So, that means I either have to give Amazon Music another chance, trust Spotify to improve its AI algorithm (my hopes aren’t high), or go back and manually create everything that the Playlist Studio cooks up by hand. For now, I think I’ll wind up doing the latter, as it allows me to keep my existing podcast subscriptions, liked songs, and I’m already logged into Spotify on somewhere near 15 or 20 devices — not that I’m proud of that.

But honestly, if Motorola really wants to push people to use its Playlist Studio — and I really want to use its Playlist Studio — it will have to open the feature up a bit. Motorola packed its new Razrs with support for Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini, and its own AI-powered features, so it should be able to export playlists to Spotify and YouTube Music at the very least. When that day comes, I’ll be more than happy to generate and share playlists until you’re sick of them — and then I’ll even share a few more.

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