Every now and then a smartphone manufacturer will deliver a little reward or surprise to owners of its handsets. That is exactly what Motorola Mobility did just this past week. Mysteriously, and with no announcement, an odd, red cowboy hat began to appear on the home screens of Moto X smartphones. This was not something sinister, or an attempt by hackers to take over your phone, but rather an icon to show that Motorola had delivered a digital story. The story/interactive film is called Windy Day, and has a cartoon mouse chasing after his hat on a … windy day.
Part game and part cartoon, the slapstick interactive film was created by Jan Pinkava, the co-director of Pixar’s popular animated film Ratatouille. The technology built into the short film allows you to control the camera using your Moto X smartphone. By holding the phone up and moving around, you can look at the main character, what’s behind him, what’s below him and where he is walking. The camera control can be a little shaky if you move too quickly, but as a cartoon short and a free gift to Moto X owners, it is rather enjoyable, interactive fun. We have included an excerpt for you to see here:
For its being Motorola’s first attempt at an interactive movie, Windy Day is well done, and as a surprise for Moto X owners is a nice move by Motorola. After the release, Motorola announced that its built-in Spotlight app would be used to deliver more interactive short films in the future. The Moto X debuted on August 23 of this year, launching the Motorola X8 hardware package, a camera improvement, a True HD display and substantial RAM memory.
The Moto X smartphone also delivers excellent pixel density to its 4.70 inch AMOLED screen, delivering more than 16 million colors at the rate of 316 pixels per inch. The 10 megapixel camera built into the back of the phone is the first from Motorola to use their Clear Pixel technology, which can absorb more light, making low-light camera operation possible. The multitouch capacitive screen delivers a resolution of 720 by 1,280 pixels, and is protected against everyday wear and tear with a layer of scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass.
Talk time runs approximately 13.0 hours after a full battery charge, and the dual core CPU has been clocked at 1.7 GHz. A standalone natural language processing core and individual contextual computing core join a powerful quad core graphics processor in sharing some low energy and everyday operations, freeing the central processor up to focus on your more important requests. 16 GB of built-in storage is present, and Motorola has gifted Moto X users with an additional 50 GB of free Google Drive virtual storage space. 2.0 GB of RAM memory is on board, and the rear facing camcorder provides video capture at 1,080P HD resolution and in stereo sound. You can also purchase the Verizon Motorola Moto X handset at a discounted price tag at select online retailers starting at $19.99.
