Let's Talk Tech
It’s the season of giving and HTC is playing Santa.
Every Tuesday starting now through December, HTC will be running crazy savings on a limited quantity of phones and tablets. If you’re ready to jump in at 12pm Eastern, you might be able to score a Nexus 9 for half price ($199), or take $350 off a no-contract M8. It looks like each deal will only stock around 200 units for the day, so you better be quick with your browser.
Happy hunting folks!
Yesterday HTC took the wraps off of the Desire Eye, a phone similar to the flagship One M8, but made out of plastic, and featuring a 13MP front facing camera with dual LED flash. We’ve seen other companies touting the true “Selfie Phone” from the Lumia 735 to Apple’s new Facetime camera on the iPhone 6. Now HTC is pushing more megapixels into the conversation with the Eye.
It’s not such a crazy idea. The way we create content, and the fact that we don’t often walk around photographers capturing our happy moments. If you own a “nice” camera, chances are pretty good you rarely show up in photos of fun events as you’re usually the one operating the camera.
HTC is banking on the popularity of the selfie, the growing market for video chat applications, and are experimenting with their phone design. It’s not a radical experiment though. Putting more megapixels on a camera doesn’t mean you get better stills or video. It’s an easy headline: “UNBELIEVABLE THIRTEEN MEGAPICKLE FFC WOWZ!” Continue reading “Thoughts on the HTC Desire Eye and the Rise of the Selfie Phone…”
If you were looking to shop a selfie phone for yourself or a loved one, but were concerned the HTC Desire EYE might not make in time for your holiday Selftivities, fret not.
The Desire EYE, and its 13MP front facing camera with dual LED flash, will be an exclusive on Big Blue, and while AT&T does not have a firm release date or pricing info yet, they are confirming that it will be available and shipping before the holidays end. You can catch AT&T’s full PR below for more info! Continue reading “AT&T Confirms HTC Desire EYE Will Arrive in Time For Holidays”
Whelp. It’s been four months with HTC’s newest flagship, and we’ve just received official word that there will be a Windows Phone variant of the One soon out.
The M7 was my favorite Android of last year. Has the M8 lived up to the expectations set by its predecessor? Let’s take a look!
Related:
M8 vs M7 Speaker Comparison
M8 vs GS5 Photo Comparison
M8 vs GS5 Video Comparison
Slickwraps Real Cork Skin for the HTC M8
Shop the HTC One M8 on Amazon to support this channel!
Apparently Verizon’s claims of exclusivity weren’t entirely accurate, as we’ve just received a press release from Big Blue that they too will be carrying the Windows Phone flavored HTC M8.
The HTC “W8” will join the most complete collection of Windows Phones offered up by any USA carrier, and should give some of those Nokias a run for their money.
While I’m really looking forward to see how HTC customizes the WP8.1 experience, I still think the name of this phone is tragically confusing. As I said in my VZW write up, “M8 FOR Windows” makes it sound like some kind of accessory for a Windows PC. I was really hoping to see a sleek sophisticated ad where the “M” in the M8 title flips upside down to become a “W”. Sigh… But I digress…
AT&T PR below.
Continue reading “AT&T Confirms They Will Carry The “HTC One M8 For Windows””
The phone is real. The phone looks good. The name is still kinda dumb.
Sorry Big Red, I just can’t bring myself to call this “The HTC One M8 for Windows”. I mean “HTC One M8” is already clunky enough, but “For Windows”? FOR Windows??? It makes the phone sound like an accessory FOR a Windows PC. Even “With Windows” sounds better. From here on out I will now be referring to HTC phones as the M8 and W8. No more “One” this and “For” that.
That said, the W8 looks like a great crossover to the Microsoft side of the fence. HTC’s build quality is second to none, and the changes made to the Windows Phone OS (allowing manufacturers to more easily swap over Android hardware) appear to be working.
Plus, many of the apps developed by HTC already have that modern minimalist look, which should help them blend in with Live Tiles. Blinkfeed for example already looks like a Metro app.
Lastly, it’s just nice to see another company giving Nokia a little competition in this space as we wait to see if Microsoft and Samsung will ever settle their licensing squabbling.
We’re you considering switching to a Windows Phone? Does an HTC W8 sweeten the deal for you? Drop us a comment! And catch Verizon’s teaser vid below.
Playing with this year’s flagship devices, it’s been great going back to see how good our phones were last year. In an era of premier phones all sporting 5+ inch screens, the HTC M7 stands as one of the last high end phones with a SLIGHTLY smaller screen. It’s a joy to use one handed, so that makes updates like these even more enjoyable.
HTC has really stepped up on the support front, and are following Google’s example in separating apps and services from full OS updates. The M7 is now getting updated to the newest version of Sense (the skin HTC developed to customize their phone experience). Now services like Blinkfeed and HTC’s TV remote app can be updated through Google Play. This brings much faster support to the ecosystem, as individual services can get updates and bug fixes without having to push OTA updates through carriers.
The M7 gets a great new Blinkfeed, it adopts the nicer camera app from the M8, and a few other goodies alongside the normal slate of patches and bug fixes. It breaths a little more life into on of the best Android’s from last year, and should prove to keep the phone running current software longer into the future.
You can check to see if you have the update by jumping into your settings, and AT&T’s changelog is below.
Continue reading “AT&T HTC One M7 Updated with Sense 6 – New Blinkfeed and Camera App”
Love them or hate them, Carriers are looking for “value added” partnerships and updates like these provide opportunities to expose consumers to new applications and services.
Like the recent update for the Galaxy S5 (which did actually help improve my battery life, but included additional apps which can’t be uninstalled) the M8’s update includes some fixes and enhancements to Bluetooth and an Extra Power Savings mode to give more run time.
Interestingly, the update also includes the FitBit application. HTC doesn’t make an app like Samsung’s S-Health which can track fitness and sleep. M8 owners will need to invest in some kind of FitBit to make use of the app, and it looks like a strategic partnership between AT&T and FitBit to offer up a solution for HTC customers.
If you own a Galaxy, you can pick up one of the many Gear smartwatches, but HTC hasn’t entered that market yet, so while shopping accessories, it’s up to AT&T to provide a solution both in-store and on-device.
Of course, if you’re not into fitness apps, or use a competing service, many will chalk this up to “more bloat”.
Full update press release below.
Continue reading “AT&T Pre-Loads FitBit app During HTC One M8 Update”