HTC One – SomeGadgetGuy

March 25, 2014March 25, 2014

HTC One (M8) is officially announced! Full specs and details from HTC’s event!

What a long strange trip it’s been…

The often leaked “Worst Kept Tech Secret of 2014™®©” is now finally officially official. The rumors and leaks have all been true. The M8 will sport the 5″ 1080p LCD, and the Qualcomm 800. The aluminum construction is similar to the M7, with more rounded edges. The BoomSound front facing speakers return, continuing one of the best multimedia experiences available on any phone.

The M7 was over 70% metal unibody, the M8 approaches 90% while also shaving a little girth for a thinner overall effect. Adding a brushed texture to the body adds a touch of style, while it should help reduce the visibility of light scratches and abrasions.

The dual camera set up captures depth information, allowing for some of the focus-after-the-fact tricks we’ve seen from Nokia or Lytro using true binocular view. This also allows for blurrier background bokeh thanks to that extra depth info. You’ll no longer need 3rd party photo editing apps for the effect. The camera API will also be opened up for developers to tinker with. Continue reading “HTC One (M8) is officially announced! Full specs and details from HTC’s event!”

March 25, 2014

HTC BlinkFeed app arrives at Google Play ahead of new One phone

Oh HTC. You just can’t time anything for your new flagship phone’s release can you?

Ahead of the announcement for their all new flagship M8 HTC One, what I’m loving calling the worst kept secret of 2014, HTC has taken the wraps off of their new BlinkFeed app.

This is a fantastic play by HTC and something I’ve been literally begging more manufacturers to do. Companies like HTC, LG, and Samsung deliver a TON of features and apps on a phone. Unlike a Nexus which is a fairly bare experience. However those individual manufacturer apps don’t get updated very often as they’re baked into the ROM supplied by said manufacturer. If the tiniest app gets updated at HTC HQ, you have to wait for a FULL OS UPDATE to get the benefits of that updated app. It’s one big lump sum.

Or at least it was until now. HTC is separating out BlinkFeed, and hosting it on Google Play. Now whenever a team at HTC but a little polish on this app, it can be pushed directly to One owners without waiting for a massive ROM download.

Android is still somewhat hamstrung by the carrier approval process, in that there’s still a significant lead time between when Google releases an OS update, the manufacturers customize it, and that update is approved and distributed by carriers. Google has been making a lot of progress in splicing out individual Android services and posting them as standalone apps. A user might not always get the latest Android OS, but all of their services can be up to date. Now HTC is following in those footsteps, and that makes me happy.

HTC BlinkFeed on Google Play (2014 One only)

October 25, 2013

Quick Tip: Your HTC One Alarms Still Work Even With the Phone Powered Completely Off!

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY!

This is a great little piece of mind addition to the HTC One! Following the update to 4.3, alarms set on your HTC One will still work even if you power the phone completely down.

Extremely helpful if you do dopey things like I do. Say you’re out at a conference or on a business trip, maybe you meet up for drinks and run you phone battery all the way down. You get back to your hotel room and plug it in, but forget to power it back on. No worries, HTC has your back.

Let’s take a look!

October 9, 2013

Android 4.3 FINALLY rolling out to AT&T HTC One’s

Better late than never? It would seem HTC wasn’t able to move through the verification process to meet their September deadline on updating all of their One phones to Google’s current version of Android Jellybean, but those of you on AT&T will finally start seeing update notifications soon!

Among the various improvements, users will see improved camera performance (hopefully a fix for some of the low light problems some users face) and new focus options for video. We’ll also see improved quick access to controls in the notification tray, so no more going to your settings menu to turn WiFi on and off.

The update should roll out auto-magically, but if you’re really impatient, you can start spamming the software update setting throughout the day. Maybe it’ll work for you?

Now HTC… When can we start talking about KitKat updates?

I kid… I kid… But no really when? [Said while doing ‘grabby hands’]

(via AT&T Blog)

September 9, 2013October 2, 2013

HTC profits down 45% from a year ago. What does recovery look like?

Man. HTC just can’t catch a break here.

Last week, shares fell almost 5% on the news that HTC only pulled in $443 million this August, which is down 45% from a year ago. It seems that the critically acclaimed One and One Mini handsets aren’t quite motivating consumers to part with their cash. Investor confidence is also a little shaken by news of high level executives leaving the company. Some of those execs under investigation for allegedly leaking company secrets. In all, not a great position for the phone maker to be in given how competitive the phone landscape is.

The one resource HTC most likely needs to turn around its market image is likely the one most difficult to come by: Time. HTC’s recent moves have largely been celebrated by tech pundits. The HTC One marks the first handset by the company which isn’t hamstrung by carrier branding. Even the older One X was billed as the “Evo 4G LTE” on Sprint, diluting HTC’s presence. Future HTC phones will likely not be plagued by this consumer confusion.

Also, we recently saw the first fruits from HTC’s $1 billion ad campaign featuring Robert Downey Jr. and “Hipster Troll Carwashes”. This is a long term brand identity move, which should net positive results, but HTC is also in need of some short term sales to help boost confidence internally and with potential customers. They need evangelists and fans who will tout the company line, and be a grassroots first line of attack when new handsets are released.

Recent moves have been smart, HTC is trying to build a presence on sites like Reddit, and they’ve been more active on social media sites. It’s a tough road to build that kind of loyalty however. Their 716,000 Twitter followers are nothing to sneeze at, but pale in comparison to Samsung’s 4.4 million, and comparing recent tweets, actual engagement with likes and retweet action mirrors those follower numbers.

So while their long term strategies look sound, this isn’t a market known for patience, and that magical recipe for pairing good products and actual sales has been eluding numerous companies of late.

See my hands on reviews for the HTC One and the HTC One Mini.