HTC - 6/119 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

On Dealbreakers And Breakthroughs: Why You Really Shouldn’t Hate Any High-End Smartphone Right Now

Posted by David Ruddock in Editorials, Galaxy S4, HTC, One, Optimus G Pro

In Android Police’s private chat room – deep in the bowels of a place known only to a select few… Android Police writers – conversations are often had over what makes a phone good, and what makes a phone bad.

And, of course, views on this issue vary. Some have a strong preference for stock Android, and anything attempting to subvert or otherwise ‘break’ Android the way Google intended it (unless Google’s intentions sucked) is a waste of time. Others are more concerned with how it works: is it smooth, fluid, and functional? And, of course, there are the typical arguments about SD cards, removable batteries, and plastique.

Apr

[Deal Alert] Pre-Order Sprint's HTC One For $150 From Wirefly

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Deals, News, One, Sprint

HTC's newest flagship is doing its best to turn heads with innovative features and funky buzzword-branding. If you've been sipping the Kool-Aid and simply must have this up-and-coming powerhouse, Wirefly's got a pretty solid deal if you are (or plan on being) a Sprint customer: you can pre-order either the silver or black variants for $150.

With that said, if you're switching carriers and plan on porting your number, then Sprint's pre-order offering is still a better deal at only $99. If you're already a customer of The Now Network, however, Wirefly's deal has Sprint's $200 upgrade price beat by a fifty spot.

Apr

HTC One Developer Edition Pre-Orders Open Up To U.S. Customers For $649

Posted by Cody Toombs in Development, HTC, News, One

Do you have an extra $649 burning a hole in your pocket? Do you have a hankering for a carrier and bootloader-unlocked HTC One? If so, we've got some news for you. HTC just opened up pre-sales for the HTC One Developer Edition to US customers.

Specs:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor
2 GB RAM
64 GB of storage
Front-facing stereo speakers
Two dual-membrane microphones for recording
Multiple frequency compatibility:
- HSPA/WCDMA: 850/1900/2100 MHz
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- LTE: 700/850/AWS/1900 MHz (US)

Back in March, HTC announced plans to sell a limited quantity of the unlocked HTC One. While this isn't the cheapest way to get the flagship device, Developer Editions are completely contract free and won't bother you with those pesky carrier-imposed lockdowns.

Apr

[Update: Live, $100 For New Customers] Sprint Announces HTC One Availability: $199, Pre-Orders Start Friday, Phone Available April 19th

Posted by David Ruddock in News, One, Sprint

Update: It's live now! New Sprint customers will get an extra perk on pre-orders: $100 off. While it wasn't announced earlier, the pre-order page has a deal for customers porting their number in for a new line, allowing them to get the HTC One for $99.99. It looks like the offer won't be available after the device launches, so if you know you're switching to Sprint, best to get it now.

Sprint just announced in a Community post that the Now Network's HTC One will be available for pre-orders starting this Friday, April 5th, at a price of $199 on a 2-year agreement.

Apr

[Update: Pre-Orders Live] AT&T Announces Official Availability Of HTC One: $199 For 32GB, Confirms 64GB Exclusive For $299, Launches April 19th

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in AT&T, HTC, News, One

Last Updated: April 19th, 2013

Update: Pre-orders for the One have gone live on the AT&T website - you can get either the 32 or 64GB version, as long as you want Glacial Silver.

After some misinformation was spread yesterday (and not just the April Fools' kind) about the price of the HTC One, AT&T has stepped forward to clarify some things. The 32GB model will sell for $199 with a two year contract. Additionally, for the storage hungry, the carrier will have the exclusive on the 64GB model at launch, which will cost $299. There is no word on when other carriers might get a 64GB variant as well, but we imagine it will at least be a few months.

Apr

Facebook, HTC, And AT&T Announce The HTC First: A Facebook Phone Built For Facebook Home To Facebook With

Posted by David Ruddock in HTC, News

HTC has just announced the HTC First. ~~We don't know how many gigahertz it has (well,~~ ~~we probably do~~ ~~- just not officially), or how many geebees it's packing~~ (we do now, see below), but we do know this: it's all about Facebook. And Facebook Home. And AT&T LTE speeds.

The HTC First is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, features a 4.3" display, and runs Android 4.1 with Facebook's Home software pre-installed. HTC and AT&T are remaining pretty quiet on other specifications, which makes sense, as this phone is not being sold on the merits of the hardware, but rather the software it's bundled with.

Apr

Evleaks Shows Off Front Fascia Of The 'HTC First' - Yep, This Looks Like The So-Called Facebook Phone

Posted by David Ruddock in HTC, News

Well, here it may be, ladies and gentlemen: the 'Facebook phone.' Evleaks has dropped a render / photo of what we all kind-of-sort-of expect to be unveiled by Facebook on April 4th (Thursday). We also know that it's codenamed Myst, relatively mid-range on the hardware front, and that it probably has a brand-new custom Facebook launcher.

While the logo appears to be blown up a little disproportionately, the rest of the hardware looks like pretty press-photo quality stuff. The logo may just be there as a bit of obfuscation, it's hard to say. While 'First' seems like a bit of an odd name, it is better than ChaCha, and avoids the taint that Status 2 might invoke.

Apr

Verizon Approves Software Update 7.02.605.10 For The HTC Thunderbolt

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

The Thunderbolt has had one weird life. It was VZW's first LTE phone. But it was less than stellar, and had lots of problems. Then HTC promised that it would get ICS, which got delayed again and again. And again. But it finally came out, and Tbolt owners were kinda happy about it for five minutes.

Now the brick-of-a-device is in line to get another small OTA, which fixes some stuff that you may or may not use:

Microphone now works with HAC enabled
HTC Watch now shows titles available for viewing or purchase
Amber alerts are now visible
Text messaging app has been improved
Improvements to Yahoo and Microsoft Exchange Email Connectivity

The details of the update just hit VZW's site a bit ago, which generally indicates the OTA is ready to go and should start hitting devices in the coming days.

Apr

[APK Teardown Exclusive] The HTC Myst Facebook Phone - The Facebook App Is Now A Launcher, Looks Like They're Planning A Play Store Release, Too

Posted by Ron Amadeo in APK Teardown, Exclusives, HTC, News

We've managed to score a system dump of the Facebook phone! There's nothing in it that's too earthshattering, and you could probably guess most of the features, but, since we've got it, we might as well take a look at it.

[This is not an April Fool's joke. I promise.]

Now, this being Facebook, nothing really works unless you sign in. The problem is, all of this is pre-release, so it's set up to only work for Facebook employee accounts. Everything is basically packing unintentional always-on DRM, so screenshots are going to be a little sparse. This is all it will do right now:

Build.Prop Specs

The build.prop file will give us a basic idea of the phone this ROM is meant for, so let's take a look.

Mar

DROID DNA Ends The Disappearing Act At VerizonWireless.com While LG Lucid Goes Missing [Updated]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in DROID DNA, News, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: April 1st, 2013

Earlier today, the DROID DNA disappeared from VZW's site. This, combined with all the Verizon-bound HTC One rumors, prompted some in the Android community to wonder whether such a One variant is almost upon us - after all, why would Big Red take down one of its most powerful smartphones so suddenly? The vanishing act didn't last long, however, as the DNA just returned, seemingly alive and well:

It's unclear at this point whether the phone was briefly missing by mistake or Verizon put it back because people noticed, but we've reached out to the media relations team to find out and will update this space if they respond (which is unlikely to happen before Monday).