HTC One preview: Take two

Introduction

The HTC One is the masterpiece of the Taiwanese company, hence the name. It combines HTC's traditions in making aluminum unibody phones with the absolute latest tech available - some of which exclusive - to make what is perhaps one of the best all-rounded packages set to come out on the market in the first half of 2013.

HTC One official photos

The HTC One is like a supercar - it's the best that current technology has to offer and while not everything is completely practical, it looks and handles great and is ready to wow its owner. And much like a car dealership, HTC is ready to offer you money if you trade in your old HTC phone - it's $100 or the value of the old phone, whichever is greater.

The biggest bullet point in the features list is the camera - a 4MP "ultra-pixel" camera. Yes, the resolution sounds too low, but this camera marks a first in the mobile phone imaging world, which puts it next to the Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 920.

Speaking of a feature list, here it is. The One (camera aside) is basically a Butterfly with bumped up specs and a cool aluminum unibody.

HTC One at a glance:

• General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band UMTS/HSPA, optional LTE Cat 3 (100Mbps downlink, 50Mbps uplink)
• Form factor: Aluminum unibody touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm, 143 g
• Display: 4.7" 16M-color 1080p (1080 x 1920 pixels) Super LCD 3 capacitive touchscreen, 469ppi pixel density; Corning Gorilla Glass 2
• Chipset: Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600
• CPU: Quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait 300
• GPU: Adreno 320
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Sense 5
• Memory: 32GB/64GB storage
• Camera: 4 megapixel auto-focus camera with ultra-pixels and Optical Image Stabilization; LED flash
• Video camera: Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps with HDR; 720p @ 60fps
• Front camera: 2.1MP front-facing camera, 88°; 1080p@30fps video with HDR
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, standard microUSB port with MHL and USB host, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, IR port
• Battery: 2,300mAh Li-Po
• Misc: Beats Audio, BoomSound stereo speakers on the front, HDR microphone, HTC Zoe photo gallery

The camera is backed by ImageChip 2, which enables some advanced functionality. It takes the Scalado tech we first saw on the HTC One X and puts them into overdrive.

HTC is trying to move away from Android slightly. Yes, it's still a full-blown Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, but the new Sense UI version 5 transforms the interface into something that isn't instantly recognizable as Android, including a brand new homescreen and a gesture-based replacement for the menu button.

Handling the HTC One

The company is also playing up to its audio strengths - the usual Beats Audio is on board, but there's also BoomSound for the stereo speakers on the front of the device, which allegedly put out up to 93dB of sound. Then there are the HDR microphones to ensure good call sound quality.

Acer is working on a quad-core Liquid S phablet

Acer had a modest showing at the MWC - the Liquid E1 was there, but it was announced a month earlier. In fact, the company didnt announce anything new, though the president of Acer's Smartphone Business left some clues about a new device a phablet - in an interview for the official MWC paper.

The phablet is called Acer Liquid S. There are no specific specs mentioned, heres what the president of the group had to say in this advertorial:

Acer currently does not have a quad-core phone (or phablets), only its tablets have quad-core processors. So, this phablet, the Acer Liquid S, will be their first non-tablet quad-core device.

But what exactly does phablet mean nowadays anyway? We dont agree with the 4.7 and above screen size definition by Acer. Recently announced 5-inch screens are pushing the boundaries of the definition. It was last year's flagships that first hit the 4.7 mark - phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One X and others.

The Galaxy Note II and the Optimus G Pro with 5.5 screens might be the lower-end of the phablet range, while the Asus Fonepad puts the maximum at 7. So the Acer Liquid S can be anything in between.

Well, this was as vague as an announcement can get, while still counting as an announcement. You can bet well be on the lookout for more specific info on the Acer Liquid S.

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Apple gets reduced damages in the mega trial vs. Samsung

Samsung got a reduction on the $1.05 billion of damages it was ordered to pay Apple last year. Judge Lucy Koh, who presided over the mega trial ordered a reevaluation of $450.5 million of the initial damages awarded to Apple to take place in a new trial with a different jury.

The new trial will involve 14 Samsung devices whose per-product damages from the first trial were found to be questionable. Some of the notable Korean devices include the Samsung Nexus S 4G, Infuse 4G, AT&T Galaxy S II, and the Galaxy Tab.

Having a new trial means that, depending on which way deliberations swing, Apple could receive a larger amount awarded in a judgment, or Samsung might get a break in the amount it owes its rival.

The new trial will not take place until appeals of the current verdict have ended. We honestly can't see an end to the saga in the near future.

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Sony Xperia C670X to pack a 4.8in 1080p screen, Snapdragon 600?

Sony showed off the Xperia ZL and the Xperia Tablet Z at the MWC, but no unannounced models. But unannounced models are starting to pile up in the rumor mill, the latest is the Sony Xperia C670X.

As a comparison, the Xperia ZL model name is the C650X, while the Xperia Z is the C660X. Recently we saw some browser info on the Sony C680X and wondered if there will be a C670X. Well, most probably, yes at least that's what a tipster told XperiaBlog.net.

The C670X sounds like an HTC One competitor, judging by its rumored specs. It will reportedly have a 4.8 1080p screen, a Snapdragon 600 chipset with a quad-core Krait 300 CPU at 1.8GHz, a 13MP camera Exmore RS camera and will run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The tip was accompanied by a rendered frontal image of the Sony Xperia C670X, which may not be legit. Still, if it's real, judging by 4.8 diagonal of the screen, we estimate the phone will measure 133.7 x 70.1mm. Thats slightly shorter but wider than the HTC One (137.4 x 68.2 mm). The Sony C670X has no hardware buttons on the front, which accounts for the height difference.

Will the C670X/C680X duo relate to each other as the Xperia Z / ZL (C650X/C660X)? We are yet to see. Well, this rumor doesnt have a lot of evidence behind it (we checked the usual benchmarks scores sites and such, nothing yet), so keep your salt shaker around while reading this.

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Mobile World Congress 2013 coverage

LG showcases Optimus G Pro, F5 and F7, L3 II, L5 II and L7 II
LG launches enhanced Optimus G in Europe
LG working on 8-core chip called Odin, Optimus G II bound
HP sells webOS rights to LG, to be used now in smart TVs
We put the LG Optimus G Pro display head on with the Super AMOLED on the Galaxy S III
LG displays Wireless Ultra HD video streaming technology at MWC

LG Optimus G Pro - specs hands-on (with video) preview
LG Optimus F7 - specs
LG Optimus F5 - specs hands-on
LG Optimus L7 II - specs hands-on
LG Optimus L5 II - specs hands-on
LG Optimus L3 II - specs hands-on
LG Optimus Vu II - specs hands-on

BlackBerry 10 gets its first update, brings lots of improvements

BlackBerry has just released the first update for its latest BlackBerry 10 operating system. The only available smartphone powered by the BB10 - the BlackBerry Z10 can get the update over-the-air.

The 10.0.10.85 update weighs in at 150MB and boosts the smartphone performance, battery life, low-light camera capabilities, etc.

Here are the Top 5 changes in the official changelog.

• 3rd Party App Performance - Weve improved performance for 3rd party applications, so developers can build apps that run fast and smooth for you. With this update, you might want to keep an eye out for some fresh new app launches in March, like WhatsApp.
• Phone, Calendar, and Contacts - Among the top improvements and features are fixes for Gmail calendars on BlackBerry 10. Youll also find improvements in the BlackBerry Hub for logging calls log and how conversations are handled. Weve also made general improvements to importing contacts from online sources.
• Camera - Weve optimized the camera for better photos in low-light situations. Youll love the difference this makes for photos where you dont use a flash like the Time Shift Camera feature.
• Browser and Media - With more and more of you using the gorgeous screen on the BlackBerry Z10 to consume online videos and media, weve made a number of improvements to the software in the way the browser handles video playback to provide a fantastic experience.
• Battery Life - The software team has included a number of battery life optimizations with over 60 battery saving improvements since launch to keep you moving. These combined improvements are designed so that you see improvements in battery life and heavy users especially should see a longer average usage per charge cycle.

The update comes shortly after the official BlackBerry 10 launch, so it seems BlackBerry is working hard on constantly improving the new operating system. The next BB10 device - the QWERTY-fied BlackBerry Q10 - is to be released around April.

In case you own a Z10 smartphone and you didn't get the OTA notification, you can manually check for the update from the Software Update settings. The update rolls out gradually, so it might take a few days until it appears for you. Our test Z10 device, for example, is still on the waiting list.

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Galaxy S IV to premiere at Times Square on March 14

Samsung has already sent out invitations for a press event on March 14, where it will unveil the Galaxy S IV smartphone. It seems though its plans for the announcement are much bigger.

Today Samsung invites all of its social network followers to join the Galaxy S IV premiere in New York. Everyone is invited on March 14, 7PM at Times Square.

The people there will be able the follow the UNPACKED announcement event via a livestream, which, we guess, will be hooked on to some of the big screens, lining the square. They should also be able to "experience Samsung's new flagship smartphone at Times Square", whatever that means.

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HTC Sense 5 coming to One X, One X+, One S and Butterfly

Wondering if your HTC One X, One X+, One S or the Butterfly will be getting the new Sense 5 from the HTC One? Well, you don't have to anymore, as HTC has revealed that it does plan to do so.

Replaying to query on Facebook, HTC clarified that it does intend to update the above mentioned handsets with the new Sense 5 software features from the new HTC One, except for those tied to the hardware. We believe these may be the new camera related features such as Zoe but other than that you can look forward to the refreshed UI and the new HTC BlinkFeed.

As for the availability of the updates, HTC said it would be coming 'in the next few months'. Note, all the devices mentioned above are the international models. No information has been provided regarding the carrier specific versions of these devices.

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Court rules Apple is to pay $330K a day over Facetime patents

Last November a jury in Texas decided that Apple was to pay VirnetX, a firm that holds patents relative to Apple services FaceTime and iMessage, royalties that amount to $368 million. On Tuesday evening that ruling was upheld and the four patents in question were reaffirmed as infringed. The patents relate to creating a virtual private network between two devices (or VPN).

The judge on Tuesday evening also ruled that until some sort of patent licensing agreement has been reached between Apple and VirnetX, the Cupertino-based company has to pay $330 thousand a day to the plaintiff.

No injunctions were issued but the judge did appoint a 45 day period in which the two companies need to reach an agreement before a final ruling will be enforced.

By applying simple math here - if Apple doesn't find a way to settle the patent dispute in the 45 days it would owe Virmex another $14.85 million. It's more than possible that Apple will pay even more before this whole thing is over.

Apple's case last November was that the patents in question relate to a very small part of the products in question (FaceTime and iMessage) and VirnetX shouldn't be entitled to any royalties.

of course, any normal person would expect Apple and VirnetX to reach some sort of patent licensing deal before the 45 day period has expired but legal battles have their mysterious ways.

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Alcatel One Touch Snap and One Touch Snap LTE debut

Alcatel is continuing its march here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona adding two more devices to the ones that it already announced a few days ago. Meet the One Touch Snap and its 4G-enhanced twin brother, the Snap LTE.

Rocking a yet undisclosed 1.2GHz quad-core processor (chances are its the one found in the Idol X) and 1GB of RAM, the Snap stands below the Idol X in the ranks of the Alcatel smartphones unveiled in Barcelona. Its built around a 4.5 display with qHD resolution, which also boasts Dragontail Glass for protection and oleophobic coating to keep fingerprints away.

The Snap runs the latest version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and makes use of 1800mAh battery, which Alcatel has rated at 7h of 3G talk time and 340h on stand-by. Theres just 4GB of memory, 2.4GB of which is user accessible. Thankfully, theres a microSD card slot to save the day.

At the back of the phone, there's an 8MP autofocus snapper with LED flash and 720p recording in its tool belt. The front camera is a 1.3MP one, and is also capable of shooting 720p videos. The Snap measures up to 130.3 x 67 x 8.99mm, but its weight hasnt been disclosed.

As for the LTE version of the device, it surprisingly differs from its twin brother in a number of key areas. Firstly, the display is larger, at 4.65 but has a lower FWVGA (480 x 854 pixels) resolution. On the plus side, it still packs Dragontail Glass and oleophobic coating.

At the back, theres an 8MP camera, which unlike the regular variation of the Snap, is capable of shooting full HD videos. The front facing camera is updated, too, and is 2MP. The phone's a bit thicker, measuring 134 x 69.6 x 10.9 mm due to the larger 2200mAh battery inside.

Sadly, the Snap LTE runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is still acceptable, but not the latest available around. The bad news continues with the addition of a dual-core, instead of a quad-core. The Snap LTE features a 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU.

Both devices come with support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4 and quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900).

Naturally, its still early to talk pricing, but Alcatel is promising the Snap and Snap LTE to arrive in April and July 2013, respectively.

Sony releases experimental Firefox OS ROM for the Xperia E

Sony announced that its considering launching a Firefox OS phone next year and today released an experimental ROM to run the new Mozilla-made OS on the Sony Xperia E. This will give app developers a chance to evaluate the platform and give Sony valuable feedback.

In case youre wondering why the company picked the Xperia E and not a more powerful phone, the answer is pretty simple Firefox OS will target the very low end of smartphones. The E has almost the exact same specs as the ZTE Open and Alcatel OT Fire, the first two Firefox phones that were announced at the MWC.

Anyway, the ROM is not intended for daily use theres no wireless connectivity of any kind as the software has not passed certification and the touchscreen and the microSD card might not work all too well.

The Sony Developer Blog has details on how to flash the ROM, the architecture of Firefox OS and how to develop apps for it.

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Nokia Lumia 720 and 520 coming to the UK on April 1

The Nokia Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 got their announcement at the MWC only a couple of days ago, but you can already buy them in the UK.

The superior of the two - Nokia Lumia 720 - can be pre-ordered for 300 right now and is said to start shipping on April 1.

As for the Lumia 520 - it can be yours for 170 and will again ship to buyers on April 1.

And if you like a little up close and personal look at the two - here's our Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 hands-ons.

As usual, we are not promoting a specific store, it's always wiser to shop around in search for the best deal.

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Sony has Firefox OS device in the works

Sony has revealed plans to launch a Firefox-powered device in 2014. Bob Ishida - the company's deputy CEO confirmed that Sony engineers are currently working with Firefox OS Mobile and HTML 5 evolving technologies, which show great potential.

The news broke during a Sony and Telefonica joint event, where the Spanish carrier announced that it will offer the Xperia Z Android flagship and the Xperia Tablet Z. Telefonica, together with other Sony partner networks will also be involved in the development of a Firefox phone.

The announcement is great news for Mozilla. With Sony joining the likes of ZTE, Huawei, Alcatel, and LG, Firefox OS has better chances of carving a slice of the brutally competitive market.

Source | Via

ZTE unveils the Grand Memo phablet and the ZTE Open

ZTE brought two interesting phones to the MWC that are as different as can be. The ZTE Grand Memo is a 5.7 Android super-phone and is the first to use the Snapdragon 800 chipset. The ZTE Open, on the other hand is an entry-level Firefox OS phone.

ZTE Grand Memo

The ZTE Grand Memo earns its name with a big screen 5.7 in diagonal. Rather disappointingly, the resolution of the screen is just 720p. Not that 258ppi pixel density is all that bad, but we expected more.

Update: there's some conflicting information, but we checked on the unit itself and confirmed that the screen is 720p and not 1080p.

Especially considering the chipset - the ZTE Grand Memo uses the top end Snapdragon chipset available, the Snapdragon 800. The CPU cores are clocked at 1.5GHz and should be faster than the cores in the other Snapdragon chipsets clock for clock and the Adreno 330 GPU should double the performance of the 320.

Update, again: ZTE is now saying the Grand Memo has a Snapdragon 600 chipset, not 800. By the way things are going, this info will probably change again. The one thing ZTE is certain about right now is that it's some sort of Snapdragon chipset.

ZTE Grand Memo

The phablet is only 8.5mm thick, but thanks to the extra height and width, the ZTE engineers managed to cram a 3,200mAh battery inside it.

The camera on the ZTE Grand Memo is a 13MP shooter with 1080p video capture. On the connectivity side, the phone has LTE Cat 3 (100Mbps down, 50Mbps up) and dual-band Wi-Fi with 802.11ac support the latest Wi-Fi spec available.

ZTE Open

The ZTE Open is on the other end of the spectrum it has a 3.5 HVGA screen, 3.2MP camera, 1GHz single-core processor and 256MB RAM. Its powered by Firefox OS, which was officially unveiled yesterday.

ZTE Open

The Open will tackle entry-level Android phones in emerging markets, by promoting an open source OS with easy to make HTML5-based apps.

The phone features Wi-Fi b/g/n connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS with Nokia HERE maps.

Here are the first camera samples from the ASUS Padfone Infinity

Asus launched its next generation Padfone yesterday, which steps up with specifications from its previous edition of three-in-one device. The latest Asus Padfone Infinity is equipped with a 13-megapixel F/2.0 rear camera along with a 2-megapixel F/2.0 front facing camera.

Asus Padfone Infinity's camera has the ability to record full HD 1080p videos at 30fps and does up to 100 shots in burst mode at 8fps. On top of these, the Padfone Infinity has an extra bright F/2.0 lens, which allows more light in.

We snatched off some camera samples off the Padfone Infinity units, which were on display at the MWC and we can't wait to show them to you.

Asus Padfone Infinity camera samples

The dynamic range of the latest Padfone's camera looks conventional for a phone camera, but the contrast and the colors are quite pleasant and give a pretty balanced look to the photos. We also spotted some great resolved detail levels in the outdoor shots in good light.

Asus Padfone Infinity camera samples

The 13 MP camera's low light performance was pretty good too - as evident from the night shot of the building (ISO 400). Surprisingly, the images at ISO 800 were pretty usable too (the stuffed octopus and the pana cotta dessert, or whatever that is).

The images at ISO 800 had an amazingly low levels of noise, but looked quite soft at 100% magnification. Other than that, they looked just fine when fit to a screen.

Overall, the Padfone Infinity's camera is surely an improvement from the Padfone 2's camera in all respects possible.

MWC 2013: Various brands overview

Introduction

With several of the bigger players in the mobile world notably absent from this years' MWC festivities, several of the lesser-known manufacturers can take advantage of the spotlight.

This year, we see some offerings from ZTE on the table, including the first phone running Mozilla's new Firefox OS, as well as the new 5.7-inch Grand Memo phablet.

Asus Padfone Infinity and Fonepad announced

Remember the Asus Padfone 2? Forget it, its old news the Asus Padfone Infinity was just announced and it steps up the specs. Asus also switched things around and announced the Fonepad a 7 tablet with full phone functionality.

Asus Padfone Infinity

The Asus Padfone Infinity has a 5 1080p screen with 441ppi. That catches up to the competitions flagships, but more importantly the tablet dock screen has been improved too its a 10.1 screen of 1920x1200 resolution. Both screens have anti-fingerprint coating.

The processing power has been upped accordingly too the Padfone Infinity uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset with a quad-core Krait 300 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz.

Asus Fonepad Infinity

The Padfone Infinity packs a 13MP F/2.0 main camera that does up to 100 shots in burst mode at 8fps and records 1080p@30fps video. Theres also a front-facing camera 2MP, F/2.0.

The phone itself has a unibody design and is made of aero-space grade aluminum alloy, with brushed finish. The aluminum edge has been anodized twice (perhaps to one-up HTC).

The 2,400mAh battery inside the phone is pretty decent its good for up to 19h of 3G calls, 6.5h of web browsing, 9h of watching video or 410h standby. With the 5,000mAh battery in the tablet dock, however, these numbers are tripled.

The tablet dock also has an 18mm driver in its loudspeaker and Asus has used 3rd generation Sonic Master audio enhancing tech. Theres also the Audio wizard, which offers several preset modes - game mode, movie mode, voice mode and so on.

Asus Fonepad Infinity tablet dock

On the connectivity side, theres 100Mbps LTE (Cat 3) and NFC (transceiver integrated into the Padfone logo at the back of the device). Theres 64GB of built-in storage and 50GB of cloud storage available.

The Asus Padfone Infinity and its tablet dock will be available in April for 999 / $1325 (again, thats for both).

Asus Fonepad

Asus emphasized that with the Padfone you only need SIM card, one data plan, one monthly fee. So why not just make a tablet that makes calls? Well, they did meet the Asus Fonepad.

Its a 7 tablet with an IPS screen of 1280 x 800 resolution. But it also sports full phone functionality with 3G HSPA+ connectivity.

Asus Fonepad

Its powered by an Intel Atom Z2420 chipset with a single-core CPU at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX540 GPU. It will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch.

There are two versions of the Asus Fonepad. In Europe, the tablet will come with 16GB of built-in storage and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. It will launch in April for 220. For the APAC region, the Fonepad will have only 8GB of built-in storage but it grows a 3MP camera on the back. This one will launch in March for $250. Both have microSD card slots and 5GB of lifetime Asus WebStorage.