First HTC teamed up with Iron Man (well.. RDJ at least) for an advertising campaign, and now they’ve joined forces with Captain America as well.
In a special promotion designed to tie into the movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier, HTC is giving away a limited edition version of the handset, complete with a S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the rear of the phone. Aside from the logo and a few pre-loaded wallpapers, the S.H.I.E.L.D. One (M8) is the same the standard version of the phone.
As a reminder, that means you’ll get a device powered by a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 CPU with 2GB of RAM, alongside 16 or 32GB of storage. Other specs include a 4 UltraPixel DUO camera, a 2600 mAh battery and Android 4.4 KitKat.
So how do you get your hands on the device? Those who wish to win need to send in a “super selfie”, which means you want to make yourself look like a super hero and then you simply have to take a shot of it. If you’re lucky, you might just win a special edition HTC One M8.
Of course, there’s only a very select S.H.I.E.LD. One handsets available to win, and the contest is just for those in the United States and Canada. For the official rules, you’ll wan to head over to HTC’s website.
While Caterpillar is obviously best known for its heavy-duty construction-oriented machinery, they also happen to be a smartphone maker. As you might expect, they don’t produce just any ordinary device, however, as the Cat B15 is built to take more than a punch or two and yet keep on kicking.
To further demonstrate this level of toughness, Caterpillar has a new “Built for It” video in which they drop the device from a height of 30 feet into a pool of water. From there, it’s picked up by a Cat machine and dropped once again. After that, they run 600 of the handsets over with some of Cat’s heaviest equipment. Despite these torture tests, the Cat B15 keeps on ticking.
Unfortunately, things aren’t nearly as impressive on the inside. With the phone now nearly a year old, its specs are looking pretty shabby with its 4-inch display and dual-core 1GHz MediaTek MT6577 processor. Of course, the B15 isn’t aimed at everyday consumers and is instead designed for professionals on construction sites and others that need a device that can take a serious beating.
The B51 is currently priced at $350, though obviously it isn’t recommended for most individuals. With the device now reaching its first birthday, here’s to hoping a more powerful refresh isn’t too far off.
Unlock Alert is a simple little application that does only one thing. It alerts you when someone is trying to access your phone without authorization. There are a lot of applications that have the capacity to do this, but the feature is generally packaged with a lot more features. You’ll often find them in antivirus apps or apps that find your phone. Unlock Alert takes this one feature and puts it in its own application.
The interface is simple to use even if it is a tad bland. The premise is simple. You set how many times someone can miss trying your password, pin, or pattern before it alerts you. It will take a picture of the saboteur via the front facing camera and take a GPS location of the device and then it will alert by emailing you the picture and the GPS location. There is also Dropbox support if you would like to use that.
That’s really it folks. It’s a very simple app with a very simple premise. It doesn’t take a lot of space or battery life to run and you can easily find out if anyone is trying to access your information. You can set a scare screen if you so choose warning the person that they are being monitored and you can customize how many times they try before the app does its job. You can also set to save the image to your gallery and whether or not the app works on WiFi or mobile data.
So far the user reviews have been universally positive. The app has been tested with a number of current flagship devices and claims support for Android Gingerbread and up. However, it is a young release which means there are likely some bugs. The app description does warn that the camera capture may not always work but we had no problem with that. Aside from bugs, the design is a little dreary but outside of setting up the app, we don’t anticipate people spending a lot of time in there.
Overall, Unlock Alert is a nice app. It features functionality that you can usually only get as part of a suite along with other features. If you wanted just this feature and none of those other ones, then this is a good app to try out. Or if you use apps that don’t have this feature and you want to add it -such as using Android Device Manager- it’s a good way to augment your device protection without adding redundant features. It’s free to use with no advertisements and you can try it out using the button below.
Check out the last indie app of the day: Frequency
Companies worldwide have shipped more than 50 billion ARM-based chips since 1993, with 10 billion of them in 2013 alone. Many of those chips ended up in smartphones and tablets, but ARM’s designs are also used for everything from servers, to laptops, to smartwatches. So if anyone in this world has a good idea of where technology is heading, it’s the folks at ARM.
At its second ever Tech Day event, ARM revealed some interesting statistics on the near future of mobile technology. The graph below is a clear illustration of a trend that’s been widely discussed in the past 12 months – the shift towards the mid-range and low-end in the smartphone business, caused by increasing saturation in developed markets. It’s the trend that, analysts say, caused Samsung’s recent growth slowdown, a problem that’s affecting in one way or another every company in the smartphone industry.
By 2018, ARM estimates that entry-level phones (under $150) will out-ship premium models by two to three times. Not only that, but in the entry-level segment, the race to the bottom will bring smartphones prices to as low as $20. Manufacturing limits prevent prices going down any more than that, thinks ARM.
While a $20 smartphone seems the stuff of fantasy, ARM says the first Android devices will hit the markets at this price point over the next few months.
Sure, don’t expect to see them at your local Best Buy anytime soon, but in developing countries, where smartphones are the primary computers of millions of people, $20 smartphones will make a real, lasting impact.
According to the chip designer, today it’s possible to make a $20 smartphone powered by a single-core Cortex A5 chip. That may not sound impressive, but as AnandTech notes, one Cortex A5 chip is faster than the chip inside the $599 iPhone from 2007.
With companies like OnePlus pushing down the price of premium Android smartphones to around the $300 mark, the barrier of entry to a quality smartphone experience is continuously lowering.
But it’s Motorola that’s rumored to be really pushing the envelope. The company teased a device that’s “priced for all” for its May 13 event, and speculation is that it will be the Moto E, an ultra-cheap device that might cost as little as $50. The company’s former CEO Dennis Woodside hinted at such a device back in January:
In much of the world $179 is a lot of money so there’s a big market at a price point of less than $179. We’re going to look at that and just delivering on that value promise is super important. I mean why can’t these devices be $50? There’s no reason that can’t happen so we’re going to push that.
If Motorola manages to offer a decent Android experience for $50, it wouldn’t be a stretch to envision a $20 brand name smartphone in a year or two. And that would be a big step towards a not-so-distant future where everyone on Earth is connected.
Last Friday @evleaks tweeted that HTC is preparing red, blue and pink variants of the HTC One M8. At the time, we had already seen a leaked image of the red version, and now the famed leaker has brought us our first look at the HTC One decked out in pink. All that’s missing is your favorite Hello Kitty decal, but you can always bring your own.
While the pink HTC One M8 is clearly aimed at a niche group of users, more color choices are always welcome since it means consumers can choose a look that best fits their own personality. It’s hard to say what carriers and/or retailers will be bringing us this mode, but there are probably at least a few markets that will be left out.
Outside the color change, this is still the same HTC One M8 that many of us know and love. The M8 is powered by a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 CPU with 2GB of RAM, alongside 16 or 32GB of storage. Other specs include a 4 UltraPixel DUO camera, a 2600 mAh battery and Android 4.4 KitKat.
For more details on what to expect for the HTC One M8, be sure to check out our full review.
Now all that’s left is to see the blue model. We can’t say with any certainty when these new colors will be officially introduced, though we wouldn’t be too surprised if it happened sooner rather than later.
Don’t call it a comeback. HTC is hardly out of the woods, but the troubled Taiwanese company can finally give investors some reasons to buy its stock.
HTC issued its guidance for Q2 2014, and it’s largely good news. The company expects to double its revenue compared to last quarter, to between NT$65 billion (US$2.16 billion) and NT$70 billion (US$2.32 billion). That would translate to a gross margin of 21.3 percent to 22.0 percent, and earnings per share of NT$2.21 to NT$3.00.
Last quarter, HTC recorded a marked slowdown in sales, ahead of the release of the new (M8), which resulted in losses of NT$1.88 billion ($62 million), worse than the predictions of many analysts.
For Q2, HTC is relying on strong sales of the One (M8) and the Desire 816, as well as good performance in the entry-level segment in markets such as China and India.
The One (M8) outperformed the sales of the M7 in the same period last year, said Jack Tong, President of HTC North Asia. The company says it had “solid” sales in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, thanks largely to the M8, as well as “strong momentum” in India and China. The M8 and the Desire 816 were HTC’s sales engines in these regions. In some Asian markets, demand for the One (M8) was greater than the supply, said Tong.
We believe that we are on course for a strong 2014
“We believe that we are on course for a strong 2014,” stated CEO Peter Chou, noting that the expansion of LTE in Taiwan and China opens opportunities for HTC. “We have dramatically improved our operational efficiency and supply chain readiness,” said the exec. HTC began outsourcing some of its manufacturing this quarter.
These signs are certainly encouraging, but HTC can’t relax just yet. In Q2 of last year, HTC had revenues of US$2.35 billion, so, unless the company beats its guidance, there won’t be any growth year on year.
Back in January, Lenovo executives promised a big Chromebook push for this summer, comprising of multiple Chrome OS devices offered at different price levels. Now the first devices in this push are here, and Lenovo predictably went for the low end of the market first.
The new Lenovo N20 and N20p will be available this summer for $279 and $329 respectively, as the company’s first Chromebooks that are generally available to consumers. Lenovo first Chrome OS laptops, released in January 2013, were sold exclusively to schools and other educational institutions.
The N20 and N20p feature identical specs, but the N20p boasts a 300-degree swiveling touchscreen that makes it possible to use it as a tablet, even though Chrome OS is still not fully optimized for touch use. Google recently added an onscreen keyboard and other touchscreen accessibility features, but Chrome OS remains primarily made for keyboard and touchpad use.
Lenovo’s two Chromebooks feature 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 displays, Haswell-based Celeron processors, up to 4GB of RAM, and up to 16GB of storage. Connectivity options include two USB ports, an SD card slot, HDMI, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11ac WiFi. There’s a full-sized keyboard and a generously proportioned touchpad. Design-wise, these two Chromebooks are utilitarian, rather than stylish, with their conservative lines and thick bezels around the display.
The Lenovo N20 will become available starting from July, while the touchscreen N20p will follow up in August.
Talking to The Verge , Lenovo said it hopes to continue the “huge success” its Chromebooks had in the educational market. Like its competitors HP and Dell, Lenovo – the largest PC maker in the world – is embracing Chromebooks as one of the few growing segments in an otherwise stagnant PC industry.
While Chromebook sales remain relatively small, the concept has gained traction over the past year. Chromebooks hold the first six positions on Amazon’s list of best rated laptops, and consistently rank among the best sellers.
Lenovo’s new N20 and N20p will compete with Chrome OS offerings from Acer, Asus, HP, Dell, and Samsung, all priced in the $200-$350 range.
