HTC returning to the tablet market following Nexus launch this fall

The next six months for HTC could be the most important time in the company’s seventeen years of existence. Leading up to this fall, reports claimed that the company would be launching a new version of the One (M8) will boosted specifications and a smartwatch powered by Android Wear. The phone was canceled and the smartwatch has been delayed to next year. Instead, HTC will have selfie-centered phones and a camera as we near the holiday season.

The most important part of HTC’s next step, however, is the manufacturing of the next Nexus tablet. It will be the start of HTC’s return to the tablet market after a break that lasted three years.

Once the Nexus 9 is on the market, HTC will focus on tablets with its name that has a unique experience. Jack Tong, president of HTC North Asia, told the media that the company is once again committed to the tablet market. The last time HTC released a tablet, the year was 2011 with the Flyer. It failed to sell well and the there were no real standouts with Android tablets. In 2011, Apple’s iPad was the go-to for tablets. Now that Android has developed and matured as an operating system for tablets, HTC wants back in.

We expect an HTC-branded tablet to launch this spring when the company does its annual announcement of a flagship phone.

Source: Focus Taiwan

Via: G 4 Games

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Front panel of an HTC device leaks with slim bezels but no one knows what it belongs to

Later today, the Double Exposure event hosted by HTC will take place. It will be focused on cameras as the company is expected to introduce the One (M8) Eye, Desire Eye, and RECamera. But just before anything takes place and the curtain is lifted, the image above leaked. It shows a front panel belonging to an HTC device. The angle of the photo is a little odd, but it seems like the display is rather large. Also, the bezels are pretty slim and that is something HTC has not yet done with any device.

The source that obtained the image, VNTech, claims that this panel does indeed belong to a future handset. Which one? We do not know. Chances are we will not be seeing it today.

Source: VNTech

Via: Phone Arena

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Nokia HERE Maps arrives for Samsung smartphones

Nokia has announced the availability of their maps app for Samsung devices starting today. Nokia HERE isn’t Google Maps, and you may be asking yourself why you’d bother using it over Google’s home-cooked goodness. Believe it or not, Nokia HERE is actually one of the most robust and complete turn-by-turn solutions out there in terms of actual navigation.

For starters, it has “true” offline maps that you can download instead of Google’s cache-based system. You can download entire countries at a time and don’t have to worry about caching specific areas, and searching works offline just as it does online.

On the other hand, Google Maps only allows you to cache a specific area, and there’s a set limit to how much of the map you can cache. Many folks have issues going beyond the city view for any fairly large cities. To top that off, Google Maps’ cache is cleared on a regular basis (around every month) so you’re always having to make sure the area you need is cached before heading out onto the road. And search doesn’t work offline, so there’s that.

Nokia also has very solid rerouting options and traffic reports to help you get where you want to go faster. It’s not that Google’s traffic options are bad (they’are actually great), but Nokia HERE is one of the few that can rival it.

The app is free to download on the Samsung Apps Store for select Samsung smartphones (Nokia says it’s designed for any Samsung smartphone on Jelly Bean or higher with 1GB of RAM) so be sure to check it out if you’re wondering what the hype is all about.

[via Nokia]

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Play Movies 3.3 Lets You Pre-Order New Movies And Stream Them As Soon As They Come Out [APK Download]

The latest version of the Google Play Movies app has been rolling out to users over the course of the past week, and while we found in the code that the changes had something to do with placing pre-orders, we had to wait for Google to flip a switch somewhere for the functionality to get exposed. Now that Google has taken to its social network with the news, consider that switch flipped.

Play Movies 3.3 Lets You Pre-Order New Movies And Stream Them As Soon As They Come Out [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Today Marks The Beginning Of Endgame, Niantic’s New Global AR Game Based Off The Novels

We first reported about Endgame back on January 15th of this year, a new Augmented Reality game coming from Google’s Niantic Labs that would be based off of the series of upcoming novels from James Frey. If there was any doubt about the success of this game going forward, with how popular Ingress has become, and with what the entire Endgame project vision includes, there shouldn’t be doubt any longer. The books have a theme focused on a global competition involving 12 teenagers with different attributes and skills, and in the game players will be able to pick and choose one of these 12 players to represent.

Essentially the story of Endgame is a series of James Frey’s novels, but has much more going for it than just a collection of books that will seek to engage you in a compelling story. The novels themselves are simply one piece of a giant puzzle to the secrets and mystery’s of Endgame. The books tie in to Niantic’s game, and the game and the Novels also have links to the upcoming series of films based off the books. It’s a massive project all weaved together that not only promises to provide some really fun entertainment, but engrossing stories through the whole of the entire set of Endgame collective material.

When it comes to the game, it’s not just the “what’s next” project for Niantic, something new and fresh to play with a similar feel if you have grown tired of Ingress. Players will be rewarded for having knowledge that can only be retrieved from reading the books and seeing the films, and at the end of it all there is the promise of real money prizes from real world gold. So basically, there is a huge incentive to be involved in as much of the Endgame universe as possible. The Novel has already been launched as of today, and the actual game from Niantic Labs begins later tonight after a special launch event. The game is said to be starting as a prequel to the novel, but eventually will end up tying together with future novels and novella releases, and those pieces of the story being changed and created based off of what happens within the game. This gives players of Endgame a chance to ultimately have some part in how the books will turn out in the future. You can already pick up the first Endgame novel, and if you’re at all interested in playing the game we highly recommend grabbing the book even if it isn’t before the launch party where the game begins.

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Reports State That Facebook Is Developing An Anonymous Chat Application

Secrecy and privacy are two really big things in the limelight as of late, and the issues with online security as well as personal mobile security more than likely has a lot to do with it. What these issues have helped do is give rise to a number of messaging applications for mobile devices that can allow total anonymity for the users, like secret for example, or Whisper. Facebook is an entity that hasn’t yet dared to enter into that space, and why should they have had a need to, they flourish on having all Facebook owned services tied to people’s Facebook accounts. They have just recently separated messenger from the actual Facebook app, making it so that you need both applications installed on your Android device if you want to continue using the messaging service, Messenger of course is still tied to your personal information.

The word is though that Facebook has been developing another messaging service and application that delivers anonymous or private messaging features to users, to be a competitor for the likes of other private messaging apps. There aren’t exact details on the app just yet, but it will apparently allow users to chat and message each other privately without having any sort of Facebook profile associated with the messages. Right now the new chat app has no name that we can tie to it, so we’ll just call it NoFace Messenger for now.

A couple of other Facebook branch off apps have yet to launch onto Android, like Slingshot, so we may not end up seeing this hit Android either. Although a messaging service could be considered bigger and something that would be more widely used if available so we’d find it odd if Facebook decided to make the app exclusive to iOS even if only for a little while after launch. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has said that they aren’t “afraid to move away from the real-name applications.” This could be the start of that, although after so much scrutiny over their privacy policies throughout the last few years we have to wonder how many people could really look at an anonymous chat app from Facebook and think of it as truly anonymous. As soon as more details pop up about the app we’ll be sure to update you on what, when and if you’ll be able to get a hold of it on your Android devices.

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HTC Confirm There Wont be A HTC Smartwatch Or Wearable Before 2015

October certainly will be HTC’s month. Tomorrow is their special ‘Double Exposure’ event which will see the launch of the REcamera and quite likely also the HTC Eye (selfie phone). On top of this there is always the upcoming Nexus 9 which is manufactured by HTC. Whether any details of the Nexus 9 will be provided tomorrow is uncertain. However, it is certain that HTC will not be launching a smartwatch nor do they have any immediate plans to do so.

Back in the summer (July/August time) we started hearing rumors that HTC were about to launch a smartwatch. This included renders which had been released, leaks from tipsters and also a video which it was claimed showed the upcoming HTC smartwatch in the background. However, along came IFA in September and it emerged HTC was declaring themselves out of the smartwatch race before it even began. If you were hoping the newest rumors (HTC not making a smartwatch) were untrue than unfortunately it is not the case. Jason Mackenzie, the head of HTC Americas confirmed to Re/code this week that an HTC watch certainly won’t be available until at least 2015. Mackenzie did confirm that they are still developing wearables but had no intention of releasing a device before next year. According to Mackenzie “We had originally planned to have a wearable launch in this time frame”. Further adding “It ended up just not being ready”. To add further confirmation to this Drew Bamford the head of the HTC Creative Labs Team was further quoted saying that the time is just not right at the moment. “We think the strategy we were working on will get us there, but we want to take our time and get it right”. Bamford was also noted commented on the state of the current wearables offered by HTC’s competitors “We honestly don’t think anyone has gotten it right.”

So there you go. Tomorrow is a big day for HTC and we will see a number of new and interesting devices being launched but you can be sure a smartwatch will not be on the agenda. Do you think HTC are right to postpone the release of their smartwatch or do you think they are missing the opportunity by letting other OEMs get their foot in the door first? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

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