Android Community |
- Microsoft Office for Android tipped for a fall 2014 arrival
- Google Play launches campaign on Twitter to promote the new Play Store
- AT&T LTE goes live in six new markets with big push coming this summer
- Google Play Store 4 inverted back to Black color theme [Download]
- Cinegram app release means more animated GIFs from Android users
- Google Babel memo leak speaks of synced notifications and more
- Samsung GALAXY S 4 commercials begin streaming
- ZTE GEEK smartphone brings Intel’s Atom Z2580
- Homebase lock screen launches Facebook Home theme
- Burner app brings disposable numbers for Android users
- Pebble: All black watches now ready with colors still several weeks out
- Former BioWare developers working on Android game for the living room
- Microsoft Scroogled campaign flames Android for sharing user information
- Google Play Music now available in Australia, New Zealand, and other countries
- Fist Face Fight launches on Android April 18
- HTC First vs HTC One and other Android phones
- HTC First Review
- Facebook Home Review
- AT&T Galaxy S II Skyrocket gets Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update
- ASUS FonePad hits the UK April 26, pre-order Friday for £179.99
| Microsoft Office for Android tipped for a fall 2014 arrival Posted: 10 Apr 2013 11:50 AM PDT A look back at the topic of Microsoft Office for Android shows a long list of possible launch dates and an equally long list of launch delays. We did at one point see a series of leaked screenshots, however much of the focus seems to be on when the office suite will be arriving. On that note, this latest mention of Microsoft Office for Android talks of another potential release date.
Or more specifically, in this instance, a potential release timeframe. The good part of this news, this release timeframe is so far out that we suspect this will be enough to finally push people away from the hoping and waiting. Well, that is assuming any Android users are still holding out hope of seeing Office arrive. Anyway, that timeline is fall 2014 — as in next year. As to where these details are coming from, Mary Jo Foley writing for ZD Net has been passed a roadmap. The roadmap details the Gemini wave of Office updates which begins with Windows Blue app updates as part of wave 1.0. Part 1.5 goes into Office for Mac, an Office RT refresh and a Windows Phone support refresh with wave 2.0 being the Office for Android and iOS release. Wave 2.0 also includes Outlook RT. According to the timeline on those waves, 1.0 is expected in October 2013, 1.5 is expected in April 2014 and 2.0 is noted for October 2014. Bottom line here, while we suspect some Android users have a genuine need for a Microsoft Office suite, given a release may not be coming for more than a year — now seems like as good a time as any to begin using an alternative such as Quickoffice and start getting comfortable because you still have a long wait ahead of you. [via ZD Net] |
| Google Play launches campaign on Twitter to promote the new Play Store Posted: 10 Apr 2013 11:25 AM PDT In case you’ve all somehow missed the excitement. Google launched an all-new and improved Play Store yesterday. They completely redesigned the Play Store and today in celebration it looks like they want to reward all of you Android faithful over on Twitter. Starting a new campaign asking users to tell them what their #favoritethings are.
So what exactly is going on with this new #favoritethings campaign over on Twitter? It appears that Google wants to reward us Android fans by giving users a free Nexus 4, 7, or 10 to enjoy the latest Google Play Store on. That isn’t all either. They are even giving out Play Store gift cards for many lucky readers to use on Music, Movies, Games and more. All you need to do is be following @GooglePlay over on Twitter, which we’re sure many of you are (don’t forget to follow us at @Androids) and tweet to @GooglePlay telling them what one of your #favoritethings is from the Play Store. It’s that easy folks. If you’re one of the lucky few you could get picked by Google themselves to get a Nexus 4 to enjoy. Google recently did something very similar on both Twitter and Google+ for their Google Glasses, but this time around it appears to be Twitter only. It’s also for the USA only, so that’s a bummer for many. We’re surprised to see G+ not taking part in this promo, but whatever. If you’d like to participate all the details can be found right here. Oh and one more time. Don’t forget to follow Android Community on Twitter. Do so by clicking here! [via @GooglePlay] |
| AT&T LTE goes live in six new markets with big push coming this summer Posted: 10 Apr 2013 11:09 AM PDT It seems like AT&T has been doing quite a bit of growth in terms of LTE coverage these past few months. We saw several LTE expansion announcements during the month of March and have already seen one this month. That previous announcement arrived on April 3 and detailed coverage in 14 new markets across 11 states. As of today we have word of six additional markets.
This latest round of coverage also deals with several states. This time the AT&T LTE coverage is rolling into Napa, California; Santa Rosa-Petaluma, California; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Rocky Mount, North Carolina; Orangeburg, South Carolina and Jackson, Tennessee. Basically, those in any of these areas can now begin to look for 4G LTE coverage. And for those with an upgrade available, make sure you are now looking at LTE capable handsets — of which AT&T has plenty, including the soon to be released HTC One. Those considering that handset may benefit from reading our recently published review. Moving forward and it looks like AT&T has plenty of coverage in the works for the summer months. We have yet to see a specific timeline for the summer rollout, however we do know that it will mean coverage for an additional 77 markets. Of those markets ready to come online during the summer, the coverage looks to be spread across multiple stats including Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Texas and Wyoming. |
| Google Play Store 4 inverted back to Black color theme [Download] Posted: 10 Apr 2013 10:16 AM PDT Yesterday our good friends at Google released a new and totally improved Google Play Store with a completely new design. This is a big change from the previous version and they’ve introduced larger HD images and app artwork, and a card style layout that’s easier to navigate. However, the new version went back to the old school white color theme with green everywhere of old. If you want the Play Store back to black, we have you covered.
We’re big fans of inverting popular Google apps to black color themes, and have covered plenty of these inverted apps in the past. Today though we have a special one because this is the latest Google Play Store v4.0.25 that was just released yesterday that many people still don’t have, and it has already been inverted to a beautiful black color theme as you see above. Everything is still amazingly awesome, fast, and stable, only we get the black colors back that we loved. We owe thanks to the awesome Team BlackOut developers, and this mod comes from our pal @B_boytm. While we’re focusing on the new Play Store today, if you’d like to blackout Gmail (with white or even Jelly Bean blue text) Google Voice, Google Now, and many other Google Apps you’ll want to check out this entire RootzWiki thread.
Looks hot right? So how do you get the brand new Google Play Store inverted back to Black? Here’s how! If you’ve already updated to the new Play Store v4.0.25 you need to go into Settings > Apps > Google Play Store and uninstall the update first. This will take you back to the old version. Then proceed to flash the below file in recovery. Instructions:
If it doesn’t work, use a file explorer that can view system files and make sure your Store is named Phonesky.apk instead of Vending.apk in /system/apps. Rename it if needed and reboot, then follow instructions above. That’s all. You now have the latest Google Play Store released by Google yesterday but back to the classic black color theme we’re all use to seeing lately. As a reminder, it’s always good to backup the previous version before wiping it out or replacing. And we, nor the developers are responsible for any issues you may face. This is extremely simple and we did it in about 3 minutes, so flash away and enjoy that improved Play Store 4. For those that don’t care about the black theme, and would just like the newest version of the Google Play Store that was released yesterday, click here. [via @B_Boytm] |
| Cinegram app release means more animated GIFs from Android users Posted: 10 Apr 2013 10:07 AM PDT Cinegram, for those not familiar with the name, is an app that will allow you to create and share animated GIFs. The good, or possibly bad news given some of the GIFs that you may end up seeing is the app has just today launched for Android. Yes, this is another case of an app spending quite a bit of time as iOS only. We will not let that get us upset though because as of today we can share in the animated GIF fun that comes with being a Cinegram user.
The Cinegram app is fairly simple and straight forward to use. You have your account and similar to other social networking apps, you will have your those who follow you and those who you choose to follow. Your saved GIFs can also be shared out to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr with relative ease. These GIFs start out as 4 second videos which you can then spice up a bit with filters. Otherwise, the Cinegram app has arrived as version 1.0.0 and is both free to download and free to use. The one minor catch, the app requires Android 4.0 or later for use. Of course, with a fair amount of Android users now sitting with Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean, that shouldn’t be as much of an issue at this point.
All said and done, Cinegram may not be the most awaited app, however we do think it should be able to provide a bit of fun. But that is not to say that we aren’t still waiting for Vine to finally ditch that iOS only tag. In the meantime, anyone excited about Cinegram coming to Android? Or has it arrived as just another app that will make an initial splash only to fizzle out? [via Google Play Store] |
| Google Babel memo leak speaks of synced notifications and more Posted: 10 Apr 2013 09:25 AM PDT We have yet to see anything official about Babel from Google, however a recently leaked memo is offering a look at some of the details. First though, for those not familiar with Babel, this is expected to launch as a unified messaging service and will bring everything from messaging and image sharing to cross platform device and notification support.
Initial messaging support looks like it will include Messenger, Talk and Hangouts. There was also mention of Google Voice integration, however that is believed to be coming by way of an update after the initial launch. No timeline for the Google Voice support other than “eventually” however with not even knowing when Babel will launch — that bit about Voice doesn’t seem quite as important. Some of the other details include a brand new user interface. By that, the memo points to Babel as having a “new UI that's applied across all clients and promotes conversations.” Babel is also expected to launch with notifications that are able to stay in sync across platforms. By that, they mean once you receive the message on one device, the notification will disappear on all of your devices. Shifting over to the platforms and there was mention of Babel having an Android app as well as a Chrome app. There will also be an iOS app, which the memo claims will bring a “first class iOS experience.” Other details look to include the ability to scroll back and read any previous message thread (on any device) and the ability to spice up your messages with a collection of more than 800 emoji. Speaking of emoji, we were given a brief look at some of these in another recent Babel leak. [via Droid-Life] |
| Samsung GALAXY S 4 commercials begin streaming Posted: 10 Apr 2013 08:36 AM PDT The Samsung GALAXY S 4 launch is quickly approaching. We have seen some pre-order details from US Cellular and have also gotten a pre-order date and some pricing from AT&T. Alternatively, several carriers also seem to be dropping the price of the Galaxy S III ahead of the GALAXY S 4 launch. The Galaxy S III price drops have been spotted with AT&T and Verizon Wireless. More to the point for today though, it looks like Samsung has begun airing some television commercials.
So far there has been three commercials, all of which are currently available in the post below. This trio of commercials is focused on features — S Translator, Group Play and Sound Shot. These are all features that we have seen mentioned before, however something about having them packed into a (roughly) 30 second video makes them that much easier to digest. On that note, the first commercial is for S Translator. S Translator should be a plus for those who regularly travel to locations where they may not be able to speak the language. Basically, using S Translator you will be able to speak into your phone and have that translated and spoke back. Next up is the commercial for Group Play, which will allow GALAXY S 4 users to share a song in a group. Once shared, that song will then play on each phone for a group listening experience. Last up for the commercials we have Sound Shot. This feature is camera related. Sound Shot means you will be able to take a picture and also record the surrounding noise. The image, or Sound Shot should then be able to provide a bit more of an having-been-there feel for the person on the receiving end. Perhaps the more interesting question will be how often these features will actually be used in a real-world setting. Otherwise, touching back on the current state of GALAXY S 4 pre-orders and we have them as coming available with AT&T and US Cellular on April 16. AT&T has also said the pricing will begin at $199.99. In the meantime, make sure to venture down into the Story Timeline below to check out some of our recent GALAXY S 4 related coverage. [via Android Beat] Device Info
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| ZTE GEEK smartphone brings Intel’s Atom Z2580 Posted: 10 Apr 2013 08:11 AM PDT ZTE has officially announced the GEEK smartphone. The handset was introduced during the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, China. The key bit of detail here, this marks the first ZTE handset with Intel's new 32nm Atom processor Z2580. Otherwise, aside from a name that we are enjoying, the handset has some average specs. By that, we mean some of the specs are half of what we are seeing on other current flagships.
Just to begin with though, the ZTE GEEK has launched with a 5-inch 1280 x 720 display, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. See what we mean about the specs — we would have hoped to see 1080p along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Moving on, the GEEK also has a 1 megapixel front-facing camera and 8 megapixel rear-facing camera. Other goodies include a 2300 mAh battery and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Touching back on that processor, it clocks in at 2.0GHz and according to ZTE, it should be twice as fast for computing and three times as fast for graphics as compared to Clover Trail+. There was also mention of reduced power consumption (again, as compared to Clover Trail+). ZTE considers the launch of the GEEK smartphone to be a continuation of their earlier strategy of bringing more high-end products to market. And well, while we are not going to see many of these ZTE releases here in the US, we do think they are beginning to do some interesting things. For that, make sure to check out the Story Timeline below for a bit more of our recent ZTE coverage. |
| Homebase lock screen launches Facebook Home theme Posted: 10 Apr 2013 07:40 AM PDT Facebook Home will land in the Google Play Store this coming Friday, and while it will be free to download and free to use — there are some catches. For one, the Facebook Home launcher will give you a fairly different experience as compared to what you are used to seeing on your handset. Not to mention, the Facebook Home launcher will initially only be compatible with select devices. That being said, it looks like there may be an alternative solution available from Widdit Labs.
This company, for those not familiar, does lock screen apps. They have the Homebase Lock Screen app, as well as various branches including the Homebase Jelly Bean Lock Screen app. And well, it looks like they have since launched the Facebook Home-like version. This one is called Homebase — Facebook Home Theme and is available for free and by way of the Google Play Store. The lock screen replacement app will run on devices with Android 2.2 or later and touts itself as being able to offer the “slick look” of Facebook Home, but at the same time still allowing you to unlock your phone and access apps the way you’re used to. Anyway, with this lock screen replacement you will have your Facebook details ready and available before you even unlock your phone. Some of the features include being able to set a default background, pick a personal unlock icon and choose a custom unlock sound as well as being able to add screens, remove screens and re-order screens. Customizing aside, in use, the app will show one story at a time and also allow you to swipe to see additional stories. Bottom line here, Homebase with the Facebook Home theme seems like a good option for those who prefer the current setup of their phone, but that also want to get Facebook information with little effort. [via Google Play Store] |
| Burner app brings disposable numbers for Android users Posted: 10 Apr 2013 06:56 AM PDT Coming as another app that originally launched only for iOS users, Burner has finally made its way into the Google Play Store. Burner, as the name would imply, is an app that allows you to simulate one of those disposable ‘burner’ mobile phones. Except in this case, you are burning the number as opposed to the entire phone.
The Burner app can be used for just about anything you choose, but the key is — you can keep the number for only a short time and then avoid getting those calls at a later date. One potential use case include Craigslist listings. This way you can easily ditch the crazy calls once your item has been sold. Regardless of your specific use case though, the Burner app allows you to send and receive calls as well as send and receive test messages.
You can even get voice messages on that number. The Burner app itself is available for free and comes with the option to create one number.That freebie Burner number will then be good for 5 minutes of talk time, 15 text messages or 24 hours — which ever comes first. You can however choose to extend that number. Extending a number, or creating additional numbers beyond the one freebie will require you to purchase credits. The credit pricing begins at $1.99 for 3 and goes up to $11.99 for 25 (with a few other options in between). In addition to creating new numbers and extending the time limit of your current numbers, those credits can also be used to buy additional minutes and messages for your number. A one month extension requires 5 credits and a 3 month extension will require 10 credits. Bottom line here, the Burner app provides a solid way of having an alternative number and while not free, it certainly sounds like a much better option as compared to having another phone. [via Google Play Store] |
| Pebble: All black watches now ready with colors still several weeks out Posted: 10 Apr 2013 06:23 AM PDT It looks like we have another Pebble smartwatch related update. This one will likely come as a bit of good news or bad news depending on the color you originally picked when you backed the project on Kickstarter. You see, the folks at Pebble have announced that all of the black watches are ready for shipping. Well, specifically, Pebble has said they are currently “making their way through the fulfillment process.”
Basically, if you ordered a black Pebble and don’t yet have it — you should soon. On that note, I can say that I backed the project on almost the last day and received mine this past weekend. The other side of this latest Pebble update is in regards to the colored watches. Unfortunately, these are not quite ready just yet. The folks at Pebble have offered some details on the colored watch manufacturing process and are also offering the option for those still waiting on a color to switch things up and go with a black model. Sure, you may not be getting the flashier color you originally wanted, but you would have your watch quite a bit sooner. As for the colored watches, Pebble has said they expect the first red watches to be ready for shipping in about 2 to 3 weeks. From here things get a bit worse for those waiting on another color. After red the team will be working on orange and then gray and white. Unfortunately though, things were then left with little more than a promise that more updates will arrive when they have additional information to share. [via Kickstarter] |
| Former BioWare developers working on Android game for the living room Posted: 10 Apr 2013 06:00 AM PDT We’ve talked on a few occasions about a company called Green Throttle. The company built a game controller called the Atlas designed to let you play Android video games on your TV from across the room. Green Throttle Games has now announced its first internally produced free to play game to go with that Atlas game controller.
The game is being developed by Hungry Moose Games, which is a development company founded by former BioWare developers. The game is called 9 Lines: Casey and Sphynx. Green Throttle Games promises to bring more free to play games to the Android store that are specifically designed are playing in the living room. 9 Lives is a puzzle game about a misfit couple including a security guard named Casey and Sphynx, was a stray cat with a bad attitude. The two characters risked their nine lines on archaeological adventure through a museum. Players can play alone or with a friend. When playing co-op mode, both players show up on the same screen. Each of the puzzles is set in ancient Egyptian tomb within the museum. There’s no word on when the game will be available at this time. [via VentureBeat] |
| Microsoft Scroogled campaign flames Android for sharing user information Posted: 10 Apr 2013 05:47 AM PDT Microsoft has been operating its Scroogled campaign against Google highlighting places where Microsoft believes Google users are being mistreated. Obviously, the main goal of the campaign isn’t to raise public awareness, but to win customers over to Microsoft services such as Windows Phone and Bing search.
One of Microsoft’s latest attacks in the Scroogled campaign came this week with a new video being released detailing how Google shares Android user personal details but app makers. The video shows how personal details of the buyer are transmitted to the app maker every time software is downloaded from the Google Play store. Microsoft points out that this data sharing takes place even when users purchase health-related applications. Microsoft does admit in the video that most app makers are trustworthy people, but you can’t trust everyone. The fact this information is transmitted with each app you by isn’t noted anywhere by Google according to Microsoft. If you’re concerned about what data is being shared, you can watch the video yourself here. Obviously, you’ll need a grain of salt considering this is an attack campaign run by Microsoft to make its services look better than Google’s. Video: Watch how you get Scroogled by the Google app store [via AppleInsider] |
| Google Play Music now available in Australia, New Zealand, and other countries Posted: 10 Apr 2013 05:07 AM PDT If you’re an Android user who lives in Australia, New Zealand, and several other companies new content is now available to you. Google announced this week that an update to the Google Play store brings with it the availability of music in several countries that didn’t have it before. Music is been available in the US and several other countries for a long time.
Other than Australia and New Zealand, the countries now have access to music via Google Play include Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Portugal. The music is available on any Android device running version 2.2 or higher. The tunes can also be listened to online in those countries as well. The Google Play update also brought a number of other new features. The most notable new feature is an extremely different user interface that is much cleaner. The interface has a card-style layout and it looks really good. One notable change in the new update is that rather than having the checkbox to automatically update apps on the screen for each app to download, that tick box is now on your device settings page. You can check out our hands-on video of all the changes in the Google Play store below. [via SlashGear] |
| Fist Face Fight launches on Android April 18 Posted: 10 Apr 2013 04:54 AM PDT Everyone knows that ninjas can jump out, crush your heart, and then disappear before you know what’s happened. A new game is headed to the Android operating system soon called Fist Face Fight that helps you fight this ninja heart destroying phenomenon. The game has players using a virtual fist to punch ninjas as they try to destroy your heart.
The game will be free to download and play on Android, but it will be ad supported. The game will also have in-app purchases using with in-game currency. The good news is that any in-app purchase you make will disable the advertisements of the game permanently. The game developers describe Fist Face Fight as a “frantic physics-based arena combat game.” Players will punch wave after wave of ninjas to defend the heart on the screen. The physics of the game comes in and the way the ninjas balance around the screen each time you punch them. A punch sends the little ninjas and other objects towards the edge of the screen where they ricochet and come back at you. That means you’ll spend time punching the same ninja over and over. Check out the video below to see the game in action for yourself. [via Joystiq] |
| HTC First vs HTC One and other Android phones Posted: 09 Apr 2013 06:16 PM PDT So now that the HTC First “Facebook Phone” is official and hitting the streets this Friday, we figured a quick vs running down the specs and details were in order. Below we’ll go through a few things we like and don’t like about the HTC First, then compare them to the beautiful flagship HTC One – as well as other Android smartphones available or coming soon.
First off, the First is all about Facebook. So if you’re a diehard Facebook user you might want to keep reading. However, for the rest of you that don’t want Facebook Home to completely take over your life and phone, the decision should be an easy one. We say should be, because the HTC First does have a few tricks up its sleeve. As far as overall specs are concerned there really isn’t any battle here. The HTC One wins in every single category except software. We have a bigger 4.7-inch 1080p HD display vs just 4.3-inches and 720p on the HTC First. The dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor is fast, but doesn’t hold a candle to the One’s quad-core Snapdragon 600 series. The First doesn’t have an Ultrapixel camera, and is instead only 5 megapixels. It does however have that same amazing build quality and level of detail we’ve come to expect and love from HTC.    To get a better idea of these you’ll want to check out our HTC One review, then see our HTC First review. Instead of comparing the two (or any phone) based on hardware, since that isn’t very fair, lets look at software and features. Facebook Home will become available on April 12th for multiple HTC and Samsung devices. So if you’re interested in that walled garden from Facebook, you can try it yourself. As we’ve detailed already once before, the only differences between a dedicated Facebook Phone and the app – are minimal. The experience isn’t quite as deeply integrated on the notifications front, but that’s about all. So while that might be enough for some to try the HTC First or other Facebook Phones, you’ll be pretty close by just getting the app.
Are those deeper integrated notifications enough for someone to pass up the HTC One for the HTC First? In our opinion absolutely not. The HTC One is one of, if not the best Android phone available. Period. Just download Facebook Home and you’ll get the best of both worlds should you really want Facebook taking over your home screen and lock screen. The same rule applies for the Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, and the other devices Facebook Home will be supporting in the future. Now for the fun stuff. The HTC First is actually a pretty well rounded Android smartphone for $99. You get a 4.3-inch 720p HD display, the latest dual-core Snapdragon 400 series from Qualcomm, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. You’ll enjoy a 5 megapixel camera, 1.6 front, and even a pretty big 2,000 mAh battery. The build quality is stellar, the design is nice, and the button layout is pretty unique. The best part though, it runs completely stock Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean under Facebook.
This means for those interested in Facebook Home, but also love the idea of a high to mid-range Android phone with stock Android 4.1 built by HTC, the First can be yours from AT&T for only $99. If you don’t like Facebook Home you can’t default back to Sense UI like on the HTC One, but we’re pretty sure plenty of you will be just fine running Vanilla Android. In fact, that’s how we prefer it. So we guess in closing there really isn’t any comparison. Unless you wanna go all in with the Facebook experience the HTC One is a clear choice over the First, although that stock Android sure is enticing if you ask us. For those on a budget the HTC first (with or without Home) is a pretty decent phone. Hopefully Facebook Home continues to improve, and adds some sort of widget support and customization in the future. If so we’ll revisit this comparison at a later date. Device Info
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| Posted: 09 Apr 2013 06:02 PM PDT With the HTC First we’ve got what both HTC and Facebook are presenting as this year’s Facebook Phone. While we’ve seen devices in the past with Facebook-centric bodies and with Facebook features added to their basic Android software experience, here with the HTC first we’ve got what both HTC and Facebook are very clearly saying is their hero environment for the mobile universe. This isn’t just an HTC Salsa with a Facebook button attached – it’s the first full embodiment of Facebook Home!
Hardware While at first it feels more appropriate to review this device as a Facebook Home experience first and a smartphone standing on its own second, the fact remains: you still have to buy and pay for this machine the same as you would any other Android. So here we go – straight out the box you’ll have a handset that’s rather conservatively sized, ready to fit in the palm of your hand.
This smartphone is 4.96 inches tall, 2.56 inches wide, and 0.35 inches thick. That’s roughly the same as the HTC One S released in HTC’s last batch of hero devices. Here with the HTC first you’ve got the same size display but with a much sharper set of pixels – while the HTC One S had 540 x 960 pixel density over 4.3-inches (256 PPI), the HTC first works with a 4.3-inch display that’s 720 x 1280 pixels dense (342 PPI). That’s right up there with the most dense displays today, with the HTC One and Samsung GALAXY S 4 only beating it by about 100 PPI.
Inside this device you’ve got one of the first appearances of the dual-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, aka Qualcomm 8930AA or MSM8930. This processor is the step after the S4 generation of processors we saw crowned with the S4 Pro that’s sitting pretty inside the LG-made Google Nexus 4 (see our full review now)! One is quad-core, the other is dual-core, and the battle is on! We’ll be doing some comparative benchmarking soon – but for now you’ll still be thinking about the software experience.
Inside you’ve got 16GB of storage and there’s no microSD card slot to expand. Luckily, or so Facebook suggests, you’ll be doing most of your activities online anyway, and there’s always that friendly automatic upload of your photos through your main Facebook app. It’s worth noting that HTC has suggested on their official specifications page that the HTC first has 16GB of storage but that available capacity varies. This could just mean that based on what you’ve got on the phone, you have different amounts of storage (obvious), or it could mean that more iterations of this smartphone are on the way!
The HTC First has NFC capabilities as well as Bluetooth 4.0 and a 2000mAh battery. It’s becoming more and more common that NFC is included with smartphones across the board. Here it’s set to work with Facebook’s set of check-ins and future placement of Facebook-friendly couponing as well. At the moment we’re happy to have as much wireless connectivity as possible – always nice to be prepared for all eventualities! Software We’ve got a whole separate review of Facebook Home prepared for you so you can go as in-depth as you like with its first release. With the HTC First showing of Facebook Home, you’ve got the first in what may be a long line of Facebook Phones, each of them with some added bonuses over the standard Facebook Home download experience. While you can download the Facebook Home home screen replacement app for any one of your Android devices (in the near future), here with the launch of the HTC First you’ll have exactly what both HTC and Facebook intended the fully integrated experience to be. Head to our Facebook Home software review to see how this user interface will affect your HTC First experience.
When you first start up your device, you’re invited to sign in with your Facebook account. While you don’t have to do this, it’s plainly obvious that this device was made for people using Facebook in their everyday lives before they pick up the hardware. Purchasing the HTC First with no intention of using Facebook is essentially the same as downloading the basic Facebook app without a Facebook account – it’d be just silly. Again though you can start this phone up and immediately head to settings to turn Facebook Home off – not a half-bad idea if you think the hardware is perfect.
With Facebook Home you’ve got the full Facebook experience, start to finish. You can run the full lot of your Android apps of choice while you live inside the Facebook Home environment – that’s one of the beautiful parts about it. The same is true of a download of Facebook Home for your 3rd party Android device – it runs around your regular apps. The big difference between the app and the HTC First Facebook Home experience is the deep integration you get with the phone.
While you get full notifications and functionality with any app you download and use on the HTC First, apps run while you’re working with Facebook Home on a 3rd party smartphone will have limited notifications inside the Facebook Home experience – and many won’t have notifications at all.
Another serious possibility for the Facebook Home app download is the appearance of advertisements in your basic Coverfeed – that’s the first screen you see when you hit the power button on your phone. While there are no advertisements on your HTC First here at launch and it’s been confirmed that there wont be – at first. Expect a serious bit of uproar if advertisements begin to appear on the HTC First after it launches without them – but again, nothing is set in stone right here and now.
You’ll be working with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box with Facebook Home over the top – and you can de-activate it with just a tap or two. Under the Facebook Home skin you’ve got a rather vanilla-flavored Jelly Bean experience waiting for you – this creating a rather enticing situation for those of you looking for an HTC One-era HTC device without the added $100 cost – though without the UltraPixel camera and half a dozen other big hardware differences, it’s certainly not a choice you should take lightly.      Above you’ll see a set of benchmark results from the HTC First. While it’s not the most beefy smartphone on the market today, it’s certainly no wimpy character! You’ll find this device out-performing most of last year’s smartphones with its lovely Snapdragon 400. Battery Life Due mostly to the Qualcomm processor under the hood and the power conservation it offers up, you’ll be working a full day with this smartphone without a problem. Though you’ll certainly want to be charging up each night, you shouldn’t have to worry about kicking out the charge cord during the day. If however you’re an insane super power user and like to keep your display at full blast 24 hours a day while you stream 4G LTE video, you can, of course, expect to need a charge after a few hours time.
Camera While the HTC First camera experience is certainly nothing to compare to the HTC One’s UltraPixel technology, it’s not the worst shooter we’ve seen this year. With a 5-megapixel camera on this smartphone’s back and a 1.6-megapixel camera on its front, you’ll find yourself shooting photos and video that are perfectly decent. Certainly nice enough to use as your profile photo on Facebook.
If you’re aiming for even the quality that the iPhone 5 offers (and gasp at the thought of comparing an Android phone to an iPhone on Android Community), you’re going to be in for a bit of a disappointing experience. While the photos and video we’ve captured thus far aren’t worse than the HTC One S or HTC One X (see our full review here), they certainly aren’t better. That’ll happen when you take out the HTC ImageSense processor dedicated to image processing that was in play with the HTC One X and S.
Have a peek at the photo and video examples we’ve got here and stay tuned for more – there’s always the chance that the software on this lovely little beast will be updated by launch time and the whole show flips over. It’s happened before!     Also we’ve got a set of photos taken with the HTC One, then the HTC First, of the same subject matter. See if you can tell the difference.    Above: HTC One / Below: HTC First   Wrap-up With the HTC First you’re purchasing the Facebook Phone. While we’ve compared the HTC First to other devices before, and we’ll do it again, in the end you’ve got what HTC and Facebook have intended to be the one true Facebook Phone. If you do not use Facebook and do not intend on using Facebook, we’d recommend you skip the HTC First. If you’re like one of the massive cross-section of social networking fanatics that does use Facebook on a regular basis and are looking for a smartphone experience that’s all about you and your friends, the HTC First is your ticket to excellence! The HTC First is the perfect all-encompassing Facebook experience for everyone seeking to stay in touch with friends on the go. Facebook fanatics: this phone may well be your ticket to the next level in true social networking addiction. There’s simply nothing like having Facebook right up in your face on your smartphone 24 hours a day – nothing like it in the world. And with HTC at the helm, you’re guaranteed hardware that can handle the feed.                   |
| Posted: 09 Apr 2013 06:00 PM PDT Time to get social folks! In just a few days time you’ll be able to get your hands all over the all-new Facebook experience on Android, simply called Facebook Home. If you want an even deeper experience the HTC first smartphone will also be available on the same day, April 12th, for you to enjoy Facebook in all its glory. We’ve had a chance to take Facebook Home for a spin lately and you’ll want to read on to see if it’s a worthy home screen replacement, or just a gimmick by Facebook to stay relevant.
This is the “Facebook Phone” only it is available for multiple devices, and more coming soon. Live at Facebook HQ last week Mark Zuckerberg announced the all new Facebook Home “their new home on Android” and along with it comes an entirely new look and feel for Android. This is one of the benefits of Android being a completely open platform, but I’m sure it will also have its downsides too. Since many of you are probably wonder what Facebook Home is all about, lets take a look. Home
You guys should all know plenty about Facebook Home from the announcement, so we’ll just share a few thoughts, details, hints and pictures while explaining who might or might not want to take their smartphone to this next level. Obviously Facebook Home isn’t for everyone, not by a long shot. Personally we know many of you Android enthusiasts are not fans at all, but don’t be so quick to judge. The mass public loves Facebook, as we all know, and this essentially makes their lives and Facebook experience dead simple – and right in front of their faces. So while this isn’t for everyone, it clearly has a huge audience and some serious potential. One important factor in that is performance though. With their current Facebook app for Android a bit of a mess, how does Facebook Home perform? Well, pretty darn good actually. They’ve really stepped it up over there at Facebook HQ and the experience is far better than we ever expected. Everything is buttery smooth, animations are all over the place and quite fun. Right from the lockscreen with your profile picture you’ll notice the transitions and animations as you flip your profile picture around to unlock the device, enter your Cover Feed, or head to your previously opened app. The way the icons float around are smooth, and actually kind of fun.
Gone are the slow load times and ridiculous loading circles of Facebook old, and here we have beautiful HD images taking up your entire screen (if you chose) and quick alerts and status updates. Everything from HD artwork, chat heads for communication and more has all been polished, perfected, and is fast. Facebook made it a huge goal to have a fast application, and as a result Facebook Home actually loads and caches in the background. So even when service drops or gets weak you’ll still have fast load times, images covering the screen in your Cover Feed and more.
One important factor is the fact that Facebook Home will only be as pretty as your friends. We know not everyone posts good photos to Facebook, or high quality ones for that matter. However, When scrolling through your feed you won’t get those terrible images on the background. Instead Facebook Home uses each individuals Cover Photo – which brings a better experience – most of the time. This enables those large and pretty images you see while you flick through the content, then images actually uploaded are neatly in a gallery instead of blasting your entire display. It’s a nice touch actually.
Now we know what you’re all wondering. And that is just how intrusive is Facebook Home in terms of regular things such as opening an Android app, getting to notifications, Google Now (a biggie for me) and multi-tasking. And while they aren’t as in-focus as before, they are still readily available. As you see from the screenshots Google Now is still sitting up top when you’re in the full app tray (not the quick tray), and long-pressing that circle on the HTC first brings up multi-tasking. For all other Android devices running the downloaded version of Facebook Home, it should be just fine too.
One area we really weren’t fans of was the “quick tray” for apps. While we love the idea of this essentially replacing the dock on standard Android smartphones with all your usual and must-have apps – we didn’t like the opacity. It’s see through and as a result can sometimes look a bit ugly and messy. We’d rather it be nice and clean. See below with the words getting in the way!
Then of course this also means doing something as simple as calling someone isn’t quite as easy as on most phones. Facebook Home is all about social networks, updates, check-ins, photos and more. Calling people isn’t a priority. Thus, you have to slide into the apps tray, find the phone icon, and make a call. with regular Android it is always front and center on the bottom. This probably won’t be a cause of concern for most, but we know many of you wonder about those regular “phone” features. After all, these are phones we are using. Settings
Obviously front and center is “Turn off Facebook Home” which is a major thing here. Facebook making it so extremely simple to quickly disable the entire experience and return to standard Android gets major points in my Book. Thanks for not making us jump through hoops to get you out of the way when we’d like to. This also make the HTC first a standard Android 4.1 Jelly Bean smartphone. Yes please! You can also control data usage and image quality, so Facebook Home isn’t sucking down our data limit (and battery life) all day long. From here you can hide and completely remove the standard Android status and notification bar, but we have a feeling you’ll be keeping that present. And we’ll tell you why. What’s the difference between a Facebook Phone like the HTC first vs downloading Facebook Home from the Play Store? Find out by clicking here! With a Facebook Phone like the HTC first you get a deeply integrated experience. HTC and Facebook allow Home to access all notifications and alerts from the Android OS, and post them up in the Facebook Home Cover feed and Home experience. If you have a regular Android phones and download Facebook Home from the Play Store, you don’t get the experience mentioned above. While Facebook Home will still curate a list of notifications from Facebook, messages, friends, and even Instagram, you won’t get all your notifications from their system. You’ll have to rely on the standard Android status pulldown bar. So that’s why we have that option in settings. Essentially the Facebook experience has a tighter grip on everything with a Facebook Phone vs downloading the stand-alone app from the Play Store. Take that as you’d like. Chat Heads
With more than one chat there’s multiple heads. And there comes the name Chat Heads. You can tap the head to keep chatting, or simply dismiss it with ease. All while having multiple conversations – and most importantly for Facebook – never leaving your Cover Flow of incoming Facebook news. Likes. We can’t forget about likes and comments. The actual Facebook app for Android has its share of issues, and comments are certainly one of them. On mobile it seems sometimes the pop-up to leave a comment just wouldn’t ever load, and you’d need to try again for it to work. This issue seems to be gone with Home and leaving comments is now a breeze. Right on the bottom of the display instantly tap the button. You get a neat animation and can leave some words with ease. Double tapping will like a photo or post, which is nice, but I found myself doing so on accident quite often. Oops!
Wrap-Up So how do we feel about Facebook Home? Well, mixed feelings to be honest. In one sense we feel like the entire Facebook team has done an amazing job with Home, and it shows the true potential and power of the Android OS. At the same time we still feel like it cripples Android. To be completely honest though, Facebook Home is actually pretty awesome. Everything is exceptionally fast, fluid, stable, and pretty. Updates are quick, animations are beautiful, content looks great and more. That being said, it’s clearly ONLY for those who truly use Facebook often and love the social network world.
Is Facebook Home for die hard Android users or enthusiasts? Absolutely not. Will the general public love Facebook Home and use it over Sense UI, stock Android, or Samsung TouchWiz? Maybe. Depends on how much they actually care to use Facebook. Will I? Nope! I love my theses, custom options, and widgets far too much. In the end Facebook Home is a beautifully crafted and curated experience, but it’s obviously geared at Facebook and social networking. It makes Android less powerful, throws widgets and customization out the window, and we can’t even customize who plasters our Cover Feed and home screen. Unless Facebook is a deep deep part of your life we just can’t recommend this, or see people using it day to day. This is certainly a walled garden grown, picked, and hand delivered by Facebook. |
| AT&T Galaxy S II Skyrocket gets Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update Posted: 09 Apr 2013 04:28 PM PDT Samsung has been on a roll lately with updates to Android Jelly Bean, and today we have one more device to add to the list of updates. The Galaxy S II flavor on AT&T with way too long of a name is getting the update to Jelly Bean starting this afternoon. All you Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G LTE owners will want to head down past the break for more details.
Yup, the Skyrocket version of the Samsung Galaxy S II over on AT&T is getting updated today. Which is some pretty good news considering Samsung’s updates almost every other device capable as of late. Not only that, but the update is for their latest 4.1.2 Jelly Bean flavor full of all sorts of goodies. That Skyrocket is about to get a heck of a lot better. As usual lately with Samsung, the update is available using Samsung Kies PC software or will also be arriving in an over the air update. It’s pretty big though so we’d recommend you update using WiFi to save those data limits you might have over on AT&T. The Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update for the Skyrocket brings Google Now voice search, expandable notifications, better battery life and more as expected from Jelly Bean. You’ll also get all those notification toggles, widgets, and the brand new Nature UX user interface from the Galaxy S III. Get ready to love those new notifications and that brand new unlock screen. Let us know how the update goes in the comments below. Enjoy! [via SamMobile] Device Info
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| ASUS FonePad hits the UK April 26, pre-order Friday for £179.99 Posted: 09 Apr 2013 02:53 PM PDT The awesome looking ASUS FonePad 7-inch tablet was revealed back at Mobile World Congress in Spain, and ever since then we’ve been wondering when we can get our own. Mainly because this 7-inch Android 4.2 Jelly Bean tablet runs an Intel processor, and doubles as a smartphone at the same time. Yes, you’ll still look ridiculous holding something that big to your ear, but today we learned ASUS will offer it at a pretty competitive price.
This afternoon Samsung announced their Galaxy Note 8.0 with phone capabilities will run $399 in the USA later this month, but now we’re getting word that ASUS has plans to severely undercut Samsung. The ASUS FonePad 7-inch slate will only be £179.99. In US dollars that comes out to only $275 give or take a few. Which makes it a pretty darn good deal. According to reports the FonePad will hit the UK starting April 26th for just £179.99, and pre-orders will be open for all starting this Friday, April 12th. It sounds like our previous reports of an April release date were accurate after all. As a reminder the FonePad comes with a 7-inch 1280 x 800 resolution display and a single-core 1.2 GHz Intel ATOM processor and 1GB of RAM. The model priced above also rocks 16GB of internal storage, micro-SD support, and of course can make phone calls when you’re not busy using that 7-inch screen like a tablet. For more details check out our FonePad hands-on, then head through the links and specs below. Now we just need a US release date and carrier to jump on board. [via TechRadar] Device Info
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