Hasta La Gadget!

On this week’s Droidcast, me and Chris Velazco get tough on smartwatches, but first we discuss Nokia Android “Nokia X” device plans and other infertile hybrid animals, and HTC’s renewed commitment to customer care and how that might affect its fortunes. Finally, we talk a bit about Chromecast, Google’s mobile-to-big screen media streamer and its new SDK.

Long story short, we know a lot about Nokia’s unreleased Android phone except for why it exists; HTC made some promises to customers in an AMA recently; and Google has made the Cast SDK part of its most recent stable release of Google Play services, so we should see a slew of apps offering up support for that home theater companion.

We invite you to enjoy weekly Android podcasts every Sunday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern and 1:00 p.m. Pacific, in addition to our weekly Gadgets podcast at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific on Fridays. Subscribe to the TechCrunch Droidcast in iTunes, too, if that’s your fancy.

Intro music by Kris Keyser

Direct download available here.

In a Reddit AMA session today, HTC employees confirmed that the company’s 8X Windows Phone handset will receive future firmware updates. This indicates that the company is working with Microsoft to bring Windows Phone 8.1 to the device. Windows Phone 8.1, also known as Windows Phone Blue, is a upcoming set of updates to the Windows Phone platform expected to land in April.

The as-yet unannounced Windows Phone 8.1 has been bouncing around the news lately. Not that Microsoft likely minds too much. Having the media pick over what is coming next for Windows Phone helps keep the enthusiasts enthused, and earns the platform coverage that it can repeat when the features are ‘officially’ released. Less of a bang at the end, but if you need to stay relevant, well, it’s an option.

Here’s HTC confirming that Blue is coming, and that they are working with Microsoft to deliver it to 8X customers:

So, that’s happening. Microsoft declined to comment.

Before I let you go for the weekend, keep the lower branches of that statement in mind. We know that a number of OEMs are either considering, or perhaps even now working on, getting into the Windows Phone game. Could HTC jump back in? I had an 8X for a while and can say that it was a fine piece of hardware. Windows Phone as a platform could use more like it. And HTC left the door plenty open in its statement on Reddit.

Something to think about.

Today on Reddit, the HTC USA Product Team took to an AMA, answering questions from Redditors about a slew of things: business, products, and Android. The answers are still rolling … Continue reading

The HTC M8 happens t0 be one of the most highly anticipated smartphones expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in a couple of weeks. There have already been a lot of rumors and leaks about the HTC One successor, and we have already seen a few purported pictures being leaked in the past. Today, once again, yet another HTC M8 picture has leaked online, providing us yet another glimpse at what might possibly be the Taiwanese manufacturer’s next generation smartphone.

This particular HTC M8 picture has been leaked by a Twitter account going by @htcfamily_ru, this source has leaked similar images in the past as well. One rather interesting detail is seen in this image, alongside the top speaker grill to be precise. It appears that the HTC M8 has a notification LED, which is housed between the front camera and speaker. This has not been noticed in previous images. Even though the image itself comes from a Russian Twitter account, it seems to have originated from China. HTC has obviously not confirmed anything as yet about its next generation smartphone, so we have to sit tight until at least MWC 2014 to be absolutely sure of what this device has to offer.

HTC M8 Picture Leaks Yet Again original content from Ubergizmo.

It’s a dark day in the world of ultra-popular apps as we’ve come to (sarcastically) realize that we’ll no longer be seeing any more Flappy Bird updates. The developer of … Continue reading