Hasta La Gadget!

HTC put its faith in the One to restore its position in high-end smartphones; now, leaks suggest, the company may be sticking closely to the same pattern with the HTC M4 for the midrange. Expected to be visually near-identical to the HTC One, according to phoneArena‘s sources, the M4 (a codename, of course; the One was codenamed HTC M7) is expected to have a 4.3-inch 720p display and an UltraPixel camera.

If that all sounds familiar, we’re not surprised. Chatter around the M4 began in early April, meshing in with this latest leak with talk of a dualcore processor, 16GB of onboard storage versus the 32GB+ of the HTC One, and 2GB of RAM.

However, those rumors pegged the M4 as more of a Facebook-free HTC First, rather than a mini-One. The Facebook Home phone has a 4.3-inch, 720p display after all, along with a dualcore processor, leading to suggestions that the HTC M4 would effectively be a rebadge of the predominantly plastic handset.

Instead, this new batch of rumor pegs a far closer aesthetic to the HTC One for the M4, though it’s unclear how much this is a speculative render from evleaks above, rather than a leak of the actual device. Although similar in design, it’s also expected to shelve some of the One’s rock-solid materials so as to hit a lower price point; whether that means metal-effect plastic rather than the sturdy unibody aluminum we’re so fond of on the One remains to be seen.

Otherwise, the M4 is expected to have LTE, a fixed 1,700 mAh battery – 600 mAh less than the One, not to mention 300 mAh less than the HTC First – and run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean when it arrives near the end of Q2 2013. The biggest difference from the First, beyond software, of course, is the inclusion of UltraPixel technology: HTC’s oversized pixels which trade sheer resolution for improvements in low-light performance.

As a strategy, it’s something we’ve seen work well in the Samsung Galaxy S III mini, borrowing halo branding and design to push a far cheaper model to those with less cash and less ambitious expectations. Whether it’s enough for HTC to continue turning around its 2013 remains to be seen.

HTC M4 to be mini-One not Facebook-free First rumors claim is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

HTC has confirmed it will shutter its HTC Watch video streaming service in six locations, with the company saying it plans to focus on areas where adoption has been stronger. Launched on the HTC Flyer back in mid-2011, Watch was HTC’s attempt to challenge iTunes on the iPhone with a media download and rental store, but struggled to gain the same sort of traction as Apple’s service.

News of the incoming closures was tipped by emails sent to Italian subscribers, Telefonio reports, warning them that the store would no longer be available after May 15. Existing purchases would still be available to watch and re-download, according to the message.

HTC confirmed the part-shuttering in an official statement. “As we continue to deliver new content for HTC Watch, we’ve made the decision to focus our efforts on markets with the highest engagement” a company spokesperson told us. “After May 31, we’ll discontinue support for HTC Watch in countries with less application traffic.”

Those countries consist of Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands. According to HTC, access to Watch will no longer be possible in those locations after May 31.

Of course, Watch isn’t the only media download option HTC device users have to choose from. Google’s own Play store has a video section, where movies can be purchased and downloaded, for instance.

HTC Watch shuts down in six European countries this month is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Modern day smartphones come with a whole lot more functions than you can shake a stick at – and while that is a good thing, the downside to all of it is, you will need to make sure that your battery’s juice level is at its peak before you leave the home, otherwise you might be left high and dry just halfway through the day at work. Mophie has been rolling out juice packs in the past for notable handsets, and the same applies to the HTC One with mophie’s very own HTC One juice pack that is said to double the battery life.

All that it takes to activate the additional reserves of juice is a simple flip of a switch, and do not fret that your device would look like an unwieldy device, since it comes in an ultra-thin and lightweight design which will complement the smartphone’s zero-gap unibody design. Not only does this mean you get additional juice, you will also experience full protection without looking out of place. You can pick up the HTC One juice pack in black or silver colors for $99.95 a pop.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sony Xperia Z For T-Mobile Spotted At The FCC, HTC M4 Press Rendering Leaked,

If you picked up an HTC One and found that its battery isn’t quite cutting it, Mophie may have a solution for your dilemma. The accessory maker is now offering its popular extended battery line for HTC’s crown jewel. In addition to its slim protective casing, the freshly minted Juice Pack keeps the party going with an embedded 2,500mAh backup cell. Mophie claims that its added pick me up can increase the One’s battery life by two-fold, placing its performance on a par with the marathon-ready RAZR MAXX HD. Available in two colors to match whichever hue you’re sporting, the $100 Juice Pack is a surprisingly attractive backup plan for HTC’s aluminum marvel.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

Comments

Source: Mophie

A Columbus, Ohio woman found that her HTC Evo Shift had branded her after overheating while it was under her waistband. The woman, Jennifer Grago, reported that she was using the phone’s FM radio while she did yard work.

“I didn’t have pockets so I just put the phone in the band of my sweats. Seemed like an alright option… I felt my phone getting warm so I moved it and trucked on. Figured sweatpants and 70 some degrees was a factor. Went to move it again and it hurt like a #%&@! and skin with it. I swear to god I almost passed out,” she wrote.

Best Buy, where she purchased the phone, told her that phones need “correct ventilation” and should be placed in form-fitting casing.

The phone left a clear outline of the casing on her skin. Phones, which are in essence compact radios, can easily overheat for various reasons but for a device to overheat so egregiously is frightening. Any phone, in the right conditions, can overheat. However, in this case, the device battery was faulty, a problem that was came to light when the FM radio app was running for too long. Devices like the iPhone can overheat when radio-heavy apps like Maps and Pandora run too long but they rarely get hot enough to burn skin. The Evo Shift is two years old and is currently available for free with contract on Sprint’s network.