Hasta La Gadget!

You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Speaking to Walt Mossberg at D11 this morning, Google’s Sundar Pichai offered glorious news for anyone who loves the HTC One but craves an untouched Android experience: he confirmed that there is indeed a stock Android 4.2.2 version of the flagship device One coming, and it will be fully unlocked for T-Mobile and AT&T at the solid price of $599. It’ll go on sale in the Google Play Store on June 26th, the same date as its $649 counterpart, the Samsung Galaxy S 4 stock edition. The new version of the device — which will be sold in the US initially — will come SIM-unlocked, with an unlocked bootloader and 32GB storage. In terms of radios, it will offer quadband LTE (700/850/AWS/1900), triband HSPA+ (850/1900/2100) and the usual quadband GSM / EDGE. Sadly, this means that T-Mobile users will enjoy LTE and EDGE, but won’t be able to take advantage of AWS on the 3G side.

There is some give and take involved with such a device, of course; since it’s pure stock, Sense-specific features (BlinkFeed, Zoe and so on) won’t be included, since they aren’t optimized to work on vanilla Android. Still, we’re quite excited to see companies like HTC and Samsung embrace the “Nexus experience” and offer choice to its users, and we’re hoping this is just the beginning of a new trend.

Update: HTC confirmed to us that the Google Edition will retain the same two-button setup, and they’ll have the same functions as before: short press of Home for Home, long press for Google Now and double tap for Recent Apps. The back button will also remain the same, and the black menu bar that plagues third-party apps that haven’t complied with Google’s design specifications isn’t going anywhere. We were also told that Beats Audio will still be integrated into the device as a hardware optimization, but the visual indicator — currently found in the status bar on the original One — won’t be there.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC, Google, AT&T, T-Mobile

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Source: HTC

By most accounts, the HTC One is the most compelling Android smartphone on the market today, but only three of the major US carriers are wise enough to sell it. Up until this point, we’ve put the AT&T and Sprint models through their paces, and now we have an opportunity to round out the trio with T-Mobile’s version. Given the carrier’s recent shift to an unsubsidized pricing model — which brings lower monthly fees in exchange for purchasing your phone outright — you may be in for some sticker shock with the HTC One, which runs $580, but you can also pay $100 down with installments of $20 per month over the course of two years.

If you’re currently on the fence about whether the HTC One is right for your needs, you’ll definitely want to check out our full review, which features an in-depth look at the phone’s design, camera and the many novel features that you’ll find with HTC’s custom software environment, Sense 5. Here, we’ll explore the subtle nuances of T-Mobile’s version, with plenty of benchmarks, impressions about the voice quality and battery life, an overview of the bundled apps and a comparison to the One’s closest competitors on T-Mo. There’s plenty to cover, so join us after the break as we explore everything that you need to know about the HTC One for T-Mobile.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC, Google, T-Mobile

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After months of supply issues and courtroom wrangling, HTC might have finally put its hardware woes behind it. The company’s North Asian president, Jack Tong, let slip that production capacity for the HTC One will double this month and continue to increase in June to meet “strong demand.” Tong also casually dropped into conversation that the J Butterfly saw its own sales double in Japan when it became free on contract — so perhaps those second-quarter financial results won’t make for such depressing reading.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

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Via: ZDNet, Android Beat

Source: Focus Taiwan

For every Engadget editor who’s gotten to test an HTC One (that’d be five of us so far), there are two more waiting to take it for a spin. Well, you can cross Mr. Fingas off the list, at least: he’s been playing with the One on Canada’s Rogers network, snapping photos in the lowest-lit places Ottawa has to offer. James Trew, meanwhile, is excited to finally use Goal Zero’s Sherpa 50 solar charger, mostly because it means England is finally getting some decent weather.

Filed under: Misc, HTC

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