Hasta La Gadget!

Investors appear to be cautiously optimistic about the announcements made today regarding Facebook and their new Android smartphone-based software experience. Stocks have jumped over 3% after the Facebook “New Home on Android” event, this allowing the stock to hit $27 and above for the first time in half a month. What we must assume is that the negativity in talk of a Facebook Phone (that is, a complete replacement of the operating system) was doused by the appearance of Facebook Home – a home screen replacement app for Android.

With the reveal of Facebook Home, we’re seeing an experience existing within Android, on top of it – not taking it over entirely. Even when you put your hands on the HTC first, the very first Facebook Home device right out of the box, you’ll be able to turn Facebook Home off if you like. But what of advertisements? And what of the idea that Facebook Home commands the entire user interface you’re working with on your phone?

See our full Facebook Home and HTC first hands-on experience now!

Such things seem to not have struck investors as concerns as the stock hasn’t dropped since before the event began. Now we’ll see if this first smartphone to run the device does well – at $99 USD from AT&T with a 2-year contract, it just might. And we’ll see if Facebook Home is a software experience that people will want to try – or maybe even use regularly.

Have a peek at the timeline below to see the many angles at which Facebook Home has been covered by SlashGear today, and don’t forget to stick to the Android Hub for more on the insides. Also let us know if you’re all about the Facebook Home smartphone experience, if you’ll wait for the tablet edition, or if you’ll be skipping it altogether!

Facebook Phone event sends stock up 3 percent is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just a few weeks ago we were lucky enough to have heard about the expansion for the Android-based app HD Widgets’ expansion pack called Colourform – now it’s out for all! Straight out of Beta you’re now working with the fully functional Colourform theme pack for HD Widgets containing a massive amount of features and options you’re absolutely going to love. And it’ll only cost you a buck!

When we switch from phone to phone here on SlashGear (and over on Android Community where the video you’re about to see comes from), it’s rare that we’ll find an app that absolutely must pop up on all review units. HD Widgets is certainly one of them. With the Colourform theme pack, things have suddenly gotten a whole lot more appealing to the modernists in us.

Back when HTC first revealed their monstrously lovely candy-coated weather widgets with Sense a few years ago, we came to realize what was possible aesthetically in the Android universe. Here with HD Widgets, we’ve got a 3rd-party developer (cloud.tv) that’s essentially perfected the art. You’ll not only be working with these widgets on your home screens in your standard Android experience, you’ll be able to place them on your lock screens with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, too!

As far as Colourform goes – you’ve got a brand new set of over 50 new Ice Cream Sandwich / Jelly Bean-style widgets that’ll look just as nice on your smartphone as they will on your tablet. You can choose custom colors for backgrounds, text, separators, and each little bit of the clock, too! You’ve got flat panels, textures, 3D effects, and flatness galore!

Above: HD Widgets 3.0 (currently on version 3.9.3, with even more greatness!)

Just so you’re aware, you WILL NEED HD WIDGETS for this new expansion pack to function. You can download HD Widgets from the Google Play app store today and make it roll with or without Colourform – your choice! Your Colourform (HDW theme pack) download will be just the ticket you need to go fully Bauhaus on your smartphone or tablet of tomorrow – make it work!

Colourform HD Widgets expansion blossoms with spectrum of beauty is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Ematic Genesis Prime is another budget Android tablet hoping to break into the market. It boasts an affordable price tag of only $79.99, while still offering you the joys of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. However, we all know that there has to be some dealbreaker when it comes to these “too good to be true” products. And yes, this device has a massive dealbreaker; its specs.

Along with the 7-inch display, the Ematic Genesis Prime has a 1.1GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 4GB on-board storage, 5GB cloud storage, 512MB of RAM, front-facing VGA camera, and only 4.5 hours worth of battery life on a single charge. One of the only commendable features it has is a USB 2.0 port. The specs are very low-end and you’ll most likely have a less than pleasant experience with this device.

However, despite having low-end specs, the $79.99 price-tag will definitely be appealing to some consumers. This tablet is also a great sign for Ematic, which shows that even though its known for releasing low-end tablets, it’s still able to keep up to speed with Google’s latest operating system, which is commendable because most low-end tablet developers aren’t able to do so. Heck, even some major manufacturers have a hard time upgrading their high-end devices to Google’s latest OS.

I wouldn’t recommend you purchase the Ematic Genesis Prime for yourself, but if you have a child that you want to purchase a tablet for, the Genesis Prime will be good enough to handle YouTube videos, 2D gaming, and other minimal tasks for them. You probably won’t feel too bad if they inevitably bang it up as well. Tablets like the Genesis Prime are just more proof that low-budget Android tablets will be driving the tablet market.

7-inch Ematic Genesis Prime brings Jelly Bean to you for only $79.99 is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the multitasking experience on Android and I feel like there’s still a lot to improve. I love how the thumbnails come up, but in 4.2.2 they made it so that the current app joined the list of “Recent Apps”. This looks great on phones and small-sized tablets, but it looks really bad on large tablets (ie. Nexus 10) in landscape mode. Here’s how to make it better. More »

This morning HTC has sent out a blast on the soon-approaching availability of the HTC One in several countries around the world. For the United States and across Europe, the HTC One is now set for “before the end of April.” That means most of the major carriers will be releasing the HTC One at that same time, we must expect, here in the United States.

Meanwhile we’re still not sure on the release of the Verizon version of the HTC One, especially since we’ve heard several conflicting reports of its existence. Across the rest of Europe as well as across North America and the Asia-Pacific area we have indeed heard from HTC that the HTC One will be available before the end of April. In the UK, Germany, and Taiwan, the HTC One will be arriving next week – that’s quick!

“HTC has seen unprecedented demand for and interest in the new HTC One, and the care taken to design and build it is evidenced in early reviews. The new HTC One will roll out in the UK, Germany and Taiwan next week and across Europe, North America and most of Asia-Pacific before the end of April. We appreciate our customers’ patience, and believe that once they have the phone in their hands they will agree that it has been worth the wait.” – HTC Representative

If you’d like to know all about the HTC One, we’ve got so much information it’ll make your head spin. This device with it’s 4.7-inch display and Full HD resolution is currently the world record holding densest-display-toting machine available on the market – with a higher Pixels Per Inch than the HTC DROID DNA, the XPERIA Z, and the Samsung GALAXY S 4! Of course when you get to this point in density you’re not seeing a whole lot of difference when it comes down to it, but it’s fun to point it out!

“Stunning. The HTC One makes a compelling argument for being the best-made Android phone we can recall, a design that both looks and feels premium (though photos don’t tend to do it justice, making it look flat and overly simplistic). Last year’s One X was a solid device, with its polycarbonate plastic casing, but the One is leagues ahead. HTC went back to basics – CNC-intensive manufacturing processes; clever rethinking of how to finesse the most out of minimal antennas – with its industrial design, and the end result is a phone that’s creak-free and somehow timeless in the same way that Apple’s MacBook Pro design has gracefully evolved.” – Vincent Nguyen, SlashGear’s HTC One Review

Have a peek at our massive amount of hands-on experiences with the HTC One in the timeline below and our full review of the HTC One as well! Once this device arrives on carriers throughout the USA we’ll be giving you up-to-date looks at each edition as well! Gotta catch em all!

HTC One availability expands: USA before end of April is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.