Hasta La Gadget!

Last week, Facebook announced Facebook Home — a new home screen/app launcher of sorts that looks to skin your Android device with the social network’s goodness. The phone that’s specifically made for the new launcher, the HTC First, is now available on AT&T exclusively for just $99 after signing a new two-year contract.

The phone comes in black, blue, red and white colors, and if you don’t feel like signing your life away, you can grab the phone off-contract for $449. The First is a mid-range device that is specifically built to run Facebook Home, so if you’ve been waiting for a Facebook phone of sorts, this is pretty much it.

The First sports a 4.3-inch Super LCD display running at a resolution of 1280×720. Inside there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 dual-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz with 1GB of RAM. There’s also a 5MP camera on the back, along with a 1.6MP front-facing shooter. The phone runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, so you’ll be treated with all the great new features, like Google Now, improved notifications, and Project Butter.

If you’re not too keen on the HTC First, but still want to play around with Facebook Home, it’ll be available for free in the Google Play store starting sometime today. Once it goes live, we’ll be sure to report back to let you know that you can grab it, but for now, you’ll have to be a little on the patient side.

HTC First available now on AT&T for $99 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Blackberry is like the little engine that could, chugging along but mostly unloved, according to a survey that asked consumers which smartphone they would never use, listing Blackberry, Android, and iPhone as the three options. Unfortunately for the company formerly known as RIM, Blackberry was the runaway winner (loser?), with over 70-percent of respondents saying they’ll never use it.

The survey was conducted by Raymond James, which also included some other questions, such as which features were most likely to make them buy a new smartphone among the three options, such as a low price or big display. Sometimes there isn’t any feature that is grand enough to lure consumers to certain products, however, and so another option was included: the ability to choose which phone the consumer will never use.

Apple‘s iPhone came out on top (or bottom, depending on your perspective) with only 19.7-percent of the respondents saying they would never use the handset. Next up was Android, which had a slight rise over the iPhone at 31.3-percent of those who took the survey saying they’ll never use it. And then, finally, there’s Blackberry, with 71.4-percent saying they won’t ever give the platform a shot.

The results pretty strongly reflect the data that has been published on the smartphone market over past months, which is very strongly dominated by Apple and Google, with Blackberry squeezing in with a small percentage in global phone shipments. Regardless, however, the survey is an intriguing reversal on the type of questions typically asked, and gives us an inverse look at the sides consumers have taken on the mobile device playground.

[via AllThingsD]

Blackberry crowned least wanted in smartphone survey is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After being announced just a couple of weeks ago, the HTC One is seeing its source code being released to the public. However, it seems that only Vodafone UK and Vodafone France versions of the new device are involved. However, that could change in the future. The release of the source code will make it easier for developers to create custom ROMs for the One.

The source code for the new phone is based on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and all the files come in at 100MB in size after it’s all said and done. Of course, releasing source code for its phones is typical fashion for HTC, and the HTC One is simply added to a list of HTC devices with source code out in the wild.

While we would eventually see custom ROMs even if HTC didn’t release the source code for the One, the official source code makes sure that custom ROMs work seamlessly with the phones that they’re put on. Many custom ROMs come with caveats and may not be fully-functional. With the source code, developers are able to make flawless ROMs.

If you’re in the mood to grab an HTC One, you can do it right now because it’s available for pre-order on AT&T, with a release date of April 19 on both AT&T and T-Mobile. You can pick up the 32GB model for $199.99 and the 64GB model for $299.99. If you already happen to have HTC’s Droid DNA, the company also announced that the source code for the phone is available now as well.

[via Android Community]

HTC One source code officially released is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just a few days after Jelly Bean landed on the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II, it’s slightly larger brother, the Galaxy S II Skyrocket on AT&T, is now receiving the honors. AT&T announced today that Jelly Bean is now on its way to the Galaxy S II Skyrocket, and users will be able to download the update starting today.

The Skyrocket was released was released back in November 2011 as an AT&T exclusive, and it ran Android 2.3 Gingerbread right out of the box. It was eventually updated to Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, and now owners are able to take advantage of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean by downloading the update either over-the-air or via Samsung Kies.

The Galaxy S II Skyrocket wasn’t a huge change over the original Galaxy S II, but it does offers a larger display at 4.5 inches over the Galaxy S II’s 4.3-incher. The Skyrocket also comes with 4G LTE that the Galaxy S II unfortunately lacks. The Skyrocket also sports a slightly faster processor at 1.5GHz and double the internal storage space.

Jelly Bean will allow Skyrocket users to take advantage of some of the great new features of the new Android OS, including Google Now, improved notifications, and smoother performance thanks to Project Butter. This may be the last update that the Galaxy S II Skyrocket receives, so savor the moment while you can.

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket gets Jelly Bean update is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The HTC First is a middling device designed to fade into the background and bring one thing, and one thing only, to the forefront: Facebook.