Thursday, April 3, 2014
Latest Study Suggests That HTC One M8 Could Falter In Sales
With only a week under its belt after launch, the HTC One M8 is already making some think that it won’t do so well in the flagship device game this year. Both this years One M8 and last years HTC One are revered by many as one of the best smartphones ever made, with its stellar design, and excellent build quality, and loveable features like blink feed and the boomsound speakers. Still despite these things that people love about the device, the latest study by Chitika ad networks suggests that the phone could end up faltering in sales, causing HTC to once again deal with losing out marketshare to Samsung and Apple.
Chitika estimates that the HTC One M8 after its first week of sales, represents less marketshare of all of their devices than the device from last year. According to Chitika, the HTC One from 2013 represented 1% of HTC phones after week one, while the new HTC One M8 only represents about 0.1% after the same amount of time. While this doesn’t exactly predict that HTC has yet another failure on their hands, it doesn’t bode well for the appearance of their success with the device. What’s interesting here is that Samsung represents 61.7% of the marketshare for android smartphone web traffic to HTC’s 8.4%, but HTC is only in third place. What might be more alarming than their first week percentage of web traffic on android smartphones, is that Motorola, a company who has been passed around like a football from Google to Lenovo has caught up to them for the same respective amount of web traffic marketshare.
Still, these studies don’t necessarily mean that HTC is doomed, and contrary to popular belief on this matter HTC only has week one to answer to. This would be more of a problem if they were over a month in but it’s still a little early to start hammering in the nails to the coffin. The phone is also still not present on some of the carriers it has announced will be getting the phone, one of them being T-mobile who is the nations fourth largest wireless carrier, so sales and web traffic marketshare still has some room to grow.
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Google’s Proposed ‘Glass’ Trademark Hits Roadblock With USPTO
We’ve all heard this story before: a company tries to trademark a common word and the Internet collectively chimes in about how silly it seems. For rather obvious reasons, Google has been trying to trademark the phrase “Glass” and the formatting it’s been using in advertising for the device, but instead of receiving a pushback from consumers, this time the United States Patent and Trademark Office is taking issue with the trademark application. That doesn’t seem like it bodes very well for Google, which would prefer to call its highly anticipated wearable device “Glass” instead of “Google Glass.”
The USPTO has two issues in particular with Google’s trademark application. The first is that software trademarks using the word glass already exist, which the USPTO fears could cause confusion among consumers. Since trademarks kind of exist to avoid that very problem, it’s easy to see why the USPTO has an issue here. The USPTO also seems to think that “Glass” would be a descriptive trademark for the device, and descriptive trademarks generally aren’t allowed.
However, if you know Google, you know that the company isn’t going to give up that easily. In an effort to convince the USPTO that it’s wrong on both fronts, Google’s lawyers have offered up a 1,900 page letter to regulators within the organization. A very large portion of that letter consists of clippings from articles covering Google Glass, which is meant to show that there wouldn’t be much in the way of consumer confusion should Google get the trademark it wants. Just as well, Google’s lawyers have been arguing that “Glass” is not a descriptive trademark since the device is actually made of titanium and plastic, noting too that the word “Glass” is not meant to inform consumers of the function of the smart glasses.
Those are fairly decent arguments on the part of Google’s lawyers, because with so much coverage devoted to Glass already, it’s hard to believe there would be much confusion among technophiles like most of the people who read this website. That’s the rub though, isn’t it? It’s easy for people like us to say there won’t be any confusion when it comes to Google’s wearable device, but for mainstream consumers, that may not be the case. We’ll have to wait and see what the USPTO ultimately decides, but you can bet that Google is going to fight tooth and nail to get this trademark. Stay tuned.
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Project Ara Wants Us To Meet The Team In This New Video Walk-Through
Ready for some new information about Project Ara? Great because we are too and thanks to this new video from the team over at Phone blocks, we have a nice behind the scenes look at what’s happening with the whole project. As some of you may know the Ara Developers conference is due to happen here in just a couple weeks, and the team wanted to bring the community in on what’s happening before all of that goes down. It’s nice that the team behind this project feels the need to enlighten anyone who’s interested in seeing some of the progress and behind the scenes details, especially with something as innovative as the Project Ara device.
The video they have provided for everyone to see on the web is short and sweet, and you get some nice interaction with the members of the team as one of them starts off the video by announcing that he is going to introduce us to the team behind the magic. You get to see some interesting stuff, like how the team was able to keep the modules in place, using a method comprised of electro-permanent magnets. We had previously already learned about this last month, but it never hurts to have a refresher. you get a nice view at how the magnets slide into place, and we’re told that they hold fairly weakly so you can easily pop them out of place if you desire to switch them out with a new piece, but they’re still strong enough to hold the modules in while your phone is in use.
The video definitely gives you a great bit of information and for anyone who has been interested in the Project Ara development, watching it is a must. You get to see more than just the team making all of this awesome stuff happen, you get a look at prototypes, and some of the cool stuff to come when this phone actually makes its way into consumer hands. We don’t want to spoil too much for you as part of the excitement comes from seeing things in the video first hand. So we’ll leave things at that and let you take a peek.
Click here to view the embedded video.
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This Is The New Brand Logo For Cyanogen Inc.
Cyanogenmod has been in some of our hearts for a very long time. In the early stages of its development the logo was more a representation of the bugdroid we know and love, and over the years it has evolved into what it is now, or rather what it was just before Cyanogen Inc.’s announcement earlier today. Cid. That’s right, Cid is taking a hike and Cyanogen Inc. is now going to be using a brand new logo from here on out, and their letting the community have the Cid logo to do with what they wish. This change comes as a little bit of surprise but then we have to remember that Cyanogen Inc. is a proper business now, so having a more professional looking logo is probably in their best interest.
Cyanogen points out that part of the reason for the change is to be able to showcase the embodiment of evolution that their company is going through. They state that as a company grows, their brand has to evolve to display that growth, and that’s what were seeing here as a result. While the logo does look rather cool, it also has a meaning like most company logos do, but the meaning is deeper than you might think. For those who are familiar with Cyanogenmod and where it came from, we know that Cyanogenmod has always been about the user and allowing us to customize our phones the way we like. This new logo actually takes the meaning behind Cyanogenmod and the companies beliefs and displays it in a rather unique manner.
The breakdown is this. The middle of the logo, or the core, is the embodiment of the company and its focus, which is on the user. The C, brings together the company and the community which includes all users, developers and non-developers alike, working together to provide a safe and secure environment for all users of the software. The last piece, the Arrow, represents the forward movement of the company and the users, always driving forward towards something bigger and better. Like all things, a company brand must eventually change, and this is the change we are seeing from Cyanogen Inc. What do you think of the new logo?
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KISSify Your Photos With The New KISS Photobomb App, Just Because
Were you feeling left out of all the April Fools day fun because you never received that Hoffsome photobomb from David Hasslehoff? Do your photos and messages lack that Rock and Roll charisma and charm? Who says you need the Hoff in your photos when you can photobomb your own pics with the KISS photobomb app. Sure you won’t be able to get officially bombed by a real live member of the band, but you can at least make yourself look like a member of the band KISS and if your photos don’t fall into the selfie category because there are other people in it, it’ll at least seem like a real photobomb. The app was made available today and is live on the play store, and even has the ability for you to send a KISS message, which lets you send a KISS emoticon inside your message to anybody in your contacts list.
You can add in other things as well like KISS frames and other KISS effects, and really make your photos rock. If you’re not a fan of the band KISS, you probably won’t be downloading this app and that’s OK. We won’t judge. Do I listen to KISS myself? No, I sure don’t. That doesn’t mean that my pictures couldn’t use a little KISSification. You can snap your own photos and add the effects right from the app, or you can apply the KISS effects to old photos and breath some new rock and roll life into them. The app is of course free to download and use, but there does seem to be the presence of something called KISS packs, which are the in-app-purchases, for things like more frames, more KISS masks, and all the rockin’ love themed stuff you could need to KISSify your photos.
In all honesty, I wouldn’t use this app much myself because I’m not a KISS fan, but we know that some of you out there might be and now you have a fun way to add some interesting and funny things into your pictures and messages. Hopefully, just hopefully, we won’t see something like this pop up themed with Miley Cyrus or Justin Beiber. Such an event could quite possibly trigger the apocalypse and signal the end of humanity as we know it.
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http://bit.ly/1ovRBDc
Sprint Offering to Pay Off Early Termination Fees For Joining a Framily Plan
Tomorrow might be quite a big day for Sprint. They have quite a few promotions and new changes coming up. They’ve just announced that they are making Framily plans and EasyPay available through Best Buy. They will also be offering a $100 gift card to people who purchase a device using EasyPay through Best Buy, and now we’re seeing that Sprint will be paying off early termination fees, as well.
It looks like Sprint is learning from T-Mobile. Remember how T-Mobile was offering to pay off early termination fees if customers switched to magenta? Well, now Sprint is offering to pay off termination fees of up to $350 per line if customers switch to the Framily plan. It appears as though Sprint realizes that what T-Mobile has been doing is working and they would like in on the action, as well.
To become eligible for the early termination promo, you need to send Sprint a picture of your last bill, and they’ll send you a Visa card with the amount of your early termination fee. This promotion is limited, however. You have from April 4th through May 8th to switch over to Sprint’s Framily plan and get reimbursed for your termination fee. Of course, much like T-Mobile’s early termination fee reimbursement, it’ll take a little bit for you to receive your Visa gift card. On the “fine print” on Sprint’s ad, they mention that you’ll receive your card within 12 weeks of submitting the request. Also, it’s important to note that Sprint won’t send out the cards unless you’ve been with them for 45 days. You also need to be sure that your bill is paid up and that you’re in good standing with Sprint before they’ll give you your Visa card as well.
In case you forgot, Sprint’s Framily plans start at $55 for unlimited talk, text and 1 GB of data. If you want 3 GB of data, that’ll run you $10 more and unlimited data costs $20 more. Every person you add to the plan saves you $5 on the bill. Once you add seven or more people, your bill drops to $25 per line (plus installment fees and data plans, of course). You then have the option of using EasyPay, which allows you to pay off your device little by little, and also adds up to $30 to your monthly bill. If you have the unlimited data plan for twelve consecutive months, you’ll get an annual upgrade, as well.
So, starting tomorrow, customers will be able to get a reimbursed for their early termination fees if they choose to switch to the Framily Plan. It appears to be working for T-Mobile, so we’ll just have to wait and see whether it works for Sprint. What do you think of this news? Do you think that this promotion will help Sprint out in the long run?
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