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Monday, March 10, 2014

HTC’s Jason Mackenzie Talks Business And Gaining Back Market Share

via AndroidHeadlines.com |

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HTC just doesn’t know when to give up, and that’s a good thing. Despite having had a rocky past couple years in the wireless industry with low sales and even lower profit, they seem hell bent on continuing to deliver and innovate. Today on CNBC’s Fast Money, Jason Mackenzie(President of HTC America)gave a small speech about some of the hot topics surrounding the Taiwanese manufacturer as of late. One such topic was in regards to the leaks that have recently taken place over the companies upcoming new flagship handset, although he didn’t really cover that topic much. All he said was that they never comment on rumors or speculation.

One thing that Mackenzie was sure to mention though was how HTC is aware of the fact that they have lost market share in the smartphone industry. They know that they have let many of their probably once loyal customers slip through their fingers. The good news is that HTC has apparently realized their mistakes and will do all that they can to get back some of the market that they have lost. At one point during the conversatin Jason Mackenzie even refers to the competition as being like a Timex watch,(hey there’s nothing wrong with a good Timex, we all grew up with them) while stating that HTC and HTC products resemble more of a Rolex. It’s no doubt that HTC makes great products with beautiful design and stellar build quality, I don’t think we would go so far as to make that kind of jump though.

Mackenzie also points out that HTC understands how customers feel about their products. That they appreciate fine build quality, and love new and innovative devices with a great design. If HTC continues to make devices like the HTC One, they probably won’t have much trouble getting back some of the market share that they’ve lost over the years. They just need to implement and execute plans to attack that loss properly. They’re off to a good start so far this year we’d say, with the device that they’re scheduled to unveil in the next few weeks and launch next month, but time will tell how much it actually helps. HTC is committed to making their next flagship a big success, so here’s to hoping they succeed in doing so.

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US Cellular Soon To Give Customers More Shared Data For The Same Cost

via AndroidHeadlines.com |

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The four major US wireless carriers aren’t the only ones making changes to wireless plans. The smaller regional US carrier U.S. Cellular is going to be swapping out some of the elements to their shared data wireless plans coming up in just a few days. Starting on March 13th, U.S. Cellular will be adding in more data amounts to their share data plans, but reportedly won’t be upping the price points. So in short, they’re planning on giving customers more data without any additional cost. This might be due to competing wireless carriers offering up compelling data and wireless plan options, or perhaps they just wanted to give their customers more value for their money.

It seems that in the wireless industry, you have to stay scrappy if you want to stay in business, and some of the carriers with bigger budgets and more to offer network wise have gotten a clue when it comes to the fact that customers aren’t afraid to shop around if they aren’t getting what they want or need. U.S. Cellular has taken the hint as well and will be upping the amount of data their customers receive, to stay on an even playing field as much as possible with the bigger competition.

The changes to the plans are as follows. The current shared data plan that starts at $40 with 300MB of data will be increasing to 1GB of data, which is more than triple the normal amount for no extra cost. The next plan up is the $50 plan and doubles the amount of available data from 1GB to 2GB. The last and highest plan is the $60 plan, which will be increasing by 1GB as well, from 2GB to 3GB. In addition to these increased data allotments, U.S. Cellular is also adding in two new plans to their line up. One for the cost of $15 a month, which offers users the 300MB data option that used to be included in the $40 plan, and a new $60 single line promotional smartphone plan that comes with 1GB of data. This particular plan will stay in effect from March 13th when U.S. Cellular launches it, until they bring out the new Simple Connect plans which is scheduled to be several weeks later.

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Chromecast Now Supports Classic Games Of Yesteryear Thanks To GamingCast

via AndroidHeadlines.com |

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Oh the wonders of having an open Google Cast SDK. We’re starting to see some great things come up for some unconventional uses for the little HDMI wireless dongle that Google put out last year. Originally we were met with a small selection of video and audio streaming apps for use inside our homes, and gradually more and more official Chromecast apps came along, but all that is starting to change now that the Software Development Kit is open to all third party developers. We’ve seen a slew of new apps receive Chromecast support, and now we’re starting to seem completely new apps emerge in the Play Store that are meant for use with the Chromecast. More specifically, games.

There have already been a couple games that have landed on the Play Store that can be played via the Chromecast, a couple favorites include Qcast, which is a simple trivia game that can support at least up to five players(we tried this at a gathering and it worked great, although it was a tad buggy because it’s still in beta), and another game by the same developer of Qcast called Casts Against Civility, which is a Cards Against Humanity clone meant for use with the streaming dongle. If you have never played Cards Against Humanity, it’s high time you gave it a shot. Be forewarned though, the game is not for the faint of heart nor those that don’t have a strong sense of humor. Even better, you can try the Casts Against Civility which is roughly very similar.

Those games are all well and good, but if you want to dig down deep and reach back to your roots for some classic gaming fun? GamingCast seems to be what we might all be looking for(if classic games on the Chromecast is what we all seek) in the way of some games we might be familiar with and fond of. The rundown is that you download the $1.50 app to your smartphone or tablet, and use it as the remote for these classic games that are being shown up on the TV. The games included at this point in time are ones that many of us probably remember fondly and have played them somewhere, and are Snake, Xonix, Pong, and a Tetris clone called Tetrominoes. All the games look promising and we’re tempted to try them out for ourselves. It looks like the games would play just fine, although some of them might require some practice to time the games movements, as you’ll be staring at the TV screen without looking at the tablet or smartphone display to pay attention to the controls. You can grab GamingCast from the link if you want to test it out for yourself.