HTC One in Gold Heading to the UK by April 7th

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The HTC One M8 is official, but for the most part we’ll be calling it the HTC One. It was announced in three colors yesterday, which would be Amber Gold, Gunmetal Gray and Glacial Silver. The Gunmetal Gray and Glacial Silver seem to be available at launch, especially at Verizon and Carphone Warehouse who have the smartphone available right now. But what about the Amber Gold color? Well we had heard that in the US it would be an exclusive to Best Buy, who had an exclusive on the Blue HTC One last year. However, in the UK it appears that it’ll be available on April 7th.

Carphone Warehouse is claiming that the Amber Gold color of the HTC One M8 will be available on April 7th, while their rival competitor Phones4U is showing off about a 3-4 week shipping estimate for the HTC One M8. So for those in the UK looking for the Amber Gold version, you may be waiting a bit longer. Right now Carphone Warehouse does have the HTC One available in store, so you can just head on over and check it out if you’re interested in HTC’s newest flagship – it’s definitely a great looking device and we should have our review out shortly.

The HTC One should be launching on other carriers and retailers by April 10th, at least according to HTC execs yesterday at their event. It appears that it’ll be launching in over 100 countries in the next couple of weeks, with Verizon in the US and Carphone Warehouse in the UK getting the exclusivity on it being available in-store. Which I think is an okay, exclusivity. Better than AT&T having the exclusive on MotoMaker for several months.

How many of our UK friends out there are anxious to get their HTC One in Amber Gold? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.

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Google Drive Presentations and Slides Gets Cropping, Borders and Masks

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Google Drive has become a staple on many computers throughout the world. With awesome features like real-time collaboration and editing, the ability to upload media and share documents and the awesome add-ons that you can install, it’s no wonder why it’s doing pretty well. Google Drive syncs to your smartphone so that you always have everything available at your fingertips when you need it. You can share presentations so that a group can work on them together, and you can share uploaded media with pretty much anyone. I use Google Drive every day, and I back everything up to it. Google makes it extremely easy to love this service, especially since they updated their storage plans.

Google has done a pretty good job at constantly sending out new updates to help consumers enjoy the product more. There’s a lot that you can do within Google Drive. You can create new documents, create presentations with slideshows, create drawings and make spreadsheets and forms. Today Google has announced that they are updating their Slides and Drawing portions of Google Drive to accommodate more photo editing tools.

These changes come in the form of cropping, masks and borders. These are pretty useful because you now have more control over what your images look like within your presentations. Now you have more options when it comes to your masks. For example, you can create cropped images in the form of hearts, circles and even squares. There are tons of options to choose from, and they come in different shapes and designs. You’ll also notice that you can added borders and change the color of the border, as well.

The update is supposed to show up over the next couple of hours, but when I checked my Google Drive, it was already there. The update is pretty nice if you use Google Drive to upload or back up your photos or make presentations. Now you can edit those pictures as well, instead of having to use an extension or a different application. It makes using the service more efficient.

Do you use Google Drive for your everyday needs? If so, what are some other updates you’d like to see in the future?

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EE Launches Low-Cost Kestrel Smartphone in the UK with 4G Abilities

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Smartphones are awesome, but man are some of them expensive. Lately we’ve been seeing some consumers turn to smartphones on the lower end of the spectrum in an effort to save some money, and UK carrier EE has just launched a smartphone directed at that group of thrifty shoppers. Say hello to the EE Kestrel, an Android powered smartphone that’s available from the carrier for free with a relatively inexpensive plan.

Plans for the Kestrel start at £13.99 (about $23 US), which includes 500 minutes of talk, 500MB of 4G data, and unlimited texts. If that plan doesn’t offer enough data or minutes for your liking, you can bump your monthly payment up to £18.99 ($31.41 US) to nab 1,000 minutes and 1GB of data, or £29.99 ($49.60 US) for unlimited minutes and 5GB of data. That isn’t too bad considering this is 4G data we’re talking about, and that the phone is free if you’re willing to sign a two-year commitment.

What’s the deal with the Kestrel, anyway? The phone, which is made by Huawei, comes packing an unnamed quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz (more than likely one of Huawei’s own) and 1GB of RAM. The screen isn’t much to write home about, clocking in at 4.5 inches with 960 x 540 resolution, but as far as free phones go, we’ve certainly seen worse. The Kestrel offers 8GB of microSD-expandable internal storage, will be running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and has a 2,000mAh battery running the show. Finally, a 5MP rear-facing camera will serve as the phone’s main shooter and can capture 720p video at 30 frames per second, while a 1MP camera has taken up residence on the front side of the device.

All in all, it doesn’t seem like too bad a phone for the price, but if you’re not crazy about committing to two-year contract, you can buy the phone from EE outright for £99 and sign up for a pay as you go plan. This isn’t just a one-off from the likes of EE, either, as the carrier told Pocket-Lint that it will continue to launch new phones that bear the its branding. Will EE’s inexpensive phones be a hit with consumers? Time will tell, but we imagine there are more than a few people who will be willing to take the Kestrel and the plan that comes along with it.

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Fitbit App Gets Updated, Adds HTC One M8 Compatibility For Standalone Use Without Fitbit Hardware

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If you needed any more of a reason to buy either an HTC One M8 or a Fitbit Flex, perhaps the very best reason would be the addition of the Fitbit app on the M8. Yes, it comes pre-loaded for those that are interested in getting a Fitbit to pair with their new found device, or for those who are wanting to pick one up. It’s a little bit of a different answer to the health and fitness boom that we’re starting to see become associated with our smartphones now, but we like the idea of Fitbit and HTC together. Samsung has their new Galaxy S5 loaded with S-Health and the heart rate sensor, and they have the Gear Fit to work with it for more in depth fitness tracking, and they all presumably pair quite nicely together. For those that lean more towards HTC though, or prefer to spend less than a few hundred on a wearable that can help us keep track of our health and fitness activities, the Fitbit is worth a look especially with these new updates.

Fitbit was already one of the best selling wearables from last year, and this only seeks to bolster their sales for this year as many new HTC One M8 owners will be introduced to what they have to offer. Although some might find it advantageous to buy a Fitbit device alongside their new HTC One M8, the app and the phone can be used without the hardware, so there is no requirement to have a Fitbit device on top of the other two.

In addition to the HTC One M8 having an integrated step counter, the Fitbit app has some updates that can make the whole user experience with it all that much better. Users will find a new Fitbit widget they can place on the home screen if they decide to use their handset instead of separate fitness hardware, which should make using the device as a stand alone setup easier. Users can also now see their Fitbit associated badges within Blink Feed for Sense 6.0, so if you find yourself checking your home screen feeds quite often, it’ll be a nice place to show off how active you’ve been. There’s nothing wrong with a little bragging rights. The app update for Fitbit is live so if you have already ran down to your local store and picked up the One M8, you can install the app and give it a go.

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Order Up! The HTC One M8 GPe Is Now Available For Purchase

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While we like the new HTC One M8 for what it is, and we appreciate the phone as HTC intended it to be in all its glory and purest form, some people just don’t like the software overlays. By that we mean the manufacturer user interface, better known as the UI. That’s why some people were happy to hear the announcement from HTC confirming that a GPe HTC One M8 would be available starting today at some point. Earlier today we informed you when the web page went live where you could access to the Gpe version of the M8, but you couldn’t purchase the device just yet. We’re happy to let all of you know that were interested in this particular version of HTC’s new flagship, that you can now hit the buy button and order yourself a new phone.

Everything about the GPe HTC One m8 is pretty much the same as the models that will be making their way to carriers and other retail stores, except for the fact that it holds no HTC Sense 6.0 UI within. It is just like the other GPe versions of last years devices, and is strictly the device hardware from HTC with the purest of the pure Android software experiences baked right in. You get pure Android kit kat in this GPe M8, so you can have a completely stock experience just like those folks who use the Nexus line of devices. This of course also means that when future updates come out, you’ll be in line to get them before other devices, second to the Nexus crowd.

If you were waiting until you could purchase one of these, the page is live and you’re good to go, all you have to do is part ways with $699 and the phone can be yours. The Play Store lists that it will leave the warehouse in two to three weeks, so you won’t get as quick of a turn around as you might have with a Nexus 5, but the phone did just get announced today so we aren’t judging. Since it’s the Google Play edition phone, that also means it’s carrier unlocked just like the developer edition, so should you have a change of heart on carrier you can go where you please. Everything else about the GPe and the regular models of the M8 is the same, so you’re not missing out on anything but the Sense software.

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HTC Uploads 10 Video Tutorials To Focus On Specific Features And How To Use Them

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If you haven’t quite seen enough of the HTC One M8 information just yet, HTC is more than happy with providing us, and you, with more details about their latest flagship device that was just announced this morning. In addition to the phone going on sale here in the US at every major carrier, it’s also now available through Amazon, and Carphone Warehouse in the UK as well. We have seen some of the new accessories that are set to accompany this new device as well as HTC’s first commercial to advertise(if you can call it that) the phone starring Gary Oldman. We’ve pretty much seen it all, with the many, many leaks, the announcement today, and all the news surrounding the device there couldn’t possibly be more information that our brains could hold about HTC’s new phone is there?

Well, if you said no than you’d be wrong. Because HTC apparently wants to make sure they highlight every little detail. Not just by talking about the features, but by doing something similar to Samsung and Sony with the new devices they unveiled at MWC just last month. By uploading 10 videos that highlight and detail different specific features of the new HTC One M8 so you can really grasp what the phone has to offer. Yes, we meant ten completely separate videos for you to watch that go over each highlighted feature all on it’s own so you don’t get too caught up on everything at once. Between the leaks, the Gary Oldman commercial, and these videos, HTC has had so much exposure for the device already that for a brief second we had to wonder if they would need any more advertisement at all. The answer is yes, they will, but all jokes aside if you really wanted to know more about the phone in depth with some key specifics, give these videos a watch. There are videos that go over the gesture features, the Dot View case, and of course the camera, so you can pretty much cover all your bases here. Most of them seem to be in a sort of tutorial format, so they’re basically showing how to do certain things with the phones features. We have included all the videos in this article so you don’t have to go searching.

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Sense 6.0 Update on the way for Existing HTC One Owners

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Make no mistake, there’s a lot of commotion surrounding the New HTC One M8. That commotion is understandable too, since the One M8 has a lot of notable features going for it. However, what if you’re an existing owner of the current HTC One model? Was there any good news for you in today’s HTC presentation? The short answer to that question is “yes.”

The slightly longer version of that answer involves HTC Sense 6.0. HTC has announced that the One M8 will feature Android KitKat wrapped in Sense 6.0, but it won’t be the only phone to get the latest version of HTC’s custom UI. The company has also announced that current HTC One owners will be updated to Sense 6.0 sometime soon, though we don’t know precisely when that will happen. HTC says the update will be available sometime during spring, so in addition to the thawing landscape, HTC owners now have another thing to look forward to in coming months.

The encouraging thing here is that HTC has been making a solid effort to keep users in the loop when it comes to update schedules. So, if HTC didn’t give a date today, that probably means the company itself doesn’t have a clear idea of when updates will begin hitting other devices in the One family. After all, there’s a fair amount of compatibility testing that needs to go into these updates, so it’s probably a good thing that HTC is being a little conservative with the information it gives away at this point in time, lest some HTC users end up disappointed.

However, an HTC update schedule was conveniently leaked yesterday, informing us that the HTC One M7, One Dual Sim, One Max, One Mini, and Butterfly S have all been confirmed to receive the Android 4.4.2 and Sense 6.0 update. The update for the One M7 has been given a May-June release window, while the other four devices are looking at a June-July roll out. Those seem to be the only devices in HTC’s lineup that will be receiving Android 4.4.2 and Sense 6.0, so if you’ve got another phone in your pocket, it might not be the best idea to hold onto much hope. We’ll have more information as it becomes available, so stay tuned.

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