Friday, April 4, 2014

Verizon Puts Galaxy S5 Up for Pre-Order; Offers Free Device in the Process



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It feels like a long time ago that Samsung announced the Galaxy S5 onto the world, but in reality it was only February, during Mobile World Congress, that we saw Samsung announce their latest and greatest. With the release date still a week or so away most users have already placed their pre-orders on their chosen networks throughout the globe, but as usual, Verizon is a little late to the party. The company now has Samsung’s Galaxy S5 up for pre-order, but they’re giving folks a little something back.


If you pre-order the Galaxy S5 on Verizon (with a 2-year agreement, naturally) then you’re eligible for another device, completely free. That means you can either get you and your partner a Galaxy S5, or buy a Galaxy S5 and get an HTC One (M8) for free, giving you the best of both worlds. Still, you’ll need to set up a two-year contract on this free device as well, so it’s not the best deal out there, but what did you expect from Verizon?


Love them or hate them, Verizon is the biggest network in the US, so having their Galaxy S5 on the network is a pretty important step for the global launch of Samsung’s latest and greatest flagship. Of course, now that pretty much every major carrier in the US has put up the device for pre-order, the choice is both easier and more difficult. One things’s for certain however, is that the Galaxy S5 costs much the same no matter where you go, so as usual this sort of thing comes down to how good a carrier’s service is in your area and how affordable to you their services are. If the best carrier for you where you are is Verizon, then here’s your chance to get a little something back, you can even choose a free Windows Phone if that’s your thing.


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Rumor: The Xiaomi Mi3S Will Feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Processor



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Xiaomi Mi3S


Rumors are circulating about Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi, and its upcoming Mi3S smartphone, especially in regards to its processor. Word has it that the follow-up to the Mi3 — currently touted by Xiaomi as being its fastest phone ever — will come rocking a Snapdragon 801 chipset. If true, there will be more than enough computing power in the Mi3S to run even the most graphic-intense mobile games on the Google Play Store.


In addition to a faster processor, the Mi3S is also said to have 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera, an impressive 8-megapixel front-facing camera (though this sounds like a bit of a longshot — the Mi3’s front-facer is only 2-megapixel), 16GB of internal storage, and 4G LTE (FDD-LTE and TD-LTE) connectivity. The added network support would come as a welcome addition, as the Mi3 does not offer LTE compatibility.


No word has leaked on-screen size or display, but we can only imagine it will be a step up from the Mi3’s brilliant 5-inch 1080 x 1920 IPS LCD display. It’s probably also safe to assume the phone will come running Android 4.4 KitKat. The rumored pricing point for the Xiaomi Mi3S is 1999 Yuan (US $321.61). There’s also no word on if we will see the Mi3 in markets outside of China. Obviously, these are questions that we will have to wait to have answered at the official announcement, whenever that may be.


The device is expected to be unveiled this month during the upcoming Xaomi Fans Festival, which focuses on consumer products. The festival is held annually on April 9th, and it is also believed that we’ll see the Hongmi 2 at the event. The Hongmi 2 is rumored to come in two flavors: an eight-core model with 3G connectivity and a quad-core version with 4G connectivity.


We will certainly be keeping our eyes on this story to see how it unfolds, but until then we would like to know how you feel about the relatively new company, Xiaomi. Are you looking forward to the release of the Mi3S? Is there anything you didn’t see mentioned in the rumored specs list that you would like to see in the Mi3S? Don’t be shy! Drop us a comment in the thread below.


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HTC One (M8) Gold-Plated Version Launching Today, ‘Real Gold’ Edition to Follow



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Every once in a while, we here at Android Headlines get the pleasure of covering phones aimed at a more opulent crowd. Normally these phones come from the likes of Vertu, though lately Lamborghini has entered the fray. Today, however, the phone in question comes from a more mainstream manufacturer: HTC. The company is launching a gold-plated variant of the new HTC One (M8) in the Middle East on Friday, April 4, with the device will selling for SAR 2,800 in Saudi Arabia and Dhs 2,750 in the United Arab Emirates.


The One (M8)’s Saudi Arabian price equates to around $750 US, so consumers will be paying a little more for the gold-plated edition of the phone. Other than the aesthetic changes, the phone’s specifications appear to be staying the same, so not much will change in the jump to the Middle East. Still, the gold-plated version costs a little more than an off-contract One (M8) goes for here in the States, so it is commanding a bit of a premium price.


That isn’t all though, as HTC also announced plans to launch a “real gold” version of device in the region. The phone should be launching at the end of April or early next month, and while no official price was given (it never is), HTC EMEA President Phil Blair told Gulf Business “It will be very expensive.” If you ever thought it would be a good idea to carry around a phone made of gold, we suppose now is your chance.


Interestingly enough, it sounds like this gold edition will be hitting other regions of the world, as Blair said the Middle East would have exclusivity for at least a few weeks after launch. That suggests it will be launching in other territories before long, so maybe more people around the world will get the opportunity to spend a ton of money on a blinged out version of the M8. Will this premium edition of the M8 end up reaching Vertu phone prices? That remains to be seen, but if it actually features real gold, we wouldn’t be surprised. Keep it here and Android Headlines for more.


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Thursday, April 3, 2014

HTC One M8 Feature Spotlight: Zoes





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Latest Study Suggests That HTC One M8 Could Falter In Sales



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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



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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



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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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