Jordan Kahn

We’re live from New York at HTC’s unveiling of the new HTC One (M8) and the company has now officially unveiled the new flagship smartphone. The company has spent the starting of its presentation talking about the HTC One’s high-quality metal construction that it described as “like a premium watch,” as well as the new Gunmetal Gray Hairline Finish pictured above. It also shared a few specs for the device (below) before moving on to its new customized version of Android, Sense 6 (or 6th Sense).

One of the big announcements for Sense 6 is that HTC is opening up its Blinkfeed homescreen to developers with a new SDK releasing today. Foursquare will be the first partner to support the feature and will publish, for example, lunch recommendations into the Blinkfeed homescreen, while Fitbit will display activity milestones in the feed. HTC is hoping other app developers will follow with support.

We have most of the hardware specs below (no huge surprises), but HTC also spent a lot of time talking about small tweaks you might not see in the specs list like much improved sound quality through a combination of redesigned speaker chambers and software tweaks. HTC also mentioned some big improvements for the camera including a new camera switcher (pictured in the gallery below) with new “dual capture”, “selfie”, and “customizable manual” shooting modes. The M8 also features a 300 millisecond focus time that’s 50% faster than the previous generation.

Sales for the new HTC One (M8) will kick off today in the US and Canada. Details on availability for other countries and carriers are available here.

Check out the official specs from HTC and some shots from the event below:

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HTC’s event is about to kick off at 11AM ET, and it looks like the company just revealed that its new flagship second-ten HTC One (M8) smartphone will go on sale starting 1PM EDT today. A page for the device on HTC’s online store not only confirms the device goes on sale at 1PM, but also that Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint will all be partners at launch. Purchases through HTC’s site will get free express shipping and the company is also giving away 65GB Google Drive storage for two years with every purchase. The page also makes mention of the Google Play Edition we told you about earlier and four color variants including “gun metal gray, silver, gold, and black.”

It’s unclear if the new HTC One will be available at 1PM through all carrier partners or just HTC’s site, or if the Google Play Edition will launch alongside the standard model. You can catch HTC’s livestream of the event here at 11AM ET or stay tuned to 9to5Google for all the official details.

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In case you’ve missed the countless rumors and leaks on tech blogs in recent weeks, HTC is about to unveil its second generation HTC One that has up until now mostly been referred to as its codename “M8”. If you want to watch the live event taking place in New York in just over an hour from now at 11am ET, it looks like you’ll be able to do so through what appears to be a live stream on HTC’s website here.

It looks like there won’t be many surprises at the event— there’s already a full video walkthrough of the device online— but we’ll at the very least get confirmation of specs, a look at new software features, and hopefully details on pricing and availability. If the rumors are right, HTC might stick with the One branding and simply call the device The New HTC One. In addition to the livestream, we’ll be on hand at the event to bring you updates as they happen on 9to5Google.com.

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When Google introduced its new “Android Wear” developer kit earlier this month, it also announced a list of partners working with the new stripped down version of Android for smart watches and wearables. However, Sony, one of the Android device makers that already has Android smartwatch products on the market, was not on that list. Today we find out that’s because Sony plans to stick with its own version of Android on wearables rather than move to Google’s new “Android Wear” vision for the hardware.

Head of Sony Mobile US Ravi Nookala confirmed the news to Cnet:

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Ahead of this morning’s official unveiling of the all new HTC One in New York, the company has confirmed that a Google Play Edition of the device will be on the way (via AndroidPolice). No word if it will get a release alongside the regular version of the device, but we’ll know for sure in a few short hours. The confirmation comes from a description for the new HTC Gallery app that notes “Support for HTC One(M8) Google Play Edition is limited to HTC Photo Edit.” 

The new HTC One (Codenamed M8) is the successor to HTC’s successful flagship HTC One smartphone from last year and has experienced a long list of leaks in recent months leading up to today’s unveiling. Yesterday we got a look at the device next to the previous generation in a lengthy comparison video.

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Reuters reports that Disney is about to buy Maker Studios, one of the largest YouTube networks, for $500 million with the possibility for that amount to rise to $950 million:

Maker, founded in 2009, helps produce and distribute videos to more than 380 million subscribers worldwide across more than 55,000 channels. Its videos now collectively garner some 5.5 billion views every month, according to the source.

The company distributes content through partnerships it has with a long list of YouTube content creators such as the popular PewDiePie gaming channel and also provides a platform that gives creators access to royalty reporting, analytics, and other services to help maximize earnings.

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBPmG5mqWfI]

For a long time the many augmented reality apps we’ve seen in various stages of development for Google Glass have just been a concept, but we’re now starting to see more and more of these apps actually launch and become available for users. The latest is Layar, a slick augmented reality app for Glass that overlays visual data about a user’s surroundings and just became available in beta. 
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Google announced today on its blog that to make Gmail even more secure it will from now on force its web based email service to use an encrypted HTTPS connection at all times.

While Google doesn’t specifically mention the countless reports of surveillance by government agencies in recent months, it does say the change means “no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail’s servers—no matter if you’re using public WiFi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet.”
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvEx5UpO5dY&feature=youtu.be]

AT&T announced today that it’s officially kicking off preorders of the Galaxy S5 tomorrow as well as Samsung’s new lineup of Gear wearables.

Starting tomorrow you’ll be able to preorder the S5 for $199.99 on AT&T’s usual two-year contract or opt for $25/month or $32.50/month payments over an 18 or 12 month period using AT&T Next. That brings AT&T’s full retail price up to $649.99 with no contract. As expected, AT&T said preorders will begin shipping in April.

In addition to Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 smartphone, AT&T will also start accepting preorders for the new Gear 2 ($299), Gear 2 Neo ($199), and Gear Fit ($199) wearables.

Samsung also let us know that it will be offering a promotion to those picking up a Galaxy S5 that will provide an $50 off the Gear 2 or Gear 2 Neo from March 21 to June 5. 
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Sony announced today on its mobile blog that the rollout of Android 4.4 KitKat for a few of its new devices has officially kicked off. That means that Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1, and Xperia Z1 Compact owners can expect the upgrade soon, although we’ve yet to get reports that the update is available. As always, the timeframe for the update hitting your device will vary by market and carrier. 
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnerqDWwVgg]

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrqZl2QIz0c]

Following confirmation from Google’s Sundar Pichai earlier this month that a Android SDK for wearables was on the way, Google has now officially announced Android’s entrance into wearables with project “Android Wear.” The Android Wear SDK allows developers to integrate a number of features into Android powered wearables and relies heavily on Google Now functionality, as we were first to report late last year.

Google also confirmed that it’s working with a handful of partners to bring Android Wear powered wearables to market by later this year:

Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung; chip makers Broadcom, Imagination, Intel, Mediatek and Qualcomm; and fashion brands like the Fossil Group to bring you watches powered by Android Wear later this year.’

What can developers do with Android Wear? Google says the devices will be capable of displaying, for example, the latest posts and updates from social and messaging apps, answers via “OK Google” voice commands and Google Now-like functionality, as well as a number of fitness and health related data points. Google is also allowing Android Wear devices to talk with other devices like your phone or Chrome device through voice commands:
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As part of its announcements for the Game Developers Conference this week, Google announced today on its Android Developers Blog that its making some big improvements for game developers in the near future. 
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Google announced today on its blog that it’s lowering the monthly pricing plans it offers for users buying extra storage on Google Drive. Google attributes the changes to “recent infrastructure improvements” that is allowing it to offer more affordable storage options. Google reminds us that, as always, Drive storage purchased through the new plans counts towards storage for Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos.

The new plans begin at just $1.99 for 100GB down from the previous $4.99 for the same amount of storage. There is also a new $10 plan for 1TB (down from $50 previously), and a 10TB and up option that starts at $99.99. Google will also continue offering the free 15GB option that comes with your Google account for Drive, Gmail and Google+.

How big is a terabyte anyway? Well, that’s enough storage for you to take a selfie twice a day for the next 200 years and still have room left over for… shall we say… less important things. Like before, storage continues to work across Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos. And, of course, the 15GB plan remains free.

The new pricing plans for Google Drive are available now through www.google.com/settings/storage. Users that are already signed up for a monthly plan will be automatically switched to the new, better plans. 
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You may have noticed that in recent weeks Google has been testing a new streamlined search results page that introduces some notable design tweaks. Google has been testing the new and improved design for select users but now Google’s lead designer for search Jon Wiley has made things official by announcing the changes are rolling out to all desktop users. The improvements reflect much of the same changes the company introduced to its mobile search experience last year.

While the general look and feel of the results page hasn’t changed much, Google said the tweaks it has made will result in enhanced readability and “an overall cleaner look.” Here’s what you’ll notice:
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