HTC

HTC and Google have just teamed up, yet again, to offer 100GB of free Drive storage to users. When the HTC One M8 originally launched earlier this year, Google gave 50GB of Drive storage to its users. Now, anyone who purchases a One M8, Desire 816, Desire 610, One Remix, or One Max can redeem 100GB of Drive storage for free, double the original amount. 
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IFA 2014 is almost here and we’ll be out in Berlin bringing you full coverage of the show. If you’ve never heard of IFA, it’s a Berlin based trade show that’s similar to CES. IFA is up there as one of the largest trade shows of the year which normally brings a handful of exciting announcements in all areas of technology. While September may be a fruit company’s only time to shine, the rest of the major tech giants are busy finishing out the year with a bang…

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HTC is mostly known for its high-end devices that are built with premium materials, however the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer is starting to make a splash in the mid-range smartphone space. Today, the company announced the launch of the Desire 510, a new budget-friendly LTE-capable phone that’s coming to Sprint, Cricket, Virgin and Boost Mobile in the coming months.

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HTC is working on a 64-bit smartphone with an eight-core processor, according to a post from the company on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. The Taiwanese electronics manufacturer’s current flagship phone, the HTC One M8 features a quad-core 32-bit setup powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.3GHz.

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh5l0xsIqnA]

A mid-range phone powered by a Snapdragon 400 processor isn’t going to excite many people, but the Sharp Aquos Crystal coming later this year to Sprint does have one very appealing feature: a near-invisible bezel … 
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Samsung and Apple will largely own the smartwatch market between them, predicts Jackdaw Research chief analyst Jan Dawson in a report being issued later today and seen by Re/code.

Dawson said that new players should “stay out of the market,” and existing players should scale back their plans.

“We do not recommend that existing vendors should maintain current levels of investment when market growth and the overall revenue opportunity remain poor,” Dawson said. “It is unlikely that more than one or two small vendors will be able to make a sustainable business out of smartwatches in the face of competition from Samsung and […] Apple” …

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During the summer of 2013, the line-up of Google Play Edition devices grew incredibly quickly, with devices available from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony. Last month, however, the selection of devices dropped to just three: the Moto G, Galaxy S4, and HTC One (M8).  Now, this evening, Google has removed the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition from the store without any replacement in sight.

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The fate of Google’s Nexus line of devices has been up in the air for several months now, with LG saying it is not working on a device for it and Android Silver reportedly taking over its role. At Google I/O last month, however, Googler David Burke confirmed that the company is still heavily interested in the Nexus line of devices. Rumors have also recently circulated that HTC is working on a 9-inch Nexus tablet dubbed the Volantis. Now, Android Police is reporting that Google and Motorola are working on a device codenamed Shamu.

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HTC’s Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho and President of Engineering and Operations Fred Liu have resigned from the company, according to Bloomberg. These two departures and a recent move by the Taiwanese smartphone maker’s VP of design describe the type of major personnel changes taking place at HTC. In his short time with the company, Ho oversaw the firm’s “Here’s To Change” marketing campaign, which featured a series of commercials starring Hollywood A-lister, Robert Downey Jr.

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One of HTC’s biggest selling points for its One M8 flagship is the Dot View case, and today, the company rolled out an update to the companion app with a handful of new features. The biggest change is the addition of themes for wallpapers. HTC has bundled 18 themes into the app that you can now set as the case’s wallpaper. You can also choose your own custom image, although some of them may not look quite right.

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Back in May, HTC officially unveiled the “beautifully compact” One Mini 2 phone, but with sparse details on United States availability. Early rumors pointed to the device launching in the United States on Verizon, but rebranded as the HTC One Remix. Today, Big Red seemingly confirmed the One Remix by inadvertently uploading a promo video for it to its YouTube channel. The video has since been set to private, but not without some quick eyes catching what it talked about.

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At I/O last month, Google announced that Android users would soon have the ability to mirror their device’s screen to their TV via a Chromecast. Today, thanks to an update to the Chromecast app, the feature is finally live. In a post on the official Android Blog, Google explained that the feature is still in beta and warned users not to be alarmed if it didn’t work properly 100% of the time.

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HTC, which started losing money last October, has kept its promise to return to the black in Q2 this year according to unaudited figures revealed in a brief statement.

Unaudited quarterly revenue was NT$65.06 billion and net profit before tax was NT$2.76 billion. Operating profit was NT$2.43 billion, and net profit after tax was NT$2.26 billion

The company said in February that it planned to follow Samsung’s lead in making handsets across all price-points, stating that it had “missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market.” Revealing further losses in April, the company said that it expected to return to profit in Q2 thanks to both new mid-range phones like the Desire 816 and its well-regarded flagship One M8 … 
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Last month, a report emerged claiming that HTC was working on a new Nexus tablet dubbed the Volantis. At the time, the device was rumored to have an 8.9-inch display and an all aluminum design. Now, the notorious leaker @evleaks has posted some confirmation of the specifications for the Volantis.

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