Last week, Apple confirmed that it degrades CPU performance on older smartphones as batteries age. The iPhone maker was heavily criticized for not being more transparent about the decision and now its competitors claim that they do not follow similar practices on Android devices.
About two weeks ago, HTC began rolling out Android 8.0 Oreo to the U11 but only in Taiwan. Thankfully, for those HTC customers in the US, the company’s Vice President of Product Management has announced that unlocked model of the U11 will begin receiving the awaited Oreo update starting today…
Back at Google I/O, the company announced partnerships with HTC and Lenovo to debut a new collection of Daydream-powered headsets that would run independently of a smartphone. It’s an excellent idea, but we never got any concrete details on when they would debut. Now, HTC has revealed more information — it’s no longer making one.
HTC isn’t exactly in the best position right now, but with killer releases such as the HTC U11 family and the company’s work with Google, things are looking up. Speaking to the media (via Engadget), the company recently confirmed that it would be releasing up to 6 phones in 2018, including one with a dual-camera system.
As widely rumored, HTC is now making devices for the relaunched Android One program. A mid-range phone, the HTC U11 life is not all too different from the Moto X4, save for launching with Android Oreo and featuring some Pixel-like features.
The third quarter of 2017 saw Google acquire 2,000 HTC engineers and intellectual property, as well as the launch of their second Made by Google line of products. During today’s earnings call, Sundar Pichai talked more about that deal, as well as their broader hardware business.
With the cost of smartphones continually rising, many of us simply can’t afford to pay outright for a shiny new device. Payment plans help a lot with that, but in some cases, you end up paying more. Now, ahead of the launch of a new device, HTC is giving customers another option.
After several weeks of rumors, Google announced this evening an “agreement” that will see HTC employees who worked on the Pixel join the Alphabet company’s hardware division. The deal is valued at $1.1 billion, while HTC will continue to run its smartphone business.
The Taiwan stock exchange has announced that trading in HTC shares will be halted tomorrow in advance of a major announcement, or, in stock market language, ‘material information.’ This follows rumors that the failing company may be acquired by Google.
Local media are also reporting that a Google deal is to be announced …
We’ve known for quite some time that Android One is going to make a debut in the United States, and just the other day we got new details about the Moto X4’s Android One launch. Today, we’re learning more about the other Android One device we told you about earlier this year, the HTC “Ocean Life.”
HTC and Google have a relationship that has spanned several years with the smartphone manufacturer building some of the first Android phones (G1), even collaborating with Google on the original Nexus. HTC quickly gained traction in the smartphone industry and was a big player in it for quite some time, but in the past couple of years, the company has lost major market share to its competitors. Now, rumors are floating around that Google might end up buying the company. This just a few years after Google sold off Moto to Lenovo, likely to keep Samsung in its stable.
While HTC has been somewhat buoyed by the positive reaction to its U11 flagship and the Vive virtual reality division, the Taiwanese company is now exploring “strategic options.” The possibilities range from selling its key VR business to a sale of the entire company.
Back at Google I/O in May, Google announced that it would soon be introducing standalone VR headsets alongside the existing ones that are powered by your smartphone. HTC recently announced a new VR headset coming to China, and from what we’ve seen so far, it looks a whole lot like a forthcoming Daydream headset that should be available in the States later this year.
OEMs partnering with third-party Android keyboard options to provide a better typing experience is nothing new. We’ve seen it since the early days of Android, and HTC has been open to these kinds of partnerships. Recently, however, the company’s partnership with TouchPal has been in hot water.
HTC’s latest effort in the flagship space, the U11, has launched to rave reviews. To stay in the game, HTC needs to follow that with another winner and today a well-known and reliable HTC tipster is claiming to have some further insight on the company’s next smartphone.
Over the last several years, HTC has lost most of its Android market share, especially in the US. Even though the phones that the company produces have been high quality and have top of the line specs, many have just lost interest. This year, though, HTC is shaking things up with a new design and a new feature called Edge Sense.
Are you interested at all in the upcoming Edge Sense features? If so, which ones?
There are a lot of core aspects that make up a good phone, and HTC’s latest U11 definitely nails those. However, when you’re going past that, you’re left with gimmicks. The biggest of those is headlined by the “Edge Sense” feature that performs actions when you physically squeeze your phone. Today, HTC is teasing a few more actions for Edge Sense that are coming to the U11 “soon.”
On the HTC side, last year’s Pixel and Pixel XL were internally codenamed S1 and M1, respectively. With HTC widely assumed to be manufacturing at least one Pixel device this year, possible codenames have surfaced and point to the use of a Snapdragon 835 processor and unlocked configuration.
HTC took to the stage this morning to unveil the company’s latest flagship smartphone: the HTC U11. Although highly leaked, HTC announced that the smartphone has more to offer than previously believed. This includes a higher rated camera than the Google Pixel, Amazon Alexa built-in, and more…
One of the long-time rumored features of the upcoming HTC U 11 is something that we are now calling “Edge Sense.” Theoretically, the metal frame of the handset will be pressure sensitive and will trigger different actions when squeezed. Do you think this Edge Sense technology will actually be useful?
HTC released an excellent smartphone last year in the HTC 10, so we were disappointed later in the year when that was followed up by the U Ultra. Reviews of the latter were largely negative, mainly due to the high cost and poor use of the space available. Now, HTC is preparing another new smartphone launch, the HTC U 11, and most of the details have just come out in a pretty huge leak.
HTC has not been at the top of its game for quite some time now, churning out devices not on par with the competition and, at times, full of questionable choices.
However, its upcoming U 11 flagship is seemingly set to turn things around for the Taiwanese company, and alongside innovative tech we now may have its full — and, yes, competitive — spec sheet (via MySmartPrice)…
Yesterday, HTC started sending out press invitations for the launch of its upcoming flagship happening on May 16th. Today, a report from Evan Blass via VentureBeat claims that the upcoming phone previously codenamed “Ocean,” will be called the HTC U 11 and will be available in five different color schemes…
HTC has today sent the press emails for an event set for May 16th, and it seems — as is usual with HTC lately — that it’s going to be an entirely online announcement. If this event is for the phone we think it’s for, though, we don’t really have any surprises to look forward to…
