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Watch This: Facebook Home and HTC First launch event

Facebook Home & HTC First Event

We told you all about today's unveiling of Facebook Home and the HTC First, and now Facebook has made the video recording of the announcement available for your viewing pleasure. Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on his A-game in this one. Check out the full video after the break.

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HTC First: Facebook Home, 4.3-inch display, LTE, $99 on April 12

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, Handhelds,

HTC First

During today's Facebook Home announcement, HTC and AT&T announced the HTC First, a new smartphone set to launch in just over a week that was built from the ground up to run Facebook Home as its main interface. Aside from being the, um, first phone to launch with Facebook Home built-in, it'll also be the first smartphone to ship with Instagram pre-installed (although the Samsung Galaxy Camera does, too, but it isn't technically a phone.) The phone itself is a beautifully simple device from a design perspective, and on the inside runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor keeping things humming along, and status updates flowing across the 4.3-inch display. It also runs on AT&T's 4G LTE network, which Ralph de la Vega made sure to pimp as the fastest LTE network in the country. You'll be able to pick up the HTC First on April 12 (hey, the same day that the iPhone 5 hits T-Mobile!) for $99.99 in the US, and you'll have a choice of four colors: black, white, sky blue, or red.

Read More | HTC First

Facebook Home: Turn your Android device into the ultimate Facebook smartphone

Facebook Home

This morning Facebook revealed a new Android-based mobile initiative called Facebook Home. Mark Zuckerberg was on hand to talk about what would happen if your phone was made to be about "people, not apps," and the result is Facebook Home.

While many assumed that Facebook would be releasing its own hardware device (despite our assurance that it wouldn't!), Home is, instead, a suite of Facebook apps that work together to put Facebook front and center across your entire Android device, making it feel like a "Facebook Phone." For example, in the Coverfeed app, it takes over both the Android homescreen and lock screen, and then provides a regular stream of updates from your friends--all without you tapping a Facebook app icon or even swiping to unlock. From the home screen you can even comment and like the updates that flow across your display.

Click to continue reading Facebook Home: Turn your Android device into the ultimate Facebook smartphone


iOS 7 development running behind schedule, Apple pulls OS X engineers to help

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Rumors, Software,

iOS 7 delay

Word on the street is that Apple is behind schedule on iOS 7 due to the management shakeup that occurred when Scott Forstall was ousted from the company. Jony Ive has taken over as head of hardware and software design, and with that will come sweeping design changes within iOS. Daring Fireball's John Gruber has gone so far as to say that he's heard that Apple has had to pull engineers off os OS X 10.9 in order to help get iOS 7 ready for release.

It may sound odd, but Apple actually took a similar strategy back in 200, pulling developers off of OS X 10.5 Leopard in order to ensure that the iPhone would be ready on time, resulting in a four-month delay for the desktop OS. Of course, Apple had a lot less software engineers working on iPhone software back then, so it's pretty telling that with the expansive growth, there are still challenges getting iOS 7 out of door.

Click to continue reading iOS 7 development running behind schedule, Apple pulls OS X engineers to help


Try out BlackBerry 10 on your iPhone or Android smartphone

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Internet, Software,

BlackBerry 10 glimpse

Curious about how BlackBerry 10 stacks up against iOS, Android, and Windows Phone? You can now check out how it works right on your smartphone browser for a glimpse of BlackBerry 10. This will bring you into a web app that simulates the look and feel of the BlackBerry 10 OS, which will allow you to get a feel for the new BlackBerry hotness. Of course, being a web app, it isn't as smooth as actually picking up a BlackBerry Z10 and using that, but it's still a cool idea from BlackBerry to get people familiar with its new offering.

Read More | BlackBerry Glimpse

Bleeding Edge TV 469: Mophie Juice Pack Helium

The Mophie Juice Pack Helium is the first iPhone 5 battery case from Mophie, the company that has become synonymous with battery cases for the iPhone. Being that this is an iPhone 5 model, it supports the Lightning Connector for charging, and provides you with 80% additional battery power for your device. It is the thinnest and lightest yet, which is why they called it the Juice Pack Helium, playing off the Juice Pack Air name. You can pick up the Juice Pack Helium for $79.95.

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Unboxing Live 109: Nokia Lumia 920

We open up the Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8 smartphone in this episode. It's the flagship model available from AT&T, sporting a PureMotion HD+ display, 4G LTE, and PureView camera with optical image stabilization and Carl Zeiss lens. You can pick up the Nokia Lumia 920 from AT&T from $99.99. It's a bit heavy, but the phone looks great, the camera is fantastic, and for $100, it's hard to beat the value.

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iPhone 5S reportedly set for summer release

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Rumors,

iPhone 5S summer 2013

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is set to launch the iPhone 5S this summer, and that the company is just about ready to start production of the handset that will be "similar in size and shape to its current one", which has been indicative of all the S model iPhones since the debut of the iPhone 3GS. If the report is accurate, it also marks the return of the iPhone to its summer release schedule, which it diverted from with the introduction of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, both of which saw fall releases. It could be that Apple is bumping up the release schedule of the iPhone, similar to what we saw with the short timeframe between the third-generation iPad and the fourth-gen model. Many will complain if that's the case, but us? Bring it on.

Read More | WSJ

Bleeding Edge TV 468: Ubuntu for smartphones preview

Did you know that Linux Ubuntu is coming to smartphones to take on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry? It's true - and we bring you a first look at the Linux Ubuntu smartphone OS in this video as we interview Canonical's Richard Collins. What do you think of the all gesture-based interface with no hardware buttons? The demo was run on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Check it out!

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HTC One launches on AT&T and Sprint on April 19th

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Handhelds,

HTC One Black and White

The HTC One is set to officially launch on April 19th on both AT&T and Sprint, starting at $199.99 with two-year contract for the 32GB model. If you prefer the 64 GB variant, you'll have to go with the AT&T model…yup, the 64 GB HTC One is an AT&T exclusive. Despite an unforeseen delay, the HTC One is still set to beat the Samsung Galaxy S 4 to the market, and also comes in $50 cheaper. If you wanna get your pre-order on, you can put your money down with AT&T beginning on April 4, or on April 5th if you're going with the Sprint model.


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