The successor to the HTC’s flagship One handset is set to be unveiled on March 25 at an event in London.
HTC UK made the announcement via Twitter today but gave precious few details, saying only that “the best is about to get better”. While the HTC One isn’t named specifically, it is the most popular of HTC’s recent devices and its flagship model, so it makes sense that the company would refer to it as “the best”.
The timing of the announcement in mid-March also all-but confirms that the Taiwanese manufacturer’s presence at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona will be a low-key affair. Clearly, it wants to give its next flagship the best possible chance of success by not drowning in a sea of other handset announcements.
➤ HTC UK [Twitter]
Featured Image Credit – Mandy Cheng/AFP/ Getty Images
Motorola announces Android 4.4.3 update for Moto X, Moto G, and Moto E will start rolling out this week
Motorola today announced it is rolling out Android 4.4.3, which was just released by Google, to the Moto X, Moto G, and Moto E this week. You can check the availability for your phone on this page as well as check out the individual release notes for each device: Moto X , Moto G , and Moto E .
The plan for this week is to treat these device owners first:
Moto X T-Mobile users.
Moto G users who bought online in the US (includes Moto G 4G LTE) and at retail in Brazil.
Moto E users who bought online in the US and Canada. For Moto E users, you are still up for the next major Android update as well.
For those who don’t know, Android 4.4.3 is a bugfix release. It includes an improved dialer with a new interface and new colors “to enhance consistency and usability,” enhancements to the power profile capabilities, but the rest are mainly fixes around stability, framework, and security.
That being said, Motorola has included its own improvements in this update, though there aren’t any big highlights for the Moto E. For example, Motorola Alert has been bundled for Moto X and Moto G users. The new app sends periodic messages to the contacts you choose, which should be useful if you want to let people know you’re okay.
The company is also promising improved camera image quality for Moto X (better consistency of exposure, more realistic flash coloring, and improved photos in low light conditions using the front camera). Moto X and Moto G owners can expect a new pause/resume button on the viewfinder for taking a break when video recording.
It’s great to see Motorola on top of Android updates. We can only hope the trend will continue once it’s no longer under Google ownership.
See also – Google confirms it’s selling Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, but keeps ‘vast majority’ of patents and Motorola will close the Texas factory where it assembles Moto X smartphones in 2014
Hands-on with the Hudl2 tablet: Does Tesco have another hit on its hands?
British supermarket giant Tesco lifted the lid on the Hudl2 earlier this morning, the follow-up to the successful Hudl tablet that launched last year.
We managed to grab a hands-on with the device to garner some first impressions.
At 8.3-inches, the Hudl2’s screen is markedly bigger than the 7-inches of its predecessor – and that’s a good thing, considering this is being pitched as an entertainment device.
The most immediately striking facet of the tablet is the picture quality. At full HD (1920×1200), watching movies on this fella’ is impressive – crystal clear sharpness. Coupled with the increased size, the Hudl2 will almost certainly be top of both kids’ and adults’ Christmas lists this year.
The device itself ships in eight colours – Jazzy Blue, Zesty Orange, Slate Black, Rocket Red, Tropical Turquoise, Dreamy White, Perky Purple and Bubblegum Pink. Though it promises 16GB of storage out of the box, only 9.10GB of this is usable. On the test version we played around with, a mere 5.70GB of that was available, though we weren’t able to establish how much of that was due to media that had been installed by Tesco for testing purposes.
As with the original Hudl, its successor offers a HDMI slot for hooking it up directly to your big screen, and yes – it has a microSD slot, meaning you can expand its storage by an extra 32GB.
As you’d expect, the Hudl2 comes bundled with a load of pre-installed Tesco-focused services, but for the price you’re paying here it’s not really a big deal and doesn’t feel overly intrusive.
Perhaps the biggest development from a software perspective is the in-built parental control tools, which provide granular control over what your kids can access and when. There’s room for up to seven separate users, and for each one, you can manage what kinds of websites they’re able to access (e.g. ‘no gaming sites’) and what apps they can/can’t use.
The time limits element is particularly notable, as you can stipulate that little Johnny can only use the tablet from 6pm to 8pm in the evening on weekends, during which time he can only use the Wikipedia app and Google Maps. Conversely, on little Jimmy’s profile, he’s allowed to access some gaming apps and Facebook from 8pm to 10pm.
With a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera, Tesco has detracted things for selfie-lovers, given the original incarnation sported a 2-megapixel front-facing lens. But for normal photos, the rear-facing snapper has been given a 2-megapixel boost.
We haven’t had a chance to test the camera out yet, or the Dolby-optimized speakers, but we’ll be giving this a full review once we get our hands on a unit for a longer spell. So stay tuned for that over the weekend.
At any rate, our first impressions of the Hudl2 are pretty much on-par with that of the original Hudl. The first time around, expectations from a supermarket entering the tablet game weren’t particularly high, but Tesco surprised a lot of people with the quality and price-point. Second time around, Tesco perhaps had a higher benchmark to meet, and with the immense screen, parental control features and affordable price tag, we reckon the grocery giant has another hit on its hands.