During their keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HTC previewed their HTC Sense 4.0 user interface for the first time. The skin will ship first on the HTC One series of handsets before being released to several other high end handsets throughout the year.
Sense 4.0 has had a major overhaul since the 3.0 and 3.5 releases due to changes in the Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system. Although the interface has been watered down, there are still plenty of new and exciting features which users will be able to enjoy.
To read about the full range of features and the reasons why Sense 4.0 has been stripped back from recent versions, read my overview on Sense 4.0 at Helium.
Leading smartphone manufacturer HTC have historically always been ahead of the game when it comes to developing Android powered smartphones. After the market leading HTC Sensation was released in June 2011, HTC have refused to rest on it’s laurels, releasing the Sensation XE in fall 2011. This was quickly followed by HTC’s biggest and boldest smartphone prior to the recent announcement about the One series, the Sensation XL.
The Sensation XL was HTC’s first Android phone not to include provision for an external memory card, instead opting for 16gb of on-board storage. This move was not met with universal approval and some users even described the move as restrictive.
Please visit Helium to read the full review of the HTC Sensation XL
Following HTC’s announcement is Barcelona, the HTC One x will start shipping in Europe from April 4th 2012. The handset will be the first from HTC to include a quad-core processor although the US version will use a dual core snapdragon processor. The One X will also ship with Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) as standard as well as using the now customary Beats Audio sound system.
HTC have teamed up with cloud storage provider Dropbox which will give all One x owners 25Gb of online storage space which will allow them to access their data on phones, computers and tablets without the need to download these to each device individually.
With a 4.7 inch screen, the One x is the same size as the HTC Sensation XL. Whilst the phone will not allow for additional storage in the form of a SD card, it does come with 32Gb of on-board storage which should provide plenty of space for most types of users.
During the presentation in Barcelona, HTC demonstrated how the 8 megapixel camera had improved from previous phones, so much that it now beats the image quality of the iPhone 4S hands down. One of the most impressive features was that it is now possible to shoot still images at the same time as recording HD video. The shutter speed has also been improved on the camera, a delay of only 0.7 seconds makes the One x camera one of the most impressive seen on a smartphone to date.
The HTC One x will come pre-loaded with the company’s flagship interface, Sense 4.0. Sense has had a noticeable lick of pain since earlier versions and now seamlessly fits into the operating system, almost as if it was part of Google’s stock release.
Pricing and networks for the One x are still to be announced. Early feedback from those lucky enough to get their hands on the phone points to another major success for HTC which will cement their position at the top end of smartphone development for the forseeable future.
Have you ever wanted to block individual callers on your cell phone without muting the phone completely? Well now you can thanks to MEDL mobile’s Jammy Pants application. Now drunken calls at silly times will be a thing of the past as you have full control over who can call you and who can’t at particular times of the day.
Jammy Pants offers a highly configurable solution that enables you to receive calls and SMSM text messages from specified contacts while blocking them from others. Calls can be blocked between a user specified time span making this app a must when a good night’s sleep is essential. Jammy Pants is also a must have app for shift workers who need their sleep during the day.
To read a full and comprehensive review of Jammy Pants, read my Helium article.
With a large number of sporting apps on the Android market, choosing one which is right for you could prove a difficult task. If you are a fan of one sport in particular, then you could opt for a dedicated app, however if you follow a number of sports, an integrated app such as ESPN Score Centre offers a good alternative solution.
No matter what major sport you follow, the ESPN Score Centre app will offer you something. With between 100,000 and 500,000 downloads already, you have nothing to lose by downloading this free app.
To view the full review of the ESPN score centre, click here.
Everyone is talking about he Honey Badger YouTube clip. With over 34 million views to date, the clip which is narrated by the hilarious Randall shows the honey badger eating everything and anything in it’s path. Now smartphone developer, MEDL have turned this clip into a side scrolling arcade game. What sets this game aside from all other Honey Badger Android apps is that MEDL have pulled off a major coup and have got permission to use Randall’s commentary within the game, making it seem more realistic than ever.
The idea of the game is to stop the honey badger from starving by eating various creatures that appear on screen. The aim is to progress through as many game days as possible without running the hunger bar right down.
For a full review of the game , please check out my official review of the game which will also be linked from the MEDL website too.
Smartphone and tablet apps are now big business but until recently you had to know your way around programming environments to get on the app ladder. Unless you were a Java expert and knew the Eclipse IDE like the back of your hand, the only way of developing apps was via Google’s web based App Inventor tool. Whilst this allowed basic functionality, it was never powerful enough to develop a feature rich masterpiece. This is now all likely to change with App Incubator from MEDL Mobile. App Incubator has been a major success on the iTunes store and now makes it’s much anticipated debut on Android. The free app from the Android Market allows users to suggest and specify their ideas for new apps to the developers at MEDL mobile. The best and most feasible ideas will then be developed and published for public use.
If you are fortunate enough to get your idea approved by MEDL they will take care of all the development and publishing of the app as well as all of the associated costs. Once the app starts to make a profit these will be shared with you so that both parties are winners thanks to this innovative app.
To read more about App Incubator continue reading here.
Foursquare, the popular location based social networking site is now available for android powered smartphones. The aim of the game is to outscore your friends by visiting places as you go about your everyday life. The key to scoring highly on Foursquare is to visit unique places as often as you can as well as ensuring you check in at familiar locations on a daily basis.
As well as scoring points, certain establishments will reward users who check in at their location with the Foursquare app whilst others will reward the mayor of an establishment (the person with the most check-ins over a 60 day period).
Foursquare also offers users a great chance to explore new locations in their vicinity. Foursquare is available as a free download from the Android market and requires 4.1Mb of storage space.
The Sky Sports News app has been around on the iPhone platform for over 12 months and now it makes an appearance on Android devices. The Sky Sports News app allows you to keep up with sporting developments worldwide wherever you are. The app is fully configurable allowing you to concentrate on the sports that interest you rather than having to trawl through irrelevant in formation.
One of the major plus points of the app is the Sky Sports News radio. This gives you up to date audio news bulletins of the latest sports news along with interviews with the people making the news. The majority of the news broadcast on the radio is pre-recorded but shows such as Soccer Saturday do broadcast live through the app.
Unfortunately the app cannot be installed to your SD card so unless you are lucky enough to have a phone with plenty of on board storage you may struggle with the app as it is quite large in size. The app is free to download from the Android Market.
For a more in-depth review of the app, click here.
After a long spell of not updating this blog, I am now going to attempt to keep it up to date more regularly. As a refresher, I am going to be tweeting all of my Android app and hardware reviews from 12 noon GMT today. New reviews will appear over the coming weeks and months but until then, please enjoy my existing work. My entire freelance writing catalog can be found on Helium and my Twitter feed can be found by following @craggybuk. If there are any apps that you would like reviewing, please contact me through my blog.
During their keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HTC previewed their HTC Sense 4.0 user interface for the first time. The skin will ship first on the HTC One series of handsets before being released to several other high end handsets throughout the year.
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