HTC’s yet-to-be announced flagship smartphone of 2014, the HTC One Plus (M8) is expected to be unveiled during the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona at the end of this month, however, we’re now starting to see the first signs that a scaled-down variant is also in the works. According to a popular leaker, the ‘mini’ version of the Happy Telephone Company’s upcoming flagship will sport a 4.5-inch display — that’s only 0.2-inches larger than the display of last years One Mini.
Lenovo has increased it mid-range line up by introducing the A628T, which is effectively scaled-down variant of its 2013 flagship smartphone, the A850. According to the Chinese multinational company, the handset will launch just in time for Valentine’s Day anodized in a ‘glossy red’ colorway and will be a China Mobile exclusive.
The Google Now app which comes pre-installed on every Android device has received a rather hefty update that allows the service to provide information for the Winter Olympics, in addition to new capabilities that allows the service to call or send an SMS message to one of your contacts.
Mozilla’s Linux based open-source operating system — Firefox OS — has met with relatively lukewarm response from the community. Initial Firefox OS running handsets have been released by relatively unknown OEMs and the immature nature of the OS has not helped much.
The open-nature of the OS makes it perfect for porting it to existing Android devices as evident from the ports for the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and the HTC One.
While most of us would prefer a stock Android experience given the choice, HTC’s Sense user interface has gotten really good in recent years. Not only does it look great, but features like BlinkFeed actually make it really useful. Unfortunately, it’s only available on HTC’s own devices… at least officially.
Do Launcher aims to provide the Sense 5 experience on other Android-powered smartphones. It has Sense 5 icons and animations, its own BlinkFeed alternative with support for custom RSS feeds, and more.
