In the world of Android, rooting a device is what jailbreak is to Apple’s iOS creations, although the former is much easier compared to the latter, thanks to Android’s open source nature and direct Linux-based kernel base. Nevertheless, it does take quite some skill to achieve that for all the new devices that are released, and here, we owe thanks to the highly dedicated and active developer community that exists for Android, putting in tireless hours to make lives easier for us. This is symbolized in many cases. Take Google’s Nexus 4, for example, that got rooted just a few hours after its release, showing how much potential the platform has for community support and developers’ love.
In the ongoing patent war between Apple and Samsung, it seems one cannot sneeze without the other taking a strong interest, and with Apple having reached a settlement with Taiwanese rival HTC earlier this week, Samsung is seeking a copy of it.
HTC recently agreed to pay Apple 300 billion won (US$276 million) in a settlement over a number of patent disputes, but Samsung's mobile chief has chipped in to remind us that his company has no intention of following suit. Apple recently announced the settlement of an ongoing patent dispute with the "quietly brilliant" Taiwanese outfit, which has seen both parties put pen to paper on a decade-spanning worldwide licensing agreement that not only covers patents currently in existence, but also future patents.
The HTC Droid DNA is really only a surprise in that we now know when it is going to be made available and what it will be marketed as. For all intents and purposes, we knew pretty much all there was to know about the phone before today's announcement, what with it basically being a Japanese J Butterfly - a phone that went on sale a few weeks ago. Still, it's all official now, so let's take a look.
The high-end superphone of today is the mid-end, economical smartphone of tomorrow. HTC’s Desire X, which was announced back in June, 2012, comes with a dual-core chip, a 4-inch 480 x 800 display, 768MB of RAM, 5-megapixel sensor on the back and, well, no optics on the front. It is powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
I’m quite certain HTC One X users might be able to recall the leaked Jelly Bean ROM which was doing it’s rounds around the internet quite some time ago. The HTC variant of the leak came during a time when we were seeing various versions of Jelly Bean being leaked for the Samsung Galaxy S III, but unfortunately, the fact that it was classified as being for developers only was enough to stop the majority from going down the route of flashing it to their own HTC devices.
HTC has today officially announced details and specifications of their much talked about HTC One X+ handset that will be available in the Asian and European markets during October. The new physically imposing Android-powered handset is an evolution over the company's previous One X device, with HTC hoping that this latest release will take things to the next level and offer even more power and functionality to consumers.
The release of Windows Phone 8, and all the associated products and gadgets therein, has always seemed like a long way away, but with October now upon us, we're just a couple of weeks away from the big launch, and if you've been looking forward to owning one of the first Windows Phone 8 handsets, your wait is almost over. Today, the HTC 8X has been spotted in the wild - just a week after the highly-anticipated Lumia 920 was also spotted out and about - and the world gets its first glimpse at the Taiwanese company's Windows Phone 8 effort courtesy of some testing done on the streets of San Francisco.
Nokia’s Lumia 920 scored a lot of negative press from the technology blogosphere when it was discovered that the demo videos and photos they had shown at their announcement event were actually taken using professional DSLR cameras to “simulate” the smartphone’s advanced optical features.
HTC, despite producing solid smartphones, is finding itself swamped in a sea of solid Samsung devices at this point in time, with its flagship, quad-core One X having sold millions less than the Korean company's own quad-core powerhouse, the S III.
