ChodTheWacko

My only point is that Android Wear, like most smart watches, isn't android only.
So it shouldn't be stopping you from switching to iOS, if iOS floats your boat.

I guess the only pseudo requirement would be that it supports google now. It technically could still connect, but it'd be reduced to the functionality of a pebble (pun somewhat intended).

TSXy Luster

I don't believe that's true. The only confirmation for Android Wear working with an OS is Android 4.3 and up.

Screen size increased by 0.3", more rounded, metalier, heavier, and taller phone, power button is no longer IR blaster, but the whole top is (except for the power button), has a second camera lens (2MPup) that doesn't take pictures but just for depth calculations, 5mp ffcamera for selfies, microSD card slot, nano-sim, 300mah increase in battery size, and has LG style Knock-Knock ability. Oh, and the new brushed gray finish is super slippery..... like holding a wet alive fish.
AND HTC is calling their latest UI, "Sixth Sense" barf.

Now we wait for LG, Moto, and the Nexus 6 to get us out of this meh year.

mdkxtreme

Really looking forward to see what the new Nexus line has to offer. I don't think I want to ever have a phone that isn't a Nexus. I just love the "Vanilla" stuff. But will all Nexus line be released around Nov/Dec any ways? It's still a long ways away.

TSXy Luster

Yeah. LG and Moto in August/September, Nexus in Nov.

Moto's done a good job going to "Vanilla" with sprinkles of their voiceless/touchless ways.


edit: Another interesting phone coming out this year is the OnePlus in April.
Supposed to be under $400, and they are making promises for just about everything one could wish for.

ChodTheWacko

Bah, phonedog said it, and I didn't check their source. I used to really like that site and their videos, but it's been pretty bleh lately. What is everyone's favorite phone/android site?

On the other side of things, the HTC dot view case is pretty nifty.

VR1

New HTC One looks good. Just waiting for the Google Play Edition now. I like Sense wayyyy more then the Touchwiz stuff, but after I still prefer the Nexus/GPE line over anything else.

TSXy Luster

lol that site still exists? PhoneDog went to shit the moment Aaron took over and Noah left.

For Android phones: AndroidCentral, AndroidPolice, Android Authority (for the videos), and Droid-Life (more Verizon specific).

For general phone/tech site: AnandTech, ArsTechnica, PhoneArena, Engadget, and The Verge (if you can block out the Apple love fest).

WTF bro, you need to read better. The Google Play Edition was announced already. $700.

Mugen.Justice

Too bad about the slippery texture on the gray HTC One. I think it's the best color of the line, and the one I'd get. (I thought the original M7 had a nice texture to it)


I initial felt that the return of the 4MP UltraPixel camera was disappointing. But Engadget posted its flickr set of HTC One M8 photos, and I thought they look quite decent overall.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/phonew...7642913906483/

CocheseUGA

The original photos looked decent as well, and then it turned out to be not great at all.

VR1

Must've skipped that.

Anyways, I hope you can hack the regular HTC One into the GPE like you could the old version. Instead of spending $700 on the GPE, I bought the regular HTC One with contract from AT&T for $200, and flashed the GPE RUU thingy onto it, since the GPE One is the exact same hardware wise as the AT&T HTC One.

VR1

The M7 takes great photos if you know how to take advantage of the Ultrapixels and if you can manipulate the settings. I'll post a few of the ones I've taken. They're as good if not better then the ones I've taken with the iPhone 5 IMO.

TSXy Luster

That's the thing. Typical consumers do not do that or want to do that. Just want click and bam great picture.

Mugen.Justice

Please do, I'd be interested in seeing some.

speedemon90

that is what I want too.

I'm curious to see what Motorola has learned from the Moto X and what route they're going to take for the second gen of this phone.

CGFebTSX04

I would just buy the dev version as it'll most likely be unlockable and then you can just flash the GPE ROM like you can with the current version. I actually enjoy using Sense more than the Google Edition ROM simply for the camera software in Sense.

My girlfriend loves using the camera on my One (she has an iPhone 5 btw). Every time we go out she'll ask for my phone just because of the low light capability. It takes pretty good pics IMO if you don't care about looking at pics in high resolutions. Its really great for social network type situations and low lights like bars/lounges/clubs.

I don't mess around with my settings and just click and go with my One and it works great for me. The only real issue I have with it is in low light WITH Flash off situations if the object is facing against the light, the light saturates the sensor as it creates a glare effect and it takes almost the whole scene. Simple solution is to have the object cover the light or shoot away from light like you normally would.

CGFebTSX04

The case for the M8 are pretty cool:

Ken1997TL

Most pictures I post on here are from my HTC One and I don't retouch stuff. The 'Iceland' thread with all my photos.. those were almost all with my HTC One, one or two were my wife's iPhone 5.

B&W shot from Iceland:



And color. Non-HDR.

Ken1997TL

Now does the camera take 'spectacular' photos?

No. What it IS good is for taking photos in everyday situations quickly, especially in lower light levels. So it honestly meets the needs of most people.

If you need better photos, buy a proper camera

CGFebTSX04

The One's camera is just right for people who consume social medias which is the majority of the population. If you're looking for high detailed camera shots, the One is not for you. If you like to use Instagram, Facebook, G+ or other sites to post pics then the device works perfectly.


Just flashed Sense 6.0 on my M7:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2694142


The green is a pretty subtle green. It isn't the gaudy Gingerbread green. I kinda like it actually. Haven't messed around with the themes yet but I can definitely see custom ROM makers taking advantage of this. There's already a per app theme being made right now so that the status bar takes the color of the app you're in kinda what Paranoid Android introduced back in the day:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...36&postcount=2


Sense 6 actually looks pretty good so far. Better usage of the Roboto font especially in the messaging app. to HTC for this iteration. Defnitely looks slimmed and toned down compared to the other skins out there.


EDIT:

It actually looks like the PerApp Theme is already enabled in this ROM! Its under the Insertcoin settings. Time to match my status bar with my apps.

CocheseUGA

Yes, if you are primarily into selfies in bars, the camera is great. The noise for most pictures is simply not acceptable for viewing on anything larger than a tablet, or for trying to crop. These are the areas where it fails, and why I've been so disappointed with it. It's for 'I'd like to take a picture of this, but it wasn't important enough to look at later.'

I took it, and it alone to SF to try and stay light, and it was a bitter disappointment to come home and see the pictures on my monitor. I might as well not have taken the pictures. My iPhone 4 did better in most situations, and that is why it was so disappointing to see them reuse the exact same thing in the new One. Without OIS, mind you. Ultrapixel? Nice concept. 4MP isn't enough though.

Further, HTC very badly needs this phone to sell well. They hit home runs on almost everything in both versions except for the camera. I love the new One, but I'm not buying the same camera again.

Doom878

Are these cameras less blurry than the Samsung ones?

CocheseUGA

Can't speak for anyone else, but my S3 was a better camera than the One. Although, when I flashed a AOSP ROM it got worse.

CCColtsicehockey

Picked up the M8 yesterday and so far I like it. The build quality is amazing. I think it looks much better than the M7 personally although that still looked great. I love Sense so I am happy to have it back after two Samsung phones.

The grey is super slippery which is definitely a bummer cause I really want to use it without a case cause it is just beautiful.

The camera so far is fine. I can't say I have ever done anything more than post on Facebook or Instagram with a camera phone even though I always worry about how good it is. I carry around my Canon S110 P&S most places if there is even a chance I will care about a picture as it easily fits in my pocket. Plpust I can instantly transfer the picture to my phone if I want to. The fact it takes better low light pictures than my S4 is a huge plus really.

So far I have no complaints but I have not even had it for 24hrs. I will report back once I have used it some more.

TSXy Luster

Yeah, that was one of the disappointing parts about it. And HTC marketing division is cleverly hiding it from everyone too unless you pry about it.... then they'll say it is because the secondary 2up lens doesn't work with OIS and then sell you some bs that you don't need OIS at all....... sure

TSXy Luster

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/HTC+O...Teardown/23615

ifixit gave the M8 a repairability score of 2/10. Ouch!

Beneath the metal outside lies a world of glue, glue, more glue, tape and copper shielding. The motherboard is glued, which you have to remove first before getting to the battery, which is also glued. Oh, and iFixit also accidentally managed to cut the cable to the screen digitizer. And these are folks who know what they're doing.

VR1

You have to click on them for the full resolution version. Otherwise the low resolution versions look bad.

CocheseUGA

Look at the boat and clouds, in particular.

Mugen.Justice

In all honesty, I'm on the fence between the M7 and the M8. I like the M7 design elements quite a bit more - and no doubt there will be a price drop soon. On the other hand, the M8 specs are better (but would I notice it day-to-day?) - and it supports microSD cards now (which is a pretty big deal for me). Of course, being hot off the factory lines, it's a pricey purchase.


From initial impressions so far, it sounds like it's a wash when we're talking about the camera.




Is the new BlinkFeed part of Sense 6? Or is that a separate piece of software altogether?

CocheseUGA

I like the aesthetics of the M8 a bit better overall, however I'm still not a fan of curved backs. I in no way feel like the M7's performance is lacking, or will be lacking anytime soon. The screen is still one of the best I've ever used, and I've worked around the need for a microSD slot.

I think for the M8 it's not something that I would need to go buy right away if for some reason I had to give up my M7. I might just go buy the M7 again (or Moto X or Nexus) and save the cash. I think HTC needed to have something on the market that would make everyone who bought the M7 feel the need to upgrade, plus bring in the new buyers, and it just doesn't quite have that wow factor to do it. The M7 was the game-changer, the M8 is a good, but not great update.

Mugen.Justice

Thanks for the input. After reading up on the various reviews since yesterday, I'm suddenly not all that excited about the M8 (yet, I still am about the M7). Perhaps I'll pass on the M8, and hold off until the M9 (8MP UltraPixel? ) ...if HTC is still around by 2015...

CGFebTSX04

Look at this guy's thread to compare the M7 and M8 camera shots:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...php?p=51405082

It looks like the M8 has better color reproduction all around (Look at the wall behind Scooby Doo). Now, whether or not this can be fixed via an update considering they're the same sensor remains to be seen. I love my M7 and the only phone that has me itching to update right now is the Z2. I think the fact that HTC didn't update the camera on the M8 kinda solidifies my decision to not get it yet. The M7 is plenty fast right now and Sense 6 it feels slightly faster probably because they toned the skin down even more compared to Sense 5.5. Now if the Z2 came to the states officially I think I'd be making a difficult decision.


Word of advice: If you are planning to pick up an HTC One, make sure you test out the camera first! If you are getting purple streaks, return it ASAP and get another one. I know we're almost a year into their production run but some people are still reporting that they're getting sensors with the purple streaks still. You don't wanna be left with one of those and no warranty to have it repaired.


One last comment. Because the M8 isn't too different from the M7, I can almost see the updates being ported from the M8 to the M7 when HTC decides to give the M7 the boot. HTC has promised that their flagships will get 2 years of support now so we'll see how far along in the updates we get. Right now, the rumor is the official Sense 6 builds will be landing some time in Spring for the M7 instead of the original Summer timeline they had.



Blinkfeed has been included since Sense 5 and has been tweaked each update. Its another homepage on the Sense launcher. In Sense 6, they added more sources for headlines and allowed it to be themed with the whole UI. Right now, my main complaint is the scrolling in the Sense 6 Blinkfeed. In Sense 5 and 5.5 Blinkfeed, swiping up and down moved the feed to preset swipes like Flipboard. Now its just chaos (okay maybe not that bad). You swipe and the swiping is based on inertia. Makes my OCD kick in cause I'm trying to line up the feeds to the screen without them overhanging. Lol.


Oh if you haven't heard, HTC has also begun pushing its apps onto the Play Store and there is some news that Blinkfeed will soon be available on other Android devices. They just opened the API up today so anyone can feed into the headlines. As of Sense 5.5 you could add RSS feeds and it'll collate them into Blinkfeed. Personally, I like Blinkfeed but sometimes forget its there until I swipe into it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...TC+Corporation

^Just like Motorola, they'll be updating the apps through the play store in the future. This should make each update faster.

Mugen.Justice

Yeah I knew BlinkFeed was heavily promoted by HTC on the M7.
It's just that I noticed BlinkFeed on the M8 / Sense 6 has been tweaked (seemed like the scrolling effect is completely flat now - I kinda liked the M7's scrolling tiles more). My question was if you got the new BlinkFeed when you flashed your M7 with Sense 6.

VR1

As CGFebTSX04 said, definitely make sure your HTC One camera doesn't have purple streaks. Mine does, but it only happens when it's dark, so it's not a big deal for me.

CGFebTSX04

Yes. New Blinkfeed exactly like how the M8 is. Actually, let me rephrase that, Sense 6 on the M7 is almost 100% the same as Sense 6 on the M8. The only thing not working currently on the M7 builds is the motion gestures and some of the camera options (obviously). The motion gestures are tied to the kernel and should be working once the official builds get released. Also note that the builds I'm using is currently a leaked based and isn't final so not sure what will be kept/added and what will be cut out in the final build. All I know is that its much more visually pleasing than Sense 5.5 so far.

You should get it replaced while you're still under warranty...I had the same issue and it got worse over time due to the heat. It started off as small tints and then became a streak that covered the whole viewfinder in low light. My current phone has no purple tint whatsoever and less heat when using the camera. Main difference between the old and the new phone I had was that the phone heated up a lot with the purple tint to the point I couldn't hold it after a few minutes. Now I can keep my camera on at low light and it'll barely heat up with no noticeable purple tint.

CCColtsicehockey

So far I am impressed with the HTC ONE (M8) Camera after using if for 5 days now. The detail on a computer screen is not as good as my s4 but overall getting a better image as far as color and picking things up in shadows is much better. I also get better results the first time with the M8. My S4 would take a lot of blurry pictures unless things were perfectly still so sometimes it make taking 3 or 4 to get a good one.

Here is a good one I took yesterday with it.

Doom878

dogs

CCColtsicehockey

So I have had the HTC ONE M8 for a full week now. I really have no complaints about it at all so far. The build quality is great and I try and use it without a case as much as possible depending on my scheduled activities. Love having the front facing speakers. Having good sound out of a phone is a welcome change.

Overall I really like Sense and how things are laid out but yet not to overdone. Still getting used to blinkfeed. I previously haven't used aggregate news apps in the past so I am still undecided on how much I will really use it.

The battery life without having a removable battery was something that initially worried me. I can safely say those worries have been put to rest. I typically average between 18 and 26hrs of battery life right now with the phone. With one day I purposely pushed it while traveling and use 5hrs on screen time of which 3hrs was GPS navigation along with 1hr of phone calls using Bluetooth and I got 12hrs still out of the phone. To say I am impressed is an understatement. I have purchased a small usb battery pack before my last travels that is smaller than the phone itself just in case but I feel that I may never actually need to use it.

The camera catches a bunch of flak for being only 4MP. I can understand this. The photos I thought might be a tiny bit less detailed than my S4. However, what it loses there it makes up for and much more in color range and better overall exposure. I have taken many great photos over the past week. I don’t know if I could print them but for viewing them on a screen I am more than pleased with the results. I couldn’t tell you the last time I tried to print a picture from my phone anyways if ever. Also UFocus is not a gimic really. As having the added depth of field is great for capturing action. If it is slightly out of focus like shooting pics of the dogs below I can just use it to fix the focus.

Here are a couple of recent ones from the other day.







[/QUOTE]


So overall I am extremely satisfied and right now don’t have a bad thing to say about the phone. Could it have more MP it could but I wouldn’t want to sacrifice the color and exposure it can produce for it. I do hope the next time around they have an 8MP UltraPixel camera though cause it would possible top all of the cameras I think.

TSXy Luster

CCColtsicehockey

It is a loss not to have it but the quality of the picture appears to be much improved.

CCColtsicehockey

So been busy the past two days so have not used my phone terribly much but it gave me a good gauge on standby time. According to the stats I have used 3hrs and 30min of on screen time and just under 10min of phone calls which was 3 calls made all on bluetooth. I have used it for countless texts during that on screen time. Total time once I just reached 1% left was 1 day and 9 hours or 33hrs total which I find very impressive.