US network AT&T has slashed the cost of the HTC First to just 99c, it has emerged.

The handset was revealed by Mark Zuckerberg last month alongside Facebook’s new Home skin for Android and is the first phone to pack the social network’s new service out of the box. The US carrier has not explained why it’s dropped the cost of the device, which originally stood at $99.99 on contract.

However, with other, more impressive devices available at the sub-$100 price point, including Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and Apple’s iPhone 4S, it’s not too much of a jump to assume that sales of the HTC First were not as speedy as expected.

Facebook Home has received a lukewarm reception since it was outed at a major event in April.

It currently has an average rating of just 2.2 on the Google Play Store, with critics apparently unsure whether the service is a decent alternative to simply using a dedicated Facebook app.

With such a low price in the US, expect the HTC First to start selling snappily in the next few days, especially when punters realise they can buy it and switch off Facebook Home.

That way, they’re left with Android Jelly Bean and a half-decent budget Google phone.

The HTC First is expected to land on these shores in the summer, with EE set to sell the blower exclusively on its super-fast 4G network.

Source:

Unwired View

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Apple supplier Pegatron is set to raise staffing levels by a colossal 40 per cent in the second half of the year, with the new workers rumoured to be assembling Cupertino’s much-hyped budget iPhone.

While Pegatron itself refused to confirm that the extra workforce would be beavering away on Apple’s latest iPhone, sources have told Reuters that the device is already in the works.

The news agency reports that some Japanese suppliers have already started on early production.

Mass production is scheduled to begin in June, with the device now expected to make an official appearance in the autumn, in line with Tim Cook’s promise of ‘exciting products this fall’.

Pegatron’s hiring drive comes just a month after rival Apple supply-chain mainstay Foxconn added 10,000 new employees to its production lines.

That suggests that Apple is going all out to get every supplier it can working at full capacity on a budget iPhone.

The handset is expected to rock a cheap plastic shell, with talk of a larger screen to compete with the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy range and HTC’s forthcoming M4.

Whether it can capture the lucrative Chinese and Indian markets, however, remains to be seen

Source:  Reuters

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Some of the UK’s largest retailers have withdrawn the existing version of the Google Nexus 4 from sale, adding heft to speculation that a new addition to the Nexus smartphone range will debut this week at Google’s I/O event.

Fansite Android Headlines noticed that Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U have pulled the Nexus 4 from their websites, ahead of the developers' conference that’s set to start on May 15th.

The reason for this has yet to be confirmed. However, it’s possible that both companies have been running down stock of the handset in the knowledge that a new model was imminent and have now sold out.

Meanwhile, PC Mag has remarked that US retail giant BestBuy has also pulled the current-gen Nexus kit from its home page, presumably also armed with the gen that it will be superseded in a matter of days.

Signs that something is afoot on retailers' websites come amid rumours that Google could debut a 4G-toting version of the Nexus 4, which sites have unofficially termed the Nexus 4S, this week.

It’s also been predicted that the search giant may use the showcase to reveal an entirely new fifth-generation Nexus phone, possibly running a new version of Android Jelly Bean. Dubbed the Nexus 5, again very unofficially, this is thought to have been manufactured by LG on Google's behalf.

Source:

Android Headlines

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Nokia has officially raised the curtain on its latest flagship challenger, the Lumia 925, as it plots its slow but steady comeback to the smartphone top table.

The Lumia 925 is a direct sequel to the Lumia 920, featuring a 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ display with ClearBlack technology, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and an 8.7-megapixel PureView camera with optical image stabilisation – all rolled into a slick and slim metal chassis – for the first time in the Lumia range.

Elsewhere, it’s home to an all-new feature called Smart Camera which introduces a range of editing options and shooting modes to further augment the handset’s imaging capabilities, plus a host of Nokia’s best apps and services pre-installed, such as Nokia HERE Maps with free navigation and Nokia Music for unlimited streaming of free playlists.

"We keep innovating," said Jo Harlow, executive vice president of Nokia Smart Devices. "We're advancing experiences on the Nokia Lumia portfolio whether that means great new benefits for an existing Lumia owner, or bringing new showcase devices like the Nokia Lumia 925."

The Lumia 925 also comes with Microsoft’s mobile Office suite out of the box and wireless charging support though compatible back covers and charging docks, which can be purchased separately.

Vodafone UK has already confirmed it will be offering the Lumia 925 on its Red tariffs when it launches sometime in June and will have exclusivity over the 32GB edition of the handset.

Phones 4u has also revealed it will be ranging the 925 on contract through various networks and will reveal pricing and availability details in the near future.

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The next iPhone will make a landmark break from a physical home button, rumours suggest, as Apple calls time on a feature that’s been present since its first handset dropped back in 2007.

According to a report Taiwanese site Technews.tw, which was brought to wider attention by Cult of Mac, the iPhone 5S will drop a physical home button in favour of an on-screen capacitive presser.

It’s not known whether the change, which flies in the face of reports that the seventh-gen iPhone will differ little from the current model, is to allow Apple to equip the handset with a larger screen.

The site does disclose, however, that the new button will be coated in scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass to make it more resistant to the kind of wear and tear that has caused problems with iPhones’ physical buttons in the past.

Apple purportedly also favours sapphire glass because it is compatible with optic sensors.

Industry consensus suggests that the iPhone 5S will land in September. The phone is set to be the first in which the iOS software that powers iPhones is helmed by hardware design hero Jonathan Ive.

Ive is expected to usher in a new iOS era marked by a 'flatter' look and feel and less in the way of cutesy skeuomorphic icons, whereby apps resemble real life objects – for example, the current Notes app that takes on the form of a notebook.

Via:

Cult of Mac

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O2 and Three have officially confirmed they’ll be on board for the impending launch of Nokia’s latest flagship smartphone, the Lumia 925.

The networks join Vodafone, which has already thrown its support for the 925’s UK debut in June. Customers can currently register their interest on the networks’ official websites to be informed as soon as the handset is available to pre-order.

High street retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4u have also confirmed they’ll be ranging the handset and are accepting registrations on their sites to notify punters when deals become available.

Announced this week, the Lumia 925 is the first handset in the Lumia range to feature a metal casing and houses a 4.5-inch ClearBack display, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon chipset and an 8.7-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and optical image stabilisation.

Powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, the 925 also comes with some new software features, namely the Smart Camera mode that offers built-in photo editing and a host of shooting modes.

It’s also preloaded with Nokia HERE Maps with free driving navigation, the Nokia Music app that lets you enjoy unlimited streaming of free playlists and a mobile edition of the Microsoft Office suite for working on the move.

The Nokia Lumia 925 goes on sale in June. Pricing details are still under wraps but we expect free-phone contracts to be in the region of £30-35 per month.

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Rumours that Apple will debut at least two new smartphones this year gathered pace today, after a Chinese source claimed to have seen the forthcoming devices.

Posting on micro blogging service, Sina Tech, Old Yao claims his friend at one of Apple’s Chinese parts suppliers has laid eyes on the new edition of the standard-sized iPhone, AKA the iPhone 5S, and the phablet-sized iPhone 6.

According to said insider, the iPhone 5S isn’t too different from the current-gen model in the looks stakes. That tallies with other recent reports suggesting that improvements that the next-generation handset brings will be largely restricted to the phone’s internals.

The iPhone 6, meanwhile, is a different matter and is purportedly longer – Yao claims it packs a five-inch screen - and wider than the iPhone 5, but is also thinner.

Although that’s not a terribly concrete description, it’s sure to add to the clamour of tech voices forecasting that Apple’s 2013 product portfolio will include a tablet-smartphone hybrid aimed at seeing off the challenge from the Samsung’s Note range.

Still, before you get too excited, it’s worth remembering that we can’t set too much store in Old Yao’s claims, given that it’s been hard to verify what kind of industry credentials he’s got. If indeed, he’s got any at all.

Either way, given the Samsung Galaxy Note and Note 2’s huge sales, it seems likely that demand for an Apple phablet would be huge. And with a putative spec sheet that takes in a super HD camera, 128GB of storage and Near Field Communications, it’s not hard to see why.

Via:

CNET
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