New Handset HTC One Debuts Today

By Paul Thomson :: 6:20 PM

The newest handset from Taiwan’s HTC came to the marketplace today, the HTC One.

With hopes that this new handset will become the company’s flagship model, HTC launched it with great fanfare at events staged in New York and London.

Although it’s running the Android operating system, HTC has jazzed things up a bit with a new home screen feature, BlinkFeed. This screen will provide users with a stream of constantly updated information, including news, social feeds and entertainment content front and center. Icons for apps will be located in the background. The company announced that information will be available in this format from over than 1,400 media sources, including AOL, ESPN, MTV, and Reuters.

HTC has also improved its camera software, which now allows for the simultaneous capture of both high definition video and still images.

For music and sound, the phone features two forward-facing speakers with a dedicated amplifier that the company calls HTC BoomSound. Also included on the phone is karaoke functionality with lyrics fetched online from the Gracenote service.

By tapping into infrared technology, the HTC one can be turned into an interactive remote control for televisions.

Display-wise, it features a 4.7-inch full HD 1080p display with 468ppi resolution. The phone runs the Jelly Bean version of Android’s operating system, and has the capability of accessing fast 4G LTE networks. It will come in either silver or black, 32GB or 64GB versions. The battery cannot be removed.