Androidifying

After floundering over the last couple of years, HTC is hoping to make an impact with their latest flagship offering, the HTC 10. The device retains everything we love about HTC, including a beautiful design and fantastic build quality, and a smooth and snappy software package. This time around, key enhancements to the audio experience and camera setup have also been made, resulting an even more compelling smartphone overall. The HTC 10 may not be the perfect 10 that the company wants it to be, but what we do have is the comeback from HTC that we’ve all been waiting for. HTC 10 review HTC 10 pricing and availability The HTC 10, like any other smartphone, is vulnerable to unfortunate scratches, bumps, and drops, and an extra layer of protection to keep this expensive device in pristine condition is never a bad idea. Which is why, we’ve rounded up some of the best protective cases and covers currently available for the HTC 10! Spigen matte finish hard case The Spigen hard case

Back in March of 2015, Nexon and Square Enix announced that they would be teaming up to develop a mobile version of the massively popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XI. The goal was to create a gaming experience true to the original that takes advantage of some of the capabilities unique to the mobile platform. The team wants to optimize various aspects of the original game as well by “improving party organizing systems, enriching solo-play functionality, improving battle functionality and enhancing in-game events and features.” Today we saw our first screenshots of actual gameplay. The images appeared in a slideshow presentation at the Nexon Developers Conference in South Korea. Although it’s our first look at Final Fantasy XI Reboot, the company has yet to formally reveal the game. The presentation wasn’t specifically focused on the game, but rather part of a talk regarding the challenges of game development in general. We do know that the MMORPG will be a

Gather around, my children, and I’ll tell you a tale about the revival of the fantasy genre. Once upon a time, in the mid-nineties, a science fiction author looked over at the fantasy section of the bookstore and was disgusted by how formulaic these stories had become. He decided that if he wanted something done right, he’d have to do it himself. That man’s name was George R. R. Martin, and today  Game of Thrones is practically everyone’s favorite addiction in both book and TV form. Now Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell wants to do the same thing with mobile games. “I have been so pissed off with some mobile games I’ve wanted to throw my phone, even if I’m only going to hurt my phone there, and not the game,” Bushnell told The Guardian . “Generally, a tremendous number of mobile games are poorly designed. They can be so focused on graphics that they forget they have to get the timing right, and they have to have proper scoring constructs.” Bushnell is essentially telling the mobile g

Earlier today, word leaked that Google had sat down with Telegram back in 2015 to navigate a $1 billion acquisition. Now the Russian messaging app’s CEO Pavel Durov is telling reporters that no such discussion occurred. In fact, Durov denounced suggestions of such a meeting pretty strongly. His words, according to TechCrunch : Bullshit… I haven’t had any acquisition talks or meetings with Google. I am acquainted to Google people and Sundar of course, but acquisition, 1 billion — all of that is false. A Telegram spokesperson speaking to The Next Web stayed on message chiming in with, “This is complete bullshit. There were no acquisition talks, no plans for any such thing either.” See also: Instagram now blocking links to Telegram and Snapchat 13 Google has long been trying to up its messaging game . Although Hangouts is a beloved platform for many, the service hasn’t snagged the market in quite the same way that Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp have. Russian news

Despite existing in one form or another for decades, ‘modern’ VR is still very much in its infancy and developers and consumers alike are busy dreaming up what ways the technology will change our daily lives in the future. While gaming and entertainment are the most obvious things that come to mind, VR also has a lot of potential to bring people together in ways that go beyond traditional social networking, text messages, and even voice calls. The idea of future virtual living rooms populated by your friends and family might be a bit far off, but it’s not hard to imagine. Another area that Samsung feels VR could have a place is in how we interact with our children when away from home. HTC Vive – everything you need to know Oculus Rift – everything you need to know Samsung has revealed a new prototype app called Bedtime VR. As you might guess by the name, the idea here is to strap a VR headset on both the child and the parent, allowing the parent to read a bedtime story and i

HTC’s 10 is getting ready to land stateside with the goal of hitting a home-run for the struggling smartphone manufacturer, but that doesn’t mean its 2015 offerings aren’t still worthy of your consideration. This is especially true right now, as HTC is holding a Mother’s Day promotion that sees the One A9 and One M9 at just $389 and $399 respectively. The HTC One A9 is available in either unlocked form or as the Sprint version, but with just one color choice – deep garnet. Considering the A9 is normally $499, that means you’re getting $110 off. Turning to the HTC One M9, you’ll find it in pink and completely unlocked for use with the GSM carrier of your choice. HTC 10 Review HTC 10 vs HTC One M9 HTC One A9 Review HTC One M9 Review! The sale pricing is good from now until Mother Day (May 8th). Whether you’re planning on picking this up for mom, or for yourself, this is a pretty good deal for those interested in what HTC has to offer but looking for something

We’ve been hearing about the flexible display revolution for years now. It seems every trade show produces another folding or rollable AMOLED panel that looks great and gets us excited but never appears in a product we can actually buy. Following some interesting keynote comments at the 2016 China IT Summit , I spoke with Dr. Bill Liu from Royole about why flexible displays are taking so long to “arrive”. The short answer? Because no one is making them. See also: Flexible displays will dominate the future 5 Even Royole’s impressive flexible color display, with a 0.01mm thickness and less than 1mm rolling diameter, was unveiled way back in 2014 and still hasn’t appeared in a fully flexible commercial product. As Dr. Liu told me, “it’s a high investment area, so no one has experience designing products for flexible displays yet because no one is making enough of them”. Technical challenges Because of their familiarity, we perhaps don’t give enough credit to the complex technolo