HTC first -facebook home

After endless months of speculation, the collaboration between HTC and Facebook has finally been revealed to the world. It's not a Facebook Phone per se, it's simply a skinned Android smartphone that just so happens to bestow deep social media integration upon the OS, a move which makes the First -- as well as future devices that feature the newly announced Facebook Home interface -- an appropriate candidate for the term. The First will be available April 12th for $100 on AT&T, but it can be pre-ordered starting today.

While Facebook Home is taking the spotlight, let's examine the first piece of hardware it will be featured on. On the spec sheet, the First isn't going to take anybody's breath away: it's a midrange phone with 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB RAM, 5MP rear camera and 1.6MP front-facing cam, Android 4.1 and a 4.3-inch 720p display. We're just getting our hands on the device right now and will continue to offer up our First impressions, along with a full gallery of images.

The First won't be the only device featuring Facebook Home, as it will be available for download on a limited number of flagship phones next week, but the idea is for the First to offer more optimizations in the experience: it's a cleaner setup process since it's pre-loaded on the phone, and it can take advantage of a few additional service integrations that legacy devices won't offer.

At 125.6 x 64.93 x 8.96mm and 3.37 ounces, the First is one slender and lightweight handheld. We're also pleasantly surprised by its rounded edges and matte rubberized shell -- both result in a comfortable and pleasant feel when cradled in the hand. The 4.3-inch 720p screen seemed bright enough under the demo room's task lighting, though it's obviously not as sharp as the One's. Flipping through Home's UI felt zippy enough thanks to that dual-core Snapdragon processor, but it didn't strike us as a super speedster either. Of course, we doubt it's really meant to be the most powerful device on the block: the First appears to be aimed not at power users, but at Facebook connoisseurs that simply want to be connected to friends and family as often as possible.

Taking a brief tour of the phone's exterior, the First doesn't have any fancy dedicated Facebook button or removable battery (the latter is par for the course on HTC devices, so no surprise there). A volume rocker is featured on the left side, while a power button and 3.5mm headphone jack are housed on the top. Residing to the phone's right is the micro-SIM tray and micro-USB charging port. Hanging out on the bottom is a speaker grille, and a camera with LED flash live on the top left corner of the back.

As for the front, the 4.3-inch 720p panel naturally takes up the bulk of the real estate, with an average-sized bezel to the sides, 1.6MP front-facing cam and proximity sensor just above the screen and a setup of three capacitive buttons: back, home and menu. On the whole, the First strikes us as a pretty simple phone, and its design reflects that

evil dead -Pays Homage to the Original and Then Some

director -fede alvarez
cast -jane levy ,jessica lucas
genre -horror
release date - april 5 , 2013
plot summary -Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods. The evil presence possesses them until only one is left to fight for survival.
my rating-9.5/10


my review-
This reanimated remake of the classic Evil Dead starts out a view askew from the original, but heads off into the general known storyline before things get completely out of hand. The characters get just enough back story washed over them to make the premise make sense without relying on flashbacks or any other tired story telling technique.

Once the action begins there isn't a drawn out waiting period between actions points but it's not all jammed down your throat like a chainsaw right at once either. It maintains a fairly good pace throughout and doesn't deviate from the story for any meaningless asides.

Fans of the original will be well pleased so long as they are aren't too obsessed and afraid of a little change. Newcomers completely oblivious to what they are getting themselves into will either be turned away by the blood and gore or find themselves entertained by a well spun modern retelling of Sam Raimi's cult film from 1981.

There were times I laughed, times I cringed, and at one point I flinched just a little bit. Granted I'm an avid horror fan so I don't jump so easily, but they got me once. If you're looking for a genuine scare, this might be the movie to do it for you. If you love gore and have been waiting on a movie that doesn't rely solely on it for 90 minutes, this might be for you. But if you take yourself too seriously and think there is no way an Evil Dead movie without Bruce Campbell could be good, just stay at home and miss out on one of the few excellent remakes ever made.

Supposed Photo of "Facebook Phone" Leaked Ahead of Thursday's Event

With the planned Facebook just two days away, the photo of an HTC-built handset dubbed the “HTC First” has been leaked on the internet, with several sites touting that the true “Facebook phone” may soon see a release. 

For those of you who haven’t been following the word on the street about the news, the social network giant is widely expected to show off a new operating system built on Google’s Android platform at an event scheduled for Thursday. Some rumors even went as far as to say the company will introduce its own smartphone based on HTC hardware. In a tweet on Tuesday “evleaks” who has in the past revealed several handsets before their official unveiling, revealed the HTC First, which could be the handset in question.

Although the alleged picture does exhibit some aliasing around the “HTC First” lettering, the text overlay may simply be a label “evleaks” put on a legitimate photo of the phone. Speculation of a Facebook-developed phone has been making the rounds for some time. According to the recent rumor, the firm is looking to launch an iPhone competitor that deeply integrates its social networking platform into hardware built by a dedicated handset maker, with HTC being at the top of the list. The device could feature direct Facebook profile updating and a homescreen news feed, as well as quick access to the service’s integrated apps. Sources may say the mobile OS will be a “flavor” of Android with a user interface reminiscent of Facebook’s iOS app. 

We’ll have to wait and see how much of this turns out to be true as we’ll be finding out soon enough.

Development of iOS 7 Rumored to be Behind Schedule, Supposedly a Huge Overhaul

There seems to be quite a long discussion going on over at Branch between several Apple reporters about the future release date of iOS 7. According to the sources involved in the discussion, a lot of Jony Ive’s work will be seen all over iOS 7, the only problem is it’s taking longer to develop than originally planned. In fact, Apple might have even pulled engineers away from OS X 10.9 to work on it.

John Gruber, who also runs the Apple blog, Daring Fireball, said Senior Vice President of Industrial Design and new head of Human Interface, Jony Ive, has apparently made noticeable visual tweaks to Apple’s mobile platform. So much that the “word on the street” has it that iOS engineers are required to put a polarizing filter over their iPhone displays to prevent onlookers from getting a glimpse of the new UI.

As you may already know, Apple is quite notorious when it comes to keeping projects a secret from its own employees so we wouldn’t be shocked if Gruber’s claims are true. Other participants in the discussion pointed out that all the changes made by Ive will make many users really happy by tossing out the rich-textures that Scott Forstall championed. If this was the case, a super clean and minimalist update to iOS is what we’d be seeing and that sounds like what many Apple fans have been seeking as they are starting to get bored with the iOS’ UI that hasn’t changed much since its release in 2007. The only thing to consider though is whether work on iOS 7 is worth delaying the release of OS X 10.9.

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Mobile phones turn 40, pioneer Martin Cooper honoured with 2013 Marconi Prize

NDTV Correspondent, April 03, 2013

April 3 is a special day in the world of telecommunications, as this is the day the first known mobile phone conversation took place.

On Wednesday, the 40th anniversary of the event, Martin Cooper, the engineer who made the first call on 3 April, 1973, was honoured with the 2013 Marconi Prize, recognising his contributions to the world of telecommunications.

"Motorola was one of the luckiest things that ever happened to me," Mr. Cooper told The Marconi Society. "If you wanted to change society it was the place to be. In 1965 I was given a new assignment to head the Portable Products Group. We had one over-riding belief: that people are inherently mobile."

At the time, AT&T, which invented the concept of cellular technology, was investing heavily in their own vision of the future of mobile communications and it seemed likely AT&T would be granted a monopoly by the FCC on the required spectrum.

All that changed on April 3, 1973, when, standing on a street corner in New York City, Martin Cooper demonstrated Motorola's handset prototype to a reporter by making the first public phone call on the handheld cellular phone. "I'm ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end," Cooper is reported to have said.

The original handset, named the DynaTAC (DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage), was gigantic by modern standards, weighed over a kilo, and was 10-inches long. Since then, mobile phones have come a long way, with over 6 billion reported mobile devices around the world, with the growth showing no signs of slowing down.