The HTC One 2 is all but confirmed, thanks to a veritable truckload of leaks from every corner of the internet.

Among the more prolific leakers has been none other than @evleaks, and today the Twitter tipster is back at it with an image that may reveal the forthcoming phone's redesigned homescreen.

In characteristic fashion, evleaks has a short caption to accompany the pic, though this one may be one of its curtest: "M8" is all we have to go on to identify what this snap is showing us.

The overall design matches the scheme of HTC Blinkfeed, though the Flipboard-like tiles have been tweaked. The most notably change though are the virtual navigation buttons, a feature we've heard rumored before.

HTC One 2 in sight

Of course, this image is a leak from an anonymous internet source, so the final product could look very different from this find.

Images purporting to show the HTC One 2 leaked earlier today, and they don't line-up with what evleaks is showing us. However, Blinkfeed can be disabled, so the earlier images may in fact be a look at what the standard screen looks like.

The HTC M8 (internal codename for the One 2), should be here in the coming weeks, either at this month's MWC or during a late March event.

Unfortunately for HTC and those who like surprises, if bits and pieces of the new HTC One keep appearing the way they have been, there may not be too much to get excited about when it's finally revealed.

• Maybe an HTC wearable will get your engines revving?

Verizon HTC One owners your Android 4.4 KitKat ship has come in.

Mo Versi, HTC product manager, announced on Twitter that Verizon has approved 4.4 over-the-air update for the HTC and it will begin rolling out shortly. Coming with the 4.4 update is a slew of Sense 5.5 improvements to the phone.

Sense 5.5 already made its way to the HTC One on the 4.3 update, but it was curiously left out for Verizon customers.

One of the more notable Sense 5.5 changes is an off switch for BlinkFeed. Shutting off this unified news and social network feed will return the device to a standard widget and app filled Android homescreen.

For those that rather keep the on blinking, the update will also allow BlinkFeed to finally source posts from Google+, international news, and RSS feeds. To help users sort through all the content HTC added a sideswipe filters menu and improved search.

All new and shiny

Other improvements include some camera adjustments with a new dual shot mode for taking a picture with the back sensor and your reaction with the front snapper at the same time. Another camera upgrade is Zoe's new-found ability to make GIFs on top of short movie clips.

On the some more basic level UI improvements, HTC has revamped the notifications area to be a customizable space for 12 different options. It's also added a few new options for this pull down menu such as Do not Disturb and a data roaming toggle.

Up until now, only the global GSM, Developer Edition, and Sprint's versions of the outgoing HTC flagship have received the Andorid KitKat update. Hopefully the other carriers will follow suit and quickly break off a piece of that KitKat bar for the HTC One.

Verizon just announced that the Android 4.4 KitKat is now being pushed out in stages to the HTC One, so keep clutching that metal clad handset.

• Want a phone that already has Android 4.4? Check out our review of the Motorola Moto G.

Samsung has denied the accusation that it's demanding athletes cover up their iPhones and other non-Samsung logos during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Samsung is heavily involved in the games, giving every athlete a Galaxy Note 3, sending a "Galaxy Team" of 80 athletes around the world on a large-scale marketing campaign, flying student bloggers to Sochi, and releasing a Samsung Wireless Olympic Works app for fans.

But the Swiss Olympic team says the gift of Galaxy Note 3s comes with a catch: that no other logos, iPhone or otherwise, appear on-camera during the opening ceremony. Athletes have even been instructed to physically cover their iPhones during the ceremony, Slashgear reports (the team originally spilled its guts to the German site Bluewin).

But Samsung has informed TechRadar that it has nothing to do with that.

Samsung responds

"Samsung has not been involved in any decisions related to branding on products used by athletes to the Games," a Samsung spokesperson told TechRadar. "All commercial marketing around the Games is overseen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)."

In a previous statement, a Samsung spokesperson explained the reasoning behind giving every athlete a free phone.

"Samsung has partnered with the IOC to provide the official Olympic Games phone to all Sochi 2014 athletes, enabling them to capture, share and experience the Games in an innovative way through the new features of the Galaxy Note 3 and the added functionality of the S Pen," the spokesperson said.

The statement continued, "Athletes can collect photos and digital autographs of other athletes in the Village or use Note 3's drag and drop feature to easily include photos in texts to friends and family back home. The Galaxy Note 3 will create a global community of the athletes and support them to be connected at all times throughout the Games and beyond."

Whatever's really going on here, we'll know for sure when the Sochi 2014 Olympics kick off on February 7.

If all you see is Samsung logos, you'll know who to blame - according to Samsung, at least.

• Here's what TechRadar thinks of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Apple's Retina displays helped the iPhone and iPad reach new resolution limits and soon they might do even more with the help of quantum dots.

The US Patent and Trademark Office published four new patent applications from Apple that were first spotted by Patently Apple. The most interesting of these new documents describes using quantum dots in tandem with Apple's microelectromechanical systems shutter control.

As noted in the patent, Quantum Dots may provide a way for enhancing the color gamut of displays. By replacing the regular LED phosphor, which often leaks out too much light and washes out colors, with quantum dots the screen can emit a much narrower and more specific spectrums of light.

Without getting into the scientific minutiae of nanocrystals, a quantum dot display, if used, would create richer and more accurate colors.

It's all about the backlight

Besides improving color, the other two patents suggest fine tuning the backlight with quantum dots. More accurately, a dot laden backlight sub-stack would produce a module with a mix of prisms, diffusers and light guides. Despite the added items it could be both thinner and more accurate.

Finally, a backlight dimming invention would fine-tune the enhanced backlight system using a stack of red, blue, and green quantum dot sheets to correct for any LED color shift.

Poppycock you say?

Before you blow off the concept as patent pipe dreams, quantum dot technology is already being used in the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7.

When Apple first introduced the Retina display powered iPhone 4 it blew everything out of the water. Since then, though, other device makers have been catching up with 1080p capable smartphones and even higher resolution 4K tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2.

It seems now Apple is looking into newer technologies to put its Retina display back on top, and better color accuracy could be the edge it needs.

But this is a space other device manufacturers like Samsung have managed to do using OLED screens on the Galaxy Note 3.

• How do Retina displays look right now? Find out in our review of the iPad Air.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has suggested a novel way for the company to combat the march of the Android army... start building Android phones!

Speaking to Wired, the flamboyant computing whiz Wozniak said there's nothing keeping Apple from making Android phones that would out-style options from best-selling manufacturers like Samsung.

"There's nothing that would keep Apple out of the Android market as a secondary phone market," he said.

"We could compete very well. People like the precious looks of stylings and manufacturing that we do in our product compared to the other Android offerings. We could play in two arenas at the same time."

Being Steve Wozniak

Naturally, there's no chance of that ever happening unless things take a serious turn for the worst at Cupertino, or Eric Schmidt totally Malkovich's Tim Cook. It's also unlikely the brazen statement will bother too many folks at Infinite Loop.

Wozniak, whose only real involvement with Apple these days is collecting his dividends cheques, is known for his occasional jaunts to the other side of the tracks when it comes to towing the company line.

In the past, he's urged Apple to bring iTunes to Android, criticised the new range of iPads, asserted that the iPhone had fallen behind the competition and called Windows Phone 'more beautiful' than iOS.

Beyond his latest wind up, Woz was super positive about the company's recent times, refusing to criticise the company's decision for the slow bleed of new iPhone features, amid Samsung's desire to cram their handsets with everything but the kitchen sink.

"If you have something really good, don't change it; don't screw it up. You pick up a Samsung phone and say smile and it takes a picture, but how much innovation is that? That's just throwing in a lot of features, he said.

• Woz loves a wind-up. Here are six of the best we pulled together way back in 2009.