The new HTC One smartphone made a regulatory appearance on the Federal Communications Commission's website this morning before the information was pulled.

Even though the device wasn't officially named and was accompanied by a crudely draw illustration, its limited specs made public do match all of the rumors that have led up to this point.

The HTC One follow-up features dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, low-powered Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC support.

And while so-called HTC One 2 hasn't officially been confirmed by any carriers, it appears to be AT&T-bound in the US thanks to an AT&T 4G LTE compatible wireless band.

There are also other wireless bands on board with 2, 4, 5, 7 bands getting the green light.

Other HTC One rumors

HTC's new flagship device, codenamed the HTC M8, has been the subject of plenty of rumors and photo leaks.

In addition to seeing the new phone through blurry spy shots, we're expecting there to be 3GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 800 processor and two cameras, one with 5MP "Ultrapixels."

Now that the FCC has given its stamp of approval, we're ready for the new HTC One to out itself.

That's thought to happen at HTC's March 25 reveal in New York City, not next week's MWC 2014 conference where we may see the Samsung Galaxy S5 launch.

• In other HTC news: HTC looks to dominate wearables with three devices

Source : techradar[dot]com

Imagine using your phone to create a 3D map of the world around you, one you could use to figure out how furniture will fit in a room or maneuver through an unfamiliar building or find an item on some lone supermarket shelf.

Thanks to a new Google endeavor, you may one day be able to do all these things and more.

Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group has announced Project Tango, a 5-inch Android phone prototype packing customized hardware and software to track its entire 3D motion, combining gathered data into a 3D map of the environment. It has definite Kinect undertones, and for good reason.

ATAP lead Johnny Lee used to work for Microsoft's Kinect crew. Of this Project Tango, Lee said its goal is "to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion."

The phone's sensors can snag over a quarter million 3D measurements a second, and as it updates its position and orientation in real-time, it coalesces the information into a single 3D model.

It houses development APIs that send position, orientation and depth data to standard Android apps.
Though the days are still early, Google envisions Project Tango having applications in gaming, helping the visually-impaired, maps and navigation and other everyday scenarios.

Not for you. Yet

As if you couldn't tell, Project Tango is firmly planted in the "early stages" sands. For now, Google is focusing on "exploration of what might be possible in a mobile platform."

That said, Project Tango does have a few known specs, including a 4MP camera, 2X computer vision processors, integrated depth sensing and a motion tracking camera.

Only 200 prototype dev kits exist, and Google hopes to get them out the door by March 14. The company is searching for professional developers to take a crack at "creating more than a touchscreen app."

Some of the dev sets have been set aside for indoor navigation/mapping, single and multiplayer games that use physical space and new algorithms for processing sensor data. There are also a number set aside for "we haven't thought of yet" purposes.

Check out ATAP's video explaining Project Tango and exploring its possibilities below. Looks pretty nifty, if you ask us.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Startup mobile manufacturer Kazam has finally announced the smartphones it'll bring to the UK in the second quarter of 2014, with six reasonably priced devices to choose from.

The first two phones are part of the mid-tier "Thunder 2" range - the 4.5-inch Kazam Thunder 2 4.5L and the 5-inch Kazam Thunder 2 5.0.

Looking at the Thunder 2 4.5L you get a 854 x 480 resolution display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of internal storage, 8MP rear facing camera, 1.6MP front camera and 4G connectivity.

Meanwhile the Thunder 2 5.0 comes with a HD 720 x 1280 display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 4GB of internal storage, 13MP rear cam, 5MP front cam, but no 4G support.

Both handsets feature 1GB of RAM, microSD and dual-SIM slots. Kazam was unable to confirm pricing, but both handsets are likely to fall comfortably below the £300 mark.

Take 2

"Trooper 2" is Kazam's low-end range which comprises of four dual-SIM handsets in screen sizes 4, 4.5, 5 and 6 inches.

These handset share lots of the same specs - a 1.3GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, stock Android 4.2.2, 5MP rear camera and 0.3MP front facing camera.

The Kazam Trooper 2 4.5, 5.0 and 6.0 all have the same 854 x 480 screen resolution, while the Trooper 2 4.0 has a 800 x 480 setup.

Fresh approach

Kazam's focus however, is less on the specs of each individual device and more about offering customers an affordable handset with additional benefits.

For now those benefits are one free screen replacement if you break it within the first year and its free Rescue service which can be called upon if you run into difficulties with your device.

Kazam announced its presence back in November 2013, but it's taken until now to rally the troops and get its devices through the UK's lengthy approval process.

Source : techradar[dot]com

The Samsung Galaxy S5 will be on sale by the middle of March, according to reports on Thursday.

The new flagship handset is set to arrive at the Samsung Unpacked event at MWC on February 24 and will be on store shelves just a couple of weeks later, 'inside sources' speaking to GSMArena have claimed.

A mid-March launch, which doesn't seem too much of a stretch, would give Samsung an opportunity to greet shoppers before its biggest Android rival HTC is able to get 'The All New HTC One' in front of the public.

That handset, which has already leaked out several times this week alone, won't have its coming out party until March 25, potentially giving Samsung 1-2 weeks before consumers are presented with a choice.

Joining the dots

The Galaxy S5 is expected to arrive with Android 4.4 KitKat, an all-new version of the TouchWiz UI, a Snapdragon 800 or 805 processor (with octa-core in some regions) and 3GB of RAM.

The device is also likely to retain a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, while speculation has also pointed towards a dust and waterproof metallic casing and a potential fingerprint scanner a la the iPhone 5S.

The most recent rumours also suggest a 16-megapixel camera into play as well as the ability to shoot 4K video, while the hardware could feature a dedicated camera button for the first time in the series.

• Not interested in HTC or Samsung? Check out our LG G2 review

Source : techradar[dot]com

Rumors that Apple will turn to expensive but high quality sapphire for screens in its future devices are looking less and less like rumors all the time.

Now Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth has said publicly that Apple has purchased a huge supply of sapphire displays. And how would he know?

"Apple just snapped up three years' worth of the supply of sapphire screens from the company that we had engaged to make the screens for the Edge," Shuttleworth said in a public town hall meeting discussing Canonical's proposed high end Ubuntu smartphone.

Of course, the Edge missed its Kickstarter goal by $20 million (about £12m, AU$22m), so why shouldn't Apple swoop in on its sapphire deal for the iPhone 6's benefit?

Bitter much?

Shuttleworth does seem sort of bitter, though. "Isn't it interesting that how many of the things we said the future needed to include are showing up on other people's roadmaps?" He asked.

He continued, "Apple also has started describing their latest-generation mobile CPUs as desktop-class. That's another thing we said we needed to have in the Edge was a desktop-class CPU.

"And we're starting to see the roadmaps for the devices from Samsung and others that have the same amount of RAM that we were proposing to put in the Edge."

Apple and sapphire sitting in a tree

Apple already used sapphire in the rear camera lens glass and the fingerprint sensor home button on the iPhone 5S, but rumors that its love for the tough stone might go much further began in November.

In January an unearthed patent revealed that Apple could use sapphire on more than just screens, including sticking it on processors and other components.

Apple CEO Tim Cook the very next day confirmed the company's interest in an Arizona plant tinkering with sapphire, though unsurprisingly wouldn't get into specifics.

Meanwhile, although they may not be the killer Edge that Canonical envisioned, the first Ubuntu smartphones look likely to hit stores in 2014.

• Here's TechRadar's review of the iPad Air

Source : techradar[dot]com