Give away! Win a brand new HTC One!

Edit: 9.10.2013

The contest is now closed. Im trying to reach the first randomly selected person to confirm if he (yes, its "he") has a Twitter account and he entered the contest properly.

If he wont answer me within next 24 hours I will pick another winner. Stay tuned and check your Google Hangouts ;)

Here comes another give-away! This time the winner will get a brand new HTC One. Previously, a brand new HTC One X+ in a limited white colour went to Barry.

This give-away is international, which means everyone from around the world can enter and win! HTC One is also supported by Android Revolution HD on XDA Developers Forum under this link.

Why HTC One?

Because its still the best Android device you can find on the market. HTC partnered with Robert Downey Jr. (RDJ) on a series of #HTChange videos that only he could come up with. To enter the contest, you need to visit first a short RDJ change video  available here - http://s.htc.com/1fKG6Rr

Rules

1. Watch this video - http://s.htc.com/1fKG6Rr
2. In the comments section beneath this post answer one of these two questions:
1. what would you like to change in the Android OS?
2. what was the most important change in your life? You might use just a few words, but you might come up with a whole story too.
3. Share this give-away announcement on Twitter (short link: http://goo.gl/Hfq5d2) using the #RevolutionChange hashtag - this is very important for us to see you actually entered the contest!

The winner will be picked randomly on Wednesday, October 9th 2013.

Prize

As mentioned above, its a brand new HTC One in a variant of your choice (GSM or GSM+LTE).

Good luck everyone!

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

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Stock system dumps Android 4 3 with official HTC Sense 5 5 for HTC One

First official update with brand new HTC Sense 5.5 for the HTC One arrived today. The new software number is 3.62.401.1 and its based on Android 4.3. To receive the OTA update your device must be running 2.24.401.8 software and you must own the international version of HTC One (M7_UL). If there is no update for you CID yet, you can download and flash stock system dump instead.

HTC One thread - HTC One *STOCK* ROM | 3.62.401.1 | Jelly Bean | HTC Sense 5.5

Download links can be found on this blog, under Downloads section - Downloads

The official list of changes from the OTA update:

• System Improvements
  - Android 4.3 and HTC Sense 5.5 update
• Video Highlights improvements
  - Updated interface
  - Add soundtracks to videos
• BlinkFeed improvements
  - Access recommended news from your social network
  - Additional global news sources
  - Save articles to read later or offline
  - Create custom feeds from news media, Twitter and YouTube
• Music improvements
  - Updated interface
  - Embedded music channel with new scenes
• Sense TV improvements
  - Updated interface
  - Add MY Picks Page to improve program management

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

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How to Fix a random reboots on the HTC One M8

Some time ago I described a method to format the /data partition on the HTC One (M7) - How to: Fix a corrupted DATA partition on the HTC One. This method is suitable for more HTC devices (all with EXT4 support) and with the mkfs.ext4 tool you can format system and cache partitions as well. All you need to know is the proper /dev/block/mmcblk0pXY number of the partition you want to format.

However, formatting the partition always means that your data will be gone. On the HTC One M8 I noticed a problem, most likely caused by the wp_mod.ko module (module to disable system R/W protection). When the module is loaded too late and anything ever gets changed before the module is loaded the file-structure of the /data partition might (and probably will) get corrupted. As a result your device will reboot each time youll try to make and change on the /system partition (even if mounted as RW). So removing, copying, moving, re-naming or editing any file on a system partition will result with the following message in the kernel log (last_kmsg.txt):

Formatting the /data partition is not the best idea for some and its not needed in most cases.

Repair Process

1. Download this mini-sdk package and extract it to c:mini-sdk
2. Download this fsck.ext4 binary and put it into c:mini-sdk
3. Connect your device to the PC
4. Boot your device in recovery mode
5. Open a command prompt on the PC (cmd.exe), type and confirm each command with ENTER:
6. cd /d c:mini-sdk
7. adb push fsck.ext4 /tmp
8. adb shell
9. chmod 777 /tmp/fsck.ext4
10. /tmp/fsck.ext4 -fn /dev/block/mmcblk0p47

This will fix your /data partition and you should see the following output (numbers in the last line will be different in each case):

e2fsck 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/block/mmcblk0p47: 19050/712704 files (2.7% non-contiguous), 2320338/2850816 blocks

Your /data partition is now fixed and you should no longer experience random reboots problem on your device (assuming that the corrupted /data partition was the source of the problem). Keep in mind that the fsck.ext4 -fn command can be used to check other EXT4 partitions on any device that has EXT4 file-system structure. All you need to know is the partition name or block number.

Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

For latest news follow Android Revolution HD on popular social platforms:

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Budget handsets for the cost of a Bhuna

India has an interesting handset market, Apples stupidly high prices just dont cut the mustard there so midrange Android phones very do well. Sony have had some success there as have HTC, Sony has also released some India only bits of hardware - annoyingly so too.

There is a great flurry of incoming handsets from Indian manufacturers, while support and warranty might be an issue (not to mention Insurance) you can import them low cost.

Since the local currency is on its ass, there are some bargains to be had. Talking of which.

Bargain

Xolo has announced a new Android handset to their range with the launch of the Xolo Q1000S, the handset will come with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The Xolo Q1000S features a 5 inch HD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, processing comes in the form of a quad core 1.5Ghz MediaTek processor and it also features 1GB of RAM.

Other specifications on the Xolo Q1000S include front and rear facing cameras. On the front of the handset is a 5 megapixel camera, on the back there is a 13 megapixel camera it also comes with 16GB of built in storage.

The Xolo Q1000S will be launched in India in the next few weeks, it will retail for the equivalent of $300/ £250

Sony have the Xperia L and M in that kind of target price range, and cost a little more - neither has a quad core CPU or camera on the front or back of that spec.

We havent found a decent importer for the phone yet but once we do, We will update here - so check back.

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Look out its a Honami wave of new phones

Excited for the new incoming Sony Honami which looks set to be announced, washed ashore sometime in September - the spec sheet is almost pornographic in nature. The price will be just as obscene too, although will it be more expensive that the ridiculous prices Apple charge for an off plan iPhone, we doubt that. 

Import

In the UK at least no Moto X - however you can import one from welectronics.com at a cost of $800+ which is around £600, plus you will be asked to pony up another 20% in VAT when it lands on your doorstep. No choices in colour or config, so its black or black. Motorola have said some Euro bound handsets later this or early next year.

On the subject of Motorola, the new Ultra HD is also at welectronics.com which can be had in black or a very nasty red. This replaced the RAZR HD which didnt make it to the UK either. Guessing Verizon / Vodafone deal stopped it.

We have covered the arrival of the LG G2 - which impressive as it is maybe too close in spec for the Nexus 5, which rumor whores have been enjoying the tugowar between stories of this and that manufacturer. Exciting having 2 phones coming to the market from LG whatever. Talking of LG, the LG G Pro again a handset that never made the UK can be had for a reasonable £350 / $500 negrielectronics.com

Sony Ultra Z is here but who wants a screen or handset that big, goes beyond practical - maybe fine for home or sat nav/GPS purposes. 


Which handsets are you looking forward to !?

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A roadmap update!

Posted by Joe Gregorio, App Engine Team

The App Engine team has been plugging away and were excited about some pretty big announcements in the near future. In the meantime, we decided to refresh our App Engine roadmap for the next six months with some of the great new APIs in our pipeline:

• Support for running scheduled tasks


• Task queues for performing background processing


• Ability to receive and process incoming email


• Support for sending and receiving XMPP (Jabber) messages

As always, keep in mind that development schedules are notoriously difficult to predict, and release dates may change as work progresses. Well do our best to update this roadmap as our engineers continue development and keep you abreast of any changes!

Youll have the opportunity to discuss this roadmap (and all things App Engine) with us and your fellow developers during Google I/O, coming up in May. Check out the App Engine sessions weve already announced and dont forget to discuss in our Google Group!

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