AT&T discontinues the HTC First, Officially a Flop

[poofyhairguy]

One can hope. It's a decent phone if you turn off Home.

Closest thing to a HTC Nexus we might get for a while.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

They've already said Facebook Home is coming to Android tablets later this year, I assume this means they are making a proper tablet app.

But Facebook Home isn't a replacement for the app is it? It's more of a launcher. You still need a proper app to navigate the news feed and the rest of Facebook.

I don't understand what's so difficult for Twitter and Facebook to produce tablet oriented versions of their apps. It's quite disgusting.

 

[dagamer34]

But Facebook Home isn't a replacement for the app is it? It's more of a launcher. You still need a proper app to navigate the news feed and the rest of Facebook.

I don't understand what's so difficult for Twitter and Facebook to produce tablet oriented versions of their apps. It's quite disgusting.

What's interesting/sad is that Twitter made an app for Windows 8 before it made an app for Android tablets.

 

[ViRGE]

I'm surprised no one has made a MS Kin comparison yet. "Social networking" oriented phones have been flops on all sides of the asile.

 

[WelshBloke]

...

We like to pretend that the K*n never happened.

 

[Mopetar]

I'm surprised no one has made a MS Kin comparison yet. "Social networking" oriented phones have been flops on all sides of the asile.

Did the Kin actually sell 1,500 units, let alone 15,000 though?

To be fair though, the head of the Windows Phone group at Microsoft at the time hated the Kin with a passion and probably didn't care that his actions basically meant it would die a horrible death.

 

[Crono]

I'm surprised no one has made a MS Kin comparison yet. "Social networking" oriented phones have been flops on all sides of the asile.

We like to pretend that the K*n never happened.

I have a Kin (One) and liked it. Sure, it had a lot of flaws, but there were some interesting features built-in. You can see the early shared design elements that it had with its younger sibling, Windows Phone. It was the only phone with Zune at the time, which was the big draw for me. I think it was the first phone with automatic cloud storage sync built in (Kin Studio) for photos... which of course sucked when Microsoft took it down. Verizon screwed their compensation for that - I was supposed to be entitled to a free phone, but stupid Verizon store refused to honor the Microsoft promise.

The Kin phones could have worked if they weren't a separate team from Windows Phone with little hope of a future. And the phones were some weird middle ground between being a feature phone and a smartphone, but with the pricing (data plan required) of a smartphone. Verizon and Microsoft's partnership was not a good one.

ATT and Facebook might be an equally bad partnership. But I'd still love to pick up a HTC First either for myself as a backup phone or as a gift.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Its really not a bad phone hardwarewise. So many on here love a 4.3 sweet spot, and in that size the first has a 720p screen and a nice GPU. If it had 2 gigs if ram it would be the deal of the year.

Edit: And it might get CM love:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=41382856&postcount=6

 

[lopri]

Went to the AT smartphone section and there is absolutely no writing from MR Klug about HTC First other than the initial announcement. Also he never reported about the patents-related HTC One's microphone troubles. I doubt there will be a writing about Apple's frivolous lawsuit against the S4, either.

He also didn't say nothing about the rumoured S4 Active or S4 zoom camera.

But you can be assured to hear about anything that might be viewed negative about the S4 from him. (Umm.. NFC?)

He is quickly following his boss's mindset and tactics. Moral of the story: don't trust individual reviewers.

On topic: I still think this phone is better than many other craps in the same price range. It's true it loses its appeal when contracts enter into the equation, but if you're uncomfortable with 5" phones this phone still looks like a good value to me. Facebook home is just a launcher, anyway.

 

[ViRGE]

Went to the AT smartphone section and there is absolutely no writing from MR Klug about HTC First other than the initial announcement. Also he never reported about the patents-related HTC One's microphone troubles. I doubt there will be a writing about Apple's frivolous lawsuit against the S4, either.

He also didn't say nothing about the rumoured S4 Active or S4 zoom camera.

But you can be assured to hear about anything that might be viewed negative about the S4 from him. (Umm.. NFC?)

He is quickly following his boss's mindset and tactics. Moral of the story: don't trust individual reviewers.

Let's be realistic here. AT doesn't cover patents and AT doesn't cover lawsuits (other than the occasional "X is settled" pipeline post). So I'm not sure what you're expecting; other than the microphone bit (and wasn't that in their review?), none of that falls under the type of content AT produces.

AT reviews hardware and writes in-depth overviews of new technologies. And even then they clearly don't have enough time to review everything, so not every phone is going to get reviewed. Particularly mid-range phones that don't capture a lot of reader attention.

 

[Crono]

Let's be realistic here. AT doesn't cover patents and AT doesn't cover lawsuits (other than the occasional "X is settled" pipeline post). So I'm not sure what you're expecting; other than the microphone bit (and wasn't that in their review?), none of that falls under the type of content AT produces.

AT reviews hardware and writes in-depth overviews of new technologies. And even then they clearly don't have enough time to review everything, so not every phone is going to get reviewed. Particularly mid-range phones that don't capture a lot of reader attention.

Pretty much what I was going to post.
AnandTech generally doesn't cover all smartphone news, just general big announcements. They don't really deal in rumors, either. Otherwise it's mostly hardware reviews - almost always very substantive and in-depth - which is what we want and expect. There are enough tech news sites with casual reviews and frequent news updates.

From what I've seen Brian Klug covered the HTC One and S4 - delineating the flaws and advantages of both devices - very fairly. Part 2 to the S4 review is still pending, too. I saw a few accusations of or allusions to bias in the One or S4 review comments sections or in the forums, and many of the commenters ended up retracting or amending their views after they bothered to read the reviews in full or to look at past AT reviews.

I'm not sure why so many people are on Brian Klug's case, and its clear he's rightly annoyed by it sometimes if you listen to the podcasts and hear him defend his views on microSD cards for instance, but I'm guessing fans of certain manufacturers feel slighted when a professional reviewer points out flaws or prefers a model from a competing manufacturer. Brian is obviously very knowledgeable on the subject of smartphones and I have yet to see anything that he has said or written that would indicate a bias, except what he clearly states is personal preference. I doubt he's in anyone's pocket if that's the implication people are making when they question his evaluations.

 

[Bateluer]

. I doubt there will be a writing about Apple's frivolous lawsuit against the S4, either.

Apple sues every phone maker for every phone they make. They're all frivolous suits and its not news any more.