HTC One M9 update improves camera and battery
HTC is to begin pushing out an update to One M9 users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa beginning later today (barring any unexpected complications). The update will bring the software version to 1.40.401.5 and is the same update that rolled out in Taiwan a couple of weeks ago and will come to North America later this month.
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The update will aim to fix a few problems with the camera, the battery life and even overheating issues. The list of changes is:
Battery Life
The battery life on the One M9 is average at-best and the update should bring improvements to battery life when using two very popular preloaded applications: YouTube and Facebook. This should mean better battery life.
Camera
The camera on the One M9 is arguably one of its worst features and the update should bring a few much-needed improvements, including:
- Greater auto-exposure balance to improve overexposure, so images don’t look washed out
- Reduction of blur and noise in low light, so images are clearer with better detail
- Reduction of yellow/green hue in photos, so colors appear truer to their actual hue
Heat Management
For Qualcomm – who provide the Snapdragon 810 chipset used in the One M9 – the overheating concerns with its Snapdragon 810 were only enhanced in the One M9 as the metal build proved conducive to the overheating. One of the biggest concerns is overheating when your phone is being charged and the update should bring:
- Smart charging thermal improvement, which means your phone will stay cooler when it’s being charged
The update may only be small in size and stature but the fixes will be very welcome to HTC One M9 users, who may be considering whether they purchased the right handset. HTC’s latest flagship certainly has a lot of good features and – although I don’t like it personally – there are some who will find it pleasant. The biggest problem is its Product Strategy and the fact that, having released a bunch of better flagships in Asia, the One M9 is still its global flagship in the West.
One M9 in video:
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Unfortunately for HTC, customers do read the web and its new devices such as the One M9 Plus – which should have arguably been the real flagship – the One E9 Plus and the One ME will only alienate customers. Then again, with poor demand for the One M9 resulting in cost-cutting and a return to loss-making, maybe some changes need to be made to HTC’s Product Strategy.
Ads may be coming to HTC BlinkFeed
HTC recently reported its worst financial results for April since 2009, so it might not be surprising hear that the company is looking for additional ways to monetize its mobile business. According to regular HTC leaker @Upleaks, HTC may be looking to implement advertising directly into its BlinkFeed home screen to help raise additional revenue. See the leaked slide below.
Apparently, the advertisements could range from typical Play Store downloads, to promoting strategic partnerships and offers for other HTC products. Furthermore, @Upleaks suggests that version 7.1 of HTC’s Sense Home, which was released on May 6th, already has the ad framework built in and that it could be switched on as soon as HTC is ready.
HTC Sense Home Ver.7.1(Released on 6th May) already have AD framework, almost ready for deliver Ads…
— @upleaks (@upleaks) May 11, 2015
Remember, this is still just a rumor for now. Will have no confirmation from HTC on the matter and it’s not entirely clear how the company would go about implementing advertisements, if at all. How regularly advertisements would be displayed, on which devices they would be shown, and whether there’s an opt-in/out or premium option, are all currently unknown.
HTC has already begun rolling out some of its software, such as its Zoe camera app, to non-HTC Android devices and it’s possible that Sense Home could be set to follow suite. Perhaps HTC is planning an ad supported free version of Sense which could be made available to a range of Android handsets. We know that HTC is keen to reach new customers through new hardware and software channels.
While advertising is deemed quite acceptable to subsidise free or low cost services, HTC already charges a premium price for its smartphones, including its new flagship One M9. It doesn’t sound like good business sense to try to milk more money from its limited hardware consumer base and I’d be surprised if HTC was going down this route.
HTC’s long running financial issues are clearly causing trouble for the company, but do you think that BlinkFeed advertising would help?
AIVAnet 