And after spending the past couple weeks with the HTC One, I can’t help but say to myself, “One phone to rule them all, one One phone to find them, One phone to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”

Hardware

The HTC One screams a build quality typically only found from the minds of Cupertino. This phone is sleek, sexy, and downright pretty to look at. HTC has ditched the cheap plastic ways of Samsung and instead offers users a solid machined piece of aluminum with a glass front, much like the iPhone 5. The HTC One feels solid in your hands, although that solidity does come with the price of increased weight. The HTC One is heavier than both the Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 at 5.04 ounces, a full ounce heaver than the iPhone 5 and about half of an ounce heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S4, but doesn’t quite approach too heavy when held in your hands.

The display on the HTC One is absolutely stunning. The use of a Super LCD3 display means unlike Super AMOLED displays, using your HTC One in the sunlight is actually feasible. While colors are not quite as vivid with a LCD display, the difference is so small that to the untrained eye it would be indiscernible. But one thing any user will quickly figure out is the ability to use their phone in the sunlight, to which the HTC One wins by a landslide. Furthermore, HTC has packed in an impressive 4.7 inch, 1080p (1080 x 1920) high-definition display capable of displaying 16 million colors at a stunning 469 pixels per inch. By comparison, the sometimes referred to “industry standard” Retina Display in the iPhone 5 has only 326 ppi, and the Samsung Galaxy S4 has only 441 ppi. Simply put, your text, photos, movies, apps and games have never looked brighter or crisper than before. This is the gold standard for smartphone displays.

The HTC One comes with only two touch navigation keys, the Home and Back button. The third Menu button has been stripped from the hardware in favor of contextual menus within Android applications. Although most apps for Android now include a software menu, especially if they are optimized from Android 4.0 or higher, the lack of a menu key may take some getting used to for seasoned Android users. On the top of the device is the sleep/wake button, and on the right side is the volume rocker. The bottom of the device is where users will find a Micro-USB port for charging and/or syncing; however, the port is offset slightly to the right side and isn’t center, something peculiar (but I’m sure there’s a reason for it) and it makes docking the HTC One a little more difficult.

Performance

The HTC One is fast, very fast. Performance on this device matches the speeds of the Samsung Galaxy S4 in real life usage. Users will see no noticeable difference between the two flagship Android devices. The HTC One features a quad-core 1.7 Ghz Qualcomm Krait processor utilizing the Snapdragon 600 chipset. The HTC One features 2 GB of RAM as well, and 32GB of internal storage. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC One does not include an expandable memory slot, but 32GB of internal storage should be plenty enough for most users. Spec for spec, the HTC One is pretty much identical to the Samsung Galaxy S4, and both devices perform exactly the same (this comparison is with the Galaxy S4 for the U.S. with the quad-core CPU, international versions include an octa-core CPU which we haven’t had the opportunity to benchmark).

The extra weight of the HTC One mentioned above can be attributed to the battery and aluminum frame. The HTC One comes with a 2300 mAh battery, 300 mAh smaller than the Galaxy S4′s battery. However, the HTC One’s battery life when in Power Saving mode lasts much longer than the Galaxy S4 when in the same mode. Where I was able to get through one day on the Galaxy S4 on a single charge, the HTC One was able to last two. Bottom line, the HTC One’s longevity is a breath of fresh air, and will keep users texting, tweeting, and surfing day and night with no issues.

Other features include Wireless N, Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC. Support for Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy devices is included, meaning the plethora to smart accessories coming to the market will have no issues with the HTC One. Wireless N is as expected speedy, and NFC brings Android Beam and Google Wallet support (provided that your carrier supports it). Overall, you won’t find a smoother running phone that can power through any task and still have enough battery at the end of the day to call home.

Network

The HTC One we tested ran on the AT&T network, and our tests showed a much improved network. In my hometown of Virginia Beach, VA, AT&T has recently launched its 4G LTE network. My personal device runs on Verizon’s 4G LTE network, which has been live in the area for much longer, and I’ve been pretty satisfied so far. However, AT&T’s 4G LTE network knocks the socks off Verizon’s when it comes to raw speed. My typical download speeds over Verizon’s 4G LTE network range in the 8 – 10 Mbps area, but AT&T showed why their advertisement at my local store of “Wicked Fast” wasn’t just marketing jargon. In speed tests, I was able to attain download speeds north of 30 Mbps on AT&T’s 4G LTE network, or about three times faster than Verizon. I’ve seen these speeds once or twice on Verizon’s network, but not as consistently as I saw them on AT&T’s. The LTE chip in the HTC One supports all LTE bands for traveling abroad as well, so no matter if you’re home or away, fast data speeds are at your disposal.

One area where I still feel AT&T falls short is call quality. During many phone calls with the device, my caller stated on several occasions they had a hard time hearing me, or couldn’t hear me at all. When calling back on my Verizon device, the instant feedback was “that’s much better”. This may just be my area, however, independent studies have shown my experience to be similar. AT&T’s 4G LTE network is lightning fast, the fastest in the business, but its legacy GSM network for calls still struggles with capacity and call quality. If you’re someone who spends more time behind the keyboard than the earpiece, then AT&T’s 4G LTE network will not disappoint.

Camera

In a market where smartphone makers are stuffing more megapixels into their cameras, HTC took a different approach with the HTC One and cut the megapixels in half, putting a 4 megapixel rear camera with “Ultrapixel” technology. HTC’s “Ultrapixel” technology allows more light to be captured by the sensor. By allowing more light into the sensor, HTC promises more vivid pictures than ever, and claims better quality than even competing 8 and 13 MP camera sensors. My tests proved this theory, as the HTC One was more than capable of taking great photos that were on par with the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5. HTC has been leading in camera technology for some time; last year’s HTC One won by a long shot in our picture quality tests, and this year’s HTC One packs half the pixels, but double the vividness.

Besides great photos, the HTC One records video in full HD at 1080p, and captures great videos. A built-in stabilizer helps keep images steady, and the device offers a plethora of sharing options. HTC has included its new Zoe mode, which is by far much more practical and useful than any of the “S”-branded tricks found on the Galaxy S4. Zoe mode for photos allows users to capture a short video clip of about 3 seconds for moments, and includes sharing options to social networks. Zoe is a much better addition to the standard camera any day over Samsung’s back of tricks, and is recommended completely over anything Samsung has to offer. Furthermore, HTC’s Zoe isn’t going to bloat your storage space either, leaving more room for users, and adding practical features to enhance the experience.

Software

The HTC One unfortunately does not ship with the latest version of Android Jelly Bean. Instead, the HTC One ships with Android 4.1.2 which still offers all of the Jelly Bean goodies like Google Now, but without the enhancements and performance tweaks found in Android 4.2.2. The HTC One also marks the debut of the latest version of its Sense UI, which still has the same HTC feel that users have fallen in love with, but has been slimmed down for a much smoother operation. There’s not much to say regarding the Sense UI on the HTC One that hasn’t been said before. The phone feels very much like a previous HTC device such as the Evo, but just a little less buggy and a lot smoother. Sense provides an uniquely HTC experience to Android, and the bottom line is you’re either going to love it or hate it.

I personally am still a fan of the stock Android ROM and experience, and would recommend the upcoming “Google Edition” to users if you can afford it. However, if you’re on a limited budget and must go with a Sense-enabled HTC One, I can say that it is a much better third-party UI than Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. I’ve always found the stock keyboard to be the best Android keyboard, with HTC’s Sense keyboard coming in a close second. Zoe adds some useful camera tricks, and the interface doesn’t inhibit or degrade performance.

The one addition to the new Sense UI I wasn’t crazy about was the new BlinkFeed. BlinkFeed essentially aggregates all of your social networks – Facebook, Twitter, etc. – into a Flipboard-style navigation and places it onto one of your home screens. I personally would prefer the real estate for apps and widgets of my own choosing, and removing it wasn’t apparent enough for me to complete quickly, if at all, so I gave up trying. This is truly the biggest frustration when it comes to Android for me. For a platform that prides itself on choice and openness, it seems to only apply when purchasing Google-branded devices.

Wrap Up

The HTC One is the best Android phone I’ve tested to date, and the best phone on the market today. It’s superior construction and build-quality make the Galaxy S4 feel cheap, and the gorgeous screen is a show stopper. Carrying around this device will certainly garner some peeks and interest from others, as it feels like you can’t help but be drawn to the simple, yet elegant and functional design. The vivid bright screen will make you wish they made it in a size ten times bigger, as movies never looked so good. The HTC One can easily perform as well as other new high-end devices like the S4 or Optimus G in real life situations. Benchmarks scores may show some differences, but at the end of the day what matters is the user’s experience when doing what they want to do with their devices, not how fast the phone can compute math problems or interpret code. With much of our computing shifting to the cloud anyway, having AT&T’s incredibly fast 4G LTE network will only make matters better.

The HTC One is that phone the Android ecosystem needed to finally give a real challenge to Samsung and its Galaxy line. And in the end, after two weeks with the device I would choose the HTC One over the Galaxy S4 any day as the Android smartphone to have.

I, too, had climbed to a dangerous height, with my face to the breeze, and felt magically alone of my kind. I had imagined the streak of my passage like a red-and-blue smear on the windowpane of vision. I had been Batman, too, and the Mighty Thor. I had stood cloaked in the existential agonies of the Vision, son of a robot and grandson of a lord of the ants. A few years after that Sunday in Mr. Spector’s class, at the pinnacle of my career as a hero of the imagination, I briefly transformed myself (more about this later) into a superpowered warrior-knight known as Aztec. And all that I needed to effect the change was to fasten a terry-cloth beach towel around my neck.”

The Last Of Us is brilliantly written, exquisitely delivered, and disturbingly violent in all the right ways. Perfectly blending narrative structure between the dialogue and gameplay elements, creating a world that is consistent and cohesive, Naughty Dog has shown mastery over their craft. The Last Of Us is the best game on PlayStation 3, and an absolute must-buy.

PREMISE:

20 years after a sudden outbreak of a fungal infection, mankind is on the brink of extinction. The United States are separated into warring factions, created out of a quest for survival and defended by a variety of ideals. The story centers around two characters, Joel and Ellie, brought into an unwanted union and forced into a journey across the aggressive wilderness. Haunted by his past, Joel struggles to survive both physically and mentally, fighting an internal battle against him self for the choices he’s been forced to make. Ellie, a 14 year old companion he doesn’t want, offers up a view of the world from an alternate perspective. Being born after the outbreak, the violent nature of post-apocalypse Boston is all she knows.

GAMEPLAY:

In strictest terms, The Last Of Us is a third-person shooter. While similarities to Uncharted may crop up during initial playtime, you will quickly find that Joel and Drake are different beasts entirely. The high emphasis on cinematic action and over-the-top stunts that Nathan performs are not carried over into the design of The Last Of Us. Everything the characters are capable of and perform throughout the game is very grounded in reality, at no point are you climbing and jumping your way through things you feel like you couldn’t achieve in real life.

Breaking down The Last Of Us into segmented categories, it’s safe to say there are three main instances the game presents you with; Downtime, infected, and bandits. During Downtime, the game generally gives you an open environment to explore and gather supplies. Infected sequences are high risk, demanding stealth and cunning from the player. Resource management is important, as every small thing you find determines what you’re going to be able to craft on the fly. Ammo and weapons are scarce, forcing players to take advantage of the various distracting and dangerous tools they can create. The infected come in a few flavors, most prominent being the Runners and Clickers. Runners approach the player in groups and relentlessly approach, while Clickers pose a far more methodical threat. Blinded by the overgrowth of fungus, Clickers depend on a type of sonar to find their victims. Tripping off a Clicker is the last thing you want to do if you are ill-prepared or low on supplies, all it takes is one touch for them to kill you, resulting in some of the most intense survival encounters I’ve experienced in recent years. If facing off against nightmarish abominations isn’t bad enough, it’s in more populated areas that you will be faced with the real monster of this destroyed world. Patches of bandits roam the streets, targeting stray survivors in a violent display of dominance. It never ceases to shock me the scenarios in which the people of this world find themselves in, and how unfortunately realistic it seems.

Human encounters are where the game settles into a more delicate shooter, or at least it can. How you approach threats is completely up to you, and a lack of ammunition usually forces you to play your cards intelligently. Humans will try to flank you, set up ambush spots, and outsmart you, firing at you from a distance with a variety of weapons. You will always be second guessing your decisions on how to approach an enemy, never knowing what supplies and weapons could be useful in the coming encounters and what is the most economical way to survive. The Last Of Us is far more methodical than a traditional shooter, and is presented in a far more reserved and slow fashion. Joel cannot navigate environments and fire weapons like Nathan Drake, this is more about stealth and cunning, and the controls reflect that quite well. Shooter fans looking for something similar to Gears of War will find themselves struggling to complete this game.

The controls are tight, the UI is sleek, and nothing in the game is misrepresented or presented in an unclear way. Crafting is quick and easy to learn, supplies and items are all very clear in their intention, and the variety in enemy encounters keeps the gameplay compelling all the way through to the end. The Last Of Us is not a game that allows its narrative to grab you at the expense of the gameplay, all of the main story themes are portrayed perfectly through the mechanics of the game, creating a very effective world that never feels disengaging.

AUDIO & VISUALS:

The Last Of Us is a game that demands your full attention and a nice set of headphones. Environments are painfully detailed, creating a grim depiction of familiar locations ravaged by death and reclaimed by the Earth. The audio direction is top notch, with a set of believable ambient sounds and somber music that helps establish a consistent atmosphere.

Each voice actor represents their character well, with the clear winners here being Joel and Ellie. Strong voice acting helps the relationship between these two characters feel real, without cheesy dialogue or bad delivery destroying the development between them. Everything from subtle animation cycles to stellar facial expressions help deliver this narrative in a way far above and beyond most games on the market. The Last Of Us is truly a shining example of what our industry can accomplish, especially on the hardware in which it was built. It is an absolute shame the PlayStation 3 was not harnessed by other developers in the same way it was by Naughty Dog.

MULTIPLAYER:

Kept under tight-lip until just before launch, The Last Of Us‘ multiplayer is probably going to be it’s most debated feature in the coming months. Entirely unnecessary in every way, multiplayer delivers your standard set of team-based death-matches. Players align themselves with one of two factions from the main campaign, and then begin roaming from match to match attempting to murder and pillage from other players.

It’s not awful, by any means, and the multiplayer portion isn’t without its character. Games play out similar to sections from the campaign, with resources and crafting being as important as what guns you have in your loadout. Low starting ammo forces each team to rush out and scavenge locations on the map to build up supplies for surviving the match. It definitely feels like The Last Of Us and not like a generic shooter, but it also feels like a wasted opportunity. Co-op or multiplayer survival sessions involving a team of people playing as infected, similar to Left 4 Dead, could have made for a far more unique and compelling multiplayer feature. What we are left with isn’t bad by any means, but doesn’t offer up enough to make it a viable part of the package. It’s there, and that’s fine, but your experience won’t be hindered if you never touch it.

VALUE:

The Last Of Us can be completed on average between 12 and 15 hours. Experienced gamers will likely finish it within a weekend, and some may find that to be enough. Higher difficulties and a New Game Plus option help offer an incentive to play through the campaign multiple times, while multiplayer is a decent distraction for a few additional hours. There are a variety of titles available for equal or lesser price that may offer more content in a traditional sense, but The Last Of Us is so good that it makes such comparisons quite difficult. For those that tend to play games a single time and be done with it, $60 is a tough pill to swallow for a relatively short game.

THE FINAL VERDICT:

The Last Of Us is intelligent, adult, and brilliantly designed. The gameplay mechanics blend perfectly with the tone set by the narrative, creating a cohesive experience that perfects the suspension of disbelief.

Naughty Dog’s swan song is one of the most important and powerful titles in recent years, standing alongside Bioshock Infinite as some of the most important titles of this generation. Regardless of whether you purchase it or rent it, The Last Of Us is something that every serious gamer should play.

Sony had the outstanding benefit of presenting last on Monday, after the Microsoft and third-party media briefings. Taking full advantage of this, and i’m sure you remember this if you watched, Sony annihilated Microsoft with a strong one-two punch. PlayStation 4 will never require you to be online and will not carry any used games restrictions. If that wasn’t enough, they undercut Xbox One with a price point of $400. The crowd of journalists went nuts, and it was hard not to be excited as both a professional and a consumer.

Sony may have come away the clear winner in many fans minds, but I don’t think the reality of this event is so cut-and-dry. Sony presented us with a highly romanticized moment that really resonated with many people, so much so that they were willing to neglect other facts or experiences at the show. Shortly into the week Sony announced that third-party publishers still have the final say regarding DRM on their games, but didn’t elaborate on that any further. We know the price is lower, we know it never needs you to be online to check in, but how exactly will they be handling the secondary market? With first-party titles it’s consumer-friendly and clear, with third-party not so much.

After the immense outcry from the Xbox One reveal, it became clear that gamers care about games, not multimedia. While Sony had some good announcements and strong titles, almost all of them were multi-platform and also available on Xbox One. Infamous: Second Son looks amazing but the heavy hitting Square titles Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III are also coming to Microsoft’s console. When it comes to exclusives, Microsoft’s launch line-up and E3 showing took the cake, and many people seem to be neglecting the very demand for games they had a few weeks ago. They’ve bought on to a romanticized reality merely because it’s more comfortable and familiar to them, and they want to believe it. Speaking outside of a professional point of view for a moment, I can be honest in saying that Sony did impress me this year. I’m purchasing both consoles at launch, mainly for my work, but as it is now PlayStation 4 is likely to be the console I purchase the majority of my content for. DRM on a console is a big deal for me and knowing that I can buy games never having to log in to authenticate them helps me have faith in investing in a device that I can still use twenty years from now. In the short term however, Microsoft really is hooking me with a superior line-up of exclusive titles.

Throughout the week I played numerous Sony games, and for the first time came away impressed with the software showcase for the Vita as well. This is going to be a strong year for fans of any PlayStation platform, and I honestly believe a strong indication of what we will be getting with PS4. The reality of it all is still unclear, and I think it’s a bit premature for the internet to declare Sony the supreme champion. I have no doubts that E3 will have helped Sony secure a successful holiday this year, but they’ll have to start securing the AAA exclusives again for the following years to maintain that dominance.

Sprint is claiming that under Delaware’s corporate laws, Dish’s purchase of a large stake in Clearwire is illegal. Specifically, it is Dish’s demands that it gets to elect three Clearwire board members and that they are granted certain veto powers for decisions without a majority stake that Sprint states violates the law in Delaware. In order for Dish to get these demands met, it would require majority approval from shareholders, which by proxy means Sprint’s approval as Sprint owns more than fifty percent of Clearwire. Sprint, naturally, has publicly stated it would not approve these demands. Therefore, Sprint’s argument to the courts is that Dish’s offer is “not actionable” and therefore, should be disallowed.

No hearing dates have been set, but it looks like there may be a corporate war brewing between Sprint and Dish. Recently Dish made an offer to purchase Sprint outright, outbidding already announced and approved suitor SoftBank, likely leaving a bad taste in Sprint’s mouth.

The new variant is expected to release soon across markets powered by a Qualcomm chipset. However, with most of the world still struggling to launch standard LTE networks, the market for this new Galaxy S4 is razor thin. In the U.S. no carrier currently runs a LTE Advanced network, and none have made any announcements of its build out either. Verizon Wireless is expected to roll out more spectrum beginning this fall for its increasingly overcrowded LTE network, but this will still be standard LTE fare.

After a stellar start, sales of the Galaxy S4 have cooled off considerably, and recent announcements of new devices coming this Fall like the Motorola X Phone or a new Apple iPhone already have consumers trying to hold on to their upgrade eligibility a little longer. Unfortunately, I don’t see this new S4 variant making much of an impact on sales, as the tweaks included only affect a fraction of a percent of the world’s mobile users. Samsung would be better served with a price drop, or perhaps offering the Galaxy S4 “Google Edition” with a carrier subsidy to increase sales.

At $199, educational institutions will get the Surface RT tablet only. For $249 a keyboard laden Touch Cover will be included, and $289 will upgrade units to include Type Covers. The deal runs now through August 31st for all accredited educational entities.

School administrators can apply to purchase Surface RT tablets for their schools by completing the application found here.

Source: Engadget

Already my personal app of choice for mobile publishing via WordPress, Poster is akin to using iOS and the WordPress iOS app using Windows 95 when it comes to creating new content on your iPhone. As WordPress installs continue to grow daily and a major update scheduled for later this summer already in private testing, Automattic is looking to ensure that WordPress’s mobile offerings match the impressiveness of its desktop system. The company has announced that they have acquired Poster, a third-party application for WordPress publishing, and have hired the sole Poster developer, Tom Witkin, as a member of the WordPress Mobile team.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg confirmed the company’s focus on mobile stating:

We have acquired the Poster app and its technology, and we’re excited to have Tom contributing to the Automattic mobile team. WordPress on mobile is growing rapidly and so is our investment in it.”

As for Witkin, he is looking forward to continuing his work on improving the WordPress mobile experience as an Automattic employee. Poster offered some great power features still lacking in the official WordPress iOS app such as Dropbox integration, HTML Markdown support, and the ability to set the URL manually for posts. Poster has been removed from the App Store, however, users who have already purchased Poster can still download it again via the App Store (search in the purchased section of your account). Witkin has also promised to continue support for Poster, but with many of the power features missing from WordPress for iOS, it shouldn’t be long before Poster’s code is imported to bring them to the free app.

You can check out our full review of Poster for iOS at this page.

Source: TechCrunch

Joe sits down with James Conway from That Video Game Blog again to discuss Nintendo’s presence and announcements at E3.