At this point the new HTC One has
leaked so frequently that I've lost count of how many early peeks we've gotten at it. Whatever the total is, it grew again today. However, this latest leak is worth taking note of because unlike most of the other new HTC One leaks that we've seen, this one focuses on the software that'll power the device rather than the phone's hardware.
The video clocks in at around 3 minutes and 30 seconds in length and claims to show a combination of Android 4.4.2 and HTC Sense 6.0 that's been ported to an original HTC One (M7). The original clip surfaced on
Reddit and has since been pulled, but because this is the Internet, several mirrors have since gone up.
The version of HTC Sense in this clip doesn't look radically different from the custom HTC overlay that we've come to know in the past year or so, but there are a few new features shown. The biggest is Motion Launch gestures, which allows the user to perform different actions by picking up the phone with its screen off and then tap or swipe in a certain way. Here's the list of gestures that are listed in the video:
- Motion Launch gestures: "Allow Motion Launch gestures to wake screen"
- Double tap: "Pick up the phone in portrait orientation and double tap to wake"
- Swipe left: "Pick up the phone in portrait orientation and swipe left to wake phone and launch widget panel"
- Swipe right: "Pick up the phone in portrait orientation and swipe right to wake phone and launch BlinkFeed"
- Swipe up: "Pick up the phone in portrait orientation and swipe up to unlock"
- Volume buttons (in landscape): "Pick up the phone in landscape orientation and press the volume button to wake phone and launch the camera app"
The video also shows a few other random apps included with HTC Sense 6. Those include personalization features like Font Style, which offers a "Get Fonts Online" option, as well as the Phone and Messaging apps.
While this new version of HTC Sense — if that's what it legitimately is — doesn't look vastly different from Sense 5.5, it does seem like HTC has gone through its custom skin and made a few touch-ups here and there. The new Motion Launch gestures feature seems pretty nice, and even though HTC isn't the first smartphone manufacturer to utilize wake gestures, they make for a nice addition to HTC Sense.
Just in case this new video isn't enough new HTC One goodness for you, I've got an image for you as well. The folks over at
Android Central spotted an advertisement for the new One outside of store that belongs to British retailer Phones 4U, complete with a blurry-but-not-too-blurry image of the phone itself. Even though we've already seen the unpixelated version of the phone, it's still interesting to see the new One appearing in an ad like this. You can find an photo of the ad in the gallery at the bottom of this post.
