HTC One Review

BY: BLAKE STIMAC, INTOMOBILE

It’s only mid March of 2013 and so far we’ve seen some compelling smartphone offerings from the likes of  Sony, LG, and more recently, Samsung. But on February 19th, HTC unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the One, and it’s one hell of a device.

Oozing with style and power from every port, the HTC One is simply one of the most beautiful devices we’ve ever seen, which is something that we said about the One X. The spec list runs long on the One, giving it a deadly combination of beauty and brawn, but is that enough? In this review, we’ll try to see if what HTC has been working on all this time has finally paid off.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Announced: Feb 19, 2013
• Network Technology: GSM
• Network Technology: CDMA
• Network Technology: LTE
• OS: Android
• Display: 4.7 inch Super LCD
• Camera: 4.0 megapixels
• Battery: 2300 mAh

See full specifications

THE GOOD

• The design and in-hand feel is unrivaled on the HTC One
• The Ultrapixel camera provides some great photos and Zoe is awesome!
• The new BoomSound speakers are the best I've ever heard on a phone

THE BAD

• Some new software tweaks are unnecessary
• You dont have to use Blinkfeed if you don't want to, but you're still stuck with it on the home panels.

HARDWARE

While the design that we'll get into later is a feast for the eyes, the hardware on the HTC One is a feast for the geek's heart.

Rocking a 4.7 inch 1080p HD Super LCD 3 display that's ultra crisp and clear, the screen on the HTC One is one of the best we've ever come across in a smartphone. You'll find a slightly higher PPI on the device as well, as most of the competition's devices have 5+ inch displays. The screen is taller than many 4.7 inch handset we've come across, which helps the device fit in the hand better. This was a smart decision on HTC's part.

Above the display, you'll be treated to the expected assortment of sensors and other features you'd expect here. This includes the proximity and ambient light sensors, 2.1 megapixel front-facing camera, notification LED (that I really wish wasn't limited to green/red/amber) and the ear piece that's baked right into one of the two speakers found on the front of the device.

Coming in at 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm, the One is a bit taller than the Nexus 4, and you wouldn't know it's a bit thicker by holding it next to the latest Nexus handset. The Nexus 4 is also a hair wider than the One (68.2mm vs 68.7). I for one love how tall the One is. Not only does the width of the device feel great in the hand, but the height makes it feel like you have more to hold onto.

Below the screen is where you'll find two capacitive buttons for back and home, with HTC's logo sitting in between them. The decision to remove the multitasking button wasn't a good idea in my opinion. The decision to include capacitive buttons at all wasn't a good idea in my opinion. Some may find on-screen buttons an unnecessary waste of screen space, but we're not dealing with 3.2 inch displays anymore. Never once have I thought my Nexus 4's display was too small because of the on-screen buttons.

Only recently have we begun to see bigger names move to using on-screen navigation on its smartphones, like Motorola and Sony, and it's a trend I'd like to see continue. Accessing Google Now should be as easy as when the dedicated search button was a part of the standard Android navigation buttons. To go to your recent apps on the One, you double tap the home button, where you hold down on the home button to access Google Now. No, it's not hard to get to Google Now or recent applications, but I've never been a fan of doubling up on buttons. Still, it's obviously not going to be that big of an issue to most people.

The speakers on the top and bottom of the face provide some beautiful contrast to the solid black screen on the HTC One. Similarities to other devices be damned, HTC's implementation has a reason to exist, which provides a stellar sound experience. The speakers are crisp, clear, and much louder than what you'd find on many other handsets today. I've been taken aback a couple of times when I watch a video or listen to music on the One. The BoomSound speakers on this handset are damn good. I'm hardly an audiophile of any kind, but HTC might have just spoiled me with this handset.

HTC kept the sides of the One as minimal as possible. The bottom houses only the Micro US port/MHL and HDR microphone for calls, the right side is where you'll find the volume rocker, and the left side gives you an area to access the micro SIM card. The top of the device is where you'll find the 3.5mm head phone jack and power/lock button. This button is also where the IR blaster is, allowing you to use the phone to control your TV.

The back of the HTC One is clean and simple. Comprised of aluminum, only broken by small white lines accenting the top and bottom, the back of the One is very easy on the eyes. Of course, this is also where you'll find the new UltraPixel Camera and LED Flash. You'll find HTC's logo right in the middle, along with a Beasts Audio logo at the bottom.

Inside, the HTC One is just as nice as everything on the outside. You won't be in short supply of processing power thanks to the quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU and 2GB of RAM. You'll also be treated to the now-expected Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, etc. If you're a geek like me, then you'll also be happy to see that the HTC One also supportsWiFi 802.11 AC, which will allow you to achieve some insane speeds if your wireless router supports it.

DESIGN

HTC has long been known for making some of the most drool-worthy phone designs in the industry, and the One shows that the company can continue to out-design itself. The HTC One is freaking beautiful, and feels as sturdy as any handset could possibly be.

As I mentioned before, the decision to make the screen taller rather than wider was a great decision on HTC's part. It fits snugly into your hand, and gives a wonderfully weighty in-hand feel. It doesn't feel like it's going to break if you drop it, even if it would produce some scuffs on the metal case. The edges of the device are cut in a way that light will catch easily, which is a nice aesthetic touch, and also helps the pleasing in-hand feel.

There's a lot to like about the HTC One on the design front. It's very eye-catching and is sure to turn heads. And that's all without the phone being turned on at all. This is a beautiful design that is in the top of its class.

SOFTWARE

HTC has been working on many enhancements within its custom user interface, and there's quite a bit different in Sense 5.

BLINKFEED

When you first unlock the HTC One, you'll be greeted by Blinkfeed, which is unlike any homescreen experience you've probably ever seen on the Android OS. Blinkfeed is a social media and news aggregator that will keep you up to date with your Twitter and Facebook feeds, and gives you thousands of publications to choose from. Luckily, you can refine Blinkfeed down to either one publication or one social network, allowing you to have a dedicated Facebook stream only, etc.

While it isn't without some Flipboard similarities, Blinkfeed is very nice. I was a bit apprehensive to use it, but I enjoy it very much now. It's a great way to catch up with the day when you first wake up, or just when you have some time to kill. For those who aren't in love with Blinkfeed, or just don't want to be greeted with news upon unlocking the device, you can choose a standard Android panel as your homescreen. Once you do that, you can choose when you want to catch up on the news you'd like to, without it being forced on you.

I use Blinkfeed similarly to how I user my Twitter widget on other handsets I've owned, so a quick swipe to the left is what I naturally tend to do to keep up with news. Blinkfeed may not be for everyone, but you don't need to use it if it's not your cup of tea. However, it's grown on me a lot and I'm a big fan of Blinkfeed.

Blinkfeed aside, the rest of Sense 5 has also undergone a dramatic change, and for the better. You'll now find a more stock Android look and feel to the homescreen layout, with the expected HTC flare. HTC has chosen to limit the amount of home panels to just four now, not including the Blinkfeed panel.

The app drawer has also seen quite a few tweaks. The default grid size for your apps is now 3x4, which not only will make it take longer for you to swipe through your apps, but the layout also has a lot of dead space around it. It doesn't look all that great. Luckily, you can change the grid size to a 4x5 layout, which will likely be more satisfying for the user.

HTC TV

When dealing with smartphones nearing 5 inches in screen size, it's been customary of manufacturers to place the power/lock button on the side of the device. While the HTC One X also had its lock button on the top of the handset, the One's power button has a real reason to be there. The IR blaster is built into the power button, so you can use the One to control your TV via HTC TV.

HTC TV is a Peel-based app that will show you what's currently airing and what's upcoming on TV and more. The setup is rather simple if the remote code works. In my case, my Dish Network box wasn't recognized by HTC TV. If that happens, you'll need to get your regular remote, and point the IR blasters in front of each other to assign the remote keys manually -- a 30 step process. It's a bit of a pain, but it works, so I'm certainly not complaining too much.

From there, you change channels, volume, set DVR recordings, and much more right from your One. It's pretty great.

Overall, the software tweaks in Sense 5 are more than welcomed. Another cool tweak in Sense 5 is the Gallery application. You can sift through your Zoes, or just look through your photos via a standard gallery, but that's not all. HTC took it a step further and added a section for your friend's photos from Facebook. If you've logged into Facebook via Blinkfeed, you can see photos from your friend's feeds, which makes the Gallery ever-changing. It's a nice touch.

While HTC has been attempting to tone Sense down to look closer to the stock Android experience, it had always been hard for me to want to retire my Nexus completely. This time around, HTC struck a fine balance of customization that doesn't completely take away from the overall Android experience, all while being wholly HTC.

WEB BROWSER, MULTIMEDIA AND CAMERA

CAMERA

Outside of the beautiful, powerful hardware and nifty software tweaks, the camera on the HTC One is a showstopper. HTC's UltraPixel camera utilizes larger pixels, which allow up to 300% more light in comparison to what you'd find on existing smartphones today. The camera itself and dedicated ImageSense 2 chip aren't the only things to love about the camera experience on the HTC One. HTC also introduced Zoe with the One, which is a new way to view your photos. More on that later.

Simply put, the photos come out great with the HTC One. Given that the actual camera on the One is 4 megapixels, photos can become slightly noisy when zoomed in all the way. Still, this likely won't be an issue to most, unless you're looking to print out the photos. The UltraPixel camera's photos are perfect for sharing online via email, social networks, etc., which is more than likely what you'll be doing anyway.

As far as the guts of the camera go, you'll find an impressive sheet of specs. The HTC One's UltraPixel camera rocks a F2.0 aperture and 28 mm lens, Optical Image Stabilization, and a Smart LED Flash with five levels of brightness. Of course, you'll also be treated to a wealth of tweaks within the camera software with filters, ISO settings, HDR, panorama, night mode, scenes, and much more. Best of all, most of the settings and features also extend to the 2.1 megapixel front-facing camera.

ZOE

When you activate Zoe, the camera will take a few seconds of video before and after the picture is taken. When you have taken a few Zoes and photos, a Zoe Highlights video will be created for you, without any work on your part. You take the photos and Zoe can do it thing. And what a thing it is.

The Highlights video is an auto-edited and mixed 30 second video of your photos and Zoes, complete with music and filters to go with it. At the moment, you can't add your own music, but you can choose from 7 different tracks, which vary from elegant to loud and energetic.

From there, you can pass your Zoe along with Zoe Share, YouTube, Facebook, etc. It's simple to do and definitely something we have't seen on a phone before. Unfortunately, I personally wouldn't be surprised to see a Zoe ripoff become available in the Google Play Store shortly after the One is released (if something similar isn't available yet). In any case, Zoe is something to be admired and will only get better over time.

Marketing Research Chart: Top Mobile Marketing Objectives

Whenever marketers begin to investigate the implementation of a new tactic, it’s likely that the first questions asked are, “Why should I do this?” and “What are our goals in doing so?” Mobile is no exception.

When asked about their top objectives, 63% of respondents indicated they hoped to increase sales conversion, followed by increasing lead generation (55%) and lead nurturing (50%). As we learn — somewhat unsurprisingly — in subsequent charts in the Benchmark Report, sales conversion was the top choice for B2C companies, while their B2B counterparts focused on lead generation.

If you’re a B2B marketer, do you see mobile as a viable lead nurturing channel? What types of lead nurturing tactics have you employed in your mobile marketing? What restrictions, if any, have you faced in nurturing leads through mobile efforts?

Despite the fact that increasing sales conversion was a top mobile objective for 63% of marketers, improvement of the customer service experience was a low-ranking category, at just 19%.

Has your company used mobile to improve the customer shopping experience? How have these efforts paid off for your company? Does your company’s approach reflect these findings, or do you feel focusing on the lowest-ranked categories might benefit mobile efforts?

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Top Ten Tips to Motivate Your Project Team

In difficult economic times it is really important to keep your project team motivated especially when budgets for bonuses and staff parties are not as large as they used to be. So here are some simple and effective tips to keep your team motivated…

1. Get to know your project team. Take the time to really understand what motivates and interests them, what concerns they may have and what ideas they have to make the project more effective. If people feel that their project managers are really interested in them they will return the interest in the work they are doing and the project as a whole.
2. Praise your people. When your team members do good work, put the extra hours in, come up with a brilliant idea or help a colleague – make sure that you give them praise and a thank you. Praising your people will encourage them to do more of the same in the future.
3. Enhance your people’s creativity. Allow your project team to express their ideas and be sure to listen to them and explore those ideas with them – they could come up with the next best thing for the project. Also in brainstorming sessions use a variety of ways i.e. mind mapping/Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats to stimulate creativity and use coloured pens, toys and music to enhance the creative atmosphere.
4. Empower your people. Your role as a project manager is to get things done through your people and you can do this by effectively empowering your team. Where appropriate involve them in the decision making process, communicate key information with them and ask for their feedback. Coach them to do some areas of your job that they would find stimulating and motivating and this will give you more time to do strategic thinking and planning.
5. Be consistent with your management and leadership style. Ensure that you are consistent with your style, if you are empowering and motivating one day but secretive and moody the next your project team will get confused, paranoid and you will lose their trust. Remember every single second you are with your team you are having an impact on them, so make sure it is a positive one.

Similarly, keeping consistent with the processes you use is equally important. If for example, you adopt a PRINCE2 method, it must be used throughout the project and one of the benefits of a system like PRINCE2 is that everyone knows what to expect at each stage.

6. Be motivated yourself. The more positive and motivated you are the more likely it is that your team will be as they will follow your example. Take time to understand what it is that motivates you personally and assertively communicate that to your superiors. As a project manager it is vitally important that you take time for your own learning and development to learn new skills but also to take the time to reflect on what you need to do differently and how you are going to do it.  So see learning and development as vital part of your role and an investment.
7. Reward your staff. Even if you don’t have much of a budget to spare, you can still do small things to reward your project team when they have met targets, added value etc. Chocolates, cakes and wine always go down well as a thank-you. Or you can be creative and look at other ways in which you can reward them, for example, introducing flexi hours or writing them a handwritten personal note of thanks and praise.
8. Have a social get-together. Organising the occasional social get together is a great way to boost morale and enable your team to get to know one another better.  You can organize a social committee that takes responsibility for organizing such events.
9. Celebrate your successes. It is important to celebrate and communicate your successes on the project. Have a success board that is visually appealing and accessible for all the project team to see. You could also have a ‘team hour’ once a week in which all members of the team are invited to have some wine/nibbles or tea/cake and learn about what successes the  project has had and what the current priorities are. This is an excellent way to communicate directly with them.
10. Put your people first. Your people are your greatest asset so make sure that every single member of your project team is made to feel valued – talk to them, listen to them, invest in their learning and always put them at the top of your agenda.

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The Best Templates to Use in Project Management

As professional project managers, we probably work heavily with templates…either using them or creating them. Templates can be a series of Word files, Excel files, Powerpoint files, or even PDF files. Templates are most often used for expense reports, budgets, letters and emails, project instructions, and schedules…you name it. But what are the best templates to use in project management?

Why do we use templates?

Templates make the life and role of a project manager easier. They save time and they practice consistency across team members, departments and functional areas, and even among other project managers. So much time and effort can be dedicated to creating internal as well as external documents. After all, why reinvent the wheel?

If you are a new project manager to the organization or role itself, it may be your job to create some new templates for you and your team prior to beginning a new project. Where do you start? You can always start from scratch. Get some feedback from your team on what should be in the documents and how to create them. You can also look to some project management software that provides reports as well as templates. But how do you know you are creating or are using the best templates?

What should the best templates include?

The best templates should include the following:

• Company Branding – It is always important to consistently use the company branding on all documents, especially when creating external documents for clients, customers, and quotes. This will maintain a high level of professionalism for all team members and project managers.

• Fields and Headers – When you or a member of your team opens the document, the document should automatically pre-fill information needed (i.e. the PMs name, the date, vendors, project ID, etc.) This will save the team member and/or PM time in filling out the same information over and over, especially if he or she does this several times per day. This will also minimize the risk for error and typos, which could be costly down the line.

• Charts and Other Data – When working in spreadsheet programs such as Excel, it may be helpful to have charts, graphs, or other figures already created. That way when the project manager, team lead, or other team member needs to add data, it will update the chart or graph automatically. Not only will this make it easy for others to use them, but the margin for error and risk will decrease since the charts are already properly designed.

• Comments and Notes – Regardless of which templates you create for what purpose, you should add in notes and comments to different fields, especially to those sections and areas that are meant to draw others’ attention to, such as instructions on how to fill out a certain area, input or feedback, or even an area that is most common left out or missed. You can also include comments and notes on a particular document for training purposes so the new project manager or team member knows how to fill out the document properly and its overall purpose and function.

While setting up and creating templates in the beginning may seem like a daunting and time-consuming task, it will save bundles of time during the height of projects and during peak business time. Templates also help improve efficiency and consistency across all team members and departments. Make sure the templates you create include the points above.

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Useful Questions Project Managers Should Ask

When projects are first assigned, or when hot leads then turn into contracted projects, there are some questions that project managers should analyze and ask themselves at the beginning of a project. This will help fully assess project specifications, identify risks, budget, resources, etc. and put together a plan of action.

• What are the deadlines and what does the schedule look like? Obviously this depends on the projects that you manage or the organization or clients that you are associated with, but ultimately one of the first things project managers should assess are the deadlines. Often times this may involve reviewing and analyzing the specs before committing to a deadline or setting up a schedule.

• What does the budget look like? The second crucial item in a project to analyze and review is the budget. What materials or resources or time does the budget allow for? Is there a little or a lot of room in the budget? Will a risk response plan need to be put in place should project specs change late in the game? Project managers, unfortunately, often have to work with condensed or limited budgets…especially today. It is important to fully assess these constraints and put together a risk response plan for any changes or issues that come up.

• What are the risks involved? In identifying schedules, deadlines, budgets, and project specs, it’s also absolutely crucial to identify project risks. No project should be handed off to team members or vendors until all risks have been identified and addressed and documented. Putting together a risk response plan to address the risks is also a pertinent step. This should outline what the risk category, the risk facet, and the probability that risk will occur, the impact, and what a reasonable response would be. It’s also a good idea to hold regular risk planning meetings to go over these with team members, particularly prior to hand off phases and other milestones.

• What are the customer’s needs? While it’s easy to get wrapped up in data and the details such as schedules, budgets, resources, etc., it’s always important to remember what and for whom the project is for. What is the purpose of this project? What benefits does it serve for the client? What is the client looking to get out of it?Sometimes having this frame of mind will help us to deliver successful projects to clients. It’s also a good idea that when identifying project specs and other data to question anything that doesn’t make sense. For instance, if a particular client asks for a spec that seems odd, it may be worth questioning, or at least trying to understand what he or she is looking for, and then offering a possible or easier solution that may save everyone time and money.

• How can we contribute to the project’s overall success? In addition to the previous point, it’s also important to take a step back and think of how your team can contribute to the project’s overall success. What skills do you and your team have that would benefit this project? What can you bring to the project table that would really ensure its success? Each project manager and team has their own personality and ways of doing things that stand apart from others. While this isn’t a competition, a team should be aware and proud of their skills and put them to use in a project.

These are just several questions that project managers should ask themselves when being assigned or taking on a new project. Some of these are typical questions that we have to identify all the time, however, sometimes we may forget what and for whom the project is for. It’s easy to get stuck on the details and forget the big picture. Taking a step back and truly thinking about these items will no doubt ensure the project’s success.

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How to Ensure Risk Management Success

We’ve talked many times before in this blog about projects and risk management. We’ve talked about identify and analyzing risks, the most common risks and the most common mistakes in risk management, the facets and categories of risk management, and even project management and risk management methodologies. So how do project managers tie all these together to make sure they really capture and ensure successful risk management?

This takes some experience and practice. Project managers are constantly on the go and often times doing several tasks at once. While multitasking is an excellent skill—and one that many project managers perfect over time—this can also have a negative impact.

• Identify Risks – As Early and as Often as Possible While we are busy multitasking, we may be forgetting to pay attention to crucial areas at crucial times, such as identifying risks. Identifying risks should occur at the very, VERY beginning of a project…even if the project isn’t technically a project yet, or is still only a lead or in the bidding stage. While it may seem like this takes more time overall, it can save project managers headaches throughout the project’s life cycle. In addition, it’s true that much of the identifying and analyzing risks should occur as early on in the project as possible, that doesn’t mean you don’t see them through. Depending on the probability and impact of the risk, it may be worth having regular risk or planning meetings with your team to monitor and analyze them through each project phase.

• Prioritize and Analyze Once project risks have been identified, and then re-identified, it is then important to assign tasks to team members as applicable. Each risk can come with its own set of responsibilities and tasks associated with it. In addition to the project manager, of course, each team member can be responsible for a risk or tasks. These tasks will need to be prioritized, analyzed, and then re-prioritized and reanalyzed through the life of the project. Again, this can be done at weekly risk or planning meetings, through documentation methods (such as checklists), or whichever method works best for the team as a whole.

• Communication and Project Management Communication is another big element that we’ve discussed in this blog on more than one occasion. Communication and project management, and communication and risk management go hand in hand…always. Projects will never be successful without implementing proper and open communication. Communication doesn’t even have to mean talking or conversing with one another about what’s going on, it’s about communicating risks, specifications, schedule changes, etc. Everyone should be on the same page at all times. This is of course a challenge for many teams, especially for those teams that work together on an off site or virtual basis, but closing the gap in communication will make everyone’s job easier and will ensure overall project success.

• Engage Team Members At All Times This is somewhat of a spin off of the point on communication listed above. All team members working on any project need to be privy of the specifications, correspondence, schedules, timelines, and especially the risks. Not only will this open the doors of communication and keep everyone on the same page, but it also lets team members know they are valued in every stage of the project.

Again, the challenges teams face today is that most team members work off site, virtually, and even in different time zones. When we all rely on email technology and electronic communication today, it is very easy to miss a detail here and there. Moral of the story? Project managers should do whatever necessary in order to keep ALL team members up to date and practice open communication, no matter where they are.

All in all, while dealing with risks many not be the most exciting part about being a project manager—some may argue that it is the most challenging—it is certainly not an area that should be taken lightly. Practicing the items outlined above will ensure that the proper measures are taken to identify and deal with risks, as well as develop and design risk response plans. This will help ensure that projects transition and are completed smoothly.

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Project Management and Communication

Most project managers would agree that one of the most important elements in projects and in project management as a whole is communication. The overall success and efficiency of a project is only as strong as the communication put into it.

Much like communication is an important part of a relationship. Project managers should treat each project like a “relationship”. While projects or work are nothing like a personal relationship, there are similarities here. Think of how you treat your family members, friends, or children on a personal level. Each person has his or her own individual personality characteristics, or something that makes one unique from the other.

Project managers would agree that it seems like no two projects are alike. This is essentially the case with relationships. Each project has its own unique specs, attributes, and risks associated with them that a good and efficient project manager needs to be mindful of and pay attention to.

Furthermore, one of the most important elements in managing a successful project is communication. Communication needs to be smooth in all areas of a project. This includes to and from the customer or client, team members—particularly if your project involves working with team members that are off site—other departments or functional areas, and vendors. The specs, attributes, and risks should be effectively communicated across these units.

One of the greatest areas of risk in a project is the hand off stages or essential project milestones where projects cross from one area to another, or from one department to another. It is at this point that if instructions and project specs aren’t clearly defined or communicated to other functional areas or team members where the risk for error is the greatest.

If project managers are unsure of how to effectively communicate project essentials to other team members, departments, or functional areas, one of the most effective methods of communication is document control. All specs should be documented and documented again in order to make sure they make it across to all areas of a project, all project milestones, and all team member in all forms and lines of communication.

Experienced and professional project managers recognize how important communication is in any project. As a result, project managers should treat each project like its own original and unique entity. Project managers should establish a “relationship” with that project and treat it as such. One of the most effective ways to do this is to practice effective communication throughout the life of the “relationship” or life cycle of a project.

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