Huawei backtracks on Dual OS device, New HTC One next week: Global round up

Huawei has no plans to introduce dual OS Smartphone

Huawei has come out and said they don’t have plans to introduce a smartphone that runs on Android and Windows OS as previously speculated. The speculation was fueled when Huawei’s Chief Marketing Officer was quoted saying, “Compared with Android, the priority of Windows Phone is much lower but is still one of our choices of OS. We are definitely using a multi OS strategy”.

I don’t know why this statement was interpreted as multi OS on on one device, and not one brand using different OS on different devices. Anyway, the company has now come out and said there will be no dual OS device.

most of our products are based on Android OS, at this stage there are no plans to launch a dual-OS smartphone in the near future.

New HTC One to be announced on 25 March (Business Insider)

The new HTC One, named the best smartphone for 2013 at the Mobile World Congress, will be announced on 25 March 2014. The new version of the HTC one will have a screen that’s one inch larger than the current 4 inch screen.

Leaked photos of the phone indicate that the new HTC One will come in a several colors including gold and gray/black.

A major interesting point is that the new HTC One will have 2 cameras at the back which will allow users to focus on 2 subjects at once. The rear and front cameras will also be able to capture shots or record video simultaneously. Here’s the rest of the key specs,

Operating system: Android 4.4.2 (the latest version of Android)
Screen size: 5 inches
Screen resolution: 1,920×1,080 pixels
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.26GHz with 2 GB RAM
Camera: “UltraPixel” rear camera (unclear how big), 4-megapixel front camera
Storage: 16GB or 32GB internal, microSD card slot for more storage
Dimensions: 146 mm long, 70.5 mm wide, and 9.45 mm thick

Chat app Tango raises a $280m mega round led by Alibaba (TNW)

Tango, a voice call and messaging app for iOS and Android devices raised $280m in funding led by Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba which contributed $218m in this funding round.

Tango is reported to have 200 million registered users and 70 million active users. The majority of Tango users are from the US, 50 million to be specific. These US numbers put it in the same bracket as Whatsapp, SnapChat AND Kik in that market.

However, unlike many of its US rivals, Tango’s has a set of value add features like games and music sharing just like Asia’s Line and WeChat.