Handset manufacturer HTC is seeking to streamline the process for iPhone users to switch to the forthcoming HTC One by enabling it to extract data from iPhone backup files, enabling automatic transfer of photos, videos, calendar entries and text messages to the handset, reports CNET Asia.
Transfers will take place using a new version of HTC’s Sync Manager software, which already allows music to be imported from iTunes. By adding in the ability to copy across key data, HTC removes one key barrier to switching platforms.
HTC is heavily promoting a widget-based approach called BlinkFeed, which pulls live data from user-selected social and media networks onto the handset’s home screen.
At the centre of the new HTC One experience is HTC BlinkFeed. HTC BlinkFeed is a bold new experience that transforms the home screen into a single live stream of personally relevant information such as social updates, entertainment and lifestyle updates, news and photos [aggregating] the freshest content from the most relevant and interesting sources, giving it to people at a glance, all in one place, without the need to jump between multiple applications and web sites. To enable this new dynamic approach to the smartphone, HTC will provide both local and global content from more than 1,400 media sources with more than 10,000 articles per day.
With HTC bringing BlinkFeed to Android and Windows Phone banking on its “live tiles” for its home screens, competitors are increasingly looking to move beyond grids of static icons popularized for the smartphone market by iOS. It remains to be seen how Apple will continue its evolution of iOS, particularly as consumer perceptions of “staleness” compete with Apple’s focus on simplicity and consistency.
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