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HTC One BlinkFeed and new Sense 5.0 features (hands-on)

The most exciting new software features and tweaks within HTC's Sense 5.0, including HTC's BlinkFeed, Zoe gallery, and a new way to multitask.

Luke Westaway
Luke Westaway is a senior editor at CNET and writer/ presenter of Adventures in Tech, a thrilling gadget show produced in our London office. Luke's focus is on keeping you in the loop with a mix of video, features, expert opinion and analysis.
Luke Westaway
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First up, meet BlinkFeed, the jewel in the HTC One's software crown. This Flipboard-style app makes a mosaic of news stories and social updates on the phone's home screen. It looks good, and if you keep scrolling down, new stories will appear.
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Tap on a story and it opens within BlinkFeed, sparing you a visit to the phone's browser.
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You choose what populates your BlinkFeed home screen. You can choose from a selection of news sources (including CNET, natch), or select topics you're interested in, likes games or music. BlinkFeed also shows photos from your phone's gallery.
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Swipe once to the right, and BlinkFeed becomes a more traditional Android home screen. If you want, you can choose to have this as your default screen.
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Look beneath the screen, and you'll see that HTC has ditched the Android multitasking button, leaving only the Home and Back buttons. But Android fans needn't despair...
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...Because this is the new multitasking menu, conjured by double-tapping the Home button. Hold the Home key down for a moment, and you'll be taken to Google Search. That's more functions from one button.
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The app menu has been redesigned, and now features larger icons and a restyled HTC clock.
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HTC has a new TV app, which shows you what's on now and next, and also functions as a remote control. To set it up, you'll need to tell it the make and model of your TV.
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The onscreen remote control, with a red flash at the top of the screen, to let you know when you've registered a button-press.
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Dragging down from the top of the screen reveals TV controls, for speedy access.
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TV control happens via this IR emitter, which doubles as the HTC One's lock button. Nifty!
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This is the gallery, which features moving video, and stitches together 30-minute clips from your photos and video. There are several different Instagram-esque filters you can apply to those clips.

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