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HTC Launches 'U11' Squeezable Smartphone With Snapdragon 835 CPU, No Headphone Jack (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the main-squeeze dept.

HTC has officially launched its newest flagship smartphone today, the U11. While it has competitive specifications for a flagship smartphone of 2017, such as a 5.5-inch, Quad HD display, and Snapdragon 835 processor with 4GB RAM, it has some unique features of its own. HTC is introducing a new way to interact with the U11 by letting you squeeze the sides of the device to perform different functions. The Verge reports: This new feature is called "Edge Sense," and it can be configured to do a variety of tasks with either short or long squeezes. You can set a short squeeze to open the camera and then take a picture when the camera app is open. A long squeeze can be configured to launch the Google voice assistant or toggle the flashlight on and off. In addition to Edge Sense, the U11 has a similar design to the U Ultra from earlier this year. That means it's metal and glass -- a departure from the all-aluminum unibody designs of past HTC phones -- with curved panels that blend into the metal frame and vibrant, pearlescent colors. That also means it lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack, instead relying on its USB Type-C port for charging, data transfer, and audio function. HTC says removing the headphone jack has a number of advantages, including allowing the company more room inside the phone for other components and making the design of the bottom edge smoother. It also allows for a better audio experience, as the included headphones have both audio tuning and active noise cancellation, without having to rely on a secondary battery. In addition to the headphones, HTC is including a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter for use with other headphones, which it didn't for the U Ultra.

41 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. False positives? by CapOblivious2010 · · Score: 2

    So... every time I pull the phone out of my pocket, it's going to activate some feature? No thanks. P.S. Frist!

    1. Re:False positives? by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      You can set it to call your psychiatrist, or a massage therapist to make an appointment, on a long squeeze.
      That way when you're upset and gripping your phone tightly it will know what to do.

    2. Re:False positives? by CapOblivious2010 · · Score: 1

      You can set it to call your psychiatrist, or a massage therapist to make an appointment, on a long squeeze. That way when you're upset and gripping your phone tightly it will know what to do.

      Where are my moderator points when I need them???

    3. Re: False positives? by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      When I went from a M7 to a M9 I was severely disappointed due to all the bloat that was in the phone, and now it's bricked instead in my attempts to de-bloat it.

      I haven't been able to find an Euro RUU to restore it with, HTC doesn't seem to provide that, only the North American variants and my phone don't accept them.

      In my disappointment I went for a CAT S60 instead, a lot less bloated, an IR camera but both the IR and ordinary camera gives pretty bad pics, but that's a trade-off I can take to get a device with minimal bloat and the advantage of dual SIM cards.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    4. Re: False positives? by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      *MICROAGGRESSION*

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  2. I'm confused. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    This new feature is called "Edge Sense," and it can be configured to do a variety of tasks with either short or long squeezes.

    Are they talking about a phone or a fleshlight?

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:I'm confused. by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 2

      They're really, really running out of ideas for what to do with cellphones now, aren't they.

      Which in a way is reassuring, it means the market is mature, like the PC market ten years ago, and there's no longer any need to upgrade every year or two because for the average user nothing new is being added any more.

    2. Re:I'm confused. by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      Only if you have it to handle rhythmical thumping.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    3. Re:I'm confused. by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      In the third year your phone's battery capacity starts to decline.

      Upgrade is not the word you were looking for. Replacement.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  3. Karmatic courage by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

    COURAGE! AND KARMA TO BURN!

    --
    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  4. Goodbye, audio by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 1

    Yet another phone to do away with the audio jack.

    LG seems to be the only one committed to supporting headphones right now, and I have to wonder how long that'll last.

    1. Re: Goodbye, audio by BlytheBowman · · Score: 1

      Phone manufactures might as well do away with the screen, radio and cpu components and just sell a fancy little box/pretend phone with little Christmas lights inside, like those fake choke hazard toy phones you find at the dollar store. I bet plenty of hipster morons would buy it.

    2. Re:Goodbye, audio by azrael29a · · Score: 1

      Sony also keeps them in the latest models.

    3. Re:Goodbye, audio by azrael29a · · Score: 1

      The iMac does away with floppy, serial and ADB ports! How will I use all of my old keyboards, mice, printers, modems, and old software? USB is a fad. These stupid colorful computers will never catch on. Steve Jobs is a hack and Apple is doomed.

      That comparison would be good if they had put 2 microusb/USB-C slots instead of one. The PCs/laptops/Macs always had enough USB ports to fill the needs served by the ports they have obsoleted.

  5. I wonder ... by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    How long until some bodybuilder squeezes one to death and wants his money back?

    1. Re:I wonder ... by beckett · · Score: 1

      some bodybuilder

      for slashdot visitors, this term refers to: "an individual of average strength"

  6. Nope. by jddj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After one great (M8) and one good (M10) flagship HTC smartphone, no headphone jack kills the relationship.

    a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack is basic equipment. Take a little note.

    Deal breaker.

    1. Re:Nope. by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      The M7 was good, the M9 bloated and it was my last HTC due to the disappointment I got from it.

      At least once I got hijacked by that "Kid Mode" that's one of the bloatwares added to the phone that couldn't be removed and only after serious effort I was able to undo it to find that the desktop I had populated had reverted back to system default. Definitely caused me to flag it as a non-wanted brand.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re:Nope. by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Yep, dealbreaker for me too. Simply: no headphone jack, no deal.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    3. Re:Nope. by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      There is the XZ Premium, soon to be on sale. Headphone jack and all.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  7. easy peasy by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    lemon squeezy. or something like that.

  8. Another phone without a headphone jack by jediborg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    is just another phone I'm not going to consider buying.

    1. Re:Another phone without a headphone jack by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1, Insightful

      is just another phone I'm not going to consider buying.

      Great! that's the wonder of having choices. Some of us find the headphone jack the most important part of a phone. And a whole lot of us don't. Buy what you like.

      If enough of you jackers vote with your wallets, they'll install a chip in your arm with a quarter inch jack when smartphones go to implants and retinal displays.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  9. I don't want new ways to interact with my phone. by Puls4r · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dear phone designers - stop. You're getting as bad as the programming UI guys. I don't WANT to have to learn a whole new way to interact with phone. I don't want to have to learn long presses versus short presses, hard versus soft. I don't want to learn all the different swiping. Palm swipe. Two finger swipe. 3 finger zig zag backward swipes.

    Just, NO.

    99% of the folks buying phones don't know how to take a screen shot, don't know swiping different directions on contacts does different things, and don't give a shit.

    Simple is beautiful, and a good phone with a great camera and good battery life is going to sell. I don't want modular, I don't want "no sd card", I don't want magical levitation with eye-following hands-free masturbation. Just stop. Please.

  10. Re:Goodbye, audio (and FM tuners) by harrkev · · Score: 2

    Also note that I saw no mention of an FM tuner on this thing either. Generally, phones with tuners use headphone cords as antennas.

    Yeah, why bother getting local music and information free over the air when you can stream it and burn through your monthly data in a few days?

    --
    "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  11. I've got one of those by Hentes · · Score: 3

    This new feature is called "Edge Sense," and it can be configured to do a variety of tasks with either short or long squeezes. You can set a short squeeze to open the camera and then take a picture when the camera app is open.

    My phone can already do that using its cutting edge button technology.

  12. Anyone else? by dohzer · · Score: 1

    Was anyone else waiting for the corner of the falling phone in the animation to break the screen of the phone below, only to be disappointed when it stopped?

  13. See Apple, do like Apple..... by BlytheBowman · · Score: 1

    No headphone jeck, another bad idea out of many copied from Apple. Having to use a dongle which *will* get broken/lost, and possibly no being able to charge and use a wired headset at the same time? No thanks. Its time to put Apole to pasture. Maybe they were cool and cutting edge in 2007, but now its like the annoying grandfather who tries to be hip by doing rap very poorly and generating groans, and has now degenerated into doing stupid Jackass-style shit

  14. Re: I don't want new ways to interact with my phon by BlytheBowman · · Score: 1

    This shit is making me want to go back to the clunky old WM Treo 650. As bad as that interface was, at least there were no secret handshakes and other stupid weird bullshit just to perform basic functions.

  15. Of Mice and Men by matbury6017 · · Score: 1

    "it can be configured to do a variety of tasks with either short or long squeezes." -- Something tells me the designers of this phone haven't read Of Mice and Men. I wonder how good the accidental damage warranties will be?

  16. No headphone jack, squeezable sides by Trogre · · Score: 1

    Yep, those sound like very "courageous" design choices to me, if you get my drift.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    1. Re:No headphone jack, squeezable sides by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      "No headphone jack, squeezable sides"... hmm, it's evolving into a dildo.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  17. Re:HTC try again by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Yeah I've been getting HTC phones regularly for nearly ten years. Won't get this one.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  18. No headphone jack by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

    No sale.

    --
    Eat the rich.
  19. Dear Phone Designers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...I don't want magical levitation with eye-following hands-free masturbation.

    Dear Phone designers,

    I want that! please ignore him.

    Thanks

  20. Connectorless phone. by pelpet · · Score: 1

    When can I have a phone without any connectors whatsoever? Bluethooth, wlan and wireless charging should be enough. Such a phone could be 100% waterproof and very shock-resistant. And rubber coating, please.

    1. Re:Connectorless phone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When can I have a phone without any connectors whatsoever? Bluethooth, wlan and wireless charging should be enough. Such a phone could be 100% waterproof and very shock-resistant. And rubber coating, please.

      Boardroom comic:

      UXTard: "Hey, no connectors, no options! We can do that!"
      Marketroid: "Hey, no connectors, everything goes through the cloud, we can monetize that!"
      Engineer: "Hey, rubber coating, it would actually survive a fall."
      ...
      *sound of shattering glass as the Engineer is thrown out the window, sans rubber coating, and does not survive the fall*

      Seriously, look at those U11 pictures. A back so shiny that it's... well, going to last about a week of normal use before it gets scratched up to the point of ugliness, or six months before it drops on a hard surface and shatters. Without buttons/tactile feedback, it's also been engineered that it's impossible to use in a phone case.

      The design goal appears to have been to make a phone that must be used without a protective case such in order that they wear out to the point of cosmetic ugliness or accidental breakage within the two year lifecycle, thereby prompting the consumer to make another purchase on schedule.

    2. Re:Connectorless phone. by Verdatum · · Score: 1

      The Samsung Galaxy S5 needed a plate to cover the connectors when not in use, but beyond that, it pulled off water resistance very well. As far as durability, I'd love it if phones started getting into composites. No need for carbon-fiber; just plain old fiberglass-reinforced nylon, the stuff used in higher-end powertools, that would be enough to totally change the game.

  21. Re:Goodbye, audio (and FM tuners) by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    FM band antennae are somewhat more challenging to fabricate in the available space. The horrors of real life.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  22. Re:I don't want new ways to interact with my phone by Verdatum · · Score: 1
    While we're on the subject, after about 1cm, I don't give a shit about how much thinner my phone is, and I don't give a shit about how small of a bezel it has, and leaving out a headphone jack sounds like the economy-version to me. Seriously, phone industry: STAAAAAAAAAAAHP.

    If someone comes up with a nice thick, rugged phone with great battery life and they market it properly, they will sweep the whole industry. I'd even buy from Apple for the first time since the 1980s if they could pull that off.

    And if you REALLY are so hung up on coming up with an innovation, I sure wouldn't mind if someone would figure out a touch-screen that works well in a rainstorm; get the lab boys on that instead.

  23. No Headphone Jack!?! by jazzdude00021 · · Score: 1

    Apple should sue for design infringement...