Last year, HTC launched a flagship high-end smartphone that appeared to be worth the money. The reviews were generally positive, especially when it came time to point out how eye-catching the handset was thanks to those striking color choices. But, as has been the case with a lot of HTC-branded smartphones, the U11 faded out of the limelight pretty quickly.

Here one day, gone the next.

This happens to a lot of phones, of course. A lot of phones see the light of day every year, and there's only so much room in the news cycle for so many. Samsung's Galaxy S9 will rake in most of the attention throughout the beginning of this year, but even it, too, will eventually just slip out of the news cycle.

Except when it comes to comparisons. The Galaxy S9 is one of those smartphones that is so good that it will inevitably be compared to all future handsets launched this year, both from Android manufacturers and the inevitable iPhone X successor that arrives later this year.

But, just like last year, and the year before that, HTC is going to try and win over a few new potential customers, and hopefully keep the loyalists around for another extended stretch of time. That handset looks to be the U12+, which was leaked out not too long ago. It has all of the specifications that we'd expect in 2018 from a high-end flagship, including the powerful processor, the big display and minimal bezels, and more cameras than we probably need.

The image that leaked out recently shows off the back and front of the rumored handset, but the overall quality of the image isn't great. We can see all of the things mentioned above: Two cameras on the back, the fingerprint sensor, the pair of cameras on the front, and the minimized bezels. But the handset itself isn't that appealing to me. Especially that camera system on the back. I'm not a fan of that aesthetic at all. The silver stands out, and not in a good way.

But, like I said the quality of the image isn't great and maybe whatever color options HTC has in store for us this year can make that silver pop-out less unappealing.

The leak of the U12+'s specs and design got me wondering early this morning if this is going to be the handset that catapults HTC to the top of the heap again. There is a lot of competition out there, and HTC has a hard road ahead of it. And now I'm wondering what, exactly, HTC might be able to do to sway you over to their brand this year.

What, if anything, do you think HTC could do in 2018 --whether with their first high-end flagship phone of the year or some other device later on-- to convince you to either switch to an HTC smartphone, or stick with them for a little longer? Or have you completely moved on from the HTC brand? 

After Google announced earlier this month that it was going to wrap Nest back into Google’s hardware operation, everyone figured we’d see a bit more overlap between the two. Sure enough, just two weeks later: the Nest Cam IQ Indoor is getting support for Google Assistant.

Nest says the app update that lets users toggle Google Assistant functionality should hit sometime today. The Nest Cam IQ already has a microphone and speaker built-in for two-way communications, so this just repurposes that existing hardware.

Once you’ve turned on the functionality, Google Assistant on the Cam IQ should work the same as it does on any Google Home device (minus a few things that would generally require a bigger speaker, like playing music, making phone calls, or listening to the news) — just say “OK Google” followed by your question.
It sounds like this functionality is only coming to the Cam IQ Indoor for now — so don’t try barking commands at the outdoor Cam or your old Dropcams just yet.