Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. Legacy Archives

New HTC One smart cover shows off colorful notifications

Add as a preferred source on Google

From the “active notifications” of the Moto X to the e-ink second screen around the back of the Yotaphone, mobile manufacturers are constantly experimenting with ways to display important alerts without draining battery life. If a freshly leaked image is to be believed, it looks like the next incarnation of the HTC One will have an innovative new approach to the conundrum.

Once again we’re indebted to master secret spiller @evleaks for the picture, which comes with the caption “Holes. Time. Colors.” It appears that we’re looking at some kind of smart cover which uses color LEDs to show local weather conditions, the current time, and presumably other important notifications as well.

Recommended Videos

Imagine being able to check on how many unread emails you have or see who’s calling without having to take your smartphone out of its case. We’ll have to wait and see exactly how this is going to work and what notifications will be available, but it’s an intriguing new accessory that could make alerts easier to access and manage.

Twitterer @evleaks also revealed that buyers of the new HTC One would have the option to pick it up as a Google Play Edition, as with the original device. Most of the account’s tweets have been accurate in the past, so we can assume these rumors and images come from decent sources somewhere in the depths of the mobile phone industry.

Plenty of information has already been leaked about this year’s “all-new HTC One” and we’ve rounded up all of the relevant details for you. It looks almost certain that the device will be officially unveiled on March 25, so we don’t have long to wait to see how much fact is in amongst the fiction.

David Nield
Former Contributor
Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…
Snapchat Planets: What’s the order, and what do they mean?
Snapchat Planets turns your best friends list into a solar system, and yes, your orbit says a lot
Snapchat Planets being shown on the Snapchat app on iPhone.

Snapchat is already packed with little symbols that can be weirdly hard to decode. You have streaks, emojis, badges, scores, Best Friends, and if you use Snapchat Plus, a tiny solar system that shows where you sit in someone’s closest-friends list.

The feature is called Friend Solar System, though most people just call it Snapchat Planets. It takes your position in a friend’s Snapchat orbit and turns it into a planet. From Mercury to Neptune, these celestial bodies signify how close a person is to you.

Read more
How to use WhatsApp Web
We'll show you how to use WhatsApp on your desktop or laptop
WhatsApp Web

As one of the most popular messaging services, you’ve already heard of WhatsApp. From its humble beginnings in 2009—two years before Apple introduced iMessage—to its acquisition by Facebook (now Meta) in 2014, WhatsApp has become the dominant messaging platform around the globe.

In recent years, it's grown even more potent with new features like video messages, self-destructing voice messages, the ability to edit sent messages, and more. We even finally got an WhatsApp iPad app in May 2025.

Read more
What is WhatsApp? How to use the app, tips, tricks, and more
From setting it up to mastering hidden features, here is your complete guide to WhatsApp.
WhatsApp app store listing open on iPhone

There's no shortage of messaging apps out there. The past decade has given us more options than we know what to do with, largely because smartphones demanded something better than plain old SMS.

Both the App Store and the Play Store are packed with apps that promise to revolutionize the way we communicate. Most of them didn't make it. The truth is, a messaging app is only as good as the number of people using it, and most apps never cross that threshold.

Read more