It looks like the HTC One is turning out to be the savior that HTC needed to pull them out of their downward spiral. It is now officially the third best selling smartphone in the United States, and that is all before it has even launched on the Nation's biggest carrier (by subscribers), Verizon. Here's a quote with some additional detail,

According to R.W. Baird analyst William Power, “the HTC One continues to be noted frequently as the third-best-selling device behind the iPhone and S4″ on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Of course, the HTC One hasn't made its way to Verizon just yet, and Verizon is the largest carrier in the country.

Reports from earlier in the week have put the HTC One sales at around 1.2 million devices per month, which would likely put the handset at a respectable, but fairly distant third place behind the powerhouses from Samsung and Apple.

Peter Chou, the CEO of HTC should be able to breathe a sigh of relief. He basically bet his job publicly that the HTC One would be a success. That bet obviously panned out for him and the company. We must say, after spending some time with the new the HTC One, your friendly staff here at HQ aren't surprised by its success. It is a remarkable device and several of us believe it is superior to anything else out there currently.

Source: PhoneArena

We have a new AnTuTu benchmark for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, and it smokes the competition, even outscoring itself on other phones. This time it is on the Sony Xperia ZU flagship that is set to release later this year. It scored a blistering 32,173, besting the previous score of 31,491 which recently showed up on a next-gen version of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

It seems like the only benchmark competition in the high-end of mobile processors right now is Qualcomm's 800 chip racing against itself. We will keep you apprised when the Xperia ZU finally launches.

Source: AndroidAuthority

Here's a story that is both intriguing and a head-scratcher. A new @evleaks pic suggests that Verizon may soon offer a Limited Edition version of the Samsung Galaxy S4. While this would normally be cause for an ensuing happy dance, the Limited Edition is "very limited" as far as the context of the device. According to the leak, a special Limited Edition version of the SGS4 will simply be the same hardware as the normal SGS4, but will come with customizable backplates sporting the KidRobot branding.

If you are scratching your head at that one, you are not alone. One, you may not even have heard of the KidRobot brand of toys which were founded in 2002... we certainly hadn't. Two, even if you have heard of them, it begs the questions as to why VZW would create a Limited Edition SGS4 with a little known kids toy branding on the back? If you are into the KidRobot stuff you may be happy to learn that you can choose between Kronk, Mad, Buff Monster, Groening, and a generic KidRobot back-cover. There will also be some wallpapers to go along with these, and you can apparently create custom wallpapers.

Perhaps the KidRobot stuff is just one example and there will be some additional custom back-plate options. We are unsure at this point so just consider that last part pure speculation. If you can shed more light on this subject, please feel free to comment in the thread to enlighten the rest of us.

Source: @evleaks

Earlier in the year Facebook purchased Instagram for over $1Billion USD. It looks like the company is aggressively working on improving it too, if the newest rumors are true. According to insider sources, on June 20th, Facebook intends to reveal a new video feature on Instagram that is reminiscent of the video app Vine. Here's a quote with more of the details,

Feeling threatened by its rival’s success, TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook will update Instagram to support video later this week. Earlier reports suggested that the feature would be similar to Vine and allow users to create and share simple videos between 5 and 10 seconds in length. Video support is seen as the initial step for Facebook to finally monetize Instagram’s more than 100 million monthly active users. Facebook is expected to announce Instagram’s video support at a press event on June 20th.

It's possible that this rumor is both true and false. For the most part several different sources of industry intel have suggested that Facebook is working on precisely this, but there is no guarantee it will be launched as early as June 20th. We will keep you posted if more details leak.

Source: BGR

LTE upgrades from Sprint are coming so fast now, they are starting to remind us of Verizon's rollout. Sprint just fired up 22 new markets with their LTE service. They are now up to a total of 110 LTE locations, with another 10 about to go live in the next couple of months. Here's the list of the newly lit areas:

• Baton Rouge, La.
• Centralia, Wash.
• Clarksville, Tenn.
• Corsicana, Texas
• Dalton, Ga.
• Dunn, N.C.
• Fond du Lac, Wis.
• Gainesville, Fla.
• Henderson, N.C.
• Kingsport, Tenn.
• Lansing/East Lansing, Mich.
• Longview, Wash.
• Miami
• Napa, Calif.
• New Orleans
• Palatka, Fla.
• Raleigh, N.C.
• Sebring, Fla.
• St. Cloud, Minn.
• St. Joseph/Benton Harbor, Mich.
• Tampa, Fla.
• Warsaw, Ind.

Here's a list of the new markets which should get their LTE in the coming months:

• Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Aberdeen, Wash.
• Allegan, Mich.
• Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Battle Creek, Mich.
• Corpus Christi, Texas
• Eagle Pass, Texas
• Flint, Mich.
• Laredo, Texas
• Marshfield/Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
• Mount Pleasant, Mich.
• Oak Harbor, Wash.
• Watertown/Fort Atkinson, Wis.

Source: Sprint

We have some new rumored specs and a possible ship date on the Oppo Find 7, the next-gen high-end phablet from the Chinese manufacturer. Supposedly the device will hit global retail availability as early as September. The specs are very impressive, especially the processor and ridiculous battery:

• 5" Full HD display
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
• 13 MP rear and 8 MP front camera
• 2 GB of RAM
• 4000 mAh battery

For any of our international members, you have this powerful device to look forward to later in the year. Maybe folks in the U.S. will get lucky and we might see this eventually, but you probably shouldn't count on it.

Source: PhoneArena