HTC One: Web based setup with 'Get Started'

[Guest PaulOBrien]

The HTC One features the latest iteration of HTC's web based 'Get Started' system, borne out of their 2011 acquisition of Dashwire. What can you do with it, and what's it like to use?

When you first start up your device, a 'fast and easy setup' screen appears, telling you to visit http://start.htc.com/pair and enter a pairing code displayed on the screen. If you don't want to use web setup you can skip this of course!

When you visit the page and enter the code, the phone display automatically changes to a screen that says 'waiting for you to complete web setup'. Neat!

After you've entered the code online and chosen which country you live in, you are presented with a number of starting templates you can use to configure your device - family, games, music, photos, social, sports and travel. Alternatively you can do what I did, and 'create your own' from scratch.

The first page lets you configure which feeds you'd like to see in BlinkFeed. You simply click the icons for what you want to see in the different categories (e.g. Guardian, UEFA, Stuff, etc.) and they appear as previews on the 'virtual One'. Note that you can only set up news feeds here, not your social networks for use with BlinkFeed (that would be a good addition).

The next page lets you add applications. You can't add just anything however, what you see is a curated list of what HTC thinks people might like. To be fair, I found 10 or so of my favourite apps on the list so it's not a bad selection.

When you're happy with the app selection, you can configure the ringtone, notification and alarm. You can even upload custom sounds - I added the Super Mario Bros theme as you can see. The maximum ringtone length is 30 seconds and a simple UI is provided for trimming an uploaded sound.

Browser bookmarks can also be preconfigured, either from a long list of suggestions or by manually entering names and URLs.

In the same way in which you can upload custom ringtones, you can upload a custom wallpaper (or choose from the preinstalled items).

You can select a lock screen from the four options provided on the One - Music, Photo Album, Productivity and Wallpaper.

Finally, you can configure accounts to be preinstalled on the device - Yahoo, Dropbox, Hotmail, Exchange or generic POP / IMAP are supported. Unfortunately your Google account can't be configured in this way.

After confirm a couple of options and associating your choices with a HTC or Facebook account, your settings are pushed to your device. When you pick it up you'll see the setup process has moved on, your accounts are preloaded and you're ready to go! Your device will be downloading your applications in the background and your chosen options will be applied.

It's all pretty neat. Although power users won't necessarily want to use Get Started, for the average buyer it's a valuable feature. I'd like the ability to add social networks, my Google account and apps other than the curated list in a future release... if that were the case I'd probably use it myself! :)

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[Guest unrandomsam]

Is Paul to the HTC One what Alicia Keys is to the Blackberry Z10 ?

[Guest PaulOBrien]

Is Paul to the HTC One what Alicia Keys is to the Blackberry Z10 ?

Err?

P

[Guest pedrojaime]

..and Harlem shake is to wasssup like Bruno Mars is to the Police..

Back to the subject, how are you faring without an SDCARD slot? do you miss it or do you think its the way to go with the high phone specs these days Paul?

[Guest PaulOBrien]

32GB is fine for me, 64GB will be brilliant. I don't miss the sdcard slot really.

P