LUSARAP

Although these pictures may well be fake, and it wouldn’t take a PhotoShop pro to do so, they do back up a lot of the leaked information around the HTC M8.

The images were discovered by Russian site, MobilTelefon.RU, but have since been removed, which either adds strength to their authenticity or the site discovered they were mere works of fiction. 

If they are the real deal, the HTC M8 or HTC One 2 will have a larger screen with reduced bezels to give it an edge-to-edge feel.

The HTC M8 is also missing the navigational buttons that were located beneath the display of the HTC One. Instead the navigational buttons are located on-screen.

In one of the images though, the navigational buttons are missing completely, suggesting that they can be hidden when not in use.

However, in the image where they are on display, it looks as though the HTC M8’s wallpaper has been resized to accommodate them, rather than them just appearing as a translucent overlay as you would expect.

This seems like a rather unlikely move from HTC and such whiffs of an enthusiast’s skills with some computer software.

Overall, the design looks “strikingly like” the HTC One as suggested by notorious tipster @evleaks, including the metal speaker grills at the top and bottom and the location of the front facing camera.

It may well be that these distinct similarities give away the inauthenticity of the images, and enable them to look so real without much hard work on the part of the leaker.

We’re bound to find out sooner or later what the HTC M8/One 2 will look like, as it is expected to be officially announced in March at a special New York event.

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Inspired by this, Japanese car maker Honda has created a smartphone case with built-in airbags designed to prevent these kind of costly accidents.

Dubbed Case N, the phone accessory acts like a protective shell and if the handset is dropped, the six airbags immediately deploy.

However, the invention is just a concept and Honda doesnt have any plans to sell the device.

In a video for the concept, a Honda employee is shown looking forlornly at a picture of his cat through a scratched iPhone screen. 

This gives him an idea and the engineer starts testing various inventions designed to protect his phone from being damaged when dropped – including dropping it from the top of a building. 

He eventually comes up with the idea for the Case N and tests out various prototypes. 

The final version is held up to the camera and as he drops the phone with protective case, slow-motion footage shows the airbags deploying.  

The parody video also shows the airbags deploying if the phone is removed forcefully from his pocket, preventing it from being stolen.

Although the Case N is just a concept, and Honda has said it has no plans to ever produce the product, a similar design was seriously suggested by Apple.

As discovered by PhoneArena in March, an Apple patent was released for a case that tracks how close a phone is to hitting the ground, using built-in accelerometers.

As the phone, and case, reaches the floor, gas-powered thrusters fire in the opposite direction to slow it down.

It seems the HTC One follow-on will not utilise a 2K QHD (1440 x 2560p) display, opting to use the same full 1920 x 1080p HD resolution as its predecessor.

According to the UAProf brought to our attention by @evleaks, the HTC M8 (also known as the HTC One Two) will have a Full HD display of unknown size.

Previously leaked specs put the M8’s screen size at 5-inches, falling between the 4.7-inch HTC One and 5.9-inch HTC One Max. These rumours also placed the screen resolution at 1080p full HD, with the official UAProf, providing further support for such specs.

If the HTC M8 does lack a 2K resolution display, it could put the specs a long way behind potential rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S5, which is heavily rumoured to feature a 5.2-inch 2K display when it launches next month.

What’s also interesting in the leaked UAProf is the HTC M8’s apparent lack of soft keys. The HTC One and all its siblings feature two soft key buttons either side of the HTC logo at the bottom of the screen.

However, it seems HTC is removing these for the HTC One Two and will resort to only using on-screen navigation tools.

Other HTC M8 rumours include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, Android 4.4 KitKat and 2GB of RAM.

It should also feature an enhanced fingerprint sensor, building on that included with the HTC One Max.

The latest rumours also indicated the HTC M8 could offer a twin-sensor UltraPixel rear camera, aiming to offer improved depth of field, image quality and better focusing.