HTC updates Gallery and Blinkfeed in the Play Store
HTC is on a mission to prove that it is doing things differently. One of the ways it’s accomplishing this is by putting many of its proprietary apps in the Google Play Store, and today the Taiwanese manufacturer proved that it is serious about that by actually pushing out an update to both the Gallery and the Blinkfeed apps.
The updated Blinkfeed app optimizes the scrolling experience, adds more social content, and fixes a few bugs, while the Gallery added the ability to tap anywhere on the screen to change where to apply the Foregrounder effect.
Both Motorola and HTC now have a variety of their proprietary apps on the Play Store, and HTC says it even plans to open some of its apps to non-HTC devices. This allows these manufacturers to push out new features and bug fixes right away, rather than going through the long and tedious process of creating a whole new system update and waiting for carriers to approve that. In other words, this is a win-win for both consumers and the manufacturers themselves.
As the largest Android manufacturer, the ball is now in Samsung’s court. Will the Korean manufacturer be open to doing the same, or does it want to maintain every ounce of control over its apps that it can? Only time will tell, but I hope that – for the sake of Samsung customers everywhere – Samsung will decide to do what is really in everyone’s best interest.
Download: Google Play (Blinkfeed)
Download: Google Play (Gallery)
