Ariana Grande Looks Totally Different With Her Latest Hairstyle

Ariana Grande made a major style impact with a seemingly subtle hair switch-up! She let her hair down out of her signature ponytail for an event in London, pinning back just a few strands of her layered look.

She later captured the glam look in a stylish new Instagram selfie. Even though Ari has worn her hair loose before, her latest pics still looks so different!

Read More

Miley Cyrus Is Being Sued Over a Dog Attack

Miley Cyrus is no stranger to controversy, but according to TMZ, the "Wrecking Ball" singer has been hit with a serious lawsuit! Los Angeles-based model Yolande Ngom claims that she was attacked by Brandi Cyrus' dog Feather. She is suing for medical damages and emotional distress, alleging that the dog bit her thigh and caused permanent scars.

Although Miley wasn't there, one of her employees was handling the German shepherd, and it happened in an apartment complex owned by her company. Since we know the singer loves animals, she's probably distressed over the accusations against her sister's dog!

Read More

King of click: the story of the greatest keyboard ever made

King of click: the story of the greatest keyboard ever made

Emulated, replicated, and tweaked for 30 years, IBM's Model M is the forefather of modern keyboard design

The verge
By Adi Robertson 

The first thing you notice about the IBM Model M keyboard, when you finally get your hands on it, is its size. After years of tapping chiclet keys and glass screens on two- and three-pound devices, hefting five pounds of plastic and metal (including a thick steel plate) is slightly intimidating. The second thing is the sound – the solid click that’s turned a standard-issue beige peripheral into one of the computer world’s most prized and useful antiques.

Next year, the Model M turns 30. But to many people, it’s still the only keyboard worth using. It was recently spotted on the desk ofMinecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson, attached to a gaming PC whose graphic cards alone cost thousands of dollars. "The Model M is basically the best keyboard ever made," he told PC Gamer.  YouTube has dozens of Model M typing demos, unboxing videos, and sound comparisons between it and other mechanical keyboards. Since its introduction, the Model M has been the standard to meet for keyboard excellence.

"I enjoy using an iPad, it’s a wonderful device; the Kindle e-reader is a beautiful thing," says says Brandon Ermita, a Princeton University IT manager. "But I could never write a story, I could never write my dissertation, I could never produce work with a touchscreen." Ermita is devoted to keeping the Model M alive: he recovers them from supply depots and recycling centers, sells them through his site, ClickyKeyboards, and runs a veritable Model M private museum.  He estimates he’s put between 4,000 and 5,000 of the keyboards under the fingertips of aficionados over the past decade.

Like many people, I have vague memories of using a Model M as a kid. Last month, though, I took a trip to suburban New Jersey to meet Ermita and rediscover the magic of one of the most beloved keyboards of all time.

The day I visited his spacious office, two dozen or so keyboards were ensconced in a rack like fine wines. Above them, a single black keyboard sat protected in a glass case — a prototype Model M that’s one of the oldest pieces in Ermita’s collection. A hamper held recent acquisitions that still needed to be taken apart and cleaned of Doritos, sewing needles, and other pieces of detritus from their former owners. Looking at a Model M for the first time in years, what was most remarkable about the keyboard was just howunremarkable it looks. The Model M might be a relic of the past, but its DNA remains in almost every keyboard we use today.

 Keyboards from the '70s and '80s range from familiar to counterintuitive to utterly foreign_

The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed for typewriters in the late 19th century and quickly became universal. But by the time IBM released its first PC in 1981, layout was no longer a simple matter of spaces and capital letters — users now needed special keys to communicate with word processors, terminals, and "microcomputers." In hindsight, keyboards from the '70s and '80s range from familiar to counterintuitive to utterly foreign: in the IBM PC’s original 83-key keyboard — known as the PC / XT — the all-important Shift and Return keys were undersized and pushed to the side, their labels replaced by enigmatic arrows. The entire thing looks like a mess of tiny buttons and inexplicable gaps. In August of 1984, IBM announced the far more palatable PC / AT keyboard. Compared to the previous model, "the AT keyboard is unassailable," said PC Magazine. The AT couldn’t pass for a present-day keyboard: the function keys are arranged in two rows on the far left instead of along the top, Escape is nestled in the numeric keypad, and Ctrl and Caps Lock have been switched. Even so, it’s cleaner and far more comprehensible than its predecessor to modern eyes.

Find out how we turned 12 clicky keyboards into a music video

But IBM wanted something more than merely acceptable. In the early ’80s the company had assembled a 10-person task force to build a better keyboard, informed by experts and users. The design for the previous iteration was done "quickly, expeditiously — not the product of a lot of focus group activity," says David Bradley, a member of the task force who also happens to be the creator of the now-universal Ctrl+Alt+Delete function. The new group brought in novice computer users to test a friendlier keyboard, making important controls bigger and duplicating commonly used keys like Ctrl and Alt so they could be reached by either hand. Many of the keys were detachable from their bases, letting users swap them around as needed. And the Model M was born.

Introduced in 1985 as part of the IBM 3161 terminal, the Model M was initially called the "IBM Enhanced Keyboard." A PC-compatible version appeared the following spring, and it officially became standard with the IBM Personal System / 2 in 1987. The very first Model M that Ermita can verify — a terminal version — was produced on June 10th, 1985. That’s an awfully specific date, and it’s available because every Model M keyboard comes with an ID and production date printed on its back — Ermita does steady business with 20-somethings looking for a keyboard made on their birthday. He also curates the Model M Archive Project, a set of dauntingly long spreadsheets that track keyboards that have passed through his business as well as ones submitted (with ID, production date, and plant number) by other users.

"I have the uneasy feeling IBM is telling me, ‘You’d better learn to love it, because this is the keyboard of the future,’" wrote a PC Magazine reviewer_

Ermita’s collection includes many specialized, industry-specific keyboards, like one with baked-in labels for travel-agent booking, or a small model with the keys grouped into thirds, possibly for cashiers. "When computers were introduced, they were introduced as business machines," says Neil Muyskens, a former IBM manager. Vintage keyboards still bear stickers with commands for specific programs, and reviewers judged keyboards partly on how well they worked with software like WordStar and Lotus 1-2-3.

One reviewer was frustrated by the once again reshuffled keyboard layout that the Model M presented, but had a nagging suspicion that this design would stick. "I have the uneasy feeling IBM is telling me, ‘You’d better learn to love it, because this is the keyboard of the future,’" wrote a PC Magazine reviewer, in what would prove to be one of computing’s bigger understatements.

IBM PC/XT

IBM PC/AT

IBM Model M

Unicomp Ultra Classic

•  Control keys
•  Function keys
•  Typing (alphanumeric) keys
•  Navigation keys
•  Numeric keypad

That layout of the Model M has been around so long that today it’s simply taken for granted. But the keyboard’s descendents have jettisoned one of the Model M’s most iconic features — "buckling springs," a key system introduced in the PC / XT. Unlike mechanical switches that are depressed straight down like plungers, the Model M has springs under each key that contract, snap flat, or "buckle," and then spring back into place when released. They demand attention in a way that the soft, silent rubber domes in most modern keyboards don’t. This isn’t always a good thing; Model M owners sometimes ruefully post stories of spouses and coworkers who can’t stand the incessant chatter. But fans say the springs’ resistance and their audible "click" make it clear when a keypress is registered, reducing errors. Maybe more importantly, typing on the Model M is a special, tangible experience. Much like on a typewriter, the sharp click gives every letter a physical presence.

Soon after its emergence, Model M clones flooded the market. For its part, IBM gave new versions of the keyboard only the barest of redesigns. As a result, nostalgia for the Model M spans generations. "People contact me often via email, thanking me for reminding them of when they were a 20-something engineering student back in the 1980s," says Ermita. Younger buyers recall rearranging a classmate’s keyboard as a middle-school prank — "I’ve heard that story a few times."

In 1990, IBM spun off its US typewriter, keyboard, and printer business into a new company called Lexmark. Six years later, Lexmark dropped its keyboard division during what Muyskens calls an industry-wide shift towards cheaper products. IBM continued to commission products from a factory in Scotland and, briefly, a company called Maxi-Switch, but the last IBM Model M — as far as we know — rolled off the production line in 1999.

With a limited supply, all Model M fans are typing on borrowed time_

You can still buy an official Model M for about $80, but it won’t wear the IBM badge. After Lexmark left the business, Muyskens and other former employees began slowly purchasing the keyboard’s intellectual property rights and manufacturing equipment, working under the name Unicomp. "We’ve had to change the electronics," Muyskens says. "The clamshell cover material was changed back in ’99. But pretty much everything else has remained the same."

For some, that’s not authentic enough. "We get asked all the time — can we sell [someone] an IBM logo-ed product? And the answer is no, IBM owns the logo," says Muyskens. He says IBM still orders some keyboards for existing commercial customers, but if you want the old-school logo, you’ll have to turn to eBay or people like Ermita. For others, the inherent superiority and versatility of the Model M trumps nostalgic notions of authenticity: some users are adapting them to work wirelessly with Bluetooth. One Reddit user posted a custom modification with backlit keys that evoke the over-the-top designs of Razer or Alienware. But with a limited supply, all Model M fans are typing on borrowed time.

"This is like oil. One day oil will run out. It’ll be a big crash," says Ermita. For now, though, that crash seems far away. The oldest Model Ms have already lasted 30 years, and Ermita hopes they’ll make it for another 10 or 20 — long enough for at least one more generation to use a piece of computing history.

The Model M is an artifact from a time when high-end computing was still the province of industry, not pleasure. The computer that standardized it, the PS / 2, sold for a minimum of $2,295 (or nearly $5,000 today) and was far less powerful and versatile than any modern smartphone. In the decades since, computers have become exponentially more capable, and drastically cheaper. But in that shift, manufacturers have abandoned the concept of durability and longevity: in an environment where countless third-party companies are ready to sell customers specialty mice and keyboards at bargain basement prices, it’s hard to justify investing more than the bare minimum.

That disposability has made us keenly aware of what we’ve lost, and inspired a passion for hardware that can, well, take a licking and keep on clicking. As one Reddit user recently commented, "Those bastards are the ORIGINAL gaming keyboards. No matter how much you abuse it, you’ll die before it does."

Read More

Apple enables unique passwords for apps that tap into iCloud

Apple enables unique passwords for apps that tap into iCloud

Steve Dent

Engadget

Do you use third-party apps like Outlook that access Apple's iCloud but don't support two-factor authentication? You'll now be forced to enter a specific password for each one. Following a notorious celebrity hack, Apple updated iCloud with an extra security layer used to protect accounts by sending a four-digit code to your personal device. However, many third-party calendar, contact and email apps that access iCloud don't support two-factor, and could therefore expose your iCloud password -- and all your personal data -- to hackers. Apple said that if you're signed in to one of those apps when the change goes through today, you'll be signed out and forced to generate and enter a new password. To see how, check after the break or click here for more.
This is a reminder that starting tomorrow, app-specific passwords will be required to access your iCloud data using third party apps such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or other mail, contacts, and calendar apps.
If you are currently signed in to a third party app using your primary Apple ID password, you will be signed out automatically when this change takes effect. You will need to generate an app-specific password and sign in again. To generate an app-specific password:

• Sign in to My Apple ID (https://appleid.apple.com)
• Go to Password & Security
• Click Generate App-Specific Password

Source: Apple

Read More

Astronomers accidentally discovered the brightest pulsar on record

Astronomers accidentally discovered the brightest pulsar on record

Sean Buckley

Engadget

Remember NuSTAR, the specialized space telescope NASA designed specifically to study black holes? It just found something much, much brighter. Astronomers at NASA have stumbled upon what appears to be the most luminous pulsar ever discovered, but they almost mistook it for a black hole. After measuring the dead star's output, they found it was outputting as much energy as 10 million suns -- shockingly powerful, considering how much smaller it is than our own star. Astronomers aren't sure why the pulsar is so bright, but will continue to study in hopes of learning how common or uncommon this kind of pulsar is. The discovery kind of shakes up what theorist knew about black holes and ultraluminous x-rays, underlining how little we really know about the universe out there.
Source: NASA

Read More

Apple delays production of larger iPad - WSJ

Apple delays production of larger iPad - WSJ

Reuters

Oct 9 - Apple Inc suppliers have delayed the production of a larger iPad to early next year, the WallStreet Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The suppliers had planned to start producing the largerscreen tablet in mass volume beginning in December, but havebeen struggling to produce enough new iPhones to keep up withdemand, the WSJ said. (http://on.wsj.com/1vOGmWU)

Foxconn Technology Co Ltd, which assembles iPhonesand iPads, has 200,000 workers in China already putting togethernew iPhones and making items such as metal casings, the Journalsaid.
Apple is expected to launch the new iPads at an event on Oct. 16.

Asian suppliers expect Apple's larger tablet to have a12.9-inch liquid-crystal-display screen with a resolutionsimilar to the iPad Air launched in October last year, the WSJsaid.
Data research firm IDC said in August that it expectedtablet sales to slow globally in 2014.
Apple was not immediately available for comment.

The company said it sold more than 10 million of its newiPhones in the first weekend they were available in September. 

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bangalore; Editing by TedKerr)

Read More

Icahn to Apple: Hurry up already with that tender!

Icahn to Apple: Hurry up already with that tender!

Everett Rosenfeld

CNBC

In a letter to the company, activist investor Carl Icahn asked Apple (AAPL) to make a tender offer for shares on the belief that the tech giant is undervalued.

"The intention of this letter is to communicate two things to you: (1) given the earnings growth we forecast for Apple, we continue to think that the market misunderstands and dramatically undervalues Apple and (2) the excess liquidity the company continues to hold on its balance sheet affords the company an amazing opportunity to take further advantage of this valuation disconnect by accelerating share repurchases," Icahn wrote in the letter.

Icahn wrote that his models value Apple at $203 per share today—more than double its current price around $100. If that stock price were realized, the company would be worth more than a trillion dollars.

Apple shares (AAPL) were up about half a percent in Thursday premarket trading.
In response to the letter, Apple wrote to CNBC that it "always appreciate[s] hearing from our shareholders. Since 2013 we've been aggressively executing the largest capital return program in corporate history. As we've said before, we will review the program annually and take into account the input from all of our shareholders."

Icahn, who owns about 53 million shares in the company, has previously pushed Apple on its stock buybacks.

"You have said before that the company likes to be 'opportunistic' when repurchasing shares and we appreciate that. With this letter we simply hope to express to you that now is a very opportunistic time to do so. We think a tender offer is simply a good method of conducting a large repurchase in an expedited timeframe, but the exact method and the exact size is not the key issue for us.

We are simply asking you to help us convince the board to repurchase a lot more, and sooner," the letter said.
In order to "preemptively diffuse any cynical criticism" about the request, the activist investor committed not to tender any of his own company's shares if Apple takes his recommendation.

Icahn explained that the letter is not intended to criticize the direction of the company, and in fact represents a strong belief in its future. Apple, Icahn estimated in the letter, will see sales grow 82 percent over the next three years—the company's sales have already increased 65 percent in the last three years.

"We feel compelled to do so because we forecast such impressive earnings growth over the next few years, and therefore we believe Apple is dramatically undervalued in today's market, and the more shares repurchased now, the more each remaining shareholder will benefit from that earnings growth," the letter said.

CNBC's Jim Cramer said Icahn's note "is not scathing, but it basically says, 'Alright, [Apple CEO Tim Cook]. I've been around forever. You're a newcomer. Do it my way or the highway.'"

The letter also goes into detail concerning what Icahn thinks about several major Apple products. On the just-announced Apple Watch, the activist investor predicted another Cupertino-led revolution.

"It appears to us that Jony Ive and his team have yet again executed at a level that will bring to market a product that revolutionizes the entire category from both a hardware and software perspective, especially given that Apple has developed an entirely new operating system for this device, and catered to the notion that such a device needs to be far more fashionable and personal than other products currently available in this category," the letter said.

Icahn predicted that Apple will sell about 20 million watches in fiscal 2015, and then 45 million the following year.

As for the continual rumors that Apple may be getting into the television set business, Icahn wrote that "we have good enough reason to expect the introduction of an UltraHD TV set" in fiscal 2016.
On Wednesday, Icahn announced on Twitter that he would be sending an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Read More

Seconds of Summer's Luke Hemmings Punched Michael Clifford in the Face!

5 Seconds of Summer's Luke Hemmings Punched Michael Clifford in the Face!

GETTY IMAGES

The 5 Seconds of Summer guys all seem like they get along great, but apparently they've gotten into some pretty serious fights. During their appearance on The Bert Show, the guys all revealed that Luke Hemmings has the shortest temper of them all — Michael Clifford even said Luke punched him in the face once!

Now, however, the guys can laugh about it and it doesn't seem to be an issue. Though, they did say Luke's the most likely to follow in Justin Bieber's footsteps and punch the paparazzi in the face! Luckily, they haven't really been put in a bad situation with any photographers.

"We don’t get that many [paparazzi] to be honest, sometimes when there’s lots of fans around. Usually it’s quite funny because they ask funny questions and we can say funny things," Luke says.

“We like to mess about with them... rather than getting mad at them," Ashton added.

We love that the guys resort to humor, rather than violence (most of the time!).

Read More

Does Niall Horan Regret Being in One Direction?

Niall Horan has been very vocal about how much fun he has with the One Direction guys and how much he loves his career, but we also know that he regrets not finishing school. In 1D's upcoming autobiography Who We Are, Niall reiterated how much he wishes he finished school and even revealed that he feels like being in the band took his childhood away from him.

"My childhood was cut short by the X Factor, because One Direction took off and I never really got the chance to finish school or do my exams or anything like that," he wrote.

Niall had no idea when he auditioned for the reality singing competition that he would no longer be a normal kid going to school and living at home.

"After the first audition, I packed up everything in my life in a bag. What I didn't realize at the time was that, when I was stuffing clothes into the little suitcase, that was pretty much me leaving home for good," he wrote.

We can't imagine having your life change so quickly. We're just glad that he had four other guys who were going through the same thing with him and he wasn't alone!

Read More

Prosthetic Hand Restores Touch, Heals Phantom Pain

Prosthetic Hand Restores Touch, Heals Phantom Pain

By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer

LiveScience

The sensations that many people take for granted — the featherweight feel of a piece of fruit, that lets you hold a cherry without crushing it, or the soft touch of a loved one's hand — are beyond the reach of many amputees. But a new kind of prosthetic could restore sensation for people who have lost a limb, as well as relieve their pain, researchers say.
One patient who tried the new prosthetic said he can now feel textures such as cotton balls and sandpaper again. Igor Spetic lost his right hand in an industrial accident four years ago, but when he wears the prosthetic hand, the device stimulates the nerves in his upper arm, allowing him to feel.
What's more, after he began using the prosthetic, Spetic no longer felt the phantom limb pain he had suffered since his injury.
A second patient who lost his right hand and forearm in an accident, Keith Vonderhuevel, also said that most of his phantom limb pain disappeared after he began using the new prosthetic, according to the study, published today (Oct. 8) in the journal Science Translational Medicine. [See Video of "Feeling" Prosthetic Hand]
It's not the first prosthetic to restore touch to an amputee, but it may provide a more "natural" sensation than earlier devices, said head researcher Dustin Tyler, a biomedical engineer at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio. The device's system has now been in testing for more than two years.

It's electrifying
When Spetic and Vonderhuevel lost their arms, the connections to the muscles and the nerves in their hands were severed. The new prosthetic is covered in pressure sensors, and it works by sending electrical signals from these sensors to the intact nerves in what remains of the patient's arm. The brain interprets these signals to mean the patient has a hand that is touching something.
In the study, a team of surgeons implanted three electrode cuffs around the nerves in Spetic's forearm and two cuffs in Vonderhuevel's arm, and connected the cuffs to the prosthetic arm by wires through the skin.
The cuffs allowed Spetic and Vonderhuevel to feel 19 and 16 distinct points on their prosthetic hands, respectively. For example, one sensation point might correspond to the index finger.

All natural
Often when a nerve is stimulated using electrodes, patients report that the sensation feels tingly or prickly, a bit like having pins and needles, Tyler said. But in the new device the engineers varied the pattern and intensity of the stimulation — a technique that hadn't been used before — and found the system was able to deliver sensation that felt much more natural, he said.
"When we first turned the stimulation on, the subject reported that it was the first time he had felt his hand since the accident," Tyler said.
After that first time, the researchers continued to fine-tune the stimulation, to allow the patients to feel different textures. "We don't believe the way we're stimulating the nerves is exactly natural," Tyler said. "But if there's something close, the brain likes to interpret it as something it knows."
They developed the device to the point at which Spetic, while blindfolded, could tell the difference between sandpaper, a smooth surface and a ridged surface with his touch-sensitive prosthetic hand. He could even distinguish between two different textures on different parts of the hand at the same time, the researchers said.
Vonderhuevel tried holding grapes or a cherry in his prosthetic hand without dropping or breaking them, both with and without the electrical stimulation."When the sensation's on, it's not too hard," he said in a statement. "When it's off, you make a lot of grape juice."

No pain, all gain
Both patients suffered from phantom limb pain, a sensation that seems to emanate from the missing limb (Spetic described his pain as a vice crushing his fist). Yet unexpectedly, both Spetic and Vonderhuevel reported that their pain has almost totally disappeared since they started using the new prosthetic, even when the stimulation is turned off.
"We don't know if it's because now that they're getting natural feedback, the brain is reincorporating the [prosthetic] hand, or because of other mechanisms," Tyler said, but "it doesn't appear related to the stimulation directly."
The prosthetic has been working for two-and-a-half years for Spetic and one-and-a-half for Vonderhuevel, while other devices that aim to do the same thing have been used by patients for a month or less.
To date, the patients have only used the device in the lab, but in the future, the researchers would like to develop a fully implantable system, like a pacemaker, which patients could use in their own homes. Tyler also hopes that more sophisticated sensors will be developed that can detect what the prosthetic hand is touching.
While the technology still has to clear regulatory hurdles before it makes it to market, it could be available within five to 10 years, Tyler said.

Read More

Is this Apple's next iPad Air?

Is this Apple's next iPad Air?

David Pierce

The Verge 

Apple's October event, traditionally the day the company announces the next generation of iPads, appears to be set for October 16th. That means leaks should start coming fast and furious — and Tinhte.vn may have one of the best yet. The Vietnamese site published a set of pictures purporting to be the next iPad Air, featuring basically all of the upgrades we've been expecting from the next generation of Apple's tablets.

Most obvious is just how thin these tablets are — reportedly just 7mm, about the same as the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. (The photos basically show a blown-up iPhone 6, which seems safe to assume the Air will be.) There's what appears to be a Touch ID sensor on the front, redesigned volume buttons, and very little else that appears new.

There's no mute switch / rotation lock on this model, but there are any number of reasons for that. Tinhte.vn guesses that it's been removed for the sake of thinness, but since the same switch fits fine on the iPhone 6 that explanation doesn't quite hold up. There's also an odd, out-of-place hole on the side, and some unpolished, rough metal on the bottom, so it's clear this isn't a finished device, and may just be missing a few final touches.

There are plenty of other rumors about the iPad Air, but whether or not Tinhte.vn's photos are of the new model or not they depict essentially the device we expect to see next week. Thinner, lighter, Touch ID, some improved specs, maybe an anti-reflective screen, but the same iPad Air as ever. We'll be there next week to see the new models in person, and to find out if Apple has anything truly surprising in store.

Read More

HTC Focuses on Images with Desire Eye Phone and Re Camera

HTC Focuses on Images with Desire Eye Phone and Re Camera

Nathan Olivarez-Giles

The Wall Street Journal.

HTC is hoping that a focus on photos and video will lure in consumers this holiday season. On Wednesday, HTC introduced the Desire Eye, a smartphone with a 13-megapixel front-facing camera for high-quality selfies, and the Re, a camera built to compete with GoPro's popular Hero cameras.

ReThe Re—whose name makes us think of email subject lines—is HTC's first full-on camera. It's a unique device, shaped like a periscope. There's no view finder, and there isn't even a power button.

The only control is a big chrome shutter button right behind the wide 146-degree angle lens. Nigel Newby-House, HTC's executive director of product planning, argues that this sort of lens, paired with a 16-megapixel sensor, makes it ideal for parties and family events.

When you pick up the Re, its internal sensors switch it to standby mode. As long as the battery is charged, the camera will be ready to shoot. Tap the shutter button for a still shot. A longer press tells the Re to shoot 1080p HD video. There's also a time-lapse mode built in.

It's pretty small, measuring four inches long and an inch in diameter. Battery life comes in at about an hour and a half of continuous use, Newby-House said. Not quite as seafaring as a GoPro, it's at least swimming-pool friendly, waterproof down to a meter for as long as 50 minutes.

"What GoPro has done for the adrenaline junkie is fantastic," he said. "But Re is built for birthday parties, for BBQs, concerts. This is viewfinder-less imaging for the rest of us." The everyday use is what informed the Re's shape, Newby-House said. "The form factor makes it easy to know where the button is at," he said. "We didn't want you to have to worry about dropping this as you're running around."

Because it has no viewfinder, HTC will provide an app for Android and iOS, that will serve as look through its lens, a remote control, and a way to move photos and video to Dropbox and Google Drive.

The $200 Re will hit HTC's website and Best Buy later this month in three colors: navy blue, coral orange and white. The Re will ship with an 8GB microSD card. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon will start selling the Re in November, in time for the holidays.

Desire Eye

The Desire Eye has two cameras, both 13 megapixels. The difference is that the front facing camera has a 22mm lens, which Newby-House says is better for group selfies, while the rear camera uses a 28mm lens. There's a dual-LED flash on both the front and back.

In the past, HTC's Desire line has always been a step below the flagship One devices, with lesser specs and pricing. But the new Desire Eye features much of the same guts as the HTC One (M8), the company's current top-of-the-line phone: Inside there's a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM, and MicroSD card slot. The Desire Eye's 5.2-inch 1080p display is actually larger than the One's 5-inch screen.

The Desire Eye will be exclusive to AT&T in the U.S., and it'll go on sale sometime later this year. Newby-House said that AT&T will announce when and how much in the coming weeks, so we don't yet know whether it'll cost the same, or more, or less than the One.

The Re and Desire Eye arrive at a crucial time for HTC. After years of struggling to compete with Samsung and Apple, it's finally found profitability in its last two quarters, but sales are still declining, and market share is still shrinking. Meanwhile, threats from upstart Chinese phone makers loom. The focus on imaging show HTC's willingness to take risks with the Re and Desire Eye. Another upcoming risk: The company is expected to launch a new Nexus tablet with Google. (The last time HTC made a tablet, 2011's Flyer, it was a dud.)

Whether or not consumers will respond to the company's new products—or will even get the message through the marketing noise made by Apple and Samsung going into the holiday season—is another matter.

Read More