Setting up BlinkFeed on the HTC One

You are so excited because you are going to get the HTC One as soon as it launches. The 4.7 inch FHD screen offers a pixel density of 468ppi and the quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor is as much as 40% more powerful than the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro. Heck, you might even be looking forward to BlinkFeed. If Flipboard, Google Currents and Windows Phone LiveTiles had a ménage à trois, BlinkFeed would be the love child that resulted from the activity. 

Setting up BlinkFeed

With feeds coming in from your social networks, third party apps, and the latest news, BlinkFeed keeps you up to date instantly. Unlike Google Currents or Flipboard, BlinkFeed cannot be removed from your phone although you can merely ignore it by not setting it up and not using your thumb to move all the way to the left of the screen where BlinkFeed lives.

But let's say you want to use BlinkFeed. The idea of all of these feeds coming in with the latest news and tweets and status updates energizes you. How do you set it up? When you first look at BlinkFeed, it gives you some suggestions on laying it out. Tap on one of the blue boxes and you are ready to select your feeds. Currently, you have to go with the pre-selected choices, but news junkies should feel covered with choices including AP, Huffington Post and Reuters. Stories open from inside BlinkFeed itself and you can share them through the usual means. Stories can also be opened in the browser.

When it comes to your social networks, BlinkFeed is designed to connect you to them quickly. For example, let's say that something from Facebook catches your eye. You can tap on the screen and the app will pop up. Or, if you're the lazy type, you can post a status update straight from the BlinkFeed home page. The social networks that are included with the feature are Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Setting up BlinkFeed is an easy process. Open it, select the feeds you want, and that's basically it. How HTC One users respond to the feature will probably determine whether we see a version of this on Android phones from other manufacturers.

Selecting your feeds for BlinkFeed