Latest leak shows re-vamped variant of the Droid DNA's international cousin

It looks like HTC's betting big on its "BoomSound" front-facing speaker technology, as images from Chinese site VR-Zone seem to show that the feature's made its way across to yet another upcoming phone, the Butterfly S. The design is almost unchanged from the original Butterfly (that's the international version of the Droid DNA) but there's one interesting addition down below. That's right, the new Butterfly now rocks dual front-facing speakers, just like the HTC One.

According to the source of the leak, the Butterfly S still features a 5-inch 1080p screen, and the rear speaker has been deprecated by the new front-facers. It's speculated that the internals have been upgraded too, and that the Butterfly S will be powered by a Snapdragon 600 chip. (And of course we can clearly see HTC's latest Sense 5 UI on-screen.)

More information is due at an Asian announcement event next Wednesday, June 19.

Source: VR-Zone; via: Engadget

Google makes another move into the enterprise services market

HP and Google have struck a deal to have the PC maker become the latest Google Apps reseller, bundling enterprise management tools along with Google's App suite on its devices. According to a report today by AllThingsD, HP will include new tools on its PC's, printers and other IT devices -- holding together the whole system with hooks into Google Apps, Google's platform for businesses to run email, documents, file sharing and more with one service. It's an interesting move considering HP's historical alignment with Microsoft on the enterprise front, and one that could drive serious traffic over to Google.

Considering HP's recent dips into partnering with Google to not only release Android but also Chrome OS hardware, with more to come, this could be a sign of something bigger between the two companies. While it doesn't like to talk about it too often, Google has continued to make changes and push Google Apps as a great platform for (especially small) businesses to use as an affordable enterprise suite.

Source: AllThingsD

Sprint complaints aside, Dish and Clearwire are ready to make a deal

Despite Sprint's continued protest against Dish's cash offer to acquire as much of Clearwire as possible at $4.40 per share, Clearwire looks to be nearing a decision to accept it. Sources familiar with the matter tell The Wall Street Journal that the special committee at Clearwire assigned with assessing the current offer from Dish will advise the rest of the company's board to push back a Thursday shareholder vote in order to accept Dish's cash offer for the company. Previous arguments from Sprint that the deal is not in the best interest of the company nor is it legally possible given the governance structure demands from Dish (which call for board member appointments as a term) still remain, adding to the confusion. Sprint claims that its previous agreements with Clearwire, and a restructuring of the company in 2008, conflict strongly with the demands Dish has on its offer.

Dish and Clearwire don't seem to be bothered by the potential structural issues of the deal, and have explained as such to Sprint previously. If Clearwire is to accept Dish's offer -- whether it be with revised governance terms or not -- it would have to be for at least 25-percent of the company to make any meaningful difference for Dish's plans to block Sprint's buyout of Clearwire. Sprint needs a majority of the minority shareholders to approve its plan to buyout the rest (49.5-percent) of the company it doesn't already own, something that simply won't happen if Dish controls that majority share.

Let's also remember that Dish and SoftBank are on their final round of offers to try and buy out Sprint in the coming weeks as well, which adds another angle to this whole discussion. Next week is shaping up to be a major decision week for these four companies, with lots of money getting ready to change hands if everything goes Sprint's way.

Source: WSJ

I don't often have to print documents, but when I do ...

Google Cloud Print is pretty handy, letting you print anything from anywhere using Chrome with your own computer and printer. With today's release of the official Android app, you can now print to your Cloud Print enabled printers straight from your Android devices.

Doing so is simple, just open the app and use Android's sharing menu to import whatever it is you want to print. In fact, the hardest part of it all is setting up your computer and printer to work with Google Cloud Print, and that's pretty easy. 

While most of us send files and documents through the Internet in this day and age, having an easy fall back to get paper copy is nice. Grab it from the Google Play link above.

Select cities participating at launch; AT&T and T-Mobile compatible devices welcome

MetroPCS announced today that it is now letting customers bring their own unlocked GSM devices, signaling that it is ready to start the transition to using T-Mobile's network. As was indicated when the merger of T-Mobile and MetroPCS was being finalized, the legacy CDMA network for MetroPCS is going to be quickly phased out, moving customers over to T-Mobile's GSM offering. With the announcement today that customers in Boston, Hartford, Dallas and Las Vegas can bring their own unlocked AT&T and T-Mobile devices to the carrier we can assume things are going according to plan.

The website has a handy tool to let you know if your device will be compatible with the network being offered, but expect pretty much any modern GSM device to fit the bill. Being that this is a limited rollout MetroPCS is only offering SIM cards in-store and not online at this point, but we have to assume it's only a matter of time before this program expands to pull even more people off of the CDMA network.

Source: MetroPCS; Via: TmoNews

The new method would make it easy to hide your data from any application

Steve Kondik took to Google+ earlier today to talk about something new he's been working on called Run in Incognito Mode. Designed to help maintain control over your personal data, it's a per app command that will stop your phone from sending out data to an app that might ask for more than you're comfortable sharing.

We aren't providing ad-blocking or device info (IMEI) spoofing. This feature is designed explicitly to help protect your personal data, and it will remain as such.

So what exactly will Incognito Mode do? Of course we haven't seen it yet, but according to Kondik, the new flag will allow the software on your phone that delivers data (called content providers) to either return the "real" data, or a limited set of data using the following privacy features:

• Return empty lists for contacts, calendar, browser history,and messages.
• GPS will appear to always be disabled to the running application.
• When an app is running incognito, a quick panel item is displayed in order to turn it off easily.
• No fine-grained permissions controls as you saw in CM7. It's a single option available under application details.

In other words, with Incognito Mode turned on, an app like Facebook will be told that you have zero contacts, nothing in your calendar, no message history and no browser history. Your real contact list, calendar, messages list and browser history will remain unchanged, but the third party app will never know the difference. If the app queries for a location, it will be told that GPS is turned off. All of this will be easily toggled on and off in the quick panel.

No word on when to expect this feature, or even a promise that it will make it's way into CM. It sounds like a pretty easy way to keep your valuable data safe, though, and we hope to see it soon.

Source: +Steve Kondik

AT&T was less than subtle in its YouTube teaser for the Galaxy S4 Active earlier today, but T-Mobile U.S. is leaving more to the imagination. In a video entitled "What if your smartphone could do this?," we see the action from a phone's perspective as it follows a diver into a pool.

Like AT&T, T-Mobile's promising more information tomorrow, suggesting it too may be preparing a Galaxy S4 Active announcement. But let's not forget that the Sony Xperia Z -- also water-resistant -- is rumored to be heading T-Mo's way in the near future, too.

So which are you hoping for -- Xperia Z or Galaxy S4 Active? Share your thoughts down in the comments.

One of T-Mobile's hottest devices now $99 down or $579 outright

In what is likely an attempt to get more customers moving up to its new Simple Choice plans and onto LTE devices at the same time, T-Mobile is offering a $50 discount on the Galaxy S4 from now until July 13th. That brings down your up-front cost for buying it on a payment plan to $99, with 24 monthly payments of $20. That adds up to $579 if you're wanting to buy it outright on day one, and also pegs it at the same price as the HTC One for the time being. T-Mobile is also dropping prices slightly on the Galaxy Note 2 -- now $169 down and 24 payments of $20 -- and the Galaxy S3 -- $49 down and 24 payments of $20 -- for the same time period.

The pricing of the Note 2 and Galaxy S3 doesn't make a whole lot of sense considering how much more powerful the Galaxy S4 is, but options are always good for the average consumer. The new pricing has already been updated on the T-Mobile website at the source link below, and will also be available at T-Mobile retail locations.

More: T-Mobile

Some of you kids might have to ask your parents what MySpace was ...

MySpace is attempting to reinvent itself as a the space for music and video discovery, and today it took itself out of beta and is available for anyone willing to sign up for yet another space to discover music and video. 

"Millions of musicians, artists, filmmakers, designers and curators are making their way to the new Myspace," reads the tag line. "Start connecting with them and channel an ever-widening stream of culture, creativity and sound directly to your eyes and ears." 

So there's that. There's also an Android app "coming," MySpace says in an e-mail blast today. Assuming it's on par with the iOS app (currently available), you'll be able to create animated gifs and browse people and music and videos. So, hang tight.

Proper scaling to larger tablet screens improves the experience

The official eBay app has just been updated in the Play Store with several improvements to both the main home screen and the item listing experience for devices of all sizes. The main view when you open the app has changed to be cleaner and more prominently display your recent searches near the top, with a similar interface for both tablets and phones. The item listing function has received a bit of an overhaul, with the ability to see a full preview of your listing before posting, access to draft listings between devices and a proper tablet UI that takes advantage of large screens.

eBay is also expanding the ability to list items through the app to Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. You can grab a download of the newly improved eBay app at the Play Store link above.