The latest news on the upcoming HTC One M10 (aka the HTC Perfume) is that the phone is heading to AT&T and that it might share a few design elements with the HTC One A9. Neither detail should come as a surprise. Since the HTC One (M7)’s release, all major US service providers have carried HTC’s flagship smartphone. While HTC has received a lot of criticism regarding the HTC One A9′s design, HTC has been adamant that we would see similarly designed phones in the future.

Based on previous rumors, we are expecting the HTC One M10 to features metal-clap body, a circular camera lens on the back and a fingerprint sensor on the front. Other than that, we have no clue what the phone will look like. Hopefully that will change in the coming weeks.

It's ALIVE http://pic.twitter.com/J8zLLKh6zo

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 25, 2016

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If you like the A9, you'll love the M10.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 26, 2016

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HTC Hot Deals have been of varying quality, and there have been steeper discounts than today’s offering, but in terms of sheer options this is easily one of the best.

The savings scales up with your purchase:

• 15% off an order of $150 or more
• 20% off an order of $500 or more
• 30% off an order of $650 or more

There are only a few limitations on the deal. It can’t be applied to the new UA HealthBox, the discount tops out on purchases up to $1,999 and finally the discount can only be applied to items that are in stock so you are going to want to move early if you have something in particular you are after.

The deals do get rounded up, so a purchase of $499.99 qualifies for the $500 tier. Now I wouldn’t recommend going for the HTC One M9, which at $649.99 comes down to $454.30, but that is still pricier than you’ll find it on Amazon.

The One A9 on the other hand goes from $499.99 down to $399.99, which is a bit cheaper than you’ll find it elsewhere.

If you have been considering picking up any HTC gear hit the source link below to check it out now. This deal is for those in the US (or with a valid shipping address in the US) only and ends at 11:59 PM Pacific time on Tuesday, January 26th.

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Amazon’s initial foray into the smartphone market went up in a fiery blaze with a $170 million writedown for the Fire Phone. While the hardware was better than most gave it credit for, and features like Firefly that identified a variety of media or physical objects and directed you to purchase them on Amazon were interesting, the overall package simply couldn’t hold up to mid-range offerings with Google software.

The price certainly didn’t help the Fire Phone, either. It started at an insane $650 and could not remotely compete with high-end offerings from Samsung, LG or HTC at the time. It fairly quickly fell to $449, but even this was a steep ask compared to, say, the Moto X, and the price freefall continued on until we eventually saw the Fire Phone at $130. It didn’t move that well even at that price, despite offering a year of Amazon Prime ($99 value).

Well, Amazon has learned its lesson and seemingly won’t be returning to the market with a Fire Phone 2, but they aren’t giving up on mobile completely. If a report from The Information is correct, Amazon is trying to convince some smartphone OEMs to more tightly integrate Amazon software beyond the simple inclusion of some Amazon apps that we see today.

While I can see why Amazon would vastly prefer this tact to risking its neck on another Fire Phone, it seems like a project that is ultimately doomed to failure given that any significant Android manufacturer will pass, as such a device would almost assuredly violate the agreement with Google necessary to ship devices with Google services. I don’t question that Amazon will be able to find some smartphone OEM that will do this, but for a company the size of Amazon, anything less than 1 of the top 10 Android OEMs (heck, probably the top 5) is going to be meaningless market share.

With that said, it is hard to bet against Amazon completely, so perhaps they have figured something out that we are missing.

What would you need to see out of a device with Amazon services tightly integrated to make you consider it?

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While Google dropping the price of the Nexus 5X to $349 earlier this month brought it into a price range that made it easier to recommend, this limited time offer through highly rated seller buydig on eBay drops it into no-brainer status for anyone considering the junior member of the Nexus family.

Buydig has the 16GB and 32GB Nexus 5X available at $299 and $349, respectively. They have already sold out of the white 16GB model, but the black remains for now. Both models also include a $20 Visa gift card, which functionally brings the price down to $279 and $329.

I doubt you will see a better deal on the Nexus 5X anytime soon, so if you have been considering picking one up, this is the best time to make it happen.

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We all receive a lot of emails — both for work and in our personal lives — and having a great app for managing all of those messages is an excellent idea. Fortunately, there are plenty of apps to choose from — from email providers, device manufacturers and third-parties alike.

The pre-installed email apps tend to be enough for most people — a basic feature-set with support for the major email platforms. To compete with the stock email applications, a third party offering has to excel in either design or functionality. Flipdog Solutions aims to compete on both fronts with MailDroid, a fully-featured email client for Android. Having used the app for a number of weeks as my primary email app, let’s see how well it performs…

Starting with the basics, it’s important to note that MailDroid has most of the features you’d expect from an email app in 2016 — the ability to use it with the major email providers, receive and respond to emails, archive and organize mail, and view multiple account streams in a unified inbox. The app has support for Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, Exchange, iCloud, FastMail and more as well as IMAP, WebDAV and POP3 so you can easily get set up with almost any account.

The experience of navigating the app is pleasant enough. The design feels a little basic and could do with a refresh, and there a lot of menus and settings to peruse, but using the app for it primary purpose — email — is straightforward. Visually, a couple of nice UI touches like the ability to change the theme color and the support for swipe gestures in your inbox (because who doesn’t enjoy swiping emails straight into the trash?) are highlights. Composing an email is also as expected with a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for laying out your emails exactly how you want.

MailDroid does little to filter and organize your email on its own, instead it simply presents your mail in an easy to understand, chronological list. That’s not to say it is without organizational capabilities — quite the opposite. You can use MailDroid to set custom filters and rules based on contacts or subjects, create and manage email folders, opt for a conversation view for email threads, choose specific notification sounds for particular senders, and take charge of when the app syncs each account’s mailbox. You can also save mail for offline viewing, search across your mailboxes of both online and offline emails and link your cloud storage apps for attachments. MailDroid puts all of these granular controls in your hands in its in-app settings and essentially every feature and setting can be customized to your liking.

This customization is both a real selling point and a burden in MailDroid. It took me quite some time to get used to the app and to configure it in a way that fit into my workflow and suited my needs, but once I had done so it made managing my inboxes a breeze. It takes some initial investment and time, but this pays off — particularly for moderate to power users who this app is mined at.

Security is another key focus for MailDroid with support for password protection, PGP and S/MIME. Flipdog offers a free Crypto plugin (available here) for enhanced security and there’s an optional spam filter to keep out unwanted emails that is available in-app for $0.99 a month, or to try on a 21 day free trial. For business users, these security features will be a real boon.

After using MailDroid for a while, I have found it receives email as quickly as any other app, even with custom rules set, so there was no need to worry about delayed notifications. It uses slightly more battery life than my pre-installed email app, which is to be expected, but not much more. My main qualm with the app is the ads. Being a free app, it is ad-supported and these appear as banners across your inbox which not only crowd the UI but also can be tapped in confusion as they look similar in format to your mail messages. A number of permissions are also required for the ads. There is, of course, an ad-free Pro version of MailDroid available if ads are not your thing, and it also comes with some bonus added features including home screen widgets, the ability to reply directly from the notification drawer and support for navigating your inbox with your device’s hardware buttons.

If email is a major part of your life — and if you find yourself constantly managing your inbox(es) — MailDroid is worth checking out. Its plethora of power user features will be valuable to anyone who relies on email. The look and feel could do with a refresh and a bit more character, but the features are all there if you spend some time digging through the settings. MailDroid really puts the power of email management in your hands and is perfect for anyone who wants to take a firm control of their inboxes. MailDroid is also under active development and has been since 2009 with the developer constantly adding new features (better Android Wear support being something that is on the horizon). Longevity is worth considering when investing any amount of time in an email app.

If you find yourself searching for a more powerful email app, download MailDroid for free from Google Play and test it out for yourself.

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A while back, Spotify announced that it was working to add video content into its mobile app. The service, which revolves primarily around streaming music, has been looking for additional ways to cater to users. Video is one way in which the company can pull in new users and encourage existing users to spend more time within Spotify.

Spotify’s video offerings will consist of content from partners such as ESPN, Comedy Central, Vice Media, Maker Studios, Tastemade and BBC. Notably, the content is coming from providers within both traditional and digital media. Much of Spotify’s video content will consist of short clips, such as sports game highlights or comedy sketches. During its testing, Spotify found that packaging related video content improved the effectiveness. Expect to see video packages, with some examples being “Laughs at Lunch” and “News of the Week”.

At this point in time, the video content will be ad-free, even with Spotify paying to license the content from its partners. In the future, however, the company may look into advertising within video content as a potential means to create profit.

Spotify’s video content will be rolling out in the Android app later this week, with iOS users seeing the new feature by the end of next week. To begin, video content will be available in the US, UK, Germany and Sweden.

Check out The Wall Street Journal‘s article to hear more.

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Every week we cover new Android apps with Fresh Meat on Wednesday, followed by Android Gaming on Thursday and Top 10 App Updates on Friday. When Monday rolls around, we look back to see which apps were the most appealing to our audience. Read on for the five most popular Android apps from last week. These apps are ones that are most likely new and haven’t appeared in the top five list more than three times.

1. LeDo Launcher

App info: Extreme Speed – occupy the least resources, the fastest operating speed; totally enhance mobile phone performance, exceed the system-level launcher, challenge the speed limit!

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2. Wi-Fi Transfer

App info: The Wi-Fi Transfer application allows you to connect your devices directly and transfer your files easily without using cables, the cloud, emails, or wireless networks.

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3. SKRWT

App info: SKRWT – the missing link in high-end smartphone photography – is the most powerful keystone- and lens-correction tool out there and has been selected for the App Store’s “Best Apps 2014″.

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4. Wildcard

App info: Wildcard delivers a curated news and entertainment experience unlike anything in the Play Store. It’s the news that matters now, from the sources you trust, broken down into intelligent cards perfectly design for your phone.

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5. Mimicker Alarm

App info: Mimicker Alarm, a Microsoft Garage Project, is a free morning alarm clock app that helps you wake up and stay up by playing a simple game, called a “Mimic”.

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Note:  To ensure that all apps receive a fair chance to make the list, we will retire any app that has made the list for three consecutive weeks.

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The second generation Moto Hint, the tiny Bluetooth headset from Motorola, launched in the Fall last year to no fanfare from Motorola, presumably a nod to the original Moto Hint not setting the world on fire with its sales figures.

The price of the new Moto Hint at launch was also slashed to $129.99 from the $149.99 of its predecessor. That seemed a much more reasonable asking price, but still likely too tall an ask for most buyers. The street price on the Hint has been sitting at $79.99 most places for some time now, but Best Buy has now dropped it to $59.99 through its eBay store and online for in-store pick-up.

At that price I think it is worth a second look for a couple sets of people. Full disclosure, I love the second generation Moto Hint, it solved the huge problem from the first generation which was that it was simply too quiet to be usable in anything other than a pretty quiet environment. It also nearly doubled the battery life in the case giving you a total of 17 hours when the Hint and case are fully charged.

The first category of people that should consider the Hint are those that simply want a low-profile Bluetooth headset. Both for making calls and using voice commands with my smartphone the Hint works fantastically while only making me look vaguely crazy with a slight protrusion from my ear rather than like a Borg.

That is a distant second to my primary use for the Hint though, which is listening to podcasts and audio books. Admittedly I consume a somewhat disturbing amount of both, but this use case has made it easily the second most used gadget for me behind only whatever my current smartphone might be.

Now there are a number of truly wireless stereo earbuds coming this year, but most of those are going to run you $200+, so if you are just looking for a low-profile Bluetooth headset or like me spend most of your time listening to spoken word content the Moto Hint at $59.99 is a great deal.

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2016 is upon us and with the new year comes a rumor mill intent upon churning out plenty of reports regarding upcoming flagships. One of those hotly-anticipated flagships is the LG G5, which has been the subject of many rumors lately. Now, we may be getting our first good look at the LG G5. It’s a bit unclear if this is the G5, as the phone is camouflaged by a dummy box, but there are some signs indicating that it may be a prototype model.

As you can see, the device in question features dual cameras on the rear, matching up with previous reports claiming 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel sensors. We can also see a fingerprint reader (and likely power button) beneath the camera, again matching up with previous rumors and fitting in with the mock-ups that CNET created. Those mock-ups were done after CNET reportedly got a look at a prototype model and found that the device has a removable battery that slides in and out with the bottom of the device.

You may also notice that the volume rocker has been moved from the rear of the device to the left side. On the right side, you’ll find a spot for SIM and microSD cards. Moving around to the bottom, we can see a microphone, speaker and a USB-C charging port.

Again, it’s hard to tell for sure if this is an early prototype of the LG G5, but it does pique our interest with the way that it matches up to other rumors. As it stands, we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for more reports and images to get a better idea of just what the LG G5 will look like.

Gallery

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The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge may not be far off, but if you are more interested in VR than the next generation of Galaxy devices this deal may be enough to sway you.

This weekend if you buy a Samsung Galaxy smartphone that is compatible with the Gear VR (that would be the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ or Note5) a free Gear VR will automatically be added to your order.

While it may not hold up to the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Playstation VR, the Gear VR is considerably cheaper and in this case won’t cost you a dime. There are some amazing experiences to be had with Gear VR and it does have one up on all of those higher powered VR rigs in that it is completely wireless.

Now I wouldn’t recommend going out and buying a Galaxy smartphone just to get the free Gear VR, it is only $99 after all, but if you were considering the purchase this is certainly a nice incentive to close the deal.

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