| Apple on the elusive cheap iPhone: 'We're not in the junk business' Sep 19th 2013, 13:28, by Kate Solomon 
Apple may have launched an iPhone 5C last week but it soon became clear that the C did not stand for 'cheap'. So what about the "budget iPhone" that so many people were sure was on its way? Nothing. It's set to maintain mythical status forever, by the sounds of things. Speaking to Business Week on the matter, CEO Tim Cook said, "There's always a large junk part of the market. We're not in the junk business." Compete like crazy"There's a segment of the market that really wants a product that does a lot for them, and I want to compete like crazy for those customers," he added. "I'm not going to lose sleep over that other market, because it's just now who we are." If Cook had just said all this pre-iPhone 5C, it could have saved us all a lot of heartache. - Want to know what we made of the colourful new iPhone? Check out our iPhone 5C review now.
       |  | In Depth: iOS 7 vs iOS 6: how different are they? Sep 19th 2013, 13:00, by Gary Marshall 
iOS 7 is the biggest change to Apple's iOS since the arrival of apps in 2008. It's brighter, bolder and guaranteed to annoy anyone who thought iOS looked just fine, but there's much more to it than that dramatic new user interface. iOS 7 is packed with new features big and small. These are the highlights. That new interfaceLike it or loathe it, there's no denying that iOS looks very different. It's much more minimalist than before, with a distinctly flat look - check out the new Messages or Mail compared to the iOS 6 versions and the differences are obvious. Apps that haven't been designed for iOS 7 yet are going to look a little bit odd compared to the stark new Apple apps. A new lock screen
The lock screen benefits from a parallax effect: move your phone and your wallpaper appears to move. Where the iOS 6 lock screen has two swipeable bits for unlocking your device or launching the Camera app, iOS 7 has four: unlocking, Camera, and two new swipes: swiping down from the top of the screen to see notifications, and swiping up from the bottom to bring up Control Center. Speaking of which... Control CenterControl Center is something many iOS users have been clamouring for for ages: instead of wading through endless Settings screens to turn on features such as Airplane Mode, Control Center provides quick access to key features: Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and Rotation Lock. It also provides media playback controls, Airdrop file sharing, and quick access to the phone's LED light and the Clock, Calculator and Camera apps. NotificationsNotifications have been given a major revamp: there are now three sections (swipeable left to right) headed Today, All and Missed. Today tells you what's on your schedule and includes cute details such as "it would take you about 9 minutes to drive home right now" and a summary of the weather forecast. All collates notifications of app updates, messages and so on, and as you might expect Missed tracks notifications of missed calls and notifications you didn't deal with. You can customise which apps can access Notifications in the Settings app. CameraThe Camera app has been dramatically redesigned and offers four kinds of shooting: video, photo, square (for Instagram-style shots) and Pano (for panoramas). You also get Instagram-style filters for adding retro effects. PhotosThe Photos app has been redesigned too, and it can automatically organise your photos into what Apple calls Collections. The feature uses your device's GPS to sort photos not just by date, but by location - and it's smart enough to know the difference between the exhibition centre in one part of a city and the cinema in the city centre. You can also zoom out to see your photos by year, which is handy if you never, ever clear the pictures from your iOS device. Spotlight searchSpotlight has been moved: to activate it, just pull down in the Home screen. Safari 
Safari gets a much simpler interface that disappears completely as you scroll through pages, and the interface for switching tabs is more visual (and very similar to the new multitasking interface). Bookmarks can access shared links from your Twitter feed, the address and search boxes have been combined into a single box, and iCloud Keychain can generate and store passwords and securely store your credit card details too. You'll have to wait for that last one, though: Apple pulled it from the Gold Master release at the very last minute, and we're expecting it to appear when OS X Mavericks ships. FaceTimeGood news for fans of FaceTime who'd rather not have, or whose connections aren't good enough for, video: iOS 7 now offers audio-only FaceTime. Smart Mailboxes and easier mail managementMail.app doesn't just get a cool new design. It gets some useful features too. Smart Mailboxes enable you to pin frequently-used mail folders for quick access, and swiping right to left on an email header gives you the choice of Trash or More. That latter option gives you Reply, Forward, Flag, Mark as Unread, Junk and Move options. MultitaskingAs with iOS 6 you can force-quit apps by double-tapping the home button to invoke the multitasking view, but in iOS 7 you dismiss them by swiping them upwards. Multitasking has been changed under the hood, too: according to Apple, "iOS 7 learns when you like to use your apps and can update your content before you launch them. So if you tend to check your favorite social app at 9:00 every morning, your feed will be ready and waiting for you." iTunes RadioThe new iTunes Radio feature will supplement your music library with streaming songs, and if you're an iTunes Match subscriber it'll be ad-free. It'll feature personalised stations based on the music you already listen to, and more than 200 genre-specific stations. Apple promises exclusive previews of some new releases too. Automatic App UpdatingHurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah once more! Keeping our iOS apps up to date was beginning to feel rather like gardening: time-consuming, tedious and utterly pointless. Now iOS lets apps update themselves, although you can disable the feature if you prefer to keep things manual. Airdrop
Sharing files from iOS devices hasn't been as easy as it could be, which is why many of us use apps such as Dropbox or send photos over email to the person sitting six feet away from us.
Airdrop makes things simpler: if the person you want to share with is nearby and running iOS 7, you'll be able to share photos, videos, contacts or anything else app developers decide to support. You can share one file with lots of people or lots of files with one person, and you can restrict Airdrop to people in your address book or anyone in the vicinity. Smarter Siri 
Siri can do more in iOS 7 without leaving the app: you can get web results (via Bing, even if you tell Siri to "search the web"), ask questions such as "tell me about [thing]", look for particular people's Twitter tweets and - joy of joys - access key settings, such as Bluetooth and Airplane mode. More App Store optionsThe familiar App Store has been given a new look and two new discovery features: Apps Near Me, which shows you the most popular apps downloaded from your current location, and a new Kids category for - you've guessed it - kids' apps. Activation LockiOS 6's Find My Phone features have been enhanced to make criminals' lives more difficult: disabling Find My Phone or erasing the device requires your Apple ID and password, and those ID details are also required to re-activate it even once it has been wiped. Remotely erasing your iPhone doesn't prevent your phone from displaying a custom message of your choice either. iOS in the car
It'll be a while before this feature's relevant to many of us, but iOS 7 is designed to integrate with compatible in-car systems for hands-free calling, music, messages and navigation. Wallpapers and ringtonesNot exactly earth-shattering we know, but some of them are quite nice.        | | The best iPhone 5S accessories to upgrade your new phone Sep 19th 2013, 11:50, by James Rogerson 
With a new phone launch comes new accessories and the iPhone 5S is no exception. Apple's new flagship is an interesting device, conservative in some ways while quite 'forward thinking' in others (Apple's words, not ours...) It's the same basic size and shape as the iPhone 5, while unlike the iPhone 5C it has a metal build like the iPhone 5 and even keeps the screen the same size and resolution. The processor has seen an almost obligatory bump. Gone is the 32 bit A6 processor of the previous model and in its place there's a 64 bit A7 processor which promises twice the speed of the A6. What's more interesting is the M7 motion coprocessor, which uses the iPhone 5S's compass, accelerometer and gyroscope to keep track of all your movements. While other phones have apps that do this, keeping them on all day will drain your battery fast, but by dedicating a separate processor to it the iPhone 5S largely avoids that problem - and we could see some accessories soon that take advantage of that in the fitness space. The other major new feature of the iPhone 5S is its fingerprint scanner, which, built right into the home button, is a handy alternative to a conventional pin number or password - although again, nothing new on the accessory front there. As the iPhone 5S is roughly the same size and shape as the iPhone 5, many existing iPhone 5 accessories will be compatible with it and many are being re-branded as such. But the accessory men and women have rushed to get their accessories 'iPhone 5S ready' - the main difference being the flash is a little larger with two LEDs inside, so some cases have had to be retooled. There are a few things to be aware of though, particularly when it comes to cases. For one thing you don't want the home button covered as that will interfere with the fingerprint scanner. You'll also need a larger opening for the camera, thanks to its new design. As such there are also already a number of cases designed specifically for the iPhone 5S, along with a few other iPhone 5S specific accessories. Read on for a run-down of what's available so far and what's actually worth investing in - there's not a lot at the moment, but we'll be updating this as more become available. Apple iPhone 5S Case
- Price: £35
- Release date: September 20 (TBC)
Apple itself has designed a new range of official cases for the iPhone 5S. The case is made of leather, ensuring a high quality look that avoids the problem of not wanting to cover up a good looking phone with something ugly. It has a microfiber lining on the inside which keeps your iPhone 5S protected and it covers the volume and power buttons, the whole back of the phone (other than the camera) and all the edges, with cut outs for the ports. It's available in brown, beige, black, yellow, blue or red and has a minimalist design, with just the one colour covering the whole case, other than a faint Apple logo on the back. It should offer reasonable protection for the iPhone 5S, feel nice in the hand and look good doing it. It's also a handy way to cover up that ill advised gold colour that some people will inevitably opt for. The £35 asking price is quite steep, but then this is Apple we're talking about and it is a high quality product, so we'd say it's worth the money. Apple iPhone 5S Dock- Price: £25
- Release date: September 20 (TBC)
Apple has also launched a new dock for the iPhone 5S. It's not much to look at, just a small white rectangle really. But it does what it sets out to, allowing you to charge or sync your iPhone 5S, while keeping it in an upright position so you can still easily see the display. The dock includes an audio line-out port which allows you to connect it to powered speakers and you can also use the speakerphone for calls while your iPhone 5S is docked. More interestingly it's the first dock made by Apple that has a lightning connector, which means it's also of use to iPhone 5 owners, who will have had to go dock-less until now (or invest in an unofficial one). At £25 if you want a dock it's absolutely worth the money. Kavaj iPhone 5S Dallas Case- Price: £24.90
- Release date: Out now
The Kavaj iPhone 5S Dallas case is a slightly cheaper alternative to Apple's official case. It's leather like the official one and like the official one it has a microfiber lining. It comes in black or cognac and uses magnets to stay shut. We'd be inclined to say that it doesn't look quite as stylish as the official option, but it is £10 cheaper and it has handy slots for cards and money. Gripmount iPhone 5S Car Mount Kit- Price: £19.99
- Release date: Out now
The Gripmount Car Mount Kit uses a suction cup to attach the iPhone 5S to a windshield or other surface. It's an ideal way to keep your phone in place when driving, allowing you to use it as a sat-nav or make hands free calls. It even comes with a handy charger to keep it juiced on long journeys, plus as the mount is adjustable it should work with most cases. There are other compatible car mounts around, but as this one is reasonably priced and comes with a car charger too it's a good option. Tech21 D30 Impact Leather Flip Case- Price: £24.99
- Release date: Out now
The Tech21 D30 Impact Leather Flip Case is another alternative to Apple's leather case. It's slim and can be used as a stand, which gives it one advantage over Apple's. However while it should do a great job of protecting against bumps and scratches it's not likely to save your phone from any sort of serious fall. KitSound X-Dock 2 Lightning Clock Radio Dock- Price: £49.99
- Release date: Out now
If Apple's official dock is a little too minimalist or basic for you, consider the KitSound X-Dock 2 Lightning Clock Radio Dock (or just X-Dock 2 to its friends). Not only can you use it to dock and charge your phone but it also displays the time and has a built in FM Radio tuner and alarm, allowing you to wake up to the sweet sounds of your favourite death metal station, though at £49.99 it's not cheap.        | | Exclusive: Flexible screens won't guarantee flexible devices, says E Ink Sep 19th 2013, 11:40, by John McCann 
Everyone's been getting pretty darn excited over this whole flexible screen stuff, with many fantasising about roll up smartphones and bendy tablets, but it might be time to bring you all back down to earth. While the flexible screen industry is likely to take off in a big way in the next few years it won't actually be due to the fact the products they'll sit in will be malleable. As Giovanni Mancini, E Ink's Director of Product Management, explains it's more about weight and durability. "We introduced our flexible screen technology, E Ink Mobius, back in May. The idea of Mobius is not that people don't necessarily want to flex their device, but instead ensure it is very light and very rugged," he said. Flexibility purely incidental"We've done both research with our direct customers and with end consumers. We actually spent two days in a room with two-way mirrors in NYC where we gave end consumers various products sporting our flexible displays. "Over 90% of the people we brought into the room said they liked the idea that the devices were rugged and light, but the fact that they flexed was really just incidental." The technology is already being trailed in Sony's 13.3-inch Digital Paper which sees the Mobius display slide into a slender plastic shell to make it a rigid surface allowing users to write on the screen with a specially engineered stylus. "It has both capacitive touch and inductive touch, so you can use your fingers or a stylus. You can annotate the same way you do on paper with the stylus," Mancini explains. "It has one of the better stylus capabilities that you'll see out there, even compared to tablets. This type of device would be very difficult to do with a LCD screen because of the size and the weight - it would be very heavy and very fragile." "Here we have a device which uses our flex technology but isn't flexible, but it is rugged. You don't have to worry about throwing this into your backpack." You must conform!There's obviously an interest in flexible displays when it comes to wearable tech, with us imaging a screen we can wrap around our wrist, but Mancini reckons it's more about conformity than flexibility. "You really don't want to flex a screen constantly, you just want it to conform to a particular shape and then you want to make it light and rugged." "There is a company called Central Standard Timing who put together a watch using our 1.3-inch Mobius display, which is the thinnest in the world at 0.8mm thick and it's a band which goes around the wrist. "You can flex the screen slightly, but it still has a hard shell, so you can flex it to the limits of that shell - just enough to get it round your wrist." We were shown a prototype from E Ink so show off its watch-sized display and how it could easily fit into a curved chassis thanks to its flexible properties, but the main watch housing couldn't be bent or twisted. At some point in the future we may well be treated to proper, flexible devices, but for the time being at least it looks like the dream will have to stay in our head.        | | Asus confirms new MeMOFone and PadFone mini Sep 19th 2013, 11:00, by James Rogerson 
Rejoice! Asus has confirmed a new smartphone! And it's going to be called the MeMOFone HD5, and will be joined by a new tablet going by the name PadFone mini. We've seen these mentioned before but only now has Asus offered a confirmation, with The MeMOFone HD5 coming, as the name suggests, in the guise of a 5-inch smartphone. According to the China Times, Asus CEO Jerry Shen, who was speaking during the PadFone Infinity launch in Taiwan, stated that the MeMOFone HD5 will launch in either January or February of next year. The PadFone mini is another strange smartphone/tablet hybrid, consisting of a 7-inch tablet coupled with a 4 inch smartphone. It's tipped to launch before the MeMOFone HD5, as Shen stated that it should be available in either November or December. Size aside, no specs were confirmed for either device (or how they will even look), though the MeMOFone HD5 will presumably have an HD screen given the name. Look to the salesWhile neither the PadFone mini or the MeMOFone HD5 is likely to shift the same sort of numbers as the company's Nexus 7, they're bound to carve out a niche for themselves. Particularly the quirkily-conceived PadFone mini, as it fills a space that few other smartphone or tablet makers even seem to be looking at. Asus certainly has high hopes for it anyway, as the company recently estimated that shipments of smartphones will reach 1.5 million units by the end of the year. That might seem like an optimistic estimate for such a largely niche range of devices, but with a growing number of PadFone devices on the market sales of individual models needn't be that high. Plus with the MeMOFone HD5 Asus isn't dependent on just bonkers hybrid phone/tablet sales, offeringsomething different to those who just want a smartphone. - If the 7 inch PadFone mini is just too small then why not check out the 10.1 inch PadFone 2?
       | | In Depth: 11 brilliant iOS 7 tips and tricks Sep 19th 2013, 10:30, by Gary Marshall 
The jury may still be out on iOS 7's radical redesign - for what it's worth we love it, with a few reservations - but there's no denying that it's the friendliest version and most powerful of iOS yet. But there's more to iOS 7 than headline features such as Control Center, Airdrop and iTunes Radio: some of our favourite improvements are little things that make our everyday lives that little bit more pleasant. These are our favourites - let us know yours in the comments. 1. Camera: shoot in burst modeThe redesigned Camera app has a nifty trick up its sleeve: if you want to shoot in burst mode, taking multiple shots in quick succession, just click and hold the volume-up button. 2. Multitasking: quit multiple apps
You probably know that you can quit running apps by double-tapping the Home button and flicking the offending app upwards, but you might not have tried it with multiple fingers to force-quit more than one app at a time. We've made it work with three apps on our iPhone, although doing the same on an iPad means getting your nose involved too. 3. Notifications: begone!When you receive a new notification, you can still swipe right to open the appropriate app - but if you just want rid of it you can now swipe up to hide it. 4. Lock Screen and Home Screen: use panoramic imagesYouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psxp45_GR3gYou can use static or dynamic images for your Lock Screen and Home Screen wallpapers, but if you prefer you can use a panoramic image instead, so the image moves as your phone does. The image must be saved in your Panoramas album: normal Camera Roll images won't work. Sadly for iPhone 4 owners, this feature is only available in the iPhone 4S onwards (and if you're using or have upgraded from a recent beta, this feature might not work). 5. Phone, FaceTime and Messages: block contacts
Does someone have your number and you wish they didn't? Successfully avoid exes, creditors and the angry husbands and wives of your lovers with iOS 7's excellent blocking features. Add the number to your Contacts, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap Block This Caller to refuse incoming calls, messages (including SMS and MMS) and FaceTime calls. 6. Messages: see the timestampsiOS 7 likes to keep things nice and minimalist, but if key information isn't visible there's a good chance it's just a swipe away - so for example in Messages, you won't see timestamps against each SMS, MMS or iMessage. Want to know when they were sent? Swipe left. 7. Apps: swipe backwardsThis little tip is a handy time-saver: when you're finished reading an email or message, or fiddling with Settings, or exploring a Music playlist, swipe backwards to return to the previous page. If you're at the first level (such as your list of mailboxes in Mail, or the first Settings screen) nothing will happen. 8. Location Services: see where you've beeniOS 7 keeps an eye on where you go to help it personalise features such as the Notification Center, and to help improve the accuracy of Maps. If you fancy a look you'll find it in Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations. You'll see a list and a map, with blue circles showing where you've been and when. You can clear the history from this page, and if you think it's a little creepy you can turn it off from the System Services page. 9. Newsstand: put it away!
We like Newsstand, but we don't like the way it can't be stuck in a folder like Apple's other stock apps. Hallelujah for iOS 7, then, because at last that absurd restriction has been removed. 10 . Settings: make iOS 7 easier on the eye
We like the new interface, but it isn't for everyone. If you have problems with your sight or just want to make iOS more legible, you'll find some useful settings in Settings > General > Accessibility. You can make all system text bold, increase the size of text in apps that support Apple's Dynamic Type, scale down motion effects such as the parallax effect or invert the colours to make iOS 7 look like a 1980s electro-pop album cover. 11. Sounds: get some new tonesiOS 7's library of sounds (Settings > Sounds > Sounds and vibration patterns) has been given a regular update, and Apple says they're so good you might miss calls because you're dancing. That, frankly, isn't very likely.        | | Samsung's jumbo 12.2-inch tablet leaks online Sep 19th 2013, 09:37, by John McCann 
Samsung's current tablet range spans three main screen sizes - 7-, 8- and 10-inch - but apparently that's not enough for the Korean firm. According to a listing on the Bluetooth authentication website Samsung is currently developing a tablet sporting the model ID SM-P901 and, while this posting doesn't reveal any further details other than Bluetooth 4.0, the ID does match previous reports surrounding the slate. Perennial tech leaker @evleaks called out the 12.2-inch tablet back in July with an Exynos 5 Octa processor (that's eight cores, people) named alongside the 2560 x 1600 resolution display and SM-P900 moniker. Is this the Galaxy Note 12.2?These supposed specs would give the 12.2-inch tablet a similar set up to the new Galaxy Note 10.1 which also sports 3GB of RAM and Android 4.3. It's thought this tablet will also sport a S-Pen stylus which would put it in line to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2, but it's sheer size and assumed weight would surely make it a little unwieldy in the hand. We're still waiting on news of a potential Galaxy Note 12.2 release date and confirmation from Samsung itself if the device actually exists or not. Watch this, relatively large, space.        | | In Depth: iOS 7: what's different, and how is it better for work? Sep 19th 2013, 09:31, by Kate O'Flaherty 
As Apple gears up to its iOS 7 launch this month, many small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are considering a move or upgrade. The updated operating system is said to be the biggest evolution of the manufacturer's software yet and, in theory, it is ideal for SMBs. Features such as mobile device management provide firms with the long-awaited facility to manage and partition devices. Meanwhile, additional central control makes iOS 7 a good fit for a bring your own device (BYOD) environment. Apple's focus on business takes aim at ailing BlackBerry, which is losing ground in the SMB market as cheaper and easier-to-manage options become available. Android is already capitalising on this: its open interface is easy to overlay with features such as mobile device management. Yet concerns remain over its security. BYOD So do iOS 7's enterprise features cut it in the SMB market? Most experts think so. With a growing number of SMBs using iPhones, especially as part of a BYOD strategy, one of the most useful features is the per app VPN. This enables apps to be configured to automatically connect to a VPN when launched, and managed by a central dashboard. It gives greater control to IT, and allows personal data to be kept separate. Also, if you're using iOS already, you won't have to re-add your current apps; you can simply adjust your central tools. "One of the biggest concerns with BYOD is the security of corporate data. This version of iOS addresses that issue," says Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst and CEO of Greyhound Research. "The per app VPN ensures enterprise apps are configured to automatically connect to VPN when they are launched, giving the company control over official data." YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFm5rL1gYVQAnother feature for additional control is 'open in management' - the ability to manage which apps you can open documents in. While it was previously possible to restrict which apps showed up, you can now do this from a central network. With iOS 7, you also have the ability to open PDF documents in the default mail application that comes with the device. Previously, this was only possible using third-party applications. Apple's latest iOS also enables SMBs to save money on licensing. Previously, you could bulk-buy licences from the App Store and assign these to employees, but the license would remain tied to the member of staff. Handily for cash-strapped SMBs, iOS 7's App Store licence management provides the ability to revoke and reassign access, taking away the need for additional licences. SecurityHistorically, security on multiple Apple devices has been a complex task, because iOS was limited by a sandbox-type environment - causing problems sharing data. 
But employee authentication is much easier in iOS 7. Apple's enterprise single sign-on facilitates user credentials being used across apps, including those bought from the App Store. "Apple knows it has to ensure that businesses don't switch over to its competitors," says Isa Ranjha, Apple Developer. "The ability to have one username and password; and to be able to use that across corporate apps, or even apps in the Apple App Store, cuts out a middleman credential manager. This improves security and removes the need to remember multiple passwords." And iOS 7's data protection credentials also have also improved. The third-party data protection feature in iOS 7 sees data protection built into all third-party apps from the App Store, with information collected using a passcode. Consequently, if the phone gets lost or stolen the data can't be accessed without the passcode. Applications are protected too, and it's all automatic. It was previously possible to encrypt data, but you always had to opt in. Mobile device managementWith competition raining in from all sides, Apple has also realised the need to accommodate effective mobile device management (MDM). New features mean business devices can be automatically enrolled. Meanwhile, updated configuration options make it easier to manage third-party MDM solutions, with the ability to wirelessly set up managed apps and configure accessibility options. The ease of configuration brought about by the new MDM settings is a big benefit, reckons Gogia, because it means devices can be automatically configured into a device management scheme. Other changes to Apple's OS are subtler, but nonetheless make working more seamless. For example, multitasking updates will see iPhones becoming more intelligent and learning your behaviour. If you use a business app such as Office at a certain time of day, the app will update before you go in, so there's no lag time waiting for the information to come up. Despite all this, Apple's latest iOS is hardly a business revolution; most of the new features have already been done by its competitors and can be easily imitated on Android devices. But compared with Blackberry, which is less flexible and better suited to larger enterprises, iOS 7 represents a clear-cut option. And as Apple gives more control to IT, firms who already use iOS should think twice before switching.        | | LG's squat Vu 3 gets cute, plans October launch Sep 19th 2013, 09:29, by Kate Solomon 
While we hold out little hope of seeing LG's funny looking Vu 3 tablet hit the UK, US or Australia any time soon, it looks as though our Korean brethren are in for an October launch. The 5.2-inch tablet rocks a 4:3 ratio display, reportedly of 1280 x 960 resolution, with a Snapdragon 800 chipset making it beautiful on the inside. The new QuickView cases, posted on LG's own Korean website, is made of a transparent-ish canvas which allows for animated notifications to be shown even when the phone-cum-tablet is safely ensconced inside. NeatAlso mooted for the handset are a 13MP camera and LTE-Advanced support which will be good news for customers on KT Telecom, SK Telecom and LG U+ over in Korea when it launches next month. In the meantime, we'll just have to make do with the LG Vu 2, which we got our hands on at MWC 2013.        | | Kogan launches $199 quad-core handset for the budget conscious Sep 19th 2013, 02:51, by Farrha Khan 
With all the excitement over the past week surrounding the upcoming release of Apple's iPhone 5S and 5C, and the recent announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, you might be looking at your wallet with a bit of concern. The new iPhone prices range from $739 up to $1129, while the Note 3 is priced near $1000 as well, which means that for most, the most viable option would be to get these handsets on a plan. But if you don't want to lock yourself into a plan, Kogan has a new quad-core Android smartphone for just $199. "Some big tech companies think they can launch a phone for the budget-conscious consumer and still price it at over $700," said Rulsan Kogan, CEO and founder of Kogan. "We think everyone should be able to afford a great smartphone that has all the main features that you want, without paying for features you don't need." Kogan isn't new to the handset market, having released a dual-core 5-inch Angora-branded smartphone earlier this year. The Kogan factorWhile the new Kogan-branded handset doesn't quite stack up against the Note 3, iPhone 5S and even the lower-specced iPhone 5C in terms of internals and overlay features, it is almost five times cheaper. The Kogan Agora smartphone is powered by a 1.2Ghz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM running Android Jelly Bean 4.2. It sports a 5-inch HD IPS screen with 1280 × 720 resolution, a 2,000mAh battery, as well as dual SIM capability, an 8MP rear camera with 1080p recording and a 2MP front-facing camera. While it only has 4GB of internal storage, you can expand that up to 32GB with a microSD. It also has Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi, but no 4G. You can pre-order the phone now for $199, but like the Note 3, it will ship out starting from October 3.        | | Updated: BBM for Android and iOS are launching this weekend Sep 18th 2013, 19:20, by Lily Prasuethsut 
Update: Apparently, the rumors weren't too far off and just missed the launch date by one day. BlackBerry just released the "breaking" news via its blog that BBM will indeed be released in the days to come - Saturday, Sept. 21 for Android and Sunday, Sept. 22 for iOS. BBM will be available for Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean, while only iPhones on iOS 6 and iOS 7 can download the app. Perhaps the company was waiting for iOS 7 to hit the iPhone, or maybe it was just about time to put all the rumors to bed. Whatever the reason, BBM fans can finally access the app beyond BlackBerry devices. Original article ... More rumors have surfaced about the release of BBM for Android and iOS systems. This time, Jakarta website TeknoUp claims they received an invitation to an event that's pegged for Sept. 20. We're not sure how legit the invite is, but CrackBerry compiled a list of plausible dates based on previous rumors and it seems like this Friday we'll see BBM hit the Google Play store for Android devices while the Apple store will see it on Sept. 21 for iOS. We previously reported that BBM would touch down in Africa this Friday, so perhaps there is some truth in the rumors. Where are you BBM?The messaging app is supposedly releasing late this summer, which could mean the tail-end of summer considering Autumn starts Sept. 22 and we've seen nothing but rumors and teases. There was an instance where it seemed BBM would be up and running but BlackBerry jumped the gun and pulled the site down. We'll be looking out for the app this weekend to see if it really launches.        | | Google may crumble stale web cookies with its very own ad tracker Sep 18th 2013, 19:07, by JR Bookwalter 
Cookies have long been used to identify internet users and direct relevant advertising to their digital apparatuses, but Google apparently believes that method has become as stale as baked goods bearing their namesake. USA Today reported on Sept. 17 that search giant Google may be planning to ditch web browser cookies in favor of its own anonymous identifier for advertising, or AdID. According to the unnamed, loose-lipped source who tipped off the newspaper, AdID would effectively replace the traditional method companies like Google use to present web advertising to consumers, while at the same time offering them more anonymity. Although Google hasn't made such plans public, the company certainly has good reason for spearheading the effort - after all, roughly a third of the company's worldwide revenue is generated from advertising. Cookie monsterWhile most internet users are at least familiar with the term "cookie," few probably realize what it actually is: A tiny bit of text containing an identification tag, which is passed from the browser to websites that communicate with it. In their purest form, cookies identify consumers to the website they visit - such as e-tailers remembering web logins upon subsequent visits - but they can also be used for more nefarious deeds. Last year, Google settled a case with the Federal Trade Commission over accusations it had its own hand in the virtual cookie jar of Apple Safari users, which resulted in a $22.5 million (about £15.52m, AU$26.3m) "civil penalty" settlement. Google declined to comment specifically on any potential plans for AdID beyond recognizing that "we and others have a number of concepts in this area, but they're all at very early stages." - Apple's iOS 7 is here - and so is the full TechRadar review!
  | | Windows Phone 8 awarded beefy US security accreditation Sep 18th 2013, 15:35, by Kane Fulton 
Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform has snagged itself FIPS 140-2 accreditation from the US government, meaning it can now be used by employees in industries that require the watertight security standard. FIPS 140-2 is awarded to accredit the cryptographic algorithms that protect sensitive data inside products like smartphones or tablets. In a company blog post, Microsoft writes that the accreditation was awarded by the Cryptographic Module Validation program, a joint effort of the US National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada, the country's national cryptographic agency. Of course, it's not the first mobile OS to achieve the standard - iOS 6 managed the same feat back in May, and both BlackBerry 7 and 10 have held it for some time. The levels of software fragmentation mean that certification of Android devices is something of a mixed bag. Certified for nineWindows Phone 8 has received FIPS 140-2 for nine cryptographic certifications, including:        | |
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