Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 03-13-2014

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In Depth: 50 best iPhone apps 2014: the greatest paid and free apps around Mar 13th 2014, 14:29, by Craig Grannell Best iPhone apps: 1-25 Apps are the cornerstone of iOS. The ecosystem is what sets Apple's mobile platform apart from its rivals, and the highest-quality iPhone apps are typically best in class. But, like any app store, it is sometimes difficult to find out what are truly the best apps, the ones that stand out from the rest - because they offer a tool or service that is far beyond anything else available. Sometimes the best apps are free, other times you will have to pay a little bit for them. Here we showcase the best available and offer up everything you need to know about the app and how much it will cost. This round-up compiles our favourites, from top-quality creative tools and video editors to the finest productivity kit and social networking clients. As always, if your essential app isn't on the list - let us know in the comments... 1. 1Password ($17.99/£12.99) With iOS 7, Apple introduced iCloud Keychain, for entering and securely storing passwords and payment data. But 1Password is still worth investing in, for its wider support (platforms; browsers; websites) and the means to store multiple identities and secure notes. On iOS, it has its own built-in browser; alternatively, you can copy passwords to then paste into Safari. 2. Adobe Photoshop Touch ($4.99/£2.99) This ambitious app aims to bring some of the power of Photoshop to your iPhone. Naturally, Adobe Photoshop Touch can't match the hugely expensive desktop app, but it nonetheless has a very good go for its tiny price tag, enabling you to work with layers, blend modes and a range of versatile tools. 3. Air Video HD ($2.99/£1.99) Even the most expensive iPhone has a fairly limited amount of on-board storage, and this is a problem if you have a large video collection you'd like to access. Air Video HD server streams (and if necessary, re-encodes) files from a PC or Mac that can then be played on your iPhone; there's AirPlay support, and also the means to access your Air Video server over the web. 4. Blur ($0.99/69p) Sometimes the best apps are the ones that offer a seemingly effortless level of elegance. Blur merely takes one of your photos and enables you to blur and save it. The result: some of the most beautiful background wallpapers you're ever likely to see, made from your own images. 5. Byword ($4.99/£2.99) Byword is a text editor that hits the sweet spot of being both usable and simple. Its font is clear, and a toolbar adds live word count or Markdown buttons. Your documents can be saved locally, to iCloud, or to a linked Dropbox account. Output can also be exported to various formats (PDF; HTML; email) or to a blog if you buy the $4.99/£2.99 'Publishing' IAP. 6. Capture ($1.99/£1.49) It's frustrating to miss a moment you'd like to savour forever, despite being armed with an iPhone that boasts perfectly good video recording capabilities. But getting to the relevant settings in Camera can be fiddly. Capture does away with such messing around — launch the app and it immediately starts recording; quit and the app saves the video it's shot to your Camera Roll. It might not seem much but those seconds saved can make a big difference. 7. Clear ($4.99/£2.99) While Apple's own Reminders app is mired in interface hell, Clear shows how it should be done. Lists are managed through gestural input, and urgent items at the top use a deeper red hue. iCloud sync enables your list to be up to date across all devices. 8. Day One ($4.99/£2.99) Traditional journals are all very well, but there's something wonderful about an app that you always have with you, into which you can save messages, images, locations and more, and then later retrieve everything via a search. Day One is beautifully designed and easy to use - best-in-class on the iPhone. 9. DM1 ($1.99/£1.49) There are plenty of drum machines for iOS, but DM1 is easily our favourite. For beginners, there are pads you can tap and 86(!) kits to mess about with. Beyond that, there's a step sequencer and song composer, WIST, MIDI and Audiobus support, and export to iTunes, email and Dropbox. 10. Fantastical 2 ($3.99/£2.49) Fantastical 2 betters iOS 7's iffy Calendar app by way of a superior interface, a non-hateful method of dealing with reminders, and truly exceptional event input. The app has a powerful parser, and so while adding an event, you can enter the likes of "TechRadar lunch at 3pm on Friday", watching a live preview build as you type. 11. Figure ($0.99/69p) Figure crams Reason's rich history of classic-era electronic music apps into a shoebox. Via a mixture of dials and pads, you can create all manner of banging choons, and then export them and assault your friends' eardrums. It's a fun toy for anyone, but also has the chops to be part of a pro-musician's mobile set-up. 12. GoodReader ($4.99/£2.99) With iOS lacking a file system, surrogates are needed. Dropbox is great for general use, but GoodReader is an excellent solution for storing, viewing and searching all manner of documents, including PDFs, text files and images. It's packed with features and can connect to a huge range of online services. 13. iMovie (free with new devices or $4.99/£2.99) Camera enables you to do the odd bit of cropping with video files, but iMovie is an audacious attempt to bring a full video editor to your iPhone, infused with the ease-of-use its desktop counterpart is renowned for. Amazingly, it succeeds. Effects, themes, credits and soundtrack creation then provide extra polish for your mobile filmmaking. 14. Launch Center Pro ($4.99/£2.99) More or less a speed-dial for regularly performed tasks, Launch Center Pro can be a huge time-saver. You can create shortcuts for things like adding a new Tumblr post or sending your last photo to Twitter, and these shortcuts can be arranged in groups. An essential purchase if you heavily use even a handful of the [supported apps](http://actions.contrast.co). 15. Moves ($2.99/£1.99) There are plenty of trackers available for iPhone, but Moves rises above its rivals through automatically recognising exercise types and providing you with a daily 'storyline' of your activity. And while the app itself isn't big on data sharing, it's easy enough to get your data out via Moves Export. 16. Numbers (free with new devices or $9.99/£6.99) When Apple first brought its office-style apps to iPad, that was impressive, but squeezing them down to iPhone size seemed impossible. Yet Numbers in particular remains surprisingly usable, not least when you create forms to rapidly enter data while on the go. iCloud sync provides access from Macs and also PCs via Numbers for iCloud. 17. Pocket Casts ($3.99/£2.49) Apple's Podcasts app has improved since its initial launch, but still falls short of Pocket Casts. The third-party app cleverly mixes elegance and character, with a friendly, easily browsable interface. Subscriptions can be filtered, and you can stream episodes of shows you've not yet downloaded. 18. ProCamera 7 ($4.99/£2.99) This app takes your iPhone's camera to the next level. ProCamera moves beyond Camera in offering more modes, including rapid-fire, anti-shake and night shooting; there's a dedicated lightbox for managing images; and dozens of filters are built-in, along with an impressive selection of editing tools. 19. Soulver ($1.99/£1.49) Soulver eschews trying to recreate a traditional calculator on your iPhone. Instead, it's akin to jotting down calculations on the back of an envelope, but a magic envelope that pulls the numbers from your in-context sentences and gives you a total. Live currency conversion is built in, and you can save calculations and sync them via Dropbox or iCloud. 20. Star Walk ($2.99/£1.99) Augmented reality isn't terribly exciting when it's a game showing a tiny alien doddering about on your desk, but when it involves the stars, it's a totally different and utterly mesmerising story. Star Walk is a guide to the heavens, but it comes to life when you overlay your screen on the night sky, enabling you to pick out constellations, planets and satellites with ease. 21. The Elements ($13.99/£9.99) Originally the darling of the iPad, The Elements in late 2013 became a universal app, so it could be enjoyed on iPhones too. A rich, engaging digital book, it tells the story of the periodic table. Each of life's building blocks can be manipulated on the screen, before you delve into related facts and figures. 22. Traktor DJ for iPhone ($0.99/69p) Traktor DJ on iPad is a fantastic DJ app, enabling you to work with waveforms rather than just bunging two virtual spinning records on-screen. Cramming that into an iPhone seems like madness, but somehow it works. There's more zooming and swiping, but otherwise everything's here, from EQ to tempo controls. 23. Tweetbot ($4.99/£2.99) The king of iOS Twitter clients remade for iOS 7 is a wonderful thing. Managing to combine Apple-style sleekness with developer Tapbot's playful nature, Tweetbot is a fun, feature-packed app. As a basic client, it works, but as an app for heavy Twitter users, it excels through its flexibility and wealth of settings. 24. Vert 2 ($1.99/£1.49) There are a lot of conversion apps about, but Vert 2 caught our eye through an interface that prizes clarity above all else. Beyond that, a combination of smart filtering and customisation cements the app's place on your home screen. And if you don't like the theme, you can easily make your own. 25. vividHDR ($1.99/£1.49) We've never been overly impressed with Apple's HDR, and it pales in comparison to vividHDR. The basic concept is the same: stunning, vibrant photos, capturing amazing details in both highlight and shadow. But vividHDR's combination of speed, presets and 'before and after' comparisons results in better photos - and that's what really matters. Best iPhone apps: 26-50 26. Comics In all honesty, Comics is a little awkward compared to using it on an iPad, but you won't find a better comics experience on an iPhone. The app is free, as are dozens of downloadable comics - and once you run out of those, many more are available to buy. Reading works on a frame-by-frame automated 'zoom' basis, and is surprisingly usable. 27. Dropbox Plenty of apps exist for transferring content between your computer and your device, but Dropbox is free and easier to use than most of its contemporaries. Dump files you want to sync in a folder on your computer and Dropbox for your device will enable you to access them, download them for offline viewing, and, in many cases, view them. 28. eBay On using the eBay app, there's a good chance you won't go near the eBay website again. The app is fast, has great saved searches (which flag new finds), and enables you to create listings. The last of those things is also improved by the built-in bar-code scanning. 29. Evernote Clients to access the popular Evernote service for storing notes and ideas online are available for so many platforms that we half expect a ZX Spectrum app to be announced tomorrow. On the iPhone, Evernote is efficient and usable, enabling you to rapidly scan your notes and also create new ones. 30. Facebook The world's biggest social network brings a tightly honed experience to the iPhone and iPod touch, but nonetheless still enables you to access your contacts, feeds and other important information. This sense of focus makes it in many ways superior to using Facebook in a desktop browser. 31. Find My iPhone For the paranoid souls out there (or the unlucky ones who've had their devices pilfered), Find My iPhone is a must-have download. Assuming you've a 2010 or later iOS device, you can set up a free account and locate your devices within seconds. (Note that older devices can also be added to Find My iPhone - you just need a recent one to get things going.) 32. GarageBand Apple's GarageBand turns your iPhone into a recording studio. Previously a paid app, GarageBand now has a freemium model. For no charge, you get full access to its features, including a range of smart instruments, MIDI editing and song arrangement. The only limitation is that relatively few instruments are included, but more are available via IAP. 33. Google Maps When Apple removed Google's data from its Maps app, seemingly half the internet went nuts. In hindsight, the decision has been beneficial, because it resulted in Google creating its own mapping app, Google Maps. Bar some mildly irritating signing-in nonsense, this is a first-rate application - the interface is straightforward, the mapping is accurate, and it's also a means of getting Street View back on to your iPhone. 34. Google Translate Assuming you're online, Google Translate is a great app for translating text between dozens of different languages; handily, the most popular of them enable you to speak into your device and listen to translations. It's also considerably cheaper and more portable than dozens of translation staff. 35. Groove If you've a large music collection, it can sometimes be difficult to decide what to listen to next. Groove tries to figure out your listening habits and cross-references your collection with Last.fm data. The result is constantly evolving automatic personalised playlists that might just change your iPhone music-listening habits for good. 36. Instagram Take a photo, smash a filter into it, and upload it. Instagram's service is now used by millions of people to share nuggets of visual loveliness, and the app itself is a pleasure to use, and also to browse during moments when you're not feeling quite so inspired. 37. iPlayer Watch live TV and browse featured and recent BBC shows in the BBC iPlayer app. There's a favourites section to get easier access to your top shows, and AirPlay support for firing footage at your Apple TV. (This uses the system AirPlay functionality - start playing a show, double-click the Home button, swipe right twice, then choose 'Apple TV' from the AirPlay button.) 38. Kindle With iBooks on the iPhone, you might wonder why you should bother with Amazon's Kindle. After all, the app's not as pretty as iBooks, nor is there an integrated store (you buy in Safari and sync purchases to the app). However, Kindle offers a massive selection of books compared to Apple's app and the reading experience is great. 39. Movies by Flixter Although some aspects of cinema listings app Movies by Flixter are disappointingly US-centric (notably regarding details on upcoming movies and DVDs), it succeeds where it matters. Select a film and the app figures out where you're located, lists nearby cinemas, and displays times your chosen film is showing. Efficiency can be further increased by pinning favourite cinemas to the top of the list. 40. Netflix Brits might rightly grumble that the Netflix selection leaves a little to be desired, but it's still a very affordable way to get a ton of TV in front of your eyes. The app works much like you'd expect: browse, watch, realise it's three in the morning - again. 41. Pocket The service formerly known as Read It Later enables you to save pages from websites, to read them later, bereft of the advertising and other junk on the original page. The service is free, as is the Pocket app, which downloads your articles, so that you can digest them without a web connection. 42. Remote The remote for Apple TV is a bit of a joke when you need to do anything more than play or pause. Remote is a free app which provides much better control and the ability to stop yourself going mad when typing things into search fields. It'll also happily use Home Sharing to pull content from computers on your network to your device, or fire said content at your Apple TV using AirPlay. 43. RunKeeper The prospect of Nike+ but better and for free might sound unlikely, but that's what RunKeeper provides. Previously split into 'pro' and 'free' versions, the developer now generously includes all the features in one free app. That means you can spend no money, yet use your iPhone's GPS capabilities to track your jogging and cycling routes, and examine mapping and details of your pace and calories burned. Activities can be shared online, and treadmill runs and other exercise details can be entered manually. 44. Shazam Shazam is an app that feels like magic when you first use it. It's deceptively simple—hold your iPhone near to a music source, and wait while the app listens and tells you what track is playing. But the sheer technology behind this simplicity is mind-boggling, and while Shazam doesn't always guess right, it's worth a download. 45. Skype FaceTime is a great alternative to standard voice calls, but it's no good if you're trying to contact someone without a Mac or compatible iOS device. Therefore, Skype remains an essential download. The interface is simple and usable, enabling anyone with a Skype account to make free calls to other Skype users and cheap calls to anywhere in the world. If you're on Pay and Go, this is particularly handy, but the app also enables iPod touch users to utilise their devices for calls. 46. TED TED is brain food. The app provides access to talks by insanely clever people, opening your mind to new and radical ideas. You can also save your favourite talks locally, for even easier access, or ask the app to inspire you, based on your mood and available time. 47. 30/30 Timers and task managers are usually designed with extreme efficiency, to the point they practically yell NO FUN ALLOWED in your face. 30/30, however, provides a streamlined, tactile interface that happens to look great, is fun to use, and that makes it a breeze to create lists and define timers. It also enables looping for anyone addicted to the Pomodoro Technique. 48. Twitter The official Twitter app might lack some of the features found in the likes of Tweetbot, but it does provide a sleek and simple means of using the service. It also rapidly rolls in new features from the website, such as the Connect and Discover views, along with expandable tweets that contain photos and videos. 49. TuneIn Radio Don't bother buying a DAB radio - just install TuneIn Radio instead and plug your device into a set of speakers. TuneIn Radio has a great interface for accessing over 50,000 digital stations; it also has AirPlay support, and you can use it as an alarm clock. 50. Wikipanion The Wikipedia website works fine on iPhones, but a dedicated app is a better bet. Wikipanion is a freebie which gives you quick access to article sections, in-article search, viewing options, bookmarking, and the ability to tweet about whatever odd fact you've just unearthed. Also, wonderfully, there are no ads. Want more apps? Check out the 90 best free iPhone apps around EE now lets you take your 4G speeds on holiday Mar 13th 2014, 12:21, by James Rogerson EE customers will now be able to access 4G data when in France or Spain rather than being stuck with slow 3G connections. Of course this comes at a price. You'll still be roaming and EE's prices start at £3 for 100MB of data which will be valid for 24 hours. At home, abroad, it's all the same to Three So it's not exactly cheap, especially when Three has its 'Feel At Home' service, which allows customers to use their UK minutes, texts and data allowance in 11 different countries without incurring any extra costs. It does however, only give you a 3G connection. Still, EE's new initiative is a step in the right direction and the network plans to extend it to the USA, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands by summer. EE also just came out on top in a network test. LG G3 could one-up Galaxy S5 with QHD display Mar 13th 2014, 11:45, by James Rogerson The LG G3 may be the first major handset with a QuadHD display if the latest leak is to be believed. Twitter tipster @evleaks has dug up a User Agent profile from one of LG's official websites, detailing a device going by the name LG D850 which sports a resolution of 1440 x 2560 (QuadHD in other words). Now we don't know for sure that the LG D850 is the LG G3, but with a screen like that it's got to be a top end device and being on an official LG website it's likely to be a real thing. Is there such a thing as too HD? This isn't the first time we've heard rumblings of a QHD screen either, as back in January a Korean industry source made the same claim. Supposedly the handset will sport a 5.5-inch display, which combined with the rumoured QuadHD resolution would give it a pixel density of 534 pixels per inch. It's questionable whether the human eye will even benefit from all those extra pixels, but as a bullet point for the box that could certainly make it stand out from the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2. The LG G3 might be water and dust proof too. Leaked Windows Phone 8.1 camera app looks suspiciously Nokia Mar 13th 2014, 11:00, by James Rogerson There have been so many Windows Phone 8.1 leaks over the last few months that there surely can't be many surprises left and yet we keep seeing new things. The latest leak is a video of the new camera app. It's been posted by UnleashThePhones and it looks a lot like Nokia's camera app. The right side of the screen has shortcuts to photo mode, video mode and the new burst mode while the left side has various settings, such as ISO and whether to enable flash. It appears you can choose which and how many settings (up to five) appear on the viewfinder, so if you'd rather have quick access to scene modes than exposure that shouldn't be a problem. Clear view The ability to choose not just the settings you want shortcuts to, but also how many means you can keep the viewfinder totally clutter free or give yourself quick access to all of your most used camera functions. Lenses are still on board and a couple of handy features can be spied in the video, as you can press and hold the camera button to wake up the phone and enable a mode which prevents the camera from accidentally being launched when the phone is locked. While the video is very much focused on the camera there's also a glimpse of a new Cortana tile on the Start screen. This isn't surprising as Microsoft's Cortana personal assistant is an expected feature of Windows Phone 8.1, but now there's little doubt that it will be included. All in all the camera has a cleaner, more intuitive and potentially quicker to use interface than the current one and with Microsoft likely to unveil Windows Phone 8.1 at its Build conference in April we should be able to get our hands on it soon. Windows Phone 8.1 might have a new keyboard too. In Depth: Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Sony Xperia Z2 Mar 13th 2014, 10:28, by Gareth Beavis Design and screen We're feverishly awaiting our review samples of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 – so to help keep you going in this barren period (assuming you've already gazed your fill at the New HTC One /M8 and iPhone 6 info we've parsed) we've pitted these two phones against one another in our early look. If you're one of those people that think 'well, they're both big phones that do roughly the same thing'…well, you're kind of right. But it's the smaller (and in some cases, bigger) differences that inspire us to keep reaching for the same handset time and again each day, but these can also be the reason we hate ourselves for choosing the wrong phone for two years. We've spent nearly an hour with each handset to germinate some opinions on each before our full review (spoiler: they're both pretty good) but given some of you may be already thinking about a cheeky pre-order, here's our look at the specs that both are rocking plus a little bit of extra information to help you make the right decision. Design Design is a pertinent issue to both parties, but for very different reasons, and once again that's been brought to the fore with the launch of Sony and Samsung's new flagship phones. Let's start with Sony's pocket warrior: once again, it's gone for the 'Omnibalance' design which means a more industrial-looking shape with that quickly-becoming-iconic power button on the side. Straight away it feels like a premium device, one that's made with top quality materials and is put together in a way that doesn't feel like it's going to break. That's improved by the fact every port (bar the headphone jack) is covered to make the Xperia Z2 waterproof, which makes things feel a bit more compact and strong. The Z2 also has dual front facing speakers, a fact Sony oddly played down when it launched the device – they certainly make your music played without headphones better, and show that perhaps HTC had the right idea with BoomSound. The Samsung Galaxy S5 has been roundly criticised from most quarters thanks to its…iterative design, which is a kind way of saying it looks a bit like the Galaxy S4 and Note 3 together. It's certainly on the same level as the likes of HTC and Apple when it comes to the design. However, it does feel the most solid in the hand of all the Galaxy S devices, and the dimpled rubber-esque back is actually really nice to hold, as it's really grippy. Like the Z2, it's also water resistant, but the only cover is at the bottom to stop water getting in, with the microSD and microSIM slots hidden under the cover. However, there's a worry about the protection that cover offers, as it took four attempts to make sure it was fully snapped into place – if not, then it doesn't seem like water protection is on offer. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is slightly better protected against dust, but is a little less water resistant, coming in at IP67 rating compared to the IP58 of the Sony Xperia Z2. This shouldn't really affect your purchase decision unless you're planning to submerge the phone deeply for a long time… if you are, then perhaps you should be thinking about a more specialist device. When it comes to comparing the two dimensionally, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is the smaller device – just. We're talking 146.8 x 73.3 x 8.2 mm for the Xperia Z2 compared to 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm for the Galaxy S5, with the former weighing 163g and the latter 145g. So the Galaxy S5 is thinner, shorter and weighs less – if that matters to you. FutTv : 345M6LZpevFOG Screen What is it about a screen that matters to you? A strong colour reproduction? Size? Amount of pixels? Well, there's actually not a lot between the two options here. The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a Full HD display at a 5.1-inch size, and the Sony Xperia Z2 offers the same resolution (1920 x 1080) with a 5.2-inch offering. The underlying technology is significantly different though, with Samsung employing the same Super AMOLED screen that it has in years gone by. Not quite the same, as it's evolved significantly over time, but it seems that the Galaxy S5 has the best display Samsung has ever produced. We're awaiting official confirmation of the exact technology used, but it certainly looks brighter and sharper than before despite being slightly lower in the pixels-per-inch stakes compared to its predecessor. If we're talking PPI, the Galaxy S5 has the win over the Sony Xperia Z2 as well. The former runs at 432 PPI, where Sony comes in at 424PPI thanks to the slightly larger screen. You shouldn't let such discrepancies sway you though, as there's very little in the perception, if anything. Sony has tried to take on the perceived 'over saturation' of Samsung's Super AMOLED screens by introducing Live Colour LED. In short, this alters the output of the LEDs that light the screen to allow them to produce a wider gamut of colour. The upshot of this is that images on the screen, particularly red and green, will appear more full, and general output will be improved as well. Samsung's come under fire in the past for its higher colour range, making things seem a little too colourful at times, but this can be dialled up and down, so shouldn't be a complete negative. However, the pictures on the Xperia Z2 are just sublime, meaning it's going to be a great phone for movie watching and the like. User interface, processor and battery OS / user interface Both the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 use Android 4.4.2 as the base operating system, which should please the legions of smartphone users who simply must have the latest version of Google's OS on the go. However, that's pretty much where the similarity ends. While both are fairly close to stock Android in one or two areas, both companies have heavily skinned the operating system to get to their desired look. Sony's is probably the least intrusive of the two, but not by much. The overall overlay is sparse, but still pushes things like Music and Video Unlimited to the fore. At least the notifications bar is better-stocked than before, allowing users to change things like location in a nicer manner. However, Samsung has taken this trick much further, making it much easier to change settings and interact with the phone with a single swipe. The overlay is a lot more stylised too, which may entrance or repel some users, but generally Samsung has gone with the outlook of 'the more you can do, the more you'll love this phone' compared to Sony's simplified UI. Processor Not a lot between the S5 and Z2 when it comes to the CPU or GPU, so both are running the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 with Adreno 330 to make sure you've got blitzing speed, great battery life and strong pixel power. Samsung has pushed things up a little by clocking the S5 at 2.5GHz, where Sony has opted for 2.3GHz, but the Japanese brand has decided to throw in an extra GB of RAM, offering 3GB compared to the 2GB in the S5. The upshot for the general phone buyer is minimal though, as that extra RAM will deliver very little tangible benefit given the way Android is set up at the moment. Similarly, Samsung is putting out that 2.5GHz speed to mostly hit the headlines – unless you're the user of some highly specific apps or like taxing your phone to its theoretical limits regularly, you're not going to see a lot of difference here. Battery Now, here's something we can really say will separate the two – but the only trouble is that, right now, it's hard to say which will be better. If you're taking it down to pure numbers, then the Sony Xperia Z2 has a huge 3200mAh battery, where the Samsung Galaxy S5 is coming with a 2800mAh power unit – albeit one that might be slightly kinder in its power delivery. Both have the same CPU and GPU, with Samsung's running a little hotter – so the early impression would be that Sony should edge it in terms of out and out battery life. However, both brands are pushing technology that will help you last when things start getting a little low – and we're not talking about the boring old power saver modes which kick in when you reach a certain level of juice left. Sony's still plugging away with Stamina Mode, which does seem to yield some results on its devices. This means that when the screen is off, data and other key connectivity is almost completely shut down. However, you can 'white list' some apps to still be able to get info, so the likes of email and Facebook can still let you know life changing information when you're supposed to be relaxing. Samsung looked like it had simply copied this idea with its Ultra Low Power Super Battery Hyper Saving Mode (note: not actual name) – but closer inspection revealed a new system that's designed to, apparently, give you 24 hours of use with only 10% of battery left. In this mode, the screen will move to black and white only, and six applications can be appended to the home screen – these include the likes of Gmail and internet browser, so data is still enabled. It remains to be seen how much functionality you'll actually get in this mode if you're hell-bent on saving power, but it's a novel approach from Samsung. Camera, features and price Camera Sony has always prided itself on having one of the best cameras around thanks to its Cybershot heritage, but Samsung's efforts in 2014 have been about getting something that will simply deliver shots that users want. A 16MP sensor is a slight hike in specs, but that's not what Samsung is touting. Its 'big thing' is actually twofold: the ability to take a picture, with autofocus, in a fraction of a second, and the chance to take a snap and then blur out the background... in actual fact, change the focal point post-snap thanks to the Selective Focus mode. Sadly, the latter feature is bordering on the completely useless. The phone takes a few photos in succession and then stitches them together, and once processed will then let you change the focus to one of three levels. The whole thing has to be enabled each time, takes a long time and fails on too many occasions (when you shake the camera). However, the speedy autofocus does really work, with clear pictures appearing even when whirling the phone around to simulate drunken antics. Samsung is at least trying to innovate in the right way here, but we fear that it's not going to have enough of a headline spec in this area. Sony hasn't done a lot better in terms of upgrades, but that's mostly because it's updating a phone that was only launched in September. It's got the 20.7MP sensor with G Lens, Bionz image processing and Exmor RS technology, designed to improve images no end. It too also has the same background de-focus ability, and it seems to work better than Samsung's option in our early tests. However, we've got some qualms over the snapper; while it's immensely powerful, on the Xperia Z1 it wasn't the best in low light, introducing a lot of noise to the pics. Given the Xperia Z2 hasn't been overly upgraded in this area, we're worried the same thing will be happening again - but we'll give Sony the benefit of the doubt. Plus it's also added in the same slo-mo video ability that Apple did with the iPhone 5S (although Sony is calling it TimeShift video), so at least there's new stuff to play with. On top of that, both phones are able to shoot in 4K, which is probably more of a gimmick than anything else at this point - Sony is highlighting how it will allow you to zoom into the footage and still have Full HD sharpness, but that sounds like it could be hard to actually achieve. Other features This is where things get a little more friendly for Samsung, depending on your viewpoint. The Galaxy S5 has a lot of new features in the health and fitness arena - not least the fact it actually packs a heart rate sensor on the phone itself, nestled just below the camera. It's something fun to show off in the pub, and does actually work... although because it only will read your pulse when you ask it to, it won't be great at showing long term health benefits as you'll probably forget to do it on some days. Much better would have been the phone to monitor your heart rate whenever you picked up the phone somehow, and allowed for a daily average. But there's more too: the S Health app is better than ever at tracking your activity, can give more info about your dietary habits and will offer the most information about your surroundings (it's even able to monitor humidity). Samsung has also pulled another feature into the mix by using a fingerprint scanner – it's not as good as Apple's implementation, simply because it needs a press and a swipe to enable, but it's more feature packed thanks to being able to safeguard certain areas of the phone. The South Korean brand has also signed a deal with PayPal to let you securely pay for things online using your biometric data from your digit – although we're awaiting information on whether this will apply to all websites that run the payment method, or just those that opt in. Sony, on the other hand, has focused on making a strong and easy to use phone, devoid of a real headline extra beyond, perhaps, the 4K video recording and waterproof, well-polished body. It's also running MHL 3.0, which is actually a nifty feature because it supports 4K video and 7.1 surround sound… it might be ahead of the curve, but that's fully where we like our technology to sit. Price If you're thinking you're going to choose one of these phones based on whichever is cheaper, then chances are you're going to be out of luck. Both are being offered for the same price SIM free (sadly right at the very top end of the price spectrum) and while we don't have much in the way of contract prices, we've been reliably informed that both will sit at the top of the price tree. That makes a lot of sense given they're the flagship devices for their brands, and we expect the New HTC One / M8 to follow the same structure when it appears. So there you have it – two phones packed to the rafters with new features. The only question is whether you fancy one that's more sleek and refined, that eschews headline features to create a more dependable package, or one that gives you power, functionality and new options to move the smartphone message on. We'll leave you to work out which is which. Samsung's crazy long phone idea could be a movie-lovers dream Mar 13th 2014, 09:59, by Hugh Langley Samsung might be trying to succeed where LG failed with a newly-filed patent for a smartphone with a 21:9 aspect ratio. That's pretty damn long, but given it's the same ratio found on widescreen TVs this could be for a phone built for the hardcore film fans. That's reinforced by the especially large speaker grill shown on the phone in the patent sketch. There's no mention of what the resolution might be but there is a rather large-looking rear facing camera too. Long game Some of you might remember the LG BL40 New Chocolate handset which came with the same ratio. It didn't resonate in 2009, but maybe Samsung can help a longer form find a place in our hearts. Or it could just be another crazy idea that never comes to fruition. That said, at MWC this year, TechRadar got hands on with Samsung's foldable phones and tablets, which the company is planning to get onto the market some time in 2015 After seeing those - and remembering that the Galaxy Round also exists - we wouldn't put anything past these guys. Here's a phone that's very real: the Samsung Galaxy S5 All New HTC One put up for sale ... on eBay Mar 12th 2014, 22:56, by Michelle Fitzsimmons Leave it to a now-missing eBay posting to give us a detailed look at the oft-leaked All New HTC One. Someone walked away with a Verizon version of the phone for a steal of $499.99 (about £300, AU$556). While there's a chance it could be a repeat of the Xbox scam, so far no words of a hoax have surfaced. Only the HTC One 2's box is shown in the listing, but the little white box is revealing. For one, we know the phone is headed to at least one major US carrier (no surprise there). The packaging is perhaps most valuable in that it gives us a full breakdown of specs, though many we've seen previously. The processor is labeled as a Snapdragon 801 clocked at 2.3GHz, and the smartphone is said to sport a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 display. There's also room for a nanoSIM. We do find some enlightenment on the storage side. This phone is a 32GB model, plus it has a microSD slot for memory expansion up to 128GB. RAM is specced at 2GB DDR2. Of course, BoomSound is a noteworthy feature, and since we're looking at a Verizon device, it's 4G LTE-capable. New HTC One Camera and price As for the new One's much-talked about double cameras, the rear snappers are listed as Duo Camera with UltraPixel. They have a BSI sensor, an F2.0/28mm lens and HTC's ImageChip 2 with HDR video tech. The front camera is listed as a 5MP BSI sensor with wide angle lens capable of HDR, 1080p video recording. HTC Zoe pokes her head out to say hi, too. Finally, while the phone was listed for just under $500, expect the new One to cost significantly more off-contract. Except something at least $100-$200 higher. Heard about the Galaxy S5? Want to read our hands on?

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