| Dell unveils business VoIP smartphone service Sep 9th 2014, 16:05, by Desire Athow 
Dell's Enterprise Mobility Management service has debuted a new service called Business Phone Service which presented as a virtual smartphone service. The solution, which is part of Dell's Mobile Workspace, offers Box for Dell and Microsoft Office 365 email integration. The product is powered by VOIP (voice-over-IP) specialist, Vonage Business Solutions, which operates in the same market as Skype and countless other VOIP service providers. Dell's Business Phone is compatible with Android and iOS devices (no BlackBerrry or Windows Phone for now) and is essentially an app that allows employees to use their personal devices for work without having to share their personal details. Taming the BYOD beastSensitive data is held in a secure, encrypted containerised area within the user's device and that workspace is controlled by the IT department of the employer. Most importantly, additional details such as call logs and location data can be remotely pulled by system administrators for compliance with regulatory and legal requirements. Ultimately, however, this drive towards consummerization is motivated by the need to managed BYOD within the enterprise. Doing so allow companies to control their communication costs thanks to better resource management - and in the case of Vonage - the user of Wi-Fi rather than 3G when indoors. Available from October 2014, Dell's Business Phone powered by VBS costs as little as $19.99 (about £12.40, AU$21.50) for 1000 minutes and unlimited texts per user. The service is currently available in the US only and Dell has yet to say when the service will be rolled out to other territories.        |  | Opinion: This isn't just another iPhone launch, it's a bigger deal for Apple Sep 9th 2014, 16:03, by Gareth Beavis 
I'm currently on a coach, winding my way along with hundreds of journalists, to Cupertino to have a gander at what Tim Cook's about to show off. I'm considering this piece something of a warm up for my fingers, as I'll be doing a live blog for a keynote that could encompass two phones, a new iPad, new services and that pesky iWatch. Some people don't understand why Apple's yearly announcement gets so much coverage; after all, it's just another phone in a sea of identikit smart devices. But it's not. It's one of perhaps three headline devices that people who have no interest in tech want to hear about. Tell someone you're heading out to cover the Apple launch and they'll know a few bits about what's coming – say you're going to a mid-tier brand and there's a chance nobody's heard of it. 
In past years, I've thought Apple was falling backwards into the same procession as many others - releasing a 'new' phone that offers very little over the predecessor beyond a good reason to command a high price in retailers. But this time, there's genuinely something different. At dinner last night, obviously all the Apple staff were saying they've no idea what's about to be launched, but where in previous years it felt like a tired launch, just getting the phone announced and all tied up, this year there's an unspoken but palpable buzz, that something big is around the corner for Apple. Take a guessThe key question is this: what on Earth could that be? The iWatch, if it's just a fitness band / smartwatch that lets you know when you get a message, will be rather dull, a rival to Samsung's Gear that nobody really wants. But that wouldn't be enough to be worth being excited over – so what could it be? There's something interesting going to be happening with Apple's new NFC / mobile payments system – if the iWatch is tied in with that it may allow you to pay with a flick of the wrist rather than placing your phone down. Or is it going to be health? Could this be a historic moment where Apple is the brand to make the smartphone / wearable market into something that really brings information about how our bodies are coping day by day, rather than just a boring step counter that offers very little information? 
Both of those ideas are ones that could change the game - being the brand that finally makes the mobile phone a replacement for the wallet by dealing with all the big credit card providers and banking institutions. Or being the first phone to save someone's life through constant monitoring - that would take away from the constant bickering between whether Apple, Android or Microsoft is the best ecosystem if people could be reminded that this amazing piece of technology, regardless of who makes it, can genuinely be a force for good. And then there's the spec questioning that's got tongues wagging - will it have a sapphire screen or not? Will the iPhone Air really be called that, and will it be its own device or a blown up version of the iPhone 6? Will the iPad Air 2 make a secret appearance under the radar, thus removing the dedicated event later in the year? The coach is now pulling in – the monolithic structure that Apple has taken over for this event is about to loom into view any moment now, and we'll find out what the mysterious construction on the outside was all about. Fingers crossed I'll still be standing in five hours' time, after the mammoth live blog and hands on reviews with the iPhone 6, iPhone Air, iWatch and new iPad. Here we go...        | | Live Blog: We're live at Apple's big iPhone 6 launch event Sep 9th 2014, 15:45, by Gareth Beavis 
Like clockwork, we find ourselves waking up to another iPhone launch, but this one is potentially bigger than any that have come before. Luckily, we'll be live in San Francisco to bring you the news as it breaks right here on our live blog. Not only are we expecting Apple to debut its iPhone 6, but we may see a larger iPhone 6L and a wearable iWatch alongside it. We've been increasingly barraged with reports and rumours over the past few months, and now's the time to discover just how leaky the Apple ship has actually been this year. But while we think we've glimpsed Apple's two new phones, alleged internal development has kept all visual leaks of the iWatch to an absolute zero. So join us at 10am PDT, 6pm BST, 1pm EST, 3am Sydney for our live blog on this very page. We'll be updating you with all the juicy news as it develops. 08.45 PDT - I've officially arrived. Registration is sorted. Good morning Flint Center. 
07.00 PDT - The Apple Store is down. I repeat, the Apple Store is down. What can it mean? Well it's actually pretty obvious. In other news, I'm on a coach to the event. Not long to go now. 05.00 PDT - T-Minus five hours! As Cupertino begins to wake up we ponder, is someone in this photo wearing an iWatch? Prize for anyone who can spot one. 
       | | Is Android L now called Android Lion? Sep 9th 2014, 15:26, by Matt Hanson 
Google's much anticipated new version of its mobile operating system, Android, has been known for quite a while as simply Android L. Recent leaks have suggested that the final name might be Android Lollipop or Android Lemon Meringue Pie, continuing the confectionary-themed naming convention that Google has adopted. However, a new leak suggests another name for the new operating system - one that's a bit more chocolatey: Android Lion. While Android Lion might not strike you immediately as a sweet-based name, and perhaps more of a playful dig at Apple and its big cat naming conventions, don't forget that Lion Bars are a popular snack. Lion Bars are also created by Nestle, the company that also creates KitKats, a product that leant its name to the last major Android release. I am Android, hear me roarThe source of these rumours is rather tenuous at the moment, so we'd advise a hefty amount of scepticism to go along with this. The rumours originate from a host of leaks from the GFXBench application by Twitter user @emtleaks that claim to show the specifications of the next Nexus smartphone. The leaks claim that we can expect a 5.2-inch display running at a 2560 x 1440 resolution, along with a 2.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a 12MP camera. According to the leaks, the next Nexus will be known as the Nexus 5 (2014). It also states that the Nexus 5 (2014) will be running Android Lion – which will also be known as Android 5.0. A number of screenshots of the GFXBench results were released alongside the leaks, but as these come from an unverified source on Twitter they could be easily faked. While some of the evidence stacks up to what we're expecting of Android L and the next Nexus device, we suggest approaching these rumours with a big pinch of salt for the meantime. - What do we think of the current Nexus 5?
  | | Analysis: Why the iWatch deserves to be 'one more thing' Sep 9th 2014, 13:50, by Patrick Goss 
You could cut the tension with a knife when Steve Jobs was drawing to the end of one of his brilliantly orchestrated announcements. A weighty pause from a consummate performer and then..."but there's one more thing…" And the crowd goes wild. Tim Cook is clearly not the showman that Jobs was, nor would he choose to be. A thousand profiles and three years' worth of launches have seen Cook defer much of each presentation to trusted lieutenants like Phil Schiller. Yet the audience is still ever hopeful, and tonight's reveal is perhaps the biggest opportunity for Cook to pause and utter those magic words. Perhaps it would be seen as a little crass, a little too demonstrative of a man who clearly sees the utter sense behind making Apple less about one man and more about its overhyped but often utterly brilliant products. Homage But, for many, it would feel like an homage to Jobs; an opportunity to draw a thread from that raucous first iPhone mention back in 2007 - through to the iPad announcement in 2010 and now onto the first significant new product line since Jobs' death, the iWatch. Rightly, 'one more thing' is not a phrase to be used lightly by Apple of late - rolling out that now gilded phrase for a new iteration of Mac, or a thinner lighter iPad, would not be considered acceptable. But for a whole new direction for Apple? That's surely worthy of a bit or rock'n'roll. 
Make no mistake about it, Apple's iWatch (and, as of time of writing, I'm still making assumptions that this will indeed be shown) is a huge deal for Cook and the company itself. The plethora of smartwatches that have emerged in the past few months might not become world beaters, and they are certainly not likely to become mainstream objects. But they clearly are headturners in the tech world, sucking up the headlines without truly explaining why there's a great deal of user benefit. For those that spent years talking up Jobs' 'reality distortion field' you could argue that an iWatch might well be the most appropriate Apple product to date. You get the distinct impression that Apple would probably be happier waiting a while to unleash it's next big wearable thing, that it ideally would like to watch its rivals plough a lone furrow before leaping into the market with an offering so far advanced from the others' that it instantly blows the market apart. The issue is that the world has changed. This isn't an MP3 player market where Creative was the leader, nor a smartphone market where the Palm Pilot was leading the race. In wearables Apple's biggest rival in hardware, Samsung, has gone hard at the market and LG has also begun to push alongside its fellow Korean brand. We've even had an Apple-like design led hype machine powering into our consciousness, with Motorola's Moto 360 winning the first 'round' with an innovative design. 
Let's not forget that these smartwatches are partnered with phones; you want a smartwatch currently then you're going to need an Android phone. That threatens a core business for Apple. So the Cupertino giant looks to have made the decision to get involved in wearables sooner rather than later - with this evening's announcement about the launch likely to be calculated to disrupt the Android Wear market for Christmas, and give Apple's customers a reason to stick around with iOS. To do that, the iWatch is going to have to make the kind of splash that, thus far, only Steve Jobs has created. So will we get one more thing? I hope so.   | | New iPhone 6 specs suggest no sapphire, NFC or waterpoof chassis Sep 9th 2014, 12:02, by Matt Hanson 
Apple's announcement of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6L is drawing ever closer, but that doesn't mean the steady stream of leaks is going to let up. With a few hours to go before the official launch of the iPhone 6, a list of final specifications and features of the new iPhone has found its way onto the internet. This latest leak could tell us what to expect from the Cupertino company later on today. If you don't want to be spoiled, look away now. If you just can't wait until the official launch, however, dig in. What can we expect?This latest leak confirms some of the specs we've heard about the iPhone 6 already, whilst refuting others. It states that the iPhone 6 will have a 4.7-inch display, with a resolution of 1334 x 750. Unlike previous iPhone 6 leaks, however, the display won't be protected with sapphire glass. Apparently it will also feature a dual-core A8 CPU which is clocked at 1.4GHz, a fair bit lower than the previously rumoured 2GHz. This also contradicts a previous report that the iPhone 6 will feature a quad-core processor. If this leak proves to be accurate, then whilst the downgrade in our expectations for the iPhone 6's processor is disappointing, it isn't the end of the world, as the new processor will still be 20% more powerful than the one found in the iPhone 5S. The leak also claims to include results from the Geekbench 3 benchmark run on the new iPhone 6, showing how much more powerful it is compared to the iPhone 5S, with a multi-core score of 2920. Elsewhere the leak points to 1GB of RAM, iOS 8 and a 128GB variant, plus an 8MP camera which does protrude slightly from the body. The report does mention that there was no sign of the much-rumoured NFC settings, however this doesn't necessarily rule out the inclusion of this technology. So how reliable is this leak? The information cam from a Weibo user called Rui Kee, who is widely known as the person who first leaked pictures of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6. Plenty of information and photos are included in the leak to help give it some authority, but we'll find out for certain how accurate it is in only a few short hours.        | | Will the iPhone 6L really be called the 'iPhone Plus?' Sep 8th 2014, 23:45, by Michelle Fitzsimmons 
We know we're in for two flavors of the iPhone 6 on Tuesday, but just how Apple will label the dual devices remains to be seen. Our best guess is that the 4.7-inch variant will be called, "iPhone 6," and we've kicked around "iPhone 6L" as the larger version's moniker. Today, however, we're hearing something completely different. Word is the larger iPhone 6 will be called the iPhone Plus. Not exactly the most inspired name, but one you can't argue doesn't get the message across. If you remember way back to last year, "iPhone Math" often surfaced as the name of a larger iPhone 6. While not exactly the same, maybe iPhone Plus morphed out of Math? It seems possible. Whether it's the iPhone 6L or iPhone Plus or iPhone Air, tune in right here tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET/6 p.m. GMT when Apple's iPhone 6 launch gets off the ground.   | | One carrier has outed the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 specs a day before launch Sep 8th 2014, 23:09, by Michelle Fitzsimmons 
The day many an iFan has been waiting for is almost here, but if you want to know exactly to expect from one iPhone 6 before Tuesday's big reveal, read on. Specs for the smaller new iPhone have appeared thanks to China Mobile, giving us a glimpse at what will likely be the final features for the 4.7-inch iPhone 6. Among them are an A8 SoC with a quad-core CPU, 1134 x 750 resolution display made of sapphire glass, an 8MP back camera sensor and a 2.1MP in the front, and, shockingly, iOS 8. The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will also apparently come in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of on-board storage, flex a nanoSIM slot, come in gold, white or black, and measure 138 x 67 x 7mm. Finally, the phone is said to be water- and dust-proof, ruggedized features already found in the Sony's Xperia line and the Galaxy S5. According to China Mobile, the smaller iPhone 6 release date is slated for September 19 but the larger, 5.5-inch flavor won't go on sale that day. As for the larger iPhone 6's specs, those are a mystery, too, suggesting the phone isn't quite ready for public consumption. TechRadar will be on the ground at the iPhone 6's Cupertino launch, so tune back here to see what rumors are real and which are pure fiction. - Get read for the iPhone 6 and the iWatch tomorrow
       | | Samsung Gear VR price revealed, but there's a catch Sep 8th 2014, 19:12, by Michael Rougeau 
It was mere days ago that we were speculating how much the various upcoming virtual reality headsets will cost, and now Samsung has provided an answer regarding the Samsung Gear VR. That conversation was sparked by the revelation that the Oculus Rift could cost as much as a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, though it might also cost half that. Now a Samsung representative at New York Fashion Week has revealed to VentureBeat that the Gear VR will cost exactly that: $200 (about £120, AU$215) - although it's worth noting that Samsung wouldn't confirm this figure officially when contacted by TechRadar. That was the very low end of Oculus's potential price tags, but like the RIft, which requires a PC to actually play the games that the headset displays, Samsung's Gear VR doesn't function on its own. The future ain't cheapThe Samsung Gear VR is a headset that turns a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 into a virtual reality display, and getting the phone in addition to the $200 headset will jack up the price significantly. Samsung has yet to announce official pricing for the Note 4, but it's guaranteed to be no small sum. Then again, if you're already planning to buy the Note 4, maybe a couple of Benjamins isn't too high a price to turn it into a virtual reality experience too? While we have some idea what the Oculus Rift and Gear VR will cost, Sony's Project Morpheus is still a big fat question mark, in terms of more than just price. But no doubt as virtual reality continues to gain steam even more competitors will emerge from the woodwork with their own versions of this exciting tech.        | | Amazon Fire Phone flames out, plummets to under a buck on contract Sep 8th 2014, 18:28, by JR Bookwalter 
With one of the quickest price reductions in tech history, Amazon's debut smartphone has gone from meteoric rise to a spectacular flameout back on Earth, where the handset can now be found for less than a US dollar. Amazon today announced that US customers can now purchase a Fire Phone with 32GB onboard storage for only 99 cents (about UK£0.61, AU$1.07) with a two-year agreement - a steep drop from the initial asking price of $199.99 (about UK£124, AU$215) only two months ago. The base model Fire Phone, also available in the US without service agreement for $449 (about UK£279, AU$484), remains locked in an exclusive agreement with AT&T, but still includes a full year of Amazon Prime benefits, a $99 (UK£79, about AU$107) value. Amazon also announced Fire Phone is finally heading abroad, where it will be available for £0 on O2 Refresh (with a £33 tariff) in the UK, or the equivalent of €1 in Germany on T-Mobile contract with a tariff as low as €35.95 per month. Dousing the FireAmazon's press releases offer no real clues to the reasons behind the steep drop in price so soon after launching Fire Phone, instead reminding the world what an incredible value the device is, especially now that it's practically free. The 64GB model also received a price cut Monday, dropping from $299.99 (about UK£186, AU$323) on contract to only $99.99 (about UK£62, AU$108), although with the 32GB base model selling for a fraction of that price, we don't see too many takers lining up to spend a hundred bucks on the troubled handset. The discount also applies for early upgraders taking advantage of AT&T Next, where the 32GB model drops from $0 down and $27.09 per month for 24 months to only $18.75 per month, effectively spreading the contract-free price over the next two years. Although Fire Phone has been almost universally panned by critics, Amazon's US press release serves up six quotes' worth of gushing praise for the smartphone, all apparently written by a few of the customers who actually paid for the device.        | | iPhone 6L might have a bigger battery, but it won't last longer Sep 8th 2014, 16:08, by Matt Hanson 
The Apple iPhone 6 leaks have been coming thick and fast in the run up to Apple's September 9 event, with the latest rumour focusing on the increased battery size of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6L. There's good news and bad news with the latest rumour, however. The good news is that like many of us had hoped, Apple is taking advantage of the larger body size of the iPhone 6L to include a bigger battery. Steve Hemmerstoffer at Nowhereelse.fr has managed to obtain an iPhone 6L battery from a reliable leaker and has ascertained that this new battery will come with a huge 2,915mAh capacity battery. In contrast, the iPhone 5S comes with a battery with a 1,560mAh capcity – an increase of 86%. But what of the standard iPhone 6 with a 4.7-inch display? According to a leak a few weeks ago, that iPhone will sport a 1,810mAh capacity battery. You're going to need a bigger batteryWhilst a larger battery in the latest iPhone is good news on paper, in reality the news might not be so great. The iPhone 6L's battery might be significantly bigger than the iPhone 5S, but so is its screen. This increase in display real estate over the 4-inch screen of the iPhone 5s means that the battery will have to work harder to keep it lit. If the iPhone 6L's screen is around 89% larger than the iPhone 5s, you can probably guess where a lot of the 86% increase in battery capacity will be spent. So whilst the iPhone 6L's battery might be larger, there's a good chance that the actual battery life of the iPhone 6L will be around the same as that of the iPhone 5s.        | | In Depth: iPhone through the ages: just how much has it changed? Sep 8th 2014, 15:23, by TechRadar 
The birth of Apple's superphoneIt was January 2007 when Steve Jobs took to the stage of the Moscone Center San Francisco to announce the arrival of the iPhone, which went on sale worldwide later that year. If you find it difficult to remember that far back, Leona Lewis was number one in the UK with A Moment Like This and people were flocking to the cinema to get teary-eyed at Will Smith in The Pursuit Of Happyness. While our pop music and movie choices may not have improved much, smartphones were changed forever: from that point on, touchscreens, apps and digital media were the way forward. iPhone 1 (first generation)Launched: June 2007 (US), November 2007 (UK) 
Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone as three devices in one: a touchscreen iPod, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a truly mobile web browser. Now we take touchscreens, digital media playback and Web access for granted, but in 2007 the iPhone was unlike anything that had appeared before. Its 3.5-inch screen had a 320 x 480 pixel reoslution (one of the best displays of the time), with a 2MP camera built-in, and up to 8GB of storage. Third-party apps were not yet allowed on "iPhone OS". In the TechRadar review, we noted that despite several shortcomings, the phone had "changed the mobile device landscape... multitouch will prove to be a model for interfaces in the future." iPhone 3G (second generation)Launched: July 2008 
High-speed connectivity was big news in 2008, which is why the second generation iPhone included 3G in its moniker (rather confusingly, as this was the second generation iPhone). It also brought with it a thinner shape, a plastic back and - crucially - support for the newly launched App Store. The app store model worked so well you'll now find it replicated in everything from your smart TV to your Windows 8 laptop, and the change helped Apple's phone really start to gain traction. We said in our iPhone 3G review promised that buyers would be "amazed by the function and feel of this handset." The iPhone era had begun in earnest. iPhone 3GS (third generation)Launched: June 2009 
The iPhone 3GS upgrade was viewed as disappointingly minor at the time, but look at the detail and a different picture emerges: as well as faster performance, the new handset offered a better 3.2MP camera (that could now record video as well as take photos), extra storage options and voice control (the precursor to Siri). The display was the same 3.5-inch 320 x 480 screen, and the device's appearance remained largely unchanged from the 3G model. TechRadar's take on the unit praised the multimedia and internet capabilities while still finding niggles with the camera, call quality and battery life – this was the first of the more iterative updates to the iPhone but did enough to keep users happy. iPhone 4 (fourth generation)Launched: June 2010 
If the 3GS was a minor upgrade, the iPhone 4 was a serious step up - a new, flat design with an integrated antenna (although questions were raised about how you held the device) a high-resolution Retina display (640 x 960 pixels) that showed the rest of the world how it was done and a superior 5MP camera (featuring HD video recording) on top of internal performance improvements. The competition was catching up, and Apple had responded in brilliant fashion. We were certainly impressed, despite some reservations about the high price, saying "it's intriguing to see record-breaking numbers queuing up to pick up this device - but after playing with it for a few days, you can see why." iPhone 4S to nowiPhone 4S (fifth generation)Launched: October 2011 
Apple pulled out the "S" tag again for the fifth generation handset, indicating a minor upgrade rather than a major overhaul. The design of the iPhone 4S was the same, but inside was Apple's new A5 processor, vastly improved graphics capabilities and an 8MP camera with 1080p video recording. iOS was evolving at the same rate as the hardware, of course, and Siri began life as an iPhone 4S exclusive. The improvements were enough to persuade us to describe it as "the best thing Apple has ever created" in the official TechRadar review. iPhone 5 (sixth generation)Launched: September 2012 
Six handsets later, Apple finally decided it was time to tweak the iPhone's screen size and aspect ratio. Coming in at 20% lighter than its predecessor, the 2012 iPhone adopted a 4-inch screen running at 640 x 1136 pixels. Otherwise, despite the usual speed bump and a stronger antenna, it was very much business as usual in terms of the design and capabilities. Our biggest gripe in our iPhone 5 review was with the aging iOS, but with iOS 7 arriving on September 18 that issue is very much negated, which will please a number of iPhone 5 users who've been holding onto the handset for nearly a year. iPhone 5S/5C (seventh generation)Launched: September 2013 
The big step in the seventh stage of the iPhone's evolution was the arrival of the iPhone 5C, a slightly cheaper, plastic-backed model to help battle Android in the busy mobile middle market. The signs were there already — remember Apple kept the iPhone 4 and 4S on sale during the iPhone 5 era. Apart from the plastic shell and larger battery though the iPhone 5C was a carbon copy of the iPhone 5 in terms of specs - which was retired to make way for the two new handsets. As for the flagship iPhone 5S, it was a case of under-the-hood improvements again: more power, a better camera, and a fancy fingerprint reader hidden under the home button. The bigger changes arrived with iOS 7, the most radical revamp of the mobile operating system since the App Store arrived back in 2008. iPhone 6/6LLaunching: September 2014 
Which brings us to now, the eve of the next Apple handset - or should that be handsets? We're at that familiar point in the cycle where it feels like everything about the next iPhone has been leaked. The standard iPhone 6 is expected to come with a 4.7-inch display packing a 1334x750 resolution, which may come built from scratch-resistant sapphire. But it's the new design that we're most intrigued by: if the leaks are to be believed then the iPhone 6 will be slimmer with curved edges, while the power button has been moved from the top to the side of the handset. Inside we're betting on a new 64-bit Apple A8 processor, a better motion co-processor, either 1 or 2 GB of RAM, and possibly storage options up to 128GB. When it comes to the camera things are a little less certain: some people claim that Apple's sticking with an 8MP snapper, while others claim it's bumping up to 13MP. We'd say the latter is more likely. Meanwhile a bigger handset, arriving with a behemoth 5.5-inch display, is believed to be arriving hand in hand with the smaller sibling. The specs may be given a slight boost, they might not. What we have heard, however, is that the big iPhone will offer a one-handed mode for easier use, and may even take some interface cues from the iPad. We're currently referring to it as the iPhone 6L as that's what Apple is rumoured to be calling it, but its final moniker could be just about anything. Place your bets now.        | |
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