Details leaked onto Chinese social networking site Weibo suggest the iPhone 6 isn't in for a megapixel bump, but instead Apple will be boosting the camera in different ways.
Camera quality isn't all about megapixels - just take a look at the 4MP HTC One - and Apple's iSight snapper still manages to deliver decent shots thanks to the heap of extra technical nous the Cupertino firm has thrown into the mix.
Apparently you can look forward to a bigger 1/2.6 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, OIS (optical image stabilisation) skills and a 6P sapphire lens on the iPhone 6 - a boost from the snappers you'll find in the iPhone 5 and 5S.
Bezel is so 2013
While the camera looks to gain more, the bezel round the supposedly larger screen of the iPhone 6 is tipped to shrink, with new images emerging, claiming to show the front panel of Apple's next smartphone.
Lined up to what is supposedly the iPhone 4S and 5S front panels, the iPhone 6 does appear to have a slightly larger display and absolutely no bezel either side.
The iPhone 6 front panel? (credit: WeiPhone)
We're not getting too carried away though, as this is highly unlikely to be the real deal for a number of reasons - our guess is Photoshop or a straight up fake 'prototype'.
The gap between the home button and the bottom of the display for example, looks rather clumsy for a start - something you don't expect from a perfectionist like Apple, and the notion of a bezel-less phone would require some serious engineering power.
Apple CarPlay is the much-mooted 'iOS in the car' project that we've been hearing about for years.
With our digital tech barely having made a scratch on the largely analogue in-car experience, the automobile is considered by many to be the next great tech battleground.
Because the lifespan of a car is so long compared to the lifecycle of digital technologies like phones and the software they run, the challenge is to create a smart in-car infotainment system that can stay up to date even as your car ages.
Most of the big names in the auto industry have their own systems, but in the last couple of years they've all been converging on one simple idea – that smart in-car tech needs to be driven by our external devices because they get updated regularly, with the car being just the passive conduit.
We've already seen several cars natively running Android, offering integration with Android smartphones. And that now brings us to Apple CarPlay, a new way of building a car that starts smart and stays that way.
What is Apple CarPlay?
CarPlay is not an in-car system that runs iOS or iOS apps. It's a system that integrates your iPhone apps with your car's digital systems, allowing you to control them and your device, more easily.
The idea is that you plug your iPhone into your car via USB, which instantly handshakes with your vehicle. You can then use the functionality of your iPhone without having to fumble around with it and take your eyes off the road. It's safer, easier and more convenient - or that's the idea, anyway.
Play your iPhone's music through your car's audio system
What can CarPlay do?
The idea of CarPlay is that it allows you to use all your iPhone's functionality without actually touching it. So that includes playing your music, navigating to the shops, taking phone calls, reading text messages and even watching YouTube videos. In theory, there are no limits to the interplay. Perhaps you'll even be able to turn your wipers on and off simply by talking to Siri or unlock your vehicle using your iPhone - but that's a way off even if it's possible.
From the start, you'll be able to use your iPhone's phone and messaging functionality, play your iTunes music, navigate using Apple Maps and watch videos.
However, Apple's plan is to allow third parties to build CarPlay compatibility into their apps, making them compatible with the system.
Confirmed apps with CarPlay features incoming are: Spotify, Podcasts, Beats Radio, iHeartRadio and Stitcher. Expect a smorgasbord of other options to be revealed in time - we foresee a future where all relevant iOS apps are built with CarPlay in mind.
Take calls and have your text messages read out to you
How do you control Apple CarPlay?
There are three ways to control CarPlay, and none of them include touching, looking or even thinking about your iPhone.
1. Control CarPlay using Siri
Using Siri, you'll be able to talk to your vehicle and tell it what to do. That includes playing music from your favourite band or even requesting a specific playlist. You'll also be able to have your messages read out to you before you dictate your reply.
2. Use a touchscreen display
Some CarPlay cars will come with touchscreen displays cooked into the dashboard. Using this display, you'll be able to open and close apps using a very simple homescreen. This will certainly be the most straightforward method of using CarPlay - expect touchscreen options being added to new car models.
3. Use your knobs
Of course, your car will still have physical buttons, knobs and controls and you'll still be able to use these alongside the touchscreen and Siri options. Volume controls, track skip and the like are all seemlessly integrated and will work as expected.
Use Apple Maps as an in-dash sat nav system
Can CarPlay drive me home?
CarPlay is not a driverless technology. So the command "Siri, drive me home" will no-doubt simply trigger a typical pre-planned sarcastic Siri reponse. "You.. are.. having.. a.. laugh.. aren't... you...David?"
However, what CarPlay can do, is use your iPhone's Apple Maps app to guide you while you drive. If you have an in-dash display, the Maps app will launch a sat nav style window that will give you turn-by-turn guidance without you having to put your iPhone in your field of view. If you don't have a display, you'll still get the turn-by-turn audio cues.
Is my iPhone compatible with CarPlay?
CarPlay requires a certain amount of oomph as well as a lightning connector and thus older iPhone are simply not capable of running it. Only the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5 are currently compatible, as well as all new iPhones moving forward.
Are there any CarPlay cars yet?
There are no CarPlay vehicles on the road right now.
But they're hitting the streets this year, with models from Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Mercedes and Volvo all getting in on the act.
That's not all though, because many other big names in the car industry have committed to supporting the CarPlay platform with future models.
These include BWM, Chevrolet, Ford, KIA, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot-Citroen, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota.
What does Apple say about CarPlay?
"CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPhone and iOS Product Marketing.
"iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction. We have an amazing lineup of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we're thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva."
This year's gathering of the phone nerds has just taken place in Barcelona, with Mobile World Congress 2014 seeing stacks of new mobiles revealed by the likes of HTC, Sony, LG and Samsung, all jostling for the prize of securing your 2014 phone contract upgrade.
Key trends this year were the arrival of 4K video capture on several mobiles and a continued emphasis on larger displays that'll push trouser pocket capacity harder than ever in 2014, plus there was the enormous shock of seeing Microsoft-owned Nokia release a whole range of budget smartphones running on rival Google's Android OS.
While there was lots of new tech to see and poke, the event didn't quite expose all of 2014's phone plans, though. Apple wasn't there and Nokia didn't bring any new Windows Phone models, so what we saw was mostly the Android consortium battling to come up with something that stood out from the crowd. These are the ten that got our fingertips the most flustered.
1. YotaPhone 2
Not likely to arrive before very late in 2014, the next-gen YotaPhone was at MWC 2014 in the form of a concept device. And what an exciting concept it is too, expanding on the genius idea of sticking a low power epaper display on the back of the phone by making this B&W display now a full touchscreen.
This means many key phone functions can be carried out via the vastly more efficient epaper screen, meaning battery life ought to be immense when using this always-on screen alone for your notifications. Internally, the ubiquitous Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 runs the show, with the "main" colour screen a 5-inch unit outputting at 1080 resolution – and the epaper screen managing a decent 960 x 540.
2. LG G Pro 2
LG's well-teased 5.9-inch whopper was one of the hits of MWC 2014, with the phablet device and its knock-knock screen unlocking tricks, post-shot refocusing and clever display scaling for one-handed use showing that LG's really getting on the ball with its software features. The hardware's about as impressive as it gets too, with the G Pro 2 running on a 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800 processor with 3GB of RAM, plus its 13megapixel camera has 4K video capture and a 120fps slow-motion recording option for… whatever that might be for.
3. Sony Xperia Z2
Sony's big new flagship for 2014 is the Xperia Z2, which somehow squeezes even more oomph into a chassis just 8.2mm thick. It's slightly bigger than last year's impressive Z1 slab too, with the Z2 offering a 5.2-inch display that operates at the "full HD" resolution of 1920 x 1080.
Interestingly, Sony's using the Z2 to encourage punters to upgrade their home TVs, with the phone's 20.7megapixel camera able to capture 4K video at the ludicrously high 3840 x 2160 resolution. That ability comes thanks to the upgraded internals, with the Z2 powered by Qualcomm's brand new Snapdragon 801 series chipset clocked at 2.3GHz and paired here with 3GB of RAM. A 3,200mAh battery ought to keep it running for a good couple of days, too. We hope.
4. Huawei Ascend G6
As far as Huawei is concerned, the big selling point of the Ascend G6 is its five-megapixel wide-angle front-facing camera, meaning that, if you like looking at your own face, you can do so in better clarity than on rival hardware. The rear camera's an eight-megapixel unit manufactured by Sony, so proper pics of things other than your gurning face ought to come out nice too.
The G6 is bordering on the 'budget' spec for 2014 elsewhere, though, combining a quad-core 1.2GHz chipset with 1GB of RAM and a low-ish resolution display of 540 x 960. On just a 4.5-inch IPS screen that resolution shouldn't be too much of a deal-breaker, with Huawei compensating with a low RRP of around €249 (£205). Not bad for a slim 4G phone.
The Nokia X runs Android but not Windows Phone... YET
Microsoft has apparently given Karbonn Mobiles the go-ahead to release phones that boot both Android and Windows Phone.
The manufacturer, based in India, reports that its dual-OS handsets will be released by June 2014.
It aims to get them into the hands of both regular joes and professional users, although no one has outlined exactly what the benefits of the dual-OS set-up will be.
Ease off
Karbonn chairman Sudhir Hasija told the Times of India, "Microsoft has eased the regulations and is opening up its platform for other players. We signed the agreement two days ago and will launch a range of Windows Phones in about three months."
If true, this is the latest in a line of actions that show Microsoft is chilling out about having absolute control over the Windows Phone platform.
As well as letting its new pet Nokia make the Android-based Nokia X line-up, the company has lowered the hardware requirements of Windows Phone so it can run on cheaper phones and soak up some of the big business in emerging markets.
We don't expect Karbonn's dual-booting handsets to hit the UK, US or Australia, however there's a chance that other manufacturers are working on similarly two-faced devices like HTC. We'll keep you posted.
So how 'bout that Nokia X? Should Microsoft be worried?
It seems Oppo is turning the dial all the way to eleven with the upcoming Oppo Find 7. After mentioning a 5.5-inch, 2560x1440 resolution display in one of the teaser images in the past (along with a 5.0-inch, 1920x1080 version) and running the new Snapdragon 801 SoC, the latest bit of spec to leak is a 50 megapixels camera. Yes, 50 megapixels.
An image uploaded on Weibo has a resolution of 8160x6120 and the EXIF data clearly mentions the Oppo Find 7 as the camera name. It's hard to judge overall camera quality from just one image but it's a decent looking image nonetheless with a fair amount of detail and not much noise but there is a good amount of purple fringing. The image looks a lot better when resized to around 8 megapixels so hopefully Oppo will have a Lumia PureView like oversampling option.
The phone will be announced in Beijing on March 19 and we'll find out more about it then.
We've lost track of the number of times the new HTC One has been leaked, but a new video appears to reveal pretty much everything there is to know about the upcoming handset.
Posted by YouTuber Roshan Jamkatel, whose Twitter bio reads "I make pranking videos!", the new HTC One is claimed to be up and running alongside its predecessor.
During the poorly narrated 12 minute video Jamkatel claims the HTC M8 sports a microSD slot, two rear camera lenses and HTC's Sense 6.0 Android overlay.
The body appears to sport more rounded corners and rear, while the metal chassis remains and navigation keys are moved on screen - all things which fall in line with previous rumours.
Unhappy HTC?
While we remain sceptical on the validity of the smartphone in this video, the leak has been given slightly more credence after HTC's Senior Global Online Communications Manager was spotted by PhoneArena making direct comments to Jamkatel on Twitter.
Jeff Gordon supposedly tweeted: "it's not going to be a good week for you, my friend," followed by "we have the IMEI and all other info. We'll be in touch," but the posts have since been removed.
If HTC's feathers have indeed be ruffled by this video leak it suggests there may be some truth behind it - Jamkatel's original YouTube post has even been removed, but not before another user was able to post it online.
We have contacted HTC to find out more information on the leak, and we'll update this article when we hear back.
Apple has announced CarPlay, a feature that will integrate your iPhone with your car, allowing you to access your phone more easily using just your voice or the controls on your car.
CarPlay works by connecting your iPhone to your car. After that, you can make and receive voice calls, messages and a lot more using Siri and your voice. Want to use maps for direction? Apple Maps will provide turn-by-turn navigation (where available) and show the map on the car's built-in display. Or you could listen to music, podcasts, audiobooks, etc. through your car's speakers. Once connected, your car will essentially turn into a massive docking station and let you access essential functions more easily without having to fiddle with the phone.
CarPlay will make its debut with vehicles being announced at this year's Geneva International Motor Show and cars from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo will be the first to have the feature built-in. Apple also has a whole bunch of other car manufacturers onboard, including BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan Motor Company, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota Motor Corp, who will launch vehicles with CarPlay built-in sometime in the near future.
CarPlay is available for iPhones running iOS 7 and with a Lightning connector, including the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5 on select cars from the aforementioned manufacturers rolling out later this year.
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