HTC is facing further issues in trying to ship its newest flagship smartphone, the HTC One, to customers. After some supply issues, the company is now locked in a legal battle with Nokia over the use of Nokia's proprietary microphone technology.
It seems HTC is using a specific type of microphone in the HTC One, developed by STMicroelectronics and Nokia exclusively for use in Nokia devices, something which HTC allegedly had no rights to use in their device.
Nokia has now been granted an injunction by the Dutch court over the use of the patented technology, which will prevent HTC from shipping the One in Netherlands unless they acquire rights for the technology or stop using it altogether in their phone.
The injunction is currently only applicable in Netherlands so sales in other countries should remain unaffected, for now.
Ah, legal troubles. Does any tech firm not have a few?
A few tribunal tales have popped up today, but we'll start with the firm that always seems to find itself on either end of a lawsuit.
Apple actually got some welcome news as the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) threw out the final "patent-in-suit" remaining from a grievance filed in 2010 by Google-owned Motorola against the Cupertino company, as reported by FOSS Patents.
The patent in question dealt with a "sensor controlled user interface for portable communication devices," but the ITC ruled it invalid.
Movin' on
What it means for Apple is that it can continue to import iPhones into the U.S. that have the sensor (which causes the phone to ignore touch gestures when the user is on a phone call, for example).
Google can appeal the decision to the same court currently reviewing another ITC ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judging by its history, this is an option Google will likely take.
Mic check
Across the pond in a little town called Amsterdam, the city's District Court granted a request put in by Nokia to place a preliminary injunction on supplies of microphone parts invented by and made exclusively for the Finnish firm. This is according to a Nokia statement picked up by Engadget today.
The loser on the other side is HTC, which reportedly uses the components in its flagship One phone, a device that only recently starting shipping to customers after delays. The mics are said to be found in the Lumia 720.
"HTC has no license or authorization from Nokia to use these microphones or the Nokia technologies from which they have been developed," the statement read.
"In its marketing materials, HTC claims that its HDR microphone is a key feature for the HTC One, but it is Nokia technology, developed exclusively for use in Nokia products," it continued.
Apparently HTC using Nokia parts without permission is an ongoing issue, and Nokia wants its competitor to "compete using its own innovations and to stop copying from Nokia."
HTC said it was disappointed by the decision and is looking at what impact it will have on its business as well as alternative solutions.
The Korean giant plans to ditch the glass OLED displays that have featured on all recent devices to launch its long-awaited "unbreakable" plastic solution, according to research from the OLED Association website.
The site said the screen will be at least 5.9-inches in size with the flexible OLED tech "thinner and lighter than the conventional glass substrate type OLED."
The change will allow the display portion of the phone to be reduced to an estimated 0.5mm and 50g, compared with the 1.5mm and 100g vital stats within the current tech.
Higher mobility
The report states: "The consumer market will be able to experience the unbreakable plastic based AMOLED display integrated into the Galaxy Note 3. Compared to glass substrate type AMOLEDs, the flexible display features a thinner and lighter form factor, resulting in smaller size and higher mobility."
It would be somewhat ironic if Samsung ditched the material from one aspect of the handset only to add it to another element.
Of course, this rumour should once again be taken with a pinch of salt, but a flexible display sure would quieten down some of the critics who've slammed Samsung's 'cheap' looking recent designs.
Update:We've had the Samsung Galaxy S4 in our testing labs for a few days now, and we're putting it through our rigorous testing process as you read this to bring you a fully in-depth analysis of the handset.
In the meantime, check out our updated hands on shots and check back as we'll be bringing the full review with star rating any time soon.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a huge Full HD screen, an improved camera and faster innards, and fits it all in a chassis the same size as the Galaxy S3.
However, many will struggle to tell the difference between the S4 and its predecessor, as the polycarbonate chassis is still in use; although the metallic banding around the side, while still plastic, is much sturdier and feels more premium.
We've already seen a lot of the Samsung Galaxy S4 features, as it's been snapped multiple times in leaks – some more accurate than others, it has to be said – and the specs mooted have turned out to be pretty bang on.
But that doesn't matter – megapixels and gigabytes don't mean anything if they're not wrapped up in a decent package, so how much of an improvement is the Samsung Galaxy S4 spec list and design over the S3, and more importantly, the competition?
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S4 launch saw the Korean brand claiming the phone is built on four foundations: an improved camera, better connections with others, health and wellbeing improvements and simply making life easier.
While this is all a little hyperbolic, the S4 at least brings an integrated feel to things while improving nearly every spec on offer. The outside is still plastic, but harks back to the mesh design, if not feel of the Galaxy S2.
Colour wise you've got a choice of 'White Frost' and 'Black Mist', which adorn the large device, which runs in with dimensions of 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm, despite still having to pack in a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen.
That means it will have a larger screen, but smaller chassis than the Galaxy S3, which is a superbly impressive feat of engineering, especially when you consider the specs.
But like its predecessor, the plastic feeling of the Galaxy S3 won't appeal to all. It feels very lightweight (tipping the scales at 130g) in the hand, and while people have been conditioned against this feeling cheap, compare it to the HTC One and you'll see that it's a long way from premium feeling.
However, it's exactly the same sensation as we found on the Galaxy S3, and given the record numbers of sales that had Samsung is sticking with a winning formula, plus there's more than a market for a phone that you'll barely notice in your pocket most of the time.
Compared to rest of the Galaxy line, the S4 continues in the same vein as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the S3, (as well as myriad other devices) showing the Koreans are keen on creating a design heritage here.
The home button is roughly the same size and the same menu and back buttons remain from the prequel.
Overall, the effect is a much more well put together Galaxy S3 – so this means that when you take it out down the pub people won't notice you've got the latest phone, which is a bit of a shame.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 feels like much more of an iterative update than new design, and while it will probably sell well there's very little to wow you when it comes to the overall shape. Specs are important, but if there was such as thing as a Samsung Galaxy S3S, this would be it.
But away from all that negativity! We have a new phone to check over, so let's take a minute and talk about the screen: it's even more beautiful than before.
Display
We almost feel sad that this isn't the first Full HD screen we've seen on a mobile phone, as it's kind of lost its lustre since the likes of the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z have all managed the same trick – but it improves the sharpness a lot, even though you're not getting that much different from the S3.
Side by side you can see the difference close up, and the brightness and efficiency have been tweaked to make this a more compelling screen in a phone. Talk all you want about the benefits and colour saturation of LCD – the Samsung Galaxy S4 is leagues ahead when it comes to jaw-dropping screens.
The 441ppi pixel density doesn't match the HTC One, but is more than good enough for the average user.
We'll be mightily surprised if the combined popularity of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 don't prompt Apple into a re-tooling of the screen with the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, as the sharpness will definitely wow users on the shelves.
Aside from the initial impression of the design, in the hand the Samsung Galaxy S3 feels just dandy. The design contours well against the palm, and while the screen size may be a little big for some (you'll need a bit of shuffling to reach the upper section of the screen) it's definitely useable in the hand.
So in short: if you don't mind plastic and you like cutting-edge HD screens in your pocket, this is a phone definitely worth checking out.
Interface
Samsung hasn't really re-tooled the Touchwiz overlay for the Galaxy S4, but has added some clever upgrades that will have some users talking about innovation.
For instance, the lock screen doesn't have the water rippling any more, but does register your finger from up to two centimetres away, so a little beam of light will follow your digit as you unlock. It's something you'll definitely play with for ages.
It's clear with the Galaxy S4 that Samsung has worked out there's only so much it can do on the hardware side these days – not to say that we're pretty impressed with the spec list - and as such has tried to bring the unique flavour through the interface instead.
As before with Touchwiz, there's a definite sense the whole process has been simplified, as the phone has got a much easier feel to it when swiping around. That's not to say there aren't loads of widgets to be played with, but there is less clutter on the larger screen.
The dock at the bottom of the display pervades, and there are more widgets to play with. Thanks to the Galaxy S4 running Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 you've now got an addition in the notifications bar of a toggle in the top-right hand corner where you can turn on and off pretty much anything, from NFC to Group Cast to eye-tracking.
Swiping around the display was easy as pie – it's not exactly taxing on the processor, but we did note that there was a slight pause as we swiped through the menu screen on this pre-production model.
However, there is a worry that the octa-core (yes, you read that right) 1.6 GHz Exynos 5 CPU, with 2GB of RAM as well, could suck power a little too dramatically – but we've yet to hear the full details of how the CPU will work before we can pass any judgement on that.
Smart Stay, which tracks your eyes to tell if you're looking at the screen, has stablemates now. Smart Pause will note if your gaze leaves the screen and will pause the video, and Smart Scroll will check when you're reading a web page and scroll up and down as you tilt the device.
It's a novel idea for replacing things you do already but in practice we didn't find either that useful. Smart Pause takes a second to register your gaze has gone, which means you'll still miss part of the video, and Smart Scroll (again, pre-production model) was far from accurate when we tilted the phone.
That said, the internet browsing as a whole was sublimely fast (when our conference room Wi-Fi played nicely with the phone) and we were impressed with the clarity of web pages as we zoomed through them.
If Smart Scrolling was the way we'd always used our phones, and then someone invented scrolling with the finger, that would be amazing. It just seems that this is a way of doing things for the sake of it - we can't see the likes of Apple or HTC ever doing the same thing.
Smart Voice hasn't been upgraded beyond improving the accuracy of the voice recognition and Driving Mode, which will give you more voice-related feedback when you're in your motor.
Smart Alert has been upgraded: now it's joined by Air Gestures, which allow you to swipe the phone without touching the screen. So this means you can flip through pictures or music tracks ("good if you have messy fingers" says Samsung) flick to the top of a list by wiping upwards on the screen and Air Call Accept starts the camera… no, we're joking. It accepts a call without touching the screen.
On top of that there's Hover mode, which is the same as Air View on the Note 2 which used the S Pen and tracked when it was near the screen to give previews of emails, video scrolling without disturbing the action, and seeing who is on speed dial.
A quick test with this saw the preview being activated a little too easily, but it's definitely a neat feature and something we could get used to.
Any Android phone fans will be a little perplexed by some areas of the phone, unless of course you've spent some time working with Android 4.2 at any point. The first big change is the fact the notifications bar packs not just the standard icons for turning off Wi-Fi and the like, but a tile to tap that takes you to a whole host of other toggles, from things like AllShare Cast to NFC and more.
The settings menu has also been changed to split into four sections, making it easier to play around with connections, your device settings, accounts for social networks or syncing accounts and more, for the likes of device information.
It might confuse those used to the original way of TouchWiz working, but we think Samsung has worked out a decent way to stop things looking so disjointed.
But overall the good news is the large screen looks great, the improved CPU might not be needed but is welcomed and the little touches like the shining lock screen do actually feel like a real step forward.
NFC
There's a lot riding on NFC this year - what's it going to do in terms of making the beepy technology worth using in the day to day lives of many?
Well, with a tie-in with Visa looks like you'll be able to use your phone to pay for bits and pieces more easily by including the PayWave app within the Galaxy S4, meaning you won't have to get validation from the networks for the payment mechanism.
We're also waiting for Samsung's range of NFC-enabled docks to appear, in the same vein as Sony and it's NFC message, so we can get tapping our phones and make music appear in other places. Or you could just use something from another manufacturer and it will work as well, as it's all just Bluetooth connection really. It's your call.
Messaging
There's some good news for those that loathed the stock keyboard on the Galaxy S3, as it's now been replaced with Android's best keyboard around: Swiftkey.
We didn't get the chance to test out this new implementation on our pre-production unit, but it will be using Swiftkey 4, which brings Flow for swiping out your words on top of the frankly impossibly good prediction engine - the same algorithm that's been partly used for the all new BlackBerry 10 keyboard in the BB Z10.
Media
The Samsung Galaxy S4 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in that it's designed for media – which is what you'd expect from a phone that's the sequel to the phone we dubbed the best out there for media on the go.
The video player is obviously taking centre stage here on the Galaxy S4, and combined with the improved Full HD Super AMOLED screen is just magnificent for watching movies.
The video hub now contains both personal and downloaded content in one place, and it looks really, really nice when viewing it on the 5-inch screen.
It's an understandably excellent experience, with the screen veritably shining with quality contrast ratios and decent colour reproduction.
The navigation experience is easy as well, and slipping up and down the timeline to move through a video seems very intuitive.
AllShare Cast is included as well, powering up the ability to stream to and from other devices. In addition to being able to send content from the phone to a TV and receive from a PC in your home network, you can also do this remotely now, as long as the device is turned on obviously.
Another feature is mirroring, where you can send whatever is on the screen of your Galaxy S4 and have it show on a larger display, either through connecting your phone using a MHL lead or an AllShare Cast dongle / compatible Samsung TV.
We've seen this on a number of devices, and while it's not going to allow big screen gaming on the go, as we've often noted that there's a lag between input and its realisation on the screen, it could be good for movies if it's less jumpy than found on the S3.
Samsung has managed to stay ahead of the pack when it comes to internal storage too – it will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flavours plus up to 64GB through a microSD card as well. That's more storage than most will ever need on it's own, right?
This will be a killer feature for a lot of smartphone users, as while the internal storage is generally good enough for most things, many love the idea of having the choice to expand if they so wish – so combining this with an expandable battery is a great idea from Samsung once again.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera is a step up from its predecessor, with a 13MP sensor on the back, which now has to bulge slightly from the chassis.
Samsung promises excellent low-light snaps from the S4 as well, but we doubt it can take on the might of the HTC One when it comes to low light conditions, as the Galaxy S3 was decimated by the might of HTC's Ultrapixels - and that's before we even get onto the Nokia Lumia 920.
From a blindingly bright flash to a backside illuminated sensor, our quick snaps came out crisply and clearly – and when we say quick, we mean it.
The UI has changed a bit to mimic that found on the Samsung Galaxy Camera, with a special mode wheel to move between items like the Macro, Beauty shot and smile setting, and while it's a little slow it's definitely an easier to use interface.
Burst mode is predictably back, but it now comes with a 'Drama' setting, so you can take one shot and see all the pictures merge into one. It works really well as long as you don't have something that's just too close to the camera or too large – in our tests it showed you need a lot of space between each movement.
Eraser mode and Cinema mode also come straight from the Nokia Lumia phones we've seen recently – the former works extremely well though, noting an unwanted object moving in the background and erasing it by drawing a pink outline around the thing and letting you delete.
However, you have to have the mode enabled, which takes multiple pics, rather than the standard shot, so you probably won't be able to make good use of it most of the time.
Cinema mode lets you shoot a short video and choose the part to keep static – this means you can have a background moving while the person stays the same, and is created in a GIF to make things properly early noughties.
You also get a 2MP camera on the front of the phone for some decent personal snaps – plus you can also get HD video recording too.
This has been updated to allow you to record video and pictures with the front and back cameras simultaneously, which doesn't really make much sense in the grand scheme of things, but at least you can put some clever frames around your face to make it more relevant.
Battery
Samsung has managed to lower the thickness of the Galaxy S4 compared to the S3 but upgraded the battery from 2,100mAh to 2,600mAh, promising a much larger capacity and therefore longer life.
However, with all those extra pixels (1080 x 1920) to drive and more cores – we're not sure whether this will actually translate to better battery life or not. Samsung has promised that the power management will be more intelligent than ever before, but we're yet to play a good half hour of HD gaming and then watch a monster movie marathon on the S4 to really test it out.
It was excellent on the S3 for the most part, so here's hoping that that octa-core will inspire even better battery life.
Features and apps
There's a whole glut of new features on offer with the Samsung Galaxy S4, with elements like a more refined method of buying media to a dedicated S Health application.
The former of these two is pretty expansive, and a clear sign that Samsung is looking to take over even more of Google's efforts into monetising Android - Play Store is one of the big ways Google looks to cash in on Android use, and Samsung's ploy to create a unified hub that offers music, books, games and movies is going to get right in the way of that.
Irrespective of that, it's a much better of way of getting content onto your device, and the line up looks very strong. We haven't had a good root around yet to see the full limits, but here's hoping it's well connected with Samsung's Music Hub and the like to provide a fully-integrated system.
S Health is an interesting proposition too - it's clearly taking the idea of wearable technology from Nike+ and FitBit and rolling it into its own ecosystem.
The application is large and wide-ranging though - from a large database of food and drink you can tap into and note what kind of calorie intake you're rocking, to a an app that lets you note how many steps you've taken that day (using the phone's accelerometer / gyroscope as a pedometer) - and it can even tell when you're running and walking separately.
Anyone that's ever used Nike+ Fuelband and the iPhone app will think this seems very similar to that - add to that the fact Samsung is also releasing S Health accessories in the shape of an S Band and a set of wireless scales, and you can see why some people might see this as copying innovation.
In reality, it's just Samsung taking some popular ideas around fitness technology and embedding them more deeply within the phone - copyright aside - and presenting it in a way that's easy to digest and schedule.
It would be brilliant if this could interact with something like Adidas MiCoach to come up with tailored running and exercise plans, but as it stands it's a more fully-formed idea than anything we've seen from Samsung in the past.
To get on-the-spot news, app tips and the full lowdown on Samsung's latest mobile announcements check out Samsung's Your Mobile Life on TechRadar.
A user can select one application every five seconds with 80 to 95 percent accuracy (credit: MIT Technology Review)
If touchscreens are the present, then perhaps touch-free screens are the future.
Samsung revealed via the MIT Technology Review over the weekend its ambitions to bring mind-controlled tablets to market, with an eye toward disabled people who may experience difficulties using current technologies.
Samsung is reportedly working with researchers at the University of Texas to develop devices that interpret users' brainwaves through EEG caps.
The tech is currently in an early but functional state, with accuracy around 80 to 95 percent when selections at intervals of at least five seconds.
The rise of mind control
Forget invisibility cloaks - mind-controlled devices could be the next big wave of innovation.
Mind control is nothing new, but so far it's been used mainly for toys and hyper-niche products like brainwave-reading wheelchairs for disabled consumers.
But as TechRadar noted over one year ago, mind control is about to go to the next level - and it looks like Samsung is going to take it there.
Samsung and the University's researchers have developed an interface that allows users to launch applications on a Galaxy Note 10.1 by focusing on them while wearing an admittedly clunky EEG cap. Eventually the tech will be able select contacts and songs, turn the devices on and off, and more.
"Several years ago, a small keypad was the only input modality to control the phone, but nowadays the user can use voice, touch, gesture, and eye movement to control and interact with mobile devices," Samsung's lead researcher on the project, Insoo Kim, told the MIT Technology Review. "Adding more input modalities will provide us with more convenient and richer ways of interacting with mobile devices."
The researchers are working on ways to make the EEG caps easier to set up, more efficient at reading brainwaves, and less conspicuous to wear.
Geeksphone's Keon and Peak Firefox OS phones could launch this week
Spanish startup Geeksphone unveiled its first Firefox OS smartphones in January, and now rumor has it those phones will be the first to hit the market.
According to a report today from The Next Web, the Firefox OS devices "Keon" and "Peak" will go on sale to developers tomorrow, or Wednesday at the latest.
The site was informed by unspecified sources that both the Keon and the Peak, Geeksphone's entry level and premium Firefox OS phones, respectively, will become available worldwide this week.
Geeksphone can reportedly produce up to 5,000 Firefox OS devices a day, though it's yet to be seen whether there's actually any demand for a new mobile operating system.
Firefox OS pricing and specs
If it weren't for this early launch, Geeksphone wouldn't really be considered a big player in the Firefox OS game, with competitors like ZTE, Alcatel, LG, Huawei, and Sony all promising to bring HTML5-powered smartphones to market at some point.
But Geeksphone does have a few advantages here: in addition to its healthy lead, the price for the lower-end Keon model will reportedly hover around €91 (US$118, UK£77, AU$115), or €115 (US$150, UK£98, AU$146) with value added tax (VAT) included.
The higher-end Peak, on the other hand, could come in at €149 (US$194, UK£127, AU$189) or €180 (US$234, UK£153, AU$229) with VAT.
Those prices are far from set in stone, though, the site said.
The Geeksphone Keon will reportedly feature a 1GHz snapdragon processor, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, a 3.5-inch screen, and a 3-megapixel camera.
And the Peak will trump the Keon with a 1.2GHz Snapdragon, a 4.3-inch IPS display, and 8- and 2-megapixel cameras on the back and front, respectively.
Firefox OS worldwide
Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs revealed last week that Firefox OS devices will start shipping en masse to Venezuela, Poland, Brazil, Portugal, and Spain starting in June, with Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, and Serbia getting Firefox OS phones throughout the year.
Kovacs said that Firefox OS wouldn't hit the U.S. until 2014, as Mozilla wants to focus first on emerging markets.
But with Geeksphone expected to ship the Keon and Peak dev units worldwide, there might not be anything stopping early birds in the U.S. and elsewhere from getting their Firefox worm this week.
Apple must have bought into Foxconn Care because the company has returned 5 to 8 million iPhones to the Taiwanese manufacturer, according to a report today.
With labor costs estimated to be USD $200 (£131, AUD$195) for each smartphone, that means Foxconn is taking a loss of up to $1.6 billion, reports China Business through The Register.
Its 19 percent year-over-year first quarter slump is being blamed on a slowdown of once rock solid iPhone and iPad sales.
Which iPhones are to blame?
While China Business quotes unnamed Foxconn insiders, it doesn't go as far as to reveal which version or versions of the iPhone are to blame for the defects.
Digging through the archives, however, there is one Apple smartphone that faced more botched cases than all of the others: the iPhone 5.
Likewise, the company received complaints that the same device would leak light between the display and the antenna, just underneath of the power button.
iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 speculation
Apple didn't comment to TechRadar about which model it RMA'd back to Foxconn or what went wrong with its production.
Speculation by The Register that the unusable batch of iPhones could include the forthcoming iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 is a possibility, but an unlikely one.
Huawei has just announced its new A199 model with 5.0-inch 720p IPS display and powered by Huawei's own K3V2 chipset featuring a quad-core 1.5GHz processor.
Huawei A199 is a China Telecom exclusive and comes with dual-SIM support and is capable of dual GSM/CDMA standby. Note that 3G connectivity is available only in CDMA mode.
Huawei A199
The rest of the A199 specs include an 8MP rear and a 1.3MP front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, and 8 gigs of internal storage expandable via a microSD slot. The A199 runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with Huawei's Emotion launcher on top of it.
The smartphone will hit China Telecom's network later this week.
Huawei A199 has leaked before as the Ascend G710, so there is a good chance it escapes China Telecom's chains and launch elsewhere too.
HTC's flagship Android model for 2013 has picked up heaps of praise since its April launch, with many declaring the HTC One the best ever smartphone and one of the tech highlights of the year so far.
One of the key features is HTC's own "ultrapixel" camera system, which does an incredible job of capturing images at low light levels, with the phone's latest HTC Sense user interface skin making it a joy to use throughout when you're done taking photos of your dinner, children and the sunset.
HTC's packed the phone with its own apps and tools, but with over 700,000 available to install yourself through Google's own Play Store app shop, there's still plenty of room to expand your horizons and extra functionality to the hot new phone. Here are five of our favourites.
1. Poweramp, £2.49
One particularly awesome thing about the HTC One is the volume kicked out from its onboard speakers. It's a very noisy phone that produces some of the best-quality sound out there in the mobile world today. So you might benefit from installing Poweramp, a custom music player that gives you a decent graphic equaliser, gapless playback of your tunes and many more nerdy audio features that'll add extra depth to your musical adventures.
Cinemagram is a simple video recording app that captures four-second clips, which are then uploaded and shared via Twitter or Facebook. It has a dead simple user interface where you hold down a button to record, meaning you can stitch together scenes without having to do any actual editing. Results are then looped, plus your short films can be saved as animated GIF files for sticking up anywhere online. It's like HTC's own ZOE format, only made a little more sociable.
If HTC's own Buzzfeed tool has you gagging for more beautifully presented social feeds and news, give Flipboard a shot. It pulls in news stories from the web, generating your own personal little mini magazine, building stylish pages to endlessly scroll through. It's all about adding a pretty skin to news stories and your social network feeds, ensuring text is easily readable on mobiles and saving you the effort of having to zoom in on pages to read in comfort.
The HTC One's camera is one you'll want to show off, seeing as it manages to capture bright images even on gloomy British days, so get yourself signed up to the celebrity image sharing tool of choice. It's free to use, with photos you take live (or load from your phone's memory) edited into a uniform square shape and enlivened with a selection of frames and filters, before being shared with the world. It's a social network for people who like photographing everything.
Adobe's popular image editing tool has fully mobilised, with this new phone version of its picture tool now ready for use on phones. The £2.99 asking price is modest compared with the full desktop versions of the software, plus you get access to Adobe's cloud storage servers along with 2GB of storage space -- meaning you can start editing an image on your HTC One, then continue making amendments on the desktop software.
Apple has been exceeding analysts’ expectations since 2003, but now the same analysts think the company’s profit will fall for the first time in a decade. Even worse, one Citibank analyst believes the iPhone 5S will be delayed, resulting in even more worry for Apple stockholders.
Analysts expect Apple’s quarterly report to show an 18% decline in net income with revenue growing by 8%. That would be the slowest growth rate Apple has seen since 2009.
More expensive components and lower-cost products like the iPad mini are eating into Apple’s margins. Demand is weakening too, with some estimates pointing to around 25 million iPhones sold, instead of 35 million or so like in the previous quarter. iPad mini demand is growing weaker too, leading analysts to believe there will be two mini's come upgrade time – a Retina and non-Retina model.
Foxconn is reportedly hurting too, as most of the manufacturing giant’s profits come from Apple and the weaker demand is hurting its revenue - rumors of all those returned iPhones can’t have helped either.
With all that said, Apple is still projected to report more profit than Google and Microsoft combined.
Still, there might be trouble in future quarters. Citibank’s analyst thinks the iPhone update, the 5S, and the potential lower-end iPhone will be delayed by a month or two (with August or September being the likely announcement dates), and that we won’t be seeing a new major version, the iPhone 6, this year.
Google's Nexus (ten points to anyone who can tell us if Nexi is the correct plural) smartphones have always set the standard when it comes to a pure Google experience.
The first Nexus One was a true geek device. Sold only through Google directly (apart from a brief flirtation with Vodafone), it never achieved massive sales. But it gave the world the true raw power of Android without the bloatware of other variants. As of January 2010, the ball was well and truly rolling.
We've had several now – and everyone, it seems, had a go: HTC, Samsung, Asus and LG – though strangely, not Motorola, which is now part of Google itself.
Some handsets we look forward to with much anticipation – only to feel deflated when we actually use them. Others, we wait for with little expectation – and they absolutely blow our socks off.
A stealth surprise. We'll lay our proverbial cards on the table here from the outset. The Nexus 4 is one of those rare devices.
LG's not had the best track record of late. Sure, we thought the Optimus 4X HD was a pretty decent offering, but too little, too late compared to what was already out there by the time LG got it to market.
And whereas LG did have good form when it came to innovation back in the day (who remembers the Chocolate, the Shine – and even the dubious widescreen BL40?), the mojo seemed to have passed.
That's not a dig at the South Koreans – far from it. But just to set the scene to show why we weren't expecting much from the Nexus 4.
Perhaps the worst kept secret since the iPhone 5, the Nexus 4 even got left in a bar in true cliché style. And from the pictures, we weren't alone in thinking it looked like a copy of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
The difference is, when we took the Samsung model out of its box this time last year, we thought it was nice. When we took the Nexus 4 out of its box last week, we thought it was beautiful.
Size wise, the Nexus 4 comes in at 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm – which means it is similar to its predecessor. But it is far more stunning to look at and hold.
The front is all glass in piano black. Extra tough too thanks to the Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Think iPhone 4 territory, but just a little nicer looking (we are aware that is a matter of opinion, iFans!)
The whole front is set within a dull chrome bezel and the shininess even extends to the rear of the handset, which has an attractive, though unusual sparkly pattern adorning it - although newer shipments seem to be shorn of that element now.
Think the glittery kind of jacket that you could see Cilla Black, Joan Rivers or Shirley Bassey in at an awards ceremony, and you catch our drift.
Since launch LG has updated the design very slightly on the rear of the Nexus 4, with newer handsets sporting two tiny bumps at the bottom of the phone, which elevates the handset slightly.
This means sound isn't as distorted when played through the rear speaker, plus it stops the shiny glass back of the Nexus 4 scratching on the surface it's sitting on.
At 139g, the Nexus 4 isn't the lightest handset in school – but it's just about solid enough to get away with carrying that extra weight and puts those who say Android devices look like toys firmly in their place.
The screen is invisible when off – but when it lights up, you're treated to 4.7-inches of True HD IPS Plus beauty. That's 768 x 1280 pixels with a pixel density of 318. It is razor sharp – blowing Retina out of the water and we'll venture it is one of the best we've seen on a handset.
Another reason for this is because there is such little space between the glass and the display. So where we berated the Optimus 4X HD for leaving enough room here to park a small car, the Nexus 4 leaves no gap at all.
It exudes a clarity that has to be seen to be believed. Colours look beautiful, icons and text are razor sharp and everything floats perfectly.
We find it hard to see how this could be beaten. When you're looking at icons on a black background (like in the app drawer), you can't even see the black, if that makes sense. It is so deep, that icons just float. Beneath the screen, in the centre, but hidden until needed, lies a pulsating notification light.
Another element worth pointing out here is the way the phone curves at the sides, from the main panel into the bezel. It seems to make the screen look even more realistic and beautiful. It's one of those things you really have to experience to appreciate.
Round the edges, you'll find the usual adornments. A 3.5mm headphone jack on top, volume rocker and micro SIM tray on the left, micro USB port plus a few dubious screws on the bottom, and a perfectly placed lock/unlock/power button on the upper right hand side.
It's just in that sweet spot where it's easy to press with the thumb if you're right handed and not impossible if you're a leftie.
There's no way of getting the back off – so you know what that means, peeps. No removable battery and no expandable storage. The former doesn't faze us too much since the 2,100mAh battery pack is no slouch but the lack of memory card allowance is annoying.
Yes, we know that ever since the Nexus S, expandable memory is out. Google's said that it doesn't offer it because it's confusing. But for those with lots of content who can't or don't want to stream, it's a real pain. We don't quite buy Google's argument.
As for the innards, LG has cut no corners here. Make no mistake, this is a premium handset. DC-HSDPA, the very latest iteration of Jelly Bean 4.2, a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, quad-core 1.5GHz processor, A-GPS with GLONASS, NFC and so forth.
But what makes this so sweet is the price. Let's just point out that sim-free, a HTC One X with similar specs will set you back around £320 (around $490/AU$475) and the Samsung Galaxy S3 can now be snapped up for £329 (around $525/AU$503).
And while last year's Galaxy Nexus will leave your wallet £299 (around $477/AU$458) lighter, this brand new model, the Nexus 4 is priced – almost unbelievably – at £239 ($299/AU$349) for the 8GB version and £279 ($349/AU$480) for 16GB. Yes, the newer Nexus is cheaper than the year old Nexus. Word!
We can't overestimate just how revolutionary this is and it leaves us open-mouthed at how Google is doing this. Either it's selling the Nexus 4 at a loss – or the mark-up on handsets is now shown up as being ridiculously high. Whichever it is, it means the Nexus 4 has a distinct advantage over the competition.
Bizarrely, in the UK Google has promised O2 that it can sell the Nexus 4 as an exclusive for the first month. We can't understand why – especially because you could end up paying £800 for the device over the course of the contract.
Virgin Mobile has also joined the Nexus 4 brigade by offering LG's handset on a contract - but with prices starting at £31 a month, it's not going to be a decent way to get a cheap Google phone in your hand.
Most people with sense (and a bit of spare cash) will buy the Nexus SIM-free and get themselves a cheap as chips SIM-only plan. The only downside is that LG has been a little slow on actually making these devices, despite Google subsidising the cost of the handset to the tune of hundreds of pounds per device.
In fact, a Google exec called the supply 'scarce and erratic' and could explain why there are only 400,000 in circulation at the end of December 2012, despite the low price and popularity.
But anyway, with an early November release, that means there'll still be plenty of networks marketing this heavily pre-Christmas once that month-long deal with O2 expires. And we can see the Nexus 4 being on a lot of Christmas lists.
