HTC records the first ever quarterly loss

HTC has reported its first quarterly loss ever in its financial reports for the three months ending in September 2013.

Posting a net loss of 2.7 billion Taiwan dollars (£ 62 million), HTC has slipped into the red for the first time, despite the launch of flagship smartphone HTC One.

Struggling to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung, the Taiwanese maker of smartphones has seen sales heavily influenced by supply chain issues and internal turmoil.

The company has also published a 3.5 billion Taiwan dollar (£ 74 million) operating loss, a figure of recording sales a third less for the same period last year.

HTC may follow in the footsteps of BlackBerry and Nokia, looking for a larger company to buy out the ailing manufacturer and assist in future.

However, the HTC was adamant that a sale is not an option, despite analysts suggesting that the prospects for the future is pretty bleak.

"Basically there are a lot of things that need to be corrected," said Laura Chen at BNP Paribas. "[Is] no sign of recovery any time soon."

Analysts suggest HTC must face his suppoly marketing, management and streamlining its product line.

Although the HTC CEO Peter Chou is not accepting any interviews, HTC has offered this statement to Reuters:

"HTC and broad-based employee remain committed to leadership of Peter Chou. The family of products (Flagship) HTC One – that has met the media and consumer awards – was the result of the vision and leadership of Pete and speaks for itself. "

The HTC One was released in February with great critical success thanks to its aluminium design, improved HTC Sense UI and technology UltraPixel camera.

HTC has since released the HTC mini One as an alternative to the top model by 4.3 inches.

Next, read our choice of the best mobile phones of 2013.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 3

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The new $299.99 Galaxy Note 3 is a tour de force in juggernaut handset design. Not only is it big, bold, and blazingly fast, the imposing device has an incredibly sharp 5.7-inch display, and battery life to go the distance. More importantly, the Note 3 features a sleeker design than its predecessor, the Note 2, a streamlined S Pen interface, plus the same superb camera you’ll find on the Galaxy S4.

The third generation of the Note, however, is the most significant upgrade yet and the first Note device, thanks to a more thoughtful S Pen interface, that mainstream customers will actually want to buy. Frankly it has the power to school any flagship device on the market, and the only device since the old Palm Treos to get me seriously thinking about using a phone with a stylus.

Pricing and availability
Shipping now and hitting US carriers in force in October 2013, the Note 3 costs $299.99 on Verizon (in stores 10/10), AT&T (in stores 10/4) and Sprint (in stores 10/4). T-Mobile (available now) sells the device for a lower $199.99 up front, but you’re on the hook for 24 monthly payments of $21. U.S. Cellular have also said it expects to scoop up the Note 3 soon.

What’s new in the Note 3
The Note 3 represents a massive upgrade over its previous Note counterparts. In a nutshell, the Note 3 has a bigger 5.7-inch full HD screen; revamped S Pen features and S Note app; a thinner, lighter chassis; huge processor speed bump; and a built-in news app powered by Flipboard technology.

Design and build
Samsung’s overarching theme of refinement is clear in the Note 3’s physical appearance. In my view, it's much more elegant and sophisticated than both Notes that came before it. Measuring 6 inches long by 3.1 inches wide and a mere 0.33 inch thick, the Note 3 is only a hair taller and wider than its predecessor. Even so, this new Note is thinner despite boasting a larger screen (5.7 inches compared with 5.5 inches).

Along with shaving off a few fractions of an inch, Samsung has also lightened the device by five-tenths of an ounce, which puts the Note 3 at 5.9 ounces. But even as the sleekest Note yet, it still dwarfs flagship phones like the HTC One, Galaxy S4, and Motorola Droid Maxx, all of which were big boys in their own right. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy Mega with its gargantuan 6.3-inch screen makes even the Note 3 seem a reasonable size.

The Note 3 is very thin despite its large footprint.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Designwise the Note 3 also takes huge departures from the smooth, plastic, and oval frame of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Notes before it. The Note 3 has a rectangular chassis ringed with flashy faux-chrome edges that are ridged, and the handset's patterned backing is designed to imitate the feel of leather. This leatherette back along with the Note 3's silver highlights evoke images of Samsonite briefcases from the 1960s. Further channeling this retro fashion accessory vibe are fake stitches that run along the back edge of the handset.

Though the Note 3's back is crafted from plastic, Samsung does its best to convince you it's leather.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

These design modifications aren't just for show, either. The Note’s textured rear surface handily resists fingerprints and offers a sure grip. Now I’m sure many people out there will find this new look for the Note 3 a tad over the top, even chintzy -- the phone’s back is plastic, after all, and only patterned to imitate leather. Still, all this gives the Note 3 a very handsome and distinctive look, especially compared with the slippery and truly cheap-feeling plastic chassis of the Note 2 and original Note.

There's no getting around the Note 3's large size.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Also on back is the Note 3’s 13-megapixel camera lens and LED flash. Removing the back cover reveals other welcome touches, specifically a high-capacity (and removable) 3,200mAh battery plus a microSD card slot. Interestingly, and no doubt to save space, the device’s SD card slot sits directly on top of its micro-SIM bay. That means you’ll have to remove the battery to add more storage.

The S Pen is tucked away in the bottom edge.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

The Note's S Pen stylus lives in a receptacle on the phone’s bottom lip. The device sports just three physical buttons, though: a tiny power key on the right edge, a thin volume bar placed on the left side, and a large oval home button below the screen. Flanking either side of this are two capacitive keys for Menu and Back.

Above the display you’ll find a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for self portraits, video chat, or simply to amuse the kids. The Note 3’s top edge houses its 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio.

Also living on the Note 3’s bottom edge is what at first I thought was a proprietary port. Instead it’s a combination Micro-USB connector along with one of the new USB 3.0 jacks. USB 3.0 offers faster charging times and data transfer rates (up to 10 times quicker) over the older USB 2.0 standard, but you’ll have to own a compatible PC.

The bottom edge sports one of the new USB 3.0 ports.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

A screen that’s stunning
Trust me when I say that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3’s screen is simply gorgeous. Measuring a vast 5.7 inches across, the AMOLED display has an ultracrisp full HD resolution (1,920x1,080 pixels) which translates into an amazingly sharp 385ppi. That’s a level of detail that puts the smaller screens of the iPhone 5S (4-inch, 326ppi) and Samsung’s own Galaxy S4 (5-inch, 441ppi) to shame.

The massive 5.7-inch AMOLED screen renders images sharply and in vibrant colors.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

It certainly outdoes the Note 2’s (5.5-inch, 267ppi, 1,280x720 pixels) viewing experience. The Note 2 produces text that's noticeably less crisp than on the Note 3. Also, while the HTC One (4.7-inch, 468ppi) technically has a sharper screen, its viewing area is minuscule when saddled up against the Note 3.

The latest Note's high-contrast display produces well-saturated colors as well, with deep blacks and very wide viewing angles. As with the Note 2, you have five screen modes to choose from (Adapt Display, Dynamic, Standard, Professional Photo, and Movie), which offer specially tweaked color settings. I prefer the Movie mode, since its colors are the most lifelike. Samsung apparently honed this mode further because its colors look even more natural than the same selection on the Note 2.

And because its screen is brighter and sharper than its predecessor, watching all sorts of visual content on the Note 3 is extremely captivating. Characters in movie trailers practically leap off of the screen and into your lap, and detail in photos and video is incredibly crisp. Viewing desktop versions of Web sites, an activity I don’t recommend on devices with cramped displays, was also pleasurably not eye-straining.

It’s all about the S Pen
I doubt even the most avid Galaxy Note adherents use their S Pens often, at least those who don’t primarily communicate in complex character-based or pictographic languages. Samsung hopes this third iteration of the Note franchise, though, will convert more users into being S Pen faithful. To this end, the company says it has revamped the S Pen experience on the Note 3 (and new Note 10.1 tablet) to provide a refinement of existing features, not overwhelm them with a confusing laundry list of capabilities and tools.

I think Samsung has made large strides toward its goal since this is the first implementation of the S Pen I’ve actually been tempted to use. Here’s how it works.

Removing the S Pen launches the new Air Command menu.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

When you pull the S Pen out of its sheath, a little fan-shaped graphic called the Air Command appears. You can also activate it from any screen or app by holding the pen close to the display and pressing the S Pen’s button. This single change alone, the addition of Air Command, does the most to make the S Pen a compelling tool for ordinary people than ever before.

Unlike with older Notes, which diluted the S Pen's abilities across the entire OS (where they would become lost or forgotten), Air Command places them all in one spot. Plus everything is boiled down into five main options: Action Memo, Scrap Booker, Screen Write, S Finder, and Pen Window. Just tap a selection to launch the feature.

Action Memo lets you e-mail, text, or convert handwritten scribbles into to-do lists.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Action Memo lets you create a handwritten note, then provides a handful of options to manipulate the info you’ve just jotted down. For example you can scribble a name, number, and other details, then have the choice to either mail the data, save it to your contacts, use it in a text, or look it up on a map. You can also convert notes into to-do lists and even port them over to Evernote for safe keeping.

Of course the practice doesn't work perfectly. The phone had problems accurately transcribing my admittedly terrible handwriting into text. I often had to scribble words multiple times for it to correctly register what I wanted to jot down.

The Scrap Booker lassos images and content you see, whether that be a Web site, photos, or YouTube videos, to save in a virtual scrapbook. You can create and name as many volumes as you'd like, then access them through the scrapbook application.

In practice the feature worked well enough and I was able to grab images and other content then save directly to a personal scrapbook. Personally, however, I'm not someone who scrapbooks in real life or even does so virtually using sites like Pinterest. That said, if you're researching projects that require sifting through lots of visual info (home improvements, shopping for a new wardrobe, etc.) then I can see it being handy.

Think of S Finder as universal search. The function will sift through the phone’s memory for keywords, including your handwritten notes, and present a list of documents containing relevant information.

Hitting Pen Window allows you to draw a box on the screen, then select an application that will fill that space. So for instance you can have your e-mail or Web browser open then pull up a little window for the calculator, phone, or contacts, which will float above everything. It’s an interesting idea, and I can see it being useful in certain situations.

For example, imagine reading e-mail, then punching out people’s phone numbers, making calls to follow up, all while digging through messages for Web links and office memos. Of course it takes about three steps to create an application windows vs. just switching between apps.

View two apps at once with Advanced Multi Window.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

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Google Nexus 5 price to be half that of iPhone 5 support reports

With Google Nexus 5 rumors hitting fever pitch, recent reports have suggested that the price of Google Nexus 5 mid-5S will be Apple's flagship iPhone.

While the Google Nexus 4 last year having grabbed consumer attention with its premium range of entrails and minimalist price tags, it seems that the Google Nexus 5 will follow suit, with the latest reports, claiming that the phone will be just as friendly on the wallet.

Citing "a source familiar with Google", recent reports have suggested that the Google Nexus 5 will be "half price" of 5S the iPhone, a phone that costs between £549 and 709 £ depending on specifications. With the Google Nexus 4 having set wannabe owners back just £279 with 16 GB of internal storage, it is believed that the handset will feature a similar price.

With a raft of Google Nexus 5 entries after making the rounds in recent weeks, it has been suggested that the expected rival Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One will land as the first phone to come packing the recently announced Android OS by KitKat 4.4. A release date of Google Nexus was ventilated for 5 this month.

Leaked Google Nexus 5 specs have suggested that the laptop will run an array of similar innards to the G2 from LG, the South Korean society believes that manufacturing duties have been handed down to the phone.

With a Full HD display with edge-to-edge 5.2 inches having tipped for inclusion, leaked Google Nexus 5 benchmark have suggested that the phone will be put on power only through the iPhone 5S, eclipsing all Android based on devices that preceded it.

Further Google Nexus 5 specifications have been tipped to include a 13 megapixel rear-mounted wireless charging capability and.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy items S5

Via: TechRadar

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Nokia Lumia 1520 losses again, this time in red

More Nokia Lumia 1520 pictures leaked online, with the device said that ' phablet ' ostentatious dimensions in a new red color scheme.

Widely expected to be a rival to Windows Phone 8 powered to Samsung Galaxy 3, note the Nokia Lumia 1520 was the subject of much speculation in the past few weeks, with new images of the handset questioned now emerged online.

Appearing courtesy Twitter tipster serial-based @Evleaks, the latest Nokia 1520 images showed oversized smartphone in a red hue for the first time, suggesting that as phones like Nokia Lumia 1020, the device will be available in a range of vibrant colors.

According to recent rumors Nokia Lumia 1520, the phone will line up with a 6-inch display in tow, with expansive sports a screen Full HD 1080 p resolution and Nokia's ClearBlack technology.

Even if you don't believe that will feature the same 1520 Lumia megapixel 41 as 1020, it has been suggested that the rival Huawei Ascend Mate will host snapper as the Nokia Lumia 925 just wrapped inside polycarbonate familiar designs of the company itself.

With the voices of Nokia Lumia 1520 hitting fever point, the Finnish phone manufacturer last month confirmed that a release date Nokia Lumia 1520 will be held on October 22 at the society's annual Conference, which this year will be held in Abu Dhabi.

Should be one of the stars of the show, the Nokia Lumia 1520 it is believed to be the only new show at the next meeting. Having so far left the tablet market to rivals such as Apple with the iPad mini and Google with the Nexus 2 7, Nokia now seems set to enter the Tablet race.

Leaked as the Nokia Lumia 2520, the Nokia tablet runs reportedly a 10.1 inch display alongside a megapixel rear-mounted 6.7 and the operating system Windows 8 in its core.

To learn more: Nokia Lumia 520 review

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BlackBerry Z30 Phone Review

Strong email, chat and social network games and qualityPoor build supportGreat apps cameraThe selectionProblematic Z30 is the largest BlackBerry phone that BlackBerry has ever produced, at least has the bigger screen. Is an alternative to larger screen for BlackBerry Z10, her 5-inch screen that match the most popular Android phones this year. To £ 500 games phones like the Galaxy S4 on the price too. If you are interested in all apps, the phone or an iPhone 5 c is a much better choice. But there is no doubt that this is a quality phone in many ways.

See also: 2013 Best cell phones

It is common these days for phones try to look as thin and light as possible. In a world of increasing size phones, is quite a feat, but the BlackBerry Z30 does not care much about these things.

The BlackBerry Z30 seems pretty strong and reliable. Part of the reasoning behind the back of the phone, which is made of a plastic glass ' tiles ' that looks a lot like carbon fiber and is twice as strong as normal plastic, according to BlackBerry.

These are the words of a cynical, but the look is sharp ' of this fabric rear glass is without doubt the most important aspect. The actual protective benefits do not rise that much scrutiny. A phone is most at risk of serious damage when dropped on his Board, causing ripples of pressure that can break a screen.

The parts of the phone that would have an impact on Z30 BlackBerry in this situation are the edges of metallic effect standard plastic, not pieces of glass fabric. Main article: the issue, we should also consider what kind of force a glass weave structure could provide – there is more than one kind of strength.

BlackBerry card back Z30 likely offers more high tensile strength of standard plastic, meaning the casing back not take or deform easily. Also helps to give the phone a feel strong, tough. The new Cabinet is filled with a layer of soft touch, which determines how you feel on fingers (soft and smooth), but also less flexing of bog-standard plastic.

Adding to the impression of strength, the Z30 BlackBerry isn't particularly subtle or slight. It is 9.4 mm and 170 g is much heavier than most rivals of this size. The Galaxy S4 is 130 g, the HTC One is 143 g. Is a large beast. However, it is small enough to avoid causing serious problems of usability.

It has some extra hardware features that love nerd, too. On its left edge alongside the usual microUSB port is a video output microHDMI and under the plastic cover is a microSD card slot.

You get 16 GB of internal memory, and to be Frank I probably will do the trick if you do not want to store music or video (given there are so few games for BlackBerry phones 10). Final cleaning extra hardware is the multicolored LED indicator which flashes red, green or blue depending on the type of notification that is telling you about. Sits above the screen, hidden in the lining of the screen when flashes.

The Z30 BlackBerry isn't the best phone in the world. She cares too much about practicality to trade away everything for the look. The buttons are clear and the doors are not disguised as remote. But thanks to the back, it comes up as a step by the Z10.

Z30 screen BlackBerry continues the trend. Its display is not sharp, but it is very good. Is a Super AMOLED Panel of 1,280 x 720 that is five inches across. Everyone loses on is resolution – S4 Galaxy has a screen of the same size and type, but is instead Full HD 1,920 x 1,080.

Who cares? Not much. This is a sharp screen, though, if you look close you can tell that it is not as sharp as the best.

Other aspects of the display are very good or excellent. Contrast and black levels are top notch, the viewing angles are fab and color is surprisingly good.

AMOLED screens of type often are oversaturated colors and may appear bluish when tilted at an angle. The colors are pretty faithful here and there is no main color distortion caused by angled.

As you would expect from a Super AMOLED screen, response times are excellent too, in the sense that you don't get any ' trails when flicking rapidly high-contrast menu.

There is little to dislike seriously on this screen.

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Best Samsung Galaxy phone

Trying to find the best Samsung Galaxy phone to buy? We compare and choose the best spin off Samsung Galaxy S4 to find you the Samsung Android phone-perfect product.

Since the launch of the first smartphone Galaxy back in 2009, was the Samsung occupied the building back on the phone-do of swelling the ranks of the Galaxy family-proportions as Jackson.

You can now get an Android and TouchWiz running laptop in many different forms in fact we lost count. If you yearn for compact camera image quality or want to take your underwater smartphone, Samsung has tried to offer a solution for every need.

Inevitably, some do work better than others. Probably wouldn't recommend the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 or the fame more wallet-friendly Samsung Galaxy for example. If you are sold on what Samsung has to offer but struggling to make your way through the ever-expanding universe Galaxy, we have chosen the best smartphone Samsung Galaxy to look out.

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Alcatel One Touch fierce

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Despite its name, the Alcatel One Touch Fierce is anything but "ferocious."

For starters, its 5-megapixel camera takes poor photos, and its quad-core processor lags behind rival phones.

And yes, while the Fierce's competitive $139.99 prepaid price and solid call quality are redeeming factors, it's best just to save up some more dough for a faster, smoother, and more reliable prepaid smartphone like the LG Optimus F3 or Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE.

Design
The Fierce comes in two colors, slate and silver, with the latter featuring a nice brushed-metal look that adds a unique accent. But apart from the stylish battery door, the device feels cheap: hollow, plastic, and toylike. At 4.6 ounces, it's also very light.

The handset measures 5.13 inches tall, 2.64 inches wide, and 0.35 inch thick. Up top are a 3.5mm headphone jack and a sleep/power button. On the right edge lives a volume rocker and at the very bottom is a Micro-USB port for charging.

The back houses a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash that sits right below the lens. At the bottom is a small grille for the speaker. Using a small indentation on the bottom left corner, you can pry off the battery door.

Despite a removable battery door, you can't take out the battery itself.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Underneath, you'll see a microSD card slot (it accepts cards of capacities up to 32GB), and a warning label. The label notifies users that the 1,800mAh battery inside is nonremovable. This is odd given the fact that you can take off the phone's back; one would expect the battery to be removable. The label also reads that the phone doesn't support "hot swapping" of the microSD and SIM cards. This means you can't switch these cards out while the Fierce is turned on. Instead, you must power off the device beforehand.

The 4.5-inch qHD display has a 960x540-pixel resolution. Unfortunately, the screen isn't sharp. App icons had blurred edges, pictures looked speckled, and even default wallpaper looked grainy and showed notable color banding. In comparison, the LG Optimus F6 has the same resolution, but its display is far crisper. It's also more sensitive, unlike this handset's display, which wasn't very responsive or accurate. Often times, I felt I had to tap slightly harder to select the items I wanted, and typing was difficult since the screen would incorrectly register the wrong letters.

Moreover, the display has a narrow viewing angle, and unless held perfectly straight at eye level, some parts of the screen would look momentarily blacked out. Viewing it in direct sunlight also worsened this effect.

Above the display is a VGA camera, and below are three hotkeys (for back, home, and recent apps) that light up white in use. Long press the home key to launch Google Now, and long press the recent apps key to bring up extra setting options.

Software features
For the most part, the phone's user interface stays true to a skinless version of Android -- the dialer, lock screen, and app drawer have been left pretty much untouched. However, the Fierce also features some colorful icons that can be considered "playful" at best, though honestly, they look dated and childish.

It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and as expected, it comes with your standard package of Google apps: Chrome, Search, Plus, Maps with Navigation and Local, Messenger, apps for the Play store's Books, Magazines, Movies and TV, and Music portals, Talk, and YouTube.

T-Mobile landed a handful of apps as well. You'll get T-Mobile My Account, which gives you information about your phone and data plan; a trial subscription to the caller ID service Name ID; and apps that help set up your visual voice mail and mobile hot spot. Lastly, the media streaming service T-Mobile TV offers a 30-day trial to channels like Fox News and ESPN.

In general, the Fierce sports a skinless Android UI (left), but its cartoonish icons leave something to be desired.

(Credit: Lynn La/CNET)

Basic task managing apps include a calculator, a calendar, a native e-mail client, a notepad, a sound recorder, a clock with alarm functions, a voice dialer, voice search, and a to-do list. At the same time, you'll get some less common (but still useful) apps such as a flashlight, an FM radio, a movie editor, Facebook, Twitter, an app to help you set up wireless devices via a Bluetooth connection, and Lookout Security, which backs up data and scans apps and files for malware.

Additional features include about 4GB of internal storage (though this ends up being more like 2.4GB that's available to the user), 1GB of RAM, and Bluetooth 4.0.

Camera and video
The camera operates quite slowly, save for its shot-to-shot speed refreshing rather swiftly. It takes nearly 3 seconds (an average of 2.94, if you want to be exact) to launch, and you'll need to wait a beat for it to call up certain menu items and activate settings. It even takes a few moments longer than I'm used to, to switch from landscape to portrait mode.

Another issue is the camera's confusing UI. When launched, a row of nine icons appear on one side of the viewfinder. Some of these icons represent something obvious (like HDR and panoramic shooting modes). Other icons have a small explanation pop up when you tap on them. For example, tap the smiley face icon and the sentence, "Auto capture when smile is detected" appears.

And yet other icons are vague and have no explanation. There's an icon that looks like a speedometer. When I tap on it, nothing happens, and I have no idea what it does. Same goes for the small box icon that has a plus and minus on it (though I'm used to that representing some sort of brightness or exposure meter, this one doesn't appear to be so). And same goes for the star -- yup, it's just a star. I tap on it, thinking it might be a way to save favorite shots, but there's no explanation. True, one can do some light sleuthing to figure out what these icons mean, but for general users, these meanings should be intuitive. If they're not, then Alcatel should provide consistent tool tips to guide its consumers, and it's odd that some icons get a little explanation of what they do, while others don't.

The icons on the left are about as clear as Egyptian hieroglyphics.

(Credit: Lynn La/CNET)

As for photo quality, the device's 5-megapixel camera was mediocre. Colors looked muted and ran on the cold side, objects looked blurry (especially around the edges), and even with amply lit settings, you can see a notable amount of digital noise. In addition, because the camera has a fixed focus, getting sharp, crisp images of objects up close was nearly impossible.

Both the 5-megapixel camera and the front-facing camera has 4x digital zoom, a "face beauty" shooting mode that lets you adjust your smoothness, skin color, and sharpness in a photo, and geotagging. The cameras also have face detection and a timer.

However, the 5-megapixel camera has an LED flash, the aforementioned nine shooting modes (like I said, some are known, some are unknown), an exposure meter with a range of -3 to +3, seven color effects, 14 scene modes, eight white balances, and four antiflicker options. You can also adjust the sharpness, hue, saturation, brightness, and contrast of a picture, choose from seven photo sizes (from QVGA to 5 megapixels), and the camera has six ISO options. Meanwhile, the VGA camera's exposure meter only ranges from -1 to +1, and it only has five color effects, two scene modes, six white balances, three antiflicker options, and two photo sizes (QVGA and VGA).

Though the flowers look bright, this photo lacks focus and white hues are blown out.

(Credit: Lynn La/CNET)

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iPhone 5S vs Galaxy S4

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The iPhone 5S is Apple's new flagship version of its incredibly popular phone. It looks a lot like the iPhone 5, but there's a lot of new stuff going on under the shell. It's not just that phone it needs to beat, though.

It also needs to beat the Samsung Galaxy S4 if it wants to have a chance of becoming the best phone of the year. We've compared the two mobiles to see if the iPhone 5S really is the new smartphone king.

iPhone 5S - 20 September UK release, starts at £549.99 SIM-free
Galaxy S4 - April 2013 UK release, now starts at around £420 SIM-free

The Galaxy S4 arrived quite a long time before the iPhone 5S - almost six months earlier. That's a long time in the tech world.

It has given the iPhone series a bit of time to catch up with Samsung's Android-powered Galaxy range, but has also let the Galaxy S4's price slip down to a far more attractive level than it was at release. Back in the day, the Galaxy S4 cost around £600 SIM-free. Nowadays, you can get one for around £420.

The iPhone 5S costs £549.99 SIM-free, and you can bet that figure will barely drop until the next iPhone release next year. Although they'll be thought of as heated rivals, the Samsung phone it a good deal cheaper outside of a contract.

iPhone 5S – Aluminium frame, glass inlays,
Galaxy S4 – Plastic rear (removable)

Apple hasn't changed the design of the iPhone much in the 2013 iPhone 5S. It's a light, largely metal-bodied phone that feels almost unnervingly light. And put next to the plastic Galaxy S4, it appears almost comically small.

If you have tiny hands or teeny pockets, the iPhone 5S is going to pose far fewer problems, size-wise. The Galaxy S4 is 70mm wide, where the iPhone 5S is 59mm wide. If you're used to the larger phones that have started appearing over the last year, you shouldn't have any problems. But it is certainly a handful.

However, the Galaxy S4 is the curvier, smoother phone. The iPhone 5S has relatively severe edges, giving it a more angular feel in-hand.

The iPhone 5S feels like the more carefully engineered phone in person, but there are advantages to the plastic design of the Galaxy S4. Its rear is removable, giving you easy access to the battery. Few people take around spare batteries with them, but it also makes replacing the battery much easier, should it fail.

You also get a microSD memory card slot, missing from the iPhone 5S.

The iPhone 5S has a feature we've not seen in a phone before. The Home button also acts as a fingerprint sensor that scans a digit as a means of identification. It'll unlock the phone and let you avoid having to type in your iTunes password. Handy. The closest thing the Galaxy S4 has to this is face detection. But it's pretty rubbish.

But how does the Touch ID sensor work? It's quite different to what you might expect.

Rather than scanning a visual map of you thumb, the iPhone 5S's Touch ID sensor scans the conductive properties of your thumb or finger. It's the same sort of sensory tech that lets an iPhone's touchscreen sense the presence of your finger.

The sensor is just 170 microns thick and scans your finger at a resolution of 500dpi. In our experience, it's fantastic. It's sensitive enough to reliably differentiate between people accurately, and is super-quick. It'll unlock your phone in a flash. It's probably the most innovative part of the phone too - at least given how much it alters the way the phone is used.

The only issue is that it can't do much. Apple has said the Touch ID sensor will never be available to third-party apps, limiting it to system-level things like unlocking your phone. In the future we expect it to be able to route you through to different user profiles. But at present it just unlocks the phone.

Let's take a look at the Galaxy S4's closest alternative - Face Unlock.

It's simpler, it's less clever and it's much less secure. It scans for faces using the front camera. The Galaxy S4 has a fairly good front camera, meaning it can find faces fairly reliably, but the phone can easily be unlocked using a photo of the owner, or by someone that looks similar.

Face Unlock judges who a person is based on their facial geometry - primarily the positioning of their eyes and mouth. It's by no means secure, and it also feels much wonkier in use than the Touch ID sensor.

It's a pretty good indication of Apple's and Samsung's approach to tech. Where the iPhone 5S's Touch ID is virtually 'invisible' - you can forget the tech processes going on behind the scenes - the Galaxy S4's Face Unlock makes what's going on very obvious. You even have to correctly position your face for it to work.

iPhone 5S – 4-inch 1136 x 640 pixel IPS
Galaxy S4 – 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED

As with the bodywork, Apple hasn't messed with the core screen specs too much in the iPhone 5S. It uses a 4-inch 1,136 x 640 pixel screen – the same 'Retina' pixel density that caused this term to first be used back when the iPhone 4 was released in 2010. It's a very similar panel to the one used in the iPhone 5.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 actually has higher pixel density despite using a much larger display. It has a 5-inch 1080p-resolution screen. It's big, it's sharp, it's very impressive.

In actual use, we find the larger screen of the Galaxy S4 much better for watching movies and TV episodes on than an iPhone 5S-size screen. And it's also superior for playing games, giving your thumbs extra room to work with.

The screen technologies these phones use are completely differnet. The iPhone 5S has an IPS display, the Galaxy S4 a Super AMOLED screen.

They're excellent examples of both screen types, but they still suffer from some characteristics associated with these kinds of panels. Top brightness is a bit better in the iPhone 5S, but contrast and black depth are better in the Galaxy S4.

Unlike some AMOLED screens, top brightness is commendable though. It has a much brighter screen than the relatively dim Galaxy S3. 

Both of these are high-quality displays that are hard to fault technically – AMOLEDs tend to oversaturate colours, but the Galaxy S4 packs in colour temperature customisation options to help you fix this.

As these are such fantastic performers all-round, the main thing to consider is whether you really want a giant screen, or would prefer a smaller, more pocket-friendly mobile. But for the sake of this comparison, we'll hand the win to Samsung.

iPhone 5S – 16/32/64GB non-expandable
Galaxy S4 – 16/32GB, microSD (64GB in some countries)

The Samsung and Apple appropaches to storage are pretty different. Samsung always tries to make it easy to let you add extra storage, by including a memory card slot.

The Samsung Galaxy S4's microSD slot lives under the phone's removable plastic battery cover. Samsung makes 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions of the S4, but you'll only find the 16GB and 32GB editions in the UK. The 16GB edition is by far the most common.

It's easy to get your hands on each of the three storage iterations of the iPhone 5S (aside from intermittent stock shortages) - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. It's partly because you can get them directly from Apple, and partly because the lack of a memory card slot necessitates higher-capacity options. We had hoped to see Apple introduce a 128GB iPhone, but there is no 128GB iPhone 5S. Yet.

Apple has never included ways to increase storage in its mobile devices with a memory card slot. And that's not going to change any time soon.

iPhone 5S – iOS 7
Galaxy S4 – Android 4.2 with TouchWiz interface

The iPhone 5S was the first device to launch with iOS 7, arguably the biggest change in the iOS platform since the system was launched in 2007.

It's a visual and functional reworking of the software. Jonny Ive was the man behind the re-vamp – he was part of the team that designed the iPod, the iMac, the iPhone and more.

At the other end of the ring, the Galaxy S4 uses Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with the TouchWiz interface plastered on top.

Their visual styles are quite different. Where iOS 7 tries its best to look sharp and stylish, TouchWiz makes do with 'happy' and 'colourful'. It's not the coolest Android interface we've seen. It cares much more about adding features.

TouchWiz adds a crazy amount of features to Android – some of which have encouraged Google to add features to Android itself in the past.

Good additions include gesture typing, a power management mode, enhanced notifications bar and sine decent custom widgets. There are loads of slightly wonky and superfluous extras too, though. Like Air Gesture and Air View.

For more read our top 10 new TouchWiz features article

Although it has traditionally kept things very simple, iOS adds some extra features bulk with iOS 7.  It has power management options in its drop-down notifications bar, the camera app has gotten a lot richer. It also offers new productivity apps including Keynote.

For more, head to our iOS 7 tips and tricks guide.

iPhone 5S – Apple A7 dual-core 64-bit chip, 1GB RAM
Galaxy S4 – Snapdragon 600 1.9GHz Quad-core, 2GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU

Released almost six months after the Galaxy S4, you'd hope that the iPhone 5S would be clearly more powerful than the Samsung phone. And it is. However, it doesn't sound that way from the numbers alone.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a Snapdragon 600 1.9GHz quad-core processor, the iPhone 5S a dual-core A7 chip. The S4 also has more RAM – 2GB against 1GB.

The Galaxy S4 sounds more powerful, but it is not. Benchmarks show that the iPhone 5S is a significantly more powerful phone, and it's also the first 64-bit phone produced.

Here's a run-down of how they perform in benchmarks, relatively.

Galaxy S4 - 1100ms
iPhone 5S - 410ms
Galaxy S4 - 450
iPhone 5S - 1732

Galaxy S4 - 1620
iPhone 5S - 2553

Galaxy S4 - 10379
iPhone 5S - 13995

The iPhone 5S's Apple A7 processor is fantastic, especially given it's 'just' a dual-core chip. However, it will take a while to see the benefits of its 64-bit architecture.

The iPhone 5S also has a separate motion sensor chip, which monitors the gyroscope, compass and accelerometer. It's called the M7, and we imagine it's there to increase battery efficiency for fitness apps that need the read-outs from these sensors. 

The iPhone 5S will also triumph in terms of the software that will actually make use of that power. Although it'll take devs a little time to get their heads around the hardware (think weeks, not months), the iPhone 5S will have many more impressive games.

iPhone 5S – 8-megapixel cameras with LED flash
Galaxy S4 – 13-megapixel camera with LED flash

In a surprise move, Apple has not changed the camera resolution of the iPhone series with the 5S. Like the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, it has an 8-megapixel sensor.

However, it's a good deal better. It's 15 per cent larger, resulting in larger sensor pixel size. Larger sensor pixels means better low light performance and - generally - better image quality.

The iPhone 5S has pixels of 1.5 microns, where the higher-resolution Galaxy S4 has smaller 1.1 micron pixels. Judging by our previous photo comparison of the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4, in 100 per cent optimal conditions the Samsung phone should be able to capture more detail. Let's see if it actually does.

The iPhone 5S's photo is more lively a bright than the Galaxy S4's. There are some areas of overexposure, though - where details in brighter/whiter are blown out because of over-keen exposure compensation.

Fine detail capture is superior in the Galaxy S4 - check out how much clearer the lines between the windows are, in the building in fron of the Gherkin. The files are also simply bigger - the comparison crop-out shows the actual pixels of the photos.

Low-light performance is marginally better in the iPhone 5S. Our standard low-light test shows that both phones are pretty rubbish when lighting conditions are very poor. The iPhone 5S's shot is a little less noisy, although colour accuracy is better in the Galaxy S4.

The camera apps of the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5S are quite different in their approaches.

iOS 7 adds a bunch of features to the iPhone 5S camera, but it's still very simple to use. You just choose your aspect ratio, whether to use HDR and whether to use an arty filter or not. There are no scene modes to worry about - the app does all that for you.

The Galaxy S4 is way more feature-packed. There are more than 10 modes, most of which use pretty invasive photo effects, including those that merge multiple exposures.

You can do a whole lot more with the Galaxy S4, but we tend to find the iPhone 5S a more satisfying everyday shooter. It's a slightly faster photographic performer, and with the Galaxy S4 you need to manually switch to Night mode to get the best results in poor lighting.

HDR
One of the most useful extra modes common in smartphones is HDR. this merged multiple exposures to improve photo performance in tricky lighting conditions. It's a great way to mitigate the technical limitations of a phone camera. Here's the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5S modes in action.

As we saw in the landscape shot, the iPhone 5S's shot is brighter, but the exposure is actually better. The effectiveness HDR mode is also better in the Samsung phone. Check out the tiny crane in the far background. It's clearer in the Galaxy S4 pic thanks to the lesser-exposed sky, and the undulation of the clouds is much clearer too. Nice work, Samsung.

In terms of pure specs, the iPhone 5S doesn't appear to have a huge upper hand over the Samsung Galaxy S4. However, look very close indeed and you'll see where those extra months of progress have gone. The various tech tweaks and the more efficient CPU make the 5S the most technologically impressive phone.

Next, read our comparison iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S4

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motion sensor problems reported 5S iPhone

Reports suggest that the 5S iPhone may have serious problems with its advanced motion sensors.

When the 5S iPhone launched on 20 September, Apple said its brand new M7 coprocessor as a revolution in mobile technology of motion detection.

However, just two weeks on we are hearing reports of inaccuracies with device movement and orientation detection capabilities. There is a vast forum thread over on MacRumours detailing the experiences of many iPhone owners 5S.

Sure enough, according to a follow-up report over on Gizmodo, iPhone 5 sensors are significantly off. The site has conducted tests to ascertain the extent of these problems using the app just motion detection of Apple.

A look at the spirit level tool has revealed that the iPhone 5 had two or three degrees outside when oriented according to a physical equivalent good old style. Other users had reported a slip by four to six degrees.

The same test with an iPhone 5 revealed that the problem was specific to the new model and could be a hardware issue, rather than an easy-to-fix one.

Another test using Apple's gyro instrument revealed a similar discrepancy three degrees in 5S of the iPhone. This would have considerable repercussions for the games that use the iPhone's gyroscope for the movement, as the Real Racing Series.

Sure enough, another test involving 3 on a Real Racing iPhone 5S showed that cars naturally tended to swerve left when the device was perfectly level.

5S compass iPhone App has also been shown to be off by as much as 10 degrees relative to the physical compass readings.

Given that the degree of error varies from user to user, it is possible that the 5S iPhone portable are not calibrated properly during construction. Could it be that a simple software upgrade is not a viable solution.

This is the latest gaffe Apple following Antennagate and Apple maps debacle?

Read more: 5S iPhone problems and pitfalls

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Google Nexus smartwatch codenamed Gem, will launch at the end of October

A Google Nexus smartwatch is apparently on its way this month, currently bearing the codename Gem.

It seems that Google is going to pull your InPulse out of the bag with the rumours of a Google device incoming Gem, making the rounds.

InPulse the latest rumors of Google is codenamed Nexus gem and could launch alongside the new Android OS KitKat 4.4.

There are rumors of a Google smartwatch for many months now, but originally it was flipped to a 2014 launch.

From Google + page of the founder of Android police, Artem Russakovskii, voice tips a launch date of October 31, although the majority suggests that a Google event is scheduled for October 14.

"Google will announce a Nexus, codenamed Gem, probably together with the announcement of KitKat", posted Russakovskii.

Google Nexus Gem smartwatch unveiling may well timed to coincide with the launch of the long-awaited Google Nexus Android 4.4 and 5 KitKat.

As always, these entries should not be taken as a fact, with even his preface Russakovskii information with a warning:

"Nothing is 100 percent until it is officially announced. None of this can end up being true, even if you have a good level of confidence in the authorities. "

Currently, there are no indications regarding any specific InPulse Google will be, but hopefully will perform better than the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

The Galaxy gear is only compatible with the Samsung Galaxy 3 note in the United Kingdom and provides limited functionality to the user.

Google most likely will make his InPulse compatible with all Android devices and should launch with a price lower than GB £ 299 Galaxy gear.

A Nexus smartwatch might be the second technology company Google Google wearable Glass afterwards.

Next, let us know which Apple iWatch functionality would like to see.

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Release date of the Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 UK announced

Samsung has announced the release date of the Samsung Galaxy 3 for the United Kingdom Ace, revealing that the 4 g handset will be available from tomorrow.

Available for purchase from Saturday 5 October, the Samsung Galaxy 3 Ace is the continuation of the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 extremely popular and successful.

"Our latest addition to the Galaxy, Galaxy Ace portfolio 3 is packed with lots of features designed to provide a more intuitive user experience and smoother," said Simon Stanford, Vice President of it and Mobile Division of Samsung UK and Ireland. "After the success of Galaxy Ace 2, we are confident that our customers will enjoy this new device when it hits the shelves this month."

Available at first as an exclusive, that the Galaxy Ace 3 will then be made available from selected retailers, including Tesco and Carphone Warehouse.

Samsung Galaxy Ace features 3
Running on a 1.2 GHz processor dual-core processor with 1 GB of RAM, the Samsung Galaxy 3 Ace has a 4 inch WVGA LCD with a resolution of 480 x 800 p HD.

Galaxy Ace 3 is powered by a rather average 1, 800mAh battery and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with Samsung's TouchWiz UI latest introduced with the flagship Samsung Galaxy S4.

With a design by aping the S4 Galaxy, Galaxy Ace 3 sizes up to 121.2 x 62.7 x 10 mm and offers 8 GB of internal memory, supported by a microSD card slot supports up to 64 GB.

Equipped with a 5 megapixel camera on the back, there is also a front VGA's snapper for low-resolution video and call selfies.

Available for 4 g and 3 g networks, the specifics of Galaxy Ace are rounded to 3 NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Samsung Galaxy 3 Ace price
Samsung has yet to offer any official pricing details on Samsung Galaxy 3 Aces, but it will be a mid-range alternative to Android devices.

Next, check out our selection of the best Android phones of 2013.

View the original article here

Vs Samsung Galaxy note 2 Note 3

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The Note line-up is Samsung’s prestige series of stylus phones. They use Android like the majority of smartphones, but incorporate a digitiser stylus to let you draw and handwrite more naturally than other phones.

But how does this year’s Galaxy Note 3 compare to last year’s Note 2? Is it worth upgrading, or is the Note 2 good enough? We’ve compared their specs to see if it’s worth upgrading.

SEE ALSO: Best Android phones round-up

Note 3 – Plastic rear, leather effect finish, 8.3mm thick, 168g
Note 2 – Plastic rear, glossy finish, 9.4mm thick, 183g

Although the Note 3 has a larger screen than last year’s Note 2, this year’s model is actually narrower and less heavy. It’s 168g and 8.3mm thick – down from 183g and 9.4mm in the Note 2.

Side-by-side you’ll notice the difference in weight, but we think both phones are impressively thin and light given how big and feature-packed they are.

One of the best design tweaks is the S Pen cubby hole that sits on the bottom edge of both the Note 3 and Note 2. It makes the S Pen less easy to lose (without it, the S Pen would be a write-off for many.)

Samsung has changed its design style a little with the Galaxy Note 3, though. Rather than glossy plastic – used in the vast majority of Galaxy-series phone – it has a leather-effect rear, complete with fake stitching.

It gives the Note 3 a grippier finish, which is a good thing, but build quality hasn’t really changed much. It’s still a thin, flimsy removable battery cover.

So, the Note 3 is a minor upgrade design-wise, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Crucially, while the Note 3 and Note 2 are big, they’re nowhere near as large as super-phones such as the Sony Xperia Ultra 6.3.

Note 3 – 1080p Super AMOLED 5.7-inch, 386ppi  
Note 2 – 1,280 x 720 pixel Super AMOLED 5.5-inch, 267ppi

Each successive Note phone sees Samsung add 0.2 inches to screen size – it’s becoming a tradition. The Note 3 has a 5.7-inch screen, where the Note 2 has a 5.5-inch screen.

It’s not just size that has improved, though. The Note 3 also has a much higher-resolution display. It has a 1080p screen, where the Note 2 has a 1,280 x 720 pixel panel. That’s a whole lot more pixels – two million versus fewer than one million, or 386ppi against 267ppi.

The difference in sharpness isn’t quite as great as you might think, though. It’s all down to the sub-pixel arrays their screens use. We’re going to have to get a teeny bit technical here, so bear with us.

The Note 2 has an RGB display, meaning each pixel is made up of red, green and blue sub-pixels. The Note 3 has a PenTile-arrangement display, where sub-pixel clusters are made up of two green, one blue and one red sub-pixel – giving two sub-pixels per pixel.

This results in worse sharpness relative to the pixel density. You have to get right up close to the screen to notice it, though, and the Note 3 is still superior to the Note 2 in this respect.

Both the Note 3 and Note 2 offer excellent contrast, vibrant colours – and the ability to tone down those colours if you prefer a more natural look than the larger-than-life style of OLED screens.

Once again, the Note 3 is appreciably better, but it’s a slightly less marked improvement than the figures alone might suggest.

SEE ALSO: Galaxy S4 vs Note 3

Note 3 – single-button, push-in tip, Wacom digitiser
Note 2 – single-button, push-in tip, Wacom digitiser

Samsung has made some significant software improvements in the way the Note 3’s S Pen stylus works software-wise, but the hardware is very similar.

The Note 2 and Note 3 use a light plastic pen with a single button, used to operate various features in these phones. Both also use a Wacom-made digitiser layer – you can’t ask for much better than Wacom as it makes the most popular professional graphics tablets.

The Note 2 has a slightly different style to the new model

However, when you’re limited to Android apps, what matters is the number of programs you can get that support pressure sensitivity. There’s a bunch nowadays – more than when the Note 2 first came out.

Top picks include Autodesk’s Sketchbook Pro (pre-installed on a Note 3), Markers, Papyrus and Plouik. Sketchbook Pro is our favourite of the bunch, but Markers is free to download if you don’t want to spend any cash.

In these terms, there’s little to separate the Note 3 from the Note 2. However, there are some ‘native’ software extras in the newer phone.

The most important of the lot is Air Command. This is a circular menu that pops-up when you press the S Pen button while hovering over the screen.

These Note 3 features aren’t yet available for the Note 2 – and we’re not sure yet whether Samsung will spend the time (and money, more importantly) producing the update.

Note 3 – Android 4.3 with TouchWiz
Note 2 – Android 4.1 with TouchWiz

Like every Samsung-branded Android phone, the Note 3 and Note 2 both use TouchWiz, the company’s long-standing custom interface. It’s a colourful and jolly-looking interface, happy to look cheerful rather than particularly stylish.

TouchWiz is also jam-packed with extra features. As you’d expect of a phone a year newer, the Note 3 has even more than the Note 2 – and the Note 2 had enough to start with.

New-for-2013 extras include air gestures and the IR transmitter. This lets you use the Galaxy Note 3 as a universal TV remote controller.   

This is a pretty neat extra if you think you’ll use it, but we don’t think there are many truly exciting core software features added to the Note 3 bar Air Command. Optical character recognition works very well in both phones, which is the main thing.

However, as it runs Android 4.1, the Note 2 is looking decidedly behind-the-times. But what do you actually miss out on? Aside from various speed improvements, Android 4.3 supports Bluetooth Smart and offers better security. Other improvements are already catered-for by the feature-obsessed TouchWiz.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S5 release date, news, rumours, specs and price

Note 3 – Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.3GHz, 3GB RAM, Adreno 330 GPU
Note 2 – Exynos 4412 quad-core 1.6GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, Mali 400MP GPU

Last year, the Galaxy Note 3 launched with the same processor as the Galaxy S3. We half-expected the Note 3 to do the same, sharing the Snapdragon 600 chip used by the Galaxy S4. However, it has a significantly better processor that its Galaxy brother.

The Galaxy Note 3 has a Snapdragon 800 2.3GHz CPU, which is on-par with the top-end Android phones of late 2013. The Geekbench (a phone benchmark) tells you everything you need to know – the Note 2 comes out with around 1400 points, the Note 3 over 2500.

The Note 3 also has more RAM than its predecessor, with 3GB instead of 2GB. It was the first 3GB phone we tested, in fact.

Note 3 – 32GB (in UK)
Note 2 – 16/32GB

In common with most Samsung phones, the Note 3 and Note 2 both offer expandable memory. Take off their battery covers and you’ll find a little microSD slot – a very cheap way to increase storage.

Although Samsung makes various storage versions of the Note 3 and Note 2 worldwide, only one of each is particularly common in the UK. With the Note 2 it’s the 16GB edition, with the Note 3 the 32GB version. You’ll have to try fairly hard to find other storage options on these shores – especially on the high street.

64GB editions of Samsung’s phones aren’t very popular because the extra expense just doesn’t make much sense. Why spend an extra £80 or so on a higher storage version when a high-quality 32GB microSD card costs less than £20?

Note 3 – 13-megapixel sensor with single-LED flash, f/2.2 lens
Note 2 – 8-megapixel camera with single-LED flash, f/2.6 lens

The Note 3 and Note 2 essentially nick the camera specs of their better-known S-series brothers, the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3. Both have a single-LED flash. But where the Note 3 has a 13-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 lens, the Note 2 is uses a lower-resolution 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2.6 lens.

In very good lighting, the Note 3 can capture more detail. Although the Note 2’s test shot weather conditions were much better, you can see far more fine detail in the Note 3’s pic.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 5S vs Samsung Galaxy S4

The Note 2 sample shows reasonable detail

The Note 3's 13-megapixel sensor can capture more detail

With a much faster lens, we had also hoped the Note 3 would offer better low-light performance. However, performance is pretty poor in both. We found that the Note 3 was outperformed by almost all of the competition in this respect.

It doesn’t perform poorly in less demanding conditions, but we don’t think the camera is a good reason to pick the Note 3 over the Note 2 – and certainly not a reason to upgrade.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a meaty upgrade to the Note 2 in most respects, if not a particularly interesting one. You get more power, a larger screen and better screen quality, as well as some neat stylus optimisations.

However, we don’t think it beats the old Note 2 into submission. The second-gen Note has aged remarkably well. It’s worth checking if there are any good end-of-line deals for the Note 2 before buying a Note 3, and going from the second to third model isn’t worth the upgrade, unless it’s not going to cost you much.

Next, read our Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs Galaxy S4 comparison

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The iPhone 5 is officially a flop? Another retail giant reduces the price

Significant discounts on brand new laptops Apple iPhone are unrecognisable, but uses large stock box Best Buy became the main dealer last across the pond to drastically reduce the price of the iPhone 5 C.

Best Buy is offering the iPhone 5 c $ 50 (about £ 30) on a two-year contract, which is half of the Apple $ 100 (about £ 60) has instructed dealers to ask punters the handset.

Best Buy move, as reported by ABC news, furnishes users with a gift card of $ 50 to the cost of the iPhone 5 c, then the recommended selling price Apple sepatatamente. Is the largest cut again after rival retailers Wal-Mart and target threw twenty bucks of the asking price.

This comes just two weeks after the laptop, which represented a serious change of feel for Apple, became available for purchase in the United States and around the world and is a sure sign that consumers were not on offer.

Actually an iPhone 5 in a plastic shell, the 5 c replaced its predecessor to become the 2nd Apple levels receiver, behind the iPhone 5S. However, while the iPhone 5 is still listed for sending «October» after selling on the first day of the world, there were no problems for the 5S readily available iPhone.

Apple has acknowledged that the iPhone and iPhone 5 5 c combined sold 9 million units in the first weekend on sale, but not separate performance on each handset.

Even through the iPhone 5 C was billed as a cheaper, most observers felt that Apple prices remained at £469, just over £ 80 cheaper than flagship model, which includes the new A7 and M7, the fingerprint sensor TouchID and multiple improvements to the device's camera.

Maybe the price drops, which have yet to make their way to the United Kingdom, will the iPhone 5 c the possibility of halting the March of the Brigade mid-range Android?

Via ABC News

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LG G Flex to launch in November with a curved screen?

LG should launch the LG G Flex in November, with a curved display.

Although the plans are still being finalised, the LG G Flex has been a pencil launching November with LG debuting its first smartphone curved display.

According to information and an image obtained from CNET, LG is preparing to launch the LG G Flex with a curved display, OLED screen technology company's plastic.

As you see in the sketch got over, the display will be set from LG G Flex in curved position similar to LG OLED TV curved, rather than being able to bend and Flex.

Aiming to bend comfortably around your face, could increase the quality of the call on the smartphone, but we're not sure what it would be like to use other features.

As the LG OLED TV curved, concave arc of LG G Flex would not be so severe it seems strange, but rather a shallow arch.

In may, LG has released a press release announcing that it was developing an "unbreakable and 5 inch flexible OLED plastic Panel" for smartphones.

"For the first time to the public, the company will present a unbreakable and 5 inch flexible plastic Panel OLED for mobile devices," read the official press release from LG. "Development comes at a crucial moment, when they are used more and more smart devices and the increased risk of damage from drops, accomplishments and other incidents".

Samsung preparing also reported a limited edition Samsung Galaxy 3 note with a flexible display. It is unknown if you will be a curved affair or Just introduce a shatterproof display in existing note 3 Design Galaxy.

The limited edition Galaxy 3 note could be marketed as the Galaxy known active 3, coming complete with waterproof and dustproof accreditation.

Next, read our choice of the best mobile phones of 2013.

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HTC abandons Beats ship, sells all its shares

HTC has sold its remaining stake in American company audio Beats for $ 265 million after the relationship took a turn for the worse.

The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer has sold his remaining stake 24.84 percent beats for $ 265 million (£165 million) with a pre-tax profit of $ 85 million (£53 million).

Two years ago, HTC has a 51 percent stake in beats, an audio company founded by rapper Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, music producer for $ 300 m (£ 187 m).

However, Split flaps and HTC has been on the cards for a while now, since HTC sold half of it majority last year for $ 150 million.

Sources close HTC said that the partnership between the two companies had soured, causing HTC sell the first half for a loss.

Despite the success of One critically acclaimed HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone maker has struggled to compete with rivals Samsung and Apple, with its market share, dropping to 2.8 percent this year.

"For HTC puts more money in the Bank, and they need cash, now that they have turned the negative operating cash flow, said Jean-Louis Lafayeedney, an analyst with JI Asia in Hong Kong."Investors have asked HTC shed assets and return cash to help them regain profitability ".

Analysts have also questioned Beats HTC and partnership, stating that the Beats audio technology was not seen as a strong selling point for mobile phones.

"People don't buy Smartphones because the headphones," said Barclays analyst tech Dale Gai before the deal was announced. «Synergy» was very small.

HTC recently launched a new advertising campaign fronted by actor Robert Downey Jr. in a bid to turnaround profit losses and Boost sales of smartphones.

The stake sale will mean that beats HTC has made $ 415 million in the two years since its initial investment.

Next, read our tricks and HTC One.

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BlackBerry posts $ 965 million loss for Q2 2013

BlackBerry has posted a net loss in the second quarter of $ 965 million, blaming the Z10 for his BlackBerry misfortune.

Despite reporting three months billion (£ 994 million) quarterly revenues, $ 965 million (£ 599 million) in total losses overshadowed any Blackberrys had success this quarter.

The enormous losses are attributed to what the company calls "Z10 inventory Charge", which means that the company is being penalized for his stash of BB10 flagship phones that failed to sell.

Mirroring the surplus inventory Microsoft Surface RT which meant the company incurred expenditure of $ 900 million, the BlackBerry Z10 failed to appeal to consumers, despite a new touchscreen BlackBerry OS and reinvented fire 10.

"We are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and announced a series of major changes to address the competitive environment hardware and our cost structure," said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry.

It was recently announced that BlackBerry has agreed to a sale of $4,7 billion to Fairfax financial Consortium, but the company said that it is still exploring other opportunities while crossing the deal.

BlackBerry has also had to cut 4,500 jobs in the light of its losses, which is equivalent to 40 percent of its workforce.

"We understand that some of the activities that we are creating uncertainty, but we are a financially strong company with $2,6 billion in cash and no debt. We are focused on our target markets and are committed to complete our transition quickly in order to establish a more targeted and effective. "

Despite the poor sales of Blackberry Z10, the company still has about 3.7 million registered sales of smartphones this quarter, perhaps prompted by physical keyboard QWERTY Smartphones such as Q10 BB10 BlackBerry and BlackBerry Q5.

Learn more-buy Fairfax BlackBerry: BlackBerry RIP, your time is still awake.

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Samsung Galaxy 3 is region locked note, sorry SIMs only European

AppId is over the quota

Samsung ha regione bloccato il suo ultimo smartphone Samsung Galaxy nota 3, significato solo Regno Unito e alcuni SIMs europeo funzionerà nel dispositivo.

Gli utenti che come corsa a e semplicemente pop un PAYG SIM straniera nel loro smartphone esistenti, non sarà in grado di farlo con la galassia nota 3, come Samsung ha reso regione bloccata.

Solitamente uno smartphone sarà bloccato alla rete che è su piuttosto che una regione specifica, ma sembra che Samsung non è favorire i fornitori di rete qui.

Invece, Samsung ha messo il kibosh su tutti coloro che desiderano risparmiare sui costi di roaming rendendo impossibile utilizzare una SIM da qualsiasi luogo di fuori dell'Unione europea o di altri paesi europei.

Come rivelato da adesivi che adornano la casella 3 nota Galaxy, lo smartphone è "compatibile solo con una SIM-card rilasciata da un operatore di telefonia mobile in Europa". Una SIM da uno qualsiasi dei paesi UE, Svizzera, Albania, Andorra, Bosnia-Erzegovina, ex Repubblica iugoslava di Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia e città del Vaticano opererà, ma dimenticare circa uno da Stati Uniti o in Australia per esempio.

Samsung ha risposto alla questione, affermando che c'è solo un iniziale regionaly SIM-lock per il Galaxy nota 3, ma non appena è stata inserita una SIM europee, è quindi possibile utilizzare gli altri successivamente.

"La galassia [Nota 3] è compatibile solo con una SIM-card rilasciata da un operatore di telefonia mobile all'interno della regione identificata sull'etichetta della confezione del prodotto," ha detto un portavoce di Samsung. "Quando il dispositivo viene attivato con una SIM card rilasciata da altra regione, il dispositivo forse automaticamente bloccato finché non viene rilasciato presso il centro di assistenza dedicato."

"Una volta che un dispositivo è attivato normalmente, il blocco SIM regionale automaticamente viene rilasciato. gli utenti possono godere del servizio di roaming, come al solito e possono utilizzare SIM card di altra regione quando si viaggia."

Sembra che Samsung ha anche applicato questo blocco SIM regionale Galaxy Note 2 e Galaxy S4 tramite un aggiornamento software "in mercati selezionati".

Samsung Galaxy nota 3 caratteristiche
La nota Galaxy 3 è il più potente di Samsung più recenti smartphone con un processore Snapdragon Qulacomm 800 di 2,3 GHz quad-core con un senza precedenti 3GB di RAM.

Esso racchiude un 5,7 pollici Full HD Super AMOLED display compatibile con il nuovo Samsung S-penna stilo e offre un' densità di immagine di 266ppi.

Nella parte posteriore, la nota Galaxy 3 ha una fotocamera da 13 megapixel capace di registrare 4 k risoluzione video, accoppiato con una 2 megapixel frontale.

Con una 3 abbondante, batteria 200mAh, la nota Galaxy 3 offre anche 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, NFC e connettività ad infrarossi.

Successivamente, leggere i nostri vs Samsung nota 3 confronto Samsung Galaxy S4.

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Nokia to launch six new devices on 22 October

Nokia will launch six new mobile devices in October, including its first tablet running on the Microsoft Windows operating system RT.

The unveiling of the multi-laptop apparently will take place at a special event to be held in Abu Dhabi on October 22.

That is the claim made by The Wall Street Journal and his sources "people familiar with the plan, at least.

It maintains that six strong lineup will include several Lumia smartphones running on Windows Phone 8, as well as low-end feature phones running S40 OS on Nokia.

Most exciting of all, Nokia will unveil its first tablet. As mentioned earlier in the week, this is likely to be called the Nokia Lumia 2520 (code-named Sirius) and will take the form of a Windows device RT 10.1 inches.

Expect a relatively low resolution 1371 x 771 display as opposed to a highly competent 800 CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon. We are also expecting a 6.7-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Optics.

4 g support, a 10-hour battery life and a case that doubles as a keyboard are also available for the Nokia Lumia 2520. It should cost all of about the same as an iPad, too.

Of course, the Nokia Lumia 2520 will also have competition from within the cramped confines of Windows 8, Microsoft recently announced that the second generation of compressed surface devices.

With Nokia, having decided to sell its hardware for Microsoft arm next year, it will be interesting to see how different his tablet offering from that of his partner and soon-to-be master.

Read more: best laptop Windows 8 tablets, convertibles and PC.

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Apple out iOS 7.0.2 tappare la falla di by-pass blocco schermo

AppId is over the quota

Apple ha rilasciato un aggiornamento di iOS 7 per risolvere una falla di sicurezza che aveva permesso potenziali intrusi a by-pass il codice di accesso di iPhone blocco schermo.

Poco dopo il rinnovato sistema operativo divenne disponibile al pubblico il 18 settembre, un video del difetto, che viene attivato da una serie di comandi complessi è stato pubblicato online.

9to5Mac calcola che Apple ha trascorso un paio di settimane di test l'aggiornamento iOS 7.0.2, che mette pagati al bug riguardante.

L'aggiornamento è quasi esclusivamente per collegare il gap di sicurezza, con il solo funzionalità menzionate nelle note di rilascio è il ritorno di un'opzione tastiera greca quando si inseriscono i codici pass.

iOS 7.0.2 porta anche l'iPhone 5, 4S e 4 in linea con l'iPhone 5 e iPhone 5 C. Quei dispositivi goduto un esclusivo aggiornamento con iOS 7.0.1 per accompagnare il lancio della settimana scorsa.

L'aggiornamento può essere ottenuto via etere dalla voce Impostazioni > generale > aggiornamento Software, o di legare il vostro iPhone ad iTunes sul tuo Mac o PC tramite USB.

Si è anche pensato che Apple sta lavorando sodo su un più grande aggiornamento noto come iOS 7.1, che potrebbero arrivare a fianco di un paio di compresse di iPad nuovo in ottobre.

Molti utenti di iOS 7 spera che aggiornamento sarà rimedio propensione di nuovo, è rimasto del sistema operativo a bere giù batterie iPhone come stanno andando fuori moda.

State lottando per mantenere il vostro microtelefono andando tutto il giorno? Ecco alcuni utili consigli e suggerimenti per preservare la sua forza vitale e fino a raggiungere la santità di una presa a muro.

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LG Optimus F6 (T-Mobile)

AppId is over the quota

Le LG Optimus F6 ne peut pas être une centrale d'un dispositif par rapport à certains des autres téléphones T-Mobile, mais il est encore un téléphone fiable qui saura satisfaire les utilisateurs qui recherchent un appareil simple sur un budget.

Un prix raisonnable à 289,99 $ (avec l'option de payer $49,99 dès le départ et puis 10 $ par mois pendant 24 mois), le F6 est équipé d'un processeur dual-core swift, un écran de 4,5 pouces lumineux et un appareil photo de 5 mégapixels qui ne manquera pas à contenter les photographes occasionnels. Il est également livré avec une poignée de fonctionnalités d'interface utilisateur de logiciels de LG qui sont utiles et facile à utiliser.

Si vous êtes un client de T-Mobile à la recherche d'un combiné Android de milieu de gamme, envisager la touche F6. Juste être conscient, toutefois, qu'il ne fonctionne pas la dernière version d'Android. A en juger par nos tests de données, connectivité LTE 4G peut également être incompatible.

Conception
L'Optimus F6 est compacte, mesure 5,03 pouces de hauteur, 2,59 pouces large et 0,40 pouce d'épaisseur. Il est facilement maniable d'une seule main et avec ses bords inclinés et de la construction en plastique lisse, il est confortable à tenir. À 4,44 onces, il est également assez léger, et vous pouvez facilement le jeter dans un petit sac ou votre poche arrière de jeans.

Sur le bord gauche se trouve une bascule du volume et une touche de raccourci pour lancer QuickMemo (plus sur cela plus tard). Là-haut est une prise casque 3,5 mm et à droite un bouton veille/marche-arrêt. Enfin, le bord inférieur abrite un port Micro-USB pour la recharge.

Le modèle subtil sur le dos de la F6 est plus visible en lumière directe.

(Crédit : Josh Miller/CNET)

Compartiment de la pile est orné d'un motif de carrelage qui pousse plus dense au bas de l'appareil. La conception est subtile, et vous pouvez seulement le faire clairement lorsque le combiné est un endroit bien éclairé, comme à l'extérieur au soleil. J'aime ce modèle élégant, et c'est un accent unique qui définit le téléphone mis à part les autres dalles de milieu de gamme circulent sur le marché.

Vous trouverez au verso un appareil photo 5 mégapixels et flash LED et deux petites fentes pour l'orateur. Lorsque vous retirez le couvercle du compartiment, vous pouvez accéder à la fente pour carte microSD (il accepte les cartes de capacités de jusqu'à 32 Go) et la batterie 460mAh 2,.

L'écran qHD de 4,5 pouces IPS a une résolution de 960 x 540 pixels. Bien qu'il est important de garder à l'esprit que le F6 est un dispositif élevée, comparativement à un téléphone haut de gamme comme le LG G2 (qui a un écran 1080p), de la touche F6 affichage n'est pas la plus nette. Je peux voir quelques léger aliasing autour des icônes et textes et dégradés de couleurs transition pas aussi facilement. Toutefois, l'écran est lumineux, il affiche des couleurs avec précision (surtout lorsque l'on voit une seule nuance blanche), et il est sensible au toucher.

Au-dessus de l'écran est un appareil photo de 1,3 mégapixel et voici une tonalité physique qui est flanquée de deux touches de raccourci (pour le dos et menu) qui s'allument en blanc. Si vous long-Appuyez sur la touche home, vous pouvez appeler ces dernières Apps (et quitter eux aussi bien), accéder à Google instant et ouvrez le directeur de tâche dans votre téléphone.

Fonctionnalités du logiciel
Le combiné dispose d'Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, et alors qu'il serait agréable de voir l'exécution d'une version plus récente du système d'exploitation, vous aurez toujours votre collection habituelle de Google apps: Chrome, Gmail, recherche, Plus, cartes, accès à du jeu magasin livres, Magazines, films & TV et musique portails, Talk et YouTube.

T-Mobile chargé plusieurs conservateurs de ses apps dans aussi bien. Vous aurez mon compte de T-Mobile, qui vous donne des informations sur votre plan de données et de téléphone ; un abonnement d'essai pour le service d'identification de l'appelant nom ID ; et les apps qui aident à configurer votre visual voice mail et mobile hot spot. Enfin, les médias en streaming service T-Mobile TV propose un essai de 30 jours aux canaux comme Fox News et ESPN.

Le multitâche QSlide fonction (à gauche) et la collaboration d'outils VuTalk.

(Crédit : Lynn La/CNET)

L'interface utilisateur de LG Optimus 3.0 est livré avec quelques fonctionnalités de logiciel de signature. Ceux-ci incluent la possibilité de personnaliser les icônes de l'app (avec deux thèmes différents) et QSlide, une fonction multitâche qui permet d'afficher et redimensionner des applications (comme le navigateur et les calculatrice) tout en utilisant d'autres applications ou d'affichage de l'écran d'accueil.

VuTalk vous permet de créer des annotations sur les documents et photos sur votre appareil tout en partageant en temps réel avec un autre combiné VuTalk-activé par le biais de réseau ou d'une connexion Wi-Fi. Il ya aussi signature prise de notes app de LG, QuickMemo, qui vous permet de prendre des notes rapides ou croquis directement sur les images à l'écran. Comme mentionné précédemment, vous pouvez lancer rapidement ce $ $ etAPP avec la touche de raccourci sur le bord gauche du smartphone.

Pour ouvrir l'app de prise de notes de LG, QuickMemo, appuyez sur la touche de raccourci sur le bord gauche de la Optimus F6.

(Crédit : Josh Miller/CNET)

Apps de base incluent navigateur natif et clients de messagerie, une calculatrice, un calendrier, une horloge avec fonctions d'alarme, un bloc-notes, une application météo, un dictionnaire, une liste de tâches, un enregistreur de la parole, un composeur vocal et recherche de voix.

Autres goodies incluent deux applications de partage de fichiers (SmartShare et FileShare), la suite de bureau mobile 4 Viewer de Polaris, une application de traduction de langue et Lookout Security, qui sauvegarde les données et analyse les fichiers pour les logiciels malveillants et les apps.

Les dispositifs additionnels incluent 4 Go de stockage interne, NFC et Bluetooth 4.0.

Appareil photo et vidéo
Qualité de la photo sur l'appareil photo 5 mégapixels était grande. Surtout dans des amplement éclairés, images ont été forte avec des bords bien définis et a montré une précision des couleurs adéquates. Bien sûr, avec variateur d'éclairage vient plus de bruit numérique, mais en général, les images étaient en bref et clair. En outre, l'appareil utilisé rapidement, avec l'obturateur rafraîchissant pour la prochaine photo rapidement et je n'ai vu aucun lag entre mon déplacement de la caméra et la rétroaction que j'ai vu dans le viseur.

Tant l'appareil photo 5 mégapixels et les options de balance des blancs cinq face caméra offre un compteur de luminosité (de -2 à + 2), effets de quatre couleurs, une minuterie, géo-tagging et une fonction d'obturation de voix qui vous permet de commander l'obturateur en disant certains mots comme "fromage" et le "whisky" (ne me demandez pas pourquoi). Les deux caméras ont aussi une "Portrait" fonction + (anciennement Beauty Shot) qui vous permet de régler la luminosité et le flou de l'image.

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