Lenovo's efforts to enter the smartphone industry seem to have taken another twist, with the company reportedly interested in acquiring floundering NEC's mobile division.

Reuters reported on Friday that the two companies are in talks over a potential takeover, following two straight years of losses for the Japanese company's mobile offerings.

Lenovo has been vocal about its desires to pick up a smartphone property to complement its booming PC and tablet business.

High ranking officials at the company have recently been talking up potential interest in buying up BlackBerry, but purchase of NEC would surely kill such talk.

Deal or no deal?

In response to media reports on Friday, NEC issued a statement claiming nothing had been decided, but did not deny talks were ongoing.

"Amid the rapidly changing market we are considering a number of ways to bolster the competitiveness of our mobile phone business, but nothing has been decided," the company said.

Former Everton FC kit sponsor NEC has struggled to gain traction internationally with its range of handsets, while competition from Samsung and Apple has hindered its efforts domestically.

Lenovo hasn't yet commented on the reports.

A group of iOS developers and hackers are reporting they've become the target of a malicious attack which overwhelms the Apple iMessage application with spam texts.

The attack, which appears to be confined to those directly targeted, sends messages (claiming to be from Anonymous) in such a large volume that the recipient is constantly receiving notifications.

The next level is to send a single 'Zaglo text' so large in size that the iOS iMessage app cannot cope with the load and crashes.

As Apple's iMessage app does not limit how fast texts can be sent, and does not allow users to block senders, there's no mechanism in place to prevent their instant delivery.

Motivation?

This constitues a new kind of DDoS attack, the kind of which we've seen hackers and online activists use to bring down government websites in the past couple of years.

The iMessage pranksters' motivation isn't totally clear at present, but The Next Web reports that the attack originated from a Twitter account "involved in selling UDIDs, provisioning profiles and more that facilitate in the installation of pirated App Store apps which are re-signed and distributed."

The report suggests that the attack was conducted using AppleScript to set up and send the overwhelming number of messages using the OS X iMessage client, something one victim said was extremely easy to do.

iOS developer Paul Grant told The Next Web: "What's happening is a simple flood: Apple doesn't seem to limit how fast messages can be sent, so the attacker is able to send thousands of messages very quickly."

Apple has been notified of the issue, but is yet to comment.

Apple could launch its long-rumored iRadio service as soon as this summer, finally giving iTunes a streaming music app to take on Pandora and Spotify.

"iRadio is coming. There's no doubt about it anymore," an unnamed music industry source told The Verge.

The report says that Apple is pushing hard for a summertime launch of the streaming music app after making "significant progress" in talks with two top labels, Universal and Warner.

Another Apple rumor from today pins the iPhone 5S launch event to June 20, so the company's apparent push to have an iRadio app present at the event would make sense.

iRadio app negotiations

Apple has reportedly low-balled record labels in negotiations, and the record labels have, in turn, allegedly rebuffed the Apple and its ability to launch iRadio.

The initial offer from Apple is said to have been as low as 6 cents per 100 songs streamed when the Copyright Royalty Board's fair rate for non-broadcast companies is 21 cents per 100 songs.

To give some perspective, Pandora pays 12 cents per 100 songs streamed, while Spotify pays 35 cents per 100 songs streamed.

Whether or not Apple secures a much better deal than all of the other music streaming services out there, the unprofitable Pandora and Spotify are going to be seeking reduced licensing fees.

This will especially be the case if Apple's iRadio app takes on the internet radio spectrum.

We've already been hearing word about LG's Optimus G follow-up for quite some time, though the rumor mill hadn't been as busy following CES 2013.

An early benchmark revealed some startling specs for a new LG smarpthone, and the Korean manufacturer even teased a possible CES reveal back in January.

The phone many believe to be the Optimus G2 supposedly features Android 4.2: Jelly Bean, a 5-inch full HD display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, 13MP camera and a 3,000mAh battery.

On top of all that, the processor inside could be an ultra-powerful quad-core Qualcomm CPU, the likes of which would blow away the Snapdragon 600 found in the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.

If a brand-new benchmarking is to be believed, the 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 will be the chip, and the Optimus G2 could be a super-power phone for LG.

Gotta go to T-Mo

According to GLBenchmark, the Optimus G2 (under the codename LG-D801) will feature the MSM8974 processor, also known as the Snapdragon 800.

The Optimus G2 benchmarked here is set to arrive at T-Mobile, and will work on the carrier's 4G LTE network, and included a 1794 x 1080 resolution display.

The earlier benchmark from December 2012 was for a device on AT&T, but that doesn't mean the details about either phone are wrong.

The first Optimus G never made it outside of Asia, but seeing the benchmarks pop up for two other global carriers, as well as the success of LG's Nexus 4, bodes well for people in other countries hoping to get their hands on the high-powered device.

Neither LG or either of the carriers has officially announced any plans for the Optimus G2, but with benchmarks like these, it's only a matter of time.

Though there are plenty of gaming controllers already available for the iPad 4 and iPhone 5, none of them have come from Apple itself.

While patents have popped up in the past, Apple hasn't seen fit to develop its own gamepad for iOS gaming, and since 2007, has allowed third-party companies to rule the roost.

However, sources speaking with PocketGamer revealed that might not be the case for much longer, as Apple was reportedly testing the controller waters in secret at GDC.

Nobody saw the device as of yet, but the anonymous developers who sat in with Apple at the event claimed the Cupertino company was seeking day one support for the mysterious controller.

Button-mashing bandwagon

To this point, Apple has seemingly been satisfied with the touch-based controls its iOS devices use for gaming.

However, a recent influx of controllers and consoles from companies like Ouya and GameStick, as well as Samsung's own Galaxy S4 Game Pad may have forced Apple to be reactionary for once.

PocketGamer's sources said Apple was at GDC under a fictitious name, and didn't bring any hardware along to show off thanks to frequent leaks.

The controller is believed to make a showing at Apple's April event, which is typically home to the annual iPad announcement.

It would certainly make sense to reveal a new controller alongside the iPad 5, but there's also a chance this purported joystick could be part of a larger plan, like the oft-rumored Apple iTV.

Whatever Apple's plans are, the company clearly believes the controller is a secret to be guarded as closely as the next iOS device.

We enjoy iFixit's now-standard teardowns of new tech offerings. Breaking devices down to their bare bones has often served up some useful tidbits on processor configurations, built in RAM and so forth.

Now the site has given the stunning new HTC One handset the controlled destruction treatment and is offering the following advice: Whatever you do don't break this thing, because you ain't fixin' it.

Following its somewhat arduous endeavours to turn the gorgeous aluminium-bodied handset into a pile of components, the site has awarded the new flagship handset a repairability score of just one. Out of ten.

That's comparable to the equally irreparable Microsoft Surface tablet, while the iPhone, notorious for its stubborn attitude towards non-professional repair-folk notched up an impressive 7 on the iFixit scale.

Possibily impossible

The site claimed opening the device without damaging the rear case was "possibly impossible," which in-turn made replacing a broken screen "nearly impossible."

iFixit also concluded, following its arduous 18-step teardown, that "the battery is buried beneath the motherboard and adhered to the midframe, hindering its replacement."

It also found that the motherboard and most of the other important components are shielded by copper, which is also a you-know-what when it comes to piecing a device back together.

The site did say that the "solid external construction improves durability," but if you run into problems, it looks like its replace or bust for the HTC One. Make sure you keep the receipt!

An popular, unofficial BBC News application for Windows Phone, created by a Microsoft employee, will be removed from the Windows Store, with reports citing legal pressure from the Beeb.

In the absence of an official offering, Lawrence Gripper's free BBC News Mobile app, which pulls in feeds from the website, had admirably plugged the gap, earning an average rating of above four stars.

The app brought Live Tile support, allowed users to read or listen in-app or on the BBC website and served it all up in within a fine user interface that encouraged over half a million downloads in the past two years.

Well-known developer Gripper, who created the app and a subsequent Windows Phone 8 update as a "labour of love" before joining Microsoft, broke the news on his personal blog "with great sadness."

No further comment

Gripper, who is now a technical account director at Redmond, wrote: "[The apps] have been a labor of love for me since the launch of Windows Phone in 2010 and it is with great sadness today that I removed both applications from the store.

"I do not wish to comment any further on the matter except to thank the over half a million people who downloaded the application and all those who have supported, tested, rated and emailed over the years."

While the developer remained diplomatic about the real reason for the app's demise, The Verge reports that it was indeed pressure from the tax-payer funded BBC which resulted in the takedown.

The app does use the BBC's logo, but so do plenty of other unofficial offerings on the Windows Store, none of which have been as well received as Gripper's, which is still temporarily available for download.

Who knows? Perhaps it is worried that the official app won't be able to live up to the third-party offering? That's if it ever decides to grace Windows Phone fans with its presence.

At its Galaxy S4 launch event a couple of weeks back, Samsung somewhat glossed over the new handset's octo-core processor, despite it being a world-first for a smartphone. We would soon find out why.

In the aftermath of the Broadway extravaganza, the company revealed that the US and UK, would miss out on the Exynos 5 Octa S4 and would have to settle for quad-core - albeit much improved quad-core.

Most observers had assumed it was to ensure Brits and Yanks, among others, had a faster phone, but also access to the faster internet too, as the LTE version of the device runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon E50.

However, in a post on its @SamsungExynos Twitter feed late on Thursday, the company confirmed that the new Exynos 5 does support LTE on all frequencies.

The tweet reads: "Update: The Exynos 5 Octa supports LTE and all 20 bands." So what gives, Samsung?

Supply shortage?

Confirmation that LTE support is not a factor seems to suggest that its a supply issue preventing the Exynos 5 Octa going global on the S4 handset.

This remains unconfirmed but, if true, it would represent somewhat of a failure on Samsung's part to get all their ducks in row before the Galaxy S4 goes on sale on April 26.

It does mean that an eight-core Galaxy S4 variant could potentially be rolled out once Samsung amps-up production of the phone, but Samsung is staying mum on that too.

The perceived benefits of the Octa 5 processor are efficiency rather than speed. The tech is built on ARM's big.LITTLE framework, meaning there are four cores for handling the power-sapping and four for handling the phone's mundane tasks, which will result in smoother performance and better battery life.

Octa-core? Quad-core? Does it matter to you? Let us know in the comments below.

We're beginning to think Facebook must really like having people come visit, or at least we gather that by the number of events the company has been hosting at its headquarters lately.

Thursday the social network sent out media invites to "come see our new home on Android" during an event at 10 a.m. PDT April 4, a few weeks after it unveiled its new News Feed and just a couple of months since we got our first look at Graph Search.

This event promises to be quite different however, particularly as it's focusing on mobile, and a specific system at that.

What's more, this could be more than just a run of the mill app revamp: We could be in for something worth sharing in a status update.

Will we see a Facebook phone?

Sources speaking with TechCrunch say the event will reveal a modified version of Android with heavy Facebook functionality baked into the home screen.

What's more, this retooled OS may be housed in an HTC handset.

While not a complete rewrite, the OS is said to be a "flavor" of Android with extra Facebook spices included. Alternately, TechCrunch sources have heard the Facebook/Android mishmash referred to as an "application layer," one that leans heavily on native Facebook apps like Messenger and includes convenient social sharing functionality from wherever users find themselves on the device.

Yet another rumor calls the whole endeavor "Facebook Home," the marquee feature of which will be a home screen that bears the markings of Facebook through and through.

All of this bleeds into a report from 9to5Google intimating that Facebook and HTC are working on a joint advertising promo. AllThingsD meanwhile reported in 2011 that the two companies were breathlessly working with one another to build a deeply FB-integrated smartphone.

What all this means is that we could indeed see a Facebook phone come to life next week...or not. These are just rumors for now, so take all of the above with a hefty few shakes of salt. However, with the whole "where there's smoke, there's fire" credo, we could see something hardware related creep out of Menlo Park next Thursday.

TechRadar will be at the Facebook's event live to bring you all the latest, so tune back in for more on Facebook's Android aspirations.

Samsung is estimated to have another record-breaking quarter thanks to its smartphone sales during the first three months of 2013.

Normally, impressive sales wouldn't be all-too-surprising for the world's No. 1 smartphone manufacturer.

However, the great feat here is that Samsung managed to top its high-sales Q4 2012 with even more impressive numbers in the low-demand season of Q1 2013.

Breaking down the sales figures, Samsung is expected to have moved 25 million smartphones each month of this year.

With those kind of sales, the South Korean company will exceed 70 million units sold in Q 2013, according to the Yonhap News Agency citing Hong Kong's Counterpoint Research.

Samsung smartphone market share rises

Another boost to Samsung, as indicated by the report, is that it has taken control of 35 percent of the smartphone market share in the first two months of 2013.

Previously, the smartphone leader accounted for 32 percent, going by fourth quarter 2012 statistics.

Samsung's 3 percent increase in the smartphone market share hasn't been at the expense of Apple and LG Electronics, though, said the report.

Apple went from 17 percent to 21 percent, and LG increased its market share by a fraction, from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Chinese manufacturers ZTE and Huawei are sitting just ahead of LG, controlling 4.6 percent and 4.4 percent of the smartphone market, respectively.

Galaxy 4 sales to help

Samsung, keeping its record-breaking sales up in a historically negative couple of months, should be able to continue the sales trend in Q2 2013.

That's when the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4 goes on sale throughout the world.

U.K. retailers are listing the unlocked Galaxy S4 at £529.98 ($805, AU$773) with an April 26 release date.

In the U.S., AT&T announced Galaxy S4's pricing and pre-order date as $249.99 (£165, AU$240) with a two-year agreement and April 16 release date.

If this new Samsung smartphone sells as well as the Galaxy S3, then the manufacturer could be in for more than one record-breaking quarter throught the year.

BlackBerry traditionalists, who turned their noses up at the all-touchscreen Z10 smartphone, will be able to grab the Bold-alike Q10 from O2 in May, the network has confirmed.

The handset which is the first running BB10 to offer a physical keyboard arrived on O2's 'coming soon' page on Thursday, promising an arrival sometime in may, but offered no concrete on-sale date.

BlackBerry, which has been focusing solely on marketing the Z10 since both phones were announced back in January, is also yet to confirm an official release date for the handset in the UK.

Last month, the company announced that the Q10 would begin rolling out in global markets from April, while retailer Phones-Unlocked.com recently began offering a SIM-free handset for delivery on April 26.

BlackBerry bouncing back

BlackBerry fans wishing to snap up the handset as soon as it becomes available can be "kept in the loop" by registering their interest on the O2 site.

The BlackBerry Q10 boasts a 3.1-inch Super AMOLED HD touchscreen, sitting above the full qwerty keyboard.

It's also 4G ready, has built-in NFC, an 8-megapixel camera, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a 2100mAh battery.

Earlier on Thursday, BlackBerry announced that the Z10 had already shifted 1 million units, helping the struggling company to a surprise profitable quarter. Can the Q10 help the surge to bring the good times back to Waterloo?

Since its launch in October 2012, Windows Phone 8 has been a question mark in the mobile OS world. Microsoft still trails Android and iOS significantly in mobile system market share, and stats show it's behind even BlackBerry.

But there are signs of hope for Microsoft's mobile ambitions - this week the company announced that Windows Phones outsold iPhones in seven countries during the fourth quarter of 2012. Granted, those nations included India, South Africa and Russia and not major markets like the U.S., but still, sales are sales.

Aside from the lag time in boosting numbers following the release of a whole new OS, a lack of competitive apps is no doubt holding Windows Phone back. Whereas Apple has 689,000 apps for the iPhone, the Windows Phone Store owns around 135,000 apps and games. There's still no Instagram, and the Store finally picked up Temple Run Wednesday, though, as Wired noted, not the up-to-date Temple Run 2 or Temple Run: Oz titles.

Curious about Windows Phone plan for success, we sat down with Casey McGee, senior marketing manager at Microsoft, and Larry Lieberman, senior product manager, Windows Phone developer program, at GDC this week to get a read on the OS, what it's done right and how it plans to get where it wants to go.

Dev first approach

Both made much of Microsoft's developer-focused approach to games - we were at a game dev conference, after all - and noted that by allowing game devs to code natively while also giving them middleware like Unity and Marmalade to work with has fostered a robust creation environment.

"Larry and I are a little bit biased because of what we do for a living, but to us it really looks like we're the only ones that created a product with developers in mind," McGee said.

"I don't think anybody took the approach we did where we started over between Windows Mobile and Windows Phone and from day one we said, 'We need to create an amazing developer experience.'"

Developer interest accelerated with Windows Phone 8 as the platform became more open, the pair said. An internal promotion system has also translated to better app sales. While devs are happy making cash off their products, Lieberman said customers are benefiting from the dev-based approach too.

"The No. 1 guidance for Windows Phone since the very beginning has been to create an outstanding end-user experience," he said. "And apps are part of that outstanding user experience.

"We had to bring our developer expertise to the table in order to create that ecosystem that generates those apps, that generates that innovation that people expect and need because it's that long tail, right?

"On other platforms, an app gets installed and it's just an icon somewhere," Lieberman continued. "Most apps get installed and never get used again on other platforms. What we're trying to do is expose apps in contextually relevant ways."

He pointed to Lenses as a prime example of this contextual relevance - users can click on the Lens button to access apps that aren't only readily accessible, they make sense for what users want to use and when.

Clicking Lenses will take users to a set of apps that leverage a Windows Phone 8 handset's camera viewfinder, plus offer a path to the market place for more viewfinder-friendly apps.

It's not a two OS world

Lieberman and McGee aren't blind to the reality of the mobile OS hierarchy - "We understand the reality of the world today," Lieberman acknowledged - but both believe Windows Phone has a better-than-average chance to stake out a healthy place in the mobile ecosystem.

"We have said that our stated goal is to create a vibrant, differentiated third ecosystem in and of itself," McGee said. "And by that we mean something that is self-sustaining, something that is different from what is out there today.

"We went into a market where there [were] two very different ecosystems. You see what Apple is doing, you see what Google is doing. There are very different approaches, and we didn't think that either was quite right. We saw an opportunity for a third, and that's what we've done."

Market share is one indicator of success, he continued, but for Microsoft the hope seems to be generating a robust ecosystem, not claiming the top spot.

"Are you growing in more countries in sales? Are you growing the number of quality apps that people are looking for? Are you increasing customer satisfaction? Are you getting more partnerships, more innovation?" McGee asked. "All of those things are happening for Windows Phone."

Microsoft isn't content to play third fiddle, mind you, but Lieberman admitted the system has some catching up to do even if it is providing a differentiated OS option.

"What we've done is delivered something very different from what other folks have," he said. "We have a whole differentiated offering that gives people an interaction model that they can't get on any other platform."

Personalizing is key to the Windows Phone plot, he explained, as is the ability to access information users want faster than on other platforms.

"By far we're the most personal phone."

For all its plusses, there is still an glaring line drawn by OSes that have come before.

"From a time-based perspective, we launched our phone in 2010 and competitors had really shifted the paradigm around 2007, so there's a time delta there," Lieberman continued.

"[However], I think we have clearly defined ourselves as a third player in the ecosystem right now."

Never 100%

Pandora launched for Windows Phone 8 last week, fulfilling a promise made by Microsoft to bring the music app to life back in October.

Getting the app is a score for the platform, and it's able to take advantage of the filter features of Kids Corner to keep objectionable content out of youngsters' ears, but the absence of a major app like Instagram isn't helping Microsoft much.

Though he avoided specifics, McGee hinted that it and other popular applications could one day find themselves on Windows Phone.

"It's a work in progress," he said. "We're adding hundreds of titles every day. We find the majority of Windows Phone customers are buying the apps they're looking for, and they've gotten a great experience on Windows Phone.

"There are additional apps that we would love to add, and we're talking with a lot of folks."

Microsoft has a decent cache of exclusive content, he added, giving Windows Phone users experiences completely unique to the OS. And of course, nobody's perfect.

"At this point we feel that we've got just over 90 percent of the apps that people look for on both competing platforms," McGee said. "Those that we don't have, we've got our eye on. We'd love to bring those over as quickly as we can.

"But nobody has 100 percent of anybody. Nobody has every app that we've got. Apple doesn't have all the apps that Google has and vice versa. So it's important to calibrate for what's right for the platform.

"But taken as a whole, we feel we've got a good percentage of the sigfnificnat apps on other platforms as well as apps that behave better and differently on Windows Phone that you can't get anywhere else."

BlackBerry looks like it's managed to finally turn its ship around as the Canadian firm returns to profitability, but it's come at a cost.

According to the firm's financial results for the fourth quarter (Dec-Mar) it has seen revenue fall 2 per cent on the previous quarter and 36 per cent year-on-year, although the dramatic cost cutting measures which have been brought in has seen BlackBerry turn a profit.

The results also note that BlackBerry subscribers now stand at 76 million, which means the firm has lost customers as it was apparently nearing the 80 million mark towards the back end of September 2012.

Handset question marks

During the fourth quarter BlackBerry managed to ship 6 million smartphones, of which 1 million were handsets running the firm's new BlackBerry 10 software.

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins claimed demand has been greater for the flagship BlackBerry Z10 than for any of its previous handsets, but it's worth remembering that shipping isn't the same as sales, so the actual number of BB10 handsets in people's hands could be much lower than that 1 million mark.

And spare a thought for the BlackBerry PlayBook. It's still bumbling along and a whole 370,000 were shipped during Q4 - although it remains to be seen if they are still sitting in warehouses.

Lazaridis Leaves

As part of the earnings announcements it was also noted that co-founder and former CEO Mike Lazaridis will leave BlackBerry on May 1, relinquishing his position as vice-chairman to focus on a new venture.

While Lazaridis may no longer be in charge, his decision to leave will prompt some to assume he's jumping off a sinking ship and possibly looking to distance himself before things get even worse - although there's been absolutely no mention of that from Lazaridis himself.

The iPhone 5 may only be around six months old, but we're already hearing information about a successor. In keeping with Apple's naming convention this should end up being called the iPhone 5S.

The early arrival of the iPad 4 and the iPad mini - just eight months after the release of the iPad 3 in March - has meant that Apple still has the ability to surprise and we could well see an iPhone 5S appear earlier than expected.

Nevertheless, it's more likely that the iPhone 5S will hit stores in the latter part of 2013, following the trend set by the iPhone 5 and 4S. It's even possible that Apple will skip the iPhone 5S and hop right on to the iPhone 6, though there is little suggestion that this would be the case.

And, as for the software, we're expecting that to be revised too. Some developers contacted The Next Web in early January to say they had seen a new iPhone6.1 identifer in logs - a device running iOS 7.

Apple's past 'S' models have featured the same shell as the core model, though with different features and slightly different tech specs.

The iPhone 5S isn't expected to differentiate itself from the iPhone 5 too drastically, though a better camera and slightly faster processor will surely be part of the package.

One analyst has claimed Apple could use the iPhone 5S to increase its margin for iPhones as a result of falling profitability.

One thing is for sure, with the release of such super handsets as the Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z and HTC One, the next iPhone will have to seriously up its game.

• Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Sony Xperia Z vs HTC One vs iPhone 5 vs Lumia 920

iPhone 5S release date

That means the iPhone 5S release date could be as early Spring 2013. However, we believe it's still likely that we'll see another iPhone later in 2013.

But that's not what everybody thinks: many sources claim that full commercial production of the rumored iPhone 5S has begun already. That's borne out by further rumors suggesting a March manufacturing start date, followed by a mid-year release - probably in June, a date backed up by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster and others. A cheap iPhone could also appear later, possibly in September.

Digitimes reckoned in 2012 that the iPhone 5S release date would be a little later, citing predicted sales targets of relevant component manufacturers. "Apple is expected to introduce its next-generation iPad and iPhone series around the middle of 2013... Component orders placed by Apple, which climbed to high levels prior to the iPhone 5 rollout, will rise again between March and April, the observers indicated."

iMore rumours in early March pointed to the 5S being out in August 2013, something Digitimes then agreed with in late March 2013. It came up with the startling revelation that the new handset would appear in Q3 2013 (probably September). As our own Kate Solomon puts it, "in other news, night to follow day, Tuesday to follow Monday and bears to continue using largely wooded areas to take care of business".

The International Business Times said in March that production had been delayed to make up ground on the progress made by other handset manufacturers. That wouldn't be at all surprising considering how far behind its rivals the iPhone 5 has fallen - in terms of raw specification, at least.

iPhone 5S display

iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 will include a Super HD screen display and camera according to new reports in December 2012. The China Times says a 'Touch On Display' panel is being developed by Taiwanese supplier Innolux with 10 point multi-touch and a 0.5mm thickness. Apparently the site spoke to sources inside Apple's supply chain.

iPhone 5S casing

According to further rumours, the iPhone 5S might not be the only Apple handset we see this year - rumours abound about cheaper, plastic iPhones, while Apple could be readying an even bigger smartphone to launch in June, apparently called the iPhone Math.

Reports suggest that a cheap iPhone 5S would mean Apple diversifying manufacturers from Foxconn, perhaps leading it to turn to Pegatron. An analyst estimates Pegatron could be responsible for 75 percent of low-cost iPhones.

According to the hit-and-miss China Times wesbite the iPhone Math will carry a sizable 4.8-inch display and an 8MP camera.

The new, larger, lower-cost handset could be aimed at emerging markets such as China.

However, it remains likely that the iPhone 5s will simply use the iPhone 5 shell given Apple's penchant for doing this with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S.

iPhone 5S camera

In January 2013 iLounge received information that indicated the handset would sport the same design as the iPhone 5 with the key difference being a beefier camera and larger flash on the back.

That's hardly ground breaking from Apple, with the touted 13MP camera on the 5S hardly bucking the trend considering the Sony Xperia Z already has this and we'd expect the Samsung Galaxy S4 to offer up something similar.

New rumours from January 2013 pointed towards the iPhone 5S having a 13MP camera as well.

Have we already seen the iPhone 5S?

It was reported on 6 December that images of a purported next-generation iPhone have surfaced on French website Nowhereelse.fr, revealing an exterior virtually identical to the current iPhone 5 but with slightly different internals.

Phones Review suggests that a dual-SIM iPhone 5S could be released, hot on the heels of a rumoured Samsung Galaxy S4.

More parts appeared in photos shown by BGR towards the end of January 2013.

iPhone 5S NFC

Rumours have abounded for years that the iPhone will incorporate NFC at some stage, but this has proved unfounded. Indeed, Apple decided to incorporate Passbook into the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 as a way to provide a similar, if different, feature.

Now, according to the often-wrong China Times, Apple is rumoured to be equipping the 5S with NFC in addition to a fingerprint scanner for added security. We're really not sure about this one, though rumours of fingerprint scanners and NFC support in Apple's devices trace back to last July when Apple bought mobile security firm AuthenTec for $356 million (UK£238 million, UA$346 million).

It's possible, then.

iPhone 5S wireless charging

According to CP Tech, Apple filed a patent application last month for Wireless Power Utilization, a wireless charging system with near-field magnetic resonance (NFMR). That means we'll get wireless charging at last.

Needless to say, TechRadar will be keeping a close eye on all the iPhone 5S rumors and will bring you the latest developments as they emerge - on this very page.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes the 5S will also have a feature originally destined for iPhone 6: a fingerprint reader.

Retailers and networks now have their pre-order pages live for the Samsung Galaxy S4, and to no one's surprise it ain't cheap.

On contract you'll need to shell out £41 per month for two years if you want to get the Galaxy S4 free, while it will set you back around £530 SIM-free.

We'll keep you updated on all the offers and release date news in our Samsung Galaxy S4 release date: when can I get it article.

Blips are TechRadar's new news nuggets that you'll find percolating through the homepage - or you can see them all by hitting the blip keyword below.

No doubt it's high-fives all round over at the EE office as the UK's first, and only, 4G network celebrates bring its superfast network to 50 towns, meaning it now reaches half of the population.

As EE pushes out 4G in another 13 towns and cities today, it notches the milestone of 50 per cent population coverage - keeping it on track for its goal of 70 per cent of the people covered by the end of this year.

Those lucky new locations are, in no particular order other than alphabetical, Bradford, Bingley, Doncaster, Dudley, Harpenden, Leicester, Lichfield, Loughborough, Luton, Reading, Shipley, St Albans and West Bromwich.

More where that came from

EE plans to bring the number of covered towns and cities to 80 by the time June rolls around - and it will be eager to offer 4G to as many as possible before the likes of Three, O2 and Vodafone get their rival services online towards the end of 2013.

Among the frenzy of back slapping and party popping, the folks over at EE towers still have a job on their hands to win over a large chunk of consumers who simply believe the service is just too gosh darn expensive.

Obviously EE is quick to point out the additional benefits which comes with its service, plus there is a need to recoup the money it splashed on rolling out its LTE service ahead of its rivals, but we're still waiting to see a properly affordable 4G price plan.

Facebook has started to roll out an update for UK users of its Android Messenger app to enable free voice calls to friends, reports late on Wednesday claimed.

The Next Web blog has received word from Brit-based Facebook Messenger users who're starting to see the feature, which was only bestowed upon the iPhone version of the app on Monday this week.

The free, IM-centric Messenger app, which stands alone from the main Facebook hub, will showcase an 'i' icon within the chat window once the update has been installed

Hitting that button will provide the opportunity to make the Free Call over both Wi-Fi and 3G.

Free long distance calls

The UK is the third country to receive the feature, following successful roll outs in Canada and the United States.

The major advantage is the ability to make transatlantic calls free of charge when they spot a friend online and will come in handy when an IM chat creates the need for a longer, more vocal conversation.

The extension of the feature to Android phones remains unconfirmed at the time of writing, so we'll update this article if the Facebook drops official word.

"What's his name? You know, he's the guy from that show about the place. The one with the horse."

Every had a conversation while watching a movie that went like this? Google is hoping to put an end to these cinema frustrations with new info card pop-ups in movies watched through its Play Movies Android app.

The new feature will display actor information when movies are paused in Play, similar to the info seen when a celebrity is search for through the standard Google website.

Movies need to be updated to have info card data inserted, and so far Google only have about 200 movies ready with the feature.

Adverts in disguise

Of course, this is just advertising disguised as useful information, with the actor's filmography linking to rental pages for the movies in the Play Store. Amazon does a similar thing with Kindle Fire tablets and its X-Ray feature.

Amazon launched its metadata mining tool at the end of last year and now has versions of X-Ray on the Kindle Fire tablet, Kindle Paperwhite e-reader and in its iOS app for iPhones and iPads.

Google's info cards feature is rolling out now to Android tablets in the U.S. only, and even then to a random group of testers. But, as with all Google services, expect to see it spread across the world once the search giant is positive it works.

iPhone owners are voicing more iOS 6.1.3 battery drain concerns today, claiming that the latest update for their Apple smartphone has resulted in a shortened battery life.

"After 'upgrading' to 6.1.3 a few days ago I have been experiencing major battery drain," wrote Apple Support forum poster Joe, who said he tried all of the reasonable solutions posted.

"It's draining about 1 percent every 7 minutes but that's with the phone not in use. In contrast, last week before the update I would charge my phone at night (and on a day without use) it would still be around 99 percent."

Joe isn't the only iPhone owner experiencing the iOS 6.1.3 battery drain glitch and demanding a fix. This particular message board post has 175 replies and 14777 Views in under a week.

Worse, there are 30 more threads dedicated to battery drainage that have gone up in the Apple Support Communities forum since iOS 6.1.3 released.

The good news is that while iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S owners have made up a majority of those beset by battery withdraw problems, iPad 4 and iPad mini owners seem to be in the clear for the most part.

More iOS 6.1.3 glitches

iOS 6.1.3 managed to plug security holes that iOS jailbreak hackers were taking advantage of to install custom software, as well as provide a lockscreen fix.

However, in addition to the battery drain problems, users have uncovered a new lockscreen glitch, one that allows for unauthorized access to contacts and photos even with the passcode screen enabled.

Apple hasn't had a major iOS update without a rash of complaints in some time, and battery drain issues have been the source of the problem before.

iOS 6.0.2 notably affected new iPhone 5 owners after the update, and before that, iOS 5 battery drainage issues caused Apple to release a patch by the way of iOS 5.0.1.

And it seems as if Apple is running into problems on all fronts, as its two-step verification feature exposed users' Apple ID, iCloud, and iTunes accounts to a major password reset flaw last week.

Apple has yet to respond to a TechRadar inquiry into the iOS 6.1.3 glitch or whether or not iOS 6.1.4 is on its way.

However, the next update now has to address two problems - battery drain and lockscreen glitch 2.0 - for the emotionally and technologically drained iPhone owners.

With the emergence of smartphones as the go-to mobile device of choice, more and more people have taken to using social networking sites like Twitter on the go.

Twitter is already seeing some large improvements in its ad revenue, but the new mobile dynamic could change the game for the site quite drastically.

Though the company's overall ad revenue wasn't impacted much at all by mobile ads in 2011, there was a tremendous spike over the past year.

Now, not only is Twitter expected to rake in major dollars from advertising, but mobile ads are estimated to account for 53 percent of all ad revenue.

Sponsored tweets

Market research firm eMarketer is already predicting Twitter will make $582.8 million (UK£385.6, AU$558) in ad revenue this year, with $308 million (UK£203.8, AU$295) coming from mobile.

Through 2014 and 2015, that mobile share is expected to increase to nearly 60 percent, with total revenues reaching $950 million (UK£628, AU$909.6) in 2014 and $1.33 billion (UK£879M, AU$1.27) in 2015.

For comparison, in 2012 Twitter made just $138.4 million (UK£91.4, AU$132.5) from mobile ads.

The company's global reach is also expected to increase over the next few years, with the U.S. share decreasing from 2012's 90 percent to 83 percent in 2013, and all the way down to 70 percent by 2015.

Twitter's new ad API should only help make advertising easier, and thus generate more income for the network, and it will be interesting to see just how closely these new estimates are when all is said and done.

The elusive LG Optimus G Android handset has finally gone on sale in the UK, through independent retailer Expansys.

The 4.7-inch superphone was revealed to the world way back in August 2012, but the Koreans have shown scant appetite for the UK market, partly due to the UK's "immature" 4G network.

However, it seems the company's icy attitude towards Blighty may be melting with the 1.5GHz quad-core, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean device available now for the SIM-free price of £469.

The Optimus G is 4G-ready, meaning 4GEE subscribers will be able to harness next-gen speeds, meaning faster uploads of shots taken with the Optimus G's 13-megapixel camera.

Bad timing

However, it's questionable just how much interest the device will generate at this stage, given how the Android stakes have been raised in recent months.

Since the phone was announced, the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4 have all arrived on the scene, making the Optimus G seem a little 'old hat'.

LG itself also announced the Optimus G Pro handset at MWC in February, which offers a 5.5-inch, full HD display and a faster 1.7GHz processor, so this device is already a generation old.

Hopefully, now the spectrum auction is out of the way and universal 4G coverage is in the pipeline, LG will be a little more prompt with its big UK launches. Otherwise it risks becoming obsolete on these shores.

Samsung patents can't be mentioned without Apple coming up in the same breath, but the Galaxy-maker trumped its Cupertino rival soundly in at least one way in 2012: Samsung acquired the most mobile patents and became the top mobile patent holder in the world.

This despite - or possibly because of - its setbacks in its patent war with Apple, to the tune of billions in possible damages.

Sure, Samsung didn't have a great year in the patent wars, but it also spent 2012 shoring up its defenses by snapping up mobile patents like a Hungry Hungry Hippo.

After acquiring the most mobile patents of any company worldwide in 2012, according to research from mobile analyst Chetan Sharma, Samsung is now the world leader in mobile patents.

On top of the world

ZTE announced last week that it had ranked number one in patent applications for the second straight year in a row in 2012.

But just because it applied for the most patents doesn't mean it has the most patents, and according to Chetan Sharma, that honor goes to Samsung - at least when it comes to mobile patents.

In a summary of his research into 2012, Sharma wrote, "Samsung has been fiercely building its patent portfolio in both Europe and the US and the efforts have paid off as it has built a significant portfolio and a formidable lead that is likely to serve it well in the coming years."

Nokia previously held the most patents in the industry, but it fell down the rankings in 2012 along with Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent. IBM and Microsoft went up in the rankings, while Motorola dropped out of the top 10, according to Sharma.

Sony, Qualcomm, RIM (BlackBerry), and LG rounded out the top ten mobile patent holders in 2012.

A global struggle

The research examined over 7 million mobile patents in the U.S. and Europe, the two biggest patent markets in the world. It found that the U.S. accounts for 72 percent of mobile patents between the two regions, while one fifth of the patents filed in the U.S. and one tenth of those filed in Europe are related to mobiles.

In the U.S., at least, that number is up significantly, as less than ten years ago under 10 percent of total patents in the U.S. were mobile related.

Interestingly, Sharma's research places ZTE near the bottom of the patent food chain, both in granted mobile patents and pending applications. So it appears that either someone at ZTE (or the World Intellectual Property Organization, from whose data came ZTE's report) fudged some numbers, or Sharma's research is leaving something out of this picture.

On the other hand it's not unusual for different research groups to reach slightly different conclusions.

Either way, it can take years for patents to be awarded after application, so maybe in 2015 or so ZTE (a Chinese company) will be usurping the Korean king, Samsung, in the never-ending patent wars.

EE is making BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the management suite for smartphones running on the BB10 operating system, available to its business customers from April 2.

An EE representative told TRPro that the company will enable organisations to run BES 10 themselves through its network, and provide a hosted service. It will also provide the licences for users and a server to run BES 10 within a dedicated plan, saving smaller firms from the cost of a server.

There is no minimum or maximum on the number of licences that can be managed through the package.

Using BES 10 also gives IT administrators the ability to manage devices running on iOS and Android.

EE said it is the first UK mobile network operator to support BES 10. Its Director of Business, Max Taylor, said: "Alongside our Secure Mobility management software, the introduction of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 means we are the only network operator to offer enterprise grade security across all mobile operating systems, covering 3G and 4G."

Pricing begins at £15 per month for 1GB of mobile data, with 4G plans available for an extra £3. EE provides 4G to 37 towns and cities and claims this covers 45% of the UK population.

With the runaway success of Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet - the media-happy device owns over half the Android tablet market - it seems only natural that the company would turn to smartphones next.

Amazon's strategy of putting all its media content directly into consumers' hands has worked out well so far, so wouldn't the Seattle company take the next logical step?

Like the Kindle Fire, an Amazon smartphone would be a veritable home-shopping network - replete with Kindle books, Android apps and Amazon Prime video - only as a phone, so it would be the only device users would really need.

Given the anticipation that's built up around a product that's not even certain to exist, we figured it wise to compile all the rumors and speculation in one place.

Amazon phone to hedge its bets with a reasonable 4.7-inch display

According to Digitimes, so called "industry supply chain sources" have put a ruler to the Amazon Phone. They say the handset will have a 4.7-inch display, which would put it in between an iPhone 5 and a Galaxy S4 when it comes to visual real estate.

This supposed fact, combined with a rumored low asking price, suggests that Amazon is going for the casual smartphone user, one who does want to spend a fortune and would like to be able to carry the phone in their pocket with ease.

Amazon phone will miss rumored Q2 2013 release date, still looking like a Foxconn product

It's all still the stuff of rumors, but previous rumblings pegged the Amazon Phone (or maybe Kindle Phone) as arriving in the second quarter of 2013. Now it looks as though that deadline will make a delightful whooshing noise at blows past.

Somewhat infamous manufacturing mogul Foxconn is said to be on deck to produce the dirt cheap device. Its subsidiary Ensky Tech made the original Kindle Fire and now produces the Kindle Fire HD, the Kindle Paperwhite, so it would be no shock at all to see the two collaborate on the project.

As far as what's causing the delay, a report at Digitimes blames the "engineering verification test period due to issues related to its mobile platform," saying that the process, "has not been as smooth as expected."

This is surprising, given the great deal of experience Foxconn and its partners have in this field. It has us wondering what Amazon could have up its sleeve that's making the phone such a bother. As always, rumors are like cheap takeout; they just leaving you hungry for more.

Foxconn to manufacture Amazon phone for summer 2013 release date

This might be the most concrete rumor yet regarding the Amazon phone. Supposedly the online retail giant has inked a deal with Foxconn to manufacture its first smartphone. Industry insiders also expect a summer 2013 release.

According to the reports, the phone may also have a dirt-cheap asking price of $100-200 (around £60-120/AU$95-190). This would fall in step with Amazon's strategy with its Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Paperwhite line, devices sold at highly competitive prices in order to get customers investing in Amazon's media library.

While the involvement of Foxconn is not surprising, since the company has become a prolific manufacturer of all things electronic, it is somewhat troubling given its reputation for overworked, striking employees. Maybe the Amazon phone will be one of the first devices assembled in American Foxconn factories?

Amazon Phone rumors catch fire

Rumors of an Amazon Phone started to catch on in late 2011, when analysts began predicting the Amazon Phone's existence, despite a lack of hard evidence.

That hard evidence, by the way, still hasn't made an appearance, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning away.

Kicking things off, analyst firm CitiGroup reported that it discovered the existence of the then-unheard of Amazon Phone through its "supply chain channel checks in Asia."

Analyst Mark Mahaney led the Amazon Phone charge, proclaiming that the bookseller was in cahoots with infamous Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn to build the device.

Other analysts agreed: "A smartphone would be a logical next step for Amazon," ABI Research's Aapo Markkanen told Wired in May.

"The lock-in effect of a great content ecosystem shouldn't be under-estimated," he continued.

Bloomberg fed more fuel to the Amazon Phone fire in July, when its anonymous sources ("people with knowledge of the matter") confirmed that Amazon and Foxconn remained hard at work on the smartphone.

Further, the same report claimed that Amazon is busy hoarding as many wireless patents as possible to defend itself from the inevitable infringement suits that follow any modicum of success in the market.

Windows Phone executives board the good ship Amazon

The summer heat must have helped the Amazon Phone fires spread, as July gave birth to yet another bout of speculation when two Windows Phone vets joined Amazon.

First Brandon Watson left the Windows Phone team to become Amazon's director of Kindle cross platform, then Robert Williams, previously Windows Phone's senior director of business development, joined Amazon as its app store director.

Of course, the mere fact that the two previously worked on Windows Phone in no way proved that Amazon had brought them on to work on its own phone - but then again, it's not that far of a stretch, is it?

To further stoke the flames, it appeared toward the end of July that Amazon's innovation center - Lab 126 - had been hiring workers to develop new mobile devices that would run on wireless carriers' networks.

In other words: an Amazon Phone. Imagine that.

Amazon Phone release date

In CitiGroup's original 2011 report, the firm predicted that the Amazon Phone release date would fall in Q4 2012, though that's looking less and less likely the more time passes without a peep from Amazon.

That doesn't mean it's not going to happen, of course, but other rumors since then have been somewhat less optimistic about the Amazon Phone release date.

Less than a week after Bloomberg's report that Amazon and Foxconn still had their collective noses to the grindstone, another source (this one from Amazon's component suppliers) told the Wall Street Journal that the bookseller was already testing Amazon Phone prototypes.

That report claimed that the device could go into production during the second half of 2012, and that the Amazon phone release could fall in late 2012 or early 2013.

Amazon Phone price

From the beginning, speculators foretold that an Amazon Phone would hit the low end of the price spectrum.

In part, it's assumed that Amazon would sell the device wholesale (or maybe even at a loss) in order to further expand its digital content distribution.

Every pair of hands holding an Amazon Phone comes with eyes, ears and a wallet, after all.

CitiGroup analyst Kevin Chang said in 2011, "For a normal brand like HTC, they need to price the product at $243 to make 30 percent gross margin. If Amazon is actually willing to lose some money on the device, the price gap could be even bigger."

That means the Amazon Phone price could sink as low as $170 or even $150, though Amazon would surely make up the difference somehow - just like it does with the Kindle Fire.

Amazon Phone specs

There's been little speculation about the Amazon Phone's specific hardware features, considering there's yet to be any official word - or even a measly leaked prototype image - to go off of.

But the WSJ's source claimed that the Amazon Phone's screen size would fall somewhere between 4 inches and 5 inches, placing it right in line with top Android phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 andHTC One X.

The Amazon Phone would at least need to perform well enough to reliably stream content and be integrated with Amazon's various media and cloud services, and the better the resolution, the more attractive the device would be for streaming video.

Battery life will be another important factor, as nothing will turn the average consumer off faster than being interrupted in the middle of "Real Housewives" by a pesky low power warning.

Will the Amazon Phone run Android?

An Amazon Phone is almost dead certain to run on some variation of Android, as Google and Amazon, despite occasionally finding themselves at one another's throats, can just as often be found sitting snugly in one another's pockets.

According to some reports, the retail giant has even considered stocking Google tablets like the Nexus 7 in its stores, indicating that their rivalry can't really be all that heated.

Besides, Windows Phone is sat firmly in Nokia's camp, at least for the lifespan of Windows Phone 8 - Microsoft's not about to throw away years of build-up just to hop in bed with Amazon.

That leaves BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, who - to be fair - is rumored to be shopping the BlackBerry 10 OS around for a licensing deal.

But there's a chance BB10 will be more or less dead on arrival, and either way, an OS swap at this point would just be too risky for Amazon, who'll already be tossing the dice with a smartphone gambit in the first place.

Furthermore, Citigroup's initial Amazon Phone report from 2011 claimed that the bookseller would have to pay royalties to Microsoft, all but spelling out that the phone would be another Android device.