The long-rumored Nokia EOS, said to sport a 41-megapixel camera and a quad-core processor, is on schedule to be released this summer on AT&T, said a new report today.

The PureView-packing Nokia EOS was detailed in a report at Windows Phone Central, which claimed to have spoken with numerous sources who have seen the phone themselves.

According to the site,the Nokia EOS with PureView will feature 32GB of storage, a 720p OLED display, FM radio, and a yellow polycarbonate body.

Don't forget that gorgeous 41-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, which this report said will take two versions of every photo - one at 35 megapixels and one at five for sharing online.

Elvis will enter the building

The rumored Nokia EOS reportedly carries the internal codename "Elvis," though other than the phone's obvious swagger there's no clear reason for it.

In reality it's most similar to Nokia's 808 PureView; it's essentially a Windows Phone'd version of that 2012 device.

It's also about 1mm thinner than the Lumia 920, though with a larger bump in the body for the souped-up PureView camera. Unfortunately, that means no room for an SD card, according to the site's sources.

The Nokia EOS "Elvis" is also said to feature Nokia's new Nokia Pro Camera app with manual focus and other fun photography functions, plus a "flip-to-silence" feature that lets you send incoming calls to voicemail by flipping the phone upside-down.

WPCentral said from what they've seen a July launch makes sense, lining up nicely with what we've previously heard as well. Finally, it added that AT&T won't be the only carrier to get it, though it will likely be the first.

• Photography isn't Windows Phone 8's only strength. Check out TechRadar's list of the top WP8 apps.

Microsoft finally spilled the beans on Windows 8.1 this week, but one thing it didn't mention was fingerprint reader support.

That doesn't mean Windows 8.1 won't allow fingerprint scanning as a security measure, though, and a new report today suggested that it in fact will.

According to The Verge, Windows 8.1 will up Microsoft's native support for biometrics and fingerprint recognition technology.

It will even include the option to lock folders to individual fingerprints.

Fingerprint reading: more useful than it sounds

Users will be able to associate their unique fingerprints with their Windows 8.1 Microsoft Accounts, the site reported.

That fingerprint will then allow them to log into or purchase apps, lock folders, and more.

It sounds like fingerprint reading will be possible both with external hardware peripherals and as a feature built-in to some Windows 8.1 devices; Microsoft's Senior Product Marketing Manager Michael Niehaus said during the company's Tech-Ed talks this week that they're working with hardware manufacturers to have it included.

The company is also reportedly working on getting more OEMs to build the technology directly into their own tablets, laptops, mice, keyboards, and other devices.

We've asked a Microsoft spokesperson to clarify exactly how fingerprint recognition technology will be implemented in Windows 8.1, and we'll update this post if we receive more information.

Windows 8.1 is almost here

It's been rumored for months that Apple is about to get big into fingerprint reading, but this is the first we've heard of its implementation in Windows 8.

The Microsoft OS update has long been rumored as well, and recent leaks showed what looks like the return of the Start button.

Windows 8.1 will be available publicly beginning June 26 during the Microsoft Build developer conference.

• Can't wait for Windows 8.1? Here's 12 key changes coming in the Windows update.

There are a multitude of cloud storage options already widely available to consumers for safekeeping of documents, pictures, and other media that can be easily accessed anywhere.

With tried and true apps like Dropbox, Mega, iCloud, and Google Drive already heavily favored by the on-the-go user, it's interesting to learn Lenovo will now be entering the cloud arena.

Like every other cloud service already available, Lenovo's Reach will allow you to remotely access your stored files from a multitude of devices, including Android, iOS, and Windows.

What Lenovo plans to do to stand out from the crowd remains to be seen, but we should learn more when the beta for Reach begins on June 22.

Reach for the sky

As with Reach's competitors, Lenovo's service will allow you access any of your stored files from any location or device, be it one manufactured by Lenovo or not.

Though the beta is just a few short weeks away, Lenovo won't be opening Reach up to everyone until later this year, pending the user feedback it receives during the closed trial period.

"Lenovo Reach plays a fundamental role in our plan to expand cloud services to consumers around the world," said Mark Cohen, vice president of software and cloud solutions at Lenovo, in a statement.

Reach's interface is designed to work well with both touch and mouse/keyboard interactions, and will feature 5GB of free storage, as has become the new standard.

The new service will also work with apps and websites like Facebook and Pinterest, and offers a modicum of customizability for the interface itself.

It's not really clear just what the benefits are of saving an app to Reach, but perhaps we'll learn more once the beta actually begins.

Sign-ups have already started for the beta on Reach's website, but you won't know if you got in until later this month.

• Can you live entirely in the cloud? Check out this editorial to see just how easy it is to live exclusively online.

Smartphones are big business, and Lenovo plans to reach for a more generous slice of that pie with the help of a company who shall remain nameless - at least for now.

Lenovo Group Limited released a Clarification Announcement (PDF link) to shareholders Tuesday about the company's smartphone ambitions - without actually divulging the name of who could help those plans come to fruition.

Citing "certain articles published in the internet" relating to "a possible joint venture arrangement" between Lenovo and an unnamed party, the so-called clarification only served to raise more questions than it actually answered.

While the announcement makes it clear the proposed joint venture intends to bolster Lenovo's smartphone business, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing refers to the arrangement as a "potential transaction" and not yet a done deal.

Mystery partner

Earlier this year, Lenovo expressed interest in BlackBerry, the onetime Canadian smartphone giant currently in the throes of a comeback in the very market it once pioneered.

While BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins didn't completely dismiss the idea back in March, Lenovo has continued to launch its own Android-based hardware, most recently with the Intel-powered K900.

According to Reuters, the joint venture partner could be NEC Corp., Lenovo's Japanese partner for personal computers who has acknowledged their own mobile ambitions are presently in "a difficult state."

Lenovo is currently the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in its home market of China, having ended 2012 with $1.6 billion in the bank.

• Find out more about the Lenovo K900 and NEC Corp.

HTC's employee turnover nightmare continues as its COO, Matthew Costello, steps down after less than three years in the post.

In an email to employees, seen by Bloomberg news, Costello is said to be stepping down and moving to Europe. He will stay on, however, as an "executive adviser", although it's not exatly clear what that role entails.

Fred Liu, who is president of engineering and operations, will be taking on Costello's responsibilities in an expanded role covering operations, quality, sales operations and services. Hopefully he'll stick around too.

1 step forward, 7 steps backward

This will come as a blow to HTC, especially after they a much healthier financial forecast today - thanks in part to sales of the HTC One.

But, despite a positive sales report for May, the reality is that HTC suffered a 98 per cent drop in net income in the last quarter. And, because of increased competition and poor sales results, HTC's shares dropped 76 per cent in the last two years.

This may go some way to explain why HTC has failed to hold on to some of its key staff, who may feel that the ship is sinking.

In recent months a number of high-level executives have left HTC, including; Lennard Hoornik, CEO of HTC Asia, Jason Gordon, Vice President of Global Communications, Chief Product Officer Kouji Kodera, Rebecca Rowland, Global Retail Marketing Manager, John Starkweather, Director of Digital Marketing and Eric Lin, Product Strategy Manager.

Is this the beginning of the end for HTC, or is the out-flux of old staff going to breathe new life into the Taiwanese firm? We'll have to wait and see.

Now this sounds familiar: the white Nexus 4 has already sold out in Google Play over in the States - in its 16GB guise at least.

You can still get your hands on the 8GB variant if you're not so precious over the amount of internal storage - but remember there's no microSD slot on the white Nexus 4, nor the black original.

This latest stock outage will likely anger Nexus 4 fans again who were left frustrated when the original device, launched last year, experienced stock shortages and we expect a lot of finger wagging to occur in the direction of Google and the handset's manufacturer LG.

The white Nexus 4 is expected to make its way to other territories in due course, so fingers crossed Google and LG can sort themselves out in time.

More blips!

In doesn't matter if your phone is black or white, anyone can read our all encompassing blips.

• Jelly Bean set to be bigger than Gingerbread in under a month
• Vine for Android live on Google Play today
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom saunters through States after Middle-East leak

The Halo experience is about to go rogue for the first time, with brand new title Halo: Spartan Assault heading exclusively to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices.

With speculation kicking off this week that Spartan Assault would be the name of the next Console-based Halo (following the discovery of some registered domain names), the new title will actually be gunning for gamers on the go.

The top-down shooter will be available on Windows 8 phones and tablets, as well as PC, with cloud saves meaning you can stop playing on one device and pick up where you left off on another.

There are also a number of ways to play control-wise, including standard touchscreen, plugging in a mouse and keyboard, or even connecting an Xbox 360 controller.

343 industries said that the game will be priced in the US at around $6.99 (about £4.60, AUS $7.25) while a specific figure for the UK is yet to be confirmed.

Combat evolved again

Dan Ayoub, executive producer of publishing at 343, told TechRadar that there was already "a lot of plans for content already for post-launch," adding that the game will include a challenge mode, with users able to share their scores on the leaderboard.

This game will be released this July across all countries and devices, though a specific day for the global rollout is yet to be given.

Ayoub also told us that Halo: Spartan Assault has been in development for about a year. However, we then remembered a certain job posting by Bungie back in early 2011, suggesting that this project might have been in the pipeline even longer.

The game follows on from the story of Halo 4, mixing many of the action and sandbox elements that fans of the the franchise will be more than familiar with.

"Halo has always led on its platform," said Ayoub. "And so we wanted to do the same thing on PC, tablet and mobile."

The game uses an adaptive twin-stick touchscreen control system, meaning that when your thumbs glide up the screen, the circle pads move with them. "It's no exaggeration when I say we threw out at least twelve control schemes getting to this," admitted Ayoub.

HTC's monthly sales report has shown signs of promise, with an increase in profits following a difficult few months.

The manufacturer's sales report for May shows a 48 per cent increase in sales from April, and almost 100 per cent from March.

This will be wecome news to HTC after previously posting poor sales figures and suffering a number of high-level executives leaving the company.

It's not all good news, however. Sales are still down 3.35 per cent from May 2012 and it's not clear if these figures will improve, espcially since new deivces are likely to be launched soon by Samsung and Apple.

Is the One an anomaly?

The HTC One is the said to be the reason for the company's improved performance in the last few months, with sales hitting the 5 million mark in its first two months.

Although impressive, HTC only managed to shift half as many units as the Samsung Galaxy S4 did in the same period of time. And, with Samsung announcing a range of new devices at an event in London this month, HTC's sales may be further strained by the increased competition.

British Manufacturer ARM has unveiled a new Cortex A-12 processor at Computex 2013, aimed at mid-range tablets and smartphones in the region of US$250 (about AU$258, £163) to US$350 (about AU$361, £228).

The Cortex-A12 will succeed ARM's Cortex-A9 processor, which was used in the iPhone 4s, Galaxy S3 and a variety of android tablets.

With up to four cores, ARM said that the new design is 40 per cent more efficient than the A9 and 30 per cent faster. Devices sporting the new A12 processor are expected to arrive in late 2014 or early 2015.

Race to the middle

James Bruce, ARM's lead mobile strategist, said that there is huge growth in mid-range mobile markets, with devices above and around $200 (about £130, $206 AUS) expected to ship more than 500 units by the end of 2015.

ARM faces stiff competition from other manufacturers who also want to capitalise on the growing affordable tablet and smartphone market. Intel recently announced a range of new processors, including the Bay Trial and Haswell processors, which are aimed at Android devices.

Via Talk Android

• Why ARM is still the tech giant you don't really know

Considering the rise of larger smartphones on the market at the moment, we weren't all that surprised when Acer announced its very first 'phablet' handset, the Liquid S1, at this year's Computex, which seems set to cater to a more affordable, non-LTE market.

The Liquid S1's 720p display measures 5.7 inches - just 0.2 inches more than the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - and even packs a stylus pen like its Korean rival. This added padding means it might be slightly too big for some pockets.

At a resolution of 1,280 x 720, matching the Note 2, the screen is certainly less than remarkable considering other devices rocking Full HD displays, such as the HTC One. But given that this will land at a more reasonable price, it's not something to get too caught up on.

As for what's running on the inside, there's not an awful lot to get excited about. A 1.5GHz quad-core with just 1GB of RAM isn't cutting edge, but we found it's enough to run Android 4.2.2 smoothly on.

The 8GB of storage is a bit skimpy too, though microSD support means you can beef that out when you need to.

One thing that could be an off-putting is the 2,400 mAh battery, which doesn't match up to the Note 2's 3,100 mAh. Given we didn't have enough time to really test the battery out, it's difficult to know how big this difference will be.

When it comes to the camera though, the offering is pretty reasonable. The Liquid S1's primary shooter is 8-megapixels, offering 1080p recording ability. This is decent enough, and the pictures we snapped were satisfyingly sharp for the device.

Our favourite part of the Liquid S1, however, is its multitasking Float feature, activated by holding down the menu button.

While the S1 software is mostly pure Android, Acer is throwing in its Float feature UI into the bag, which lets certain apps remain on the same screen as other "floating" apps and widgets at the same time.

It's very reminiscent of the Multi Window feature of the Samsung Galaxy Note II (though we found this one a bit more fluid), and something that really takes advantage of that extra screen space.

However during TechRadar's demonstration we were only able to use a very limited number of floatable apps, such as the calculator, camera and a call notification feature that means you won't be thrown out of whatever it is you're doing when someone's dropping you a line.

We've been told that this will be opened up to more apps when the phone arrives officially, though a lot of this will be down to app developers too.

Early verdict

Ultimately, the success the of Liquid S1 hangs in its affordability. A decent price - and it's currently said to be coming in at €349 (about £300, US $455, AUS $475) - is the only way we can see this taking on the Samsung Note 2, and given that its Q3 release date could put it directly up against the Note 3, it would seem ludicrous to put it any higher than that.

But if big screens are your thing, the Float features of the Liquid S1 nicely make the most of the phone's 5.7-inch display, making for a reasonable, if unremarkable when it comes to specs, phone.

UK network Three has been having some rather serious issues overnight and this morning, with many users unable to make use of the carrier's data network.

Its technicians are beavering away behind the scenes however and the latest from Three (via its Twitter channel) is: "We're happy to say internet access in London is up & running & the whole network should be back to normal this afternoon."

The problem started last night, with the support channel Tweeting: "We're having some issues with our data network this morning. It's being worked on as a priority, sorry for any inconvenience."

We've contacted the network for more information and we'll update this article when we hear back.

Developing...

More blips!

If you're lost without your mobile why not take a few minutes to check out some more of our brilliant blips?

• Jelly Bean set to be bigger than Gingerbread in under a month
• Brits planning to embrace wearable tech
• Fitbit Flex goes on sale in UK

Android has forever been baited for its slow upgrade cycle and leaving many users stuck on older iterations, but the dominance of Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) is set to come to an end in less than a month.

The latest figures are out for Android version market share and Jelly Bean has witnessed a 5.5 per cent increase to 33 per cent - closing the gap on the leader Gingerbread which has slipped to 36.5 per cent.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has also witnessed a small decline, down to 25.6 percent from 27.5 at the last count - and at this rate Jelly Bean will be the most used version come July. Better late than never.

More blips!

Why not chow down on some more bite-size chunks of news - here's a load more great blips!

• Size got in the way: Zynga slashes jobs to better fit mobile gaming reality
• Vine for Android live on Google Play today
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom saunters through States after Middle-East leak

There's a new smartphone in the Japanese firm's stable and it's arrived in the form of the Sony Xperia M.

We've already seen Sony launch the Xperia SP, Xperia L and flagship Xperia Z this year and the triplets have now become quads with the new baby of the range.

Sony is keen to point out the Xpera M arrives at "a new price point" for the firm, although it fails to tell us what that price will actually be. What we do know is it will be available worldwide from Q3 this year.

Spec-tacular?

The Sony Xperia M isn't going to cost you the earth, although don't think that means it skimps on specs with a 4-inch 854 x 480 display, 1GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and 5MP rear camera with HDR mode.

It's not all good news however, with the puny 4GB of internal storage actually only giving you 2GB of available space - although there is a microSD slot - and the VGA front facing snapper isn't going to give you the best mug shots.

A common theme with Sony handsets of late are their vast array of connectivity options and the Xperia M is no different boasting Wi-Fi, aGPS, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, DLNA and a microUSB slot, plus there's the choice of single and dual-SIM variants.

Strong on paper

There's a 1750mAh battery housed in the 124 x 62 x 9.3 mm chassis, which comes in black, white, purple and yellow hues, and at 115g the Xperia M shouldn't be overly cumbersome.

So on paper at least, the Sony Xperia M is shaping up to be a decent contender at the bottom end of the market, but without knowing the price or having used the handset we'll reserve judgement for now.

• In the market for a budget smartphone? Then check out our best cheap smartphones list.

Intel has launched a handful of new processors at Computex 2013 in Taipei, with a focus on smartphones and tablets.

First up, the Intel Atom Merrifield chip has been specifically designed for smartphones. The firm claims they will bring increased performance and prolonged battery life.

The 22nm Merrifield processor also includes a sensor hub which will allow handsets to provide users with personalised services - although Intel didn't reveal what sensors this covers.

While it sounds all well and good, we will have to wait until next year before manufacturers start shipping handsets with Merrifield inside.

Fast, 4G tablets

It's not just smartphones that are getting some Intel loving: the company is also launching two new chips aimed at the growing tablet market.

The first chip will appear in tablets later this year, and the 22nm quad-core Atom SoC (aka Bay Trail-T) is apparently capable of delivering more than double the graphical output than the current generation of processors.

It supports both the Android and Windows 8.1 operating systems, and Intel claims it is capable of providing 8 hours of battery life and weeks of standby - although we'll reserve judgement until we see it in action.

Finally Intel has also shifted some of its focus onto the 4G market with its quad-core XMM 7160 chip, which takes the "world's smallest and lowest-power multi-mode LTE solution" title - a bit of a mouthful, but well done Intel.

There's currently no word on when we'll see the 4G chip hit tablets, but we'll be keeping an eye out for products sporting Intel's new offerings.

• Confused between ARM and Intel? Check out our comparison and find out which one is best for you

With WWDC 2013 just around the corner, a supposed image of the new iOS7 has leaked out – but how real is it?

The leak comes from iDownloadBlog, which isn't the usual place we come across these kinds of stories, and the fuzzy nature of the picture makes it difficult to tell what's really going on in the screenshot.

Sir Jony Ive, the man with the magic Cupertino design pen, is leading the charge to overhaul Apple's mobile OS for iPad and iPhone, and is meant to be making a more 'flat' design, dropping the shadows and extra detail in favour of something more simplistic.

Not even evolutionary

That's the case here, but we were expecting something a lot more revolutionary from Apple as it bids to be a fresh competitor to the slew of Android phones that are dominating the market.

The camera icon looks pretty similar to before, and the Newsstand icon is almost identical, which lends credence to the theory this is a fake shot. However, this is likely to be an early build (something corroborated by the more trustworthy 9to5Mac, which Tweeted a screenshot of the same picture and said this wasn't the final version) and will therefore not have all the expected elements.

There are other issues though: the size of the gap between the top of the phone and the apps, and the size seems to hint at a dodgy photoshop at times.

But as we're so close to the event it's very difficult to tell what's real and what isn't – if this is the eventual style for iOS then it doesn't look like it's going to be much of a change, which is sorely needed, especially if Apple is going to bring out an iPhone 5S as per usual.