Back in May, it was reported the European commission was looking into alleged anti-competitive practices Apple may have engaged in to push the iPhone.

At the time, a series of questionnaires were sent to retailers asking whether or not Apple convinced them to participate in such behavior, and included questions about purchase agreements.

Now, a little over a month later, French anti-trust group Autorite de la Concurrence is digging deeper into Apple's potentially harmful practices.

According to French paper Les Echos, the authorities searched numerous Apple offices, wholesalers, and retailers in an effort to uncover the truth behind possible anti-trust violations.

Nappletism

The whole issue was raised when EBizcuss, an Apple retailer in France, went bankrupt last year, prompting the company to file a suit against Apple with claims of "abuse of economic dependence" and "unfair competition."

EBizcuss' issue with the Cupertino company stemmed from a perceived favoritism for its own proprietary Apple stores, which left secondary retailers allegedly without product or scrambling to offer competitive pricing.

Whether or not the French authorities will find any conclusive evidence Apple's own stores were the first to get products remains to be seen, but the accusations are clearly being taken very seriously.

As if Apple wasn't drawing enough unwanted attention over the anti-trust issue, the iPhone maker is also now drawing the ire of the U.K.'s tax collectors, as it somehow managed to avoid paying any taxes last year whatsoever.

iLoopholes

Despite earning £68 million (US$103.6, AU$112.1) during the last fiscal year, the Financial Times reported Apple paid a grand total of zero in taxes in the U.K.

Just for some comparison, Apple paid out £11.4 million (US$17.3, AU$18.8) in taxes for the 2011 fiscal year.

In order to avoid dropping so much wasted money on taxation, Apple reportedly granted millions in stock awards to its employees, all of which was 100 percent tax deductible.

Apple is already under scrutiny for its practice of funneling 80 percent of its international income into an Ireland-based subsidiary, where the tax rate is a mere .05 percent.

While not illegal by any stretch, the lengths to which major corporations like Apple will go to save a few million a year is quite impressive.

That said, it likely won't earn any favors should more of these anti-competitive complaints come to light, or should any of the accusations be found to be true.

• More budget iPhone rumors abound as a possible new plastic casing leaked online.

A photo of what just might be the HTC One Verizon emerged from the bowels of the internet today.

The photo's mysterious appearance, at the start of July, could be a sign that the long-awaited Verizon version of HTC's beloved flagship really will arrive this summer as Verizon promised.

Infamous leaker @evleaks sent the image above skittering across Twitter with the simple label "HTC One, for Verizon."

In this photo the phone appears only in silver, though other finishes may be available when the One launches on Verizon.

It's coming

"It's coming - the HTC One will be available on the #Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network later this summer," @VZWnews, the official Verizon news handle, tweeted last month.

Is it a coincidence that the price of Verizon's HTC Droid DNA was slashed (via Android Community) the same day that the Verizon HTC One photo leaked? Maybe, but even so it could indicate that the One will replace the DNA on Verizon's wide-reaching 4G LTE network.

The DNA on Verizon can now be had for just $49.99 with a two-year contract, and though Verizon says it's for a limited time only, it's likely the carrier wants to move as many DNAs as possible before the One launches.

Last in line

The HTC One is already available on Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile, the other major U.S. carriers.

TechRadar asked Verizon whether they had any additional comment, but a spokesperson for the carrier pointed us toward the aforementioned tweet and reminded us that they don't comment on rumors or leaks.

TechRadar originally gave the Android HTC One a full five stars, praising its sleek design and innovative camera, among other things.

• Could Verizon's HTC One also come in red? Anything is possible, after all.

The iPhone 5S, which we're expecting to arrive later this year, may support 4G LTE-Advanced if rumoured negotiations are to be believed.

South Korean carrier SK Telecom is said to be in talks with Apple to release an iPhone capable of LTE-Advanced speeds, which a source speaking to The Korea Times believes to be the iPhone 5S.

"SK Telecom is approaching Apple to put our LTE-A technology on the upcoming iPhone 5S," said an anonymous SK Telecom executive. "We are in the middle of negotiations."

The upgrade could see the iPhone 5S achieve downloads that are the double the speed of current, though only the South Koreans will be able to reap the benefits for the time being.

Speedy... for some

Samsung pulled the same stunt just recently, with its LTE-Advanced Galaxy S4 going official last week after SK Telecom announced it had launched the world's first 4G LTE-Advanced network.

With the UK and most of the rest of the world currently without any running LTE-Advanced networks, it's unlikely that we'll be taking advantage of the greater speeds soon.

Still, having both Apple and Samsung on board could prove a catalyst for a global rollout, so if a super-speed iPhone 5S does surface, we'd expect to see LTE-Advanced make its way around the world before too long.

HP has confirmed that it is working on a new smartphone, which it says will aim to offer a different and unique user experience.

HP Senior Director of Consumer PCs and Media Tablets for Asia Pacific, Yam Su Yin, said that the company is working on a number of devices, and when asked specifically about a smartphone, admitted that one was in the pipeline.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Yin was open about HP's ambitions for a smartphone. "The answer is yes but I cannot give a timetable'" she said. "It would be silly if we say no. HP has to be in the game."

She continued: "Being late you have to create a different set of proposition. There are still things that can be done. It's not late. When HP has a smartphone, it will give a differentiated experience."

Burnt fingers

This isn't the first we've heard from HP about a return to the smartphone game, with a few previous hints that it was making plans, but it does seem like the closest thing to confirmation.

HP had a brief – and less than successful – flurry into the smartphone market when it purchased Palm for in 2010, but sales were poor and WebOS failed to catch on - although WebOS still lives on through LG.

There's no indication of when a possible new HP mobile could hit the market or what OS it could be running on. But it will really have to really make good on its promise of a unique experience if it wants to stand out in this overcrowded market.

Mobile provider Three has launched its new, simplified PAYG tariff that will apply to all of its pay-as-you-go customers.

New and existing customers will now pay 3p per minute for phone calls, 2p a text and 1p for 1MB of data. Customers won't be forced to choose between different tariffs and credit won't run out after a fixed period of time.

All the add-ons and confusing top-up options are being thrown out the window. Meanwhile, customers currently on Three's PAYG with leftover credit can use it "as they wish".

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Mozilla has announced that its fledging mobile platform will break cover tomorrow as the firm begins the rollout of its HTML5-based Firefox OS.

Sales of the Firefox OS powered smartphones will kick off in Spain with the ZTE Open available on the Telefonica-owned Movistar network for €69 (around £60) on PAYG.

Telefonica has been joined by Deutsche Telekom in the initial Firefox OS launch and the latter carrier has promised it will be launching devices in Poland very soon, although an exact date is currently unknown.

More to come

The ZTE Open is joined at launch by the Alcatel One Touch Fire, with both handsets offering low-end specs along with core apps such as Twitter, Facebook and HERE Maps.

Aimed predominantly at the emerging markets, Firefox OS looks to offer a low-cost smartphone experience which harnesses the power of HTML5 and while it may gain traction in developing nations it may find it a little trickier to break markets such as the US and UK.

Firefox OS enabled smartphones are expected to land in more Central and Eastern Europe countries later this year - although we're still waiting to hear which ones will be included, with no word on the UK just yet.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 isn't a secret and while the Korean firm may not be giving any indication that it's in the works we now have a tentative Note 3 release date.

According to AndroidGeeks a source "close to the matter" has revealed that the Galaxy Note 3 release date is being lined up for September 4 at a special Samsung Unpacked event in Berlin.

While IFA 2013 doesn't officially start until September 6, the 4th and 5th are media preview days at the show - so it all seems to fit in quite nicely - although it's not clear who the source is, or how well connected they actually are.

Sticking with tradition

Both the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 2 were launched at the two previous IFA shows in 2011 and 2012 respectively, so everyone already assumed that the Galaxy Note 3 would follow suit this year.

We've seen potential specs for the Galaxy Note 3 in previous leaks and the super-sized smartphone looks set to get even bigger with a screen possibly in the region of 5.9 inches.

This still wouldn't be a big as the 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega, or the insanely proportioned Sony Xperia Z Ultra which sports a whopping 6.44-inch display, but you can bet your bottom dollar the Note 3 will come with the S Pen stylus.

• Find out everything we know about the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in our news and rumour round-up

There's great news for anyone who happens to reside in an EU country and fancies hopping over the border to an neighbouring EU member state - roaming on your smartphone gets significantly cheaper from today.

The EU Commission has slashed roaming charges across the board with the introduction of new caps and data is the big winner seeing a 36 per cent decrease, which works out at 45 cents (around 39p) per MB.

Compare this to the price in 2007 and it's dropped 91 per cent in six years, as demand for data on the go increases - in fact data usage has grown by 630 per cent in that time.

Talk the talk

It's not just data which is getting a reduction in price, with the cost of sending a text down by 11 per cent to 8 cents (around 7p) while outgoing calls will fall by around 17 per cent to 24 cents (around 21p) per minute.

Receiving calls will also be reduced by 12 per cent per minute, and the EU Commission is promising more cuts in the future.

On July 1 2014 the EU is set to cap data roaming costs at just 20 cents (around 17p) per MB, while text messages will cost 6 cents (around 5p) and outgoing calls will be 19 cents (around 16p) per minute.