Hours before the US Federal Communications Commission held a 3-2 vote in favor of considering allowing calls, the nation's Department of Transportation announced it will look at banning them all together.
A myriad of stakeholders - fliers, flight attendants, lawmakers and more - have reached out to the DOT, and the consensus is they are "troubled" by the idea of in-flight cell phone chit chats.
"[A]nd I am concerned about this possibility as well," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to the Wall Street Journal.
The FCC can only determine if the ban on in-flight calls is technically sound, while it's up to the DOT to determine whether mid-air calls are fair to consumers, Foxx said.
If the DOT bans calls while the FCC passes its proposal, connected activity like text messaging and browsing would be feasible, but not calls. If the DOT decides not to move forward with a ban, it would still be up to individual airlines whether to allow them.
Well if you don't want it...
The issue has become a decisive and emotionally charged one as consumers, regulators and airlines debate the merits of allowing calls on technical grounds versus common courtesy.
In prepared remarks before a US congressional oversight committee today, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler said, "I do not want the person in the seat next to me yapping at 35,000 feet any more than anyone else. But we are not the Federal Courtesy Commission."
He said the ban is out of date - it's from the 1990s - and must be lifted if the aim is do away with "regulations that serve no purpose."
The US Federal Aviation Administration recently announced that airlines can allow the use of personal electronics during all stages of a flight, though it expressly forbade in-flight calls.
As for the FCC's proposal, it is only at the public comment stage, with no impending action.
The Hill reported Wheeler said he was pleased with the DOT's potential action, but we have a feeling this trip could get bumpy before all is said and done.
If a picture says a thousands word, SwiftKey just got a lot more efficient
Even though SwiftKey remains the top paid app in the Google Play store, a new beta proves its creators haven't put a predictive period at the end of its Android keyboard's development.
The SwiftKey 4.5 beta adds over 500 emoji faces to the letters, numbers and symbols that users are used to seeing from the keyboard app.
"Users can choose from hundreds of emoji images including smileys, fun characters, sports images, food, animals, weather symbols, transport and traffic signs, and musical references," said SwiftKey in a press release.
The emoji icons can be access through a popup panel. Tabs split the fun little pictures into five categories: people, objects, nature, places and symbols.
Predictive emoji
As you might expect from the minds of SwiftKey, the emoji in today's beta are just as much a part of the predictive candidate bar as any matching word.
"If a user starts typing 'pizza' they might see a tasty slice being served up on the candidate bar," illustrated SwiftKey.
Even more timely for the holiday season, entering in the letters for the word "Santa" suggests a Christmas emoji.
SwiftKey is even poised to learn which emoji icons you usually type after words and names.
"If someone regularly uses a particular emoji next to a specific word, such as their girlfriend's name and a heart symbol, it will learn to suggest it in future," noted the press release.
Optional numbers row
More productive than exciting, the SwiftKey 4.5 beta introduces an optional dedicated number row, which the company said was added by popular request.
It appears at the top of the keyboard instead of forcing users to hold down the top row keys or toggle between numbers and letters.
There's an ironic power struggle when it comes to charging your favorite devices wirelessly, and one of the three standards vying for the without-wires job just rebranded itself as Rezence.
The Alliance for Wireless Power, or A4WP, thinks Rezence is a more consumer-friendly brand name and that its new lightning bolt logo will strike a chord.
"The name Rezence was derived from the words resonance and essence," said Geoff Gordon, A4WP marketing committee chair, in a press release.
"The Rezence logo includes a simple, iconic mark in the form of a Z that can also be used as a standalone mark on a variety of applications."
You'll be seeing the new name and logo on boxes of smartphones and tablets that can be charged wirelessly - eventually. Rezence-enabled products are due to launch in early 2014.
Rezence vs Power Matters Alliance vs Qi
Rezence is waiting for early next year to make its presence, but you can wirelessly charge electronics through the already-launched Power Matters Alliance and Qi standards.
Plenty of major companies are playing all sides of the charging field including Samsung, LG, Sony and Qualcomm. But it may be the exclusives that matter.
The Power Matters Alliance is being proliferated by companies like AT&T, Otterbox, Sharp and Duracell.
Qi (pronounced "Chee") inductive charging, is being backed by the Wireless Power Consortium and has Nokia, Motorola, Panasonic and Verizon on its side.
Rezence has Intel in its corner and the advantage that it can charge multiple devices at once. This is a new feature that the Power Matters Alliance and Qi are working on.
Problems and solutions for consumers
This problem with this external power struggle is that it's confusing for consumers if they buy a new device that promises to wirelessly charge, but it's meant for "the other charging mat."
Just in time to meet the Christmas rush, the HTC One family of smartphones can safely return to sale in the UK after the company won a legal stay on a court-imposed injunction.
Last week the HTC One, HTC One Mini and HTC One Max, faced expulsion from Britain after the High Court court ruled favour of Nokia's assertions that the devices impinged upon its patents.
HTC immediately vowed to fight the ruling and this afternoon the Court of Appeals gave the Taiwanese company the all clear to push the popular handsets back onto UK shelves.
A company spokesperson said: "HTC is delighted that the Court of Appeals has granted a stay on the injunction against our products. We will immediately resume shipment of all of our devices into the UK, including the entire HTC One family."
Continuing the fightback
The company also stated it would continue to fight the "validity" of the court's decision, but would also seek different solutions with its chip-makers to avoid a repeat of this month's situation.
"Similarly, our customers should feel confident in their ability to promote and sell all HTC devices," the company said.
"Even though we plan to aggressively appeal the validity decision of Nokia's EP 0 998 024 patent, we will continue to work with our chip suppliers on alternative solutions to ensure minimal disruption to our business in the future."
The patent EP 0 998 024, which HTC had infringed, according to the court, relates to the way the smartphones are able to transmit data.
US customers waiting to receive their Motorola G will have to wait a little longer as winter storm Dion has delayed shipments.
The storm has stopped Motorola's Fort Worth depot in Texas from operating, which has subsequently put back the delivery date on some orders.
In a letter to a customer, Motorola openly blames the storm on the delay and promises to ship the phone by the 14th December, via overnight courier.
It's not clear exactly how many customers have been affected, but it appears to be an issue that only affects the US.
Comeback kid
This obviously won't be welcome news for Motorola as it attempts to reassert itself in the smartphone market after losing so much ground to big boys Apple, Samsung and Google.
The low-priced smartphone was released this month and touts some pretty impressive specifications, including a 4.5-inch edge-to-edge 720p display (329pp), a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM and up to 16GB in storage.
Shopping on mobiles is becoming increasingly popular
Christmas is known as much for hectic shopping centres as it is for mistletoe and goodwill. Having to rush around avoiding excited children, disgruntled parents and crowded shops is a familiar feeling to many. That could be partly behind the reason why so many are turning to using their 'digital wallets' by shopping online through their mobile phones.
2013 has been named 'the year of the mobile Christmas' and not without good reason. Sales in all fields would obviously be expected to rise around Christmas time but a trend is definitely emerging when it comes to sales from customers' smartphones.
IMRG, the leading UK body for e-retailing, has predicted that compared with 2012, 64% more of smartphone owners will use their device to shop online during Christmas 2013.
Rapid growth
Visits to mobile retail sites grew by 135% between 2012 and 2013, while John Lewis reports that 50% of its site traffic comes from mobile devices. The rise in mobile shopping has also lead to the rise of apps by major retailers, designed to take advantage of this increase in popularity and make the experience easier for consumers.
So rapid is the growth of mobile shopping that retail analysts have predicted consumer spending done via smartphone will rise to an estimated £23bn ($37bn AU$41bn) by 2018.
A combination of mobile optimisation, user friendly content and social media has made shopping on a device easier for consumers. This has drawn them from the chaotic shopping centres to the comfort of relaxing at home, purchasing gifts with their phone.
"Mobile shopping's trajectory shows nothing but promise" Mercurytide's Director, Tamlin Roberts, comments. "The benefit of targeting these users has also resonated with business owners, mobile sites, apps and responsive websites have provided an ideal opportunity to build relationships with customers."
0800, 0808 and 116 numbers will be free to call from mobile phones, the independent regulator for UK communications industries, Ofcom, announced today.
Previously 0800, 0808 and 116 numbers were only free from a BT landline, while mobile customers paid for the pleasure of being on-hold with their bank for hours.
However, as of June 2015, mobile users will not be charged. Or, as Ofcom put it, "Freephone will mean free". Ofcom said on its website that it is developing a national campaign to inform customers when the changes are implemented.
Sweeping changes
Ofcom has also fixed its regulating gaze on premium rate numbers. Companies will now have to disclose a 'service charge' when a user calls it, detailing exactly how much the call costs.
Similarly, phone service providers will have to detail how much it costs to connect users to these premium rate numbers by detailing its 'access charge'.
The hope is that this will increase competition because customers will be able to shop around for providers offering the best access charge rates.
The HTC One 2 (aka the HTC M8) is currently being drip-fed through the rumour mill, and while details on the fame-bound handset remain sketchy for the time being, it's done nothing to quell our excitement.
In fact, we're so excited for its arrival that we've had enough of squinting longingly at the few, poor quality "leaked" images currently doing the rounds online, and have taken matters into our own hands.
Taking the snippets we've heard on the tech grapevine and adding a healthy dose of TechRadar imagination, we've come up with our very own 3D concept video.
Check it out below, and be sure to tell us what you think in the comments.
In Europe at least, Spotify's success has been unparalleled. The service has become a by word for music streaming, and its star has risen fast, taking the subscription music model into the mainstream.
For a few years the lack of competition meant that Spotify's life was relatively easy, and its biggest worries were turning its free users into paid-up Spotify Premium subscribers.
However, things now aren't so simple. The likes of Google Play Music All Access, Napster, Deezer, Xbox Music, Nokia Music and now even Beats Audio muscling in on Spotify's action means life has never been tougher.
But does Spotify still have the advantage over its rivals? Or is the incumbent lagging behind the new pretenders on the streaming scene? Let's take a look.
Create, share and subscribe to playlists
The catalogue
Spotify's 20 million-track catalogue was once the envy of the streaming word, and it still edges the competition.
But line up the main players of Napster and Google Play Music All Access and compare song for song, and you won't find much difference. The selection offered by streaming services is frankly awesome, but Spotify's super strong brand does give it the edge.
In the latest update to the service, it was revealed that Spotify had secured exclusive rights to the catalogue of long-time digital dodgers Led Zepplin. The company also won rights to Metallica and Pink Floyd ahead of its rivals, and shows that being the big player has huge benefits.
Being the big brand also works against them, too. In 2013 Thom Yorke famously pulled his solo work from the service citing poor returns for small bands and artists – but Erazer and Atoms for Peace are still available via Google Play.
It's a tough call but Spotify's catalogue, coupled with its power to win high profile exclusives certainly gives it an advantage over its rivals. But with the line-ups of its rivals looking strong, there's more to a service that just the selection.
The desktop app works well but needs better search features
Desktop app
The premise of Spotify is simple. Search for the music you like, and click to play it. If you're a free user you get to add songs to playlists and listen to them of shuffle with advertising every couple of songs.
A premium subscription costs £9.99 a month, and gets rid of ads and the playback restrictions. It's a mighty free service, which none of Spotify's rivals can match, and it's worth anyone trying out.
Spotify's traditional interface has been the desktop app, which is used by the majority of its customers. It's not terribly well designed and could sorely do with an update, but the layout is functional, enabling you to see a lot of tracks at one time, which was one of our criticisms of Google Play.
If you like an album you save it as a playlist for posterity. Everything is done through playlists, whereas most services use a personal library for saved albums and playlists for things you build yourself.
It does keep it simple, but after three years and 200 playlists, it can be hard to find what you want. Spotify does nothing to keep regular playlists on top, so it's up to you to find what you need. It's not the best system, but it works.
The search is also terrible, and one thing that doesn't seem to have improved since day one. Get a song name or band name wrong or incomplete and you'll be thrown absolutely nothing in return. Search for J Dilla's "rough draft" instead of "Ruff Draft" and you may as well have searched for "infinite monkey cats".
The browser-based web player is limited in functionality
Web player
Spotify's web player is the most recent addition to its aural army of offerings and it provides a way for people to get access to their music when they can't install the desktop client. It's a big plus for workers who use corporate machines, and overall, it's excellent to use.
The layout is clear and simple, and will be familiar to any Spotify user. All options are clearly labelled on the left hand side, so it's easy to access playlists, inbox tracks and more.
Spotify is a much more feature-rich and mature service than Google Play, and the web app reflects this.
There's no HTML5 streaming feature like there is with Google Play though which means music can stutter a bit depending on what you're doing on your machine or in the same browser particularly.
The web player also doesn't work smartly with the desktop app. If you're listening to music using the desktop player and click a link, the web player opens - and there doesn't seem to be any obvious way to stop that from happening. Perhaps we should just ditch the desktop player altogether? A scary thought, but with such a comprehensive set of features, we could easily do that.
It's also almost impossible to manage playlists in the web player. It's very much a music playing option and should not be depended on to optimise your Spotify experience.
The mobile apps are brilliant, especially the Android version
Mobile app
Spotify's mobile app used to be the preserve of Spotify Premium users only, but the service has now opened up music on the move to everyone. However, those who pay out do still get the best mobile deal, as you can 'offline sync' playlists so you can listen to them without the need to stream.
Free users can only listen to playlists in shuffle mode.
The apps are all stable and easy to use and are offered on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. There's also a dedicated iPad app, but Android tablet users just have a ported version of the phone app, which works well, but doesn't look quite as good as the iPad version.
Bizarrely, each app is different and works a different way – some employing swipes and taps, others long presses and context menus. Overall, we feel Android phone users get the best deal. That particular offering has some neat additions such as placing synced albums at the top of the screen, and is designed a little cleaner that its iOS counterpart.
All options are accessed by swiping from the side, and you can again access every Spotify feature from your phone. Your inbox, playlists, friends and recommendations are all present, and the seamless integration of features means you could use the mobile app as your only entry to Spotify, and still get the maximum from it.
Share tracks, albums and playlists on Facebook if it pleases you to do so
Social
While Spotify's catalogue and app collection place it as one of the best music streaming services, it's the integration of social that crowns it king.
Social features run through the service like musical blood, but instead of being a cheap gimmick it makes the service special.
Users are linked by Facebook accounts, which means you'll quickly have a ready made community comprised of your existing friends without having to create a whole new online persona. You can then send tracks and albums to any of your friends, and things that you receive are added to your inbox.
It's vibrant, simple and works. Music's about sharing, and unlike the bland sandboxes of Napster and Google Play Music All Access, Spotify mixes the right amount of social features without going overboard.
You can send links to tracks and playlists and subscribe to any other user's, too, and sites like ShareMyPlaylist.com have created sub-communities full of new music to discover.
When diligent user spend hours creating playlists of game and film soundtracks like the fantastic GTA V list earlier this year, they spread via Twitter and Facebook like wildfire. They become worldwide events supported by Spotify.
Of course, some aspects of Spotify's social features aren't quite so good. You can follow artists which helps the recommendation system, but it's half-baked and has no real benefit.
Follow your Facebook friends' musical activity from within Spotify
Verdict
Spotify is still the undisputed king of streaming, and its reign doesn't look like ending soon.
There are still things to work on for a perfect score. A better desktop app and brushing up the organisation and search features should be top of the agenda, as well as new features such as party modes and better discoverability of new music.
However, its fantastic catalogue, ability to use its brand to win major exclusives and superb (and unrivaled) social features make it the obvious choice for anyone looking to take the plunge with streaming. Add to that the fantastic free features and it's a no-brainer to give Spotify a try.
Talk surrounding a more affordable version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is refusing to go away, and now some specs for the Note 3 Lite have appeared online.
The details cropped up on Korean site ETNews, with an "industry source" claiming that the Galaxy Note 3 Lite would sport a 5.68-inch display - pretty much the same size as the Note 3 - although it wouldn't be treated to the same AMOLED screen tech.
Instead Samsung will apparently opt for a cheaper LCD display for the Lite version, and while the resolution isn't stated we wouldn't be surprised if this model didn't have a full HD offering.
Apparently Samsung's decision to not reduce the size of the screen on the Galaxy Note 3 Lite is due to the S Pen stylus, which works better on larger displays.
Snap not-so-happy
The Galaxy Note 3 sports a 13MP camera, the same as you'll find on the flagship Galaxy S4, but the Galaxy Note 3 Lite may have to make do with an 8MP sensor - which was found on both the original Note and Note 2.
Apparently Samsung has already started production of the Galaxy Note 3 Lite, and it's still in line to make an appearance at MWC 2014 in February.
Samsung risks confusing consumers with its supersized handsets, as there are reports of a Galaxy Grand Lite and Galaxy Grand 2 also lined up for MWC appearances.
If all three handsets make it out they would join the Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Mega and Galaxy Grand in Samsung's big phone line up, and if you ask us that's simply too many.
As Android phones and tablets have increased in popularity, the number of apps available for the platform has rocketed.
And that means more free Android games. There's a lot of junk out there but, fortunately, there are gems among the junk.
We've worked our way through a whole load of Android games to reveal the ones you should download to your phone.
So without delay, here is our pick of the 90 best free Android games available.
1. Angry Birds
The amazingly popular iOS game earned over two million downloads during its first weekend of availability on Android and despite myriad sequels and spinoffs, it is still a great game to play.
The Android version of Angry Birds is free, unlike the Apple release, with maker Rovio opting to stick a few adverts on it rather than charge an upfront fee. The result is a massive and very challenging physics puzzler that's incredibly polished and professional. For free. It defies all the laws of modern retail.
2. Bebbled
Bebbled is your standard gem-shuffling thing, only presented in a professional style you wouldn't be surprised to see running on something featuring a Nintendo badge with an asking price similar to that of a Blu-ray disc.
You only drop gems on other gems to nuke larger groups of the same colour, but with ever-tightening demands for score combos and scenes that require you to rotate your phone to flip the play field on its head, Bebbled soon morphs into an incredibly complex challenge.
3. Red Stone
There's an awful lot of square-shuffling games on Android and Red Stone is one of the best. And one of the hardest. You start off with a big fat 'King' square that's four times of the normal 'pawn' squares, then set about shuffling things so the fat King can get through to an exit at the top of the screen.
It's hard to accurately describe a puzzle game in the written word, but seriously, it's a good game.
4. Newton
Released in beta form, Newton is a maths/physics challenge that has you lining up shots at a target - but having to contend with the laws of nature, in the form of pushers, pullers, benders (no laughing), mirrors and traps, all deflecting your shot from its target.
The developer is still adding levels to it at the moment, so one day Newton might be finished and might cost money. But for now it's free and a great indie creation.
5. Angry Birds Star Wars
The Angry physics phenomenon took a turn for the weird late in 2012, with Rovio acquiring the rights to blend Star Wars characters with its popular Angry Birds play mechanics. Angry Birds Star Wars is actually pretty nice, with players using Star Wars weaponry to smash down scenery alongside the usual destructive physics action. Not the car crash IP clash we were expecting.
6. Drop
Some might call Drop a game, others might classify it as a tech demo that illustrates the accuracy of the Android platform's accelerometer, thanks to how playing it simply involves tilting your phone while making a little bouncy ball falls between gaps in the platforms. Either way it'll amuse you for a while and inform you of the accuracy of your accelerometer - a win-win situation.
7. Frozen Bubble
Another key theme of the independent Android gaming scene is (ports of) clones of popular titles. Like Frozen Bubble, which is based around the ancient and many-times-copied concept of firing gems up a screen to make little groups of similarly coloured clusters. That's what you do. You've probably done it a million times before, so if it's your thing get this downloaded.
8. Replica Island
Replica Island is an extremely polished platform game that pulls off the shock result of being very playable on an Android trackball. The heavy momentum of the character means you're only switching direction with the ball or d-pad, letting you whizz about the levels with ease. Then there's jumping, bottom-bouncing, collecting and all the other usual platform formalities.
9. Gem Miner
In Gem Miner you are a sort of mole character that likes to dig things out of the ground. But that's not important. The game itself has you micro-managing the raw materials you find, upgrading your digging powers and buying bigger and better tools and maps. Looks great, plays well on Android's limited button array. Go on, suck the very life out of the planet.
10. ConnecToo
Another coloured-square-based puzzle game, only ConnecToo has you joining them up. Link red to red, then blue to blue - then see if you've left a pathway through to link yellow to yellow. You probably haven't, so delete it all and try again.
A brilliantly simple concept. ConnecTooused to be a paid-for game, but was recently switched to an ad-supported model - meaning it now costs you £0.00.
11. Tetris
The most successful game to come out of Russia since, er, Russian roulette, Tetris has lost none of its gaming lustre in the 25 years since it was first released. And now you can play the game on your phone, and thanks to EA's slightly irksome free-to-play model it is free! Well, free as in you have to dodge some awfully intrusive ads. Still, it's got the original Tetris music so we are happy and so should you be.
12. Trap!
Not the best-looking game you'll ever play, with its shabby brown backgrounds and rudimentary text making it look like something you'd find running on a PC in the year 1985. But Trap! is good.
You draw lines to box in moving spheres, gaining points for cordoning off chunks of the screen. That sounds rubbish, so please invest two minutes of your time having a go on it so you don't think we're talking nonsense.
13. Jewels
Coloured gems again, and this time your job is to switch pairs to make larger groups which then disappear. That might also sound quite familiar. The good thing about Jewels is its size and presentation, managing to look professional while packing in more levels than should really be given away for free.
14. OpenSudoku
We had to put one Sudoku game in here, so we'll go with OpenSudoku - which lives up to its open tag thanks to letting users install packs of new puzzles generated by Sudoku makers. It's entirely possible you could use this to play new Sudoku puzzles for the rest of your life, if that's not too terrifying a thought.
15. Abduction!
Abduction! is a sweet little platform jumping game, presented in a similarly quirky and hand-drawn style as the super-fashionable Doodle Jump. You can't argue with cute cows and penguins with parachutes, or a game that's easy to play with one hand thanks to its super accessible accelerometer controls.
16. The Great Land Grab
A cross between a map tool and Foursquare, The Great Land Grab sorts your local area into small rectangular packets of land - which you take ownership of by travelling through them in real-time and buying them up.
Then someone else nicks them off you the next day, a bit like real-world Risk. A great idea, as long as you don't mind nuking your battery by leaving your phone sitting there on the train with its GPS radio on.
17. Brain Genius Deluxe
Our basic legal training tells us it's better to use the word "homage" than to label something a "rip-off", so we'll recommend this as a simple "homage" to the famed Nintendo Brain Trainingfranchise.
Clearly Brain Genius Deluxe is not going to be as slick, but there's enough content in here to keep you "brain training" (yes, it even uses that phrase) until your battery dies. The presentation's painfully slow, but then again that might be the game teaching you patience.
18. Coloroid
Coloroid is aery, very simple and has the look of the aftermath of an explosion in a Tetris factory, but it works. All you do is expand coloured areas, trying to fill them in with colours in as few moves as possible - like using Photoshop's fill tool at a competitive level.
19. Cestos
Cestos is sort of a futuristic recreation of curling, where players chuck marbles at each other to try and smash everyone else's balls/gems down the drain and out of the zone. The best part is this all happens online against real humans, so as long as there's a few other bored people out there at the same time you'll have a real, devious, cheating, quitting person to play against. Great.
20. Air Control
One of the other common themes on the Android gaming scene is clones of games based around pretending to be an air traffic controller, where you guide planes to landing strips with a swish of your finger. There are loads of them, all pretty much the same thing - we've chosen Air Control as it's an ad-supported release, so is technically free.
Facebook has pushed out a new update for its iOS app, adding a feature that sees videos automatically play as you scroll past them.
Like it or loathe it, the version 6.8 update introduces the mandatory auto-play function, which follows in the footsteps of Vine and Instagram.
Like Instagram, the sound will be muted unless you actually click on it, but if you want you can alter the settings so that video and audio start playing together in harmony.
While it won't be embraced lovingly by everyone, the good news is that you can set auto-play to Wi-Fi-only if you're watching the old data allowance.
Play it again, Sam
Facebook also told TechCrunch that it plans to roll out the feature to the web version of Facebook.
This means that everything is in place for Facebook to start rolling out those 15-second autoplaying ads that are rumoured to start appearing soon.
Right now this is just on the iOS app, but we've asked Facebook when the same feature might roll over to other platforms and will update when we hear more.
When Apple unveiled iOS 7, CEO Tim Cook called it the "biggest change since the iPhone". The OS received a major visual and interaction overhaul, along with a slew of new features.
The OS should arrive in the hands of consumers around October 2013, and in the meantime Apple has already released several beta versions, one of which radically altered the system's typography.
Still, there are many other things we'd like to see Apple change by the time iOS 8 rolls around in 2014 - although in some cases we've gpt a sneaking suspicion Apple would disagree.
1. Change and hide default iOS apps
We'd love to be able to choose non-Apple alternatives for handling email, browsing and maps, but doubt it'll happen. However, Apple not providing the means to hide preinstalled apps you don't use is an irritant that goes back to the very first iPhone.
Even if there was a similar 'parental controls' trick for hiding apps to the one on the Apple TV, that'd be good enough.
2. A guest/child account
Apple's mantra is everyone should own their own device. That's lovely, but not everyone's pockets are as deep as those of Apple board members.
OS X-style user accounts are unlikely, but it can't be beyond Apple to provide a single-tap child account or a guest account that doesn't affect your settings and data, and doesn't retain settings or data of its own.
3. Better iOS app management
As of iOS 7, Apple automates app updates, but it should go further. Devs wrestle with iCloud app data, but this should be child's play to save and also (optionally) restore whenever you reinstall an app.
And the App Store itself should offer trials and paid version updates (rather than devs being forced to use IAP or 'replacement' apps as a workaround).
4. Stronger inter-app communications
One of the weakest elements of iOS is inter-app communication. If a service bumps you to another app, you're not always returned when you've finished performing an action.
Worse, when making document edits across several apps workflow can be a nightmare with document copies in various states strewn throughout individual app sandboxes.
5. Better document management
Following on from the previous point, iOS should introduce at least some kind of centralised access to documents. Right now, Dropbox is a surrogate file system because iCloud is a bunch of silos.
It's absurd that you can't easily attach documents within Mail in an OS that boasts a version number of 7. The lack of collaboration opportunities within iCloud document workflow is also disappointing.
6. Group FaceTime calls
This isn't specifically tied to iOS, but Apple's mobile platform is where FaceTime began life, and although the one-to-one model is great, it's about time you could call several people at once, rather than a group having to crowd around an iPhone.
7. iOS notifications like in OS X Mavericks
In OS X Mavericks, notifications are interactive - get a message and you can deal with it there and then, rather than leaving the app you're in. This is even more important on iOS, and so we hope Apple adds similar functionality on mobile. Google does it with aplomb, so we want to see the same here.
8. More Do Not Disturb options
Do Not Disturb gained extra power in iOS 7, enabling you to silence notifications only when a device is locked. Bizarrely, it still retains only a single schedule though. Is it beyond Apple to enable you to at least set one for weekdays and a separate one for weekends?
9. Better text manipulation
Apple's text-selection, cut, copy and paste seemed elegant when it was introduced, but only compared to disastrous equivalents on competing mobile systems.
Today, it comes across as awkward, and it's a barrier to usability for far too many people. We'd like to see a rethink from Apple and more usable and intuitive ways of dealing with text.
10. Two-up apps
We love the focus iOS provides, but there are times when we'd like to work with two apps at once. Much like messing with default apps, we doubt Apple will ever go down this path, but OS X Mavericks now has a more powerful full-screen mode for multiple monitors.
So there's perhaps the slightest hope a multi-screen mode might one day arrive for the iPad or a larger iPhone, and would be one in the eye for all those Samsung owners out there.
Owners of Sony smartphones are waiting with baited breath for an upgrade to the latest version of Jelly Bean, with reports suggesting the update for the Xperia Z1 has been certified.
According to Xperia Blog the Android 4.3 upgrade for Sony's latest flagship model has passed through the PTCRB testing system, which means it should be with us in the coming weeks.
It went on to reveal which devices will be first in line for an Android 4.4 upgrade next year.
"The first raft of Xperia products that we'll make Android 4.4 Kit Kat available for are: Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia Z Ultra and Xperia Z1."
We just hope Sony has done a better job with Android 4.3 than Samsung, who has been dogged by issues on the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3.
But over in London at a debate on the future of music streaming, attended by Google, Universal music and UK streaming app Bloom.fm, the story was a little different.
According to Oleg Fomenko, CEO and co-founder of Bloom.fm, no matter how good a service might look or feel, a lot of people just aren't willing to shell out for the full subscription - we need a wider range of payment plans.
"It's clear that people are not going for it," said Fomenko, addressing the fact that music piracy is still a problem.
"Right now if you're on a mobile device, the choice you have is either be on free or pay £120 a year," he said on services such as Spotify.
Music streaming app Bloom launched earlier this year with a tier-based subscription. People can access genre-based radios for no price at all, while subscription levels then go up from £1 (about $1.64, AU$1.81) to £10 (about $16.36, AU$18.14).
"We need to give people a tiered proposition that will allow them to start paying an amount of money that they can afford," Fomenko added.
8 out of 10 tracks
While it was one way to big up Bloom, Fermenko's words were also meant as advice for the streaming industry at large.
He also said that Bloom recently carried out research and found that more an average of eight out of ten consumers said that £10 a month is too much for them to pay
"We're going for an audience that has been historically accused and noted to be using piracy more than anyone else," said Fomenko.
"Let them move from one level to another as and if they feel that it is right".
4G is still finding its feet in the UK, but now that all four networks have their superfast services up and running there's hot competition for customers and O2 is the latest network to rework its tariffs.
From today, O2 has cut the cost of its pay monthly 4G tariffs giving you more data for less money. On the 12 month, SIM-only O2 Simplicity contract you now get 1GB of data plus unlimited calls and texts for £21 per month, down from £26.
The 3GB, £31 per month tariff has been scrapped, replaced instead with 5GB at £26 and O2 is now offering customers an 8GB data option at a palatable £31 per month.
If you're already an O2 4G customer and are feeling a little hard done by, the bubbly network has confirmed that you'll be getting a bump in your monthly data allowance - sort of like an early Christmas present.
Free 4G for 3G
The big news though is that some O2 3G customers will receive an upgrade to the firm's 4G network at no extra cost.
To qualify for the 4G upgrade you'll need to be on a tariff with at least 1GB of data per month and have a 4G-ready handset. If you're on the right tariff, but are still languishing on a 3G mobile O2 will allow you to upgrade to its Refresh contract, giving you a 4G phone and 25% off your remaining line rental.
EE, O2 and Vodafone will be feeling the pinch of Three's free 4G upgrade for its customers - EE has already cut its 4G prices - and it's no surprise that the networks are reworking tariffs to make them more affordable.
O2's 4G network has now been switched on in 13 cities and 140 towns across the UK, and it claims it now covers almost a third of the population.
