The HTC Desire 500 will make its intrepid journey to the UK and will be available this month, after recently making an appearance in Asia.

The mid-ranger features a 4.3-inch screen with a 800 x 480 resolution, 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Meanwhile there's an 8-megapixel rear camera capable of shooting video in 720p and a 1.6 megapixel rear snapper.

The handset also has a microSD slot with support for cards up to 64GB, and a 1800mAh battery providing the juicepower. Dual-SIM and NFC versions will be available in some European countries.

A big feature being pushed on the handset is Blinkfeed, HTC's tile-based, updating homescreen. Of course, those who aren't so keen on this function should probably note that it's not something you can switch off.

Blink and you'll miss it

For those of you expecting the HTC One Max, or a slightly better-spec phone, sorry to disappoint. But as the Taiwanese company says, this is designed for those looking for an affordable HTC experience.

The Desire will be available in 'Lacquer' black and 'Glacier' blue, which sound much fancier than regular black and blue.

HTC has told us that the phone will be available in August, although it's told us to hold tight for a specific date for the diary.

• Check out our review of the HTC One

Apple released the iOS 7 beta 5 download to developers today, putting the latest preview version of its refreshed operating system in their hands through an over-the-air update.

iOS 7 beta 5 brings about minor changes, as explored by 9to5Mac, including tweaked icons and an additional control center setting.

The most noticeable graphics update occurs in the settings menu. More colorful icons replace the all-blue images of the previous four betas.

Another highlight among the user interface changes is that the new "slide to power off" design is no longer edge-to-edge.

"Slide to power off" does, however, still have that reddish-orange tint to it. No change there. It still looks much louder than the prior silver and black scheme of iOS 6 and below.

Control center updates

Control center, one of the more anticipated features of iOS 7, also received a minor revision.

It's now possible to disable this swipe-from-the-bottom menu layer while in apps. The reason for this is likely because certain apps like games could use screen swiping controls that interfere with the new gesture.

Everything else about the long-overdue control center menu remains intact. It offers quick access to toggle buttons like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and airplane mode without requiring users to exit an app and dig into the settings menu.

It's exactly what jailbreakers have been doing with Cydia's SBSettings since the early days of iOS. It only took Apple about five years to catch up.

Not long now

Apple is pushing out regular iOS 7 beta updates with minor changes, which means we should see the launch of its fall-bound mobile operating system very soon.

iOS 7 is expected to make the developer-to-average user transition at the same time a new generation of Apple smartphones is introduced, as per usual.

Speculation points to an iPhone 5S and cheap iPhone launch date in September, so it may only be a month or so away.

• Read the latest rumors regarding iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 features

The HTC One Max will be truly massive, according to the the latest photo leak.

The alleged upcoming phablet popped up on nowhereelse.fr (the same site that yesterday brought us a supposed LG G2 manual), where it appeared courtesy of the same person who leaked HTC One Max photos on Monday this week.

Today's leak is a big improvement, though, as it shows exactly how big the HTC One Max really is.

The phone that it's under is reportedly the Motorola MOTO XT882, a device that's 4.81 x 2.46 x 0.52 inches with a 4-inch display - showing just how much bigger the HTC One Max really is.

Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave

It looks like the HTC One Max may be on the docket for IFA 2013 as rumors of a September release are compounded by HTC's own teases.

Just yesterday the Taiwanese company release a snippet of video involving a briefcase, a helicopter, and a figure who may or may not be be Iron Man.

An ominous "big things ahead" tag line accompanied the tease.

Bigger and Better

At this time it's thought that HTC will send the HTC One Max into the ring to duke it out directly with Samsung's Galaxy Note 3, and it's yet to be seen which one will turn out more massive.

Currently the HTC One Max is believed to have a 5.9-inch 1080p display and a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800, which would make it both bigger and better than the HTC One.

It could even arrive rocking Android 4.3.

• Turn to TechRadar for all the latest news and rumors on the HTC One Max and its main rival, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

Google's latest patent hints that future Android iterations will let you draw specific patterns to unlock your phone straight into the app you want.

The application suggests that you'll set up several patterns to unlock your phone to take you into, say, the camera app or the dialer screen.

It's simple yet handy, as all the best things are. Could we see the new unlock-ability make its debut in Android 5.0 - also known as Key Lime Pie?

All killer, no filler

Let's hope so. But just when might that be? At this point, your guess is as good as ours.

Wait, no, that's not true. Our guesses are pretty solid and we reckon October 2013 is a good bet.

We don't expect this nifty unlock-to-app to be the headlining feature though - we've had a think about what we'd like in the next Android version here.

• For now we're stuck with Android 4.3 - and here's everything you need to know about that

The Nokia Lumia 1020's UK release date has apparently been outed early alongside a price for the 41-megapixel camera smartphone.

The handset will launch on September 5, according to online retailer Expansys, which is currently offering the phone for pre-order.

The less great news is that Expansys is also pricing the 1020 at £599.99 SIM-free, which works out at about £15 a megapixel. Or, in other words, a lot of moolah.

Illumination stations

If this price is accurate, it would make the 1020 Nokia's most expensive Lumia to date. Meanwhile, Unlock Mobiles has the phone slightly cheaper at £549.99.

Of course, given that the Lumia 1020 has the highest resolution sensor in a smartphone, we weren't exactly expecting it to come cheap.

Right now neither Nokia nor any of the major networks are listing the handset release date or giving any indication of what a subsidised contract price might look like.

We expect it won't be long though, and don't worry - we'll tell you as soon as they tell us.