When it comes to buying new technology, it pays to be quick - a lesson fans of Mozilla's open-sourceFirefox OS were taught over the weekend.

The Telegraph reported Tuesday that Chinese manufacturer ZTE sold out the first production run of its highly anticipated Open, one of the first smartphones powered by Firefox OS.

After debuting branded eBay Stores in both the U.S. and U.K. last Friday, ZTE managed to sell out of the unlocked handsets by Monday, leaving Mozilla fans empty-handed until the manufacturer can restock its virtual shelves.

Featuring a 3.5-inch screen with 1GHz processor, 3.2MP rear camera and 512MB of internal storage, theZTE Open isn't exactly a smartphone powerhouse - but for only $79.99 USD (UK£59.99), it doesn't have to be.

Orange alert

There's no mistaking the ZTE Open, which features a bright orange back and Firefox OS, a version of Mozilla's open-source web browser reworked into a smartphone operating system.

Launched earlier this summer in Spain, Venezuela and Columbia on the Telefonica network, the ZTE Open marked the first time Americans and Britons alike could get their hands on the distinctive handset through retail channels.

The web-based Firefox OS harkens back to the days of Palm's ill-fated webOS, which has ironically alsofound a home in the open-source community after buyer HP failed to gain any traction in the market against iOS and Android.

Unlike webOS, however, Firefox OS doesn't require downloading and installing the type of apps made popular by Apple and Google, since the entire platform is essentially a glorified web browser.

Be sure to check out our full review of Google's new Chromecast!

With the tech world awash with rumours about the iPhone 5C, iWatch, and Apple iTV, a new product is hoping to tap into the steady stream of coverage Apple is getting at the moment.

Called the iTap, this peripheral looks to be perfect for those whose love for Apple runs both hot and cold.

All right, you've got us: it's just a charging plug shaped like a tap. But it's just the sort of thing Jony Ive would design if he hadn't sold his soul to the Bauhaus movement.

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Good news for those of you who love hooking your smartphone up to TVs or monitors to watch a movie or play a game on a big screen: MHL 3.0 has been announced complete with 4K (Ultra HD) resolution capabilities.

For those of you who are unsure what MHL is, in its most basic form it allows you to plug your smartphone or tablet into an HDMI port in your TV via the handset's microUSB port.

Nokia, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba make up the MHL Consortium that governs the standard and the latest update in the form of version 3.0 will be available from next month.

More sound, screens and peripherals

The 4K upgrade means the bandwidth for the service has been doubled over MHL 2.0, and alongside the visual update version 3.0 also offers 7.1 surround sound support for better a better audio experience.

For those of you who like dabbling with more than one screen at a time MHL 3.0 also supports multiple displays as well as input devices such as keyboards and mice.

Of course you're only going to fully benefit from this upgrade if you a) own an MHL enabled device (of which we're told there are over 330 million in the world) and b) own a 4K monitor or television, which are still very expensive at this point in time.

However, as the mobile phone or tablet increasingly becomes part of the connected home, the ability to stream 7.1 surround sound will be key for online video services, or content you've downloaded to your device. We can see a time when such enhancements can be charged extra for, enabling new content streams for media providers.

The price of 4K technology will also drop over the next few years, and it's good to see that at least our wired connections between mobile devices and large displays will be ready for the mass uptake - now on to 4K wireless streaming.

Chances of a smartphone sporting a flexible display arriving before the year's end are slim, but we're hearing that we may at least see concept devices before 2014 rolls around.

According to Korean site ETNews the two major manufacturers of flexible displays - Samsung and LG - will start shipping the screens this November with a couple of concept smartphones in the pipeline.

This is all coming from unspecified "industry analysis", so we're taking it with a heavy dose of salt, but the source goes on to claim the concept handsets will be billed as 'unbreakable and light' and used as pilots to gauge market response.

Flex your muscle

Both Samsung and LG have a lot of work to do if the market reaction is positive however, with both firms needing to increasing their flexible panel production lines to cope with a mass market device.

That means will probably have to wait several months into 2014 before the first real, flexible smartphones possibly hit shop shelves.

Samsung is really pushing the flexible display envelope, as it recently set up a competition encouraging people to come up with ideas surrounding the technology with a prize of $10,000 (about £6,400, AU$10,900) up for grabs.

It's not just smartphones that are being groomed for flexible displays, with tablets and wearable tech such as smartwatches also heavily tipped to benefit from the bendy screens.

LG has announced that it's developed the world's first, and highest resolution, Quad HD AH-IPS LCD display for smartphones capable of giving an incredible pixel density of 538ppi.

The 5.5-inch panel sports a 2560 x 1440 resolution, considerably sharper than the screens on the Samsung Galaxy S4 (441ppi), HTC One (469ppi) and LG G2 (424ppi) which all boast still splendid - yet smaller - 1080 x 1920 displays.

While questions might be raised over the need for such a high density display on such a small surface area LG claims its new screen will allow users to enjoy Blu-ray quality movies and view desktop versions of websites without image distortion on their smartphones.

Now that's great for the average Joe consumer, but LG's screen tech breakthrough with improved contrast, more delicate colours and life-like images could see it excel in various fields such as medicine and military scenarios where greater detail is required.

Slim Jim

If that retina-popping resolution wasn't enough, LG is claiming that its fancy new display is also the world's thinnest at 1.21mm in depth - which could see our top end smartphones get even thinner than the already svelte 7.9mm Xperia Z and Galaxy S4.

This is still some way off the 4K resolution we're beginning to see on televisions, and while 3840 x 2160 on such a small display is not really necessary - with questions raised over what the human eye can distinguish - it's surely only a matter of time before we're carrying round a 4K screen in our pocket.

It's not clear when we'll see LG's fancy new screen actually make its way into a handset, although it's quite possible we'll get treated to it sometime next year.