Spotify Connect is a nifty little feature, letting you stream your music to select speakers locally over Wi-Fi and eliminating the need for any Bluetooth pairing faff.

It's also something that iOS users have been able to rub in Android faces for the past couple of months. Now the feature has been made available for fans of Google's OS via an update for the Android app, as spotted by Android Police.

There are currently only a limited number of compatible partner speakers, which include Philips, Argon, Revo, Pioneer and Bang and Olufsen, and of course you'll have to be using Spotify Premium before you can start streaming.

Multi-room, multi-platform

While you're streaming music over Spotify Connect you'll be able to take calls and just generally use your phone however you want without interrupting the music.

You won't be able to play any local files though, just tracks you find on Spotify. But it's an especially handy feature if you want to get some of your own tunes rocking when visiting a friend's house.

It also means you can be as far away from the speakers are you like, just as long as you're still in Wi-Fi range.

• Google Play Music All Access or Spotify? FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

There's been a lot of talk and rumours lately about the Sony Xperia Z1s, a handset believed to be a mini version of the Sony Xperia Z1.

But as likely as that had previously seemed, a new image posted on Chinese site Digi-wo and found by Xperia Blog shows a phone that's supposedly the Xperia Z1s side by side with an Xperia Z1 and it looks anything but mini. In fact if anything it looks slightly bigger than the Xperia Z1.

The angle of the image isn't great, so it's hard to say for sure, but the Z1s looks both taller and wider than the Z1, as well as having its headphone port near the middle of the top edge, rather than to the side as the Z1 does.

Super size me

The size difference could mean that rather than being a shrunk down Z1, the Z1s is actually a slightly bigger version of the handset, perhaps with a 5.2-5.5 inch display and maybe even an increased resolution to match.

If you were looking forward to a more pocket friendly Z1 though don't give up hope yet, as a shrunk down version known as the Z1F has already been confirmed for Japan. This new news may just mean that we're getting both a mini and a max version of the Z1.

• The Samsung Galaxy S4 has already gone mini. Check out what we thought of it.

News on the successor to the five star, flagship HTC One is rife with new leaks suggesting the follow up M8 handset will be the Taiwanese firm's most powerful to date.

The HTC M8 moniker is widely believed to be a codename for next-gen smartphone (the One was known as M7 during development) and while we'd be surprised if it launch as the HTC One Two, it's currently the most common name in circulation.

Confusion over the name aside, after yesterday's brief outing the folks over at AnTuTu benchmark reckon they've uncovered a gem in their Android app - with a phone carrying the HTC M8 name posting some rather impressive information.

Feel the power

It's not clear how accurate the information is, but with a punchy 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM it would put the HTC M8 up there with (and ahead of) the LG G2, Google Nexus 5 and Sony Xperia Z1.

That's a significant boost from the HTC One, which packs a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 chip - so not only will there be more power, but hopefully better battery life from Qualcomm's efficient 800 SoC.

In terms of operating system the HTC One Two is tipped to launch with the latest version of Google's mobile platform - Android 4.4 KitKat. While the One Two may well have KitKat at its heart, HTC will almost certainly stick its Sense overlay on top.

There's no mention of which version of Sense will adorn the HTC M8, but we could well see the new 6.0 overlay, following on from 5.5 which resides on the One Max.

Storage hunters

So what else might we expect from the HTC One Two? Sadly it looks like there won't be any advances in the camera department, with the same 4MP (likely to be Ultrapixel tech) and 2.1MP lenses quoted for the rear and front of the device.

Something else which strikes fear into us is the quoted level of internal storage - just 16GB. Considering the One doesn't come with an expandable memory option and the OS takes up 8GB there could be serious storage issues here.

As we've already mentioned, these specs are certainly not set in stone and we'd be surprised if HTC didn't go down the 32GB and 64GB route for the One Two.

Unsurprisingly this handset wipes the floor with its predecessor in all the benchmark tests on Antutu so, while you should take this with a generous dosage of salt, it's looking good over at HTC.

Word on a HTC One Two release date is still relatively sparse, but it's thought the handset will make an appearance early on in 2014 - we can't wait.

• Want a top phone right now? Here's our list of the 20 best mobile phones in the world today

There isn't enough room in town for three separate versions of the Windows operating system, admitted Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Devices Julie Larson-Green.

"We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three," she confirmed last week at a UBS Global Technology Conference.

Reading between the versions, Microsoft sounds as if it's looking for a unified, mobile-friendly edition of its operating system, while keeping the more intensive desktop version.

Two months ago, the company hinted at just that, suggesting Windows RT could make its way into phones.

'We should not have called it Windows'

Microsoft learned several valuable lessons from the ill-fated launch of Windows RT, and it paid heavily with a costly write-down of Surface RT tablets.

"I think we didn't explain that super-well. I think we didn't differentiate the devices well enough," Larson-Green surmised

"They looked similar. Using them is similar. It just didn't do everything that you expected Windows to do. So there's been a lot of talk about it should have been a rebranding."

She went as far as to say that Microsoft should have called it something other than "Windows."

"We should not have called it Windows. How should we have made it more differentiated? I think over time you'll see us continue to differentiate it more."

Whether or not the product of Windows Phone and Windows RT takes that rebranding route seems to be up in the air at the Redmond, Wash.-based company right now.

The new path

Toward the end of her comments, Larson-Green noted that Microsoft's path includes a more defined mobile operating system. One that's different from the tablets like the Surface Pro 2 running full Windows 8.1.

"We do think there's a world where there is a more mobile operating system that doesn't have the risks to battery life, or the risks to security," she said.

She complimented Apple's efforts in this area, saying "you look at iPad in particular, and it's a turnkey, closed system. It doesn't degrade over time.

"It doesn't get viruses. It's not as flexible, you can't do as much with it, but it's a more seamless experience, even though more simplified.

"It also comes at the cost of flexibility," she concluded. "So we believe in that vision and that direction and we're continuing down that path."

• Read our ongoing Xbox One review, proving Microsoft got it right with its unified One console.

Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt kindly gave up his weekend to write a lengthy step-by-step guide for iPhone users who are thinking of switching to Android.

Big Eric says loads of his friends are making the transition from iOS and enjoying better, larger displays and a 'much more intuitive interface.'

In the post on his personal Google+ page, Schmidt said that an Android phone would be "a great Christmas present to an iPhone user!"

He said: "Like the people who moved from PCs to Macs and never switched back, you will switch from iPhone to Android and never switch back as everything will be in the cloud, backed up, and there are so many choices for you. 80% of the world, in the latest surveys, agrees on Android."

You got me, what?!

The series of 'Schmidt tips' advises new Android phone owners on how they can make use of iCloud and Gmail to get iPhone contacts onto the new phone.

It also explains how users can get iTunes music onto the Android phone, by using Google Music Manager and syncing to the company's cloud locker.

Are you an iPhone user? Would you welcome an Android phone in your stocking this Christmas? Or would be aghast that a loved would even consider it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

• Find out why everyone on the internet is turning into Eric Schmidt?