Spotify's competitors are stepping up their respective games
Spotify was seemingly under siege from tech's big guns today, following Sony's decision to retool its iOS app to battle the music streaming leader.
On the same day Microsoft confirmed it would be rolling out Xbox Music on the web to take on Spotify's own browser-based service, Sony announced it intended to match Spotify on iOS devices.
The Music Unlimited app, like its Android equivalent, will soon give subscribers access to offline playlists for the first time.
That particular feature has been one of Spotify's most enduring features, allowing subscribers to store up to 3,333 songs for playback when they're away for an internet connection or are on a limited data plan.
HQ Audio coming too
Version 1.3 of the app, which will go live "very soon" according to the official Sony Entertainment Network blog, also brings 320Kbps streams, which matches Spotify's highest playback quality.
Sony said the app has been submitted to Apple and is waiting for approval. You can check out the new features in the video below.
Leaked iPhone 5S photos are getting less blurry - it must be close (credit: Weibo)
The iPhone 5S is shaping up to be an incremental update to Apple's smartphone line, not a major rehttp://techradar.com/vision, according to newly leaked photos that may be of the forthcoming phone in pieces.
The pictures of an unassembled iPhone 5S, compiled by Slashgear, rehttp://techradar.com/veal a dehttp://techradar.com/vice with similar dimensions and features as the existing iPhone 5 model, and http://techradar.com/very few noticeable differences.
All of this information backs up recent rumors about Apple's next iteration of its smartphone.
Prehttp://techradar.com/viously, it's been hinted that iPhone 5S will hahttp://techradar.com/ve a dual-LED flash for its rear camera and a slightly beefier 5.92 Whr battery, an upgrade ohttp://techradar.com/ver the 5.45 Whr battery.
A Humpty Dumpty moment for iPhone 5S
Photos are clear, other facts still blurry
While there hahttp://techradar.com/ve been multiple leaked photos of the purported iPhone 5S dual-flash LED, we're still waiting to hear about the camera upgrade and if it indeed has a 12 megapixel camera.
The other lingering questions are if it will hahttp://techradar.com/ve an updated processor like the iPad 4's A6X or jumped to the next in line A7, and whether or not it will contain the anticipated fingerprint sensor.
Beyond the iPhone 5S, change may come to Apple's hardware through a completely different dehttp://techradar.com/vice if the always-rumored, nehttp://techradar.com/ver-fulfilled iPhone Mini shows up as a low-cost model.
All eyes on iOS 7
Much to the delight of iPhone accessory manufacturers, the screen size and http://techradar.com/volume buttons of the iPhone 5S appear to be the same as last year's model.
Instead of dramatically changing up its hardware formula, Apple seems to be inhttp://techradar.com/vesting all of its rehttp://techradar.com/vamping energy into the operating system.
The Jony Ihttp://techradar.com/ve-dehttp://techradar.com/veloped iOS 7 has cleaner-looking icons that remohttp://techradar.com/ve all of the gloss and texture that has existed since the smartphone line's launch in 2007.
It also has helpful new features like Notification Center so that users don't hahttp://techradar.com/ve to exit out of an app to change minor system settings like brightness or toggle Bluetooth connectihttp://techradar.com/vity.
iOS 7, along with the iPhone 5S, are expected to debut in September. And with the deluge of manufacturing photos getting less and less blurry, that launch date must be getting closer and closer.
Crimson and cobalt come walking over (credit: Naver.com)
After a week in which Samsung formally unveiled more Galaxy S4 variants like the Galaxy S4 Zoom and Galaxy S4 Active, another iteration of the popular Android phone was uncovered.
We already knew Sammy was planning to release a version of the Galaxy S4 with 4G LTE-Advanced capabilities, but we didn't know when or if there would be any cosmetic changes to the handset.
While we still don't know which countries will get to take advantage of the high-powered phone, a new set of leaked photos gives us a better idea of what to expect from the Galaxy S4 with 4G LTE-A when it does finally arrive.
Korean site Naver happened to get its hands on what appears to be two versions of the upcoming smartphone, which bear a distinctly patriotic color scheme.
Same old Samsung and dance
Dressed in crimson red and cobalt blue, the Galaxy S4 with 4G LTE-A certainly doesn't do anything to stand out from the crowd.
Even though the new handset will supposedly deliver speeds up to twice as fast as standard 4G LTE, that didn't stop Samsung from rolling out the same old blue we've been seeing adorn its phones for quite some time.
Though the red hue is a bit sharper, and does indeed pop a bit more, it's still a rather standard set of choices when compared to the more flamboyant aesthetics of the Xperia Z or the Lumia 920.
Unfortunately, Naver didn't provide any other details on what type of specs the latest Galaxy S4 included, or if they differed at all from the original.
It's been reported the 4G LTE-A version would feature a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, but that fact is still up in the air at this point.
That a site was able to get its hands on what appears to be near-final versions of the smartphone does indicate we might not have to wait much longer to find out all the details.
It's curious though that Samsung didn't have the Galaxy S4 with 4G LTE-A at its Samsung Premiere event if it was so close to finished with the product, but perhaps the Korean manufacturer is waiting for the right moment to strike (or for cellular networks globally to catch up to the technology).
It certainly wouldn't be out of the question to see this new speedier phone debut alongside the oft-rumored Galaxy Note 3, which has been tipped for an August release.
Sony's new phablet could bring a premium price tag
No sooner had Sony revealed its new Xperia Z Ultra device than UK network Three announced it would be carrying the device.
However, judging by Sony's pricing in the Netherlands, the new phablet may cost a pretty penny when it comes to UK shores sometime later this year.
According to the Sony's official communications in the Land of Orange, the device will cost a substantial €719 to buy SIM-free, which equates to about £610 at today's exchange rate.
Of course, the Samsung Galaxy Note-bothering device is likely to be much cheaper (if not free) on contract, but that's a hefty sum for an unlocked device.
Premium specs? Premium price
In its blog post on Tuesday, Three didn't mention a release date or UK price for the device, only that it would be coming soon.
However, the specs would seem to justify an inflated price tag compared to the highly-rated Xperia Z smartphone.
Beyond the 1080p. 6.4-inch screen, which boasts the same Triluminous tech used in the company's Bravia TVs, the Z Ultra also has a powerful quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, clocked at 2.2GHz.
There's an 8-megapixel camera and, like its smartphone predecessor, it's also waterproof and dustproof to a certain degree and comes packing Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2.
Check back soon for more news on an official UK price and release date, but in the meantime, check out our own Gareth Beavis' hands-on with the Sony Xperia Z Ultra.
Glastonbury has always suffered from patchy, unreliable mobile phone signal. It's like New Year's Eve all day every day, with texts taking hours to deliver and bellowed phone calls audible only half the time.
And while some people head to the festival to disconnect from both reality and their data networks for a few days, others fear long, dry days devoid of Instagram and iMessage, lost somewhere between the cider bus and Shangri La, doomed not to find their friends until they all stumble back to pass out in the tent at 5.30am.
Disconnected countryside
It doesn't help that Worthy Farm is slap bang in the middle of the countryside, where the big city infrastructure is yet to infiltrate. Why bother digging up the land, laying expensive cables and investing in next-gen networks when only 8,700 people live there for 98.6 per cent of the year?
Patchy rural connectivity is a big problem though and, while we doubt that Glastonbury is its top priority, it is one the government is looking into. More immediately, Glastonbury Festival is unique in that, for one week a year, it brings an urban-size population all expecting to text, call and tweet their way through the festival, and dumps it on to a rural network that struggles to support even a super low countryside density.
So while the town mice have begun flocking to Worthy Farm this week, EE, one of the festival's sponsors and provider of the mobile network onsite, has already been beavering away there for months - but how exactly do you bring a big city network to the middle of nowhere?
Wi-Fi by the truckload
Taking a leaf out of the hipster book, EE has basically brought along its own pop-up network.
"If you have masts that are all very close together you can provide more capacity in an area so you can support more users," EE spokesperson Howard Jones explains. "So in a rural area you have masts that are further apart because you don't need to be able to provide coverage or capacity to as many people. It's as simple as that."
So rather than try and use what's already there, EE grabs some trucks, loads them up with masts and drives them on down.
"We take a portable version of our mobile phone network - and it literally is base stations and masts on trucks that you drive down there and position around the site strategically.
"Then we deploy a 2G, 3G and 4G layer for the network, so there's service for all levels of customers - a lot of people we might see at the festival are people taking their old Nokia 2G phone because they only want to call and text rather than go on Twitter or stream video or any of that.
"Basically, we're throwing everything at it."
Specifically, EE has five mast sites positioned around the festival, with 250 transmitters between them.
While there's no telling if EE's "everything" will be enough until the festival hits its stride later this week, Jones is confident of the network's capacity - or hopeful, at least: "We believe there's enough in there to support everybody on the network."
Who needs it anyway?
There's an argument that the whole 4G festival thing is one big publicity stunt. Because, really, who wants to risk their expensive top-of-the-range smartphone when there's the triple threat of mud, crime, and abundant opportunities for drunkenly dropping it into the rancid long-drop toilets?
Even EE admits that it's very difficult to predict how many of its customers will make use of the 4G network on site. There are only around 500,000 4G users in the country, and the proportion of them making the trip to Worthy Farm with their expensive smartphone in tow isn't necessarily huge.
"We're not expecting there to be hundreds of thousands of people at Glastonbury all using 4G," Jones concedes, adding that EE sees the Glastonbury network as kind of an experiment.
"What we are expecting is that there will be a reasonable amount and enough for us to get a real sense of what they're doing and what they're doing differently. Most people will be on 3G and a lot of people will be on the 2G network. But it's key to be able to enable all of those layers.
"We're hoping that, by enabling a 4G service, people think: I don't need to ditch my iPhone and go back to my old Nokia phone, I can actually make use of the thing I rely on day-to-day when I'm at home. Or bring both, as a back up. The network can support any of those layers."
Those not on EE needn't despair: the pop-up network supports all the major UK phone providers to a certain extent, through a combination of antennas mounted on EE's kit and specialist software in the base stations.
Those of us not heading to Somerset this week might well be praying that the whole thing falls over. But no one really knows whether those brag-laden Facebook posts, Instagram photos, Vine videos and garbled drunken tweets will get through until the 150,000-strong crowds descend.
