Google's recent purchase of the community-sourced Waze traffic app faces an official probe from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on grounds the deal may be breaking competition laws.

The search and mobile giant agreed a deal to acquire Israel-based start-up in June, for a reported $1.3 billion (around £0.83m), in order to boost its own Google Maps navigation app.

However, the OFT has expressed concern that Google's ownership of the app, which offers real time traffic updates, provides petrol price info and police traps, may give the company too large a slice of the pie.

If the OFT finds that Google's purchase gives it more than 25 per cent of the relevant UK market and/or a turnover of more than £70m, then it would have grounds to order divestments.

Lessening of competition

In its announcement, the OFT wrote: "The Office of Fair Trading is considering whether this agreement has resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 and, if so, whether the creation of that situation has resulted, or may be expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services."

Google has yet to comment on the situation, while the OFT has given interested parties 40 days to weigh in on the debate and have their say.

The OFT's announcement follows a similar proclamation from its US counterpart, the Federal Trade Commission, which announced it'd be looking into the legalities of the deal, back in June.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Feast your eyes on this gallery of photos of the iPhone 5S casing in the colour that all the kids are calling "Champagne".

It's really awfully nice of the internet to go with champagne instead of cava, say, or that other yellow-ish-gold-ish substance, urine.

Anyway, these pictures come from relatively new tipster on the block Sonny Dickson who claims to have nabbed the extensively photographed rear-housing from a source in Apple's Asian supply chain.

Throwing a Veuve ball

There's not much more to say beyond "here are the pictures", so here are the pictures:

We're expecting to see the iPhone 5S launch date land at some point in September - September 10 looks like a good bet if you're the gambling type.

• In the meantime, here's everything we know about the iPhone 5S so far - and the lesser-spotted cheapo iPhone 5C which may launch at the same time.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Kids these days, what are they like? According to Samsung they're looking to get their grubby little mitts on your latest tech purchase, but thankfully the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids is here to distract them from your new gadget.

Coming in a lurid yellow hue the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids has exactly the same specs as, yep you've guessed it, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.

That means it sports a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal storage, 7-inch 1024 x 600 display, 3MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a micro SD slot.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is running the show, but as this is the "Kids" version it has been heavily modified with a child-friendly interface, pre-loaded content such as games, entertainment and ebooks as well as a dedicated app store for your little treasures.

Kids only?

There's a parent control system where passwords can be set up and a time management tool means that little Jimmy will only be able to play on his Tab 3 Kids for 30 minutes before it locks him out.

It's not clear if the child-friendly interface can be switched off to allow parents to use the tablet themselves and the spec sheet suggests the Tab 3 Kids does come with the likes of Gmail, Google Maps and the Play Store installed - things some parents won't want their kids using.

So aside from the average specs and an interface which doesn't - at first glance - lend itself to adult use, surely Samsung has done some work on the chassis to make it "child-proof", right? Wrong!

Money please

That lovely chunky rubber border you see hugging the slate in the photo above is actually a case which you can pick up, wait for it, at an extra cost to you.

And if you haven't finished parting with your cash there's also an "easy-to-grip C Pen" which, between you and me, is a chunky stylus. Once again, a paid-for optional extra.

There's no word on a Galaxy Tab 3 Kids price just yet, but considering it's basically the stock Galaxy Tab 3 with a different software overlay we're not overly hopeful of a pocket-money-friendly price.

The tablet will go on sale in Korea early next month, followed closely by China, Europe, the US, Africa, South America and South East Asia.

It looks like it will be coming to the UK, but Samsung has told us, "UK availability will be announced in due course."

• Samsung isn't the only one to be looking to make money off the kids, check out our Archos ChildPad review.

Source : techradar[dot]com

With IFA 2013 approaching, rumours surrounding the upcoming Galaxy Note 3 are flying thick and fast and the latest suggests its camera will be capable of recording Ultra HD video.

An "industry official" told of the camera boost, claiming that the phone-cum-tablet will be capable of recording in 200 million pixel resolution.

The thinking is that being able to shoot home movies in 4K will encourage Note 3 owners to upgrade to an Ultra HD ready Samsung TV too.

Ultra unlikely

We're not convinced that the new class of smartphones about to be unleashed in Berlin will come toting 4K snappers simply because phone memories are not up to the task yet.

Video content of that quality will see your phone overburdened before you can say sharper-than-sharp picture quality.

But it's not the first word we've heard of a handset coming with UHD smarts: the oft-touted Sony Xperia Z1 (previously known as Honami and also potentially billed as the Xi) is said to boast a 20MP camera with video shooting resolution of 4000 x 2000.

Samsung is also said to be giving audio quality a bit of a boost on the Note 3, according to the leak, with 24-bit playback smarts coming aboard.

Given that the source of the Note 3 rumours is the dodgily Google Translated word of an "industry official", we're not exactly staking our lives on the device coming with a 4K snapper.

However, we should find out for sure next week - a Samsung official today confirmed that the Note 3 will be unveiled on September 4 alongside the Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

• What else are we expecting from the Samsung Galaxy Note 3? We've rounded all the rumours up for you here.

Source : techradar[dot]com

It looks like Apple is about to jump on the trade-in bandwagon in its dedicated stores, with reports suggesting a program will be in place in time for the new iPhone launch next month.

Apple is apparently in final preparations to launch its iPhone trade-in program next month, or so say "sources with knowledge of the intuitive" over on 9to5Mac.

The program would allow owners of older versions of Apple's handsets - the iPhone 4 or 4S for example - to bring them into an Apple store and swap them for a shiny new iPhone at a discounted price.

Nothing new

While this concept has been around for years at various retailers, this is the first time Apple Stores would offer the deal.

It seems that Apple is keen for as many people to buy the new iPhone direct from its stores rather than going via a network or high street retailer.

Apparently 80% of all iPhones sold are outside the Cupertino firm's stores, so there's clear money to be made with this new scheme likely to aid home-grown sales.

We expect Apple to launch the iPhone 5S and possibly the cheaper iPhone 5C next month with September 10 being touted for the 5S launch date, where we may see official confirmation of the trade-in program too.

Source : techradar[dot]com