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Say what you will about Apple, they really do know how to design a lovely looking phone. The iPhone 6S is the latest iteration in their never ending quest to change everything, again. The 6S follows through Apple's previous strategy of reusing the design of its predecessor. The 'S' moniker is there to indicate a performance update (Speed, see what they did there?), and boy does it perform. The Apple A9 CPU is a beast. Its single core performance is blazing fast, and its multi-core's none too shabby either. Without getting technical, the 6S is the fastest phone you can get on the market today. iOS9 comes preloaded with the 6S and is optimised for the larger screen. I had been testing it on a 4S previously and found it highly unusable on a small display, but on the 6S - it works just fine. It just isn't for me. As someone who loves the design of Windows (Metro) or the fluidity that Android provides, iOS's garden wall restriction hampers my enjoyment somewhat. Stil...

Three today announce it will offer Apple's latest flagship iOS smartphone, the iPhone 5s and the cute 5c starting from today. The iPhone 5s will be available from £99 and the iPhone 5c from £49 on a 24-month contract. Never mind what I actually think about the psychedelic and almost flat iOS 7 , Apple does make gorgeous looking phones (from the iPhone 4 upwards). While their persistent on sticking with a 4" display may not set the world on fire, at least the people from Cupertino recognises that not everyone wants a phablet size device as their flagship. This is criticism of companies who purposefully reduce of the specification of smaller devices like the One Mini and Galaxy S4 Mini (glares at HTC and Samsung). In any case, the iPhone 5s will be available on Three's great value One Plan  for those who prefer to go contract, which should play well once they launch their 4G LTE network later this year. Pricing for the Lumia-ish 5c has already been previously announced, bu...

Microsoft Photosynth is an app created by Microsoft and University of Washington, designed to create panorama 3D-dimensional models based on multiple images. Using the free software available from their website, users can stitch and synth their images and then share them on the Photosynth website. 20GB of storage is available for users. Two type of images can be created - a panorama, which is created using an Image Composite Editor and the Photosynth app, or synth - a collection of high resolution images, which is more detailed, but lacks the seam-less transition of a panorama image. Here is an example of a synth I made using stills I took last December at Sushisamba in Heron Tower , captured on a Canon S90 and synth'ed and uploaded using the Photosynth desktop client: And here is the panorama version of the same images when ran through the ICE application first before uploading to Photosynth: The recently released Windows Phone 8 app  also means that Windows Phone 8 owners can f...

"Hei, I got this new game. It's Real Racing 3 and it's awesome. Best of all, it is free!" "You mean the franchise racing game that plays the game for you? But because it looks nice, everyone raves about how mobile phone gaming is close to dispatching console and PC gaming, even when it isn't?" "That's the one!" "So how does it play?" "You tilt the phone to turn, and tap the screen to slow down. Most of the time the game brakes for you." "You can't even accelerate yourself? Pfft, modern gaming eh? And this is supposed to be hardcore?!" "Well, look, it is just as pretty as Gran Turismo 5 ." "Here, let me try... Ooh, that Porsche is sweet. Reminds me of the last good Need For Speed game EA ever made. You know, Porsche Unleashed . No? You are probably too young to remember... Holy crap Batman, that's a lot of jaggies!" "It looks better in motion. You saying PS3 games doesn't ha...

A couple of weeks ago I attended the launch of Auto Trader's ignition  interactive magazine on the iPad's Newsstand. ignition is an interactive magazine, one that is made from the ground up to take advantage of our digital time. According to Auto Trader, the publication will be editorial focused and will help users with their purchasing decisions. Now, I am not really an automobile person. Living close to London, I don't need to be. Still, there is a time in the future when I would definitely need to own a car. But even as a none car owner, I am already aware of Auto Trader for their new and used classified listings. It's the one magazine everyone I know will look first when researching for vehicles. I approached using the app from a perspective of a person attempting to buy their first ever car. You know, searching the classified listings for the most affordable second hand Ferrari, like all first time buyers do.   Back to ignition , during the launch, a version of the...

Blue Crow Media's London Best Coffee app is one of my favourite app, and is one my partner use religiously. Alongside my Foursquare list of London coffee shops , the Independent Coffee Book  and the app, we've never had a bad cup of coffee in London, ever. The app is both available on Android and iPhone only, which is a bummer for Windows Phone users like me. Thankfully the developer at Blue Crow Media has decided to release a bog standard paper version. The fold up version costs just £3 and I picked mine up at Rapha Cycle Shop in Soho last week. Ever since then I always carry the paper copy in my wallet. The two sided map is pocket size and it covers the main central of London including the Soho, Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury, City of London and parts of Shoreditch. As expected, the map isn't that extensive due to the limitation of an analogue medium but it is still good to have a back up with me whenever I am using a phone that doesn't support the app or my phone's batte...

iZettle is an European startup specialising in providing small businesses an ability to use their smartphone as a conduit for allowing payments using a proprietary iZettle card reader. It's a concept aimed at providing small business and merchants the ability to charge customers without resorting to expensive solutions. This is similar to Square in US, only it's a bit more secure as it uses a chip solution rather than magnetic strip and is EMV approved. Yesterday, iZettle, alongside their partners at Mastercard, American Express and EE, announced their entry to the UK market. According to iZettle, 50% of missed sales by merchants are due to their inability to accept plastic. This is true even in build-up areas in London - I can hardly remember how many restaurants and coffee shops I had to give a miss because there was a 'only cash' sign. There are a million card payment in the UK, but 12-15 million iOS devices plus a heck lot more Android smartphones, so this service w...