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    Remember a little while ago when I compared the Maserati Quattroporte to the Jaguar XJR? I said the Quattroporte was better. You might disagree with me, but believe me, I still think the XJR is quite an exceptional car. But even after comparing it to the Q-P, I think its only fair to give it a second chance. This time, the competitor will be a little less classic-Italian sports car and more no-nonsense German engineering. 

2. Audi S8

    When I saw a brand-new 2015 A8 in town the other day, I thought to myself: "wait, the havent really changed it at all." I went home and looked up the new A8, and I found myself looking at a 2014 A8 with some new headlights and some new options. Its the same thing with the new S8: they havent really done anything to it. Sure, it does 0-60 in 3.8 seconds and has 520 hp, but they havent actually done anything that matters. They could have tuned the total output to 600 hp and lower the 0-60 time, but instead, theyve just changed some minor bits and pieces. Its still really fast and luxurious, it just isnt any better than before. 

1. Jaguar XJR

    Theres one big thing that I find really helpful with the XJR: it is available in long-wheelbase form, so if you want to drive it really fast one day and be driven around the next, you can, thanks to its extra legroom and executive rear seating package. This is something the S8 does not share with the XJR. And even if a shorter wheelbase helps performance, Jaguar doesnt need to worry, thanks to the massive 550 hp coming out of its animal-like 5.0 liter V8. 0-60 is claimed at 4.4 seconds, which doesnt seem that fast, but when you compare it to the XKR, it seems about accurate. But the main reason the XJR won is because it has character. The XJR is full of rage and power, but the S8 is kind of plain. It doesnt share the same sense of excitement with the XJR, so it loses this comparison. 


Heres the link to both the Jaguar and Audi sites:
http://www.jaguarusa.com/index.html
http://www.audiusa.com/

Apple’s annual iPad updates look set to be pretty lean this year, with latest reports suggesting that while an iPad Air refresh is on the cards, no iPad Pro or iPad mini 3 will be released.


Although multiple rumours of a larger, iPad Pro have circulated in recent weeks, industry analysts have now suggested that Apple’s 2014 iPad collection will consist solely of an update to the 9.7-inch iPad Air.

Speaking in a note to investors, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that claims of an iPad Pro launch will not be fulfilled this year, with Apple unlikely to launch a 12.9-inch tablet to rival the CES introduced Samsung Galaxy Note Pro.

Claiming Apple will focus its development efforts elsewhere, Kuo offered a bit of wiggle room, stating: “Even if it (a larger iPad) does make an appearance this year, shipments will be low.”

Despite the success of the iPad mini, and subsequent iPad mini 2 which launched last November with a new Retina display in tow, it has been claimed that Apple will not launch a third-generation 7.9-inch tablet this year.

While consumers will have to make do with the iPad mini 2 for a further 12 months at least, serial Apple tipster Kuo has claimed the iPad Air will receive a specs bump this autumn.

Targeting two easy areas of improvement, the analyst has claimed that the iPad Air will be upgraded to a new A8 processor and introduce the TouchID fingerprint sensor incorporating home button found on the iPhone 5S.

According to Kuo’s insiders, Apple’s reduced tablet efforts are being forced by the company’s push to finalise Apple iWatch hardware and software for launch later in the year.

He added that “unless more aggressive promotions are launched,” a lack of new models will see annual iPad sales drop for the first time.

LG has showcased yet more of its MWC 2014-bound handsets with a trio of third-generation LG L-Series devices formally unveiled.


LG’s lower and mid-range handset line, the new LG L-Series smartphones will sit beneath the existing LG G2 flagship and the LG G Pro 2 phablet and compact LG G2 Mini that have already been confirmed for MWC 2014 unveilings.

Issuing an image of the new LG L Series III Android line, the Korean manufacturer has revealed that the trio of new devices will be known as the LG L40, LG L70 and the LG L90. All three phones will come pre-installed with Google’s latest Android 4.4 KitKat OS.

With the LG L90 lining up as the highest spec of the new trio, the upcoming handset will see a 4.7-inch display run a slightly disappointing 960 x 540 pixel resolution.

With a 1.2GHz quad-core processor running the show, the LG L90’s specs sheet is rounded off by 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and an 8-megapixel rear-mounted camera. A 2540mAh Lithium-polymer battery keeps the handset running.

Dropping in screen size and specs, the LG L70 is set to be a 4.5-inch, 800 x 400p smartphone offering, with a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU. Running 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, the phone will boast its own 5-megapixel camera alongside a 2100mAh battery.

At the lower end of the spectrum, the LG L40 is set to be a true entry-level offering, with a 3.5-inch display running a 480 x 320 pixel resolution. Running a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, the L40 adds 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage to the mix alongside a 3-megapixel camera and a 1700mAh battery.

We will be on hand at MWC 2014 later this month to bring you all the latest on the full range of new LG handset.

The Google Nexus 8 has been tipped to launch later this year by upstream supply chain sources.

Panasonic is reportedly preparing to re-enter the smartphone market with a rugged handset at MWC 2014.

Wireless power today is mostly about convenience; not having to fish out a cable and get it the right way round when you plug it in. But once it becomes ubiquitous, it will change the way devices are designed; they can have smaller batteries or save space by not needing the power port at all.


This year at CES, as well as seeing the latest wireless power products and the next step in wireless charging technology, we also got some good news on getting more users and businesses on board with wireless power - 2014 will definitely be a big year for wireless charging.

There are over 60 different phones that have Qi wireless charging (the inductive charging standard) built in today - and 40 million of them have been sold - and because its a standard, you can put your phone down on any Qi charging surface and it will just start grabbing power.

If your phone doesnt have Qi built in, Incipio introduced a line of wireless charging pads and protective cases at CES that add it (including Lumia models like the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 1520 that have a connector designed to simplify adding a charging case).

That surface doesnt have to be a pad on your desk either. It could be a light or a mouse mat: silicon valley startup Kudos Tech had prototypes for both, although no dates for putting them into production yet.

You dont have to only charge a phone; IDAPT has added a Qi charging module to its clever Modulo battery system, which lets you connect up to five external 2000mAh batteries to charge your phone or tablet.

Snap on as many batteries as you need to take with you and drop it onto a wireless charger to keep them topped up before you leave.

Or it could be a car cradle (Nokia has a wireless charging cradle already and Tylt was showing off a prototype of its own at CES, with a perpetually sticky surface to hold your phone in place) or a tray built into your car. Both have NFC which can trigger your phone to launch a specific app, like GPS navigation, or pair with the cars Bluetooth automatically when you start charging it.

Car makers like that, John Perzow of the Wireless Power Consortium says, because it will let them take information from your phone – like your personal music collection – and display that on the screen on your dashboard. "They want a path for extending your personal device into the car and shifting some of the load to your phone, but you can only do that if you can charge the device."

The Jeep Cherokee will have a wireless charging shelf in the 2014 model, Toyota will put it in the Avalon and Prius and the German auto consortium that advises Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi and BMW is recommending Qi, after a three year study on wireless charging.

We even saw an FAA-approved wireless charger for use on planes; expect to see it in private jets first rather than on your next economy flight though.

Making wireless power resonate

So with a standard like Qi and products already in the market, why is wireless charging still not common?
Perzow says that confusion over standards has been slowing adoption. Yes, theres the Qi standard, but there have been plenty of other wireless charging launches that havent been part of Qi. Even Qualcomm has its own wireless charging system for electric cars (it charges the motor, not your smartphone, but still, its something else to confuse people).

The WPC is trying to tackle that by bringing new wireless charging developments into the Qi standard, and we saw some of that at CES.

Today Qi uses near-field coupling, between the coil antenna inside your phone and the one inside the charging mat; you have to either put multiple coils in or rely on people lining up devices in just the right spot.

The latest Qi mats give you a little more freedom of movement but to be able to put devices down anywhere on the surface and to be able to fit the charging pad underneath a thick surface like a table or a kitchen worksurface requires the next technology to be included in the Qi standard, magnetic resonance.

Resonant charging lets you put the phone off to one side of the charging spot or have something else in the way and still get charge.

We saw a new charger from Convenient Power that has resonant charging thats fully backwards compatible with Qi, so we were able to stack two notebooks on the charger and put a Nokia Lumia on top of them and have it charge. Bolt the pad under a table and you can charge through the surface.

Convenient Power also showed us a five-device charger that automatically detects the power requirements of the phones and tablets you put on it and delivers the right charge, and again you dont need to worry about lining them up neatly.

New Zealand wireless power experts PowerByProxi also creates resonant chargers, although it will licence its designs to other companies rather than selling them directly like Convenient Power. Phones will need to have a new charging antenna but theyll still charge on older Qi pads.

The big advantage of the PowerByProxi system is that it puts devices in charge of setting the power level they need, and it can send different power levels to different devices. That means your almost-flat tablet can get lots of power instead of just the trickle of power needed to top up your almost-fully-charged phone
Getting new developments into a backwardly compatible standard like this is vital if we want to see wireless charging on offer at Starbucks and every hotel the way wireless networking is – something that would really make wireless power ubiquitous and something Perzow is working on.

"Infrastructure has been stalled because its a very conservative market. A hotel wants maximum usability and long life before theyre going to put this on every night stand. There needs to be an experience that adds value beyond charging," he says.

The new chargers that can be bolted under tables without having to chisel out a slot will help, as will more freedom of positioning. "You just put the phone down on the charger; you dont have to get the placement just right."

And so will management software that shows which devices are sitting on a table, charging, and whether the power is getting through to them properly. Making wireless power easy to fit, easy to support and easy to use could be what we need to see it everywhere in the next couple of years.

The Google Play app store has exploded in recent years, with a proliferation of apps that can cater to your every need. The problem is: there are just too many of them.


Even with Editors Picks, Featured and Best Selling, Top Paid and Top Free categories there to help you out with your downloading decision its still a difficult task finding the best apps around.

And thats why we made this list. Like you we want the best apps for our Android phones. The apps that are going to revolutionise functionality or, at the very least, offer something so great that it becomes one of the must-have apps that has to be downloaded whenever you get a new handset.

The following apps are a mixture of paid and free ones and have been chosen by our Android experts. So, even if you do dip into actual cash for one of these apps, you are safe in the knowledge that it is a worthwhile purchase.

1. BBC Weather

Free from the BBC, which arrived late to the weather app party in 2013 and delivered a completely stonking, triple-A meteorological experience. A variety of stylish widgets, long-range forecasts, location-aware settings and support for multiple locations make finding out how much its raining everywhere a joy.

2. Kabbee 

Winning fans all over London is this, with the Kabbee app aggregating local minicab firms and attempting to match your late night drunken ferry needs to the cheapest available nearby operator. The idea is to create competition among operators, with the result being some substantial savings over the usual black cab rates.

3. Easyjet

This isnt just some corporate effort full of cross-selling and adverts, it really works. You can book your flight through the simple interface, pay, check-in, then have the app generate a QR code boarding pass to wave at the ticket desk. Paper is entirely eliminated, therefore dealing with printers is entirely eliminated, making life substantially better. Just dont run out of battery power on the big day, else youre stuffed. If EasyJet doesnt fly to your destination then Kayak is a great alternative for global globe trotters.

4. Barclays Mobile Banking

The first wave of mobile banking apps were rubbish, mostly composed of skins that pointed you to some terrible mobile web site. But not in 2014. Go through the fuss of verifying yourself with this one and the Barclays app is extremely useful, listing and managing all your accounts, and even able to function as a replacement for the physical PINsentry card reader thats required to access the full desktop banking site.

5. Sky NOW TV

Skys ramped up its Android app selection in spectacular fashion over the last year or two, with all manner of streaming, on-demand and specialist services available. Sky NOW TV is the best and most useful of the bunch, letting users buy access to its sports channels on a PAYG basis. Dead handy for cherry-picking the occasional big event without needing a full subscription.

6. BT Wi-Fi 

If youre a BT Internet user, this is a must install. Feed the app your BT account master password (this will be the one you thought up on a whim eight years ago and wont be able to remember), and itll automatically log you in whenever youre in range of a BT hotspot. Given that there are trillions of them in the UK, it means automated access to properly useful Wi-Fi connections when out and about, avoiding the spam £6-an-hour merchants.

7. Vine 

The movie-making sensation took a little while to appear on Android, then took a while for the numerous bugs to disappear – but now its all good. Its a simple recording/stop-motion/animation tool, letting you shoot live video on your phone and share it via social networks. The app is also the best way of browsing Vines from others, as the categories and pages mean you can leaf through it like telly, favouriting users.

8. Dropbox

Pretty much essential for anyone juggling a work PC, home PC, laptop, tablet, phone and internet fridge, Dropboxs key power lies in letting you access any files anywhere. It can also automatically upload photos taken on your phone to your account, meaning that, after a bit of uploading and downloading, all your shots are *right there* on your desktop without any tedious cable connecting. 

9. Speedtest 

Get angry about how slow your internet is. Get smug about how fast your internet is. Spy on the network speeds of your friends and neighbours. If one of your frequent conversations with your mates is how fast your internet currently is, you need this. You can do unlimited broadband up/down speed tests on any boring weekday evening.

10. eBay 

The app itself isnt what youd call attractive, but it lets you browse, watch items and buy stuff, integrating a Paypal sign-in for quick getting of things. Better still, now Android phones all have immense cameras on them, its a doddle to sell items straight through the app - take a photo, upload it, have most of the listing data pre-filled for you. The app is better as a selling tool than the desktop site, in fact.

11. Feedly

If you felt a bit lost and disconnected from the News Borg when Google shut down its Reader RSS aggregator, Feedly will help. Its a more glamorous and swishy-slidy way of getting data from RSS feeds, with numerous ways of displaying site snippets and navigating through your unread pile of possibly interesting things.

12. BBC iPlayer 

Took some time for the BBC to gradually power this up to full parity with the iOS release, but its just about there now for the vast majority of popular Android models. A piecemeal approach to introducing offline download support has annoyed some users, but it remains a superb way of using your phone as a modern portable telly for the bedroom, as long as your broadbands up to the task. 

13. Carbon 

The official Twitter app is a rather weird, ever-changing affair, that often introduces more annoyances and quirks with each new redesign. So best avoid it and enjoy the thrills of third-party tweet app Carbon, which, with its recent 2.0 update, enhanced an already posh experience with new gesture input, more hardcore shortcuts and a handy widget.

14. Tweedle

Or, if Carbons hardcore skills are a bit too much to handle, try Tweedle. Its a vastly simpler Twitter app that covers the basics. You get three columns for the timeline, your mentions and direct messages, plus its super-fast to load with only the occasional advert on the image preview pages to tell you that the developer wouldnt mind getting paid a bit for his work.

15. WhatsApp

The instant messaging behemoth is an essential Android install, especially if you can convince the people you message most frequently to use it too. The concept is simple - it takes over text messaging on your mobile, routing messages through any Wi-Fi connection instead. Which means no more SMS allowances, no size restrictions, plus images are sent at a decent resolution.

16. DealPad 

Another unofficial app we prefer to the official option, DealPad takes the feed from bargains portal Hot UK Deals and presents it in a much simpler, less fussy (and less iOS) style. If you like to while away the evenings thinking about prices of various solid-state hard drives and planning your bulk biscuit purchases for tomorrow, get it on your phone.

17. Amazon Appstore 

Its a bit of a fuss to get this on your phone as Googles not too keen on rival app stores popping up on Google Play, but its worth doing. Mainly for the freeloading aspect, as Amazon sticks up a paid-for app for free every day. Most are a bit rubbish, but some properly decent paid apps do occasionally pop up. Add it to your daily trawl, just in case.

18. Google Keep

Googles so proud of its cross-platform note-taking tool that its recently started pre-loading it as part of the core Android feature set. It comes with a stylish widget, integrates voice dictation for those Alan Partridge moments of creative inspiration, plus if you use Keep on a Chromebook it seamlessly syncs with mobile notes saved there. A great way of coordinating mobile and laptop lives.

19. Spotify

No, wait. it is free. Sort of. Spotify now comes with a stipped-down playlist-cum-radio combo for users who dont pay for the service but still want to use it on mobile, accompanied by a swish new tablet interface that has much more in common with the free desktop browser player. So yes, its free. hobbled a bit, but free.

20. BT Sport

Skys footie competitor arrived in the UK in 2013, with a day-one Android app letting BT subscribers stream Premier League matches and more to phones and tablets. The app also doubles as an EPG to let you know whats coming up, although you will need to be using a BT Internet account login in order for it to be of any use.

21. Airbnb 

A posh B&B listings service designed specifically around mobile app use, the selling point of Airbnb is that it personalises the hosts, so if you really want to stay in Glasgow with a cheery looking alternative lifestyle man called Dave snoring in the next room, its ideal.

22. DashClock Widget 

This is a stonking addition to any Android phone running version 4.2 of Googles code or higher, as it adds new active plugins to the lock screen. This means your lock screen can have a torch button, the weather, unread text messages and more, plus theres a development community out there building new extra features all the time.

23. Instagram 

One of those services you might as well start using because everyones using it. The Instagram Android app took a while to appear, but is now live, looking good and offers a simple way of taking and editing your square photographs of lunch, sunsets, cats etc. Plus it now has fashionable effect tilt shift for making things look small. Not that thats ever something weve wanted. Quite the opposite, usually.

24. Kindle 

Amazons Kindle app connects seamlessly with its online book shop services, letting account holders send books to the app, sync existing libraries via the cloud, and access books across the many Android phones and tablets people have kicking about the place these days. Of course theres also a shop in it, as flogging you books is the reason Amazon is offering this comprehensive cloud reader for free.

25. Strava Cycling 

Tries to "gamify" the sports tracker experience, by breaking down routes and making them into publicly shareable challenges. This means some cyclists end up racing strangers for virtual trophies, with the times of other app users appearing for you to try and beat. Its quite an addictive experience having some random rider to beat around a local loop. Better hope they werent doing it on a moped, or you might die trying.

26. Endomodo PRO 

£1.99 ($4.99, $AU3.68)
The popular sports tracker covers every sport you can think of apart from curling, managing to track your runs, rides, kayaking journeys, hill walks and other excursions with ease. The paid PRO version unlocks more stats and a handy terrain chart, letting you see how steep the hard parts were – and providing a useful excuse for poor performance.

27. SwiftKey Keyboard 

£2.99 ($3.99, $AU5.53)
This one pioneered the concept of the alternative keyboard, with SwiftKey the first to offer to learn your writing style and attempt to predict your next word. The hope being that, with practice, itll know what phrases you commonly use and might save you quite a bit of fuss in typing a simple message to a friend.

28. FlightRadar24 Pro

£1.99 ($2.99, $AU3.68)
One for the flight nerds, this pulls in open data from air traffic control departments of the world, letting you see exactly what flights are up there generating that attractive vapour trail. As well as listing all local flights, the app can also use Androids positioning tools to work out what youre looking at, making it dead simple to point your phone at the sky and get flight details pinged straight back.

29. Swype Keyboard 

£2.42 ($3.99, $AU4.48)
As rival SwiftKey invented the concept of word prediction, so Swype did the same for gesture input. The concept is simple - you write "hello" by pressing the H, then swiping a line through E, L and O. Hopefully, if you were accurate enough, the software guesses this right and youve just written a word easy-style. A similar system has been adopted within newer versions of Android, but if you have an older phone this gets you into the line-writing fun, too.

30. Plex

£2.98 ($4.99, $AU5.50)
The idea behind Plex is that it assimilates your existing media collection and serves it up, through one standard interface, via the cloud. Its a bit of a struggle to get going as you need a free account on Plexs servers to access your stuff, but once its all up and running it offers streaming and transcoding of files, meaning everything ought to play everywhere. Supports Chromecast too, if youve bought into Googles own media-managing dream.

31. Camera Zoom FX

£1.79 ($2.99, $AU3.25)
A complete replacement camera app for your phone or tablet, layering on the extra options and adding features like burst mode, custom shutter buttons, overlays and a horizon level to phones that ship with more basic camera apps. Its worth the price alone for the sound activated shooting mode, an infinitely better option than running around and hoping you get your smile right in time for the self timer. And once youre done, it has heaps of filters to apply.

32. Apex Launcher Pro

£2.49 ($3.99, $AU4.50)
The thing a lot of enthusiasts love about Android is the ability to switch to a new launcher. In laymans terms, this means you can whack an entire new frontend on your phone, replacing the user interface with an entirely custom skin. Apex Launchers one of the oldest and most highly thought of, using the default Android look as a base for numerous tweaks and additions. Its free to try, with the separate Apex Launcher Pro key unlocking the full version.

33. Paper Camera 

£1.19 ($1.99, $AU2.20)
One of the first decent image manipulation tools to hit Android, Paper Camera does a couple of cool things. It replaces your phones standard camera app with a hand-drawn alternative, also adding in plenty of live filters that give photos a line drawn or painted appearance. Its a novelty, sure, but a very clever one.

34. Runtastic PRO

£4.99 ($4.99, $AU9.25)
A hefty price, but what cost you not dying of obesity at age 52? That fitness promise is what you pay for here, with the GPS sports tracker able to map you, track you, automatically cheer you on, generate live feedback and more, also covering interval training and letting users create their own regular routes to attack again and again. Serious stuff for competitive people. 

35. Tasker

£2.99 ($2.99, $AU5.53)
Tasker is one of the first, and best, task managers for Android. It does it all. Turns stuff on or off depending on location, manages multiple schedules for changing phone state depending on the time of day, even letting users have their phone automatically reply to text messages if its set to a quiet state. Its complex, vast, and youll wonder how you lived without it.

36. Photoshop Touch for Phone

£2.99 ($4.99, $AU5.53)
Adobes official Android imaging app is streets ahead of the competition in terms of features, letting arty types manage layered PSD documents on the go, import fill textures live from the camera, with cloud support for saving images on your phone - then continuing the editing process on desktop. Or on your tablet. Or on your other phone.

37. Sixaxis Controller

£1.65 ($2.53, $AU3.00)
Been eying up one of those Bluetooth controllers to make the playing of your favourite games a little easier? If you have an old PS3 Sixaxis or DualShock 3 lying about, it might be an idea to try this first. It allows a decent number of Android phones to connect to a Sony controller via Bluetooth – plus theres a free compatibility checker app on Google Play too. Your phone or tablet must be rooted to use it, though, so its a hardcore option only.

38. TuneIn Radio Pro 

£2.40 ($3.99, $AU4.40)
Forget the physical side of radios, the best way to listen to random tunes and the occasional bit of travel news is online. TuneIn Radio is the most comprehensive internet radio player by far, offering masses of stations, favourite lists, and, in this paid upgrade, the ability to record direct off the radio.

39. Pocket Casts 

£2.70 ($3.99, $AU5.00)
The podcast is another option when it comes to being entertained through your ears, with the stylish Pocket Casts one of the newest listening apps to hit Android. It comes with simple cloud syncing of your favourite subscriptions, variable speed playback for skipping the boring bits, themes auto downloads and… everything.

40. SoundHound

£3.99 ($4.99, $AU7.39)
SoundHound is best described as a companion app for music, letting users ID tracks by recording a clip and also attempting to guess the names of songs you sing and hum to it. It can also stream in lyrics, sell you stuff and bring in news feeds covering artists you like, making it a really swish hub for people who are into music.

41. Jamies 20 Minute Meals

£4.99, ($7.69, $AU9.25)
Bosh this beauty on your phone, right, yeah? Its a fiver, but there are 65 recipes, photographs so you dont get the aubergines and cucumbers mixed up, plus a guarantee that you can have something a bit fancier than cheese on toast for dinner in 20 minutes. As long as youve got more things than cheese in your fridge to start with.

42. Press 

£1.93 ($2.99, $AU3.50)
Press is a super-stylish RSS reader, one that comes with support for several of the services that sprang up to replace the sadly departed Google Reader. Import your stuff from Feedly, Feedbin and others, to see it presented in a huge variety of layout options. Offline support, background syncing and the ability to save articles to Instapaper and Pocket make it a superb hub for serious news fans.

43. gReader Pro

£3.19 ($4.69, $AU5.95)
A more traditional method of scouring web site RSS feeds, gReader successfully updates the simplistic style of Googles Reader, compete with a custom layout for reading on tablets, offline reading, gesture actions, a widget and much more. Its properly jam-packed with ways to stare at endlessly updating lists of words.

44. CrossDJ

£3.29 ($4.99, $AU5.80)
Describes itself as a pro DJ app for people who enjoy nodding along and pumping their fists in the air while someone elses record plays. The app comes with specialist features such as BPM tracking, pitch shifting and a split audio output for previewing tracks before theyre mixed in, with filter effects in here too for adding a bit more oomph to whatever party youre ruining with your rubbish music.

45. UK Bus Checker 

£2.99
The sensational sequel to London Bus Checker, this one switches the action to the public transport system of the entire UK. It has one huge boast to it, claiming to show bus times and route maps for every single bus stop in the country, which it combines with the bus networks GPS data to show exactly when your bus might show.

46. Reddit Sync Pro

£1.69 ($2.00, $AU3.00)
That internet site you may have heard about, the one that does good things, interesting things and bad things, doesnt have an official app. But it does have heaps of unofficial ones, including this simple, pretty option that has the killer ability to sync threads for offline access. Never miss a celebrity pandering to the masses to promote a film or book again.

47. Biophilia

£8.99 ($12.99, $AU16.66)
The odd arty album project from Bjork brings you some music accompanied by videos and quite a few interactive elements that are part games and part modern art. Its like the future of music or something, especially if you like weird ambient tunes.

48. Electrum Drum Machine 

£2.49 ($3.99, $AU4.50)
A simple yet relatively powerful rhythm sequencer for Android, Electrum lets users load up to 16 samples (including your own ones in WAV format), then bounce the results together in whatever musical genre you wish. It even supports USB MIDI controllers, for sticking your phone or tablet at the heart of a DIY budget mobile studio.

49. Camera 2 

£1.79 ($2.19, $AU3.30)
The rather bold name is quite appropriate for this impressive app, which manages to adds loads of effects in real-time to your cameras viewfinder – including a live depth of field effect for tilt-shift action. It can even add effects to video clips, plus its filters can be retroactively applied to your existing image roll.

50. DSLR Controller

£5.94 ($7.99, $AU11.09)
Got a posh camera to go with your posh phone? Get a load of you. If so, you may as well blow a further bit of cash on this, a beta but still fully functional method of controlling a Canon EOS camera from an Android device. It allows masses of options to be configured remotely, altering the focus and accessing image previews, plus control of the aperture, ISO and pretty much everything Canon sticks in its high-end cameras. 

The HTC Desire 816 has been officially unveiled at MWC 2014, with the mid-range handset landing with a HTC One inspired design.


Set to target a lower price point than the company’s flagship offering, the HTC Desire 816 has been unveiled while the upcoming HTC One 2 reamins shrouded in mystery.

“This year, one of our plans is to take some of our great design and experiences to even more people,” HTC CEO Peter Chou said in unveiling the HTC Desire 816.

He added: “With the HTC One leading in the premium segment, it is clear there is a great opportunity in the middle of the market.”

HTC Desire 816 Features
Increasing the expectations of the mid-range smartphone market, the HTC Desire 816 features a 5.5-inch 720p HD display.

Running Google’s Android 4.4 KitKat OS skinned with the company’s Sense UI, the phone is set to be made available in a range of colours, with white, black, green and red backed handsets all sporting premium facia.

Powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, the mid-range HTC Desire 816 adds a 13-megapiexl rear camera alongside a 5-megapixel forward-facing snapper. On top of this, forward-facing stereo speakers, much like the BoomSound offerings found on the HTC One are present.

HTC Desire 816 Release Date and Price
The HTC Desire 816 will be start a global rollout in March. Kicking off in China, the phone will be available across more markets, including European territories from April. An exact UK release has yet to be announced.

A HTC Desire 816 price is also awaiting confirmation.

LG could equip all its 2014 flagships with fingerprint scanners, if the latest information is accurate.

Claimed Google Nexus 10 2014 pictures have leaked, with images of the next-generation Android tablet making a premature appearance online.

Forget about the bendable LG G Flex, the Korean manufacturer has confirmed that the repeatedly rumoured LG G2 Mini will be officially unveiled at MWC 2014.


Having been the subject of multiple leaks and rumours in recent weeks, LG has confirmed that the LG G2 Mini, a smaller version of the flagship LG G2, will enter the realms of reality in less than two weeks’ time.

Following on the heels of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and HTC One Mini, compact, reduced spec siblings to the flagship Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One respectively, the LG G2 Mini has been confirmed by the company’s official Facebook page.

As well as offering up the first official image of the LG G2 Mini, shown alongside its big sibling, LG has stated: “Experience the MINI. Mobile World Congress. 2014-02-24.”

The dating of the company’s product teases has revealed that the handset will be formally showcased for the first time on the opening day on the show, Monday February 24.

Although LG has failed to offer any formal LG G2 Mini specs, recent rumours have suggested the phone will boast a 4.3-inch display, with the G2’s 1080p Full HD display dropping to a less than impressive 960 x 540p offering.

While the official image has confirmed the Mini will retain the G2’s rear-mounted volume controls, rumours have hinted that the handset will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and Google’s latest Android 4.4 KitKat OS.

With the LG G2 Mini confirmed for a February 24 unveiling, the handset is set to be unveiled on the same day as the eagerly awaited Samsung Galaxy S5, one of the most eagerly awaited handsets of the year.