So far most iPhone 7 sightings have been renders and blueprints, but now a shot that may be of the phone itself has leaked, alongside an image of a prototype case that sports a very different design.

The phone image, which was posted to Weibo and spotted by Nowhereelse.fr, appears to have a design matching many of the leaks we've seen before, so in that sense it's convincing. There are redesigned antenna strips along the top and bottom, and a larger camera sensor than in the iPhone 6S.

There's a good chance this is along the lines of the design we'll see on the actual iPhone 7, although the image itself may not be genuine. For one thing the Weibo source doesn't have a track record of phone leaks, and for another the photo looks like it could have been manipulated, as there's heavy pixelation on it.

Four times the speakers, four times the fun?

Next we come to a prototype case image, obtained by Nowhereelse.fr and allegedly created by an Italian accessories manufacturer. This bears some similarity to the photo above, with the same redesigned antenna bands, but it has four speaker grilles, much like the iPad Pro.

There have been suggestions that the iPhone 7 Plus could have a smart connector, and could even be called the iPhone 7 Pro – but four speakers on a phone really seems like overkill, and it's the first leak that's shown that many.

There are other suspect elements too, such as the position of the camera flash, which is below the lens here, when on most other leaks it's to the side of it. It's an interesting idea – and would give the HTC 10 a run for its audio money – but it's likely a fake.

• The iPhone 7 could have a bigger battery

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/20q88Hj
via IFTTT

Breathalysers are expensive tech, so one company has seen fit to put alcohol monitoring technology onto your wrist instead.

The wearable is called the BACtrack Skyn and uses the sweat on your skin to monitor blood alcohol levels.

The technology will give the alcohol research community a new tool to keep track of drinking habits, whether it be for a legal or medical purpose.

The technology – made by BACtrack – has won a government sponsored competition in the US called the National Institutes of Health Wearable Biosensor Challenge. Skyn took the top prize of US$200,000.

Breathe out

Head of the NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Dr George Koob, said "It can help doctors accurately measure a patient's drinking history, and not just depend on the most recent tests.

"This can help a lot with the treatment."

Keith Nothacker, president of BACtrack, said, "The blood alcohol monitoring devices used in legal and medical circles are big and bulky, like a ball and chain for the ones using it.

"We wanted to make something people would want to wear."

The Skyn isn't ready to replace breathalyzer technology just yet as it can't offer up real-time blood alcohol levels.

It will take 45 minutes of wearing the device on your wrist to get an accurate reading.

But in the future this type of technology may soon be included a wearable band placed behind the bar at your favorite drinking establishment, rather than an expensive breathalyzer.

• Google's modular phone - Project Ara - finally has a release date

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/20pWlsz
via IFTTT

Business crowdsourcing got another thumbs up from British mobile network operator, EE, as it backed a little known initiative called LimeSDR by investing $99,000 (around £65,000, AU$110,000).

The outfit is a low-cost, open source, apps-enabled software defined radio (SDR) platform that can be used to support almost any wireless communication standard (UMTS, LTE, GSM, Bluetooth, Zigbee, RFID etc).

Because it is powered by a Linux distribution (Snappy Ubuntu), applications as diverse as aviation transponders or radio astronomy can be run on the device within minutes.

Raspberry Pi for MNOs

The beauty of software-defined solutions is that operators themselves or their clients can either use existing services built as apps or build their own in order to extend existing features using cheap kit.

That's right, no need to buy expensive hardware and solutions from established players like Juniper and Cisco if you want to move up gears.

Cutting the middlemen means that it's cheaper and easier than ever before. The (tiny) investment will get EE a 100-unit bundle of the kit which will be given to five UK universities nominated by EE.

• The best Raspberry Pi projects

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/1WK9Sg4
via IFTTT

Two weeks after launch a mobile game, which has been designed to help with dementia research, has revealed it has contributed the equivalent of 1,770 years of lab-based results.

The results will be a big contribution to our understanding of how the disease affects navigation in the brain.

Sea Hero Quest records how you navigate around the in-game map. Those results are used to find how a healthy brain navigates and can be applied to those with dementia, helping to tackle the disease.

The game has been downloaded over a million times since it launched on May 4 and over 100,000 people played the game on day one.

Fantastic results

A spokesperson for Sea Hero Quest said, "Over the coming months, scientists will analyse the data collected through game play.

"They will look at how people of different ages, gender and nationality navigate in order to try and establish a global benchmark for human spatial navigation, something which would have previously taken hundreds of years to survey using lab-based research methods."

How effective this research is remains to be seen. It's going to take the team some time to dive into the information the game has collected.

Still, this is the first time we have seen a project of this size aim to collect results from a mobile game, and any attempt to help solve dementia is a step in the right direction.

• Here's everything you need to know about Sea Hero Quest

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/1NBJHpd
via IFTTT

Samsung's flagships always tend to overpower most of the competition and in its pantheon of phones none is stronger than the Galaxy Note range. So we're expecting enormous performance from this year's model, especially as a new chip announcement from Samsung adds weight to rumors that we'll see 6GB of RAM.

The South Korean firm recently held a Mobile Solutions Forum in China, at which it announced its own 6GB DRAM chip, according to TheNextRex.

Phones with 6GB of RAM aren't entirely unheard of, but so far they've tended to be niche models, like the LeEco Le Max 2. What's more, as Samsung's new chip uses a tiny 10nm manufacturing process, it should be more efficient than most others as well.

S7-crushing power

Of course news of a 6GB chip, even from Samsung, doesn't mean it will necessarily come to the Galaxy Note 6, but there's a good chance. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 had more RAM than the Samsung Galaxy S6, for example, so it wouldn't be surprising if Samsung stuck more RAM in the Note 6 than the 4GB found in the Samsung Galaxy S7.

If it does then the Samsung Galaxy Note 6 could be a real beast, as it's also rumored to have a 5.8-inch QHD screen, a 2.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 823 processor and a massive 4200mAh battery. In other words, if you looked at the Galaxy S7 and thought it just wasn't quite big or powerful enough, then the Note 6 could be for you.

All of these specs are just rumors for now, but with a likely launch date of mid-August we should know the truth of its power soon.

• You don't have to wait for the Note 6 to grab a great phablet

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/1rYvHw6
via IFTTT

Among the many Android N features revealed at Google IO was the promise of seamless updates, allowing your device to install updates in the background without rendering it temporarily unusable, but this is one feature that isn't likely to arrive on any current hardware.

Speaking to Google, Android Police learned that while it would technically be possible to achieve on some current handsets, such as the Nexus 5X or Nexus 6P, it would mean repartitioning the entire phone, so that there were two partitions live at once - one to download and install updates onto and the other to continue using the phone from.

But repartitioning isn't easy - it would require hooking your handset up to a computer and, more worryingly, risks breaking your phone or losing data - so it's both hassle and, frankly, not worth the risk from Google's perspective.

New phone needed

It's possible that some enterprising users will develop tools to make it work, but if so they will likely be entirely unofficial and used entirely at your own risk. Otherwise, if you really can't bear to look at another "Android is updating" screen, you'll to have to buy a phone that runs Android N or above out of the box, the first of which will likely be the new Nexus devices we're expecting later this year.

Everyone else will just have to continue finding ways to fill that phoneless time. We'd suggest using it to learn something new, but without our Duolingo and Skillshare apps we'd probably just end up staring into the abyss until our phone works again.

• There've been some big announcements at Google IO 2016

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/1OD9Q21
via IFTTT

Verizon Wireless plans

Whether you're a weary traveler from a neighboring network or a Verizon Wireless loyalist, you're always searching for the latest and greatest plans to shave some dollars off that phone bill. After thoroughly analyzing and comparing the various Verizon Wireless plans, we've determined a succinct breakdown of the very best options. We took everything into account during our research, from the value of each plan to the amount of data parceled out each month to help you get the absolute best bang for your buck.

Jump straight there: View the plans at Verizonwireless.com

Verizon Wireless Plans: Explained

Verizon Wireless once offered many varied contract based plans, including the "MORE Everything" plan and the "Nationwide" plan. Now the carrier has simplified things, organizing its options according to the amount of shareable data, called The Verizon Plan. Unlimited texting and minutes are included in an affordable $20 monthly charge per phone, so the bulk of your phone bill will come from the size of monthly data you choose. Here's a short breakdown of the 5 tiers of The Verizon Plan you can sign up for:

• Small: 1GB - $30/Month
• Medium: 3GB - $45/Month
• Large: 6GB - $60/Month
• X-Large: 12GB - $80/Month
• XX-Large: 18GB - $100/Month

The best Verizon Wireless plans for you

Although we did most of the heavy lifting with regards to pricing out the best deals Verizon has to offer, every single mobile phone user is different and so will have different requirements from their Verizon Wireless plans. Some consumers strictly use data in emergency circumstances. Others binge episodes of Daredevil over 4G LTE from virtually anywhere imaginable (not that we're speaking from experience).

The point is, every single customer is unique in their data needs. Thankfully, Verizon's pricing options offer the chance to pick the plan that fits you the best. One tip that's important to note is that Verizon charges an extra $15 per gigabyte once you've gone past your data limit, so it may be worth upping to a comfortable data tier rather than being eaten up by overage charges.

Let's take a look at who might be best suited for each of Verizon's main plans.

Verizon Wireless plan: Small | 1GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | $30/Month
If you're a light user of data and spend most of your browsing time connected to WiFi, Verizon's most affordable plan may be more than enough for you to enjoy your mobile device and save some big bucks every month. 1GB will be enough for occasional web browsing but you should be aware that if you want to download apps or stream music, you'll need more data than this.

View this plan: at Verizonwireless.com

Verizon Wireless plan: Medium | 3GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | $45/Month
According to Verizon, this plan is the most common selection for the single device customer who moderately uses data every month. If you're the least bit concerned about 1GB not being enough, it may be worth tripling your monthly data for only $15 extra. 3GB will be enough for copious amounts of internet and Facebook browsing as well as the occasional music and video streaming. Beware though - if you're a YouTube addict or you like to stream Netflix on the go, 3GB won't last long.

View this plan: at Verizonwireless.com

Verizon Wireless plan: Large | 6GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | $60/Month
6GB sounds like a bit of overkill for one person, but if you're a heavy streamer, that data will go faster than you think. Additionally, this plan is tailored for a couple of moderate data users who can both get 3GB of data for only $15 more than the medium plan. That's really good value and definitely the right choice for couples - much better than paying for two separate plans. If you like to stream Spotify when out and about, on top of web browsing, Facebook using amd image uploading, this is a good plan but remember that teh biggest consumer of data is video. So if you watch a lot of YouTube or Netflix when not connected to Wi-Fi you still might need more.

View this plan: at Verizonwireless.com

Verizon Wireless plan: X-Large | 12GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | $80/Month
At this point, you're either a very heavy data user, streaming a lot of music and video as well as updating apps on the go, or you're likely shopping for a family plan to add multiple lines on. Nevertheless, 6 additional gigabytes for only $20 more than the large plan is a steal for anyone expecting to use a chunk of data each month and this offers great value if you're going to split the allowance across two, three or even four lines.

View this plan: at Verizonwireless.com

Verizon Wireless plan: XX-Large | 18GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | $100/Month
Verizon's largest plan is perfectly suited for a family of four moderate-to-heavy data users. For only $100, 18GB is a surprisingly substantial load of data at your disposal. It will allow eveyrone on the plan to be fairly liberal with their data use, so you won't need to worry about streaming an album on Spotify or watching an episode of Daredevil on Netflix. This is almost certainly overkill for single users though, unless you really are a super-heavy data user.

View this plan: at Verizonwireless.com

Verizon Wireless: Prepaid plans

If you're not looking for the traditional single or shared data plan, Verizon Wireless also offers competitive prepaid plans. For those wishing for a "no strings attached" type of plan, this could be just the type of plan you're looking for. There's no annual contract to sign up to, no activation fee, no credit checks to pass and free next day shipping on everything. In addition to offering varied data amounts, each smartphone prepaid plan includes unlimited talk and text. Here's a look at the monthly price breakdown for owning a prepaid smartphone with Verizon Wireless.

• WiFi Only: $30/Month
• 2GB Data: $45/Month
• 5GB Data: $60/Month

Goodbye contracts, hello more expensive phones

Following in the footsteps of a carrier like T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless eliminated the two year contract in favor of their more straightforward current plan pricing initiative.

Unfortunately, the extinction of biennial contracts meant saying goodbye to sizeable price breaks on handsets. As a fair warning to new customers, if you're shopping for a phone to go with your plan on Verizon, and have average to below average credit, don't be shocked if you have to put a sizeable down payment on your new phone.

After the down payment, Verizon breaks up the device payment into monthly installments over 24 months. The upside to a big down payment is that your monthly bill will be significantly reduced. However, with some handsets running around $1,000, this can feel like little consolation after laying down some serious cash up front.

On the flip side, if you have a strong credit score, you just might get that brand new phone for absolutely zero money up front. Regardless, whether you decide to pay for the entire phone on day one or spread it over two months, it's undeniable that the death of contracts made discounted phone pricing virtually a thing of the past.

Verizon Wireless plans: Choose your phone

Remember, it's not enough to have a great plan -- you need a great phone to go with it. All of Verizon's phones are available with each plan, including the top of the line iPhone 6S Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. As I mentioned, each phone on your plan is an additionally $20/month, which includes unlimited talk and text. See all available Verizon Wireless phones

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/1T890fE
via IFTTT

Microsoft is soon going to make it compulsory for the manufacturers of Windows 10 PCs, tablets and smartphones to include TPM (Trusted Platform Module) for bolstered security.

In a TechNet post which covered the topic of TPM 2.0 compliance for Windows 10 devices in the future, Microsoft said it would be introducing the cast-iron requirement for systems to include TPM on the day before the anniversary of Windows 10's launch.

Redmond stated: "All shipping devices for Windows 10 across all SKU types must be using TPM 2.0 discrete or firmware from July 28, 2016. This requirement will be enforced through our Windows Hardware Certification program."

TPM is already present on a large number of business-targeted computers and notebooks, where security is always a heightened concern, but it's not so common for consumer machines. That will all change soon enough.

Pi exception

All hardware running Windows 10 desktop editions – that's Windows 10 Home, Pro, Education and Enterprise – must implement TPM 2.0 and ship with it enabled, along with all Windows 10 Mobile devices.

The exception to the rule is Windows 10 IoT Core where TPM will remain optional, so the likes of the Raspberry Pi won't be bound by this new Redmond directive.

TPM encompasses a raft of security mechanisms designed to protect a device from tampering and would-be intruders if the hardware falls into the wrong hands, and the newer TPM 2.0 standard offers a number of clear advantages over TPM 1.2 including support for SHA-256 hashing.

It can be implemented either in discrete form (a separate chip) or as firmware TPM.

Via: PC World

• What is TPM, and why does it matter to your business?

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/262Nodt
via IFTTT

SIM only deals

On this page you'll find links to the best SIM only deals currently available in the UK. SIM Only deals are usually the best option for those people who are out of contract but want to wait a while before they upgrade, or for others who have bought a phone outright and want a cheap SIM deal to use with it. Luckily for you, SIM only deals are very competitive at the moment so there are a lot of great options as the networks compete on price. At the top of this page you'll see a price comparison chart where you can find the best deals, and underneath that you'll see some of the best SIM only deals that we recommend.

This month's best SIM only deal:

Vodafone | 12 month contract | 20GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £14 per month
We've looked around and this looks like the best SIM only deal currently available in the UK. You'll need to be quick to get it though as it's due to expire on April 21. With this deal you get a bonkers 20GB data on Vodafone's 4G network, and unlimited calls and texts. The actual monthly fee will be £24 but you mitigate that by getting £120 cashback when you sign up for the deal, effectively reducing the monthly cost by £10. If we were looking to grab a data-tastic SIM only deal this month, this is the deal we'd go for.

Get this deal from Mobiles.co.uk: Micro SIM | Nano SIM

Choose the best SIM only deals for you:

SIM only deals are loading...

The best SIM only deals are:

These are the deals we recommend most highly. We try to pick out a deal for everyone, whether you're after the cheapest possible option or the best balance between allowance and cost.

Vodafone | 12 month contract | 20GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £14 per month
As we mentioned above, we've looked around and this looks like the best SIM only deal of the month. You'll need to be quick to get it though as it's due to expire on April 21. With this deal you get a bonkers 20GB data on Vodafone's 4G network, and unlimited calls and texts. The actual monthly fee will be £24 but you mitigate that by getting £120 cashback when you sign up for the deal, effectively reducing the monthly cost by £10. If we were looking to grab a data-tastic SIM only deal this month, this is the deal we'd go for.

Get this deal from Mobiles.co.uk: Micro SIM | Nano SIM

iD | 1 month contract | 4GB data | 500 minutes | 5000 texts | £10 per month
iD is the network owned by Dixons Carphone - the company behind Carphone Warehouse, Mobiles.co.uk and e2save.com - not to mention Currys and PC World. It piggybacks on the Three 3G/4G network and is usually a pretty cheap way of getting up and running. This deal currently has double data for 12 months, so you're paying for 2GB and getting 4GB for just £10 a month. And because it's a one month contract, you can cancel at any time.

View this deal: at iD/Carphone Warehouse

iD | 1 month contract | 250MB data | 250 minutes | 5000 texts | £4 per month
This is the cheapest SIM only deal currently available in the UK. If you just need to keep a phone up and running for occasional use, this is a good option. Clearly 250MB is not much data at all so you'd be advised to either keep mobile data switched off or else be careful what apps are updating in the background.

View this deal: at iD/Carphone Warehouse

Alternative option: You could also pay £1 more to get the same deal with 1GB data which seems like much better value to us!

Three's SIM only deals with unlimited data
Three is still the only network that offers all-you-can-eat / unlimited data as an option. That's not as impressive as you might think because other networks offer large allowances too. But if you want the absolute security of knowing you can never be charged if you go over your data allowance, these deals are brilliant and they offer good value too - particularly if you're a heavy data user. The all-you-can-eat data plans come with in a few different guises - with the price changing according to how many minutes you require. Here are the options for you to take a look at:

Three | Unlimited data | Unlimited texts | 200 minutes
12 month contract for £20 per month | 1 month contract for £23 per month

Three | Unlimited data | Unlimited texts | 600 minutes
12 month contract for £25 per month | 1 month contract for £28 per month

Three | Unlimited data | Unlimited texts | Unlimited minutes
12 month contract for £30 per month | 1 month contract for £33 per month

EE | 12 month contract | 16GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £19.99 per month - £96 cashback!
This is the best SIM only deal currently available on EE. You get 16GB data and unlimited everything else for just £19.99 per month which is excellent value. What's more, by purchasing this through Mobile Phones Direct you can claim £96 cashback, which makes the price more like £11.99 per month.

View this deal: get it from Mobile Phones Direct

SIM only deals: introducing the candidates

Mobiles.co.uk

Often the place with the best bargains

It's always worth checking out Mobiles.co.uk - its aggressive price cuts are often unmatched by anyone else.

View: SIM only deals at Mobiles.co.uk

giffgaff

Probably the cheapest SIM-only deals in the UK

GiffGaff is very hard to beat on price – if you want to grab a cheap SIM card deal, this could be your best option. You can't argue with £5 a month. The cheap deals don't give you much of an allowance to play with, but if you just want to keep your phone going and available to use for calls and texts with the occasional bit of internet use outside of your home WiFi, GiffGaff is a strong offering.

View: all giffgaff SIM only deals

EE

EE's SIM-only deals come with double-speed 4G

If you want a cheap SIM-only deal, EE is most certainly not the network to go for. But don't discount it entirely, because if you already own a good smartphone and you want to pair it with the fastest network in the UK with a SIM-only deal, you can do that. EE's SIM-only deals all come with EE Extra 4G, which means they work with EE's super-fast double-speed 4G network, rather than with its single-speed 4G network.

Vew: all EE SIM only deals

O2

A reliable network with great coverage

We've browsed all of the SIM-only deals available on the O2 network, and it's a mixed bag. Some of the really cheap deals are pretty good – if you want to bag a dirt-cheap SIM-only deal for £8.50 per month, you can. However, when you start adding minutes and data to your deals, you notice that O2's SIM-only prices increase rapidly. This is probably not a good network to go for it you want to get more than 1GB of data.

View: all O2 SIM only deals

Vodafone

A solid network with some decent deals

As with O2 above, Vodafone doesn't offer the very best SIM only deals. It would rather sell you a phone and charge you £30 per month, but if you're after a cheapo deal and you don't need heaps of data or loads of minutes, Vodafone could be a good option for you. Do be aware that some of these deals are on one-month rolling contracts, while with others you have to sign up for 12 months. You can tell which ones are which under the logo which states the contract length.

View: all Vodafone SIM only deals

Three

Three is the network that offers unlimited data

If you want a good handset on a cheap contract, Three used to be the go-to place. These days it's quite expensive, but it does still offer some of the best SIM only deals. It's the only major network to offer unlimited data as an option, and does so from £20 per month which is great as long as you don't need more than 200 minutes each month.

View: all Three SIM only deals

TalkTalk

Often has half-price deals once you click through!

TalkTalk is a telecoms company that also offers home phone, broadband and TV packages, so the best deals can be had if you sign up for more than one service. However, at the time of writing the cheapest deal is actually £3.50 per month – that's the £7.90 deal below, which is currently half-price once you click through.

View: all TalkTalk SIM only deals

iD

Cheap SIM-only deals all on one-month contracts

iD is a good option if bargain basement prices are what you covet. This is a network run and owned by Carphone Warehouse - it piggybacks on the Three network and offers many of the benefits that entains, including European roaming etc. It's an excellent option if you want great value with perks.

View: iD SIM only deals

Virgin mobile

An oldie but a goodie, offering one-month deals galore

Virgin Mobile has been going for a long time, and some of its SIM-only deals are particularly attractive. They're all one-month rolling contracts, so you can stop paying at any time if you so wish, giving you flexibility if you want to change your plan or go for a phone-inclusive deal down the line.

View: all Virgin Mobile SIM only deals

All the SIM-only deals on this page are checked every day to make sure they're still available and up to date!

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://ift.tt/1VrqadV
via IFTTT