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• Algae inspiration could boost your phone's battery
• Review: Updated: Jawbone UP3 review
• UPDATED: US Open live stream: Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic
• Plex is finally coming to Apple TV
• iPhone 6S and 6S Plus RAM confirmed
• iPhone 6S vs LG G4
• Supporting causes on Facebook is about to get a lot easier
• iPhone 6S vs Samsung Galaxy S6
• OnePlus promises something luxurious is on the way
• Running Man of Tech: How I broke the 40 minute 10K barrier with tech
• iPhone 6S Plus vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5
• iPhone 6S vs OnePlus 2
• Interview: Lenovo: 'Gaming PCs are like sports cars - the first thing you do is show them off'
• Don't take your waterproof Xperia Z5 underwater, says Sony
• iPhone 6S vs Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
• WEEK IN GAMING: Augmented Reality is the new Virtual Reality (and also the new regular reality)
• Samsung Galaxy S7 tipped for dual camera, February launch
• Could device-to-device be the next big thing?
• Updated: iPhone 6S and 6S Plus pre-order: How to get Apple's new phones
• iPhone 6S sales begin with pre-order scramble

Algae inspiration could boost your phone's battery Posted: 14 Sep 2015 12:30 AM PDT Materials engineers trying to work out a way of boosting the performance of lithium-ion batteries have hit upon an unlikely inspiration - algae from a local pond. In nature, single cells of algae can grow to huge sizes. Now, a team at Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research has developed a new type of battery component out of carbon that mimics the way that single-celled algae forms, and early testing shows a solid improvement on traditional batteries. "In nature, a great number of microorganisms, like diatoms, can assemble biominerals into intricate hierarchical three-dimensional architectures with great structural control," said Xi Li, who heads up the research group that made the discovery. Scaling Up Li and his team examined how the algae forms, then used a similar process to develop tiny carbon spheres that act as a battery's anode. When compared to normal lithium-ion cells, the new batteries showed high reversible capacity, good cycling stability and high-rate performance. "The carbon spheres can only be prepared on a laboratory scale, however, we are optimizing the synthetic conditions to scale up fabrication," said Li. "We envisage that batteries composed of these anode materials could be charged faster than those fabricated using conventional carbon materials." The team's research has been published in the journal Chemistry of Materials. This algorithm automatically de-clutters your photos

Review: Updated: Jawbone UP3 review Posted: 13 Sep 2015 10:20 PM PDT Introduction, Battery and Design Update: A recent firmware update has done away with the need to manually swap between sleep and step tracking modes, so we've revisited the review to reflect this new user experience. Jawbone had big plans for its UP3 fitness tracker. When it was first announced, Jawbone was happy to boast that the UP3 would be the first 24/7 tracker you could use to not only track your steps throughout the day, but also track your laps while swimming. But it turns out that Jawbone's eagerness to create an all-encompassing tracking device were not to be. As production scaled up, the company couldn't actually deliver on its claims the device was waterproof. So, after a long, hard look at the product, the UP3 that's now hitting shelves around the world is not exactly the product we were promised last year. It is, however, a rather solid step up from its predecessor, the Jawbone UP24. While that particular model has itself been replaced by the UP2, the UP3 adds a heart rate sensor, skin and ambient temperature sensors, and galvanic skin response measurements. Up against fierce competition in a near saturated market, can it possibly win? Let us see, shall we? Battery life There's a whole new form factor with the Jawbone UP3, and a smaller, more compact body, so it's no surprise that there's a bit of a battery life drop over the UP24 here. While the UP24 was able to eke out almost 14 days worth of battery from a single charge, the UP3 is currently pushing between 5-7 days, following a recent firmware update. Truthfully, we find that it tends to steer firmly on the lower end of that spectrum, with the "charge soon" notification on the smartphone appearing more frequently than we'd like. Still, that five day life is still comparable to some of the rival devices on the market, although you do have to wonder if the addition of new features (using all those extra sensors) will drain the battery life even faster. The app does send push notifications to let you know when the battery life is starting to run a little low, so you shouldn't be suddenly walking around with an uncharged device. But at the same time, it's noticeably slower to charge than previous UP versions. Where the UP24 would go from practically empty to full in the time it took to have a shower, the UP3 is lucky to add a couple of days to the battery's longevity in that time. Strap, comfort and style The UP3 is strikingly different in design to previous models of the UP band. Gone is the stretchy, overlapping bracelet design, replaced instead with a much more secure watch-like band. Lightweight, slim and with integrated sensors, the band uses a unique side-sliding mechanism to hold it in place. It's a little bit awkward to put on, to be honest. It does get easier with time, but it's still not as natural as some of the Apple Watch strap designs, for example. And even with a perfect fit, those new bioimpedance sensors tend to leave dents in your skin, so you're probably going to want to take it off periodically just to give your wrist a rest. I won't say that it hurts at all, but it doesn't feel great either. That said, the Jawbone UP3 still feels like a step up over the design of the UP24. It's much more secure – the worry of having the band rip of your wrist when you put on a jacket is gone. Also gone is the physical button at one end and the 2.5mm headphone-jack shaped charger at the other. Instead, all interaction with the UP3 is done via the touch sensitive body. By "all interaction", we mean cancelling vibration alerts. It used to be how you cycled between sleep and step-tracking modes, but a recent firmware update allows the UP3 to detect your sleep times automatically. Now, pretty much all the device's controls are managed via the app on your smartphone. That includes the Stopwatch function that made it easy to record a workout. Admittedly, the function is still there, but as far as user interface goes, there's nothing revolutionary here on the new Jawbone device. Despite the radical strap redesign, the Jawbone UP3 is still noticeably a product from the mind of Yves Behar. It features the immediately familiar textured body as other Jawbone products, with a different texture for each of the two colours currently available – black and silver. Jawbone promises more colours down the line, but for now the range certainly stands out as some of the more attractive wearables on the market. Step Tracking, Accuracy and Software Step tracking and accuracy The idea is that by including all the extra sensors, Jawbone is able to record even more data points, giving it more ways to inspire you to keep healthy. Interestingly though, many of those sensors aren't actually being translated into useful data yet. Jawbone promises that these sensors will be activated in the future, delivering a wide array of additional information via the UP app, and we'll update our review when they arrive. But in the meantime, do the functions offered by the UP3 make it a worthwhile option in the increasingly competitive fitness tracker market? As a step tracker, there's a lot to like about the Jawbone UP3. It retains the level of accuracy that we loved about previous versions, and combines that with a more secure wrist strap. The introduction of Duels, and the constant refinement of the Smart Coach, with tips and prompts to improve your daily activity are great. But while step tracking performance has stayed the same, and the wristband has improved, there are some serious challenges on the user interface front. For a start the touch display is temperamental. Before the recent firmware update, switching between sleep and active modes required you to double tap the display, then press and hold it until it vibrated and changed. The fact Jawbone has done away with this is a big step forward. We were extremely frustrated during our early tests, as the UP3 required continual tapping to wake the device up. What's worse is that this happened either when you were going to bed or when you first woke up. One frustration that no firmware upgrade will fix is the charger. Just like previous iterations of the UP band, the UP3 features a short proprietary USB charger. But this time around, the charging mechanism isn't in the form of a headphone jack that allows the band to spin around in every direction. It's a small multi-pin magnetic attachment that can only attach one way. It's not obvious which way that is, so expect some playing around to get it right. Also, the magnetic attachment doesn't make the connection happen, like some other devices, so even if you have it the right way, you have to make sure you've got things attached. But the biggest challenge with the charger is that the cable is too short. Thanks to the new clasp design of the UP3, and the short USB cable, you need to bend the charger upwards or have it hanging off the side of a desk in order to charge the device. While wireless charging is probably impossible given the sheer number of sensors already packed into the UP3, there has to be a more elegant solution than this one. Even a mechanical clasp rather than the magnetic one, or even just a longer cable would make a difference. It's all manageable – you can make the connection quickly enough – but it's fiddly, which is the opposite to what you want from a device designed to be worn 24/7, and flies in the face of the simplicity of the Apple Watch charger. On the sleep front, The UP platform is still the best on offer, giving the most detailed data you can get on a 24/7 band, and far outperforming the likes of the Fitbit Charge. As mentioned above, the addition of REM sleep is interesting, although we're not sure just how accurate the data is, and so far I haven't seen much useful information based on my recorded REM data. Otherwise, the sleep tracking is the same as previous UP bands, showing light and deep sleep patterns as well as when you wake and fall asleep. Somehow, Jawbone managed to include the vibration motor in the UP3, so you get the silent alarm function, which wakes you up gently by vibrating on your wrist. That vibrating function also acts as an "idle alert" prompting you to get up off your butt if you've been idle for too long. Interestingly, this is one feature that really lacks a screen. The Apple Watch offers the same function, and over the course of our test period, it was painfully obvious that having a screen tell you to stand up was much more effective than just a minor vibration on the wrist. The app still has a meal tracker, which allows users to quickly add consumed food and drink to try and complete the health picture. Unfortunately, there's still a big gap in terms of foods available. The app's food database is targeted at the US, which may be one of the largest markets in the world, but doesn't make the process any more convenient to international users. I tested the UP3 in Australia, and there is currently no localised food database, although Jawbone told us that the database is there, it just hasn't been integrated into the app yet. In any case, I found that it was easy to workaround using companion apps like MyFitnessPal to pick up the slack in terms of food tracking, although it's an imperfect solution. App The Jawbone UP app has received a new lease on life. So much so that upgraders from the UP24 will have to head back to the app store to download a new version. Fortunately, there's no new learning curve here. The new app – designed to work with the UP2, UP3 and UP4 (the Amex payment version launched in the US) – features the same orange and purple bars to represent your activity and sleep through the day. Directly below the graphs is the Smart Coach – a combination of tips, tricks, challenges, and your newsfeed of activity, so you can see how you and your friends are doing on your fitness journey. Depending on how much or how little sleep and or activity you do each day, the app will suggest ways for you to improve. It's subtle, encouraging, and based on your own data, so it feels like everything is specifically targeted for you personally. Also present in the App are the traditional UP features like Idle alert – which makes the band vibrate on your wrist if you've been sitting down too long – and the Stopwatch function, so you can record a workout. There's also Trend graphs, connected apps (like MyFitnessPal or Runkeeper) and the ability to set your step and sleep goals. But of course, all of those features have been around for a while. What we really want to get to are the new data points – the things that make the UP3 different from previous versions. What do all those extra sensors do, after all? The most obvious addition is the inclusion of heart rate recordings. While devices like the Fitbit Charge HR and Apple Watch record your heart rate through the day – and while you're exercising in particular – the UP3 takes your resting heart rate when you first wake up. The idea is that this is your baseline heart rate – the rate your body works at before any external pressures have started to stress you out, before coffee, before anything. Jawbone argues that this is the best way of measuring your overall heart health. Whether that's true or not is probably for scientists to debate. But it was certainly interesting to watch my resting heart rate change. For example, the morning after an evening where I may have had a bit too much to drink, my resting heart rate went from averaging at about 61 bpm to 68 bpm. A couple of occasions where I was up overnight with my kids and woke up extremely tired, things jumped up to 65 bpm. Of course, that's all good and well to know, but what do I do with it? I imagine that should I find myself getting significantly less sleep than normal and my resting heart rate average creeping up, the app would suggest I get to bed sooner. But so far, I'm yet to receive any truly useful information about my heart rate. The recent firmware update that ditched the need to manually change modes also added what Jawbone is calling "Passive Heart Rate". Now, the band will not only record your heart rate when you first wake up, but also at moments when you are idle through the day. But again, so far I'm yet to get any useful information delivered from this new metric. Diving in to the Smart Coach for more, the best information I've received is to try and keep my passive heart rate close to my resting heart rate for better heart health. Then there's the other new piece of data that plays out on the UP app: the recording of REM sleep. Tap through to your sleep data, and instead of being presented with just light and heavy sleep charts, you'll also see a new REM graph. Truth be told, I'm kind of skeptical about this data. I dream a lot – amazingly lucid dreams that I quite often remember – yet according to the app I generally only get about 35 minutes of REM sleep a night, scattered across the night. While I can't definitively say this number is incorrect, it certainly feels off the mark. The next new addition to the UP app is something not exclusively tied to the UP3 – Duels allow users to challenge an UP friend to compete on who can take the most steps in a day, three days or over a full week. That sense of competition is a great way to inspire you to get up and take more steps, Thanks to regular push notifications about the Duel's progress, there's a real incentive to get up and try and take more steps than your UP-wearing friends. You can also opt to make your Duels public or private, so if you don't want the world to know you can't hold a torch to your partner's fitness chops, you don't have to. Compatibility and Verdict Compatibility Like its predecessor, the Jawbone UP3 uses Bluetooth 4.0 to pair to your smartphone, so there's a better than average chance it's not going to work with your older smartphone from the get go. But despite great strides on Android's front to make pairing to fitness devices much simpler, the compatible device list is still woefully short. On the iOS front, you can get the UP3 paired to any iPhone launched since the iPhone 4S right up to the iPhone 6, as well as the iPod Touch (4th Gen), and the iPad 3, iPad mini and iPad Air. Weirdly, the app isn't available for the more recent and more powerful iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 2. We're not sure why this is the case, but given those two iPads are well over six months old, it appears they're hardly a priority for Jawbone. The Android side of the compatibility equation is even messier. According to the Jawbone website, the UP app is compatible with phones from HTC, Sony, LG, Samsung and Motorola. More specifically, the compatible devices are: the HTC One, HTC One (M8), HTC Droid DNA, HTC One Max, LG G3, LG Nexus 4, LG Nexus 5, Motorola Droid mini, Motorola Moto G, Motorola Moto X, Motorola RAZR M, Samsung Galaxy Grand 2, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S5, Sony Xperia Z1, Sony Xperia Z1 Ultra, Sony Xperia VC and Sony Xperia ZL. That said, we could install the app on some more recent handsets, namely the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, but then couldn't actually get the device to pair with the phone, so the device list is definitely a bit up in the air. Which obviously makes the purchasing of an UP3 for owners of newer Android devices a more risky undertaking. Price So now we come to the interesting part of this review. The Jawbone UP3 has an RRP of US$180 / £150 / AU$249, which places it well and truly out in the premium end of the fitness tracker market. And from a pure specs point of view, you can understand the price tag. There's a lot of impressive tech in this diminutive little band, including a whole heap of sensors that are unique to the device. But the simple fact is that, for the moment at least, those sensors really aren't working hard enough for you. Considering the UP2 is available for US$99 / £89 / AU$149, and currently delivers all the same functions minus heart rate and REM sleep tracking, it makes recommending the UP3 nigh on impossible. We've seen the first wave of promised feature improvements with this recent firmware update, but the fact is that they still haven't managed to make the UP3 band an essential purchase. We Liked When it comes to fitness tracker style, not many players are on the same level as Jawbone. The UP3 may have shifted how the UP bands connect to your wrist, but it still manages to exude the same Yves Behar flair of its predecessors. The fact that the band now latches to your wrist gives it a much more resilient body, so it's less likely to break when it gets caught on a jacket sleeve. Plus, the fact Jawbone has managed to cram so many sensors into the body of the UP3, while somehow maintaining about a week's worth of battery life is to be commended. We Disliked But let's face it, this isn't the ultimate 24/7 tracker we were hoping for. The fact that the UP3 has a whole range of new sensors that aren't delivering useful information, coupled with the premium price tag really doesn't add up to a device we can recommend. Throw in the challenging and slower-charging mechanism, the temperamental touch display and the questionable Android device support, and this really doesn't feel like the step up Jawbone wanted it to be. So far, we're also not really seeing any benefit from the additional measurements either in resting heart rate or REM sleep. Final Verdict There's no denying it: the UP3 feels like an incomplete product. Even subtracting the fact that it was meant to launch as a waterproof device, the fact that it includes a heap of extra sensors that don't appear to be pulling their weight means there's no real reason to buy this over an UP2 or Fitbit Charge device. The good news is that Jawbone has promised a raft of extra features to be delivered via firmware update in the future. Things like stress detection and manual active heart rate recording would make this a much stronger device. The UP app is still one of the best ways to track your fitness data, but you can spend significantly less on an UP2 and get much of the same data through the same app. Which ultimately makes the UP3 impossible to recommend over its cheaper brethren, or its Fitbit Charge rivals. While the most recent firmware update has definitely improved the band's usability, it still hasn't delivered any knock out features that can truly help provide you with insight into your health. Originally reviewed: July 5 2015.

UPDATED: US Open live stream: Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic Posted: 13 Sep 2015 07:50 PM PDT Update: The US Open live stream is over, with Novak Djokovic winning his latest grand slam title over the 34-year-old Roger Federer. It was a close tennis match. Watch online via the sources below to see the video highlights. Here how to livestream the US Open Tennis finals, in case looking to see Federer vs Djokovic and finding "love" (meaning zero in tennis) ways to watch it online. In the UK, Sky is the limit, with control over both the television broadcast rights and live streaming video via the network's Sky Go iPad, iPhone and Android app. In the US, there are two ways to watch it on a computer, and one central app to view US Open live stream on mobile devices. They're all "free," if you already pay for cable or have a friend's login. The live video is essential coming from the same source for all US destinations, Disney's ESPN network, specifically EPSN3. There are multiple cameras, depending on your choice. If you're tuning in on a television, you'll want to head to ESPN3 or Sky Sports 1. But, if you're trying to watch Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic online, check out one of the three options below. Watch it on official US Open Tennis website Tennis has been live streaming on the official US Open website for nearly two weeks now, with epic matches leading up to today's men's finals. It, like all subsequent live streaming options for this tennis tournament, requires an authenticated cable or satellite subscription, so logging in is required. The good news is that it's a direct feed from WatchESPN, aka ESPN3. To get to the right video, make sure you look for "Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic" on the playlist. Otherwise. you'll be matching a not-so-exciting juniors match. The live stream is a bit buggy at times, with random online commercials that like to play overtop of the match at random times (you can still hear the ball going back and forth). They're not pre-roll or post roll, they're mid-roll, and that's annoying in any championship tennis match. Looking for live tennis coverage in the UK? Head on over to Sky's website so that you're not region locked by Disney US-focused tennis coverage. Watch US Open finals on ESPN3 You may have better luck watching the US Open finals via the ESPN3 website, which includes multiple cameras through tennis sponsorships from Chase Bank and Mercedes-Benz. Want to see the US Open Finals free of such advertising? Look for the standard video Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic title in the video playlist. That's where the normal broadcast is being streamed. Watch US Open on an iPhone or Android Although the official US Open Tennis app doesn't live stream matches, look for the "WatchESPN" app in either Apple or Google's respective app stores. The ongoing tennis match is live streaming here, although you'll need cable credentials to make the video work here, too. No, none of the options are free for 100% cord cutters, as we are finding with a lot of live streaming events. From the MTV VMAs to the last Presidential Debate, you need to make friends with someone who still owns a cable subscription. Same thing goes for the UK's Sky Go app, which is currently streaming the Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic as the match heads into its finals sets.

Plex is finally coming to Apple TV Posted: 13 Sep 2015 07:14 PM PDT Though Plex has a huge range of supported platforms, from Xbox One and Playstation 4, to Ouya and Roku, one device it's never been officially available on is the Apple TV. Owners of the Cupertino company's streaming box have had to resort to jailbreaks and hacks to get a proper 'plexperience', but that's about to change, with Apple's new tvOS operating system allowing third-party developers to create apps specifically for Apple TV. ITWorld reached out to Plex co-founder Scott Olechowski, who confirmed that Plex is indeed working on bringing its media library service to Apple TV officially. "We are very excited to have a crack at bringing our users Apple TV. It's been a long requested platform and we're excited to work on it. We want it, our users want it… and we're anxiously awaiting the tvOS developer beta info, so we can finally dig in," said Olechowski. Let's talk about Plex, baby Though Olechowski has made the company's intent to bring Plex to the Apple TV clear, he clarified that it's too early to announce a timeframe for when we can expect it to appear on the device. According to Olechowski, Plex has "started digging in and looking at it, but we have some bigger questions to answer before we can set any expectations." These questions, we assume, involve the company's approach to getting the best version possible of Plex on the Apple TV, with Olechowski suggesting that "there are multiple ways to go about it, based on the tvOS SDK we now have access to," and that the people at Plex are "now evaluating the best path for Plex and will begin work in earnest once we have evaluated the options." 5 reasons the new Apple TV can win the streaming war

iPhone 6S and 6S Plus RAM confirmed Posted: 13 Sep 2015 05:56 PM PDT 2GB of RAM, that's what you'll get from Apple's next round of handsets, according to iOS developer Hamza Sood. The developer confirmed via Twitter that the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus would come packing the long-rumoured spec, after it was revealed by the iOS development tool, Xcode. As a comparison, Samsung's Galaxy S6 comes with 3GB of RAM, while the Galaxy Note 5 has 4GB. Why so secretive? Sood also tweeted confirmation that the iPad Pro boasted 4GB of RAM, following an initial reveal last week in an Adobe-issued Creative Cloud press release, which was then removed. True to form, Apple did not disclose just how much RAM its new devices have on board when they were unveiled at last week's big event in San Francisco. This surprised no one. Apple's well known for its secrecy, excluding RAM from the spec pages for all of its devices. Want to know which flagship smartphone will rule them all? Check out the iPhone 6S vs Samsung Galaxy S6.

iPhone 6S vs LG G4 Posted: 13 Sep 2015 08:00 AM PDT With an unusual design, powerful camera and super-sharp display the LG G4 was really built to stand out, and while in some ways it did so for the wrong reasons it's still one of the more impressive and unique phones of 2015. The iPhone 6S is sure to outsell it and with a premium build, powerful processor and great camera it's clearly a top phone too, but does it have the LG G4 beat? Design The iPhone 6S is unmistakeably an Apple product, with a slim metal build and distinctive Touch ID fingerprint scanner. It's one of Apple's best looking phones too, though it's almost identical to the iPhone 6. The LG G4 is even more unmistakeable, but not necessarily in a good way. The leather back is an interesting choice, but it's stretched too thin to feel good, while the plastic version is, well, plastic. Then there's its rear keys, which are easier to defend as some people swear by them, but they're certainly divisive. They're supposedly in a more natural position to hit, but they can take some getting used to if you're coming from any non-LG phone. Display The iPhone 6S has a 4.7-inch 1334 x 750 display, so it's both fairly compact and pretty sharp. At 5.5 inches the LG G4 is far from compact yet at 1440 x 2560 it's still far sharper than the iPhone 6S. In fact it has an impressively high pixel density of 538 pixels per inch. It's deep and rich too, despite being IPS LCD. Does the LG G4 have a better screen than the iPhone 6S? It's too soon to say, but it's certainly one of the best QHD displays we've yet seen. Power and performance The LG G4 isn't quite the most powerful phone around, but with a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor and 3GB of RAM it's not far off. You could say the same about the iPhone 6S though with its beefy Apple A9 processor. The LG G4 delivers generally slick performance and the iPhone 6S should as well, especially as with Apple creating both the hardware and software there's greater unity between them. Camera One thing the LG G4 really gets right is its camera, as with a 16MP sensor, an f/1.8 aperture for great low light shots, optical image stabilisation and a speedy laser autofocus there's a lot of fancy tech here. It comes together well and it's coupled with deep manual controls, so you can tweak the settings to your heart's content. With an 8MP camera on the front the LG G4 is also adept at selfies if you're into that kind of thing. The iPhone 6S should have a top of the range smartphone snapper as well though, as its 12MP rear sensor and 5MP front-facing ones are both upgrades over the already great iPhone 6 camera. You can't fine tune shots to quite the same extent as with the LG G4, but if you mostly want to point and shoot the iPhone 6S could be a real winner. OS The LG G4 runs Android 5.1 overlaid with its Optimus user interface and for the most part it's pretty good. It's refined, clean and colourful and while it's distinct from stock Android it uses a lot of the Material Design language, so it's not totally alien. The iPhone 6S meanwhile runs iOS 9, which is the brand new version of Apple's mobile operating system. It's not a radical change from iOS 8 but there are a number of improvements. Siri has become a little more helpful, while new features such as public transport directions have been added to Apple Maps among other things. It's worth giving a shout-out to 3D Touch here too. Apple's pressure sensitive technology changes the way you interact with the iPhone 6S, presenting you with different options depending on how hard you press the screen and it could make using the phone faster and more intuitive than ever. Battery LG flagships often have good battery life, but sadly the LG G4 doesn't. It's not awful, but it is in the camp that just barely lasts a day of moderate use, though it's at least removable so you can always swap it out for a spare. The iPhone 6S does not have a removable battery, but if Apple is to be believed it should hopefully last for up to 14 hours of talk time or 11 hours of video, which sounds reasonable. Time will tell how true that is. Price and availability While LG's flagships usually undercut the competition the LG G4 had a fairly premium price, but it quite quickly dropped and can now be picked up from around £330 ($470, AU$800) SIM free, while the iPhone 6S starts at £539 ($649, AU$1,079), so LG's phone is a lot cheaper. It's also likely to be easier to get hold of, as demand for the iPhone 6S will be enormously high, so expect stock to shoot off the shelves. Verdict With a fantastic camera, a brilliant screen and strong performance the LG G4 is undoubtedly a flagship, but it falters in several significant ways, from its unappealing design to its mediocre battery life. The iPhone 6S is likely the better phone overall then, but it's also more expensive and the LG G4 will have its fans, especially with unusual features like its rear keys.

Supporting causes on Facebook is about to get a lot easier Posted: 13 Sep 2015 06:49 AM PDT You're perhaps familiar with the idea of changing your Facebook profile picture to support a specific cause or event: gay marriage, cancer research, your mate's stag do, and so on. Facebook has noticed the trend and wants to help - the social media behemoth is testing out a new feature that lets you set a temporary profile picture that expires after a set number of hours, days or weeks. The idea is that the picture automatically reverts back to the original profile image without you having to remember to change it - your rainbow-coloured portrait will only appear for as long as it's relevant, in other words. Causes and milestones TechCrunch spotted the newly introduced option, which is available now to a select group of testers, and says it could roll out to more people in future. Or, it might get canned completely. "We often see people use their profile pictures to support a cause, root for a team, and commemorate milestones like birthdays and anniversaries," said Facebook in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. "Today, we're testing a new feature that allows you to set a temporary profile picture for a specified period of time. Temporary profile pictures make it easier to to express who you are and how you're feeling at a given moment, without having to worry about changing your profile picture back later." Get behind a worthy cause or celebrate your local team's sporting success in even fewer clicks - what's not to like? Facebook Events are about to look much more inviting

iPhone 6S vs Samsung Galaxy S6 Posted: 13 Sep 2015 05:00 AM PDT The Samsung Galaxy S6 is surely one of the most popular phones of the year and justifiably so, with its QHD screen, powerful processor, premium design and oodles of features. But if any phone is going to outsell the S6 it will be the iPhone 6S, the latest flagship from the only company in the business that's bigger than Samsung. With a premium design of its own and high-end specs and features it may even be worthy of all the sales it will inevitably enjoy. Design The iPhone 6S is a slim slab of metal, coming in at just 7.1mm thick and with very little breaking up the smooth lines of the aluminium build. The Samsung Galaxy S6 is similarly stylish, with a metal frame and a glass back, while at 6.8mm thick it's even slimmer than the iPhone 6S, though its glass back is prone to picking up fingerprints. They're not as visible if you pick the white model, but then you miss out on the gemstone-like finish offered by the other shades. Display There's a 4.7-inch 1334 x 750 IPS LCD display on the iPhone 6S coming in at 326 pixels per inch. That's the same resolution and size as the iPhone 6, making this one of the more compact smartphones around. The Samsung Galaxy S6 on the other hand has a larger 5.1-inch 1440 x 2560 screen with a pixel density of 577 pixels per inch. So it's both bigger and sharper, but the resolution of the iPhone 6S doesn't seem lacking and it's likely to help its battery life, which is something that is a problem on the Samsung Galaxy S6. Power and performance There's an Apple A9 processor at the heart of the iPhone 6S, designed to be 70% faster at CPU tasks and 90% faster at graphics than the A8 chip in the iPhone 6. The Galaxy S6 on the other hand has an octa-core Exynos 7420 processor, with four cores running at 2.1GHz and the remaining four clocked at 1.5GHz. It's a true powerhouse then, but while on paper the iPhone 6S may sound lacking in comparison, Apple's phones almost always offer seriously slick performance and we're not expecting the iPhone 6S to be any exception. Camera Apple has long delivered some of the best cameras found on a smartphone and that's likely to continue with the iPhone 6S, as it has a 12MP main camera and a 5MP front-facing one, both of which are upgrades over what was found on the still impressive iPhone 6. The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a quality snapper too though, with a 16MP sensor on the back, complete with optical image stabilisation to avoid blur and a 5MP camera on the front. The S6's camera is one of the best we've yet tested, but we're hopeful that the iPhone 6S's camera will rival it. OS The iPhone 6S ships with iOS 9, which includes improvements to Siri, long awaited Apple Maps features and more, plus all the slick intuitiveness of its predecessor, iOS 8. The Samsung Galaxy S6 on the other hand runs Android 5.1 overlaid with TouchWiz. Samsung's TouchWiz UI has been divisive over the years, but it's at its best here, while Android Lollipop is the cleanest and best version of Android yet. Both OS's are seriously polished by this point, but if you favour either Google's services or Apple's then that could swing it. Apple does have the edge in one way though, as it's equipped the iPhone 6S with 3D Touch, which can act as a pressure sensitive shortcut to certain features or options, as essentially a light tap on certain things will do one thing, while a harder press will do another. Battery The Samsung Galaxy S6's biggest weakness is perhaps its battery, which at 2,550mAh is smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S5's and won't typically last more than a day between charges. It's too early to say how good the iPhone 6S's juice pack will be, but we're hopeful that it should be able to keep the phone powered for at least a little longer than Samsung's, though the official stats are the same as those for the iPhone 6, which doesn't last much more than a day itself. Price and availability The Samsung Galaxy S6 can be grabbed from around £410 ($600, AU$800) for the 32GB version, while the iPhone 6S is launching for £539 ($649, AU$1,079) in its smallest size. In other words Apple's latest is quite a bit pricier, but it's also newer and it's an Apple product, so that's no surprise really. As the Samsung Galaxy S6 has been out for a while there should be stock in most places, but availability of the iPhone 6S might initially be more limited as millions of people head out in search of one. Verdict Samsung and Apple have both crafted stunning phones fit for 2015 and you can't really go wrong with either of them. We'll let you know exactly how good the iPhone 6S is when we've put it through a full review, but based on the specs and features it's sure to at least be the best iPhone yet, while the Samsung Galaxy S6 is one of the very best smartphones of any OS. The real choice between them is iOS or Android, because in most ways they seem similarly accomplished.

OnePlus promises something luxurious is on the way Posted: 13 Sep 2015 02:22 AM PDT It's been a busy year for Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, with the launch of the OnePlus 2 (streamed in VR no less), as well as a miniature drone that looked like an April Fool's Day joke. The company isn't done yet: It's teased something new on its Google+ page, though exactly what we're looking at isn't clear. Some kind of leather material is visible, plus what appears to be part of a shoelace. It would be a surprise if OnePlus moved into footwear, but it could point towards accessories for its handsets or maybe a new device altogether. We know another OnePlus phone is scheduled for before Christmas. Tagline teaser "A bit of welcome luxury" reads the tagline on the poster; "something luxurious is coming to OnePlus" says the caption. There's definitely a running theme there that you can probably spot. The comments below the post are rather acerbic in tone - it seems like a lot of potential customers have been put off by the slow roll-out of the OnePlus 2. CEO Carl Pei has admitted the launch could have gone more smoothly. Whatever this new product is might ease some of the pain. Get your predictions in early and you have the chance to come back with a smug "told you so" if you're proved right. OnePlus 2 just ran into a delay in North America

Running Man of Tech: How I broke the 40 minute 10K barrier with tech Posted: 13 Sep 2015 01:30 AM PDT Two massive races If the title of this piece seems a little like I'm bragging, then, well, I can't really deny that. But this is one of those instances in life that just feel like you have to make a big deal about, else they just get lost in the current with the rest of daily life. Regular readers will know that I've been after the sub-40 minute 10K race for a long, long time now - and on Sunday I finally did it in London's Kew Gardens, and all thanks to some subtle training tweaks that were enabled through technology. And, more importantly, Runner G completed her first ever race - getting people on the running train is way better than cracking times. Missing strength When the third time of attempting to break the 2,400 second barrier in September 2014 yielded a 40.02 result, I knew something would have to change. I guessed my issue was I simply wasn't strong enough to keep my bag of muscles together in a straight line for long enough at the right speed. Cue tech to help. I tried the Wahoo Tickr X chest strap heart rate monitor and its 7 minute workout, which registered lunges, squats and planks and the Jabra Coach Crossfit plans - great, but too generic. Then I found a great eight week course online, with fortnightly YouTube training videos from Coach Jay Johnson - and that was a large part of it. YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXpK3bF9UlA They weren't hard initially, but focused on really pushing the hip mobility and strength, and as they ramped up, I felt looser than ever. Moov-ing forward I've already written about this at length, how this little Moov sensor has helped strengthen my calves through making me run at an insanely high cadence and coaching me to maintain the right form during the sessions. The epilogue to that is what intrigued me the most: I was just doing these sessions as a good way to vary the recovery runs, but I found that over five weeks I went from doing 6 minute kilometres at 190 steps per minute to around 4:40 - without much change in effort. I can't quantify the difference that made, but it definitely strengthened my lower legs and achilles - and helped me feel like my form was 'flowing' a lot more. The sub-40 run I won't bore you with the excruciating details of this, but I did take on board a couple of things from the professionals I quizzed: taking a two day rest before the run (thanks Colin) and trying to structure the run in a way that broke it down a little bit better (thanking you, Dame Kelly). My plan was simple: try to hit each kilometre at a couple of seconds under four minutes, building a little buffer for the inevitable fall off the cliff towards the end (pace wise, not literally. I'm not that dedicated). My first kilometre was bang on - and that was with me having to pair some Bluetooth headphones and turn on Spotify on the go (as no sooner had I wormed my way towards the front of the pack did they say '3…2…1…go!'). While I usually don't run with music, this time I added in some theta-wave meditation sounds for the first half of the race, the same stuff they use to calm nervous flyers. The idea was to try and stay chilled for the first half, expending as little energy as possible. I ruined that as someone flew past me after the first kilometre, and I decided to stick to their pace for a little bit to make sure I hypnotised my brain into the faster speed. I hit a 3:47 kilometre and decided to throttle back, matching pace with those around me. That was pretty much how it went until 8.5km in - me and another chap sticking together, overtaking one another from time to time to keep the pace up. The Garmin chimed in with some lovely news every few minutes: I was hitting sub 4-min kilometres, and I could see I had built a lovely 19 second buffer over the 40-minute mark, according to the virtual pacer function on the Forerunner 920XT (a great tool I can't do without on races). Then we exited the river towpath back into the park - and that's where I came unstuck. Trotting over the newly mown grass was horrendous, the wet blades flicking up and landing inside my shoes, and my heart rate rocketed. I looked down and saw I'd lost four seconds in a few hundred metres, and I was in trouble. The finish line came into view, but we curved away, and I saw how far I had to go - a long loop over a field. My heart sank and my pace buddy started to pull away from me. I wanted to slow. I wanted it over… I was going to crash and burn again from my 40 minute challenge again. I kept churning over and analysing what I'd done wrong - I started too fast. I kept up too strong a pace. I rested too much. I didn't eat right. Whatever it was, I was dropping… my buffer down to 13 seconds. I had one weapon left: Bonnie Tyler. There's something about the place where the lightning splits the sea that fires my adrenaline, and I promised myself that I would do whatever it took to just get to the finishing straight. I pulled every trick I had: smiling, dropping my shoulders, pumping my arms, praying to whoever… and somehow I hit the finish straight with my 13 second buffer intact. My attempt at a sprint finish was woeful, and I even got passed on the line (which I blame Bonnie for - I couldn't hear a thing). But surely I'd done it! Around 39:47, right? Wrong. 38:36. What? How? What? Was the watch broken? Had I not done it? Did I stop it somewhere? I grabbed the guy I'd been running with, who'd finished five seconds ahead, and checked his time. '38:30' he grinned (turns out he'd never broken 40 minutes either). The Garmin had mis-tracked me (probably because we ran under tree cover for most of it). It was telling me I was going about 3% further each kilometre, and I'd pushed on as a result - so it thought I'd only done 9.72km. It doesn't get much better than that feeling. A new runner is born Actually it does.That first race sensation is hard to beat, and Runner G completed her first 10km run, the beam on her face as she sprinted across the line something I'll never forget. I'll let her tell the story in her own words, but by golly, I'm so proud of her to come from not being able to run in May to completing the race: 'To start, I couldn't even run for 10 minutes without needing to walk but was excited by my MiCoach plan and doing something 'worthwhile' rather than just eating and moaning all the time. 'About halfway through the three month plan, I started getting addicted to running kit. Running socks, wireless earphones, an armband that didn't slip off when I sweated and Spotify Running all became indispensable, as did the Adidas FitSmart watch, which made me take my heart rate during running more seriously – sharp exhales, trying to drop my shoulders and keep my head up felt more important than before. 'Then three weeks before the race, I picked up shin splints. My confidence absolutely plummeted. I had to take training breaks, I used a foam roller which hurt more than waxing (true story) and was in bits. I took the decision to see a physiotherapist, and that helped both phsychically and mentally. 'But where I had been so excited halfway, feeling I would smash the race, the week before I suddenly just didn't care anymore. I felt stressed, weak, tired and unprepared even though I'd be training for months. This was the lowest point. 'I did manage to do 8.5km the week before and after that I definitely believed in myself again. I just struggled to tell myself that what I was doing is actually something a lot of people struggle to do and I should be proud whatever the final result. The race 'I was tired after about 10 minutes and was desperate to walk. Everyone started off so fast and I was panicking - what if my shin splints got worse and I had to crawl over the line? What if there was dog poop on the line? 'Then…everyone around started to walk and I couldn't believe it! It made me feel stronger and a tad smug. My one goal for the race (apart from to finish it) was not to walk, telling myself: whatever happens, just don't walk. 'With a good country-music based playlist, by 8 kilometres I still felt good. I was nearly finished and while my right leg had gone numb, my time was OK - still on to beat 1hr15. 'But then came the horrid part: we had to run away from the line in order to lap round and finish, which was horrid. The sun was blazing and I was tired. My heart rate was through the roof. 'I slowed down but when the finish line came into view I sprinted: I wanted my time. I couldn't feel my right leg at all but by the time I crossed the finish line and calmed down a bit (and had a little cry on my friend's shoulder) I felt an overwhelming sense of achievement. And I'd done it in 1hr 14:36! 'To come from the low of last week to this feeling made me realise what it was all about. And I've already booked another one in November, so here's hoping it's the start of many more. The sub one hour dream is on!' If you've got any tips, tech you want tested out or just want to mock me, I'm @superbeav on Twitter, and you can see my stumblings on Strava too. If you want to see more data, follow me on Smashrun - if you want to sign up, please use this link - once you see the service, you'll work out why... Read the rest of the Running Man of Tech story here

iPhone 6S Plus vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Posted: 12 Sep 2015 10:00 AM PDT The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and iPhone 6S Plus are two of the biggest phones of 2015 in more ways than one, as not only are they phablet sized they were also highly anticipated flagships. Now they're both here and the battle between them is likely to be fierce, with both handsets featuring a premium design, great cameras and top tier specs. They're clearly both impressive phones but to see how mind blowing they really are, we've put these two heavyweights head-to-head to see how they compare in all the key areas. Design While past Galaxy Note handsets have had fairly disappointing designs it's all change with the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, a phone with a slim 7.6mm thick build, a metal frame and a glass back. The left and right edges curve inwards at the back making it easier to grip and the whole thing looks great. The iPhone 6S Plus has a more metal-heavy design - in fact it's all metal, with a seamless unibody. It's slim too and looks just as good as the Galaxy Note 5. It's arguably better as the glass back of the Note 5 is a bit of a fingerprint magnet and more easily broken, but they're both enormously stylish. Display The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has a huge 5.7-inch 1440 x 2560 Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 518 pixels per inch. It's big, incredibly sharp and thanks to the use of Super AMOLED it's also bright and vibrant. In all it really is one of the best smartphone screens we've ever come across. To help you get around that massive expanse the Galaxy Note 5 also has an S Pen stylus and even that has got a few new tricks up its sleeve, such as the ability to make notes on the screen without even turning it on. The iPhone 6S Plus is going to have its work cut out to compete then, but it has a shot, with a smaller but still large 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 IPS LCD display and an innovative pressure-sensitive 3D Touch feature. We'll let you know how it fares when we've put it through our full review, but coming from Apple we expect great contrast and colour accuracy. Power and performance On paper the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has an easy win here, with its 2.1GHz octa-core Exynos 7420 processor and 4GB of RAM. Those specs translate into beastly performance, with the Note 5 easily blasting through anything you can throw at it. The iPhone 6S Plus on the other hand has a likely dual-core A9 processor, but don't let those specs fool you as Apple's phones are usually almost impossibly smooth during operation and we expect no less here. Camera Samsung has really delivered with the Galaxy Note 5's camera. It has the same 16MP sensor as the Samsung Galaxy S6 and like that phone it can take photos in stunning quality, even when the lighting isn't ideal. Optical image stabilisation surely helps with that, and along with a range of shooting modes, settings and options it should suit both point-and-shooters and seasoned snappers. The front-facing camera isn't quite as impressive, but at 5MP it gets the job done. The iPhone 6S Plus has a 12MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing one. Like the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 it includes optical image stabilisation and given Apple's camera prowess it should hopefully be able to give the Note 5 a run for its money. OS Here lies perhaps the biggest difference between the two phones, as while the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 runs Android 5.1, the iPhone 6S Plus runs iOS 9. By now you probably know whether you're an iOS or an Android person, but while there are differences between them they're both exceedingly polished operating systems by this point, with a massive selection of apps. Battery The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has a 3,020 mAh battery, which is a slight downgrade from the 3,220 mAh juice pack found in the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but its performance isn't too terrible, standing up to a day of fairly heavy use between charges. With fast and wireless charging supported it's easy to get it juiced up again too. The iPhone 6S Plus is likely to offer a day or more of battery life too. Apple hasn't confirmed exactly how big the juice pack is, but the official stats are identical to the iPhone 6 Plus at up to 24 hours of talk time or 14 hours of HD video. Price and availability The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 can be grabbed for around $740 SIM free, but sadly only if you're in the US, as that's the only part of the Western world where you can currently buy the phone. The iPhone 6S Plus is launching for £619 ($749, AU$1,229) and up, so it's similarly priced, but far more widely available. Verdict The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 can go toe-to-toe with the iPhone 6S Plus in every area, with both phones offering a stylish design, lots of power, impressive cameras, great screens and speedy fingerprint scanners. They're clearly two of the best phablets on the planet and with similar price tags too the real decision is whether you'd rather run iOS or Android.

iPhone 6S vs OnePlus 2 Posted: 12 Sep 2015 08:00 AM PDT The OnePlus 2 has been heavily billed as a 'flagship killer' and there's no bigger flagship than the iPhone 6S. Apple's latest superphone is set to take the world by storm and with a stylish metal build, smooth performance, a promising camera and impressive features, such as 3D Touch and Touch ID, it's no wonder. The OnePlus 2 is no slouch either though, with powerful innards, a big screen, a fingerprint scanner and a comparatively low price. But is it really good enough to 'kill' the iPhone 6S? Design The OnePlus 2 has a better design than the OnePlus One, but there's still room for improvement. Its metal frame gives it a premium edge, but it's not quite the slimmest phone around at 9.9mm thick, while its back cover is a rough plastic affair. It's certainly easy to grip, but it doesn't look or feel particularly great. Fortunately if you stump up a little extra cash there are some more exotic and interesting options you can swap it for, such as bamboo or Kevlar. Apple almost never disappoints with its designs and while the iPhone 6S is rather similar to the iPhone 6 it still looks great. A slim 7.1mm metal unibody with curved edges ensures it looks and feels like a sleek flagship and it's clearly a better looking phone than the standard metal and plastic version of the OnePlus 2. Display The iPhone 6S has a 4.7-inch screen, which makes it fairly compact by flagship standards. That may appeal though and if you want something larger there's always the iPhone 6S Plus. It's a 1334 x 750 screen, so it's fairly sharp and as usual from Apple you can expect good contrast and great colour reproduction. The OnePlus 2 has a 1080p display, but it's a far larger 5.5-inch one, with a pixel density of 401 pixels per inch. It's a little sharper then but it's not the best screen we've ever come across. However it has good viewing angles and can be pumped up to a high brightness for improved outdoor viewing. Power and performance With a (likely dual-core) Apple A9 processor the iPhone 6S might not sound like a super powerful handset, but that's actually a significant upgrade over the iPhone 6 and that older phone has no problem running most apps and games. The OnePlus 2 has a 1.8GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM, all of which leads to moderately impressive performance, though it can get a bit toasty during extended gaming sessions and the home button sometimes takes a moment to respond. Camera Apple almost always delivers an impressive camera and it certainly looks like it has with the iPhone 6S. The handset has a 12MP sensor on the back and a 5MP one on the front, which are big megapixel boosts over the great iPhone 6 camera. We'll let you know in our review whether more megapixels have translated into better pictures, but we're hopeful that this will be a class leading camera. The OnePlus 2's snapper is good but certainly not flagship killing. It has a 13MP sensor on the back and a 5MP one on the front, so similar to the iPhone 6S. Plus it benefits from optical image stabilisation and a laser autofocus to help you snap photos fast and reduce camera shake. So far so good and in practice it can take decent pictures, especially impressing in low light conditions, but the results are generally good rather than great. OS The iPhone 6S ships with iOS 9, which takes everything good about iOS 8 and builds on it, including adding new features to Siri and Apple Maps. It's not a complete overhaul but it smooths off some of the few remaining rough edges in the OS. The iPhone 6S also has 3D Touch, which adds a new way to interact with the phone, allowing it to respond differently to light and hard presses. It's a bit like the way you can get different options by tapping or long pressing an icon on many handsets, but with it records pressure instead. The OnePlus 2 doesn't have any fancy pressure sensitive tech, but it does have a pretty great interface. It runs Android 5.1 skinned with Oxygen OS, which keeps the Android look and layout but adds a bunch of extra options, such as being able to launch the torch or camera by drawing a shape on the screen. Battery At 3,300mAh the OnePlus 2 has a larger battery than most 2015 flagships and it lasts a little longer than many too, comfortably seeing you through a day even if you push it a bit, but it won't likely last through a second day or even a second morning. The iPhone 6S probably won't have quite as good battery life, as we're expecting similar performance to the just-about-a-day life iPhone 6, but we'll let you know when we've properly put it to the test. Price and availability Price is one thing the OnePlus 2 really has going in its favour, as you can pick it up from £239 ($329, around AU$517). That's ludicrously cheap for a flagship phone, but sadly actually buying it is a little trickier, as it's invite only. The iPhone 6S has the sort of price you'd expect from a flagship, starting at £539 ($649, AU$1,079). In other words it's almost double what the OnePlus 2 costs, but it is arguably a slightly more premium phone. You won't need an invite to buy the iPhone 6S, but stock may initially be limited given the huge demand for it. Verdict The biggest thing the OnePlus 2 has going for it is its price tag, as it's hard to justify paying almost double for the iPhone 6S. Price aside the OnePlus 2 is pretty great too, thanks to flagship specs, a good camera and an improved design. That said if money is no object the iPhone 6S looks like it could well be the better handset, with a more premium build, a likely better camera and innovative features such as 3D Touch.

Interview: Lenovo: 'Gaming PCs are like sports cars - the first thing you do is show them off' Posted: 12 Sep 2015 05:45 AM PDT Introduction Lenovo took PC gaming by the scruff of the neck at this year's IFA 2015 expo, launching a plethora of gaming laptops, desktops and 2-in-1s featuring eye-catching cases and packing Intel's latest Skylake processors. The company also rolled out a number of new gaming peripherals as part of its Y-series of accessories, including a mechanical keyboard, a headset and a mouse. Aware that gamers prefer to look fashionable while fragging, it tasked a single design team with keeping the look and feel of its new products consistent. If glowing red lights and angular hardware is your thing, you'll probably think it succeeded. TechRadar sat down with Lenovo's global PC design and marketing chief Dhilip Bhatia to find out what gamers want from their pre-built PCs, Lenovo's push into peripherals and whether it will ever launch a 2-in-1 that could rival today's most powerful gaming laptops. TechRadar: What was behind Lenovo's decision to go big on peripherals with the launch of its new gaming systems? Dhilip Bhatia: We asked gamers what else they buy with their systems, and they said things like headsets and mousepads. We figured out that if they're already purchasing systems, why not make it simple and easy for gamers to get a complete systems with accessories and offer that flexibility. We have one design team that looks at both notebook and desktop accessories, so the products match visually. TechRadar: What do gamers want when it comes to the pre-built systems themselves? DB: If you look at the PC hardware market, it's growing faster than anything else out there. We think it could be a 27 to 30 billion dollar market by 2017 or 2018. That's why we've invested in this area, and we're talked to a number of gamers to see what's missing. The key feedback is that they want open solutions. Our competitors have proprietary solutions, so we're providing standard ATX motherboard, standard power supplies and cooling solutions. TR: With the Ideacentre Y900, where did the idea of having a transparent side panel and removable panels come from? DB: We observed gamers and found that they like to show off their systems to their friends, so we said hey, why don't we come up with a transparent solution. We even painted the clean-cable routing inside. It's like showing somebody a car. When you buy a sports car the first thing you do is open up the hood and show somebody the engine inside. The inside is important, but the outside is just as important. Sure we care about stuff like frames per second and low lag time, but you need a PC's design to look and feel attractive. TR: The Y900's case is really handy for doing things like installing a cooling solution or clearing out the dust. Are there any plans to offer the case separately for people who want to build their own rigs? DB: No - there aren't any plans to offer the chassis on its own. There are plenty of companies who do that, but we're focused on people who may want to tinker but don't have a lot of time. TR: What overclocking capabilities does the Y900 have? DB: Its customisable chassis goes a long way to helping gamers overclock the system. They can install a 1000w power supply, or a put a water-cooled system in there. The Y900 uses industry standard parts - that's the whole idea of it. TR: Why did you launch two different laptops in the Medion Erazer and the Y700. Why not just one or the other? DB: The Erazer is typically for customers in Germany. We have a long history of customers who buy Medion Erazer products there - it's a huge fanbase. Do we want to converge the product lines at somepoint? Maybe, but given that our customer base is slightly different in Germany versus the rest of the world, we decided to stick with Medion right now. TR: Lenovo kicked off the 2-in-1 craze with its Yoga line of products. It seems that all that's missing is a really beefy gaming hybrid. Why haven't you made one yet? DB: It's certainly a market we'll keep an eye on. The ThinkPad Yoga 460 actually has a discrete processor, and we have a number of other Yoga systems available with discrete graphics and capabilities. Are they high-end? I'm not sure yet, but it's an area we're already involved in. TR: Lenovo hasn't really launched a super-thin gaming laptop like a Razer Blade just yet. Is the preference still towards performance rather than portability, and would you say that the trade-off isn't worth it for gamers at the moment? DB: It all depends on how mobile we want to make a gaming laptop. Performance is the number one thing that maters. That's why we've focused on keeping the Y700 balanced. Sure we could make it thinner and lighter, but then the cost goes up. It's about hitting the sweet spot between power and portability. TR: Gamers aren't usually bothered about touchscreens on laptops, so why did you put one on the Y700? DB: That's a general move across all of our notebooks. Take the Yoga 3 Pro for example - we put a high-end display on there because certain applications can take advantage of the resolution. It's actually optional, and about giving people a choice. TR: For many gamers, Windows 10 will make them feel like they've got a brand-new PC. Why should they care about Skylake? DB: As Intel has pointed out, Skylake can give a three-year old PC a 33 per cent performance bump and a huge graphics bump, so it depends on what you're buying. If you're just playing basic games then you probably don't need Skylake, but if you need the best hardware, it's the way to go. TR: The IdeaPad Miix 700 uses Intel's Core M7 processor, so who is it aimed at? More casual buyers who make pick up a Surface 3, or people who may want a more fully-fledged computer like a Surface Pro 3? DB: We're focused on our target segments, and the feedback from our customers is that they want an affordable tablet - not everyone wants a full-sized PC. Some of our customers are attractived toward the mobility of a tablet that's also a PC, and those are the people the Miix 700 is targeted at. Value plays a big part there.

Don't take your waterproof Xperia Z5 underwater, says Sony Posted: 12 Sep 2015 05:18 AM PDT Bad news if you were planning to take your Xperia Z5 for a dip: In a change to its guidelines for the device, Sony says you shouldn't take the device underwater, and you'll void its warranty if you do. Waterproofing has long been a key selling point of the Xperia line, and the Z5 has the highest possible IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. That means it's been tested by being immersed in fresh water for 30 minutes in depths of up to 1.5 metres. However, the language used on Sony's website has changed: "The IP rating of your device was achieved in laboratory conditions in standby mode, so you should not use the device underwater," the new policy says. Making a splash In other words, Sony can't guarantee that swimming and snapping photos won't damage your handset, because it didn't test the phone in every possible scenario. It remains one of the best handsets for waterproofing, however. "There are... many environmental factors which we could not assess [during testing]," explains a Sony representative in a forum post. "Therefore we recommend not submerging our Xperia Z5 in water." The updated guidelines apply to all three models of the Xperia Z5 and you can read them for yourself on the official Sony website. "You should not put the device completely underwater or expose it to seawater, salt water, chlorinated water or liquids such as drinks," it says. This is the phone Sony's Z5 Compact should have been

iPhone 6S vs Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Posted: 12 Sep 2015 05:00 AM PDT The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is not only one of the most beautiful smartphones Samsung has ever built but one of the best and most stylish handsets ever. A premium design, stunning screen, innovative features and loads of power propel it close to the top of the pile. But Apple's phones have always enjoyed a place at or near the top of the smartphone heap and the iPhone 6S is no exception, with a beautiful build of its own and plenty of flagship features. Design The iPhone 6S inherits a lot from the iPhone 6, with a similar metal unibody and a slim 7.1mm build. It looks great and oozes premium appeal, but it also looks like last year's phone. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge on the other hand is something a little different. Its metal frame and glass back may conjure visions of the Sony Xperia Z3+ but with a more rounded design, not to mention a dual curved display, it's actually quite unique and sure to turn heads. It's also ever so slightly slimmer than Apple's phone at 7.0mm thick. Display The iPhone 6S has a 4.7-inch screen with a 1334 x 750 resolution with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, which is the same as the iPhone 6 and dwarfed by the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge's 5.1-inch 1440 x 2560 display. That gives it a ludicrously high pixel density of 577 pixels per inch, which is arguably overkill, but there's no denying that it's sharper than a razor blade and with the help of Super AMOLED screen technology it's rich and vivid too, though the iPhone 6S with its IPS LCD screen tends towards slightly more natural colours. The other thing we have to mention here is the dual curved design of the S6 Edge's screen. Not only does it look good but it actually adds new features to the phone. Though, er, nothing particularly vital. The main feature is the ability to get an overview of notifications and messages on the edge screen without lighting up the main display, but it's limited and temperamental. Power and performance One thing you can always count on from a new flagship is more power and the iPhone 6S doesn't disappoint. It has a new Apple A9 processor, which should give it a significant boost over the iPhone 6. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has plenty of oomph too though, with 3GB of RAM and an octa-core Exynos 7420 processor, which has four cores clocked at 2.1GHz and the other four running at 1.5GHz. It's an extremely fast phone but we expect the iPhone 6S will offer similar real world performance. Camera The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is capable of taking sublime photos and it's no wonder given it has a powerful 16MP snapper with optical image stabilisation on the back and a 5MP camera on the front. It's fast, full of options and strong in almost all conditions. It's too early to say exactly how good the iPhone 6S's snapper will be, but it seems likely that it will be an upgrade over the already impressive camera on the iPhone 6, especially as it's been upped to a 12MP sensor on the back and a 5MP one on the front. We'll let you know how it stacks up once we've thoroughly put it to the test, but we're optimistic that alongside the Galaxy S6 Edge it will be one of 2015's best camera phones. OS Your choice of OS is every bit as important as your choice of phone and there's quite a lot to choose between the iOS 9-equipped iPhone 6S and the Android Lollipop-powered Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. While both are slick and polished it is worth considering whether you'd rather tie yourself into Google's ecosystem or Apple's. There are differences in the available apps too. Not as many as their once was, with both OS's offering well over a million apps, but iOS has a slightly better selection of premium ones. On the other hand Android is stillthe more open and customisable OS. The other difference is as much a screen technology as an OS feature, but with 3D Touch the iPhone 6S can tell the difference between different amounts of pressure when you're tapping and a light press will often result in a different outcome to a hard one, giving you one more way to interact with the device. Battery One thing which didn't overly impress us about the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge was its battery life, as its 2,600mAh juice pack struggles to see it through a day if you use the handset as more than just a phone. While we're not expecting amazing things from the iPhone 6S's battery the suggestions from Apple are that it should have the same longevity as the iPhone 6, which would mean a little more endurance than what we've seen from Samsung's phone, so you'll hopefully at least be able to get to bed time before plugging it in. Still, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge does support fast charging, so if you need to juice it up part way through the day you can do so quite quickly. Price and availability The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is currently available from around £460 ($600, AU$1000), while the iPhone 6S retails for £539 ($649, AU$1,079), so Apple's phone is a little more expensive in most regions, but then it's also newer, so that's to be expected. Neither phone is cheap though, with both packing flagship prices. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is widely available though and while the iPhone 6S is sure to be sold just about everywhere it's going to be in high demand, so it may sell out. Verdict With the Galaxy S6 Edge Samsung has finally made a flagship that can compete with the aesthetics of the iPhone as well as the specs. Both handsets look great, they're both powerful and both have fingerprint scanners. The iPhone 6S is likely to be able to rival the S6 Edge's impressive camera too and it might also achieve better battery life. It's a little more expensive though and it doesn't have as sharp (or as curvy) a screen. It's too soon to say for sure which phone is best, but they're both clear flagships that do their makers proud.

WEEK IN GAMING: Augmented Reality is the new Virtual Reality (and also the new regular reality) Posted: 12 Sep 2015 04:30 AM PDT "Ooooh, Oculus Rift," says General Public Member Number One. "It's so cool, and when i put it on my head, I feel like my head is twice the size. That means I have more brains." "Yes," agrees General Public Member Number Two, sipping daintily from a china cup. "I like the way I walk into walls when I am wearing it, and also how I stood on my cat that one time. It reminds me that I am in another world! Teehee!" And that's where I step in, knocking aside their china cups, causing their monocles to pop cartoonishly from their widened eye sockets. I inform them that Virtual Reality is soooo last year, and they nod gratefully as I orate on the virtues of Augmented Reality and how it's clearly at least a billion times better. Then I stomp on their china cups for good measure, and go off to spread the word amongst the people. Such is my life. Virtual Reality is cool, don't get me wrong - but VR has been around for ages, and just like your parents and the acronym "lol", it's just not cool anymore. It had its time. Augmented Reality makes me go "oooh" in ways VR never did - whether that's the simplistic photo mode on the 3DS which plonks your favourite Nintendo characters onto your desk, hand or face, or something way more complex like Xbox's E3 presentation of Minecraft on Hololens. VR is basically just a first-person game inside your face; AR is magical technological WIZARDRY. The reason it's so much better (I suppose I should say this is my personal and incredibly subjective view, but I'm definitely right, oh yeah) is that it weaves reality and virtuality together, just like we always have done in our minds. Even the word is cool. AUGMENTED. It means "made better", and it does make everything better: Hololens magician Kudo Tsunoda used it to recreate his son's drawing, medical professionals can use it to actually see body parts without having to have a dead person to prod around in, and you can make Pikachu sit on your hand, which is basically society's greatest achievement to date. One of the reasons AR is on my mind at the moment is Pokemon Go, which is single-handedly proving that Nintendo know what its doing with their new mobile game division, and they aren't just going to make free-to-play Mario games. Pokemon Go is a location-based AR Pokemon game, and if that doesn't make you all tingly like you've just rubbed minty shower gel into your bits, then I'm afraid I can't help you. Just to summarise: Nintendo is making a Pokemon game that takes place in the real world. Picture this: you're sitting on the tube, and all the commuters around you are moping in their sweat-stained seats, eyes glazed as they attempt to read the news story about Rita Ora's new bum tattoo. You get your phone out of your pocket, and the world's most depressing tube ride turns into a magical fantasy zoo filled with electric mice and small flammable dragons. Augmented Reality will augment life. Sure, it's not perfect yet, and I don't doubt that even Pokemon Go will have some horrific stories like Bulbasaur climbing out of a toilet or Caterpie being projected into porn, but it's not hard to imagine AR being a cornerstone of society in a couple of decades - just like all those sci-fi movies predicted. I'm excited. Life could always do with a little bit of augmenting.

Samsung Galaxy S7 tipped for dual camera, February launch Posted: 12 Sep 2015 02:59 AM PDT A new batch of rumours hit the web over the weekend, giving us a few more pieces of the Samsung Galaxy S7 jigsaw puzzle. Quite a number of them confirm details we've already heard on the grapevine. Korean media outlets are reporting that Samsung is testing a dual camera system (like the one in the HTC One M8) - one camera takes the picture and the other scans for depth and other information. It lets you change the point of focus on the fly and offers a few other tricks too. Then there's the screen size: the new speculation has this pegged at 5.7-inches (a big jump from the 5.1-inch Galaxy S6), partly in response to the success of the Galaxy Note 5. An earlier leak hinted that we could see two sizes of the Galaxy S7, one matching last year's model and a larger one. Internal specs Moving on to the guts of the phone, it sounds like Samsung is planning models powered by both the Snapdragon 820 and its own Exynos M1. Apparently the latter will get the "lion's share" of the line-up. Finally there's word that the phone is going to appear in February, way ahead of the MWC event in March when we usually see new Samsung hardware. That would fit in with earlier reports of the S7 being ahead of schedule - Samsung obviously wants to squash the iPhone 6S as soon as possible. Rumours and leaks will continue to drip down the supply chain as the months go by, and by the time 2016 rolls around we should have a fairly good idea of what the Galaxy S7 is going to look like. Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are getting a price cut

Could device-to-device be the next big thing? Posted: 12 Sep 2015 01:10 AM PDT Introduction and LTE Direct Mobile phone networks are getting faster, with 4G now maturing and 5G on its way, but there's a lot more going on than merely increased data transfer speeds. 4K video is about to cause bottlenecks on networks, but the answer could be an odd one; offload it completely and let phones do the donkey work. Cue device to device communications (D2D), which promises to change not only how we communicate with each other, but how the connected car communicates, too. What is device-to-device (D2D) communications? It already exists, and has done for years. "D2D is a communication between two devices in proximity," says Malik Saadi, VP and GM, Strategic Technology, ABI Research in London. "Bluetooth pairing is D2D, for sharing data or images, but more recently you have Wi-Fi Direct, and Intel's WiDi wireless display technology." Devices already using one or more of these D2D wireless technologies include smart TVs and laptops, while Bluetooth Smart is making a play for connecting devices in the smart home, with smartwatches and wearables, and with beacons. Now it's time for something better, with hugely bigger data transfer rates and a far longer range. What is LTE Direct? Think supercharged Bluetooth on a chip that smartphone manufacturers will soon start fitting in devices. Created by Qualcomm in 2012 and expected to become part of its Snapdragon processor for phones, LTE Direct allows a phone to communicate – and send data – to other phones within a staggering 500m. No network required … well, almost. "It creates a proximal communication paradigm away from the local area network – the devices initiate the communication at the network level, but the traffic is at the device level," says Saadi. This is potentially powerful stuff, with LTE Direct-compatible handsets capable of downloading at a speed of 362.4Mb/s. However, some doubt its potential. "I suspect that 500m is a stretch, with more likely distances to be about 200-300m," says Dr Kevin Curran, Technical Expert at the IEEE, who thinks that WiGig – which can reach speeds up to 7Gbp/s – is more useful if, say, you want to stream 4K video. "Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile processor can already support WiGig," he notes. How will it change social networking? LTE Direct is being talked-up as an 'always-on' discovery technology, which enables the continuous discovery of thousands of devices while maintaining both anonymity and battery efficiency. "You could share files and images with a community around you," says Saadi. "For instance, if you are touring London and you want to share your video to a group of people." "Now we have location services where you need to opt-in and be concerned about battery life, but those limitations are removed with LTE Direct because it doesn't really use any overheads, and it doesn't allow location-tracking, so privacy is enhanced," says Steffen Sorrell, Senior Analyst, Juniper Research. "'The discovery aspect helps you find your friends in the vicinity very easily." Off-grid apps Mind you, LTE Direct is not the first technology to allow direct device-to-device communication. "The popular FireChat app allows devices to send messages to one another even without a Wi-Fi or cell connection," says Curran. FireChat uses Bluetooth to connect to nearby phones that also have the app installed, thus creating a distributed, decentralised network. "It first gained popularity when over 500,000 people downloaded the app during the Hong Kong demonstrations a few years ago," he says, adding that it's often used by people fearing that the government will switch off cell or Wi-Fi access – such as in war-torn Iraq, or when Facebook blocked a page promoting a protest in Russia. However, LTE Direct's promise of 'proximity social media' most resembles FireChat's use during the last SXSW event in Austin, Texas. "The idea was to promote event details, DJ sightings and live discussions of what to do and where to go," says Curran. "FireChat even created 'chat-tags' to create or join a live discussion based on topics." Security and connected cars Can you make phone calls on LTE Direct for free? Sadly not. "You still need the presence of a cell tower because for security reasons you need to synchronise, identify and authenticate the devices communicating on the network," says Sorell. "So you won't be able to get free phone calls." However, the call itself won't be hosted on the network, going direct from one phone to another if they're within 500m of each other. "Free calls might be something that comes in the future," notes Sorrell, who says that direct point-to-point communications not involving a basestation are only possible for use by emergency services. The US, UK and South Korea should have such a public safety LTE network by 2017. While LTE Direct will be largely invisible to users, it could mean better quality of calls. "You'll potentially reduce latency and because it's a peer-to-peer connection there's the potential for higher bandwidth, too," says Sorrell. Does this mean a future without cell phone towers? No. Relaying messages from phone to phone might sound like an off-grid future where our phones are nodes on a network, but that's unlikely. "Mesh networking decentralises communications," says Philip Williams, Principal Architect, Rackspace, adding that external networks will continue to exist even if only as a point of entrance or exit to a meshed network. "For example, when making an international phone call, a meshed network may exist within a metro-area, but in order to get hold of someone on another landmass, the device will have to interact with another centralised network in order to communicate over thousands of miles," says Williams. Is there a security risk? Qualcomm states that the 'technology allows for the anonymous discovery of other devices and doesn't track location or device data'. "Any technology that has the ability to track users does have inherent security and privacy risks," says Curran, who doubts that LTE Direct's device-level transmitting and monitoring will interest network operators. "I strongly suspect that mobile operators will operate a centralised proximal device discovery database, and that can certainly be a target for hackers," he says, adding that since it's a proprietary technology external experts have not yet audited it to ascertain the level of risk. How will the connected car benefit? This is perhaps the killer app – and it's getting the automotive industry excited. "Two vehicles with LTE Direct could communicate, with one telling the other that there is a traffic bottleneck ahead, and that message could be transferred to other vehicles using mesh paradigms," says Saadi. "And when the two vehicles are in close proximity it could warn one car that he's getting too close." Vehicle-to-vehicle communications is an underlying technology for autonomous, self-driving cars, so LTE Direct could have a massive future. When will we see LTE Direct in phones? The specification of LTE Direct was finished in March this year, and there have already been trials in Germany and South Korea, with further trials planned for the US, Europe and South Korea – and with both Yahoo and Facebook – but there could be a wait. "I wouldn't expect to see any devices until at least next year, and the use of the tech would be in 2017," says Sorrell. The catalyst for mass adoption of LTE Direct could be the burgeoning Internet of Things. Offloading 4K video to avoid bottlenecks in built-up urban areas is one thing, but the spectre of 50 billion connected devices by 2020 is something else. "Anything that can take traffic away from the network will be beneficial," says Sorell. LTE Direct may never be headline news, but it's destined to be part of a suite of D2D technologies that allow the IoT to become something more than an ambition. 10 next-gen tech trends you should know about

Updated: iPhone 6S and 6S Plus pre-order: How to get Apple's new phones Posted: 12 Sep 2015 01:05 AM PDT iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus pre-order Update: iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus pre-order is underway! The iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus release is officially slated for September 25, but why not reserve your phone ahead of time? Read on for tips on how to pre-order the new iPhones plus price and carrier details. Here's the latest on how iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus pre-orders are going Apple unveiled the long-awaited iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, the phones that will take the candle from the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, on Wednesday, and almost immediately the questions were, when and where can I get them? Fear not, gentle reader, we've got you covered. Below you'll find every place you can pick up the new iPhones when they launch on September 25 plus iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus pre-order details and tips. We've also got the rundown on pricing and Apple's new iPhone Upgrade Program. iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus price A special note on pricing: Since most major carriers have done away with two-year contracts, which allowed for lower phone prices that factored in contract subsidies, the costs of the new iPhones reflect new monthly payment plans offered by carriers (and now, Apple). Across the board the iPhone 6S costs $649, $749 and $849 for 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models, respectively, while the iPhone 6S Plus costs $749, $849 and $949 for the same size configurations. What you actually end up paying every month will depend on your carrier and your plan. Here's a full iPhone 6S and 6S Plus price breakdown iPhone 6S and 6S Plus pre-order details The new iPhones start life on the product cycle this Saturday, September 12, at 12:01am PT. That's when they go up for pre-order on Apple's website and through carriers directly. Demand will likely be high, as it usually is for new iPhone releases, though by the same token Apple has also done a decent job in recent releases at managing supply to meet demand. If you really, really want a new iPhone, pre-ordering a good bet to secure your device early. iPhone 6S and 6S Plus pre-order tips Here's some pre-order advice from Mobile Editor Matt Swider: the best way to set yourself up for pre-order success is to download the Apple Store app on iOS. It tends to work best on an iPad, by the way. The app, Swider says, got him and two roommates into the pre-order stream more quickly than Apple's website. Because of the number of users coming on at once, the website has historically lagged. When you purchase an iPhone from Apple, you have to enter in some information about your wireless account. You can enter it ahead of time and save for later so you're ready to go when the time comes. To enter your wireless account info now head to the online Apple Store and select iPhone 6S along the top product choices. Click on Models & Pricing (an easy-to-spot blue button). There will be some blue linked text under the pre-order information, and it's through the linked option to "Get ready now" that you can enter and save your carrier information. In the Apple Store App, you can click "Get ready to pre-order iPhone 6S" and enter your wireless account details. Select "Remember Me," and all the information will be stored so it's ready to go when you're ready to pre-order. iPhone Upgrade Program and Carriers Apple iPhone Upgrade Program Also happening when pre-orders kick off: Consumers can reserve an iPhone for an in-store upgrade through the new iPhone Upgrade Program. The program lets customers get a new iPhone every year as long as they've made 12 months of payments. The phone you buy through the program is unlocked, allowing you to choose your carrier. It also comes with AppleCare+, something not offered through individual carrier payment installment plans. Payment plans are for 24 months, and are broken down like this: iPhone 6S 16GB - $32.41/month iPhone 6S 64GB - $36.58/month iPhone 6S 128GB - $40.75/month iPhone 6S Plus 16GB - $36.58/month iPhone 6S Plus 64GB - $40.75/month iPhone 6S Plus 128GB - $44.91/month AT&T AT&T is launching pre-orders on Saturday at 12:01am PT, and customers can head straight to att.com/iphone to order their phone. The devices go on sale in stores starting at 8am local time Friday, September 25. Ma Bell is offering a number of incentives for those who buy a new iPhone on its network, including 15GB of data for $100 for those who get an iPhone on one of its Mobile Share Value plans, as well as other deals. Sprint Pre-orders start on September 12 at Sprint. The carrier hasn't indicated whether its stores will start selling the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus when they open on September 25, but don't be surprised if they do. Interestingly, Sprint does have a 2-year-contract option, so customers can choose the traditional $199, $299 and $399 price tier, depending on the storage of their phones. T-Mobile The Uncarrier revealed some of its plans for the new iPhones the day after Apple announced them. Yes, it's going to offer pre-orders starting just after midnight on Saturday, but it's taking a different route when it comes to pricing and plan options. Customers can get an iPhone 6S for $20/month for 18 months through the carrier's JUMP! On Demand program, or a 6S Plus for $24/month for 18 months, both for $0 down. T-Mobile also introduced a new Lifetime Coverage Guarantee, which means that as long as users have a new iPhone, if they aren't totally satisfied with the coverage they can get a full refund for the amount they spent in the first month of their plan. T-Mobile will also unlock the iPhone so they can switch to another carrier. More coverage on T-Mobile's iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus plan Verizon Just like its cohorts, Verizon is offering iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S pre-orders Saturday. It too has kept mum on in-store availability, but we expect that to be revealed in the coming days. As with Sprint, you can choose a traditional two-year contract for a lower subsidized price on Verizon. From Apple Of course, you can order a new iPhone in all available configurations and on any of the above-listed carriers through Apple's online store directly. Or, you can sign up to reserve an iPhone 6S or iPhone 6S Plus through the company's iPhone Upgrade Program. 10 things you need to know about the iPhone 6S

iPhone 6S sales begin with pre-order scramble Posted: 12 Sep 2015 12:05 AM PDT Apple iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus on are now on sale this very minute via online pre-orders, which it is encouraging as a way to cut back on long lines at its retail stores. The new iPhones could be reserved through the website and Apple Store app starting at 12:01am PT or 3:01am ET in the US, and 8:01am BT in the UK. The actual iPhone 6S release date is September 25. New to this year's configuration is a rose gold iPhone 6S color and 6S Plus color choice, in addition to the usual gold, space gray and silver shades of aluminum. Both phones are stronger, posses a new 12MP camera and feature faster internal specs. The iPhone 6 to iPhone 6S price hasn't changed in US and UK, but did see an increase in Australia. iPhone 6S website and app down Apple's official website to buy the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus was down ahead of today's pre-order rollout, and that's customary in advance of any big product launch from the company. However, some prospective buyers weren't able to access the Apple Store site right away, leading to a delays in purchasing the highly-sought-after phones. Others, according to Twitter, tend to find better luck using the free Apple Store mobile app. In past years, we've found that it worked up to a half hour sooner than the website through a computer browser. Considering all of the hype surrounding the rose gold iPhone, this may leave some Apple fans without the exact iPhone 6S they were wanting on day one. Shipping time often get delayed minutes after new Apple products go on sale, and although this is an "S" phone, demand is still expected to be high for launch day.

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