Mophie Space Pack case doubles iPhone 5S storage from £139

Accessories

Space: the final frontier for iPhone owners, who've never been able to expand their mobile's storage, unlike microSD-toting Android fans. Now Mophie's hoping to go where no iPhone has gone before, with a new battery case that's also a storage locker, adding 16GB or 32GB of space to your Apple blower.

At £139 for 16GB or £169 for the more spacious 32GB model, it comes in black and white and looks like a chunky, extended case, just like other battery packs.

It works with both the iPhone 5S and last year's identical iPhone 5, but not the new iPhone 5C, and Mophie reckons it can double your phone's battery life as well as its storage.

Its built-in memory is accessed via an app on your phone, called Space, that can automatically backup your photos, play music and video files and manage documents. You can arrange files however you want via a USB cable on your computer, and see them in 'collections' by file type too.

AirPlay and AirDrop are supported, so you can easily send files to other devices like TVs, and share them with other iOS users.

Motorola Moto G with KitKat update coming to Vodafone

Mobile Phones

The wallet-friendly Motorola Moto G is coming to Vodafone with the hotly-anticipated Android 4.4.2 KitKat update on board -- but can any contract compete with the Moto G's £130 price?

Vodafone told CNET today that the cheap-as-chips phone will boast cutting-edge KitKat when it goes on sale, but hasn't given a release date.  

Unlocked Moto G phones are due to update to KitKat some time this month. It's reported to be in testing for some users, but is yet to appear for most people. Sadly Vodafone's announcement doesn't offer any clues as to when the update will turn up for the rest of us. 

Android 4.4.2 KitKat adds full-screen mode, beefed-up security, and smarter power use so your battery doesn't run down as fast and your processor doesn't have to work as hard. You'll also benefit from extra features in the phone dialler, the ability to print over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, edit your photos in the Gallery app with filters, doodle, and adjust settings such as colour, exposure, and contrast.

The Moto G costs just £130, making it tempting to buy the phone outright and get a cheap SIM-only deal, with no lengthy contract -- which means Vodafone and other networks have to offer some pretty competitive deals to tempt you into a contract. On Phones 4U, for example, you can get a free Moto G with a Vodafone SIM for a reasonable £17 per month, but you're tied in for two years and you only get 250MB of data. 

The Moto G packs in plenty of value for money with a 720p screen, 5-megapixel camera, and a quad-core processor, making it CNET mobile reviewer Andy's favourite gadget of 2013.

Samsung promises a 'back to basics' rethink for the Galaxy S 5

 

 

Samsung has admitted that the public didn't see much difference between the Galaxy S III and S4 smartphones and said the S5 would likely pack a substantially different design. Exec Lee Young Hee told Bloomberg that the new flagship will go "back to basics," adding that "mostly, it's about the display and the feel of the cover." It'll also arrive with a brand-new version of the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which itself will have "more advanced functions" and an improvement to what she called "the bulky design." Other revelations include a possible eye-scanner in the handset for greater security, though that's still being studied.

Farther down the road, Samsung said that it's looking at significant changes for the Galaxy Note 3's successor in order to target it at professionals who are "willing to pay more for handsets." As such, it may pack a three-sided display, like the so-called Youm prototype we saw last year at CES 2013, allowing users to read messages from oblique angles. Finally, Lee revealed that the Galaxy S 5 would arrive in March or April after Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Considering we saw the Galaxy S III and S4 around the same period in previous years, however, that's not a big shocker.

Sony's Featherweight Tablet Sports Huge 13-Inch E-Ink Display

With its newest E-Ink tablet, Sony has taken another step towards the paperless office. That's because this device has a supersized 13-inch display, can hold thousands of books and recognizes pen inputs, yet weighs less than a pound.

Targeted at the eduction market and business executives who need to carry reams of documents, theSony Digital Paper DPT-S1 is the largest device of its ilk on the market. It's more than 3 inches larger than the discontinued Amazon Kindle DX, which had a 9.7-inch screen, yet weighed almos

Measuring 12.2 x 9.2 x 0.27 inches, the DPT-S1is about the size of an A4 piece of paper, and weighs 12.2 ounces. Its 13.3-inch E-Ink Pearl screen has a resolution of 1600 x 1200-pixels, and can display up to 16 shades of gray. It also has capacative sensors, so you can swipe left or right to switch pages, much like other eReaders powered by the same technology.

Also built into the DPT-S1 is an inductive digitizer, which can be used in conjunction with the included stylus to annotate pages. In our hands-on time, the display was fairly responsive in recording our scribblings. It also has 4GB of internal storage, plus an SD card slot, Wi-Fi, and should last up to a month on a charge.

About 1,000 of these eReaders were sold in Japan at the end of last year, and Sony is looking at selling them in the U.S. later this year. Pricing has not been announced.

G’s 55-inch mirrored display is looking back at you

LG’s got a neat display they’re showing off here at CES, and it’s not like one we’ve seen before. Their mirror display might actually come in really, really handy in homes as well as retail establishments, too. Most times, we see things like this and never see them hit the real world. LG has thought this one through, though, and we see a lot of potential.

The display is also a mirror, so it has functionality when it’s off as well as on. The mirroring never goes away, either, which comes in uniquely handy for what LG has designed it for. By turning in front of the mirror, LG takes a 360-degree shot of you. You can even take the picture and rotate it (you?) when done. From there, a host of menus pop up, and the real utility of this comes into play.

LG has designed the mirror display to have menus pop up, and gives you recommendations from designers who have loaded their catalog into the system. It will then give you an idea on how something would look on you, rather than the guess-work of an online or physical catalog. There are other fun things to do, like use it as a photo booth or take videos, but the LG mirror display is not solely for fun.

At 55-inches, the display is certainly large enough to display all you need, and is definitely a large enough mirror. The bezels are nearly absent at 15mm, and it displays info in full HD (1920 x 1080). If you want to get really hands about it, the screen supports multitouch.

They have also designed it to become a central part of your home, and can act like a giant display for your wall as well as a mirror. Displaying information like your calendar and appointments, it could be a central part to your day. Of course, it’s touch screen, so you’ll have to get past your fear of touching the mirror. Sadly, we don’t know what material it’s currently made of, but that could change should it become available to consumers.

Nokia Lumia 929 Icon shows up on Verizon's site

The Nokia Lumia Icon slipped out from under the covers a second time – leaking on Verizon's own site no less. By the looks of it, the Icon will be a 5" version of the Lumia 1520 phablet, which coupled with the carrier of choice means this is the Lumia 929.

The product page (now taken down) describes a premium Windows Phone 8 device with a 5" 1080p screen and powered by a Snapdragon 800 chipset. The camera is Nokia's new 20MP PureView shooter.

Basically, it's the 1520 in a more compact package, which means 2GB RAM and 32GB storage are what's to be expected, even though the specs page doesn't list those (the battery has been taken down to 2,420mAh though).

The page lists the price of the Nokia Lumia 929 (Icon) - $777. It's expensive, but considering the flagship specs and camera experience that's out of reach for other phones, Nokia can set its own price. Plus, that's less than $30 more than the 32GB iPhone 5s.

Nokia Lumia 929 (Icon) official images

Anyway, we're sure Verizon and Nokia intend to sell the Lumia 929 with subsidy even though the page says $777 with 2-year contract. Also, 777 could just as easily be a placeholder (the device name will have to be changed for one, so this isn't a finalized page).

Samsung and Apple agree on out-of-court talks

According to Reuters, Oh-Hyun Kwon and Tim Cook, CEOs of Samsung and Apple, respectively, have agreed on having talks outside court in an effort to reach a settlement in their latest patent battle. The report states that legal teams from both companies are now preparing to have a "mediation session" on or before February 19.

A court filing from Wednesday informs that Tim Cook and Oh-Hyun Kwon will attend the meeting in person. It's not yet known which company has proposed the idea of settlement talks, but it seems this outcome is favored by both Samsung and Apple.

Apple vs. Samsung legal battle over smartphone patents has been going on for the last few years and has stretched across multiple countries and continents .

Reuters reports that Apple has paid its leading law firm close to $60 million for its battle against Samsung. We guess both companies are tired of having this go on any further and are going to reach a settlement soon enough.