So how does Apple make the next iteration of the iPhone the consumer electronics object that everyone will lust after? Well if some interesting rumours are to be believed it we might be about to see a total overhaul of the look of the iOS software.

The normally very reliable Mark Gurman at 9 to 5 Mac says that the new software is going to be overhauled by lead designer Jony Ive and it is going to be slicker and simple to use.

According to Gurman Ive is apparently going to change some of the icons on the handsets. So whereas in the past they resembled real world objects - eg Games Center has a Vegas style gaming table, in the future they will be more stylish and less literal in their interpretation.

Ive is going to unify the built-in Apple apps, giving them black, white, silver colors, says Gurman.

Ultimately though Apple fans shouldn't worry too much about how the future handsets might work, The icons may look prettier but the phone is going to operate in the same way.

There has been a fair bit of speculation in the last few days as to how many Samsung have sold of its flagship Galaxy S4 phone in the month since it launched.

Well today it offered up the figures and claimed to have cleared 10 million handsets since the end of April. Pretty impressive stuff eh, and all the more impressive when you consider that the Galaxy S III took 50 days after its launch to ship 10 million units, while the S II took five months and the original Galaxy S took almost seven months.

And then the phone isn't on sale globally yet with Samsung promising to deliver the handset to another fifty or so countries imminently. To celebrate the company is going to ship the S4 in other colours too including; "Blue Arctic", "Red Aurora", "Purple Mirage" and "Brown Autumn".

The big question then is how do sales of the S4 compare with the iPhones?

Interestingly Apple sold over five million iPhone 5 handsets in the opening weekend of sales. And as Apple Insider points out here that was in just nine countries and that figure was deemed by some analysts as disappointing.

The iPhone 5 went on to sell 33 million units in 2012 which was roughly the same number that Samsung sold of the S3 in the same period.

The iPhone 4S also got off to a flying start in with four million units sold in the first three days of release.

We don't have the exact figures for the first month of iPhone sales but hazarding a guess they are likely to be in excess of ten million.

Ultimately the S4 sales figures tell us two key things. Firstly that Samsung has produced a hit phone that even if hasn't usurped its Apple rivals in popularity is breathing down their necks. Secondly that Apple will need to post some pretty impressive stats for the iPhone 5S and 6 to keep its critics and the financial institutions happy.

Bought yourself a lovely new iPad mini? Well the range and the quality of the cases for your new device gets better all the time.

Here are our favourite new high-end iPad mini cases.

So Apple today has made the original iPhone obsolete, which could be bad news for Greg? So who is Greg? Well he was the first person to buy an iPhone in New York as he was first in the queue in the Apple Store back in the summer of 2007.

It is fascinating to compare the two original iPhone launches - the one in New York and the one that followed in November in London.

Greg in New York was Mr Media Savvy, a professional queuer who seemingly would stand in line for the opening of an envelope. Susi Weaser, editor of Shiny Shiny at the time, collared him and asked him the question that everyone really wanted to know the answer to, what did he do when he needed to go to the toilet?

Fast forward a few months to London and there was just a handful of people in the queue in what was a fairly low key affair. The most interesting is that the first guy looks absolutely knackered.

Future UK iPhone launches would go on to be more like the US one. Maybe it is another example of how we have acquired some of our behaviour traits from our transatlantic cousins via the web.

Got an original first generation Apple iPhone - this one rather than this one? Well your phone if you are still using it, is about to be labelled obsolete by the company which means that it will no longer be serviced by Apple's retail network.

if you want to get it fixed then you have until June 11th to get it sorted after that you will have to find your own non-Apple dealer.

The original Apple iPhone will always be remembered as the handset that introduced Apple's innovative iOS and its ground breaking app universe (which was opened up to developers a year later) and at the same time delivered a touch screen experience that was way ahead of its rivals.

Apart from those two game-changing innovations the phone was in fact fairly primitive. Unlike almost every other high end phone at the time it didn't run on 3G network but instead used the slower EDGE network which meant it was borderline useless for the web when not on Wi-Fi. It had a two mega pixel camera (most of its contemporaries were five MP by then) which was still image capture only and wouldn't record video. Its battery performance took a lot of stick too.

Nevertheless the original iPhone laid the groundwork for the Apple 3Gs which followed in 2010 and arguably established the iPhone as the most successful and coveted handset in the world.

Interestingly the version one only sold six million units. Which is a lot, but nothing compared to the 3Gs's which sold over a million units in its first weekend.

Here is a slightly odd one. French tech blog Nowhere Else has published a roadmap that suggests the iPhone 5S will be available to pre-order from June 20.

The document comes from Japanese telecom KDDI's "au" wireless service and says that the June pre-order will be followed by a July launch. Details about the phone include news of a 13MP camera and the inclusion of iOS 7.

This is one leak that we are not buying. Most of the information that is coming from Apple suppliers is that the phone will be delayed and that it might not even arrive until late autumn. The key issues appear to be problems involved in integrating a fingerprint sensor. Also, during Apple's latest earnings call, CEO Tim Cook did point towards Q3 as being the company's quarter for "surprises" and innovative new products.

Also as Tech digest points out the doc doesn't look very legitimate

The laminated sheet is said to closely mirror the "cheat sheets" that forgetful in-store sales assistants refer to when pushing new products on customers. But considering they're often printed at point of sale from widely-circulated PDFs (usually only with a company header changing between rival stores) this wouldn't have been too difficult to fake.

So you can't rule out a July launch for the iPhone 5S but I'd be amazed if this one turned out to be accurate.

Last week Nokia unveiled the Asha 210 - the very first phone with a dedicated WhatsApp button. Now the FT has run a story claiming that chat apps like WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage are now more popular than text messaging.

It suggests that the network's cash cow could be under serious threat. In case you haven't heard or used it yet WhatsApp is a free messaging service for mobiles that effectively replaces text messaging. You can use the app to send text messages, along with images and more, and you don't pay for them as the message is included in your data plan. As the FT puts it WhatsApp "has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to international calling on landlines.

The FT (linked here) now says that there were more instant messages being sent daily by the end of last year than there were text messages. In terms of figures it reckons that 41bn app, based messages will be sent each day this year - that's double the number of text messages.

WhatsApp's Chief executive Jan Joum recently said that the firm has more active users than Twitter which claims more than 200 million people use its service at least once a month.

Want another way to brag about how busy you have been exercising? Well there's an update to the Nike+ FuelBand app will let you add photos of your workouts through the app to share with Facebook friends, with location tags and exercise achievements all attached.

The update also means you can customise your networking photo with your current NikeFuel Score and also introduces new customisable social leaderboards, using the NikeFuel score as a currency with which to challenge your pals latest fitness achievements.

And as Android fitness freaks know all too well this is an iOS-only update.

So who are the top ten smartphone manufacturers in the world? Samsung check, Apple check. Coolpad? Who? Well the Chinese maker has just delivered its Q1 sales figures and according to this analyst has moved into the world's top ten smartphone brands replacing - get this - BlackBerry.

Apparently Coolpad's sales are 6.8 million, way above both Nokia (now in 10th) and Blackberry (which drops to 11th) whose sales this quarter are 6.1 and 6.0 million, respectively.

Coolpad is a Chinese brand - made by China Wireless - whose sales trajectory is starting to mirror other Chinese brands like Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo.

The downer though for BlackBerry is that as recently as recently as 2010 it was the world's second largest smartphone maker. Then again Nokia was top dog in 2011 Q1 - just two years ago.

Tomi Ahonen thinks it is temporary blip for BlackBerry and that the positive response to its 10 series range should propel it back into the list in Q2. As for Nokia, it seems like it is pinning its hopes on developing markets with phones like these to engineer a revival.

The (accidental?!) reinvention of the Barbour brand from one that's forever associated with hunting, shooting, fishing brigade to one that even the coolest Shoreditch hipsters can wear is one of the most bizarre transformations of the past few years.

And if you can't quite get enough of quilted stuff then now you can give your gadgets the Barbour treatment courtesy of a deal with Proporta.

The pair have just launched a shed load of new accessories for all manner of gadgets ranging from the upcoming (it is tomorrow folks,) Samsung Galaxy S4 through to the Apple iPad 3.

Although quite a few of them are in classic quilted Barbour style, though there's tartan and tweedy stuff too. Prices start at £20 for an iPhone case through to £80 for the full on quilted experience for your tablet.

More here.

So it was an interesting night for Apple watchers, with the company's financial results not really anywhere near as bad as some analysts had predicted.

There does however seem to be some underlying issues that the company needs to tackle the most urgent of which is getting some new product out to rival the endless stream of goodies that are emanating from Korea.

So good news for Apple fan people as last night CEO Tim Cook confirmed that a new phone and new tablet will be coming before the end of the year probably in the Fall.

The question is of course which products? The phone could the iPhone 5S or the much rumoured cut down iPhone to tempt budget buyers, And as for the tablet is - it the iPad 5 or will we see the ipad mini 2.

There is still a fair bit of conjecture as to what the iPhone 5S will feature. Some pundits predict that it will be a largely cosmetic upgrade with new software features. Others think that it will be a different format and boast a larger screen.

The news that it is coming in the Fall tallies with recent rumours that Apple are running a little behind on the release schedule.

Last week we ran a story in which Ming-chi Kuo of KGI Securities suggested that Apple was having serious issues with its range of products for 2013 and that there might be delays in getting them to market.

This has now been confirmed by another source who came to the view that the iPhone 5S, budget iPhone and iPhone 6 have serious pre-production issues after a visit to Apple's Asian suppliers.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek says that the big issue for Apple is the delayed launch of the iPhone 5S which he thinks will have a knock on effect on other launches. He also adds that he has seen no evidence of an iWatch

So the iPhone 5S, which was due in July, might not arrive until later in the year causing a delay to the low cost handset too.

Misek said, 'After our Asia trip we now think the low-cost iPhone launch could be pushed to CQ4 and have increased confidence that the iPhone 6 will not launch until CY14.'

He added

'iPad mini refresh unlikely in CQ2 and if it does occur it would involve very low volumes due to yield issues of the new on-cell retina screen technology. iPad 5 refresh may occur in CQ2 but volumes also look very low. We have not yet seen any evidence of iWatch production.'

The worry for Apple is that growth in spring, summer and autumn might be sluggish as more people choose better specified devices from Apple's rivals or decide to wait until the end of the year before upgrading.

Before Apple fan persons get too upset though, Misek does have a habit of taking a negative view on Apple, not all of which came true. You can see them here.

There's a good bit of gossip over at Bloomberg. The news site has a scoop on the future of Facebook Home - apparently it is coming to Apple's iPhone.

The user interface, which has been optimised to work with Android devices and debuted on the HTC First could hit the iPhone later in the year.

Talks between Apple and Facebook are ongoing, but the news site had this to say

After debuting the software, called Home, for Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android operating system earlier this month, the operator of the world's biggest social-networking service is speaking to Apple and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) about expanding to other platforms, Adam Mosseri, director of product at Menlo Park, California-based Facebook, said in an interview on Bloomberg West yesterday. The talks are ongoing and nothing has been finalized.

The sticking point is likely to be that Apple has a much tighter control over the applications that it passes for the iPhone than Google seems to have for Android phones.

So it could be that it won't be the full version of Home that arrives on the iPhone but a cut down version instead.

Cnet has lots of reasons why it thinks it might not happen, but if Home is a success I think this is one app that Apple will work hard to get an agreeement with Facebook on. The last thing Apple needs at the moment are high profile popular apps that are only available on Android.

Weather forecasting apps tend to be a little dull don't they? Well hoping to change all that is YoWindow an app for the iPhone which goes live today in the US and hopefully the UK too.

It is a sweet little app in that the scene in the app mirrors the wether you are currently experiencing., So if it is raining outside it will be raining on your picture - which is a cute animated representation of the place you are.

Where it becomes useful is you can fast forward and see what the weather will be link later on in the day. You can also watch the sun going down and up again.

It is really rather cute and well worth $0.99 you spend on it. An Android version is on its way too.

There is a lot of speculation about the upcoming Apple iPhone 5S, but one thing is a certainty and this it will have a better camera than the one on the iPhone 5. But how much better?

To keep up with the Samsung Galaxy S4 (to say nothing of the Sony Xperia Z) it will need to have a 12 mega pixel camera and that's exactly what a Vietnamese site is predicting that it will include.

Tinhte.vn is suggesting that Apple's next generation iPhone may feature a 12-megapixel camera with an improved night shooting feature and HDR. The rumour comes from a source at Wonderful Saigon Electricsin Binh Duong, a company that provides camera modules for the iPhone and has been picked up by, among others, Mac Rumours.

According to Mac Rumours Tinhte.vn has a pretty good record of scooping Apple products and in the past and delivered a preview of Apple's redesigned EarPods and a version of the fourth generation iPod touch

Apple's iWatch is of course the worst kept secret in the tech world. Yet no Apple execs have acknowledged its existence. Well not until now..

Bill Campbell, Apple board member and Silicon Valley veteran, gave a talk to employees at Intuit, the software firm to which he acts as chairman where he shared his views on wearable tech. The speech was recorded by Business Week here.

In his talk Campbell stated that there were "a lot of things going on with the application of technology to really intimate things. When you start to think about glasses or watches, they become as intimate as the cell phone was."

Campbell had already mentioned Google Glasses in his speeches, but watches!? Is an Apple board member seriously going to big up a product format that the company is not going to be involved in but its deadly rival Samsung has already announced plans to launch into?

Thought not...

AppleInsider has got the scoop on what looks like a really hot story. It believes that Apple's new range for 2013 - which will include the "iPhone 5S," a rumored low-cost iPhone, and a second-generation iPad mini - are running behind schedule. Devices that were expected to be announced in July and available in August might not now go on sale until September or October.

It bases the story on a research note that was shared with the site by Ming-chi Kuo of KGI Securities. According to the site Ming-chi Kuo has been very accurate in predicting Apple product launches in the past.

He forecast Apple's entire fall 2012 product lineup, including unexpected products like a redesigned iPod nano and tweaked fourth-generation iPad with faster processor and Lightning connector.

And it isn't just one issue that is responsible for the hold up. Apple have problems on several fronts.

Ming-chi Kuo says that the issue with the "iPhone 5S," is that Apple plans to integrate a fingerprint sensor which he believes poses a number of new challenges.

"Apple has to work out how to prevent interference from the black and white coating material under the cover glass. Apple is the first to attempt this function and technology, and time is needed to find the right coating material, which will likely affect iPhone 5S shipments."

Kuo, along with others, have said that that fingerprint sensor is essential if Apple is to integrate secure e-wallet functionality thereby enabling the new phone to work as a very secure credit card.

Kuo also says that the development of iOS 7 is behind schedule with more time is likely to be needed for software development and testing, particularly with respect to the fingerprint scanning functions that will be included with the software.

Kuo also believes that there are challenges with the casing of the low cost iPhone.

"The slimmer casing may make it more difficult to ramp up production yields of coating and surface treatment, and could slow down the shipment timetable," he said.

It could mean that the new range of products does not reach the stores until towards the end of the year.

The worry for Apple is that growth in spring, summer and autumn might be sluggish as more people choose better specified devices from Apple's rivals or decide to wait until the end of the year before upgrading.

You can read the whole story here.

The team at www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk are a busy lot. Barely a week goes out without them sending over the results of some type of survey.

This week's one is perhaps the most interesting in a while as they asked punters - 1,358 Britons aged 18 or over - to name the mobile phone brand they preferred.

And it turns out now that Apple and Samsung are now neck and neck with 74 and 70% respectively of people naming them as top brands. The downside of the poll is that respondents could give multiple replies - which undermines it a little. Nevertheless still interesting and HTC will be cheered to know that it is in third place followed by BlackBerry Sony and Nokia.

The full list is below.

Apple - 74%
Samsung - 70%
HTC - 64%
Blackberry - 51%
Sony - 46%
Nokia - 32%
Motorola - 24%
LG - 19%
ZTE - 12%
Alcatel - 7%

The website also asked respondents if they thought Samsung will ever usurp Apple, to which more than a third, 36%, said 'no'.

Mark Pearson, Chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, said this about the survey.

"Samsung's definitely increased in popularity over the last year according to site searches and sales on our site and it's no surprise that the company is catching up with Apple. Apple is obviously facing a lot of competition and Samsung is probably the one who's giving them the hardest time, which is not a bad thing for us customers, as it challenges them to innovate even more. But even if the competition is getting tougher, it looks like Apple will still be leading the market for a while, at least in the eyes of those that matter - buyers."

I read the note from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster earlier this week in which he plots Apple's upcoming year.

It revolves around tweaks to existing products - iPhone 5S, a cheaper iPhone and an upgraded iPad and iPad mini.

Munster believes that Apple will leave the innovation until the end of the year when it will unveil its core new product - the iWatch.

If Munster is right then I think that the iWatch could be a very important project for Apple this year and here is why they, along with Samsung, LG and lots of start ups, are eagerly eyeing up the smart watch market.

1 It is a market with huge potential

The phone may have replaced the watch for many people but it is still a massive market. If you are going to break into a new market then it is best to break into one (and even better innovate) where there is already a huge amount of business.

2 Smartphone sales are flattening

One of the reasons why Apple shares have tanked a little recently is that there is a fear that smartphone sales are starting to flatten. If you live in the western world and you wanted a smartphone chances are you would have bought one by now. The future is all about upgrades. With sales starting to slow to keep investors on board Apple, and to a lesser degree Samsung, need to be looking at a new market.

3 Locking people into platforms

With the sales of smartphones slowing it is imperative that Apple doesn't hemorrhage customers to Samsung and vice versa. It is important to lock people into using an operating system so that when it comes to an upgrade they don't desert your brand. If you create a watch that only works with one kind of platform and someone invests in it, then they are even more likely to stay with that platform in the future. The interesting question is whether the Samsung watch will be Android only. In theory they could produce a watch that worked with Apple iOS and Windows handsets.

4 Possibility of new rivals establishing themselves

If we accept that the smart watch is going to be an important area moving forwards - as is the wearable gadget sphere - then Samsung and Apple both need to watch their backs.

They could face all kinds of competition in the space. Off the top of my head - Nike and other sports brands could deliver watches that work with handsets in a similar way to the Samsung/Apple offerings, but that major on fitness/health items.

Casio already has a smart watch on the go and has innovated in this space several times before. Who know what they have up their sleeves. Sony could produce a watch that majors on entertainment features as could Amazon. Then of course there are the watches that are onsale already from Pebble etc some of which are very good.

If Apple and Samsung want to dominate the smart watch space they need to move quickly

5 A need to innovate

As I mentioned in the intro this is essential, especially for Apple. With this year dominated by upgrade products it needs to show that it can still create something magical and new to wow the cynics and give its fan people something to brag about.

Samsung could in theory drive a road through Apple's 2013 strategy by getting there first with an impressive smart watch. Imagine if the watch went on sale before the iWatch, was better specified and more stylish and worked with iPhones as well as Android devices. Apple could look like an also ran.

Conversely if Apple can get the smart watch right and deliver somethign that is significantly in advance of what Samsung offers it will reclaim its crown as consumer electronics' key innovator.

Flipboard, the iPad/iPhone/Android app which enables users to flick through social media and content updates in magazine style, has been quiet for a while and now we know why.

It has just announced a new version which lets users create their own magazines.

In a bid to rival curation sites like Pinterest and offer something different to aggregation sites platforms like Rebelmouse Flipboard has now made it simple for people to collect, save and share stories, videos and photos in a magazine style. Users create a magazine, then fill it with content, including their own cover, and then share it with their friends. So in theory a person could create their own cooking magazine full of articles about their favourite recipes, or a magazine that had their top tech stories.

Flipboard says creating a magazine is a simple process

To get started a reader taps the + button on any Flipboard item, selects "Create Magazine" then gives the magazine a title, adds a description and selects a category. They can keep adding items to the magazine to tell a story, share a perspective or inspire others. For each item that's flipped into a magazine, attribution back to the source is preserved, and if the content is from a social network interactions such as commenting, retweeting or liking are reflected back to the originating social network.

To help users find content Flipboard has also launched Content Search which lets readers find anything being shared on Flipboard.

At the moment the mag offering is just for Apple iOS users - it will apparently be ready for Android soon.

There's more on the story here.