Good news for the UK's Facebook users. The Facebook Messenger app, which lets users make free calls to each other using mobiles, is now available here too.

It was launched in the US in January and has been a significant success. Now the app, which is still in beta and only for iPhone users, is available here and as long as you have it on board your smartphone and can access a Wi-Fi/3G connection you can make a call. The other caveat is that the person you want to contact also uses Messenger.If they don't have Messenger open than you have the option of leaving a message.

Making a call is fairly straightforward. As long as you are both online you fire up the app choose who you are going to call and start ringing.

Let's hope that the Android version isn't too far behind.

For a long time now we have been told that the future is about NFC readers and that one day they will enable your phone to pay for things which are then billed to your account.

But The Boy Genius blog has an interesting take on how Apple might be positioning itself as the company which makes this happen.

On the day that and analyst reported that the iPhone 5S would boast a killer feature that the financial world would love BGR speculates that that killer feature is a finger print reader.

And the reason why Apple is adding it to the spec of the iPhone 5S is to enable the phone to act as a very secure credit card payment system.

So here's the scenario, you use the NFC system to pay for something, but the purchase is valdiated by you touching the screen with your fingers to activate the fingerprint reader.

You will then be charged for your purchase via your iTunes account.

The BGR speculates as to how Apple will make the money

It could either be charged to the merchant, or even out of what traditional payment processors currently charge. How and why would this happen? There are a couple of scenarios, but just think of what Apple could do in regards to preventing fraud and chargebacks to merchants. These factors can be anywhere from 5-20% of the cost of doing business (even much higher for riskier categories), and Apple could virtually eliminate all fraudulent purchases and chargebacks by requiring the iTunes account holder's fingerprint for every single transition.
That alone would be worth an additional 0.5% or 1% on top of what a merchant pays to their providers now. And what if Apple was able to guarantee funds to a merchant within hours after a purchase is made instead of days or weeks? These are just a couple of ideas regarding what Apple could do in this space if the company decides to enter it.

From a financial perspective this sounds very interesting. If Apple can grab even a small slice of the financial transactions that go one daily its stock will once again rocket. The system would also be tricky for other makers to copy too, though I guess Samsung could respond by offering the same feature via Google Play.

The question is though will it work from a consumer point of view. Would you want to use your phone to make payments?

Personally I wouldn't be that bothered. It would be good to have the option, but to be honest I'd prefer to keep track of what is coming out of my account via my card than have loads of purchases lumped through iTunes just because paying by phone would be a nano second quicker than paying by card.

But that's me - what do you think? Does that make me a Luddite?

If you are an Apple fanperson who is starting to worry that your smartphone might not be the coolest mobile on the planet any more. Fret not. According to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, the next iPhone - the 5S - will include a killer feature that will shut your Android-touting mates up. Well for while anyhow.

Huberty spoke of the feature on a programme on CNBC, reported here, where she defended her positive remarks about Apple - which is odd given the way the share price has been taking recently.

She said

"I do believe that Apple is approaching a bottom. As you have heard, they are talking about returning more cash, and we think they will do that in coming weeks. But people don't own Apple for that, they own Apple for innovation. You saw the Samsung Galaxy S4 come out last week, that shows you the innovation cards are up for grabs. What is lacking in that product [the S4] is a killer feature. We think that's where Apple will surprise this year. This [iPhone] 5S cycle this year will be about a killer feature that drives consumers increasingly to the platform, and that increases the value of those 500 million accounts.'

So what might that killer feature be - a free iWatch that comes with the phone? A new way way of controlling the handset? Fitness and health features built in? Well Huberty, is not saying anything for now.

What do you think it might be?

We haven't had a good Apple mock up for a while - well not since this lot anyhow.

Dutch site iPhoneclub.nl has rectified that though. It has partnered with concept artist Martin Hajek to deliver a series of mock-ups that imagine what the next generation low-cost Apple iPhone mobile might look like.

Taking the many rumours as his cue Hajek has pictured a thin phone made from polycarbonate that sports a four inch display.

He has also made a version with a 4.5inch screen in blue.

What do you think about a budget version of the iPhone - especially if it looked like this?

I think it would sell well, but I am not entirely sure it would be good for the status of the Apple brand in the long run.

Almost twenty years ago a battle raged for the hearts and minds of a nation's youth. One that might have been based around two pop bands, but incorporated elements of class, geography, outlook and more.

When Blur's record label moved the single release of Country House a week forward to land at exactly the same time as Oasis' Roll With It, neither band really could have had any inkling of the media storm they would create. Front page news stories, TV specials, clasroom fisticuffs and a whole lot more ensued.

These days we do not seem quite so exercised about music and bands.I maybe speaking a little out of turn but I guess that a Mumford and Sons Vs One Direction battle for top of the single charts would laregely pass by unnoticed.

But there is one battle emerging that has echoes of those barmy days of nearly two decades ago and that is Samsung Vs Apple.

Roll With It

Put simply the parallels between the two are quite spooky. Well they are if you, ahem, roll with it, a little and don't take it too seriously.

First up though some background. IMO in many ways tech has replaced music as the barometer of a younger person's tribal instincts. Whereas the 90s and before were about which musical tribe you followed (mods, rockers, grunge fans etc) - and how that impacted on your dress code - these days you can learn a great deal more about a person from the games they play, the social networks they use and, especially, the mobile phone they choose. And this reflects how in the past ten years technology, gadgets and specifically mobile phones have become arguably as important to many under 30s as music was to the generation now in their 30s and 40s.

There were many big bands that came out of Britpop, but with apologies to Suede and Pulp, Blur and Oasis were the two that really mattered. Most sane people had a soft spot for both of them, but back then you had to have a preference and nail your colours to the mast.

And so it is now with Samsung and Apple. The truth is that both makers create superb high-end gadgets and phones, and in some ways there isn't a huge distance between many of their products, but the key is that anyone under 30 has to have an opinion on them - just like in Brit Pop days of yore, you have to nail your colours to the mast.

So which maker corresponds to which band then?

Well Blur had an art school heritage, were highly conceptual in the music they produced (their three mid 90s albums weren't far off concept albums), had massive attention to the detail in the tunes they produced, yet somehow managed to capture the zeitgeist just by being so good and so marketable. If they needed to do populist they could turn their hand to it, but you always sensed a tension between their more obvious moves and their arty background.

In many respects while the won the Brit Pop single skirmish, with Country House topping the charts that week, they ultimately lost the war as their rivals Oasis went on to sell more records and become a bigger band. Blur also lead the way in creating all the ingredients of the music that would become known as Brit Pop - Oasis followed after by taking much if what Blur had created and making it even more accessible and popular.

So there's a clear parallel between Apple and Blur. They were there first in re-inventing the smartphone, as Blur had revitalised British music with Brit Pop. They too have an arty heritage of being used by creative types and arguably come from an more edgy, more cool background than rival brands.

Apple are also highly conceptual in everything they do - they don't just trot out smartphones like their rivals do they? They are much more considered than than. And the attention to detail that goes into creating their products is arguably the brand's strongest point.

And just like Blur they might be perceived as lacking a little in warmth. Blur faced a huge backlash after the release of their (actually very fantastic IMO) Great Escape album because it was perceived as being a little too conceptual and little too knowing and not as great a leap on from Park Life as it could have been. You could say a lot of those things about Apple's current position with the iPhone 5. Cool, clever, brilliant constructed but maybe lacking a bit in soul and not a large enough leap on from its predecessors.

Common People

Which then makes Samsung the Oasis of our story (and to be honest much more difficult in drawing paralells). Taking the ground work that Apple have done in phones and tablets Samsung have made the devices even more popular and connectied with many people that Apple have passed by. Oasis were also a lot less precise than Blur and maybe had lower levels of quality control too. So Samsung are happy experimenting in public and not worrying too much so about how they are perceived, or if one of their many many phones doesn't work in the same way that their brand would hope for.

Ultimately just as Oasis ended up the bigger band so Samsung will beat Apple in the long run. They won't be a cooler brand than Apple, but they will become more ubiquitous.

If we really stretch the parallels there is even an interesting coda to the story that might concern both companies next big move - smart watches.

In 1997 Blur returned with their self-titled album. A messy, experimental bit of music that ironically appealed much more to their hard core fans than their populist efforts had done, but a record that gained them new respect.

A few months after Oasis released Be Here Now, a massively overblown album that was a huge success but didn't quite match the hype that was building about the band. It was downhill from then.

So just maybe, the Apple iWatch will be quirky and experimental and have less general appeal but will be seen by Apple fans as a massive restatement of the core values (attention to detail, innovation, etc) that made them fall in love with Apple in the first place.

I can't quite work out how Samsung's smart watch will be analogous to Be Here Now - but I am working on it...

So it is official. Samsung have confirmed to Bloomberg that it is working on a watch that will work with its range of smartphones.

And apparently it isn't just a knee jerk reaction to recent gossip emanating from Apple HQ that it will, launch an iWatch sometime this year.

"We've been preparing the watch product for so long," Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile business, said during an interview for Bloomberg in Seoul. "We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them."

However at the moment there is no news on what the watch might look like and what it might do.

Interestingly though analysts are already suggesting that Samsung will have a big advantage over its Apple rival in at least one area

Samsung may be able to undercut Apple on price because the Korean company makes its own displays and chips, said Will Stofega, program director at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Massachusetts. Samsung also is the world's largest maker of TVs and memory chips.

So this year's big tech battle is starting to take shape.

There's a very interesting story over at Mobile Industry Review which concerns an email that appears to have been sent to Apple iPhone 5 owners in the UK.

The email, which was sent to the editor Ewan MacLeod, had the subject heading of

How will you love it? Let us count the ways.

And it then went through a list of reasons why the person was right to buy an iPhone 5.

Coming off the back of the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch this Apple email looks pretty desperate. This isn't the brand that sets the agenda and are little for what the competition does.

It follows the rather strange series of interviews given to US news sources by Apple company's marketing chief Phil Schiller in which he vociferously attacked the new Samsung handset in a manner which suggested that the company were rattled by its launch.

Apple fans want to hear how the brand is going to take on Samsung in the future and not be told why they bought a phone in the past, which some pundits claim has been significantly superseded by a model from a rival.

It seems like what was once the world's slickest marketing team has made another odd, and some might say, desperate move.

On the eve of the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4, which may just be the most eagerly anticipated mobile ever launched that isn't an iPhone, Apple have gone on the offensive.

In a series of interviews given to US newspapers the company's marketing chief Phil Schiller has gone on record as saying that

* Samsung is running an outdated operating system
* That four times as many consumers were moving to its iOS from Android than vice versa
* Google's figures of 1.37 million Android devices being activated daily are wrong
* Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn't as good as an iPhone.'

Well don't hold back fella. He has obviously been watching videos of Fergie in full on Hairdryer mode.

So what do you think of the outbursts? To me it comes across as a sign that Samsung has got Apple rattled. Personally I don't think that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is going to be the phone that defines the next few years. It will be actually either be the S5 or the iPhone 6.

But it is clear that all the momentum is with Samsung and Android at the moment.

And as someone who swapped iOS for an Android phone I think that Schiller is wrong on several points

But what do you think though about his claims that four times as many consumers were moving to its iOS from Android than vice versa?

I know lots of people who have left iOS for Android, but no one who has gone the other way. That's just me though. Have you junked Android for iOS?

If you own a dog you probably wonder what it gets up to when you are nit around. Of course you can install a webcam to check to see what Rover is up to, but now an new iPad app hopes to take remote dog monitoring to a new more interactive level.

The $1.99 Pavlov Dog Monitor app doesn't just keep tabs on your hound, it also uses technology to help you train your pooch too and even allows your dog to send Facebook messages to you.

Its main function is to ensure that the dog doesn't spend the whole day barking at the neighbours. To address this you set the app up and leave your iPad on in the same room as your mutt.

Then if the dog starts barking a sound monitor on the iPad then triggers a video - which you have pre-recorded - saying bad dog stop barking etc.

If the dog behaves themselves then it gets the treat of a little video from you saying good dog etc.

Your pet's progress is then tracked each day by the Dr. Pavlov character with it given a grade for each session you are away.

You can even set the app up so that your dog sends a Facebook post to you of its activity.

It sounds great in theory, but I guess how it works will depend on the individual dog. It might drive some dogs crazy and also some dogs respond better to screen than others.

Btw dog lovers - did you catch this?

This story has been bubbling under for ages but now it appears it might just be about to happen. According to Reuters today Apple is in talks with Beats about the possibility of launching a streamed music service that would be available across all Apple devices - that ranks as a rival to Spotify.

Apparently Apple CEO Tim Cook and Beats CEO Jimmy Lovine have been chatting about Project Daisy which is the codename for Beats' music streaming service which was announced in January.

The movement to a streaming music service on Apple devices seems like an obvious one. By not offering a rival Apple has enabled Spotify to create a popular and competitive music service in Europe and the US.

The reason the company may have for moving slowly is that it has to weigh up how much impact the service would have on its iTunes downloads. Would the revenue from subscription services (assuming that you would pay £5-10 a month to access the service on your iDevice offline) compensate for the cash lots as people stream music rather than download it?

Reuters is coy about the leak saying that it came three people 'familiar with the situation.'

So would the streaming service be successful?

Unless it had something significant to differentiate it from Spotify I think it unlikely that anyone apart from hardcore Apple devotees would defect from the existing service to the new one.

Spotify though at the moment has over five million subscribers - which is a very small percentage of people who listen to digital music. Apple could massively expand the reach of streamed music services.

It also needs some high profile stories to accompany the launch of the Apple iPhone 5S which will probably be in the summer. If the new phone doesn't come with significant software upgrades then it might start to looks like a poorer relation to handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S IV and the Sony Xperia Z.

Yesterday we brought you a flurry of rumours about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S IV phone including the hardware specs and a hugely exciting new eye control feature.

Today there are rumours about the next iPhone to land - which will probably be the iPhone 5S.

At least one source is suggesting that it might be one of the first phones to feature a Fingerprint Sensor.

These have been used on phones before - namely the Motorola Atrix - and basically act as security device ensuring that only the phone's owner can use the phone.

The jury is still out on the technology in the mobile industry. The fact that Motorola couldn't get it to work especially well and that it hasn't been championed by other makers works against it. Apple do however have a reputation for taking existing tech (touch screens etc) and making them work in a pleasing and intuitive way.

I am not entirely sure how much of a crowd pleaser it would be as a feature but a fingerprint sensor would be an interesting addition to the iPhone 5S.

Bought yourself a shiny new iPad mini? You are going to need a case for it. Here then is a round up of iPad mini housing which is targeted more at blokes than it is women.

There's a selection of stuff - from classy woollen cases through to fashion ones and ultra toughies - if your iPad gets a knock or two.

Fancy a phone or a tablet - or maybe even a watch - that features a flexible roll up screen?

Well according to one of the companies at the forefront this technology devices with this type of screens are still a few years away.

Corning, the company that makes the super-tough Gorilla Glass that you find in many handsets, says that it will be at least three years before makers start to make products with flexible glass.

The company is banking on its flexible glass technology as premiered in its bendy Willow glass, will be huge in the future.

But company president James Clappin believes that the world just isn't ready for rollable electronic devices yet.

"People are not accustomed to glass you roll up, " he told Bloomberg.

"The ability of people to take it and use it to make a product is limited."

The company is said to be working with Apple and Samsung educating them about the potential of Willow, but it sounds like it will be a while yet before we see the fruits of those discussions.

Well this was always going to happen, The trend for putting Kindles in classic book jacket style cases has now crept over to the iPad and you can now house your Apple tablet in a suitably retro 1984 by George Orwell cover.

And if wrapping your iPad in Doublespeak doesn't appeal then there's also Origin of the Species, Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz.

The covers are designed to fit gen 3 and 4 iPads, sport spongy material to further protect your iPad and retail for £19.99 from Firebox.

Bought yourself an iPad mini? If so you'll need to get a case for it pronto and here then is our selection of some of the best cases available that are aimed more at women than men.

It is not only the 200 or so engineers that Tim Cook has got on the case who are imagining what an Apple iWatch might look like and function. There are plenty of mocks ups - some of which are pretty good - and now here comes an intriguing iWatch ad.

It is set in 2019 and predicts that iWatch will be controlled by a hologram type screen. The very smart ad shows a girl transferring images from her camera using a hologram screen that the iWatch has created, as well as its using it to guide her on her run and loads more.

It is well worth viewing.

Interesting stuff over night as Apple CEO Tim Cook faced investors and business journos poring over the company's latest financial figures at its annual shareholder meeting.

The CEO is facing a mini revolt from investors who aren't keen on the fact he is taking a 51% rise in his base salary. Details here.

So no surprise then that the Apple CEO try to deflect the discussion away from salaries and falling share prices by hinting about new products.

Cook told the shareholders that the company were "looking at new categories" for products.

There was no hint as to what those products might be, but it is the closest confirmation we have that Apple is mulling over an iWatch - a smart watch that teams up with an iPhone.

It has been widely reported that the company has over 200 people working on the project and it has filed patents purportedly showing some elements of its design.

Then again there are also rumours of an Apple TV as well as potentially other types of wearable gadgets akin to the Google Glass project.

It would certainly cheer investors were Apple to launch into a new area. The iPhone is under huge pressure to maintain its market share and while the iPad pretty much single handedly created the tablet market it too is facing stiff, and in many instances significantly cheaper competition.

Nevertheless in its last quarter it managed to sell 47.8 million iPhones, 22.9 million iPads, 12.7 million iPods, and 4.1 million Macs.

You can see what the iWatch might look like here.

The tech world has been speculating about the details of Apple's iWatch device for what feels like years, but today The Verge and Apple Insider published details about one of the company's latest patents, which details a new kind of wearable device.

Back in August Apple filed a patent with the US Patent & Trademark Office, which detailed a wearable video device that would be built around a flexible display to be worn around the wrist or another "appendage".

The device is set out to be bi-directional, meaning it's designed to sync up with another gadget, like a laptop or a phone.

Many are suggesting the patent details a simple accessory rather than the all singing, all dancing standalone wristwatch we've been waiting for, but still shows Apple's paying a very keen interest in the kinds of tech we can strap to our arms, so watch this space.

Personally I have not had a great experience of smart watches, they seem fiddly to set up and tricky to use (though admittedly I haven't seen this one yet). In short as a concept they are just begging for a company like Apple, or Samsung, to create something that not only looks beautiful but works in an intuitive way too.

There's plenty about smartwatches and how Apple might approach them here. What we do know though is that Apple is experimenting with some innovative bendy glass and that appears to have been the inspiration behind this gorgeous mock up from Yanko Designs.

In addition to the bendy glass, its design is clearly inspired by the iPhone 5 and note that apple trademark single button.

There's more here along with the words of the designer Esben Oxholm.

For more on the iWatch and its rivals go here.

Some interesting use of Bluetooth technology here from a Danish company called hippih. It has just hit the Apple Store with hipkey, a Bluetooth device designed to make sure that you are never parted from your iPhone, iPad or even your kids.

Basically it is a small accessory that you keep on a key ring. You then pair with a device like an iPhone or an iPad and if that device goes beyond a specified distance from the hipkey it sounds an alarm.

I guess the idea is that if you are constantly leaving your iPhone in coffee shops then this could be your saviour.

It also works with kids too. If you attach the hipkey to your child (or place it in their pocket) your iPhone/iPad will let you know if they have gone outside of the area.

You can set the distance triggered alarm system up to a range of 50 metres. There is also a 'Safe Zone' setting that switches the alarm off in areas where your valuables or loved ones are not vulnerable, such as home, a relative's house or the office.

Danny van der Poel, CEO of hippih says, "hipKey™ offers peace of mind to users, keeping track of their expensive items and loved ones when life gets in the way. Everyone has, at one time, left an iPhone or iPad in a bar or coffee shop and returned too late to find it gone. And who has not left the house in a hurry and forgotten their phone. Carrying a hipKey™ with you means this will never happen again."

It costs £69.95 and is available now from Apple Stores.

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