Android Lollipop is now installed on 23.5% of devices

Last month, Lollipop finally crossed the 20% mark in Google's Android distribution chart. That means that as of the beginning of September, 21% of all active Android devices ran one of the two versions called Lollipop.

One month later, Android 5.x keeps climbing, though it's not a fast ascension, that's for sure. In the just published chart for the beginning of October, Google reveals that 23.5% of all active Android devices now run Lollipop.

KitKat is down slightly, to 38.9% from 39.2% last month. The three iterations of Jelly Bean combined now have 30.2% market share, down from 31.8%. Ice Cream Sandwich falls to 3.4% from 3.7%, and Gingerbread goes to 3.8% from 4.1%. Oddly enough, Froyo is still stuck at 0.2% of installs, just as it was in September.

Older versions aren't part of this report because it's generated using data gathered from the new Play Store app, which only works on Android 2.2 Froyo or later. Next month we should see Android 6.0 Marshmallow in the chart for the first time, now that the new version is making its way to Nexus and Android One devices.

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Google to announce Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X in India on October 13

Google has sent out media invites in India for the launch of the company's latest Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X smartphones. The event will be held in New Delhi on October 13, where the pricing and availability will be officially revealed.

So far we have seen the two phones appear on the Google Store India so it is no surprise that the company is launching them shortly after the US announcement. We also saw Flipkartteasing the Nexus 6P in India. We already know the prices of all the variants of both devices, which you can find here.

Nexus 6P will be exclusively sold by SoftBank in Japan

The Huawei-made Google Nexus 6P smartphone, which was made official last week along with the LG-made Nexus 5X, will be carrier exclusive to SoftBank in Japan. The carrier will begin taking pre-orders for the device on October 9 - tomorrow.

What's good is that you'll also be able to pre-order the Japan-exclusive Gold color model of the handset (shown above), although only in the 64GB configuration. The model is officially called Nexus 6P Special Edition. Another thing worth mentioning is that none of the colors will be available in the 128GB configuration.

Meanwhile, both NTT and Y!Mobile will sell the Nexus 5X - while the former will carry only Quartz and Carbon color options, the latter will offer Ice variant as well. There is currently no word from any of the carriers on the pricing of the devices.

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Apple is largest OEM, Android most popular mobile OS in the US

The latest US smartphone market stats for August are in, courtesy of market research firmcomScore. A total of 191.1 million people in the US own a smartphone in the three month period ending in August, resulting in a 77.1% mobile market penetration.

The analytic data shows that Apple is still the leading OEM in the US with 44.1% of the market, up 0.6 percent points from last month. It's followed by Samsung and LG with 27.4% and 9.1%, with the latter managing to grow its presence 0.9 percent points. Motorola and HTC are following with 4.7% and 3.4%, respectively.

As for smartphone platform market share, Android is still the top dog, despite a small fall from the previous three month period. Now, Android takes 51.7% of the market, while Apple is at 44.1% after a 0.6 percent point rise. Microsoft's mobile OS is down slightly and is at 2.9%.

comScore has also run an analysis on the top smartphone apps and Facebook is at the top, as it's installed on 3 out of 4 smartphones in the US. Next up is Facebook Messenger and YouTube at 59.8% and 59.5%.

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Apple iPad Pro will be available to order in late October, rumor says

The (literally) biggest device Apple announced last month at its fall event was the iPad Pro. The 12.9-inch tablet is the largest Apple's ever made, and it's still not available to purchase unfortunately.

That, however, may change towards the end of this month. According to certain unnamed sources that are said to be reliable, you'll be able to order an iPad Pro online starting in late October. That said, deliveries will probably start in early November.

That's also when the iPad Pro will be up for grabs in physical stores, the same people go on to say. The exact same timeline apparently applies to the new Apple TV set top box too: like the tablet, it will be available online at the end of the month, with shipping starting in early November, which is also when it will be found in stores.

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Apple quietly begins selling unlocked iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus

Apple quietly began selling unlocked iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in the United States. The SIM-free variants of the smartphones arrive on the market less than two weeks after the product family’s retail launch.

The SIM-free Apple Phone 6s sports the model number A1633. Its larger sibling features the model number A1634. Both devices require the buyer to pay their retail price in full at the time of purchase. The iPhone 6s starts at $649, while the iPhone 6s Plus will set you back $749 and up.

Today, Apple will also launch the iPhone 6s family in a plethora of European markets, as well as Mexico and Taiwan.

Source | Via

OnePlus 2 to be available in India sans invite on October 12

OnePlus has announced that its latest flagship, the OnePlus 2, will be available for purchase on Amazon India without any invite on October 12, which is coming Monday. However, the open sale will last for just one hour - 12:00 to 1 PM.

"While we’ve alleviated the invite demand to a reasonable extent on account of faster roll-outs, we feel that we owe it to you all to make it a bit more convenient this time around," the Chinese smartphone manufacturer said in a blog post.

It's worth mentioning that this would be the first open sale for the "2016 flagship killer" ever since it was released back in August this year. The handset, which went on sale in Malaysia last month, costs INR 25,000 (around $385) for the Sandstone Black variant (64GB).

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Motorola launches Moto X Style in India

Motorola has announced the Moto X Style for the Indian market. The phone will be available exclusively through Flipkart and pre-ordering starts from October 14, midnight.

The Moto X Style has a 5.7-inch QHD IPS LCD, Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB RAM, 16/32GB storage with microSD support, 21 megapixel rear camera with 4K video and phase detection autofocus, 5 megapixel front camera, front stereo speakers, water repellant coating, 3000mAh battery with Turbo Charging, and Android 5.1 Lollipop.

The 16GB variant is priced at INR 29,999 ($462) and the 32GB at INR 31,999 ($493). The phone will only be available in black and white/champagne gold initially.

Meizu Pro 5 delayed until November due to factory flood

The Meizu Pro 5, which was made official later last month and was scheduled to go on sale on October 12, won't be released until next month. According to the company, the delay was caused by floods that hit a manufacturing facility in the Chinese city of Guangdong.

The facility in question manufactures the unibody chassis. There was, however, no word on whether the unfortunate situation would affect the release or sales of any of the Chinese company's other devices.

If you aren't already aware, the Pro 5 is powered by a Samsung Exynos 7420 chipset, and sports a 5.7" Super AMOLED screen of 1080p resolution. It comes with 3GB/4GB RAM and 32GB/64GB memory options, and packs in a 3050mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the handset features a 21MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop-based Flyme 5 OS.

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Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus arrive in 42 new countries

Apple has revealed that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus smartphones, which were released on September 25 in the first wave of countries, will be available in over 40 more countries by October 10 - tomorrow.

Over 35 countries will get the handsets today. These include Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Taiwan.

Those regions where the devices will be released tomorrow are: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. A third wave will see the flagships releasing in 24 additional countries starting October 16, including Turkey, India, and Malaysia, taking the total count of countries to over 75 and making it the fastest iPhone roll-out ever.

The Cupertino-based company plans to release the smartphones, which are now available unlocked in the United States, in more than 130 countries by the end of 2015.

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Samsung Galaxy A9 spotted in AnTuTu, S620 chipset confirmed

The Samsung Galaxy A9 poked its head above water again, surfacing at the AnTuTu benchmark database. It casts another vote for a 5.5" 1080p screen, even though the naming scheme suggests the A9 should be better than the Galaxy A8 (5.7" 1080p).

It's definitely better in terms of chipset – the Snapdragon 620 has next-gen CPU cores and a next-gen GPU. The eight Cortex-72 cores should be much faster than the A53s used in current mid-range octa-cores. The Adreno 510 will also bring a much needed performance boost for 1080p gaming. And there's more RAM, 3GB.

There's 32GB of built-in storage, but AnTuTu failed to detect the camera resolution. The Samsung Galaxy A9 (SM-A9000) ran Android 5.1.1 Lollipop when the test was ran (which was most likely a pre-production version).

Source | Via

Android 6.0 Marshmallow factory images are out for Nexus devices

Google already announced that it would release Android 6.0 Marshmallow this week, and it looks like the company wants to start in force. That's because it's already made factory images of the new version available for the Nexus devices that are supported.

The images are up on Google's specialized developer website, which is where you can also find instructions for flashing them. Keep in mind however that going this route will delete all data you've had on your phone or tablet, so make sure you back things up first.

The images are there for the LG Nexus 5, Motorola Nexus 6, Asus Nexus 7 (2013), HTC Nexus 9, and Asus Nexus Player. Older Nexus devices are not going to get official updates to Marshmallow, while the newly announced LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P will launch with it preinstalled.

Now that the factory images are available, expect over-the-air updates to start rolling out for the aforementioned devices within the next few days. Updating in this way will not wipe your data, so it's an easier method compared to flashing images. On the other hand, Google's OTA rollouts are generally very slow, so you will need to be patient if you choose this option.

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Moto X Style will launch in India on October 8 according to new teaser

Of the duo of Moto X smartphones announced this year by Motorola, the Moto X Play is already available in India. On the other hand, the high-end Moto X Style isn't yet, but that may change very soon.

Motorola started teasing the launch of the Moto X Style in the subcontinent last week, and now it looks like we have an actual date to speak of. The image you can see below is a teaser put up by Flipkart, India's biggest online retailer (which could be gearing up to exclusively offer this device).

Now all that remains to be seen is whether the Moto X Style will actually be available for purchase on October 8 or if that's just the date of its announcement for the Indian market (in which case it's going to be released later).

As for pricing, it's expected to be in the INR 30,000-32,000 range (that's about $460-491 or €411-439 right now).

Source | Via

Upcoming OnePlus Mini has all of its specs detailed

Before the end of the year, OnePlus will unveil a new, even more affordable device. This has so far been confirmed many times by the Chinese company's management. Yet understandably OnePlus execs haven't disclosed any information about the upcoming device's specs.

That said, today a new rumor comes to seemingly reveal all of that. Before we delve into it, however, do note that all of this comes from an anonymous source, and as such you shouldn't take any of it for granted. Furthermore, the source itself claims that these details are from a prototype that's already two months old, which means that certain hardware specs may have changed in the meantime.

The phone could be called OnePlus Mini, since it will have a 5-inch touchscreen (with 1080p resolution and 2.5D Gorilla Glass on top). It will be powered by MediaTek's Helio X10 chipset (MT6795T), which comes with a 2.2 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU.

2GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable eMMC 5.0 storage are in, but you can forget the previously talked about dual-camera setup. On the back we'll see a 13 MP unit with a Sony IMX258 sensor with f/2.0 aperture, complemented by a dual-tone LED flash. The selfie shooter will have 5 MP resolution and will be of the wide-angle variety in order to fit as many people into your "groufies" as necessary.

The battery capacity is said to be 3,000 or 3,100 mAh, which you'll charge through a USB Type-C port. Interestingly, some sort of quick charging support will be baked in, unlike in the more premium OnePlus 2. It's the same situation with NFC and an IR blaster, both of which will be integrated into the OnePlus Mini despite not having made it to the bigger device.

A fingerprint sensor will be on the back of the OnePlus Mini, and the handset will also have a 1.2W front-facing speaker, an FM radio, and IP67 rating for water and dust resistance. Its shell will be plastic.

For all of this you'll only need to pay around $250, if the source of this rumor has it right. The OnePlus Mini should become available in November or December, though it's unclear if invites will be required for buying it.

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Droid Maxx 2 will be Verizon's Moto X Play, Google confirms

Verizon still hasn't refreshed its Droid-branded line of exclusive Android devices this year, but that's bound to happen in the next few weeks. Back in August many leaks and rumors claimed that the carrier's upcoming Droid Maxx 2 would be nothing more than a rebranded Moto X Play. In fact, some leaked live images of the Droid Maxx 2 pretty much confirmed that beyond a reasonable doubt.

However, in case you somehow still weren't sure of this, Google can help. See, someone at the search giant managed to inadvertently confirm the fact that the Droid Maxx 2 is just a Moto X Play by another name.

What you see above is a screenshot of the Google support page listing which Android devices are optimized for using the Cast Screen feature with the Chromecast. The second row spells things out, black on white, as it says "Droid Maxx 2 (Verizon) or Moto X Play (Rest of World)". One and the same device, then.

The mishap has since been corrected by Google and any mention of the Droid Maxx 2 is now gone from that support page, but it's pretty clear that someone at the company simply forgot that this handset isn't official just yet. Hopefully that will change soon.

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Flipkart teases Nexus 6P in India

Flipkart has started teasing the Nexus 6P on its website. A new page lists all the new features of the phone but does not mention the price and only says 'Coming Soon' for release date.

Then again, we already know the price, thanks to the Google Store. As we previously reported, the Nexus 6P in India will be priced at INR 39,999 for the 32GB mode, INR 42,999 for the 64GB model, and INR 47,999 for the 128GB model.

Flipkart hasn't mentioned the Nexus 5X yet, even though the phone is listed on the Google Store.

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Sony releases Android 6.0 Marshmallow update device list

Sony has officially issued a blog post detailing the list of phones and tablets bound to receive Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Here go the lucky devices:

• Xperia Z5
• Xperia Z5 Compact
• Xperia Z5 Premium
• Xperia Z4 Tablet
• Xperia Z3+
• Xperia Z3
• Xperia Z3 Compact
• Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
• Xperia Z2
• Xperia Z2 Tablet
• Xperia M5
• Xperia C5 Ultra
• Xperia M4 Aqua
• Xperia C4

The company didn't provide a specific time frame for when each devices will receive the update just yet. Sony also warns users that timing and availability of Android 6.0 Marshmallow will vary according to market and service provides.

As usual, we'll be keeping you informed when the first updates for Sony smartphones start rolling out

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Microsoft Lumia 950 goes official with PureView camera

Owners of a flagship Windows Phone have had their patience stretched thin, but those that held off have been rewarded. The Microsoft Lumia 950 improves on just about every feature of the Lumia 930. About time too, the 930 is a year and a half old.

The Windows 10 Mobile device comes with a 5.2" QHD screen – the sharpest on a Lumia yet. Like the XL screen, this one is an AMOLED with Glance screen and ClearBlack, except in a more compact footprint this time.

The camera is basically the same – a 20MP PureView sensor (1/2.4") with 5th gen optical stabilization and Carl Zeiss optics (f/1.9). It can record 2160p video natively with Lumia's traditional Hi-Fi audio recording. There's a 5MP/1080p selfie camera too, but without the LED flash.

The Lumia 950 is powered by Snapdragon 808 with liquid cooling and 3GB of RAM. Gaming performance will take a hit if devs want to use the screen's full QHD resolution, but for general app usage Windows was never picky about the chipset.

The phone comes with USB Type-C and wireless charging, plus a relatively big 3,000mAh battery. Using the Type-C connector you can hook up the Display Dock, which gives you HDMI and DisplayPort video out plus three USBs.

The Microsoft Lumia 950 will cost $550, available in November. There's a dual-SIM version too.

$139 Microsoft Lumia 550 is a 4.7" Windows 10 smartphone

Microsoft announced the Lumia 950 and L flagship pair and just as we though the devices event was moving from the Lumias towards the Surface, a Lumia 550 was briefly mentioned. An entire ten seconds of the spotlight were enough to announce the affordable smartphone will be available in December for $139.

The list of specs starts with a 4.7-inch LCD display of a 720p resolution, which seems to be the best part on paper. Computing power comes from a Snapdragon 210 chipset with a quad-core 1.1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM.

Storage is a rather limiting 8GB, but is expandable via microSD. There’s a 5MP/2MP camera combo and full LTE support, courtesy of Qualcomm’s chip.

   

Microsoft Lumia 550

The Microsoft Lumia 550 will be available in a variety of colors for its detachable polycarbonate back cover, a staple of the lower end Lumias. Battery capacity is listed at 2,100mAh, and the whole package measures 136.1 x 67.8 x 9.9mm.

The affordable Windows 10 device tips the scales at 141.9g, virtually the same as the new iPhone 6s. Apparently, that's the industry standard for a 4.7-inch smartphone.

Twitter Names Jack Dorsey CEO, Adam Bain Becomes COO, Dick Costolo Steps Down From Board

After four months of running under Jack Dorsey interim chief executive, today Twitter finally named him as its permanent leader. The man who helped co-found Twitter in 2006 is now its full-time CEO again.

In addition to the new permanent role for Dorsey, Adam Bain is becoming COO — Bain used to handle revenue and partnerships at Twitter and was another CEO candidate. Dorsey also announced that a new board is in the works. The company already announced that Dick Costolo stepped down from the board. Dorsey will continue to serve as a board member but no longer as chairman.

“There are currently no plans to provide Mr. Dorsey with direct compensation for his role as Chief Executive Officer,” Twitter writes in the SEC document announcing the changes.

In an investor call, Twitter executives announced the changes and answered questions. “It’s our goal to exceed the expectations the world has for us,” Dorsey said. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“I’ve worked in partnership with Jack since I joined Twitter in 2010,” Bain said. He also said that he’s met with Dorsey over the years to talk about business, product and overall strategy. He also commented on the last four months as Dorsey has been temporary CEO for quite a while now.

“He’s got the senior staff working better than ever,” he said. “He’s also led the team for a product re-envisioning and product roadmap for 2016.” Naturally, the conversation shifted toward this mysterious product roadmap.

When asked about it, Dorsey alluded to project lightning, Twitter’s plan to show relevant live content to casual users.

“We’ve been reviewing our roadmap to make sure that we make Twitter easier to everyone around the world,” he said. “There’s a lot of initiatives aimed at making sure that people can immediately get value out of Twitter.”

At the same time, Dorsey reassured existing Twitter users, saying that the company is also building new tools to let power users do more things. “We’ve been playing with [Lightning] internally for quite some time and it feels… amazing,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey is juggling the job with a couple of other roles. In addition to already being the social network’s chairman of the board, he is also the CEO of Square, a payment processing company that he co-founded in 2009 and is reportedly slated for a public offering sometime this year. Insiders at Square have been quietly assuring everyone that Dorsey plans to stick around as CEO.

When it comes to splitting his time between Square, Dorsey dodged the question during the investor call.

An End To Many Speculations

After a Re/code article was published citing sources saying that Dorsey’s new permanent job was imminent, Twitter’s stock popped a few percentage points followed by a sharp decline and another rise.

Throughout his interim CEO period, Dorsey has remained committed to leading Square, as well. But the fact that Dorsey was already running another company when he took over as interim CEO of Twitter from Dick Costolo may have been one of the sticking points when considering him for the job long-term: Chris Sacca, a vocal Twitter investor,claims that a Twitter board member was one of the people who took issue with Dorsey doing both jobs simultaneously.

Some may have believed that the CEO role would always go to Dorsey, but more widely the move brings to an end one of the more-speculated leadership vacancies in the tech industry. Other names that we had heard floated for the job included insiders Adam Bain (head of revenue and partnerships and now COO) and CFO Anthony Noto; Jeff Weiner from LinkedIn; Bradley Horowtiz from Google and Padmasree Warrior.

We may now have a name to engrave on the back of the chair at the top of the table, but it doesn’t make that seat any less hot.

Twitter’s stock has been on a roller coaster, with the company weathering questions about its user growth and engagement, leadership changes, and more existentially what it is as a product. That’s led many to debate whether the company, with its stock in a dip, would simply get snapped up by a bigger fish like Google.

In that regard, you can see how someone leading Twitter who has been connected to it and its bigger vision from the start could make a lot of sense. Now the question will be how Dorsey implements that legacy advantage.

Say Hello To Google’s Nexus 5X

As expected, Google today announced a new version of its Nexus 5 Android phone, the successor of what has likely been the most popular of the company’s Nexus phones.

The LG-made Nexus 5X has a 5.2-ich display and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor with 2GB or RAM and sports a 5.2-inch display with a 1080p resolution. That’s a slightly larger screen than the old Nexus 5, but the resolution hasn’t changed. The battery has a capacity of 2,700 mAh.

The 5X will cost $376 for the 16 GB version and $429 for the 32 GB version. Pre-orders from the Play Store starts today. The phone will also come with $50 in Play credits.

Google will now also offers its own Apple Care-like program. For $59, you can extend your warranty and protect your phone from accidental damage for an extra year.

The phone will run the latest version of Android (Marshmallow) out of the box and should work on the networks of all U.S. carriers.

The camera was always one of the Nexus 5’s weakest points. The new Nexus 5 now sports a 12.3-megapixel camera in the back (up from 8 megapixels in the old model) and a 5-megapixel camera in the front. Together with Google’s improved camera app, this hopefully means that you can now actually take good photos with the new Nexus 5. But given how often we’ve been disappointed by Nexus cameras, we’ll withhold comment until we get our hands on a review unit.

The camera will support slow motion videos, too.

As expected, the 5X also features a fingerprint scanner on the back. Android Marshmallow is the first version of Android to support fingerprint scanners out of the box, so it always seemed very likely for the company to offer this feature in its new Nexus phones.

The Nexus 5X will use the new USB-C connector for charging. USB-C can transfer data faster, but more importantly, it can carry more power and, hence, charge your phone faster.

Google was involved in creating this new standard and first introduced USB-C support in its latest Chromebook Pixel. Apple, too, has jumped on the USB-C bandwagon, though it’s currently only using it for its small Macbook — not for its phones.

There are still some Nexus 5 features Google hasn’t talk about yet. We expect to hear more about them later today.

Apple iPhone 6s review Part 01

Introduction

The more it changes, the harder it becomes to see the difference. And you know, it's not about Apple and the iPhone at all. It's where the industry has been heading for a while now. In the race for screen size and processing power, the major makers' flagships are like pro athletes finishing within milliseconds of each other. To get an extra edge, manufacturers will go in lots of directions - such as water proofing, bigger and sharper selfies, wireless charging, curved or borderless screens, whatnot.

A certain type of players would rather lose than be in a crowd of winners. Others don't even play games they can't win. We guess we all know where Apple stands on this.

With a single iPhone a year - two as of late - Apple is the kid that skips classes but aces the tests. The wild card player that goes on to win the tournament. The team that doesn't play qualifiers but goes to the world cup.

Wouldn't we all do less and make more? There goes the iPhone 6S, off to a familiar start. The same on the outside but trying to pose as the most important iPhone since the first one ever released.

The new iPhone, being an S model, naturally comes with more power under the hood, but also brings the long awaited camera upgrade. The main camera now uses a 12MP sensor capable of 4K video recording as well as 1080p at 120fps, there is a brand new 5MP selfie camera too. And, it's the same screen size and resolution but we think it's exactly what Apple meant with "the only thing that's changed is everything".

Key features

• 4.7" 16M-color LED-backlit IPS LCD of 750 x 1334px resolution, 326ppi
• 3D Touch technology recognizes levels of pressure, brand new Taptic engine for better feedback
• Apple iOS 9
• Dual-core 1.8 GHz Cyclone 64-bit CPU, 2GB of RAM, Apple A9 SoC
• 12MP F/2.2 camera with True tone LED flash, phase detection auto focus, 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, @60fps and @120fps video recording, 720p video recording @120fps and 240fps
• 5MP F/2.2 front-facing camera with BSI sensor and HDR mode, 1080p@30fps video
• Comes in 16, 64, and 128GB of built-in storage
• Second-gen Touch ID fingerprint sensor
• 4G LTE Cat.6 (300Mbps); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.2; Lightning port; GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS; NFC (Apple Pay only)
• 1,715 mAh battery, new Power saving mode

Main disadvantages

• No microSD slot
• Pricey memory upgrades, 32GB version should be standard for such an expensive phone
• Protruding camera lens makes the phone wobble
• Lacks the optical image stabilization of the iPhone 6s Plus
• NFC functionality limited to Apple Pay
• No wireless charging, an infrared port, or FM radio
• No enhanced resistance to liquids or dust
• No user-replaceable battery

The first iPhone heralded the arrival of capacitive displays and multi-touch technology. The iPhone 6S is the first to have 3D touch - a screen technology that recognizes different levels of pressure for an extra dimension of interaction with a device.

A late tribute perhaps to resistive screens, which Apple itself sent to their doom. Not a particularly scientific statement although resistive technology did rely on actual pressure to work. Good enough for anyone with a penchant for the dramatic.

But if we are to stick to the facts, the iPhone 6s isn't the company's first device with a pressure-aware display, the Apple Watch is. Plus, phones like the Huawei Mate S and the ZTE Axon mini do deserve at least a mention as well. Anyway, this only highlights the difference between Apple and the rest. Cupertino has the habit - and in all fairness, the capability - to pick a niche technology and make it mainstream.

So, the pressure aware display and improved imaging are the big news about the iPhone 6S. We've pretty much come to take the next OS and chipset version for granted.

Sure, we all know better than to expect a memory card slot and access to the battery, but we just can't agree with Apple's decision to stick with the 16GB option as base instead of 32GB, which is actually not offered at all. 4K videos and the live photos (with sound) will clearly need more space than before. Not only that but Apple is actually charging slightly more in Europe for the base version of its latest iPhone.

And we can put it down as a typical Apple quirk that they snubbed things like water resistance and wireless charging but somehow couldn't resist the selfie thing. Oh well, there'll be more of those as we go. Our 64GB iPhone 6s is popping out of the box right after the jump.