I don’t like rumours that much, simply because they rarely are true.

However, the rumour about that an affordable iPhone is on the cards, just keeps coming back. Case manufacturer Tactus reckons the below image is that of the upcoming budget iPhone’s polycarbonate shell, which was spotted at a factory that provides parts to Foxconn.

Compared to the old polycarbonate iPhone 3G and 3GS, this shell appears to have a flat back instead of the old curved one, meaning it should reduce manufacturing complexity and therefore the cost as well.

As I said, it is only a rumour leaked by a case manufacturer, who probably leaked the photo just for the free publicity.

However, if this was the cheap iPhone, would you buy one?

Twitter on Thursday unveiled Twitter Music. The service helps users discover music based on what their friends are listening to, along with recommendations from popular artists. It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists.It also brings artists’ music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app. Twitter Music will be available on the web and on Apple’s iPhone at launch, but Twitter plans to expand it to other platforms moving forward.

Sounds reasonable and early impressions are ok. But it does seem similar to the failed Ping service by Apple. Maybe as twitter is an established social medium it will stand a better chance. But to succeed it does need apps on android and other platforms.

You can access the service via the web

Sky Go just got an update to its Android app and now supports the HTC One, Xperia Z and the upcoming Galaxy S4. All these new devices have a 1080p screen resolution, and therefore some apps wont work with this new resolution until updated. Whilst the app has been updated, it won’t stream in 1080p.

Just head over to the Google Play store.

Now all we need updated to support this resolution is Need for Speed Most Wanted, Nationwide, and Zite.

Apple has Game Center for its iDevies, even Amazon has its own game centre. But what about Google’s android. It does not have anything at the moment.

However, this will not be the case for much longer. Expect to see an announcement next month. Personally this really needs to be implemented, and what would be even cooler would be if it could function cross platform, that is with iPhones too.

As soon as there is an official announcement, it will be published here.

Headlining the 3 new handsets is the new Archos 50 Platinum, which brings a 5.0-inch, 960 x 540, 220-ppi display, a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM and 4GB storage. It’s has 8-megapixel camera, dual-SIM capabilities and its running an unskinned version of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

Then there is the larger 5.3-inch iteration, the Archos 53 platinum, which brings a larger 2800mAh battery, but other than that, specs remain the same.

Finally there is the Archos 35 Carbon, a low-end, 3.5-inch handset with Android Ice Cream Sandwich, VGA cameras and 512MB of RAM.

The trio will be available by the end of May and will be unlocked. Pricing for the flagship Archos 50 Platinum will be £179.99, the Archos 53 Platinum will be just £199.99 and the 35 Carbon is the lowest priced at £79.99.

Just re read those prices. That is so cheap, I just wonder what quality vs cost compromises have been undertaken.

Whilst we all think the tech battle is between Samsung and Apple, another head to head is occurring between Samsung and LG.

LG have announced the value pack for their Optimus G Pro which includes many of the features of the S4. These include for example Smart Video eye recognition, the dual-camera video and still capture, and seamless pause and resume video recording.

At the end of the day, this is all great news for the consumer.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing the LG Optimus G Pro in real life. Looks like a great piece of kit.

When Samsung announced the S4, it made a big song and dance about the Exynos 5 8 core processor. Instead most S4’s will have the Snapdragon 600 Quad core chip fitted, including those available for sale in the UK in a few weeks.

Now don’t get me wrong, the Snapdragon is a very good processor but it is not as good as the Samsung 8 core. According to SamMobile, an insider scored 28018 points on AnTuTu with the GT-I9500. Compared to the GT-I9505 Galaxy S 4, it scored 23607 points as found by GSMArena. While we were hoping the Exynos 5 Octa would make its way into the Galaxy S4 heading to the U.S. and UK, you shouldn’t notice too much of a performance difference in normal tasks. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that it performs better with CPU-intensive apps and is more power efficient.

What will be even more upsetting, is if this processor of Samsung’s is fitted to the S4 6 momths down the line. Not sure how I would feel if I had bought a S4, only to find it now had the processor that was meant to have been in it from launch.

France will ask the European Commission for increased regulation following Apple’s decision to remove AppGratis from the App Store for violating its developer guidelines, Reuters reports.

During a visit to AppGratis publisher iMediapp, French junior minister for digital economy Fleur Pellerin called Apple’s decision “extremely brutal and unilateral….
“This behaviour is not worthy of a company of this size,” Pellerin said.

Somehow, I don’t think Apple are going to be too worried over this, but maybe it might change somethings slightly with how Apple regulate the app store at will.

Germany’s Federal Patent Court on Wednesday handed Apple (AAPL) a significant victory in its ongoing legal battle with Samsung. The court ruled that one of Samsung’s (005930) patents that the company had declared was essential to 3G wireless standards was entirely invalid, FOSS Patents reported. Samsung had used its 3G patent and other wireless standard-essential patents in an attempt to receive an injunction against Apple’s products. The iPhone maker was willing to license the company’s technology, however, and Samsung withdrew its injunction requests, although it continued to pursue damages. The invalidation ruling in Germany is expected to impact Samsung’s lawsuits in other countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The company will have an opportunity to appeal the decision.

This ongoing saga will continue to proceed with appeal after appeal. It is worse than a warped record now.

Sony is about to provide native support with its Xperia devices for the Dualshock 3 controller so playing games becomes even more enjoyable.

Users will be able to wirelessly connect their controllers without root or any cumbersome set up routines, using only a USB OTG cable for the initial pairing. About time to.