Amazon Sets Up In London's Tech City

US web giant Amazon is opening a new research centre in East London's Tech City - Britain's answer to Silicon Valley.

The digital media development centre will employ hundreds of people and focus on ways to transform how we watch TV.

The multi-billion dollar company joins a growing number of technology firms in the East End , as digital industries become an increasingly large part of the UK economy.
The sector generates £86bn every year, around 11% of Britain's GDP.

For the managing director of the Amazon centre, Paula Byrne, London was seen as an attractive place to invest.

"The talent pool that we have around here is terrific," she said.
"In the UK we've had multi-platform TV with satellite, cable, terrestrial for such a long time.
"And so when I was looking around for where those skillsets were, the UK was just an obvious place to go to."

This growing digital economy is not just confined to East London.
For 25 years Dundee has made its mark in the game developing world, creating hits such as Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto.

David Hamilton, co-founder of Digital Goldfish, has seen the industry become an important of the local economy.

"It's a great buzz and it's a great atmosphere to be in.
"We get a lot of attention being such a small place like Dundee with the amount of success and history that's behind it.

"We just need to keep on growing that.  We are continuing the success."
Ed Vaizey, the minister for the creative industries, says he recognises Britain must stay ahead of global competition.

"Every country would like to be a digital hub and have companies come here.
"So it's a globally competitive market place but at the same time that's a huge opportunity because it means that companies starting here can sell into a global market."

Amazon’s investment is a sign that the digital industries are fast becoming another British success story.
But for a country in recession, it can only ever be relied upon to be part of the economic recovery.

How you could halve your parking costs

By taking advantage of new services and technology you could more than halve the amount you spend on parking.

If you think your car is expensive to run, you’re probably thinking of the high price of fuel, MOTs, insurance and tax. But there’s another cost that’s really starting to bite into Brits’ budgets.

Recent figures from Confused.com show more than one British driver in five spends over £150 on parking every single month. £150 a month adds up to £1,800 a year – that’s even higher than my car insurance!

In total, the price comparison website worked out that British drivers are paying £8 billion a year simply to park – a rise of 12.5% on the previous year.

Of course, it’s much worse for some. One car park in Knightsbridge, London, charges £36 for three hours of parking!

So what you can do to keep the price of parking down?

Get the technology

If you have a smartphone, or just hop online before you drive anywhere, it’s fairly straightforward to compare parking costs and find the cheapest.

The AA parking app costs £1.99 and has wide coverage of all paid and free car parks in the UK and Ireland.

It can even flag up park and ride locations, and show you parking space availability in real time.

Confused.com has just launched an app that directs you to the nearest, cheapest car park, while ParkNearby is free and searches for cheap and free spaces in London – but is expanding to cover the rest of the UK soon.

[Airport Taxis Transfers]

Get creative

One answer to expensive car parks is to abandon them entirely. If you regularly park in the same location, perhaps for work, it might be worth looking for a private drive or garage you could rent during the day – while the owner is out at their own job.

Admittedly, most people won’t advertise their car parking space on classifieds websites (it’s like telling burglars: “Hello, no one’s home at these hours on these days!’).

But there are companies that pair up spare driveways with drivers, such as Parkatmyhouse.com.

The company claims that drivers can save up to 70% of their normal parking costs by booking a private driveway or parking space through its system.

You don’t even have to book an ongoing space; you can find and pay for spaces through the website when you’re out and about.

I ran a trial search for parking spaces near my local station. The official car parks all charge a minimum of £6 a day. However, through this website I found several spaces nearby for just £15 a week.

Of course, I live in a small town, the rents can be higher in cities – but then, so can the savings.

If you’re spending a fortune on parking, you could offset that cost by renting out your own driveway. According to ParkatmyHouse.com, customers who live near sports stadiums can earn around £400 a space per year, while you can earn as much as £1,000 if you’re near an airport.

One customer, Katie, lives close to Southampton's cruise terminal and has two parking spaces. She charges £25 for a week's parking – much cheaper than the official parking in the area. Over the last three years, she’s earned £4,500 to help support her family.

[Southamton to London Heathrow Transfers]

Fight parking tickets

One of the most frustrating parking expenses is a ticket, especially if you don’t feel it was justified.

Have you ever appealed a parking ticket you felt was unfair? The financial penalty for a standard ticket can be between £60 and £130, depending on the council, making it a particularly expensive day’s parking!

Only a handful of parking tickets are ever appealed, but the majority of appeals are successful. So, if you’re confident that you’ve got a case then don’t just accept the parking ticket – fight it!

If you feel the ticket was unfair because the road markings were not clear or there were no obvious signs, or because you had actually paid for your parking, then take photographs of the evidence if you can. If you have any witnesses who support your case, get their details and take a quick signed statement.

Of course, if the ticket has been fairly issued then you’re best off paying immediately. Councils usually only charge half the penalty if you pay it within a set period, usually 14 days.

If you think a car parking ticket was unfair but you’re unsure about how successful your claim will be, then pay the fine while it’s still half price and then appeal it. Paying is not an admission of guilt.

[Related feature: How to beat parking fines]

Fight private parking tickets

If a council-issued fine is painful, a privately-issued one can be even higher. There have been endless complaints and news stories about extortionate charges from private car parks.

Perhaps the most frustrating are the fines for overstaying in free car parks, especially if you’ve spent the time visiting the surrounding shops.

The good news is that from October, there’s an independent appeals service. So, if you complain about an unfair charge and the private company won’t repeal it, you’ll be able to take your fight to an independent adjudicator.

Check out the British Parking Association’s information page for more details on your new rights.

How much do you pay for parking? Have you ever fought an unfair ticket? What happened? Share your thoughts and experiences with other readers in the comments below.

Extensions that can boost property value

The home extensions that increase property value

The Government has reduced the rules surrounding home extensions. How much would extending your home increase its value?

For a limited, time, homeowners can extend their properties with larger-than-usual extensions and conservatories without seeking the usual planning permission from local councils.

Businesses also get a boost, as shops, offices and industrial units will be able to expand significantly without seeking approval from local authorities.

Add 23% to your home's value

The new rules may see a surge in spending on such home improvements.
Nationwide Building Society reckons that homeowners who take the plunge by extending or improving their homes could make sizable gains. According to its research, extending your home can add a lot to its value -- depending on the scope and scale of your project, of course.

Based on an average three-bedroom British home, Nationwide calculates that adding an extension or loft conversion to your home could increase its value by almost a quarter (23%). This assumes that you increase your home's floor area by 30 square metres to create an extra double bedroom and en-suite bathroom.

Interesting improvements

Other big projects can add value, too.
For example, adding another double bedroom (floor area: 13 square metres) can push up a home's value by nearly an eighth (12%). Creating an extra bathroom could add 6% to a property's value, while increasing floor space by a tenth (10%) can add 5% to the average value.

Naturally, these improvements don't come for free. In fact, the cost of major extensions and improvements to your home can be substantial. Nationwide estimates that adding a single-storey extension to a typical home can cost £23,000, or around £1,000 per square metre. For a two-storey extension, this price tag more than triples to £76,000.

Improve, don't move

In more expensive parts of the UK, major building works can cost huge amounts. Even so, with relocating from a three-bedroom to a four-bedroom property costing on average £90,000 more, moving instead of improving can still make financial sense for growing families seeking more space.

'Lend to extend'

To take advantage of an anticipated surge in "lending for extending", Nationwide is offering low-rate further advances to borrowers wanting to increase their mortgages to pay for improvements.
While most other lenders charge high rates on a limited range of products for further advances, Nationwide allows applicants to access its entire range of mortgage deals, with a 0.10% discount for existing mortgage customers.

As a result, Nationwide's further advances -- available to both new and existing mortgage borrowers -- are among the very cheapest in the market, with rates as low as 3.19% for a two-year, fixed-rate loan.
Here's how Nationwide's further advances compare with those on offer from four other leading mortgage lenders:

Deposit required	Nationwide BS	HSBC	NatWest/RBS	C&G	Halifax
Fee	£999	£599	£299	£999	£895
40%	3.19%	3.29%	4.59%	5.89%	5.69%
30%	3.39%	3.29%	4.59%	5.99%	5.79%
25%	3.79%	3.79%	4.59%	5.99%	5.79%
20%	4.09%	3.79%	5.29%	6.09%	5.89%
15%	4.59%	-	6.19%	-	-

With rates this low as the leading deals above, a further advance can be an extremely cheap way to fund extra building work.

An alternative: cheap personal loans

If you don't have enough savings and lack the time to save up, then another smart way to fund home improvements is via an unsecured personal loan. This doesn't put the roof over your head at risk, making it less risky than a further advance or second mortgage.

Crony Trading LTD

£500m taken from UK's richest people

Special tax unit takes extra £500m from UK's richest people

The taxman has extracted an extra £500m from Britain’s richest people thanks to a special unit set up three years ago to target “high net worth” individuals.

Martin Randall, the head of HM Revenue & Customs’ high net worth unit, said: “The tax affairs of the richest people in the country are, by their nature, complex, and that’s why we have focused resources on getting their tax right.

“The majority of the wealthiest taxpayers play by the rules, paying the right tax at the right time, but we take action against the minority who don’t. This approach has delivered the result we have announced today.”

He said that when the unit was set up in 2009 it was expected to bring in about £100m a year but it yielded £200m in 2011-12, up from £162m the previous year and from £83m in 2009-10.

“We have brought in £55m so far this year,” Mr Randall added. “These year-on-year revenue increases have enabled us to deliver half a billion pounds in extra tax.”

David Gauke, the Exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said: “Today’s figures show that HMRC’s high net worth unit is making sure that the country’s wealthiest citizens pay the tax they owe.

"The overwhelming majority of people pay their taxes, so it is absolutely right that HMRC pursues anyone who tries to avoid their responsibility.”

The unit deals with the tax affairs of about 5,000 of Britain’s richest people those with assets of more than £20m. It employs 380 staff.

Crony Trading LTD

The budget smartphone – great value or false economy?

In these straitened times our desire to stay in touch and up to date wherever we are has only grown. In order to connect we need big, shiny, expensive, contract-laden smartphones, right?

Not necessarily - there are a growing number of smartphone manufacturers offering capable budget models for less than £100, such as the £50 ZTE Kis. They may not be as shiny and feature-laden as an iPhone 4S or Samsung Galaxy S3, but they essentially offer the same functionality.

Manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE are capitalising on dropping prices for parts and the growing demand for smartphones in the emerging markets. Low-end growth is driving the global market, with entry-level smartphone prices dropping thanks to greater manufacturer competition, data tariffs receiving closer regulation, and operators updating minimum hardware specs for so called ‘low-end devices’.

This all sounds great for consumers looking to step up from feature phones, but do they really represent great value or is it a false economy in a fast-changing market?

Great value

Let’s be clear, we’re looking at the SIM-only pay-as-you-go smartphone option, meaning no 12 or 18-month contract with fixed monthly costs. Set yourself a budget and top up your SIM with that amount - when it’s gone, it’s gone. Take the ZTE Kis as an example - you can kit out the whole family for less than the cost of one iPhone 4S.

As the minimum hardware specifications for operating systems constantly improves, manufacturers are having to up the processing power of budget models. The ZTE Kis runs Android on an 800MHz processor, while the ‘upper entry-level’ £100 Huawei G300, for example, boasts a 1GHz processor running on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS and is powerful enough to stream online content over the air and run multiple apps. Mix in a 5-megapixel auto focus camera with flash, 4-inch capacitive touchscreen and not unattractive styling and you start to wonder why it’s so cheap.

Sure, the build quality isn’t premium and the design won’t wow phone fashionistas, but they’re improving fast and will soon become indistinguishable from current mid range models from manufacturers like HTC and Nokia. We're starting to see some of the more establish manufacturers break the £100 mark, such as the Sony Xperia Tipo (£89).

False economy

Sometimes the mantra ‘you get what you pay for’ rings true, and that’s the case with budget smartphones. The smaller your budget, the more limited your choice and that’s most obvious in the operating system, with only Android currently falling into the budget category, and often not the latest version. Windows Phones are starting to get cheaper though (with the Nokia Lumia 710), but the iPhone certainly isn’t.

Software updates aren’t as regular or convenient and over the air updates can be harder to find (although the Huawei G300 is an exception). This may not sound too off-putting, but with budget smartphones often targeted at newcomers to the technology, user friendliness and convenience are crucial factors.

It’s in the details where the differences add up. Low screen resolution and viewing angle denigrate user experience, from browsing the web to checking out photos. Often cluttered and confusing user interfaces make every action a chore rather than a pleasure. Less responsive touchscreens make typing texts and emails hard work. Low internal memory limits options for things like playing games (on the ZTE Kis Angry Birds worked fine but Temple Run wouldn’t work at all), and minimal storage capacity means you’ll often need to invest in an SD card to increase it, which costs more money.

And then there’s the old sticking point of build quality. Cheap materials mean a cheap feel, with clunky styling a common issue. And for a gadget that has to live with you wherever you go and suffer the knocks of life in your pocket or handbag, forking out £50 may mean it doesn’t last as long as its pricier rivals.

Final thoughts

The less you pay, the fewer features you’re going to get. Forking out £50 is never going to get you an iPhone-rivaling wonder with the latest interface and add-ons – but that’s not really the point.

The budget smartphone is amazing because it opens up the functionality and connectivity of the wider virtual world to the cash conscious, to parents for their kids, to small businesses for their employees, and to those who just want to know what all the fuss is about.

As long as you manage your expectations, do some research to make sure the model you go for has the features you want and factor in other costs such as SD card to boost memory and a decent case to keep it safe, then it represents a great way to take your first step into the wonderful world of the smartphone.

Making your workplace nicer, it’s not just the money

We spend a frightening amount of our lives at work, so what can you – or your boss – do to make it a better place to be?

A happy office isn’t just a better place to spend time in, it’s frequently a key part of the success of any business. 

And happiness has more to do with respect and admiration from your colleagues and peers than pure cash, meaning it doesn’t have to cost the business a thing, according to a recent study by the University of California’s Haas School of Business.

We still spend most of our lives at work - and we want to enjoy it as best we can. While running a business for more than a decade I learn many things along the way - and, of course, made plenty of mistakes. So here are my tips to make the workplace a much happier place to be.

A little bit of praise goes a long way

Praise is a no-brainier for any boss. It costs nothing, it's easy to give and it means a lot. So why have so many bosses not got the brains to praise their employees more often when they achieve and improve?

On the flip side, a blame and shame culture rarely works for long and can quickly stifle initiative and innovation if people are two scared to take on responsibility or make mistakes.

Clear vision

How many employees really know where the business they work for is going and how it's going to get there? Communicating vision and values and getting employees to really buy into these is key for small and big businesses alike.

Sharing rewards along the way as the company grows and achieves great things is another great motivator. If colleagues share the pain, they should also share the gain.

And always try and be honest and transparent. If times are hard, show that you are prepared to roll your sleeves up and get stuck in and that you need help from everybody.

Creating champions

Any business has to listen and learn from employees' ideas and, after constructive feedback, let them run with those ideas. If you are the boss make your idea theirs and give them the responsibility and motivation to make it happen.

It is amazing what people can do if you let them work together productively. Make them a leader and they won’t want to let the team down. Who needs lots of middle managers if employees are willing to take on responsibility and really make things happen?

Grown-up thinking

Colleagues are peers, not children. Everybody is important and should be made to feel important. In that way they feel they can strive for excellence and take control of their own destiny - and their careers.

The simple things

One of the most important jobs for a manager is to make work enjoyable. Small rewards and shout outs for a job well done, fun perks, lunch or drinks after work can work wonders (or my particular favorite - free cakes on a Wednesday)…

Making work a nicer place to be can cost very little - but can make a big difference.

Flexibility

A sick relative, a school play, the boiler packing up - the unexpected is expected in the workplace. Bosses who show flexibility and understanding in these situations can be a real plus for workers and for company morale and loyalty.

Finding that elusive and all-important work-life balance requires a balanced employer. Treating people as, well, people and understanding their individual needs and situations is an important skill many businesses seem to have forgotten somewhere along the way.

So, as in life, when it comes to the workplace, money certainly helps but it can’t buy happiness

Retailers Urged To Cut Stores and Move Online

The country's major retailers are risking their businesses by keeping too many stores open and failing to keep pace with the digital age, according to a report.

Professional services group Deloitte suggests firms should be reducing their number of shops.

It found a "barnacle effect" - a focus on preserving sales volumes and store numbers - was holding companies back from getting rid of retail space.

It estimated that online sales already account for the equivalent of more than 60 million square feet of retail space and could increase significantly, potentially rendering large amounts of space obsolete.

Earlier this year, Deloitte forecast that some retailers would need to downsize portfolios by as much as 40% as the digital age drove fundamental structural change in the sector.

The report was released just hours before discount fashion chain Primark forecast a 17% jump in full year sales figures - driven by an increase in selling space.

The company, which expects to have opened 19 new stores by the end of its financial year, predicted 3% growth in sales on a like-for-like basis.

Primark said it would have added almost a million square feet of selling space over the 12 months.
Hugo Clark, director in Deloitte's real estate team and report author, told Sky News: "We're in the middle of a bit of a perfect storm.

"We've got a combination of the squeezed consumer ... and the growth and emergence of online sales which is taking sales away from physical bricks and mortar."

Deloitte said the perceived 'death of the high street' was far from a reality in the wake of figures highlighting an average national shop vacancy rate of 14.6%.

Malcolm Pinkerton, senior analyst at Planet Retail, told Sky News that the shift away from physical space was not for everyone.

He said: "The transference of spend online has led to the need for fewer stores, located in premium locations with a compelling shopping environment. Retailers have been handing back space to landlords, scaling back expansion plans and withdrawing from secondary locations for some time now as they adapt to the impact of the internet.

"While the need for a plethora of stores on every high street is no longer necessary for most, stores are integral to appeasing the demands of multi-channel shoppers. Many retailers are exploiting their store networks for services such as click & collect, while others are opening stores that integrate online and mobile technology to facilitate modern shopping habits."

He continued: "Moreover, withdrawing from the high street is not for everyone. The discount model does not lend itself well to the internet. Primark for example, whose low price point and fast fashion model would struggle to work online, is exploiting a favourable retail property market to expand – with great success.”

Nokia Lumia 920 & 820: what the experts thought

Nokia and Microsoft took the wraps off two new smartphones running the new Windows Phone 8 software - the flagship Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 - at an event in New York today. They provided the world's first proper look at Windows Phone 8's capabilities, and the Finnish phone giant's latest attempts to get its smartphone mojo back after losing ground to Android and the iPhone.

Tech writers have only had a limited opportunity to play with the devices so far - but already the first impressions are coming in. So what did the gadget world think of the two handsets?

The Verge were largely impressed by their first look at the Lumia 920, writing: "The Lumia 920 feels every bit like a flagship phone... Thanks to the sharper edges the phone feels enormous in your hand (even bigger than the 900), but it's incredibly handsome." 

They added: "The curved, Gorilla Glass-coated 4.5-inch display is a huge improvement over the 900, and thanks to Nokia's ClearBlack and PureMotion HD+ technologies it's one of the more impressive LCD displays we've seen… Its 1280 x 768 resolution is even denser than most 720p displays, and it looks amazing." They also thought that, on a quick play, Windows Phone 8 was "snappy and responsive".

The Lumia 820 also got a - qualified - thumbs up from The Verge: "The Lumia 820 feels much more like a normal smartphone than the 920, with rounded edges that don't feel quite as severe in your hand. The 4.3-inch display is every bit as attractive as its larger cousin's, but since the phone is a bit smaller it's more usable in one hand." However, they caution that "the 800 x 480 screen is also a big letdown after the gorgeous display on the 920."

Engadget were slightly less taken by the new phones, dislking the new finish of both devices compared to their Lumia predecessors - saying that "what once was matte and grippy is now a polished, glossy affair.  It's a design decision that we wish Nokia hadn't made, since it lends a cheapness to the handset that belies its hearty internals." But they admit this might be a matter of personal taste.

On the 920, they still found plenty to like, writing: "Viewing angles held up remarkably and the glass itself felt soft to the touch, allowing our finger to glide over the many live tiles unperturbed… the dual-core S4 powering the 920 makes for smooth scrolling and navigation. There are, however, minute delays when switching between screens and even launching apps."

And of the 820, they wrote: "Ultimately, the 820 feels and looks exactly like what it is -- a midrange handset. There's no shame in that and the software flies already. Still, it's hard to dismiss the somewhat lackluster specs and the unfortunate new design direction."
In fact, Engadget's strongest praise was for the operating system, which they said was "an absolute pleasure to use. At the risk of angering quite a few people -- there's simply no mid-range Android phone or iOS device that's as quick and satisfying to use as the Lumia 820, and much of that is thanks to the highly optimized Microsoft OS."

TechCrunch thought that the Lumia 920 seemed under-powered on paper, saying that it was "not exactly the sort of spec sheet that will set your world on fire — it’s on par with many current high-end Android devices — but Windows Phone has never been the most hardware-intensive mobile OS out there" - but added that "that said, there’s plenty to like about the Nokia’s refined take on Windows Phone 8 hardware. It retains the same design language featured in Nokia’s previous high-end Windows Phones (full disclosure: I still love the colorful, angular, polycarbonate chassis Nokia uses)."

Pocket-lint were particularly keen on one feature of the Lumia 920 - "The screen really is lovely though, and a feature we especially like is the fact that you'll be able to use it with gloves on - and not those special gloves either. A nice touch with winter coming." 

But they cautioned that "The problem for Nokia is that the competition isn't an easy fight to win and Nokia has to convince people that they'll want the new device. To do that, the Lumia 920 will need more than a flash coat of paint, but we now feel that it has the basics covered to do that."

Crony Trading Ltd

Curve is in the air: What to expect from the iPhone 5

On Wednesday, Apple launches its latest product. Of course, they won't say what it is but the large number 5 on the invite spells out pretty clearly that it's the latest iPhone and it'll be called the iPhone 5 (unless there are five separate iPhones going to be released, of course, but the chances of that are nil to zero). So what should we expect? Nothing is certain, but read on for our best-informed guesses - your cheat sheet to Wednesday evening's event.

All-new looks

Since the iPhone 4S was cosmetically near-identical to the iPhone 4, expect a wholly new design this time around. Leaked images suggest a similar glass front but with a proportionally longer display: enough for an extra row of app icons, which may cause app developers some headaches or mean that older apps have black lines at either edge, working as they always used to. The longer screen could make video watching more pleasurable as it'll be closer to the widescreen 16 x 9 ratio.

Rear metal jacket

It will also have a metal back. Since it's hard to get signals (wi-fi, 3G and so on) through metal, expect a section that's more signal-friendly like glass or plastic. The first iPhone had a plastic section on the back for this purpose.

Better connected

And along with 3G, expect the new iPhone to have 4G, too. Of course, at first there'll only be one 4G frequency in the UK, the 1800MHz band chosen by Everything Everywhere and theoretically switched on tomorrow. There's no confirmation but I'd say that this frequency will be included in the iPhone 5, making it a poster boy for speedy data transfer. At last, no more stuttering browsers or long delays for web pages to load. Yeah, right.

A bigger screen

This is the development that's as near-definite as can be. Last year, rumour has it, a bigger-screened iPhone was on the cards but was nixed when the apps just didn't look good enough. So if that problem's solved, expect a 4-inch display, instead of the 3.5-inch one all previous iPhones have had. It'll still be a Retina Display, though the resolution will change to fit the larger display.

Thinner display

That display may well use a different technology that makes it thinner, allowing the iPhone 5 to slim down overall. Not that the current model is plump, but the new one may shave around 1mm off the thickness.


New software
The latest OS, version 6, will be on board with gorgeous new maps (courtesy of TomTom) and improved capabilities from Siri, the voice recognition program. Note that some of the Siri features may only be available in the US at first.

Your dock connector won't fit

The familiar 31-pin connector on the base of the phone is likely to be replaced with a smaller one - though not the microUSB connection on almost every other handset. So your iPod speakers will need to be replaced or to have an adaptor to work.
Faster processor

The iPhone 4S processor is called the A5; the latest iPad has the A5X, which is the A5 with extra graphical processing grunt. Expect the A5X or even a new model called the A6 to feature in the iPhone 5.

Mobile wallet

The new software includes a neat feature called Passbook which will collect together your boarding passes, tickets and more. It may be connected to the phone's GPS, so your plane ticket could pop up on screen as you approach the airport. And it could feature NFC, the contactless connection used in the London Oyster card system. NFC is already on several mobile phones but Apple could be the first with an end-to-end system to make NFC really work, though again it may only be for the US at first.

A bigger battery, smaller sim

That 4G drains battery life faster, so it's likely there'll be a bigger cell in the iPhone 5. And since Apple likes to make other components smaller to allow for more battery, expect the rumours of a nano sim to be true. Apple switched from a regular sim card to a micro sim with the iPhone 4 and now nearly every high-end phone favours the smaller model. A similar rush to the smallest sim may follow from other manufacturers.

Overall, the new iPhone is likely to be a much bigger upgrade than from iPhone 4 to 4S. And though many fanboys will be disappointed, you can expect it to sell in greater numbers even than its super-selling predecessors.

So, when can I get one?

Apple always releases within days of its product announcements. The only exceptions are for the first of a new type of product, when approval from the American FCC is required in advance, which is why the first iPhone and iPad were announced months ahead of release. That doesn't apply here. Apple likes a big opening weekend and favours Fridays for onsale dates, so you can bet that the iPhone 5 will be in stores on Friday 21 September, with pre-orders probably starting on Wednesday. On your marks...

The images on this page are mock-ups of how the iPhone 5 *may* look by designer Frederico Ciccarese