Android for the disabled

Android may be the worlds most popular operating system for phones and tablets but if you have problems seeing what's on the screen you can't really take advantage of it, so what can you do if you can't see very well?

We don't often consider the problems disabled users face when using our favourite gadgets and gizmos so, to help those who do have sight problems or other impairments, let's look at an answer to that question, starting with TalkBack.

TalkBack is a big part of Android, and one that helps a lot with accessibility.

Included in the settings menu of almost all Android devices, and available from the Play Store for those few that don't have it installed, TalkBack literally talks back to you - it describes everything on the screen, and helps you use your phone or tablet to its full potential.

How?

Slide your finger across your home or app screens and Talkback will tell you the name of everything your finger passes over, from buttons to app icons and literally everything in between - so even if you can't see it you can know what's on screen and you can interact with it.

It will describe anything under your fingers, for instance if you touch a button it will tell you what that button does, if you come across some text it will read that text to you, you can have notifications read to you, when you receive a text or phone call TalkBack will tell you who it's from.

For users with missing digits, or limbs, who perhaps find it hard to type there is another way of interacting with your Android - Googles free (as all Google apps are) Gesture Search.

This allows you to draw on screen, one letter at a time, and will add those letters together and then search for things on your phone or tablet that match.

Let's say you have fingers missing and you want to open the YouTube app.

Instead of having to struggle opening your app drawer and scrolling through it you can use your fist, elbow, even a toe foot or heel to scrawl the letter Y on screen - you can take up the whole screen with the one letter.

You'll see things with Y at the start of their name pop up, contacts whose name begins with Y for example, scrawl an O and only things starting with YO will be shown....soon you'll see YouTube and can just press on it to open the YouTube app.

The same thing works for contacts, start drawing a large letter on screen and names of people you know that start with that letter will appear, press on the persons name to contact them.

Then there are apps that, while not free, are extremely useful yet cost very little such as Virginia.

Virginia costs £2.84 and is a simple easy to use app designed to help those who can't speak, or who can't communicate well, to talk. It turns your device into a communicator, like the sort that typically cost a lot more than a cup of coffee to buy.

It shows on screen a simple set of large tiles, each tile has a picture of an action (for example the icon for "my back itches" is a picture of a persons back being scratched) and the text of what pressing the tile will make your Android say.

With Virginia you can say hundreds of different words and phrases from a simple "yes" "no" or "thank you" to more detailed phrases such as "I would like to have some pasta" or "I have a pain in my right ear".

Virginia has competition in the form of a popular free app,called AAC Speech Communicator.



AAC is the same format, it uses tiles on screen, but rather than press one tile to get a quick preset word or phrase spoken you can press several tiles and then have them spoken aloud when you are ready, allowing for more unique and very highly detailed communication.

It is a very good app, and can produce more complex speech than Virginia while remaining easy to use, but be aware it is not quite as polished looking, however it is free and it is a very useful app for those who need help communicating.

Getting manufacturer specific now, Samsungs recent phones and tablets, such as the Galaxy series, have additional features that help. By default you can answer phone calls with your voice, if your phone rings simply say "answer" and the call will be put on speakerphone for you.

In the accessibility settings for Samsung devices you will find other options (a lot of manufacturers offer similar features so don't be afraid to dig around your settings if you're not using a Samsung device), you can have passwords spoken out to you as you enter them, useful if you can't see the characters on screen or if you can't read very well.

You can change font size, adjust your Androids colour, change the audio balance, zoom in and out of any screen to make what's displayed larger when needed and there is a setting called "improve accessibility" that makes additional changes specifically for users with reduce dexterity.

Back to free apps and there is one app that, if you have decent battery life, could be a big help, Utter.

Utter is a voice assistant that can be used with or without an internet connection. You can either press a button and then speak your command or (this is the bit that needs good battery life) have it always listening for your command so that you can wake it up and have it obey your commands at any time with no physical interaction needed.

With Utter you can send a text, make phone calls, update your facebook status, check the weather, open an app, play music or videos etcetera completely hands free.

And finally one more app, built into all recent Android phones and tablets, Google Now.

Google Now is a voice assistant that can do a lot of things for you. You can say "set an alarm for ... o'clock" and it will set an alarm for that time, you can ask it questions like "is it going to rain tomorrow?" or "how old is the American president?" or "what is a .....?" and it will answer them for you.

You can say "navigate to ...." and name a place to have Android give you directions to a particular place, "convert <currency, length, etcetera> to <currency, length, etcetera" to convert between units of measurement, for example "convert ten inches to feet".

Android has features that make disabled users lives a lot easier, as well as some useful apps (the majority of which are free) and hopefully this post will point those who need them in the right direction.

Zero lemon S4 7500mah battery [review]

The ZeroLemon 7500 mah battery for Samsungs Galaxy S4 is a big step up from the phones standard battery, but is it any good?

Retailing for £23.99 this is a big battery, boy is it big -  it will make your S4 twice as deep as it was before, and none of your cases will fit - so again the question has to be asked - is it really worth it?

The screenshot below may help answer that, over thirty two hours on battery, with just over nine of those hours being screen on time, that's an impressive achievement given the typical four hours of screen on time achieved using the stock Samsung battery.

That additional five or so hours of screen time included having additional services running such as instashare roundr Tasker sidebar etcetera that weren't in use with the standard Samsung battery - as well as gps and wifi and the phone still manages all day heavy usage.

The battery does have nfc but there is a catch, S-Beam will work perfectly but you will find it hard to read any nfc tags any more.

For example none of the blank nfc tags that work with the stock Samsung battery would work with the ZeroLemon replacement, at least not the particular one being used, nor would any nfc tag I could find elsewhere (such as the interactive ones at some bus stops).

Literally no tag would work, which was annoying but for me would only have been a deal breaker had S-Beam not worked, though rest assured that it works flawlessly as ZeroLemon claim.

Because the battery is so big it comes with its own rather large replacement housing that fits nicely around the phone and also provides a slight raised border around the screen so that if you lay it on a flat surface your screen won't come into contact with said surface and risk any damage.

If you commute, or use your phone for a lot more than just calls and texts (as many of us do), and you aren't bothered about your lovely slim phone suddenly looking like it's been stuffing itself with, well, whatever a phone would eat (if it could), then this battery could well be something you need.

I did ask ZeroLemon what tag types the NFC in their batteries will read but they did not provide that information, however their customer service is as good as they claim, the case that came with the battery had small marks on it and they dispatched one free of charge with a prompt response.

The case itself can be purchased in white or black and the only negative impact of the case, size aside, is that the sound from the rear speaker is covered by the battery and so the sound is channeled downward instead.

While some reviews claim this produces a muffled or quieter sound this has not been noticeable from personal experience, sound is fine and as clear as when using the original battery.

If you use your phone a lot, as in very heavy use (games, downloading, long commutes playing music, satellite navigation, taking a lot of pictures, etcetera) this is the battery for you.

It does have drawbacks, namely that nfc tags do not work (at least none of the ones I have tried, although NFC itself works because S-Beam uses it, and S-Beam works perfectly). Also your phone will now be a lot deeper, none of your cases will fit and you probably won't be able to wear skinny jeans any more - if you want to carry your phone in your pockets that is.

But once you have experienced being able to use your phone to its full potential, all day, without worrying if the battery will last until you get home as you gun down hordes of zombies, watch a hd movie, edit photo's, etcetera, you may find that, like me, you wouldn't go back to the stock battery.

Sidebar [Review]

There are a plethora of sidebar style apps for Android but after extensive testing of many of these, including the popular Edge app, the aptly titled Sidebar is definitely among the best.

There is a free version and a surprisingly affordable pro version but what does it do and, well, is it worth getting?

Sidebar pops open a customisable sidebar menu on the left or right side of your Androids screen. This menu hides until you choose to open it with a quick swipe.

It shows icons for your favourite applications, and for those already open, as well as an additional menu of toggles (for example the ever useful torch), so you can easily switch between apps with a quick swipe rather than have to dig through your app drawer or search through your home screens, making this a very handy utility.

The screenshots shown here are not what you will see if you use the default settings, they show the sidebar after the opacity and colour have been changed (this can be done in the pro version) and with apps added to the menu, but that is the beauty of Sidebar, you can make it look the way you want it to.

Effect on battery life is minimal, certainly not enough to be a concern, though if you have a very limited amount of ram be aware that Sidebar uses around 22 megabytes and runs three services (for app selection, swipe detection and displaying the actual sidebar itself).

This shouldn't be a problem unless you have a very low memory device and is less than many launchers use, so if you have a few hundred megabytes or more ram on your phone (or tablet) this is one app that may warrant your attention.

Some devices, such as The Samsung Galaxy S4, will need the sensitivity set to high - this can easily be done in the apps preferences menu, which can be accessed by running the application at any time, if you find you can't get the sidebar to show make sure to set the sensitivity to high.

Sidebar is a brilliantly simple utility, you are only ever a quick swipe away from running any app you choose, or switching from one app to another, and the toggles for wifi, torch, etcetera make it even more useful.

Yes Sidebar is one of those apps that quickly makes you wonder just how you got along without it, it makes app selection and task switching absurdly easy and does so while consuming very little system resources.

The app is developed by Mohammed Adib, developer of the popular Roundr app and, as you might expect if you've used said application, functions smoothly with regular updates that add new features or fix any bugs found, so if you want a sidebar app that will continue to be supported into the forseeable future this is one worth considering.

Take 3D pics on your 2D phone [guide]

3D has progressed a long way since the days of the funky blue green glasses many still associate with life in the third dimension, a good 3D photograph can be a thing of beauty, adding depth and presence to its subject, or it can make you reach forward to try and grab inside of it.

With many of us having 3D televisions, computers or portable 3D devices such as the Nintendo 3DS it makes sense that we'd like to take our own 3D pictures, but then to do that we need a high end expensive 3D camera. Right?

Well, no, you can do it for free with the phone or camera you have right now.

Let's just jump straight in and explain how. For this example we will use a location where not many people are around. The anaglyph example image shown here was actually my first try a few years ago at doing this with a 2D camera but it serves as a good example of what even a novice can achieve on their first try.

Pick a location, or just snap a pic of your laptop or tv, after all it is just to show you how its done.

Take a picture with your choice of digital camera, it doesn't matter whether it is a dslr, phone, tablet, etcetera, just snap one pic then, keeping the camera at the same height move it an inch or so to the right and snap another picture.

There are two easy ways to make the two pictures into 3D, we will look at both here. The most convenient for Android or iOS users is likely to be the free 3Dsteroid / i3Dsteroid app, but first let's check out the method you can use if you have a Windows laptop, tablet or desktop pc.

Stereo Photo Maker is a great, fast all in one tool for making your 2D image into 3D...it can also convert 3D pictures into various alternative 3D formats but we're using it here for its ability to combine two images together.

Click the link above and you'll see, at the top of the web page it opens, a link to download the 3D software. It's really easy, just click the download link on that page and it downloads a zip file to your pc.

Navigate to that folder using Windows explorer and right click your mouse over it so a menu pops up and from there choose the unzip or unpack option (on some computers it will say unarchive or extract).

Unzip the content anywhere you like. It is an executable file (exe), no installation needed - from now on any time you want to use the program simply double click the exe and the software will open (I have it on my desktop as a shortcut).

First things first, get the two pics you took and put them on your computer. If you used a phone you can either plug it in to your pc and transfer the files that way or, if you used a camera, remove the memory card and put it into your pc's memory reader slot (if your pc does not have one they can be bought at many retail outlets and typically cost around five pounds).

Run the windows program program you extracted earlier (called StereoPhotoMaker) and from its FILE menu click "Open Left / Right images". Find the first picture you took and click OPEN or double click the image.

This loads that image in as the left eye view, repeat the process for the second image which we will use as the right eye view. From the softwares STEREO menu click on the type of 3D image you want to make (unless your computer is 3D the best option is to choose Anaglyph and use those funky 3D glasses while editing your picture, you can always change the output format before you save the finished 3D image later).

From the programs ADJUST menu click on "Auto Adjust". It will take a few seconds to analyse the two pictures and then automatically line them up so they make one 3D image, even if the pictures you took were way too far apart this process is good enough to compensate somewhat for that and produce a good true 3D image.

If you want to make the 3D even more pronounced you can do that easily by clicking the ADJUST menu and from there choosing the "Easy Adjustment" option which will let you move the two images closer or further apart to increase or decrease the 3D effect, among other things.

When you are ready to save your image it's easy, just click the FILE menu and choose "Save Stereo Image".

A save box opens up, simply type in a name for your 3D picture and click save to save the image in the format you have been editing it in (eg anaglyph, side by side 3D, etcetera) or if you want to save in standard side by side (sbs) 3D format (the sort almost all 3D devices can display) make sure the save box's "always save sbs format" checkbox is ticked and that way, whatever format you work in, it will still save in side by side format. Otherwise remember to change the 3D format to your chosen one from the STEREO menu before saving.

And there you have it, you have made a 3D photograph. Taking two images with a normal 2D camera has its disadvantages, namely that sometimes if you have reasonably fast objects moving in the foreground or background then they will appear slightly different in each shot.

While you can edit these in free photo editing software such as the Gimp before making them 3D there is a much easier way if you own one of the Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S4 or Note whose camera features an Eraser mode.

If you have such a device, choose Eraser mode before taking your shot and the camera will edit out the moving objects in your pictures. The down side of this is that, unlike normal camera modes, you have to review the picture and click save when you take it.

This can mean your cameras point of view changes a bit between shots, such as being higher in one than the other, but that isn't a problem because the Stereo Photo Maker software will automatically adjust for that and crop your pictures accordingly as needed.

Eraser mode is surprisingly good and in a quick test of it I was able to shoot in the heart of Cardiff at rush hour with plenty of passing traffic and pedestrians and have it remove almost all the moving objects other than a couple of pedestrians. Thankfully the pedestrians were not moving fast enough to ruin the 3D image.

Android and iOS users have an additional free way to do all this, even more easily, on their phones or tablets. 3DSteroid is an excellent free Android application that can take any two images and do exactly what the above Windows software can, only even more easily.

Its iOS counterpart (by the same developer) can be found here.

The free version on each has a few limitations, the paid for version has additional features and is recommended for fans of 3D as it is literally without equal as there is no competing application that offers its abilities other than of course on home computers running Windows.

While this approach works best with landscapes, buildings and somewhat stationary objects the increasing amount of devices featuring an Eraser mode for moving objects (currently mainly those manufactured by Samsung) means that even busy locations and scenes can be shot in 3D using a 2D camera.

The eraser mode works best in scenes where a few cars or people are moving but can handle even city scenes at rush hour surprisingly well so don't be afraid to give it a try. The beauty of this approach, coupled with a camera that can remove moving objects, is that it is now possible to shoot high quality 3D images with your mobile phone thanks to the increased quality of camera phones and the advances in technology within them.

And if rumours that the upcoming Nexus 5 will use a mems lytro like camera are true the future of 3D photography on smartphones and tablets can only get better, the mems camera allows the image to be refocused even after it has been taken - meaning you can take two images and refocus them any way you like before you make them into 3D.

3D is not, as many claim, a dying format. It has been around for as long as photographs have existed and will exist far longer than any of its critics, eighteen percent of tv's sold last year were 3D models and analysts forecast that within the next few years this figure will increase to 3 in 5 televisions sold being 3D.

So, if you have a hankering to try 3D for yourself, you now have a way to do it for free. But be warned, 3D photography can sometimes be addictive.

The keyless keyboard that works

A keyless keyboard?

Yes that may sound strange but MyScript Stylus Beta is just that, a keyboard for android that isn't really a keyboard.

The app replaces your keyboard so that instead of pressing keys to type you can just write what you want to on the phone or tablets screen

How good is it? Good enough that this article was written using one thumb on a galaxy S4 with no problems.

The application is free to use - at least while still in beta stage, and learns as you type, once you get used to it you can write very quickly even with one thumb and it is very intuitive and easy to use.

There are settings for handwriting speed ( Scrolling) and you can type in a large number of languages, making this a useful app for more than just English speakers.

If you want to try it for yourself you can click here to download it from the play store.

A very promising app and one that already performs well enough for every day use, I have to admit that it is currently my "keyboard" of choice and being able to write this article using just one thumb so easily is suprising but impressive for a new beta handwriting application.

If you want to write rather than type, then this could be the app you've been waiting for.

5s hacked, fastest phone on planet? The truth revealed...

The 5s is here, and less than a week after being released it is already being crowned as both the best and worst high end phone you can buy....depending on where you get your news that is.

In the week that saw the iPhone 5s drop tested, spec tested, torn apart and subject to some unfortunate security flaws it's time to check out the truth about Apples latest iPhone.

Later we'll look at some benchmarking results that might not match with what you've heard but first....

Let's start with the shocking truth...the 5s is a good phone, and the fingerprint scanner is an innovative and welcome addition that could well usher in the return of such tech to more high end phones from other manufacturers, at least in higher numbers than can be found right now.

But wait....the 5s just got hacked, you can fool its finger print sensor with a photograph, or a cats paw....or even your nipple. How can it be a good thing. Right?

Yes. And no.

Yes people have used things other than fingers to unlock their phones, but no it didn't get hacked.

Has it been beaten, circumvented?

Yes, it has. Respected German "ethical" hacking group Chaos Computer Club (CCC), established in the early nineteen eighties, posted a video showing the 5s being trained with only one finger yet being unlocked with a completely different finger that had not been registered with the phone.

In the video a hacker places a gel copy of the registered print, created from a high resolution photograph of the print in situ on glass (and not, as some have claimed, a photograph of the finger itself, or a scan of it) onto a finger not registered with the device and places this finger onto the phones home button (which houses the touch id fingerprint scanner) - and the phone accepts the copied print and unlocks.

Debate continues to rage as to how easy this is to do, let's see what it takes and you can decide for yourself whether you need to panic should you be one of those using the new 5s.

What you need (and this is according to those involved) is a clear fingerprint (not a smudged one) of a finger registered with the phone, taken using a high resolution camera (or high resolution scanner), a laser printer, a transparent sheet and some latex.

It is not that easy to get a clear print off of your phone, of course if you happen to possess a portable crime kit it is probably extremely easy to dust it for prints and find a print that way but other than that you're going to have to spend a while looking at the phone under good lighting in the hopes of spotting a noticeable print, and then hope it photographs well, or you're going to have to get the print some other way such as from a glass they've handled, for example.

So yes, it is possible and yes it is a lot easier than Apple led many to believe...but it isn't the sort of length most phone thieves would go to just to unlock your phone - and if someone goes to the trouble of faking your fingerprint to see what's on there, you've probably got bigger problems to worry about than what they find. Like a crazed stalker or government agents out to get you.

Joking aside this is a major security blow for Apple, if this flaw had not been discovered and exposed then when it became a more widespread use of verifying identity for payments outside of the Apple ecosystem, it would have provided significant enticement for criminals and those with sensitive data (such as government employees, military personnel etcetera) would be unaware that their devices could be unlocked and their data discovered.

For most of us the scanner is still pretty secure, it's unlikely criminals will start cloning your fingerprints in the hope of unlocking stolen phones...after all aside from the equipment needed you also have to guess the correct finger (or fingers), find a clear print of that specific finger and make sure it is recognised first time....because after a few attempts the system defaults to needing your passcode, rendering the scanned print useless - even if the phone is rebooted, as the 5s requires a passcode when rebooted.

So if you need a convenient method of unlocking your phone rather than having to type in a pass code every time you want to use it, Apples touch id is a very useful way to do that. It can be beaten if you really work hard to do so, yes, but it is a lot more secure than having no lock at all and it means if your phone gets stolen then it is still a lot harder for thieves to unlock than if it had no security at all.

People have been led to believe Apple had invented a revolutionary new idea that no one could fool, when in reality yes it is a very clever approach but it is still a fingerprint scanner and so can be fooled in a similar way to other fingerprint scanners.

Okay, so aside from the touch id being fooled what has been the main topic of conversation regarding the 5s? Yep, benchmarks.

Despite the fact that in almost all the videos and reviews you will see or read the 5s is not hugely quicker in every day use than other high end phones (in fact, compare in real time the act of loading web pages for example such as facebook in a browser and you'll see phones such as the older Galaxy S4 slightly out perform the 5s) it is, as usual, statistical benchmarks and not real world use that makes the headlines.

You will have heard Apples A7 is the fastest ever processor unit on any device, ever.

So let's look at how it performs in actual tests against rival processors, here the test is Geekbench 3...although bear in mind all the processors were tested with 32 bit software except the A7 which was tested in 64 bit software (click here for detailed results and links to verify them)....

Apples 64 bit A7 processor, in full 64 bit mode gets an official Geekbench score of 2564.

Nvidias 32 bit Tegra 4 processor gets a score of 2900.

Qualcomms 32 bit Snapdragon 800 processor gets a score of 2771.

Yes you are reading right, the 64 bit A7 is a great processor but it is still beaten by some 32 bit processors used in some 32 bit Android phones (such as the Snapdragon 800 in some variants of the Samsung Galaxy S4).

Now let's be fair to Apple here, those processors that beat it have more cores than the A7, even though they are 32 bit and not 64 bit, but as you can see the hype is simply not true....Apples A7 is not the fastest cpu in a phone...but it is the fastest processor when tested for single core benchmarks.

In other words it's an impressive cpu, and were it to have as many cores as its rivals it would indeed blow them away, but then it would also eat battery life at an exorbitant rate and so the hype is true yet not true....true that it is without doubt a beast of a processor, and performs brilliantly against its 32 bit rivals with their higher clocked cores, but not true that the A7 processor is the fastest phone processor you can get.

So what is the truth?

The iPhone 5s finger print scanner is not as secure as it has been suggested, it can indeed be fooled but for your everyday use it is perfectly safe and much better an option than having no security lock on your phone at all.

And the A7 processor is impressive, and a clever piece of engineering, but it isn't quite the fastest as has been claimed.

New iPhone could take a leap forward....but will it?

Tomorrow's the day that Apple fans around the world hold their breath in expectation as the company announces the latest iPhone. Or, if credible reports are to be believed two new iPhones.

Apples new iPhone, tentatively dubbed the 5S by those awaiting its arrival, may throw a few surprises and take the phone to a whole new level, marking a more significant upgrade over previous models than currently expected.

That is if a newly discovered Apple patent is utilised on the new iPhone. European patent WO 2013 130396A2, revealed by the Apple Insider website, describes a circular fingerprint sensing device that looks suspiciously like the new iPhone home button seen in leaked photographs which, if true, is now circular with a silver surround.

That surround matches with another Apple patent regarding how to read a fingerprint using a circular button, which Patently Apple revealed here, the surround is used as part of the sensor itself and is essential to its operation which would explain why the home button would look different on the new iPhone, as it does in credible reports from a wide variety of sources.

The patent revealed by Apple Insider includes NFC and means that the new home button could not only identify users via fingerprints but also be used as a method of making secure cashless transactions via NFC, as many phones can already do, but more securely.

That means the current limit of twenty pounds per transaction could be lifted as only users verified by their fingerprint could make cashless payments, you could not have some swipe the iphone and use it to make many smaller purchases because they would need the owners finger on the home button in order to complete each transaction.

NFC has been around for years on Android phones, not just for contactless payments, but the iPhone has never featured this technology before.

If Apple implement this it offers a unique selling point that will not only encourage purchase of the new phone but could also spearhead a push forward into more secure contactless payment methods with other manufacturers having to implement something similar to keep up with Apple rather than, as has happened in recent years, Apple playing catch up with the opposition.

Will we see this in the new iPhone? Well it is hard to say, Apple has been largely playing catch up with their most recent iPhones opting for features already popular on Android devices such as the improved notification centre and a larger screen size.

This would show they still have the power to surprise with something original, not unique, but certainly a more effective and elegant solution than has been seen before and help quash the mounting gripes that Apple has lost its ability to innovate.

The question is whether Apple will dare to be that little bit different again, and in reality that is something we can only guess at until the new phone is official but yes it is likely Apple will indeed include a fingerprint scanner on their new model.

Whether it will also feature NFC is difficult to say but, sooner or later, Apple will have to jump onto the NFC wagon and doing so in such a way makes a lot more sense than adding it a few phones down the line when perhaps its rivals will be pushing forward with the next generation of it although it's interesting to note that none of the leaked Chinese marketing material, photographs of which are included here, make no mention of NFC.

For those interested in what to expect from tomorrows new iPhone....if indeed that is what Apple annouce, here's a summary of the most credible rumours and leaks based only on those from multiple and reliable sources....

There will be two new iPhones. The 5S will be the mainstream model, featuring the fingerprint sensor and probably also Apples new A7 processor, while the 5C will be essentially a cut down version of the current iPhone 5 in a plastic casing available in multiple colour choices and starting at around £300.

The 5S screen size will remain at four inches but the phone has an improved standby time of 250 hours with an improves eight mega pixel camera that will perform better in low light conditions and follow in the footsteps of Samsungs Galaxy S4 by filming in slow motion at 120 frames per second. The camera will include two seperate flashes to make photographs appear more natural in colour and tone.

The A7 operates, allegedly, 31% faster than the A6 used in the iPhone 5 and while not a huge improvement overall the new iPhone 5S would bring new features and a new USP (unique selling point) that would certainly help Apple shift even more of their new model than usual.

Given their purchase of finger print sensor company AuthenTech, and their newly acquired patents, along with the leaked marketing material and various photographs of the new iPhone, it seems more than likely the new iPhone will indeed be as expected with a fingerprint sensor and quite possibly also NFC.

If, for some reason, it has no such sensor then the new model would be a minor refresh and that would not do well for Apples reputation so expect Apple to come up with something new at tomorrows event.