A new shot of HTC's upcoming superphone is the most convincing leak yet

The HTC One is a lovely thing. Its good looks and outstanding build were a big part of the reason we awarded it the Android crown, placing it right at the top of Stuff's list of the 10 best smartphones in the world before the LG G2 came along to usurp it.

HTC isn't taking a breather. News of the HTC One Plus (codenamed the M8) has already started trickling through the wheels of the tech rumour mill. 

Here's all we know about HTC's next-gen flagship Android smartphone so far.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

'HTC One 2'. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Its codename, M8, is pretty uninspiring too.

Luckily, it looks like HTC's new flagship will be called the HTC One Plus, thanks to official HTC cases appearing on Mobile Fun with the One Plus moniker.

Update 19/02/14: Looks like HTC is making it hard for us again. @evleaks' latest bit of info points to 'HTC One, 2014', following Apple's naming scheme for new iPads. Could that be the final name? We certainly hope so. It's getting more and more difficult to keep track.

READ MORE: Official cases suggest that HTC's next flagship could be called the One Plus

ONE DNA

The HTC One Plus will share 99 percent of its DNA with the current HTC One, if all the leaked pictures are to be believed.

The most recent leaked picture is the most convincing yet, as it arrives straight from the secret files of reliable tipster @evleaks.

Sharing almost exactly the same build as the existing One, the only differences appear to be the slightly more rounded corners, onscreen buttons and dual rear cameras (more on that later).

Compared to a previous leaked photo from Russian site mobiltelefon.ru, this most recent render appears to be the more genuine of the two, though the Russians weren't far off.

@evleaks has also released a screenshot from what it claims is the HTC One Plus's homescreen, seemingly adding more weight to the presence of on-screen navigation buttons.

SPECS

Famed Twitter leaker @evleaks believes that the HTC One Plus will have a 5in 1080p display (marginally bigger than the One's 4.7in offering), 2GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 800 processor, though we're hoping that this will get switched to the newer, more powerful Snapdragon 805.

@evleaks also shared that the One Plus will launch with HTC Sense 6, which should bring with it a few major tweaks and improvements to the current iteration of HTC's Android skin.

We expect the One Plus to arrive with at least 2GB of RAM and 32/64GB of memory, though we wouldn't keep our fingers crossed for a microSD slot if we were you. (That said, the HTC One Max has one, and there's a dual SIM One with a removable back in the offing, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility).

Update 17/02/14: XDA moderator Shen Ye has revealed that the HTC One Plus will have microSD support after all. If true, it means that HTC has answered the prayers of music hoarders and media fiends alike, although we still don't expect to see a removable battery.

Ye also believes that the One Plus will join the likes of the iPhone 5s and Moto X with nanoSIM support. He also expects it to land in five colours; silver, dark grey, red, blue and gold.

CAMERA - TWICE THE FUN?

The HTC One Plus is expected to land with two rear cameras. A leaked photo posted by @htcfamily_ru shows off a rear that features two camera lenses, which could be used for Lytro-like post-photo refocusing.

READ MORE: HTC One Plus (2, M8): dual rear cameras for Lytro-like refocusing confirmed
READ MORE: Lytro review

Another theory is that one lens could be better suited to low-light conditions, while the other takes care of well-lit environments.

It's not clear if HTC is sticking to its 'less is more' approach to megapixels - the current One's 'UltraPixel' camera uses fewer, bigger pixels than its rivals. Each pixel gathers more light, offering improved performance in low-light conditions. We weren't completely convinced by the UltraPixel technology, at least at 4MP resolution, in ourHTC One review, so here's hoping a higher-resolution compromise has been reached.

READ MORE: HTC ONE review

A dual LED flash is also clearly visible, which points to potentially better flash photo credentials. Unlike the iPhone 5s' dual True Tone flash which has one white and one amber LED for improved colour reproduction, in this picture both of the HTC One 2's LEDs appear to be white.

The dual-cameras are also supported by Bloomberg's source, as well as by a number of third-party case designs. One case dug up by Gotta Be Mobile shows off two rear cutouts, adding more meat to the dual-lens rumour bones.

Update 10/02/04: Another shot of the HTC One Plus' rear show off the dual LED flash in greater detail, and it does in fact appear to have an amber LED flash, similar to the one found in the iPhone 5s. More accurate colours and realistic skin tones? Let's hope so.

RELEASE DATE

@evleaks has revealed that the HTC One 2 will be launched in New York City in March, making a Mobile World Congress launch look far less likely. That's a shame for the show: HTC launches have always been major coups for MWC.

Update 18/02/14: It's official folks. HTC has sent out launch invitations for two simultaneous events in New York City and London, where all will finally be revealed.

Dual cameras, biggger screen and more power? We can't wait.

by Sam Kieldsen

27 February 2014 6:06pm

With Samsung officially unveiling the Galaxy S5 at Mobile World Congress, we finally have confirmation of the Korean company’s next flagship smartphone.

IT’S A POWERHOUSE

Samsung isn’t shy when it comes to loading its top-of-the-range phones with headline-grabbing specs, and the Galaxy S5 is no different. Centre stage is its quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor, which runs at a blistering 2.5GHz. This chip, paired with 2GB of RAM, means the phone shouldn’t have any bother smoothly running any app you throw at it. One thing to note: it isn’t 64-bit – that’s probably going to be a feature of next year’s Samsung flagship.

The phone comes with Android 4.4 KitKat and a new version of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. There’s no word yet on whether or not a stock Android Google Play or Nexus edition will be be available.

Meanwhile, a 2800mAh battery should give the S5 enough juice to easily last a day (Samsung claims 21 hours of talk time), and as with previous Galaxy S phones it’s swappable.

You also get a choice between 16GB and 32GB of expandable storage (you can add up to 64GB extra via microSD), and there’s a microUSB 3.0 port for quick transfer speeds.

On the connectivity front, there’s both 4G LTE (supporting the speedy Category 4) and fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 2X2 MiMo, plus a feature called Download Booster which uses both Wi-Fi and 4G simultaneously to download files more speedily.

An octo-core version coming soon?

The Galaxy S4 came in both quad- and octo-core editions, with the latter being limited to selected markets – but at the S5 launch only a quad-core version was mentioned. Fine, we thought: Samsung was avoiding consumer confusion by releasing just one version of its top of the range phone.

But then Pocket-lint noticed something interesting: the Samsung Tomorrow site was displaying an official infographic that mentioned both the 2.5GHz quad-core S5 we know about and a 2.1GHz octo-core model. The infographic has since been alteredand all mention of the octo-core edition expunged. So what was it? A simple mistake? Or Samsung seeking to conceal the fact that an eight-core Galaxy S5 is coming along a little later down the line? Colour us intrigued.

DIMPLED AND WATERPROOF

The rumours claiming the S5 would boast a metal body have turned out to be hot air – Samsung has stuck with a mostly-polycarbonate build. That said, from our hands-on time we can say it’s the best build quality a Galaxy S phone has offered thus far. The dimpled, matte soft-touch back is much nicer to look at and hold than the faux-leather hard plastic of recent Galaxy Note phones and tablets, and the overall feeling is one of solidity and quality.

One major improvement over the S4 is IP67 waterproofing, bringing the S5 into line with Sony’s Xperia phones. It’s sealed to prevent any water or dust getting inside, so you can dunk the handset into water for as long as 30 minutes and it won’t protest one bit.

Oh, and we have the vital statistics too: it weighs 145g and measures up at 142 x 72.5 x 8.1mm.

It’ll be available in several colours, including Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold.

SCREEN: BIGGER, BUT NO QHD

In retrospect, speculation about the S5 toting a quad HD 2560 x 1440 screen always seemed a touch far-fetched, so we’re not particularly surprised to see that Samsung has retained a full HD 1080p resolution instead. The AMOLED screen, however, is slightly larger than the S4’s at 5.1in.

FINGERTIPS OF FUN

Samsung has fitted the S5 with a fingerprint scanner, which serves three main purposes. First, it can swiftly unlock the phone, which works much like the Touch IDsensor on Apple's iPhone 5s (albeit a little less snappy – but it’s much more accurate than the HTC One Max’s scanner).

The second function is instant online mobile payments via PayPal integration, and the third is to protect important documents with a Private Mode that's unlocked by your fingerprint.

Round the back, there's a heartrate sensor – the first ever seen on a smartphone, designed to play nice with Samsung's revised S Health app.

SUPERCHARGED AUTOFOCUS

The Galaxy S5's 16MP camera comes with an LED flash, a new advanced HDR mode and post-shot focusing: it takes two images every time you press the shutter, with the focus trained in different spots: one on the subject and one on the background. This means that, after the shot’s been taken, you can choose a defocussed or sharply focussed background (mostly for aesthetic reasons). But probably the camera’s best new feature is its super-fast autofocus, which Samsung claims is the fastest on any smartphone at up to 0.3 seconds.

Round the front, there's a 2.1MP front camera for video chatting and selfies.

FIT BUT YOU KNOW IT

Samsung has focussed heavily on fitness with the Galaxy S5, equipping it with a brand new version of the S Health app that provides a FitBit-style activity tracker that helps you monitor your workouts and diet. S Health 3.0 is also aided by the built-in heart rate monitor and designed to integrate fully with Samsung’s new wearable tech: the Galaxy Gear 2, Galaxy Gear 2 Neo and Galaxy Gear Fit – meaning you can keep an eye on your activity without having to stop to haul the S5 out of your pocket.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

Samsung has kept quiet on the price thus far, but we should find out some time ahead of the Galaxy S5’s 11th April launch. We'll keep you updated.

Vodafone, Three, EE, Phones4u and Carphone Warehouse have all announced that they will be stocking the Galaxy S5, though prices and tariffs have yet to be revealed. We'll be updating this page with more details and links as they come in.

Amazon.es has made the Galaxy S5 16GB edition available for pre-order, priced at €729 – which converts to £599. Expect the UK price to be £600 or very close to it.

Several factors are driving the potential for lots of M&A activity in the tech space for 2014. Social and software will lead the charge, but high valuations could be problematic. 

 Image: iStockphoto/violetkaipa

 With the The $19 billion Facebook acquisition of WhatsApp, 2014 opened with the largest exit of a venture capital-backed company in history. It looks like that isn't just an aberration as this year is projected to be a big year for technology mergers and acquisitions.  

In contrast, 2013 started as a terrible year for technology deals. The first half of the year saw tech deals drop below the levels seen during the recession in 2009. But, as the year went on, momentum began to build and confidence began to grow; paving a way for a big year of deals in 2014.

"It was a disappointing year, with a very promising second half. That momentum has continued and the announcements that have yet to close point to acquisition activity that will be driven by technology shifts affecting the enterprise customer and affecting the consumer."

That was how Rob Fisher described the situation. Fisher is the U.S. Technology Deals Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC), a professional services firm that is considered one of the big four auditors, alongside Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. PwC recently released their US technology deal insights - Analysis and trends in US technology M&A activity 2014 which was, collectively, a look back at deals in 2013 and a look ahead to the deal landscape for 2014.

The momentum has been building for the last two or three quarters and it should continue through 2014. If the deals we have seen so far are any indication, we should expect some great deals this year. We probably won't see another Facebook/WhatsApp deal, but we will see more divestitures like the Lenovo/Motorola deal as companies look to harvest some of their business units to compete in areas like cloud.

Increased diversification means that tech deals will be taking place across different sectors and infiltrating many different verticals. This means that several categories will now be affecting the technology deals market at the consumer level and in the enterprise. As a whole, software and social will continue to lead deals in volume and value. At the consumer level, social and mobile will be strong while the enterprise should expect a focus on cloud deals.

Let's make a deal

According to the report, 34 percent of the total 2013 deal value was represented by software and Internet deals, a decrease from 53 percent in 2012. It is worth noting that this drop was likely influenced by the nearly $25 billion privatization of Dell, which counted as a hardware transaction and offset the total.

Software will remain at the forefront of tech deals as businesses look to new software solutions to enable growth. Social will remain high as it has historically trended that way, but the WhatsApps deal has the potential to skew the data for 2014 as the Dell deal did for 2013.

Pat Kenealy, a managing director at IDG Ventures, noted that as stocks for major public companies like Google and Yahoo gain value they are emboldened to acquire new companies and they have the cash to do it. On the startup level, when an IPO goes well, "we see newly public companies get brave in using the funds for acquisition."

We saw both of these instances in the WhatsApp deal as Facebook waited for its share price to rise, after a less-than-thrilling IPO, to make a huge purchase. Bear in mind that 2013 was a pretty good year in the stock market, and if that continues it could mean many tech companies will have the ammunition to acquire.

The PwC report notes that industry-specific acquisitions will drive mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in 2014 as verticalization increases in industries such as healthcare, retail, banking, and industrial products. It remains to be seen if 2014 will see a true "healthcare boom," but the advent of the Affordable Care Act and new regulations for electronic health records are paving the way for an uptick in acquisitions by major healthcare companies. According to the report, trends like the Internet of Things will impact deals as well.

"Many non-traditional industries are adapting technology to gain a competitive edge. As we see medical devices, automotive, and other industries continue to add high technology to their product offerings, volume growth may increase interest in suppliers of these more specialized offerings. Expect to see players in the industry look toward diversification via targeted industry products with sufficient growth trajectories," the PwC report said.

While software and Internet deals led in total value, the top deals by price were in hardware, software, and semiconductors. Let's take a look at the top five deals:

• The privatization of Dell cost $24.9 billion. It's debatable whether Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners' purchase of the computer giant constitutes an industry-illuminating deal, but it did carry the highest price of 2013.
• Koch Industries $7.2 billion acquisition of Molex Inc., a company that makes electronic components for devices like the iPhone. The deal was the biggest that Koch had made in eight years and was the second largest deal in their history.
• BMC Software, which offers IT services including cloud services, was bought by a group of investors for $6.9 billion. The group was led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital.
• Cymer, a company that makes tools for manufacturing semiconductors, was bought byASML Holding NV for $3.7 billion. According to Fisher, the semiconductor industry could see consolidation soon.
• Network giant Cisco buys network security company Sourcefire for $2.7 billion. With the increase in cloud services, security will be a factor but will exist more as table stakes for future acquisitions.  

Save for the Cymer deal, all of these deals closed after June, which propelled the end of the year momentum. The Cymer deal was also the only cross-border deal of the five, with ASML Holding NV headquartered in Europe. The technology sector and M&A is largely a U.S. phenomenon. Fisher claimed that "70 to 90 percent of these deals involve a U.S. company," but we could see more international tech deals in 2014. While Europe is projected to maintain its deal strength, the report also mentioned growth in Asia and, echoed by Fisher, growth in Israel.

Israel has a vibrant startup scene, which has led to many acquisitions. Fisher, who has worked in M&A for over a decade mentioned that he has seen more notable deals happening in Israel. The Google purchase of Waze and SlickLogin are indicative of a growing startups culture that could help Israel create its own Silicon Valley.  

The tech deals momentum gained in 2013 helped to set the stage for a, hopefully, hearty set of deals in 2014. The momentum for deals last year was due, in part, to emerging IPO market trends. The PwC report mentioned that IPO market trends hit their highest level in six years, which is great for tech startups, but could negatively impact the existing public companies who need new tech to compete or even stay relevant.

Mind the gap

Until recent years, startup valuations over $1 billion were unheard of. Now, valuations are regularly clearing that mark. This is increasingly common in the enterprise cloud space with companies like Box and Dropbox leading the charge. As great as that is for those companies and their investors, it has the potential to create as incumbent public companies seek to join that space.

"There's been a valuation gap between buyers and sellers," Fisher said.

Newly public companies are driving such high valuation expectation for new companies that it is becoming an expectation for some startups to hit a valuation in the billions. That's the dilemma for existing incumbents—they need to acquire cloud companies, but they can't afford these new companies.

This forces public companies to look at acquiring these hot tech companies in trending sectors before they become public, or before they even mature as a company. Kenealy mentions the acqui-hire M&A and micro M&A scenarios that are not reported by firms like PwC. These are acquisitions of a young company for a few million dollars to help the acquiring company start to get on board with a new technology.  

If looking to acquire the bigger companies, capital allocation will be a major factor as some companies are going to have to choose which of their business units they will continue to invest in and which units they will sell off to competitors or private equity firms. This is the concept of a divestiture transaction, which the PwC report defines as: "the sale or spin-off of a piece of a company, not the entire company." Although divestitures increased three percent for 2013, the PwC report notes that divestitures will likely remain steady this year.

"Divestitures are likely to remain at a similar level in 2014, pulled downward by the level of IPO activity but offset by the ongoing desire of many companies to reduce the size of their portfolios and focus attention on assets core to their growth strategies," the report said.

One of the best examples of this would be IBM. Most recently, IBM sold its x86 server business to Lenovo for $2.3 billion. In 2004, IBM sold its PC division to Lenovo as well. According to Kenealy, they have remained IBM by not standing still. IBM, like many other large companies, uses M&A as a tool to stay relevant.

"The companies that stay relevant in any vertical for a long period of time are the ones that constantly evaluate new technologies that are going to become important, and they make them or they buy them," Kenealy said.

This renewed focus on core competencies makes divesting a huge opportunity in the coming year. Combine that with a bullish stock market, increasingly innovation-centric verticals pushing demand in sectors like cloud and software, and you have recipe for major tech deals in 2014.

by Esat Dedezade

22 October 2013

iOS 7's release saw Apple level the playing field against Android's cleaner and comparatively more modern experience. The end result?The most beautiful mobile OS in history.

Sir Jony Ive stripped away the virtual leather stitches and other skeuomorphic elements to create a flat, colourful and modern interface – one that's a million miles away from the stale iOS icons of old.

While Android itself isn't necessarily ugly by nature, the fragmentation of various launchers like HTC Sense and the cartoony assault-on-the-eyeballs that is Samsung's TouchWiz, mean that many Android phones feel downright frumpy next to iOS 7 devices like the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

But where there is Android, there is hope. There's a reason tinkerers choose to fly the green flag of the Android camp. You can customise and dress up Android any which way you see fit, and you can do it straight out of the box with simple tools. And there's no jailbreaking or 1337 h4ck1ng required.

All you need is some taste (we're sure yours is impeccable), a little patience, and a sprinkling of apps...

WHAT IS A LAUNCHER?

Press the Home button on your Android phone. Boom. Say hello to your home screen.

The home screen is actually part of the launcher, along with your app drawer and all of your app icons. The launcher is therefore a pretty big deal - it's the soul of your smartphone and dictates its appearance.

Manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, Sony and LG replace Android's stock launcher with their own, using their own icons and skins to dictate your device's appearance. Samsung's rather garish TouchWiz (above) is one famous example of a pre-loaded manufacturer-made launcher.

But you don't have to shackle yourselves to what you're given. You can download replacement home screens and supercharge your Android phone with good looks and useful functionality. 

There are plenty of good launchers in the Play Store, and Nova Launcher is widely regarded as one of the best. If you like eye candy then you'll love its selection of 2D and 3D home screen scroll effects, which offer more exciting transitions between different home screens. You can even auto-hide the status bar for a cleaner style. But looks aren't everything…

CLEVER STUFF

Nova also allows you to set gesture controls – a feature so useful that we couldn't ever go back to anything else.

For larger 5in-and-above smartphones it can be quite tricky to pull down Android's Notification bar one-handed. The solution? Set up Nova launcher so that swiping down on any of your home screens will bring down the Notification bar.

If you want to go for a minimalist approach, you can even do away with the app menu button altogether. All you have to do is set up a swipe up gesture to open up your app drawer, and you're done.

Oh look, that clever little trick means you've freed up an some space on your dock. And you can have up to seven items on it too.

Another useful gesture is the ability to use a single icon to open two different apps. Take the camera app icon for example. A single tap will open up the camera. But swiping up on the icon instead can fire up the Gallery app. Two apps, one icon, less clutter. Efficient eh?

And it gets better. One of our favourite features on the LG G2 is its ability to double-tap its home screen to turn off the phone, and you can use Nova to achieve the same effect. There's an app on the Play Store called Screen Offwhich, you guessed it, turns off your screen. You can set up a Nova shortcut to launch the Screen Off app everytime you double-tap one of your home screens.

You're pretty much only limited by your imagination. You can even make your app drawer transparent so that you can see your wallpaper behind your numerous apps, instead of the usual boring black background. Apps can also be arranged in folders to help sort out the chaos and you make the icons smaller so that you can fit more apps onto a single page.

And that's all just the tip of the iceberg...

PUSHING THE RIGHT BUTTONS

Icons can transform the look of your home screen, dock and app drawer and there are hundreds of icon packs available on the Play Store catering to all tastes. From minimal and flat to bold and three dimensional, you can automatically replace most of (if not all) of your app icons to suit your tastes.

The better larger icon packs are updated with new icons for new apps and you can even mix and match icons manually.

In launchers like Nova or Apex, it's just a simple case of going into the launcher settings and choosing the icon pack you want to use. A few clicks is all it takes to become an Android plastic surgeon and many icon packs or compatible between different third party launchers.

DON'T OVERLOOK THE BASICS

Your wallpaper is the foundation of your home screen and it's probably the first thing you'll want to select before matching up icons to it.

You can go the traditional 'wonders of nature route', but we think that abstract backgrounds are like, so 'in' right now, and we've linked to a few wallpaper dumps at the end of this feature for you to peruse at your leisure.

"But what about iOS 7's beautiful moving Parallax wallpaper"? we hear you cry. "It looks so pretty and shiny, and it moves around when I tilt my phone"!

Indeed it does. But fret not. Android offered interactive live wallpapers long before iOS 7 came along and you can even get a very decent copy of Apple's Parallax background from the Google Play Store, complete with moving 3D effects to make you nauseous too.

WONDERFUL WIDGETS

Ah widgets. Android's ace in the hole against iOS. You're probably familiar with the standard weather and clock widgets by now, but did you know they can look so much prettier?

Two apps you'll definitely want to check out are UCCW and Zooper, both of which offer unparalleled customisability over pre-made widgets. From gorgeous calendars to minimalist weather forecasts, these two apps can be used to provide you with important information at a glance, in styles never-before thought possible.

Once you've installed either app and browsed through their pre-loaded widgets, you can hit up the Play Store for the likes of 'Zooper weather widget' for example, install extra widgets and tinker away at your leisure.

Found a nice weather widget but disappointed that it doesn't display the max temperature? No problem. Open up the widget's settings and add the feature in yourself from a list of pre-defined options. Powerful stuff.

Some choice Zooper widgets include its default DaveDate clock/calander widget (shown above) as well as the flowery Ubuntu clock inspired by the yet-to-be-released Ubuntu mobile OS.

If you go the UCCW route then the Ribbon skin is quite fun while the PlayBaroffers a blend of bold colours and useful shortcuts.

Take a few for a spin and search around the Play Store for more. Once you get the hang of it, you can even take a stab at designing your own widget from scratch.

THIS ALL SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF WORK…

Well yes, it can take a little time to set up your phone just the way you want it, but the payoff is worth it. We spend around seven hours a day glued to our phone screens (give or take a couple of hours) and we take pleasure in using something that looks beautiful, which we've customised to our tastes.

If you're feeling lazy however, then you're in luck. A couple of launchers are on the horizon, and one of them – Themer – aims to automate the whole theming process. Simply browse through the catalogues of user-built themes, hit select and that's it. Welcome to your new phone.

Two of the apps below are currently in the invite-only beta stages, but it's well worth getting an invite if you can before they hit the Play Store proper.

Themer: Based on the Android theming site mycolorscreen.com, Themer takes all the fuss out of setting up a customised Android experience by letting you browse through pre-set themes. Find one you like, hit apply, and marvel at the instant transformation. Wallpapers, icons, widgets – all are automatically applied and laid out instantly. Sign up for beta activation code atthemerapp.com

Aviate: Sadly another invite-only launcher for the time being (sign up atgetaviate.com), Aviate takes a slightly different approach. Instead of having a library of pre-built themes, Aviate allows less customisation and has a rigid layout. The layout itself is very easy on the eye, however, and will appeal to fans of minimalism and function. Doing away with clutter, Aviate automatically categorises apps for you (work, travel, games etc), saving you from having to create your own folders. It also puts them in alphabetical order on a third screen. It's able to automatically change which information it displays throughout the day, with your work email and tasks displayed in the day while weather information and your calendar events are prioritised in the morning.

Smart Launcher: Special mention also goes out to Smart Launcher, which unlike Aviate and Themer, is out now for everyone to take for a spin. Like Aviate, Smart Launcher provides a pre-defined launcher experience, based around a ring of icons which you can customise to open your most-used apps. It's also got a handy customisable shortcut bar which you can drag in from the left-hand side of the screen.

READING LIST

So there you have it. You can mould your Android device to fit around your taste and lifestyle, making it prettier and cleverer than ever before. If you fancy taking a crack at your first Android theme, then here are the useful links that should help you get started:

Android Themes: This reddit community has daily theme submissions and is an excellent starting point and source of inspiration, with lots of icon packs and wallpaper suggestions floating around. It's a helpful community which should answer any questions you might have, and some of the submissions are truly spectacular.

Wallpapers: This is a huge wallpaper dump of 1080p backgrounds to get you started. And here are some abstract ones that we like, thrown in for good measure. Oh and these too. Thanks again to reddit.

We've also uploaded a few of our personal favourite wallpapers here, so feel free to take a browse and save the ones that tickle your design fancy.

Launchers: The launchers we've mentioned above are Nova, Apex and Smart Launcher, but feel free to sift through the rest on Google Play to see which ones you like best. There's also Themer and Aviate, both of which are currently in beta.

Widgets: Both Zooper and UCCW offer powerful widget customisation options with slick pre-made widgets to get you on your way to creating your own super-powered widgets.

And that's about it. Good luck on your journey to re-awesomising your Android device. May your widgets be forever accurate and your launcher's animations sleek and smooth.