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Batten down the hatches, folks, because if this isn’t a sign of the impending apocalypse, we don’t know what is.

A four year old English girl is being treated for iPad addiction, with psychiatrists saying she needs to play games on the tablet frequently or else she suffers withdrawls.

Dr Richard Graham, whose clinic charges an exorbitant £16,000 a month for a "digital detox programme", says that if it had been left longer, she might have required in-patient care.

"They can’t cope [with using iPads] and become addicted," he told the Daily Mail, saying that addicting children "react with tantrums and uncontrollable behaviour when [the tablets] are taken away." You know, like the way they behave when you tell them to eat their vegetables or to stop riding the dog like a pony.

Seriously, if you have £16,000 to blow on your kids, why not pay for a push-bike rather than a pyschiatrist, and start putting the iPad up on the top shelf.

More blips!

Other bite-sized things have happened in tech and we’ve gathered them up for your perusing pleasure.

• Razer does a gaming good deed in honoring bogus coupon code
• Do Amazon’s work for it by greenlighting your favourite comedy
• Google Earth murder not a murder, just a dog

View more at TechRadar: All latest Mobile phones news feeds

Nvidia has just finished hosting its big investors’ event, and the big reveal was its next-generation mobile Kepler GPU chip.

Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia’s chief exec, demonstrated the generational leap by comparing footage of a current-generation iPad 4 game with some of Battlefield 3 running on the new mobile GPU.

VentureBeat posted a recording of the video presentation, which is a suitably impressive look what smartphones and tablets could soon be capable of, while Huang called current iPad graphical capabilities "vintage 1999".

Nvidia’s new Kepler chip will be capable of playing high-end PC games, and we expect to see it appear in the first Tegra 4 device when it appears (with Project Shield likely getting in there first). This means that Kepler Mobile will likely come in Tegra 5, and will give phones and tablets the ability to churn out high-end specs and DirectX 11 graphics when it does.

Kill the competition

"We want to get multiple years ahead of the competition," said Huang. "It was worth the sacrifice." By sacrifices, Huan was referring to how the company delayed other priorities to push Kepler Mobile ahead.

Nvidia also confirmed to investors that its Project Shield gaming device was still on schedule for a Q2 release this year, which is good news for those who have been doubtful Nvidia could deliver in time.

Huang also added that the device was aimed at driving Android gaming to its full potential. He announced that Nvidia had invested $10 million (around £6.5m/AUS$9.5) in Shield, making it significantly less costly compared to other big console launches.

View more at TechRadar: All latest Mobile phones news feeds

In the final quarter of 2012, Apple and Samsung were pretty much level as far as computer, tablet and phone market share was concerned.

Of all the computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets (or, as IDC calls them, smart connected devices) that were shipped in the last quarter of 2012, Apple accounted for 20.3 per cent – just under one per cent behind Samsung’s 21.2 per cent.

Shipping devices isn’t exactly the same thing as actually selling them though – it just means that the manufacturers got the products to the companies that would then sell them to the man on the street.

Apple pie

It’s a significant improvement for Apple and IDC reckons this is down to the double-whammy effect of the iPad mini and iPhone 5, both of which were released in October 2012.

Samsung’s only significant release in that timeframe was the Galaxy Note 2 – but with the Galaxy S4 on its way in April, there’s a chance that the gap will widen out again before the iPhone 5S hits later this year.

In general, there were more shipments of ‘smart connected devices’ in 2012 than ever before – up 29.1 per cent compared to the previous year.

The growth is mainly down to the popularity of tablets as the big tech firms shifted 78 per cent more tablets in 2012 than in 2011.

The analysts at IDC don’t see the rise of the tablet slowing; the company says that tablets will surpass the ailing desktop PC this year, and even overtake laptops in 2014.

View more at TechRadar: All latest Mobile phones news feeds

Child-bearing Apple iOS device owners do at least have one feature that they can proudly boast is better than their Android counterparts and that’s the Restriction system that helps make your Apple iPad or iPhone kid friendly.

With internet access, iTunes accounts and chat support at the heart of Apple iOS, handing over a unfettered iPad or iPhone to a small person can be a scary proposition.

While Android lacks the absolute usefulness of a Restrictions style system, in many ways this is circumvented by the ability of apps to act as replacement Launchers to the Android Home Screen system. This effectively enables a child-safe sandbox from which they can’t escape.

Apple doesn’t enable this type of functionality in iOS. The Home button will always take you to the default Home Screen.

Depending on how you want to use your iPad or iPhone with your child this can make it less desirable or potentially even unsuitable.

You could argue that these aren’t toys, you shouldn’t be leaving them with very young children, which still won’t stop some people needing or wanting to do just that. While you can leave toddlers with a drawing app, one press of the Home button and they’ll be back to the Home Screen.

For even just slightly older children there’s no reason you can’t fill an iPod touch, iPad or iPhone with games, educational apps, books, films and just fun apps, so they can idle their time away. A locked-down system is web-safe, though access to settings can still cause some headaches.

Feeling restricted

iOS has a Restrictions system that locks down many of the risky features of your iPad or iPhone. It does this via a standard four-digit PIN, which you’re asked to set when you first turn on Restrictions . This can be found via Settings > General > Restrictions.

In a way this PIN is its main weakness, while it does make it quick to use, children are wily, sponge-like machines and can quickly discover your PIN through observation and deduction. So be careful when tapping it in.

Lock down

Restrictions is split into a number of sections, the first deals with specific system apps and tools.

This contains some of the more important aspects that you’ll want to lock down before your child uses the device. Including Sarari and its web access and Facetime for video chats.

Lastly, you’ll probably want to block iTunes access and the ability to delete and install apps. We also suggest jumping ahead to the next section and disabling In-App purchases too, though these are still protected by your iTunes password.

Those latter options probably depend on the age of your child and if this is their own device. For older children that you trust with installing and buying their own apps, an option is to use an iTunes allowance. For this to work you need your own iTunes account.

Go into iTunes and the iTunes store. On the right is a link to Buy iTunes Gifts where you’ll find an allowance section. This enables you to create an account that is given from £5 to £30 per month to spend. Don’t worry, once this is initially set up, you can then suspend the monthly payments or adjust it.

Too young

If you are giving your child more leeway, the next section offers the ability to filter the content they can browse and buy on the iTunes store via standard age restrictions. How these apply varies from category to category. Films and Apps offer a wide range of useful age-band options.

Music, Podcasts and Books simply provide an "Explicit" content filter, while TV adds a "Caution" flag, which is confusingly meaningless.

An important thing to note with these restrictions is that they only work if they’ve been applied to the media and also everything – no matter what its rating – is still browsable within the iTunes store. For films and apps this is often the case, but even with apps there’s still potentially undesirable content as part of the app. So it’s still wise to browse the iTunes store with your child.

Safe settings

The final section of Restrictions attempts to lock down further areas of iOS and external interaction. While you can’t lock the settings generally – so for example it’s not possible to lock wireless turned off – you can block changes to Accounts, Contact, Calendar, Reminder, Photos, Facebook and Twitter.

Usefully the Volume level can be locked and multi-player gaming can be blocked too. Return to the Home screen and you’ll find iOS is now hiding anything it thinks doesn’t meet your restrictions.

Safer browsing

It’s a shame for an inquisitive mind to have to cut access to the internet entirely, but offering web access is a huge worry. How can you provide safe web access? We recommend Ranger Pro Safe Browser. It’s free and quick to register the required web account, from which you can monitor and manage allowed web site content at mobsafety.com.

We’re surprised at just how comprehensive, customisable and secure the system actually is. Nothing can be 100 percent foolproof, unless you only use whitelisted sites and block everything else, which is as an option with Ranger Browser.

View more at TechRadar: All latest Mobile phones news feeds

Apple has been accused of stealing patented speaker technology from THX for its line of iOS devices and iMac computers.

The audio company, founded by Star Wars mastermind George Lucas, has filed suit in California claiming Apple has infringed upon a patent granted to THX in 2008.

The patent in question is called "narrow profile speaker configurations and systems" and relates to how speaker units can be connected to flatscreen televisions and desktop computers to boost output.

THX is seeking compensation or royalties from Apple, in its filing to the San Jose federal court, saying the infringement has caused "monetary damage and irreparable harm."

Resemblance

Examining the patent and the suit, AppleInsider commented that speaker configurations within iOS devices did resemble those outlined in the THX patent, but were more obvious within iMac computers.

"Looking at the patent claims, there appears to be some correlation with the configurations used in Apple’s products," the report claimed.

"Perhaps most compelling is the latest iMac’s speakers, which features an extremely thin profile with channeled acoustics exiting down-facing apertures that are more narrow than the speaker faces hidden within the machine. It is unknown if the speaker housings actually employ ’483 patent’s designs, though the structure looks to be similar to those described."

Neither Apple, nor THX have commented further on the matter, while Apple has until May 14 to reach a settlement before court proceedings commence in June.

View more at TechRadar: All latest Mobile phones news feeds

Shopping divides us. It’s either a necessary evil to be endured as infrequently as possible, or a fun leisure activity to be stretched out over the course of an entire Saturday.

If you’re in the former camp, you’ll want to do as much of it as possible from the comfort of your sofa. Thankfully there are hundreds of apps to help. Whether its the weekly groceries, a new TV or an entire room’s worth of furniture, you can buy anything you need with a few taps on an iPad’s screen.

If you view shopping as a leisure pursuit rather than a chore, there are plenty of apps to help you make it even more fun.

Find the best prices before you leave home, grab a bargain, get rewarded just for visiting a shop, and book a restaurant for lunch with a friend afterwards – it can all be done from your iPhone.

Offline shopping

Online shopping is all very well, but you can’t shop for everything from your sofa. And let’s face it, shopping trips to the high street or out-of-town shopping centre can be, er, fun. Sometimes. The key to taking the stress out of a trip to the shops is planning. That means deciding where you’re going to go, how you’re going to get there and what you’re going to buy. OK, you don’t need military precision, but having a fair idea has to help. Right?

Of course, planning means lists. There are several apps specifically designed to help you make lists for grocery shopping; Groceries (£1.49, iPhone and iPod touch), for example, lets you choose specific goods from a pre-populated database and save them for later. You can can also share lists with friends and family members.

OurGroceries (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) is less structured, allowing you to choose generic categories like ‘bread’ and ‘milk’. Again, you can share your lists with friends. ShopShop (Free, Universal) is the simplest of the lot, allowing you just to create basic lists.

However, our favourite is Clear (69p, iPhone and iPod touch). It’s not aimed at shopping particularly, but is a great way to create lists of any type and works very well for groceries.

You could also use the Reminders app to maintain a shopping list and share it. Create a new list in iCloud, hover over its name and tap the wireless icon on the right, then enter the email address of the person with whom you want to share it. That way you can both update and check it whenever you go shopping.

Getting to your favourite shopping centre can be stressful on its own. Luckily, there are several apps to help. If you’re travelling by train, National Rail Enquiries (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) or UK Train Times (£4.99, iPhone and iPod touch) will help you decide which one to get. NextBuses (69p, Universal) will help if you want to travel by bus and live in England, Scotland or Wales.

RingGo (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) lets you find local car parks and pay for your parking within the app. It doesn’t cover every car park in the country, but does have 4,000 sites in its database, so it’s worth checking to see whether there are any near where you’ll be shopping. At the very least, it will save you having to search your pockets for coins to fill the machine once you’ve parked.

Before you head into the high street, download Quidco (Free, iPhone, iPod touch). As well as finding special offers at local shops and restaurants, it lets you earn rewards simply for ‘checking in’ to a store while you’re out and about. If you register a credit or debit card with the app, you can also earn cashback when you use it to pay while you’re shopping.

Once you’ve downloaded Quidco, grab Stocard (Free, iPhone and iPod touch). This handy app allows you to scan your loyalty cards and store them on your phone.

That way when you go to the till, assuming the store has an image scanner (most do), you can use the app instead of carrying the card with you. It has 200-odd preset loyalty cards, and if it doesn’t have yours, you can add it manually.

For fashion shoppers in the US, Swirl (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) is essential. It allows you to browse clothes and accessories from fashion retailers, keep up to date with the latest trends, and, best of all, find out where they’re on sale. Start before you go and make a list of possible purchases. Then, when you’re out, you can open the app and find out which stores stock each item on the list. It’s a personal shopper on your iPhone.

Bargain hunt

If you’re anything like us, once you’ve found something you want to buy, your next question isn’t ‘where’s the till?’, it’s ‘if I buy this now, will I find it cheaper somewhere else later?’

You can eliminate that doubt by using RedLaser – Barcode Scanner (Free, iPhone and iPod touch). Fire up the app, scan the barcode on whatever it is that’s making your credit card quiver, and it will tell you where in the local area you can buy it for less.

You can also read reviews, find deals and coupons, and order online for delivery if that works out cheaper. If you happen to be in one of RedLaser’s partner stores, such as Best Buy, you can find in-store deals and promotions, plus prices for open-box items.

If RedLaser can’t find the item, try ShopSavvy (Free, Universal). It claims to be the ‘fastest, most accurate and most comprehensive scanner around.’

If you find that another store nearby is selling the item for less, don’t leave the shop immediately. Ask to speak to the manager, show them that you can buy it cheaper elsewhere, and ask whether they’re willing to match or improve upon that price.

Even if the store doesn’t have an official price-matching policy, the manager might well agree to your request to stop you heading off and giving your money to a competitor.

If you’re heading to the supermarket to buy your weekly groceries, Love Food Hate Waste (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) is brilliant. The idea behind it is that by buying only the food you need, you avoid unnecessary waste. Simple, right? It is with this app. The portion planner tells you exactly how much of each ingredient you need to make the included recipes, and the in-built shopping list helps you plan exactly what you need to buy. By combining the recipes, portion planner and shopping list, you make sure that you buy exactly what you need and no more, thus eliminating waste.

By now it’s 11am and you must be feeling peckish; that means it’s coffee time. That could mean calling on the excellent Starbucks UK (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) app. It allows you to find out where your nearest Starbucks is, discover everything you could want to know about its coffee, and check your Starbucks Card balance. You can re-load it too, if necessary. If you’re in the UK or US, you can bypass the app and use your Starbucks Card from Passbook.

If Starbucks isn’t your thing, AroundMe (Free, Universal) will help you find the nearest coffee shop or cafe. In fact, it will help you find the nearest anything you can imagine. Not only that, but it will direct you there from your current location, and if you’re in the US, you can even use it to make a restaurant reservation – although that might be a little over the top for morning coffees.

Refuelled? Good. Fancy going to a gig tonight? The Ticketmaster UK (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) app lets you easily see what concerts are scheduled nearby, and allows you to buy last-minute tickets, if there are any available.

StubHub Tickets (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) does a similar job in both the UK and US.

And EventBrite (Free, iPhone and iPod touch), which also works in both the US and UK, allows you to store tickets in Passbook.

If there are no tickets, Seatwave Tickets (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) is one of the biggest on both sides of the Atlantic, and its app allows you to access its network of sellers. Its clever dynamic seating maps allow you to see exactly where in a venue you’ll be sitting.

Screen time

If you’d rather take in a movie than a concert or a play, Cinema Times, UK (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) allows you to see what films are showing in the cinemas closest to you. You can search for specific movies, read reviews, check times and buy tickets.

In the US, Showtimes (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) does a similar job, and will also give you directions to the cinema.

And if you’re in Australia, My Cinema (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) has details of films showing at independent cinemas all over the country. Alternatively, both Hoyts and Event Cinemas have their own apps: Hoyts Movie App (Free, Universal) and Pocket Cinema (Free, Universal).

If you’re in the UK and you know that you want to go to a Vue (Free, iPhone and iPod touch), Odeon (Free, iPhone and iPod touch), or Cineworld (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) cinema, you can download their own app. And if you’re an Orange customer, you’ll want the Orange Wednesdays (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) app, too.

Finally, if you’ve been shopping all day and then had a quick bite to eat before the cinema, you might find yourself having to answer a call of nature during the movie (yes, you should have gone in the foyer; no, not literally in the foyer; you know what we mean).

RunPee (Free, Universal) is an ingenious app that has details of the latest cinema release and tells you the best time during the movie to visit the bathroom. That way you’ll never miss any action because you had to, well, run pee.

Did someone say lunch? If it’s a restaurant you’re after, Urbanspoon (Free, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) will do the job. Whether you’re in the UK, US, Canada or Australia, just fire up the app, shake your iPhone, and it will suggest a restaurant near you. You can then make a booking on the spot.

If you’d rather be more involved in the decision-making process, you can search local eateries and filter the results by type of cuisine, locality or price. And, of course, you can read reviews from critics or other diners.

Rather eat somewhere a little less formal? McDonald’s (Free, iPhone and iPod touch)? PizzaExpress (Free, iPhone and iPod touch)? Nando’s (Free, Universal)? There are apps for all of those, each of which will tell you the location of your nearest restaurant and, in the case of PizzaExpress, give you the option of booking a table and accessing special offers.

If you can’t decide what to go for, Fast Food UK (69p, Universal) will point you to your nearest McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Subway, Pizza Hut or Domino’s.

When it’s time to go home and you wish you’d brought the car rather than taken the bus, you might decide to treat yourself to a cab. If you’re in London, Black Cabs (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) will allow you to hail a cab and pay for it using PayPal.

And if you’re in London, Dublin or Toronto, Hailo (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) will have a cab with you in two taps of your iPhone’s screen. Hailo is hoping to launch soon in New York, Chicago and Boston, too.

If you’re in Washington DC or Sydney, Australia, myTaxi (Free, Universal) will help get you home.

If you’ve already over-spent on your day out, then you might have to walk home. Sadly, there’s no app for that.

Online shopping

It’s hard to imagine that a little more than a decade ago, shopping from home meant picking up a heavy catalogue, wading through hundreds of glossy pages, then picking up the phone and speaking to an operator. If you ever tried doing weekly supermarket shop that way, you’ll know what a frustrating experience it was.

Now, of course, shopping from home means sitting on your sofa with an iPad, iPhone or laptop, and surfing hundreds of stores. And thanks to iOS, there’s no need to even open a web browser. Most large stores, and plenty of smaller ones have their own app.

Amazon was the first to really take the internet by the horns and exploit it as a means to shop from home. So it’s no surprise that its app, Amazon Windowshop (Free, iPad), is among the best available. It allows you to easily switch between Amazon country-specific stores, view products by category, or search for them.

When you’ve found what you were looking for, you can read details and reviews, and see related items. And when you’re ready to buy, you can use 1-Click or add the item to your basket. If you’ve recently added something to your basket while logged into Amazon on another device or computer, that will show up in your basket in the app. And as well as ordering products by sales, you can rank them by the most wished for, most gifted, and by the most recently released.

The other great bastion of online commerce is eBay, and its eBay for iPad (Free, iPad) app is every bit as impressive as you would expect. It makes full use of the iPad’s spacious screen, and provides easy access to your buying, selling and watching lists. It even displays thumbnails of popular items based on what you’ve watched, bought and sold in recent months.

Perhaps the best thing about the eBay app, however, is that it takes the pain out of listing your own items for sale. Scan the barcode of the item you want to sell, and eBay will populate its details automatically. If it doesn’t have one, adding them manually is easy, too. You can also add images from your Library or directly from the camera. eBay for iPhone (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) isn’t quite as impressive for browsing due to the smaller screen, but is equally good for listing items for auction.

Grocery shopping online tends to split opinion. You either love the convenience and the fact that it keeps you out of the supermarket, or don’t trust the store’s own pickers to choose your meat, fruit and veg for you. If you’re in the former camp, there are plenty of apps to help.

Which you choose will be dictated by your preferred supermarket, but of the apps themselves, Tesco (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) has a slight edge in the UK over Asda (Free, iPhone and iPod touch), Sainsbury’s (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) and Ocado (Free, Universal).

All four apps allow you to browse, search, and order items for delivery. You can book and amend time slots too, and Asda, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s allow you to search for your nearest stores. Asda also allows you to search for items by scanning a barcode and to use its price match guarantee service.

Tesco, however, adds the ability to order from Tesco Direct as well, and, crucially, to store your Tesco Clubcard details so you use your iPhone in-store rather than having to remember to take your the card itself. If you want to use a Nectar card in Sainsbury’s with your iPhone, you’ll have to download the Nectar app. Ocado does have the benefit of being a Universal app, and therefore takes advantage of the iPad’s bigger screen.

Clothes shopping online is a world away from the experience of the high street. You can’t feel the fabric or try garments on to see how they look, but stores such as Asos (Free, Universal), Debenhams (Free, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch), Oasis Fashion (Free, iPhone and iPod touch), and La Redoute (Free, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) have done their best to compensate by providing the ability to view clothes at very high resolutions so you can see the weave of the fabric and details such as neck and hem lines.

Others, such as Next (Free, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch), Very Catalogue (Free, Universal), and Zara (Free, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) could be improved.

Asos, in particular, has done a good job of making the most of the iPad and iPhone screens in its app, changing the available views depending on whether you’re in landscape or portrait mode. You can sync your account with a web browser, so any items you’ve added to your shopping bag or saved for later show up in the app. And you can save searches, too. You can also view your nearest drop-off and collection points on a map.

Debenhams’ app includes fashion tips, style advice and a gift guide, as well as videos featuring its product range. And, of course, you can browse its catalogue, search for items, and order online for delivery or collection at your nearest store.

If it’s home furnishings you’re after, and you tend to shop at Ikea, you’ll want the Ikea app (Free, Universal). It allows you to download the current Ikea catalogue for whatever country you’re in, as well as specific catalogues for bedroom, office and so on. You can browse the catalogue, search for items, view details and order online. And if you have a paper copy of the catalogue, scanning specially-labelled pages with your iPhone or iPad will allow you to access additional photographs and videos.

The M&S Home (Free, iPad) app is a beautifully-photographed catalogue of M&S’s range of furniture and furnishings. You can bookmark pages, create lists of ideas, and buy online from within the app.

Before you buy furniture, however, download SnapShop Showroom (Free, Universal). This clever app allows you to choose furniture from its library and then super-impose it on the image from your iPhone or iPad camera, so you can get an idea of how that three-seater sofa will look in your living room.

You can’t buy a house online, but you can search your local property market, see photos, details, and floorplans, and book appointments to take a look round in person.

In the UK, the Rightmove (Free, Universal) app does a great job, allowing you to specify the area you want to search, your price range, the type of property you want, and how recently it was listed. Photos can be viewed full-screen as a slideshow, and an integrated map shows you exactly where the property is.

In the US, the Realtor (Free, Universal) app allows you to see homes for sale in your local area, as well as those recently sold. You can draw your search area on a map on-screen and use the Area Scout tool to see average values in a neighbourhood. Property listings are updated at least once a day, and most every 15 minutes.

Finally, whatever you buy online and wherever you choose to buy it, waiting for delivery is frustrating. Make sure you download package-tracking app Delivery Status Touch (£2.99, Universal).

It allows you to track the progress of deliveries from dozens of different couriers, including FedEx, UPS, and TNT.

Type in the tracking number provided by, say, Amazon or Apple, and Delivery Status Touch will display your package’s current location on a Google Map.

It will also give you an expected delivery date, and a link to the shipping company’s website in case you have any questions or concerns.

Saving money

Tracking down bargains is half the fun of shopping, and if you have your iPhone with you when you hit the high street, it will be much easier. There are numerous apps designed to help you find the best prices and take advantage of deals offered by retailers.

We’ve already seen how RedLaser helps you track down the best online price for a product you’ve found on the shelves, but it can do a great deal more than that.

The app also lets you find coupons and voucher codes for the product whose barcode you’ve scanned, track down the best price at a local shop, see daily deals, and find products that are popular with other RedLaser users.

It will even suggest items based on those you’ve searched for before. As long as you don’t mind holding your iPhone up to the barcode of, say, a DVD or book, it’s a great way to save money.

Vouchercloud (Free, Universal) only works in the UK, Ireland, and Malta, but it allows you to find local shops, restaurants and venues that are running promotions, and to download vouchers directly to the app or use them immediately.

You can view offers by geographical proximity or by type (eating, retail, leisure, days out and so on). The app will then learn your preferences from vouchers you use and, suggest more special offers that might interest you.

MyVoucherCodes Vouchers (free, iPhone and iPod touch) does more or less the same thing.

It’s slightly more polished and shows local deals on a map rather than as a list, but you can’t access saved deals from a web browser on another device as you can with Vouchercloud.

In the US, Coupon Clipper (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) and Coupon Sherpa (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) help you to find similar deals, and download and redeem coupons.

ValPack Local Savings (Free, Universal) allows you to find deals at local retailers.

If you live in Australia, The Specials Board (Free, iPhone and iPod touch), Wealie (Free, iPhone and iPod touch), and Screencoupon (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) are essential for finding voucher codes and coupon deals.

Groupon (Free, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch) allows you to access the crowd-buying service from your iPhone or iPad, and will send new deals to you each morning.

It covers both regular Groupon offers and the Getaways travel bargains. You can buy deals and redeem them within the apps, and keep track of those you’ve purchased but not yet used.

If daily deals are your thing, you should also try LivingSocial (Free, Universal). It’s more geared towards restaurants, bars, and days out than tangible goods, but if that’s your thing, it’ll send you a local deal every day.

For loyalty card lovers in the UK, the Nectar (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) app is essential. It will show you which retailers in your area give Nectar points, display daily deals, award you bonus points, and let you check your balance.

ShopSavvy (Free, Universal) is similar to RedLaser. It works in North America and Europe, and allows you to scan barcodes to find the best price locally or online. Cleverly, it also lets you add details to its database if it doesn’t have a record of the code you scan – and if you find a better deal than those in the app, you can add that, too. It helps you find voucher codes as well, and lets you see price-matching policies, enter contests and check stock.

Finally, mySupermarket Mobile (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) allows UK shoppers to see which supermarkets are running deals on your weekly regulars. Scan a barcode or check your saved shopping list to find out where you’ll save the most.

Mobile payments

The idea that we should be able to pay for goods and services in shops without having to carry money has been around for decades, but we’re still stuck with cash and plastic. The Passbook app in iOS is a pointer to where Apple might be headed, though. It lets you store tickets, boarding passes, loyalty cards and vouchers to display when you need them, so you no longer have to carry physical copies.

So far support is limited, especially outside the US, but Apple hopes developers and merchants will take full advantage of it in the future.

Passbook is currently not really a payment system, though. Will we ever use our iPhone or iPod touch to hand over our cash? Apple seems to think so. It has already introduced a system in its own stores, called EasyPay, which allows you to scan the barcode of some products in-store, then log in with your Apple ID, pay with the stored credit card and collect your purchase before leaving the store. So far, however, it’s restricted to Apple’s own retail stores.

Square, co-founded by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, has a card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a mobile device to accept payments, and Square Wallet allows customers to make payments using a smartphone.

SagePay is trialling a similar solution in the UK that would let shops accept chip and pin payments on mobile devices like smartphones, and Barclays PingIt (Free, iPhone and iPod touch) allows you to send money to anyone using a mobile phone number. These systems, however, still require you to queue at a checkout in order to make a payment in a shop. If mobile payments are to work efficiently, they need to eliminate that step.

Much has been made in recent years of a technology called near field communication (NFC) – a short-range wireless system that lets customers use smartphones to make payments at NFC-enabled tills.

Google Wallet, for example, lets users store credit card details and then use those through a specially-created pre-paid MasterCard to pay for goods. There’s no global standard for NFC, however, which makes rolling out universal payment systems tricky. Also, in order for it to work, shops have to install NFC-enabled payment points.

That’s expensive and there is little incentive for them to do so. There appears to be no great demand from consumers, perhaps because the extra convenience of swiping a phone at a reader rather than a credit card is minimal. And the single most popular smartphone on the planet, the iPhone, doesn’t support NFC.

If not NFC, then what? Cloud-based payments could use Bluetooth 4 to link to a store’s payment system. You would scan the item you want with your phone, tap ‘Buy’ and be connected. You’d still need some way to transfer money, of course.

That could be where Apple comes in. It already holds millions of credit card details in iTunes, and allowing third parties to deduct payments from your iTunes account shouldn’t be too difficult. Indeed, Apple has applied for a patent – called iWallet – for just such a system.

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Apple has won a key patent in the battle to ensure that its SIM-card technology becomes the industry standard for mobile devices.

The patent pertains to connectors for Micro SIM cards (which Apple has now replaced with the Nano SIM) and the methods of transferring the cards in and out of smartphones or tablets safely and securely.

The ruling, published by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) on Christmas Day, also covers "the plunger system" of ejecting the SIM card by using a metal pin, or SIM ejection tool.

The filing, uncovered by Patently Apple, specifically mentions iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, but can also apply to MacBooks and media centers, Apple has pointed out.

Closer to becoming standard

Apple’s victory comes after a long year of battling with Nokia over SIM card technology and the next industry standards.

Apple has offered royalty-free licensing to rival companies if the European Telecommunications Standards Institute backed its new nano-SIM technology, which ended up appearing in the new iPhone 5.

The ETSI did back Apple and this most recent patent victory in the United States may discourage other companies from continuing their fight against Apple’s SIM tech as the industry looks towards standardised solutions.

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The iPhone 5, latest iPad, and iPad mini are coming to China.

Apple announced this morning its mobile and tablets will go on sale in China in just a few days. The iPad mini and Retina display-toting iPad will hit shelves on December 7, with the iPhone 5 following a week later on December 14.

The downside? It’s the Wi-Fi-only versions of the iPad and iPad mini. So anyone in China looking forward to getting online on an Apple tablet while out and about will have to hope the cellular models make it there at some point.

Mr Operator

There’s no word which operators will be offering the iPhone 5. We’ve contacted Apple and will update this story if we hear back.

Previous rumours said China’s biggest network, China Mobile, wouldn’t be offering the handset. Which would be a bit of a blow for Apple, considering the network has around 700 million mobile subscribers.

But the second and third biggest operators, China Unicom and China Telecom respectively, confirmed earlier this month that they would offer the iPhone 5.

Anyone in China looking to pick up an iPad or iPhone should head to their nearest Apple Store, Apple reseller, or online. Pre-orders begin on December 6.

Via Apple

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Finding a job can be a tough task at the best of times. Right now, it’s harder than ever – job cuts, lay-offs and mass redundancies mean the job market is more competitive and has more candidates, too.

We may all be in it together when it comes to the financial crisis, but when it comes to job hunting, you’re on your own.

The process of finding employment can generally be separated into three stages: find a position, apply for it, and then perform at the interview. In many cases, simply finding vacancies is the hardest part of the job hunt.

Tracking down the perfect position is, in all likelihood, the most time-consuming and dullest part of the process. Once you’ve found the perfect job with a dream salary at a company you like the look of, you need to create the perfect curriculum vitae; a document that impresses both visually and through its content is essential if you’re to make it to the interview.

Happily, your iPad or your iPhone can help you at all three stages of the job hunt. There are apps to help you find the right position, and apps to design the best CV too. If the interview stage isn’t your strong point, however, there are even apps available to help you build up your confidence.

In short, there’s every possible app to help you along the path to a new or more exciting career, and we’ve structured our tips in this chronological order to help you with the process.

1. Jobcentreplus

Access nationwide job listings, all for free, with this official app

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Finding out what positions are out there is step one in the job-hunting process, and where better to start than the Job Centre?

The Jobcentreplus app allows you to search all the vacancies at every Job Centre nationwide, giving you access to a huge number of positions.

There are three main ways to search for a vacancy. First, you can use a search term and define a place – so, if you’re looking for sales jobs in Bath, enter those details and tap on Search.

Second, you can use the location capabilities of your iPhone to simply search for jobs in your current vicinity. Finally, you can browse jobs by category; if you really want to be a butcher, for example, tap on the job title and search for all the positions near you.

If you’re not fussy about your role, you can just search for every job close by, but naturally this returns far too many results to be wholly useful. We really liked the favourites function that allows you to quickly collect a number of job ads to read in more detail at your leisure.

Also, the number of preferences and options available that enable you to refine your job search and really dig out your perfect role impressed us, too. In short, using this official app is generally much less stress than visiting a real Job Centre, yet with all the same opportunities on offer.

2. Pocket CV

Build and distribute a stunning résumé with this simple tool

Price: £ 1.99 / $2.99
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Making a résumé that really sells you and your talents can be both tricky and tedious. You need to make sure that you’ve put everything a prospective employer would need to know in an easy-to-follow layout, preferably on no more than two sides of A4.

Pocket CV is designed to help you do just that; it splits your CV into seven sections, and you simply fill in each one. Then tap Preview to see what your new CV looks like. It really couldn’t be easier.

Although this is a universal app, it’s notably easier to use it effectively with the iPad’s larger screen. If you have a LinkedIn account, you can import all the data from that to help build your CV, too.

Obviously, the more information you have on your LinkedIn profile, the better your CV will look, but even if you just use the bare data, it’s an excellent starting point. You can build as many different résumés as you choose, and there are eight different design formats to choose from. They’re not the most contemporary of layouts, but neither are they offensively ugly.

Once everything’s designed and you’re ready to roll, you can email a CV directly from the app, or copy it to Dropbox for further editing on a computer if needed.

3. Monster Jobs for iPad

A job search tool from one of the largest and best-known job sites

Price: Free
Works with: iPad

The Monster website has been going for many years now, and is one of the most popular job search tools in the UK. You could, naturally, use Safari on your iPad to look for jobs on the site directly, but as with many specialist apps, the Monster Jobs iPad app gives you a more polished and simpler method of looking through its listings.

The search tool enables you to look for roles by keyword and location, and you can also change countries if you’re after a job somewhere else in the world. You can save jobs to view at a later date, and see all the positions you’ve already applied for.

There are a number of filters to help you narrow down your choices and you can store your regular searches. If you think you may have found the perfect role for someone else, you can share it using email from within the app, too.

If you have a Monster account set up, you can log in and get access to all your CVs and covering letters, so that you can apply directly from the app. While you can’t create a CV in the app, you can get started on a covering letter.

4. CV-Library HD

Search for jobs and create a CV quickly, all from one app

Price: Free
Works with: iPad

CV-Library HD claims to have more than 50,000 real-time jobs available to search and apply for when you’re on the go. There are over 4.7 million registered users, the service offers a free CV review when you register, and it has a selection of featured recruiters from more than 70 industries.

When we ran our searches there were more than 5,000 IT jobs, over 2,000 management positions and just shy of 3,000 admin vacancies waiting to be filled. CV-Library HD gives you instant access to all these positions. In addition, you can link the iPad app to the company’s website and use it to apply for jobs, save your most popular searches and share job adverts with your friends.

The app uses the iPad screen real estate very well, with jobs to the left in an easy-to-scroll column, and role information (such as location, salary and description) given plenty of space to the right. That might sound like a small thing, but some of the other job search apps, presenting much the same information, aren’t as clear.

The design of the app really does make it easier to trawl through a large number of results to find the perfect job, especially with other features.

5. ResuM8

Build a professional and outstanding CV with this easy five-step plan

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Creating your own CV can be a bit of a pain. How do you describe what you’re good at? How do you say it without sounding pretentious and putting potential employers off? Well, ResuM8 is here to help.

This app helps you to put together a CV in stages. Though ResuM8 is free, it doesn’t really function properly without buying the database of headlines as an In-App Purchase. For £1.99 you get access to 400 bulleted ‘Strengths’ that you can use in your C.V. This is great if you struggle to sum up ways to describe what you do, and what you’re good at.

Inevitably, some of the Strengths are a touch corny, though you can change them if you prefer. The app could do with a bit of spit and polish in the design department too, but it’s perfectly accomplished for creating a quick-fire CV.

Once you’ve created one, you can send it as a PDF or RTF file and can attach a covering letter, too. There’s a short introduction explaining the reasoning behind the ResuM8 method, which is worth a quick read, and you can create a CV without a paying a penny if you really want to – so at least you can check the app out for free.

6. Jobsite Jobs

An appropriately named app for searching though vacancies

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Jobsite Jobs is a handy iPhone frontend to the many thousands of roles available on jobsite.co.uk. You can search by keyword and place, as well as using location services to let you see what vacancies are nearby. You can narrow your search to include jobs advertised in the last few hours, or widen it to all roles posted in the last seven days. You can also set the search distance up to a 50 mile radius.

Finally, you can choose to exclude temporary, part-time or contract jobs – or search only for those types if you like. Results can be ordered by relevance to your search terms, date posted, or salary, and searches can be saved to make it easier to re-run the query at a later date.

Although there are promoted jobs within the app, the one we clicked on was outof- date, somwhat annoyingly. If you have a Jobsite account, you can create a shortlist of roles for later. Once you’ve uploaded your CV, you can also quickly apply for any role.

7. Interview Questions Pro

No need to be fearful about the nerve-jangling interview process…

Price: 69p / 99¢
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Once you’ve found a job and created a compelling CV that has employers clambering over each other to see you in person, you still need to perfect your interview skills if you want that coveted position. Interview Questions Pro splits practice questions into sections, covering critical thinking, work history, behavioural aspects, and you – the candidate.

There’s also a selection of suggested questions for you to ask a potential employer. Simply tap on a section to get started with the sample questions. You can begin at question number one and work your way though, or simply pick out the questions at random.

Tap on the question to flip the flash card to reveal the sort of thing you’re supposed to be saying. The app doesn’t give you a word-for-word answer, of course, but instead points you in the general direction. You can add your own questions for more personalised interview practice too, if you want.

8. Resume Designer

A simple template tool for creating the perfect CV on the go

Price: £1.99 / $2.99
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Resume Designer is a basic app that lets you make your own CV very easily. All you have to do is type the relevant information into a template to create a document.

There are five default résumé sections on the basic template, such as Objectives and Work Experience. All you have to do is tap on a section and fill in the details. A persistent preview below each entry shows you exactly what your changes look like as they happen.

If the sections don’t suit or you need to add another, you can, including Skills and Volunteer Experience, or you can create a custom section. In addition, you can add an events section to make a list of significant events to be shown in order.

Once you’ve finished, you can email or print the CV from the app. There’s no control over the fonts or colours, but this is still a great app for creating a good-looking document quickly.

9. Interview Skills

An app designed to demystify the interview process

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

The Interview Skills app from Barclays Capital is ostensibly designed to help candidates prepare for an interview solely with Barclays, but its useful advice and videos make it great for any candidate. This app revolves around three fictional candidates and their answers to four interview questions – motivation, business awareness, competency and role. You listen to their answers and decide which one is strongest.

This is handy as it puts you in the position of interviewer and allows you to decide first-hand which answers are most suitable. Rating the interview answers is a fun way to pick out the pitfalls when in an interview.

As well as this useful game, there’s a whole section of hints and tips to help you answer interview questions, including videos of helpful advice from the people who devise and run interviews at Barclays.

10. LinkedIn

The business social network that lets you hunt down your next position

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

With LinkedIn you can build a virtual CV, but also, just like Facebook, keep in touch with ex-work colleagues. Once you’ve created a profile and made contacts, you can request recommendations from others you may have worked for or with, and search out the movers and shakers.

On the iPad, the app has the useful feature of being able to see who has looked at your profile recently too. Additionally, you can see updates from people in your industry, and join LinkedIn groups to keep up on the latest news or job openings.

Of course, you can add your own updates. You can use the Updates section to see what everyone is doing, or use the People You May Know to help your business profile grow.

See which of your contacts has been promoted or joined another company, or use it to do research on a company you feel you might want to join.

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A separate pair of part leaks out of China are showing off the back shell of the iPad Mini along with the apparent confirmation that the iPhone 5 will not have a near-field communication (NFC) chip as previously rumored.

Photos posted to Chinese website digi.163.com appear to reveal the rear casing for a seven-inch iPad, which we expect Apple to reveal in October.

The bottom of the shell resembles recent leaks for the iPhone 5, including a smaller dock connector, but also reveal a potential rear-facing camera.

Curiously, the headphone jack appears to remain on top of this smaller iPad, despite iPhone 5 leaks showing the same jack relocated to the bottom of the handset.

NFC no-show?

Recent photos showed an unidentified metal square which was initially presumed to be a near-field communication (NFC) chip, which could possibly enable wireless payments through apps such as Passbook, which will be included with the new iOS 6.

On Wednesday, those hopes were dashed with by a new report offering a closer look at the internal components of the sixth-generation iPhone.

The square is now believed to be a bracket used to hold the front-facing FaceTime camera in place, along with the proximity sensor and earpiece speaker.

The same report claims Apple may have chosen to leave NFC out of the new iPhone over security concerns, although this hasn’t stopped Android competitors from adding the feature to a number of high-profile devices.

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