Whenever a new device is released to market, the benchmark tests begin almost instantaneously. Today, the iPad mini with Retina display made its long-awaited debut, and although it still appears in very short supply, it has already been put through its paces and compared with some of the other marquee devices in the iOS product line. As it transpires, it's almost identical to the iPhone 5s in terms of speed, although both the iPad mini 2 with Retina display and the Touch ID-enabled handset fall slightly behind the iPad Air, which is faster than both.

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CyanogenMod is undoubtedly the biggest name in custom firmware when it comes to Android these days, and with good reason. With support spanning all the handsets that hackers and enthusiasts are likely to ever want, CyanogenMod is very likely to be available in some shape or form for the device that's currently sat in your pocket.

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In what can only be considered one of the most bizarre Apple product launches of this year, the Cupertino company has officially released their newest miniature tablet: the iPad mini 2 with Retina Display for everyone to consume. If you're unaware, the new iPad was announced alongside it's bigger brother, the iPad Air. This is where the launch similarities end though, as Apple were particularly coy about when, or where, it was going to be available. In a sudden frenzy - as opposed to their standard organized launches - Apple let loose that the iPad mini with Retina Display could be reserved...

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As any Windows Phone user will know, apps tend to take an age before they finally make the jump from iOS / Android, and the ongoing saga with the lack of an official Instagram app is a testament to that fact. Still, following an official announcement of Instagram for Windows Phone a few days back, major rival Vine has come through with an app for Windows Phone, allowing those on Microsoft's mobile OS to take and share short clips with the world right from their smartphones. The app is now officially available over at the Windows Phone Store, and you can check out the details after the break!

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The Xbox One will be hitting stores late next week, and although we've been dealt a deluge of information from both official and unofficial channels already, new revelations are being made on an almost hourly basis. In the latest, the guys over at NeoGAF have been looking into game install size and discovered that some titles will command up to 43GB of storage space, which is a colossal amount of real estate by anybody's standards.

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Google's Project Glass is one of the most fascinating developments in the technology industry, and with the Big G having recently released the big Google Glass XE11 update for the wearable tech, things seem to be pushing along just nicely. The progress continues in a similar fashion with the news that music playback features are headed to Glass. As of today, the search giant has added new functionality that allows users to find songs, browse playlists and enjoy their music, and the whole system will be controlled by voice commands. Furthermore, the company will also be selling stereo earbuds...

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It emerged earlier on today that the launch of the iPad mini 2 with Retina display had begun, shortly after news began to spread, it became apparent that the device was, at least in the United States, only available for Personal Pickup. Now, a press release from the Cupertino company has confirmed this to be the case, and with such short supply of the second-gen iPad mini, it's likely to be a while before this begins to change.

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The Xbox One will hit shelves next week, and Microsoft is diligently planning in advance to ensure all of the associated services have been primed and are ready for the big release. SkyDrive, the Redmond outfit's fledgling cloud service, is one such entity, and today, Microsoft has delivered a fairly detailed blog post regarding the video and photo streaming element of the stock dedicated SkyDrive app for Xbox One will play out.

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We've already witnessed the majority of major and well supported apps going through their iOS 7 transitional period, but the latest app improvement will be extremely well received by users of the Pebble Smartwatch. Following hot on the heels of last week's announcement regarding the future of the Pebble platform Apple has now approved version 1.3.0 of the official Pebble for iPhone and iPod touch app.

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After a lengthy period of rumor and speculation, the Google Nexus 5 smartphone, along with Android 4.4 KitKat, is now upon us. The handset itself has been the subject of rave reviews, and while the updated software includes a hatful of useful enhancements, there remains, as ever, one or two nagging issues. Notably, the battery percentage option is still non-existent in stock Android, and although there's now a less-than-perfect workaround for those looking to dig out this almost essential feature hidden within KitKat's chocolatey exterior, we do hope Google plans to properly implement it in...

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