The FBI's claim that it needs Apple to access the iPhone belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook is false, according to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Discussing the FBI's assertion that Apple has "exclusive technical means" to unlock the iPhone, Snowden said "Respectfully, that's bullsh*t".

Snowden elaborated later on Twitter linking to a piece by the American Civil Liberties Union explaining how the FBI could circumvent the iPhone's auto-erase feature without Cupertino's help.

The article explains that the FBI just needs to copy the 'NAND' flash memory to ensure it doesn't wipe the file system key permanently.

"All the FBI needs to do to avoid any irreversible auto erase is simple to copy that flash memory (which includes the Effaceable Storage) before it tries 10 passcode attempts. It can then re-try indefinitely, because it can restore the NAND flash memory from its backup copy."

You can watch the video below (thanks, The Intercept).

• Follow all of techradar's coverage of the Apple FBI row

A revised version of the Investigatory Powers Bill - dubbed by many as the "Snooper's charter" - has been published today, revealing extended powers for the police to access people's web and phone data.

The bill came under criticism for being too lax on privacy protections, something that Home Secretary Theresa May has responded to in some capacity, but many of the controversial proposed powers remain - and some have been widened.

The revised bill will let police access all internet browsing records in specific situations, where the original bill was more limiting to illegal sites and communications services. Powers for computer hacking have also been extended to cases in "preventing death or injury or damage to a person's physical or mental health."

Just as concerning, new proposed laws would also force tech companies to undermine security and break encryption, but only if it is "practicable" for them to do so. What's considered feasible remains to be seen, but the bill makes it clear that it will be taken on a case by case basis.

Problems ahead

There are other ambiguities. For example, the revised bill says that companies could only be forced to weaken security that they themselves have applied. So what about user-end encryption?

Encryption is a hot topic right now with the ongoing Apple vs FBI case, and while the Government is saying it isn't asking companies to undermine their encryption in general, it could still force companies like WhatsApp to install backdoors.

The bill will also require internet companies to keep a record of websites people have visited for 12 months. It's highly likely that it will face opposition from Internet Service Providers for this reason.

The Government plans to pass the bill by the end of the year. Some people have criticised Theresa May's haste, accusing her of trying to rush through these controversial new surveillance without greater consideration to its complexities.

With MWC set to kick off this weekend, we're just hours away from seeing what the next generation of smartphones has in store.

Samsung and LG are expected to grace us with new handsets at the Barcelona show, with Sony and Microsoft possibly delivering new devices as well. But what do we actually want to see in these new phones?

According to a new survey, wireless charging is the most-wanted new feature right now. Carphone Warehouse carried out a survey of 2,000 UK smartphone users in which wireless charging topped the list of wanted features, with almost a quarter of people picking it.

While more smartphones are starting to use wireless charging, the technology is rolling out slowly - many phones still aren't using the technology. Here's hoping that changes this year.

Unsurprisingly, battery life is a general bugbear for consumers. 54% of people asked in the survey actually said they'd pay more per month for a better battery.

So we're putting the question to you. What improvement do YOU most want to see in your next smartphone? Let us know by voting in the poll below.

Nintendo has opened up registration for its new account system, as well as letting users sign up for its new iOS and Android app Miitomo.

You can register for a Nintendo Account using your Nintendo Network ID, Twitter, Facebook or even Google+ account, and you'll want to be fast to ensure you get the username you want - or the closest approximation.

The Nintendo Account can be used for Nintendo's upcoming rewards program as well as Miitomo, the company's first smartphone/tablet app. Right now, though, you won't be able to do much with it.

Creating a Nintendo Account will also let you pre-register for Miitomo, which will arrive next Month. Although there's a lot we still don't know about it, Miitomo will be somewhere between a game and a social network, in which you'll interact with friends via your Mii avatar.

• The best news from Nintendo's latest results? Splatoon

There's been an air of mystery around Samsung's decision to not launch the Galaxy Note 5 in Europe, but the company has now clarified a little more on the reason for the phone's absence.

Speaking in an interview with TechRadar, Rory O'Neill, Samsung's European Vice President of Brand and Marketing said that it was because of a skew towards entertainment and not productivity, which is why we got the Galaxy Note Edge+ instead.

"If you look at the large screen form factor in Europe it's fundamentally different as in the US and it's fundamentally different to China," he said.

"We studied that the user patterns for large-screen devices in Europe were much more entertainment-centric, viewing-centric, than while the Note proposition is really good, is more on the productivity side and personal organisation side."

There have been multiple calls to bring the Note 5 to the UK though, so the idea that it the feature set wasn't 'right' for British consumers is sure to lead to some rebuttal.

There will be a return

TechRadar recently revealed that the Note series will be making a comeback to the UK at least.

The company is expected to announce the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge at MWC on February 21, however this time the UK won't be getting the Edge+, and will instead receive the Note 6.

O'Neill would not confirm this, but said that Samsung will "examine the market and the conditions in the exact same way".

"In the smartphone market we don't just make phones for the self-proclaimed elite and premium end, we make them for the whole range," he said on the Note 5's absence.

"We have a flexibility in our business model. We study local markets, we study dynamics, we study channel… and figure out what's the right thing to do for us.

Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge at MWC later this month, but it's already started officially teasing the handset.

At the Samsung European Forum, Rory O'Neill, Vice President of Marketing touched on MWC, telling the audience that "the next Galaxy will be the best Galaxy ever" before a short video was played.

He also confirmed that MWC will bring the next stage of Gear VR.

The brief clip showed someone putting on a Gear VR headset and getting a glimpse at the Galaxy S7, but of course we weren't given a look at the handset.

Gear is near

Samsung clearly sees Gear VR integration to be an important aspect of its next flagship smartphone, but it made it clear that Samsung Pay is another big thing it's focusing on this year.

After the short Galaxy tease, Head of Samsung Pay Nathalie Oestmann came on stage to underline the fact Samsung Pay will launch in Europe in early 2016.

We still don't have a concrete date, but it all suggests that Pay will touch alongside the S7 - especially as Oestmann promised we'll hear more about the UK rollout at MWC.

Samsung is expected to announce both the Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge on February 21.

TechRadar recently revealed that the S7 Edge+ won't be coming to the UK. Instead, Samsung will reinstate the Note series with the Note 6.

You might not have noticed, but WhatsApp's latest update has bumped up the group chat user limit from 100 to 256 people.

The update is available on iOS and Android right now (first spotted by NDTV) but is yet to hit BlackBerry and Windows Phone users.

For the casual user, it might seem like largely useless. Not many of us had been crying out for WhatsApp to expand groups beyond the already-generous limit.

But when it comes to business users, it starts to make a lot more sense. It's also (I think) a hint at where WhatsApp might be headed.

WhatsApp is immensely popular - it recently hit 1 billion monthly active users - but it's still outranked in the business sector, where messaging app Slack is currently top of the pile.

Facebook, which bought WhatsApp for $22 billion, hasn't explicitly said it wants to take its acquisition into the enterprise battlefield, but there are signs it could be interested, and pushing up group chat limits could well be one of those.

Making an enterprise play?

Introducing web chat, adding Google Drive backups and killing subscription fees were also steps in the right direction. WhatsApp also announced in January that it would start testing tools to let users communicate with businesses and organisations (speaking to an airline when your flight is delayed, for example).

They're small inroads, but WhatsApp need to be much more collaborative and functional if it wants to be taken seriously by businesses - that would probably include better integration with Facebook Messenger and third-party apps.

Facebook last year announced its Messenger Platform, giving app developers the tools to integrate their apps with the Messenger service.

As for the more immediate future of WhatsApp, it's rumoured that video calling will soon be brought to the service.

Of course, it's entirely possible that WhatsApp will stay fully consumer-focused. It won't be easy to best Slack, but it's clear that WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are here to stay - so why wouldn't they try?

Just off the back of its quarterly financials, Nintendo has announced how we'll be able to get our hands on its first smartphone and tablet app, Miitomo.

Miitomo will launch in March for iOS and Android, but you'll be able to pre-register from February 2016.

While Nintendo has already spoken about the app, many of the details remain unclear. It describes Miitomo not as a game but a "social experience" in which users can interact with their friends by asking questions (such as "Do you believe in aliens?") and then using the answers for… something. We're still not sure how it's all going to work, but it looks a lot like 3DS title Tomodachi Life.

Players in the game will be represented as Mii characters (Miitomo actually means "Mii friends"), which anyone who's ever played a Wii or Wii U will be familiar with.

Rewards

To pre-register for Miitomo you'll have to create a Nintendo Account, which you'll be able to do from February 17 using a Nintendo Network ID, social network account or simply an email address.

Additionally, Nintendo announced that its My Nintendo rewards program will be launch alongside Miitomo, and will interact with the app.

My Nintendo, which replaces Club Nintendo , is described as "more comprehensive" than a traditional rewards programs. Points are split into Gold and Platinum. You'll get Platinum points for logging into your My Nintendo account, while Gold points will be awarded for buying Nintendo consoles and games.

Plus, subscribers will get a Miitomo bonus if they create a Nintendo Account between February 17 and the launch of Miitomo.

Finally, Nintendo reiterated that it will be pushing out five smartphone/tablet apps before March 2017. That aside, this year is set to be huge for Nintendo, with the company set to announce (and maybe launch) its new console, currently codenamed the NX.

• The best news from Nintendo's financials? Lots of people are playing Splatoon

People are sharing a link to a website designed to crash the Safari browser. It will also force your iPhone to reboot, should you click it.

The website, crashsafari.com, is designed to do exactly what it suggests. Not only did it crash the Safari browser when we tried it, but it caused the computer to grind to a halt until we finally managed to shut down Safari.

Opening it in Chrome also stopped the browser working properly. Even more annoyingly, the site has an even worse effect on the iPhone, causing it to reboot, as pointed out by The Guardian and many people on Twitter.

Best to avoid on iPads too. In fact, just don't visit it on anything.

Don't even think about it

The site causes browsers to crash by creating an endless string of characters, which quickly bring proceedings to a halt. A quick check into the domain revealed it was registered in April 2015, but we're unsure if it's been fully working since then.

We can see this becoming a bit of a Rickroll situation, so be careful of any disguised links that you come your way.

• Click this instead: Best iPhone apps 2016

To celebrate the holidays, Google is offering 50% off any album of your choice.

If you head to Google Play right now via this link you should be met with a pop-up alerting you of the offer. Hitting continue will then apply the coupon to any album purchase. If it doesn't, just use the coupon code ALBUM2015.

That'll get you Coldplay's new album for next to nothing. Or, if you have a modicum of respect for your ears, you could pick up one of the year's better offerings, such as Jamie xx's In Colour or CHVRCHES' Every Open Eye.

The offer will run until January 4, and is available in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France, Mexico, Russia and Japan.

It's also worth noting that the coupon can't be used alongside any other offers or discounts you're applying.

• Apple Music might take on Tidal with high-res music next year

Google has taken the wraps off the two new handsets - yes that's right, there are two this time - that will be the first to run Android Marshmallow, the company's new operating system.

The Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X have already leaked extensively, and most of the rumours were spot on. The Nexus 6P is the larger and more premium of the two phones, with a metal shell and a 5.7-inch WQHD AMOLED display that's protected with Gorilla Glass 4.

It's made by Huawei, not Motorola this time, which should help the Chinese company to make more of a name for itself in the West.

In an earlier pre-brief for the phone, Google told us that it had put particular effort into the camera this time around, which now has a 12.3MP sensor and 8MP front-facing camera. Google said it discovered that 80% of photos are taken in low light, and therefore the 6P's camera was made to let in more light.

You'll also find a fingerprint sensor on the rear, which was no doubt pushed by Google due to Marshmallow having native fingerprint support. Another notable bit of new tech is the USB Type-C. If you don't know why that's important, read this, but you'll be pleased to know it will work whichever way round you put it in - no more guessing which way is up.

As for the guts of the phone, inside is a Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM, with the option of 32GB, 64GB and 128GB storage size options.

The 6P will be available in silver, black and white, and will cost $499, $549 or $649, depending on whether you go for 32GB, 64GB or 128GB.

Guess who's back

This year we're being treated to two Nexus devices. The Nexus 5X is the smaller, plastic-clad sibling to the 6X, and it's made by LG. It will also be music to the ears of Nexus 5 fans, especially as Google didn't refresh the smaller handset last year.

The phone has a 5.2-inch screen, making it a perfect choice for anyone who's not aboard the phablet bandwagon but, like us, finds the iPhone 5S almost comically small by today's standards. That said, the battery has been increased by 20%, says Google.

The build quality might not be as premium as the 6P but Google isn't compromising on the camera - the 5X will offer the same 12.3MP shooter, but a 5MP front-facing camera, while you'll find a fingerprint sensor on the rear here too, as well as USB-C.

Inside is a slightly-less-powerful Snapdragon 808 processor and 2GB of RAM. The 5X will be available in 16GB and 32GB variants and your choice of black, white or a shade of greenish blue. It starts at $379 for the 16GB variant, with the 32GB model costing $429.

Both phones start shipping in October.

Well we'll be damned - Apple has revealed the iPhone 6S, which brings a number of tweaks to the existing iPhone 6 design.

The new phone touches down alongside the 6S Plus, packing a 4.7-inch display, souped-up A9 processor and a new 12MP iSight camera that's capable of shooting 4K video. It will be available in silver, space gray and rose gold.

However, the most interesting new feature here is what Apple calls '3D Touch'. This is essentially a more elaborate version of Force Touch, which debuted on the Apple Watch. 3D Touch will let the phone sense different levels of pressure and respond accordingly.

You can use it on the home screen to get shortcuts to your most-used apps, for example, while the new "peek" gesture lets you use 3D touch to preview a link without opening Safari, and a more forceful "pop" push will let you fully display the content on screen. Yes, Apple might have just made the new right click for iPhone.

All of which required a more sophisticated form of haptic feedback, which allows the touchscreen to make shorter vibrational "taps", as Jony Ive described in his usual soothing tones.

Game on

3D Touch will be a particularly big deal for gaming (just as someone mentioned it would), allowing developers to offer new levels of interaction.

Helping all this along is the new A9 processor, which Apple says is 70% faster at CPU jobs than the iPhone 6's A8 processor, and 90% faster in graphics tasks. We've already mentioned the rear camera, but there'll also be a 5MP front-facing snapper for FaceTime HD.

Oh, and the 6S also includes a new Touch ID sensor that Apple claims is twice as fast as the last one, which we're pretty pleased about.

The iPhone 6S will be available on September 25, but how much will it cost? Exactly the same as the iPhone 6.

Developing...

I have a terrible secret that I have to reveal: I'm addicted to Candy Crush Soda. I hate myself for saying it because a) I'm a million years late to the game and b) I spent those million years telling everyone else that King's approach to microtransactions was a bit dodgy.

But now I'm hooked, and those tiny coloured candies have become my nemesis. I see everything in delicious structures. Please, someone, send help.

There's a point to this confession: recently, I've been thinking about Apple's Force Touch and what it could do for the iPhone 6S - particularly when it comes to third party apps and games - and what it means for everyone else.

To explain it to anyone who hasn't used the Apple Watch or MacBook, Force Touch is a technology that detects when you're exerting extra pressure on the screen, and responds accordingly.

On the Watch, a tap of the screen will wake it up, but an extra strong press will take you to the watch face selector and give you a haptic vibration in acknowledgement. The Watch has a tiny screen, which means we'll probably see Force Touch limited to only a handful of useful features.

But on the iPhone 6S it will open up a massive range of possibilities - especially when app developers get their coding fingers on it.

Apple itself will undoubtedly find ways of using Force Touch to improve the iOS 9 experience. It could give both the iPhone and iPad a better keyboard, letting you pushing down harder to capitalise a letter, for example. It could replace the 'touch and hold' to become the new 'right click' function. Heck, it could even give the iPhone an Android-style back button.

On the rumoured iPad Pro, Force Touch could have a particularly useful application in design and productivity. A more subtle haptic vibration could make an on-screen keyboard feel more real, while pressure-sensitive drawing might give the Pro a killer feature when appealing to creatives.

This is for the players

But it's gaming that I'm most excited about. The term "game changer" is overused a lot in this industry, but here it's probably more applicable than ever.

To indulge my opening point for a moment, a force push in Candy Crush might cause a piece of candy to do something like else like change to a random other colour (Hey King, I'm copyrighting that one). Force Touch will add an entirely new input for game developers, opening up so many new possibilities in the way we play.

The things is, once app developers start discovering these new possibilities - and they will very quickly - it creates a problem: how do you integrate Force Touch features in an app that's cross-platform with phones lacking pressure-sensitive functionality? The answer, unfortunately, is to leave everyone else on the back foot.

Apple will unlock a unique experience that app developers will only be able to offer iPhone users. Apple's early shift to a 64-bit processor was the last time we saw it try to differentiate its app and game experience from Android phones. With Force Touch, I suspect that we'll see other players trying to close the gap quickly - or else they'll fall behind dramatically.

Huawei is already jumping on the wagon: it introduced its own version of Force Touch on the Mate S (admittedly, a special variant) at IFA 2015. I expect others will follow quickly; Samsung has already patented a pressure-sensitive technology of its own, and other manufacturers won't want to fall victim to market fragmentation.

That's because Force Touch is much more than a gimmick. It will be a new way of interacting with the our phones, potentially bringing about the biggest input change in smartphones since the touchscreen itself.

Soon we'll know for sure how committed manufacturers are to bringing this tech to market, but I suspect that, unlike fingerprint sensors, once Apple gets this tech out of the door, the uptake will be incredibly swift.

PayPal has announced a new peer-to-peer payment system that makes money transfers a little easier.

The service is called PayPal.me, and gives you a personal URL that you can then fling to a friend through whatever means you wish. Clicking that link will take them to a personal, secure page where they can easily transfer some cash.

Everyone can register their own username, which will form part of the URL (paypal.me/username) - so you might want to be quick to ensure you get the one you want, or something that's as close as possible.

You can also ask for a specific amount by adding an amount to your link request. For example, you could use paypal.me/yourusername/20 and it will automatically populate the field with £/$20. Your friends are running out of excuses to pay you back.

If you're in the US, this all sounds quite similar to Venmo, PayPal's existing social payments app. The main difference is that PayPal.Me is rolling out to a number of other countries. You can go to PayPal.Me to sign up now.

• The Apple Pay and contactless card limit just jumped to £30 in the UK

In 1985, Steve Jobs was outsted from Apple, in part, by a man named John Sculley. A strong partnership had turned into a tumultuous relationship, ending with the Apple board pushing Jobs out of the company and Sculley taking over as CEO until 1993. He was then himself pushed out of the company himself.

Now the 74-year-old former Apple employee is launching two new Android smartphones aimed at the developing markets. Both phones, which come from Sculley's Obi Worldphone brand, are mid-rangers and were designed by Ammunition, a studio founded by Robert Brunner who worked at Apple as Jony Ive's predecessor.

Of the two handsets, the SF1 is the flagship, featuring a 5-inch 1080p display and including a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 processor. It's also got a 13 MP camera that takes two shots, one with flash and one without, to give a better image.

The second phone is called the SJ1.5 and has a lower-red 720p 5-inch display and includes a MediaTek 1.3 GHz quad-core processor.

Listing off these specs is all well and good, but you probably won't be buying either handset. The phones will launch in October but will be targeting emerging markets.

Is Sculley right to bet on a new smartphone business? He certainly has a history of investing in successful business and betting on good ideas.

Though his prediction that the Soviet Union would land a person on Mars by 2007 didn't pay off. He did vaguely predict the birth of Siri though as part of his "Knowledge Navigator" concept, which appeared in his 1987 book Odyssey.