Apple has announced the Australian pricing for the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, and they're even more expensive than last year's handsets, which were far from economic.

Yes, your wallet may well be whimpering as you fork out well over $1,000 for even the cheapest model among Apple's new smartphones.

Pricing for the iPhone 6S starts at $1,079 for the 16GB model, ramps up to $1,229 for the 64GB, and tops out at $1,379 for the 128GB.

Pricier still...

Naturally the iPhone 6S Plus is even more eye-watering pricey, starting at $1,229 for 16GB, $1,379 for 64GB, and a whopping $1,529 for 128GB.

This is a steep rise from last year's pricing, which started at $869 for the entry-level 16GB iPhone 6, and peaked at $1,249 for the 128GB iPhone 6 Plus.

Pre-orders open on Saturday, 12 September, with the phones becoming available on Friday, 25 September.

• Want to know if they're worth it? Here's techradar's reaction to the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus.

Major changes are reported afoot in Amazon's hardware efforts. Several projects are said to be on hold, while the company's first, failed attempt at breaking into the smartphone market may have been its last.

The e-commerce company is in the midst of restructuring its hardware efforts, the Wall Street Journal reports, resulting in the layoff of dozens of engineers from its secretive hardware division, Lab126, which was responsible for the Fire Phone.

News broke in late 2014 that the e-commerce giant was at work on a successor to the Fire Phone. This was surprising not only because the experimental phone reportedly cost Amazon $170 million in losses, but also since CEO Jeff Bezos admitted the phone was a failure, albeit a "smart" one.

Alas, Amazon no longer thought it very smart to push on with the smartphone project.

Hardware holdout

Aside from laying off an undisclosed amount of engineers, the WSJ reports that Amazon is scaling back its hardware efforts. Several projects have been put on hold, including a tablet with a much larger screen, as well as a product that aimed to be a high-end computer for the kitchen (not quite sure how well that one would have done, anyway).

The Fire Phone negatively impacted morale in Lab126, but that's not to say the hardware development center didn't have its share of successes. Actually, it had quite a few of them, like the Kindle and its many models and tablet variations, as well as the Fire TV set-top box, and more recently, the innovative Amazon Echo and quirky Dash Buttons.

It's highly doubtful that this move will translate into Amazon fully bowing-out of producing hardware. Kindles will continue to be made and, if anything, a re-evaluation might be just what it needs if we're to see another Fire Phone.

But even as much as we would like for Amazon to take another crack at making a smartphone, the smartphone industry, as it stands, is carrying on just fine without it.

• What we thought of the Amazon Fire TV Stick

Researchers from China and the US have made a breakthrough in battery technology that could result in future mobile devices having longer lasting and better performing batteries.

The new technology is so good that it could extend the life of batteries by up to four times – and it does so by using chemical components that help the batteries to lose their charging capabilities much slower than traditional batteries.

This doesn't mean we'll get batteries that last four times longer than present batteries between charges, but it does mean that the batteries in our smartphones and other devices will last longer without needing to be replaced.

Good spot

Perhaps most impressively, the researchers, Wang Changan of Tsinghua University, in Beijing, and Li Ju of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, discovered the potential of the new technology by accident when studying how to remove oxide coating from aluminium nanoparticles.

While studying the nanoparticles the researchers found they could protect them using the conductive material titanium oxide which would replace the graphite anodes found in regular Li-ion batteries.

Because the graphite anodes expand and contract when the battery powers the device, the process leads to the battery decaying over time – which is why your smartphone's battery gets less effective every time it is charged.

Dr Wang and Dr Li built some batteries to test the new nanoparticles and found that after 500 cycles of charging and discharging the batteries, they still retained as much as four times the capacity as the traditional Lithium-ion batteries that were put through the same stress tests.

There was no mention of consumer products in the report, and the technology would have to be able to be made on an industrial scale, so we probably won't see these new batteries in smartphones any time soon. However, the technology has huge implications for future smartphones, along with battery powered industrial devices and even battery powered cars.

For a more in depth look at the technology behind the new batteries, check out The Economist's report.

• Samsung says it's worked out how to double smartphone battery life

When Apple Pay launched last year, it was widely expected that an Australian launch would follow quickly, thanks to the prevalence of NFC-enabled payment options in retailers around the country.

But fast forward to today and Apple Pay is nowhere to be seen, despite our advanced payments infrastructure. It turns out that like so many things, the sticking point isn't about tech, but about money.

A new report in the AFR claims that Australia's big four banks are resisting the launch of Apple Pay in Australia due to an inability to agree to how much the Cupertino firm would make from each iTransaction.

Crunching the numbers

According to the AFR report, Apple currently earns about 15 cents for every $100 spent in the US, and that's a rate it wants to maintain here in Australia.

The issue is that the US banks generally make about $1 of profit for every $100 spent, so sharing 15 cents isn't that big a deal. In Australia, banks only make about 50c per $100, so giving up 30 per cent of their profit to Apple is a sticking point.

What makes things even more problematic is the fact that the Reserve Bank in Australia wants to drive down that 50 cents per $100 down to about 30 cents, which would further erode their profits.

iHope

It's not all bad news though. The recent launch of Apple Pay in the UK reportedly saw British financial institutions drive down the arrangement with Apple to a few pence per £100, so there's precedent for Apple to negotiate.

Out of Australia's banks, the AFR claims that NAB appears to be closest to signing a deal with Apple, although there's a good chance a smaller bank will sign off first and use the ability to pay with an iPhone 6 or Apple Watch as a marketing play.

• Want to know what you're missing? Read our Apple Pay review

Apparently Tinder isn't just all about dating. Forbes has teamed up with the popular dating app company to create its own exclusive app for business networking.

Developed in-house at Forbes with support from Tinder, the app employs the familiar swiping mechanics and messaging system found in the dating app. The app will also feature activity feeds, member directories and notifications.

This all sounds like a streamlined version of LinkedIn, but it comes with a caveat: you have to be on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, meaning only a select few will have access. During its October launch, only 2,000 people will be able to use it.

Tinder has been interested in using a business model for awhile now but it doesn't seem like this will be a main focus for the company. Sean Rad, one co-founder of Tinder told TechCrunch that this is more of an experiment and "not core to our strategy right now."

Android, the versatile open-source operating system people love hacking onto devices it's not supposed to be on, has now been put on a calculator.

The device in question is a TI-Nspire CX "graphing handheld", so it's already equipped with a colour display and digital smarts greater than your generic number cruncher.

In fact, at school a graphic calculator was the closest we got to a gaming device in class - you could certainly draw some giggle-inducing shapes on the graph.

Hipsters will love it

Josh Max, the man behind the hack, posted a video of the device in action where he manages to play an Android game on the calculator's 3.5-inch, 320 x 240 display.

At around $130, £110 you can buy full fledged Android smartphones for less that the Nspire CX, sporting a much newer version of Android than 1.6 Donut - but then again they're not a graphic calculator.

Check it out in action below - and yes, the calculator app does work.

Stephen Elop, the man responsible for Nokia's Lumia devices at Microsoft and the Finnish firm's former CEO, is leaving Microsoft.

Elop didn't elope, though. He and Microsoft boss Satya Nadella "have agreed that now is the right time for him to retire from Microsoft," Nadella says.

It's part of a wider restructuring within Microsoft, and it means Microsoft is saying goodbye to the man responsible for these best and worst moments.

The 'burning platform' speech

When Elop joined Nokia from Microsoft, it was in trouble, and he made no attempt to sugarcoat it.

Speaking to Nokia employees in 2011 (the speech was later published for the world to read, too), he said that Nokia was standing on "a burning platform" that had "multiple points of scorching heat that are fueling a blazing fire around us."

Replacing Symbian with Windows

The former Microsoft man decided the best mobile operating system around was Microsoft's Windows Phone, and he bet Nokia's future on using it instead of the aging but well-loved Symbian OS.

It's a decision that was widely mocked, but there was smart thinking behind it: Elop believed that one manufacturer beginning with S would probably end up dominating Android, and if Nokia was in that market it'd be just another Android phone firm.

He was right about Samsung, and probably right about Nokia's chances as an Android manufacturer, too. However, unfortunately for Nokia, Windows Phone created all kinds of problems for their engineers and Microsoft wasn't as helpful as it could, or perhaps should, have been.

Getting unfairly blamed for all of Nokia's mistakes

To outsiders, it looked as if Elop essentially flew Nokia into the sun, destroying the world's favourite phone maker. But he inherited a company that was in a mess after years of bad management. He might not have made the right decisions, but his heart was in the right place - and he wasn't the one who didn't see the threat that iPhones and Android posed to Nokia's core business.

Binning Nokia's mobile payment platform

In 2012, Nokia canned its Nokia Money service, which enabled people to send money to others and pay for goods using just their mobile phones. The decision seemed strange given the hype around m-commerce - hype that Apple and Google are both currently surfing with Apple Pay and Android Pay, respectively - but Elop didn't want Nokia to waste its energies on doing lots of things in a half-arsed fashion. It would concentrate solely on doing phones in a half-arsed fashion instead.

Being accused of skulduggery

Many people suspected that Elop was a Trojan Horse, and that his move to Nokia would ultimately result in the company being sold to Microsoft.

Elop proved them wrong by driving Nokia to the brink of collapse and, er, selling it to Microsoft. But insiders are adamant that the £4.6 billion deal wasn't the result of any Machiavellian scheming: Elop was serious about wanting to save Nokia, and its sale to Microsoft was a personal defeat, not a triumph.

The move was prompted by angry shareholders who felt, rightly, that Nokia was still too far behind Apple and Android. They were probably pretty upset that their shares had dropped by 85% since he took over, too.

That bonus

As if the Finns weren't angry enough at Elop's handling of Nokia, he managed to add 18.8 million Euros to injury: that was the bonus Elop would be awarded when Nokia's sale to Microsoft went through, and it worked out at roughly one million Euros for every one billion Euros that Elop wiped off Nokia's market capitalisation on his watch. When asked to take a smaller bonus, Elop said he couldn't, because he was getting divorced.

Sending one of the worst layoff e-mails of all time

"Hello there," Elop began his long, rambling memo back in 2014. It took him a full 11 paragraphs to get to the point, which was that Elop's bit of Microsoft - the devices unit - was going to make 12,500 people redundant. NYMag's furious takedown of the memo is funny and entirely justified.

Doing a Nokia to Windows Phone

When Elop returned to Microsoft, he turned Windows Phone into the massive success it is today. Ahem. His departure is a clear signal that Microsoft isn't happy with Windows Phone's performance or strategy. It's some turnaround since the speculation that Elop was returning to Microsoft in order to succeed Steve Ballmer as Microsoft CEO.

Not being Tim Cook

Stephen Elop wasn't the first choice of Nokia CEO: according to the book Operation Elop by journalists from the Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti, the executive head-hunters first approached a supply chain wizard called Tim Cook. You may have heard of him. Had he answered Nokia's call, things might have turned out very differently, but instead Nokia ended up with what the book's authors describe as "by many measures… one of the world's worst, if not +the+ worst, chief executives."

Mastercard has said it expects every payment terminal in Europe will accept contactless payments by 2020.

Speaking at Mastercard's 'Future of Payments' event in London, Mike Cowan, Head of Emerging Payments Products, explained how the firm is working towards complete contactless acceptance.

The payment giant is laying down the law, demanding all new payment terminals rolled out from 2016 must support contactless transactions.

By 2018 it's thought there will be 1 billion payment points supporting NFC contactless transactions in Europe, allowing us to tap a phone or bank card to pay for goods, leading to a total adoption of the tech by 2020.

Uncapping the cap

Currently in the UK you can only pay via contactless for transactions of £20 or less. The cap is being raised to £30 this September, but in other countries it is already quite a bit higher.

With the increased presence of mobile payments however, there's scope to go beyond the cap with a level of authentication.

For example, if you're paying for your weekly shop the likelihood is that you've gone over the contactless transaction cap, but just tap your phone and supply your fingerprint to the reader on the handset and your payment can go through. No need to fumble around for your card and bash in your pin.

As for when we may see the unauthenticated cap rise again, it's difficult to say. "The cap is managed at an industry level," said Johan Lindstrom, Head of Digital Commerce, MasterCard Europe. "Lots of people have a say in it.

"There's pressure upwards from consumers who want more transactions to be made using contactless, but there's also pressure downwards from fraud teams want to reduce risk."

Mastercard said it was setup for Android Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, so as soon as the services are switched on in Europe you'll be able to pay with your phone.

• The future of contactless payments may be in your retina, heart beat and veins

We were blown away by the gorgeous Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge when we saw it at Mobile World Congress, so we've decided it's the perfect prize for one lucky reader.

With a unique curved screen, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is shaping up be one of the most innovative phones of the year, but if the price-tag is a little steep for you right now, have we got a competition for you.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is released next month priced at around £700 SIM-free, but to be in with a chance of bagging one for absolutely nothing simply enter your email address below. Good luck!

We've been hearing a lot about mobile payments lately, with coverage spurred on perhaps largely due to the launch of Apple Pay in the US late last year.

But Apple Pay isn't the only mobile game in town, with other big names wanting a piece of the payment pie – Facebook, for example, is working on plans to enter the market, and there's Snapchat with Snapcash, among others.

While there are comparisons being made left, right and centre, Apple has undoubtedly been dominating the buzz in this area of late. So why the big hype around Apple Pay? What makes it so much more newsworthy than rival systems?

Simplicity and style

The reasons why are quite hard to pinpoint. Perhaps it is Apple's track record of delivering great products that people didn't realise they needed, until they realised they couldn't live without them. Or perhaps it is the firm's attention to simplicity and style, which makes the concept of making a mobile payment in a store less threatening (and indeed easier) for the mobile novice.

Certainly one of the many things Apple is good at is building anticipation at the right time, and in many cases, timing is everything! Just ask its smaller, less successful competitors.

Secondly, and perhaps even more significantly, is the effort Apple expended in partnering with key industry players. The list of banks Cupertino initially signed up represented a majority of cardholders in the US, followed by the addition of a further 500 in time for Apple Pay's launch. And of course this has great benefits for the card associations, since their regular payment rails are being supported and card credential tokenisation promoted.

Apple's approach to making the payment experience simple and secure paves the way to ensure wider acceptance and faith in the potential for success. And this is where other players have failed, despite the inclusion of compelling technology – and don't forget that it's only a matter of time before Tim Cook will turn his eyes eastward.

Apple has also been brilliant at crafting a new position in the growing "alternative" payments market and has mastered the behavioural economics of the situation – working with an extended payments ecosystem, including existing players (card schemes, bank card issuers) to deliver an experience to consumers and retailers that is familiar and intuitive (and yet perceived to be innovative).

• Apple Pay review

Questions, questions…

Nonetheless, there have certainly been questions asked to temper all the hype. From my perspective, a big factor is whether this move, while significant, is perhaps too small a step. It's a bit of an old argument that making a payment with a card is not very difficult, so the focus on the ease of payment, while in keeping with Apple's attention to a seamless user experience, was a relatively weak point when it came to the launch spiel last year.

Some may argue that it's necessary to take a small step at first, to allow the average consumer to absorb the change. But for many, the lack of a public-facing plan for loyalty, rewards, location-based services and other value-adding integrations from the company is less than ideal. And then of course there are the questions around what's in it for the banks and the retailers? Which brings me to what's in it for Apple – a company that makes far more money off selling devices in a single quarter than it could conceivably be expected to earn off Apple Pay in the next two years.

Here's another good question: Is this in fact the first step in a carefully crafted strategy to change the infrastructure of payments forever?

Whatever the answers are, there's no doubting that there have been plenty of iPhone 6 owners rushing (or at least walking) to participating retailers to try out their new payment capability, and despite the increased noise in the mobile payments space, the last few months have most certainly belonged to Apple.

At the end of the day though, it is consumers who will win. By choice.

• John Gessau is Director, Product Management (Mobile) at ACI Worldwide