T-Mobile: Get an iPhone 6S for $5 a month

                               

Maybe T-Mobile should adopt Subway's $5 jingle.

T-Mobile is offering new and existing customers an iPhone 6S (16 GB) for $5 a month with an old iPhone 6 or 6 Plus trade-in.

The promotion is part of T-Mobile's "Jump on Demand" contract that lets you upgrade to a new smartphone up to three times a year for free. With the plan, you aren't buying an iPhone -- you're agreeing to pay a certain amount each month for 18 months. At the end of the term, you can keep your phone for an additional $164 (which is $125 cheaper than the retail price of a new iPhone).

                           

Apple Appeal: iPhone 6s Sales Begin

                                  

Apple devotees queued outside the firm's flagship store on London's Regent Street to be among the first to get their hands on the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

The latest iPhones went on sale at 8am - and already promises to be a best-seller.

Apple claims demands for the newest versions of its smartphones could surpass the record-breaking sales of iPhone 6 last year.

The new iPhone 6s comes with an improved camera in both the front and rear of the phone, as well as a pressure sensitive screen - where users can press more firmly in order to open new shortcuts - a feature Apple calls 3D Touch.

It also comes with a rose gold finish on the rear casing for the first time.

Facebook privacy campaign advances after EU court opinion

A privacy campaigner has scored a legal victory that could bolster his attempts to prevent Facebook from being able to pass EU citizens' data to the US authorities.

An opinion issued by the European Court of Justice says that current data-sharing rules between the 28-nation bloc and the US are "invalid".

The decision could affect other tech firms' abilities to send Europeans' information to US data centres.

However, it is not a final judgement.

Although the EU's highest court tends to follow the opinions of its legal adviser, the 15 judges involved have yet to issue a conclusive ruling of their own on the matter.

Even so, Max Schrems - the activist who prompted the case - suggests there could be far-reaching consequences.

"Companies that participate in US mass surveillance and provide, for example, cloud services within the EU and rely on data centres in the US may now have to invest in secure data centres within the European Union," he said.

"This could be a major issue for Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft or Yahoo.

"All of them operate data centres in Europe, but may need to fundamentally restructure their data storage architecture and maybe even their corporate structure."

Volkswagen apologises for emissions scandal

Volkswagen's chief executive has said sorry after US regulators found some of its cars disguised pollution levels.

"I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public," Martin Winterkorn said.

He has launched an investigation into the device that allowed VW cars to emit less during tests than they would while driving normally.

The company's shares were down 19% in Frankfurt by lunchtime.

VW has stopped selling the relevant diesel models in the US, where diesel cars account for about a quarter of sales.

The German carmaker was ordered to recall half a million cars on Friday.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found the "defeat device" in diesel cars including the Audi A3, VW Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models.

In addition to paying for the recall, VW faces fines that could add up to billions of dollars. There may also be criminal charges for VW executives.

The EPA said that the fine for each vehicle that did not comply with federal clean air rules would be up to $37,500 (£24,000). With 482,000 cars sold since 2008 involved in the allegations, it means the fines could reach $18bn.

That would be a considerable amount, even for the company that recently overtook Toyota to be the world's top-selling vehicle maker in the first six months of the year. Its stock market value is about €66bn ($75bn; £48bn).

RSA shares plunge as Zurich pulls out of £5.6bn bid

Costs from the explosions in the Port of Tianjin in China last month mean the Swiss insurer can no longer afford to buy its British rival

Swiss insurer Zurich has pulled out of its offer to buy FTSE 100-listed rival RSA, scrapping a £5.6bn bid that was first announced in July.

Shares in RSA fell more than 20pc in early trading to 400p following the unexpected announcement, while Zurich shares lost 6pc.

Under Takeover Panel rules, Zurich had until 22 September to make a decision - meaning it has pulled out at the last minute, following almost eight weeks of public discussions that as recently as last week were continuing through due diligence on the tie-up.

It is understood that Zurich management decided during a board meeting on Sunday to end the pursuit of a deal for RSA, with the British firm finding out late on Sunday night.

The Swiss giant blamed the costs associated with the explosions in the Chinese Port of Tianjin last month, which have so far hit $275m.

According to a statement by RSA, Zurich found nothing wrong with the company’s books but had to cancel the bid because its own finances had deteriorated.

Skype outage sees internet calls go down in many countries

Skype, the internet video call service, has gone down for many users around the world, leaving them unable to reach their contacts.

The service, owned by Microsoft, said on Monday morning that many users were appearing as "offline" even when they were connected, meaning they were unable to start making calls.

It said it was working on a fix.

The issue is affecting users in many parts of the world, including the UK. According to Down Detector, which monitors the status of several services, the outage is most prevalent in the UK, Europe and Japan.

"Some of you may experience problems with Skype presence and may not see online. We have detected an issue with the status settings of Skype," the service said on its status page.

"Affected users will not be able to change their status, their contacts will all show as offline and they will be unable to start Skype calls to them.

"We're working on a fix for this issue and hope to have an update for you soon. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused while we get this resolved."

Hundreds of iPhone apps infected in first major attack on App Store

Apple has taken down several apps after hundreds were found to have been compromised by a major attack on the App Store.

In the first significant security issue to affect the usually-watertight App Store for the iPhone and iPad, many were found with malicious "XcodeGhost" code inside of them.

The code found its way into the apps because developers had been tricked into using a modified version of Apple's official software for creating apps, known as Xcode. The code was deeply embedded in the apps, which made it through the Apple reviewers who check every app before they are made available to download.

Security firm Palo Alto Networks said the XcodeGhost code could have reached hundreds of millions of users and taken data such as passwords, although it had not seen any examples of sensitive information being stolen. It said only five App Store apps had previously been found to be malicious.

The malicious software was hosted on Chinese website Baidu, and thus is believed to largely affect apps in China. Some developers download Xcode from unofficial sources in China because it can reportedly take a long time to get it from Apple's servers.

Social network WeChat was one of those affected