If there's one sure-fire sign that a company is beginning to worry about its future, it's when they begin to rebrand and move away from everything they've done before.

To begin with, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins announced that from this day forth, the company shall simply be known as BlackBerry - presumably a move made for brand awareness purposes.

Moving swiftly on from that, Heins went on to announce the latest weapons in BlackBerry's phone arsenal - the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10, both powered by a brand new OS, creatively titled BlackBerry 10.

Heins hailed it as a new day in the history of Blackberry.

"Two years ago we had to make a serious decision, adopt someone else's platform or build a whole new one. We made the decision to go it alone."

The new BlackBerry Z10 comes in both black and white

The new OS definitely looks a huge improvement over the last, with a much simpler, smarter UI and proper multi-tasking to compete with iOS and Android devices. Social networks are integrated into something called the Hub, where many of the phones tasks and capabilities are found. It's an impressive step up, but time will tell if it is quite as slick as its competition.

As for the phones themselves, the Z10 boasts a 4.2 inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 768, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. On the back, an 8MP camera with LED flash. Tech-wise, it's competing with the likes of the Nokia Lumia 920, but the Z10 costs at least £36 a month or £480 SIM-free, putting it in the same price range as the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 - both of which have much higher specs. Design-wise, BlackBerry have moved away from the bulky phones of old and instead opted for a thinner slate design, following the footsteps of most other smartphones. It has already been released in the UK, but Canadian users have to wait until February 5th and the USA until March.

The Q10 is considerably less impressive and will be the budget phone for BlackBerry fans. It has the familiar physical keyboard and only a 720 x 720 display, but prices and a release date are yet to be announced.

It's a definite attempt at trying to revive the BlackBerry craze from a few years ago, but the mid-range specifications coupled with the high price tag might just cause BlackBerry to regret that decision to "go it alone."

The first leaked pictures have surfaced on the internet of what is assumed to be the iPad 5, courtesy of 9to5Mac.

The pictures are from an unverified source at an iPad accessories store in China, and while they should of course be taken with a fistful of salt, 9to5Mac are generally reliable when it comes to such information. In fact, it was them who reported yesterday that a 128GB iPad was on the horizon, and low and behold, it was confirmed today.

Image shows black back plate - Credit to 9to5Mac

None of the images show the iPad screen, instead all focusing on the shell or back plate. If real, the design has taken a drastic change that is more in the vein of its iPhone cousin. Rather than the silver back and edges that has graced every iPad so far, it is now a black slate colour. According to 9to5Mac, the design in the picture shows that the iPad 5 will have the same 9.7 inch display - presumably with the same 2048 x 1536 resolution - and looks to be an LTE model if the antenna at the top is anything to go by.

Another picture shows a thinner design and a flat back - Credit to 9to5Mac

Another of the pictures show the shells from a side-view, revealing that it's also a thinner design and that Apple have scrapped the curvature on the back that was introduced with the iPad 2.

Again, these pictures are far from confirmed and should be treated the same as any other rumour. The device has previously been thought to have a March 2013 release, but recent news would have us believe that it will in fact be closer to October 2013.

Whether you're an Apple geek, iPad fan or just someone who needs 128GB of space in a tablet (we're surprised you exist), February 5th is a day you might want to mark in your calendar.

Rumours swirled the web yesterday that tech kings Apple would be releasing a 128GB iPad, and today those rumours are fact, confirmed by Apple themselves earlier today. It will be the first time Apple has increased the storage capacity in their iPad line since 2010, and it doubles the current highest spec iPad's 64GB. Aside from the storage upgrade, all other specifications remain the same as the current 4th gen model. Prices are £639 ($799) for Wi-Fi only and £739 ($929) for 4G.

In their press release, Apple stated:

"With twice the storage capacity and an unparalleled selection of over 300,000 native iPad apps, enterprises, educators and artists have even more reasons to use iPad for all their business and personal needs."

It's a confusing move by Apple, who have been heavily promoting their cloud storage service, iCloud for the past year.

Most data, such as music, videos and photos can be accessed through iCloud or other cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive, so it's difficult to imagine that very many iPad users have used up 64GB of data - particularly if they're using Wi-Fi only.

So, are Apple cooking up another money making scheme? Innocently offering more options for consumers? Or perhaps simply anticipating a massive increase in app size over the next year as tablet gaming takes off?

One thing is definite, we won't be too surprised when these things fly out of Apple stores come next Tuesday.