Mobile

Srini Gopalan in response to SpaceX saying it plans to “acquire quite a few” of T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon’s customers by turning Starlink dishes into tiny cellular base stations using the limited spectrum it acquired from EchoStar:

Co-founder Akis Evangelidis told Times Now Tech that the company may double the number of phones it launches next year while “expanding its product portfolio across multiple categories,” including audio. He also says Nothing’s “looking at different ways” to launch a new CMF Phone next year, after this year’s was cancelled.

9to5Google uncovered code in the Google Contacts app that suggests you’ll be able to give your favorite contacts a “glow color” that appears on the Pixel 11’s built-in light when they call. Based on the code, you might get to choose from blue, cyan, green, orange, pink, purple, teal, white, or yellow.

So long, 2G.

Leaker Evan Blass shared what appears to be marketing materials for the Pixel 11 Pro XL, and it shows the upcoming device in a peachy shade of pink. If the leaks are true, the Pixel 11 might come in a bunch of fun colors this year.

A report from ET News suggests that Samsung is planning to ditch the 10-megapixel 3x telephoto lens on its next-gen flagship, leaving it with a 50MP 5x telephoto lens and third camera. Samsung is reportedly making the change to cut costs amid surging chip prices.

In a new video on Monday, you can catch brief and shadowy glimpses of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which is set to be fully revealed at an event on August 12th.

The company that showed off a working modular concept phone at MWC is teasing a bezelless concept for the IFA show in September. It looks nice, and attracts attention, but don’t expect to buy it (from Tecno) anytime soon.

The outage, which started on Monday, seemed to affect people all over the US and even some customers on MVNOs. In a 12:10PM ET post on Tuesday, the company finally said that it had “fully restored service for all customers.”

World Cup cameo aside, we haven’t heard much since MWC, but Honor is gearing up to release the gimbal-equipped phone in China soon. It’s teasing the camera’s capabilities, including a 200-megapixel, f/1.6, 1/1.2.8-inch-type gimbal camera, and a separate 200-megapixel, f/2.6, 1/1.4-inch-type periscope. The gimbal itself will support automatic subject tracking and six different shooting modes.

Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell service continues to evolve beyond basic SMS/messaging to provide light data connectivity in cellular dead zones. Telstra customers in Australia with compatible phones can now use it for apps like Apple Weather, Google Maps, AllTrails, and WhatsApp. T-Mobile users in the US have had similar app support since October.

The outage seems to be affecting many places across the country, as users from areas like New York City, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Berkeley, CA all recently reported problems with their T-Mobile service in a Reddit thread that has more than 6,000 comments and 2,000 upvotes.

Vertical video has been taking over for years, and David Pierce says the conquest may now be complete. It didn’t have to be this way.

If you missed Samsung’s event today, you can watch all the highlights here, including the redesigned Galaxy Z Fold 8, the new Z Fold 8 Ultra, and an updated Z Flip 8. You can also check out today’s episode of The Vergecast to hear more about everything Samsung announced.

So far it’s mostly teasing novel ways of slicing pizza, but presumably it’ll all make sense soon.

We’re just hours away from Samsung Unpacked and the leaks keep coming. The Z Fold 8 Ultra retains the Z Fold 7’s slim and tall design, but is said to come with an upgraded 5,000mAh battery promising up to 27 hours of video playback.

Two separate videos captured Spain’s Eric Garcia testing the gimbal-equipped phone in the aftermath of his team’s victory over Argentina. Preorders for the Robot Phone just opened in China, though it isn’t expected to launch in either Spain or the US, where the final was held.

Caviar is back with yet another ridiculously expensive device, and this time, it’s a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra with 24-karat gold plating, which is expected to appear at Galaxy Unpacked next week (sans the gold). As spotted by Engadget, Caviar doesn’t list any tech specs, but notes that its device starts with 256GB of storage.