The Financial Times reporting on the delayed Trump Mobile phone that’s definitely not made in the USA:
Trump Mobile’s customer service team told the Financial Times that the recent US government shutdown had delayed deliveries of the phone.
Sure.
It added there was a “strong possibility” the device would not be shipped this month.
Duh.
The budget-friendly smartphone is “slimmer and lighter” than its predecessor, and will be available on January 7th. It features a 6.7-inch display with an up to 90Hz refresh rate, along with 4GB of RAM and up to 2TB of expandable storage.
Samsung is also launching the Galaxy Tab A11+ in the US on January 8th, starting at $249.99.
When Microsoft was first developing the Surface Duo, it was originally intended to run a Windows 10-based OS code-named Andromeda that looked a lot like Windows Phone. Of course, the company ended up canning those plans, opting to make the Duo Android-based instead.
But you can now get your hands on an unstable build of Andromeda and see what might have been.
Samsung’s three-panel foldable phone won’t be officially available in the US until next year, but it’s already hit the YouTuber’s durability test table. Its thin frame (that’s different sizes across all three sections) doesn’t deal well with being bent the wrong way, even if Samsung’s hinge technology is pretty resilient, but... it didn’t explode.
Press play for a peek at the test results and a look at all three internal battery cells.
According to AT&T, the highest call day (through the beginning of December, because just like Spotify Wrapped, everyone’s data feed cuts off a bit early) was October 31st, and the most texts were sent on December 1st.
And as for how its data traffic compares to previous years:
Just ten years ago, we moved only 91 petabytes of data across our network each day. The leap to an exabyte marks an astonishing 1,000% increase over the past decade and more than 11,000% increase over the past 20 years
This report from New York magazine follows up after a few months of the state’s bell-to-bell ban:
At one high school, an entrepreneurial senior even bought a pouch-unlocking magnet on Amazon and tried to charge classmates a dollar per jailbreak. But generally, with phones off-limits, the atmosphere feels different. There’s a pleasant buzz in the lunchroom, chatter in the hallways, and an alphabet of new analog hobbies popping up just about everywhere.
7
Verge Score
You can skip your nightly recharge three nights in a row.
Motorola is making sure of it with the latest edition of its Moto G Power. It goes on sale in the US on January 8th for $299 and comes with a 5,200mAh battery to justify its name. That, plus 8GB of RAM? In this economy?
The company follows T-Mobile and Verizon in doing so. AT&T plans to buy just over $1 billion of wireless spectrum licenses from US Cellular but needs approval from the FCC, according to Reuters.
[Reuters]
One of Google’s new Android updates is the beta for Call Reason, which allows callers to flag that it’s urgent. Sounds smart, but if you’re below the age of 40, “urgent” might be the only type of call you ever make.
mekalos:
Sorry but if literally anyone I know is calling me instead of texting, it’s already urgent.
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Wondering how to use the extra screen space in Samsung’s new Galaxy Z TriFold? Don’t worry, we’ve got it figured out.
airpower:
Finally, a device that lets me watch TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts all at the same time.
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The latest ads featuring Apple and Google’s mobile flagships could combine for a Nike football cleat and appeared within hours of each other today, before likely going into rotation over the holiday.
For the iPhone 17 Pro, Apple is highlighting its built-in vapor chamber cooling, while the Pixel 10 Pro teases its 100x AI zoom with a Love, Actually tie-in.
In Honor’s defense, the China-only 500 and 500 Pro aren’t especially thin phones, so they’re not cribbing on the iPhone Air in that sense. But that camera module has certainly been copying some of Apple’s homework.
