phone

Apple has issued a warning about safely charging iPhones. However, reports in which the company said users should never charge their phone while they sleep are incorrect. At least one newspaper reported the story with the headline "Why you shouldn't ... charge your iPhone while you sleep." Another site used the slightly more accurate but still potentially misleading "Apple warns people should never sleep next to their phone while its charging." From those headlines you might think Apple is making a surprisingly open revelation about handsets spontaneously combusting and taking out everything in a ... (view more)

Phone manufacturers may soon have to offer replaceable batteries in handsets. The rules have been approved by European politicians but could create enough hassle for manufacturers that they follow the measures worldwide. The change, approved ... overwhelmingly by the European Parliament, is part of an overall package to reduce the environmental impact of batteries. Other measures include minimum requirements for the levels of recycled material in new batteries along with the amount of material that can be recovered when the batteries go to waste. The precise wording has yet to be finalized, but ... (view more)

A new Nokia flip phone offers no tech features beyond SMS text messaging and a basic phone service. It's part of a supposed trend away from smartphones, though analysts are divided on how significant that trend is and what's causing it. The Nokia ... 2660 Flip is made by HMD, which has licensed the Nokia brand for the phone. It's expected to retail for as little as $60 in the US. It does nothing other than make voice calls (but not VOIP such as Skype), send and receive messages and take photos on a single camera. It resembles late-90s Nokia cellphones, though is missing the much-loved Snake game ... (view more)

Google's next flagship phone will have a built-in thermometer if a leaked video is anything to go by. Right now, nobody really knows why. The leaked video appeared on the 91mobiles site and appears to show the thermometer sensor placed just below ... the camera flash. It comes from Kuba Wojciechowski, a Twitter user who regularly shares leaked images of upcoming devices and describes himself as "a slight nuisance to tech companies." (Source: 91mobiles.com ) Google hasn't commented on the legitimacy of the video. However, 91mobiles says Google forced it to take down the video from YouTube by ... (view more)

Apple has patented a folding smartphone that would automatically close up when dropped in an attempt to protect the screen. Several manufacturers of high-end smartphones already offer folding display screens. The idea is to allow a much larger ... screen size without being too bulky for a pocket. Analysts note one of the reasons Apple has yet to make a folding iPhone is fears that folding screens are more vulnerable to cracking, particularly when dropped. It's possible it may have intentionally waited for other manufacturers to lead the way so that it can then see such problems with a new ... (view more)

Nokia has launched an Android phone specifically designed to be repairable by the user. The G22 handset was made in cooperation with spare parts and repair site iFixit. Being unable to easily repair a handset (or even to get a third party expert to ... do it) has been one of the biggest frustrations for many phone owners. It often means having to replace an entire handset because a single component has failed, causing both financial and environmental damage. While some manufacturers have made phones with easily replaceable components, they tend to be less well-known brands and carry a premium ... (view more)

The market for smartphones, tablets and PCs will shrink for a second straight year according to a newly-published forecast. The phone slump could mean the lowest number of units leaving manufacturers since 2009. Gartner, which produced the figures, ... says factors behind the trend include the economy, changing consumer behavior, and a lack of innovation. The forecast isn't for sales but rather shipments: that is, the number of devices which manufacturers send to retailers. It's affected by both recent sales and forecast for future sales. For example, shipments may drop if retailers have a ... (view more)

The next version of Android may make it much harder to install and run apps from third party sources. The change will mainly affect older apps that haven't been updated in some time. Unlike with Apple's iPhones, Android handsets aren't restricted to ... apps from the official App Store. Users may either use other app stores (other than the Google Play Store), or download and manually install apps from the web in a process known as "sideloading." Doing this doesn't require any "hacking" of the device, though users do have to change the phone's settings and confirm they understand the ... (view more)

Android users have been urged to check their phone has the latest security patches. It follows a researcher accidentally uncovering a significant flaw in the screen lock. The researcher discovered the problem on a Google Pixel 6 and replicated it on ... a Pixel 5. The problem appears to affect phones running Android 10 or later that use a SIM card, not just those made by Google. However, some reports suggest it doesn't affect Samsung handsets. The problem is with the personal unblocking key (PUK). That's a way to regain access to a handset that's been locked after forgetting the phone's passcode ... (view more)

An iPhone safety feature has backfired in embarrassing fashion. 911 dispatchers say they've had multiple false alerts of car crashes involving people who were actually on a rollercoaster. The iPhone 14, the latest model, has a crash detection ... feature. It's triggered by the built-in accelerometer and other sensors that are normally used for features such as automatically rotating the display when a user turns the phone to landscape mode. When triggered, the phone will eventually call 911 and play an automatically generated message saying "The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash ... (view more)