Learn the system
All you need to know about iOS 13.7's COVID-19 exposure notifications
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Google and Apple partnered to launch their COVID-19 exposure tracking and notification system on May 20 — here's what you need to know about it.
Andrew Martonik
Keeping you up to date with mobile news and analysis since 1989.
All Articles by Andrew Martonik
It's down
T-Mobile service outage is disrupting calls nationwide
1
If you're unable to make calls or use mobile data on your phone in the U.S. right now, you aren't alone. User reports are showing outages on all U.S. carriers across the country.
It's Time
Keep an eye on the competition with us: Watch the Galaxy Note 10 event live
Wondering what the competition is up to? Galaxy Note 10 promises to be a strong Android opponent and Samsung is unveiling it today!
Nope
Can the Samsung Wireless Charger Duo charge the Apple Watch?
The Samsung Wireless Charger Duo is awesome, but it isn't designed to work with the Apple Watch.
Another conclusion
Apple wins $539 million from Samsung in design patent infringement retrial
3
In a retrial of the ongoing lawsuit from Apple that alleged Samsung took its patented designs for its own products several generations of phones ago, the court awarded Apple just shy of $539 million in damages.
Watch with us
How to watch the Google I/O 2018 keynote: Live at 10:00 a.m. PT May 8!
Google I/O is a three-day event with hours of presentations, talks and announcements — but for most people, the show is synonymous with its opening-day keynote presentation.
Listen up
Pocket Casts app acquired by NPR-led radio group, will continue development
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Pocket Casts, one of the best cross-platform podcast apps, has been acquired by a group of public radio-focused companies headlined by NPR.
Hefty bump
The cost of Amazon Prime is going up — way up
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Amazon says that it will be increasing the yearly subscription price of Amazon Prime to $119 from the current $99, starting in May.
Refresh
How to enable the new Gmail web interface
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The new Gmail web interface is here, but it won't be turned on automatically for some time — here's how to force it on your account.
Worth it
I thought this Anker 26,800mAh portable battery was too big — I was wrong
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I used to scoff at massive portable batteries, but the features and capacity of this Anker PowerCore have changed my mind.
Shine on
Misfit introduces new Shine 2 activity tracker
Misfit, a continuous competitor in the fitness wearable space, has just announced its newest wearable, the Shine 2. This new model builds on the success of the original Shine, and adds plenty of new features.
Second gen improvement
The Karma Go mobile hotspot
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We loved the flexibility and business model of the original Karma for those who only need a hotspot from time to time, but it was hamstrung by Sprint's aging WiMax network. After a little stumble, the new Karma Go is here with better hardware, the same great usage model and yes, a proper LTE network behind it.
Give it a shot
Samsung offering iPhone users Galaxy Note 5 to 'Test Drive'
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With in-store sales of the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ kicking off, Samsung has launched a new promotion called the "Ultimate Test Drive" aimed at getting iPhone owners to switch over to a Galaxy phone.
speed it up
VSCO Cam 4.1 introduces Copy + Paste batch photo edits
For its latest major release, popular camera app VSCO Cam has added batch photo editing, an undo edit button and performance improvements. The new batch editing feature, aka Copy + Paste, lets you make a complex set of edits to just one photo, then copy that set of edits and apply it to other photos you've taken already. It's kind of like an edit preset, but made to be used on a shorter...
do work
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides grab desktop-like features
The mobile apps for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are increasing in power with each update, and today's releases now support more desktop-class features. Google Docs gains real-time spellchecking as you type and edit, while Sheets now lets you hide specific rows and columns and Slides gains the ability to group shapes in your presentations. And now once you've created that wonderful...
gotta make money somehow
Instagram finally flips the switch on video advertisements
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Instagram announced that it was bringing advertisements to users last year, and now the first full-on video ads are starting to arrive. The first ad spots, which land between eight and 15 seconds long, come from big names like Disney, Activision, Lancome, Banana Republic and CW, and are shown sparingly in user's Instagram feeds. Instagram says that it works tightly with advertisers...
invites are out
Google unleashes wave of Inbox invites
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Well, that didn't last all that long. It seems most people who requested an invite to the new Inbox app from Google are receiving notifications indicating that they're into the cool kids club. As the wave of invites rolled out, the @inboxbygmail Twitter account confirmed that they have "left the building" and to check back soon if you weren't in this wave. If you haven't yet...
Pay the gatekeeper
Hulu Plus now lets you subscribe in the app
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Hulu now finally lets users sign up for its paid Hulu Plus service inside its iPhone and iPad app, marking a truce between the media company and Apple over in-app billing. Prior to now, you had to sign up for Hulu Plus from the web and then sign into your premium account in the app, thus getting around Apple's policy of taking a percentage of all in-app billing activity. If you didn't...
up the price
Iliad to up its bid for T-Mobile by end of the month
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Following up on an earlier bid from July that was promptly shot down, French telecom Iliad is set to take another swing at buying T-Mobile. Rather than sweetening the price, which T-Mobile saw as too low last time around, Iliad is in discussions to simply increase the share of the company it's willing to buy. Previous deals were structured to buy up just 56.6 percent of T-Mobile, but...
go get it!
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus now available in over 20 new countries
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The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are hitting store shelves in over 20 more countries as the calendar ticks over to September 26th in the respective regions. Folks in New Zealand and East Asia can now get their hands on the latest devices — on account of time zones, it's the next day there already — and those in many European countries will have their shot here soon as well. iPhone 6 and...