Category: MOBILE

Schillinger’s substitute phone helps overcome smartphone addiction

We’ve all been there: fiddling with your smartphone because it’s there, or reaching for it when you hear a text message notification. Austrian designer Klemens Schillinger created the Substitute Phone as a way to help smartphone addicts cope in its absence. Schillinger says that more and more, phones are becoming an addicting object in our lives. Users constantly play with them, even if they’re not looking for a message or expecting a call, and he was inspired to design “a tool that would help stop this ‘checking’ behaviour.” Schillinger designed…

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People Playing Pokemon Go caused Millions in damages in 148 days in an Indiana County

Dianne Jacobs

For a brief, shining period last summer, Pokémon Go reigned supreme. It brought obsession, joy, and, according to a new paper, injuries and death. This working paper, appropriately and evocatively titled “Death by Pokemon Go,” shows the darker side of the massively popular augmented reality game. Purdue University economists Mara Faccio and John McConnell combed through accident reports from Tippecanoe County, Indiana, in the first 148 days after the game was released in July 2016. In that county alone, the total value from injuries, damage, and the two lives lost…

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Reinvention of the alarm clock in the age of smartphones

The alarm clock has existed in a weird place since the advent of the smartphone — after all, why have a separate device on your nightstand for telling the time or waking you up in the morning when your phone already does that? That hasn’t stopped companies from trying to reinvent the alarm clock for the connected era, and Circa, a new Kickstarter project from Circa Labs, seems like one of the nicer attempts at the idea. Unlike some of the other smart alarm clocks out there, Circa doesn’t include…

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NHS offers Smartphone GP appointments

Dianne Jacobs

A 24-hour service has been launched for NHS patients, offering GP consultations via videolink on smartphones. The pilot scheme will initially cover 3.5 million patients in greater London. Patients will be able to check their symptoms through the mobile app and then have video consultations within two hours of booking. The Royal College of GPs has warned the service may not help patients with complex needs. The new free service has been launched by a group of London GPs and the online healthcare provider Babylon. Patients joining will leave their…

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Essential phone slashes price by $200

Dianne Jacobs

Essential has  slashed the price of its eponymous phone down to $499, a $200 price cut from the original $699 price, less than two months after it began shipping to customers. This move may be a signal that it wasn’t selling well at $699, especially given that the only US carrier stores it’s available in have “Sprint” above the door. Another reason is that it now has to face the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL head-to-head. Of course, that’s not how Essential sees it, saying that the price drop…

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HTC might announce U11 successors on November 2nd

Dianne Jacobs

HTC might announce two new versions of its U11 smartphone in an event its holding on November 2nd.The phone company sent out invitations for an event in Taiwan to local media yesterday, with the note including a large “U” at the top, indicating that the HTC U line will be the focus there. Over the past several weeks, leaks have come out suggesting there are two new phone models in the works: a mid-range device meant for Google’s Android One program, and a higher-end device meant to stand up to…

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Google set to simplify Android Video Calling

Dianne Jacobs

Video calling is about as easy as it can possibly get these days. You can do it on computers, mobile devices, and even tablets. It’s popular and widespread enough that you even have options. There are plenty of options available for those looking to video chat with their friends or family. Now, Google is rolling out a new Duo integration for its own Pixel, Pixel 2, Android One, and Nexus phones to allow users to place a video call directly from the Android Phone, Contacts, and Messages apps. Later this…

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No more keyboards for blackberry phones

Dianne Jacobs

Blackberry announced the move to ditch the keyboard on their new smartphone yesterday at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) Technology Week in Dubai. They will now have a 5.5-inch screen smartphone, known as the Blackberry Motion, running on a Snapdragon 625 System-On-Chip (SoC) platform. The all screen Smartphone will have a massive battery of 4,000mAh, larger than the Samsung Galaxy S8+ which has a 3,500mAh battery. The phone’s other specifications(Specs) are 4 GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage. This is the second device from the modern BlackBerry. The…

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What happened to the iPhone 9?

Dianne Jacobs

The long-awaited and extensively leaked special edition iPhone is finally upon us, and it’s called the iPhone X (pronounced “iPhone 10”). While the iPhone 8 is an iPhone 7S in all but name, the number jump across all the new iPhone models means we’re now officially missing an iPhone 9. Apple’s typical S naming is gone for this year at least, which isn’t entirely surprising. Samsung launched its Galaxy S8 earlier this year, and the company’s Note 8 will be available on September 15th (the same day iPhone 8 preorders…

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New Bluetooth vulnerability can hack a phone in 10 seconds

Dianne Jacobs

More than 5 billion devices are vulnerable to a “highly infectious” malware attack. Go ahead, blame the internet of things. More than 5.3 billion devices with Bluetooth signals are at risk of a malware attack newly identified by an internet of things security company. If you’re not keeping count, that’s most of the estimated 8.2 billion devices that use Bluetooth, which allows for our  gadgets to connect and communicate in wireless. Nearly every connected device out there has Bluetooth capability. Your phones, laptops, speakers, car entertainment systems — the list goes…

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