Phone Scoop

Straight Talk Wireless — a Verizon prepaid brand sold exclusively by Walmart — has upgraded its premium "Gold" and "Platinum" mobile service plans to offer more value for the same monthly price. Both plans now include unlimited "premium" data that won't be…

Apple is tweaking and pulling back on its AI Notification Summaries feature after multiple news outlets complained that it completely changed the meaning of some news headlines. In the new developer beta version of iOS 18.3, the feature is, for now, completely…

Club Quarters has completed rolling out digital room keys across all of its hotel locations, with a solution that supports mobile wallets on both Apple iPhones and Google Android phones. This marks a first in the hotel industry. Club Quarters first rolled out…

Motorola has revealed the moto g 2025 and moto g power 2025. Both models are very similar to their 2024 counterparts, just with slightly larger displays (by 0.1 inch) and a more waterproof and rugged design for the moto g power. The moto g 2025 also gets front…

Opensignal has put out its January 2025 mobile network rankings based on its widely-crowdsourced performance data. In many categories, the big three US carrier networks performed similarly, with scores differing by just a few percentage points. But in several…

AT&T has announced a new policy of automatically crediting customers a full day of service when the company is at fault for wireless outages of an hour or more. The new "AT&T Guarantee" is similar to the company's ad hoc response to a major outage almost a…

OnePlus has revealed the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R. The 13 is a true flagship phone meant to challenge flagship phones from Samsung and Apple, while the 13R is an "affordable flagship" phone meant to offer high-end features for a more accessible $600 price.…

Anker has two new USB-C charging devices with powerful specs for charging multiple phones, tablets, and even laptops at once. Both have a TFT color display that gives detailed info on charging speed of each port. The new Anker Power Bank is "the size of a soda…

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) provided a status update on the Qi2 wireless charging standard. Samsung has committed to including Qi2 in Samsung Galaxy Android devices in 2025. Android phone makers have previously been slow to adopt the standard. Apple…

TCL is using CES to give the first official glimpse of two new phones it plans to launch later in 2025. The TCL K32 (shown on right) will be TCL's first 5G phone "under $100". It will launch exclusively in the US, but not until September. Other details will be…

Schlage has introduced a new smart deadbolt with Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology. UWB is a radio feature of popular high-end smartphones that is often used to let your phone unlock your car. With the new Schlage Sense Pro Smart Deadbolt, your phone can unlock…

Following the collapse of Bullitt a year ago, HMD has picked up the rights to the Motorola Defy Satellite Link, and will release a tweaked version called the HMD Offgrid. The small Bluetooth device gives any Android or iPhone satellite connectivity where…

A U.S. appeals court ruled today that the Federal Communications Commission did not have legal authority to reinstate landmark "net neutrality" rules. The rules were first established in 2015, then killed in 2018. Biden sought to revive them in his term and…

Samsung has announced the Galaxy A16 5G, the company's primary entry-level 5G model for the year, retailing for $200. The phone launches in one week, on January 9th. Key improvements compared to the A15 it replaces include a larger display (6.7" FHD+ AMOLED…

A federal judge in California has declared that Israel-based NSO Group violated the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act when it designed its Pegasus phone spyware to leverage Meta's WhatsApp servers. NSO sells Pegasus to governments and law enforcement around…

The current Arm lawsuit against Qualcomm over its newest CPU designs has ended with a jury finding partly in favor Qualcomm. This means Qualcomm can continue selling the Snapdragon 8 Elite and other chips that use the new Oryon CPU architecture, the fruit of…

T-Mobile has launched a registration web page where any voice customer can sign up to potentially beta-test the company's forthcoming satellite coverage service. A limited number of spots are available in the program, so not everyone that signs up may be…

Google today announced three new upgrades to help Android users deal with unknown Bluetooth tracking devices (potentially used for stalking and other surreptitious location tracking.) Both Android and iOS will detect an unknown Bluetooth tracking device making…

Verizon today announced "Enhanced Video Calling", a network feature that provides guaranteed bandwidth for certain customers' video calls even when and where the network is congested. The feature is now included with the Unlimited Ultimate and Business…

Apple has released iOS 18.2, which finally brings several major Apple Intelligence (AI) features, announced as part of iOS 18, to iPhones that support it (iPhone 16 series and 15 Pro models.) This includes Image Playground, Genmoji, Visual Intelligence, and…