Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 2

Apple might have a new color for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus arriving in the spring, with these models set to be offered in yellow if a new rumor is right.

An iPhone 11 with a yellow paint job (Image Credit: Apple)

The yellow color was last seen with the iPhone 11 (some four years back), and it could be something Apple revisits with the iPhone 14, given that it's generally expected that the current-gen smartphone gets a new color in the spring to help boost sales somewhat.

There's nothing like a shiny new paint job to nudge you off the fence perhaps and tempt you to finally grab the new handset you've been mulling over, although of course, we can't take it for granted this is happening.

If you've ever looked at your phone's battery percentage and wished that it wouldn't fall quite so quickly, you're probably going to love this.

Samsung Galaxy A32 with added battery - image source: u/Downtown_Cranberry44

One owners of the mid-range Samsung Galaxy A32 wanted to see what would happen if they took matters into their own hands and ditched the built-in 5,000mAh battery for something a little meatier. OK, something a lot meatier. What would happen if that 5,000mAh battery was replaced by something that had a 30,000mAh rating?

Turns out, it'll actually work.

The owner of an iPhone 11 was reunited with their device after it spent a week in the water, according to a new report. To make the story even better, the phone belonged to a Good Samaritan.

A Good Samaritan and his iPhone - image source: g1.globo.com

The story goes that a student named Breno Rafael was in his kayak when he heard a woman drowning. He jumped into the water with his iPhone in a pocket but when he helped the woman to shore he realized that his phone had taken a spill, never to be seen again. Or at least, that's what he thought.

Fast-forward a week and diving instructor Edinho Roch found the iPhone seven meters down in the same location - lake Paranoá in Brasilia. The iPhone seemed to be working but was locked and couldn't be used. That's when the power of social media came into play.

Apple is expected to announce four new iPhones next month, but only two of them are set to get flashy new chips. A new report claims that those devices will benefit from significant specification upgrades as a result.

iPhone 14 Pro - Image source: apple.com

Apple is set to announce the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max this September. But it's only those last two that will get an A17 chip, based on a refreshed TSMC 3nm manufacturing process. And it's that which is expected to make all the difference.

A DigiTimes report cites industry insiders when it says that the new 3nm chip will allow for significant upgrades, although it doesn't go so far as to say what they might be. However, the move to a 3nm manufacturing process doesn't necessarily mean that the chips will be faster - just that they will likely generate less heat and use less power. Both of those two things do often allow companies to clock their chips higher, though.

Those looking to trade in an old iPhone when buying a new one - or a used Mac in the same scenario - will be interested to learn that Apple will pay out more cash for their hardware in the US, at least in some cases.

No, there hasn't been an uptick in cash pay-outs across the board, but iPhone 13 and 12 owners are getting more dollars for their handsets with some models.

As Mark Gurman (of Bloomberg fame) pointed out on Twitter, those models are the iPhone 13 Pro Max which will now score you up to US$600 (rather than a maximum of US$570), and the iPhone 13 Pro which is now at US$500 (up from US$470). Finally, the iPhone 12 Pro Max will now net you a return of US$420 (an increase from US$400).

Apple has today increased the price of its iPhone batteries, making it more costly to put a brand new power source in anything from an iPhone 8 through to an iPhone 13. However, the iPhone 14 lineup hasn't been affected - because its $99 batteries were already more expensive than the others.

The battery price increases don't just affect iPhones, but they're the devices most likely to get new batteries. Price hiked can be found in the iPad and Mac lineups as well, however.

In terms of prices, batteries for iPhone 13 models now cost $89, which is $20 more than they cost yesterday. The iPhone 8 and earlier have had a similar price increase and now cost $69.

Qualcomm has today announced that it has managed to create the world's first GSMA-certified I Integrated SIM, or iSIM.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra - Image - samsung.com

We're all familiar with the eSIM, an electronic version of the physical plastic SIM cards that have been used for decades. But the new iSIM technology takes things a step further.

While an eSIM requires a dedicated chip that can be installed into smartphones like the iPhone 14 and Samsung Galaxy S23, the iSIM works differently. Instead, an iSIM can be part of the SoC of the phone itself, which is normally left to house the CPU, GPU, and other key components.

The Nothing Phone (1) never got an official launch in the United States but that's all going to be put right with the follow-up device - the Nothing Phone (2). Now we also know what chip it'll run, too.

With the Mobile World Congress 2023 event now very much underway in Barcelona, Spain, we're hearing all kinds of things from just about every phone company on the planet - bar Apple, of course. And one bit of welcome news is that the aforementioned Nothing Phone (2) will benefit from a flagship Qualcomm chip when it does launch later this year.

Qualcomm and Nothing CEO Carl Pei confirmed that there will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8-series chip used in the new phone when it reaches US shores, while CNET reports that the publication was told exactly what chip that will be.

3D displays aren't new, and with the rise and fall of 3D TVs over a decade ago, not to mention devices like the Nintendo 3DS becoming the 2DS, you wouldn't be remiss to think that 3D displays are a thing of the past. Leia Inc.'s Lume Pad 2 wants to change that perception by presenting a device with 3D display technology that sounds very cool in 2023. This is non-glasses 3D too.

Leia Inc.'s Lume Pad 2

The Lume Pad 2 is an Android tablet that not only features 3D cameras capable of capturing and presenting full 3D images and video, with native 3D video chat functionality between multiple Lume Pads, but it's leveraging the power of AI to enhance its features.

Namely converting 2D images to 3D, adding an extra layer of immersion to all content viewed on the pad. LeiaTube is a real-time tool for 2D to 3D content where you can share videos from YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, and others and watch them in 3D.

OnePlus already has the OnePlus 11 available to buy and it's generally accepted to be a pretty good phone for those who want to try something different from the usual iPhones, Pixels, and Galaxies. But OnePlus has shared something new. And it's a stunner.

OnePlus 11 Concept - Image: oneplus.com

Say hello to the OnePlus 11 Concept, a gorgeous phone that you can't actually buy but that we really. really wish that we could. Because it's pretty great to look at.

There is more to the OnePlus 11 Concept than that black aesthetic and blue cooling channels, though. For starters, those cooling channels are full of liquid that keeps the phone's processor and other bits and pieces nice and cool. How cool? Well, that depends on what you're doing but OnePlus reckons that you can expect to see temperatures a couple of degrees lower than you would otherwise.