Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 50

The European Union has announced new regulations around using batteries in all devices to promote recycling and reuse and improve waste collection. It will come into effect in 2027, and one provision that stands out is that "portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user."

The announcement adds that having the new regulations in 2027 represents "sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement." And with that, it will affect the production and sales of smartphones in the region, including those from Apple, as well as portable gaming devices like the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and ROG Ally.

The new regulation has been on the cards for some time, and with it affecting everything that uses a battery, there will probably be some pushback from device makers whose products don't feature the option to remove and swap out batteries.

If you thought that modern iPhones like the iPhone 14 Pro were getting expensive, you ain't seen nothing yet. Because an iPhone just sold for more than $190,000 at auction.

That particular iPhone comes with just 4GB of storage, but at least it hasn't been opened so it's basically brand new. Oh, and it's one of the very first iPhones to have been made because the 4GB model was soon replaced by the 8GB model, making the 4GB version hard to come by. It also comes with the original box design that featured 12 icons with no App Store in sight.

The iPhone itself was announced by Steve Jobs in 2008 and the rest is of course history. The auctioneers at RR Auctions say that this 4GB model has become the Holy Grail for collectors. Its slow sales make it even rarer, with buyers choosing to spend an extra $100 to upgrade to the 8GB mode. Apple eventually killed the 4GB model off in September 2007, so there aren't all that many still available. And even fewer are sealed in the box like this one.

The original iPhone was showcased by Steve Jobs in 2007 and released with a price tag of $499/$599 - a 4GB model and an 8GB model.

Since then, factory-sealed iPhones have been popping up in auction houses every few years, and every time we see one, the bidding wars have been increasingly fierce. Apple's first iPhone came with a 320x480 resolution screen, a Samsung 32-bit ARM microprocessor that was clocked at 412 MHz, a 2MP camera with no flash, and not even an App Store app as that was released a year later in 2008. It was only in October 2022 that LCG Auctions sold an original, sealed iPhone for $40,000.

Then in February, 2023, another original iPhone popped up again in LCG Auctions, selling for $63,356, which is more than 100x its original retail price. As for the most recently sold original iPhone, LCG Auctions began bidding at $10,000 for an original 4GB model, and by the time the bidding war was completed, Apple's first mobile phone sold for $158,644, or 250% / 318 times more than the previous $63,000 record set in February.

Apple released the first public beta version of iOS 17 yesterday and that came after it also released the third developer beta the day before. Now, it turns out that both updates bring with them a new feature that will be music to the ears of people who find themselves taking longer screenshots.

The new update adds support for taking full-page screenshots and then saving them as images to the Photos app for the first time. While Apple has long made it possible for people to screenshot long documents and web pages, it only allowed those screenshots to be saved as PDF files. Now, they can be saved as images instead.

This is of course good news for people who didn't want a PDF in the first place and this falls under the category of things that we are surprised it took Apple so long to implement. Unfortunately, iOS 17 is unlikely to be available to everyone until September, so most people will have to wait a little while before enjoying this feature.

Apple has now had another try and releasing its Rapid Security Response update for iOS 16.5.1 and macOS Ventura 13.4.1. The update was previously released in an attempt to fix a security flaw that Apple said may have been actively exploited in the wild.

However, that update also had the unfortunate effect of preventing some websites from loading properly on some devices including iPhones and Macs. Apple later pulled that Rapid Security Response and advised users that they could also remove it from their devices if they wanted to. Now, an updated version of the Rapid Security Response has been released, hopefully with this website loading issue also patched out.

Rapid Security Responses are normally there to allow Apple to push out new security updates without the need for users to download entire iOS updates. It also means that the updates can be issued automatically to all devices and without the need for users to do anything or restart their devices. However, this is the first time that such an update has caused an issue that required further interaction because it introduced a bug.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is expected to be announced alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 5 next month and now both phones continue to leak. Now, a concept based on those leaks imagines just what the Galaxy Z Flip 5's rumored cover display upgrade could mean in use.

Reports have already pointed to the Galaxy Z Flip 5 getting a new 3.4-inch cover display which will make a big difference for those who want to be able to use their phone without opening it up. And a concept shared by Twitter user @Vetrox360 shows what that new display could mean for on-screen navigation, the clock app, and animations.

The concept is based on previous leaks and shows how the clock could be opened on-screen but also minimized into the app's icon when not required.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 4 is already one of the best foldable phones around and right now we're getting ready for what comes next. That will be the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, assuming the rumors are correct, and now we've been treated to a new leak that appears to have confirmed what we can look forward to in terms of specifications.

That's because Twitter leaker SnoopyTech has shared details of what is coming up for Samsung's biggest foldable device, and there's plenty to get the teeth into.

The information required jumping through a few hoops but once we decoded the binary the details were revealed.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is expected to be announced within the next few weeks and now we've been treated to a first proper look at the specifications that we can expect it to come with once it finally does debut.

The new leak comes via Twitter leaker SnoopyTech and was a somewhat cryptic one - the tweet required decoding, which is a new one on us. Still, the end result was a list of specifications and they make for some interesting reading.

According to the leak, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 will come with a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a refresh rate that can vary between 1Hz and 120Hz with a resolution of 2640 x 1080. That display will obviously be on the inside. On the outside, you'll find a 3.4-inch display that should make for some big improvements in terms of usability. The leak suggests that users will be able to check notifications, control music playback, and more.

Long before Apple launched iCloud Photo Library and later iCloud Photos, there was something called 'My Photo Stream.' It was a simple syncing service that uploaded the last 30 days of photos and videos to iCloud over a maximum of 30 days, and it was great. It meant that your photos and videos were backed up to some degree and that they would become available on multiple devices instantly. But now it's going away.

The iCloud Photos service is lightyears ahead of My Photo Stream and Apple knows it. The iCloud option automatically syncs all of your photos and videos no matter how old they are, so you're always sure that your media is with you no matter when it was created or which device you're using. Because of that, Apple's turning off My Photo Stream on July 26 but to get ready it's stopped uploading new content as of June 26. Or yesterday, if you prefer.

That of course means that My Photo Stream users are now no longer sending their photos and videos to the cloud and that means that a solution is required. We'd absolutely suggest that iCloud Photos is the way to go, but you'll only get 5GB of free data storage. From there it's a case of paying for more storage, unfortunately.

Samsung is expected to announce its next lineup of flagship phones in the first few weeks of 2024 if the previous years are any indication, and now those phones have started to leak.

We can of course expect Samsung to name the new phones under the Galaxy S24 nomenclature, with the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra likely to be announced. Those three phones will offer a version for most wallets and needs, and now a new report claims that Samsung is using the Muse codename internally while it's still developing things.

According to the Samsung watchers at SamMobile, Samsung is calling the Galaxy S24 Ultra Muse 3 internally which might suggest that the Galaxy S24 is Muse and the Galaxy S24+ is Muse 2, but that's yet to be confirmed.