Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 1

The Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL aren't expected to be released until later this year but that hasn't stopped them all from leaking ahead of time. Google has long had a problem with leaks, but this is early even by the company's standards - we don't expect Google to officially unveil these devices until October.

Regardless, new images shared by Rozetked appear to give us a full look at what these new phones will have to offer, huge Pixel 9 Pro XL and all. The new phones are set to replace the current Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, adding the XL to the lineup. And that big phone is clearly a big phone as the image below shows - that's an iPhone 15 Pro Max that it's making look small, there.

Questions will obviously now be asked about how these phones have leaked but if we ignore that for a moment, we can probably all agree that these devices look good. The camera bar around the back doesn't cover the full width of the device, which isn't necessarily anything more than a potential marketing problem.

Apple has historically come out on top in terms of the company that makes the most satisfied customers in terms of the phone that they bought. In 2023 Apple just about beat out Samsung according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) but things have changed in 2024.

The new report, shared by the ACSI, shows that Apple and Samsung are now both tied for the top spot with 82% customer satisfaction. Google is in third with Motorola (Lenovo) in fourth spot. Both companies have a score of 77%, while all other manufacturers combined were only able to manage a score of 72%.

The report came after ASCI interviewed almost 12,500 consumers who were chosen at random between April 2023 and March 2024. In terms of iPhone owners, customer satisfaction increased slightly from 81% to 82% while Samsung saw its score leap from 80% to 82% year over year. Overall, smartphone satisfaction increased by 3% while Google was the only company listed to suffer a fall - down to 77% from 78%.

When the European Union forced Apple to allow third-party app stores on the iPhone, Apple suggested that its own App Store was key to ensuring that the company could keep its users safe. It's the same argument that it's used whenever the topic of the App Store and its payment processing systems has come under fire by lawmakers, and now the company has shared details that it believes help back up that stance. According to Apple, the App Store prevented $7 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions across a four-year time span.

The time span in question ran from 202 to 2023, Apple's press release says, with the transactions including more than $1.8 billion worth in 2023 alone. In the same period, Apple says, the company blocked more than 14 million stolen credit cards and more than 3.3 million accounts from transacting again.

The press release goes on, saying that in 2023 it rejected more than 1.7 million app submissions that failed to stick to the App Store's standards for privacy, security, and content. Apple also terminated almost 374 million developer and customer accounts and removed close to 152 million ratings and reviews over concerns that they could potentially be fraudulent.

After weeks of beta testing, Apple released the iOS 17.5 software update to the world yesterday, bringing with it a couple of new features related to the Apple News app and support for early warnings related to potential item tracker stalking. But while the update might have been lacking in terms of the sheer number of new features, it certainly made up for that in terms of the number of security fixes it implemented.

Apple has now published a new support document that details the new fixes that have been applied as a result of iOS 17.5 and there's quite a lot of them. In fact, there are no fewer than 15 new security fixes that will be applied when people install iOS 17.5 on their iPhones at home.

We tend to suggest that people regularly update their iPhones and other devices to ensure that they are running the latest software for a variety of reasons. One of those is compatibility, ensuring that you and your apps can make use of the latest APIs and whatnot. Another is to make sure you're using the latest and greatest versions of the apps that Apple ships by default, including Safari, Mail, and others.

When Apple announced its new M4 iPad Pro and the revamped M2 iPad Air last week it detailed plenty of new features that buyers will be able to take advantage of, but it turns out that there was one change that the company didn't mention. According to a new report, Apple's new iPads will sport an exclusive battery health menu including a new option.

The report, coming from iCulture, says that an additional Battery Health Menu can be found under Settings, Battery on the new iPad Pro and iPad Air. The menu shows the current battery health, maximum battery capacity, cycle count, and the option to choose the 80% battery optimization option that prevents the iPad from being charged beyond the 80% mark.

These options are not available as part of the iPadOS 17.5 update on other iPads despite having been found in code in recent beta updates before iPadOS 17.5 was released to the public. At the time it was suggested that the new features may be exclusive to the new iPads, and that now appears to have been proven correct.

The brand-new M4 iPad Pro is quite the beast of a machine as early reviews have already attested to. But while the new OLED display is said to be as impressive as Apple claimed during its announcement event, that doesn't mean that it isn't without its issues. One issue in particular relates to the way it displays HDR content, and Apple is reportedly already aware of the issue.

The issue was first reported by iMore and it's difficult to explain. The way we understand it is that some HDR highlights are blown out when certain shades of blue are shown on-screen. Instead of being blue as you might expect, they appear almost white which creates a strange-looking effect and one that definitely isn't the iPad working as intended.

The report says that the same issue isn't available on an iPhone 15 Pro, a Samsung TV, or the M2 11-inch iPad Pro, suggesting that the problem is indeed specific to the hot new OLED display found in the M4 iPad Pro. If you have a new iPad Pro you can test the issue for yourself using the Dolby Vision stream of Strange Things Series 3 on Netflix. The example given is the 25-minute mark of the fifth episode in which you see characters making their way down a long corridor. Around the edge of a blue shirt is a clear white hue, something that definitely shouldn't be there.

If you're waiting for the Apple Store to open on May 15 so you can rush in and buy one of Apple's shiny new M2 iPad Airs, you probably aren't alone. But as excited as you might be and as impressive as the M2 chip is, there is always going to be something better - and according to a new leak, the M3 iPad Air is already something that we should all be considering.

That leak comes via a private X account that has a proven track record of sharing information about future Apple products and has been picked up by MacRumors. According to that report, the next iPad Air to come out of Apple Park will ditch the current M2 chip in favor of the M3, the same chip that powers the latest and best Macs right now.

That of course isn't all that surprising when you look at Apple's history of updating iPads and iterating the chip, but it does mean that the iPad Air won't skip the M3 and go straight to the M4. That's exactly what the new iPad Pro did of course, but it seems that the M3 iPad Air will be a thing - although we don't yet know when that will happen.

We're now just hours away from Apple's M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air officially going on sale after being made available for preorder last week. May 15 is the big day, and that's when people will be able to walk into an Apple Store and then walk out with a new tablet. It's also when those who got their preorders in quickly should see their iPad Pro or iPad Air land on their doorstep, too. No matter where the new iPad came from, the unboxing experience will include a new software update after the release of iPadOS 17.5.

That new update is already available and ready for download by people who have other compatible iPads. And while those with the new hotness can expect the same new features, there is actually one that's exclusive to the new tablets as well. For that reason alone, we would suggest that every new iPad buyer download and install iPadOS 17.5 as soon as they can.

The iPadOS 17.5 update brings with it a number of improvements and there's a special build number 21F84 that will be offered to the new iPads alone. In fact, they will ship with a version of iPadOS 17.4 that was never made available to the older models, too.

When Apple announced the new M4 iPad Pro last week it confirmed, albeit via the company's tech specifications website rather than via the announcement event, that the new chip came in two different core configurations. The base model comes with a 9-core CPU whereas those who buy the iPad Pro with 1TB or 2TB of storage gain an extra performance core, making it faster when performing multi-core workloads. The upgraded chip also comes with twice as much RAM, so 16GB rather than the standard 8GB.

Now, new Geekbench test scores for the lower-core-count M4 have started to appear online and it gives us our first proper look at how that compares with the version of the iPad Pro that has an extra core built in.

The results suggest that the loss of a core is worth around 10% of the Geekbench results, as noted by MacRumors. In terms of cold, hard, figures, the 10-core CPU manages a score of around 14,600 during multi-core testing. For comparison, the 9-core version of the same chip manages around 13,000. Looking for added context? The M3 chip that the M4 replaces has just eight CPU cores and manages around 11,600 while the 8-core M2 chip posts scores of around 9,600.

Apple has today finally made the iOS 17.5 software available for download by everyone who has a compatible iPhone after weeks of beta testing. The app update is of course free to download and it brings with it a number of new improvements. We'd suggest that everyone downloads the new update sooner rather than later, too.

Apple made the update available alongside other software updates for the iPad, Mac, and the rest of its platforms, and this one, in particular, brings with it some interesting changes. The most notable change, albeit one that only affects people in the European Union, means that users can now download apps directly from the websites of individual developers for the very first time. The change comes as part of Apple's attempts to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act. Other changes that have already been applied include the allowance for third-party app stores and more.

Other changes of note in iOS 17.5 include the new Cross-Platform Tracking Detection system that will alert people if a compatible Bluetooth item tracker is moving with them but is not owned by them. It doesn't matter which device that tracker is paired with - meaning those paired with Android devices will still alert iPhone users and vice-versa.