All posts tagged: smartphones

Longing for a Time Before Smartphones

Longing for a Time Before Smartphones

Published by Daniella Wilson

Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts Gen Z has romanticized the technology of the ’90s—or the era’s lack of it. Young people long for a time when they were looking at one another instead of at their phones. But could that nostalgia for a smartphone-free society actually help guide the future? That’s one of the driving questions in the latest season of How to Touch Grass, co-hosted by Julie Beck and Natalie Brennan. This week on Radio Atlantic, we’re sharing the first episode, with an introduction by Hanna Rosin. The following is a transcript of the episode: Hanna Rosin: I’m Hanna Rosin. This is Radio Atlantic. Do I remember a time before I had a smartphone? Of course I do. [Music] Long dinners with friends, nothing buzzing or pinging. Standing in line with nothing to do but think, and stare. Reading an entire book in two days. And then back to when I was a teenager: telling my friends that I liked or maybe didn’t like their new …

Google Kicks Off Fall Hardware Season With New Pixel 11 Smartphones

Google Kicks Off Fall Hardware Season With New Pixel 11 Smartphones

Published by skeptic

Google today announced new products that compete with Apple devices like the iPhone and the Apple Watch. There are new Pixel smartphones with AI capabilities, a new foldable, and new wearable devices. Pixel 11 Pro Fold The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is thinner and lighter than the prior-generation Pixel Fold. It has a 6.5-inch OLED display when closed, and an 8-inch ‌OLED‌ display when open. When unfolded, it’s 5.1mm thick, and when closed, it’s 10.2mm thick. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold and other new Pixel models have a “HiLight” feature with LED lights around the flash. HiLight glows in different colors for incoming calls or when talking to Gemini. Other features: Thinner bezels Up to 2,000 nits brightness for HDR and 3,600 nits peak brightness for the inner display, 120Hz refresh rate Obsidian and olive colors Glass fiber composite back cover that Google says is “nearly impossible to crack” Gearless hinge with larger bend radius and thicker glass layer for better durability Improved crease performance Faster charging speeds and 4,806mAh battery 2nm Tensor G6 chip …

4 New Camera Tricks on Google’s Latest Pixel 11 Smartphones

4 New Camera Tricks on Google’s Latest Pixel 11 Smartphones

Published by skeptic

Google’s Pixel Camera chief, Isaac Reynolds, thinks year-to-year upgrades to smartphone cameras are still critical, even though some detractors think they’re passé. “A person who is a casual photographer and desperately wants to be a hobbyist—they’re never going to break that ceiling unless you give them the tools,” he says. “The features that others call ‘meh’—for some people, those features are life-changing.” Take the 30X Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 7 Pro from 2022, which uses machine learning to stitch together multiple frames in a digitally zoomed photo to give you a result that’s much sharper than you’re used to. Reynolds says that because of this feature, Google now sees people using 30X zoom dramatically more than before. The new Pixel 11 Pro, announced today, can zoom up to 120X, though in addition to the digital stitching, it relies on AI-generated pixels to fill in some details. Reynolds says maybe having that capability is enough to get someone interested in, say, wildlife photography. After experimenting on their phone, they’d be ready to invest in …

Google Pixel 11 Series, Pixel Watch 5, Pixel Tag: Specs, Features, Price, Release Date

Google Pixel 11 Series, Pixel Watch 5, Pixel Tag: Specs, Features, Price, Release Date

Published by skeptic

As for the hardware itself, much of Google’s efforts this year seem to revolve around speeding things up and improving performance. Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated chip with a Cortex-M55 co-processor, Google says the Pixel Watch 5 offers 20 percent faster processing. The dual-band GPS is also twice as accurate at route mapping in tough environments like cities, and Google is so confident that it claims the Pixel Watch 5’s GPS outperforms the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro. The screen can hit a peak brightness of 3,000 nits too, matching the Apple Watch Ultra 3. Part of the speed improvements also mean surfacing helpful information when you need it, and Google says its At a Glance feature will bring up relevant details, like Gate information when you’re at the airport, or how many stops are left on your bus route home. Also, you can finally use Gemini even when the watch is not connected to the internet to manage certain tasks, like timers, alarms, and workouts, with …

Honor’s Robot Phone Has a Gimbal-Powered Camera for Vloggers

Honor’s Robot Phone Has a Gimbal-Powered Camera for Vloggers

Published by skeptic

The gimbal-powered 200-megapixel camera isn’t the only camera, either. It’s joined by a 200-megapixel telephoto camera and a 50-megapixel ultrawide, not to mention the 50-megapixel selfie shooter. The gimbal has 4 degrees of freedom, and you can activate it in the camera app or by making a palm motion on the selfie camera. And since it can rotate 300 degrees, you can use it as a selfie camera too. The phone is shockingly light at 248 grams (the aforementioned iPhone 17 Pro is 206 grams). I wholly expected the Robot Phone to be top-heavy, with all those camera components at the top and the massive 7,060-mAh silicon-carbon battery inside powering the whole system. But in fact it’s decently balanced. A glass cover protects the gimbal camera, and you can slide it to the right when you’re ready to activate the gimbal. Once the camera is out, you can manually control the gimbal for ultra-smooth video capture through the camera app, or use preset motions to give your clips a cinematic look. There’s even voice control …

Student Cellphone Bans Are Spreading Across the Globe, With 39 U.S. States and 106 Countries Now Prohibiting Phones in Class | National News

Student Cellphone Bans Are Spreading Across the Globe, With 39 U.S. States and 106 Countries Now Prohibiting Phones in Class | National News

Published by Sam Flores

As students gear up for the new school year, more than 900 million of them in the U.S. and around the world will take part in an expanding experiment: cellphone bans. Eight years after France put in place the first comprehensive school cellphone ban, 106 countries now have them – in places as farflung as Bhutan, Bolivia and Belarus, according to UNESCO. In the U.S., 39 states ban cellphones for schoolchildren during the school day. Some of the studies revealed that students without phones at school show improved academic performance and are victimized less by bullying. But others found no significant changes for student achievement or mental health. “The jury is out,” says Sonia Livingstone, a professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who says she finds it puzzling that so many bans are being enacted with scant evidence that they do much good. What Prompted the Phone-Free Movement The spike in political efforts to ban phones in schools coincides with a global reckoning over the effects of excessive …

Best Android Charger: Wireless, Portable, Cable (2026)

Best Android Charger: Wireless, Portable, Cable (2026)

Published by skeptic

The best Android charger might seem obvious, but it can depend heavily on your priorities. Do you want to charge your phone from zero to 100 as quickly as possible? Are you charging at home in bed overnight, or on the go in a hotel? WIRED Reviews staffers are constantly testing Android chargers, and below you’ll find our top recommendations for every situation. There was once a time when different phones required different cords, like Lightning cables for iPhone or Micro-USB for Android. But now, the majority of devices don’t have special ports and just use a USB-C cable. Modern smartphones from Apple, Google, and Samsung use the Power Delivery charging standard, a fast-charging protocol for USB-C that supports higher voltage and wattage to charge phones faster. All the chargers below support USB-C PD and will work with any smartphone ecosystem, including iPhone. Be sure to check out our related buying guides, like the Best Wireless Chargers, the Best Power Banks, and the Best 3-in-1 Chargers. Love WIRED? Add us as a preferred source on …

No, You Probably Shouldn’t Lease Your iPhone

No, You Probably Shouldn’t Lease Your iPhone

Published by skeptic

Apple has spent more than a decade tending to its thriving walled garden of products. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook’s core legacy at the company was turning it into a subscription service, where devices and services sync and communicate seamlessly, locking customers in. Apple Upgrade is the latest iteration of that vision. On Tuesday, Apple announced a new product leasing service that lets you rent products like a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch. (The news was leaked a week early by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.) Apple Upgrade is a partnership with the financial company Klarna, known for its buy-now, pay-later services. If you sign up, you can pay a monthly fee to get a brand-new device. After a year or 24 months, you can keep paying the monthly fee but swap the hardware for something new. If you want something sooner, there’s a fee to swap devices before the 12-month mark. Monthly plans start at $18 for iPhones, $12 for Apple Watches, $25 for Macs, and $12 for iPads. iPhones come unlocked, meaning your device …

A Time Before Smartphones – The Atlantic

A Time Before Smartphones – The Atlantic

Published by Daniella Wilson

Listen and subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts Back in the ’90s, before everyone had smartphones, were things just … better? Tech-focused nostalgia has become a potent cultural force in recent years, driving sales of “dumbphones,” iPods, CDs, and other retro technology. According to a 2023 survey, 67 percent of Americans wish they could go back to a time “before everyone was ‘plugged in.’” The psychologist behind that survey, Clay Routledge, has found that this sort of nostalgia is more than just a yearning to go backwards. “We can often feel overwhelmed in the moment and in the challenges we face today. It’s hard to see past them. Nostalgia can help us step outside of that moment,” Routledge explains. Nostalgia can actually teach us how we want to live now, and in the future. The following is a transcript of the episode: [Music]  Julie Beck: If you had one word—it can be a noun, it can be an adjective, it can be any part of speech that you want—to describe …

Which New Samsung Foldable Phone Should You Buy? Fold8 Ultra, Fold8, or Flip8?

Which New Samsung Foldable Phone Should You Buy? Fold8 Ultra, Fold8, or Flip8?

Published by skeptic

It’s tougher and more durable than ever, and it boasts the same excellent chipset and top-end performance as its two bigger siblings. The smaller, 4,300-mAh battery is likely enough for similar stamina, since the screens are so much smaller, though the wired and wireless charging are a touch slower. You also get a more basic camera system, comprising a 50-megapixel main shooter backed by a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and video recording tops out at 4K, though that’s plenty for most folks. Who it’s for: People who prize portability, but still want a fun, flip design that’s satisfying to slam shut. How to Get the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Fold8, and Flip8 Unlocked Life is easier when you buy your new phone unlocked, because you can jump carriers to find better deals and easily switch to international eSIMs when you travel. The Galaxy Z phones sold through Samsung’s website are always unlocked. The best place to buy a Galaxy Z phone is Samsung.com, especially since some colors are exclusive to the storefront. Always check out the …