HoFo News

From The Web:

WhatsApp is back online after a massive global outage

Nothing CEO Carl Pei on the Phone 2, AI, and the future of gadgets

Nothing Phone 2 vs Google Pixel 7a camera face-off

The FCC aims to stop SIM swappers with new rules

Carriers keep increasing connection fees — here are some tips to avoid them

From The Forums:

Considering Visible

Bloatware Apps installed after Security Update

Looks like another solid quarter of subscriber losses for Verizon with Hans at the helm

Using rewards points for data failed

Netflix

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Smartwatches may provide early Parkinson's diagnosis

More Galaxy Watch 6 leaks reveal sizes, ‘business’ model, and more images

Best smartwatches for sleep tracking 2023

Motorola Sound MA1 vs. AAWireless: Android Auto without wires

Neckbuds never die

From The Forums:

Unlimited data for $25 month prepaid plan question

Change Plan on Verizon prepaid

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Nothing Phone (2) gets launch day update with camera improvements, fixes

Nothing Phone 2 review: the vibes abide

This handset looks like a phone, but it's an e-reader

Google’s continued expansion of Bard AI doesn’t include Canada

Bell was the Fastest Mobile Operator in Canada for Q2: Report

From The Forums:

Bought the 365 day/24GB Unlimited plan with reward points but didn't add 365 days to unlimited plan?

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

iOS 17 is a lot of little updates that make a big impact

Planning to install iOS 17 beta? Here’s how to archive an iOS 16 backup for downgrade

New Emojis in 2023-2024

Android 14 Beta 4 is out, the final release is next

Top 10 trending phones of week 28

From The Forums:

Galaxy A54, Still no Band 71 with Dual SIM?

moto g stylus 5G (2023)

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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It's time for a new thread of the week, our way of recognizing forum members for promoting valuable discussion here.

Every weekday yours truly posts a morning briefing, including the most popular forum threads—that is, the posts with the most replies—for the previous 24 hour period. For reference, here are the briefings for the past seven days:

Your Morning Briefing for Monday, July 10th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Tuesday, July 11th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Wednesday, July 12th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Thursday, July 13th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Friday, July 14th, 2023

Remember that the Monday briefing includes forum posts from the prior Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so all weekend posts are similarly eligible.

In each briefing, forum posts are ranked by the number of replies (from highest to lowest). That's subject to change, of course, so I did a quick recount of replies for all forum posts in the briefings above. With 33 replies as of this posting the most popular thread started last week is:

No Gmail notifications when display is sleeping

Congrats once again to melman for starting our one hundred and seventy-ninth thread of the week! As a small token of our appreciation, please enjoy a monthlong Premium Membership on us. Benefits include ad-free browsing, increased private message count, access to a subscriber-only forum, extra attachment space, a referral/affiliate signature link, the ability to post referrals, and a custom avatar and user title!

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

It's official: Smartphones will need to have replaceable batteries by 2027

Twitter says it will start paying creators this week

B.C. government hit tweet limit amid wildfire evacuations

Bell, Telus join Rogers in hiking connection fee to $60

Voice Actor Turns Instagram's Terms of Service Into 51-Minute Sleep Aid

From The Forums:

Pioneer Cellular has begun the transition of their customers to Verizon and other carriers

Options for calls from Spain/Portugal to US

Deactivated phone

AT&T Reducing AutoPay Discount for Credit Cards

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Nothing Phone (2) hands-on review

Nothing Phone (2) available for (Canadian) pre-order now starting at $929

OnePlus Nord 3 arrives with 80W fast charging and promise of three major Android updates

OnePlus 12 shows off its periscope zoom camera in leaked CAD-based renders

Enjoy the Samsung Unpacked lineup from all angles and in all colors ahead of launch

From The Forums:

Tracfone's iPhone SE 3rd Gen

How can I know if iphone has been unlocked clean?

TF Account Number

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Best smartwatch and fitness tracker deals for Amazon Prime Day 2023

Amazon discounts all Apple Watches for Prime Day 2023

The Garmin Fenix 7S is a staggering $300 off this Prime Day

The latest Samsung Health Beta hints at upcoming Galaxy Ring

Visible vs. T-Mobile: Which carrier should you pick?

From The Forums:

I don't understand this whole cdma gsm thing

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Everything New in iOS 17 Beta 3

Best Prime Day Samsung deals: the 17 best sales right now

Complete list of Amazon (Canada) Prime Day 2023 Tech Deals

Fitbit Charge 5 users left in the dark after firmware update

Bell Media Stops Advertising on Facebook and Instagram

From The Forums:

Are Consumer Cellular's customer service folks always jerks?

International text

Successful balance transfer/combination with eSIM?

Cellular Data in Mexico via PPC

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Google Pixel Fold review: An $1,800 rough draft

Google’s first truly custom chip for Pixel devices won’t arrive until 2025

Rogers’ July 2022 outage, one year on

Canada has room to improve on 5G availability on global scale, analysis shows

Top 10 trending phones of week 27

From The Forums:

No Gmail notifications when display is sleeping

Weather Channel for Samsung and Amazon Photos fail to connect/open new A54 5G (unlocked).

How to get on to the proper 1.5 throttle $300 ATT prepaid Annual plan

$5 Text Add On

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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It's time for a new thread of the week, our way of recognizing forum members for promoting valuable discussion here.

Every weekday yours truly posts a morning briefing, including the most popular forum threads—that is, the posts with the most replies—for the previous 24 hour period. For reference, here are the briefings for the past seven days:

Your Morning Briefing for Monday, July 3rd, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Tuesday, July 4th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Wednesday, July 5th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Thursday, July 6th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Friday, July 7th, 2023

Remember that the Monday briefing includes forum posts from the prior Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so all weekend posts are similarly eligible.

In each briefing, forum posts are ranked by the number of replies (from highest to lowest). That's subject to change, of course, so I did a quick recount of replies for all forum posts in the briefings above. With 24 replies as of this posting the most popular thread started last week is:

Smaller phone recommendations

Congrats to bnwrx for starting our one hundred and seventy-eighth thread of the week! As a small token of our appreciation, please enjoy a monthlong Premium Membership on us. Benefits include ad-free browsing, increased private message count, access to a subscriber-only forum, extra attachment space, a referral/affiliate signature link, the ability to post referrals, and a custom avatar and user title!

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

So where are we all supposed to go now?

Twitter warns it could sue Meta over ‘copycat’ Threads app

Facebook's Threads is so depressing

France Passes New Bill Allowing Police to Remotely Activate Cameras on Citizens' Phones

Farmer ordered to pay after judge says thumbs-up emoji amounts to contract acceptance

From The Web:

Phone options for AT&T prepaid

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Samsung’s next folding phones arrive on July 26th

This environmentally conscious smartphone is finally coming to the US

Android 13 July update rolling out for Pixel

Threads reaches 10 million registrations in first 7 hours

Federal government pulls advertising on Meta’s platforms

From The Forums:

Anyone else having trouble contacting H2O?

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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I've been reading Marty Cooper's chronicle of his career at Motorola, developing the first-ever handheld cellular phone. I knew that device would come to be known as the DynaTAC ("Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage") but I didn't know that there were four other design concepts considered:



This flip out mouthpiece design would eventually come to market with 1989's MicroTAC.



World's first foldable? The earpiece and microphone each fold inward to cover the center piece.



World's first slider?



Inspiration perhaps for Nokia's banana phone that Neo would use to escape The Matrix more than a quarter-century later.



And the winning design... The actual prototype would end up being larger and heavier, due mostly to the insides having not been invented yet!

If you're interested in the book it's a very easy read; links immediately below...

Cutting the Cord: The Cell Phone has Transformed Humanity on Amazon / Amazon Canada

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Nothing Phone (2) emerges in more press images

The OnePlus foldable is all but fully revealed thanks to latest leaks

iPhone 15 Lineup Rumored to Feature Significantly Larger Batteries

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2022): The iPad alternative

Purism found a way to make its Linux phone even more expensive: meet the $2,199 Liberty Phone

From The Forums:

Guess days don't add to end date anymore ???

Carry over data?

First drop after less than an hour of starting service

Do unlocked Samsung Fold devices have access to Verizon's UWB?

Which network AT&T or Tmo

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Exclusive: Google Pixel 8 series will have bigger batteries, faster charging

Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 brings better performance, faster quick charging to midrange phones

iOS 17 release date? Here's when to expect the public beta and official release

Apple’s next AirPods Pro may check your hearing health and take your temperature

This early Prime Day headphone deal brings Sony’s LinkBuds S to their lowest price

From The Forums:

Smaller phone recommendations

Has anyone had unlocking delayed by a weekend/holiday ?

Power outage = no data?

blacking incoming texts / failure notifications

Red Pocket roaming in Mexico and Canada

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

The Reddit app-pocalyse is here: Apollo, Sync, and BaconReader go dark

Elon Musk blames data scraping by AI startups for his new paywalls on reading tweets

ChatGPT is now a brilliant tool for winding up telemarketers and scammers

Nokia and Apple sign long-term patent cross-license agreement covering 5G and other technologies

Top 10 trending phones of week 26

From The Forums:

Next move on Cellular MVNO plans

FAA C Band restrictions expired or extended?

Bought a new phone. Auto Refill didn't transfer.

Visible - Hotspot connection limit no longer

55+ question

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
---------

It's time for a new thread of the week, our way of recognizing forum members for promoting valuable discussion here.

Every weekday yours truly posts a morning briefing, including the most popular forum threads—that is, the posts with the most replies—for the previous 24 hour period. For reference, here are the briefings for the past seven days:

Your Morning Briefing for Monday, June 26th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Tuesday, June 27th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Wednesday, June 28th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Thursday, June 29th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Friday, June 30th, 2023

Remember that the Monday briefing includes forum posts from the prior Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so all weekend posts are similarly eligible.

In each briefing, forum posts are ranked by the number of replies (from highest to lowest). That's subject to change, of course, so I did a quick recount of replies for all forum posts in the briefings above. With 58 replies as of this posting the most popular thread started last week is:

voicemail not working on new phone

Congrats to melman for starting our one hundred and seventy-seventh thread of the week! As a small token of our appreciation, please enjoy a monthlong Premium Membership on us. Benefits include ad-free browsing, increased private message count, access to a subscriber-only forum, extra attachment space, a referral/affiliate signature link, the ability to post referrals, and a custom avatar and user title!

---------
Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
---------

From The Web:

The Asus Zenfone 10 is your best bet for a high-powered, small Android phone

Asus Zenfone 10 review

Get a grip: How PopSockets can save you from decades of pain

9,999 in 10,000 Mobile Apps Will Fail: Here’s Why

Canada’s ‘link tax’ law could break how the web works, says Google

From The Forums:

HP Smart Print app problems

2 Year Contract AT&T Business

AT&T Also Raising Unlimited Plus Hotspot Lines $10 Each

What exactly is "WorldClass International Service"? What happens if I remove it?

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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