A new app offering to record your phone calls and pay you for the audio so it can sell the data to AI companies is, unbelievably, the No. 2 app in Apple’s U.S. App Store’s Social Networking section. The app, Neon Mobile, pitches itself as a moneymaking tool offering “hundreds or even thousands of dollars…
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on phones and other tech outside the US, follow Dominic Preston. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. Smartphone batteries are bigger than ever, while the phones themselves…
Sony has announced the Xperia 10 VII, a midrange Android phone that’s launching in the UK, Europe, and Asia, though not the US. It’s more notable than most Sony phones because it marks the first major change to the rear design in over five years: a camera bar, just like recent Pixels, and now even…
Assort Health, a startup that uses AI to automate patient communication for specialty healthcare practices, has raised about $50 million in a Series B round at a valuation of $750 million, according to three sources familiar with the deal. The latest round, which comes just four months after the company raised its $22 million Series…
Unplugged, a company cofounded and backed by Erik Prince, who is also the founder of infamous private military contractor Blackwater, has just released a new version of its “privacy-first” UP Phone that will be made in the US — at some point. The original UP Phone was described by the company as “the ultimate privacy-focused…
“We need to talk.” Nobody likes to hear those words from their spouse. Especially when it’s delivered in a grave tone as you rot on a couch in a grubby blankie, staring like a zombie while doomscrolling. “Wut?” I said, very intelligently. What came next was a compassionate but firm speech about how I was…
Bicycle phone mounts have been a regular part of my life in bike-obsessed Amsterdam ever since 2008, when I got my first phone with built-in GPS and turn-by-turn navigation. I’ve used dozens of mounts since, until they were either lost, broken, or stolen, or something better emerged. I could have saved a ton of money…
Here is a roughly complete list of all the things we know for sure about the first phone made for the new Trump Mobile wireless provider: it’s called the T1 Phone 8002 (gold version). It costs $499, and you can reserve one now with a $100 down payment. It is, according to the website, coming…
Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: you shouldn’t buy Huawei’s trifold phone, the Mate XT. And that’s alright, because you probably couldn’t if you wanted to — while it’s no longer exclusive to China, it’s only on sale in a handful of countries, and not in the US or Europe. Besides, I…
Samsung’s thin phone is here. The Galaxy S25 Edge — first teased back in January — is essentially a slimmed-down S25 Plus, with the same 6.7-inch OLED display, Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, and AI features. The compact design comes at a price though, and you’ll have to do without the telephoto lens or…