FCC Bans Imports of New Foreign-Made Routers, Citing Security Concerns
New submitter the_skywise shares a report from Reuters: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Monday it was banning the import of all new foreign-made consumer routers, the latest crackdown on Chinese-made electronic gear over security concerns. China is estimated to control at least 60% of the U.S. market for home rout … ⌘ Read more

Millions Face Mobile Internet Outages in Moscow. ‘Digital Crackdown’ Feared
13 million people live in Moscow, reports CNN.

But since early March the city “has experienced internet and mobile service outages on a level previously unseen.” (Though Wi-Fi access to the internet is still available…) Russian social media “is flooded with jokes and memes about sending letters by carrier pigeons or using sma … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Plans Smartphone Comeback More Than a Decade After Fire Phone Flop
Amazon is reportedly developing a new AI-focused smartphone that doesn’t rely as heavily on traditional apps. “The phone is seen as a potential mobile personalization device that can sync with home voice assistant Alexa and serve as a conduit to Amazon customers throughout the day,” reports Reuters. From the report: As envisio … ⌘ Read more

Meta Is Shutting Down VR Social Platform Horizon Worlds
Meta is shutting down its VR social platform Horizon Worlds, which was once a key piece of the pivot to the metaverse. The company said the app will be taken off the Quest store at the end of March, and fully removed from Quest headsets by June 15. After that date, it will shift to a standalone “mobile-only experience.” CNBC reports: The shift for Horizon Worlds, … ⌘ Read more

Samsung Ends $2,899 Galaxy Z TriFold Sales After Just Three Months
Samsung is reportedly ending sales of the Galaxy Z TriFold just months after launch, likely due to “high production costs” and limited supply. 9to5Google reports: The Galaxy Z TriFold launched in South Korea barely four months ago, arriving in Samsung’s home market ahead of a larger debut in the U.S. and other markets in January. The $2,899 s … ⌘ Read more

Intel Announces Core Ultra 200HX Plus Along With “Intel Binary Optimization Tool”
Intel today announced their Core Ultra 200HX Plus series mobile processors as their refresh for Arrow Lake HX. The announcement of the Core Ultra 200HX Plus also mentions a new Intel Binary Optimization Tool software package that has the potential of being quite interesting… ⌘ Read more

London Man Wore Smart Glasses For High Court ‘Coaching’
A witness in a London High Court case was caught using smart glasses connected to his phone to receive real-time coaching while giving evidence during cross-examination. “In my judgement, from what occurred in court, it is clear that call was made, connected to his smart glasses, and continued during his evidence until his mobile phone was removed from him,” said Judg … ⌘ Read more

AT&T Outlines $250 Billion US Investment Plan To Boost Infrastructure In AI Age
AT&T plans to invest more than $250 billion over the next five years to expand U.S. telecom infrastructure for the AI age. The company says it will also hire thousands of technicians while partnering with AST SpaceMobile to extend coverage to remote areas. Reuters reports: Rapid adoption of artificial intelligence … ⌘ Read more

Samsung Wants To Let You Vibe Code Your Galaxy Phone Experience
Samsung says it’s thinking about bringing “vibe coding” to future Galaxy phones, allowing users to describe apps or interface changes in plain language and have AI generate the code. TechRadar interviewed Won-Joon Choi, Samsung’s head of mobile experience, to learn more about the plans. Here’s an excerpt from their report: As noted by Won-Joon Ch … ⌘ Read more

‘If Lockheed Martin Made a Game Boy, Would You Buy One?’
“If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you buy one?” That was the [rhetorical] question The Verge’s Sean Hollister asked when he reviewed ModRetro’s Game Boy-style handheld device back in 2024. He said it “might be the best version of the Game Boy ever made,” though the connection to Palmer Luckey and his defense tech startup Anduril left him conflicted. “I … ⌘ Read more

AMD EPYC Achieves Performance Leadership In New OCUDU Project For 5G/6G RAN
Announced this week at Mobile World Congress (MWC) by the Linux Foundation was the establishing of the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation for advancing open-source AI-RAN (Radio Access Network) innovations. OCUDU is building a reference platform and innovations around 5G and early 6G network solutions. With OCUDU being benchmark-friendly, I have been putting the early code through some performance tests on current AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon serve … ⌘ Read more

AMD EPYC Achieves 5G/6G RAN Performance Leadership With New OCUDU Project
Announced this week at Mobile World Congress (MWC) by the Linux Foundation was the establishing of the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation for advancing open-source AI-RAN (Radio Access Network) innovations. OCUDU is building a reference platform and innovations around 5G and early 6G network solutions. With OCUDU being benchmark-friendly, I have been putting the early code through some performance tests on current AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon server … ⌘ Read more

Qualcomm CEO: ‘Resistance Is Futile’ As 6G Mobile Revolution Approaches
At Mobile World Congress, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm argued that the coming 6G networks will power an AI-driven “agent economy,” where devices and AI assistants constantly communicate across the network. “AI will fundamentally change our mobile experiences,” Qualcomm chief executive, Cristiano Amon says. “It’s going to change how we th … ⌘ Read more

Motorola Partners With GrapheneOS
At MWC 2026, Motorola announced a partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation to bring the hardened, Google-free Android variant to future devices. Until now, the OS had been designed exclusively for Google Pixel phones. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Motorola to bring GrapheneOS’s industry-leading privacy and security-focused mobile operating system to their next-generation smartphone,” a GrapheneOS … ⌘ Read more

Japan To Ban In-Flight Use of Power Banks
Japan will effectively ban the in-flight use of power banks starting in mid-April after a “recent series of alarming incidents,” reports the Asahi Shimbun. From the report: Currently, mobile batteries in Japan are classified as “spare batteries” and are prohibited in checked luggage. For carry-on bags, those exceeding 160 watt-hours are banned, while passengers are limited to two units f … ⌘ Read more

AMD Announces Ryzen AI PRO 400 Series Desktop CPUs For AI-Focused Computing
AMD is using Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week to announce new Ryzen AI PRO 400 Series products, including Ryzen AI PRO 400 desktop processors… ⌘ Read more

Lenovo Unveils an Attachable AI Agent ‘Companion’ for Their Laptops
As the Mobile World Conference begins in Spain, Lenovo brought a new attachable accessory for their laptops — an AI agent. CNET reports:
The little circular module perches on the top of your Lenovo laptop display, attached via the magnetic Magic Bay on the rear. The module is home to an adorable animated companion called Tiko, who you can … ⌘ Read more

Smartphone Market To Decline 13% in 2026, Marking the Largest Drop Ever Due To the Memory Shortage Crisis
An anonymous reader shares a report: Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to decline 12.9% year-on-year (YoY) in 2026 to 1.1 billion units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. This decline will bring … ⌘ Read more

iPhone and iPad Are First Consumer Devices Cleared for NATO Classified Data
Apple’s iPhone and iPad running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have become the first consumer mobile devices cleared for NATO-restricted classified data. No special software or settings are required. MacRumors reports: Apple’s devices are the first and only consumer mobile products that have reached this government certification lev … ⌘ Read more

@kiwu@twtxt.net Lately… A native mobile app for Salty.im 😅

👋 Looking for other interested folks to continue to evolve the development of Salty.im 🙏 I’ve been hard™ at work on the v2 branch and @doesnm.p.psf.lt@doesnm.p.psf.lt has been incredibly helpful so far. Be great ot have a few more folks to join us, some of the v2 highlights include:

• Double Ratchet by default.
  
• Group Chat (sender/client fan-out for now)
  
• Much better TUI with background agent.
  
• Mobile App coming soon™ (iOS in progress, Android next, same codebase)

Meta’s Metaverse Leaves Virtual Reality
Meta is pivoting Horizon Worlds away from its original VR-centric metaverse vision and toward a mobile-first strategy, “explicitly separating” its Quest VR platform from the virtual world. TechCrunch reports: By going mobile-first, Horizon Worlds is positioning itself to compete with popular platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. “We’re in a strong position to deliver synchronous social games at sca … ⌘ Read more

Uber Putting $100 Million into EV Charging for Robotaxis
Uber plans to invest $100 million in EV charging infrastructure to support current and future robotaxi fleets in cities like Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Dallas, “eventually partner[ing] with multiple robotaxi companies on actual robotaxi deployment – WeRide, Waabi, Lucid, Nuro, May Mobility, Momenta, and Waymo of course,” reports CleanTechnica. From the rep … ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.6 Released
Longtime Slashdot reader jrepin writes: KDE Plasma is a popular desktop (and mobile too) environment for GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. Among other things, it also powers the desktop mode of the Steam Deck gaming handheld. The KDE community today announced the latest release: Plasma 6.6.

In this new major release, Spectacle can recognize texts from screenshots, a new on-screen keyboard and new login manager a … ⌘ Read more

T-Mobile Will Live Translate Regular Phone Calls Without an App
T-Mobile is opening registration today for a beta test of Live Translation, an AI-powered feature that will translate live phone calls into more than 50 languages when it launches this spring.

The feature operates at the network level, so it doesn’t require any specific app or device – beta participants simply dial 87 to activate it on a call. T-M … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Lead Is Contracting as AI Competition Intensifies
OpenAI’s rivals are cutting into ChatGPT’s lead. From a report: The top chatbot’s market share fell from 69.1% to 45.3% between January 2025 and January 2026 among daily U.S. users of its mobile app. Gemini, in the same time period, rose from 14.7% to 25.1% and Grok rose from 1.6% to 15.2%.

The data, obtained by Big Technology from mobile insights firm Apptopia, … ⌘ Read more

YouTube Kills Background Playback on Third-Party Mobile Browsers
YouTube has confirmed that it is blocking background playback – the ability to keep a video’s audio running after minimizing the browser or locking the screen – for non-Premium users across third-party mobile browsers including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge.

Users began reporting the issue last week, noting that audio wou … ⌘ Read more

Phosh Mobile Phone UI Making Progress On GTK4 Port
Evangelos Ribeiro Tzaras presented today at FOSDEM on the latest work around Phosh, the mobile phone user interface / Wayland shell project for mobile Linux environments. Phosh has been making steady progress and has more features out on the horizon… ⌘ Read more

Apple Reports Best-Ever Quarter For iPhone Sales
Apple posted its biggest quarter ever, with iPhone revenue hitting a record ~$85.3 billion and Services climbing 14% to ~$30 billion. Total revenue reached nearly $143.76 billion.

“The demand for iPhone was simply staggering,” CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call discussing the results. “This is the strongest iPhone lineup we’ve ever had and by far the most popular.”

[![]( … ⌘ Read more

Belkin’s Wemo Smart Devices Will Go Offline On Saturday
Belkin is shutting down cloud support for most Wemo smart home devices on January 31, leaving only Thread-based models and devices already set up in Apple HomeKit functional. Everything else will lose remote access, voice assistant integrations, and future app updates. The Verge reports: The shut down was first announced in July and impacts most Wemo devices, ran … ⌘ Read more

‘Call Screening is Aggravating the Rich and Powerful’
Apple’s call-screening feature, introduced in iOS 26 last year, was designed to combat the more than 2 billion robocalls placed to Americans every month, but as WSJ is reporting, it is now creating friction for the rich and powerful who find themselves subjected to automated interrogation when dialing from unrecognized numbers.

The feature uses an automated voice to … ⌘ Read more

Seven of the World’s Ten Best-Selling Smartphones in 2025 Were iPhones
Apple sold seven of the ten best-selling smartphones globally in 2025, a lopsided dominance that underscores how thoroughly the company controls the premium end of the mobile market.

The iPhone 16 was the single best-selling phone worldwide, and Apple’s presence extended all the way down to the tenth spot where the iPhone 16e – its … ⌘ Read more

Nothing CEO Says Company Won’t Launch New Flagship Smartphone Every Year ‘For the Sake of It’
Android smartphone maker Nothing won’t release a Phone 4 this year, the company’s founder and chief executive said, and that the 2025 Phone 3 will remain the brand’s flagship device throughout 2026.

“We’re not just going to churn out a new flagship every year for the sake of it, we want ev … ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Thanks for letting me know it was Mobile Safari! I just did some testing real quick and things are not working very well 🤔 I think I’ve introduced some regressions last night as I was putting this into prod 😅 services me right for late-night deployment 🤣 I’ve taken it down for now, will spend a bit more time on testing making sure things all work properly!

French Lawmakers Vote To Ban Social Media Use By Under-15s
French lawmakers have voted to ban social media access for children under 15 and prohibit mobile phones in high schools, positioning France as the second country after Australia to impose sweeping age-based digital restrictions. The Guardian reports: The lower national assembly adopted the text by a vote of 130 to 21 in a lengthy overnight session from Mon … ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net so far my first uploaded PDF doesn’t play, on mobile Safari.

Android Phones Are Getting More Anti-Theft Features
An anonymous reader shares a report: Google on Tuesday announced an expanded set of Android theft-protection features, designed to make its mobile devices less of a target for criminals. Building on existing tools like Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock, and others introduced in 2024, the newly launched updates include stronger authentication safeguards and enhanced … ⌘ Read more

Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold Will Cost $2,900 in the US
Samsung said today that its Galaxy Z TriFold, the first tri-fold smartphone to ship in the U.S., will be available starting January 30 at a price point of $2,899 – substantially more expensive than any other phone on the U.S. market, including Samsung’s own $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 7 and a fully loaded 2TB iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The company will only sell the device through its … ⌘ Read more

China Hacked Downing Street Phones For Years
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Telegraph: China hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years, The Telegraph can disclose. The spying operation is understood to have compromised senior members of the government, exposing their private communications to Beijing. State-sponsored hackers are known to have targeted the phones of some of the … ⌘ Read more

TikTok Alternative ‘Skylight’ Soars To 380K+ Users After TikTok US Deal Finalized
Skylight, an open-source, TikTok-style video app built on the AT Protocol, surged past 380,000 users after last week’s shake-up around TikTok’s U.S. ownership and privacy concerns. TechCrunch reports: Launched last year and backed by Mark Cuban and other investors, Skylight’s mobile app is built on the AT Protocol, … ⌘ Read more

New Linux/Android 2-in-1 Tablet ‘Open Slate’ Announced by Brax Technologies
Brax Technologies just announced “a privacy-focused alternative to locked-down tablets” called open_slate that can double as a consumer tablet and a Linux-capable workstation on ARM.

Earlier Brax Technologies built the privacy-focused smartphone BraX3, which co-founder Plamen Todorov says proved “a privacy-focused mobile devi … ⌘ Read more

The Android ‘NexPhone’: Linux on Demand, Dual-Boots Into Windows 11 - and Transforms Into a Workstation
The “NexDock” (from Nex Computer) already turns your phone into a laptop workstation. Purism chose it as the docking station for their Librem 5 phones.

But now Nex is offering its own smartphone “that runs Android 16, launches Debian, and dual-boots into Windows 11,” acco … ⌘ Read more

Campaigner Launches $2 Billion Legal Action In UK Against Apple Over Wallet’s ‘Hidden Fees’
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from the Guardian: The financial campaigner James Daley has launched a 1.5 billion pound (approximately $1.5 billion) class action lawsuit against Apple over its mobile phone wallet, claiming the U.S. tech company blocked competition and charged hid … ⌘ Read more

Verizon Wastes No Time Switching Device Unlock Policy To 365 Days
An anonymous reader quotes a report from DroidLife: When the FCC cleared Verizon of its 60-day device unlock policy a week ago, we talked about how the government agency, which is as anti-consumer as it has ever been at the moment, was giving Verizon the power to basically create whatever unlock policy it wanted. We also expected Verizon to m … ⌘ Read more

HHS Announces New Study of Cellphone Radiation and Health
An anonymous reader quotes a report from U.S. News & World Report: U.S. health officials plan a new study investigating whether radiation from cellphones may affect human health. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the research will examine electromagnetic radiation and possible gaps in current science. The initiati … ⌘ Read more

Setapp Mobile To Close in February as Alternative iOS App Store Economics Prove Untenable
MacPaw, the Ukraine-based developer, has announced that Setapp Mobile – its alternative iOS app store for European Union users that launched in open beta in September 2024 – will shut down on February 16, 2026, citing “still-evolving and complex business terms” for alternative marketplaces that … ⌘ Read more

Threads Usage Overtakes X On Mobile
New data from Similarweb shows Threads has overtaken X in daily mobile users. However, X still dominates on the web with around 150 million daily web visits compared to Threads’ 8.5 million daily visits. TechCrunch reports: Similarweb’s data shows that Threads had 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android as of January 7, 2026, after months of growth, while X has 125 million daily active users … ⌘ Read more

Asus Confirms It Won’t Launch Phones in 2026, May Leave Android Altogether
Asus won’t release any new smartphones this year, and that may signal the brand’s exit from the Android space altogether. From a report: Asus Chairman Jonney Shih confirmed the news at an event in Taiwan on Jan. 16. According to a machine-translated version of quotes reported by Inside, Shih said, “Asus will no longer add new … ⌘ Read more

Acer Sues Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, Alleging Infringment on Acer’s Cellular Networking Patents
Slashdot reader BrianFagioli writes: Acer has filed three separate patent infringement lawsuits against AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, taking the unusual step of hauling the nation’s largest wireless carriers into federal court. The suits, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, claim t … ⌘ Read more

Predator Spyware Turns Failed Attacks Into Intelligence For Future Exploits
In December 2024 the Google Threat Intelligence Group published research on the code of the commercial spyware “Predator”. But there’s now been new research by Jamf (the company behind a mobile device management solution) showing Predator is more dangerous and sophisticated than we realized, according to SecurityWeek.

Long-ti … ⌘ Read more