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Tech News
iOS 27 adds a small feature to the Phone app that displays a festive fireworks banner animation when a user calls a contact whose birthday is saved in Contacts. The detail, spotted by an X user, mirrors an animation Apple already uses on Apple Watch's midnight birthday notifications and New Year's celebrations.
Google is rolling out its Scam Detection feature to preview notifications on Pixel devices, extending the protection beyond just calls and messages to more countries. However, the most advanced version of the feature, which offers deeper analysis, remains limited to users in the United States.
Shoppers looking to save money on smartphones often encounter listings labeled 'pre-owned,' 'used,' or 'refurbished,' terms that sound similar but carry different meanings. A refurbished phone has typically been inspected, cleaned, tested, and repaired with replacement parts as needed, while a pre-owned phone is usually sold as-is without such processing.
Former TikTok employees Melody Chu and Jing Liu have launched Superpose, an iOS camera app that uses AI to generate four suggested poses for a selfie or photo of a friend. Users can save these AI-generated poses or use a match feature to align themselves within the frame, and the app has been downloaded over 22,000 times with more than 190,000 poses generated since its July launch.
Security researchers outline how spyware on Android phones can be spotted through symptoms like sudden battery drain, overheating, unexplained data usage, unfamiliar apps, or apps unexpectedly requesting camera and microphone access. Infections most often occur through phishing links or sideloaded apps outside the Play Store, though rogue apps occasionally slip past Google Play Protect too.
Director Eugene Kotlyarenko's new film, screened at TIFF 2026, follows a disgraced influencer played by Cole Sprouse who travels to Tokyo to sell rare vintage Levi's and gets tangled up with yakuza scammers. The movie stands out by constantly showing characters' phone screens and livestreams onscreen, mimicking the experience of being perpetually online while blending comedy with bloody, Miike-style violence.
Light is launching a Rideshare feature for its Light Phone III and upcoming Light Flip, letting users request Uber and Lyft rides, view fares and ETAs, and contact drivers directly from the device. The tool runs through a partnership with Tremp, an SMS-based rideshare service, and charges a 10 percent fee with a $2 minimum, though the first five rides in 30 days are free.
Voicemod has released the Key Pocket, a USB-C hardware dongle that lets Android and iOS users apply real-time voice changing and sound effects during calls, streaming, or mobile gaming. It works as an external audio bridge, routing microphone input through Voicemod's app before passing it to other apps like Fortnite, Discord, or calling apps, sidestepping mobile OS restrictions on altering live mic audio. It costs $99.90 alone or $129.90 bundled with a lifetime Voicemod Pro license.
MediaTek announced its Dimensity 9600 Pro and 9600M mobile processors, both built to handle demanding gaming and on-device AI tasks. The Pro variant is MediaTek's first chip built on TSMC's 2-nanometer process, promising better efficiency and performance than last year's Dimensity 9500, while the 9600M offers similar AI and gaming capabilities as a more affordable option. Both chips can reportedly sustain console-quality gaming at 185 frames per second.
Reviewers compared the Galaxy S24 against three newly released mid-range rivals—Google's Pixel 10a, Nothing's Phone 4a Pro, and Samsung's own Galaxy A37 5G—all priced near $450-$500. Each offers a distinct edge, from the Pixel's long software support and camera software to the Nothing phone's larger screen and periscope zoom, to the A37's battery life and display quality within Samsung's own lineup.
Analyst Mark Gurman says Apple's newly unveiled iPhone Duo, its first foldable phone, could spawn variants like a Duo Max, Duo mini, or Duo SE in coming years. He argues Apple deliberately picked a short name to leave room for such suffixes, mirroring its Air and Pro naming conventions.
President Trump phoned Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang while Huang was speaking at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, and was put on speakerphone to address the audience. Trump dismissed growing concerns about AI and data center expansion as a hoax, arguing that data centers create wealth for people and states. The call followed a weekend of Trump social media posts attacking Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to slow AI development and rejecting calls for new AI regulation.