Phones

Amazon's Prime Exclusive selection of phones is becoming one of the best places to find a deal on discounted Android handsets. The online shopping giant offers a range of subsidized phones to Prime subscribers, often pre-loaded with Amazon's apps and services. The company has announced that two new devices will be joining the lineup, the Moto G6 Play and Moto Z3 Play, each with Alexa installed as the digital assistant.

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The US Supreme Court has ruled that officials must have a warrant to acquire a week or more of phone location data. Such information, particularly when mapped over a large period of time, has the potential to reveal sensitive details about someone, such as who they associate with, religious beliefs, and more. The ruling does not, however, require a warrant in all situations.

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The next version of the iPhone will probably have a Lightning USB cord with USB-C on the other end - but after that? Imagine a world without cords. Now that we've got the ability to transmit power from one device to the other without cords, with wireless charging pads, what's left for reasons to keep cords at all? Surely only speed - since we can also transfer all the data we'd like with technologies like Bluetooth.

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When you are slapped with a patent lawsuit, one of the best ways to turn the tables is to have those patents invalidated. It is definitely easier and perhaps cheaper than arguing in court that you didn’t infringe on them anyway. Apple is no stranger to that tactic and is now pulling the same strategy on Qualcomm over four of the chip maker’s patents. Those same patents are, of course, the ones that Qualcomm is suing Apple for.

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Here's some exciting news for Motorola fans: the Moto Z3 Play, which was revealed at the beginning of the month, has gone up for pre-order. As you'd expect, the phone is available to order directly through Motorola, but you might also want to have a look as Amazon. The massive online retailer has revealed that the Moto Z3 Play, along with the less expensive Moto G6 Play, will be offered as Prime Exclusive phones.

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If you’re a hardcore, key-mashing typist who must feel the key travel at each and every press, you really don’t have much choice as far as smartphones go. Fortunately, now you have a new choice, depending on the design, specs, and price that you find most convincing. The BlackBerry KEY2 definitely changes the game a bit and BlackBerry’s third Android QWERTY smartphone will finally be available to US buyers in just a few weeks.

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The year is half over and we’ve mostly seen all that year has to offer as far as smartphones go. Except, of course, for Apple new iPhones and Samsung’s last hurrah for the year. We already took a look at the premium phones that landed in the market in the first few months of the year and was admittedly at a loss for which one came out at the top. This quarter has its own roster with seemingly interesting personalities. Will a winner finally stand out? Let’s take a look.

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We put almost everything inside our phones, from our personal data to our money. So why not our car keys as well? After all, smart homes can already be locked or unlocked using our mobile devices anyway. That’s the future, frightening or otherwise, that car manufacturers are already building. Now the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) is working together to create an open standard around that, called the Digital Key specification, which is now marking its 1.0 release on the road towards seamless mobile device-to-vehicle connectivity.

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This week the folks at Xiaomi seem to have let some details slip on their next big, huge, gigantic smartphone. This is the Xiaomi Mi Max 3, and it's coming with not only a big body, but a big display and a big battery, too. Much like the first two Mi Max devices, this handset's most major asset will be its relatively low price coupled with high-end performance and size - and, again, one big battery.

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Anyone and everyone have a notch these days that it’s easier to actually count who doesn’t. There’s Oppo with its new Find X “slider”, Vivo with its elevating Nex, Sony, HTC, and, of course, Samsung. Despite being called out time and again for being an Apple copycat, it seems that this is one area where Samsung is stubbornly refusing to budge. This latest leak simply confirms what we’ve seen so far: the Galaxy Note 9 won’t have a notch.

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Our smartphones have practically become extensions of our bodies and lives, holding the keys not just to our captured memories but, often, also to online accounts and even money. Most users take for granted how much of our data we let companies access through our smartphones but, sometimes, the long arm of the law does finally catch up with the times. Responding to inquiries by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore), AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon all pledged to stop selling phone location data to data brokers. That promise, however, comes with a big “but”.

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Google released their Google Podcasts experience in app form this morning to the surprise of Podcast lovers everywhere. Before now, Google had a podcast-collecting experience available in their Search app, but it wasn't particularly comprehensive. Now there's an app for that, and it's free, and we're expecting apps like Pocket Casts and Sticher to be ... disappointed, to say the least.

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