Phones

Several companies are developing a feature that, depending on who you ask, requires 5G connectivity for their next phone. This feature takes a few different forms but is, at its core, all about hyperlocal sharing. For Apple it's their newest version of AirDrop, using Ultra Wideband tech with (for example) the iPhone 11 and the U1 chip - they call it "spatial awareness" and it's in the process of being developed (in a slightly different iteration or two) by Samsung for Galaxy phones and by Google for Android phones, too.

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All of the first-wave Samsung Galaxy S20 device colors leaked over the past 24 hours, and we've got them here for you to peruse. This includes colors for the Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra, all with 5G - and a couple with a likely 4G alternative. Releases in this variety of colors might depend on region, but for the most part, we'll see all of the colors ready to roll at launch - especially here in the USA.

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The situation at Sprint at the moment is a bit of a rarity in the smartphone universe - a deal with the potential for no drawback. Sprint has a Samsung screen-fixing program right now in which one phone can have its display fixed for $50 USD. Assuming you've got a broken phone screen and your phone is one of the limited models Sprint's got listed, this would appear to be a genuine no-strings-attached deal... which is honestly a shock.

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Today we're taking a look at all the Pokemon released with Shiny Pokemon alternatives in 2019 and what we'll likely see in 2020. This list includes some analysis of the entire last year, thanks to some intrepid user action on the part of The Silph Road user Castaform. We've also got some theories about what 2020 will bring each month - it's going to get wild!

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OnePlus' much-awaited CES 2020 presentation was probably one of its weirdest. Much to many's disappointment, it didn't have a foldable phone to show and the invisible camera it did reveal did not hide behind a screen. The OnePlus Concept One did at least generate some discussion and now one of the company's industrial design team members is revealing there might be more to what was shown, including a black prototype.

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The European Union has long been trying to standardize the chargers and connectors use in smartphones, particularly to fight the increasing amount of chargers and accessories wasted because of incompatible technologies. Now it seems to be on the verge of formally drafting rules that would force Apple to ditch its proprietary Lightning connector in favor of USB-C. Unsurprisingly, the company is pushing back, claiming that the effects of such a regulation would actually result in the very situation that the EU is trying to avoid.

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iPhones are still as expensive as ever and market trends suggest they will still climb every year. That makes cheaper models of flagship phones all the more enticing to consumers but many do worry what they're losing in exchange. Fortunately for iPhone fans, DxOMark has put the latest extremes of the iPhone 11 generation to the test and, at least as far as camera performance is concerned, you won't be missing out on much with the cheaper iPhone 11.

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The Galaxy Z Flip, Samsung's first foldable phone to come in a clamshell form, is turning out to be a mixed bag so far. It's going to be a lot cheaper than the first Galaxy Fold but it will still be beyond the reach of most consumers. It will use an ultra-thin glass that should be more durable than the plastic polyimide material on its predecessor but, it turns out, it still won't be able to address two fortunately minor gripes that afflict this new breed of devices.

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It was rather odd that LG, who needs every bit of good publicity it can get, was so silent about the Desktop Mode feature it sneaked in with its UX 9.0 Android 10 update. After all, it's no small thing when you're offering a power user feature few aside from Samsung and Huawei have. It turns out, that silence might not have been unplanned and that this desktop mode might actually be intended for a new device that will bring about big changes in the company's mobile business.

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Android has been around for a long time and yet it still seems to have trouble easily and quickly sharing files with one another. Next to iMessage, Apple's AirDrop is one of the most coveted iOS features that Android users want on their phones. Now it seems that multiple Android partners, including Android maker Google itself, are working on their own perhaps incompatible solutions. Unsurprisingly, Samsung apparently has one as well and it might have an odd feature that no other has so far.

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A new bit of Pokemon GO code appeared in the latest version of the game's app file that allows us to see the near-future of the game, here and now. Thanks to the efforts of the folks that call themselves Pokeminers, we've got a peek at the first big 2020 update for Pokemon GO in APK version 0.165.0 for Android devices. This update brought on a 102.55 MB file - that's a whole 289 KB larger than its predecessor - considerably sizable!

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This week a new text message scam became enough of an issue that FedEx itself needed to send an alert to news stations. As police warnings began to appear on social networks like Twitter, early reports sparked interest from the team at FedEx that monitors shipping service abuse. This system resulted in the following warning.

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