smartphones

Remember that time in Batman: The Dark Knight when they hacked into every phone in the city and used audio matching and GPS to locate The Joker? It would seem that the app developers behind the app LaLiga had the same idea as Bruce Wayne - because they've essentially made that nightmare a reality. With their app, they've been detecting pubs and bars broadcasting pirated football (soccer) matches illegally, using geofencing and live audio from everyday users with their LaLiga app.

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I can't say for sure - because nobody knows for sure - but I'm calling it right now: Hot Wheels ID just stole Christmas. Using a bit of the magic summoned by the Apple x Anki Overdrive remote control car toy collaboration and some established-brand PR power - plus some features over which kids will likely flip their lid - Hot Wheels ID just struck gold. Again, I'm just making some informed guesses here - but take a look and see what you think.

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The Verizon Smart Locator was revealed today as a tiny piece of hardware that contains its own very simple processor. And that's it. This device has a pre-installed SIM card to connect to mobile data with Verizon, a Li-Ion battery that's 400mAh large, and can be recharged using a USB cord. It's a tracker - one that, unlike most trackers, is not limited to Bluetooth range.

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To gain access to easier-than-normal Shiny Pokemon for Pokemon GO Fest starting this week, you'll need to follow some steps. Today we're taking a look at the steps you'll need to take to get to a new, more extraordinary place in your Pokemon GO journey via Global Challenges and Rewards for Pokemon GO Fest - with the newly rebranded Pokemon GO Global Challenge list.

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For the past several days, the Google Pixel 4 seemed to leak one tiny detail every few hours. The earliest major leak seemed to be a set of 3D renders of the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, in part of their glory (not all their glory, as the design details didn't seem complete). That leak looked really, really familiar - especially when compared to the also-leaked hardware designs of what's assumed to be the iPhone 11. With neither phone acknowledged as existing, who was the copycat?

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If you can't beat 'em, join 'em - at least, that seems to be the strategy behind the new Google Pixel 4 being leaked... by Google itself. Hot on the heels of a whole spate of renders, mock-ups, feature and hardware rumors, and more over the past few weeks, Google has waded into the fray itself with an official (and very early) sighting of the smartphone.

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Before the official launch of the AT&T consumer version of the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, the company has something different in store. AT&T's decided to release their Galaxy S10 5G through its AT&T Developer Program first, for "AT&T Business customers and 5G developers" only. But why?*

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The Google Pixel 4 leaks are off with a bang this week, with imagery of the phone lineup and features coming in hot and heavy. Clues appearing today suggest there's a sort of feature that'll make use of the Project Soli sensor first revealed by Google in 2015 (and approved by the FCC for testing early this year). Android Aware, or Pixel Aware, it's likely called, or just "Aware". This system could change the way we interact with smartphones forever.

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ASUS just send their new ZenFone 6 smartphone to a number of 3rd-party developers on non-Google versions of Android. It's apparent that ASUS contacted the developer-centric XDA Developers Forum at some point this year, and this week they've announced a the collection of developers with which they've worked. As it were, the folks at XDA seem to have done the selecting - but the list shows a who's who for users who've not kept up with the whole rooting/modifying Android smartphone community over the last several years.

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The app called scrcpy was released in version 1.9 this week with features that make it the most advanced (yet simple) Android phone mirroring app in the world. This app allows the mirroring of any Android smartphone* using USB (or TCP/IP, wirelessly) and requires no rooting or specialized knowledge. This app works on GNU/Linux, Windows, and macOS, and it's free to download and use.

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Come in, radar, this is Pixel 4 - Pixel 4 calling, over. Today there's rumor that the Google Pixel 4 will make use of Google's recently-FCC-approved Project Soli chip. That's a chip that enables a device to employ radar to detect tiny changes in the space its scanning - movement, mostly - human hand movement, primarily. This sort of crossover could mean some magical abilities are afoot for Google's next major smartphone release.

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The next major release from HTC was just teased thanks to a pair of heralds in Extraordinary Purple and Modest Green. The folks at HTC, once responsible for some of the world's most awesome Androids, have now pulled back to a much more modest place in the world of mobile hardware. With the HTC U19e, we see a smartphone that's simple, elegantly designed, and staunchly opposed to falling victim to the most common of trends in the smartphone market today.

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