Transportation

The 5G Threats To Airplanes Quietly Recedes 39

The July 1 deadline for the US airline industry came and went, and not much happened. "We're not aware of any disruptions specifically related to 5G over the weekend," wrote Ian Petchenik, director of communications for Flightradar24, on Monday. Mike Dano writes via Light Reading: Petchenik noted the flight-tracking company does not specifically collect data on the types of issues that delay flights. Regardless, the situation is remarkable considering warnings of "major disruptions," "chaos" and the possibility that "the nation's commerce will grind to a halt" if 5G gets too close to airplanes in the US. Broadly, the high-stakes standoff between the US wireless industry and the airline industry -- which kicked into high gear just over a year ago -- appears to be something that both sides now mostly want to forget.
Android

The User-Repairable Fairphone 4 Is Finally Coming To the US (theverge.com) 65

The Fairphone 4 -- a user-repairable smartphone built using ethically sourced materials -- is finally coming to the US, almost two years after it first debuted back in September 2021. The Verge reports: Fairphone is partnering with Murena, a company best known for de-Googling Android phones, to launch the US pilot of the Murena Fairphone 4 -- a variant of the handset that runs on a privacy-oriented Android-based operating system: /e/OS. There are two configurations available: one with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $599 and another with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $679. The storage of both models can be expanded via microSD, and the phone features a modular design that can be easily disassembled using a standard Phillips #00 screwdriver to replace broken components. It also has an IP54 rating, meaning the device is protected against dust and water sprays.

The Murena Fairphone 4 will ship to US customers with 5G and dual SIM support, a removable 3905mAh battery, a 48-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, and a 25-megapixel selfie camera. The phones will be available to order exclusively from Murena's webstore starting today. The Murena Fairphone 4 also comes with the /e/ operating system preinstalled, which is described as a privacy-focused, Google-free mobile ecosystem for folks who want to avoid handing any data over to the search giant. Instead of the usual Google apps, the Fairphone 4 will come with a range of default Murena Cloud apps for things like email, calendar, and cloud storage as well as a dedicated app store that highlights the privacy ratings of each app to help users monitor how their online activity is being tracked.

The Fairphone comes unlocked, but the press release mentions that T-Mobile and other operators based on T-Mobile's network are the only US carriers recommended to be used with the device. Fairphone is also providing an extended five-year warranty for the hardware, and /e/OS is similarly committed to fixing bugs and supporting security and feature updates for five years. The Murena version is the only Fairphone 4 model being introduced to the US, and there's no mention of the standard Android OS model joining it anytime soon.

Businesses

Ambani's Jio Unveils $12 4G Phone With Digital Pay and Streaming (techcrunch.com) 15

Reliance's digital arm, Jio Platforms, has unveiled a new mobile handset and associated tariff plans, the latest in a series of years-long efforts from the top Indian telecom operator as it vies to convert users who remain "trapped" in the country's legacy 2G networks. From a report: Named 'Jio Bharat,' the handset from Jio Platforms is 4G-enabled and offers a suite of modern features including mobile payments capabilities with UPI, and access to Jio's own on-demand video and music streaming services, JioCinema and JioSaavn. The company said it will manufacture the Jio Bharat and also partner with other phonemakers to adopt the Jio Bharat Platform to build the handsets. The Delhi-headquartered Karbonn has signed up to the platform, said the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led firm in a statement. The Jio Bharat is priced at 999 Indian rupees, or $12.2, Reliance said.
Australia

Turn Your Phone Off Every Night For Five Minutes, Australian PM Tells Residents (theguardian.com) 126

Australia's prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has told residents they should turn their smartphones off and on again once a day as a cybersecurity measure -- and tech experts agree. From a report: Albanese said the country needed to be proactive to thwart cyber risks, as he announced the appointment of Australia's inaugural national cybersecurity coordinator. "We need to mobilise the private sector, we need to mobilise, as well, consumers," the prime minister said on Friday. "We all have a responsibility. Simple things, turn your phone off every night for five minutes. For people watching this, do that every 24 hours, do it while you're brushing your teeth or whatever you're doing." The Australian government's advice is not new. In 2020, the United State's National Security Agency issued best-practice guidelines for mobile device security, which included rebooting smartphones once a week to prevent hacking.
Wireless Networking

NFC Payments Are About To Become Faster, Easier, and Truly Contactless (androidauthority.com) 25

The NFC Forum has revealed a roadmap for NFC technology that extends from now to 2028. The roadmap outlines five key initiatives for the direction of the technology over the next two to five years, including increasing the range of NFC connections, increasing wireless charging over NFC, enabling multiple-purpose taps, giving NFC-enabled smartphones Point-of-Sale functionality, and the ability to share how products should be recycled. Android Authority reports: Currently, NFC connections only work at a distance of 5mm. However, the NFC Forum wants to extend this distance by four to six times. Not only would this allow contactless payments to become truly contactless, but it would also make transactions faster and easier. Even a modest change is said to be enough to reduce the precision needed to align the antenna. Improving the range was far from the only matter the collective was looking into. The group shared that it wanted to increase wireless charging over NFC from 1W to 3W. Doing so would allow for wireless power and charging in smaller devices. It could even allow the creation of new applications previously left unexplored.

Another initiative is to enable multiple-purpose taps. This would reportedly make supporting several actions with a single tap possible. Additionally, the group mentioned giving NFC-enabled smartphones Point-of-Sale functionality and the ability to share how products should be recycled.

Sony

Sony Plans To Keep Making Smartphones For at Least a Few More Years (engadget.com) 20

Sony is still beavering away on its own phones and it plans to keep doing so for the foreseeable future. From a report: Sony has struck a multi-year deal with Qualcomm to use Snapdragon platforms to power its handsets. This is an extension of an existing agreement between the two sides. Qualcomm chipsets will be used in Sony's upcoming premium devices, along with high- and mid-tier smartphones. Sony revealed the awkwardly named Xperia 1 V just last month.
Wireless Networking

ASUS Urges Customers To Patch Critical Router Vulnerabilities (bleepingcomputer.com) 25

ASUS has released new firmware for several router models to address security vulnerabilities, including critical ones like CVE-2022-26376 and CVE-2018-1160, which can lead to denial-of-service attacks and code execution. The company advises customers to update their devices immediately or restrict WAN access until the devices are secured, urging them to create strong passwords and follow security measures. BleepingComputer reports: The first is a critical memory corruption weakness in the Asuswrt firmware for Asus routers that could let attackers trigger denial-of-services states or gain code execution. The other critical patch is for an almost five-year-old CVE-2018-1160 bug caused by an out-of-bounds write Netatalk weakness that can also be exploited to gain arbitrary code execution on unpatched devices.

"Please note, if you choose not to install this new firmware version, we strongly recommend disabling services accessible from the WAN side to avoid potential unwanted intrusions. These services include remote access from WAN, port forwarding, DDNS, VPN server, DMZ, port trigger," ASUS warned in a security advisory published today. "We strongly encourage you to periodically audit both your equipment and your security procedures, as this will ensure that you will be better protected."

The list of impacted devices includes the following models: GT6, GT-AXE16000, GT-AX11000 PRO, GT-AX6000, GT-AX11000, GS-AX5400, GS-AX3000, XT9, XT8, XT8 V2, RT-AX86U PRO, RT-AX86U, RT-AX86S, RT-AX82U, RT-AX58U, RT-AX3000, TUF-AX6000, and TUF-AX5400.

Stats

Gen Xers and Older Millennials Say They'd Prefer to Live in an Era Before the Internet (fastcompany.com) 284

A new Harris Poll shared exclusively with Fast Company found that most Americans would prefer to live "in a simpler era before everyone was obsessed with screens and social media," reports Fast Company, adding "this sentiment is especially strong among older millennials and Gen Xers."

The Wrap summarizes the poll results: 77% of middle-age Americans (35-54 years old) say they want to return to a time before society was "plugged in," meaning a time before there was widespread internet and cell phone usage...

63% of younger folks (18-34 years old) were also keen on returning to a pre-plugged-in world, despite that being a world they largely never had a chance to occupy. In total, 67% of respondents said they'd prefer things as they used to be versus as they are now.

"Interestingly, baby boomers were slightly less eager to time hop, with only 60% of people over 55 saying they'd prefer to return to yesteryear," notes Fast Company: While Americans may want to unshackle themselves from the burden of constant connectivity, an overwhelming 90% also said that being open-minded about new technologies is important, a finding that mostly held up across demographics. About half of respondents even said they tend to adopt new technologies before most people they know...

Just over half said they found keeping up with new technologies overwhelming, and about that same percentage said they believe technology is more likely to divide people than unite them. Here, it was younger respondents who took the most pessimistic view, with 57% of people under 35 agreeing that technology divides, versus 43% who disagreed.

Businesses

iPhone Maker Foxconn To Switch To Cars As US-China Ties Sour (bbc.com) 42

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: iPhone maker Foxconn is betting big on electric cars and redrawing some of its supply chains as it navigates a new era of icy Washington-Beijing relations. In an exclusive interview, chairman and boss Young Liu told the BBC what the future may hold for the Taiwanese firm. He said even as Foxconn shifts some supply chains away from China, electric vehicles (EVs) are what will drive its growth in the coming decades. As US-China tensions soar, Mr Liu said, Foxconn must prepare for the worst.

"We hope peace and stability will be something the leaders of these two countries will keep in mind," 67-year-old Mr Liu told us, in his offices in Taipei, Taiwan's capital. "But as a business, as a CEO, I have to think about what if the worst case happens?" The scenarios could include attempts by Beijing to blockade Taiwan, which it claims as part of China, or worse, to invade the self-ruled island. Mr Liu said "business continuity planning" was already under way, and pointed out that some production lines, particularly those linked to "national security products" were already being moved from China to Mexico and Vietnam. He was likely to be referring to servers Foxconn makes that are used in data centers, and can contain sensitive information. [...]

Foxconn's hopes to capture about 5% of the global electric vehicle market in the next few years -- an ambitious target given the firm has only made a handful of models so far. But it is a gamble that Mr Liu is confident will pay off. "It doesn't make sense for you to make [EVs] in one place, so regionalized production for cars is very natural," he added. Foxconn car factories will be based in Ohio in the US, in Thailand, Indonesia and perhaps even in India, he said. For now, the company will keep focusing on what it does best -- making electronic products for clients. But perhaps not too far in the future, Foxconn will do the same for clients with electric cars. Either way, with the foray into electric cars, Foxconn is diversifying not just production but also supply lines -- both of which, Mr Liu believes, hold the key to the company's future.

IOS

iOS 17 Gives You 72 Hours To Undo An iPhone Passcode Change (macrumors.com) 16

In iOS 17, iPhone users who change their passcode will be able to reset it within 72 hours using the previous passcode. However, users can choose to expire the previous passcode immediately in the Settings app to increase security. MacRumors reports: If you enter an incorrect passcode, tapping on "Forgot Passcode?" at the bottom of the screen will lead to another screen with a "Try Passcode Reset" option. Tapping this option allows you to enter the iPhone's previous passcode and create a new passcode. As a safeguard, an option in the Settings app lets you expire the previous passcode immediately so that it cannot be used to reset the new passcode.

As of the first beta of iOS 17, it is still possible to change an Apple ID account's password with an iPhone's passcode, despite a Wall Street Journal report in February highlighting instances of thieves spying on an iPhone user's passcode in public and then stealing the device in order to gain widespread access to the device. In an interview with Daring Fireball's John Gruber last week, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said Apple has continued to "look at other ways to address this," but no changes have been made as of yet.

The Internet

A San Francisco Library Is Turning Off Wi-Fi At Night To Keep People Without Housing From Using It (theverge.com) 251

In San Francisco's District 8, a public library has turned off its Wi-Fi outside of business hours in response to complaints from neighbors and the city supervisor's office about open drug use and disturbances caused by unhoused individuals. The Verge reports: In San Francisco's District 8, a public library has been shutting down Wi-Fi outside business hours for nearly a year. The measure, quietly implemented in mid-2022, was made at the request of neighbors and the office of city supervisor Rafael Mandelman. It's an attempt to keep city dwellers who are currently unhoused away from the area by locking down access to one of the library's most valuable public services. A local activist known as HDizz revealed details behind the move last month, tweeting public records of a July 2022 email exchange between local residents and the city supervisor's office. In the emails, residents complained about open drug use and sidewalks blocked by residents who are unhoused. One relayed a secondhand story about a library worker who had been followed to her car. And by way of response, they demanded the library limit the hours Wi-Fi was available. "Why are the vagrants and drug addicts so attracted to the library?" one person asked rhetorically. "It's the free 24/7 wi-fi."

San Francisco's libraries have been historically progressive when it comes to providing resources to people who are unhoused, even hiring specialists to offer assistance. But on August 1st, reports San Francisco publication Mission Local, city librarian Michael Lambert met with Mandelman's office to discuss the issue. The next day, District 8's Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial branch began turning its Wi-Fi off after hours -- a policy that San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) spokesperson Jaime Wong told The Verge via email remains in place today.

In the initial months after the decision, the library apparently received no complaints. But in March, a little over seven months following the change, it got a request to reverse the policy. "I'm worried about my friend," the email reads, "whom I am trying to get into long term residential treatment." San Francisco has shelters, but the requester said their friend had trouble communicating with the staff and has a hard time being around people who used drugs, among other issues. Because this friend has no regular cell service, "free wifi is his only lifeline to me [or] for that matter any services for crisis or whatever else." The resident said some of the neighborhood's residents "do not understand what they do to us poor folks nor the homeless by some of the things they do here."
Jennifer Friedenbach of San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness told The Verge in a phone interview that "folks are not out there on the streets by choice. They're destitute and don't have other options. These kinds of efforts, like turning off the Wi-Fi, just exacerbate homelessness and have the opposite effect. Putting that energy into fighting for housing for unhoused neighbors would be a lot more effective."
Wireless Networking

Linux Foundation Announces Collaboration for 'Open Radio Access Network' Prototypes (linuxfoundation.org) 20

This week the Linux Foundation and the National Spectrum Consortium "announced formal collaboration" on developing software prototypes and demonstrations for Open RAN (open radio access network):

The two organizations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to solidify their working relationship and commitment to minimizing barriers to further R&D necessary for OpenRAN acceleration within the United States.

More open and flexible wireless networks ultimately increase vendor diversity and competition, prevent vendor lock-in, increase innovation in wireless networking technology, lower deployment and operational costs, and even increase security and energy efficiency. "We are eager to work with the NSC in creating a stable, open, secure reference stack for Open RAN," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge & IoT, the Linux Foundation. "By combining resources, we'll accelerate access to Open RAN and wireless technology across the United States across verticals and into government, academia, and small business."

The collaborations goals include:
  • Establish an open source reference software architecture for Open RAN that will kickstart academic and commercial R&D by lowering the cost and complexity of entry
  • Rally support from industry with guidance and funds to leap forward in a true open and secure RAN

Television

Apple TV To Support VPN Apps On tvOS 17 15

Along with FaceTime support and a redesigned Control Center, Apple is adding support for VPN apps in tvOS 17. MacRumors reports: VPN apps could allow for Apple TV users to watch geo-restricted content from any location, such as the U.S. version of Netflix in another country. In its tvOS 17 press release, however, Apple focused on how the VPN apps can benefit enterprise and education users, so it is possible that Apple could restrict usage of the apps.

Apple: "Third-party VPN support, which enables developers to create VPN apps for Apple TV. This can benefit enterprise and education users wanting to access content on their private networks, allowing Apple TV to be a great office and conference room solution in even more places."
Iphone

Apple To Stop Autocorrecting Swear Word To 'Ducking' On iPhone (nbcnews.com) 55

At Apple's developer conference earlier this week, the company said it has tweaked the iPhone's autocorrect feature to prevent it from replacing the common expletive with "ducking." Craig Federighi, Apple's software chief, mentioned that the keyboard will now learn and adapt to users typing the intended word. From a report: The iPhone keyboard autocorrect feature has always had its quirks, sometimes taking a misspelled word while texting and substituting what it deems a logical option that ends up changing the meaning of a particular phrase or sentence. Such occurrences generally produce follow-up texts along the lines of "damn autocorrect!" But the "ducking" substitution is a long-standing source of mirth or frustration, depending on how many times one has had to rewrite their own texts or scream at one's own device (the iPhone cannot correct one's verbal epithets).
IOS

Apple's New iOS 17 Will Warn You If Someone Tries To Send Unsolicited Nudes (businessinsider.com) 70

Apple's new iOS 17 includes a Sensitive Content Warning feature that notifies users when they receive unsolicited nude images. Insider reports: Apple said in a press release that the Sensitive Content Warning would help adult users avoid seeing unwanted nude images and videos. The company would not get access to the content as processing for the new feature occurred on the user's device, the press release added. The tech giant is also expanding Communication Safety, a feature aimed at protecting children, to cover sending and receiving content via AirDrop, Contact Posters, and FaceTime messages. The privacy feature will also expand to cover video content, as well as images. Further reading: Apple Announces iOS 17 With StandBy Charging Mode, Better Autocorrect
IOS

Apple Announces iOS 17 With StandBy Charging Mode, Better Autocorrect (theverge.com) 44

At WWDC today, Apple debuted iOS 17. "Highlights include new safety features, a built-in journaling app, a new nightstand mode, redesigned contact cards, better auto-correct and voice transcription, and live voicemail," reports The Verge. "And you'll be able to drop the 'hey' from 'Hey Siri.'" From the report: Your contact book is getting an update with a new feature called posters, which turns contact cards into flashy marquee-like images that show up full-screen on your recipient's iPhone when you call them. They use a similar design language as the redesigned lock screens, with bold typography options and the ability to add Memoji, and will work with third-party VoIP apps. There's also a new live transcription feature for voicemail that lets you view a transcript of the message a caller is leaving in real time. You can choose to ride it out or pick up the call, and it's all handled on-device. You'll also be able to leave a message on FaceTime, too.

Some updates to messages include the ability to filter searches with additional terms, a feature that jumps to the most recent message so you can catch up more easily, transcriptions of voice messages -- similar to what the Pixel 7 series introduced -- and a series of new features called Check In that shares your live location and status with someone else. It can automatically send a message to a friend when you've arrived home, and it can share your phone's battery and cell service status to help avoid confusion if you're in a dead zone. Stickers are getting an overhaul, too, with the ability to add any emoji or photo cutout as a "sticker" positioned on iMessages or anywhere within the system. Live photos can be turned into animated stickers, too, and you can now add effects to stickers.

AirDrop gets an update to send contact information -- cleverly called NameDrop -- which will send your selected email addresses and phone numbers (and your poster) just by bringing two iPhones near each other. It also works between an iPhone and an Apple Watch. Photos can be shared the same way, and if the file is a big one, it's now possible to move out of range while continuing the download. iOS 17 also includes keyboard updates, including enhancements to autocorrect. It now relies on a new language model for better accuracy, plus an easier shortcut to revert to the original word you wrote if necessary. There's now in-line predictive typing and sentence-level autocorrections to correct more grammatical mistakes. It'll finally learn your favorite cuss words, too; Apple's Craig Federighi even made a "ducking" joke onstage. Dictation uses a new AI model, too, that's more accurate.

A new app called Journal automatically suggests moments that you might want to commemorate in a journal entry. Your entries can include photos, music, and activities, and you can schedule reminders for yourself to start writing. It's end-to-end encrypted, too, to keep things private. StandBy is a new mode for charging that turns the screen into a status display with the date and time. It can show information from Live Activities, widgets, and smart stacks and automatically turns on when your phone is in landscape mode while charging. You can swipe to the right to see some of your highlighted photos, and it comes with customizable clockfaces. Siri will surface visual results in StandBy, and the display shifts to a red tone at night to avoid disrupting sleep. Last but not least, Siri gets a boost, too, and finally lets you drop the "hey" from "Hey Siri." It will also recognize back-to-back commands.
iOS 17 is available to developers today, with a public beta released next month.
Cellphones

Progressive Web Apps 'Don't Spy or Clog Your Phone'. Do You Use Them? (msn.com) 94

"It's worth questioning the status quo of technology," argues the Washington Post's Tech Friend newsletter, "including apps as we know them."

Then they tout the benefits of the "non-app app... a hybrid of a website and a conventional app, with features of each" — the unappreciated Progressive Web App (which many still don't know can be installed on your phone's home screen): Web apps look and function pretty much like the conventional apps for your phone or computer, but they clog less space on your device and are less pushy about surveilling you. People who make web apps also say they are easier to create and update than conventional apps... But web apps have been around for years, and most people don't know they exist...

[Traditional apps] come with profound downsides, including Big Tech control, privacy compromises and high development costs. It would be healthy if there were palatable alternative paths to our current app system. Web apps might be part of the solution... At their core, web apps are "the web with an app-like cover," said Rob Kochman, senior product manager for Google's Chrome. Kochman and other web app fans say these apps are less demanding and less intrusive than a conventional app. The web app for Starbucks, for example, takes up just 429 kilobytes of storage on my phone — or less than 1 percent of the storage taken by the standard Starbucks Android app...

And by design, once a conventional app is on your phone, it can access your phone's guts and peek under the hood of your internet network. Web apps are stingier about access, Kochman and other experts told me. "If you're worried about installing some app, you'd probably prefer that as a web app," said a veteran tech executive who helped develop the original technology for web apps. He referred to a web app as "just a website that took all the right vitamins...."

It's difficult to figure out which companies make web apps or find them. There's not an app store for web apps, although there are some attempts like Store.App and Appscope. They're not ideal... Some technologists told me that Apple has held back web apps by limiting their capabilities for Apple devices. The company has said that's not true. And this year, Apple added iPhone feature options for web apps...

We should keep challenging what can feel like immutable parts of digital life, including apps. We have to keep asking: What if there's something better?

It's as easy as "press the three-dot icon, then select 'Add to home screen.'" But it'd be interesting to hear the perspective of Slashdot readers. So share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

Are you using progressive web apps?
Communications

Amazon Is in Talks To Offer Free Mobile Service To US Prime Members (bloomberg.com) 49

Amazon has been talking with wireless carriers about offering low-cost or possibly free nationwide mobile phone service to Prime subscribers, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the situation. From a report: The company is negotiating with Verizon, T-Mobile US and Dish Network to get the lowest possible wholesale prices. That would let it offer Prime members wireless plans for $10 a month or possibly for free and bolster loyalty among its biggest spending customers, the people said, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter. The talks have been going on for six to eight weeks and have also included AT&T at times, but the plan may take several more months to launch and could be scrapped, one person said.
Android

Motorola Unveils Its 4th-Gen Foldable, the Moto Razr+ (arstechnica.com) 39

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After endless leaks, Motorola made its fourth-generation lineup of foldables official today. The flagship is the Moto Razr+, which will launch in the US on June 23 for $999. There's also a cheaper phone called only the "Moto Razr" with a smaller outside screen, slower SoC, and no clear US price or release date. Internationally, these phones are called the Moto Razr 40 Ultra and Moto Razr 40. The Ultra model's SoC is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 -- that's not the best you can get from Qualcomm, which would be the 8 Gen 2 -- this is a year-old mid-cycle upgrade chip. The phone has 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 3800 mAh battery with 30 W quick charging. The leaked display specs have been all over the place, but officially, the interior display is a 6.9-inch, 2640x1080 OLED that runs at a smoking 165 Hz. The exterior display is super big on the Ultra model and is a 3.6-inch, 144 Hz OLED at a nearly square 1066x1056. Motorola has the phone's dust and water ingress protection rated at IP52, which typically only protects from "direct sprays of water up to 15 degrees from the vertical" and is far from qualifying the Razr as a water-resistant phone.

The design has been better. The original foldable Moto Razr reboot from 2020 had beautiful throwback looks that screamed "Moto Razr." It looked just like the old-school flip phone from the early 2000s but modernized. This fourth foldable generation tones things down a lot and is more of a generic rectangle. You could easily confuse it for Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip. This fourth generation seems more mature, though. Motorola will now let you run any app you want on the ultra's giant front screen, complete with the option of a super tiny Android navigation bar tucked away in the bottom left corner, to the left of the two front cameras. You can peruse the app drawer, use Google Pay, or play media on the front display. You can even type on the keyboard: Google GBoard has a special full-screen mode that will show a single line of input text.

Those front cameras give this font display one of the strangest display shapes on the market. With two big dead spots in the bottom right corner, the workable display area is kind of an upside-down L shape. By default, apps will stay out of the non-rectangular part of the screen, but it's possible to enable a "full screen" mode for the front apps. This will force apps to use the lower part of the display, and you just have to hope that they will somehow deal with that. Android has APIs to identify dead areas of the display for apps to work around, but usually, that's for a top camera notch. Not many apps are built for this, but you're apparently welcome to try to make them work with the feature. [...] If you're interested in the Razr+, preorders start June 16.

Space

Hubble Network Wants To Connect a Billion Devices With Space-Based Bluetooth Network (techcrunch.com) 60

Seattle-based startup Hubble Network plans to launch a constellation of 300 satellites to create a global satellite network that any Bluetooth-enabled device can connect to, anywhere in the world. The network aims to provide real-time updates for devices equipped with Bluetooth low energy (BLE) chips, offering connectivity to over a billion devices. TechCrunch reports: Hubble Network CEO Alex Haro says the company has engineered "technical tricks" to make this scale of connectivity possible for the first time, like lowering the bitrate, or the amount of data transferred per second. Hubble has also rethought the design of the satellite antenna. Instead of sticking a single antenna on the side of a satellite bus, the company is using hundreds of antennae per satellite. This means that each satellite can support millions of connected devices. The result is a radio signal that can be detected around 1,000 kilometers away -- or almost 10 orders of magnitude longer than what can be detected from a Bluetooth chip over terrestrial networks.

Hubble Network plans to launch an initial batch of four satellites on SpaceX's Transporter-10 rideshare mission in January 2024, and onboard early pilot customers after. The startup is fully funded through this mission, Haro said, thanks to a $20 million Series A round that closed in March. That round was led by Transpose Platform, with additional participation from 11.2 Capital, Y Combinator, Yes.VC, Convective Capital, Seraphim Space, Type One Ventures, Soma, AVCF5, Space.VC, Jett McCandless, John Kim, Chris Nguyen, Alan Keating and Don Dodge.

After launching four satellites next January, Hubble plans to build out its constellation to 68 satellites total over the next two-and-a-half years. While the first four satellites will provide global coverage on their own, Haro said that it will be about a six-hour gap until devices can update on the ground. Increasing the constellation to 68 birds means that a satellite will be overhead every 15 minutes or so -- an update rate that is sufficient for "the vast majority" of customer use cases, Haro said. While Hubble is clearly targeting existing Bluetooth devices -- of which billions exist all over the world already -- Haro is confident that the company's network will solicit developers to build applications that don't even exist yet.

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