Mobile

As spotted by The Mobile Report for new customers on T-Mobile’s “Rely” 5G home internet plan:

In an 8-1 ruling, the justices found that the Federal Communications Commission’s in-house process to levy fines doesn’t violate companies’ right to a jury trial. The case involved AT&T and Verizon’s challenges to fines they faced during the Biden administration over allegations they illegally shared customers’ location without consent.

The Magic V6 was first announced at MWC this year, and is already on sale in China. Today it launches in Singapore and Malaysia, where it costs RM 7,699 (about $1,930), with Europe to follow later this month. Alongside an IP69 rating it’s super slim, and has a huge 6,660mAh battery.

Luxury / trashy phone brand Vertu is back with its first book-style foldable, the Alphafold, an “AI command center” for busy rich people. It sounds like it’s found its audience.

According to leaker and journalist Sonny Dickson, that is, who shared photos of iPhone 18 dummy units — though these look like Pro models, due this fall, with the regular 18 likely launching next spring. Dickson got last year’s iPhone 17 colors almost dead-on, meaning this brand new cherry color is probably accurate.

The Alphafold costs $6,880 (and that’s if you want to slum it with a calfskin finish), with more expensive options including alligator leather, gold, and diamonds. That gets you a year-old Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip, a five-megapixel telephoto (yes, five, not 50), and an AI agent called Hermes.

YouTuber Coffeezilla first reported the leak of customer details, now apparently fixed. Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien has now confirmed to The Verge there was a breach, which he blames on “a third-party platform provider.”

The $500 phone-for-your-phone will now ship with a 4,450mAh battery and the new Android 17, reports Droid Life — good and unexpected upgrades over 4,000mAh and Android 16. Shipping in Q4.

The T1 Phone was supposed to start shipping last week. But our review units haven’t budged, and I’ve so far failed to find anyone online claiming their phone has shipped either. Maybe they’ve had to delay the launch to fix the flag.

The cheaper, performance-focused follow-ups to the Xiaomi 17 series launches on May 28th. We don’t know exactly where yet, but expect an international launch. The T phones usually drop a couple camera specs in exchange for bigger batteries and cheaper prices than the main flagship line.

Back in 2000, people were legitimately wondering if anyone would want to use the internet on their phone. At a time when i-mode phones connected to primitive mobile-specific pages were cutting-edge, and the concept of a smartphone wasn’t really in the public consciousness, the skepticism is understandable.

It was reported last week that Intel and Apple struck a deal for unknown chips. Now supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports Intel is manufacturing “low-end/legacy” chips for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, the majority for the phones. The scale is small though, with TSMC set to retain 90 percent of Apple’s chip supply.

President and COO Gwynne Shotwell took to X to comment on yesterday’s vague commitment by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to plug the long-standing gaps in rural US coverage, as frustrated residents adopt solutions from Starlink, Amazon, and AST SpaceMobile:

Honor says it’ll launch in Q3, meaning July-September, though we’re still expecting it to be a China exclusive. The news was announced at the Cannes Film Festival, where Honor celebrated its partnership with professional cinema camera manufacturer Arri. The Robot Phone will be the first to include “core elements of Arri image science.”

That’s the pitch for the 17 Max, a new phone Xiaomi is teasing on Weibo. It looks exactly like the regular Xiaomi 17, but has a 6.9-inch display — the same size as the 17 Pro Max and Ultra. That’s all we know so far, but it launches in China this month.

In case you missed it, yesterday’s Android Show stream included a brief list of every phone with current and confirmed plans for AirDrop support in Quick Share. Google also told The Verge that Xiaomi is planning support this year, though we don’t yet know to which phones.

It’s part of One UI 8.5, rolling out now in the US after the Korean rollout began last week. Along with AirDrop compatibility, the update brings other features that launched on the Galaxy S26, including an updated Bixby, AI call screening, and easier AI image editing in Creative Studio.

Samsung’s updated take on Android first appeared on its S26 phones back in February, but it’s taken until now to reach older hardware. Flagship phones and tablets from the last two generations or so are the first eligible for the update, which is rolling out now in Korea, with other countries to follow.

OpenAI may have pledged to cut back on “side quests,” but making its own phone doesn’t count. Right?

It was the top-selling phone in Q1 according to Counterpoint, with 6 percent of global sales. The 17 Pro and Pro Max weren’t far behind, with Samsung A series phones and the Xiaomi Redmi A5 also at the top. The Galaxy S26 Ultra just missed the cut, after launching in the middle of the quarter.

The hit DualShot Recorder app just switched from an increasingly rare one-time fee to a subscription-based model. The app’s developer — also a notable squirrel video creator — says he made the change to “support the long-term sustainability of the business.” Subscriptions come for us all, I guess.