smartphones

China Bans Officials from Using iPhones and Other Foreign Devices at Work

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday that Chinese government officials have been ordered not to use Apple iPhones and other foreign devices for work, potentially inflicting a major blow on sales of those devices in China, whose titanic government bureaucracy employs a sizable portion of the population.

TOPSHOT - A Chinese couple tests the new iPhone 7 during the opening sale launch at an App

Pediatric Study: Excessive Screen Time Translates into Developmental Delays in Children

A new pediatric study has found a significant correlation between excessive screen time and developmental delays in children, raising concerns among parents and healthcare professionals. According to the data, children who spend more than four hours in front of screens are almost six times more likely to  suffer from delays in communication and problem-solving skills.

baby holding smartphone

Mandatory Olympic Athlete App Gives China Data Goldmine

Less than a week after Team USA advised Olympic athletes to purchase disposable “burner” phones to thwart Chinese surveillance of the Beijing Winter Olympics, researchers at the University of Toronto are warning of serious security issues in the “MY2022” smartphone app China is requiring all athletes, journalists, and spectators to download on their smartphones.

All those attending the Olympics in Beijing have to download MY2022, an app China says is

BlackBerry Smartphones Are Finally Dead

This week, classic BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry OS will no longer be able to make calls, send text messages, access data, and call 911 making them essentially unusable.

BlackBerry Classic and its iconic physical keyboard will no longer be part of the Canadian

Court Finds Dubai Ruler Hacked British Cell Phones in Bitter Custody Battle

England’s High Court ruled on Wednesday that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the rule of Dubai and vice president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ordered hackers to break into the smartphones of his ex-wife Princess Haya bint al-Hussein and her lawyers during the battle for custody of their children. One of Haya’s legal representatives is Baroness Fiona Shackleton, a member of the House of Lords.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - MARCH 29: A portrait of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktou

Walmart to Give 740,000 Employees a Free Samsung Smartphone

Retail giant Walmart is set to give 740,000 employees free Samsung smartphones by the end of the year so they can use a new app to manage schedules and perform a wide variety of other tasks in the store. Employees will be free to use the phone for their personal business as well.

Walmart

UK Regulators Urged to Investigate Apple-Google Duopoly

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has been asked to investigate allegations that Google and Apple, which together control over 99 percent of the global market in smartphone operating systems, secretly colluded to stifle smartphone search engine competitors.

Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, speaks at Google's annual developer confer

Global Smartphone Sales Drop 5.7 Percent in Q3 2020

A new report published this week revealed that global smartphone sales dropped almost six percent during the third quarter of 2020. During the same period, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi passed Apple to become the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

The Associated Press

Study: Smartphone Notifications Don’t Distract Us, We Distract Ourselves

A recent study has found that users initiate 89 percent of all smartphone interactions on their own, with only 11 percent being initiated by a notification. These results go against the conventional wisdom that the mountain of notifications generated on the average person’s phone every day distracts us from other tasks.

BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 04: Visitors try out the Honor 7 smartphone at the Huawei stan

India Bans More Chinese Smartphone Apps

India banned an uncertain number of Chinese smartphone apps Tuesday, adding to the 59 banned at the end of June and 47 more, mostly clones and alternate versions of the original 59, in July.

Members of the Working Journalist of India (WJI) hold placards urging citizens to remove C

Communist China May Make Coronavirus App Surveillance Permanent

When the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic hit its peak, the Chinese government was quick to make use of smartphones to track citizens’ movements and isolate those who might be infected. Now, privacy experts are warning that these surveillance measures may stay in place once the pandemic has ended. One communist party official claims that Chinese people want to be surveilled, saying the app is “loved so much that you cannot bear to part with it.”

woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing interna

Smartphone Suffers Largest Year-Over-Year Decline Ever

The smartphone industry has suffered its largest year-over-year decline ever according to a recent report as it struggles in the midst of the Chinese virus pandemic. The First quarter of 2020 saw a drop of almost 12 percent as compared to the same period in 2019 according to one analyst, while another analyst believes the drop could be as high as nearly 17 percent.

The Associated Press

Chinese Smartphone Sales Suffer Worst Decline Ever

The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that Chinese smartphone sales suffered their worst decline ever during the first quarter of 2020, with a drop of 22 percent for every major manufacturer except Huawei, which grew by six percent.

The icons for Tencent Holdings Ltd. applications WeChat, clockwise from top left, QQ, JOOX