smartphones

Indonesian Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid said in a video statement on Friday that her government will “delay access” to social media for children under 16, following in the footsteps of Australia’s unprecedented ban on accounts for young people. On the same day, India’s southern tech-heavy state of Karnataka announced a similar ban. 

The FCC voted this week to close a loophole that allows criminals to more easily profit from stolen smartphones — fueling retail theft and strengthening organized crime networks involved in trafficking devices.

As the new school year begins, students in Texas and 16 states will go to class without access to their smartphone. 35 states and Washington DC now have some form of restriction on student smartphone use during the school day, a trend started by Florida in 2023.

As the Trump administration continues to chart a new course on economic and foreign policy, leftists and Never Trump holdouts within the Washington bureaucracy are working to sabotage its agenda – often through leaks of classified information in an admitted attempt to undermine the Trump agenda.

The Trump administration announced that various electronic devices, such as smartphones and computers, will be exempt from the tariffs that have been imposed on China.

The author of a major report that questioned the efficacy of so-called gender affirming care for children has warned that Britain is engaging in a “deliberate social experiment” by allowing minors to use smartphones for several hours a day.

The Chinese Communist regime in Beijing announced new regulations on Monday that will empower its officials to inspect smartphones and other personal electronics at will, including those belonging to foreign visitors.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s board voted 5-2 in favor of banning cellphones and social media use during the day amid outcry from educators.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) is reportedly planning to introduce legislation that would ban smartphones in schools.

Ban on smartphones for under-16s has split the right between conservatives and libertarians over whether such intervention is worthwhile.

Can Chinese-made “smart cars” gather sensitive information about the Americans driving them? Federal authorities want to find out and establish just what potential national security risks are involved in the sensor-packed vehicles.

A major AT&T network outage that affected tens of thousands of customers nationwide on Thursday was not the result of a cyberattack, the company said.

The Australian government has passed new legislation granting workers the “right to disconnect” from work communications during non-work hours, aimed at helping employees maintain a healthier work-life balance.

Media giant Cox Media Group has come under scrutiny after boasting about its “Active Listening” technology, which allegedly enables marketers to eavesdrop on conversations through smartphones and other devices.

Epic Games, the company behind the popular video game Fortnite, has defeated Google in its antitrust case accusing the Masters of the Universe of maintaining an app store monopoly, marking a pivotal moment in the ongoing scrutiny of Big Tech’s monopolistic practices.

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.

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.

The French Senate has approved a bill that would allow the state to spy on individuals by remotely activating phone microphones and cameras.

Thieves in London are targeting gym goers as they exercise, copying credit cards and racking up charges in excess of $11,000. Although recent reports are in the UK, similar scams could pop up anywhere — here’s how to protect yourself.

A U.S. phone-tracking firm demonstrated its surveillance powers by spying on American spies from the CIA and NSA, according to a report by the Intercept.

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.

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.

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.

Tech giant Google has been fined $177 million by South Korea for abusing its dominance in the smartphone market. The government criticized the Masters of the Universe for “anti-fragmentation” agreements 

A new feature released alongside the latest Android 12 mobile operating system beta tracks facial expressions, which the Masters of the Universe claim can be used to control smartphones.

A Chinese state newspaper called Economic Information Daily published an article on Tuesday that compared Internet gaming to opium addiction.

Teens worldwide are reporting a sharper rise in feelings of loneliness than a decade ago, an outcome that may be linked to smartphone use, a study has found.

Spies looking to gain information on world leaders reportedly used the “Pegasus” smartphone spyware to target world leaders including three presidents, ten prime ministers, and a king.

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.

Chinese telecom company Huawei rolled out a major program to build self-driving cars on Sunday, seeking a leadership position as a supplier for new the AI-driven market even as international distrust for its telecom and Internet services weakens the massive corporation’s existing business model.

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.

The state of Utah is considering a bill that would require all mobile devices sold in the state to include filters to block pornography.

According to a recent market analysis report, tech giant Apple passed Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter of 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.

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.