Tag: Smartphone

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Google introduces new Play Store policy, banning third-party call recording apps

Google is seemingly banning all third-party call recording apps from the Play Store in the imminent future. As a part of an upcoming Google Play Store policy change, apps can no longer use the ‘Accessibility’ API for call recording on Google Play Store.

While intentionally designed for people with disabilities, some apps utilize Accessibility API to gain audio functions of an Android device. In Google’s pursuit of stopping call recordings on Android, the company is banning the use of Accessibility Service for call recordings, according to a Reddit user.

As per the updated Play Store policy guidelines, Google states, “Apps with a core functionality intended to directly support people with disabilities are eligible to use the IsAccessibilityTool.” However, “Apps not eligible for IsAccessibilityTool may not use the flag and must meet prominent disclosure and consent requirements. The Accessibility API is not designed and cannot be requested for remote call audio recording.”

Since the heyday of Android 6, Google has been incrementally working on eliminating call recording from third-party apps. This was largely a success during that era. Upon the advent of Android 10, Google banned the microphone for call recording. Now, Accessibility API use is the last peg on the ladder.

During a webinar video, Google discussed the topic at hand. “Remote in this context refers to call audio recording where the person on the other end is unaware of the recording is taking place.”

Google is removing third-party apps from the Play Store. However, apps such as Google Phone and Mi Dialer will not experience any changes. Both apps feature native call recording features.

Privacy and maintaining user security are undoubtedly important. Though, call recording functionality can often be a legitimate practice for many of Google’s users and businesses. Striking a balance between offering solutions from trusted sources will go a long way for users.

Source: Reddit, Via: Engadget

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What was your favourite cell phone?

Back in 2018, I asked MobileSyrup readers what their favourite smartphone ever was. Many of you mentioned devices like the HTC M7 (this one was mine as well), the Moto X, the Nexus 5, the Nexus One, the Palm Pre and more.

With that in mind, this week’s question will likely exclude a lot of our younger readers. What’s your favourite cellular phone ever? — and yes, I’m talking pre-smartphone.

Living in Toronto and using the TTC a lot, my mom felt it was best for me to get my first cell phone when I was just nine years old. My first phone ever was the old Nokia 3310.

However, my favourite cell phone is the LG Rumor. Who needs T9 texting when you can slide out a full QWERTY keyboard whenever you want? Of course, this cell phone was also exceptionally useful when trying to maintain eye contact with your teacher while texting under the desk.

Let us know your favourite pre-smartphone ever in the comments below.

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‘Nothing’ might have plans to finally show off its smartphone on April 1

After last week’s disastrous ‘Nothing’ presentation, the company is back at it again, hyping up another announcement. The event is set for April 1st, April Fools Day, too… so there’s that.

The teaser image shows off the bottom of a smartphone, hinting that perhaps we’ll finally catch a glimpse of the long-overdue Nothing smartphone. But at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Carl Pei just came out and showed us tangible proof that he actually was the first person to buy an iPod, or something.

I don’t expect this to be a full-blown event like the keynote on March 23rd. It could end up being something as anticlimactic as simple as a blog post hyping a Nothing phone spec like fast charging or a brief glimpse at its design.

Since the Nothing Launcher is scheduled to drop in April, my bet is we’ll get more information about it and possibly even a release date.

The company has retooled its Twitter and Instagram presences to be called ‘Another,’ and you can see the phone’s teaser image on both accounts. The bottom of the device features curved sides that look suspiciously like the OnePlus 10 Pro, but with more symmetrical speaker grills.

Source: Nothing

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Bell rolling out $3/mo price increase to some mobile customers

Bell is raising prices for several mobility customers by about $3 per month.

The change should be appearing on bills for some customers now, although some may have seen the change on a previous bill. Additionally, I am currently a Bell Mobile customer, and I noted the price change on my March bill.

MobileSyrup has reached out to Bell for clarification on why it’s raising prices and how many people the change will impact.

However, a customer service representative I spoke with said the change was because of Bell’s annual network expansion investments and it was meant to “increase capacity and maintain quality of service.”

The rep also said that the “price increase is CRTC regulated.” When I questioned the claim, the rep said it was “what was communicated to us,” and said other telecom companies “have this too.”

It’s worth noting that the CRTC’s website says “providers are responsible for establishing their own retail rates for wireless services, and the CRTC doesn’t intervene.”

MobileSyrup also asked Bell about the representative’s statements and whether the company was directing reps to tell customers that the CRTC regulated the price increases, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

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The best smartphone bike mounts to buy this Spring

Spring is nearly here and for many, it’s a time to break out the bike for some new excursions.

Whether it’s trekking across the city or taking a ride through a trail, having easy access to your phone for notifications or GPS is important. That’s why many prefer to travel with a bike mount for their smartphone.

Let’s take a look at the best smartphone bike mounts you can order online.

Best premium mount


Lamicall Bicycle Cell Phone Mount Clamp


Lamicall Bicycle Cell Phone Mount Clamp

$29.99

Pros:


  • Sturdy mount

  • Supports iPhone 13 and Galaxy S22

  • Simple attachment
Cons:


  • Premium price


Buy at Amazon

03/15/2022 12:36 pm GMT

Lamicall offers a robust and sturdy mount that can fit an assortment of handlebars. The smartphone mount holds the device by each of its four corners. It comes with silicon pads to ensure the device does not get scratched or dinged up while travelling.

The Lamicall mount supports devices that are 4.7-inch to 6.8-inches, meaning the entire iPhone 13 series and newly released Galaxy S22 series are supported. Pixel phones, and older iPhone and Galaxy models are also mountable.

In addition, the mount can be fixed in a vertical or horizontal orientation.

Adding to the benefits, Lamicall’s mount is easy to fix and can be mounted on shopping carts, strollers, and more outside of your traditional bicycle.

Best anti-vibration mount


TruActive Premium Bike Phone Mount Holder


TruActive Premium Bike Phone Mount Holder

$21.99

Pros:


  • Minimalist design

  • Anti-vibration padding

  • 360 degree swivel design
Cons:


  • Bike mount not as secure


Buy at Amazon

03/15/2022 12:46 pm GMT

The TruActive smartphone bike mount offers a unique design. Whereas some mounts can be bulkier, this smartphone mount is much more minimalist. It’s made to fit a smartphone using nonslip, anti-vibration padding. This ensures the phone does not rattle and shake while on a road or trail.

The phone is held using rubber secure straps that the company claims have been tested by “engineers with years of road safety experience.” It comes in six colour options to fit your style and design aesthetic.

TruActive’s mount is universal, supporting iPhone, Galaxy, and Pixel devices ranging from 4.0-inches to 6.7-inches with a maximum thickness of 0.71-inches.

Finally, with the ball joint mount, the phone can swivel 360-degrees and be fixed to any viewing angle.

Best easy access mount


Teumi Anti-Shake Bicycle Phone Holder


Teumi Anti-Shake Bicycle Phone Holder

$17.99

Pros:


  • Easy screen access

  • Anti-vibration pads

  • Solid lock mount
Cons:


  • Not adjustable


Buy at Amazon

03/15/2022 01:01 pm GMT

Teumi lands on our list with a rather simplistic, yet effective design. This smartphone bike mount supports a smartphone by using four 4 wear-resisting silicone claws and a non-slip PU pad. This is made to ensure the phone will not slip or get scratched on your next cycling outing.

The design of the mount leaves critical components and buttons open for easy access. For instance, the notch on the iPhone is left open so Face ID remains functional. Older devices with Touch ID won’t be compromised either. Volume buttons and other accessible features remain thanks to the mount’s design. Plus, you can adjust the angle and orientation to your preference.

Once again, this mount is universal so whether you just purchased an iPhone 13 Pro or are taking your Galaxy S8 on a scenic venture, you’re covered.

Best sturdy mount


Beemoon Bike Phone Mount


Beemoon Bike Phone Mount

$18.99

Pros:


  • Built like a tank

  • Rubberized design

  • Easy installation
Cons:


  • Bulky


Buy at Amazon

03/15/2022 01:21 pm GMT

If you’re looking for a mount that appears more sturdy, Beemoon has you covered. This mount holds a smartphone in place by using rubberized corners and can fix any phone ranging from 4.7-inch to 6.8-inches. It is on the thicker side, which may attract someone using a dirtbike or riders on trails.

The Beemoon mount is designed with easy installation in mind. It requires no tools so you don’t have to fuss around with fixing it on your bike. Alternatively, the mount can be secured to a stroller, motorcycle, or other handlebars. Beemoon also includes additional rubber parts to adjust to the width of the handlebars.

As with others on the list, the mount features flexible rotation and orientation. It gives you the freedom of securing your device in landscape or portrait mode. This may be great for anyone shooting videos on their bike ride.

Best budget mount


La Lefn Bike Phone Mount


La Lefn Bike Phone Mount

$9.99

Pros:


  • Budget friendly

  • Anti-vibration mount

  • Easy installation
Cons:


  • Less secure design


Buy at Amazon

03/15/2022 01:36 pm GMT

When looking at simple, yet effective mounts, La Lefn’s is one to take notice of. This mount features high elastic rubber belts to secure the smartphone safely. It is shock absorbent so your device will resist vibrations and any potential impact.

The almost spiderweb design of the mount supports standard size phones as well as larger ones ie: iPhone 13 Pro Max and Galaxy S22 Ultra.

The inside of the handlebar mount has non-slip damping to alleviate worries about the mount falling off or shifting. Additionally, installation requires no tools as the band is designed much like a watch or belt.

The La Lefn mount is a cost-efficient option when compared to others.

Best detachable phone mount


Teumi Detachable Bike Phone Mount


Teumi Detachable Bike Phone Mount

$15.29

Pros:


  • Easily detachable phone

  • 360 degree swivel design

  • Good value
Cons:


  • Less secure design


Buy at Amazon

03/15/2022 12:21 pm GMT

Teumi is once again on the list. This time, however, with a detachable smartphone mount. While all other mounts on the list require you to take the device off the mount in order to answer a call or text, this mount doesn’t.

The universal banded design slots directly into the smartphone bike mount. When taking a call, the silicon band and holder rotates 90-degrees and can be removed. Due to the slim-fit nature of the band, it isn’t obtrusive to use while attached to the phone.

As you can now imagine, this mount does not interfere with the display and front-facing camera of the phone. It can also be adjusted while mounted. Users can freely rotate the device a full 360-degrees to the appropriate position.

Most unique design


iMestou Bike Phone Mount


iMestou Bike Phone Mount

$24.99

Pros:


  • Unique design

  • Vibration resistant

  • Access to phone buttons
Cons:


  • Complicated installation


  • Not the best value


Buy at Amazon

03/15/2022 12:26 pm GMT

Finally, iMestou comes in with their mount. Here, we see a slightly different approach to design. This smartphone bike mount holds the phone primarily by the sides and bottom. This leaves everything from the power button, volume, and front-facing camera completely uncompromised.

The iMestou mount comfortably fits devices from 3.5-inch to 6.8-inches. The mount is comprised of plastic clamping arms and supporting pads for grip. Plus, you’ll find full rotation is possible with adjustable viewing angles.

This mount does require a bit of installation. On the rear, a screw must be fastened. Though, that may be appealing for those who wish to have peace of mind on the safety of their device.

And now you’re ready

There you have it. This spring, ensure your phone is within arm’s reach and safely secured while on a bike trip. No matter if you’re headed to the grocery store or racing over a hill, the benefits of securing your phone nearby should speak for themselves.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.

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The Nothing phone will likely be revealed March 26th

In an email to ‘Nothing’ fans, the company has revealed when it will launch its next product — we just really don’t know what that device is yet.

The event is scheduled for March 23rd at 8am ET/5am PT. You can sign up to get notifications about the event on Nothing’s website.

It’s widely assumed that this new device will be a smartphone, and the Snapdragon logo on Nothing’s site all but confirms this. There are also rumours that Nothing founder Carl Pei showed off this device at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Other leaks indicate that the phone will feature transparent elements similar to the Ear (1) earbuds.

Nothing has a habit of milking its product launches, so instead of re-writing the same info over and over again, here’s my recap from last week regarding what we expect. The only other twist is that more than one potential device could be announced at the event.

The Verge reports that Nothing will reveal a “product roadmap,” suggesting that we could see a new pair of Nothing earbuds or perhaps an entry into a new product category. For instance, just purely based off Nothing’s Vibes, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it drop a Bluetooth speaker.

We’ve previously reported that the Nothing smartphone would hit store shelves in April, so the company revealing the device in late March lines up well with this timeline. This also means that the Nothing phone will likely compete directly with the OnePlus 10 Pro in Canada.

Via: The Verge

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Leaked Motorola Edge 30 Pro could sport a stylus, 50-megapixel camera

Motorola may have a new smartphone on the way aimed at the same productivity space Samsung’s Note series previously occupied.

Dubbed the ‘Edge 30 Pro,’ this Motorola flagship prominently featured a stylus in leaked materials posted by Evan Blass earlier this week. A follow-up post from WinFuture also provided details about the specifications for the device.

Starting with Blass, the leaker shared a few images on Twitter, including a GIF showing a stylus writing the word ‘Edge’ on the phone, and a picture of the phone, stylus and folio case. The phone itself doesn’t depart significantly from the aesthetic Motorola established for its flagship ‘Edge’ phones.

Further, as 9to5Google pointed out, this would mark the first time Motorola has sought to include a stylus with a flagship-tier device (although the company has made stylus-equipped devices before). However, the stylus shown in the leaked material appears rather large and, so far, there’s been no indication that the stylus would fit in the phone Galaxy Note-style. Instead, it appears the folio case shown in the images will store the stylus.

Moving on to the WinFuture post, the publication suggests the Edge 30 Pro is merely a rebranded Motorola X30, which is currently available in China.

According to WinFuture, the Edge 30 Pro boasts a 6.7-inch 1080p display, 144Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery. It will reportedly run Android 12 out of the box and have a 50-megapixel primary camera, 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a two-megapixel depth camera. Around the front, the phone will have a 60-megapixel selfie camera.

Overall, the leaked details of the Edge 30 Pro make it seem like a fairly decent smartphone, but we’ll likely learn more when Motorola reveals the phone, supposedly happening February 24th at MWC. However, it remains to be seen whether Motorola will make the phone available in Canada. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s unlikely we’ll see the phone come to Canada since previous versions have not, but only time will tell.

Images credit: Evan Blass

Source: @evleaks, WinFuture Via: 9to5Google

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How are you using your foldable?

At this point, foldables are an established type of smartphone.

Now that the excitement has settled surrounding these undeniably cool devices, do you still think they’re worthwhile? Are you using your foldable in a unique way?

I use Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 more than any other of the phones I have at my disposal. Playing games like League of Legends: Wild Rift or reading on a larger screen has been a great experience. In general, I find that I use the larger unfolded display more than the Cover Screen, especially when it comes to writing articles or texting.

However, I  still sometimes like to pull out the smaller display when I’m checking my messages, doing a quick Google search or taking selfies.

I absolutely love using my foldable and I can’t wait to see more of them make their way to Canada. This year we’ll probably see foldable devices from Samsung, a Google Pixel Fold and maybe even TCL.

How do you feel about foldable devices? Let us know in the comments below,

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Android 12L Beta 2 animations reveal more about upcoming foldable Pixel

While previous leaks indicated that Google was cancelling its foldable project, it looks like that isn’t the case after all.

That’s because 9to5Google looked into some animations found in Android 12L Beta 2 update, and some showcased a SIM card going into the device. It looks to have its volume rocker on the handset’s right side, even when unfolded. This is similar to the Z Fold 3 that also features a volume rocker on its right side.

The SIM card tray is placed on the bottom left side of the device when unfolded. This is similar to Oppo’s newly unveiled Find N.

It looks like the Pixel Fold animation shows that the phone will have more of an 8.4:9 aspect ratio that’s more square-like and similar to the Oppo Find N. Previous device leaks made the phone look more 22.5:18 aspect ratio similar to the Z Fold 3.

9to5Google did some measurements and says it believes that the Pixel Fold will sport a 7:8 aspect ratio if the phone still has the rumoured 7.6-inch display.

A previous rumour indicated that Google cancelled its foldable phone due to competition with the Z Fold 3. However, with a different form factor that’s reportedly more suitable for multitasking and app usage, Google might have an edge over the South Korean phone makers.

Source: 9to5Google

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Razer’s $80 MagSafe fan will keep your iPhone cool while gaming

If you regularly game so hard on your smartphone that it gets uncomfortably hot, Razer’s new fan is for you.

Clocking in at $79.99 in Canada, the Razer Phone Cooler Chroma attaches to the back of your smartphone to help keep it cool during extended gaming sessions. And, naturally, the fan is decked out with RGB lighting — all gamers know RGB means it works better.

Razer’s Phone Cooler Chroma comes in two flavours: MagSafe compatible and ‘Universal Clamp.’ The first one doesn’t require much explanation — if you have a new iPhone with MagSafe, then you can attach the Phone Cooler to your iPhone with magnets. The Universal Clamp option should work for Android devices and iPhones without MagSafe. It uses a clamp mechanism to hold onto users’ phones.

The Phone Cooler works by drawing heat away from the smartphone using an electronic Peltier cooling tile. At a very base level, that means the Phone Cooler relies on the Peltier effect to draw heat from one side of the device (the phone) and transfer it to the other side (the fan). Then, the small seven-bladed fan in the Phone Cooler can dissipate the heat.

While that certainly sounds neat, there are a few drawbacks. For one, you’ll need to stay near a power outlet — the Phone Cooler needs power to work. To me, that seems like it defeats the purpose of gaming on a mobile device, but I suppose if you have a capable power brick you could maybe untether yourself from the nearest power outlet.

I’m also not sure how well the Phone Cooler Chroma would actually work. It’s fairly common for gaming phones to have advanced cooling systems and even fan attachments, but those typically work best when they make contact with the components that create the heat. As an example, when building a desktop computer, it’s important to properly connect your CPU fan to the CPU and use things like thermal paste to help transfer heat from the CPU into the heatsink so that the fan can help dissipate it. Tacking a fan onto the back of your phone might have some benefit, but I’m not sure how effective it’d be without more direct contact with the CPU and other heat-generating components.

Besides, using a fan on your smartphone to get a performance bump in mobile titles seems a bit overkill to me, but maybe that’s just because I’m an old grouch who doesn’t like mobile gaming 🤷🏻‍♂️.

You can learn more about the Razer Phone Cooler Chrome here.

Image credits: Razer

Source: Razer Via: Engadget