Phone Scoop

A class-action lawsuit against Apple for false advertising has reached a settlement of $250 million. Apple showed off a smarter, personalized version of Siri at its WWDC event in 2024 and promised to ship the feature by the end of that year. This was specifically advertised as one several Apple Intelligence features of the iPhone 16 lineup and the iPhone 15 Pro. But the feature never shipped. Apple waited until March 2025 to admit that the feature was delayed. Consumers who purchased a an iPhone 16 or 15 Pro may be eligible for part of the settlement if it's approved by a judge.

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 and Snapdragon 4 Gen chips intended to power affordable phones. For once, AI is not the focus of these new chips. One new technology in both chips is "Snapdragon Smooth Motion UI". In the 6 Gen 5, this should deliver 20% faster app launches and 18% less screen stutter. In the 4 Gen 5, it should deliver 43% faster app launches ...

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have agreed to form a new joint venture focused on improving direct-to-device (D2D) satellite connectivity in cellular dead zones. All three carriers already have such services in operation or close to launch, and those efforts will continue independently. The new venture will aim to "[pool] limited spectrum resources to increase capacity", provide "redundant connectivity" when existing ground-based networks are unavailable, and give customers "simpler access ...

The new Motorola razr Fold will be the first phone in the US to support a new 5G Advanced technology called 6Rx, and T-Mobile

Trump Mobile has confirmed that personal data of its customers was left exposed on internet. The data includes names, email addresses, mailing addresses, cell numbers, and order identifiers. The company says it is investigating and blamed an unnamed third-party provider. The company says there is no evidence that financial info was exposed. The company has not said it will inform affected customers. The bug that exposed the data has since been fixed. Although the company says its long-delayed flagship T1 phone received 600,000 pre-orders and will ship this week, the breach shows just 30,000 orders from 10,000 people, and there is no evidence that any phones have actually shipped yet.

Anker has launched the SoundCore Liberty 5 Pro Bluetooth earbuds, which have been awarded the Guinness World Record for earbuds with the clearest-sounding voice calls. As a pair, the earbuds have eight traditional microphones and two bone-conduction sensors. Those inputs are fed into a noise-reduction system powered by Anker's new Thus AI processing chip. Anker claims its active noise cancellation (ANC) blocks more outside noise than any other earbuds on the market. The Liberty 5 Pro includes personalized equalization that tests your ears, asks your preferences, and fine-tunes sound uniquely for you. They also include an AI audio processing feature specifically designed to restore sound details that are typically lost by the Bluetooth codecs. The earbuds also have on-device voice recognition for basic functions like "volume up", "answer call", "next track", and "activate ANC". The earbuds have 6.5 hours of battery life with ANC on (28 including the charging case battery). They also charge quickly, giving four hours of battery life in just five minutes. The standard Liberty 5 Pro has a small touch-screen on the charging case and sells for $170. For $230, the Liberty 5 Pro Max sports a larger touch-screen on the case and can store up to three hours of audio with AI-powered dictation and a collection of note-taking features. Both versions are available now.

Anker has released an impressive new set of phone accessories, including ambitious new Bluetooth earbuds, as well as chargers with impressive specs in compact form factors. The new SoundCore Liberty 5 Pro (and Pro Max) earbuds aim to challenge the best earbuds in the industry in terms of noise cancellation and sound quality, while offering features like a charging case with touch-screen controls. The newest chargers offer unprecedented power output for their size, while also offering displays with interactive controls. We checked them out. Here are our impressions.

Redmagic has introduced the Redmagic 11S Pro, its latest flagship phone with high-end specs optimized for mobile gaming. To support extended gaming sessions, it has a massive 7,500 mAh battery with 80W wired and 80W wireless charging (plus reverse charging, wired and wireless). It also has an extensive cooling system to limit throttling during extended sessions, including a large vapor chamber, a liquid cooling system, and a 24,000 RPM mechanical fan. The 6.85" AMOLED display has an under-display camera, 144 Hz refresh, and 3,000 Hz touch sampling. It's powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip with 12 or 16 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and 256 or 512 GB of UFS 4.1 storage. It has dual 50 megapixel rear cameras (main and wide) and a 16 megapixel front camera. It also has an IPx8 water resistance rating, ultrasonic fingerprint reader, USB 3.2 Gen 2, and NFC. In the US, the phone has decent support for AT&T's 5G and 4G network, but limited support for other networks. The Redmagic 11S Pro will be available unlocked online from Redmagic starting at $849, beginning June 10.

Google has built a new security feature into its Phone app — the default calling app on Android phones — that can detect and warn you about scam calls where someone pretends to be someone you know. Scammers are increasingly using advanced techniques like spoofing phone numbers and using AI to make their voice sound like someone else. When calling from one Android phone to another, a silent, behind-the-scenes, encrypted RCS message confirms that the call is legitimate. But if that message is missing from an incoming call from a known contact, the Phone app silently checks with the phone of that contact. If that phone responds that it's not currently calling you, a scam alert appears. The feature can only work for contacts that also have Android phones. Google is starting to roll out the feature globally this month, starting with Pixel devices. It will be available on Android versions 12 and newer.

The FCC this week started a new auction for 5G radio spectrum licenses. The licenses cover the AWS band, frequencies where cell phones use 4G and 5G in band 66. There are over 200 specific licenses on offer, scattered across 48 states but covering 100 million consumers, and major markets like New York, Chicago, Boston, Tampa, and Charlotte. These same licenses were first auctioned in 2014, but have since been abandoned for various reasons.