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Phones

This Month

Apple CEO Tim Cook greets people during the opening of the first Apple flagship store in Mumbai.

Apple’s quiet pivot to India

The iPhone maker wants to diversify its supply chain beyond China. Can the world’s largest democracy deliver?

The new iPhone raises some questions. The trickiest one is in the name

We put Apple’s entry-level iPhone 16e through its paces, and found it compares pretty well to our iPhone 16 Pro. Here is a kind of alphabetical guide to the device.

February

Priced at $US599 ($944), the iPhone 16e will have enough computing power to run Apple Intelligence, the set of features that includes integrated access to ChatGPT.

Apple launches low-cost AI phone for the cost-of-living crunch

The new model will have enough computing power to run Apple Intelligence, and will bring communications in-house for the first time.

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra is a perfect phone, with four slip-ups

Did the company fail to add magnets to its new handset just to be annoying? Maybe not. It could signal a broader trend we like to call “peak phone”.

January

The family safety and location-sharing Life360 app is often used by parents to monitor their child’s whereabouts.

Should you track your kids through their phones?

The combination of new technology and the age-old devotion to keep your children safe is taking “helicopter parenting” to a whole new level.

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Perhaps its not your phone … perphaps it’s you.

Smartphones don’t suck. People do

These devices have come to operate a bit like dummies for adults: a temporary distraction from our hunger for connection, meaning and purpose.

October 2024

Did Apple just kill social apps?

The drama demonstrates how powerful gatekeepers like Apple have become and how even minor changes to Apple’s products can create dramatic ripple effects in the rest of the tech industry.

September 2024

iPhone 16

Choosing an iPhone 16 is enough to keep you up at night

With the basic iPhone models gaining so much ground on Pro models, picking which one to buy isn’t as simple as it once was. What do you get for your extra money?

The Huawei Mate XT trifold phone measures just 3.6mm in thickness when open.

iPhone 16 faces challenge from $4220 triple fold phone

Huawei unveiled its world-first innovation, which fits a 10-inch tablet in a pocket, just hours after Apple revealed its latest handset.

Meet the iPhone 16 – and all its new features

Apple’s latest mobile will also be getting a camera button that lets you take photos without ever touching the screen.

Google or Samsung, which folding phone is best?

Google’s folding Pixel phone has finally come to Australia, so we’ve put it head to head with the incumbent.

August 2024

Google Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL.

The Pixel 9 Pro features we won’t forget about

Smartphone makers, including Google, are throwing dozens of new artificial intelligence features at us right now. How many of them will stick?

The iPhone 15 was released almost a year ago.

What to expect from Apple’s product reveal next month

Apple is planning to hold its biggest product launch event of the year on September 10, when the company will unveil the latest iPhones, watches and AirPods.

The new ‘killer app’: How AI is reinventing the phone

Artificial intelligence might well be the latest killer app for phones, but unlike previous killer apps, it might not be one that consumers are willing to pay for.

Search function on Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro With Gemini.

Cool or dystopian? Google launches AI-powered phones

The tech giant has launched a new range of AI-packed phones, earbuds and watches. Here’s what they will do (if you really want them to).

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The Fold6 is compatible with the S-Pen, it just doesn’t have a place to store it.

Hold off buying Samsung’s new folding phone for a few days

Just as Samsung irons out the last of the problems in its flagship Galaxy Z Fold6, Google looks set to announce an AI phone that just might be worth waiting for.

Why this earnings season is the end of an era for Apple

The AI era is upon Apple, and all of its tech peers, and the stories it tells its investors and customers about its products are about to change forever.

You can get iPhones much cheaper in China, but they still sell better here

As the tech industry obsesses about new AI features, sales of iPhones are still the core of Apple’s earnings reports.

July 2024

Rachel Wastell, personal finance expert at Mozo, says to watch out for the loyalty tax.

The $1 rule that can save you hundreds on your mobile phone

Telstra’s decision to raise its plan prices above inflation is a wake-up call to Australians to shop around for a better deal on their mobile phone, savings experts say.

Samsung plans different shape for AI phones

Regular phones have peaked, but AI phones are going to need new shapes and sizes, says Samsung’s Mobile president, and it is already working on them.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/phones-5zt