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AT&T wants to put ads on your smartphone in exchange for $5 discount

An AT&T sign on the outside of a building.
Enlarge / An AT&T sign outside a company office in New York City.

AT&T CEO John Stankey said the company may offer cellphone plans subsidized by advertising, giving customers monthly discounts of $5 or $10 in exchange for ads on their phones. “I believe there’s a segment of our customer base where given a choice, they would take some load of advertising for a $5 or $10 reduction in their mobile bill,” Stankey said in an interview with Reuters yesterday. Stankey apparently didn’t offer details on what form the ads would take.

According to Reuters, Stankey said that AT&T’s ad-supported phone plans could be introduced in “a year or two.” AT&T is already doing back-end work in its targeted-advertising system that could increase the value of such plans to AT&T’s ad-sales business:

AT&T engineers are creating “unified customer identifiers,” Stankey said. Such technology would allow marketers to identify users across

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LG unveils Wing phone with swivelling dual screens

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Image: LG Electronics

LG Electronics has unveiled its new dual screen smartphone called LG Wing.

The LG Wing, which is the first device to be unveiled as part of the company’s Explorer Project, has two screens stacked together.

The first screen is a 6.8-inch OLED panel that can be rotated clockwise by 90 degrees to unveil a second 3.9-inch screen in swivel mode.

According to LG, this allows a single app to be expanded onto both screens or for two apps to be displayed simultaneously on each screen.

Apps such as YouTube, Tubi, Rave, and Ficto can be displayed on both screens via the preinstalled Naver Whale browser. For these apps, videos would be played on the main screen and the second screen would show the comments section or search bar.

LG also touted that the phone’s swivel mode will make it easier to navigate, explaining that the main screen

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Daily smartphone tracking planned for first recipients of COVID-19 vaccine – U.S.

Daily smartphone tracking planned for first recipients of COVID-19 vaccine


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WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — Americans that get the first COVID-19 vaccines will be closely monitored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through daily text messages and emails, according to a federal advisory group.


Essential workers who are expected to be the first recipients will get daily text messages on their smartphones asking about side effects in the first week after they get the shot, and then they’ll be contacted weekly for six weeks, said Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC immunization expert, at a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Those workers could total about

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Apple iPhone Makers May Be Gainers In $6.6 Billion India Plan to bring manufacturing to India: Report

India is betting that many global brands will be keen to reduce their dependence on China.

Apple Inc.’s major iPhone assemblers are among the companies expected to win approval to participate in a $6.6 billion stimulus program to bring manufacturing to India, according to people familiar with the matter, a potentially seismic shift as the world’s most valuable company diversifies beyond China.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the government is expected to approve a plan aimed at bringing $150 billion in mobile-phone production over the next five years, said people, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Among the dozen phone makers already cleared by a high-powered government committee are Apple’s primary supplier Foxconn Technology Group, which had submitted two applications, and peers Wistron Corporation and Pegatron Corporation, the people said. The three companies make virtually every iPhone sold globally in sprawling factories currently located mainly

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Program helps get student households connected | The Learning Key

PHLConnectED will connect up to 35,000 K–12 student households with internet service and laptops. The program, which focuses on School District of Philadelphia and charter school students, will also provide digital skills training and support.

Eligible households will receive up to two years of internet service. Participants will not pay any out-of-pocket expenses or installation fees.

There are three core components of PHLConnectED:

• Wired, high-speed, reliable internet to the home from Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, or a high-speed mobile hotspot from T-Mobile for families who are housing-insecure.

• Distribution of devices, such as Chromebooks, tablets, or computers.

• Digital skills training and tech support.

PHLConnectED is possible thanks to collaboration among business and civic leaders who came together to support Philadelphia students.

The PHLConnectED program prioritizes families with the greatest need for internet service. We will focus on connecting K–12 families who:

• Do not have any internet access.

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Mysterious Samsung Galaxy, Google’s Next Pixel Party, OnePlus’ AirPods Mistake

Taking a look back at seven days of news and headlines across the world of Android, this week’s Android Circuit includes a new and exciting Galaxy S20, more trouble for Huawei, Google’s next Pixel party, Sony’s small smartphone, Xiaomi’s latest flagship killer, OnePlus’s enterprise charge, and the not-Apple AirPods.

Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week (and you can find the weekly Apple news digest here).

Samsung Leaks Confirm New Galaxy S20

Rumoured for some time, Samsung has managed to leak its own upcoming handset, thanks to its own support pages. While the handset is another in the Galaxy S20 family, it might just be the best value S20 yet, with the Snapdragon 865, a 6.5 inch SuperAMOLED fast refresh screen, a three-lens rear camera, and a 4500 mAh battery. Carrie Mihalcik reports on

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Apple’s India gambit more evident: iPhone-assemblers now part of lucrative govt program

Apple’s contract manufacturers in India — Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron —- lead the pack of companies that are part of the Indian government’s enticing PLI  (Production Linked Incentive) program.

Aside from these Apple iPhone manufacturers, Samsung is the other applicant for this lucrative plan.

As reported last week, the applications of these companies have been okayed by the ‘Empowered Committee’, which consists of Niti Aayog CEO, the secretaries of economic affairs, expenditure, revenue, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

The Indian Cabinet will take up these applications for discussion later this week.

Indian companies like Karbonn, Lava and Dixon are also part of this popular government scheme that seeks to incentivise phone-manufacturers and make India as a production hub. This plan aims at bringing $150 billion in mobile-phone production over the next five

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September Security Patch Rolling Out To Unlocked Galaxy S20 Smartphones

Over the past few months, Samsung has been incredibly fast in rolling out monthly security patch updates. The company has now started rolling out the September 2020 security patch update to the unlocked Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and Galaxy S20 Ultra smartphones.

The latest update for the Galaxy S20 comes with the build number G981U1UES1BTH4. This update carries the build numbers G986U1UES1BTH4 and G988U1UES1BTH4 for Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra respectively.

Unlocked Galaxy S20 smartphones get September 2020 security patch

The update comes in over 208MB of size and should also include regular bug fixes and stability improvements. Besides the latest security patch, the changelog doesn’t mention any other changes. As the update being rolled out incrementally, not all the devices will be getting the update on day one.

However, interested users can manually check for the latest OTA update by going to Settings > Software update > Download.

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UC San Diego to roll out smartphone pilot program for COVID-19 exposure alerts

University of California Health announced Monday UC San Diego will be one of two campuses to pilot a smartphone technology that notifies users if they have had a high-risk COVID-19 exposure.





© Provided by KFMB San Diego


The limited pilot program will roll out incrementally at UCSD later this month. UC San Francisco will start using the technology a few weeks later for students, faculty and staff participating in onsite activities at select locations.

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According to the university system, the technology does not collect location data from any device and will never share user identities.

“If the pilot is successful, it will set the foundation for the state to offer voluntary exposure notifications to all Californians using this free smartphone-based technology,” said Christopher Longhurst, chief information officer for UC San Diego Health. “The Google/Apple Exposure Notification Express tools offer a high-tech, privacy-preserving solution that automates the work of

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It’s game over for smartphones, what will be next?

By Wesley Diphoko Time of article publishedSep 18, 2020

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You don’t have to be a genius to understand that the era of smartphones is coming to an end. Since the launch of the first iPhone, device manufacturers have come up with all sorts of improvements to make the smartphone interesting. Lately, some have introduced the foldable phone which is just a sub-category of the smartphone.

All signs are pointing to an end for the smartphone era What will emerge after the smartphone? What will replace the smartphone? To find an answer to that question you have to pay attention to the research and development projects of some of the leading technology companies in the world right now. One such company is Facebook with its Facebook Reality Labs. The research lab brings together researchers, developers, and engineers to build the future connection within the

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