Fast Company: Cheap smartphones have a disturbing secret. “Seventeen dollars for a smartphone sounds like a great deal, especially for people living in poverty who can barely afford rent. But there’s a problem: low-cost smartphones are privacy nightmares.”
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Google Blog: Bringing Google Fi to more people on Android and iOS
Google Blog: Bringing Google Fi to more people on Android and iOS. “Starting today, Project Fi is available on more phones: our plan now works with the majority of Android devices and iPhones. And since we’re officially expanding our device support, we’re making our name more official, too: we’re now Google Fi.”
Digital Trends: Like a bullet to a gun, scientists can match a photo to the phone that took it
Digital Trends: Like a bullet to a gun, scientists can match a photo to the phone that took it. “You know that cop movie trope where a single bullet is traced back to the specific gun that fired it? Well, researchers at the University at Buffalo in New York have developed similar technology — only this time it’s for tracking a photo back to the phone that took it. It could potentially lead to a new way to enhance security and fight cybercrime.”
New-to-Me: An Online Database of Pay Phones
New-to-me but apparently around for a while: an online database of pay phones. “By the 1990s there were nearly three million pay phones in America. But now just a small fraction remain. Mark Thomas keeps track of the ones that are left. He created the Payphone Project, an online database of pay phones from around the world.”
NBC News – It’s Not Just You: Why So Many People Lose or Break Their Phone Just as a New One Comes Out
Um, not me! From NBC News: It’s Not Just You: Why So Many People Lose or Break Their Phone Just as a New One Comes Out. “It might seem strange that smartphone owners would get clumsier right as a new model hits the market, but that’s exactly what happens, according to a forthcoming article in the Journal of Marketing Research. Data on lost iPhones shows that owners are less likely to try and track down their missing devices when a newer version is available, the paper found.”
Amit Agarwal: How to Make Phone Numbers Callable in Google Sheets
Amit Agarwal! What more needs to be said?! How to Make Phone Numbers Callable in Google Sheets. “If you click an email link on a webpage, it opens your default mail program. Similarly, you can make phone numbers on your website “callable” meaning when someone clicks the phone number, it will launch the dialer on their mobile phone and initiate dialing of the specified phone number. It is recommended that you make phone numbers clickable as more and more people would be accessing your site on their mobile devices.”
CNET: Is Facebook secretly building a phone?
CNET: Is Facebook secretly building a phone? “On a cloudy day this May, in the dull fluorescent light of a plain white Google conference room, Rafa Camargo, Richard Wooldridge and Blaise Bertrand told CNET their plan to disrupt the phone market. Ara, a Lego-like phone with modular parts, would let buyers snap on a better camera, additional batteries or any other creative hardware a developer might dream up. It was set to be the first phone entirely designed by Google, the three men claimed. Then the Ara project was abruptly shelved.”
