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Murena 2 is a de-Googled Android phone with a privacy kill switch that disconnects mic and camera (crowdfunding)

The Murena 2 is a 6.43 inch AMOLED display, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 4,000 mAh battery, three rear cameras, and a microSD card reader. But there are two features that make this phone unusual. First, it ships with /e/OS, which is an Android-based operating system that’s been stripped of Google apps and services, […]

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Fairphone releases Android 13 for the Fairphone 4

Most modern smartphone makers release several new models every year. Dutch company Fairphone takes a slower, more deliberate approach, releasing one new phone every few years… but offering long-term support for hardware as it ages. So a little over a month after introducing the Fairphone 5, the company has announced an official Android 13 update […]

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Android 14 may let you use your smartphone as a webcam for your PC

Most modern laptops ship with webcams… and most of them aren’t all that good. It’s still common to see PC makers announce new laptops with 720p cameras. Microsoft just introduced one today. So, while you could shop around for a model with a 1080p or higher-resolution camera (there are more than their used to be), many […]

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Lilbits: The iPhone 15’s USB-C port isn’t crippled, OnePlus Pad Go and Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max v2 coming soon

The iPhone 15 is Apple’s first smartphone to feature a USB-C port, which means you can use the same cable to charge the company’s new smartphones as you already use to power its most recent iPad tablets and MacBook laptops. But not all USB-C ports are created equal. Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro has a USB […]

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Librem 5 Linux phone gets a $300 price cut, now costs $999 for a phone with 2017 specs

The Purism Librem 5 is an unusual smartphone, because it’s made from a company that sells Linux hardware with an emphasis on privacy and security. It ships with a GNU/Linux distribution called PureOS, has hardware kill switches to disable the mic, cameras, and wireless hardware when you’re not using it. And it’s expensive: when the […]

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Nokia smartphone maker HMD will start selling phones under its own brand

Finnish company HMD Global has been selling Nokia-branded phones since acquiring the rights to use the name in 2016. Now the company’s CEO says HMD will begin selling a new line of “HMD branded mobile devices” soon. That doesn’t mean the Nokia brand is going away. It just means HMD plans to expand its product […]

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Apple discontinues iPhone 13 mini in the latest blow to small-screen phones

When Apple introduced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro this week, the company noted that they’d have the same $799 and $999 starting prices as last year’s flagships. And, as is often the case, the company also announced it would keep some older models around at lower prices, which means you can now pick […]

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Hisense A9 E Ink smartphone gets (unofficial) bootloader unlock and root

The Hisense A9 is an Android phone with a 6.1 inch, 1248 x 824 pixel greyscale E Ink display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor, and support for up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. While the smartphone ships with a custom version of Android 11 developed by Hisense, Denzil Ferreira reports that with […]