Category: Smartphones

Queens Library Sets Parolees Up For Success With Smartphones

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QUEENS, NY — A new program at Queens Public Library aims to help formerly incarcerated people put their best foot forward as they reenter society with easy access to smartphones and job training.

The program, called the “Immediate Access: Technology Re-entry Program,” will provide 75 former inmates with data-equipped smartphones, online resources and job training for two years.

In a news release, the library said the program aims to benefit parolees who have been imprisoned for decades, possibly since before smartphones made their way into the mainstream.

Those released during the coronavirus pandemic, the library said, face an even more

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Smartphones become a lifeline for poor Brazilians

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The majority of financially vulnerable Brazilians performs key daily tasks including study and work exclusively via their smartphones, according to a study from the Center of Studies on Information and Communication Technologies (Cetic.br), the research arm of the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br)

This is the latest study of a research series into technology habits of users after the emergence of the pandemic, which utilizes indicators from the center’s pre-Covid studies on tech adoption.

The sample size of the research is 101 million Internet users, which corresponds to 83% of Brazilian users aged 16 or over. The latest survey was

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Xiaomi working on retractable wide-aperture lens for smartphones

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At its annual developer conference last week, Xiaomi announced an upcoming wide-aperture lens that retracts into the body of a smartphone when not in use, promising long optical zoom without increasing the girth of our ubiquitous mobile companions.

Smartphones have all-but relegated dedicated compact cameras to the history books when it comes to capturing quick snaps and videos while out and about, with multiple camera arrays now offering pretty impressive image quality as well as long zooms and wide apertures.

Earlier in the year, Chinese company Xiaomi launched the Mi 10 Ultra flagship phone, which included a 48-MP (wide) 48-MP

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With new chip, MediaTek aims to put 5G in lower-cost smartphones

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FILE PHOTO: MediaTek chips are seen on a development board at the MediaTek booth during the 2015 Computex exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, June 3, 2015. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang

(Reuters) – MediaTek Inc 2454.TW on Tuesday released a new smartphone chip that aims to bring 5G connectivity to lower-priced devices and a new chip for Chromebooks to try to meet the booming demand for low-cost laptops in the education market.

The Hsinchu, Taiwan-based chip designer said the new Dimensity 700 smartphone processor chip will offer 5G connectivity, improve battery life and bring in processing capabilities now found in higher-end devices.

The chip

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Samsung, Xiaomi dominated the top 10 smartphones globally for Q3 2020

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Samsung Galaxy A51 back standing up

Credit: David Imel / Android Authority

  • Apple’s iPhone 11 was the top shipping smartphone of Q3 2020, according to Canalys.
  • The Samsung Galaxy A21s was the top Android phone for the quarter.
  • Samsung had four other phones on the list, while Xiaomi had three devices crack the top 10.

The third quarter of the year saw the smartphone market bounce back after the dreadful first and second quarters, with Samsung reclaiming the top spot from Huawei. It also saw Xiaomi emerge as the number three brand globally, passing Apple during this period.

Canalys has revealed the top 10 smartphone models

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Smartphones can screen for diabetes, metabolic disease susceptibility

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Smartphones can screen for diabetes, metabolic disease susceptibility
The camera images on the left helped to create 3-D optical body scans on the right. Credit: University of Hawaii at Manoa

Smartphones can be used to estimate body composition and indicate health and mortality risks, according to a new study by a University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center researcher and his team. This accessible and cost-effective option will enable early screening and monitoring of physiological indicators of metabolic diseases in regions where medical imagery or clinical assessment is not available.

“This is beneficial as smartphones are already owned by middle and low-income individuals who are most susceptible to metabolic diseases,

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Study: You’ll Likely Waste 9 Years of Your Life Staring at Smartphones

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The average American will likely spend roughly nine years looking at their smartphone screen, according to a new study conducted by the mobile comparison site WhistleOut.

Of the one thousand individuals who took part in the survey, 166 were baby boomers (born 1946–1964), 270 were Generation X (born 1965–1980), and 449 were millennials (born 1981–1996). The remaining respondents were born outside these age ranges.

Not surprisingly, millennials log the most amount of time on their smartphones—which came out to 3.7 hours per day. Gen Xers spend approximately three hours a day, while boomers registered 2.5 hours.

For a better perspective,

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How New Modular Smartphones Could Be The Sustainable Alternative To The Annual Phone Release

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As the holiday season approaches, how many of us are planning to upgrade our smartphones? With increasingly lackluster annual smartphone launches and the promise of 5G pushed ever-further away, the prospect of buying a new phone feels distant for many consumers.

Americans were already waiting an average of three years to upgrade their phones before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Engadget, and data from the Consumer Technology Association forecasts a decrease of 15% in smartphone sales between

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