Device launched by Steve Jobs in 2007 with promise to ‘reinvent the phone’ sells for 300 times original price
A 2007 Apple iPhone has been sold at auction for $190,372.80 (£145,416) – 300 times its original sale price.
The 4GB model , originally bought for $599, was still in its factory wrapping and was in exceptional condition, the auction listing said. The auctioneer LCG Auctions described the device as a “popular high-end collectible” and “exceedingly rare”.
Continue reading...Parents and schools across Greystones adopt voluntary ‘no-smartphone code’ in bid to curb peer pressure
On the principle of strength in numbers, parents in the Irish town of Greystones have banded together to collectively tell their children they cannot have a smartphone until secondary school.
Parents’ associations across the district’s eight primary schools have adopted a no-smartphone code to present a united front against children’s lobbying.
Continue reading...In test of Australia’s three networks, Open Signal finds Telstra has most consistent user experience overall
Telstra may be Australia’s largest 5G network but Optus fares better for overall network availability and Vodafone leads for 5G availability, according to Open Signal’s latest review of the country’s three mobile networks.
Analyst firm Open Signal tested the three networks across the country in city and regional locations for three months from January to March this year.
Continue reading...Citizen Lab says victims’ phones infected after being sent a iCloud calendar invitation in a ‘zero-click’ attack
Security experts have warned about the emergence of previously unknown spyware with hacking capabilities comparable to NSO Group’s Pegasus that has already been used by clients to target journalists, political opposition figures and an employee of an NGO.
Researchers at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School said the spyware, which is made by an Israeli company called QuaDream, infected some victims’ phones by sending an iCloud calendar invitation to mobile users from operators of the spyware, who are likely to be government clients. Victims were not notified of the calendar invitations because they were sent for events logged in the past, making them invisible to the targets of the hacking. Such attacks are known as “zero-click” because users of the mobile phone do not have to click on any malicious link or take any action in order to be infected.
Continue reading...Officers on horseback deployed to reduce use of phones by motorist; driver faces £200 fine and six points on licence
Two mounted police officers have chased down a man spotted holding his mobile phone while driving.
Officers on horses have been deployed across the UK in order to reduce the number of people using a phone while at the wheel. Avon and Somerset police are involved in the enforcement operation led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) over the next three weeks.
Continue reading...Call for more personalised approach on back of broader efforts to build deeper relationships with families
Personalised text messages to parents could be used to help improve school attendance rates, as teachers struggle to re-engage children and their families after the disruption of Covid, according to experts.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said there was a “national persistent truancy crisis” in England, with significantly more children now missing lessons compared with before the pandemic.
Continue reading...Companies facing backlash amid warning of mid-contract price rises of up to 17% during cost of living crisis
Britain’s telecoms regulator is being urged to intervene over concerns that mobile and broadband operators are “lining their pockets” with £2.2bn of above-inflation price rises during the cost of living crisis.
While ministers have urged employees to show pay restraint, the mobile phone and broadband firms are facing a consumer backlash as they announce record price increases.
Continue reading...Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, from which many workers have fled, now under seven-day Covid lockdown
Chinese authorities have announced a seven-day coronavirus lockdown in the area around the world’s largest iPhone factory, stoking concern that production will be severely curtailed ahead of the Christmas period.
Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, which employs about 200,000 people, produces the majority of Apple’s new phones, including the new iPhone 14.
Continue reading...We may never know just what happened with Liz Truss’s mobile, but it’s clear that ministers need to up their security game
It is no longer news to point out that a mobile phone, if hacked, can be the ultimate tool for surveillance. But the question is whether it is a surprise to British politicians – and whether they are using their devices sensibly or carelessly.
We will almost certainly never know precisely what happened to Liz Truss’s phone. The then foreign secretary had to abruptly drop her main number and take up a new, government-issued handset in the summer, just as it emerged she was likely to be the next prime minister after Boris Johnson.
Continue reading...Apple will be forced to change charger after EU votes to use USB-C connectors
The European parliament has voted to introduce a single charging port for mobile phones, tablets and cameras by 2024 in a move that presents difficulties for Apple, whose iPhones use a different power connector.
The vote confirms an earlier agreement among EU institutions and will make USB-C connectors used by Android-based devices the EU standard, forcing Apple to change its charging port for its devices.
Continue reading...Move taken against background of China’s Covid lockdowns and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington
Apple has begun making iPhone 14s in India, as it moves some production away from China for the first time against a backdrop of Chinese Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and geopolitical tensions between the US and the country’s communist government.
A production line in Chennai has begun operation, assembling the iPhone 14 for the domestic Indian market. The move, which marks the first time the company has assembled iPhones outside of China in the same year they were released, is part of a plan to disentangle its manufacturing operations from the Chinese state.
Continue reading...Which? says people are cutting food and clothes spending to pay for mobile, broadband and landline
Almost 6 million UK households are struggling to pay their mobile, landline and broadband bills, with the cost of living squeeze forcing many to cut back on essentials such as food and clothes, cancel or change a service, or miss payments to stay connected.
A report from the consumer group Which? estimates that 5.7 million households have experienced at least one “affordability issue” in April, as cash-strapped homes struggle to cope with soaring bills and other costs.
Continue reading...Heads of GCHQ and NCSC say client-side scanning could protect children and privacy at the same time
Tech companies should move ahead with controversial technology that scans for child abuse imagery on users’ phones, the technical heads of GCHQ and the UK’s National Cybersecurity Centre have said.
So-called “client-side scanning” would involve service providers such as Facebook or Apple building software that monitors communications for suspicious activity without needing to share the contents of messages with a centralised server.
Continue reading...An opaque council controls smartphone access for Israel’s Haredim population, but many are making forays online anyway
Tel Aviv’s booming science and technology industry, bolstered by graduates of elite army intelligence units, has earned Israel the nickname “start-up nation”.
Yet in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox suburb just a few miles east of Tel Aviv’s skyscrapers, a vicious fight is being waged over whether smartphones are compatible with traditional Jewish law, and who should have the power to decide on internet access.
Continue reading...New regulations require scam messages to be traced, identified and blocked and for information to be shared with authorities
Mobile phone companies could face up to $250,000 in fines for failing to comply with a new code to block SMS scam messages.
The code, registered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) on Tuesday, will require the companies to trace, identify and block SMS scam messages, and publish information for customers on how to identify and report scams.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Consumer champion Justin Gutmann alleges older iPhones made slower to cope with software updates
A consumer champion has launched a more than £750m legal claim against Apple, linked to an incident in 2017 relating to a power management tool on older iPhones.
Justin Gutmann has accused the tech giant of slowing down the performance of iPhone handsets – a process known as “throttling” – by hiding a power management tool in software updates to combat performance issues and stop older devices from shutting down suddenly.
Continue reading...Paz Estaban told committee spyware was used on 18 Catalan activists with judicial approval, sources say
The Catalan government is calling for answers “from the highest level” after the head of Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) reportedly confirmed that 18 members of the regional independence movement were spied on with judicial approval.
The apparent admission – to a congressional committee – came two weeks after cybersecurity experts said at least 63 people connected with the Catalan independence movement had been targeted or infected with Pegasus spyware, and three days after the Spanish government said the phones of the prime minister and the defence minister had been targeted with Pegasus.
Continue reading...Greens digital rights spokesperson says officers should be required to get a warrant before going through travellers’ mobile phones
Australian Border Force officials searched 822 travellers’ mobile phones in 2021, despite admitting it has no power to force arrivals to give them the passcode to their devices.
In January, Sydney software developer James told Guardian Australia that he and his partner were stopped on their return from Fiji by border force officials who asked them to write their phone passcodes on a piece of paper before taking the codes and their phones to another room to examine for half an hour. The phones were then returned and they were allowed to leave.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...For some generations, voice notes have replaced text messages and even phone calls. But are they the future of communication – or just plain annoying?
I lay on my bedroom carpet looking at the blue of the ceiling, feeling like I was in a teen movie. My phone buzzed and I picked it up to respond to my crush’s last text – except this time it wasn’t a text, but a voice note, a short audio file you send via Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. It was the first time I’d heard his voice – it was flat, low and attractive. He asked me how my day had gone. My stomach fluttered because I knew this meant he wanted to get closer to me, yet I also freaked out because there was so much pressure to get my response right.
At first, I ignored the switch in communication and started typing out a message, because I hate my voice – the way I can hear my nerves prickle through my speech, the high pitch of my intonation and the number of times I say “like”. But don’t voice notes feel so much more intimate? Hearing the subtleties of the other person’s speech, as if they were whispering in your ear – and I wanted to get closer to him. So I focused on getting comfy, and pushed the record button. In response to his “How was your day?” I started telling him about the bike I had just got. “It hurts so much on your vulva. I only lasted about 10 minutes before I limped off.”
Continue reading...Admission follows allegations of snooping on mobile phones of protesters, politicians and criminal suspects
Israel’s national police force has found evidence pointing to improper use of spyware by its own investigators to snoop on Israeli citizens’ phones.
The announcement on Tuesday came two weeks after an Israeli newspaper reported a string of allegations that the police had used the NSO Group’s Pegasus software to surveil protesters, politicians and criminal suspects without authorisation from a judge.
Continue reading...