FCC shutdown may impact smartphone launches, Sprint/T-Mobile merger

Could the government shutdown delay the launch of the Galaxy S10 as well as a review of the proposed merger of Sprint and T-Mobile?

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It’s not a bug, it’s a feature: Apple defends performance reductions on old iPhones

Apple has quickly reacted to iPhone slowdown accusations, admitting it intentionally put a cap on the 6, 6s, SE and 7 performance to "prolong their life."

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Apple is controversially limiting iPhone 6s and 7 CPU performance to reduce battery load

If you felt like a particular software update crippled the overall user experience on the iPhone 6s or 7, there's now an explanation for that.

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Apple reduces incidence of iPhone 6 and 6s shutdowns with iOS 10.2.1 stability improvements

If you still experience random iPhone 6 or 6s shutdowns, Apple's recently released iOS 10.2.1 may fix the problem or at least limit its impact.

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Apple blames ‘ambient air’ for unexpected iPhone 6s shutdowns, still looking into some complaints

While Cupertino’s unusually prompt reaction to relatively widespread iPhone 6 and 6s “bricking” issues in China was certainly praiseworthy, Samsung’s recent Galaxy Note 7 explosion fiasco and especially the confusion still surrounding the phablet’s discontinuation taught Apple quick answers were also imperative.

Hopefully, the “information about the iPhone accidental shutdown” just shared on the tech giant’s regional support webpages has been a little more thoroughly researched, checked and double-checked than the competition’s first Note 7 quality inspection findings.

Apparently, it’s not a “security issue” that caused a “small number” of iPhone 6s units produced between September and October 2015 to randomly freeze, halt all operations, and refuse to charge or boot back up.

Instead, believe it or not, air was the culprit here. Specifically, a central battery component’s exposure to “controlled ambient air for too long” before said component was “loaded into the battery pack.” That sure sounds… unusual, so much so in fact that we believe it may well check out. It’s simply too weird to be fabricated.

It also means that, for the “affected” iPhone 6s range, everything should be a-okay after Apple’s voluntary free battery replacement program. But another “small number of customers” outside this “area” have been reporting unexpected shutdowns as well, and “more information” is needed ahead of a verdict, battery swap or recall, with an “additional diagnostic feature” coming as part of an iOS software update next week.

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Twitter shutting down Vine, lays off 300 employees

The home of the looping six-second video is about to be demolished. Twitter-owned social network Vine has announced that it will be shutting down its app sometime down the road, only giving us an indication of “months.”Users will be able to download their videos at some point and the website, with its existing content, will be kept alive for the time being. More details on the de-escalation process will be disclosed along the way.The

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Verizon CDMA to finally die (at least in one form) by 2020

Verizon’s looking forward to leave behind this decade with some of the oldest technology in wireless communications it uses.Its CDMA 1X network, which carries traffic for some end consumers as well as machine-to-machine clients, is scheduled to be entirely off by December 31, 2019. In an interview with FierceWireless, spokesperson Chuck Hamby said that the company is working on converting businesses running CDMA-reliant equipment and will work with customers “one-on-one.”“Should there be ...

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