Engadget : Travel

Cell phone plans can get exceedingly complicated, so Comcast’s pitch for Xfinity Mobile’s simplicity is rather appealing — particularly at a time when everything is more expensive than ever. Today, the company is announcing two simple plans priced at $30 and $45 a month that have some serious perks for their prices.

Engadget : Style

AT&T just announced OneConnect, a new service that lets customers sign up for both wireless service and fiber home internet under a single subscription. Pricing starts at $90. This could end up saving some serious bucks, especially for those who are paying around $100 per month for each from separate providers.

These plans offer unlimited mobile data, which is great. The home internet speed caps at 1Gbps, which is a decent enough metric.

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Apple’s satellite features are designed for situations where cellular and Wi-Fi coverage are unavailable. In supported regions, compatible iPhone 14 or later models can connect directly to a satellite to send messages, access Emergency SOS and share location data. Location sharing via satellite is particularly useful when traveling in remote areas, hiking or driving through regions with limited network coverage.

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Apple’s satellite features were originally designed for emergencies, allowing iPhone users to contact emergency services when cellular and Wi-Fi coverage is unavailable. With recent versions of iOS, Apple has expanded those capabilities to include sending and receiving messages via satellite. This makes it possible to stay in touch with friends and family from remote locations where traditional networks do not reach, such as hiking trails, rural areas or offshore locations.

Engadget : Style, Travel

If you’ve upgraded your phone recently, there’s a good chance it supports wireless charging. Battery life can be one of the first things to deteriorate as your phone ages, so you’ll need quick and easy ways to power up wherever you are. You may not always be able to have a cable on your person, but investing in a wireless phone charger (or a few) can make it more convenient to plop your phone down and know it’ll have more juice when you pick it back up again.

Engadget : Sports, Style, Technology

Clicks is bringing its physical keyboard products to CES yet again, and these are chock full of nostalgia. The company has also unveiled its first smartphone, aimed at "communication, not consumption," that it says will function as a second phone used mostly for messaging.

The phone is dubbed the Clicks Communicator and features a tactile keyboard, a 4-inch OLED display, a 3.5mm headphone jack and expandable microSD storage up to 2TB. The interface is built on Android 16 and supports hardware-level encryption.

Engadget : Technology, Travel

There’s a good chance you own a couple of gadgets that support wireless charging now, be it your iPhone or Android phone, wireless earbuds or smartwatch. Multi-device wireless chargers can help power them all up in one place, without the need for a bunch of cords messing up your space. There are dozens of these accessories out there today, and we’ve tested a bunch of the most popular models.

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Meta has announced that BirdyChat and Haiket are the first third-party messaging services that will have interoperability with WhatsApp in the European Union.

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Your iPhone may soon be able to do more than call for emergency help and send messages via satellite, according to the latest Power On newsletter. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple is planning to expand on satellite features available on iPhones.