The next version of Android is expected to hit Pixel phones in June, but it'll take longer for devices from other manufacturers to see the new OS. However, Samsung is making unusually good time this cycle. Owners of the company's Galaxy S25 phones can get an early look at One UI 8 (based on Android 16) in the new open beta program. Samsung promises a lot of upgrades, but it may not feel that way.
Signing up for the beta is a snapβjust open the Samsung Members app, and the beta signup should be right on the main landing page. From there, the OTA update should appear on your device within a few minutes. It's pretty hefty at 3.4GB, but the installation is quick, and none of your data should be affected. That said, backups are always advisable when using beta software.
You must be in the US, Germany, Korea, or the UK to join the beta, and US phones must be unlocked or the T-Mobile variants. The software is compatible with the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultraβthe new S25 Edge need not apply (for now).
OnePlus thrives on trendsβif other smartphone makers are doing something, you can bet OnePlus is going to have a take. The company recently confirmed it's ditching the storied alert slider in favor of an Apple-like shortcut button called the Plus Key, and that's not the only trend it'll chase with its latest phones. OnePlus has also announced an expanded collection of AI features for translation, photography, screen capture, and more. OnePlus isn't breaking new ground here, but it is cherry-picking some of the more useful AI features we've seen on other phones.
The OnePlus approach covers most of the established AI use cases. There will be AI VoiceScribe, a feature that records and summarizes calls in popular messaging and video chat apps. Similarly, AI Call Assistant will record and summarize phone calls, a bit like Google's Pixel phones. However, these two features are India-only for now.
Globally, OnePlus users will get AI Translation, which pulls together text, voice, camera, and screen translation into a single AI-powered app. AI Search, meanwhile, allows you to search for content on your phone and in OnePlus system apps in a "conversational" way. That suggests to us it's basically another chatbot on your phone, like Motorola's Ask and Search feature, which we didn't love.
In an interview with Elle published on Thursday, the actor spoke about her upbringing and how her famous mother shaped her decision to live a private life.
Threapleton told Elle that she doesn't have any social media accounts and doesn't plan on creating them anytime soon.
"People say, 'Oh, well done,' to not having it, but I've never had it, so I don't really know what the 'Well done' is for. I don't want it. I don't want to worry about dropping my phone out of a tree if I'm climbing one because I'm trying to take a photo of something," Threapleton said.
Part of it comes from the intense public scrutiny her mother faced at the height of her "Titanic" fame. Winslet has spoken multiple times about how she felt bullied and bodyshamed by the media after the movie came out.
Threapleton said her mother made a point to instill body confidence from a young age, including times when she was insecure about showing her shoulders while swimming.
"My mom said, 'No, this is strong. So many people would love to be able to swim the length of the pool the way you do β think of it as a positive thing,'" Threapleton said, recalling her mother's words.
This isn't the first time that Threapleton has spoken about how her mother played a role in her decision not to use social media.
In a May 17 interview with The Times, Threapleton said her mother encouraged her to make a list of pros and cons for joining Instagram when she was 14.
"The cons completely outweighed the pros for me. That was quite a clarifying moment. Since then, the more time I spend in this world, the more I'm really happy that I don't have it," she said.
Winslet herself has also been vocal about the harmful impact of social media on kids.
In 2023, during an appearance on BBC Radio 4's "Woman's Hour," the "Little Children" actor spoke about why she believes kids shouldn't have social media and smartphones.
"It's tampering with, sometimes, a very basic level of self-esteem. But on a bigger and darker scale, it's tampering with young people's self-esteem to the extent that they are completely losing a sense of who they are, and don't know how to communicate not just with their friends but their families," Winslet said.
Several countries around the world are trying to implement stricter controls on social media use for kids.
Hello, and welcome to your weekly dose of Big Tech news and insights. These are the moments I feel so lucky to be a journalist in Silicon Valley. AI is rapidly changing so much important stuff, for better or worse. Even just witnessing this from the sidelines is a joy.
I had a fancy newsletter ready to go, all about Google's big I/O conference. Then, OpenAI bought Jony Ive's AI gadget startup for $6.5 billion. It's called io. Lowercase. I'm not joking. That's the name.
Agenda
What you need to know about this OpenAI-io megadeal and what it means for Apple, Google, and the rest of the tech industry.
An exclusive look at a powerful new Microsoft AI exec who came from Meta.
How I created a podcast about Google I/O in about 15 minutes, using one of the company's AI tools.
Central story unit
Jony Ive with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Getty Images
I went to Google I/O this week. It's my favorite Silicon Valley event. Despite being a $2 trillion corporation, Google retains some of its lovingly nerdy, playful attitude.
There's been a lot of angst lately about OpenAI eating Google's lunch. I didn't see much evidence of that at the conference. Neither did my BI colleagues Charles Rollet and Pranav Dixit, who attended with me.
Pranav told me that I/O made it clear how far Google has come in a relatively short time. "OpenAI still ships incredibly fast, but Google finally has real momentum," he said. "I'm genuinely excited to see how this plays out over the next year."
Charles' (good) advice: "Never underestimate Google." He had a caveat, though. "I was at a technical panel when the news hit that OpenAI was buying Ive's hardware startup, and seeing OpenAI upstage Google like that felt a little ominous."
But what about Apple? The handwringing has suddenly switched to this tech giant now. Ive helped create the iPhone, but he regrets the unintended consequences of smartphones. He recently said it still weighs on his mind.
Ive's io startup has been designing a new device for an AI future where a powerful personalized chatbot assistant follows you around, helping with everything. He also recruited a bunch of Apple technologists to help. What's the form factor? It's definitely not going to be a phone. It could be a pin of some sort, maybe? Although that idea bombed once already.
Now, OpenAI owns whatever this is. ChatGPT is likely to be the AI assistant embedded in this gadget. That is a potentially potent threat to Apple, which has struggled for years to come up with what the next big device will be. It doesn't help that Apple is way behind OpenAI and Google in the AI race.
Why some investors walked away from Sam Altman's OpenAI funding efforts.
Eval time
My take on who's up and down in the tech industry right now, including updates on Big Tech employee pay.
UP: Google (Alphabet) is up almost 2% this week. See above for the reason.
DOWN: Apple shares are down about 7% this week. That's a shift of more than $200 billion in market cap, in favor of Google. Donald Trump issued a new iPhone tariff threat on Friday, adding to Tim Cook's challenges.
COMP UPDATE: Below is data from Indeed's Hiring Lab. They looked at salaries in software development from the start of 2024 through the end of March 2025. I'm surprised by the blockchain pay. I suppose bitcoin hit a record this week.
This is the time each week when I try an AI tool. What do you think of this week's pick? What should I do, or use, next week? Let me know.
I met Dan Fitzpatrick at Google I/O. He's a Tech Memo subscriber and expert on AI for education. We discussed how he uses generative AI, particularly how he creates podcasts from his research. Here's one he did this week in which he talks about meeting Google CEO Sundar Pichai. This was his workflow:
Record a voice memo on his phone.
Put that into Google's Gemini chatbot and ask it to create a transcript.
Ask Gemini to try again and keep the words closer to how Dan spoke in the audio file.
Upload the transcript to a speech AI service called ElevenLabs in three batches.
ElevenLabs turned this into a new audio file of Dan speaking in his distinct style.
Dan edited the audio in TikTok's CapCut tool and published it on LinkedIn as a podcast.
"I also add the jingles in CapCut," he told me.
Not to be outdone, I created a podcast, too. I asked Charles and Pranav for some of their top Google I/O takeaways. I put that text into a Google Doc and added it to Google's NotebookLM AI tool. I then selected "Audio Output" on the right-hand side of the NotebookLM page. About one minute later, the tool created this podcast. Check it out and let me know what you think.
User feedback
I would love to hear from anyone who reads this newsletter. What do you want to see more of? Email me at [email protected].
Specifically, though: This week, I want to hear back from anyone who attended Google I/O. Is OpenAI (and Jony Ive) a real threat to Apple and Google, or not? Why?
Xiaomi boss Lei Jun is ready for his company to emulate Apple's approach to chip design.
AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
Xiaomi boss Lei Jun said his company would start making its own mobile chips.
He said his company was ready to spend billions of dollars on chip design over the next decade.
It's an approach that its rival Apple largely popularized.
One of Apple's top rivals in China is taking a page out of its own book, again.
On Monday, Xiaomi's billionaire cofounder and CEO, Lei Jun, said that his company was implementing a 10-year plan to invest 50 billion yuan, roughly $7 billion, into chip design as it looks to make chips of its own for its smartphones. To date, it has relied on US firm Qualcomm and Taiwanese firm MediaTek for chips.
In a post to Chinese social media site Weibo, Lei said his company "made a major decision" back in 2021 to restart the process of developing its own silicon for smartphones after an initial effort in the previous decade faced setbacks.
Apple has largely popularized the so-called system-on-a-chip (SoC) approach, spending the past 15 years powering products like iPhones and Macs with its own silicon, which company executives believe gives their products an edge.
Lei also said on Weibo that the first chip from its new mobile efforts, Xring 01, would be unveiled on May 22.
"Chips are the underlying core track for Xiaomi to break through hardcore technology, and we will definitely go all out," Lei wrote, while acknowledging that his company had previously suspended its work on SoC research and development.
The move comes as Chinese companies increasingly seek to develop their own know-how and expertise in key technologies.
Lei said Xiaomi would chase "the latest process technology" as part of its ambitions for its renewed work on mobile chips. Chips for the Xring 01 will be developed using a 3-nanometer process, Lei said, an advanced way of producing some of the most powerful chips.
He said that at least a decade of fresh investment would be needed, given "the difficulty of chip manufacturing."
"Xiaomi has always had a 'chip dream' because, in order to become a great hardcore technology company, chips are a peak that must be climbed and a tough battle that cannot be avoided," he wrote.
It's not the first time Xiaomi has looked to emulate a rival like Apple.
For phone nerds who've been around the block a few times, the original Motorola Razr is undeniably iconic. The era of foldables has allowed Motorola to resurrect the Razr in an appropriately flexible form, and after a few generations of refinement, the 2025 Razrs are spectacular pieces of hardware. They look great, they're fun to use, and they just about disappear in your pocket.
The new Razrs also have enormous foldable OLEDs, along with external displays that are just large enough to be useful. Moto has upped its design game, offering various Pantone shades with interesting materials and textures to make the phones more distinctive, but Motorola's take on mobile AI could use some work, as could its long-term support policy. Still, these might be the coolest phones you can get right now.
An elegant tactile experience
Many phone buyers couldn't care less about how a phone's body looks or feelsβthey'll just slap it in a case and never look at it again. Foldables tend not to fit as well in cases, so the physical design of the Razrs is important. The good news is that Motorola has refined the foldable formula with an updated hinge and some very interesting material choices.
Apple lost 9% in iPhone shipments in China in Q1 of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.
WANG JIAWEI/REUTERS
Chinese e-commerce sites have reduced the price of Apple's iPhone 16 ahead of a shopping festival.
Business Insider found iPhones discounted for hundreds of dollars compared to official listings.
Apple faces declining sales in China as local brands like Xiaomi gain market share.
Chinese e-commerce websites have slashed some Apple iPhone prices by hundreds of dollars ahead of the 618 shopping festival.
The 618 shopping festival, or June 18, typically lasts around two weeks and is the second-largest annual shopping festival in China, which frequently generates more than $100 billion in revenue for its largest e-commerce platforms.
On JD, Business Insider found a white iPhone 16 Pro with 128GB of storage on an interest-free 12-month payment plan listed at 5,380 yuan, or around $745. That is at least a $360 markdown from Apple's official listing price of 7,999 yuan on its mainland China website.
Another 256GB iPhone 16 pro on the same payment plan is selling at 6,220 yuan on JD, down from Apple's official listing price of 8,999 yuan.
A 128GB iPhone 16 is selling for around $740 on Tmall.
Tmall
On Tmall, by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, BI also saw at least one brand new iPhone 16 for 5,299 yuan, also around $230 down from the Apple official listing price of 6,999 yuan.
On Apple's US official website, a 128GB iPhone 16 Pro would cost $999, while an iPhone 16 with the same amount of storage is listed at $799.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comments and did not clarify whether these discounts in China are part of an official promotion initiated by Apple.
These markdowns follow Apple's struggling sales in China, as cheaper domestic brands gain popularity and shoppers grow thriftier. Apple saw its iPhone shipments down 9% in China in comparison to the first quarter of 2024, and its Q2 sales in China also missed expectations.
However, according to a report by the International Data Corporation, smartphone shipments in China grew 3.3% overall in the first quarter, largely due to local Apple rivals like Xiaomi, which saw a 39.9% increase in shipments in China in the same quarter compared to 2024.
A Xiaomi 15 Pro, one of its latest models with at least 256GB in storage, is listed for 4,999 yuan on its China website, which is less than $700.
Meanwhile, to boost soft consumer spending as China grapples with internal economic issues triggered by a property market crisis, the Chinese government expanded consumer subsidies on smartphones and other tech devices, but only for products priced under 6,000 yuan ($821), leaving many Apple models too expensive to qualify for the discount.
Samsung released its Galaxy S25 series earlier this year to generally favorable reviews. It also teased the perplexingly thin S25 Edge, and now that phone is a reality. You can preorder Samsung's thinnest smartphone-ever today, but you should know what you're getting into. This $1,099 smartphone is incredibly slim, at just 5.8 mm, but it also steps down in the camera department and packs an anemic battery that may struggle to last all day.
This is a big, flat phone featuring a 120 Hz 6.7-inch OLED at 1440Γ3120. Like the S25 Ultra, it has a titanium frame with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back. The front has Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 for improved scratch protection. There's almost no bezel around the displayβin fact, there's almost no phone around the display. The body is only 5.8 mm thick, a substantial reduction from the similarly sized S25+ at 7.3 mm. That's really this phone's claim to fame: It's really thin. Everything else (and we do mean everything) is secondary to that.
Cramming premium camera modules into a smartphone is an engineering challenge even when you're not trying to make the phone as slim as possible. Similar to foldables, there just isn't enough space in the S25 Edge for a full suite of Samsung cameras. Therefore, this phone only has two rear camera modules: a 200 MP primary shooter that appears identical to the S25 Ultra's and a meager 12 MP ultrawide. There's a 12 MP selfie camera on the front as well. There is no telephoto lens at all, which you get even on the base model S25.
Lester V. Ledesma started backpacking across Southeast Asia in the '90s.
Lester V. Ledesma
Lester V. Ledesma, 50, started backpacking across Southeast Asia in the '90s and never stopped.
He says that back then, travelers were able to let curiosity, not the internet, lead the way.
These days, he says smartphones and social media make it harder to connect with locals and discover places on your own.
I began traveling across Southeast Asia in the late '90s. After college, with just a backpack, a camera, and a sense of adventure, I set out to explore the Philippines β my country of birth.
That early journey sparked my career as a travel writer and photographer and led me to move to Singapore a few years later, where the rest of the region was just a flight away from Changi Airport.
Since then, I've collected travel stories that range from simple to sublime and downright strange.
Celebrating the Thingyan Festival, Myanmar's New Year celebration.
Lester V. Ledesma
In my 20s, during my first trip to Cambodia, I spent a hilarious evening of "cultural exchange" with a group of tuk-tuk drivers β we taught each other the harshest cuss words that our native languages had to offer.
A decade later, during the Thingyan Festival β Myanmar's New Year celebration β I found myself on a trishaw as it rode through a gauntlet of cheering, cross-dressing revelers who drenched me with water hoses and planted playful, hairy kisses on my cheeks.
The author, in his 20s, sat alongside monks on his first trip to Cambodia.
Lester V. Ledesma
The following year in Bali, I stood in the middle of a perang api β a ritual fire war between groups of villagers who hurled glowing hunks of coal at each other.
None of those adventures had been inspired by a TikTok, and I hadn't been led there using GPS on my phone.
I was on the road so much that I would often arrive at a destination without any plans or bookings.
These days, backpacking's a breeze with everything online β Google Maps shows us where to go, and sites like Expedia and Booking.com let us plan every detail beforehand. It's all super convenient β maybe too convenient.
As a salty old road warrior, I'd say we've lost something in this hyper-connected, instant-gratification era. Backpacking in Southeast Asia just isn't what it used to be. Here's what we're missing.
The gains of serendipity
Getting lost to find oneself was one of the author's favorite parts of backpacking.
Lester V. Ledesma
Getting lost to find oneself was part of why backpacking was so much fun. But with navigation apps now available on everyone's phone, does anyone still ever really get lost?
Transformative travel is no longer the norm these days, replaced by must-see, must-eat, and must-do lists that bombard our social media feeds. Indeed, looking at long lines of people waiting to take the exact same photo at so-called selfie spots, you'd think the whole point of traveling is to feed the all-important 'Gram.
For all their game-changing functionality, Google Maps and Street View have diminished the joys of discovery on even the simplest neighborhood walks.
My journeys back then felt raw and unfiltered. Since the world was still largely offline, we old-school backpackers let our curiosity (and our printed maps) show us the way.
Connecting with the locals
The author says it's harder to meet locals when smartphones do all of the planning.
Lester V. Ledesma
There are plenty of crowd-sourced and influencer-approved travel tips on your phone, and they often guarantee the same experience as everyone else.
Of course, some would say that's a modern blessing β especially if you have FOMO β but there's nothing like a touch of kindness from a friendly local to make an experience unique.
Over the years, I've shared impromptu meals, received generous rides, witnessed proud displays of skill, and even been welcomed into intimate occasions. It was all because I dared to reach out and engage with the locals.
The cold efficiency of online booking, navigation, and even ride-hailing apps has lessened the opportunities to make meaningful connections. I remember when all it took me was a smile and a curious question to break the ice.
The author used to trade in old guidebooks at book stands along Khao San Road in Bangkok.
Lester V. Ledesma
Getting away from it all
In this day and age, we can stillΒ travel solo, but constant connectivity means that we are never alone. Not too long ago, backpacking was all about immersion in a place, and oftentimes, it was easy to just fall off the grid.
Nowadays, travelers are more likely to update their Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok accounts in real time than keep a handwritten journal.
There are also those amusing vloggers who walk around while talking to their streaming, selfie stick-mounted phones. Despite some travelers being physically far from everyone and everything we know, our cellphones are always pinging with text messages, emails, and social media updates.
Being part of a community
The author remembers making friends with fellow backpackers near places like Khao San Road in Bangkok (pictured) and Pham Ngu Lao Street in Ho Chi Minh City.
Lester V. Ledesma
Once upon a time, independent travel was a shared experience among a loose community of fellow backpackers. We'd cross paths on the road, and then later meet up in traveler hubs like Bangkok's Khao San Road or Saigon's Pham Ngu Lao Street. Here we would swap travel stories over cheap beer, and trade dog-eared guidebooks at secondhand bookshops.
Occasionally, we'd leave messages for newfound friends at guesthouse bulletin boards, before pushing onward to the next destination. Formerly a source of so much camaraderie, this IRL culture has largely dissolved into the realm of social media.
These days, we might find our travel friends online, but the things that drove our journeys back then β a sense of adventure, a willingness to connect, and curiosity about different cultures β are values today's generation of net-savvy, card-carrying travelers seem to be missing out on.
China has finally agreed to open negotiations with the Trump administration as the tech industry warns that tariffs could soon spike Americans' costs for the 10 most popular consumer technology products by more than $123 billion annually.
On Wednesday, the Chinese Embassy in the US announced on X (formerly Twitter) that "Chinaβs lead on China-US economic and trade affairs," He Lifeng, will meet with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from May 9 to 12 to open talks. For those talks to go smoothly, China's Ministry of Commerce toldΒ reportersΒ Wednesday, the US must "demonstrate sincerity" and come ready to "correct its wrongdoings," including facing "the severe negative impacts of its unilateral tariff measures on itself and the world."
Previously, China had demanded that President Trump drop all tariffs to begin negotiations, which Trump refused while seemingly holding out on making a deal on TikTok to keep the potential bargaining chip.
The other day, I was waiting for the subway, standing next to a woman in her pajamas making breakfast. She wasn't actually next to me but on the screen of another rider's iPhone. The flashes of movement on the screen and their loud conversation caught my attention. I wasn't trying to be nosy, but I (and several other commuters around me) was suddenly involved in what would have been a private, intimate moment.
I'm not the only one getting annoyed. Social media posts abound with people districted and flustered by the prevalence of public video calls. "Am I insane for thinking it's extremely rude to FaceTime without headphones in a public space?" one Threads poster asked last year. "I find this to be so inconsiderate, entitled and obnoxious, honestly. I will never understand." The more than 350 comments that followed revealed a divide about whether we should be turning the whole world into our living room. Some questioned how FaceTiming was any different from chatting with a friend in person. Others deemed public FaceTimers "arrogant individuals with no care for others."
This isn't a new phenomenon. FaceTime debuted with the iPhone 4 in 2010, but it took a few more years for enough people to get iPhones and grow accustomed to β and eventually feel entitled to β constant connection. The feature became available not just through WiFi but also via cellular data in 2012. People began to complain to etiquette experts, who gave their takes on the nuisance in newspaper columns. Video calls became even more normalized in 2020, when many of us started working remotely and stacking our calendars with Zoom meetings from 9-to-5, followed by virtual happy hours. Now, many have taken our comfort with chatting on camera into the real world. Our smartphones have blurred the space between what we do at home and what we do in public, and the digital world now has a tangible place in the public sphere.
Pamela Rutledge, the director of the Media Psychology Research Center, says FaceTiming and talking on speakerphone in public are symptoms of broader shifts in social norms over the past two decades. It's common to check your phone at the dinner table or seclude yourself from public interactions with headphones. When people start a video call with someone, even in a crowded area, "our brains create that sense of social presence, which takes us someplace else," she says. We're taken out of the environment and are less likely to be aware of the annoyed people around us. Despite the ire, people continue to take these video calls because the benefits, like reading social cues from the person they're calling, "are greater than the violation of privacy that they apparently are not feeling," she says.
For the people on the call, FaceTiming may be screen time that sits apart from "bad" screen time. Video calls make it easier to read social cues, which can help us avoid communication breakdowns that can happen over texts. One case study conducted during the pandemic lockdowns found that FaceTiming with family improved an Alzheimer's patient's behavior; he was less anxious and agitated after the calls and ate better than in the earliest days of lockdown. Even parents who keep young kids away from screens may give in for a video call with grandma and grandpa. A study from 2016 found that children under the age of 2 can learn words and patterns from interactive screen time like FaceTime calls, and even start to recognize people they repeatedly speak to, like a grandparent. But they don't absorb as much from prerecorded videos.
FaceTime calls feel like hanging out, while phone calls can feel like work.
But for all the benefits of FaceTime, any tech we use to communicate "can also detract from in-person interaction experiences," Juliana Schroeder, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, tells me in an email. Loud public calls can negatively affect the in-person interactions of other people around them β be it their fellow commuters, restaurant diners, or the people working out next to them at the gym.
Gen Z hates phone calls, but they grew up on video calls. FaceTime calls feel like hanging out, while phone calls can feel like work. Boomers, meanwhile, didn't grow up talking on the phone in public, but they're likely to rush to answer (remembering the pre-voicemail days), and may happily pick up video calls from family, even in crowded spaces without headphones at the ready. Smartphones have increased the pressure for us to be always available, and we've become more comfortable disrupting public spaces or texting during meetings and conversations to meet that demand.
Of course, we don't know the reasons behind any individual FaceTime or speakerphone call, and so may be quick to judge. Caroline Lidz, a 23-year-old in Boston working in tech public relations, admits she's operated with a double standard. She's irritated when she encounters a person on a video call in public with no headphones, but she'll answer any time her twin sister calls, which is usually on FaceTime (though she says she does use headphones). Lidz realized in speaking to me for this story that she tended to think, "It's OK if I do it, because I know my reasons," she says. But when she doesn't know someone else's reasons, "I'm less forgiving with other people." The FaceTime calls are more engaging β she can't be distractedly scrolling through her phone or on her laptop, but Lidz also says she thinks a lot about what the frenzy of public FaceTime calls means for privacy. Generally, Lidz says, to avoid being rude, people should do their best to respect the privacy of the person who's calling you, so they know they may be broadcast to the public, and try not to show too much of the people around you on the call.
Part of the public-call shaming likely arises from the fear that we're too connected and even addicted to our phones. The average American spends almost seven hours a day staring at screens. Three in four US adults who use FaceTime make calls at least once a week, with 14% of people using it multiple times a day, a 2023 survey from the University of Southern California's Neely Center Social Media Index found. A lot of that screen time happens in public spaces, and it's changing our social etiquette; the more people film TikToks or FaceTime in public, the more we let down our guard and accept the behavior as normal.
I'm guilty of FaceTiming my best friend in public when I need her advice on an outfit or gift I'm looking to buy. I try to be quick, feeling justified that I need to be on a video call because I've got something I need to show her. I answered a FaceTime call on a train once and screeched as quietly as possible β a friend had just gotten engaged, and I jumped on the call expecting to see the ring held up to the camera. My grandpa always puts his iPhone on speaker (he says it's hard to hear through the phone's tiny ear speaker) and will take these calls anywhere. We've all learned that if we call him, we could be on the line with anyone in the living room.
It's as easy to justify these loud calls as it is to condemn them. We've gotten used to connecting to one another anytime and anywhere, leaving unpleasant places like airport terminals in favor of chatting with friends. That's not necessarily bad. But please, for all of our sanity, put some headphones in.
Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.
Apple has some features iPhone users should know about.
Anadolu/Anadolu via Getty Images
Apple is constantly adding new tools to its iPhones with iOS releases.
There are apps to automate tasks and other features that stave off overstimulation.
Here are the coolest things I discovered my iPhone can do.
Apple took the world by storm with the iPhone in 2007, and its crown jewel is only getting more features that can be lifesavers β or just really cool.
I upgraded from the iPod Touch to an iPhone 5 as a 13-year-old in 2012, so I consider myself a bit of an expert. Yet years later, my iPhone 14 Pro Max seems to be outpacing me with innovations. I've grown used to the old ways of manual functions, typing queries into the Safari search bar, and having to rely on my memory.
As Apple introduces new features, I've picked up on the tools that I see every day β like sending voice notes over iMessage or searching for apps instead of looking for them in all of my folders. However, there are more obscure additions that I hadn't made use of.
These days, top-of-the-line iPhones cost over $1,000, and Apple analysts have said they could become much more expensive if President Donald Trump follows through with the steep tariffs he wants to impose on China, the main hub for iPhone manufacturing.
I decided it's time to get my money's worth out of my handset since I won't be getting an upgrade for a while.
Here are four ways I'll be putting Apple's software to good use.
Shortcut Automations
Shortcuts can be designed to work automatically.
Jordan Hart/BI
Apple launched the Shortcuts app as part of iOS 12 in 2018. It was marketed as a time-saving app that could perform actions according to custom commands.
I remember the "I'm Being Pulled Over" feature being a big deal in 2020. When activated it would begin recording your interaction with police during traffic stops, but that's the last I paid attention to Shortcuts.
I perused the app again and found a number of customizable features that could come in handy. What's more, they can be automated.
For a trial run, I made a command for my phone to automatically FaceTime my friend whenever he sent me the word "hey." It worked, though it's probably not a command he'd like me to keep on.
You can use Shortcuts for things like:
Turning on "Do Not Disturb" when you open a certain app.
Sending a message when you leave a location.
Changing your wallpaper every day.
Voice Isolation
You can cancel out any noise your friends might pick up on over the phone.
Jordan Hart/BI
Voice Isolation is one of my favorite iPhone features of this decade. Since its release in 2021, I've been singing its praises to anyone I talk to on the phone.
In New York City, I find myself talking in a loud environment as soon as I step out of my door. Inside, my two dogs go wild with barking whenever someone gets too close to the windows. Voice Isolation, however, silences all of the fuss.
When my best friends and I fell into the habit of group FaceTime calls, we discovered that we could isolate our voices and silence non-vocal background noise. So, when a ambulance whizzes by with a loud siren, my friends can still hear me recapping my day.
You can enable it by pressing "Phone Controls" in the Control Center while you're on the phone.
Clean Up Safari Tabs Automatically
Safari can get rid of tabs every 24 hours.
Jordan Hart/BI
If you're an organized technology user, you probably don't need this. However, if you're like me, you're welcome.
I like to leave my Safari tabs open as a way to keep track of places I want to visit, things I want to buy, and any other helpful sites that I might need to refer to.
Naturally, many many tabs are never revisited again as I continue to add more. Eighty-nine tabs is modest compared to the 150+ that I've proven to be capable of. I'm hoping that will change now that I know I can set my tabs to automatically close after a period of time.
I think I'll start with monthly tab closings β just to ease myself into the concept.
Follow these steps to close all of your tabs:
Settings > Safari > Close Tabs.
Background Sounds
Your iPhone doubles as a noise machine.
Jordan Hart/BI
The most zen discovery of the group is also the coolest. I've played rain sounds and white noise before by looking them up on Apple Music, but I learned that they've been built into my iPhone.
Through the Settings app, you can turn on Background Sounds to hear calming sounds like the ocean, dark noise, or a crackling fire. The sounds will continue playing behind other media if you that setting toggled on.
There's something about hearing the voice of a woman long dead that might well give you shivers. It feels like a portal to the past. Especially when you hear her English trill say, clear as a bell despite being recorded on a scratchy phonograph in 1890: "When I am no longer a memory, just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life." Then she announces her name, so that listeners of the then magical new technology would know who spoke: Florence Nightingale.
You don't have to be a student of history to feel awestruck by the audio, and feel like the famed nurse is in the room. In a very real sense, she is: Her voice is vibrating against your walls, through your eardrums, in a way that no handwritten document can replicate.
No wonder, at a time when the average smartphone user spends some seven hours a day on their screen, when talk has been subsumed by GIFs, emojis, and text-speak, that people are starting to yearn for something that makes them feel as strongly: voice communications. Just like the Slow Food movement of the late 1980s found fame worldwide among people tired of artificial fast food, audio is helping people to slow down the way they chat, and enjoy communication as a ritual, not a means to an end.
I'm ecstatically on board with this. I live in Singapore but maintain a long-running WhatsApp group chat with old college friends from the UK. A few months ago, one of them, Matt, suggested a challenge: We each send a voice note once a week. His highly British rationale: "It's both more personal and less hassle than writing a big-arse message." As soon as we started, we were all surprised by how meaningful the ritual became. Every time I (literally) hear from the gang, it feels like we're not 37, but 19 again,laughing in our Dickensian student flat. Fran's habit of breaking into song midsentence, Kat's low chuckle, the background clink of cutlery from an English pub β they all communicate far more than any emoji or even an essay-length text.
Voice memos have become more than communications; they're meditations.
Things quickly got competitive as we tried to one-up our recording times. My initial four-minute piddler was quickly bested by missives doubling that length. But what I love most is how live they feel. "Just recording this on a train," one person will say, while another monologue might be interrupted by someone tripping over their cat, or peering into their fridge to decide what's for dinner. All mundane, slice-of-life filler β and yet the very essence of life β that we'd never even think to text. The fluff is the good stuff, the relationship glue that you want to hear about in a world urging us to always optimize. These voice memos have become more than communications; they're meditations, useful ways to get things off my chest.
Even so, just starting the habit felt odd, at a time when most of us are constantly on our phones but can't stand making phone calls. It felt like being asked to tap-dance in a waiting room. As someone who writes for a living, I value the keyboard as a canvas to blurt, then brutally edit, my words to within an inch of their life before I dare hit send. Faced with the "hold to record" button in my group chat, I white-knuckled my way through a short monologue. My words doubled back on themselves, I lost my train of thought, said "umm" twice every sentence β and therein lies the point, I soon realized. Its rawness made it real. My and my friends' speech had the rarest of qualities today: unfiltered.
Texting "prioritizes speed and convenience over depth and warmth," says Mary Chayko, a sociologist and professor at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information. The retro appeal of "talk tech" can "help us connect to the source of the voice in a deeper, more personal way," she adds. "There are layers and levels to the human voice that simply cannot be found in text, no matter how elegantly constructed."
Even as we turn to the century-old balm of voices crackling through the airwaves, technology is changing our relationship with the human voice. In just a few clicks, you can now bring dead loved ones back to life, provided you have a snippet recording of them. "Prepare a recording of the dead person you want to clone in advance," says the eerily cheery four-step how-to for the app VidNoz AI. Within moments, the marketing copy touts, "you can hear the voices of your elders again, or your grieving children can hear their loved ones tell them stories."
Chayko is skeptical. She argues that even a near-perfect clone can never replicate the imperfect warmth of a real loved one's voice. It's like the difference between a real Van Gogh portrait and a perfect fake β the latter will always feel fraudulent to those who know it's a copy. "In fact, the closer the cloned voice may be to the original, the more unsatisfying and disturbing it will be," Chayko says. After all, the more an AI voice sounds like Grandma, the more we are reminded that Grandma will never be in the room with us again.
But for the most vulnerable demographics, even a machine-generated voice can offer surprising solace. All over the world, lonely older people turn to apps like Alexa, Google Home, or ElliQ for companionship. "If the voice makes us feel something, it can absolutely take on some of the qualities of a real relationship," says Chayko. Unreal as these voices may be, their parasocial or what Chayko calls "sociomental" effect is undeniable. "We know that we are not sharing a physical experience with them, but we can still come to care about them, even a great deal," she says.
Lesson learned: if you want to hook up, speak up.
Meanwhile, younger generations are combating loneliness with talk tech in even more immediate ways. At the height of pandemic lockdowns, Hinge introduced two simple remedies for dating at a distance. Voice Prompts allows you to send potential paramours a 30-second sample of your dulcet tones, based on a list of prompts like sharing "your best dad joke." And Voice Notes let matches flirt voice to voice, like the good old days. Hinge says both have been a resounding success. "We've found that voice features are a secret ingredient for sparking connections," a Hinge spokesperson tells me. "In 2024, conversations with Voice Notes were 40% more likely to lead to a date, and people who added a Voice Prompt to their profile were 32% more likely to go on a date." Other dating apps like Tinder and Bumble have also added voice features. Lesson learned: If you want to hook up, speak up.
Anna Davis, a British teacher at an international school in Singapore, tells me she's found the recordings from potential matches on dating apps a mixed bag. "Somebody was once singing 'Aladdin,' you know, 'I can show you the wooooorld' β a really cringe version," she tells me. Most users who make recordings are guys, she says. Since women are likely to get hit on anyway, it seems less necessary for them to record a flirty clip. But listening to a recording could be a useful acid test, to help judge whether a guy feels genuine before meeting IRL.
Different nationalities present themselves differently in front of the microphone too, Davis notes. "Americans are very in your face, and seem very put on, talking about how great they are," while "Brits are generally quite jokey," she says. "Singaporeans normally just talk about the things they like to do in their spare time."
Others are even less enamored with voice notes. Erica Wong, a founder of a content consultancy who has worked with tech brands such as Google and X, finds them too time-consuming and impractical. But ask her about another retro talk tool, and she lights up. "For me, dictation is my default way of composing written messages because I've become progressively impatient with typing," she says. Wong now "types" both work and personal messages and emails with her voice.
Voice notes may also be particularly attractive to certain cultures. Wong, who has Chinese heritage, notes that her mother's generation is a big fan, as a recording negates the fiddly need to type out Chinese characters on a small keyboard. And soon, Wong shares, her family will be starting a project with audio at its heart. "My family and I have just arranged to do a series of voice interviews with our 60- to 80-year-old aunts and uncles as a way to document their memories and stories, in case we ever want to write a book, or confirm something in our family history." Recorded by relatives around the world and stored on a shared drive, the clan audio will serve as a living archive.
This urge to document and preserve our voices is not one that will fade away anytime soon. There are countless online forums of people desperate to recover voicemails of relatives who have just died. And every year on the anniversary of 9/11, people across the world listen to the voicemail Brian Sweeney left his wife minutes before his plane flew into the South Tower. His final words offer a poignant reminder for us all to drop the texts, and do what has grown to feel so unnatural β connect through our voices: "Jules, this is Brian. Listen, I'm on an airplane that's been hijacked. If things don't go well, and it's not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you. I want you to do good, go have good times. Same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I'll see you when you get there. Bye, babe. I hope I call you."
I'd seen articles about Sweeney, but had never bothered to listen. Now that I've heard the crackle of the line and the calmness in his voice, I'm reminded again about Florence Nightingale. Will my and my family's voices be heard in the next century? Probably not β but I'm still going to suggest that we drop each other a recording now and then, especially when we're apart. There's nothing like feeling like your loved one is in the room with you.
Daniel Seifert is a freelance writer. He lives in Singapore.
A silent update rolling out to virtually all Android devices will make your phone more secure, and all you have to do is not touch it for a few days. The new feature implements auto-restart of a locked device, which will make your personal data harder to extract. It's coming as part of a Google Play Services update, though, so there's nothing you can do to speed along the process.
Google is preparing to release a new update to Play Services (v25.14), which brings a raft of tweaks and improvements. First spotted by 9to5Google, the update was officially released on April 14, but as with all Play Services updates, it could take a week or more to reach all devices. When 25.14 arrives, Android devices will see a few minor improvements, including prettier settings screens, improved connection with cars and watches, and content previews when using Quick Share.
Most importantly, Play Services 25.14 adds a feature that Google describes thusly: "With this feature, your device automatically restarts if locked for 3 consecutive days."
Samsung began the process of updating millions of smartphones around the world to its latest One UI 7 (Android 15) software last week, but that process has now been halted. Over the weekend, Samsung purged the One UI 7 update from its servers, which indicates that a serious problem has occurred. The company isn't offering any explanation for the pause yet, but reports around the Internet suggest there are some bugs problematic enough that it required Samsung to slam on the brakes.
This update was destined for the Galaxy S24, Z Fold 6, and Z Flip 6, all of which launched with One UI 6 (Android 14). Samsung promises seven years of update support like Google, but it takes longer for it to release new operating system versions. Not only does Samsung modify the way Android looks, but it also integrates a raft of Galaxy AI features with Android. It takes time to do thatβseven months and counting since Android 15's releaseβbut it seems Samsung should have spent a little more time testing all those changes.
As soon as Samsung began the rollout on April 7, Galaxy S24 users in Korea noticed their phones would intermittently refuse to unlock, as reported by frequent Samsung leaker IceUniverse. There are also reports that Samsung's supposedly private Secure Folder has a bug in One UI 7 that can see photos from the gallery appear in auto-generated Stories. These Stories are accessible from outside the Secure Folder, which rather defeats the purpose of having private photos.
The Trump administration has excluded smartphones and other consumer electronics from its steep βreciprocalβ tariffs in a significant boost for Big Tech as the White House battles to calm global markets after launching a multifront trade war.
According to a notice posted late on Friday night by Customs and Border Patrol, smartphones, along with routers, chipmaking equipment, wireless earphones, and certain computers and laptops would be exempt from reciprocal tariffs, which include the 125 percent levies Donald Trump has imposed on Chinese imports.
The carve-out is a big win for companies such as Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft and follows a week of intense turbulence in US markets after Trump unleashed a trade war on βliberation dayβ on April 2. The announcement rattled global investors and triggered a stock market rout.
