HoFo News

Thanks to a seat sale I'll be paying my first-ever visit to Madeira over the next week, so there'll no morning briefings nor threads of the week until my return. Should be back to business as usual next Thursday, December, 14th — look for a review of the popular Airalo eSIM soon after that.

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

OnePlus 12 debuts with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, IP65 rating and 50W wireless charging

Samsung and OnePlus are pointlessly burying one of Android's best features

Verizon customers can now get Netflix and Max combined (with ads) for $10/month

Freedom Mobile Extends Waiving of Overages to Israel, West Bank, Gaza

WhatsApp photo and photo quality finally being fixed for iOS users

From The Forums:

Samsung S20 FE 5G

Questions on unlock tracfones, please,

TF data too expensive

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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I have to admit I’m surprised to see them dropping Nokia, but can’t say I’m not thrilled to see Ericsson taking their place from a network performance perspective. This full-on plunge into ORAN is going to be interesting, particularly since AT&T has tended to be the slower, more conservative operator in recent years.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/...ing-blow-nokia

From The Web:

Apple patches two security vulnerabilities on iPhone, iPad and Mac

Google Play reveals its ‘Best of 2023’ apps and games

Netflix to Offer Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition on Mobile in December

Spotify to lay off 17 percent of its workforce in latest round of job cuts

Top 10 trending phones of week 48

From The Forums:

will qvc package take effect immediately or after current month

Anyone know how to order the Hotspot plan?

Scratch and Wheel - both Tormentors available for December

Pick one any one

Cheap 1 year TF extension?

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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It's time for a new thread of the week, our way of recognizing forum members for promoting valuable discussion here.

Every weekday yours truly posts a morning briefing, including the most popular forum threads—that is, the posts with the most replies—for the previous 24 hour period. For reference, here are the briefings for the past seven days:

Your Morning Briefing for Monday, November 27th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Tuesday, November 28th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Wednesday, November 29th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Thursday, November 30th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Friday, December 1st, 2023

Note that the Monday briefing includes forum posts from the weekend prior, so nobody misses out.

I've done a quick recount of replies to all forum posts in the briefings above, and with 45 replies the most popular thread started last week is:

metro sim swap question

Congrats to corvairbob for starting our one hundred and ninety-eighth thread of the week! As a small token of our appreciation, please enjoy a monthlong Premium Membership on us. Benefits include ad-free browsing, increased private message count, access to a subscriber-only forum, extra attachment space, a referral/affiliate signature link, the ability to post referrals, and a custom avatar and user title!

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Apple Releases iOS 17.1.2 With Security Fixes

Google celebrates 1 billion RCS users with emoji-filled messaging features

9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline Launched by CRTC, Telecoms

Firefox for Android is getting over 400 more extensions in December

Restaurants Are Using Tinder Profiles to Lure Diners In

From The Forums:

RCS Messaging

Will TMO phone work with a Boost sim ? or which sim will work ?

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Google agrees to pay publishers in Canada and drops plans for blocking news

Canadian Government Quietly Backs Down on its Implementation Plans for a Digital Services Tax

Spotify Wrapped 2023 is now available – here’s how to find it

Apple Music Replay 2023 Is Now Available

YouTube launches "Playables" for Premium subscribers

From The Forums:

Have question about using an Old Cricket phone on H20 Service

Eskimo eSIM: Free 1GB data good for 2 years, 80 countries

Two questions regarding BYOP Tracfone activation

AT&T 55+ Plans

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Wireless Carriers Extend Black Friday Cellphone Promos

Google is deleting inactive accounts. Here's what that means

Apple is reportedly ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs

You Don’t Need to Turn Off Apple’s NameDrop Feature in iOS 17

London’s famed black cabs will be listed on Uber’s app in big win for the ridehail company

From The Forums:

Cricket $15 Unlimited Tab

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Counterpoint: global phone market shows signs of recovery, breaking a 27 month negative streak

Smartphone sales down 4 percent in Canada due to economic restraints: report

Black Friday Overwhelms Public Mobile and Koodo

Here are the best smartphones in Canada [2023 Edition]

Voice-over-LTE: The Reason Why Your Phone May Soon Stop Working

From The Forums:

metro sim swap question

Transferring account from one Android phone to another

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Pixel 8 Pro owners complain about display bumps, Google says 'there is no functional impact'

Carriers are finally offering some plans worth getting this Black Friday

The best early Cyber Monday deals

Casetify is ‘investigating’ the ‘allegation’ of its pretty obvious theft of Dbrand’s designs

Top 10 trending phones of week 47

From The Forums:

needing access to a 2012 feature phone with the dreadful incorrect sim pop-up

Straight Talk Samsung a54 5g

Lost all Minutes, Texts, Data

VZW customers cannot SMS to ported out number

iPhone SE, Total By Verizon prepaid customer - going to Germany in December

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
---------

It's time for a new thread of the week, our way of recognizing forum members for promoting valuable discussion here.

Every weekday yours truly posts a morning briefing, including the most popular forum threads—that is, the posts with the most replies—for the previous 24 hour period. For reference, here are the briefings for the past seven days:

Your Morning Briefing for Monday, November 20th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Tuesday, November 21st, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Thursday, November 23rd, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Friday, November 24th, 2023

Note that the Monday briefing includes forum posts from the weekend prior, so nobody misses out.

I've done a quick recount of replies to all forum posts in the briefings above, and with 14 replies the most popular thread started last week is:

What Would Be The Least Expensive MVNO For A Year Of Verizon Service As A Second SIM Back Up?

Congrats once again to Jim1348 for starting our one hundred and ninety-seventh thread of the week! As a small token of our appreciation, please enjoy a monthlong Premium Membership on us. Benefits include ad-free browsing, increased private message count, access to a subscriber-only forum, extra attachment space, a referral/affiliate signature link, the ability to post referrals, and a custom avatar and user title!

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

The best Black Friday deals on Apple devices

Buy a phone from Telus and the company will give a free one to a young Canadian aging out of foster care

Don’t waste your money on an awful Android tablet on Black Friday

Three chips in and Google Tensor is on life support

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 7 Gen 3

From The Forums:

Forgot account passcode, cannot visit store

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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https://bestmvno.com/daily-deals/vis...0-off-iphones/

On Monday the 27th 35FLASH gets you the Visible+ plan for $35 for life.

From The Web:

Nothing Drops the Shockingly Affordable $69 CMF Watch Pro

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is the cheapest it's ever been at $399.99

Samsung’s biggest Black Friday discounts are exclusively through its Shop app

3 things Android still does better than even the iPhone 15 Pro

Your smartwatch wristband could be harbouring potentially harmful bacteria like E.coli, study warns

From The Forums:

Transfer Tracfone Phone # to IPhon

Service plans purchased with points are NOT being added

Pokemon Go not working Oversea

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Xiaomi has sold more than 1.44 million Xiaomi 14 units in 10 days

Samsung Galaxy A54, S23 FE, Z Flip5, and Z Fold5 are all receiving Android 14 now

Sunbird shuts down its iMessage app for Android ‘for now’ amid ‘security concerns’

The FCC says new rules will curb SIM swapping. I’m pessimistic

Freedom Mobile Launches $65/60GB Global Roaming Plan

From The Forums:

What Would Be The Least Expensive MVNO For A Year Of Verizon Service As A Second SIM Back Up?

Nokia 2610 coating problem

Referral Rewards increased?

i've discovered that landline porting doesn't always require wireless presence in the rate center

My text tone changed with update but I can't get it back

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

Huawei’s HarmonyOS Will No Longer Support Android Apps

Huawei will keep Android app support for international devices

Review: OnePlus Open is the best foldable, as long as you can put up with OxygenOS

Black Friday smartphone sales make (some) foldables seem affordable

Fizz expands into Western Canada with a $4/40GB plan offering

From The Forums:

Phone link that works with Google Pixel 6?

new rules to prevent SIM Swap/Port out fraud

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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From The Web:

25 New Things Your iPhone Can Do With Next Month's iOS 17.2 Update

Flipper Zero can still crash iPhones running the latest version of iOS 17

Nothing Chats, the Sunbird-based iMessage app, is a privacy nightmare with unencrypted messages and images

Nothing Chats has already been pulled from Google Play over privacy issues

Top 10 trending phones of week 46

From The Forums:

moto g stylus 5G - 2023 unlockable?

Samsung S23 FE $49/$99 on Metro

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
---------

It's time for a new thread of the week, our way of recognizing forum members for promoting valuable discussion here.

Every weekday yours truly posts a morning briefing, including the most popular forum threads—that is, the posts with the most replies—for the previous 24 hour period. For reference, here are the briefings for the past seven days:

Your Morning Briefing for Monday, November 13th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Tuesday, November 14th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Wednesday, November 15th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Thursday, November 16th, 2023
Your Morning Briefing for Friday, November 17th, 2023

Remember that the Monday briefing includes forum posts from the prior Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so all weekend posts are similarly eligible.

In each briefing, forum posts are ranked by the number of replies (from highest to lowest). That's subject to change, of course, so I did a quick recount of replies for all forum posts in the briefings above. With 16 replies as of this posting the most popular thread started last week is:

No Verizon at Palm Springs Airport

Congrats to CellGeek for starting our one hundred and ninety-sixth thread of the week! As a small token of our appreciation, please enjoy a monthlong Premium Membership on us. Benefits include ad-free browsing, increased private message count, access to a subscriber-only forum, extra attachment space, a referral/affiliate signature link, the ability to post referrals, and a custom avatar and user title!

---------
Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
---------

From The Web;

Apple says iPhones will support RCS in 2024

Google will work with Apple on implementing RCS on iPhone

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review

Fitbit Charge 6 review: practically a Pixel band

Videotron Launches Unlimited Canada-France Plans for Talk, Text, Data

From The Forums:

AT&T and T-Mobile are in a heated race to space

Cancel account due to Death

MMS not working...

why not a board on forum dedicated to .... carrier....

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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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