HoFo Blog

Yesterday OpenSignal released a new State of Mobile Networks Report: Canada, for the testing period from October 1st to December 30th, 2017. Telus is the big winner overall, with the best scores in three of OpenSignal's six categories, and tying the other Big Three carriers in the remaining three.

Telus users are welcome to gloat in this thread. What I'd like to draw your attention to are some regional results, where you'll find the only mention of this country's upstart operators:

In my own informal testing using my dual-SIM phone I've come to the same conclusion. There are, of course, some caveats with Freedom's service (like the outage earlier this week), but I don't think FM could have bested Rogers in anything a year or two ago; I say we take whatever small victories we can get!

Source: OpenSignal

---------

From The Web:

Snap Spectacles are dead

Nest is being swallowed up by Google's hardware team

Xiaomi grew more in 2017 than Apple, Samsung and Huawei combined

Nokia HMD Comeback? First Year Finishes with 8.5 Million Smartphones Shipped and 1.0% Market Share by Year-End

Why a Non-Smartwatch May Be the Smart Choice

From The Forums:

What does this mean?

Looking for your thoughts on mvno and device carrier

New Cricket Breeze-thru setup

Red Pocket - Any issues if using an AT&T phone on AT&T Red Pocket? (Samsung S4)

Why are the majority of metro stores so shady?

---------

With the Pebble apocalypse looming in the distance—June 30th, to be exact—r/pebble on reddit has become an especially interesting destination on the web. Some Pebblers are resigning themselves to jump ship to either Android Wear or Apple Watch, depending on their smartphone. Some are looking to Garmin devices for their long battery life. And at least one of the 35,000+ subscribers there has committed to the watch you see above, the Amazfit Bip.

Chinese? You bet it is... Amazfit branded wearables are made and marketed by Huami, a sub-brand of Xiaomi. What makes the Bip so intriguing for Pebblers is its always-on colour display and the promise of up to 30 days of battery life. Here's the entire spec sheet from the Bip's US product page:

Always-on reflective 1.28 inch color touch display
2.5D Corning gorilla glass generation 3 + AF coating
Optical heart rate sensor for heart rate zones
Geomagnetic sensor (compass)
Air pressure sensor (barometer) for elevation
GPS + GLONASS for route tracking
20 mm standard width changeable watch band
IP 68 rating - resistant to dust, rain and splashing
190 mAh Li-Polymer Battery
1.1 ounces (31 grams) total weight

While Americans can order straight from the source, the best option for Canadians seems to be a grey market importer, like this one. With a price tag of less than $80 CAD I might just have to try one out... for science!

More coverage of the Amazfit Bip here: GSM Arena, SlashGear, The Verge

---------

From The Web:

Apple Considering Offering Rebates to Customers Who Purchased Full-Price iPhone Batteries

The Google App’s Removal of its Useful Shortcuts is Intentional

Amazon Prime Exclusive Smartphones will no longer have Lockscreen Ads

CRTC upholds current net neutrality framework at House committee meeting

Trump's FCC Pats Itself On The Back For A Historically Stupid Year

From The Forums:

Safelink Sim Card Fiasco

Freedom Mobile outage

Samsung galaxy s9 and s9 Plus

Are there any FREE VOIP vendors with FREE porting? RingTo 3/31/2018 Deadline

Amazon Removeing Lockscreen Ads From All Amazon Prime Exclusive Devices!

---------

After yesterday's Freedom Mobile outage I thought it might be useful to provide some tips for where to go if you suspect that your carrier's mobile network is down.

When I realized that I couldn't send or receive text messages my first thought was that it must be a billing issue; because of this I wasted almost half an hour on hold with Freedom (using a SIP line) and trying to log into my account on their site. Here's how I eventually found out what was really going on:

1) Howard Forums. This was the first place I went (obviously), but there weren't yet any threads suggesting an outage. I would have started one myself but I was still thinking at this point that I had forgotten to pay my bill and my service was suspended.

2) Social media. Confirming Freedom's network issues was as easy as entering #freedommobile on Twitter. If your city or town has a subreddit, that might be a good place to look, too; unfortunately my own query on r/Toronto quickly devolved into an FM-bashing session, which of course would never happen here.

3) Downdetector. This is a new one for me. By simply Googling "is Freedom Mobile down?" I was directed to a site called Canadian Outages, where you can actually search for carrier outages by city. And if you're so inclined, you can download their Android or iOS app, and/or their plugin for Amazon Alexa. They even have a Twitter feed for outages across various networks and services—one each for Canada and the USA.

Hopefully no one reading this will ever experience another carrier outage. But in case you do, now you know where you can go to confirm it.

Link: Freedom Mobile on CanadianOutages.com

---------

From The Web:

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ leaks reveal colours and camera setup

LG is officially leaving the Chinese smartphone market

OnePlus brings the limited edition Lava Red 5T to the U.S. and Europe just in time for Valentine's Day

Freedom Mobile customers experience intermittent outages

T-Mobile Is Sending a Mass Text Warning of ‘Industry-Wide’ Phone Hijacking Scam

From The Forums:

What Makes You Stay With AT&T?

WiFi calling in Mexico on plan that doesn’t have Mexico/Canada calling

Red Pocket: Is this info posted on reddit correct?

Verizon prepaid Moto E4 from Walmart not displaying unlock screen

Away Data Everywhere Canada 60

---------

The CBC reported yesterday that Bell has officially expanded its phone unlocking policy to include devices not currently associated with an active account—in other words, second-hand phones intended for use on another network.

A CRTC mandate had ordered all carriers in Canada to drop unlocking fees as of December 1st, 2017; Bell apparently decided that this ruling didn't apply to non-customer hardware, which non-customers only found out when they tried to get their used phones unlocked:

A representative from Bell told the CBC that the carrier has implemented a system of further checks to ensure that any non-customer device was not stolen or linked to a delinquent account. This was their previous justification for refusing to unlock their phones for other networks.

Source: CBC

---------

From The Web:

Nokia sales grew throughout 2017, reached a total of 8.45 million units

Motorola will knock $150 off the Moto Z2 Play, starting February 4

The Size of iPhone’s Top Apps Has Increased by 1,000% in Four Years

Lawyers Faced With Emojis and Emoticons Are All ¯\\(ツ)\/¯

Pebble is dead and hardware buttons are going with it

From The Forums:

AT&T iPhone 7 Plus - do I need to get it unlocked?

AT&T notches 329K postpaid phone net adds in Q4

Does anybody know what IR means on the device info section?

Thoughts On Marcelo's Comments?

Rogers visual voicemail up to $7 from $5?!?

---------

Some folks over at XDA examined the code for an unreleased Oreo Beta for the Note8, and within it found an XML file with a list of all upcoming Galaxy phones and tablets for 2018. And without any further ado, here is that list:

astarqlte (Samsung Galaxy S9 Active)
c10lte (Samsung Galaxy C10)
c10plte (Samsung Galaxy C10 Plus)
crown (Samsung Galaxy Note 9)
degasy18wifi
grandppirislte
gtaxlad
gta2xl (Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2018)
gtesy18lte (Samsung Galaxy Tab E 2018)
gts4llte (Samsung Galaxy Tab S4)
j2y18lte (Samsung Galaxy J2 2018)
j3neolte (Samsung Galaxy J3 Neo)
j3topelte
j4lte (Samsung Galaxy J4)
j6lte (Samsung Galaxy J6)
j7topelte
j7toplte
j8lte (Samsung Galaxy J8)
jackpotlte
jackpotqlte
jackpot2lte
jackpot2qlte
kellylte
lugelte
star (Samsung Galaxy S9)
star2 (Samsung Galaxy S9+)

Most intriguing among the entries here is the "jackpot" series, which may or may not turn out to be the rumoured, foldable Samsung Galaxy X. For more on the list and to see how XDA found it see the three links immediately below.

Sources: XDA (1) (2) (3)

---------

From The Web:

The iPhone X notch clones are coming

The latest Android One phone looks like an updated iPhone 5C

Telegram removed from Apple’s App Store due to ‘inappropriate content’

U.S. Cellular drops its unlimited data prepaid plan to $55/month

Rogers increases international Roam Like Home service fee to $12 per day

From The Forums:

All my hotspot devices prefer a no signal/ low bar band (pics listed) Why?

RLH going up to $12/day internationally

Activating non-verizon branded phone on verizon mvno

Verizon PP Moto G4 Play unlocked GSM

Rumors of an affordable iPhone

---------

You can click the image above to see a video message from an attorney at Girard Gibbs, an American law firm that launched a class action suit against LG for boot loop issues related to the G4, G5, Nexus 5X, V10 and V20. Android Police reported yesterday that the firm had reached a settlement with LG, one with a fairly generous payout for affected users: $425 USD cash or a $700 credit towards a new LG device.

Some time after the Android Police report was published Girard Gibbs' LG arbitration site went offline. On that site was a link to a SurveyMonkey form, and an indication that LG owners could still join the class action suit up until February 12th. So why did the site suddenly go dark? Here's a commenter on AP:

If you're a U.S. citizen and an owner of one of the aforementioned LG devices, you might want to bookmark that Girard Gibbs page, or at least keep an eye on this r/Android reddit thread. Good luck!

Source: Android Police via r/Android

---------

From The Web:

Telus introduces Canada-China Your Choice rate plan

Verizon, AT&T drop Huawei, manufacturer stands by strong Canadian carrier relationships

Everything You Need to Know About a Nationalized 5G Wireless Network

U.S. government reportedly investigating Apple over iPhone slow-down controversy

Apple: We would never degrade the iPhone experience to get users to buy new phones

From The Forums:

Please help - why is my phone's Verizon so unreliable?

RLH going up to $12/day internationally

Shaw/Freedom Expects to Cut 650+ Jobs Through Buy-Out Offer

T-Mobile "Iphone Buy One Get One", Only if port from 3 Carriers.

Iphone 6: Worth keeping?

---------

Scumbag Samsung is at it again...

If you're financing your ultra-premium Samsung flagship through your carrier, as most folks in North America do, it's entirely understandable that you'd want to de-bloat your phone—see this post from 2013 for some examples of Canadian carrier bloat on a Galaxy S4. One of the easier ways to do this has been to flash a different firmware onto your device; though Samsung phones are region-locked it's been possible to flash an in-region but non-carrier version of your device's firmware using tools and guides from XDA.

Until now, that is: XDA reported yesterday that the January security update for the S8, S8+ and Note8 also includes a new bootloader, one that prevents the flashing of unlocked firmware on carrier-branded phones. If you try to change the firmware on your carrier-branded device you will hard-brick that device. Unlocked hardware purchased from Samsung or third parties seems unaffected.

Though not explicitly stated by anyone on XDA or the cross-post to r/Android, it sounds to me like this "update" would also prevent users from flashing custom ROMs onto late model carrier-branded Samsungs.

Remember that time when Samsung gave free phones to the CyanogenMod team? Those days are clearly gone.

Source: XDA via r/Android

---------

From The Web:

Report: Apple to Delay Some New Features in iOS Until Next Year to Focus on Performance and Quality Issues

Verizon won’t sell Huawei phones due to US government pressure, report says

Trump Administration Idea for Nationalized 5G Falls Flat

Bell, Rogers Media among coalition urging CRTC for anti-piracy system

Are We Going To See The “$10 iPhone” in 2020? No, the clone of 2010 superphones will probably cost around $20 in 2020

From The Forums:

iPhone 6S now on Cricket

T-Mobile vows to use renewable electricity to cover 100% of energy needs

Grandfather Plan forced migrated fraudulently!Any recourse?

smashed iphone7 plus that ive owned for less than a year, no insurance

Freedom Pop sim and Tethering/Hotspot

---------

Something rather interesting is happening in Canada's westernmost province. While Uber and Lyft await the green light to begin operations there, a slew of homegrown alternatives has popped up from seemingly out of nowhere to fill in the gap. I've read mention of no less than eight available services—four of which I was able to find sites and app store listings for:

GoKabu - (uses WeChat) / website
Longmao Club - Android / iOS / website
Poparide - Android / iOS / website
Udi Kuaiche - Android / iOS / website

And another four for which I could not:

AO Rideshare
Dingdang Carpool
RaccoonGo
U Drop

As you can probably surmise, at least half of these apps cater to the local Chinese-Canadian community. GoKabu was the one that, in a Global News report, was accused of refusing to accept non-Chinese fares; the $1,150 CAD fines for drivers accepting rides using these currently illegal apps might have something to do with that.

Has anyone here used one of these BC ridesharing apps?

Links: Global News, Mobile Syrup

---------

From The Web:

The unbearable slowness of Samsung's updates

Vivo Xplay7 may be first smartphone with 10GB of RAM

Verizon, Apple Continue to Lobby Against Your 'Right to Repair'

Trump administration is considering nationalizing 5G mobile network

FCC chairman Ajit Pai is opposed to a government-run 5G network

From The Forums:

What’s more reliable/better/do people like more: Google Voice or Talkatone?

Looking for Inexpensive Plan for Two Factor Authentication

Axios: Trump administration is considering nationalizing 5G mobile network

AT&T in Israel?

Cellular Connectivity Issues

---------

What we're looking at here is an unannounced Acer tablet—photographed, tweeted, then deleted by an attendee at a London trade show. What makes this particular tablet different than all the other Android tablets currently on the market is that its actually not running Android at all, but instead a touch-friendly version of Chrome OS.

According to Liliputing's Brad Linder, a Chrome OS-powered tablet (or "Chromepad") offers a number of advantages over a similar form factor running Android:

All this plus full support for Android apps, just like the Android tablet you're using/not using now.

Unfortunately it's entirely unknown if Acer is actually planning on bringing this device to market, or if it's just a one-off proof of concept for internal use. Whatever the case, it's certainly an intriguing idea.

Source: Liliputing (1) (2)

---------

From The Web:

Alleged image of Galaxy S9 and S9+ leaks ahead of February announcement

'iPhone SE 2' With Wireless Charging Said to Launch in May or June

Statement from OnePlus on the latest clipboard data controversy

Popular Android apps are stealing users' email addresses

Shaw joins 5G Americas board of governors as sole Canadian representative

From The Forums:

Unlock Codes while under Next / 2 Year Contract

Unlimited Plus on GoPhone?

which one??

Stream Saver is Annoying

Rogers Now Has 20mhz lte B43 and B42 In Vancouver

---------

Security researcher Elliot Alderson seems to have uncovered a new privacy breach in OxygenOS, the default ROM on OnePlus devices. The good news is that it only applies to the latest Oreo beta for the OnePlus 5T. The bad news? Well, just about everything else.

The changelog for OxygenOS Open Beta 2 lists a new clipboard application, which is apparently the source of the suspicious activity. Alderson's first tweet, in the screen grab above, notes what appears to be a keyword logger, and is connected to a zip file which appears to phone home to TeddyMobile, a Chinese analytics company that also does business with OnePlus's sister brands Oppo and Vivo. One of the services offered by TeddyMobile is "number verification", and according to Alderson this clipboard app is sending your phone number and device IMEI directly to TeddyMobile—along with your text messages, even bank account numbers.

OnePlus has yet to publicly respond to any of this. Until they do it's safe to say that you should not install the latest Oreo beta on your OnePlus 5T. In fact, now would be a great time to look into flashing a custom ROM instead.

Source: Twitter via r/Android

---------