I love the Punkt MP01, a basic candybar-style cellphone whose few features are polished to perfection. But it has a big drawback: as a 2G device, it's effectively locked to T-Mobile in the U.S. and coverage is getting patchy. Enter the Punkt MP02, a 4G version with some other interesting upgrades: it's also a WiFi hotspot, it's the only non-BlackBerry handset to come with BlackBerry Secure Software, and it runs a customized version of Android, cut to the device's monochrome and minimalist design requirements.

It'll be $349 when released, though, so you are certainly paying for your less-is-more. Read the rest

AliExpress has this and various other cellphones designed to resemble ancient first-gen mobiles of yore. This one can also be used as a battery pack for another phone. All the models are 2G GSM and will therefore only work in the US on T-Mobile, at your own risk. [Thanks, Greg!]

Here's video:

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Britain's justice secretary wants to ban miniature cellphones in a hapless effort to be seen to be doing something about prison smuggling. The "Beat the Boss" handsets (Amazon) are barely the size of lipstick or a stick of gum. They're unlocked, dirt cheap, popular with kids, and easily concealed.

They are marketed as being virtually metal-free and therefore able to beat the detectors anyone entering a prison must pass through.

"It's pretty clear that these miniature phones are being advertised and sold with the purpose of being smuggled," Mr Lidington will say in a speech on Monday.

"I am calling on online retailers and trading websites to take down products that are advertised to evade detection measures in prisons."

Looking at the specs, these are 2G GSM handsets and will only work in the U.S. on T-Mobile and (maaaaybe) AT&T.

"IT REALLY WORKS BUT DIFFICULT TO USE BECAUSE IT IS SO SMALL ❗️❗️❗️," writes verified purchaser Bill Hubner, who I stress is merely an Amazon customer and absolutely not suspected of any clever jailhouse shenanigans.

There are several sellers offering this gadget, all obviously identical.

eBay UK promised to stop sales of these months ago, according to the BBC, but the site remains well-stocked at press time.

Beat the Boss Phone [Amazon] Read the rest

SciShow host Michael Aranda digs into the question most airplane travelers have probably asked themselves at some point. Read the rest

Punkt's MP01 is a minimal treat for people wanting a simple but flawless phone—and willing to pay top dollar for a few details done very well. Read the rest

Prepare to take a technological trip down memory lane with this enormous comprehensive chart of every Nokia dumbphone model starting 35 years ago. Extendable antennas, clamshells, you name it. Read the rest

A T-Mobile customer in Florida drove her SUV into the store, smashing through the front window and coming to a stop deep in the showroom. Then she emerged from her disabled vehicle, hefted a broken window frame, and smashed a display.

"What is wrong with her?" calls out an unseen observer.

According to witnesses who spoke to WPFB News, she was upset by the store's employees.

It's unclear if the woman was arrested. Palm Spring Police Department has not commented on the incident. T-Mobile representatives referred WPBF 25's questions to police, but did say no one was injured in this incident.

Yup. Someone playing Pokemon Go while driving ran into a Police car in Baltimore. Officer's body cameras caught the event.

Via USAToday:

A Pokemon Go enthusiast slammed into a Baltimore police car while playing the game on his phone early Monday morning, according to authorities.

In body-camera video released by the Baltimore Police Department, several officers are seen standing near a police car as a Toyota Rav 4 slams into the cruiser and continues driving.

In the video, an officer runs after the vehicle, which stops near the end of the block, and the driver gets out of his car.

The officer asks if everyone is OK, and the driver, whose face is blurred in the clip, shows the police officers his cellphone.

“That’s what I get for playing this dumb--- game,” the man says to the officers.

User Toulouse shows off a fairly slammin' cell phone dock on the OnePlus One Android smartphone forum. Even though it's for the new OnePlus One phone, the build can be recreated for any handset.

(Side note: I do hate his use of the word "ghetto" in the description, common among some makers. Does he honestly live in a poor neighborhood where improvisation and thoughtful use of materials reign? If not, what's it saying?)

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The Verizon guy would have made an endearing science officer. Read the rest

Whether you're trying to quiet the hum on your old single coil Strat or Telecaster, or create a DIY wireless charging station for your phone, the copper tape sold to repel pests from the garden is an inexpensive and easy-to-manipulate material for the job.

By the way, slugs actually do HATE copper tape, evidenced by a 2004 paper ("Behavioural response of slugs and snails to novel molluscicides, irritants and repellents") in which scientists placed snails and slugs in little time trails. Citing a slowed pace of .5 centimeters per minute, they concluded that the "copper significantly reduced the velocity of snails."

Apparently the whole copper-slug thing is an urgent question to some people. I admire this guy's testing setup:

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Put your phone down—or he'll put it down for you. [CH2] Read the rest

From an editorial by the New York Times editorial board:

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will consider whether law enforcement officers during an arrest may search the contents of a person’s mobile phone without a warrant. The court should recognize that new technologies do not alter basic Fourth Amendment principles, and should require a judicial warrant in such circumstances.

Read: "Smartphones and the 4th Amendment." NYTimes.com

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Samsung's new smartphone contains multitudes.

The Galaxy S 4's touchscreen doesn't need to be touched to respond to your actions. Its software looks less like Android than almost any other phone running Google's operating system, but the thing ships with a newer version of it, 4.2, than almost all others. And its 5-inch screen outsizes the 4.8-in. display of the earlier Galaxy S III, but it's smaller and lighter than Samsung's flagship phone of last year.

And like its best-selling predecessor, the S 4 invites an assessment from multiple perspectives. Read the rest

The Wall Street Journal reports that a Texas judge is asking questions about whether investigators are providing courts with sufficient detail details on technlogies that allow them to grab data on all cellphones in a given area, including those of people who are most certainly innocent of any crime. Snip:

One of the investigative tools in question is something called a “cell tower dump,” which allows law enforcement to get information on all the phones in a given area at a given time.

In two cases, Magistrate Judge Brian Owsley rejected federal requests to allow the warrantless use of “stingrays” and “cell tower dumps,” two different tools that are used for cellphone tracking. The judge said the government should apply for warrants in the cases, but the attorneys had instead applied for lesser court orders.

Among the judge’s biggest concerns: that the agents and U.S. attorneys making the requests didn’t provide details on how the tools worked or would be used — and even seemed to have trouble explaining the technology.

Vlad Savov reviews Sony's Xperia S for The Verge. With a 1280x720 display, 12 megapixel camera and a dual-core CPU, it's the company's first major new design since buying out Sony-Ericsson. How does it do?

The Xperia S isn't a bad phone, it's just not particularly good at any one thing. I find this disappointing because Sony's brand ethos has always been about conquering the heights of technology, not settling for a moderately good device in the middle of the pack.

Dead on arrival, in other words. You can tell Sony is trying hard to catch up, however, because the edition of Android on it is only 14 months old. Read the rest

Ars Technica's Casey Johnston checks out a new Android handset designed to be good at playing music: "we're not sold" Read the rest