All articles tagged with #mobile
Anthropic is bringing Claude Cowork to mobile and the web, enabling Claude to start and monitor tasks across web, desktop, and mobile apps. It can run in the cloud and finish tasks even when a device is offline, with a combined Claude chat/Cowork view now on all platforms and doubled Cowork usage limits through August 5.
Square Enix announced Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, the mobile gacha that expanded FFVII lore across the series, will shut down on October 6, 2026 due to production costs outpacing demand for character weapons and gear. The team will add a final content batch—re-running events and a concluding story chapter—before servers go dark. Ever Crisis launched in 2023 on mobile and PC and included new backstories and even alternate-universe storylines; this isn’t the first FFVII mobile title to close, as The First Soldier ended in 2023 after a 2021 launch.
Anthropic expands Claude Cowork to smartphones and the web, letting the task‑automation agent keep running without an active desktop. The rollout starts in beta for Max plan subscribers (from $100/month), with potential later access for Pro and possibly free tiers, enabling cross‑app data work (email, Slack, transcripts) to draft documents and emails after hours. This mirrors a broader shift toward always‑on mobile AI agents and pits Anthropic against OpenAI and Google, though risks like prompt injections remain a concern.
Nothing’s first B-series phone, the Phone 4B, is skipping the US again and launching in the UK, Europe, and India for £299 / €329. It features a plastic unibody design, a 6.77-inch 120Hz OLED display, Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 with 8GB RAM and 128/256GB storage, and a 5,200mAh battery (6,000mAh in India), running Android 16 with three years of OS updates. Availability starts July 17, with the US left out, while the cheaper Phone 3A Lite branding has been folded into the lineup, Ear 3A earbuds are launching in the US, and Nothing paused CMF budget phones due to RAM price rises.
Dominic Preston reports on The Verge’s hands-on with Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone: a gold, tacky device that arrives with a charger and Truth Social preinstalled; setup is smooth and the fingerprint sensor works, but in the UK it won’t yet connect to LTE/5G, and there’s a tiny pre-existing scratch and a cheap-feeling build, suggesting it’s more novelty than a serious handset—full review coming next week.
Android Authority reports that Google Maps’ Ask Maps, which already uses Gemini for restaurant recommendations, is being readied to actually place food orders on a user’s behalf. The exact mechanism (cloud-based Gemini versus device hardware) and any restrictions aren’t clear yet, and there’s no public rollout announced.
T-Mobile is retiring its oldest mobile plans—some dating back up to 15 years—and moving affected customers to newer plans, with an average price increase of about $4 per line (though some may see no change). Affected users will be emailed with two weeks’ notice before the switch, which will occur in mid-July. The company says customers will keep their current benefits while gaining improved network features and a 5-year price guarantee, but it has not disclosed exactly which plans are affected or which new plans they’ll be moved to.
T-Mobile is automatically migrating thousands of customers on decade‑old legacy plans (including Simple Choice, T‑Mobile One, and some Sprint grandfathered plans) to its current lineup (Essentials, Experience More, Experience Beyond) over the next few billing cycles. The switch requires no action from customers; some will see no change, others a modest price adjustment, with the new rates typically lower than what new customers would pay. All moved customers retain their benefits and gain improved network features, and the move is described internally as a cleanup removing over 1,100 legacy billing codes.
Google is rolling out a system-level Signature app for Android that stores multiple signatures (scribble, initials with fonts, or uploaded photos) and lets apps fetch them as needed, with a Manage Signatures hub to organize assets; the feature ships with the June 2026 Google Play system update and supports Android 12+ (API 31+), though Google hasn’t announced developer-use plans yet.
Nothing confirmed the Phone 4b, its first entry-level B-series smartphone, with a July 7 launch and teasers showing a design similar to the 4a but with a smaller vertical glyph-bar lighting strip. Geekbench leaks indicate a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset and 8GB RAM. The 4b sits in Nothing’s product hierarchy below the A-series, while CMF notes it won’t release a Phone Pro 2 this year due to RAM cost pressures.
Samsung announces the Galaxy A27 at $349.99—$50 more than the A26—even as it downgrades selfie and ultrawide cameras, waterproofing, and thickness; the sole upgrade is a move from Exynos 1380 to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3. With industry-wide price hikes, Samsung is charging more for a budget phone. It goes on sale in the US July 14 (black only), with blue and pink options in international markets and an earlier July 3 release overseas.
Android Authority’s readers named the new Bubbles multitasking feature in Android 17 as the top favorite, with praise for opening multiple apps in collapsible bubbles and other popular picks like improved dark mode controls and a cleaner home screen layout.
Pokémon Champions launched on mobile on June 17, 2026 (two months after the Switch debut), bringing a faster, finish-in-under-five-minutes competitive format to phones with quicker battles, easier team-building, and an option to forfeit early. The game is the official home of the Pokémon Video Game Championships, is free-to-start across Switch and mobile, and has drawn mixed reactions over pacing, monetization, and the initial roster of 186 Pokémon.
A flood of leaks claims Marvel is developing a mobile-first, gacha action RPG codenamed Project Comet by Scopely, featuring Marvel Rivals–style art and aiming to compete with Genshin Impact, with potential multi-platform release; details on roster and launch are unconfirmed.
YouTube is testing a new Android app UI that shows icon-only buttons under the video player, moves the views and likes counts upward, replaces the channel name with the username above the logo, and hides some actions under a three-dot menu; it's a sporadic test and may not become final.