Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [mobile-phones]

A device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area.

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Can blocking the aperture of a mobile phone speaker cause damage?

A friend was sitting near another's ringing mobile phone, stoically ignoring the noise. When I advised him to cover the dynamic with a finger, he replied that it may break it. Is it really so? I think the energy should be dissipated in finger/casing…
Vi0
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Do cell-phone levels of radiofrequency radiation cause oxidative stress to rats' brains?

I've been given a link to this 2019 study Effect of 900-, 1800-, and 2100-MHz radiofrequency radiation on DNA and oxidative stress in brain as evidence for some 5G nonsense conspiracy theory. Even if the study has nothing to do with 5G, it makes a…
Davor
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Was iOS twice as memory-efficient as Android?

John Brownlee wrote, in 2014, on Cult of Mac: iOS is twice as memory-efficient as Android [...] As it turns out, an iPhone 6 with 1GB of RAM runs much faster than a similarly specced Android smartphone with 2GB of RAM. And it all has to do with the…
Christian
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Do 48% of women in the Arab world not own a mobile phone?

In this 2016 Emirate News article, Kailash Satyarthi is quoted as saying: Today, women are rising, but this is happening only where they have access to education. Young girls in the MENA region are demanding their rights. They are demanding access…
pericles316
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Are people more careless with their mobile phones when an upgrade is due?

Gizmodo reports from an article in the Journal of Marketing Research that People Trash Their Phones When an Upgrade is Close The report describes the study further, noting that thee effect is probably not conscious: They noticed what they called…
matt_black
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Can StoreDot batteries be charged in two minutes?

CNET writes: StoreDot's system, which you can see in action in the video [at the link], uses a different chemical makeup to traditional batteries. We saw a modified Samsung Galaxy S5 go from 15 percent battery to 100 percent in a little under two…
phact
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Do Samsung phone batteries contain secret chips and antennae for stealing data?

This YouTube video is one of several showing that, if you open a Samsung mobile phone battery, it contains a "secret chip" and antenna, and suggests it can be used for transmitting your secret data to Samsung. Is this true?
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Do smartphones and computers cause skin to age via "tech neck"?

I was watching a health program on TV last night that was looking at skin aging, and they flashed up a panel showing various causes of skin aging. Along with the usual culprits of sunlight, smoking and drinking, there was also smartphones and…
Ken Y-N
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Are the top ten flashlight apps maliciously stealing data and sending it to China, India, and Russia?

There's an interesting report from a company called SnoopWall that is detailed in this YouTube video from a Special Report with Bret Baier with Fox News. In the report "Cybersecurity Expert" Gary Miliefsky, who works for SnoopWall, says phrases such…
user11643
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Are there signification health risks with long term use of headphones on a cellphone?

Does using headphones / earphones plugged into a cellphone for taking calls / listening to music pose a significant health risk in the long run in terms of radiation exposure? Also it depends what your headphones are connected to. If they are …
Jan Vladimir Mostert
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Wi-fi is more power-efficient than 3G?

Everyone is saying that Wi-Fi is more power-efficient than 3G on smartphones. But, I don't think so, because two radios are turned on at the same time, the 3G radio is still active when enabling Wi-Fi There is some reliable proof to support this?
Magnetic_dud
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Have cell phones ever been used as microphones by a government?

Besides what a government can obviously do: listen to live conversations, know my approximate location, read my SMS and look at my unencrypted internet traffic, people claim that some phones could be silently turned on, record sound from the…
alecail
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Are the iPhone 4's manufacturing costs $178?

Here it is alleged that the iPhone 4 has a large mark-up from manufacturing. Are these figures true? What is the evidence behind this claim? NB: I mean the manufacturing costs. Not including marketing-development-distribution.
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Do sparks from a cigarette lighter fix dead zones on touch screen?

There are many forums posts and videos on the "lighter trick" which fixes touch screens dead zones (at least temporarily) such as The YouTube video Nokia Lumia Touchscreen Dead Zone Fix With Igniter (Lighter) purports to show a phone with a large…
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iOS app listening to my calls, or giant coincidence?

I was speaking to my insurance agent yesterday afternoon taking care of some life insurance changes, and my agent congratulated me on my recent wedding (July) and inquired about my upcoming honeymoon to Rome. After the call ended, within a few…
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