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Sprint href=”https://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-to-launch-5g-smartphone-from-oneplus.htm”> this morning announced that it will be the first network to get its hands on OnePlus’s long-promised 5G handset [not pictured]. The Shenzhen-based manufacturer announced late last year that it was targeting 2019 for the device, bucking the trend of being slightly behind the curve on the latest smartphone technologies. Sprint’s not offering

Both Verizon and Sprint have been promising 5G coverage in the nation’s largest city for some time now. AT&T this morning, however, said it’s starting to do just that. The U.S.’s largest carrier by subscribers announced limited availability of 5G coverage in New York City. The typical not-so-fine print applies to the news this morning.

Google is shutting down its Trips app for mobile phones, but is incorporating much of the functionality from the service into its Maps app and Search features, according to a statement from the company. Support for the Trips app ends today, but information like notes and saved places will be available in Search as long

AT&T is sweetening the deal on its Unlimited & More Premium plan this week, with the addition of free Spotify Premium. That amounts to a $10 a month savings for those paying the $80 a month for the wireless service. The plan offers one of seven free partner services, including HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, VRV,

China’s ByteDance, which owns popular video sharing app TikTok, is already working to enter the smartphone business and the music streaming space. It appears the world’s most valued startup also has ambitions about developing its own search engine. Kind of. A company spokesperson told TechCrunch on Thursday that it has introduced a search function in ByteDance’s

Smartphone sales have continued their global decline. New numbers from Gartner forecast a drop of 2.5 percent down to 1.5 billion. The biggest hits to the industry are Japan, Western Europe and North America, which saw drops of 6.5, 5.3 and 4.4 percent, respectively. It’s all part of a continued trend we’ve highlighted several times

Late last week, the DOJ green lit T-Mobile and Sprint’s $26 billion deal to become nation’s number three carrier. The deal isn’t officially official just yet, with some prominent opposition facing the merger. A growing list of attorneys general have sued to block the merger, and other big name just came on board. With the

Samsung’s never been particularly good at keeping things under wraps. That’s no doubt, at least in part, by design. The company loves priming the rumor pump ahead of product announcements, and like clockwork, we’ve already seen plenty of what we expect is planned for next Wednesday’s Unpacked event in Brooklyn. Earlier this week, Samsung announced

In February 2013, China surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest smartphone market. More than half a decade on, it still proves an elusive target for international sellers. A glance at reports from the past several shows reveals the top spots dominated by homegrown names: Huawei, Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi. Combined, the big four

This, friends, is the Samsung Galaxy Dongle. The NSFW photo arrives courtesy of SamMobile. The story isn’t the image itself, so much as what it represents. It’s the end of an era. A last key flagship smartphone maker acknowledging the death of the 3.5mm jack. It’s been years in the making, of course. Apple took

Google today highlighted a new feature that will bring voice-free emergency service interaction to Pixels and other Android device. Designed for instances of injury, situations where speaking can present a danger and for users with speech impairments, the feature allows callers to communicate via touch menus. Once an emergency call is triggered, users can specify

Verizon reported its second quarter earnings this morning, and while revenue fall short of analyst predictions, the company had strong profits and subscriber growth. Verizon reported consolidated revenue of $32.1 billion in Q2, down 0.4% year-over-year and lower than analyst estimates of $32.4 billion. However, it also reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.23, compared

This morning Verizon (TechCrunch’s parent company) flipped the 5G switch on four additional cities. Washington DC, Atlanta, Detroit and Indianapolis join Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Providence in getting coverage for the carrier’s growing next-generation network. All of the usual caveats apply here. While the list of cities continues to grow, coverage varies from city

Aspire, a Singapore-based startup that helps SMEs secure working capital, has raised $32.5 million in a new financing round to expand its presence in several Southeast Asian markets. The Series A round for the one-and-a-half-year old startup was funded by MassMutual Ventures South Asia. Arc Labs and existing investors Y Combinator — Aspire graduated from

It seems obvious that the best way to advertise a game is to let people play the game itself — and we’ve covered other startups tackling this problem, such as AppOnboard and mNectar. But Luna Labs co-founder and CEO Steven Chard said that for most developers, the creation of these ads involves outsourcing: “It might

There are a lot reasons to assume Huawei’s numbers would be on the decline. Even without getting caught smack in the middle of increasing trade tensions between two superpowers, the smartphone market has been trending down for some time now. A confluence of factors, including slowed upgrade cycles and stagnate economies in both China and

Let’s start with the good news. LG actually had a pretty good quarter (on the strength of appliance sales). The LG Home Appliance & Air Solution division made $5.23 billion for Q2. Anyone who’s been following the company for the past several years can guess where the bad news comes. Smartphone sales dipped 21.3% year

The media has largely bought into Huawei’s ‘strong’ half-year results today, but there’s a major catch in the report: the company’s quarter-by-quarter smartphone growth was zero. The telecom equipment and smartphone giant announced on Tuesday that its revenue grew 22.3% to reach 401.3 billion yuan ($58.31 million) in the first half of 2019 despite all

Google’s Pixel 4 is coming out later this year, and it’s getting the long reveal treatment thanks to a decision this year from Google to go ahead and spill some of the beans early, rather than saving everything for one big final unveiling closer to availability. A new video posted by Google today about the

Huawei on Friday announced the upcoming release of its first 5G handset in its home market. Following on the heels of its UK debut, the Mate 20 X is currently up for pre-order, with an expected China arrival of August 16. The handset beats the foldable Mate X to market, in spite of that handset

In a post on RED’s message board, founder Jim Jannard reasserted the company’s commitment to the disappointing Hydrogen One handset. It’s a distant memory now, but the pricey niche device was teased and delayed for months, only to be generally run through the ringer in reviews. The camera module was one of the various complaints

A new security feature rolling out on Tinder will help protect LBGTQ+ users who travel to dozens of nations that still criminalize same-sex acts or relationships. As part of the update, users who identify on the app as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer will no longer automatically appear on Tinder when they arrive in

The promise of 5G is staggering. With its ultra-high bandwidth and low latency, it has the potential to alter how consumers interact with technology. However, questions remain around its deployment, use cases, and marketing. We’re excited to have Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg sit down for a fireside chat at Disrupt SF to talk about the

Netflix wanted to upheave India’s internet ecosystem. Market reality in the country left it with little choice but to adapt like most other Silicon Valley company. Manish Singh 7 hours At a conference in New Delhi early last year, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was confronted with a question that his company has been asked many

When it was unveiled on stage, the Galaxy Fold was heralded as the next big thing. Samsung seeded units to reviews and prepared for launch. And then a funny thing happened on the way to a smartphone paradigm shift: it started breaking. Multiple review units were sent back to Samsung with busted screens. It was

WhatsApp has amassed more than 400 million users in India, the instant messaging app confirmed today, reaffirming its gigantic reach in its biggest market. Amitabh Kant, CEO of highly-influential local think-tank Niti Aayog, revealed the new stat at a press conference held by WhatsApp in New Delhi on Thursday. A WhatsApp spokesperson confirmed that the

The U.S. Department of Justice this morning gave the green light to T-Mobile US and Sprint for their proposed $26 billion merger. The deal, which would combine the nation’s third and fourth largest carriers (by subscriber number) has been greenlit on the condition that Sprint sell its prepaid assets (including Boost Mobile) to Dish Network.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Apple acquiring most of Intel’s smartphone modem business in $1B deal Apple has entered into a deal to acquire a majority