Computer networking

Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends The inevitable has happened, it seems. Beeper Mini, the reverse-engineered app that brought iMessage to Android with a blue bubble hack, has apparently run into an official Apple roadblock. Within the past couple of hours, multiple users have posted online that Beeper Mini texts are not passing through. Well, it appears that Apple is somehow blocking server access. When asked whether Apple was responsible for the outage, founder Eric Migicovsky said it was likely the case. “Yes, all…

Visible With an endless array of “free” phone offers, discounted rates, and new customer giveaways, have you ever wondered how much a free phone truly costs? Most carriers claim they’re giving them to you, offering you an incredible deal and huge savings, but that’s not the reality. To remove the veil, Visible has teamed up with Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) to uncover how these offers fudge the numbers. They bake the full cost of the device into your monthly plan by charging you more and tying you to the wireless…

Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends The impossible has happened. Beeper set out to unify chat platforms into a single bundle, but has ended up solving the iMessage-on-Android conundrum in a terrific fashion. In fact, it has even fixed the revolting green/blue bubble problem in one fell swoop. Say hello to Beeper Mini, an app that puts iMessage on your Android phone and also kills the green bubble for good. And it doesn’t sacrifice functionality either. All that happened without a shady hack, something that Sunbird or…

Helium Mobile Nova Labs, the company that pioneered the “people-powered” Helium Network, has just announced a wallet-friendly new plan under its Helium Mobile brand that offers unlimited data, talk, and text for only $20 a month. The no-contract plan provides nationwide 5G access primarily through its own Helium Mobile Network that’s backed up by “the nation’s largest 5G network” — T-Mobile. This allows the carrier to provide full 5G coverage at much more affordable prices than traditional carriers and Mobile Virtual…

Strangely enough, routers have had a huge technological bump in the last few years due to the number of devices that need to be connected to the internet. That’s one of the main aspects of the new Wi-Fi 6, a standard that not only increases speeds and quality of the connection but addresses the issue with ten devices or more needing to connect to the internet constantly without impacting quality. To that end, if you haven’t upgraded your router or mesh network in three to five or more years but are increasingly…

The growing popularity of Wi-Fi 6 means it may be time to upgrade your router. Even if it’s a few years old, your current router is probably fine, but with the improvements in technology for connecting to the internet or a Wi-Fi network, you should think about taking advantage of the Cyber Monday deals that are available right now. Fortunately, there are several great budget options for routers with the latest features, as well as for mesh routers that can cover wider areas when you need to connect a lot of devices…

Surfshark Protecting your data is important, whether you’re protecting it from nefarious hackers or nosy websites. The easiest way to prevent this is by buying a VPN. During Black Friday, Surfshark is offering a discount to its service. Our favorite deal right now is the offer on an annual plan: Commit to one year and you’ll pay just $4 per month. If you get the next tier up, it’s just $4.10, and the premium Surfshark One+ VPN service is $6.50. Read more about it below. Why you should get Surfshark VPN With so much…

Apple In the future, your MacBook could come with wireless connectivity, allowing you to access the internet even without a Wi-Fi link. That would be perfect for any time you head out onto the road with your MacBook and struggle to connect to the internet, and would bring it on par with the iPhone and Apple Watch. How do we know this? Well, it’s the latest claim from reporter Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, and the journalist claims this won’t be any old wireless chip — it will be an in-house component built…

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends Earlier this week, Nothing did the unexpected and launched the “Nothing Chats” app for the Nothing Phone 2. The premise? Let anyone with a Nothing Phone 2 send and receive texts via iMessage. Nothing partnered with Sunbird to make Nothing Chats work, with Nothing essentially using Sunbird’s own messaging tech to bring iMessage to Android. It was a bold idea … but one that was short-lived. That’s because Nothing Chats is already dead (for the time being) due to a shocking number of…

MediaTek One of the biggest promises of 5G technology isn’t merely faster performance but rather the ability to power a far more connected world — a global network where every device can get online from just about anywhere. That’s the vision behind MediaTek’s new M60 5G modem and T300 chip, which aim to be small and efficient enough to bring 5G to wearables, internet-of-things (IoT) devices, and other electronics that benefit from reliable internet connectivity but don’t require the massive speed and bandwidth of…