These days, Optus seems to spend most of its money on content deals — but it's also investing in network infrastructure for the people that need it the most. Optus will build 500 new mobile sites out across rural regional parts of Australia, will upgrade 1800 sites from 3G to 4G, and will boost existing sites with better 4G and small cell satellite coverage at a cost of $1 billion — the largest regional investment in its 25 year history as a company.

After months of delays, Samsung's much ballyhooed voice assistant Bixby has landed in the US — and users on social media are already noticing the company's loaded, sexist characterisations of its female and male voices.

Samsung's AI assistant Bixby is finally available in English in the US — months late. But, hey, at least it doesn't explode.

Could future iPhones come with a built-in panic button to discreetly summon the cops? It's certainly a possibility, judging by Apple's recent patent filings.

Do not try this at home. Concerned OnePlus 5 users have been reporting online that they're having difficulties making 911 calls. It's unclear if all OnePlus 5 models suffer from the same troubling glitch, but at least three users have claimed to have the bug on their device.

Google is stepping up its effort to block phishing attempts that use app permissions to gain access to users' Gmail accounts. These phishing attacks invite users to grant an app permission to manage their Google account — which a lot of safe apps do, too — and then exploit those permissions to take over an account or send spam.

If there's one thing smartphone cameras have going for them, it's that they're not cameras — and that means they're not big, obtrusive, uncomfortable objects thrust into the face of unwilling subjetcs. Huawei's 100 Portraits project brought together some of the region's most talented photographers, including New Zealand's Stu Robertson, to capture compelling stories in portrait form with the Huawei P10's dual-lens cameras.

After a year in Australia, ANZ Visa debit customers with a Galaxy S8, S8+ phone (or the Gear S3 smartwatch) can now use Samsung Pay. And there's a whole lot of other new banks and credit unions that can finally use the service, too.

You might be tempted to think this is just a cool experiment, but don't be surprised when Mark Zuckerberg rips it off and it's suddenly packaged with Instagram.

You already know that texting and driving is against the law, but for a few years now cities across the US have considered making texting while crossing the street illegal. Honolulu is one of those cities.

Vertu, the company that sells $65,000 smartphones, is shutting down its UK manufacturing operations. But everyone saw it coming.

Remember when encrypting stuff was really hard? It kinda drives me crazy to think about how much time I wasted trying to set up encrypted OTR chat on Adium a few years ago, and now we can just download Signal or WhatsApp or Messenger and bam! Our chats are encrypted, just like that. We can even have an encrypted group chat. We're so cyber-spoiled these days.

If you've held off buying a Samsung Galaxy S8 since its launch, just waiting for that one more thing to tempt you, here it is: it's now available in Australia in blue.

Samsung's refurbished Galaxy Note7, AKA the Note Fan Edition, was announced last month. But instead of excitement, everyone had one question in mind: Will it also explode?

Amaysim just launched four new SIM-only plans - $25 for 2GB, $30 for 5GB, $40 for 10GB and $50 for 14GB of data. Running on Optus' 4G network, the deals also include unlimited talk and text to standard Australian numbers as well as 10 other countries around the world.

While not the most unique play-on-words ever convinced, it'll certainly serve performance artist Pharrell Williams and his new endeavour well — an "education company" publishing interactive ebooks that reverse-engineer Williams' songs and show you how to make them in Apple's GarageBand.

With the introduction of iOS 11 and a development tool called ARKit, Apple is betting that augmented reality could be the next revolutionary feature for smartphones. At the very least, it's facilitated a secret feature that lets iPhone users pretend they're giant monsters stomping through a tiny city.

RED, makers of some of the most advanced cinema cameras used in Hollywood, revealed an entirely new product today in the form of an Android smartphone — sorry, "Holographic Media Machine" — that lets you view 3D content without glasses, among other buzzwordy features.

Having guided you through the not-all-that-straightforward process of switching from Android to iOS, we're back to tell you how to go in the opposite direction. (Make your mind up will you?) Going from Apple-powered devices to Google's platform is either ridiculously easy or rather taxing, depending on your current setup.