T-Mobile said Scam ID and Scam Block are available to customers of its low-cost subsidiary MetroPCS at no extra cost. Both work on all MetroPCS devices because the technologies are built directly into T-Mobile’s nationwide network. “Since T-Mobile launched Scam ID and Scam Block in April 2017, the Un-carrier has already identified and flagged or blocked over 243 million calls for customers,” said a news release. “Though scammers succeed with only 0.2 percent of all calls, a successful scam can cost victims an average of $274 per person according to a study from Truecaller.”

Free Press said Friday complaints that Verizon Wireless had slowed video connections while it optimized its network show the need for clear net neutrality rules. Complaints about slowed connections were reported by The Verge. “Before Ajit Pai tears down the FCC’s open-internet rules as he’s promised to do, he should take a look at practices that demonstrate the need for these safeguards -- and for a watchdog willing to enforce them,” said Matt Wood, Free Press policy director, in a news release. “It’s not yet clear exactly what Verizon Wireless may be doing to its customers, but it is clear that those customers are having issues with the wireless-broadband connections for which they pay so dearly.” The FCC and Verizon didn’t comment.

Startup monqi, with offices in Barcelona and Palo Alto, developed a closed Android-based smartphone platform for kids, with phones factory-modified to allow parents, via the monqi app on their phone, to limit what children can do with the phone, said the company during a U.K. line show. The parent’s phone can monitor and read the child’s messages, vet call and text contact lists, dictate times when internet access is permitted, and cap talk time and data use, said the company. The monqi phone also sends its location to the parent’s phone, using geofencing, to alert the parent if the child moves outside a predefined area, said the company. Monqi partnered with budget phone makers STK and BLU (Bold Like Us) and with the Currys PC World/Carphone Warehouse store chain to make handsets available in the U.K. beginning in August, at a price estimated to be below $200. A U.S. version from BLU is due in the U.S. before year end, said the company.

Nokia upped the ante for smartphone cameras, inking an exclusive long-term partnership with respected lens company Zeiss “to set new imaging standards within the smartphone industry,” Nokia parent HMD Global said in a Thursday announcement. Zeiss and HMD will co-develop imaging capabilities and build on a decade of shared history between Zeiss and Nokia that produced the first multi-megapixel smartphone, they said. The partnership is geared toward advancing the quality of smartphone imaging covering software, services, screen quality and optic design, they said.

SoftBank's Agoop launched a crowd map Thursday that displays congestion points around the world in the form of a heat map. The software analyzes location-based data with proprietary technology to enable floating population data visualization and is current up the past 20 minutes, said Agoop. The app is available at launch for Android smartphone users who can use it to avoid crowded areas and find popular spots, said the company.

Amazon began taking preorders Tuesday for five models of unlocked Android smartphones joining its price-oriented Prime Exclusive Phones offering. The Nokia 6 is the debut device in the U.S. from Nokia brand distributor HMD Global, which bought Microsoft’s feature phones business last year (see 1605250001). The Nokia 6 will initially be available only on Amazon at a $179 price, including $50 Prime discount, Amazon announced. Nokia 6 includes a 5.5-inch full HD display, Dolby Atmos, 16-megapixel rear-facing camera and 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Alcatel is also expanding its smartphone lineup through Amazon with three devices. The Idol 5S, at $199, includes an $80 discount, the largest discount ever for a phone through the Prime exclusive program, said Amazon. The Idol 5S includes 5.2-inch full HD display, 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with dual-tone flash and 8-megapixel front camera. Other Alcatel phones are the A50 at $99, a $50 discount, and the A30 Plus, discounted $50 to $79. Motorola’s Moto E is discounted by $30 to $99 under the program, said Amazon, and includes a 5-inch HD display, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and 5-megapixel front camera.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged the FCC Sunday to reject bids to allow voice messages that go directly to a voicemail box, also known as “ringless” voicemails, under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. “With billions of robocalls made to cellphones each year, the feds should be doing more to rein in annoying telemarketers, not throw gas on the problem and add fuel to cellphone spam,” Schumer said in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Schumer responded to a now-withdrawn petition from All About the Message for a declaratory ruling that ringless voicemail doesn’t constitute a call under TCPA (see 1704180037 and 1706230063). The petition got support from the Republican National Committee and opposition from groups of House and Senate Democrats (see 1706150053 and 1706160057). Ringless voicemails “may be quieter than what we traditionally think of as cellphone spam” but “are no less intrusive or annoying to consumers,” Schumer said.

Low-cost carrier Virgin Mobile will sell only plans based on the iPhone starting Tuesday. Subscribers who buy a new iPhone through Virgin will get unlimited talk, text and data for $50 a month. In an offer that expires July 31, the first year will cost only $1. Virgin operates on Sprint spectrum. “On the surface, this might sound like great news for Apple,” BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk wrote Monday. “An operator giving away service for free in order to encourage the sale of iPhones only. Is there a better example of the transfer of value from the wireless operator to Apple? Unfortunately, Virgin Mobile's offer appears to simply be a desperate attempt by a failing brand to maintain relevance and unlikely to drive material volumes for either Apple or Sprint.”

The Center for Democracy & Technology, Constitution Project and Electronic Frontier Foundation are asking the Supreme Court to review a drug trafficking case in which the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals decided police could track people's cellphones without a warrant. EFF said in a Monday news release the high court should review U.S. v. Rios "and make clear that the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant for real-time location tracking -- whether the tracking occurs via a GPS device on your car or the collection of location data generated by cell phones or other Internet-connected devices." Police did get a warrant to track the defendant's cellphone in the Rios case, but EFF said the 6th Circuit decided a warrant wasn't needed. EFF said the court based its ruling on a "flawed 2012 decision" that said, in an unrelated drug trafficking case, such data doesn't have any privacy protections "because people 'voluntarily' carry cell phones with them." However, EFF said a Florida Supreme Court ruling in a separate case said people do have privacy for cellphone location records.

The recently introduced Adobe Scan app, which turns a smartphone or tablet into a “PDF creation tool,” had more than 750,000 iOS and Android downloads in its first 12 days, CEO Shantanu Narayen said on a Tuesday earnings call. In addition to creating PDFs, Adobe Scan also can perform scanning and “intelligent text-recognition” functions when integrated with Adobe Document Cloud software and services, Narayen said. Through Adobe Scan and other tools, the company “is focused on delivering innovative capabilities to enable PDF creation in the mobile era,” he said.