The Chinese company denied it, and I think China isn't going to respond to such accusations.
When I think about the technical side of the report, it makes less and less sense the more I read about it. The chip is supposedly just modifying the firmware of the boards. Any data transmission would still be sent and received by the device, and would be immediately noticed on the network traffic of the affected companies, and surely would be immediately blocked by the DoD where those devices are used too. There's no way to sneak around that. Also, any firmware patches wouldn't work well with the hacked firmware delivered by that chip. Also, too many people would have to be involved in the making of that chip, as that requires a board redesign, and the manufacturing would be different than provided in the schematics.
There are also many easier ways to hack such devices. For instance by modifying the existing chips that go into the hardware, or altering their code, as opposed to going through the burden of adding a new "spy-chip", which is just too easy to find. There are also no real photos of those chips, and Bloomberg had access to zero of such units, despite there being apparently tens of thousands of them in the wild.
I began leaning towards the fact that the political timing is just way too perfect, especially since the report only accomplished one of two things (depending on who you ask): it made people think that China is the enemy and that the tariffs are justified or that even the most trusted media companies provide fake news.
Man, those upcoming Pixels are so damn ugly. It's like they're trying to trim the bezels, but the result is just an awkward looking device with no personality, an unreasonably large notch and still rather large bezels. I know that some people will still find them appealing, but the objective lack of craftsmanship is just appalling on a device priced like a flagship all-arounder.
In terms of carriers, aren't there better choices than Sprint in your area? I have no idea how the T-mobile merger is supposed to work, but the T-mobile network is good, as it uses all global standards, so its compatible with any phone that you can use anywhere in the world. I've always been a fan of getting unlocked devices too.
The latest iPhones are actually quite good, except I wouldn't feel comfortable with that horrible Intel modem. It was such a stupid choice that completely sabotages otherwise decent hardware. At best, your signal wouldn't be as good. If your signal already isn't great in your area, those iPhones could simply have no reception whatsoever in some places where your current phone still works in. That's on top of spontaneously dropping network connections. The new Qualcomm modems are excellent though and better than the latest, still good Samsung modems, so getting a new Snapdragon device should be an upgrade for you in that regard. Honestly, that makes me wonder even more why Apple chose such timing to move from the best wireless modem maker at their prime to the very worst, sabotaging so much of their own hard and good work just to pick a shitty third party supplier of a different critical component.
I would wait for the Galaxy S10 devices, as they might come with larger upgrades than the S9 series did, and the newer Qualcomm chips in the US manufactured on the 7nm process. Judging by the rumors, those phones might be aiming at another revolution rather than an evolution of their designs. They should be out in less than half a year.
Yeah I plan on waiting for the S10 at least. I tell myself to ignore the urge to upgrade and I think it's going well. the iPhones weren't enough to pull me away and even though I don't understand the technical stuff you're telling me about the Intel modems, to hear that they are inferior in whatever way is enough to make me just not consider it at all.
As for Sprint, I am on a legacy plan of theirs. I did a 2 year contract, which no carrier does anymore, back in 2/2016. By January or February of 2017, Sprint had done away with contracts and instead just had a flat fee for a family plan based on lines. Each phone on the line had an "installment" that was between $20-40, depending on the phone, that would end after 24 months. This basically was the cost of the phone split up over 24 months. Once those 24 months were done, your bill was just the plan you chose, and that was it. Before, the subsidized phone price was baked in to the monthly charge for the plan, depending on how many lines you had but if you didn't upgrade on the 25th month, you were still essentially paying an "installment" on the phone because it was not a separate charge at that time.
So the new plans are better in that way; there's no "penalty" for not upgrading on time after 24 months and you pay just for the plan after those 24 months are done. But Sprint also changed their plans shortly before that. They still are the only carrier that has truly unlimited plans but the cost went up. My family pays $230 a month, including taxes, for 4 lines with 1500 minutes per month and unlimited data and text. Mobile to mobile is free, which isn't anything special, but this is a plan from 2012 or something, so I guess it was a big deal then. Unlimited data with no throttling unless you've used 23GB in a month and there is tower congestion in that specific area you're in. You're "de-prioritized" but I've never noticed it if it ever happened. At home, on the road, when I'm downtown, etc. I still seem to get consistent speeds relative to the area I'm in at the time.
So in addition to our plan, Sprint had some "loyalty" rewards thing that gave us unlimited minutes. So even though our plan says 1500 minutes, we have a special clause on our bill that gives us unlimited minutes. So we have a truly unlimited data, talk, text plan. No hot spot feature.
The new Sprint plans are a bit different. There are levels of "unlimited" that typically just restrict the bandwidth depending on media. The cheapest Unlimited plan caps your video at 480p and audio at 1.5 Mbps. unlimited talk and text and all that but there are caps on bandwidth. They also give you 10 GB of hot spot data included.
I looked in to switching but the plan alone for 4 people was more than what we pay now. If we also got new phones, the bill for four lines of unlimited data would be close to $300, if not more. So we'd pay nearly 50-70 more per month for capped bandwidth and 10 GB of hot spot data, per line, which we'd never use. The savings would come, maybe, after 24 months when the phones were paid off and the price would come down to $140 or $180 a month, I can't remember. Assuming we didn't upgrade our phones again 2 years from now. And if we did, we'd continue to pay that $50-70 extra per month again compared to what we pay now.
Both plans, new and old, have free international roaming data and text. Calls are 20 cents a minute internationally. So my parents go to India a few times a year and they can call me via WhatsApp or book Ubers and text me for free. So that's a big plus and I'm not sure what other US carriers offer. Usually it's a $5 or $10 add-on, I think, but it could very well be free too.
So T-Mobile may be cheaper for us but their coverage map does not show good speeds in the areas me or my family frequent. Downtown, I'm sure they're great, but for stretches in between towns, especially in wooded areas, the map is not that great. For anyone, really, but TMo's looked the worst. Guess where our house is? Surrounded by forest/woods. My parents work is in an active area so no issues there but their drive to and from work is still filled with wooded areas along the way. My dad answers hospital calls and pages from the hospital while driving to and from work. My mom calls her sisters daily to and from work. My mom and I both stream music or radio or something while driving. So while we don't think about it now, if we were to lose data or voice while driving in certain stretches of area, we'd notice. And TMo seems to be the worst outside of towns and cities in regards to that. First world problems for my mom and I but for my dad it could be a nuisance and a big deal.
I'm sure it would be slightly better with bigger, better carriers like VZW or ATT, but then we lose unlimited data and pay more. It's just not worth it in that regard. I'm no sprint apologist; they are shit in many of their practices and technology but they're the cheapest and they work well in our area where we need them. I am open and free to switch carriers, as is my mom, since our 2 years were up in March of this year. We should probably do the newer Sprint plans which are cheaper and bring our S7s and wait it out until January when my dad and sister's iPhone 7 contracts end, but we'll just wait until then and decide as 4 of us where we want to go or stay.
So basically we stick with Sprint because of unlimited data and minutes for a price that's much lower than the competitors and for coverage that coincidentally is working well for us despite Sprint kinda of being shit for lots of other people.
