Equal AI, an Indian startup that built an AI assistant to answer phone calls on your behalf, has raised $30 million in a Series B led by Prosus Ventures and Tomales Bay Capital. Think Investments and Valiant Fund also participated, alongside individual investors including PhonePe founder Sameer Nigam and Meta’s India and Southeast Asia VP Sandhya Devanathan. Total funding now exceeds $42 million.

The problem is simple and enormous. Indian consumers receive a relentless stream of calls from delivery drivers, insurance agents, financial service companies, scammers, and recruiters. “If you are buying car insurance, you might get 20 calls over a week, and that is hard to tackle for a human,” founder Keshav Reddy told TechCrunch.

Equal AI’s Android app screens unknown calls by answering them with an AI agent that asks why the person is calling. It shows the user a summary of the reason on screen, along with quick reply options like “Leave the delivery near the door” or “Give it to the neighbor.” The AI reads the selected reply back to the caller. Users can also type a custom message. Every call is recorded with a transcription and summary available in the app.

Since launching last year, the app has grown to more than one million monthly active users and over 300,000 daily actives. The company built support for more than 10 Indian languages, including code-mixing, the common practice of blending multiple languages in a single sentence. English support alone is not enough for the Indian market.

The funding round has an unusual structure. It is split into three tranches, each at a different valuation depending on whether the startup hits predetermined targets. The approach, which is growing but still uncommon, lets a startup advertise its highest valuation even if most of the equity was sold at a lower price. Equal AI declined to share its specific valuations.

The startup was founded in 2022 by Reddy, who comes from the family behind Indian conglomerate GVK, which has holdings in infrastructure, energy, and healthcare. Equal started as a data-sharing company for financial services and still offers KYC verification and financial data analysis alongside the consumer app.

Competition is real. Google and Apple both have call screening products. Truecaller, a household name in India with hundreds of millions of users, is building its own AI assistant features. In the US, a16z-backed Cloaked launched call screening last year. Prosus’s Thiago Viana said Equal’s local context understanding gives it an edge.

Next steps include screening calls from known numbers, making outbound calls on a user’s behalf to book appointments, an iOS version, and a paid subscription tier. Prosus has been investing in AI assistants for local markets, including Spain’s Luzia and Latin America’s Zapia. Both were hit by Meta’s ban on third-party AI bots on WhatsApp, which is why Equal AI built around calls and its own app rather than piggybacking on a messaging platform. The lesson: platform dependency is the risk that kills distribution.

If you’re like me and have relied on travel eSIMs, you know the drill. You get access to mobile data abroad without paying the premium your carrier charges for the roaming bill. But more often than not, you’re stuck with just data since you don’t actually have a proper phone number to use.

But Saily is trying to make traveler eSIMs a lot more useful by actually including a phone number. NordVPN‘s eSIM app is now letting users get a dedicated US +1 phone number directly through the Saily app. The number subscription starts at $0.99 per month, with separate call and text plans also starting from $0.99. So, for less than a cup of coffee, you get a second number that can be handy for food delivery apps, hotel bookings, ticketing services, online marketplaces, 2FA codes, and all those random forms that ask for your phone number.

Why Saily’s new deal is pretty useful

While the headline is the $1 US phone number, the second angle is the privacy-friendly deal. Rather than handing your main number to every app, shop, or service, you can use the Saily number as a buffer. It also helps with services that prefer or require a US number. This feature isn’t just for show either, since you can make actual calls, send SMS, and receive verification codes, which make it more useful than a typical data-only eSIM. Users can get the number in the app, allowing them to complete identity verification with a government ID or passport, install the eSIM, and set it as the primary line if needed.

So it should be really useful for frequent travelers, digital nomads, or anyone who likes keeping their personal number away from the spam machine.

The internet asked for your number one too many timesYou can now get a dedicated US (+1) line as part of the Saily eSIM app, so your personal line finally gets a break. Available to users globally. pic.twitter.com/9QtlLsHbAh

— Saily eSIM (@sailyworld) June 10, 2026

Things to keep in mind

This is not a full replacement for every mobile plan. Saily’s support pages say MMS is not supported, so picture messages, group messages, and messages that convert into MMS may fail. Premium-rate numbers and call forwarding are also off the table.

Call minutes are shared between incoming and outgoing calls, which is worth noting before treating it like a normal unlimited voice line. People calling your Saily number may also be charged international rates because it is a US-based number. Regardless, the deal is pretty sweet as a cheap second line. Saily already offered mobile data in over 200 destinations, but adding a phone number makes it a more rounded travel communication tool.

When the Trump Mobile T1 was announced, it arrived wrapped in the kind of marketing language you’d expect from a product tied to Donald Trump: bold claims, patriotic branding, and plenty of references to American values. What wasn’t immediately clear was what made the phone itself special.

Now, thanks to a detailed teardown and CT scan analysis by iFixit, we appear to have an answer. And it’s not exactly the revelation Trump Mobile was probably hoping for. After peeling back the gold-colored exterior, investigators found what looks remarkably like another smartphone already on the market: HTC’s U24 Pro. That’s awkward for a device marketed as something distinct.

Beneath the gold paint, the similarities pile up quickly

Smartphones often share components — that’s normal. The industry is built on common suppliers, shared manufacturing partners, and reference designs. But what makes the T1 interesting is how little seems to separate it from HTC’s existing hardware.

The internal layout reportedly mirrors the U24 Pro almost component-for-component. Are the camera placement differences visible from the outside? Apparently, little more than cosmetic adjustments. The flash assembly wasn’t relocated internally; instead, a longer cable was used to make it appear different from the exterior. Even the speaker system appears unchanged. The only noticeable variation is a slightly altered grille pattern machined into the chassis.

Think of it like buying a sports car only to discover it’s the same sedan underneath with a new paint job and different wheels. Technically, it looks different. Mechanically, it’s telling a different story. The display tells a similar tale. While the Trump Mobile marketing materials list slightly different screen dimensions, teardown findings suggest the panel is effectively the same one used in HTC’s device. The deeper researchers dug, the harder it became to find meaningful distinctions.

Motherboard layouts match, component placement matches, screw locations match, and even the anti-tamper stickers sit in the same places. At that point, that’s basically shared DNA.

The “Made in America” question remains complicated

The more fascinating part of the teardown isn’t actually the HTC connection — it’s what the findings reveal about Trump’s broader manufacturing claims. For months, the phone has been wrapped in messaging emphasizing its American identity. Yet the hardware itself paints a more complicated picture.

According to the teardown analysis, the T1 appears to rely heavily on the same global supply chains that power virtually every Android phone on the market. Researchers believe many of the device’s components trace back to existing production lines in China, which would make sense given the phone’s rapid development timeline and aggressive pricing. There is one notable exception: the battery.

Unlike most smartphone batteries, which are typically sourced from China, the T1’s battery reportedly comes from a Philippine manufacturer. It also offers a larger capacity than the HTC model, though that gain comes at a trade-off. Charging speeds are capped at 30 watts, while the HTC U24 Pro supports 60W charging. Still, one battery component doesn’t fundamentally change the bigger picture.

Building smartphones domestically is extraordinarily difficult. The challenge isn’t just assembling parts; it’s creating an entire ecosystem of suppliers, manufacturing expertise, tooling, logistics, and skilled labor. That’s why even companies with vastly greater resources than Trump Mobile rely on international supply chains. The reality is that “assembled in America” and “made in America” are very different claims. The former may involve putting together imported components on U.S. soil. The latter requires a far deeper domestic manufacturing footprint that very few consumer electronics products can genuinely achieve.

A familiar phone wearing a different badge

Perhaps the most surprising conclusion from the teardown is that the T1 isn’t necessarily a bad value. In fact, based purely on specifications, it compares fairly well with the HTC device it’s believed to be derived from. Buyers aren’t paying dramatically inflated prices for weaker hardware, which is often the fear when celebrity branding enters the equation; the bigger issue is transparency.

Consumers were led to believe they were getting something uniquely American, distinctly different from what was already available. The teardown suggests the reality is far less dramatic: a largely existing smartphone design dressed up with a new identity and a patriotic marketing campaign.

That’s not unusual in the smartphone industry. White-label devices and ODM partnerships have existed for years. Smaller brands frequently license designs from manufacturing partners rather than creating phones from scratch. What’s unusual is how aggressively the T1 was marketed as something special. After all the talk about American pride, domestic production, and a new vision for smartphones, the teardown’s conclusion feels almost anticlimactic. The Trump Phone wasn’t hiding a revolutionary new design; it was actually hiding an HTC phone and not particularly well.

Cash App already handles a lot of your finances. From money transfers, debit cards, to investments and even tax filing, the platform does nearly everything. Now, it wants to take over another regular part of your life. The company has announced Cash App Mobile, a new unlimited 5G phone plan priced at $40 per month, with taxes and fees included. It runs on AT&T’s network and is powered by Gigs, a company that helps brands launch embedded mobile services. The plan is launching as a pilot for select Cash App users, with wider availability planned in the coming months.

The app you use to split dinner now wants to run your phone

Cash App Mobile includes unlimited 5G data, talk, and text, along with unlimited HD streaming, 10GB of monthly hotspot data within the US, and data roaming in Canada and Mexico. Cash App is also emphasizing the lack of long-term contracts, credit checks, and store visits. The company is advertising it a bit differently from a traditional carrier plan. It is designed for what it calls “Modern Earners,” including young adults, underbanked consumers, and gig workers who may not have steady income patterns but still need reliable connectivity.

The company stated that millions of users already use the Cash App Card to pay phone bills. So it basically saw a recurring payment flowing through its platform and just decided it would rather be the one selling the service.

Owen Jennings, Cash App’s Executive Officer and Head of Business, said the goal is to deliver affordability and convenience by managing mobile service directly inside Cash App. Gigs CEO and co-founder Hermann Frank added that legacy carrier models do not reflect how many people live or earn today.

More convenience for the user

A $40 unlimited 5G plan is not automatically disruptive on price alone. There are already plenty of MVNOs and prepaid carriers that compete in this range. But the appeal is real. For existing Cash App users, managing a phone plan in the same app where they spend, save, borrow, and get paid makes a lot of sense, while the platform gets another subscription-like foothold in users’ monthly lives.

Google is continuing its push to make Gemini a central part of Android by giving the AI assistant deeper integration with Google Contacts. A newly discovered update suggests Gemini may soon handle contact-related tasks more directly, potentially turning it into a more capable personal assistant for calls, messaging, and everyday communication.

According to a report by 9to5Google, the latest Google app beta includes references showing that Gemini integration with Google Contacts is expanding beyond basic assistant functions. The feature appears designed to let Gemini interact more naturally with saved contacts, helping users quickly find people, initiate communication, and manage relationship-based tasks through conversational commands.

The update reflects Google’s broader strategy of positioning Gemini as more than just a chatbot. Instead of acting as a standalone AI tool, Gemini is increasingly becoming deeply embedded across Android services, apps, and system functions.

Google wants Gemini to feel more like a real phone assistant

The integration could significantly improve how users interact with Android devices. Rather than manually searching for contacts, opening apps, or navigating menus, users may simply ask Gemini to perform actions involving specific people stored in their contact list.

That could include tasks such as finding a person’s details, starting calls, sending messages, sharing information, or interacting with contacts through connected Google apps. Reports suggest the functionality may rely on Gemini’s understanding of relationships and conversational context rather than requiring rigid voice commands.

This matters because AI assistants have historically struggled to feel genuinely useful in day-to-day smartphone usage. While voice assistants can already place calls or send texts, they often require precise wording and still feel disconnected from broader workflows. Google appears to be trying to make Gemini more proactive and context-aware by giving it tighter access to personal data and Android services.

For users, the convenience could be substantial. A more intelligent contact-aware assistant may reduce friction when multitasking, driving, or quickly trying to communicate with people. Instead of opening multiple apps manually, users could rely on conversational requests handled directly by Gemini.

At the same time, deeper contact integration may raise familiar privacy concerns. Access to personal relationships, communication patterns, and contact data gives AI systems significantly more insight into users’ lives. While Google positions Gemini as a productivity-focused assistant, expanding its reach into sensitive personal information will likely invite scrutiny from privacy advocates.

Gemini’s role inside Android keeps expanding rapidly

The Google Contacts integration is part of a much larger shift happening across Android. Over the past year, Google has steadily replaced or reworked traditional Google Assistant features with Gemini-powered alternatives.

Gemini is already appearing inside Gmail, Drive, Docs, Photos, Search, and Messages, while Android itself is becoming increasingly centered around AI-powered experiences. The addition of deeper Contacts integration suggests Google wants Gemini to evolve into a true operating-system-level assistant capable of managing communication, organization, and productivity tasks seamlessly.

The feature has reportedly been spotted in development and has not officially launched yet, meaning details could still change before release. However, its discovery strongly suggests Google is preparing even tighter Gemini integration across core Android apps.

As AI assistants become more deeply woven into smartphones, the line between operating system and personal AI companion continues to blur – and Google appears determined to make Gemini the center of that experience.

A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has developed a new smartphone-based system that could dramatically simplify how people interact with robots. Called COBALT, the platform allows users with little to no computing experience to remotely control robot arms from virtually anywhere in the world using just a phone and an internet connection.

The project, developed at Georgia Tech’s People, AI & Robotics (PAIR) Lab, transforms smartphones into motion controllers for robotic arms. Users simply move their phones in different directions, and the robot mirrors those movements in real time. Basic tasks such as grabbing, moving, and releasing objects can be performed through simple on-screen controls, making the experience feel more like playing a mobile game than operating industrial machinery.

Ayush Agarwal, a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing who leads the COBALT research team, said the system was intentionally designed to make robotics accessible to beginners rather than experts. During testing, participants from countries including India, Indonesia, and Pakistan remotely controlled robot arms located inside Georgia Tech’s lab despite having no prior robotics experience.

Researchers believe crowdsourcing could shape the future of robotics

The broader goal behind COBALT extends beyond convenience. Researchers believe the platform could solve one of robotics’ biggest challenges: collecting enough real-world training data to improve AI-powered robotic systems.

Modern robots require enormous amounts of policy training data to learn how to perform physical tasks reliably. According to Assistant Professor Animesh Garg, who directs the PAIR Lab, simulation alone is not enough to train robots for large-scale deployment. Instead, researchers envision a crowdsourced network where millions of smartphone users passively contribute operational data by remotely interacting with robots.

Garg compared the idea to tapping into the nearly five billion smartphone users worldwide. By lowering the barrier to entry, the team hopes to create a scalable global system capable of accelerating robotic learning and automation.

The technology could also have major educational implications. Georgia Tech researchers recently demonstrated COBALT to students from Midtown High School in Atlanta, allowing them to remotely operate robot arms using smartphones. The simplicity of the interface could make robotics education more accessible in classrooms without expensive equipment or specialized hardware.

A future “gig economy” for robots may not be far away

The researchers also believe COBALT could eventually support entirely new forms of remote work. Garg described the possibility of a robot-powered gig economy where people remotely operate assistive robots in homes, warehouses, or factories from anywhere in the world.

In practical terms, that could mean a factory robot autonomously handles most tasks but requests human assistance when it encounters a difficult situation. Instead of requiring on-site workers, remote operators could briefly take control through their phones before handing the operation back to the AI system.

Agarwal said user studies showed smartphones were preferred over VR headsets, keyboards, or traditional controllers because they felt more intuitive while still providing high-quality control data. The system also minimizes latency by using WebRTC technology, similar to platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, ensuring that robot movements and live video streams remain responsive even across long distances.

The research paper on COBALT is being presented this week at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Vienna, where the team is showcasing not just the technology itself, but the large-scale remote operation network built around it.

Apple’s long-rumored foldable iPhone may have just taken another step closer to reality – or at least another step closer to the internet’s imagination. A newly leaked replica model, believed to represent Apple’s upcoming “iPhone Ultra” foldable device, is now circulating online, revealing what could be one of the company’s boldest design shifts in years.

According to a report from Notebookcheck, the replica showcases a foldable phone with curved edges, a slim profile, and a surprisingly familiar design language that many users are already comparing to existing Android foldables.

If the leak turns out to be accurate, Apple’s first foldable iPhone may not look radically different from competitors after all.

Apple’s foldable iPhone may prioritize familiarity over reinvention

The leaked white replica model shows a book-style foldable design with rounded corners, curved side rails, and a dual rear camera setup positioned vertically on the back panel. The overall appearance has triggered immediate comparisons to devices like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold lineup and several foldables from Chinese brands.

That familiarity is especially interesting because Apple has historically avoided entering product categories until it believes the technology and user experience are mature enough. The company has reportedly spent years testing multiple foldable prototypes internally while delaying a commercial launch over concerns related to hinge durability, display creasing, and long-term reliability.

The “iPhone Ultra” branding attached to the leak also aligns with previous rumors suggesting Apple may reserve foldable devices for an entirely new ultra-premium category above the Pro Max lineup.

Reports over the past year have repeatedly suggested Apple’s first foldable iPhone could arrive with a large inner display, titanium construction, and a significantly thinner hinge design compared to current foldable competitors. Some analysts also believe Apple is prioritizing minimal display creasing as one of the defining features of the device.

The replica itself, however, suggests Apple may be taking a more conservative design approach externally while focusing its innovation on refinement rather than visual experimentation.

Why this matters

Foldable smartphones remain one of the few major hardware categories where Apple still has no product presence. Meanwhile, companies like Samsung, Huawei, OPPO, and Honor have spent years iterating on foldable hardware.

Apple entering the foldable market could dramatically reshape consumer interest in the category, much like the company previously did with smartwatches and tablets. At the same time, the leak raises an important question: Does Apple still need to create visually unique hardware, or is perfecting usability and ecosystem integration enough?

What happens next

Apple has not officially acknowledged the existence of a foldable iPhone, and current reports suggest the device is still at least a year or two away from launch. Multiple analysts expect Apple’s first foldable device to arrive sometime around late 2027 or beyond, likely positioned as an ultra-premium product with a very high price tag.

For now, replica leaks like this mainly offer hints about Apple’s possible design direction rather than final hardware confirmation. Still, if the rumors prove accurate, Apple’s foldable future may look less like a sci-fi experiment and more like a refined version of a category Android brands have already spent years building.