If you live abroad and frequent the U.S., you’re probably well aware that economical mobile plans are relatively rare. International roaming rates in the U.S. are among the “highest in the world” for what you get, according to PrepaidPhoneNews.com, and prepaid plans aren’t necessarily any better: data AT&T’s $30 monthly plan, for instance, is capped at 100MB. But starting today, there’s an alternative: T-Mobile’s Tourist Plan, a three-week, $30 prepaid arrangement that includes up to 2GB of 4G LTE data, 1,000 minutes of domestic calling, and unlimited texting to over 140 countries.
The Tourist Plan is essentially the reverse of a benefit T-Mobile offers subscribers to its U.S. Simple Choice plans, Simple Global, which offers free international roaming to 145 countries. And in principle, it’s not all that different from the carrier’s stateside crop of monthly Simply Prepaid plans. Both net you a bucket of minutes, unlimited texting, and 4G LTE data that throttles to 2G speeds after you’ve exceeded your allotted threshold. But the Tourist Plan, importantly, differs in duration, since it’s automatically cancelled after three weeks, and in terms — you get just a tad less data than T-Mobile’s $40 per month, 3GB plan, and for $10 less. And to sweeten the pot, T-Mobile is waiving all activation fees and offering the plan’s SIM card free of charge.
The Tourist Plan isn’t without caveats. You can’t take advantage of Music Freedom, Binge On, or other any of the other benefits that Simply Choice customers get, phone calls outside of the U.S. aren’t covered, and you can’t roam for more than 200MB of data. And you’ve got to bring your own GSM phone — the Tourist Plan is strictly a SIM affair. Still, the Tourist Plan’s pricing is attractive compared to the mainstream competition. Verizon’s $30 per month prepaid plan includes unlimited talk and text, but no data. And Sprint’s less expensive, $35 prepaid tier caps out at 1GB of data. It may not be as good as, say, T-Mobile’s Walmart-exclusive, $30 5GB data plan, but if you’re touching down in the U.S. only briefly, you could do worse.
Folks interested in taking advantage can stop by a T-Mobile store or “[select] dealers that offer T-Mobile prepaid services” starting June 12.
Merely days after the iPhone Duo hit the shelves, images of broken screens on the phone started popping up across social media. Until now, it’s been unclear what’s causing the line of defective pixels that appears vertically along the crease, as well as horizontally, on the phone’s inner display.
Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, which has shown up on iPhone Duo units owned by customers as well as demo units in stores. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Apple says that not all iPhone Duo units are affected and that those that are tend to show the display fault early on. The company added that users who experience problems with their iPhone Duo display should contact AppleCare for a replacement.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.
Apple's first foldable phone is now on shelves, in short supply, but with an unreal amount of buzz around it. After all, it's the first foldable iPhone, and there's plenty that this phone gets right. But there's also a lot that is either broken or underwhelming. What's peculiar is the dialogue around this phone, and how it has completely overshadowed every other attempt at making a phone with a similar form factor.
I've spent some time with the iPhone Duo, and I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for almost three months now. In my opinion, Samsung deserves more credit. When the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrived earlier this year, it was celebrated in some circles and ridiculed in others for supposedly copying what Apple would eventually deliver with the iPhone Duo. The dialogue was pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Samsung has been making foldable phones for years, so claiming that it copied a product Apple hadn't even launched was simply absurd.