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Decade in Review: What the Smartphone Has Wrought

Pedestrians in London looking at their smartphones. (Reuters)
Pedestrians in London looking at their smartphones. (Reuters)
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Decade in Review: What the Smartphone Has Wrought

Pedestrians in London looking at their smartphones. (Reuters)
Pedestrians in London looking at their smartphones. (Reuters)

When the first Apple iPhone hit the market in 2007, not everyone was convinced it would supplant the flip-phone. When Google’s Android software system arrived a year later, the Blackberry still seemed to have bright future.

But with the iPhone 4 in 2010, featuring a high-resolution display, sleek design and front-facing camera, our collective fate was sealed. Here are 10 ways the smartphone has made its mark over the decade.

Access everywhere

Today some 5 billion smartphones are in use around the world, according to Canalysis Research. The total number of internet subscriptions has soared to 7.2 billion globally from 1.3 billion in 2010, the vast majority of them mobile subscriptions, International Telecommunications Union data shows. The explosion in connectivity has been especially dramatic in the developing world, where there are now more mobile connections than people.

Tech uber alles

Apple Inc, once a niche computer company, is now one of the world’s most valuable companies thanks to the iPhone. The five largest Fortune 500 technology companies - Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook - currently boast a market cap of $4.7 trillion, compared with about $800 billion for the top five in 2010. Not all of that is due to the smartphone, of course, but the mobile-related technologies and services accounted for nearly $4 trillion in economic activity in 2018, according to trade group GSMA.

There’s an app for that

Whether we’re hailing a cab, ordering food, playing a game, finding a date, listening to music or shopping for just about anything, there’s a good chance we’ll be doing it with a smartphone app that didn’t exist in 2010. Many of most popular apps are free, but consumers are still expected to spend more than $120 billion in app stores during 2019, according to App Annie, a mobile apps analytics firm.

Feed me

The endless scroll on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media apps now consumes 34 minutes of every US adult’s day, according to Nielsen. Fewer people are sitting on the sofa to watch live TV at set times, and advertisers are following. Mobile ad spending surpassed TV for the first time in 2018 in terms of percentage share of the US market, according to research firm eMarketer. We can also thank the smartphone for Instagram influencers and fake news.

Smile for the (smartphone) camera

Global shipments of digital cameras dropped from their 2010 peak of 121 million to just 19 million units in 2018, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA). Meantime the latest phones pack as many four camera lenses and cutting-edge software that makes it easier than ever to get that perfect shot. The front-facing camera might be the busiest: Google reports that its Android devices take 93 million selfies every day.

Where am I?

The satellite tracking technology known as GPS, combined with information from cell towers and Wi-Fi networks, has made the smartphones incredibly powerful tracking devices. Google maps and its poorer cousins enable even the most directionally impaired find their way around unfamiliar locales with ease.

For the privacy-minded, though, it’s a disaster: Phone companies and app makers routinely record the movements of subscribers and sell that data to advertisers, a $20 billion-a-year business. The data is “anonymized,” but as numerous studies and a recent New York Times investigation have revealed it is often a simple matter to identify who is behind the dot on the map. Nearly 50 percent of companies surveyed by Verizon this year used or planned to soon use smartphone management tools to track their employees.

You can look it up

The 2010 edition of the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica, all 32 volumes and 129 pounds of it, turned out to be the last. But untold barroom arguments or dining room debates can now be settled on the spot: Wikipedia is consulted more than 240 million times daily.

Distracting ourselves to death

In 2018 alone in the United States, 2,628 fatal crashes involved a distracted driver, and of those deadly crashes, about 13% involved mobile phone use, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Forget your wallet

Apple Pay and Google Pay are still afterthoughts for most US consumers, but China may be a harbinger. Alipay and WeChat pay, China’s two big smartphone payment services, have reached a combined adoption rate of over 80% since they were launched around the beginning of the decade, according to a study by Bain. The QR code now peppers storefront windows. Even streetside beggars have adapted, sometimes rejecting cash and asking that payments be made via WeChat Pay or Alipay.

Say what?

Among the major casualties of the smartphone era is the conventional phone call itself: ubiquitous messaging apps have helped make video calls, GIFs, emojis and audio messaging preferred modes of communication. In the UK, for example, the total number of minutes spent on voice calls fell from 254 billion in 2013 to 206 billion in 2018, and the number of text messages dropped from 129 billion to 74 billion over the same period, according to Ofcom. Mobile data usage, meanwhile, jumped almost nine-fold between 2013 and 2018. The number of available emojis has nearly tripled to almost 3,000 since 2010.

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Varieties

An Iconic Puzzle Comes Home as Production of the Rubik’s Cube Returns to Hungary

Hungarian architect and inventor Ernő Rubik attends the opening event of Rubik's Cube production line of the Jasz-Plasztik plastic processing company in Jaszbereny, Hungary, 10 November 2026. (EPA)
Hungarian architect and inventor Ernő Rubik attends the opening event of Rubik's Cube production line of the Jasz-Plasztik plastic processing company in Jaszbereny, Hungary, 10 November 2026. (EPA)
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An Iconic Puzzle Comes Home as Production of the Rubik’s Cube Returns to Hungary

Hungarian architect and inventor Ernő Rubik attends the opening event of Rubik's Cube production line of the Jasz-Plasztik plastic processing company in Jaszbereny, Hungary, 10 November 2026. (EPA)
Hungarian architect and inventor Ernő Rubik attends the opening event of Rubik's Cube production line of the Jasz-Plasztik plastic processing company in Jaszbereny, Hungary, 10 November 2026. (EPA)

More than half a century ago, a Hungarian architect, sculptor and professor invented what would become one of the world's most popular and beloved puzzles whose appeal has spanned generations: the colorful, mind-bending, six-sided Rubik's Cube.

Now, after selling more than half a billion units and becoming a worldwide cultural touchstone, production of the cube is returning to Hungary, where its inventor, Ernő Rubik, first conceived of the iconic object that bears his name.

Hungary “is the home of the cube. The cube was born here,” Rubik, 82, said on Tuesday at the opening of a new, fully automated Rubik's Cube production line in the Hungarian city of Jászberény.

The journey of the Rubik's Cube began in 1974, when Rubik was teaching design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in Budapest. Seeking to create a three-dimensional object that was “infinite,” he said, he completed a prototype — then made of wood — of a cube that could rotate on multiple axes and was made up of 27 blocks.

Recognizing its consumer value, Rubik soon began producing more of the puzzles. Beginning in 1977, an initial 5,000 units of what was then called the “Magic Cube” were sold at specialty shops in the Hungarian capital.

The invention — or what Rubik prefers to describe as a “discovery” — gained popularity, and after having difficulties procuring materials for the cubes in then-socialist Hungary, he realized: “We were not prepared for that size of production ... We can’t fulfill the needs of the market worldwide.”

The cube was licensed to a British and then a US toy company, and its production was moved abroad. By the early 1980s, its popularity had exploded in what Rubik called “the first big wave,” in which he said 200 million units were sold between 1980 and 1983.

While sales of the cube dipped after its initial success, it still attracts plenty of users eager to try their hand at solving the puzzle. Millions are sold every year.

At the new production line in Hungary, a series of robotic arms assembles the cubes and tests them for functionality and durability — a level of automation Rubik said was “very different” than in the early days when the cubes were assembled by hand.

The new line in Jászberény plans to produce 1 million cubes annually.

Steve Radewych, a senior vice president with Canadian toy company Spin Master, which owns the Rubik's Cube trademark, said at Tuesday's opening that the theme of the day was: “Back to its roots: The cube comes home.”

“Ernő, your discovery is more than a toy,” Radewych told Rubik. “It's a global social phenomenon.”

Radewych noted the “incredible staying power” of the Rubik's Cube, and the fact that the puzzle continues to hold the fascination of young people even today.

“The cube represents an intellectual journey, a symbol of intelligence, problem-solving and cognitive discipline,” he added, which “has brought joy — and frustration — to many generations.”

The cube has enjoyed another surge in popularity in recent years as global competitions have proliferated, measuring who can solve the puzzle the fastest.

The current record, set only last month in China by nine-year-old Xuanyi Geng, is 2.51 seconds, according to the World Cube Association, which organizes and certifies competitions across the world.

Rubik, who does not consider himself a speed competitor, said that for him, the cube represents a “transformable sculpture,” the place where art and engineering meet and users can manipulate and change the cube in nearly endless variations.

“If you are doing something, creating something, you have the chance to do something that is meaningful — that’s one part — and beautiful,” he said.

Varieties

SpaceX Starship Test to Attempt First-Ever Spaceship ‘Catch'

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP)
SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP)
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SpaceX Starship Test to Attempt First-Ever Spaceship ‘Catch'

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP)
SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP)

Elon Musk's SpaceX was poised Friday to carry out its latest test of the world's biggest and most powerful rocket, the Starship, with plans for a groundbreaking "catch" of the spaceship following a day in orbit.

A successful capture of the Starship upper stage would mark a significant milestone in the space industry's decades-long pursuit of fully reusable spacecraft that can drastically reduce mission costs and make frequent travel possible.

"If successful, this will mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system and a breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket," SpaceX said.

For the 15th Starship test flight Friday, SpaceX aims to recover both stages of the massive 124-meter (407-foot) launch vehicle.

The company has caught the booster, dubbed Super Heavy, on three previous occasions, with the first stage descending vertically back to the launch site shortly after blastoff and nestling into mechanical "chopstick" arms.

It will now attempt to do the same with the spaceship. Some versions of the vessel are designed to launch internet satellites and data centers into orbit, while others will be made to ferry people to the Moon and Mars.

A spacecraft that can be fully reused is the "Holy Grail" of the space industry, said Clayton Swope, an aerospace expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"No one's really been able to do that so far," he said. "People have been trying to do that since the (NASA) space shuttle. But the space shuttle ended up being kind of a compromise because a lot of the vehicle wasn't reusable."

Reusing the Starship spacecraft would require the vessel to withstand the extreme heat of reentering Earth's atmosphere and then return to service without extensive refurbishment.

- Refueling challenge -

Musk, the world's richest person, has already revolutionized the space sector with the partially reusable Falcon rockets, which are regularly employed to launch satellites and carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

The Starship project, however, has been plagued by years-long delays as SpaceX grapples with novel engineering challenges -- even as NASA is counting on the spaceship to serve as a lunar lander for its Artemis program.

Other technical challenges include transferring fuel to Starship in orbit -- a requirement for any journey to the Moon or Mars.

Following SpaceX's high-profile stock market debut in June, the company carried out the first orbital flight of Starship in September, though the mission was cut short due to an engine issue.

It is also investing heavily in additional launch sites for its mega-rocket in Louisiana and Florida.

- Complex capture -

Friday's launch is scheduled to take place at SpaceX's "Starbase" in southern Texas at 4:45 pm (2245 GMT).

Following liftoff and the mid-air separation of the two stages, SpaceX plans to bring Super Heavy back to Earth six and a half minutes later, catching it at the launch site on the Gulf of Mexico coastline.

The spaceship will continue to reach Earth's orbit, where it will deploy 26 satellites into Musk's Starlink satellite internet constellation that has become a major revenue stream for SpaceX.

It will then circle the planet 14 times, before returning 22 hours later and -- SpaceX hopes -- descending safely into the chopstick arms.

This capture attempt is more complex than that of the booster, as the spaceship will be descending much faster and from a much greater altitude.

SpaceX has said it would proceed with these maneuvers only if conditions are optimal, and in the past has made last-minute changes to test flights under Musk's "fail fast" strategy of learning through crashes, explosions and other mishaps.

As of late Thursday, the US Federal Aviation Administration had not yet given its final approval for the test flight.

Varieties

Delhi Overtakes Lahore as World’s Most Polluted City as Air Quality Drops

Traffic moves on a smoggy morning as air pollution spikes in New Delhi, India, November 13, 2026. (Reuters)
Traffic moves on a smoggy morning as air pollution spikes in New Delhi, India, November 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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Delhi Overtakes Lahore as World’s Most Polluted City as Air Quality Drops

Traffic moves on a smoggy morning as air pollution spikes in New Delhi, India, November 13, 2026. (Reuters)
Traffic moves on a smoggy morning as air pollution spikes in New Delhi, India, November 13, 2026. (Reuters)

India's capital Delhi overtook Lahore in Pakistan to become the world's most polluted city on Friday, with air quality reaching hazardous levels and visibility dropping as smog blanketed the city of 20 million people.

Air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was "hazardous" at 334, making ‌it the ‌most polluted global major ‌city, ⁠according to Swiss group ⁠IQAir, which measures air quality levels based on the concentration of toxins.

An AQI reading up to 50 is considered good with little or no ⁠health risk.

India's official ‌Central Pollution ‌Control Board pegged the AQI higher at ‌403 and rated it "severe".

The ‌Swiss and Indian readings vary due to the different AQI scales and methodologies used to calculate and ‌classify air pollution levels.

Cars and motorcycles emerged from dense ⁠smog, ⁠which also appeared to obscure streetlights on the city's main roads, videos from news agency ANI showed.

Pollution is a seasonal problem in many parts of northern India and neighboring Pakistan, as the cold, heavy air of winter traps vehicle emissions, construction dust and smoke from agricultural burning.