Technologies

US Border Agents Can Snoop Your Smartphone. Keep Your Info Private with a Burner Phone

Think you might need to get and use a burner? Here’s what to know.

If you’re traveling across borders, it’s time to look into getting a «burner phone,» particularly when entering the US. That’s because agents of US Customs and Border Protection are being more aggressive about scanning personal devices, according to some reports. Some businesses outside the US are now suggesting their employees use burners to safeguard personal and sensitive information.

But a burner isn’t just for crossing borders. A phone that doesn’t include all of your personal information or has a simpler interface can be quite handy, such as cutting down on unsolicited calls or even avoiding distractions. Comedian Conan O’Brien recently praised his burner as a way to not get bogged down in instant messages and notifications.

Read more: Best Prepaid Phone of 2025

Although carriers have offered prepaid phones since the ’90s, the term «burner phones» or «burners» essentially became popular in the 2000s due to its use in the celebrated HBO series The Wire, in which characters use burner phones to avoid getting caught by the police. Although often portrayed as such, burners are not only popular among criminals. With privacy concerns rising, you might consider using a burner phone yourself.

So, what exactly is a burner phone and how does it work? Below, we explain everything you need to know about burners and how to get one.

What is a burner phone?

Simply put, a burner phone is a cheap prepaid phone with no commitments. It comes with a set number of prepaid call minutes, text messages or data and is designed to be disposed of after use.

Burners are contract-free, and you can grab them off the counter. They’re called burner phones because you can «burn» them, i.e., trash them after use, and the phone cannot be traced back to you, which makes them appealing to criminals. Burner phones are typically used when you need a phone quickly, without intentions of long-term usage.

Burners are different from getting a regular, contract-bound cellphone plans that require a lot of your information to be on file.

Why should you use a burner phone?

Burner phones are an easy way to avoid pesky cellphone contracts or spam you may be getting on your primary phone number. Burners are not linked to your identity, so you can avoid getting tracked down or contacted if that’s what you need.

However, you don’t have to dispose of it after use — you can just add more minutes and continue using it. Burner phones can still function as regular phones, minus the hassle of getting a phone with a contract.

You can also get a burner phone as a secondary phone for a specific purpose, like having a spare phone number for two-factor authentication texts, for business purposes or to avoid roaming charges while traveling. You can get a burner phone for any privacy reasons you may have.

Read more: The Data Privacy Tips Digital Security Experts Wish You Knew

Burner phones, prepaid phones, smartphones and burner SIMs: What’s the difference?

Burner phones are typically cheap feature phones and usually don’t come with the bells and whistles of a smartphone. Because these are designed to be cheap and disposable, you only get the essentials and very simple designs. The flip phone is a common sight in the burner phone market.

All burner phones are prepaid phones, but not all prepaid phones are burners. What sets a burner apart is that you will not have to give away any personal information to get one and it won’t be traceable back to you. Also, it will be cheap enough to be trashed after use.

Prepaid smartphones are generally low-end models to begin with and burners are the cheapest prepaid phones you can get. However, you can use any unlocked smartphone with prepaid SIM cards if you want to, essentially making it a prepaid phone.

If you want to get a burner, you don’t necessarily have to buy a new phone. You can get a burner SIM and use it with an existing phone as well. Burner SIMs are prepaid SIMs you can get without a contract or giving away personal information.

Where can you buy a burner phone?

Burner phones are available at all the major retail outlets. You can pick them up from Walmart, Target, Best Buy and other big retailers. They’re also often available at convenience stores like 7-Eleven and Rite Aid, local supermarkets, gas stations, and retail phone outlets like Cricket, Metro and others.

You can get a burner phone with cash; a typical burner should cost between $10 and $50. It may cost more if you get more minutes and data with the phone. If you’re getting a burner phone specifically to avoid having the phone traced back to you, it makes sense to pay with cash instead of a credit card.

If you just want a prepaid secondary phone, you can pay for one with a credit card. Credit cards will leave a paper trail that leads back to you but that shouldn’t be an issue unless you really don’t want the burner phone linked back to you.

There are also many apps that let you get secondary phone numbers, including Google Fi and the Burner app. However, these cannot quite be called burners in the ideal sense, because these providers will typically have at least some of your personal information.

If you’re just looking to get a solid prepaid phone without anonymity, you can check out our full guide for the best prepaid phone plans available currently. We also have a guide for the best cheap phone plans you can get.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 2, #221

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 221, for May 2.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Connections: Sports Edition features a fun mix of categories today. The blue and purple answers jumped out at me, and hint — the purple ones might have done so because I live in Seattle. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Getting ready to play.

Green group hint: Not South Carolina.

Blue group hint: Think Tour de France.

Purple group hint: Long-gone teams.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Approach to a game.

Green group: North Carolina teams.

Blue group: Bicycle brands.

Purple group: Former NBA team names.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is approach to a game. The four answers are plan, scheme, strategy and tactic.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is North Carolina teams. The four answers are Hornets, Hurricanes, Panthers and Wolfpack.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is bicycle brands. The four answers are Giant, Huffy, Mongoose and Schwinn.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is former NBA team names. The four answers are Bobcats, Nationals, Royals and Supersonics.

Technologies

Stadium Is a Hit: Here’s What’s Next for Overwatch’s Wild New Mode

Players have spent several million hours in the game mode already, and new heroes and maps are already lined up.

Overwatch launched a new game mode, Stadium, last week as part of its 16th season. After playing the mode ahead of launch for a week, I called it «the first thing that has felt truly new in the game since it came out.»

Well, it seems like players are enjoying the new taste. In a Director’s Take blog post, Blizzard announced Thursday that, in the first week after its launch, about half of all the play hours in Overwatch were spent in Stadium. «While we often see a big spike in play time shortly after a sparkly new event launches, play time in Stadium has been a bit stickier,» the game developer said.

That’s good news for a game facing stiffer competition since December, largely in the form of Marvel Rivals, which was a smash hit of a hero shooter right out of the gate. Earlier this year, Overwatch introduced a new perks system that provided more progression within each match, which at the time felt like a major change. While that shifted up gameplay for the game’s core quick play and competitive modes, it wasn’t nearly as radical a departure for Overwatch 2 as Stadium.

Blizzard said the first week of launch led to 2.3 million Stadium matches (which translates to 7.8 million hours), more than doubling Overwatch Classic’s popularity.

Game Director Aaron Keller said in group interviews ahead of the Stadium launch that the Overwatch team was investing heavily in Stadium, including the mode having its own separate resources and a fresh influx of new heroes and maps every season. We’ve already seen a couple of hotfix patches to address overpowered builds and heroes.

We’ll get the first big taste of that commitment to Stadium when Freja joins the chaos in the midseason patch. But that’s only the start.

After some time in Stadium, I noted that some team strategies had different viability than in mainline Overwatch. In particular, rush compositions felt a bit overturned, thanks largely to a combination of available heroes (especially tanks) and more compressed maps. I hoped that future hero additions would prioritize different macro strategies, «enabling more ranged compositions with heroes like Sigma and Zenyatta or dive compositions with Winston.»

As it turns out, Sigma and Zenyatta are joining the mode in season 17, along with Junkrat. That’s a significant boost to ranged damage. Then in season 18, Stadium will add Winston, Sojourn and Brigitte, which should complement the mode’s existing heroes like Genji and Ana for more powerful dive setups.

Sure, it’s still just matchmaking, so most people are just picking whatever hero they feel like playing, probably without much thought to overall team synergy, but I like that the devs are giving us the ability to pursue those types of strategies, even if it’s rare for it to come together. And the new heroes are coming alongside new maps and modes, unranked crossplay, and an eventual draft mode over the next several seasons.

Overall, it’s a bunch of good news for a mode that seems to be a hit. I’ve been playing the mode semi-frequently since launch (not wanting to neglect the standard modes so I can play Freja, who feels like the most fun new hero since Kiriko) — the mode varies from thrilling to rage-inducing, but it’s certainly never boring. The updates announced Thursday are a strong signal that Overwatch is poised to keep the momentum going.

Technologies

New Galaxy S25 Edge Leaks Suggest a Smaller Battery and Mid-May Announcement

This could be one of the thinnest Galaxy smartphones ever released.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is getting closer to release, according to new leaks. Teased at a Samsung Unpacked event in January, the S25 Edge is expected to be the thinnest Android smartphone Samsung has released, resembling a thinner version of the 25 Plus.

A representative for Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Of course, there’s a trade-off. According to the latest rumors from WinFuture, the S25 Edge will ship with a smaller battery — a substantial dip compared to its S25 Plus sibling.

The S25 Edge likely has something to do with the rumored iPhone 17 Slim that’s set to be released later this year. It appears that thin is in again, although CNET reporter David Lumb wonders who exactly is asking for a phone that’s this slender.

Read more: Motorola Razr Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6: How Each Flip Phone Stacks Up

Earlier reports said that the Galaxy S25 Edge would be released in the first half of the year, but an X post from industry leaker Evan Blass pointed to a May 13 announcement. That post initially showed what appeared to be a promotional image from Samsung with the May 13 date, but the image has since been removed.

Specs leak, including a small battery

The latest leak from German tech blog WinFuture points out that the thinness of the S25 Edge will be coming with a significantly reduced battery capacity, coming in at 3,900 mAh. For comparison’s sake, the Galaxy S25 Plus ships with a 4,900-mAh battery and is only 1.45mm thicker than the Edge.

If the leaks are accurate, the phone will have a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,130×1,440 wrapped in a titanium body. It ships with the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip, and offers 12GB of RAM, and 256GB or 512GB storage variants. Expandable storage is more than likely not included with the handset.

Read more: Camera Champions Face Off: iPhone 16 Pro vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra

It’ll reportedly house a two-camera setup, including a 200-megapixel primary camera and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide. There aren’t specifics on the phone’s front-facing shooter, but it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility for it to retain the 12-megapixel camera found on the S25 Plus.

The phone would come in at a relatively light 163 grams and IP68 ingress protection rating.