Technologies

Klarna Now Has a Mobile Phone Service. It’s Yet Another New Wireless Option for You

The financial company joins the Trump Organization and the SmartLess podcast as new entrants into the suddenly bustling MVNO field.

Klarna, the Swedish buy-now-pay-later financial services company, is introducing a mobile phone plan the company says it will promote to its 25 million US customers.

Klarna is partnering with Gigs, a San Francisco company that provides mobile virtual network operator services, allowing companies to create their own wireless brands. MVNOs seem suddenly popular: In the last week, the Trump Organization launched Trump Mobile, with its own gold-tinted phone on the way. And the popular SmartLess podcast, featuring actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, also set up shop as a wireless provider.

Klarna’s plan includes uncapped 5G plus service and international roaming for under $50 a month. Klarna will offer its wireless service using AT&T’s infrastructure.

The company has opened a waitlist for the service, which it says will launch in a few weeks, with similar offerings in the UK and Germany on the way as well. Klarna says it will directly promote its wireless plan through its mobile app. Customers will be able to keep their mobile number and sign up for the service and manage their account within the Klarna app. Klarna promises there won’t be fees for service activation or cancellation.

It also recently launched a debit card and partnered with DoorDash to allow installment payments on food orders.

What’s next for MVNOs?

Don’t be surprised if other new mobile businesses pop up this year. The overall industry for virtual network operators is expected to grow from about $87 billion to more than $148 billion in the next decade.

«It’s relatively easy to launch an MVNO — compared to other ventures a brand or celebrity might contemplate,» says Iliya Rybchin, a mobile industry veteran who now works as a consultant for BDO USA, an accounting firm. «The economics have gotten much better in the last few years and there are many popular brands, celebrities, and influencers who may have the brand power to do it.»

Those brands and celebrities who have large follower counts, he says, can use their popularity to help reduce one of the biggest costs for wireless companies: customer acquisition.

The possibility for new wireless ventures, based on conversations he’s heard, could include sports teams, retailers, video games and auto companies, Some, he says, could launch non-phone services or products based on specific needs such as medical wearables or cloud storage.

Those contemplating launching an MVNO, he says, should ask themselves, «Is my brand strong enough and my fan base loyal enough to bring in a few hundred thousand subscribers?»

That seems to be the case, at least for the new service tied to the president: «In the case of Trump Mobile, thousands of people walking around holding a gold phone can be as powerful a brand asset as a red MAGA hat. Of course, even the launch alone generates millions of dollars of media value,» Rybchin said.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, June 21

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for June 21.

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

Today’s Mini Crossword was a tough one for me! I struggled with 7-Across and 3-Down especially. Need some help? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Feeling extremely happy
Answer: JOYFUL

7A clue: Wake from sleep
Answer: AROUSE

8A clue: Brand of cinnamon-flavored chewing gum
Answer: BIGRED

9A clue: Talk and talk and talk
Answer: GAB

10A clue: Bengal, colt or dolphin
Answer: ANIMAL

13A clue: TV show ending
Answer: FINALE

14A clue: Rook, to a chess newbie
Answer: CASTLE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Quick boxing punch
Answer: JAB

2D clue: Beginnings
Answer: ORIGINS

3D clue: Where you might strike a pose?
Answer: YOGAMAT

4D clue: Nickname for a fuzzy cat
Answer: FURBALL

5D clue: One of many for white vinegar
Answer: USE

6D clue: Was winning
Answer: LED

10D clue: The Bengals, Colts and Dolphins play in it: Abbr
Answer: AFC

11D clue: ___ DaCosta, director of 2023’s «The Marvels»
Answer: NIA

12D clue: Harper who wrote «To Kill a Mockingbird»
Answer: LEE

Technologies

China and Developing Nations Trust AI the Most, UN Survey Finds

In the US and Europe, confidence in artificial intelligence is far lower.

Artificial intelligence may be a global technology, but public attitudes toward it are anything but universal. A new United Nations poll shows that trust in AI is highest in China and other developing economies, while richer nations remain deeply skeptical.

The findings come from a massive UN Development Programme survey that interviewed more than 21,000 people across 21 countries between November 2024 and January 2025. Researchers asked participants if they believe AI «serves the best interests of society,» and whether governments can harness the technology to improve daily life.

According to Bloomberg, 83% of participants in China said they trust AI, by far the highest share in the study, Confidence levels were above 60% in Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, nations that do not belong to the UN’s very-high Human Development Index bracket, a yardstick for gauging overall well-being in a country.

The picture is the opposite in high-HDI economies. A minority of adults in the United States, Germany, Australia and Greece expressed faith that AI is being used for the common good. One notable exception is Japan, where 65% trust AI, despite the country’s high income and aging population.

The UN researchers don’t spell out why this gap exists, but other research hints at a pattern. In fast-growing economies, AI is widely promoted as a way to «skip steps» in development, perhaps filling in gaps in health care and classrooms, so the technology is viewed as a practical fix. In wealthier, more developed countries, headlines about disinformation and AI-driven job displacement dominate the conversation, leading to public unease.

Technologies

iPhone 20 Rumors Point to All-Glass ‘Waterfall’ Screen and Anniversary-Inspired Name

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple may skip «iPhone 19» altogether and deliver a 20th-anniversary handset whose display curves over all four edges, erasing traditional bezels.

If Apple really wants to make a splash for the iPhone’s 20th birthday in 2027, it may do more than just redesign the camera bump.

Apple’s engineers are prototyping an iPhone internally nicknamed «Glass Wing,» according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, speaking on the Geared Up podcast this week, with a display that flows like a waterfall not only down the left and right sides, but also over the top and bottom of the phone.

Gurman called it the «iPhone X design but on steroids,» and said that this is the phone that iOS 26 was designed for.

A foldable is expected to release at the end of 2026.

Gurman also floated the idea that Apple could brand the device the «iPhone 20,» sidestepping an «iPhone 19» to sync the model number with the anniversary year. A quad-curved, bezel-free screen would mark the iPhone’s most dramatic hardware overhaul since the iPhone X killed the Home button in 2017.

Reports out of South Korea’s ETNews say Apple is exploring «four-edge bending» OLED tech to make that borderless look possible, while Gurman’s Power On newsletter describes a «mostly glass, curved iPhone without any cutouts in the display,» hinting that the selfie camera and Face ID sensors could hide under the display.

If Apple really does jump straight to an iPhone 20, the rename would echo this year’s jump from iOS 18 to iOS 26 and 2017’s leap from the iPhone 8 to the iPhone X, signaling just how big a redesign Apple thinks this phone will be.