• Apple/Foxconn: Not really "Android". Not really made by Apple (Apple designs, Foxconn manufactures). But still. Now, I'm not personally inclined to try Apple / iPhone ecosystem. And it sounds like Apple has maybe cried wolf a few times about moving manufacturing of their phones out of China. But for those that still like Apple enough to consider them, it sounds like starting with the iPhone 15 they might really do it this time tho.
  
• Alacatel: Owned by Nokia and according to wikipedia "used under license by Chinese electronics company TCL Technology". With TCL being "a Chinese partially state-owned electronics company". Not really surprising that it's MiC.
  
• ASUS: According to wikipedia, they are based out of Taiwan. I believe at least some of their phones are manufactured there but was not able to confirm. I was able to confirm that at least some of their phones, unfortuntely, are MIC (1, 2). It sounds like ASUS may also be leaving the smartphone market.
  
• CAT aka Caterpillar: US-based company that appears to specialize in ruggedized phones. I'm not in a profession that really "needs" these but since I'm clumsy af and have completely fubar'd a phone or three in the past, I was still interested. These phones are actually manufactured by Bullitt, a UK-based company. Still couldn't find a damn thing about where their phones are made tho... (possibly MiC?). edit: confirmed by u/FlushableWipe2023 - per wikipedia: "Manufacturing is primarily in China."
  
• Fairphone: According to wikipedia, the company itself is based out of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, they go on to say that "Since version two, the Fairphone is produced in Suzhou, China, by Hi-P International Limited." This is probably the one I was most disappointed with since it was near the top of my "most wanted" list before I started looking into manufacturing. If them being right-to-repair friendly means more to you than them being MIC, then folks in the USA who don't want to deal with getting one shipped from EU might look at murena.com which is the US seller for Fairphone. I have heard mention that (but not confirmed) that Fairphone 4 and 5 only work on T-mobile and even then that you will not have full coverage on all frequency bands - so depending on where you live / travel, YMMV. If you are considering this, I recommend researching the frequency bands more and asking questions online before buying.
  
• Google/Pixel/Foxconn: Google is a US-based company. According to wiki they've had Foxconn (a Taiwanese company) producing their Pixel series of Phones since the Pixel 3 back in 2018 all the way to present. However, it doesn't take much googling to see Foxconn despite being a Taiwanese company has a lot of manufacturing done in China proper. From 2019 Q4 forward, Google moved Pixel manufacturing out of China to Vietnam and are going to move again to India in 2024 (1, 2). I've heard that at least some Pixels still come out of China currently but have not confirmed this. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to give up microsd (or equivalent cloudless removable storage), so the Pixel line is probably not a great fit for me despite sounding awesome for custom roms.
  
• HTC according to wiki they are Taiwanese so I would think they should be ok. Then again, Foxconn is also Taiwanese and does a ton manufacturing in China so we can't go strictly by the HQ location... As for HTC, I couldn't really find anything definitive for ALL of their phones. They definitely had at least one made in Taiwan. Way back in 2014, they also did some outsourcing to chinese company Wingtech. But more recently (2023), there was talk about them exiting Chinese markets. So, in summary, I couldn't find nothing concrete on HTC's manufacturing.
  
• Kyocera: It seems they have left the smartphone market and I couldn't find anything definitive on their manufacturing process anyway. edit: It seems that their exit was an incorrect rumor, likely due to a translation error. See u/KyoceraMobile's comments below which indict that Kyocera is still alive and well - which is supported by the fact that you can still find new Nokia's available on Verizon and apparently on US Cellular as well. u/KyoceraMobile also confirmed that their phones are indeed made in Japan. See their comments below for more info.
  
• Librem: See Purism, the manufacturer.
  
• LG was primarily manufactured in Vietnam and S Korea but no longer make new phones so they're only worth mentioning for secondhand stuff. I currently have a v20 and fucking love that phone but mine is on its last legs with a messed up speaker. Main issue I am finding with any LG phones is that there is limited availability of secondhand phones to buy replacements from since no new LG phones are being made. Plus, even tho most v20's seemed like they were made in Korea, I have personally come across some that were MiC so they definitely exist.
  
• Motorola: not only are they manufactured in China but they are owned by Chinese company Lenovo
  
• Nokia: Both their manufacturing locations and info about those locations seem to vary a LOT (see comment below). I can't definitively tell if they have completely exited China. It seems like they or Foxconn - who does some of their manufacturing - have plants in Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, a new one in Hungary, and a few other non-China locations so there are definitely some of their phones that are NOT MIC. Whether or not they still have MICs too, I can't say but they do at least have some indirect ties to China (they own Alcatel and license it to Chinese TCL) so it may be worth at least researching before you buy or making sure that you only go for the Nokia XR21 made in Hungary. If anybody has links / better info, please let me know and I will attempt to update. Thanks to u/AustrianKangaroo4689 for mentioning I was missing them and giving me some info to start off of.
  
• Nothing Tech / Nothing Phones: I hadn't heard of these guys until very recently. Apparently they are popular enough to be on gsmarena (not a huge achievement but OTOH gsmarena still doesn't have entries for pinephone or librem). According to wiki, the company is based out of London and apparently just entered the US market in mid-2023?, so I guess that's why I hadn't heard of them before. Wiki had no info on where the phones were actually being made. Looking online, at first glance, it sounds like they are making the "Nothing Phone 2" in India (1, 2) but this phonearena page notes that "There's just one important detail–only those units to be sold on the Indian market will be made in India, as rumored" and that "Who gets to manufacture the intriguing flagship phone? According to The Indian Express, it’s none other than BYD Electronics, a Shenzhen-based company" ... So where are the versions sold in the US being made? Frankly, I have no idea but it sounds like China is at least a possibility. If anyone has anything more concrete, then please comment below.
  
• PINE64 / Pinephone: Technically, these are Linux phones, not Android. PINE64 is based out of Hong Kong and the phones are manufactured in China. I would NOT recommend Pinephones phones for most users, and especially not for non-technical people. If you are a developetinketech aficionado, do your research before deciding, but since these phones are not ready to be used as daily-drivers, IMHO everyone else will probably be better off with something else.
  
• Purism: Makers of the Librem 5. Again, technically, these are Linux phones, not Android. Purism offers two variants: plain old "Librem 5" and the "Librem 5 USA". According to their own page explaining the differences, essentially the 2 phones are more or less identical aside from the regular one being mass produced in China and having a subsequently lower price and the "Librem 5 USA" being 100% made in America and having a massive price tag (rought $2000 USD). There is also a separate model they are calling the "Liberty Phone" which is also 100% Made in USA, also 2 grand, and appears to have slightly upgraded specs (appears to have same cpu / screen size / battery / cameras but ram is increased from 3GB to 4GB, internal storage is increased from 32GB to 128GB, supports all of the old wifi protocols plus the newer ac/ax ones, Bluetooth version increased from 4 to 5.3). I would NOT recommend Librem/Liberty phones for most users, and especially not for non-technical people. If you are a developetinketech aficionado, do your research before deciding, but since these phones are not ready to be used as daily-drivers, IMHO everyone else will probably be better off with something else.
  
• Samsung: sounds like they used to have some MiCs so anyone buying older phones (up to and including first half of 2019 - See 1, 2) might want to watch out. Sounds like those years aren't a guarantee of MiC, just a possibility so they are still worth checking out but apparently 2019 is the year they stopped manufacturing in China. And if you're buying new, this is one of the more solid "Not Made In China" choices (and if they still as good as they were when I last had a Samsung, they're pretty damn good regardless).
  
• Sony: sounds like (1, 2, 3) they mostly manufacture out of Thailand and Japan.
  
• Sonim: Another US-based company that appears to specialize in ruggedized phones. But again, I couldn't find a damn thing about where their phones are actually made... (another possible MiC?) edit: confirmed by u/FlushableWipe2023 - per prnewswire that in Dec 2020, Sonim transfered manufacturing to China-based Unicair
  
• T-mobile aka REVVL: Seems these are just rebranded TCL phones. As mentioned above, TCL is "a Chinese partially state-owned electronics company".
  
• Other: Blackview, Coolpad, Cubot, Doogee, Gionee, Honor, Huawei, Infinix, itel, Lenovo, Meizu, OnePlus, Oppo, Oukitel, Realme, TCL, Tecno, Ulefone, vivo, Xiaomi, ZTE: Every single one of these is a Chinese company. They may have differing levels of state-ownership - wikipedia explicitly mentioned Honor as state-owned and both TCL and ZTE as partially-state-owned. IIUC then since every single one of them is based in China then all of these are obligated to share data with the Chinese government under the China Internet Security Law and National Intelligence Law. And even if I'm misinterpreting and those only apply for phones sold in China, that does not discount things like the Chinese government leaning on their companies with things like gag orders to slip in backdoors or similar scenarios. Hopefully, it would never come to this but if you're on this sub, then like me, you'd probably rather be safe than sorry. It's not like there's never been a precedent for the PCCCP forcing companies/media/individuals to do their bidding: 1, 2. 3, 4
  

• NVIDIA & Masterpiece Studio launched a new text-to-3D AI playground- Called Masterpiece X - Generate, the tool aims to make 3D art more accessible by using gen AI to create 3D models based on text prompts. It is browser-based and requires no prior knowledge or skills. Users simply type in what they want to see, and the program generates the 3D model. The resulting assets are compatible with popular 3D software. The tool is available on mobile and works on a credit basis. - This New AI system boosts LLMs by extending context window- MemGPT is a system that enhances the capabilities of LLMs by allowing them to use context beyond their limited window. It does this by using virtual context management inspired by hierarchical memory systems in traditional operating systems. Its code and data are released for further experimentation.
• Microsoft’s new AI Bug Bounty Program offers rewards of up to $15k - The program focuses on the AI-powered Bing experience, with eligible products including Bing Chat, Bing Image Creator, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Start Application, and Skype Mobile Application. Security researchers can submit their findings through the MSRC Researcher Portal, and Microsoft is excited to learn and improve its vulnerability management process for AI systems with rewards.
• 42% of Mac users use AI-based apps daily, finds new report - Setapp, the curated app subscription service for macOS and iOS by MacPaw, has released its 3rd annual Mac Apps Report. The report collected responses from Mac users, mostly in the US. Its findings highlight that 42% of respondents use AI-based apps daily. And 63% of AI-based app users believe AI tools are more beneficial.
• ElevenLabs Partners with Pictory AI to add realistic AI voices to videos - Pictory AI is renowned for its proprietary algorithms that transform text into video. With the integration of ElevenLabs' advanced AI voice technology, users can now add realistic AI voices to their videos, enhancing engagement and personalizing the viewer's experience.
• China's Baidu unveils new Ernie AI version to rival GPT-4 - Chinese tech giant Baidu unveiled the newest version of its generative AI model today, Ernie 4.0, saying its capabilities were on par with those of OpenAI’s pioneering GPT-4 model.
• NVIDIA makes GenAI work 4x faster on PCs - It has announced LLMs which can now operate up to 4x faster on Windows PCs with the help of TensorRT-LLM. This open-source library accelerates inference performance for AI models like Llama 2 and Code Llama. NVIDIA has also released tools to assist developers in optimizing their LLMs, including scripts, optimized open-source models, and a developer reference project. TensorRT acceleration is now available for Stable Diffusion, improving generative AI diffusion models by up to 2x. The company has also released RTX Video Super Resolution version 1.5, enhancing LLMs and improving productivity.
• ChatGPT outperforms doctors in depression treatment - According to a study, ChatGPT makes unbiased, evidence-based treatment recommendations for depression that are consistent with clinical guidelines and outperform human primary care physicians. Compared with primary care physicians, ChatGPT showed no bias in recommendations based on patient gender or socioeconomic status.
• BlackBerry announces Gen AI cybersecurity assistant for its Cylance AI customers. - The solution predicts customer needs and proactively provides information, eliminating the need for manual questions. It compresses research hours into seconds and offers a natural workflow instead of an inefficient chatbot experience.
• Meta’s new AI for real-time decoding of images from brain activity - Meta’s new research showcases an AI system that can be deployed in real time to reconstruct, from brain activity, the images perceived and processed by the brain at each instant.
• Introducing Fuyu-8B, a multimodal architecture for AI agents - Fuyu-8B is exciting because it has a much simpler architecture and training procedure than other multi-modal models, which makes it easier to understand, scale, and deploy. It’s super fast and performs well at standard image understanding benchmarks despite being optimized for Adept’s (its parent) use cases.
• GPT-4V got even better with Set-of-Mark (SoM) - SoM is a new visual prompting method that unleashes extraordinary visual grounding abilities in large multimodal models (LMMs), such as GPT-4V.
• Amazon announces 2 new-gen robots - Two new robotic solutions, Sequoia and Digit, will assist employees and improve delivery for customers. Sequoia, operating at a fulfillment center in Houston, Texas, helps store and manage inventory up to 75% faster, allowing for quicker listing of items on Amazon.com and faster order processing. It integrates multiple robot systems to containerize inventory and features an ergonomic workstation to reduce the risk of injuries. - Sparrow, a new robotic arm, consolidates inventory in totes. Amazon is also testing mobile manipulator solutions and the bipedal robot Digit to further enhance collaboration between robots and employees.
• Google DeepMind has released a fast open-source tool for robotics research - MuJoCo 3.0, an updated version of their open-source tool for robotics research. This new release offers improved simulation capabilities, including better representation of various objects such as clothes, screws, gears, and donuts. Additionally, MuJoCo 3.0 now supports GPU and TPU acceleration through JAX, enabling faster and more powerful computations.
• Google Search’s new feature that allows English learners to practice speaking - With improving their language skills. Android users in select countries can engage in interactive speaking practice sessions, receiving personalized feedback and daily reminders to keep practicing. - The feature is designed to supplement existing learning tools and is created in collaboration with linguists, teachers, and language experts. It includes contextual translation, personalized real-time feedback, and semantic analysis to help learners communicate effectively. - The technology behind the feature includes a deep learning model called Deep Aligner.
• And there was more…
  • OpenAI is updating its core values to include a focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI). Previously, the company's values were different, but now AGI is the first value on the list. However, there seems to be inconsistency in OpenAI's definition of AGI, leaving uncertainty about its vision and capabilities. These updated values highlight the company's commitment to building safe and beneficial AGI for the future of humanity.
  • NVIDIA is moving up the launch of its next-gen Blackwell B100 GPUs. The launch will be in Q2 2024 due to a surge in demand for AI technology. The B100 is expected to be a powerful AI game changer than NVIDIA's current highest-spec GPU, the H100.
  • International scientists & Cambridge researchers have launched a new research collaboration called Polymathic AI. They aim to build an AI-powered tool for scientific discovery using the same technology behind ChatGPT. While ChatGPT deals with words and sentences, the team's AI will learn from numerical data and physics simulations across scientific fields.
  • Anthropic expands access to Claude.ai. Users in 95 countries/regions can now talk to Claude and get help with their professional or day-to-day tasks.
  • Inflection AI’s Pi now has real-time access to the internet. You can now ask Pi (“personal intelligence”) about the latest news, events, and more because it's fully up to date with real-time access to fresh information from across the Web.
  • YouTube gets new AI-powered ads that let brands target special cultural moments. Powered by Google AI, it announced a new advertising package called “Spotlight Moments.” It will leverage AI to automatically identify the most popular YouTube videos related to a specific cultural moment– like Halloween, a sporting event, etc.
  • Research reveals AI pain detection system for patients before, during, and after surgery. An automated system for pain recognition using AI is appearing effective as an impartial method for detecting pain in patients. Two AI techniques, computer vision and deep learning, are used to interpret visual cues to assess patients’ pain.
  • New York City unveiled a new plan to use AI to make its government work better. The plan outlines a framework for how to responsibly adopt and regulate AI to "improve services and processes across our government." It is the first of its kind from a major US city.
  • NVIDIA collabs with Foxconn to accelerate the development of electric vehicles. The collaboration will utilize Nvidia's automotive solutions, including the Drive Hyperion 9 platform and the upcoming Drive Thor superchip. The chip is expected to deliver high-performance compute power for safe and intelligent driving.
  • DeepLearning.AI launches new GenAI course. It will help you learn how generative AI works and how to use it in your life and at work. It doesn’t require any coding skills or prior knowledge of AI.
  • Oracle’s NetSuite is adding genAI capabilities to its finance software. Allowing companies to automate tasks such as writing collections letters or tracking delayed purchases. The new "Text Enhance" feature uses Oracle's cloud-based systems to develop AI that can read and write human-like text. This move follows a trend among business software firms, including Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Adobe, to incorporate generative AI into their products.
  • Dubai Police has revealed an AI-powered driverless security patrol car. Designed for residential areas, the car is equipped with advanced cameras, AI, and smart technology to detect criminal behavior, recognize faces, and read car license plates. It has a battery life of up to 15 hours and can reach speeds of 5 to 7 kilometers per hour. The car's main purpose is to enhance safety in residential zones by providing continuous security coverage. When the car detects something suspicious, it can send a message directly to the authorities.
  • IBM expands its relationship with AWS to deepen generative AI capabilities and expertise. They plan to deliver joint solutions and services upgraded with generative AI capabilities designed to help clients across critical use cases. IBM Consulting also aims to deepen and expand its generative AI expertise on AWS by training 10,000 consultants.
  • Nvidia brings generative AI compatibility to robotics platforms. It s integrating generative AI into its systems, including the Nvidia Isaac ROS 2.0 and Nvidia Isaac Sim 2023 platforms, with the goal of accelerating its adoption among roboticists. Some 1.2 million developers have also interfaced with the Nvidia AI and Jetson platforms, including AWS, Cisco and John Deere.
  • PwC partners with OpenAI for AI-powered consultation. It will use AI to consult on complex matters in tax, legal and human resources, such as carrying out due diligence on companies, identifying compliance issues and even recommending whether to authorize business deals.
  • Universal Music Group and Bandlab announce first-if-its-kind strategic AI collaboration. The alliance will advance their shared commitment to ethical use of AI and the protection of artist and songwriter rights. They will also pioneer market-led solutions with pro-creator standards to ensure new technologies serve the creator community effectively and ethically.
  • OpenAI’s DALL·E 3 is now available in ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise. The plans’ users can now describe their vision in a conversation with ChatGPT, and the model will generate a selection of visuals for them to refine and iterate upon. And more!
  • Instagram's co-founder’s Artifact enables users to explore recommended places. Users can now share their favorite restaurants, bars, shops, and other locations with friends through the app. The app recently added generative AI tools to incorporate images into posts, making it more visually appealing to users.
  • Amazon teams up with Israeli startup UVeye to automate AI inspections of its delivery vehicles. The partnership will involve installing UVeye's automated, AI-powered vehicle scanning system, known as the Automated Vehicle Inspection, in hundreds of Amazon warehouses in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the U.K. This technology will help ensure the safety and efficiency of Amazon's delivery fleet, which currently consists of over 100,000 vehicles.
  • Walmart announced its Responsible AI Pledge. It aims to set the standard for ethical AI by focusing on transparency, security, privacy, fairness, accountability, and customer-centricity. The company believes that AI is integral to its operations, from personalizing customer experiences to managing the supply chain.
  • Jasper launches a new AI copilot that aims to improve marketing outcomes. The copilot offers features such as performance analytics, a company intelligence hub, and campaign tools. These features will be rolled out in beta in November, with more capabilities planned for Q1 2024. The copilot can generate customized content for different channels, schedule and distribute the content, and track the entire campaign.

• NVIDIA making GenAI work 4x faster on PCs - NVIDIA has announced LLMs which can now operate up to 4x faster on Windows PCs with the help of TensorRT-LLM. This open-source library accelerates inference performance for AI models like Llama 2 and Code Llama. - NVIDIA has also released tools to assist developers in optimizing their LLMs, including scripts, optimized open-source models, and a developer reference project. - TensorRT acceleration is now available for Stable Diffusion, improving generative AI diffusion models by up to 2x. The company has also released RTX Video Super Resolution version 1.5, enhancing LLMs and improving productivity.
• ChatGPT outperforms doctors in depression treatment - According to study, ChatGPT makes unbiased, evidence-based treatment recommendations for depression that are consistent with clinical guidelines and outperform human primary care physicians. Compared with primary care physicians, ChatGPT showed no bias in recommendations based on patient gender or socioeconomic status.
• BlackBerry announces Gen AI cybersecurity assistant - For its Cylance AI customers. The solution predicts customer needs and proactively provides information, eliminating the need for manual questions. It compresses research hours into seconds and offers a natural workflow instead of an inefficient chatbot experience. - BlackBerry has more than 5 times the AI/ML patents than its competitors. The cybersecurity assistant will initially be available to a select group of customers.
• NVIDIA collabs with Foxconn to accelerate the development of electric vehicles - The collaboration will utilize Nvidia's automotive solutions, including the Drive Hyperion 9 platform and the upcoming Drive Thor superchip. The Drive Thor superchip is expected to deliver high-performance compute power for safe and intelligent driving.
• DeepLearning.AI launches new GenAI course - It will help you learn how generative AI works, and how to use it in your life and at work. It doesn’t require any coding skills or prior knowledge of AI.
• Oracle’s NetSuite is adding genAI capabilities to its finance software - Allowing companies to automate tasks such as writing collections letters or tracking delayed purchases. The new "Text Enhance" feature uses Oracle's cloud-based systems to develop AI that can read and write human-like text. This move follows a trend among business software firms, including Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Adobe, to incorporate generative AI into their products.
• Dubai Police has revealed an AI-powered driverless security patrol car - Designed for residential areas. The car is equipped with advanced cameras, AI, and smart technology to detect criminal behavior, recognize faces, and read car license plates. - Its an electric vehicle with a battery life of up to 15 hours and can reach speeds of 5 to 7 kilometers per hour. The car's main purpose is to enhance safety in residential zones by providing continuous security coverage. When the car detects something suspicious, it can send a message directly to the authorities.
• Stardog has launched Voicebox - Voicebox aims to simplify access to business insights by allowing users to ask questions using ordinary language and receive answers based on enterprise data, without requiring any technical skills. The solution will be available as part of Stardog's flagship platform, which is used by government agencies and other organizations to manage and query structured and unstructured data.

Description of the problem

Backstory for context

Describing steps taken

1. At first Bluetooth was working fine (on Linux LTS), then, after a reboot, it suddenly stopped working, and I was unable to connect my peripherals (keyboard, mouse, and controller). (linux-6.2.7-arch1-1 and nvidia-525.89.02-12)
2. I decided to roll-back my system to a pre-upgrade state (i.e. the last BTRFS snapshot taken prior to yesterday's upgrade, kernel linux-6.2.7-arch1-1 and nvidia-525.89.02-12). However, Bluetooth still didn't work!, even if my system was restored to a state Bluetooth worked without issue in the past.
3. I then completed the full upgrade of my system, and logged in on the regular linux-6.2.8-arch1-1 kernel with the nvidia-530.41.03-1 graphics driver. This didn't help either.