The best hair straightener

By Hannah Waters & Tiffany Kelly

This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best homewares. When readers choose to buy The Sweethome’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.

After spending 10 hours on research and interviews and more than five hours on testing the grip, heat, and performance of 11 hair straighteners on four different people with different hair textures, the GVP Digital stood out from the competition with its adjustable temperature in 10-degree increments, and an easy-to-read digital display that updates in real time.

Who should buy this

Anyone can use a hair straightener, but how well a straightener will work on your hair—how straight it will get, how long it will stay that way, and how much damage it will endure from the heat—depends on a combination of genes, climate, and practice. The curlier or more textured your hair, the more heat, time, or styling products you’ll need to invest to get the style you want; the finer your hair, the more easily it will be damaged by high temperatures. If you live in a humid climate, your hair will reabsorb water more quickly, which restores its natural (less straight) shape. With practice, you can figure out the ideal temperature for your hair and how to best maneuver the tool to create the style you want, taking things low and slow at first is best.

The downside is that a straightener can damage hair if used incorrectly—or even correctly. (See the How we picked section in our full guide where we address the heat-hair conundrum.) If you can straighten your hair to your liking with a less direct heat method, like a hair dryer, you should probably stick with that.

How we picked and tested

Hair straighteners, or flat irons, are essentially two hot metal plates, held like tongs, that you slide over sections of hair to dispel water from individual strands, leaving them sleek and smooth. No straightener avoids split ends, frizz, or breakage entirely, because heat damage is an inevitable consequence of applying heat to hair.

Wider plates are bulkier and increase the chances of accidentally clamping the same sections of hair multiple times. We aimed for straighteners with plates on the long side, but not so long the straightener wouldn’t be maneuverable.

We knew weight and cord length would be important, as they are with hair dryers. We also preferred products with warranties (because sometimes the electronics simply burn out) and automatic shutoff features, as leaving hot plates lying around is dangerous.

Price can vary, with straighteners that cost from as little as $20 to more than $200. After hearing consistent reports from our experts, we decided to exclude most straighteners that cost less than $50, except for one or two of the highest rated ones to be certain. See the rest of our criteria in our full guide.

Of the models we looked at, we decided to test 11 devices. We weighed each straightener on a postal scale, measured the length of the cords, and used a stopwatch to time how long it took to heat up. Then we turned on each straightener and compared the button placement, temperature ranges, and temperature dials. Next, we tested the straighteners on many, many strands of 1-inch-wide dry hair. Some pieces we straightened; other pieces we flipped up or curled under.

Once we picked our favorites, we tested the straighteners over a couple of weeks. We noted the time it took to straighten or style hair with each straightener and if any snagged pieces of hair. We tested the straighteners on strands of three friends’ hair to see how they worked on different hair textures.

Our pick

Photo: Michael Hession

All flat irons straighten and curl hair about the same, but the GVP Digital stands out because it heats up quickly and is well-constructed enough to style hair without causing snags or dents. The GVP also includes features that are usually found on higher-end models, like a real-time digital display and accurate temperature, at a midrange price.

Most of the straighteners we tested were equipped with a dial to change the temperature instead of a digital display. GVP’s digital display shows the temperature of the straightener in 10-degree increments from 160 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (Celsius is available in a separate setting), and it tracks the temperature in real time, so you know when the straightener is heated up. Per all our experts’ advice, figuring out the right temperature to get your hair straight in as close to a single fluid pass is crucial to helping it maintain its health. The GVP’s display will best allow you to figure out the right temperature and use it consistently.

The GVP weighs 0.56 pounds—it was one of the heaviest straighteners we tested, but it weighed only 0.12 pound more than the lightest straightener we tested. The straightener’s other features, such as quality plates and a digital display, compensate for the added weight. The cord is 9 feet long, giving you plenty of space to plug it into an outlet that is located far from a mirror. The straightener is 13 inches long, which we found to be the perfect length to wield while styling hair—and the plates are around 3½ inches long, plenty sufficient to capture a good-size section of hair.

Lighter and more compact

Photo: Michael Hession

The Rusk W8less is around the same price as the GVP, but it offers a lighter and more compact design. At 0.50 pounds, it was among the lightest straighteners we tested (the lightest was Rusk’s Deepshine, at 0.44 pound). Rusk W8less was one of the easiest to hold for long periods of time.

The Rusk W8less has a manual dial that goes to 450 °F, the same max temperature as the GVP. However, it lacks some of the features of our main pick. Besides the temperature dial and the on-off switch, this straightener has no other buttons. The temperature dial goes from 1 to 50, which correspond to 10-degree increments between 240 °F and 450 °F. If you want more settings, such as auto shutoff or a display that shows the digital temperature of the straightener in real time, you may be happier with the GVP.

Less expensive, more unwieldy

Photo: Michael Hession

Our pick is in the middle range for straighteners, but we liked another one that costs around one-third of the price. The Conair Infiniti Pro is very lightweight—0.51 pound—and clamping the plates together doesn’t require a lot of muscle. We tested the 1-inch-wide model with a purple casing, but Conair makes this straightener in three sizes and seven colors, so finding one that suits your needs is easy.

It is slightly longer than our pick, at 14 inches, which made it a little unwieldy when styling. However, one advantage to a longer straightener is that it can straighten wider sections of hair at once, which can save time.

This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Note from The Sweethome: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.

The TetraBIN wants to make throwing things away fun

Why it matters to you

A smart trash can might be the best solution yet to litter in urban areas.

Who knew throwing things away could be so…fun? And no, not in a Marie Kondo-esque way in which you purge and thereby declutter your home and life (though that can be therapeutic too), but rather in a smart garbage pail way. Meet the TetraBIN from Sencity, a connected trash can that actually gamifies the act of creating garbage.

It’s a creative way of tackling waste in big cities, where trash cans are either overflowing or just … not used. To cut down on the problem of litter, the TetraBIN rewards you for throwing things away.

The three-sided container features a wrap-around screen, a side-scrolling green field that comes complete with bats in the air (apparently this is a green field in a cave) and dogs on the ground. When you throw something into the trash can, motion detectors sense this movement, and it’s represented on-screen as chicken drumsticks falling through the sky to feed the hungry dogs.

More: GeniCan makes any trash can smart enough to create grocery lists

And when you feed a dog, you win. A code will appear on the TetraBIN that you can input on Sencity’s website for prizes, some of which are even tangible objects you’ll get in the mail. This, the company hopes, will incentivize the act of throwing things away, appealing in particular to young people who may develop a no-littering habit early on.

Sencity’s goal is to partner with city governments and local business improvement districts to bring the TetraBIN to the masses. And in cities like New York, where some trash cans already double as Wi-Fi hubs, this smart bin seems like a natural addition. TetraBINs employ 4G technology and can actually communicate with one another, opening up the possibility of an entire connected trash can network. Don’t want games on the bin? It displays other things too, like public transportation schedules, traffic updates, and the weather.

Get excited, friends. Looks like TetraBIN just may make throwing things away fun again.

The 10 best themes available on the Chrome Web Store

Part of the appeal of Google Chrome is its refined simplicity. It’s just enough browser, with room for add-ons if you need a bit of extra functionality, but it’s specifically engineered for efficiency. Unfortunately, this means it’s usually a bit boring to look at. For the most part, every Chrome install looks the same — flat, gray, minimalist, with a few pops of color depending on your extensions.

More: 25 extensions to super-charge your Chrome browser

Sometimes you just want Chrome to show a little personality, however, to look a little different, to ditch the grayscale for something a little more lively. If that’s the case, you’ve probably ventured into the Chrome Web Store at least once or twice. And let’s be honest, it’s a bit of a mess in there. So rather than subject yourself to the torturous experience of wading through garish, and oftentimes offensive themes, we’ve done it for you. Here are the 10 best themes available, broken into several categories.

Best minimalist themes

Chrome has a great look on its own. It’s simple, straightforward, and easy on the eyes. If you like that look, but maybe want to change it up a bit — but not too much — these themes are for you. They take that classic Chrome aesthetic and make some subtle changes.

Material Dark

Modern Flat

Best dark themes

Like the minimalist themes above, these themes re-skin your browser to make things darker, dimming the lights and eliminating that gray-white color scheme common to vanilla Chrome.

Dark Horizon

Dark Theme V3

Best colorful themes

Stepping out of the dark and into the light, we scoured the Chrome Web Store for most colorful themes for anyone who wants their browser to look a little less dour. These themes keep things simple, but inject a little color into your Chrome experience.

Bluegreen Cubes

Plumage

Best landscape themes

The best landscape themes borrow an excellent photo and skin your browser based on the colors and overall feel of the original picture. These themes do more than just change a color scheme, however — they’ll turn your browser into a window to the outside world.

Yosemite Inspired

City and Bridge in the Fog

Best cute animal themes

Sometimes you just need to look at a cute animal. Full stop. Thankfully, these themes inject cat and dog photos into your everyday experience, so you can enjoy them any time you open a new tab.

Puppy Love

Kittens

Problems with your OnePlus 3 or 3T? Here’s how to fix them

So you’ve got a OnePlus 3 or 3T, but after setting it up and using it for a bit, you’ve run into a frustrating issue. This isn’t uncommon for a new smartphone, but it’s still annoying all the same, especially with a device as well made and inexpensive as OnePlus’ latest. We did some looking around to see what problems other OnePlus 3 or 3T owners were running into, and we’ve compiled a list of the most common ones, as well as what to do to address them. Hopefully, whatever troubles are ailing your OnePlus 3 or 3T can be solved with these fixes.

More: OnePlus 3 plus one case equals protection: Here are the best OnePlus 3 and 3T cases

Problem: Device randomly restarts

There have been people on the OnePlus forums, Reddit, and the XDA Developers forums who have reported seeing their devices restart for unknown reasons. In most cases, this occurs while browsing the internet.

Official solution:

• OxygenOS 3.2.4 included a fix for this specific issue, but if the problem persists, or comes back afterwards, your best bet is to update to OxygenOS version 4.0.2, which further improves system stability, or to the latest version of OxygenOS, which is version 4.0.3 for the OnePlus 3 and 3T.

Potential solutions:

• Let the phone sit until its battery is completely drained and won’t turn on. Leave it for up to 10 minutes, then plug it into its charger until the battery is fully charged.
• You can try a factory reset and start over from scratch. Do this by going to Settings > Backup & Reset > Factory data reset > Reset phone > Erase everything.
• Your final option is to reach out to OnePlus Support to get your phone repaired or replaced.

Issue: Unable to update

Users on the OnePlus forums have been unable to update their devices using the usual method of downloading the update over Wi-Fi. Attempts to get the new software over Wi-Fi seem to result in failure, or the phone boots into recovery mode.

Potential solutions:

• This may sound silly, but turn your device completely off, then turn it back on and retry the update.
• You can install OxygenOS updates manually by downloading it to your Mac/PC and connecting your device to your computer using a USB cable. OnePlus has clear, step-by-step instructions on how to update your device using this method, which you can find on the OnePlus downloads page.

Problem: Device overheating or becomes hot while charging

Quite a few people on the OnePlus forums have complained about that their phones are running hotter than usual, either during everyday use, while in their pocket, or while charging. It was one of the more common issues with the OnePlus 3, and the issue has persisted with the release of the OnePlus 3T.

Potential solutions:

• Restart your phone and continue using it normally to see if it gets hot again.
• An app constantly running in the background may be causing the problem. Be sure to close any apps that aren’t needed, or ones you’re not currently using.
• If the problem started after installing new apps, the new apps may be the cause of the issue. Delete them one by one to see if your phone’s temperature changes during regular use.
• If your device gets hot while charging, the easiest thing to do is to stop using it while it charges.
• The OnePlus 3 has a feature known as Dash Charge, which is meant to charge your device quickly but keep the phone cool. However, the feature only works with the Dash Charger Adapter, which costs $20 on the OnePlus website. If you think the charger your device came with is the culprit, consider replacing it, or get the Dash Charge Adapter.
• The fingerprint sensor has also been said to be the culprit, especially when your smartphone is placed within a pocket. The sensor continues to search for a fingerprint while in the pocket, assuming the screen is facing your leg. A quick solution is to turn the phone around before popping it in your pocket. You could also invest in a flip case, which also has been said to eliminate the problem.
• If none of the aforementioned solutions are an option, you can always disable the fingerprint scanner until a fix is implemented. Hopefully, you don’t rely on it too much.

Annoyance: Device doesn’t auto-rotate

When changing the phone’s orientation from portrait (vertical) to landscape (horizontal), the display does not rotate as it should, even when the feature that allows the display to automatically change is enabled. This  problem has been talked about on the OnePlus and XDA Developers forums.

Potential solutions:

• Some have seen the auto-rotate feature work just fine after a quick restart. Turn your phone off and on again to see if the problem fixes itself.
• If the problem started after installing a certain app, or a series of apps, consider uninstalling them one at a time to see if that was the cause of the issue.
• There are apps on the Google Play Store like GPS Status & Toolbox that will allow you to see if all of a devices sensors are working, and re-calibrate them if necessary. Similarly, there are apps like Rotation Control that let users control and adjust the screen orientation, as well as prevent other apps from changing it.
• If the problem continues, reach out to OnePlus Support to get a replacement smartphone.

Issue: Can’t connect to Wi-Fi

All smartphones run into this particular issue at some point or another. Either your connection is terrible, or a connection can’t be made at all. Fortunately, the solutions remain the same and will help those on the OnePlus forums that are suffering from this particular issue.

Potential solutions:

• The easiest thing to try is turning your phone off and on again and seeing if the connection works or improves. You should also try restarting your router, if restarting your phone didn’t change anything.
• Go to your Wi-Fi settings and remove or forget the network you’re currently connected to, or trying to connect to. Then, enter the required details again to retry the connection.
• OnePlus Support has two additional suggestions, following the release of OxygenOS 4.0.3:
  • If you experience frequent Wi-Fi disconnections, please go to Settings > Wi-Fi > Configure Wi-Fi. Scroll to bottom of the page and check the IP address format (IPv4 = Single line, IPv6 = Multiple lines). If the IP address is IPv6 based, then turn off the IPv6 Support toggle and see if the disconnections stop.
  • If you experience frequent Wi-Fi disconnections while switching between Wi-Fi and data, please try turning off the Smart Wi-Fi Switcher in Settings > Wi-Fi > Configure Wi-Fi and see if the disconnections stop.
• If your device is constantly trying and failing to find a network connection, go to Settings > Mobile Networks > Network Operators and manually choose a network. This may also reduce your phone’s battery consumption.
• Head into your settings and disable Power Saving Mode, which affects your Wi-Fi performance.
• Go to Settings > About Phone and locate the device’s MAC address and make sure your router allows it.
• You can also try performing a factory reset if nothing else has worked for you — some have managed to alleviate their Wi-Fi issues after doing this. Back up your data first, then go to Settings > Backup & Reset > Factory data reset > Reset phone > Erase everything.

Problem: Camera app doesn’t work or basic functions are unresponsive

The camera app that comes pre-installed on the OnePlus 3 doesn’t always work as it should. It doesn’t seem to properly take photos — or doesn’t take them at all — and the shutter button is unresponsive. Even using the volume down button to take a photo fails to work. The OnePlus 3T has also had problems with the camera app, including one where changed settings are not saved.

Official solution:

• Previous updates to OxygenOS, such as update 3.2.1 for OnePlus 3, and update 3.5.3 for the OnePlus 3T added improvements to various aspects of the camera app. The most recent update for both smartphones, 4.0.3, contains even more improvements. Specifically, “increased stability of the Camera app,” and “optimized exposure when taking night time photos.” Consider updating to version 4.0.3 if your camera isn’t performing to the best of its ability.

Workaround:

• There are tons of alternative camera apps you can download and use on your OnePlus 3/3T, such as Open Camera and Camera MX.

Potential solutions:

• Wiping the cache partition has worked for some users. You can do this by turning the phone completely off, then turn it back on while pressing and holding the volume down button until the phone vibrates. Your phone will start in Simple Recovery mode, and you’ll need to use the volume buttons to navigate to the Wipe Cache Partition option and the power button to select it. Once the process is done, you’ll be told the cache wipe is complete.
• Perform a factory reset, then test the camera again.
• Reach out to OnePlus support, as it may be a hardware issue you’re ill-equipped to deal with.

Problem: Screen timeout doesn’t turn off display

Screen timeout is a feature of the OnePlus 3 that will dim the display of the device after a predetermined amount of time, or turn it off entirely. Some owners’ devices are not dimming as they should, which could lead to battery drain.

Potential solutions:

• Restart your device.
• Go to Settings > Display > Screen timeout and change how much time should pass before the screen is turned off.
• Clear the cache after updating – Turning the phone off, then turn it back on while pressing and holding the volume down button until the phone vibrates. Your phone will start in Simple Recovery mode, and you’ll need to use the volume buttons to navigate to the Wipe Cache Partition option and the power button to select it. Once the process is done, you’ll be told the cache wipe is complete.
• Try a factory reset.

Problem: Dash Charging doesn’t work

When using the supplied charging cable and wall charger to charge the OnePlus 3/3T, the device fails to charge the device quickly. It will, however, still charge the phone, but at a normal pace. These two threads on the OnePlus forums support the existence of the problem, with users discussing the unfortunate situation and offering simple, straightforward advice.

Potential solutions:

• Restart the phone.
• Try different wall outlets. Possibly ones in a totally different room.
• Clean out the charge port on the phone and check the charge cable and wall charger for imperfections.
• If possible, use another charging cable to see if charging works as intended.
• Attempt a quick restart of the device.

Problem: Display doesn’t turn off when making phone calls

The OnePlus 3T’s display is supposed to turn off when users make phone calls. For some owners, however, the display remains on. This leads to the display using more battery life and makes it easy to accidentally tap the screen during the call.

Potential solutions:

• Cancel the call, restart your device, and retry the call again.
• Test your proximity sensor by dialing “*#808#” and using the various options provided to test it.
• Go to Settings and find the Apps section. Tap Phone > Storage > Clear Data. Try making a call again.

Issue: No longer receiving voicemail notifications

After missing a call, if the caller leaves a voicemail, the receiver is supposed to be notified by their OnePlus 3/3T that a voicemail was left and is available to listen to. However, users on the OnePlus forums, and a few on the XDA Developers forums have ceased to get these notifications.

Temporary solutions:

• Restarting the device will result in the notifications being shown.

Potential solutions:

• Disabling Visual Voicemail is the current method people have been using to deal with their sudden lack of voicemail notifications. To do so, open your call settings, then select the SIM card you’re currently using. Select your Voicemail settings and disable Visual Voicemail. The one downside to this, of course, is that you’ll no longer have the Visual Voicemail feature. Fortunately, T-Mobile has its own Visual Voicemail app on the Google Play Store.

Problem: Poor battery life after OxygenOS 4.0.3 update

Many people have noticed a drop in their OnePlus 3/3T’s battery life after updating it to version 4.0.3. Prior to the update, their phones would last a relatively long time during normal, everyday use. If you need additional examples, look no further than the OnePlus forums, which are full of people reporting poor or reduced battery life.

Potential solutions:

• Forums user JoshuvaAntony has provided a list of steps to deal with terrible battery life or quick battery drain, and several other members have said that the steps have alleviated the issue:
  • Go to Settings > About Phone and tap Build Number several times until you get a message saying “You are now a developer.”
  • Go back to Settings and there should be a new option called Developer Options. Tap Developer Options and enable it, then enable Doze Mode and Advanced Reboot. Don’t enable anything else.
  • Go to Settings > Battery and tap the ellipses in the upper-right corner. Then, disable Aggressive Doze and App Hibernation.
  • Go to Settings > Storage and Memory > Storage > Cached Data > OK.
  • Go to Settings > Apps > Google Play Services > Storage > Manage Space > Clear Data. After doing so, make sure to not press Back or the Home key.
  • Press and hold the Power key, then tap Reboot. You should now have three options to choose from — Reboot, Recovery, and Bootloader. Tap Recovery and your phone will boot into Recovery Mode.
  • While in Recovery Mode, tap English > Wipe Data & Cache > Wipe Cache > OK. Afterward, tap Reboot and your phone will boot up normally. When it gets to the lock screen, don’t do anything. Give your phone a couple of minutes to idle, then it should be okay to use. At this point, you can choose to go back to the Developer Options and disable Advanced Reboot.
• You can also try reverting your phone to its factory settings if the aforementioned steps don’t work, or if you feel that performing a factory reset will be easier to do.

Annoyance: Apps being closed prematurely

A number of people in this thread are finding that their apps are closing prematurely. Specifically, while they’re still using them. Reports started with the problem only affecting exercise apps such as Runkeeper and Endomondo, but a few have said it affects games as well.

Potential solutions:

• Update the affected app(s) if an update is available.
• Uninstall the affected app and reinstall it, then try running the app again.
• Go to Settings > Battery and tap the ellipses in the upper-right corner. Then, disable Aggressive Doze and App Hibernation. Some have found success with their apps after doing this.
• Open the affected app, then trigger the app switcher and lock the app by tapping the lock icon beside it.
• Go to Settings > Apps > Gear icon, then enable App Auto Launch. If you’re using Runkeeper, enable the app’s auto launch feature as well.

Master Microsoft Office for just $49

Understanding Microsoft Office and how it all works is very important when looking for a job. Don’t get left behind at the interview table because you don’t know how to use formulas in Excel or analyze data with ease. With Microsoft offering so many apps under the Office umbrella, it can be hard to learn them all, especially if you don’t know where to begin. Luckily, getting started doesn’t have to be hard.

This great bundle is just $49 Learn More

For just $49 you can get access to a year of amazing Microsoft Office information to help you master the suite of apps. From the basic features and functions to data analyzing, you’ll have access to it all.

The courses in this bundle include:

• Microsoft Excel Course Section 1: Foundation
• Section 2: Orientation & efficiency
• Section 3: Administration
• Section 4: Data Handling
• Section 5: Data Analysis
• Section 6: Presentation

But that isn’t it. There is more than 100 hours of learning material from in-depth data handling to formatting options, and much more. The bundle also includes:

• Over 100 hours of learning material
• Essential Excel functions (doesn’t waste your time w/ useless functions)
• Basic terminology & setup
• Data analysis basics w/ PivotTables & more
• In-depth data handling: sorting, filtering, lookup & more
• Formatting options & training

Master Microsoft Office for cheap! Learn More

That’s quite a lot of information, and for a limited time you can get it for just $49. This is a huge savings from the original $453 price tag that you would pay on all these courses. Whether you think you are good at Office or know you need to get better, you won’t want to miss out on this deal.

Be sure to grab this mastery bundle for 89% off before the deal ends.

Ben Heck’s Mystery Hack Theater

The Ben Heck Show team is changing how they work on projects: They’re now going to focus on polishing off one large project as a long-term build, with the goal of eventually bringing it to market. What better way to help determine which one to make than by critiquing past projects, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 style? Join Ben, Karen and Max as they revisit snippets from each episode and what it was like behind the scenes, including: the guitar controller mod, the teensy pinball portable, real-life Minecraft blocks, the all-seeing eye hat, the Hackmanji build and the great glue gun. Find out which project won based on the poll over at the element14 Community.

Are smartphones killing the art of face-to-face conversation? We ask the experts

Smartphones are everywhere now and for many of us they serve as a constant companion. They keep us continually connected, filling gaps in our day, entertaining us, and demanding our attention with a string of notifications. Because they offer a convenient alternative to face-to-face conversations, and at times they butt into our chats directly, there’s a growing realization that they may be killing the art of conversation.

Smartphones enable us to avoid direct conversations altogether. We can chat via text messages, or in real-time on social media, but there’s a danger that we’re missing out on some important aspects of communication when we do this.

More: Is smartphone addiction real? We ask the experts

“In a good conversation, the words we say are only one small part of the meaning that we convey, there’s also body language, tone of voice, facial expression,” Dr. James Roberts, Professor of Marketing at Baylor University and author of Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone? told Digital Trends.

“When we send a text or email, or we post or tweet, we lose all but what is being said and so there is a lot of misinformation, miscommunication, and hurt feelings, because we don’t have those other sources of information that help us imbue some kind of meaning into what somebody is saying.”

Phones are a useful barrier for avoiding small talk, but their influence is expanding well beyond the train or the bus stop. Stories about text message break-ups are common. People take to Facebook to notify their friends and families about weddings and funerals. Phones offer a convenient opt out for any potentially uncomfortable conversation.

“Every conversation we get a little bit better at reading people, at striking up a conversation, and at maintaining a conversation,” says Roberts. “Some people are becoming conversational cowards. They lack the willingness to have difficult face-to-face conversations, and they aren’t cultivating those skills.”

In this Bank of America survey, 29 percent of Americans chose text as their preferred method of conversing with others, compared to 40 percent of millennials. While 38 percent of Americans of all ages chose in person conversations as their top choice, compared to 33 percent of millennials.

“A lot of what used to be done face to face is now done via computer mediated communication and I think that’s sad because what we’ve lost is the humanness of contact and conversation,” suggests Roberts. “When we lose our ability to relate to people, to empathize with people, we care less about those people.”

It seems ironic that a device designed to enable communication could have a detrimental impact, but most of us are familiar with phubbing, even if we haven’t heard the term before – it’s a portmanteau of phone and snub.

“89 percent of Americans say that during their last social interaction, they took out a phone, and 82 percent said that it deteriorated the conversation they were in,” said MIT Professor, Sherry Turkle in an interview promoting her last book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age.

Most of us know someone who can’t seem to stop checking their phone, even when we’re talking to them directly. And if we’re honest, many of us are guilty of it ourselves. There’s even a Stop Phubbing campaign.

There’s clearly a generational divide in our attitudes towards smartphones.

“When some people start to feel insecure, they instantly look to their lifeline, their smartphone. They don’t realize that sometimes pregnant pauses and uncomfortable lulls in conversation are something to work through,” says Roberts.

“The mere presence of a phone undermines conversation quality.”

This 2012 study compared conversations between pairs of strangers. Some had a smartphone placed on a table top nearby, others a notebook. Asked about their conversation partner after the chat, the group with the phone were less positive, and felt their conversations had been less meaningful.

More: We literally cannot let go of our smartphones, new survey finds

The idea that the mere presence of a phone can make us feel less empathy for our conversational partner has been backed up in other research, like this 2014 study. Phubbing is also having a negative impact on relationship satisfaction, according to this 2016 study. Despite the wider recognition that phubbing is gaining as a problem, smartphone usage is still rising.

We’ve seen survey, after survey about the increase in smartphone usage, particularly among millennials. One survey found that 93 percent of millennials use their phones in bed, 80 percent use them in the restroom, and 43 percent use them while stopped at a red light. Another recent survey found that 66 percent of millennials check their phone as soon as they wake in the morning, and nearly 10 percent wake up during the night to check it. The average figures for older generations are lower.

There’s clearly a generational divide in our attitudes towards smartphones. What’s acceptable is changing, but we’re still figuring out the social rules, because this is still a relatively new technology. There’s a lot of hyperbole about the impact on millennials, but what about the next generation growing up with smartphones and the potential impact on parental relationships?

“For parents and kids there’s something very different about having conversation in person,” Dr. Jenny Radesky, child behavior expert and pediatrician, told Digital Trends. “Part of your interaction with kids is actually physical, they’re snuggling, the body-to-body contact actually regulates children’s and parent’s heart rates.”

Back in 2013, when Dr. Radesky was working at Boston Medical Center, she ran a study looking at mobile device use by parents and caregivers while they were having a fast food meal with their kids.

“We were amazed at how little interacting some of the families were doing, or how often the child was asking for something specific and the parents were not even looking up, and just pushing them some food without really responding.”

“The mere presence of a phone undermines conversation quality.”

She became interested in what was going on for those parents. Why were they so absorbed in their smartphones? Last year, at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital she conducted several in-depth interviews with parents and caregivers of kids under the age of eight.

“We kept hearing the same types of things. Cognitively, parents talked about having a really hard time switching between work brain and child brain,” she explains. “It’s dysphoric to feel a sudden interruption when you have flow in your reading.”

Because our smartphones serve up a varied menu of news about world events, work emails, and messages from friends and family, they can be hard to detach from. Some interviewees spoke about the difficulty of switching a smartphone off and controlling the internal reactions that some content would stir up in them.

Wavebreak Media Ltd/123RF

“Parenting can be exhausting and boring and repetitive, especially if you have a kid who is tough to handle,” says Radesky. “I’m really interested in how that might drive parents to seek their own emotional regulation through a device. It’s important that parents not feel they need to be exquisitely responsive to their children all waking hours of the day because there’s a point where that becomes intrusive.”

Every parent turns to their smartphone from time-to-time for entertainment, for themselves or for their child, and there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that.

“It’s possible that when you hand that difficult child a mobile device, parent stress goes down so you’re less likely to yell at them, and you reduce conflict in the moment, which could be a good thing,” explains Radesky.

“The question is — are we displacing some of the important parent-child moments and activities where children need to be taught social and emotional skills?”

To a certain degree humans are adapting to all this pervasive technology

There’s no easy answer to that. All children have a different set of needs and different temperaments. What they learn from face-to-face conversations is very important, but how much is enough isn’t clear.

When a group of preteens spent five days at a nature camp without access to screens, this study found that they were better at recognizing non-verbal emotional cues (facial expressions, body language, gestures) than they had been before the camp. Control groups with access to screens showed no change.

“My hypothesis is that some of those more difficult or poorly regulated kids, who may be at higher risk of behavior or developmental issues down the line, are handed devices more often,” suggests Radesky.

Research in this area is difficult because of confounding social and psychological factors with larger data sets. How much of what is observed is because of the device or the media on it, versus say the income level of the family, the mental well-being of the parent, or the child’s temperament?

“To a certain degree humans are adapting to all this pervasive technology and finding new ways to put it aside and filter it out,” says Radesky. “But perhaps we need a bit of a design change in the device so it’s not so effectively absorbing or attention grabbing.”

One answer could be to incentivize people to put their phones away, like the Pocket Points app, which is designed to reward students for not using their phones during class. Other apps, like BreakFree, can help us track our smartphone usage and gain some awareness.

“It really is an issue of self-control,” says Dr. Roberts. “Set aside smartphone-free zones and times. Draft social contracts that lay down the laws about what’s acceptable or unacceptable smartphone use and what the punishments and rewards for either keeping or breaking the contract should be.”

If you’re concerned, it’s easy to start taking steps. Put your phone in the trunk when you drive, so you can’t be distracted by it. Don’t allow phones at the dinner table. And the next time you’re chatting to someone and you feel that wee buzz on your leg, or hear an incoming alert, ignore it until you’re done talking – it’s probably not more important than the conversation you’re in.

Björk’s VR exhibition is coming to Los Angeles

Björk is infamous for her peculiar style, and now fans in the Los Angeles area can experience that otherworldly quirkiness in 360 degrees. Björk Digital, a VR exhibition based on her 2015 album Vulnicura, is making its West Coast debut later this year, according to Fact. The LA tour stop coincides with a live performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on May 30th. Both are part of the Reykjavík Festival, an event highlighting the artistic contributions of Iceland’s capital.

Björk kicked off the exhibition’s tour last year in Sydney, Australia. In an announcement on Facebook at the time, she explained why she chose to adapt Vulnicura in VR. “I feel the chronological narrative of the album is ideal for the private circus virtual reality is,” she wrote. “A theatre able to capture the emotional landscape of it.”

Engadget had a chance review the VR music video for the song “Stonemilker” and came away disappointed. “[It] is neither as strange nor as harrowing as I’d hoped it would be,” he wrote. “It was beautiful and intriguing, but it was also irreparably hindered by the inherent limitations of VR gear.” If you want to check it out for yourself, it’ll be at the Magic Box at The Reef in downtown Los Angeles from May 19-June 4, according to Fact.

Source: Fact

How a Home Button and Function Bar Could Work on the ‘iPhone 8’

The iconic home button has been a mainstay of Apple design ever since the first iPhone debuted in 2007. Even the buttons on the elevators at Apple Park are said to resemble it. The button’s tactile circularity promises an escape route to familiarity should users get lost or apps go wrong. However, its delicate components converge upon a recess in the phone’s bezel, an area that could otherwise provide extra space to fit a larger display within the same handset profile.

Rumors that the “iPhone 8” will replace the home button as we know it with an entirely virtual one can be traced back to April 2016. More recently, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple will introduce a functionally distinct area below the screen exclusively for displaying virtual buttons, with a rumor just yesterday seeming to suggest that such a “function bar” is behind conflicting reports over the display size of an upcoming OLED iPhone.

Before the “function bar” rumor first surfaced, MacRumors forum member deuxani shared concept images, reproduced below, that offer some context for imagining how the bar might work.

Framed within a 4.7-inch handset with minimal bezels, the virtual home button sits below the dock on the home screen in a separate dynamic space. Assuming Kuo’s claims that the 5.8-inch OLED display includes a function bar, the remaining 5.15-inch primary display area allows existing apps to run fullscreen in their existing 16:9 aspect ratio.

In the above example, only the home button is shown in the function area, but Apple could theoretically add options for additional virtual icons like Bluetooth, App Switcher, Camera, or Siri. The shot on the right shows how the adoption of OLED screen technology might also enable the home button and indeed other screen elements to remain visible when the rest of the display is turned off.

As with the Touch Bar on the 2016 MacBook Pro, native apps could be augmented with contextually adaptive virtual buttons, while third-party developers could code for additional UI elements alongside the home button, or bring frequently accessed functions into closer proximity with the user’s thumb, as these concept designs for Instagram and Twitter envision.

Other possibilities for virtual buttons could theoretically include: Moving the back button from the top-left of the status bar to the bottom-left of the screen, alongside the home button; a scrollable strip to access additional buttons; media playback and video scrubbing controls; in-app navigation buttons; or perhaps additional space for game controls.

“Soft” buttons on a smartphone are nothing new, but a “function area” on an iPhone could offer more flexibility by taking cues from the MacBook Pro’s OLED Touch Bar. Patents show Apple has explored extending Touch Bar functionality to other devices, while Jony Ive has said the interface is “just the beginning of a very interesting direction” for the company. However, adapting the technology for an iPhone display likely presents distinct challenges, such as how to integrate the various functions the home button has inherited over the years (Siri, Readability, exit Lock Screen, and so on), and how to avoid the presence of “dead space” where the Touch ID sensor would usually be located.

iPhone 8 concept by Thadeu Brandão
Indeed, ultimately the fate of a home button and “function bar” on an OLED iPhone may rest on Apple’s ability to integrate fingerprint recognition technology into the display itself. A report earlier this week suggests Apple has solved this problem, but questions still remain. Will the display have a recess for Touch ID? Will new fingerprint recognition technology function across a larger screen area? And what other bio-recognition features might Apple include that could help solve the authentication issue? Facial recognition, iris scanning, and ultrasound methods have all been proposed.

Rumors disagree over whether Apple will ramp up production earlier than usual for this year’s OLED iPhone, but we may see part leaks that shed light on the design fairly soon. Other rumored features for the “10th anniversary edition” device include an edge-to-edge display, a glass body, some form of wireless charging, and extended battery life. The iPhone 8 is expected to launch this September, alongside two more traditional “S” cycle iPhones with LCD displays.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
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Tesla opens ‘Project Loveday’ contest for fan-made ads

Tesla has refused to do traditional advertising for its electric vehicles, instead relying on PR and its reputation for innovation. Some fans love the cars so much that they’ve gone ahead and made advertisements for the company, inspiring a letter from “green” fan Bria asking Elon Musk to run a contest looking for the best one. A few days ago the CEO promised he’d do it, and just like that, Project Loveday is on, seeking out 90-second YouTube submissions that relate to “Tesla, SolarCity, our products, or our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

Thank you for the lovely letter. That sounds like a great idea. We’ll do it! https://t.co/ss2WmkOGyk

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2017

The contest is open through May 8th, so you have some time to figure out your pitch, however before diving into the production you may want to check the prize list. Matching Bria’s suggestion in her original letter, the top 10 submissions can expect to be featured on the company’s social media channels. The Grand Prize winner will get a trip to an unspecified Tesla Product launch in the future and…that appears to be it.

There were hints this could happen, however, as last year Musk said: ” I think I could see us doing advertising where that advertising is interesting, entertaining, and people don’t regret seeing it.” Apparently, Project Loveday fits the bill, and considering the rewards it’s probably even cheaper than juicing up the customer referral plan.

Just discovered a great Tesla ad made by 2 recent college grads. I love it! http://t.co/20dPRD9yrJ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2014

Given that these are videos people were already making, it doesn’t seem like Tesla will need to do much more to drum up interest. Still, unless there’s a surprise twist then makers shouldn’t expect a free Model 3 (or P100D) coming their way. This work is going to have to be done for love/exposure — those interested should check out the official rules and entry form.

Project Loveday https://t.co/K1snXJN15u

— Tesla (@TeslaMotors) March 5, 2017

Source: Tesla