The Essential Phone is a lot better than you might think

After price cuts and software updates, the Essential Phone is getting a lot of positive feedback.

Over the course of just a few months, the Essential Phone has transformed from an overpriced device that was hard to recommend to just about anyone into something that’s very competitively priced and offers some of the best bang for your buck for $500.

The team over at Essential has been working nonstop to push out regular software updates to make using the PH-1 as enjoyable as possible, and at this point in November of 2017, the handset is exceeding a lot of people’s expectations.

Some of our forum users recently got to talking about their experience with the phone, and this is what they had to say.

Darius DuPree
11-07-2017 10:16 AM

“

I ordered a white PH-1 as soon as the $499 price popped up, I was a little bitter after BestBuy dropped it to $450 but I wasn’t charged tax through Essential.com so it cancelled out the price. After much second guessing myself while I waited for it to arrive and wanting to just spend the extra for a V30, I am glad to say it’s way better than I expected it to be. Now I do have some minor issues,…

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andrew_ackley
11-07-2017 10:32 AM

“

I love mine. I got the black one. Make sure for now you disable the swipe down on fps to open notifications bc that was causing my freeze ups. For under $500 this phone is fantastic. Beats the one plus in my opinion. I dropped mine from waist height onto concrete floor the day after I got it and all I have is a TINY almost unnoticeable nick in the material around the screen. Whatever that is…

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raqball
11-08-2017 09:42 PM

“

My white came today from the Mothership so a few thoughts.

Had to run 3 updates out of the box but all up to date now and rockin’ along.

The phone is gorgeous and built like a tank! The camera is nowhere even close to being bad. It’s not the best but photos are more than adequate.

It’s fast and snappy. Just as fast and snappy as my Pixel and maybe even a little smoother. The screen? WOW!…

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modifier
11-09-2017 07:49 AM

“

raqball – Glad to hear you like the phone so far. I know you were on the fence since launch and it sounds like the wait was worth it.

Performance on the November update has been excellent. It keeps getting smoother with each OTA.

And, you’re right about the camera. I’ve been using the Essential camera app far more lately and uninstalled the Google HDR+ port. I’m getting better daytime…

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DominionRoofs
11-09-2017 09:51 AM

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I’ve had mine going on three days now. I really love this phone! Is fast and smooth. Perfect size and that screen!. So the only issue that still needs fixing (besides camera),which is what it is, is touch scrolling. Flick scrolling is great, but if you keep your finger on the screen without lifting and scroll, it’s very choppy. I don’t scroll the way but it does need to be fixed. There are…

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With all that said, we’d still like to hear from you – If you own the Essential Phone, what are your impressions of the device?

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Best Small Data Plan

A good small data plan does exist, even if nobody advertises them.

Unlimited plans get all the press and all the glitter, but most people don’t need one. That’s why small data plans still exist and are popular options.

Shopping for a phone plan is unnecessarily difficult, especially now that all four big U.S. carriers want to force you to the more expensive unlimited data offering. But there are alternatives if you dive deep into a carrier’s website, and some of them are a decent value.

We did the digging, and here’s what we found.

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AT&T

AT&T’s best single-line value for folks who don’t want or need unlimited data is their $45 AT&T Prepaid offering. There are some cheaper plans like the Prepaid $35 plan or using a single line on the Mobile Share Advantage Family Plan for $30, but you’ll get far less data to use each month for very little difference in price. A look at the Prepaid $45 plan

Once 6GB of high-speed data is used, you’ll be slowed down to 128kbps data speeds for the remainder of the month. AT&T also offers a discount for multiple lines on one account. You save $5 for each line up to a maximum of five (a $20 total).

For comparison’s sake, this same plan with unlimited data is available for $65.

AT&T also offers a $35 monthly plan with all the perks above and a 1GB monthly data allotment. Signing up for Autopay will save $5 each month on all Prepaid plans.

The comparable 6GB Mobile Share Advantage postpaid plan (you’ll need to use a postpaid plan you finance a phone through AT&T) comes in at $60 per month, but includes rollover data.

See plans at AT&T

Sprint

In addition to its prepaid plans, Sprint offers a postpaid option for folks who only use a small amount of data each month.

Customers who sign up for autopay can save $5 per month. Sprint advertises its 2GB plan as “the lowest price entry plan among national carriers.” This is true if you use autopay, but in many cases, a few dollars more gets you a plan with double the data.

For reference, Sprint’s single-line unlimited data plan is $60 per month.

One thing we will have to say here is that Sprint makes it easy to shop for what you need. This postpaid option isn’t buried or hidden behind several pages that feature the unlimited plan.

See plans at Sprint

T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s only postpaid plan for new customers is its unlimited offering. It does have several prepaid options available.

T-Mobile also offers the same plan with 6GB of LTE data for $55 per month. International talk and text packages are extra and start at $5 per month. The fine print for T-Mobile’s Simply Prepaid plan has a few things that need mentioning. You are given 50MB of out-of-network roaming each month, and calling plan options only support a two-party conversation; Conference calls may cost extra.

For reference, T-Mobile’s unlimited prepaid plan is $75 per month.

T-Mobile is the king of “limited time offers” and have a current prepaid promotion that’s pretty darn great.

The fine print on this one reads: Plus taxes & fees. Limited-time offer, subject to change. Compatible device and qualifying plan req’d.

See plans at T-Mobile

Verizon

1All Verizon plans have a $20 line-access fee.

Verizon offers this plan with more monthly data in two other options: 4GB of LTE data for $50 per month and 8GB of LTE data for $70 per month. Also note that a $20 line access fee is required for each phone using any of Verizon’s “Small Data Plans.”

All postpaid plans allow you to continue to use data at lower speeds once your monthly allotment is reached. These postpaid plans do not include any equipment fees if you need to buy a phone from Verizon.

*See plans at Verizon

The best small data plan

This is hard, because there is no one small data plan that stands out.

AT&T’s $45 plan offers a great value with 6GB of data and AT&T has good nationwide coverage. T-Mobile’s promotional plan with 10GB for $50 is a better deal, but limited time could mean anything and T-Mobile isn’t going to be a great option for people in rural and exburb areas. Sprint can get you online for cheap once you enroll in Autopay, but a 2GB plan on a struggling network isn’t very exciting. Verizon’s data plans are priced right, their network is great almost everywhere in the country, but the $20 line access fee brings the price up to $55 each month.

Where you live will determine which small data plan is best

Coverage, coverage, coverage. We can’t say it enough — a data plan is no good unless it works in the places you need it to work.

Pricing is important. We’re not trying to deny that. But saving $5 or even $10 per month for service you can’t use is not a good value. The same goes for plans with more data. Having more GB per month that you’ll never use because the service is bad is not a good plan for you, no matter the pricing or perks. That’s why our pick for the best small data plan is split into three different sections.

Overall, AT&T offers the best small data plan as of November 2017

A few factors influence our decision here, and it’s important to understand them in case our pick isn’t the best for you.

• Coverage. AT&T has a very good nationwide data network, and they are using remote and small cell solutions to combat the congestion that happens everywhere there are more people than a network can handle.
• Phone choice. A lot of phones are optimized for AT&T’s network, but almost every phone from any company you buy in 2017 will work on AT&T. That means a $50 Android phone from Amazon or a $1200 256GB iPhone X.
• International perks. International use isn’t the most important part of our decision making process, but knowing you can call or text a friend or relative in Canada or Mexico is pretty awesome. So is being able to use your phone while on vacation in Aucopolco or Prince Edward Island.
• More data than you need at the same price as others. You’re shopping for a small data plan, but the same $45 you’ll spend at another carrier gives you 6GB of LTE data to use. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Check the coverage maps. Check with your friends. Check the forums and ask other folks in your area. If AT&T has the coverage you need, this is the plan to pick.

See at AT&T

The alternatives

We said AT&T covers almost everyone in the U.S. There are places where you won’t be able to use AT&T, though. If this means you, then you likely only have one choice.

Verizon’s coverage makes their small data plan a must-have for many. Most people in the United States are concentrated in urban and suburban areas. But some of us aren’t, and even more of us work in places far away from the concrete and asphalt of a city. Verizon will give you the best coverage and you’ll have 2GB of data for $55 each month.

See at Verizon

There are also a whole lot of us in a whole lot of places where coverage isn’t really an issue. When every carrier will give you the service you need, there’s another option if you are shopping today.

That T-Mobile limited-time offer. 10GB for $50 is easily the best value here. If T-Mobile has the coverage you need and you’re shopping right now, it’s a simple choice — go magenta. Just take a long look at the coverage situation and make sure you’re part of the 95%+ that can use T-Mobile.

See at T-Mobile

An MVNO is might be the best answer

Looking at all the offerings from the carriers above, one thing is clear:

The Big Four carriers want you to sign up for an expensive unlimited plan, and their pricing on small data plans often is so close to the unlimited plan that it’s difficult to recommend them.

There is a better solution that will fit almost anyone, and it’s because all four carriers have agreements with alternative carriers, or MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators). A prepaid option from an MVNO is mostly identical to the prepaid plans from the carriers themselves, and you’ll find a wider selection of plans, and usually with a better price. Companies like Cricket, Straight Talk, or Mint SIM can beat the Big Four’s pricing and give you the same service on the same network.

Update November 2017: This article was updated with the most current information from all carriers.

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Recover from late night gaming sessions with the $24 Aeropress coffee maker

You could’ve woken up this morning to a double espresso you made yourself!

The AeroPress coffee and espresso maker is down to $23.96 on Amazon. That’s $6 off its regular price. It was actually out of stock for a while there, so just the fact that it’s available again is a great sign.

For me, video games and coffee go together like salt and pepper. They always come paired together. Being able to make my own coffee at home, simply and easily, is key to keeping up with modern video games. If I had to stand in line for coffee every day, I’d never have time to beat an open-world game like Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Features include:

• Rapid, total immersion brewing process makes delicious full flavored coffee without bitterness
• Makes 1 to 3 cups per pressing in about one minute, Brews regular American style coffee
• Brews espresso style coffee for use in lattes and other espresso based drinks, the brewing process takes about 30 seconds
• Microfilter means no grit in your cup (unlike a French press), Clean up takes just seconds
• Available with zippered nylon tote bag – great for travel, Made in the U.S.A
• Has always been phthalate free and has been bisphenol-A (BPA) free since 2009

While it comes with a few paper filters to use right away, you might want to invest in this $9 reusable mesh filter for when you inevitably run out.

This coffee maker has 4.6 stars based on 4,588 user reviews.

See at Amazon

This 4-pack of Arlo Pro cameras is down to $500

Rely on these cameras to keep an eye on what you can’t!

Is this deal for me?

If you’ve looked into home security cameras in the past, odds are that you came across Netgear’s Arlo cameras. There are a bunch (maybe too many) of different options available, from single camera packs to six camera packs, and there are also the regular Arlo cameras and the Pro ones. Lots to take in, but don’t worry about that.

Right now you can pick up a 4-pack of Netgear’s Arlo Pro security cameras for $499.99 at Amazon and Best Buy, which is a savings of $150 from its regular price. We know, $500 is a lot to spend, but when you consider that this 4-pack of cameras is actually cheaper than the 3-pack is right now, and it’s only $83 more than a pack that comes with only 2 cameras, the value quickly surfaces.

The Arlo Pro models come with a bunch of additional features that the Arlo cameras don’t have. One of the big ones is the built-in siren, which can be used to let people know you see them and that they should get out of an area they shouldn’t be. Another big one is that the cameras come with a rechargeable battery that supports fast charging, and they can be used both indoors and outdoors without needing any wires. You’ll have free access to the 7 most recent days of cloud recordings and can always upgrade to gain access to even more than that.

This deal is part of Best Buy’s Early Black Friday specials, and the discounts are only valid through Saturday evening. Be sure to grab a set of these cameras to enhance the security at home and put yourself at ease that nothing bad is happening while you are away.

TL;DR

• What makes this deal worth considering? – There are tons of security camera options out there, and finding the right one is no easy task. They vary in price and feature set, but Netgear’s Arlo cameras are consistently one of the highest-rated options. This 4-pack of Arlo Pro cameras is actually nearly $20 less than the 3-camera kit is selling for right now, and only $83 more than the 2-camera setup runs.
• Things to know before you buy! – These cameras are weatherproof, which means you can put them inside or outside, depending on your preference. Each camera has a rechargeable battery that supports fast charging, and the system has a built-in siren for scaring off people who are where they shouldn’t be. You’ll be able to access 7 days of cloud recordings for free, and you can pay for access to extended periods of time.

See at Amazon

Get your lawn under control with the $69 Orbit B-hyve smart sprinkler system

Don’t let grass ruin your life.

The Orbit B-hyve 6-station controller is down to $68.99 on Amazon. It normally sells around $100 and has never dropped this low before.

This Orbit B-hyve 12-station smart sprinkler system controller is also on sale for $82.99. It regularly sells right around $120. It has seen a few drops close to $90 but those have all been temporary and never as low as this.

Compare this to the Rachio sprinkler controller, which is the market leader for these sort of devices. An 8-zone Rachio is $200. You’re getting a lot more value from the Orbit with 6 stations for $69. The Orbit has 4.5 stars based on 765 user reviews.

Features include:

• The B-hyve app is fully functional for Android, iOS or web devices, and gives you control wherever you need it. Program your timer on the app, at the timer, or let the weather-based software create a program for you
• WeatherSense technology provides watering based on site conditions such as slope, soil type, sun/shade, forecast ET and live weather feeds. It automatically adjusts your controller to deliver the right amount of water to your plants
• Utilize the swing panel for easy access to the angled wiring terminals, which makes wiring simple and convenient, and the plug-and-go line cord that can also be cut for hardwired applications
• Made in the USA with global materials, the B-hyve comes in a weather-resistant case, allowing you to mount your timer indoors or outdoors without risk of weather damage, and a locking cabinet that keeps your timer safe from harm
• Integrate your B-hyve timer with use of Catch Cups (Orbit 26250) to save up to 50% more water than with traditional controllers. Optimize the way you water, so you can keep everything lush and green without breaking the bank

Get an Alexa device like the Amazon Echo Dot to enable voice control.

See at Amazon

Essential Phone review re-do: What a difference a discount makes

I normally like to wait at least a year to give a smartphone the old “review re-do” treatment, but this is a special case. The Andy Rubin-led startup Essential changed everything when it slashed the price of its namesake flagship by $200 barely two months after launch, instantly instantly transforming the Essential Phone from an overpriced mobile with a terrible camera into a genuine bargain … with a terrible camera.

Yes, the Essential Phone’s optics remain a sore spot even after a 28% price cut – but as with most things Android, there’s a hack for that. Let’s find out if the deep discount combined with a little sideloading can make the PH-1 a late-season winner! Revisit Android Central’s Essential Phone review for some context, then hit up MrMobile’s Essential Phone Review Re-Do for the November update!

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Pixel 2 Driving Do Not Disturb API coming to developers in 2018

Helping to silence notifications while on the road.

It can sometimes be quite easy to get lost in our phones, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, there are times and places where our devices need to put away. Picking up your phone to check notifications or browse through Twitter while driving can be awfully tempting at times, and Google is rolling out a new API next year to help cut back on these potential distractions.

One of the new features of the Pixel 2/2 XL is Driving Do Not Disturb. This is a setting that allows you to automatically turn on Do Not Disturb when your Pixel 2 detects that you’re behind the wheel, and the phone does this through the use of low power signals, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connections.

The feature is currently limited to Do Not Disturb settings for the Pixel 2, but beginning in early 2018, Google says that it’ll be releasing the API for this tech so that developers can integrate it into their own applications.

Google is calling it the Activity Recognition Transition API, and we’ll likely see it adopted into navigation and safe driving apps that are meant to safely be used when on the road. A more specific ETA for the API’s release has yet to be announced, but we can probably expect to see apps add the tech within Q1 of 2018.

Google Pixel 2 will automatically enable Do Not Disturb if you’re driving

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These are the 8 thinnest cases we could find for the Galaxy Note 8

What’s the thinnest case for Galaxy Note 8?

It’s a good idea to protect your big ol’ Note 8 with a case, but you don’t have to give up the slim form factor in the process. These are the absolute thinnest cases we could find for Galaxy Note 8!

It’s almost like your phone is… Naked?

Bare cases are super thin, and make your phone feel like it’s wearing nothing at all… nothing at all… nothing at all. $30!

In the vacuum of space, no one can see how thin your case is

But you can, down here with the Jupiter Lights case for $10.

Spigen Thin Fit — that pretty much says it right there

Blue, gold, black, or gray, and yours for $10.

A case like skin for your phone — that’s Peel

Black, gray, or silver. Match it and grab it for $25.

Sexy and sophisticated slenderness

At least that’s what I’m guessing based on the hot dude in the promo image. Either way it’s $10 on Amazon.

Love thin

By Love Ying. Clear and oh so skinny minnie. $8 on Amazon.

Go the the source

Not the store, but like the source of the phone. Like Samsung. Samsung makes this case. $19 on Amazon.

Finding a thin case is a mSnap

Black, turquoise, and rose gold because why not. This slim-hipped little minx is $10 on Amazon.

Got a great thin case of your own?

Sound off in the comments below!

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Samsung announces Exynos 9810 processor capable of gigabit LTE speeds

All new tech for 2018.

Although Samsung phones here in the U.S. are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, those same devices in other parts of the world feature Samsung’s own Exynos silicon. The company recently published a press release announcing the CES 2018 Innovation Awards that it’s already won, and in doing so, quietly announced the all-new Exynos 9810 processor.

There aren’t many technical details present here, but what we do know is that is that it features an upgraded CPU and GPU with support for gigabit LTE speeds.

The full description of the processor is as follows –

The Exynos 9 Series 9810 is Samsung’s latest flagship processor, with 3rd-generation custom CPU cores, upgraded GPU, and gigabit LTE modem with industry-first 6CA support. It is built on 2nd generation 10nm process technology.

Gigabit LTE is being pushed more and more heavily these days by carriers and processor manufacturers alike, and the 6CA technology in the 9810 will allow for downlink speeds up to a whopping 1.2Gbps. Carriers certainly need to adapt and enhance their networks to allow for such increased data, but knowing that Samsung is already playing its cards right in these regards is great to see.

Exact specifications likely won’t be unveiled for the Exynos 9810 until CES 2018 this January, but when they are, we’ll be sure to outline all of the important details to see just how it compares to Qualcomm’s imminent Snapdragon 845.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 India review: Two months later

Counterfeiters are using AI and machine learning to make better fakes

It’s terrifyingly easy to just make stuff up online these days, such is life in the post-truth era. But recent advancements in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have compounded the issue exponentially. It’s not just the news that’s fake anymore but all sorts of media and consumer goods can now be knocked off thanks to AI. From audio tracks and video clips to financial transactions and counterfeit products — even your own handwriting can be mimicked with startling levels of accuracy. But what if we could leverage the same computer systems that created these fakes to reveal them just as easily?

People have been falling for trickery and hoaxes since forever. Human history is filled with false prophets, demagogues, snake-oil peddlers, grifters and con men. The problem is that these days, any two-bit huckster with a conspiracy theory and a supplement brand can hop on YouTube and instantly reach a global audience. And while the definition of “facts” now depends on who you’re talking to, one thing that most people agreed to prior to January 20th this year is the veracity of hard evidence. Video and audio recordings have long been considered reliable sources of evidence but that’s changing thanks to recent advances in AI.

In July 2016, researchers at the University of Washington developed a machine learning system that not only accurately synthesizes a person’s voice and vocal mannerisms but lip syncs their words onto a video. Essentially, you can fake anybody’s voice and create a video of them saying whatever you want. Take the team’s demo video, for example. They trained the ML system using footage of President Obama’s weekly address. The recurrent neural network learned to associate various audio features with their respective mouth shapes. From there, the team generated CGI mouth movements, and with the help of 3D pose matching, ported the animated lips onto a separate video of the president. Basically, they’re able to generate a photorealistic video using only its associated audio track.

While the team took an outsized amount of blowback over the potential misuses of such technology, they had far more mundane uses for it in mind. “The ability to generate high-quality video from audio could signicantly reduce the amount of bandwidth needed in video coding/transmission (which makes up a large percentage of current internet bandwidth),” they suggested in their study, Synthesizing Obama: Learning Lip Sync from Audio. “For hearing-impaired people, video synthesis could enable lip-reading from over-the-phone audio. And digital humans are central to entertainment applications like film special effects and games.”

UW isn’t the only facility looking into this sort of technology. Last year, a team from Stanford debuted the Face2Face system. Unlike UW’s technology, which generates video from audio, Face2Face generates video from other video. It uses a regular webcam to capture the user’s facial expressions and mouth shapes, then uses that information to deform the target YouTube video to best match the user’s expressions and speech — all in real time.

AI-based audio-video transcription is a two-way street. Just as UW’s system managed to generate video from an audio feed, a team from MIT’s CSAIL figured out how to create audio from a silent video reel. And do it well enough to fool human audiences.

“When you run your finger across a wine glass, the sound it makes reflects how much liquid is in it,” Andrew Owens, the paper’s lead author told MIT News. “An algorithm that simulates such sounds can reveal key information about objects’ shapes and material types, as well as the force and motion of their interactions with the world.”

The MIT’s deep learning system was trained over the course of a few months using 1,000 videos containing some 46,000 sounds resulting from different objects being poked, struck or scraped with a drumstick. Like the UW algorithm, MIT’s learned to associate different audio properties with specific onscreen actions and synthesize those sounds as the video played. When tested online against a video with authentic sound, people actually chose the fake audio over the real twice as often as the baseline algorithm.

The MIT team figures that they can leverage this technology to help give robots better situational awareness. “A robot could look at a sidewalk and instinctively know that the cement is hard and the grass is soft, and therefore know what would happen if they stepped on either of them,” Owens said. “Being able to predict sound is an important first step toward being able to predict the consequences of physical interactions with the world.”

Research into audio synthesization isn’t limited to universities; a number of major corporations are investigating the technology as well. Google, for example, has developed Wavenet, a “deep generative model of raw audio waveforms.” Among the first iterations of computer-generated text-to-speech (TTS) systems is “concatenative” TTS. That’s where a single person records a variety speech fragments, those are fed into a database and then reconstructed by a computer to form words and sentences. The problem is that the output sounds more like the MovieFone guy (ask your parents) than a real person.

Waveform, on the other hand, is trained on waveforms of people speaking. The system samples those recordings for data points up to 16,000 times per second. To output sound, Waveform uses a model to predict what the next sound will be based on the sounds that came before it. The process is computationally expensive but does produce superior audio quality compared to the conventional TTS methods.

In the future, robots could potentially forge your signature on official documents, if this AI-based handwriting mimic developed at the University College London is ever misused. Dubbed the “My Text in Your Handwriting” program, this system can accurately recreate a subject’s handwriting with as little as a paragraph’s input. The program is based on “glyphs,” essentially the unique traits of each person’s handwriting. By measuring various aspects like horizontal and vertical spacing, connectors between letters and writing texture, the program can readily copy the style.

“Our software has lots of valuable applications. Stroke victims, for example, may be able to formulate letters without the concern of illegibility, or someone sending flowers as a gift could include a handwritten note without even going into the florist,” Dr. Tom Haines, UCL Computer Science and lead author of the study, told UCL News. “It could also be used in comic books where a piece of handwritten text can be translated into different languages without losing the author’s original style.”

And while this technology could be used to create forgeries, it can just as easily be leveraged to spot them as well. “Forgery and forensic handwriting analysis are still almost entirely manual processes,” Dr. Gabriel Brostow, of the UCL computer science department, said. “But by taking the novel approach of viewing handwriting as texture-synthesis we can use our software to characterise handwriting to quantify the odds that something was forged.”

Forgeries and faked products don’t stop at the the bounds of the internet. Recent estimates by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development put the global market for counterfeit goods at around $460 billion annually. And that’s where the Entrupy authentication system comes in.

“In an ideal world, we shouldn’t exist,” Entrupy CEO Vidyuth Srinivasan lamented. “The more we can instill trustworthiness in the market, the better it will be for commerce in general.”

The company first imaged a wide variety of luxury goods and uses that database to help its customers — generally those in secondary retail markets like vintage clothing stores or eBay sellers — authenticate products with around 98.5 percent accuracy. Customers receive a handheld microscope and take various images of the product in question, such as the exterior, logo or interior lining. These photos are then fed into a mobile app and transmitted to the company’s servers where a classification algorithm goes to work, differentiating between legitimate goods and counterfeits. If the product is real, the Entrupy will provide a certificate of authenticity.

Although the company’s product database is varied, there are limits to the system’s current capabilities. Because it’s optical, reflective or transparent items are no good, nor is anything without surface texture. Some things that it does not work on include porcelain, diamonds and glass, pure plastic and bare metal.

Unlike the other AI-based systems discussed here, there’s little chance of the Entrupy system being corrupted or gamed. “We have had [counterfeiters] pose as real customers and legitimate businesses to try and buy [the system] and we’re fine with it,” Srinivasan explained. That’s because the system doesn’t actually tell the user which of the images they’re taking are actually being used to verify the product’s authenticity. “We ask our customers to take images of different parts of the item because it’s not just pure material [being used for verification]…,” he continued. “It’s a holistic view of the different aspects of the item — from the workmanship to the material used to the wear” as well as a number of other contextual bits of metadata.

What’s more, the system is continually updated with new data, not just from the company’s internal efforts of posing as secret buyers to acquire counterfeit goods, but also from the users themselves. Images taken during the authentication process — whether the item turns out to be real or not — are incorporated into the company’s database, further improving the system’s accuracy.

“In the near to medium future, I think that AI and ML will, as a counterfeiting solution, will definitely raise the bar,” he concluded. “It’s a spy versus spy game, cat versus mouse.”

Increasing our ability to spot fakes will force counterfeiters to up their game and start using better quality materials and better workmanship. That, however, will increase the production cost of these products, hopefully to a price that is no longer economically viable. “The MO of any counterfeiter is to make something that they can sell a lot of, that can be easily produced and that does not cost a lot to produce a fake of,” Srinivasan sid. “Otherwise there’s no profitability.”

Similar measures have been adopted by Paypal, one of the the internet’s top financial service providers, for cases of account fraud. “Say my account was accessed today from San Francisco, tomorrow from NYC, and some other IP the day after,” Hui Wang, Paypal’s senior director of global risk sciences, told Engadget. This sort of activity is indicative of some kind of account takeover. “In order to detect these kinds of fraud,” she explained, “we track the IP we track the machine and we track the network.”

The company created an algorithm that looks at both the IP and the geolocation of that IP, then compares them to your account history to see if this matches up with previous actions. Paypal developed a proprietary technology that compares this IP location patten with other users, to see if there is a larger effect at work or there’s a reasonable explanation for the movement — i.e., perhaps you’re flying through New York on business and buy a souvenir at the airport gift shop before continuing on the trip.

The company’s AI system also attempts to identify each previous IP, whether it’s a hotel’s secured ethernet connection or the public WiFi at the airport. “[The algorithm] is retrieving tons of data from your account history and going beyond your account to look at the traffic on your network, like the other people using the same IP,” Wang said. From this raw information, the algorithm selects specific data points and uses those to estimate whether the transaction is legitimate.

Most of these actions and their subsequent decisions — such as verifying or denying a payment — are performed autonomously. However, if the algorithm’s confidence value is too low, human investigators from the operations center will investigate the transaction manually.

“We are also in the process of ensuring that human intelligence can be fed back into the automated system,” she continued, so that the ML system continually learns, improves and increases its accuracy.

These sorts of systems, both those designed to generate fakes and those trained to uncover them, are still in their infancy. But in the coming decades, artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques will continue to improve, often in ways that we have yet to envision. There is a very real danger in technologies that can create uncannily convincing lies, hoaxes and fakes — in front of our very eyes, no less. But, like movable type, radio and internet that came before it, AI systems like these, ones capable of generating photorealistic content, will only be as dangerous as the intentions of the people using it. And that’s a terrifying thought.