Will we ever have unbreakable smartphone glass? We asked an expert

Everyone drops their smartphone at some point. Even a recovered fumble triggers that unpleasant stomach lurch as visions of cracked and shattered screens run through your mind. Broken smartphone screens are the leading cause of smartphone failure and repairs can be eye-wateringly expensive – Apple charges $279 to replace the iPhone X screen, for example.

Thankfully, glass is getting tougher all the time, and one name that has become synonymous with that trend is Gorilla Glass. It has been a decade since Corning released the first version and Gorilla Glass has been used on more than 5 billion devices since then.

“The problem we set out to solve 10 years ago was to create a strengthened cover glass material that doesn’t scratch and doesn’t break,” John Bayne, vice president and general manager of Corning’s Gorilla Glass, told Digital Trends. “That’s the aspirational goal; it’s a goal we’re still focused on today, but we’ve made tremendous progress.”

Glass still breaks

Compared to the original Gorilla Glass, the most recent Gorilla Glass 5 is much stronger. If it was used in the same phone design, today’s version would allow you to drop the phone from four times higher without damage. In testing Gorilla Glass 5 survived face drops from between 1.6 and 1.8 meters, which Bayne calls “selfie height,” onto 180 grit sandpaper, which replicates asphalt and concrete.

Gorilla Glass 5 screen protectors in different thickness levels. Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

“Our epiphany 10 years ago was finding a way to strengthen glass by putting the surface in compression,” Bayne said.

Over the years, Corning has been able to apply higher and higher compression to protect against flaws, and if there are flaws to keep them from causing a break event. That’s good because smartphone manufacturers are employing more and more glass in the latest designs. Smartphone screens are getting bigger, frames are shrinking, and glass damage is a growing problem.

Sadly, we may not be feeling the full benefit of the improvements in strength precisely because of this shift in smartphone design. Many manufacturers want to make their devices thinner.

“They give back a little bit of the benefit of the glass by slimming it down,” Bayne explains. “It’s always a trade-off when we develop a new generation, does the phone maker want to use it all for damage resistance or do they want to use it to make a sleeker, sexier design?”

“Our epiphany 10 years ago was finding a way to strengthen glass by putting the surface in compression.”

While there’s cover glass used in smartphones is getting tougher all the time, scratches and breaks are still alarmingly common.

Solid statistics are hard to come by because we get our screens repaired in a host of different locations, from official manufacturer centers to independent repair shops. Some of us even repair them ourselves, but a surprising number of people just live with the damage.

A recent O2 survey in the U.K. found that half of all smartphone owners have damaged their screen at least once, 20 percent of Brits admitted to living with a cracked screen for more than six months, and 14 percent ended up with injuries caused by the cracked screen.

When Motorola introduced ShatterShield in 2015 it released similar survey results stating that 50 percent of people globally have experienced a cracked screen and 23 percent continued to use the phone with a broken screen.

“As good as glass is, it does still break,” Bayne said. “Glass breaks when two things happen, and this is consistent for any glass in the world throughout the history of time: There’s a flaw that’s introduced and that flaw is under tension – that’s how glass breaks.”

If you drop your phone and flip it over to find the glass intact, you count yourself lucky, but you may have already sowed the seeds of disaster. A drop onto asphalt could introduce a flaw you can’t see that leads to a break later. Keys in your pocket can also cause microscopic flaws that weaken the glass. When pressure hits, like a drop onto a hard surface, it seeks out those flaws and cracks or shatters the glass.

“We break thousands of phones in our lab intentionally to see how they break and study it,” Bayne said. “Because we have done glass for 165 years, and that’s basically what we do, we have the best glass scientists in the world here at Corning, and nobody knows more about strengthening cover glass than we do. Gorilla Glass today outperforms any other glass material you’re going to find by far.”

What about scratches?

A few years back there was talk of Apple employing sapphire glass instead of Gorilla Glass in the iPhone 6. Although sapphire offers greater scratch resistance, it’s more likely to break than Gorilla Glass when dropped. Apple stuck with Corning, but the argument about scratch versus drop damage resistance continues.

“Some things we do to the glass improve both drop and scratch resistance, but with other things you do have to make a trade-off,” Bayne said. “The number one pain point for consumers is still broken devices, so we have prioritized drop with recent generations of Gorilla Glass.”

You have this gorgeous, curved glass design that feels futuristic and the look is quickly spoiled by oily smudges.

The company does also produce Gorilla Glass SR+ which offers greater scratch resistance and is aimed primarily at the smartwatch market. It was used in the Samsung Gear S3 and Acer’s Leap Ware, and Corning continues to work with other manufacturers.

“It’s a composite material, so you get the damage resistance of Gorilla and you get scratch resistance very close to sapphire,” he said. “There are also some anti-reflective properties which manufacturers are very interested in.”

The challenge is the manufacturing process is a little more complex and so the cost of Gorilla Glass SR+ is higher. However, we may see it in smartphones in the future if Corning can drive that cost down.

Fingerprint magnets

Beyond cracks and scratches, there are some other issues with glass that can prove annoying. Anyone who owns a phone that has a glass front and back, whether it’s the LG V30, Galaxy S8, or the iPhone X, knows all about ugly fingerprints. You have this gorgeous, curved glass design that feels like the future and the look is quickly spoiled by oily smudges.

We’ve gotten used to carrying around a microfiber cloth to polish up our phones. Corning offers an “easy to clean” (ETC) coating, usually called an oleophobic coating.

“The material repels oil, so when you do take out that cloth the oil easily wipes out. The Holy Grail there is to make it so the oil never sticks to the phone,” Bayne said. “But an effective anti-fingerprint coating has proven incredibly elusive and challenging from a technical perspective.”

Unable to prevent the marks in the first place, there is another trick that can be employed to diminish how noticeable they are.

“You can use an anti-glare treatment we call satin on the back of a glass phone,” Bayne said. “But if you use an anti-glare treatment on the high-resolution displays we use today, you end up with phenomenon called sparkle.”

The anti-glare treatment diffuses the light, reducing the effect of it being bent by oil and glass, but with displays that have resolutions higher than 200 pixels per inch (ppi), it causes bright spots to appear.

Corning has also developed an anti-microbial coating.

“We put a chemical in the glass that actually kills microbes on the surface of the glass,” Bayne said. “We’ve gotten some interest from hospitals and public displays like ATMs.”

If you’re unsure whether it’s required for phones, consider that a University of Arizona study back in 2012 found cell phones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats. More recent research examining 27 mobile phones belonging to high school students found an average of more than 17,000 bacterial gene copies per phone.

Glass screen protectors are the way to go

Returning to damage resistance, Corning continues to focus on making Gorilla Glass stronger, but if you’re worried about drop damage or scratches, then consider cases and screen protectors.

“Plastic screen protectors scratch and they don’t protect the phone from a drop, but putting on a glass screen protector if you want added protection certainly makes sense,” Bayne said.

Despite its flaws, there’s no doubt glass will continue to be a popular choice for phone makers.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to repair scratched or cracked glass, so if you do have an accident, replacement is the only way to go.

For all its flaws, glass is a great material for smartphone manufacture. It’s transparent, has a good tactile feel, it’s chemically durable, it can be shaped, it allows for a strong signal and wireless charging, and it can be treated with all sorts of useful coatings. There’s no doubt it will continue to be a popular choice for phone makers.

“Manufacturers are pursuing sleeker, thinner, more elegant designs,” Bayne said. “They’re still demanding more damage resistance in the glass, so we’ll continue to prioritize drop and damage resistance.”

Gorilla Glass 6 is still a year or so away, but it’s sure to bring a new level of durability. We may never have truly unbreakable glass, because anything can be broken under enough force, but the day when we don’t have to panic about a drop from pocket height or while we’re taking a selfie is creeping closer.

Editors’ Recommendations

• When will we have unbreakable smartphone glass? We asked an expert
• We found a rugged phone cheap enough to batter like you’re supposed to
• Synaptics’ Clear ID puts the fingerprint sensor under your smartphone’s display
• Everything we know about the Samsung Galaxy S9
• YouTubers test iPhone 8 durability by brutally destroying it in clever ways

Stocking Stuffers Gift Guide

Deck the halls with stockings full of awesome knick-nacks. From tiny arcade games to swiss army knives, these are some of Team Thrifter’s favorite gifts under $20.

Anker PowerCore 5000mAh compact chargerThis power charger is so small it fits in your purse or pocket and you won’t notice it’s there until that fateful day your phone runs out of juice at the worst possible time and Anker saves the day.Amazon$17.99WishlistBoogie Board LCD writing tabletIt is essentially an Etch A Sketch for the 21st century. Write your note, draw your picture, hit the button to clear it, and start again.Amazon$15.99WishlistRoku Express media streaming deviceCable companies are happy to over charge you, but it’s time to leave that behind. This Roku streaming stick lets you avoid the ridiculous cable costs and still consume tons of great media.Amazon$24.59WishlistOontz Angle 3 portable speakerIt’s got Bluetooth, water-resistance, big bass… and it’s a triangle. What else do you want?Amazon$24.99WishlistUSB Reading LightYou never know when you’ll need a spare light, so why not grab one that plugs right into a USB port. They are more handy than you may expect.Amazon$11.00WishlistGlamspin Fidget Spinner Lip GlossThere are few things in the world better than fidget spinners and lip gloss. Combine the two into one gadget, and you’ve got something even more amazing.Saks Fifth Ave$10.00WishlistPopSocketsPhones have gotten bigger, but your hands may not have. Make holding your phone or tablet a bit more comfortable with these stylish accessories.Amazon or BBY$10.00WishlistPoo-Pourri Before-You-Go Toilet SprayYou poop. It’s ok, we all do it. Avoid the bad smells when out and about by using some Poo-Pouri before you handle your business.Amazon$4.99WishlistGoogle Cardboard VRWhy pay $300 on equipment for something you might not even like? Test out virtual reality without emptying your wallet with Google’s Cardboard VR headset.Amazon$15.00WishlistPaint Your Own iPhone CaseThis gift only works with the iPhone 6, but if you’re tired of sifting through hundreds of boring looking cases, you can paint your own custom design with this kit from the Museum of Modern Art.MoMA$12.00WishlistAdult Card Games: Drunk, Stoned, or StupidThis is an easy game where all you do is identify which of your friends is one of the three titular adjectives. Hopefully you’re at least two out of the three when you sit down to play.Amazon$16.00WishlistAdult Card Games: Exploding Kittens NSFW EditionWith artwork by The Oatmeal, this a card game about cute, cuddly kittens who want nothing more in life than to blow you to smithereens. Don’t let them.Amazon$15.99WishlistAdult Card Games: Cards Against HumanityThe classic game for inappropriate people. CaH usually likes to increase the price over the holidays and call it savings, but we think it’s worth it anyway because that’s just part of the charm.Amazon$25.00WishlistGrilled Cheese Toaster BagsLet’s face it. We all love grilled cheese, but who’s got time for an actual grill? No one. Make your grilled cheese the way mom intended – with these toaster-safe pouches.Uncommon Goods$9.99WishlistSpatty Daddy Last Drop SpatulaLook, you paid $300 for that bottle of perfume. You might as well get every cent’s worth out of it. The Spatty and Spatty Daddy ensure that you do.Amazon$19.99WishlistVictorinox Swiss army knife classicThis utility knife has seven different tools, stainless steel construction, and a lifetime warranty against defects thanks to Victorinox.Amazon$16.48WishlistMillenium Falcon Book LightI’m not entirely sure why a space ship has high beams, but now you can clip the Millenium Falcon to your book and use its lights to guide you through your favorite stories.Think Geek$7.99WishlistCapri Blue Volcano Printed Travel CandleFill your room with the smell of tropical fruits with this Volcano travel candle that burns for 40 hours.Amazon$14.50WishlistTiny Arcade GamesWhen you were little you had to stand on a stool to play these, but now you only have your giant fingers to blame when you die.Think Geek$19.99WishlistSuper Mario Odyssey Cappy HatIt might not have that Nintendo magic that lets you control dinosaurs, but it’s still a great gift for the Mario fan in your life.Think Geek$19.99Wishlist

Uber Eats offers insurance for its European couriers

Uber Eats only just turned two years old, but like other “gig economy” businesses, it’s facing scrutiny over how it classifies workers. In Europe, the company is partnering with Axa to offer couriers an insurance package that covers accidents, hospitalization, property damage and third-party injury across nine countries. Starting January 8th next year, the company says all couriers with an active account — even if they work for a third-party — will be covered, and Uber is paying for it. Filip Nuytemans, the Uber Eats general manager for Europe said in a statement that “Uber Eats couriers can now enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working on their own schedule with the peace of mind provided by additional security and protection.”

On its face, that’s a bit friendlier than Deliveroo’s offer in the UK, but it’s still not making everyone happy. Independent Workers of Great Britain union couriers and logistics secretary Jim Benfield told TechCrunch the move was a publicity stunt, and said that “The offer to cover hospital costs is also meaningless in the UK, where healthcare is free at the point of use. Furthermore, this health insurance will only cover medical costs when injuries are sustained while doing a delivery and doesn’t cover the endless hours couriers spend logged on to the app desperately waiting for jobs.”

Source: TechCrunch, Reuters

‘PUBG’ tests a replay feature as it creeps toward v1.0

Now that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has launched in Early Access on Xbox One, its next milestone is an official retail release out of beta on the PC. That’s expected to happen next week, but players who can’t wait have a few new tweaks to try out on the 1.0 test servers, including a brand-new replay function. The option needs to be toggled on prior to the start of a match, but it records everything going on within 1km of the player.

That way, later you can fly through and see things you may have missed, or catch a replay from the angle of the people you were fighting, and there’s a list of battles to make hopping around easy. We’ve recently seen Overwatch add broadcast-friendly tweaks, and with such a streamer-focused game it’s no surprise that PUBG is going a similar route.

The other major change isn’t ready to test yet, but now that the game features a whopping two maps, the developer says it will give players the ability to choose which one they play on. The problem is this might fragment the player base, with six different options of how to play (1-, 2- or 4-player and in either third or first person perspective) spread across two maps, and it’s possible that first-person games could be shut down in some regions if there aren’t enough people to feed 100 players in each battle royale session.

Source: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (Steam)

‘Jacobs letter’ unsealed, accuses Uber of spying, hacking

Waymo’s lawsuit against Uber for allegedly stealing technology for self-driving cars hasn’t gone to trial yet, because the judge received a letter from the Department of Justice suggesting Uber withheld crucial evidence. That letter, with some redactions, is now available for all to read and it’s not good news for Uber. It was written by the attorney of a former employee, Richard Jacobs, and it contains claims that the company routinely tried to hack its competitors to gain an edge, used a team of spies to steal secrets or surveil political figures and even bugged meetings between transport regulators — with some of this information delivered directly to former CEO Travis Kalanick.

Alphabet’s self-driving arm Waymo is making the case that Anthony Levandowski created the autonomous trucking company Otto as a scheme to steal its trade secrets and sell them to Uber. In the letter, it says that members of the Uber SSG team Jacobs worked on traveled to Pittsburgh after it acquired the company to instruct Otto employees on how to use burner phones and ephemeral communications apps to avoid discovery in an expected lawsuit.

Jacobs has since testified that his attorney was mistaken about the allegations pertaining to Waymo, but now the case has been delayed until next year as a result of these claims unearthed during the ongoing criminal investigation. In a statement, Uber said “While we haven’t substantiated all the claims in this letter — and, importantly, any related to Waymo — our new leadership has made clear that going forward we will compete honestly and fairly, on the strength of our ideas and technology.”

Source: Documentcloud, Recode, Buzzfeed, Gizmodo

Researchers use sperm to deliver cancer drugs to tumors

Chemotherapy has a lot of terrible side effects and that’s partly because the drugs being used to fight cancer also attack healthy cells. Figuring out a way to deliver drugs to tumors without affecting healthy tissue is a challenge and a problem that researchers are trying to solve. One group working on this problem, New Scientist reports, is a team at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden and in a recent study, they showed that sperm could be turned into an effective drug delivery tool.

Sperm offer quite a lot of benefits when it comes to delivering drugs. They’re naturally mobile, they can encase the drug so that it doesn’t get diluted by body fluids or leak out and they protect the drug from enzymes that can break them down. They also don’t cause immune responses like other other cell types — bacteria, for example — and they don’t duplicate and form unwanted colonies.

The researchers first showed that just soaking sperm in a drug, in this case a cancer treatment called doxorubicin, will allow sperm to take that drug up and store it inside of themselves. And when those drug-loaded sperm were turned on a type of experimental tumor, they caused a nearly 90 percent reduction in living cancer cells after just 72 hours. Further, the researchers attached tiny, iron-coated hats onto the sperm cells that allowed the cells to be guided by a magnet, which let the researchers control their direction and steer them to a tumor. When the cells bumped into the tumor, the prongs of the hat spread open, releasing the sperm and allowing it to penetrate the tumor. The researchers showed that the sperm were better at fighting the cancer cells than just soaking the tumor in the drug because the sperm could get inside of the cells and deliver the drug deeper than a drug bath could alone.

You can check out the little guys in action in the video below.

The findings are preliminary but promising. Going forward, the researchers need to figure out dosage levels and how to control them with the sperm. They also need to look into how many drug-loaded sperm are ideal, what happens to their little iron-coated steering caps and if they pose a problem to humans, and whether human sperm can do the job just as well as the bull sperm used in the study did. So there’s a ways to go before this can be used in humans, but using natural cells already optimized to travel through bodies and interact with human cells seems like a really good idea.

The study was recently published in ACS Nano.

Via: New Scientist

Source: ACS Nano

‘L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files’ is available now for HTC Vive

We were excited to hear that 2011 detective simulator L.A. Noire was headed to modern consoles and the HTC Vive for some VR action. The title received some visual upgrades, too, making the jump to PS4, Xbox One and the Switch a bit more graphically appealing. The Vive version is now available as a set of seven self-contained cases from the original game, remade for virtual reality and titled L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files.

Rockstar Games says that it picked the seven cases for “their suitability to the virtual reality experience.” The cases include Upon Reflection, Armed and Dangerous, Buyer Beware, The Consul’s Car, The Silk Stocking Murder, Reefer Madness, and A Different Kind of War. You can grab a copy of the VR title for $30 on Steam, Rockstar’s own game store, Warehouse, or via HTC’s storefront, Viveport.

Source: Rockstar Games

Need some laughs? Here are the best party game apps

The holidays are just around the corner, which means that soon enough you’ll have a lot of down time to fill with your relatives. Rather than sit around silently watching football and browsing social media in a post-meal coma, why not bust out a smartphone group game? These multiplayer games are fun, interactive, and not nearly as time consuming to set up and play as traditional board games. Because let’s be honest, a three-hour game of Monopoly kind of sucks.

Here are seven of the best smartphone group games you’ll want to download and have ready for family time. Believe me, everyone will thank you.

Heads Up

Looking for a quick hit of entertainment in between dinner and dessert, or during commercials of the Christmas Story marathon? Heads Up packs a playful punch in those brief, idle moments. This charades-style game challenges players to guess as many words as possible from a themed deck of game cards. The guessing player holds their mobile phone to their forehead, and their friends act out the clues on screen.

The Heads Up library boasts more than 40 themed decks of game cards, including celebrities, movies, animals and more — so there’s something for everyone, and you’ll never run out of fun.

Cost: $1, plus $1 for each additional deck of game cards.

Time commitment: A single turn lasts one minute.

iTunes Google Play

Drawful 2

It’s Cards Against Humanity meets Pictionary in Drawful 2. This multiplayer party game challenges players to draw weird and funny prompts that are delivered to their smartphones or tablets, such as “snakes on a plane” or “poop and pee.”

When your (likely-terrible) drawing comes up on the screen, the other players type what they think it is, and those guesses become the wrong answers. Then everyone tries to pick the real answer from all the guesses.

Cost: $10

Time commitment: A group of five players can complete one full round in about 20 minutes.

Jackbox

Just Dance Now

If your family likes to get up to get down, Just Dance Now is likely your style. All you need is your smartphone and an internet-connected screen to start dancing to your favorite hits.

The Just Dance Now library boasts more than 300 songs, with new songs added every month. You can play with as many people as your space allows. And if you’re looking to work off some of that big holiday meal, the HealthKit feature tallies all the calories you burned.

Cost: Free to download. You purchase songs with Coins or buy a subscription package.

Time commitment: A few minutes per song.

iTunes Google Play

Evil Apples

Evil Apples is Cards Against Humanity for mobile, so you’ll never have to lug around that big box of cards again. And with more than 4,000 answer cards and 800 question cards, the game will never get stale.

The rules for Evil Apples are the same as Cards Against Humanity: A question card is shown to all the players. Each player selects an answer card from their hand. A judge determines the best combination and awards a point to the winning player. The first player to get seven points wins the game.

Cost: Free to download, with additional in-app purchases.

Time commitment: One to two hours.

iTunes Google Play

Sing! Karaoke

The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear. So why not belt your favorite carols with Sing! Karaoke? This app’s holiday playlist includes all your seasonal favorites, like “A Christmas Song.” And with pitch correction and a studio-finished sound, Nat King Cole would approve of your rendition of his classic tune.

Cost: Free to download, with various in-app purchases.

Time commitment: A few minutes per song.

iTunes Google Play

Editors’ Recommendations

• Best Halloween apps for the ultimate spooky October 31
• Hate the iPhone X’s notch? These two apps can get rid of it
• Check out 25 of the best iPhone games you need to be playing
• These best iPad Pro games will take full advantage of your big-screen tablet
• Get your gaming on the go with the 25 best Android games for November

Keep your hands on the wheel with the best iPhone X car mounts

Consumers have already gotten their hands on Apple’s newest smartphone, the iPhone X. While users are enjoying the top-tier camera and the animated emojis, the entire aftermarket industry is in a frenzied race to launch accessories such as chargers, screen protectors, cases, and car mounts. If you want to keep your hands on the steering wheel, and we strongly suggest you do, here are the best iPhone X car mounts you can buy today.

All Cart Magnetic Car Phone Holder ($11+)

All Cart’s Magnetic Car Phone Holder is one of the more basic units on the market; it certainly won’t break the bank. The manufacturer points out a high-performance magnet ensures the phone doesn’t slip or fall, and the head rotates 360 degrees so you can position your device any way you want it. The driver can mount it vertically to get navigation directions, or the passenger can turn it horizontally to watch a movie on the go. It sticks to the dashboard with an adhesive pad.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Aedilys Air Vent Mount ($9+)

The Aedilys Air Vent Mount is another basic unit. It’s on the same level as the All Cart mount but it attaches to an air vent, which means there’s no risk of leaving adhesive marks on your dashboard. Unlike the All Cart it eschews the magnet system for a conventional cradle with rubber claws and a 360-degree rotating head.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Mate2GO V2.0 Car Mount ($16+)

Mate2Go’s V2.0 Car Mount is design to attached to the dashboard (or the top of the instrument cluster) and display the phone horizontally. It’s a real boon for motorists who regularly use apps like Android Auto, Waze, or even the Uber Driver application on the road. It’s easy to install, according to the manufacturer, and it comes with a 12-month warranty.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Ehpow Fast Wireless Charger ($26+)

The Ehpow Fast Wireless Charger is one of the most versatile mounts currently on the market. It attaches to your car via either a suction cup you place on the windshield or plastic claws that grab one of the air vents. The head rotates 360 degrees so users can move the phone when needed, and a clever linkage design lets them remove it from the mount with just one hand. The phone rests on a wireless charging pad that draws electricity from a car’s USB port.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

More&Better Cell Phone Holder ($47+)

More&Better’s car mount is one of the more expensive units on the market, but it’s one that lets you take full advantage of the iPhone X’s wireless charging capacity. It’s essentially a wireless charging pad with a one-touch lock and release function and anti-scratch surface to ensure the back of your X looks new for as long as possible. The device attaches to the car’s air vent, which ensures the phone isn’t directly in the driver’s line of sight, and it plugs into the car’s USB port. And while it’s not cheap, it comes with a one-year warranty.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Bestfy 3-In-1 Cigarette Lighter Car Mount ($13+)

Smoking isn’t great for you, not to mention it’s becoming increasingly expensive, so why not put your cigarette lighter to a better use? Bestfy’s 3-in-1 charger mounts directly into a car’s cigarette lighter to place the phone within the driver’s line of sight. It takes up more space in the cabin than dashboard-, windshield-, or air vent-mounted holders but it’s a good option if, for any reason, none of those fit your needs. The part you insert in the cigarette lighter features a pair of built-in USB ports so you can keep your iPhone — or any other device you need on-the-go — topped up.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

IKOPO Universal CD Slot Magnetic Mount ($15+)

When was the last time you used your car’s CD player? If you can’t remember, and if you rely on your phone to listen to music, consider getting IKOPO’s Universal CD Slot Magnetic Mount. Like its name implies it’s a magnetic mount that fits into the factory-equipped CD player. Silicone grips ensure the mount doesn’t damage the CD player in any way, lest you feel nostalgic and dust off your copy of Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

iOttie Easy One Touch 3 ($25+)

The iOttie Easy One Touch 3 is capable of sticking to either your car’s dashboard or windshield, and features an arm that can extend up to 5 inches, as well as an adjustable base that can be moved up, down, left, and right, in order to make it as simple as possible for people to see and interact with their iPhone while driving. You can have the phone close to you if you need it, or keep it out of sight when you’re using Apple CarPlay.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

IPOW Silicone Pad Dash Mat ($13+)

IPOW’s car mount offering may be the most simplistic one on our list. It simply sits on the dashboard, and relies on a silicone rubber mat to keep it in place. As far as adjustments go, it comes with two pairs of rubber holders that stick directly into the rubber base, allowing it to accommodate an iPhone X even without removing the case. It’s easy to remove so you can take the mat with you when you get to your destination and use it to hold up your phone on your desk.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Voguetech Cell Phone Holder ($13+)

Voguetech’s landscape-oriented holder opens and closes like a clam, and it can be positioned on any flat surface in your car. Depending on the make and model you drive, you can also install it in the middle of your dashboard or on either side of it, which is handy if your passenger wants to watch Netflix on a long road trip. It’s not an adjustable mount, but you can tilt it to ensure it’s right in the viewer’s field of vision. Users additionally note that they’re able to move it around without damaging their dashboard.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best iPhone car mounts to keep your smartphone in sight and stable
• These 6 choice iPhone bike mounts hold your phone so you don’t have to
• Our 7 favorite iPhone X case deals to keep your new device safe
• The best iPhone X battery cases to keep your $1,000 device alive
• The best iPhone X cases to protect your new Apple investment

Here’s how to zoom in on a Mac, no matter what app you’re using

While most browsers offer zoom functions, it’s often easier to use the native zoom function onyour operating system that works with everything, no matter what you are doing. Mac machines have this ability, and we’ll show you how to zoom in on a Mac, customize it, and control it!

Keyboard zoom shortcuts

If zoom is already enabled on your computer and you’re ready to go, these are the quick keyboard shortcuts to learn (if keyboard shortcuts and zoom aren’t turned on, move down to the zoom panel section for more information). With a little bit of practice, you can snap zooms and un-zooms instantly as you work on your Mac.

Option-Command-8: This turns the zoom function on or off. Obviously you want it on, but it’s a handy way to check if you’re unsure.

Option-Command-Plus Sign (+): The equal sign version is the way to zoom in on your Mac. Use this input to embiggen.

Option-Command-Minus (-): Zoom out with this function when you are done, or when you want to navigate faster.

Option-Command-Slash Sign (): This will toggle “smooth images” on or off. Smooth images is a feature on Mac that will automatically smooth out and clarify images when you zoom in a lot. It’s especially useful if you are trying to zoom in on a picture or PDF with words/faces/charts that you want to read.

Keyboard Focus Following: While this option doesn’t have a pre-designated keyboard command, you can assign one if you want. If you’ve never used keyboard focus following before, it basically shows which element is currently being highlighted by the keyboard (learn more about how this helps accessibility here).

Note: It’s important to find an updated version of keyboard zoom commands, because they have been known to occasionally change. This list works with Mac Sierra, currently the most recent OS, and we’ll work to keep it updated if another change occurs.

Open up the zoom panel for customization

It’s a good idea to visit the Zoom settings panel on your Mac to make sure all your settings are correct, even if you can get by on the keyboard shortcuts. You can tweak or add features and general improve functionality based on your needs with these controls – as well as troubleshoot anything that’s not working. Here’s how to access them.

Step 1: Open up System Preferences, which is typically a gear box icon that you can find in your dash apps. From there, choose Accessibility.

Step 2: In the accessibility window, you will see a list of settings panels on the left side that you can choose from. Look for the Zoom panel (it should be early on) and select it.

Step 3: The window will now show several Zoom features that you can enable or disable by checking them. Keyboard shortcuts and probably smoothed images should both be enabled. Scroll gesture and zoom follows the keyboard focus are up to you, based on how you like to use the computer.

Step 4: Pay close attention to the Zoom style dropdown menu at the bottom of the window. Here you can choose either Fullscreen zooming or picture-in-picture zooming. For large screens in particular, picture-in-picture may have more advantages for navigation, but you can switch between the two to see what you like best. The Options button to the right will give you some more options to click and try out. These are all good things to adjust as needed!

Zooming in on the Touch Bar

The newer Macs have the OLED Touch Bar with illuminated icons that change based on what software you’re using. It’s a hit or miss addition, but it does come in handy for accessibility options, as long as you can see the icons, as they are fairly . Here’s how to zoom in on the Touch Bar.

Step 1: Visit the Zoom settings panels as described in the above section. If your Mac machine has an enabled Touch Bar, you should see a new check box for Enable Touch Bar zooming. Make sure it is selected.

Step 2: Touch your Touch Bar with a finger and hold it there until the zoomed-in version of the Touch Bar appears on your screen for easier control. If the icons still aren’t big enough, then try to “pinch” and expand the Touch Bar on the screen with your thumb and finger, while pressed down on the Command key. This should make the Bar bigger.

Step 3: For easier navigation, you can hold your finger down on the screen and over an icon until that icon is selected instead of tapping.

Note that this feature, like some other accessibility features, will be disabled if VoiceOver is activated, so there’s some give and take here.

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