‘chaiOS’ bug can cause iMessage to crash with a text message

There’s a new bug floating around called “chaiOS” that appears to be a basic GitHub link. However, when you text it to a person via the iMessage app (whether on iOS or MacOS), it will crash the app and possibly cause the device to freeze and restart. In other words: Be aware that this exists, but don’t send it to anyone.

👋 Effective Power is back, baby!

chaiOS bug:
Text the link below, it will freeze the recipient’s device, and possibly restart it. https://t.co/Ln93XN51Kq

⚠️ Do not use it for bad stuff.
—-
thanks to @aaronp613 @garnerlogan65 @lepidusdev @brensalsa for testing!

— Abraham Masri (@cheesecakeufo) January 16, 2018

It was Twitter user Abraham Masri who first uncovered the bug. The people over at 9to5Mac tested it out, and it certainly messed up their devices. They reported crashes and severe lags as a result of the bugs that persisted until the thread containing the link was deleted from the iMessage app. If you did send or receive it, and your device is a mess, there’s also a fix in the replies to Masri’s original tweet. We’ve reached out to Apple to confirm that their team is aware of the bug, and to see if there are any fixes in the works.

To be clear, this bug won’t cause permanent damage to your device if you send it, but it certainly has the potential to cause some annoyance. It’s not clear exactly how it works, but Masri tied it back to the “effective power” bug in his tweet. This dates back to 2015 and caused some havoc, as simply sending a text message was enough to cause the recipient’s iPhone to crash continuously. Apple has since fixed the bug.

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: Twitter

Facebook adds livestream features to old videos

Facebook says its Live videos are wildly popular and generate around six times the interaction other videos do. That’s why it’s testing a new feature that adds the elements responsible for making Live a more engaging, interactive experience to non-Live videos on the platform. Starting today, select Groups will have access to “Watch Party,” an experimental tool that creates a shared experience for multiple users. It allows administrators to post any public video on their Group, which members can then watch together at the same time. (Also, it probably helps that a billion accounts use Facebook Groups every month.) They can even leave comments and reactions that show up on screen the same way they do on Live, whatever it is they’re watching.

The company decided to conduct initial testing within Groups, since members are bound by common interests and are more inclined to watch videos together. A lot of people join Groups to get the latest news about their interest, after all, and information is often presented in video form on the website. Fidji Simo, Facebook’s VP of Product, said the social network will be studying how testers use Watch Party in order to get it ready for a wider release in the future.

Source: Fidji Simo (Facebook)

Xfinity customers will get a ton of Winter Olympics content next month

The Olympics offer a unique technical challenge for TV broadcasters and cable companies every few years. With the 2018 Winter Olympics just a few weeks away, Comcast has announced its plans to offer a pretty huge variety of coverage for its Xfinity TV subscribers. That’s a result of the fact that Comcast owns the exclusive US Olympics broadcaster, NBC, which means viewers who use different cable providers aren’t going to get the same level of coverage. That’s unfortunate, but those that do subscribe to Xfinity and are Olympics fans have a lot to look forward to.

For starters, it’s worth noting that the Winter Olympics take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea; thanks to the time difference, many events will take place in prime time here in the US. NBC will broadcast its nightly Olympics prime-time coverage live, with no tape delay, so it should be a lot easier than in years past to see your favorite sports live. Xfinity’s Olympics Home will show viewers everything that’s airing live across various networks (including NBC proper, NBC Sports, USA and several others). From there, you’ll also be able to quickly browse highlights, check out a daily summary, the current medal count and the day’s schedule and jump into whatever particular video you want to view.

For live content, Xfinity is offering “instant on demand,” which basically means you can tune in to any live broadcast and then tell it to start from the beginning. So if you’re jumping into the day’s coverage late, you can still start right from the beginning without having to save it to your DVR.

Another big part of Xfinity’s Winter Olympics coverage is something they’re calling “virtual channels.” These aren’t dissimilar to YouTube playlists focused around specific themes — they’ll primarily be made up of shorter clips (around five minutes each, though that can vary). Naturally, there will be channels for individual sports, but there will also be themes like ” biggest upsets,” “fantastic finishes,” “funniest moments” as well as daily recaps, the best moments from the previous night, profiles of teams and athletes and so forth. For people who don’t want to sit down and just get a quick taste of the most popular trending stories or focus on specific sports, these channels should be helpful.

Xfinity customers get a handful of other niceties, as well. The voice-capable X1 remote will let you ask for a variety of content, like medal counts, sports and athletes. The company’s X1 Sports companion app lets you pull up a sidebar of Olympics content on the TV to keep track of scores and standings for other events, and if you see something you want to watch in that sidebar, you can just scroll over and click it to launch. Finally, the Xfinity Stream app for iOS and Android will basically mirror the Olympics experience users get on their TV, so you’ll get the same experience for keeping up on the games away from the big screen in your house.

And if your big screen is a 4K TV, NBC and Xfinity will have super high-definition content to check out. Unfortunately, it isn’t live broadcasts, but a whole bunch of the bigger stuff events will be available on-demand the following day in 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos sound. The opening ceremony, closing ceremony, figure skating, ski jumping, snowboard “big air” and men’s hockey are all getting this treatment, among a few other events. It’s not the entire slate of coverage, but this will likely be the biggest sporting event to catch in 4K thus far. Maybe by the Summer 2020 games, we’ll actually get some live 4K broadcasts.

As mentioned earlier, this is all only available for Xfinity customers, but Comcast says that almost anyone with a cable subscription beyond the bare-bones basic tier will get all of this coverage included with their subscription. Given how many people were unhappy with not being able to keep up with events live during the 2012 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Comcast’s plan sounds a lot better — getting tons of coverage live is probably the most important thing here, and having easy ways to catch up on events that viewers miss should make the Olympics a lot more enjoyable for Xfinity customers.

Design Ethicist Imagines How Apple Could Help Combat Tech Addiction in Future iOS Updates

A little over one week after Apple investors urged the company to do more to protect children from smartphone addiction, a new column by The New York Times writer Farhad Manjoo has looked into potential ideas that Apple could implement in a future iOS update to curb addiction for all users, including kids.

Manjoo spoke with Tristan Harris, former design ethicist for Google and owner of Time Well Spent — an organization that works to improve technology’s impact on society — and Harris offered a few suggestions for ways Apple could help combat smartphone addiction. While Harris’s ideas are not confirmations for features coming to iOS in 2018 and beyond, it is an interesting glimpse into potential solutions Apple might implement if it decides to tackle this issue down the line.

To start, he suggested a way for Apple to offer feedback on the iOS devices that customers use, imagining a weekly report that would include the time spent within apps in a sort of ranking system. Users could then set prompts for future weeks that would pop up when their time spent in a specific app is reaching their set limit.

Imagine if, once a week, your phone gave you a report on how you spent your time, similar to how your activity tracker tells you how sedentary you were last week. It could also needle you: “Farhad, you spent half your week scrolling through Twitter. Do you really feel proud of that?” It could offer to help: “If I notice you spending too much time on Snapchat next week, would you like me to remind you?”

Harris then focused on notifications, which have long been an area that iOS users have asked to be updated. The new idea was for more granular, “priority level” notifications that Apple would require to be placed on every app. Harris explained there would be three levels for “heavy users, regular users and lite, or Zen,” and then Apple would have to pen the rules for which notifications would go to each level.

So, for example, if someone chose the medium “regular” level, a DM from a friend on Instagram would appear on the lock screen. But at the same time, something less important — like when Instagram sends out a reminder to view a friend’s Story — would be prevented from appearing. “And then Apple could say, by default, everyone is in the middle level — and instantly it could save a ton of users a ton of energy in dealing with this,” Harris explained.

If Apple implemented similar features, Manjoo pointed out that it could set a precedent for the industry as a whole.

Every tech company needs a presence on the iPhone or iPad; this means that Apple can set the rules for everyone. With a single update to its operating system and its app store, Apple could curb some of the worst excesses in how apps monitor and notify you to keep you hooked (as it has done, for instance, by allowing ad blockers in its mobile devices). And because other smartphone makers tend to copy Apple’s best inventions, whatever it did to curb our dependence on our phones would be widely emulated.

Following the investors’ open letter last week, Apple stated that it thinks about its products’ impact on users, and it takes this responsibility “very seriously.” With a larger spotlight being shined on the issue, Harris said that now is Apple’s “time to step up” and really get behind anti-addiction features for its devices. Harris went on to say that in regards to this problem, Apple “may be our only hope.”

Tag: nytimes.com
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Apple Orders Comedy Series Starring Kristen Wiig

Apple has placed an order for a 10-episode half-hour comedy show starring Kristen Wiig, reports Variety. The show is said to be based on the upcoming “You Think It, I’ll Say It” short story collection by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Curtis Sittenfeld’s book features 10 stories that “upend assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided,” according to its description on Amazon. It was created by Colleen McGuinness, who worked on “30 Rock,” “Mercy,” and “About a Boy.”

Image via Esquire
The television show will be Wiig’s first regular role since leaving “Saturday Night Live” in 2012. Over the course of the last few years, Wiig has focused heavily on movies, starring in “Bridesmaids,” “The Martian,” and “Ghostbusters.”

Wiig will serve as an executive producer on the comedy alongside Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter, with author Sittenfeld serving as a consulting producer.

The new Kristen Wiig comedy is the third show Apple is working on alongside Reese Witherspoon and her Hello Sunshine company. Witherspoon herself will star in an upcoming morning show drama alongside Jennifer Aniston, and she’s also executive producing “Are You Sleeping,” a psychological thriller starring Octavia Spencer.

Other TV shows in the works at Apple include Steven Spielberg sci-fi series “Amazing Stories,” an untitled space drama developed by Ronald D. Moore, known for “Battlestar Galactica,” “Home,” a docuseries that will look at extraordinary houses, and “See,” an epic world-building drama set in the future.

Apple is also said to be in a bidding war for a new sci-fi drama series penned by J.J. Abrams.

Related Roundup: Apple TVTag: Apple’s Hollywood ambitionsBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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Apple Seeds Sixth Beta of iOS 11.2.5 to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the sixth beta of an upcoming iOS 11.2.5 update to developers, one week after seeding the fifth beta and a little over a week after releasing iOS 11.2.2, an update designed to mitigate a serious hardware-based vulnerability called “Spectre.”

Registered developers can download the iOS 11.2.5 beta from Apple’s Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

iOS 11.2.5 introduces a new feature that lets Siri play daily news podcasts when queried about the current news. Siri will offer up news from The Washington Post by default, but you can also choose to switch to Fox News, CNN, or NPR.

The new audio news feature, which appears to have been developed for use with Apple’s upcoming HomePod speaker, is invoked when using Hey Siri or asking Siri about the news when using CarPlay or with headphones connected – essentially any situation where you’re not looking at the display of an iOS device. If you activate Siri using the side button or Home button of a device, standard Apple news headlines are provided instead of the audio-based news highlights. This new feature is also available on devices running iOS 11.2.2 as of this week.

It’s not clear what other new features, if any, will be included in the iOS 11.2.5 beta. We didn’t discover other noticeable outward-facing changes in the first five iOS 11.2.5 betas, so it’s possible this update focuses mainly on bug fixes and security improvements aside from the Siri news update.

If that’s the case, we may not know the extent of what’s in the update until it sees a public release. Apple is supposed to be releasing an iCloud Messages feature that was pulled from the iOS 11 release, but there has been no indication of when we can expect iCloud Messages to be reintroduced.

Should new features be discovered in the sixth beta of iOS 11.2.5, we’ll update this post.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Seeds Sixth Beta of tvOS 11.2.5 to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the sixth beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.2.5 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the fifth beta and more than a month after the release of tvOS 11.2.1, an update that introduced a fix for a HomeKit vulnerability.

Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 11.2.5 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that’s installed using Xcode.

We don’t yet know what features or changes might be included in the tvOS 11.2.5 update, but it likely focuses primarily on bug fixes and performance improvements rather than major outward-facing changes.

There were no outward-facing changes discovered in the first five developer betas, but we’ll update this post should new features be found in the sixth beta.

Related Roundup: Apple TVBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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Is DJI about to unveil its first fixed-wing consumer drone?

DJI is on the verge of announcing a brand new product, though a teaser video (above) released on January 16 is giving little away.

The event takes place in New York City on January 23 at 10 a.m. ET, with many expecting DJI to unveil its first drone since the launch of its popular Spark quadcopter in 2017.

The drone company announced a couple of new camera gimbals at CES 2018 earlier this month, but has apparently decided to keep its very latest product under wraps for a little while longer, putting it center stage at its own unveiling event.

In a supremely hyperbolic promo video with the tagline “adventure unfolds,” a narrator from the School of Overly Dramatic Acting declares that although the origin of humanity is mysterious and remarkable, “are we ready for what’s to come?” Well, if it’s some horrendous plague that threatens to wipe out the entire human race or an alien invasion from another galaxy, then probably not. But if it’s a remotely controlled flying machine aimed at the consumer technology market, then bring it on.

Having already scored big successes with its Phantom, Mavic, and Spark drones, the money is on DJI adding another one to its growing range.

The video shows some deliberately vague shots of the product, leaving fans to reach their own conclusions about what’s coming.

Considering the noise it’s making about the upcoming event, it’ll surely be something very different for DJI, so perhaps it’s about to launch its first fixed-wing drone along the lines of the Parrot Disco or Yuneec’s recently announced Firebird FPV. Come to think of it, is that a wing we see at the end of DJI’s video?

Such fixed-wing machines generally need wide-open spaces to fly, and also require a different set of skills to master than regular quadcopters, though that could be a plus for drone enthusiasts looking for a new kind of piloting experience.

At the other end of the scale, DJI may take the wraps off its very first racing drone, a diminutive design at the center of an increasingly popular sport.

Either way, all will be revealed on January 23, so be sure to check back for all the details.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The drone database is back, and most owners must register their details
• A drone you can’t crash? It’s finally here, thanks to AR and smart glasses
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• The best drones we saw (and flew) at CES 2018
• Getting a drone for Christmas? Be sure to register it before you fly

The Moto X5 will feature an iPhone X-like notch, according to new leak

The Moto X may have been replaced as Lenovo’s flagship Moto phone with the Moto Z, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth buying. On the contrary, recent Moto X phones have offered some pretty awesome features — and based on early leaks, the 2018 Moto X, also known as the Moto X5, will be no different.

There’s a lot we don’t know about the Moto X5, but thanks to recent leaks there’s now a lot we do know. Here’s everything we know about the Moto X5 so far.

Design

The Moto X5 may offer some design features that we haven’t seen in Moto phones yet — even though it’s no longer the flagship Moto. For starters, a leaked image from Droid-Life seems to show a phone with an iPhone X-like “notch” at the top, with status icons on either side of it. It’s unclear what that means for the software in general and where notification icons will show up.

Speaking of the display, it also seems to sport nicely rounded corners, and the report notes that it sits in at 5.9-inches with a FHD+ resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio.

Like the Moto Z3 leak, it seems like the new Moto X does not feature a fingerprint sensor, though there is a dual-sensor front-facing camera. We’ll have to wait and see if that means that Lenovo is replacing the fingerprint sensor with facial recognition, like Apple, or if the fingerprint sensor is embedded in the display like the Vivo phone that was shown off at CES 2018. There’s also a new white software navigation button — though Droid-Life notes that you’ll probably be able to replace that with the standard three-button Android navigation buttons.

According to text that accompanies the Moto X5 images, the device will also feature “Moto XP’s,” which is billed as being “Moto’s Smart Ai.” We’re not sure what that means yet. It’s possibly it could be a kind of Google Assistant competitor.

Specs

We don’t really know much about the specs of the upcoming Moto X5 just yet. Last year’s Moto X featured a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, which is a decent chip, to be sure, but also decidedly midrange. Considering Lenovo has its flagship bases covered with the Moto Z, we expect the new Moto X to feature a similarly midrange chip.

As far as RAM and storage goes, the device will likely feature around 3GB or 4GB of RAM, along with 64GB of storage — though that’s just speculation. We’ll have to wait and see what the device offers in real life.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The upcoming Lenovo Moto Z3 apparently leaks online in all its mod-packing glory
• Nokia 6 vs. Moto G5 Plus
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra, XA2, and L2 hands-on review
• LG’s three new cutting-edge Nano IPS monitors will wow your eyeballs
• Huawei P20 teased as company’s 2018 device plans are laid bare

Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra vs. Moto X4: 2018’s new midrange challenger

It might be tough at the top, but it’s even tougher in the middle. The midrange market is a highly competitive space, and handsets from above and below constantly challenge the midrange for the ultimate goal of being your favorite pocket filler.

Sony has announced the follow-up to 2017’s XA1 Ultra, the Xperia XA2 Ultra, into that very market. But before it can challenge anything above or below its price range, it needs to prove its mettle against another great midrange device. The Moto X4 is a fine phone, and one of the front runners in this category. We took a look at the two phones, side-by-side, to figure out which deserves your time and your money.

Specs

Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra

Moto X4
Size
163 x 80 x 9.5 mm (6.42 x 3.15 x 0.37 inches)
148.4 x 73.4 x 8 mm (5.84 x 2.89 x 0.31 inches)
Weight
221 grams (7.80 ounces)
163 grams (5.75 ounces)
Screen
6-inch Super LCD
5.2-inch IPS LCD
Resolution
1920 x 1080 pixels (367 ppi)
1920 x 1080 pixels (424 ppi)
OS
Android 8.0 Oreo
Android 8.0 Oreo/Android One
Storage
32GB, 64GB
32GB (64GB international market)
MicroSD card slot
Yes
Yes
NFC support
Yes
Yes
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 630
Qualcomm Snapdragon 630
RAM
4GB
3GB (4GB international market)
Connectivity
GSM / HSPA / LTE, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
GSM / HSPA / LTE, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi
Camera
23MP rear, dual 16MP & 8MP front
Dual 12MP & 8MP rear, 16MP front
Video
2160p up to 30 fps
2160p up to 30 fps, 1080p up to 60 fps
Bluetooth
Yes, version 5.0
Yes, version 5.0
Audio
3.5mm headphone jack
Front speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack
Fingerprint sensor
Yes
Yes
Other sensors
Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Gyroscope, accelerometer, proximity sensor
Water resistant
No
Yes, IP68 rated
Battery
3,580mAh
3,000mAh
Charging port
USB-C
USB-C
Marketplace
Google Play Store
Google Play Store
Colors
Silver, Black, Blue, Gold
Black, blue
Availability
To be announced

Newegg, Amazon, Motorola

Price
To be announced
$399
DT review
Hands-on review
3.5 out of 5 stars

Specifications aren’t everything, but they are a good baseline for the general performance of a device. Based on these specs, you’re likely to see a similar level of day-to-day performance from these phones, since both come with the Snapdragon 630 processor. It’s a decent chip, but as we pointed out in our Moto X4 review, if you’re a heavy user who likes to play high-performance games, you might want to look elsewhere, as performance is simply not as smooth as it is on phones with cutting edge processors. Anyone who’s not an avid gamer (or is a more casual gamer) should find good, steady performance here, with an occasional sluggishness that reflects the lower price of the devices.

Both devices have space for a MicroSD card for additional storage, and they both come in 32GB and 64GB flavors, though the 64GB Moto X4 only seems to be available in international markets, so if you’re looking for more storage, then the Xperia might be your bag. The Xperia gains more points with the addition 4GB of RAM — the Moto X4 only has 4GB options available in international markets. That said, RAM isn’t everything in smartphones, so the 3GB offered by the U.S. Moto X4 is going to be plenty for most people.

Moving on, we find even more similarities. Both devices are rocking the latest Bluetooth 5 with all the benefits that brings, both devices offer NFC for Google Pay, and both have the increasingly rare headphone jack.

With the specs being as close as they are, we have to award the win to the phone that creeps ahead, even ever-so-slightly. The extra RAM and additional extra onboard storage in the Xperia XA2 Ultra takes the day.

Winner: Xperia XA2 Ultra

Design and display

Julian Chokkattu / Digital Trends

While there were rumors of a redesign for the Xperia range throughout 2017, we’re not really seeing that with the Xperia XA2 Ultra. The bezels have shrunk when compared to last year’s models, especially the Xperia XZ1, but it’s still not at the point where we could call it “bezel-less“. It’s clear the bezels around the sides of the phone and the top and bottom edges have reduced, but it’s still a phone that looks very 2016 — and it’s safe to say we’re a little disappointed. One nice addition is the fingerprint sensor being moved from the side of the phone to a more conventional area on the back. It’s also finally being included in the U.S. model, which must be a relief for anyone who’d been put off by the bizarre omission in previous Sony smartphones.

With that said, we still prefer the Xperia Omnibalance style to the also dated looks of the Moto X4. The glass and metal design on the X4 is nice, but the extremely large camera bump means the phone rocks when placed on its back, and the glass used tends to attract fingerprints very quickly. It’s a problem solved with a good case, but it would still have been nice to not feel compelled to buy one. Still, it’s a decent design, and not ugly. It’s just fairly basic, and not as nice as some of the previous Moto X models.

There’s a massive difference between the two phones in terms of their displays. While both devices have IPS LCD screens displaying a 1,920 x 1,080-pixel resolution, the Xperia XA2 Ultra has a much larger 6-inch screen, compared to the 5.2-inch display on the Moto X4. If you’re a fan of a larger screen, then the XA2 Ultra is the perfect midrange device for you — but fans of sharper displays may appreciate the larger pixels-per-inch measurement on the smaller Moto phone. It is also worth mentioning that the Xperia XA2 Ultra is significantly larger and heavier than the Moto X4, being a plus-sized version of the regular sized Xperia XA2, so keep the additional bulk and heft in mind when you’re considering the Xperia.

For pure physical durability you’re going to be looking at the Xperia XA2 Ultra over the Moto X4. While the aluminum frame and polycarbonate back on the Xperia doesn’t exactly feel premium, it is more resistant to damage than the glass on the Moto X4. However, the Moto X4 turns the tables with a very impressive IP68-rating that should see the Moto phone survive trips down the toilet or into the bath; not something the Sony phone can boast since it has no water-resistance at all.

This is a tough category to call. The XA2 Ultra has the edge in looks and pure physical durability, whereas the Moto X4 has full IP68-rated water-resistance and a sharper display. It really comes down to which set of advantages you prefer and the disadvantages you’re willing to put up with.

Winner: Tie

Camera

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The Moto X4 has a dual-sensor rear camera, pairing a 16-megapixel lens with an 8-megapixel lens. It’s a good combination, and as well as offering “bokeh” style selective-blur shots, it also offers a wide-angle mode like the LG G6 or V30. It takes good photos, but you need good lighting to get the best out of it; low lighting led to some disappointing shots in our review testing. The shutter lag in the camera software itself was also quite significant.

Around the front of the Moto X4 you’ll find a 16-megapixel selfie camera with an accompanying flash. It performs okay, but the quality doesn’t seem good enough for such a high megapixel count. Still, it took good enough selfies during our tests, and the flash was useful.

We haven’t had any significant time with the Xperia XA2 Ultra’s camera yet, but the raw numbers are encouraging. Sony has prided itself on cameras with exceptionally high megapixel counts and that continues here with the 23-megapixel monster mounted on the rear of the XA2 Ultra. In the small amount of time we had with it we noticed very little shutter lag, and a very high ISO of 12,800 — which should mean the XA2 Ultra is very good at handling low light. We’ll delay proper judgement until we’ve really tested it.

It’s around the front you’ll find major changes on the Xperia phone. The XA2 Ultra is rocking two front-facing selfie sensors; paired 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel lenses. The 16-megapixel lens seems to do most of the work, but the 8-megapixel lens kicks in when you want to take a wide-angle shot for group selfies, or if you want more of the background in view. It’s well implemented, with little lag when switching between the two lenses. Sony has also included a “slow-sync” flash on the front that helps to illuminate the background of shots, as well as the foreground. It’s especially handy in dim areas you want to show off, like nightclubs, and it worked well in our short amount of time with it.

The Moto X4 has a good camera, but it’s let down by poor low light performance and too much shutter lag. We might not have had too much time with the XA2 Ultra’s camera yet, but we’re confident it will be the better performer.

Winner: Xperia XA2 Ultra

Battery life and charging

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Battery life shouldn’t be too much of an issue with either of these devices thanks to their large battery capacities. The Moto X4 comes with a 3,000mAh battery that should easily last you the day, even with heavy use. With lighter use, it should last even longer than that. When recharge time came around, Motorola’s TurboPower fast-charging charged the Moto X4 from zero to 85 percent within 40 minutes. That’s really good.

But it’s up against a monster. Sony has taken battery capacity seriously in this generation of phones, and has significantly increased the battery capacity of all of 2018’s models so far. The XA2 Ultra comes with a massive 3,580mAh battery that should easily see you through the day. That’s bolstered by Sony’s Smart Stamina battery technology to help your charge last for as long as possible, and QuickCharge 3.0 means that your battery refills quickly when plugged in. We’ve not had a chance to test the XA2 Ultra in the wild yet, but we’re anticipating the battery life to be one of its high points.

While we are fans of the Moto X4’s battery capacity, with its significantly bigger battery, the Xperia XA2 Ultra takes this round.

Winner: Xperia XA2 Ultra

Software

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

There are two versions of the Moto X4 that you can pick up; the regular version, and the Android One version. Android One is essentially a pared-down version of Android made for lower-end phones that comes without any additional manufacturer bloatware, and benefits from security patches directly from Google itself. However, unless you’re really into the idea of Project Fi, you might want to stick to the regular version of the Moto X4. It still runs close to stock Android, and comes with additional features like Amazon Alexa integration, and the Tempow Bluetooth Audio Profile that we really liked. Updates to Android 8.0 Oreo have been rolling out since December as well, so there’s no need to worry about being left behind.

How’s the Android 8.0 Oreo experience on the Xperia XA2 Ultra? Again, we need longer with it to really give you the low down, but despite being close to stock Android, the model we saw did have a good few pre-installed apps from Sony. Your mileage on that will vary, and patience for bloat depends entirely on your previous experiences, but it’s certainly not ideal for us. The XA2 Ultra does come with AptX HD as well, combating Tempow on the Moto X4.

Android vs. Android is always a tough task, and it’s made extra difficult when Android One is thrown into the mix. However, we prefer the implementation of Android on the Moto X4, and the option for Android One is good, if you want it. The Moto X4 takes this round.

Winner: Moto X4

Price and availability

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The Moto X4 is currently available, and you can grab the Android One version from Google’s Project Fi for just $324 at time of writing. Alternatively, if you want the regular version of the Moto X4, then you can grab it from a number of retailers, including Newegg and Motorola for a reduced price of $350. Amazon Prime members can increase their savings by buying a version with lockscreen ads and “offers” for just $280 — but you have to make the choice of whether that’s worth it for you.

At the moment, we’re not sure of the price of the XA2 Ultra. We’re hoping it’ll be around $400, putting it in a similar initial price bracket as the Moto X4. We’re also not sure about who will be offering the phone, but we expect it will at least be available from Sony and on Amazon.

Sony’s Xperia phones haven’t traditionally been supported well in the U.S.. We’re giving this to the Moto X4 for the better value, as well as the larger marketplace.

Winner: Moto X4

Overall winner: Xperia XA2 Ultra

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

There might be a lot of elements of the XA2 Ultra that we’re unsure about, but based on what we’ve seen, there’s also a lot to love. At the moment, the Xperia phone looks to be a fine contender in the midrange smartphone market, capable of trading blows with the very best. But that doesn’t mean that the Moto X4 is bad; quite the contrary — there are plenty of reasons to buy the Moto phone over the Xperia, not least value. The much smaller size is also a big selling point if you don’t fancy the massive XA2 Ultra.

Still, for our money, the Xperia XA2 Ultra is currently the stronger of these two handsets.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra, XA2, and L2 hands-on review
• HTC U11 Life vs. Moto X4: Who rules the midrange smartphone market?
• Moto X4 review
• When is your phone getting Android 8.0 Oreo? We asked every major manufacturer
• Sony’s latest Xperia smartphones boast changes, but not a major redesign