Vivo NEX review: A bold showcase for the future

The Vivo NEX is one of the most innovative phones of 2018.

The Indian handset market is one of the most competitive in the world, with no shortage of options at all price points. Vivo has managed to rise up the ranks in the country over the last four years through a combination of aggressive marketing and an impressive distribution network. The company has targeted the budget and mid-range segments, but it is now setting its sights on the premium category with its latest flagship, the NEX.

Vivo garnered a lot of global attention back at MWC with the X21, which was the first phone in the world to offer an in-display fingerprint sensor. The X21 was proof that Vivo could deliver innovation at a large scale, and the NEX furthers that belief.

The NEX also features an in-display fingerprint sensor, but its main attraction is a retractable front camera module that’s hidden away in the top portion of the chassis when not in use. To accommodate the bezel-less panel, Vivo had to come up with innovative solutions for the array of sensors that usually accompany the front camera module. The ambient light sensor lives underneath the display, and you get Vivo’s SoundCasting tech instead of the usual earpiece, which turns the entire screen into a speaker.

Vivo NEX

Price: ₹44,990 ($650)

Bottom line: The Vivo NEX is one of the most exciting phones of 2018. The retractable camera works reliably, the large bezel-less screen is ideal for gaming, and the two-day battery life lets you use the phone without worry of running out of charge. Software issues aside, the NEX is a fantastic phone if you’re in the market for something different.

Pros:

• Retractable camera
• Razor-thin bezels
• Exquisite design
• Two-day battery life

Cons:

• Availability limited to Asia
• Software resembles iOS
• No water resistance
• Long-term durability

See at Amazon India

Vivo NEX Hardware

It’s safe to say that the Vivo NEX is one of the most innovative phones of 2018. Vivo solved the problem of the notch by hiding the front camera behind a motorized slider, and it did so without having to get rid of the headphone jack.

The NEX has a 91.24% screen-to-body ratio, and the lack of any cutouts for sensors does create a more immersive experience. There is a subtle chin at the bottom, but it doesn’t detract from the bezel-less effect that Vivo is going for. The power and volume buttons are located on the right, and there’s a dedicated button on the right to invoke the Google Assistant. There’s a 3.5mm jack up top, and the phone charges over USB-C.

The NEX’s raison d’être is the 8MP camera module that elevates from the body whenever you enable the front camera. The camera takes just under a second to pop up, and while the slider itself doesn’t make any sound, you can set up custom sound effects to add to the occasion. The slider is one of the coolest features you’ll find on a phone today, and more importantly, it works without any issues day in, day out.

The only unknown with the slider is long-term durability. I activated the slider over a hundred times, and it worked just as reliably every single time, but it remains to be seen how it fares after a few months’ worth of pocket lint has accumulated around the module.

Although most of the attention goes towards the retractable camera, the NEX has a glass back with a geometric pattern that makes it stand out. The colors alternate based on the light reflecting off its surface, and the overall effect is quite evocative.

The NEX took a few tumbles and weathered them without any damage, but it didn’t do so when the front camera was engaged. Vivo mentioned that the motor could withstand a weight of 50 kilos, and while it’s clear that the manufacturer thought of such an eventuality and designed around it, there’s no telling if it will hold up in real-world usage.

And because the NEX has a retractable camera module, it is neither dust nor water resistant. The module also limits case options for the phone — Vivo includes one in the box that doesn’t cover the top portion of the device.

Vivo placed a lot of bold bets on the NEX, and they paid off handsomely.

The Vivo NEX is one of the largest phones around, and at 199g it’s also one of the heaviest. It’s 4g heavier than the Galaxy Note 8, but because Vivo was able to trim down the bezels considerably, it is 0.5mm shorter than the Note 8 while offering a screen that’s 0.3 inches larger.

Coming to the display, the 6.59-inch Super AMOLED screen is one of the largest on a phone today, and the all-screen front makes the NEX one of the best gaming devices in the market. Viewing multimedia content on the 19.3:9 ratio isn’t as exciting as most videos are still letterboxed to 16:9, but games make full use of that screen real estate. Playing PUBG in particular is delightful — the screen provides a large canvas, and the underlying hardware is the best currently available.

Screen	6.59-inch FHD+ (2316×1080) Super AMOLED
Chipset	Snapdragon 845
RAM	8GB
Storage	128GB
Software	Android 8.1 Oreo
Rear Camera 1	12MP, ƒ/1.8
Rear Camera 2	5MP, ƒ/2.4
Front Camera	8MP, ƒ/2.0
Battery	4000mAh
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, BT5.0, dual VoLTE
Security	In-display fingerprint
Colors	Black, Red
Dimensions	162 x 77 x 8mm
Weight	199g
Price	₹44,990 ($650)

The only issue with the display is that it isn’t conducive to one-handed usage. The screen itself is gorgeous, with vibrant colors and the ambient light sensor does a great job managing the brightness according to your environment. I had no issues reading the contents of the screen under harsh sunlight.

Then there’s the in-display fingerprint sensor. Vivo says the third-generation sensor is faster to authenticate and results in fewer errors, and that’s in line with what I’ve noticed in the two weeks I used the NEX. The sensor takes just under a second to authenticate, and while it’s not as fast as traditional fingerprint readers, there is the wow factor associated with using a module embedded underneath the screen.

The single speaker at the bottom produces a lot of sound, and while it isn’t as good as a stereo configuration, it is loud and detailed. Vivo’s SoundCasting tech is astonishingly good for calls, and I had zero issues on this front. And when you do need to plug in, the NEX has a 3.5mm jack, and there’s a built-in DAC that delivers impressive audio output.

As for the hardware itself, the NEX features the 10nm 2.8GHz Snapdragon 845, and you get 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage as standard. There’s no MicroSD card slot, but you’re not going to need it as 128GB of internal memory is more than enough for most users. The robust hardware combined with Vivo’s optimizations make the NEX one of the fastest phones in the market today.

Battery life on the NEX is nothing short of phenomenal. That’s in part due to the 4000mAh battery, but mostly because of Funtouch OS’ aggressive memory management. In day-to-day usage, you’ll easily get two days’ out of a full charge, and there are battery modes to choose from in the settings that let you eke out even more battery life. Vivo’s own fast charging tech delivers a 22W charge, allowing the phone to hit a 50% charge in just over 20 minutes.

Vivo NEX Software

The Vivo NEX went up for sale in China first, and because Google services are banned in the country, it didn’t come with the Play Store out of the box. However, with the phone officially on sale in India, my unit does have the Play Store and Google’s suite of services bundled.

While the lack of Play Services isn’t an issue that affects the Indian unit, it has its own set of problems. Vivo’s Funtouch OS is heavily skinned, and the interface as a whole resembles iOS more than any other Android device. There’s a reason for this: when Vivo started out, it offered phones that looked a lot like the iPhone, and to sell the overall experience, it even designed its software to be an iOS clone.

You’re buying this phone for the hardware; not the software.

Things have changed dramatically on the hardware front over the last four years, but it’s clear that Vivo still has a long way to go when it comes to the software side of things. The multitasking pane, for instance, is near-identical to what you’d find on iOS, and there’s even a Control Center that you can pull up with a swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Vivo even calls it the Control Center, and it houses the toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile data, and others. With the toggles located at the bottom, the notification pane itself is bare, and only shows incoming notifications.

While it was a major annoyance on the X21, the position of the toggles sort of makes sense on the Vivo NEX. The humongous 6.59-inch display doesn’t really allow you to reach all the way to the top to get to the notification pane, but the toggles are easier to access as they’re located at the bottom. You get the option to choose what toggles show up in the Control Center, lock apps so they don’t get cleared from the cache, and adjust brightness and volume. Like the rest of the interface, the notification pane also has a similar iOS-inspired layout, but you do get the option to snooze notifications. Vivo thankfully offers inline relies as well as actionable notifications.

I regularly missed notifications from Newton Mail, Slack, Twitter, and Allo, and it was only when I opened a particular app that the notifications flooded in. For a phone to not get push notifications right — particularly one that costs $650 — is inexcusable in 2018, and Vivo needs to get its act together on the software front. For what it’s worth, this isn’t the first time I faced issues with notifications. Most Xiaomi phones I used last year also had a similar issue, but to its credit Xiaomi addressed the problem with MIUI 9.

Most of the cosmetic issues can be mitigated by switching to a launcher like Nova, but Vivo needs to address the more serious bugs in Funtouch OS for it to be a viable option outside of China.

Vivo NEX Camera

The NEX has dual 12MP + 5MP cameras at the back, with the primary sensor offering 1.4um pixels and 4-axis OIS. The secondary sensor is for adding depth information to shots, and it creates a background blur effect.

The camera app itself is quick to load and there’s no noticeable shutter delay when taking photos. The interface is easy to use, and there’s even Google Lens integration, which provides additional information for real-world objects and locations.

The NEX produces impressive photos in daylight conditions, and the phone manages to do a decent job in artificial or low-light scenarios as well. The image quality isn’t at the same level as the Pixel 2 or the Galaxy S9, but it is on par with other devices in its price bracket. Vivo’s post-processing tends to favor oversaturated colors, and although they look great when shared on social media platforms, they’re not indicative of true-to-life colors.

OIS makes videos come out jitter-free, and the rear camera can shoot in 4K. And as cool as the front 8MP camera is to use, the results aren’t anywhere as good as what you’d get on the Pixel 2. The NEX would’ve fared a lot better had Vivo used a better-quality sensor for the front shooter.

Should you buy it? Yes

The Vivo NEX is a bold showcase for the future. With the rest of the field adopting the notch as a way to minimize bezels, Vivo went with an innovative solution that hides the front camera entirely.

The main issue with the Vivo NEX is availability: the phone is going up for sale primarily in Asian markets, and while you can import it from China, that particular version doesn’t include Google services out of the box, making it a non-starter for the U.S. or UK markets.

But if you’re living in India or other Asian markets where the NEX is currently on sale, then there’s plenty to like in the phone. The NEX is the best representation yet of an all-screen display, and the ultra-thin bezels up front create an immersive effect that you don’t really get with most other phones, aside from the Find X. Gaming in particular is a delight on the NEX thanks to the beefy hardware, the large 6.59-inch display, and the huge 4000mAh battery.

The NEX isn’t without its downsides — there’s no water resistance, and you’ll have to spend an afternoon setting up the software to your preferences. But overall, you’re getting a lot of interesting tech that isn’t available on any other phone today.

In India, the NEX is going up against the OnePlus 6. The 8GB/128GB verison of the OnePlus 6 costs ₹39,999 ($580) in the country, and while OxygenOS delivers a much better software experience, the NEX has much more exciting hardware.

4
out of 5

Vivo has aggressively marketed its wares in Asian markets over the last four years, building an impressive distribution network that allowed the company to rise up the ranks in the handset segment. With the NEX, it is signifying its intent to carve out a larger presence for itself in these markets.

The NEX is one of the most innovative phones of 2018. The software situation isn’t ideal, but if you’re in the market for a bezel-less phone with top-notch hardware, the NEX is one of the best devices available right now.

See at Amazon India

Android 9 Pie review: Closing the gap

The Android 9 Pie release is the proof in the proverbial pudding that Android as an operating system has hit its stride. Lacking neither underlying features or surface polish, Android 9 Pie is the most complete, comprehensive and consistent version of Android yet. It delivers on many of the promises of Android versions past, bringing us a new navigation system and app overview, better notification handling and resource management, and more embedded AI than you can poke a stick at. And yet, for all that, it can’t help but feel a little out of sync with its roots, perhaps trending a little too far in Apple’s direction. This is the Android 9 Pie review.

For Google, there are three main themes to Pie: intelligence, simplicity and digital wellbeing. The third won’t be available until the fall, but it is accessible to Pixel owners now through a public beta (more on this at the very end). The intelligence in Android Pie largely boils down to AI-based automation, learning from your usage habits to adjust everything from battery usage to display brightness. Simplicity is embodied in what you see and how you use it. Let’s start there.

Get Android Pie on your eligible device right now

A note on this Android 9 Pie review: The software experience I’m referring to below is based on the Android Pie version found on the Google Pixel 2. Android 9 on other devices may vary slightly although most of the underlying changes will be device agnostic. The bulk of this review was written based on the final Android P developer preview, with additional notes added after the official Android 9 update. I’ve been using Android P uninterrupted on the Pixel 2 since the initial alpha release on March 7, 2018.

Android 9 Pie review: Visual changes

The first thing you’ll notice about Android 9 is that its design language, known as Material Design, has received a visual refresh. The primary changes relate to rounded corners, colored icons, and lots more white space. It’s also flatter than ever, with even fewer drop shadows than before.

Android 9 navigation

Android 9 Pie introduces a new single-button gesture navigation system. It can be toggled on and off in the Display settings under Gestures > Swipe up on home button. These are the Android Pie gesture controls:

• Tap for home
• Long press for Google Assistant
• Swipe right and release for most recent app
• Swipe right and hold to scroll through recent apps
• Swipe up to show recent apps menu and suggested apps
• Swipe further up to open app drawer (or swipe up again from app overview)

Note: Android 9 gesture navigation is not going to remain limited to Pixel and Android One devices. Google has said that the Pixel 3 will use it by default and it will be made available to any manufacturers that want it.

These gestures are available in any screen, so you can swipe up any time to access the app drawer without going back to the home screen. A back arrow will appear to the left of the navigation button when necessary. I’m not entirely sure why swiping left to go back wasn’t implemented, as the back arrow’s presence seems slightly inconsistent with the otherwise very minimalistic navigation solution.

I’m not sure what the learning curve will be like for less technically-inclined users given the lack of visual cues, but I assume that’s why traditional on-screen buttons are still a thing. There are first-day popups to guide you but nothing persistent and obvious like Android’s traditional nav buttons.

Depending on where you are in the interface, other temporary buttons occasionally appear beside the navigation button. These include the keyboard picker and a smart rotation button. Smart rotation means that even if you have your auto-rotation toggle off, the Android OS will recognize apps in which you might want to override that setting (like YouTube for example), saving you a trip to the Quick Settings when you want to watch a video in full screen.

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On-screen gesture navigation is nothing new, with the iPhone X and several Android devices using it already. Some Android manufacturers had previously toyed with gesture navigation based around a capacitive fingerprint scanner, but that solution had several problems including quick app switching and accessing split-screen mode. In Android Pie, you just need to tap the app icon in the overview screen and choose split-screen from the menu (app pinning will also appear here if you enable it in Settings > Security & location > Advanced > Screen pinning). Fun fact: Huawei already introduced a single on-screen navigation button with last year’s Mate 10 Pro, although it was not as comprehensive as Google’s Pixel Pie solution. It should be noted for fans of capacitive buttons that the gesture nav button takes up the same amount of space as the old on-screen buttons.

Android Pie’s gesture navigation system is surprisingly natural once you know what does what, but it does take a little getting used to.

Using the Pie navigation system is surprisingly natural once you know what does what. It does take a little getting used to if you haven’t used gesture nav in the past, but once you do it just feels “right” (at least to me). My only qualm during this Android 9 Pie review was that to launch the app drawer you need to swipe past the halfway point of your screen. This isn’t so bad on my Pixel 2, but I can imagine it being a little clumsy on larger-screened devices. If anyone at Google is reading this, an option somewhere in the settings that allows you to move the tipping point for launching the app drawer down a bit would be a great addition.

App overview

There are now two versions of the app overview screen (if you have gesture nav enabled): one with the Google search bar and AI-suggested apps at the bottom and another with full-screen app preview cards. The first is passive, simply presenting a horizontal row of preview cards you can swipe your way through. To remove an app, simply swipe it upwards. To enter an app, either swipe it down or tap on its card. Swipe all the way to the right and you’ll see a Clear All option. Tap the app’s icon at the top of the preview card and you’ll get additional options for App Info, app pinning and Split-Screen.

If you have gesture navigation enabled, there are now two versions of the app overview screen, each with its own benefits.

The second app overview screen is much cooler. Activated by swiping (and holding) the navigation button to the far right, it launches an active scroll through your most recent apps. Simply keep your finger on the navigation button to keep scrolling and release to launch whichever app is currently on screen. You can reverse direction by moving the nav button to the left and the speed with which the cards scroll by matches the speed of your finger’s movement along the scrubber bar.

Rather than swiping and holding, if you swipe and release the navigation button to the right you’ll instantly load the most recently used app. This makes switching between your two most recent apps even more convenient than double tapping the old recent apps button. It works on the home screen as well as in an app, but the result is the same.

The larger app preview screens make it easier to see where you were at and you can even copy and paste text right from the preview cards. Depending on what you’re highlighting, Pie will also suggest an app (Maps for an address, Chrome for a URL, Contacts or Messages for a phone number, and so on). Some have actions attached to the app suggestion, like calling a number you’ve just highlighted and so on. For general text, your options are copy, search and share, and for images, it’s just share.

You can even copy and paste text right from the preview cards via a new feature called Overview Selection.

Overview selection can be turned off in your home screen settings under Suggestions. In this same menu, you can also disable the AI-suggested apps that appear in the app overview and at the top of your app drawer if you’re not a fan. I must say that, more so than any other “AI” or habit-based suggestions I’ve ever encountered on other phones, Google gets it right a lot more frequently than most.

I personally love the new recent apps screens. Some may feel having two is redundant, but I like having the option of an active and a passive scroll. The first lets me steadily scroll through my recent apps when I’m looking for an app I know I used fairly recently. The second lets me quickly flick all the way back to the last app in memory or scroll at my own pace.

Quick Settings

The Quick Settings area represents perhaps the most obvious visual change to the OS, even if the changes are pretty minimal. The monochrome and some would say dull Oreo toggles are now placed in colored circles. Depending on your wallpaper (Pie adapts automatically, but you can choose manually), you’ll either get a white or very dark gray ground with blue circles to denote active toggles and greyed out ones for those that are off.

Like Oreo, in the minimal Quick Settings pane at the top of the notification shade you’ll simply get six toggles. It’s mildly annoying that you can’t quickly access the settings menu from this view anymore, but you’ll learn to live with it. As always, tapping the toggles here flips them on or off, and holding down on one takes you to the relevant area in settings.

Android Pie adds a few splashes of color back into the OS, but most of it is only skin deep.

In the expanded Quick Settings view you’ll get nine toggles on screen, with a second page to the right if you need it. While the overall layout is the same as Oreo (barring the colored circles), it’s worth noting that Google has removed two things in Android 9 Pie. There are no longer any drop down carats for settings like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and the mini-menus they used to take you to are now gone. The only option in Pie is to long-press the toggle to go to the full section in settings. It may feel less convenient to some folks – having to leave the Quick Settings area just to switch Wi-Fi networks for example – but it does make the whole area feel less cluttered.

Which brings me to one of the most inconsistent parts of this new version of Android.

On the home screen, you’ll find the Wi-Fi, cellular network and battery icons at the right of the status bar. Swipe the notifications shade down and things rejig a little. The battery icon changes shape and shifts to the left to make way for a battery-remaining percentage (which shows up whether you have the percentage enabled permanently via the Battery settings menu or not). The Wi-Fi and cellular icons move into the right-hand corner of the Quick Settings mini-view and the date appears to the left under the time, which makes sense. But swipe down into the full Quick Settings view and things reshuffle again. The date and Wi-Fi and mobile data icons vanish and instead, you find your Wi-Fi network named under the toggle while your carrier info appears at the very bottom of the card next to the moved-again cellular icon. On the lock screen, your carrier info appears in the top left corner.

This all just feels sloppy and unnecessary. For example, why show the Wi-Fi icon in the notification shade when the toggle already shows the same information? Why change the mobile data icon so it no longer shows cellular strength? Why move the cellular network icon three times rather than just leave it in the status bar? Do that and Google could have simply displayed your carrier info right underneath as it did with the date underneath the time. As boring as it may have been, Oreo’s consistent handling of these issues was far better, making the changes in Pie stick out as bad design.

Thankfully, the time, which now appears on the left of the status bar, never moves. Expect to instinctually look in the wrong place for a while after you get the Android 9 update.

Easter egg

Sorry folks, nothing new to see here (for now). Going to Settings > System > About phone > Android version and tapping the Android version number repeatedly in the card that pops up will still take you to the psychedelic peppermint P screen rather than a new Easter Egg. Perhaps in Android 9.1…

Settings

For once, the settings menu largely avoids what I typically refer to as Google DOCTRIN (Department of Change That Really Isn’t Necessary) and just gets a splash of color rather than a complete reshuffle. In keeping with other changes, the search bar at the very top of the Settings is now in a pill shape.

The colored icons in Android Pie’s settings menu is only skin deep though. As soon as you enter a sub-menu things generally revert back to the familiar black text on white ground with blue highlights (at least on the Pixel 2).

Android Pie doesn’t quite get a system-wide dark mode, but it does have a dark theme for Quick Settings and the app drawer.

Dark theme (sort of)

The Android team has long wanted to add a dark theme to the OS which is why we continually see it in various forms in developer previews. Unfortunately, every year it seems to fail Google’s internal testing for battery life and performance and so it is removed in the final version. Not so this year. While it’s not exactly a system-wide dark mode (the settings menu being the obvious exception), you can now choose whether you want a dark or light theme in your Display settings under Device theme. If you prefer the adaptive theme based on your wallpaper, you can also leave it as is.

Other visual changes

With Material Design’s new even-more-rounded corners, you’ll see a lot more of them in Pie and in Google’s apps in the months to come. Notification cards are no longer full-width as they are in Oreo, but are much more noticeably cards, complete with rounded corners. This is true both on the lock screen and in the notification shade.

There are new transition animations throughout Android 9 and new heads up notification animations as well. If you like animations you’ll enjoy them, but my standard advice is to enable developer options and turn Window animation scale and Transition animation scale to off. It won’t really make your phone any faster, but removing animations does make it feel snappier.

There’s now a battery percentage indicator at the bottom of the screen in Ambient Display, meaning you don’t have to waste battery by waking your phone to find out how much battery life you have remaining. You also get the weather displayed on Pie’s Ambient Display and centered notifications.

As you couldn’t possibly have missed unless you have been living under an internet-free rock these last few months, there’s new Android 9 Pie emoji. Fun fact: the Clock app icon actually shows the current time rather than being a static icon.

Android 9 Pie review: Functional changes

Volume

In Oreo, Google moved the power menu over near the physical power button. In Pie, it does the same to volume, putting it next to the volume button (except if you’ve got home screen rotation enabled, in which case it just appears on the right-hand side of the screen). By default, the volume buttons now adjust media volume rather than ringer volume.

There are two parts to the new look. The vertical slider is your media volume. It can be toggled on or off by tapping the musical note below it or adjusted by sliding or tapping the bar. It’ll switch to Bluetooth volume when you have wireless headphones connected and when you’re in a call the volume rocker changes in-call audio.

Pie moves the volume slider over near the volume buttons and adds shortcuts for vibrate, mute and sound.

The little box at the top is your ring volume. Tapping it cycles through on, vibrate only and off. You can also press volume up and power at the same time to instantly switch to vibrate only. If you hit your Sound settings you can change the button shortcut to mute (or disable it entirely). If you want to change the actual volume level rather than just toggle it, you’ll have to go to your sound settings via the cog icon at the very bottom. You can also adjust alarm and in-call volume here. The toggle for the optional charging sound when you plug your phone in is also found here.

Text selection magnifier

As in iOS, when you drag the text selection brackets left or right you’ll get a magnifier popup to better show you where you’re at in the text. I kind of wish it was a little less sensitive, as getting the right stopping point still doesn’t feel ideal. The popup is also not much of a magnification, essentially just getting the text out from under your finger rather than making it significantly larger. It’s a nice start but I think it could use further refinement. On a related note, if you, like me, were a big fan of the ability to add custom navigation bar buttons like move-one-space left or right, it’s still possible in Pie using an app called Custom Navigation Bar.

The power menu adds a screenshot button at long last and a new feature called Lockdown, which does what it sounds like.

Power menu

The power menu now has a screenshot option (the old power and volume down method still works though). It’s also worth noting there’s a new Lockdown option you can add to the power menu which will hide all notifications, block Smart Lock and disable the fingerprint scanner. You can find the toggle in your lock screen settings, but once enabled it’ll appear in the main UI as well. Side note: if your screen dims on its way to timeout, you can now bring it back to life simply by touching the fingerprint scanner.

Better security

For security reasons, idle apps in Pie can no longer access your camera, sensors or mic. If a background app does make a request you’ll see a notification alerting you to the fact. If it’s something you don’t approve of, you can deny access from the notification. MAC addresses are now randomized too, meaning it won’t be quite so easy to track your device across public access Wi-Fi.

Better screenshots

Sometimes the simplest changes make the most impact. In Android 9 Pie you can now edit a screenshot via the notifications shade, meaning if all you want to do is crop, circle something or highlight a section, you can now do so without requiring a third-party editing app.

Adaptive brightness

Android Pie introduces Adaptive Brightness, which shouldn’t be confused with the old adaptive brightness because now it’s got AI. Once enabled, Adaptive Brightness will automatically adjust to the ambiance of your situation as it always has, but it will also learn how you modify brightness in those conditions. So if you always tend to drop your screen brightness a bit further when you turn off the lights, Pie will soon learn that behavior and do it for you.

AI takes center stage in both battery and brightness, learning how you use your device and adapting to your preferences.

Adaptive battery

AI also enters the battery arena, prioritizing battery power for the apps and services you use most. Apps and services you use infrequently will have their resources limited to extend your phone’s battery life. It should be noted that this may result in delayed notifications from those apps, so be warned.

App Actions

Following on with this year’s impulse to AI all the things, Android 9 uses AI to pre-empt what it thinks you’re likely to do in an app – depending on the time of day, where you are, what you’re doing and what you ate for breakfast – and highlight it in the app drawer just underneath the AI-curated app suggestions. For me, I’m primarily recommended to message the Android Authority team in Slack or my wife in WhatsApp, two things I basically do every second I’m awake. So far so good, robots.

App Actions suggest the things Google’s AI thinks you’ll want to do – and it’s not bad.

App Actions are actually pretty cool: if you call your kids every day after school it’ll prompt the call at the right time; when you connect a pair of headphones it’ll switch to actions within your music player app of choice; get in the car and it’ll suggest navigation via Maps, and so on. App Actions also play into smart text selection, so if you highlight a band’s name, you’ll see listening options for your music apps as well as the usual options like copy and share.

If you don’t like the idea of AI learning all about your habits, you can disable Actions in the Home screen settings menu under Suggestions > Actions. If you do choose to use them, Actions can be dragged and dropped onto the home screen and will also appear in Google Assistant.

App Slices

App Slices aren’t ready for prime time yet, meaning they’ll likely debut on the Pixel 3. Slices are basically snippets of app UIs that developers can hand over to Google to have surfaced in places like search. The classic example is if you type Lyft into search, Pie will surface information and shortcuts from within the app like hailing a driver for a particular destination or showing how far away the nearest car is.

Search is only the first stage of Slices’ life, with Google Assistant integration coming eventually too. Like rich snippets on the web, Google is essentially prioritizing the user experience here at the cost of time-on-site or time-in-app. For example, if a cinema app allows Slices access to live screening times there might not be any need to launch the app at all. While some developers might want to avoid Slices for this reason, there’s no denying the feature will play an increasingly large part in Pie and future OS versions.

Anyone that took the time to learn Do Not Disturb’s three-part system will feel restricted by Pie’s default setup.

Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb mode has been modified in Android 9. The fairly complicated three-part system (total silence, alarms only and priority mode) has been condensed into a single Do Not Disturb mode in Pie. It is customizable though, so you can add exceptions, adjust notification handling, remove visual disturbances when the screen is off and so on. For a mainstream user it’ll be easier and more coherent, but for anyone that took the time to get to know the old three-part system it will no doubt seem restrictive.

Notifications

Notifications have received some slight changes in Android 9. There’s a new Manage notifications shortcut at the bottom of the cards in the notification shade, and if you constantly swipe away a particular type of notification Pie will ask if you want to stop showing them. If you tend to get a little swipe happy and forget what notification you blindly dismissed, or suffer from spammy notifications you want to block, Pie has your back. You can now see a user-facing list of recent notification activity at the bottom of your Notifications settings. If it’s something annoying you can flip the toggle right there to disable them in future.

Thanks to the accursed notch, you’ll only see four notification icons in the status bar before the list is truncated with a dot to indicate more unseen icons. As much as I suffer from notification anxiety, I still preferred being able to see which apps my notifications are from without having to commit to engaging with them by swiping down the shade. Accommodating a non-existent notch on the home screen in landscape mode is also ridonculous. Android should be smart enough to know if the device on which it is being used has a notch, or whether the screen has been rotated.

Persistent Android System and System UI notifications can now be disabled in their respective notification channels. Before you take the nuclear option and disable all of these just take a moment to think why you’re being shown them in the first place. They may be annoying when they clog up your notification shade but they are kind of important.

Other functional changes

Bottom nav is coming, including both bottom navigation in your favorite Google apps or bottom app bar menus. The rise of the notch and larger phones overall have meant that in-app navigation bars and app bar menus have migrated south, closer to your thumbs. It’ll take a while, but sooner or later most essential items in apps are going to be sitting just above the navigation button.

Battery Saver mode no longer turns your phone that horrendous shade of orange, simply providing a notification that the mode is enabled and a discrete + symbol inside the battery icon in the status bar. If Battery Saver is turned on and you only partially charge your phone, it will remain on if the battery percentage when you unplug your phone is still below the Battery Saver threshold you set in your battery settings. Side note: If you forget to turn your hotspot off, Android Pie will automatically disable it after a while if no devices are connected.

The text selection menu has been improved in Pie, taking web search and translate out of the overflow menu and onto the main menu. When App Actions appear in the menu, you’ll still have to deal with the overflow menu, but at least it won’t be every time you want to know what a Flügelspiegel is.

Android Pie’s Location settings have also been streamlined, but, like the simplification of Do Not Disturb mode, not necessarily in ways that you’ll like. Case in point: there is no longer a setting for battery saving mode in the location settings. Your options are now quite limited, either allow everything, disable location entirely or turn off Improve location accuracy, which means instead of using cellular, Wi-Fi and sensors you’ll only be using GPS, which will drain your battery very quickly. Opting in to any of these will grant Google permission to periodically collect your location data.

Digital Wellbeing

Google, like Apple, is making a big deal right now about helping you manage your screen time. While Google wants and needs you on your phone as much as possible to keep those ad dollars rolling in, introducing something that helps you wean yourself off it is admirable. Skeptics might assume it’s a decision made to avoid looking bad when Apple does it, but whatevs. According to its research, Google claims 70 percent of respondents admitted they’d like help using their phones less.

Unfortunately, Digital Wellbeing is not currently available in Pie, likely being held over for the Pixel 3 launch later this year. Current Pixel owners can, however, access a beta version of it by signing up with your Google Play account here and waiting for the invitation email. Once activated, it’ll appear in your settings menu.

The Digital Wellbeing Dashboard shows you how many notifications you’ve received, how often you’ve unlocked your device and how much time you’ve spent in various apps.

The primary functions of Digital Wellbeing are a Dashboard which gives you an overview of your device usage: how many notifications you’ve received, how often you’ve unlocked your device and how much time you’ve spent in various apps.

Following that, App Timer lets you set time limits for particularly addictive apps, with the app icon being grayed out once your time is up. If you know you have an unhealthy addiction to Instagram, Android Pie can help keep your impulses in check, assuming you opt in of course. As with most things, the first step to recovery is admitting you need help.

A new mode called Wind Down will slowly limit your device’s activity according to a schedule you set. So as you get closer bedtime it’ll turn on night mode, limit interruptions via Do Not Disturb and eventually fade the screen to grayscale to remind you it’s time to hit the hay.

While these additions are certainly positive, it’ll be interesting to see how many folks actually volunteer to limit their phone usage and how many stick with it over time. I can absolutely see a lot of us turning things off in irritation when we’re in the midst of a 2am YouTube binge and our screen suddenly turns monochrome.

Wrap up

Android Pie continues the push first made abundantly clear in Oreo: Google has taken Android mainstream. Where Oreo put a clean table cloth on the Android foundation we all know and love, Pie is starting to clear away some of the clutter. In a few places, Pie even starts down the slippery slope of removing choice in favor of a single “simple” solution. Whether it’s handing the reins to AI or simply accepting the settings Google thinks is best, Pie feels the least “Androidy” of all recent releases.

For the majority of mainstream users – the next billion Google is obviously courting – a less complex Android will likely be seen as a good thing. Android has a reputation for being the tech savvy person’s OS, something that scares off a lot of the smartphone buying public. First Oreo and now Pie have been designed to rehabilitate that reputation. Pie makes the Pixel line every bit as approachable as the iPhone, even if Google’s primary focus is propagating its software and services rather than shipping hardware. But to those that have long loved Android’s exhaustive customization and freedom, Android 9 might feel a little hollow, at least in the form Google has released it. For those feeling a little disillusioned, other Android manufacturers will become an increasingly important factor in giving Android Pie enough spice to give it the flavor they crave.

Android is becoming more user-friendly, more intelligent, more clean and simple, and increasingly melting into the background.

Philosophical qualms aside, there is a lot of great stuff going on in Android 9 Pie, and I have to say I feel slightly guilty for enjoying it as much as I do while starting to realize what’s being lost along the way. As Android becomes more user-friendly, more intelligent, more clean and simple, it’ll increasingly melt into the background and become something that “just works.”

AI and machine learning will continue to make more and more decisions for us, but even if they’re totally accurate and appropriate, it’ll be hard to shake the feeling that something central to Android’s history has fallen by the wayside. As Android 9 Pie closes the gap and brings us one step closer to a seamless, polished, intuitive and fully automatic future, just know that if that thought fills you with equal parts excitement and longing for the good old days, you’re not alone.

Let us know when you expect to get Android Pie in the comments and what you think of what you’ve seen so far.

Modern Dad on Android 9.0 Pie, Pixels and more!

An update on what’s in my pocket.

There’s something about using a Google Pixel phone that almost feels lazy at this point. Is it the sexiest piece of hardware you can buy? Nope. But it’s predictable. It’s dependable. It’s the kind of phone you want if you don’t want to worry as much about your phone.

And that’s where I’m at these days. I want a phone that works, and I want a phone that works well. The Pixel 2 XL still very much fits that bill. And with Android 9.0 Pie it’s been that much better. It’s as fast now (faster, probably) than when it was released almost a year ago. Its camera is still easily among the top you can buy. And the marriage between OS and apps remains better than any other.

That’s not to say I don’t want to see improvement in the Pixel 3 — as far as hardware goes, it’s tough to beat … that other phone. But in the end, the software experience is more important.

And that always brings me back to Android.

Modern Dad

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Here’s your last chance to pre-order Madden NFL ’19 on PlayStation and save 20%

Are you ready for some football?

The last few months have felt cold and empty. A darkness has descended upon my life. I have wallowed in despair and self-pity. And all because football was in its offseason. Well, the Hall of Fame game is over and the pre-season has officially started. With that comes a new edition of Madden, too! Madden NFL ’19 releases August 10, this Friday. You can use your Amazon Prime discount to get the game brand new for $47.99 on PlayStation or Xbox as long as you order before the release date. The discount is deducted automatically for Prime members during checkout.

All I care about when it comes to football is that Andrew Luck is healthy so my Indianapolis Colts can stop being bottom feeders, and he’s going to be playing in his first game in about two years this Thursday. Of course, that’s not quite good enough so I’ll also be spending my weekend winning the Super Bowl with him in Madden. You should grab your copy so you can play with your favorite players, too.

If you aren’t an Amazon Prime member, you won’t be able to get this discount, which works on just about every major video game release. Sign up for a free trial and you can at least take advantage of this discount.

See on Amazon

The best home weather stations you can buy

Home weather stations are one of those gadgets that you didn’t know you need until you own one. While they have only recently become popular, these devices have been around forever — at least one company has been producing personal weather stations for the better part of three decades, and that’s Davis Instruments.

Things have changed. Within the last several years, new companies have sprung up and brought the cost of ownership down to a level the average consumer, as well as the weather enthusiast, can afford. But much like the best weather apps for Android and iOS, not all weather stations are created equal, and accuracy is key.

We’ve recently had the opportunity to test many weather stations and find the best of the best. Let’s find out which station could potentially become your own personal weatherman.

At a glance

Product
Category

Ambient Weather WS-2902 Osprey
Best weather station overall

Davis Vantage Vue
Best weather station for accuracy

My Acurite Weather Station
Best weather station for expandability

Bloomsky Sky2 + Storm
Best weather station for sky watchers

Acurite 00589 3-in-1 Weather Station
Best weather station for the budget conscious

Ambient Weather WS-2902 Osprey

The best

Why should you buy this: Ambient Weather has knocked it out of the park with this hyper-connected weather stations.

The best

Ambient Weather WS-2902 Osprey

$169.99 from Amazon

Who’s it for: Smart home owners and those looking for functionality and value

How much will it cost: $170

Why we picked the Ambient Weather WS-2902 Osprey:

We’ll admit that we were super skeptical of Ambient Weather’s claims of accuracy rivaling that of Davis Instrument’s Vantage series, even though it’s long list of connectivity options bests any station on the market by a wide margin.

For the most part, those claims held up. In our tests, the WS-2902’s instrumentation performed generally well, save for the barometric pressure sensor – which did require recalibration regularly. Normally an issue like that would have been enough to continue to give the top spot to Davis’ Vantage Vue, however Ambient Weather blew us away with its connectivity options.

Although the Osprey does not have its own app – something we hope Ambient Weather addresses in the future – it can connect to your Amazon Echo, Google Assistant, and even IFTTT. With IFTTT, you can use your WS-2902 to intelligently control your smart devices, for example turning your Rachio sprinklers off when it’s raining or turning on the lights in your house on a cloudy day using measurements from its solar radiation sensor.

But that’s not all: you can also connect it to Weather Underground or Weathercloud, or make use of Ambient Weather’s API to make applications of your own. Ambient Weather also provides its own service called AmbientWeather.net, which will give you a graphical look at all of your weather data from one central place.

While you can’t expand the number of weather sensors – perhaps to monitor temperatures in other rooms of your house or the water temperature of your hot tub or pool, AmbientWeather.net does allow you to add additional devices on your account to do that. However, at $170, we’d expect this, and it’s a great deal even with the lack of expandability.

Davis Vantage Vue

The best for accuracy

Why should you buy this: The granddaddy of weather station manufacturers has a version of its top-of-the-line weather station that doesn’t break the bank.

The best for accuracy

Davis Vantage Vue

No one can beat Davis’ accuracy, even if internet connectivity is expensive and dated.

$299.88 from Amazon.com

Who’s it for: Weather watchers who need accuracy and long-term reliability

How much will it cost: $300-$530

Why we picked the Davis Vantage Vue:

Davis Instruments dominates the personal weather station market because of its staying power: the company’s first digital personal weather stations were sold in the 1990s. But Davis’ weak point was always price.

Enter the Vantage Vue. The station is Davis’ attempt to bring its accuracy and reliability to a price point where it’s competitive with newer stations. While the Vantage Vue is still relatively expensive, its accuracy is unrivaled in the category. All sensors are housed in a 5-in-1 unit, which measures temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind direction, and speed.

While all-in-one sensor units present some challenges — you’ll need to decide whether more accurate wind speed readings are more important than accurate temperature readings, and vice versa – our testers gave high marks to its accuracy and reliability.

The station has yet to give us a single issue through a full six months of testing and required little if any maintenance. One area where we walked away a tad disappointed, however, was its connectivity. This station uses software we’ve known Davis to use for the past 15 years all but unchanged (no, we’re not kidding).

While it does offer a web-based page, even that is super basic, and you’ll need to spend anywhere from $130-230 extra to get a dongle that connects the station console to your computer. Considering just about every other manufacturer includes that with their stations, it’s a bit disappointing. But for the accuracy alone, it’s hard to say no to the Vantage Vue.

My AcuRite Weather Station

The best for expandability

Why should you buy this: AcuRite’s newest stations are internet connected with a best-in-class mobile and web-based app, with tons of sensors.

The best for expandability

My AcuRite Weather Station

A great web and mobile app, and tons of sensor options make My AcuRite the most expandable system we tested.

$86.82 from Amazon.com

Who’s it for: Those who want to monitor more than just basic weather conditions

How much will it cost: $140+ (depending on additional sensors)

Why we picked the My AcuRite Weather Station:

Much of AcuRite’s business comes in the form of partnerships with brick and mortar retailers. In fact, it’s the exclusive in-store weather instrument provider for Walmart and several other stores. Due to this, the company is often stereotyped as a “budget” brand. That’s not necessarily true.

The My AcuRite platform is an example of this. While it still produces tons of low-cost models, My AcuRite is intended to be a competitively priced model to go up against the Vantage Vue in terms of feature set and capability.

Its sheer breadth of sensor options puts the Vantage Vue to shame (there, you can’t add any). You can add additional temperature and humidity sensors, indoor sensors, a water detector sensor, liquid and soil temperature sensors, and a ‘spot check’ temperature humidity sensor, none of which are more than $50, and are the cheapest of any of the major brands. AcuRite also sells a lightning sensor, but unfortunately that’s not yet compatible with the My AcuRite system.

My AcuRite’s web and mobile apps set the bar for what a weather station app should be. Readings are continuously updated, and you can set all the alerts you’d ever want to. The graphs the app produces are visually stunning, and the app is even better on a tablet.

But there are a few quirks. Temperature readings during sunny days regularly read high, as did barometric pressure. The station also has an installation process that isn’t always smooth, and the directions sometimes led us astray. We’re told that most of these accuracy issues (and integrated lightning detection will be addressed in the Atlas weather stations, AcuRite’s direct competitor to the Davis Vantage series. You’ll pay much more for the Atlas, though.

Bloomsky Sky2 + Storm

The best for sky watchers

Why should you buy this: While you can get the Bloomsky Sky Camera alone, paring it with the Storm turns it into a capable weather station.

The best home weather station for sky watchers

Bloomsky Sky2 + Storm

While Bloomsky’s Sky cam alone is a little weak on the feature set, the combination of the Sky and Storm works well.

$119.99 from Amazon.com

Who’s it for: Cloud watchers who aren’t satisfied with just watching weather conditions.

How much will it cost: $300 for Camera, additional $140 for Storm

Why we picked the Bloomsky Sky2 + Storm:

Bloomsky is one of those gadgets we’re surprised that no one thought of before. On its own, it takes a photo of the sky every three to eight minutes, as well as a picture any time its built-in rain sensor detects rain. These pictures are taken from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset, and then automatically stitched together to create stunning time lapses. No power is needed. The Sky2 runs completely on solar power.

By itself the camera only records temperature, humidity, and pressure continuously. You’ll want to spend the extra $140, though, and get the Storm add on, which also runs on solar power and adds wind speed and direction and UV exposure.

Imagery and data from your Bloomsky station is uploaded to the Bloomsky Map, where you can browse through the thousands of cameras already on the network. We generally had a good experience with our test unit (which is still active), and installation was easy – although the Wi-Fi connectivity was a bit weak.

We did experience some issues with temperature, especially in direct sunlight. Temperatures spiked more than 6-7 degrees above the actual temperature during these times, which means you’ll need to think long and hard about where you’ll place the station. The Storm generally performs well, but is certainly nowhere near as accurate as top of the line stations.

Another negative is the price. At $300, it’s quite a bit for what some might consider a glorified webcam. Add the Storm in to complete it, and it’s the most expensive station in our list.

AcuRite 00589 3-in-1 Weather Station

The best for the budget conscious

Why should you buy this: While AcuRite is moving towards higher priced and more accurate weather stations, the sub-$100 00589 model is one budget standout

The best home weather station for the budget conscious

AcuRite 00589 3-in-1 Weather Station

While the accuracy is not as good, AcuRite’s 3-in-1 weather station is one of its better budget models.

$77.20 from Amazon.com

Who’s it for: Those on a tight budget, who don’t mind some accuracy loss.

How much will it cost: $85

Why we picked the AcuRite 00589 3-in-1 Weather Station:

AcuRite gets a second mention on our list for its svelte 3-in-1 Weather Station (Model 00589). At a price of only $85, you’re getting most – but not all – of the most important variables. The station measures temperature, humidity, and wind speed, along with barometric pressure and trend.

Wind direction and rainfall measurements aren’t provided, although it does have a nice forecasting feature which attempts to learn your local weather patterns to make its forecasts more accurate. It can also store daily, monthly, and all-time high and low records, but there’s no way to transfer this information off the device because it has no internet connectivity.

Accuracy is okay, but noticeably poorer than the 5-in-1 sensor suite. Owners also report that placement is key with the sensors, the sun can throw temperatures are off. Additionally, wind speed readings seem to run on the low side.

As with anything, you get what you pay for. Buy this is only if you’re looking for the most basic of functionality and more of a general idea of the weather outside. If you can spend just $50 more, get the My AcuRite system — if that’s not possible. then the 3-in-1 is a worthy alternative.

How we test

Weather stations at Digital Trends go through a rigorous set of tests to even be considered for inclusion in our ‘best of’ list. We first gauge construction of the station as we’re assembling it, looking for any possible weak points or questionable design decisions. As we’re installing the station, we’re also looking at the install process itself. Is it easy to put together? Are the instructions clear? Does everything work out of the box, or are we struggling to get it to work?

Once the station is installed at our test site, the real work begins. At this point we’re looking for accuracy. Weather station readings are worthless, and no better than that app, if inaccurate. We compare our readings with a nearby official National Weather Service station and look for differences while accounting for normal variances in weather conditions. Few stations make it past this point, as our standards are high. In general, readings with more than two percent difference are deemed inaccurate.

Next, we look at reliability. These stations are up for several weeks — months if possible –  gathering data. We look for issues like data dropouts or failing sensors. Is the station holding up well? Do certain kinds of weather affect the station in negative ways? We make note of it, so you know what you’re getting into, and what you might have to deal with down the road.

Finally, we look at connectivity and feature set. This is Digital Trends, and we’re all about tech. We want to see easy connections to put your weather data online (Weather Underground, etc.), a well-designed mobile or web app, and other ways to integrate its weather data into your digital life.  On the feature side, does it have all the weather readings a good station should have? Does it have a standout feature that other weather stations don’t?

If a station can pass these qualifications successfully, only then it is considered for inclusion in our list.

Tips for setting up your home weather station

To get the best accuracy out of your home weather station, it’s not as simple as just placing it outside and turning it on. Even our best and most accurate stations will give inaccurate readings if the sensors are not placed correctly.

In this section, we’ll give you some tips on how to get the most accurate readings, so let’s get started.

Temperature and Humidity Sensors – World standards call for temperature sensors to be placed at “eye level:” traditionally five to six feet off the ground. In addition, the sensor should be located away from any radiative sources of heat like buildings, pavement, and macadam. A grassy location is the most preferable.

The sensor should also be in an area that receives full shade. If this isn’t possible, and your temperature and humidity sensors have radiation shielding, then an area of partial shade (where the sensor isn’t continuously in the sun all day) is acceptable. Try and avoid placing a sensor in full sun if possible.

Wind Vane/Anemometer – Guidelines state that an anemometer (wind gauge) be placed at a height of 10 meters (33 feet) off the ground, and at least six feet above any nearby obstructions or objects. Obviously, this will be hard if not completely impossible to do. Instead, aim to place your anemometer as far away and above any obstructions as possible, and don’t forget a compass to calibrate the wind vane (remember winds are measured from the direction it’s coming from!)

Rain Gauge – Rain gauges just need to be placed in a spot where splash back will not enter the gauge itself, and placed in a spot far away from obstructions so that rainfall isn’t blocked from entering the gauge.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ‘Just Cause 4’ lets you use anything, even the weather, as a weapon
• Stay warm by layering the right way this winter with the best mid-layers
• Take charge of your yard with the Scotts Gro 7 Zone Smart Watering Controller
• How to set up your Google Home device in 10 easy steps
• Halo Smart Labs shuts down, no longer makes or supports Halo smart alarms

Got Android 9.0 Pie? Here’s why you should turn off auto screen rotation

Are you one of the lucky ones to receive the Android 9.0 Pie update? The new version of the Android operating system looks gorgeous and packs intuitive improvements, one of which removes the frustration of auto-rotating the screen.

Smartphone users all over the world know how annoying it is to have auto-rotate turned on, as the faintest change in orientation of the phone can sometimes convert the whole screen to landscape mode at inopportune moments. Google has a simple cure for this in the latest version of Android, and it involves turning off Auto-rotate completely.

Setting up screen rotation

For older versions of Android, all you can do is keep Auto-rotate on or off. When it’s on, put your phone in landscape orientation, and the app will match that mode. Turn it off, and every app stays locked in portrait orientation. Keeping it off is less frustrating than dealing with random screen rotations, but turning it back on when you need landscape mode isn’t a swift action.

Android 9.0 Pie’s new method is much simpler and easier to use. If you have the update, first turn off Auto-rotate. Swipe down to open the notification drawer, find the Auto-rotate quick settings tile, and tap on it to disable it. Now your phone is locked to one orientation.

Using screen rotation lock

Once screen rotation lock is disabled in the notification drawer, open any app you wish to use, and rotate your phone to landscape orientation (some apps — like Instagram — don’t support a landscape mode). You’ll notice the app doesn’t convert to landscape mode — but you will see a new icon appear to the right of the home button. It has two arrows in opposite directions, forming a rectangle. Tap it, and the app will swap to landscape mode. Now if you switch back to portrait orientation, you’ll see the same icon appear again. Tap it once more and you’re back to portrait mode. This is a much faster system of swapping through screen orientations, as you don’t need to swipe down to open the notification drawer.

The new screen rotation feature is only available through Android 9.0 Pie, so you’ll have to wait until your smartphone manufacturer pushes out the update. If you’re wondering when your phone will receive Pie, don’t fret: We contacted every major handset manufacturer to ask when they plan to update their devices.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Android 9.0 Pie: Everything you need to know
• Android 9.0 Pie vs. iOS 12: How notifications have changed
• Android P hands-on review
• How to use Android 9.0 Pie’s gesture navigation, and how to turn it off
• How to turn off notifications in Android

Gene-edited silkworms spin out spider silk, could lead to mass production

There are few things as haunting as walking into a spider web. But the special silk behind these universally reviled arachnid nets shows huge promise for saving human lives, from battling cancer to making better hearing aids.

That’s because spider silk is strong, flexible, and lightweight. The problem is, spiders are extremely territorial and cannibalistic creatures, making spider silk hard to propagate.

But in a new study by researchers at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, genetically engineered silkworms were shown to produce higher yields of spider silk (without carrying the risk of eating each other). By using the gene editing tool TALEN, researchers replaced part of the silkworm genome with that of the golden orb-web spider. A paper detailing the research, which may pave a path towards mass production, was published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This work provides a stable, cost-effective … system to produce spider silk in large-scale by using genetically engineered silkworms,” Anjiang Tan, a researcher at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, told Digital Trends.

The recent study made two significant achievements, according to Tan. For one, the amount of spider silk found in the silkworms’ silk was significantly greater — 35.2 percent compared to the less than 5 percent achieved in previous studies. And the silkworms were able to directly spin out ready-to-use spider silk, a feature that Tan called “very cost-effective.”

As an added bonus, Tan said the gene-editing technique enables researchers to engineer silkworms that can excrete not only spider silk but “custom-designed silk or other proteins for different purposes in the future.” Silkworms have also been used to produce silk for thousands of years, giving future spider silk farmers a much more manageable animal to rear.

Spider silk has been gaining a lot of attention over the past few years, grabbing headlines for its promise as a material of the future.

In June, researchers from the University of Geneva in Switzerland showed how microcapsules made from artificial spider silk could be used to deliver cancer-battling vaccines directly to the immune system. A year earlier, researches at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital in Austria demonstrated that super strong spider silk from the golden orb-weaver spider could be used to repair severe nerve damage. That same month, a team from the University of Cambridge even showed how artificial silk could someday be used to make bulletproof vests more protective.

The recent study provides a potential route toward mass production of spider silk that would help make the promising material more accessible. Moving forward, Tan and his team want to try out different combinations of spider silk genes to increase efficiency and productivity, while unlocking the spider gene sequence to better understand what protein structures give this material its outstanding properties.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Move over, Spider-Man! Spider silk can be used to build armor and repair nerves
• Spider silk microcapsules could deliver vaccines to help battle cancer
• Spider silk could be used to create artificial skin to help heal wounds
• Sorry, Spider-Man! Newly developed bio-fiber is even stronger than spider silk
• Moving around in zero gravity is hard. MIT’s solution? Spider-Man’s web shooter

How to use Android 9.0 Pie’s gesture navigation, and how to turn it off

Aside from the rumored notch on the upcoming Pixel 3, it seems Google has taken another page from Apple’s book — injecting iPhone X-like gestures into the latest version of its operating system, Android 9.0 Pie. The new Android gesture navigation consists of swipes rather than tapping on the traditional navigation icons.

While it may take some time getting used to it, we break down how to use the new gesture navigation system to help make the transition easier — and how to turn it on or off.

How to turn gesture controls on or off

For those upgrading from Android 8.0 Oreo to Android 9.0 Pie on an existing device, the new gesture navigation system isn’t necessarily turned on by default (it does automatically turn on for the Essential Phone). To turn the controls on, go to Settings > System > Gestures. Then, tap on Swipe on Home Button and toggle the feature on. The icons will then switch from three-button navigation to a pill-shaped icon. To turn off gesture navigation, follow the same steps to toggle the feature off.

EK Chung, user experience manager for Android handheld and Pixel at Google, confirmed to Android Central that future Google devices will ship with gesture-only navigation. That means we’ll most likely see the feature automatically turned on with the Google Pixel 3 — the company’s next flagship expected to launch in October.

How to use the new home button

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

Even though the home button is now a pill-shaped icon, it still works similarly to the old circle. Tap on it to go to the home screen, and a long-press will launch Google Assistant.

When in an app, a back arrow will automatically appear to the left of the home button, just like the old navigation system. Tap on it to go back to what was being viewed previously. It disappears on the home screen.

How to access the app drawer

To access the App Drawer, long-swipe up from the bottom of the screen. This will open the full App Drawer, showing every app installed on the phone. A short swipe does something different. A few new apps will appear on the bottom of the screen — these are apps you’re likely to tap on next — but above them is the new Recent apps menu.

How to access Recent apps

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

For Recent apps, a short swipe up from the bottom of the screen is all you need. A carousel gallery will appear showing recently-opened apps, and you can scroll through left and right. Dragging the pill-shaped home all the way to the right enables a slider that automatically starts scrolling slowly through the apps. Once the desired app is in the center, release the button to open it.

To clear a specific app, swipe up on the the specific app window. Scroll all the way to the left window and tap Clear all to exit all apps simultaneously.

How to access a previous app

Whether on the home screen or in another app, a quick swipe right on the home button will let you access the previous app. Continue to swipe right to flip back and forth between both apps.

How to enter split-screen view

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

For split-screen view, tap on the app icon at the top when in Recents view. Tap on the Split screen option and scroll through the different apps available to choose a second app. There’s also the option to swipe up on the Home button to access the App Drawer and add in a different app instead.

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Asus ZenFone 5Z and ZenFone Live now available in the U.S.

The phones cost $499 and $109, respectively.

Asus has a couple new Android handsets up for sale in the United States starting today, including the ZenFone 5Z and Android Go-powered ZenFone Live. The 5Z is definitely the more exciting of the bunch, so let’s touch on that one first.

The ZenFone 5Z is Asus’s flagship phone for 2018, and in regards to both price and features, is a direct competitor with the OnePlus 6. There’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor powering the phone, 6GB RAM, 64GB of internal storage (expandable up to 2TB), and a 3,300 mAh battery.

In regards to the camera situation, we’re looking at a 12MP + 8MP (wide-angle lens) combo on the back and a single 8MP shooter up front. There’s also a 6.2-inch IPS 2160 x 1080 display and, glass + metal design, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and Android Oreo.

See at Amazon

Moving on to the ZenFone Live, this is the first-ever Android Go phone that we’ve seen from Asus. The phone’s packing a 5.5-inch 720p HD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, Snapdragon 425, 1GB RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, 8MP rear camera, 5MP selfie camera, and a 3,000 mAh battery.

The plastic design won’t win any awards, but it looks fine and should be much more practical than the 5Z’s lustrous glass aesthetic.

See at Best Buy

When it comes to price, Asus has listed these rather competitively with everything else that’s currently available. The ZenFone Live comes it at a mere $109.99 and the ZenFone 5Z will set you back $499.99 — $30 less than the OnePlus 6 with very similar specs across the board.

ASUS ZenFone 5Z review: A compelling alternative to the OnePlus 6

Microsoft Plans to Keep Skype Classic Available ‘for Some Time’ Following User Backlash

Microsoft last month announced plans to shut down Skype 7, aka Skype Classic, on PCs and Macs in September, with the company encouraging customers to instead upgrade to the latest version of Skype, Skype 8.

Skype 8, first introduced last year, features a total design overhaul that has not been popular with some customers, which led some Skype users to be unhappy with Microsoft’s announcement.

As of today, as pointed out by Windows blog Thurrott, Microsoft has changed its mind following user feedback. In a forum post, the Skype team says that support for Skype 7 will not end in September, with the end of life date extended to an unknown time.

UPDATE: Based on customer feedback, we are extending support for Skype 7 (Skype classic) for some time. Our customers can continue to use Skype classic until then.

It is not clear how long “some time” will be, but customers who prefer the design of Skype 7 can continue using that version of Skype instead of upgrading to Skype 8.

The Skype team also said that it is listening to customer comments and plans to introduce features customers have requested into Skype 8. Classic Skype for Mac can be downloaded directly from Microsoft, as can Skype 8.

Tags: Skype, Microsoft
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