Knoxville ranks No. 1 in mobile performance among U.S. metro areas, study says

Ever wonder where in the United States your mobile device would work best? According to RootMetrics’ most recent network performance test, Knoxville, Tennessee, takes the number one spot for mobile performance out of the 125 major metropolitan areas tested. Trailing closely behind in second place is St. Louis, while Minneapolis takes third.

RootMetrics’ recent findings dive deeper into the mobile experience within metropolitan areas across the country. Each area was ranked from highest to lowest across six mobile performance categories — overall, reliability, speed, data, call performance, and text.

Knoxville ranked first in three out of the six performance categories — overall, network reliability, and call performance. It also earned top-5 rankings in five different categories (all except for text).

In RootMetrics’ previous round of testing, Knoxville didn’t finish in the top five in any category. The report attributes its success to fast median download speeds, along with its high scores in call and data reliability which come in at 99.7 and 96.9, respectively.

When it comes to the mobile performance in the 10 largest U.S. cities, Chicago ranked highest in network speed and data performance. New York City and the Tri-state area ranked low in all six categories and placed at number 54 overall.

But the report notes that NYC did improve in all performance categories during this test period — most notably, network speed. After finishing 74th in the second-half of 2017, NYC ranked 37th this time around. Regardless, the findings do highlight one interesting thing — a larger city does not necessarily have better mobile networks.

As for the lowest-performing metropolitan markets in the U.S., Springfield, Massachusetts, finished within the bottom five in four out of six categories — overall, reliability, call, and text. The low rankings were attributed to poor blocked call results from all four carriers, along with slow speeds from Sprint. But in the network speed and data performance, it managed to rank higher than the bottom five.

Of the 125 areas, Santa Rosa, California, placed last for not only overall performance but also network reliability and data performance. While its speeds and reliability results can be considered satisfactory for most users, it was poor in comparison to results in other cities.

All of the rankings are based on the average of the RootScores for the four major U.S. carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon. Each ranking is weighted by the estimated national percentage of subscribers for each network — meaning a performance from a carrier that has more customers is weighted heavier than scores from carriers with fewer subscribers.

Xiaomi Mi A2 vs. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro: It all comes down to the battery

The Mi A2 goes up against the best-selling phone in India.

Xiaomi’s Redmi Note series has turned into a juggernaut: over the last two years, phones in this series have defined the budget segment in India. To put things into context, the Redmi Note 5 series managed to rake in sales of over 5 million units in just under four months, and one out of every ten phones sold in India over the last three months was either a Redmi Note 5 or a Note 5 Pro.

Then there’s the Mi A2, Xiaomi’s 2018 Android One device. The Mi A2 shares a lot of similarities on the hardware front with the Redmi Note 5 Pro — both share a design aesthetic, same display, and a lot of the internal components are also identical.

There’s no question that the Redmi Note 5 Pro continues to be one of the best-selling phones in India. Let’s see how Xiaomi’s other budget phone fares next to it.

Xiaomi Mi A2 vs. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro: Specs

What the Mi A2 does better

Although both phones share a lot of features, there are key differences that make them stand out. The Mi A2 is aimed at those looking for an uncluttered software experience — as the device is in the Android One initiative, the interface is in line with Google’s vision for Android. The device runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, and Xiaomi has committed to delivering the Android Pie update in the coming months.

There’s a lot in common on the design front, but the aluminum unibody chassis — with the antenna lines seamlessly merging into the body — gives the Mi A2 a slight edge in this area. The dual camera configuration is also identical across both phones, with the cameras arrayed vertically and the modules protruding from the chassis. This isn’t as big an issue on the Redmi Note 5 Pro as it has a thickness of 8mm, but it makes the 7.3mm Mi A2 wobbly when laid out on a flat surface.

It’s safe to say the Mi A2 has the best camera in the budget segment. The phone manages to do a much better job in low-light scenarios and has better dynamic range when compared to the Redmi Note 5 Pro in daylight conditions. On the video front, the Mi A2 has 4K video recording, and even though the Snapdragon 636 chipset facilitates 4K video, the Redmi Note 5 Pro doesn’t come with that option.

Mi A2 on the left, Redmi Note 5 Pro on the right.

Elsewhere, the Mi A2 relies on USB-C for charging and comes with Quick Charge 4.0 for the Indian market. The charger included in the box delivers a 5V/2A charge, so you’ll have to pick up an aftermarket accessory to unlock the charging potential of the phone.

Xiaomi Mi A2 review: A great sequel with a fantastic camera

What the Redmi Note 5 Pro does better

With a 4000mAh battery under the hood, the Redmi Note 5 Pro is a battery monster. The phone routinely delivers two days’ worth of usage from a full charge, with over nine hours of screen-on-time on average. In fact, the only phone that meets the battery longevity of the Redmi Note 5 Pro is ASUS’ ZenFone Max Pro M1, and that particular device has an even larger 5000mAh battery.

The Redmi Note 5 Pro also has the basics covered: you get a 3.5mm jack and a MicroSD slot that can accommodate a 128GB SD card. These features are integral in the budget segment, and their omission makes the Mi A2 a less attractive option to potential buyers. The Mi A2 also loses out on dual VoLTE, and as the device isn’t running MIUI, you miss out on the localized features that Xiaomi bakes into the ROM.

See at Flipkart

Which should you buy? Mi A2

If I had to choose between the two, I would recommend the Mi A2 over the Redmi Note 5 Pro in a heartbeat. I’m partial to Android One, and the camera on the Mi A2 is leagues better than what you get on the Redmi Note 5 Pro. But that recommendation isn’t for everyone, as the device is missing out on the 3.5mm jack and MicroSD slot, both table stakes features in this segment.

If you absolutely need a phone with a headphone jack and a MicroSD slot, then the Redmi Note 5 Pro is the way to go. It’s also the winner if you’re looking for a device with two-day battery life — the 4000mAh battery combined with MIUI’s battery optimization tweaks make the Redmi Note 5 Pro a battery champion. The Mi A2 lasts a day on a full charge without any issues, but the Redmi Note 5 Pro is a winner in this area by a significant margin.

But if you’re in the market for a phone with a great camera, clean software, and the promise of quick updates, then the Mi A2 is a fantastic choice. With just ₹2,000 ($30) separating both phones, it’s an easy choice to make.

See at Amazon India

Lyd is a battery-powered, ‘no-spill’ bottle that is activated by your lips

Technology companies have a habit of solving problems we didn’t know existed. Paper maps were working just fine until apps came along. And now look at us. We can hardly find the way home when our phone is dead.

Enter Lyd, a battery-powered bottle that is something like a sippy cup for adults. If you’re the type of grownup who constantly spills drinks on yourself, Lyd may be perfect for you. If you aren’t, the high-tech container might strike you as a bit of a gimmick.

Lyd’s no-spill solution is a specialized, well, lid that uses an algorithm — yes, an algorithm — to detect when your lips are on the bottle.

For Lyd CEO Fredrik Krafft, the inspiration for his product came from a moment of clarity.

“I remember the moment very clearly,” he told Digital Trends. “I was holding a vacuum bottle and was thinking [about] how the bottle should work. It came to me that it should work just like when you drink from a glass.” In other words, he wanted a bottle that could be drunk from all sides.

Krafft’s vision got momentarily derailed when he started as head of the transportation company, but last summer he put his effort back into the project and set out to finish Lyd. He’s now taken to Kickstarter to fund the no-spill solution. At the time this article was published, the company had raised about half of its $26,300 goal with a month left to go.

The bottle now contains a 360-degree lid for ultimate ease of access and a vacuum flask designed to keep hot beverage hot and cold drinks cold. Krafft wouldn’t say exactly how the algorithm knows whether it’s your lips on not, say, your dog’s tongue trying to sneak a taste. And, no, it isn’t personalized to just one user, but Lyd can be set up to pour when you place your finger on the sensor. Battery life ranges from two and four weeks, and charges in four hours.

One thing is for sure, we have an obsession for “disposable” plastics and it’s causing chaos for the natural world. We approve of any way you can cut back on your plastic water bottle usage whether it’s with a Lyd or a classic canteen.

Early birds can claim their own Lyd via Kickstarter for $39. The company says they’ll retail at $69. As always, we offer a disclaimer for all crowdfunded projects.

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Kuo: Apple to Launch AR Glasses in 2020, Apple Car in 2023 to 2025

Apple will earn its next trillion dollar market cap through its services business, an augmented reality headset, and an Apple Car, according to reputable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who now works for TF International Securities and today sent out a new note for investors outlining products that he expects to see in Apple’s future.

According to Kuo, Apple will launch an Apple Car sometime between 2023 and 2025, with the car set to be positioned as “the next star product.” Kuo foresees the Apple Car revolutionizing the automobile market much as the iPhone revolutionized the smartphone market back in 2007.

We expect that Apple Car, which will likely be launched in 2023-2025, will be the next star product. The reasons for this are as follows: (1) Potentially huge replacement demands are emerging in the auto sector because it is being redefined by new technologies. The case is the same as the smartphone sector 10 years ago; (2) Apple’s leading technology advantages (e.g. AR) would redefine cars and differentiate Apple Car from peers’ products; (3) Apple’s service will grow significantly by entering the huge car finance market via Apple Car, and (4) Apple can do a better integration of hardware, software, and service than current competitors in the consumer electronics sector and potential competitors in the auto sector.

Kuo also believes that Apple is planning to introduce AR glasses in 2020, expanding on its existing augmented reality market. AR, says Kuo, is the “next-generation revolutionary UI,” with Apple planning to redefine the UIs of its existing products by offering an AR experience created by the augmented reality glasses that are rumored to be in the works.

Apple will also continue to build out its services offerings to drive further revenue growth, says Kuo, but he does not go into detail on what new services categories Apple might offer in the future.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
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Bizarre stork robot uses a drone to compensate for its weak, twig-like legs

We can be suckers for weird robots here at Digital Trends — and they don’t get much weirder than this “Aerial-Biped” robot developed by engineers from Japan’s University of Tokyo. Halfway between a drone and a ground-based robot, the Aerial Biped’s body is comprised of a quadrotor UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that remains rooted to the ground with thin, stork-like legs.

On a technical level, Aerial Biped is pretty smart. Its walking motion isn’t preprogrammed, but rather the result of a type of artificial intelligence called reinforcement learning. That’s the same type of goal-based A.I. that helped Google DeepMind learn how to play classic Atari games based on nothing more than the visible information on screen. In this case, the robot uses information about the forward velocity of the quadrotor to figure out how it should use its legs.

The idea behind the robot’s design was to create a robot that won’t ever fall over, since its upper body will remain airborne at all times. As we saw when Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot fell off the stage during a demo last year, even the most sophisticated robots are capable of taking a tumble. As a result, many researchers (including those at the University of Tokyo) are working to come up with alternative designs to the traditional humanoid robots long imagined by science fiction writers. Aerial Biped may not be practical as, say, an equipment carrier, but it’s certainly a unique way of getting around the problem of stability.

Right now, Aerial Biped exists purely as a proof of concept prototype that’s designed to explore this form of locomotion. In the future, however, its creators believe it could be used in an entertainment capacity, potentially for animatronics or various types of performance. With that goal in mind, they are currently investigating different types of motion that it could perform — including a variety of dances.

While it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see robots such as this one ever used in military applications, or as part of search and rescue missions, it’s very easy to picture it finding a future summer job at somewhere like Walt Disney World. Hey, who said all robots needed to be serious?

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Instagram hackers are changing account info into Russian email addresses

Hackers are finding ways into Instagram accounts and changing emails to addresses with Russian domain names. A report by Mashable suggests hundreds of Instagram users could be victims of an odd hack. The report shows half a dozen users with a similar hack and hundreds of related complaints on Twitter.

The hacks are unusual because none of the cases seem to have actually shared new images or deleted old ones, the report says. Instead, users find themselves locked out because the password, phone number, and email address were all changed. The email addresses in several cases were changed to emails with a .ru  at the end, a domain used in Russia. In many cases, profile pictures were swapped to a Disney or Pixar character and the bio information was deleted.

The type of hack presents problems for users since the easiest way to regain access to an account is through the email associated with that account. With the email changed, re-gaining access is a more difficult process.

The report doesn’t suggest who is behind the hacks — or if it is even one group or many. Most hacked accounts didn’t have two-factor authentication set up, though at least one did, suggesting setting up the additional security is helpful but not impenetrable. Instagram’s help page says that users that had an email changed because of a hack can use both the original username and email on the “Get Help Logging In” page.

Instagram says that, once it is aware of a hacked account, access is shut off and the network starts a remediation process. Hacks on Instagram aren’t unheard of but the social network also says that it hasn’t seen a jump in the number of hacked accounts.

Mashable suggests the hacks have been happening since the start of August, noting a spike in Google searches and tweets about Instagram hacks, along with Reddit forums with users trying to find a way back into the accounts.

Instagram’s security page recommends users regularly change passwords, using passwords that mix letters, numbers and punctuation marks and that aren’t identical to the other passwords that you use. The network also encourages users to be cautious with third-party app authorizations. Instagram also warns users to keep email account information secure because email access could allow for access to an Instagram account as well.

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Steam survey shows PC gamers are still mostly playing in 1080p and lower

gstockstudio/123RF

Valve Software’s latest hardware and software survey for July 2018 reveals that 63.72 percent of Steam’s registered members still play games with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution (aka Full HD). Even more, 13.33 percent of Steam’s gamers play at 1,366 x 768 (HD) while only 1.14 percent are playing at 3,840 x 2,160 (4K). Only 3.12 percent play at 2,560 x 1,440 (QHD).

Although hardware manufacturers and game developers are pushing for 4K gameplay, the numbers show that a large portion of PC gamers haven’t made the move. Even more, 12.50 percent of Steam’s customers rely on the GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card followed by 9.59 percent with the GTX 1050 Ti. Surprisingly, only 2.23 percent have the GTX 1080 installed.

Overall, Nvidia reigns king on Steam with 76.35 percent of the graphics card usage followed by AMD at 13.91 percent and Intel at 9.58 percent. Meanwhile, Intel leads the CPU pack with 84.8 percent versus AMD’s claim of 15.2 percent. Specific models aren’t listed although Intel CPUs speeding between 3.3GHz and 3.69GHz sit at the top of the charts.

On the operating system front, Microsoft is king of the hill with a 96.77 percent claim on Steam gamers. Break that down and you’ll see 54.40 percent using Windows 10 (64-bit) followed by 36.07 still remaining on Windows 7 (64-bit). The list also shows Steam gamers still playing on the original Windows 8 (64-bit) release and Windows XP (32-bit).

Despite Valve’s former push for Steam Machines and its Linux-based SteamOS platform, only 0.49 percent of Steam’s customers use Linux. Meanwhile, MacOS claims a 2.66 percent stake in the Steam survey with the largest chunk of Mac gamers using MacOS 10.13.5 (64-bit).

According to Valve, the latest Steam Hardware Survey includes fixes for a problem that overcounted cyber café customers and inflated certain results during the last seven months. The problem stemmed from the way these cyber cafes managed their PCs, causing havoc in the results.

“Around August 2017, we started seeing larger-than-usual movement in certain stats, notably an increase in Windows 7 usage, an increase in quad-core CPU usage, as well as changes in CPU and GPU market share,” Valve reports. “This period also saw a large increase in the use of Simplified Chinese. All of these coincided with an increase in Steam usage in cyber cafes in Asia, whose customers were being overcounted in the survey.”

Valve feels confident that its Steam Hardware Survey is no longer overcounting users as of April.

The Steam Hardware Survey is a great way to see what gamers are using to enjoy their Steam games on a month-to-month basis. As we’ve seen in July, a good chunk of these customers play on four-core Intel processors, Nvidia’s graphics cards such as the GTX 1060, Windows 10 (64-bit) and a 1080p resolution. Nearly 41 percent on the survey has 8GB of system memory in their PC followed by 36.62 percent with 12GB or more.

Finally, if you’re curious about virtual reality, the $400 Oculus Rift sits at the top of the July list with a 0.30 percent usage while the $500 HTC Vive fell to 0.29 percent. Only 0.01 percent of Steam’s members use the newer $800 HTC Vive Pro.

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A treasure trove of 3D scientific specimens is now free to see online

The internet is a Wunderkammer, a cabinet of curiosities where you can explore ocean depths, ancient artifacts, and outer space with the click of a button. There’s also a ton of trash online, sure, but if you know where you look, you can find some real treasures.

And the treasure trove just got a little bigger. Thanks to the California Academy of Sciences, you can access more than 700 scientific specimens and artifacts from its world-class collection via the online 3D and VR platform Sketchfab. The collection runs the gamut — from an assortment of rare bones, to Navajo bracelets and intricate basketry. Each 3D model can be accessed and downloaded for free via the Sketchfab website.

“The Sketchfab collection is so easy to browse and be inspired by that we hope it’ll be widely used by everyone …”

The models were first created in 2014 through a partnership with Google that saw scans taken for about 40 skeleton specimens. The tech giant also made one of its proprietary scanners available to staff members toiling away in the academy’s basement for the Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability (IBSS). Over the years, IBSS staff members slowly but surely created the collection of 3D scans, which now includes more than 900 specimens.

“Once we realized what we had — this incredible resource of hundreds and hundreds of stunning models that could be rotated, zoomed through, and studied in-depth from anywhere in the world — there was no question,” Laurel Allen, a community manager for the Academy, told Digital Trends. “We had to make them accessible to the public. Unlike our full collections databases — which are also available online, but require users to know what they’re looking for — the Sketchfab collection is so easy to browse and be inspired by that we hope it’ll be widely used by everyone from scientists and researchers to teachers, students, artists, and anyone dazzled by the natural world.”

The models are classified and categorized into 11 separate collections to make them easier to search and explore. Tens of millions more scientific specimens have yet to be scanned in the Academy’s basement.

“There’s a critical need to increase accessibility to the hundreds of millions of natural history specimens that document life on Earth through time and space,” Christina Piotrowski, manager of the Academy’s invertebrate collection, said. “While museum collections are currently accessed by researchers to answer important scientific questions, we can bring the world’s museum specimens off the shelves, using technology like this to increase global accessibility and create irreplaceable snapshots of our ever-changing natural world.”

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The Andromeda botnet still lingers as nations struggle to clean infected PCs

A recent threat landscape report published by Fortinet suggests that although the FBI and European law enforcement ended the Andromeda botnet’s reign in late 2017, there are still systems infected with the malware. The firm indicates that the process of cleaning up the infected PCs isn’t progressing at the same pace across regions, as it’s still a large problem in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

At its core, Andromeda — or rather Gamarue —  is a platform to deliver a galaxy of malware variants (actually just a mere 80) including ransomware, banking trojans, spam bots, click-fraud malware and more. Between June 2017 and its supposed demise before the start of 2018, Andromeda was on a roll, as it was detected and blocked on more than 1 million machines each month on average.

According to Microsoft, the Andromeda command and control structure spanned 1,214 domains and IP addresses. It also comprised of 464 “distinct” botnets as well as the 80-plus associated malware families. Andromeda was sold on the black market as a “crime kit” that included a bot builder, a command-and-control application, and documentation on how to create a botnet.

What made Andromeda an extremity attractive sell was its modular nature. The kit came with two plug-ins, one of which could turn a PC into a proxy server. For an additional $150, hackers could purchase the keylogger plug-in or grab the Formgetter plug-in for another $250, which captured data submitted through web browsers.

Hackers spread Andromeda through various methods such as social media messages with malicious links, spam email with similar links, trojan downloaders and more. Once it infected a machine, Andromeda contacted a command and control server to become part of a larger network of infected PCs. Once that happened, hackers could do anything with the seized army of machines.

But as the report indicates, getting rid of Andromeda is no simple feat. In Africa alone, Andromeda has the highest prevalence with 25.6 percent followed by the H-worm at 13.8 percent and Ramnit at 10.07 percent. Andromeda tops the charts in Asia followed by Ramnit (9.83 percent) and the H-worm (7.4 percent).

The report suggests that problem with these high percentages is likely tied to the response and remediation capabilities of these countries.

Outside noting the slow progression of cleaning up the Andromeda debris, the report tips its hat at VPNFilter, a Russian-developed nation-state-sponsored attack that targets networking routers. The FBI previously distributed a warning to U.S. citizens, calling on Americans to reboot their routers to cut off possible ties to the malware’s command and control servers.

The report also calls the Smominru botnet a “notable addition,” a Monero mining malware targeting Windows-based PCs. It was spread through the EternalBlue exploit, and as a botnet mined around 24 XMR each day. As of this publication, the value of a single XMR was $81, meaning the hackers were generating around $1,944 per day.

Other botnets that are permanent fixtures on the firm’s Threat Landscape Report each month include Gh0st, Pushdo, Necurs and three others.

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Pandora Premium is now supported by Google Home and Smart Displays

There’s a lot going on with the Google Assistant — let’s break down the important stuff.

In May 2016, we got our very first taste of the Google Assistant with the debut of Allo. The Assistant was a big draw to Allo at the time, with Google marketing it as a helpful bot that could make restaurant reservations, search the web, and more within your conversations.

Since then, the Assistant has gained heaps of new features and expanded to smartphones, tablets, speakers, and more. Google’s shown no interest in slowing down development for the Assistant, meaning that it’s likely here for the long-haul.

Whether this is your first encounter with it or you just need a quick refresher, here’s everything you need to know about the Google Assistant.

The latest Google Assistant news

August 14, 2018 — Pandora Premium now supported by Google Home and Smart Displays

Users have been able to stream Pandora through Google Home speakers for quite some time now, but starting today, you’ll be able to link your Pandora Premium account so you can listen to specific, on-demand songs/playlists in addition to the service’s popular radio stations.

Pandora Premium costs $9.99/month like the majority of its competitors, but if you own a Google Home, you can get a free 90-day trial to test out the service before handing over any of your hard-earned cash.

You can start listening to Pandora Premium on the Google Home, Home Mini, Home Max, Lenovo Smart Display, and other Google Assistant speakers right now.

August 9, 2018 — Deeper, more specific news coverage is now rolling out

Pretty much since the Assistant’s inception, you’ve been able to say “Hey, Google, what’s the news?” to get a quick overview of all the big headlines for any given day.

Starting today and rolling out to users across the U.S., you can now ask the Assistant about news for specific topics, such as “What’s the latest on NASA?” or “What’s the news on the women’s national soccer team?”. Asking these questions on a Smart Display will pull up related YouTube videos while audio-only speakers such as Google Home will read out excerpts from news articles.

Additionally, this command will also be available for Android Auto, Android phones, and Assistant-powered headphones like the Bose QC35 II.

All the important details

Google Now paved the way for Google Assistant

The Google Now page compared to the new Google Feed.

Before there was the Google Assistant, we had Google Now. Google Now was introduced to the world all the way back in 2012, offering contextual info through the Google Now page and helpful answers to random questions with an “OK Google” voice command.

A lot of what made Google Now so great can still be found in the Google Assistant today, with the exception of the Google Now page. The Google Now page used to be home to cards showcasing the weather, information on packages that had shipped from online orders, boarding passes, and more. It’s since been replaced by the Google Feed – a collection of news stories Google thinks you’ll be interested in – and it’s definitely the biggest departure between the two services.

The Google Assistant as a whole is still more powerful than Google Now ever was, but long-time Android users like myself are still mourning the loss of that Now page. RIP, old friend.

Read more: Google Now is being left to wither and die as Google Assistant takes the focus

It’s available on just about everything

In just a few short years, the Google Assistant’s gone from being exclusive to a now-failed chat app to being integrated into just about anything you can think of.

You’ll find Google Assistant built right into most Android phones, it’s the star of the show for the Google Home lineup, and it’s even making its way into sound bars.

Here’s the full list of devices with Google Assistant

Setting up the Google Assistant is as easy or complex as you want

When you set up a device for the first time that has the Assistant, getting started is pretty simple. Accessing it is just a voice command or tap away depending on what gadget you’re using, but if you want to really fine-tune your experience, Google’s got you covered.

Take a quick dive into your Assistant settings and you’ll find options for just about everything – including your weather preferences, changing the Assistant’s voice, retraining your voice model, picking out preferred news sources, and much more.

How to set up and customize Google Assistant

Google Assistant is available in multiple regions and languages

Of course, a smart voice assistant isn’t any good if you can’t actually use it. Fortunately, Google Assistant will be available in 52 countries —adding 38 countries this year — and 17 languages by the end of 2018.

More: Google Assistant will expand to 38 countries and 17 languages in 2018

Google Home’s the premier way to get the Assistant in your house (at least for now)

It’s great to have the Google Assistant on your phone, but if you want to truly experience just how helpful it can be, you’ll want to consider picking up a Google Home.

Google Home is Google’s line of smart speakers that put the Assistant on full-display, allowing you to control smart devices, ask random questions, set timers, play music, and more by just using your voice.

You can spend as little as $49 for the Google Home Mini, $129 for the original Google Home, or a whopping $399 for the Google Home Max.

However, as great as the Home series is, don’t forget that Smart Displays are just on the horizon.

Announced at CES 2018, Smart Displays are essentially smart speakers with the Google Assistant and a touch screen display that can show you helpful visuals when talking to them. It’s basically Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo Show and Echo Spot, and we can’t wait to see more from them.

Everything you need to know about Google’s Home speakers

Then again, is an always-listening speaker the right fit for your home?

However, the convenience of a Google Home (or any smart speaker for that matter) does come at the cost of privacy. Speakers like the Google Home are “always listening”, meaning they’re constantly on the lookout for a hot word to know when you’re talking to it (such as “Ok, Google” and “Hey, Google”).

This means the microphone on a Google Home is always active, but it’s not necessarily storing all the audio it hears when it doesn’t detect its hot word.

Most all speakers allow you to restore some privacy by being able to mute the microphone, but if you want to start asking the Assistant questions, you’ll need to unmute it first.

To learn more about these “always listening” speakers, I’ll pass the mic over to Jerry

Big upgrades are coming to the Assistant on Wear OS

Switching gears for a second, the Google Assistant on Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) is about to get a big upgrade.

In the near future, the Assistant on Wear OS will support Assistant Actions (basically apps for the Assistant) and give you the option to hear its responses through your watch’s speaker or a pair of connected Bluetooth headphones.

Along with this, Google will be adding something called “smart suggestions.” After asking the Assistant for the weather, for example, you’ll see little bubbles for “weather tonight”, “use celsius”, and more so you can continue the conversation with just the tap of your finger. Google Assistant on Android offers something similar, and it’s a great tool to have.

IFTTT supercharges the Assistant’s usefulness

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a powerful online tool that allows you trigger something (that) if a certain event (this) happens. You can connect IFTTT to the Google Assistant to create your own recipes using this formula, and it can allow for some incredibly helpful combinations.

Some of our favorite uses for IFTTT and the Assistant include adding contacts to your Google account, setting your Google Calendar status to Busy for a certain period of time, and much, much more.

Getting started with IFTTT can take some time and patience if you’re new to it, but once you’re all set up and ready to go, it can prove to be a lifesaver.

How to connect Google Home and IFTTT to do amazing things with your connected tech

You’ll get the same experience no matter what devices you use

With so many devices capable of running the Assistant, it’d be easy to think that the experience you get on one gadget would be different from another. This is something that Google struggled with for a while at first, but we’re finally in a position where the Assistant experience you get on a smart speaker, for example, is the same you’ll get on your phone.

There are a handful of features here and there that still create for some discrepency, but for the most part, the Assistant you use on your Pixel 2 is the same one found on Google Home.

Google Home and Google Assistant finally offer the same experience

Google Duplex is actually going to be a thing

Google showed off Duplex — Google Assistant making natural-sounding phone calls on your behalf — at I/O 2018, but quickly noted that it was just an experiment. Flash forward a couple months, and Google announced that certain users have started testing Duplex, and a public release will be here in the next few months. Before you know it, Google Assistant will be able to book hotels, dinner reservations, hair appointments and more without you lifting a finger.

More: What is Google Duplex?

Updated July 2018: Added the Google Duplex and language support sections, as well as links to recent Assistant news.