The Most Expensive iPhone XS Cases You Can Get

The iPhone XS and XS Max are Apple’s most expensive iPhones yet, with the top-of-the-line iPhone XS Max coming in at a cost of $1,449 for 512GB of storage.

If you want to outfit your pricey iPhone with a case that’s just as expensive, we’ve hunted down a list of the most ridiculously priced iPhone XS cases you can get.

Gray’s Alter Ego line of cases available in Titanium, Stealth, Gold, and Aurora start at $1,457. The cases are all made from aerospace grade titanium and offer a minimal design with an X shape that covers the back of the iPhone along with protective covers at each of the corners to protect from drops.

The Aurora version of the Alter Ego case, priced at $2,763 for the XS and $3,000 for the XS Max, features hand-torched titanium to achieve a colorful finish, with each piece offering a unique array of colors. The Aurora and the Gold Alter Ego cases are limited to 100 pieces, while there are 500 of the Stealth edition available. The cases can be purchased from the Gray website.

Gresso, a company that makes high-end titanium sunglasses, also makes titanium iPhone cases and has a new line out for the iPhone XS and XS Max. The Gresso Magnum cases feature an interior cover crafted from flexible, high resistance TPU for protection and an outer shell made of grade-5 titanium for strength and durability. All of Gresso’s Magnum Titanium cases for the iPhone XS and XS Max are priced at $595.

Hadoro is selling a selection of luxury iPhone XS and XS Max cases made from exotic animal skin materials like lizard, stingray, python, ostrich, alligator, and calfskin. The priciest is an 890 euro Alligator Folio Case available in a range of colors.

Luxury brand Louis Vuitton makes a line of super fancy, super expensive iPhone cases like this Eye Trunk for iPhone X and XS, which resembles one of the company’s classic trunks. There’s no iPhone XS Max version just yet, but one is probably in the works. The Louis Vuitton case costs a whopping $1,320.

Luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana also makes iPhone cases and has a line of pricey options that will fit the iPhone X and the iPhone XS. The most expensive is a leather iPhone case with a green rabbit fur bracelet that’s priced at $795, but you can also get a plain logo case in leather with what looks like fur for $675.

Though not cases, Brikk and Caviar are the ultimate experts in super expensive iPhones, and both have debuted iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max devices that feature entire casings replaced with high-end materials.

Caviar’s gold-plated mother of pearl diamond-encrusted iPhone XS is priced starting at $5,420, and there are all kinds of other casing options with carbon bodies, snake skin, alligator skin, gold accents, and diamond accents.

Brikk offers the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max in carbon, ceramic, and gold, with pricing on the carbon models starting at $9,995 and pricing on the ceramic models starting at $12,995.

Have you seen any outrageously priced iPhone XS and XS Max accessories? Would you buy one of these? Let us know in the comments.

Related Roundup: iPhone XS
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Review: Mazda’s CarPlay Support a Welcome Addition for iPhone Users

Back in March, Mazda became one of the last major car manufacturers to announce launch plans for CarPlay support. Mazda’s first announced vehicle with CarPlay is the 2018 Mazda6, with owners of Touring trim and above able to bring their vehicles to a Mazda dealer for a free upgrade starting this month. CarPlay will be available pre-installed in Mazda6 vehicles with Touring trim and above as of November, while Mazda’s 2019 CX-9 is also just starting to roll out with CarPlay available pre-installed.

2018 Mazda6 Signature in Soul Red Crystal
While the general CarPlay experience is consistent across car brands, as it’s driven by your connected iPhone, there are some differences in how CarPlay interfaces with manufacturers’ various infotainment systems and hardware, so it’s worth taking a look at the CarPlay experience in a Mazda. I’ve had a chance to spend some time with a CarPlay-equipped 2018 Mazda6 Signature, and CarPlay is a welcome alternative to the built-in Mazda Connect infotainment system that has garnered mixed reviews over the years.

Mazda Connect

Before we touch on CarPlay, it pays to take a look at Mazda Connect, as that’s the software and hardware CarPlay sits on top of. Mazda has opted for multiple control options in its vehicles, with both an 8-inch touchscreen on the dashboard and a commander knob with associated buttons on the center console. A smaller dial next to the commander knob lets you adjust volume without reaching up to the dashboard, or you can adjust the volume from the steering wheel. Voice control through a button on the steering wheel is also available.

Controller knob and other controls on center console
Touchscreen operation is unsurprisingly straightforward, while the commander knob offers a flexible array of input methods including twisting, rocking, and pressing the knob to navigate around. The cluster of buttons around the knob lets you jump quickly to navigation, music, favorites, the Mazda Connect home screen (or CarPlay home screen if active), or back to the previous screen. Navigating the interface with the commander knob can be a bit clunky at times, particularly if you have to navigate through several menu levels, but overall it’s a satisfactory experience similar to that offered by a number of other manufacturers.

Mazda Connect home screen
One important thing to note is that while the Mazda Connect system includes a touchscreen, it’s locked out while driving in order to reduce distractions, requiring you to use the commander knob or voice to control the system. (The lockout is only while the car is in motion, so the touchscreen does work while stopped at a stoplight, for example.) Mazda is one of the most conservative carmakers in this regard, but forcing users to the commander knob can actually be a detriment in some cases where reaching over to the display for a quick tap would likely be less distracting than using the knob to scroll over to the desired option.

Navigation search menu
A significant part of what makes CarPlay such a welcome addition is that Mazda Connect has a few shortcomings. I found overall navigation of the interface passable but a bit clunky with the commander knob. The user interface layout is decent enough for touchscreen control, but when you’re forced to use the commander knob it can be something of a chore to navigate through the options.

The overall look of Mazda Connect isn’t bad by car infotainment standards, although it could certainly stand to see some modernization, and there are some curious design decisions such as not allowing enough characters to display song titles completely. With a nice, big 8-inch screen, it shouldn’t be the case that song titles are routinely cut off.

SiriusXM Radio interface
Built-in navigation through Mazda Connect also leaves a bit to be desired, as I found the system unable to parse some of the destinations I tried to input by voice and the POI database seemed rather weak, making it difficult to find some destinations.

Navigation search results
In one test trip, the onboard GPS tracking seemed to be improperly calibrated, and navigation was useless as the map continually showed me driving off into the woods. On all other trips, however, the GPS location and directions were accurate, so the problem I experienced may have just been a one-off bug. It’s also an issue I’ve occasionally seen with my iPhone, so maybe there isn’t really that much difference in performance here.

Turn-by-turn directions with simulated road signs for easy recognition
Otherwise, the navigation system performed well with helpful turn-by-turn directions and depictions of road signs at major junctions. A handy optional feature also displays cross streets as you approach you them, even if you don’t have a navigation route running. Another helpful view displays along the right side of the screen which amenities like gas, food, and auto repair are available at upcoming exits.

General map view
Mazda Connect also isn’t known for being speedy, with the most significant chokepoint being at initial boot. Upon starting the car, it took 15 to as much as 40 seconds for Mazda Connect to boot up, display a warning to keep your eyes on the road, and become available to use. Loading directly into navigation can take a few seconds longer. It doesn’t necessarily sound like a huge amount of time, but when you just want to hop in your car and go it can feel like an eternity. Unfortunately, CarPlay doesn’t help with this, as Mazda Connect has to fully boot up before CarPlay can be recognized as available, so you still have to wait.

CarPlay

Once you’re into CarPlay, things work mostly as expected. All of the familiar CarPlay apps are there, and you can navigate through them by touch (with one big caveat discussed below), the commander knob/buttons, or voice.

CarPlay home screen
One important difference for Mazda is that the touchscreen lockout while driving also extends to CarPlay, which means you’ll need to use the commander knob to scroll through highlighted user interface elements. It’s an officially supported input method for CarPlay, but ultimately it’s less convenient for an operating system that’s designed to be manipulated by touch with minimal distraction.

Touchscreen input works fine with CarPlay when the car isn’t in motion, so it’s simplest to get as much set up for your drive as you can before you set out and make adjustments at stoplights. Commander knob ease of use will obviously improve as you spend time using it and muscle memory takes over for some tasks, but it’s rarely going to be as convenient as a direct touch interface.

While the commander knob can be a little inconvenient for navigating the user interface, some frequently used functions like play/pause (press the knob) and back/forward (rock the knob) are simple and intuitive. It’s the more complicated operations that involve scrolling through various UI elements to make a selection that are more cumbersome to accomplish with the knob than a touchscreen tap.

As with the touchscreen lockout for Mazda Connect, Mazda tells me the extension to CarPlay is a “conscious choice” based on its feeling that the knob is less distractive than using a touchscreen while the car is motion. I’m not sure I necessarily agree when it comes to CarPlay, as Apple has put considerable thought into keeping the interface simple enough that you can grab relevant information at a glance and quickly tap what you need.

Apple Maps in CarPlay
Beyond the knob itself, the associated hardware buttons surrounding it do come in handy for CarPlay. The navigation and music buttons make it easy to jump back and forth between frequently used screens, and it hops in and out of CarPlay as needed – such as when you have Apple Maps active while listening to XM radio and the buttons correctly take you to the proper music and maps apps. The system also remembers if CarPlay is active when you turn off the car, and takes you back to it when you start up again.

Apple Maps in CarPlay
One other thing to note is that if your phone is plugged into the car, pressing the talk button on the steering wheel appears to only activate Siri. I was unable to find a way to activate the Mazda Connect voice system while the phone was plugged in, even if CarPlay wasn’t necessarily active.

Some systems like BMW’s offer dual access via the talk button, bringing up Siri with a short press or the onboard system with a long press. Mazda tells me it decided not to offer dual access because its research concluded that customers found it confusing. Changing terrestrial/satellite radio stations is the only thing Mazda Connect’s voice system can do that Siri can not, and that task can also be accomplished in some regard by using buttons on the steering wheel.

Ports and Connectivity

Mazda has been thoughtful with the placement of various ports, helping to keep cords and devices tucked away. Two USB ports (one designated for connecting a phone to Mazda Connect), an Aux port, an SD card slot used for loading maps into the onboard navigation system, and a 12V power port are all hidden away in the center console compartment.

Ports inside center console compartment
The compartment isn’t particularly roomy, as the gearshift, commander knob, and cupholders take up much of the console space, but it lets you keep your phone out of sight. If you prefer to have your phone in a cupholder or the storage tray at the front of the console, there’s a sufficient gap on either side of the console compartment lid to easily run the cable out without pinching it.

Rear armrest with USB ports
In the rear, the middle seatback folds down to offer a pair of cupholders, controls for heated seats (if equipped), and a shallow storage compartment housing a pair of 2.1A USB ports, which is great for keeping the kids’ iPads charged up. Mazda does not, however, offer a Wi-Fi hotspot option to keep those devices connected to the internet.

Wrap-up

With CarPlay adoption growing rapidly over the past several years, it’s become more of a must-have feature for car buyers, so it’s great to see Mazda finally get on board with the technology. I know several Mazda owners who have been waiting patiently for CarPlay support, and while it’s unfortunate there are no signs yet of retrofit availability beyond the current Mazda6, at least those loyal Mazda owners can look forward to it in their next car.

Infotainment systems from car manufacturers across the board are notorious for design and performance that don’t reach the level of polish we’ve come to expect from our smartphones, and Mazda Connect is no different here. The whole Mazda Connect system could use a refresh to modernize the look and improve performance, but once you get familiar with the operation it’s a decent system beyond the issues I had with navigation.

Of course, any shortcomings in onboard systems like Mazda Connect serve to increase the value of CarPlay support, which lets you use the apps you’re already familiar with right on the dashboard and have all of your contacts, music playlists, maps history, and more at your fingertips without needing to rely on incomplete and sometimes cumbersome syncing of data to built-in car systems or audio-only connections over Bluetooth or Aux. And with CarPlay expanding to support third-party maps apps like Google Maps and Waze, even more iPhone owners may be willing to become regular CarPlay users.

The 2018 Mazda6 and the new 2019 CX-9 will be the first Mazdas to get CarPlay support, but it’s reasonable to expect that the rest of the lineup should get it as the new model years are introduced. Unlike some other manufacturers, Mazda isn’t charging extra for CarPlay, so far simply bundling it into all tiers above the entry-level Sport trim. The company has not, however, announced any plans to offer retrofit CarPlay support on any models other than the 2018 Mazda6 that’s currently in the middle of its production year.

The 2018 Mazda6 starts at an MSRP of $21,950, although the minimum Touring trim required for CarPlay begins at $25,700. The new 2019 CX-9 starts at $32,280, with the Touring trim beginning at $35,330 needed for CarPlay.

Related Roundup: CarPlayTag: Mazda
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Apple Using a ‘Device Trust Score’ to Identify and Prevent Fraud on iTunes and App Stores

With the release of iOS 12, tvOS 12, and watchOS 5 yesterday, Apple made some quiet changes to its iTunes and App Store privacy policy on iOS devices and the Apple TV, as pointed out by VentureBeat.

Newly updated language in the iTunes and App Store privacy policy states that Apple is using a device trust score to help identify and cut down on fraud.

Apple says that information about how you use your device, including the approximate number of phone calls or emails you receive is used to compute the device trust score when you make a purchase.

To help identify and prevent fraud, information about how you use your device, including the approximate number of phone calls or emails you send and receive, will be used to compute a device trust score when you attempt a purchase. The submissions are designed so Apple cannot learn the real values on your device. The scores are stored for a fixed time on our servers.

This warning shows up on both iOS devices and the Apple TV, which can’t send emails or make phone calls, so it appears to be blanket wording Apple is using for all of its iTunes and App Store privacy updates.

As VentureBeat points out, it’s not entirely clear how tracking the number of phone calls and emails a person makes offers up better verification for device identity than unique device identifiers, but it’s possible this method can cut down on spam App Store accounts, fake reviews, and other such activities.

Apple’s iTunes Store & Privacy documentation was updated yesterday, and prior to then, it did not include the bit about creating a trust score.

There are few other changes that have been made to the document, and the new section joins a pre-existing policy where Apple says that it collects device information, location information, download and purchase history and other interactions with its stores to prevent fraud.
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Firefox Reality wants to bring the ‘whimsical web’ to VR

Have you ever been surfing the web and found yourself wishing it was pressed up against your face in a pair of VR goggles?

Yeah, neither have we. But this morning, Mozilla officially launched Firefox Reality, a VR-powered web browser that does just that. The phrase “VR web browser” rolls off the tongue well, but what does that really mean?

To get a better idea of what Mozilla has in mind, we visited the company’s office in Portland and went hands-on with Firefox Reality.

VR in the web

We donned an Oculus Go, with controller in hand, and started up the Firefox Reality app. Unsurprisingly, the app launched into a virtual environment (this one was some sort of mushroom cave), with a familiar floating window in front. Mozilla’s vision of browsing the web in VR feels a lot more like an app store than a web browser like Chrome or Firefox.

This home window offers a few different categories for finding VR web content, curated by the folks over at Mozilla. There wasn’t a ton of content at the time, but examples included a VR music video from the band LCD Soundsystem and a few simple VR games. Each of these are, of course, web applications that can be accessed from their URL on any browser, including the one you’re reading this on.

After clicking on one of these websites, you’re given a 2D preview before entering. Mozilla says this view was included to lessen the abrasive effect of jumping around from site to site in VR.

They also showed a meeting place app called Hubs, which was pitched as “Skype in VR.” There’s been many attempts to offer that on other platforms, such as Facebook’s Space app. But unlike Facebook, Hubs is meant to be a more neutral meeting environment where a person doesn’t see all your photos and network connections tied to your account. Mozilla imagines Hubs being used for everything from casual hangouts to business meetings where documents can be exchanged.

That said Mozilla’s offering is limited compared to Spaces. Hubs lets you pick up a pencil and write in three dimensions, but it was far from a polished app.  Mozilla promises that features will continue to be rolled out a steady pace, including important things like bookmarks and links.

Trying to move the needle

A browser that’s used mostly to find VR experiences might seem mundane, but Mozilla thinks there’s more here than meets the eye. You can type or speak directly into the search bar to head right over to a site you know, for example. That kind of browsing feels a bit more like your typical web experience, allowing someone to follow links down any rabbit hole. Mozilla hopes the openness of the web will lead to a boom of new VR content for people to experience.

“The feedback we heard the most was that users were having a hard time finding new games and experiences,” said Andre Vrignaud, the head of mixed reality platform strategy at Mozilla. “This is why we built a feed of amazing content into the home screen of Firefox Reality.”

These new VR-enabled web apps are developed under the WebXR Device API. The adoption of this web standard is what Mozilla and other companies hope will bring web VR to the masses. If VR has a chance of breaking through into the mainstream, it’ll need more accessible tools — and WebXR could be just that.

“We want to bring the full whimsical web to VR,” said a Mozilla representative at the demo. “We want the actual web to be there.”

Moving VR forward won’t be easy for Mozilla. New hardware continues to be released year after year, both in high-end and budget-friendly, but mass adoption in the mainstream isn’t happening. Is a VR-powered web browser going to turn the tide? Probably not — but Mozilla thinks it could at least make it more fun.

Firefox Reality can be downloaded now for free in the Viveport, Oculus, and Daydream app stores.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Firefox mobilizes a three-pronged attack against ad-based tracking
• The best web browsers
• Firefox Quantum review
• Daydream VR users can browse with Google Chrome in virtual space
• Firefox’s new Monitor service will let you know if you’ve been hacked

Smart sound system will give every car passenger their own wireless audio stream

Seat/Noveto

Does your spouse want to listen to the radio, while your oldest kid fancies the latest Beyoncé album, your youngest hankers after the Frozen soundtrack, and you just want to tune into the latest episode of the brilliant new Friday 13th podcast, “In Voorhees We Trust”? Such disagreements are the stuff that long car journey arguments are made made of.

Fortunately, they could soon come to an end, courtesy of a collaboration between Noveto and Spanish car maker SEAT. Their team-up means that each passenger in a car could soon get his or her own separate audio stream — and with no headphones required.

It sounds impossible, but it’s apparently achievable by using smart technology to beam sound directly from source to ear, courtesy of what is described as the world’s inaugural “dynamic focused sound” system.

“Applying this new technology will enable us to open a world of possibilities for privately owned vehicles, and especially for shared vehicles,” SEAT Digital Officer Fabian Simmer said in a statement. “Being able to share your car and maintain your privacy is certainly a challenge that seems increasingly achievable, with solutions like the one proposed by Noveto which we hope to feature in our vehicles.”

A press release describing the technology made clear its disruptive potential, although it’s sadly short on details about how the smart tech actually works. It’s not short on examples of potential use cases, however — and these range from the “everyone gets their own music” scenario we painted up top to allowing one person to make or receive incoming hands-free phone calls, as other passengers continue enjoying the in-car infotainment system.

Noveto is no stranger to redefining the audio landscape. At this year’s CES event, the company showcased its “My Virtual Headphones” tech, which provides users with a private stream of audio, courtesy of some smart head-tracking. The latest innovation follows in its footsteps, but adds the all-important multiple user functionality.

There’s no word on when Noveto and SEAT’s amazing, argument-resolving technology will arrive for car owners everywhere. With the promise of never again having to listen to Frozen’s “Let It Go” playing through our car speakers, though, we hope it’s very soon!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Shure KSE1200 Electrostatic Earphone System review
• Apple HomePod review
• The best augmented-reality apps for Android and iOS
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• What’s a headphone amp, and why would you need one?

A vigilante botnet is taking out crypto-jacking malware

There is a new band of digital vigilantes on the loose and they’re going after mining malware. This isn’t a group of individual hackers though, but a botnet that is being leveraged to take out some of the most pernicious crypto-jacking software in the world. Known as Fbot, the botnet scans websites for a specific piece of mining malware and when it finds it, the botnet takes over the nefarious software and then destroys itself, taking the malware with it.

Crypto-jacking malware has been on the rise over the past couple of years and it even overtook ransomware as a more common attack vector for hackers earlier this year. Typically, the malware is installed via a malicious download or infected website and forces the system it’s attached to mine cryptocurrency. Although not as malicious or as damaging as data theft or encrypting a user’s files, it can wear out hardware by forcing it to run faster and harder than it was designed to do.

Typical anti-malware solutions can help protect against it, but Fbot is going after the source: The sites that distribute this malware in the first place. It specifically targets the crypto-jacking malware known as com.ufo.miner and it’s rather effective at killing it off when it does discover it.

As TheNextWeb explains, the Fbot botnet does appear to be linked to a domain name system, but it uses EmerDNS. That blockchain based DNS is entirely decentralized, so tracking down individual domain name owners isn’t easy. As of now, the creators of Fbot remain as unknown as the developers of the crypto-jacking malware it targets, but their efforts appear admirable.

The researchers who discovered the botnet, Qihoo360Netlab, claim that there appear to be links between this botnet and the Satori botnet which has in the past been used to infect mining hardware. With that in mind, it’s possible that Fbot doesn’t have altruistic aims, but is instead being used to reduce the saturation of the com.ufo.miner in favor of the creator’s own malware.

Regardless of motive though, the end result in the short term is that there should be less crypto-jacking malware to be wary of.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• In mobile cyberwar, attackers prefer to phish rather than send malware

Google Play rewards system arrives in Japan, no sign of U.S. release yet

Previous rumors that Google was working on a rewards scheme for the Google Play app store have proven to be correct, as Google Play Points has gone live in Japan.

The program has only been made available in Japan — as confirmed by the Google Support page for Google Play Points. Users earn rewards for all of their Google Play purchases, including paid apps or games, books, and movies, and even through in-app purchases or subscriptions.

Users gain points based on a tier system, with the most spend-happy users getting the biggest benefit from the system. At the lowest level, users will gain a single point per 100 yen spent (roughly $0.90), all the way up to the highest tier of rewards, which grants users two points per 100 yen spent. That’s not all though — different tiers will also give bonus points for spending money in specific apps, or for purchasing specific items. Here’s the current list of tiers and benefits, as compiled by 9to5Google.

• Bronze level (up to 249 points):
  • 1 point earned for every 100 Yen spent

• Silver level (250–999 points):
  • 1.25 points earned for every 100 Yen spent
  • 1 300-yen credit for in-app items
  • 1 100-yen movie rental
• Gold level (1,000–3,999 points):
  • 1.5 points earned for every 100 yen spent
  • +1 300-yen credit for in-app items
  • + 2 500-yen ebook credits
  • +2 100-yen movie rentals
• Platinum level (4,000–14,999 points):
  • 1.75 points earned for every 100 yen spent.
  • +1 300-yen credit for in-app items
  • +4 500-yen ebook credits
  • +4 100-yen movie rentals
• Diamond level (more than 15,000 points):
  • 2 points earned for every 100 yen spent
  • +2 300-yen credits for in-app items
  • +6 500-yen ebook credits
  • +5 100-yen movie rentals

These points can be used to purchase items on the Google Play Store or through in-app purchases in the same way you’d use normal funds, or can be used to apply a discount to items. The points last for a year, and must be used within that year or they’re lost. Tiers work slightly differently, and it is possible to go down tiers if you don’t earn as many points as a previous year, and the emphasis is clearly on making people feel they have to spend to keep their level.

Users need to sign up to take part in the service, and as we mentioned, it’s only available in Japan for now. It’s currently unknown whether Japan will be the only region to get this reward scheme, or whether it’s simply being used as a test for later worldwide roll-out. It’s also unknown whether points will be retroactively granted to users, so you may want to hold off on investing in some of the best Android apps until we know more. We have reached out to Google and will update if we hear back.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Crazy vending machine swaps computer art for your permanent selfie

The question of how much of your personal data you woul be willing to give up for ostensibly free stuff is what drives the value of some of the world’s biggest tech giants — ranging from Google to Facebook. It’s also a conundrum that is put to the test in the latest creation of coder artist Matthias Dörfelt.

Dörfelt has built a high-tech camera-equipped vending machine called Face Trade (no, not the movie where John Travolta and Nicolas Cage swap faces) which exchanges unique prints of computer-generated faces for users taking a selfie that is then permanently stored in the Ethereum blockchain.

“My main goal for Face Trade was to create an installation that is odd, surprising, and fun on the surface, while being a comment and experiment on how easily people are willing to give up personal — and in this case even biometric — information in order to receive a ‘free’ artwork,” Dörfelt told Digital Trends.

Dörfelt said that the machine-generated faces are generated on the spot by the computer vending machine. They are designed to be intentionally ambiguous with faces that are showing emotions which are not immediately identifiable.

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Matthias Dörfelt

Matthias Dörfelt

Matthias Dörfelt

“It is not quite clear if the faces are happy, evil, exhausted, or possibly trying to deceive you,” he said. “The drawings are, in a lot of ways, a representation of my feelings towards the short but explosive history of blockchain, which somewhat oscillates between the amazing promises of democratization and decentralization on the one hand, and silk road, greed, and hyper-capitalism on the other end of the spectrum.”

The Face Trade vending machine is currently being exhibited at Art Center Nabi in Seoul, South Korea. “Right now, it is running on an Ethereum test network as I consider the current exhibition as more of a test run,” Dörfelt continued. “This means, as of now, the faces are not stored in the main Ethereum blockchain — which I guess is a better deal for the participants. [However], there will be another Blockchain-related show in late November, also at Nabi, where the piece will be shown again. I plan to have things running on the main Ethereum network for that second show.”

While projects such as this are certainly fun in their conception (and, hey, who wouldn’t want their own computer-generated artwork?), there’s no doubt that it taps into our anxieties surrounding a much bigger issue when it comes to privacy and today’s internet titans.

Ask yourself: Would you be willing to make this particular trade? There’s a unique algorithmically generated artwork if you would!

Editors’ Recommendations

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Android P review

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Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

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Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Android 9 Pie — the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system —  embraces circles, rounded edges, artificial intelligence, and it genuinely attempts to care for your digital wellbeing. Dozens of small delectable feature crumbs, not quite filling on their own, add up to a satisfying slice of pie. We’ve been using the final version of Android Pie for the past few weeks on a Google Pixel 2 XL, and have also spent time with the update on the OnePlus 6 (in beta), and the Essential Phone. Here’s what we like, and what we don’t.

While your phone might not have Pie yet, more devices will launch with in in the coming months, and expect older devices to receive the update over the next year. You can keep track of what devices have received the update in our handy guide. We also don’t list every new feature in this review — you can check out our Android 9 Pie roundup for more.

Visual and navigation changes

Goodbye, sharp edges. One of the first changes we noticed with Android 9 Pie is just how round the interface looks now. Notifications have rounded edges, the quick-settings tiles are in clean, pie-shaped circles, and the Settings app has been revamped with a more colorful, rounded interface. It makes the OS feel friendlier and fluid, and we’re happy with the change.

Perhaps the most drastic change, however, lies in the navigation menu. Gone are the Android navigation buttons in favor of a single, pill-shaped icon. Like iOS on the iPhone X, Android is now all about gesture navigation: Using swipes instead of taps on icons. We like the idea, but Google’s current implementation in Pie feels — pardon the pun — half-baked.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Here’s how it works: The pill-shaped button acts almost exactly the same as the old home button. Tap it once and you’ll go home; press and hold it and you’ll open Google Assistant. Once you jump into an app, you’ll see the back button appear on the left of the home button. It works exactly the same as before, but the button looks a little more angular and smaller. The redesigned back button looks out of place with the rounded theme that has taken over the rest of the OS.

There is no Recents button to see an overview of the recently opened apps, but there’s still a way to access them: Drag the home button to the right to switch back to the previous app. You can also press and hold it to the right to scroll through all your recent apps. To see the full list of Recent apps, or to force close some of them, do a half-swipe up from the bottom of the screen. A full swipe up will open up your app drawer.

Google’s current gesture navigation implementation in Pie feels — pardon the pun — half-baked.

It now feels like extra work just to access the App Drawer, because you need to make sure you swipe completely up. The half-swipe up doesn’t look elegant at all, and it feels disrupting. It also feels as though it takes more time to find a recently-opened app in the Recents menu: It shows fewer apps, which means more scrolling to find the one you’re looking for. The old vertical stack was faster and easier to use.

Like all new changes, it takes some time to get used to the new gesture system, but we’re still not too fond of it after testing it for more than three weeks. Our biggest gripe is how the pill-shaped home button manages to take up the same amount of space as the traditional navigation buttons. At least with the iPhone X, the bar at the bottom takes up very little screen real estate. Thankfully, you can always swap back to the traditional Android navigation buttons, though some manufacturers will have gesture control enabled by default.

Jump up top to the notification drawer, and you’ll notice the clock now lives on the left side of the system tray, and the quick settings area is now packed with more rounded tiles. It looks cleaner, but we’re sad to see some functionality disappear — you can’t tap on tiles like Wi-Fi to see networks within the same interface. Instead, you’ll need to press and hold it to dive into the relevant section of the Settings app. In the same vein, if you used to tap the Settings icon at the top of the system tray, that now requires two swipes down as it has moved lower in the notification drawer. We like the visual changes here, but it does feel like a step back in functionality.

Editor’s note: Many of these visual changes may not be the same as you see here on our Pixel 2. Android Pie will look different on your smartphone, but it should still carry the same improvements and changes.

A.I.: Adaptive Brightness, Actions, Slices

A new brightness slider showcases some of the machine learning at play in Android 9.0 Pie. Your screen will still adjust to ambient light as it always has, but Adaptive Brightness now learns from the manual tweaks you make throughout the day. It will learn your habits over time, and will adjust it the brightness accordingly. Essentially, it’s meant to make sure you don’t need to keep changing brightness manually all the time. It works surprisingly well, but it definitely needs quite a bit of time to learn your daily preferences. It’s the first time we’ve felt satisfied leaving an auto-brightness feature turned on.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Machine learning powers two more additions in Android Pie: Slices and Actions. The latter predicts actions you’re about to perform, and it will inject two buttons in the app drawer. For instance, if you’re about to text a friend, it might offer a quick shortcut you can tap on that will open up your default messaging app and jump straight to the contact. Another example is re-ordering food through your favorite delivery app at a certain time of day.

Actions needs some time to learn your routines, but when it does, it offers genuinely useful shortcuts.

Like Adaptive Brightness, Actions needs some time to learn your routines, but when it does, it offers genuinely useful shortcuts, like jumping into a conversation thread with a specific person in a messaging app. It’s not a drastic change, but it shaves seconds.

Slices add more details when you search your phone for content and apps. For example, if you type in “Lyft” in the Search bar, you may find a link to find a driver to take you home or to work. Unfortunately, this feature still isn’t available yet, and will arrive sometime this fall.

Both of these new features require support from developers to really work. From what we’ve seen with Adaptive Brightness and Actions, A.I. isn’t just a buzzword in Android Pie — it really works.

Richer notifications, quality of life improvements

Android handles notifications incredibly well, so much so that Apple has taken a page out of Google’s book in iOS 12. But Google isn’t done innovating. In Android 9 Pie, you’ll now find Smart Replies baked into notifications. These are basically prepackaged replies based on the way you typically reply (which it learns over time).

We didn’t find the recommendations to be any more tailored to us than the next person, and we mostly found them to be a good way to send short, canned responses when we were busy. They don’t work with every app just yet, so it’s tough to gauge how useful they’ll ultimately be.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The actions you can perform on notifications look a lot nicer now — “Reply” and “Mark as Read” are no longer divided separately, but instead they float in the notification bubble. The font changes here really help make the interface look cleaner, and so do the brighter colors. You can even see images directly in the notification so you don’t need to open an app to respond, which helps make notifications more useful than ever before. It truly does make multitasking on a phone feel faster.

There are a lot of other changes that just improve the everyday usability of the OS. For example, Do Not Disturb is no longer a mess of confusing options. Instead, tap it once and the OS will completely block all visual and audio interruptions. You can even flip your phone face down to turn this on. It’s simple, and incredibly effective.

These changes may be minor, but together they drastically improve the day-to-day Android experience.

Always have trouble with the volume control buttons? Now if you increase or decrease the volume, it defaults to changing the media volume. If you want to change your phone’s sound profile, you can tap one icon to cycle through three modes: Sound, Vibrate only, or Mute. The settings icon will take you into the full volume control menu. It’s a delightfully beneficial change.

You can now take screenshots by tapping a new icon in the power menu (it appears when you press and hold the power button), and edit screenshots right when you take them. The latter is long overdue, as you’ve been able to markup screenshots on iOS for some time.

But our favorite feature of all is the screen rotate function. We’ve all encountered times when the phone’s screen unnecessarily rotates to landscape mode. Now, when screen lock is turned on, an icon appears when you rotate your phone, giving you the option to rotate. About time.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Notice a trend? These changes may be minor, but together they drastically improve the day-to-day Android experience.

Some other quality-of-life changes that are worth mentioning are the magnified view when you move the cursor on text (like in iOS); a note in the notification drawer showing when your next alarm is scheduled; more details in the Night Light tile that reminds you when night mode kicks in; and the fact that you can now see battery life on the Always-on Display (on Pixel devices).

If you keep swiping away some notifications without interacting with them, Android Pie will also ask if you want to stop receiving those alerts completely, which is a handy way to offer up the ability to block particular notifications from an app. A new Manage Notifications button at the bottom of your notifications gives further control, like toggling notifications off and on, app by app.

Digital Wellbeing, and spending less time on your phone

A recent Motorola, Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital survey found that more than 53 percent of respondents (born in 1990s and the early 2000s) described their phone as their “best friend.” It’s clear we spend too much time on our phones, and Google wants to address this with a few “Digital Wellbeing” features in Android Pie.

There are four key components to Digital Wellbeing, which is currently in beta for Pixel devices. The updated Do Not Disturb option, which we mentioned earlier, helps completely block out all alerts so you can focus or pay attention to the task at hand. Then there’s App Timers, which let you set a limit for how long you can use an app. After you hit the limit, the app’s icon goes grayscale to remind you to adhere to your limit. It’s nice to see this available in the OS, but it requires a lot of willpower from the user to not override the limit.

The Dashboard in the Settings menu is also an eye-opening way to see all the times you pick up and unlock your phone, or the amount of notifications you’re bombarded with on a daily basis. It’s beneficial if you just want to keep track of what takes up most of your time, but we haven’t found much a desire to return back to it after checking it out the first time.

Wind Down effectively makes us put our phone on the charger before bed.

The final component is called Wind Down, and it’s perhaps the most useful of the lot. At a specified time bed, the whole phone screen goes grayscale. It sounds subtle, but the missing color for app icons like Twitter made us sincerely want to put the phone down. Do Not Disturb mode also engages, so you don’t get in the habit of checking notifications before bed. Wind Down effectively makes us put our phone on the charger before bed.

We’re excited to see these new additions come to other Android devices after the beta period ends. With the exception of Do Not Disturb and Wind Down, it’s tough to see if any of these will reshape our lives for the better, as the onus remains entirely on you.

Under the hood improvements

As with every update, there are things happening under the hood that you may not notice at first. One of the most important is Adaptive Battery. Google said it’s working with its DeepMind division to analyze user behavior, so the OS can predict the apps you’re most likely to use next, and ready up resources accordingly. Google said this will result in a 30-percent reduction in CPU wake-ups, which should help improve battery life. We haven’t seen much of a change in battery life on our Google Pixel 2 XL before or after we installed Android 9 Pie, but it could just be due to our high usage, so we’re not prepared to dismiss it entirely.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Another significant addition is that apps running in the background can no longer access the microphone or camera. It’s worrying to think this wasn’t the case before, but we’re thankful it’s here. There’s also now a consistent fingerprint authentication prompt across all apps and services, so it looks the same throughout the OS.

This consistency is another running theme, not just for Android Pie but for all Google apps and services. Google is helping developers integrate its Material design elements into third-party apps thanks to a Material Theme Editor, which helps unify the design. Of course, it only helps if developers use it.

An update you’ll want

It’s incredible that a little more than a month after Google released Android 9 Pie, we’re using it on three different smartphones. While it may not seem like much, that’s a major leap for Google, and a boon to Android, which has been struggling with fragmentation for quite some time. We’re hoping most of the new Android phones launching this fall come with Android Pie installed — like Sony’s Xperia XZ3 — and that older devices are updated at a much quicker pace than ever before.

Android 9 Pie is one of Google’s biggest updates to Android in some time. Android 7.0 and 8.0 largely fixed things under the hood, but this version brings fresh visual changes. There are so many small improvements that your day-to-day use of Android will drastically improve, and the injection of artificial intelligence is already helpful. We do hope Google can tweak its gesture navigation system to be a little less confusing, but otherwise Android Pie is an update you’ll want to bite into.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best and worst features of Android 9.0 Pie
• Got Android 9.0 Pie? Here’s why you should turn off auto screen rotation
• Here’s how Google’s Digital Wellbeing feature looks and works in Android 9.0 Pie
• Android 9.0 Pie vs. iOS 12: How notifications have changed
• Everything that’s new with notifications in Android 9.0 Pie

The best Android phone without a notch

The people who tell you notched-screen smartphones are the future and you should just get used to it are wrong, and they should feel bad. Thankfully, notches haven’t completely taken over the Android market; these are the phones you want if you’d rather avoid them.

The Samsung Galaxy S9+ builds on years of Samsung’s excellence. It starts with a gorgeously sculpted metal-and-glass waterproof body sporting dual speakers, a headphone jack and an SD card slot. Inside are the latest and greatest specs, plus a standout pair of cameras on the back and the best display on the market around front.

Our pick

Galaxy S9+

• $750 from Amazon
• $790 from Samsung

The best Android phone for most people doesn’t have a notch.

Choosing the Samsung Galaxy S9+ doesn’t require much thought — it can do everything and looks great doing it, with very few real downsides. It’s beautiful, has the best screen, isn’t missing any hardware features and has one of the best camera experiences available in a smartphone today.

Who should buy this phone

Samsung designs its phones to be appealing to the widest possible audience, and that makes the Galaxy S9+ a great device for just about anyone. It has a big and beautiful display that’s quite simply the best in the industry, but with very small bezels and curved edges, it fits into a relatively compact size without resorting to dumb-looking notches..

Internally, it has all of the latest specs to handle any app or task you need. It also has a pair of cameras on the back that are in the mix as the best available today. Samsung has also kept around crowd-pleasing features like wireless charging, waterproofing, an SD card slot and a headphone jack. Really, the Galaxy S9+ does a great job at being all things to all people.

Best of all, if you don’t care for the larger size of the Galaxy S9+ for whatever reason, you can simply buy the smaller and less expensive Galaxy S9 instead and get the same core experience with only a few changes.

Is it a good time to buy this phone?

Yes. The Samsung Galaxy S9+ launched the first week of March 2018, and the Galaxy S9+’s successor will not be unveiled until March 2019. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was unveiled in August — and we’ll get to it in just a minute — but for its price tag and its abundance of features, the S9+ is still the better buy for a notchless phone.

Reasons to buy

• Sleek and beautiful hardware
• Waterproofing, wireless charging and more
• Best-in-class display
• Fantastic dual cameras
• Dual speakers and a headphone jack

Reasons not to buy

• Lots of unnecessary apps installed
• Slow update speed

The Galaxy S9+ proves that notches are stupid

Outside of the work Samsung has done in making the Infinity Display a perfect answer for why we don’t need notches in our phones to make them feel bigger, the Galaxy S9+ is a beautiful, well-made phone. Even with its powerful specs, the phone can last through the day and charges quickly through USB-C or wireless power. The headphone jack exists, but also delivers quality audio even if your headphones aren’t the best. This is a fantastic all-around phone, something that can be picked up by truly anyone and enjoyed.

But ultimately it does come down to the display. More important than the decision to keep the forehead and chin, Samsung’s displays are among the highest quality in a phone you can buy today. The panel on the Galaxy S9 gets brighter than any other phone, the colors are vibrant, and the included Blue Filter mode makes it a lot more eye-friendly when using it at night. When you put all of this together, the Galaxy S9 becomes an obvious top choice for just about everyone.

Samsung brings its A-game with the S9+’s camera hardware and software.

The camera is all-new this generation, with a sensor that does fantastic processing to remove noise and sharpen fine detail even in poor lighting. It’s aided by a dual-aperture lens to get the best combination of light and detail in different shots, and is paired with a secondary telephoto lens for zoom and portrait mode shooting. Whether you shoot in auto or mess around in manual mode, you can get great shots in just about any scene.

You don’t get the clean and simple software experience of phones like the Google Pixel 2 XL or OnePlus 6, which may take some extra customization and tweaking on your part, but the Galaxy S9+ is far less polarizing overall because it just has so many features to appeal to everyone. When you take it all together, it’s a complete package.

Alternatives to the Samsung Galaxy S9+

The Galaxy S9+ has mass appeal, but it isn’t for everyone. There are several other awesome picks out there depending on your specific needs.

Runner-up

Pixel 2 XL

$750+ at Google Store

Stellar software and performance with a superb camera.

The Google Pixel 2 XL is the cleanest, smoothest and most Google-friendly phone available. It has sleek hardware, simple software and a killer camera, with years of guaranteed updates and unlimited Google Photos storage.

The Pixel 2 XL doesn’t have a fantastic screen or headphone jack like the Galaxy S9+ does, but the camera on Google’s flagship is every bit as good as Samsung. You also get three years of guaranteed software updates — which provides excellent peace of mind — to great software that many consider more consistent and uncluttered than Samsung’s.

Where most manufacturers have opted to move phone speakers from the front of the phone to the bottom, Google’s Pixel phones exist as one of the few left where you can get quality audio pointed right at your face when you’re listening to music or watching a video. The trade-off for this design choice, obviously, is that you have speakers on the front of your phone instead of that all-display experience. While it will soon be possible to hide sensors under the display, you can’t really do the same with speakers.

Now that it’s almost a year old — the Google Pixel 3 XL will be unveiled in early October and will very likely have a notch — you shouldn’t consider the 2 XL at full retail. But Google, Verizon and other retailers sometimes have it on discount now that we’re coming up on the new model’s debut.

Upgrade pick

Galaxy Note 9

$999 from Amazon

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is an incredible phone with a huge price to match.

The Galaxy S9+ is great, but the Note 9 is even greater. It does everything the GS9+ does, but adds in a larger screen, more storage, longer battery life and an S Pen stylus. And it’s about $200 more because of it.

The Galaxy Note 9 is easily the best Note phone Samsung has ever made, and for once it’s actually better than the latest Galaxy S phone in every way. The battery has jumped up to 4000mAh, which gives you effortless all-day battery life, and the rest of the experience is the same as what the Galaxy S9+ offers.

That means you get top-end specs, a great camera, an industry-leading display and so much more. And the Note has an S Pen, which remains unmatched in the smartphone world. The problem is its $1000+ price tag, which is a tough pill to swallow when you can get almost the same experience for about $200 less with the Galaxy S9+. That makes this an “upgrade” and not the standard recommendation.

Budget pick

Moto G6

$235 from Amazon

You can’t go wrong with the notchless Moto G6, which is far better than its $249 price tag would suggest.

The Moto G6 is the best budget phone you can buy, with Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and back and a dual camera setup. A spritely but power-efficient Snapdragon 450 processor helps , the Moto G6 is beautiful and capable.

Both the Moto G6 and the G6 Plus are cut from the same cloth, but because they are so similar, the G6 Plus is only sold in markets the Moto X4 isn’t available. Yes, it’s confusing, but that’s fine: all you need to know is that you’ll probably be happy with whichever model you like.

Bottom line

There are many phones on the market today free of the scourge of notch. From the Galaxy S9+ to the Pixel 2 XL to the Note 9 and Moto G6, there’s a notch-free phone for everyone. Does it matter whether your phone has a notch? Well, that’s up to you to decide. It matters to some people, and that’s all that matters to us.

Updated September 2018: The Galaxy S9+ continues to be our top pick with a top-notch display that has no notch! When money’s no object, the biggest, best notchless phone to get is the Note 9. The Pixel 2 XL remains, but only when it can be found on a discount as its successor is arriving soon.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

Russell Holly is a Contributing Editor at Android Central. He lives for the shiniest new thing, and loves explaining its potential to improve your life. Whatever you do, don’t tell his spouse about the drawer full of tech under the bed.

Daniel Bader is the Managing Editor of Android Central. As he’s writing this, a mountain of old Android phones is about to fall on his head, but his Great Dane will protect him. He drinks way too much coffee and sleeps too little. He wonders if there’s a correlation.

Ara Wagoner is overjoyed to have joined the Android Central team full-time after four years of freelance contributions to the site. Yes, her holster is for a phone not a gun. When she’s not building new Android themes and poking Google Assistant with a stick, you can find her gutting pumpkins to brine and bake pumpkin seeds. If you see her without headphones, RUN.