How to make money fast in No Man’s Sky

Earning money in No Man’s Sky can be a grind, but a few simple steps can make it faster and easier

When you’re not out exploring the awe-inspiring worlds of No Man’s Sky, you’re likely looking for a way to make a quick buck. Nearly every upgrade in the game will cost you units unless you want to grind long hours and search for rare materials. If you just can’t wait that long to earn millions and buy your favorite starship, here’s how to earn a ton of money fast. We’re talking millions.

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Exploit the trade market (Post-patch 1.53)

Every galaxy has a space station, and every space station has a Galactic Trade Market terminal. An easy way to exploit the market is to find a Superconductor blueprint (a Superconductor itself sells for about 2 million units) and then craft the required materials, which cost a fraction of the price. You’re essentially spending a small amount of money to make millions once you sell back the finished product. Just rinse and repeat and you’re good to go.

Note: Make sure you don’t do this too often in a single galaxy or it will drive the price down. You’ll need to hop around a lot to exploit the system.

The required materials to craft a Superconductor are as follows:

• Nitrogen Salt – 50,000 units
• Thermic Condensate – 50,000 units
• Enriched Carbon – 50,000 units
• Semiconductor – 400,000 units

Now here’s where the process will get a bit different from what you may expect, or at least, it’s the same process with a few extra steps added. After the game’s latest patch, update 1.53, you can no longer purchase Enriched Carbon, Nitrogen Salt, and Thermic Condensate from other merchants aboard space stations. Meaning there isn’t a super quick way to get these materials like there used to be other than by crafting them. Luckily, crafting them isn’t too hard as you can still purchase the raw materials required to do so.

Here’s what each requires:

• Enriched Carbon: 250 Radon and 50 Condensed Carbon
• Nitrogen Salt: 250 Nitrogen and 50 Condensed Carbon
• Thermic Condensate: 250 Sulphurine and 50 Condensed Carbon

You may not be able to get the crafted materials from merchants anymore, but they still sell plenty of raw materials that you can use to craft whatever you need. Carbon is one of the most common elements you’ll come across, and its condensed form is easily found on planets as well, or can be processed from Carbon through a Portable Refiner.

The Radon, Nitrogen, and Sulphurine can then be purchased from merchants for a small price. Nitrogen and Sulphurine are fairly cheap themselves at around 25 units a pop. Purchasing 250 will set you back a little over 6,000 units, which is nothing. Radon itself is around the same price, but it can also be refined from Sulphurine if you’re having trouble finding merchants who sell it.

Combing the Nitrogen Salt and Thermic Condensate will produce a Semiconductor, which needs to be combined with Enriched Carbon to form a Superconductor.

Since you’ll be crafting more than usual, you’ll need the required blueprints for each.

How to find blueprints

The steps required to find these blueprints out in the wild are relatively simple, but may need to be repeated a few times as it’s up to chance.

Build a Signal Booster.
Use a Navigation Point to scan for Secure Frequencies.
Once it locates a Manufacturing Facility, head to that waypoint.
Stay in your ship and blast open the door, circling around to avoid Sentinel forces as necessary.

Enter the building and interact with the center console.

At this point you’ll be asked to solve a quick problem by choosing one of the options it gives you. For example, if the facility’s machines are overheating, you’ll need to choose the option to flush them out with coolant. You’ll then receive an item after bringing the facility back online. If it’s not any of the blueprints you need, you’ll need to use your Signal Booster again to search for another Manufacturing Facility. Eventually you’ll come across the correct blueprints.

I managed to luck out and find Semiconductor and Enriched Carbon blueprints at the first couple of Manufacturing Facilities I hit up, but it could take you the better part of a few hours to find all of the blueprints. Still, it beats spending a few weeks. This is the most tedious process, but once you find the blueprints you’ll have them for good, so you won’t need to keep searching for more. The hard part is over.

Can’t find Navigation Points? Scan your surroundings and you’ll eventually come across some. They look like small blocks/diamonds. They are also common on space stations and in buildings where they are labelled as Encrypted Navigation Data. There’s a chance you could either get Nav Points or Nanite Clusters from interacting with them.

Harvest eggs

No Man’s Sky NEXT introduced an alien enemy called Biological Horrors. They’re high damage, high health monsters that pop up when you try to harvest their larval core, which can be acquired from Whispering Eggs found throughout various planets, especially nuclear and toxic ones riddled in radiation, near abandoned buildings. This method is a bit slower than the above, and it doesn’t offer as good a return on investment, but it’s another way to make some fast money.

To complete this method the easy way, you’ll need to make sure you have enough materials to craft a Base Computer and enough Carbon to make four walls.

Find Whispering Eggs. (Not to be confused with Humming Eggs)
Set up your Base Computer.
Build four walls around the batch of eggs.
Shoot an egg outside of the walls and wait for the Biological Horrors to crawl out of the ground.
Use your jetpack to fly inside of the walls.
Harvest your larval cores in peace.

Biological Horrors cannot climb or jump into your secure area once the walls are up, so you’re safe to gather the larval core. Each sells for roughly 90,000 units.

Of course you can always opt to do it the hard way and skip building the protective walls if you’re a masochist. Just watch out for the swarm of Xenomor- I mean Biological Horrors.

Scan planets

The following methods are slower and not as rewarding as the previous two, but they’re the quickest if you’re looking to make a few thousand units because you’re short on cash at the moment and don’t need millions to purchase whatever item you’re eyeing. These are less about hoarding millions and more about getting small lumps of cash as quick as possible.

Almost every planet will have its own species of flora and fauna that can be scanned for units. Finding a new animal or mineral can snag you a couple hundred to a couple thousand units at a time.

Even better, scan planets for Ancient Ruins. At these locations you’ll find items known as Gravitino Balls, which sell for about 20,000 units a piece. Sentinels will attack once you gather one, so be prepared for a fight

Check out our No Man’s Sky: Beginner’s Guide and everything you need to know about its NEXT update.

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Could Snap save the internet from fake news? Here’s the company’s secret weapon

Vagelis Papalexakis UC Riverside

When Snapchat was first pitched as part of a Stanford mechanical engineering class, the course’s horrified teaching assistant openly wondered if the app’s creators had built a sexting app. Less than a decade later, Snapchat could help solve one of the biggest problems currently facing tech: stopping the spread of “fake news” online.

With this goal in mind, Snap Research — the research division of Snap, Inc. — recently donated funding to a University of California, Riverside project, aiming to find a new way of detecting fake news stories online. The algorithm UC Riverside has developed is reportedly capable of detecting fake news stories with an impressive accuracy level of up to 75 percent. With Snap’s support, they hope to further improve this.

“As I understand it, they’re very interested in having a good grasp on how one could understand this problem — and solve it ultimately.”

“Snap is not one of the first companies that would come to mind given [this problem],” Vagelis Papalexakis, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science & Engineering Department at UC Riverside, told Digital Trends. “Nevertheless, Snap is a company which handles content. As I understand it, they’re very interested in having a good grasp on how one could understand this problem — and solve it ultimately.”

What makes UC Riverside’s research different to the dozens, maybe even hundreds, of other research projects trying to break the fake news cycle is the ambition of the project. It’s not a simple keyword blocker, nor does it aim to put a blanket ban on certain URLS. Nor, perhaps most interestingly, is it particularly interested in the facts contained in stories. This makes it distinct from fact-checking websites like Snopes, which rely on human input and evaluation instead of true automation.

“I do not really trust human annotations,” Papalexakis said. “Not because I don’t trust humans, but become this is an inherently hard problem to get a definitive answer for. Our motivation for this comes from asking how much we can do by looking at the data alone, and whether we can use as little human annotation as possible — if any at all.”

The signal for fake news?

The new algorithm looks at as many “signals” as possible from a news story, and uses this to try and classify the article’s trustworthiness. Papalexakis said: “Who shared the article? What hashtags did they use? Who wrote it? Which news organization is it from? What does the webpage look like? We’re trying to figure out which factors [matter] and how much influence they have.”

For example, the hashtag #LockHerUp may not necessarily confirm an article is fake news by itself. However, if a person adds this suffix when they share an article on Twitter, it could suggest a certain slant to the story. Add enough of these clues together, and the idea is that the separate pieces add up to a revealing whole. To put it another way, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are that it’s a duck. Or, in this case, a waddling, quacking, alt-right Russian duck bot.

“Our interest is to understand what happens early on, and how we can flag something at the early stages before it starts ‘infecting’ the network,” Papalexakis continued. “That’s our interest for now: working out what we can squeeze out of the contents and the context of a particular article.”

The algorithm developed by Papalexakis’ group uses something called tensor decomposition to analyze the various streams of information about a news article. Tensors are multi-dimensional cubes, useful for modeling and analyzing data which have lots of different components. Tensor decomposition makes it possible to discover patterns in data by breaking a tensor into elementary pieces of information, representing a particular pattern or topic.

“Even a ridiculously small number of annotated articles can lead us to really, really high levels of accuracy”

The algorithm first uses tensor decomposition to represent data in such a way that it groups possible fake news stories together. A second tier of the algorithm then connects articles which are considered to be close together. Mapping the connection between these articles relies on a principle called “guilt by association,” suggesting that connections between two articles means they are more likely to be similar to one another.

After this, machine learning is applied to the graphs. This “semi-supervised” approach uses a small number of articles which have been categorized by users, and then applies this knowledge to a much larger data set. While this still involves humans at some level, it involves less human annotation than most alternate methods of classifying potential fake news. The 75 percent accuracy level touted by the researchers is based on correctly filtering two public datasets and an additional collection of 63,000 news articles.

“Even a ridiculously small number of annotated articles can lead us to really, really high levels of accuracy,” Papalexakis said. “Much higher than having a system where we tried to capture individual features, like linguistics, or other things people may view as misinformative.”

A cat-and-mouse game for the ages

From a computer science perspective, it’s easy to see why this work would appeal to Vagelis Papalexakis and the other researchers at UC Riverside — as well as the folks at Snapchat. Being able to not only sort fake news from real news, but also distinguish biased op-eds from serious journalism or satirical articles from The Onion is the kind of big data conundrum engineers dream of.

The bigger question, however, is how this algorithm will be used — and whether it can ultimately help crack down on the phenomenon of fake news.

Snap’s contribution to the project (which amounts to a $7,000 “gift” and additional non-financial support) does not guarantee that the company will adopt the technology in a commercial product. But Papalexakis said he hopes the research will eventually “lead to some tech transfer to the platform.”

The eventual goal, he explained, is to develop a system that’s capable of providing any article with what amounts to a trustworthiness score. In theory, such a score could be used to filter out fake news before it even has the chance to be glimpsed by the user.

This is a not dissimilar idea to machine learning email spam filters, which also apply a scoring system based on factors like the ratio of image to text in the body of a message. However, Papalexakis suggested that a preferable approach might be simply alerting users to those stories which score high in the possible fake category — “and then let the user decide what to do with it.”

One good reason for this is the fact that news does not always divide so neatly into spam vs. ham categories, as email does. Sure, some articles may be out-and-out fabrication, but others may be more questionable: featuring no direct lies, but nonetheless intended to lead the reader in one certain direction. Removing these articles, even when we might find opinions clashing with our own, gets into stickier territory.

“This falls into a gray area,” Papalexakis continued. “It’s fine if we can categorize this as a heavily biased article. There are different categories for what we might call misinformation. [A heavily biased article] might not be as bad as a straight-up false article, but it’s still selling a particular viewpoint to the reader. It’s more nuanced than fake vs. not fake.”

Ultimately, despite Papalexakis’ desire to come up with a system that uses as little oversight as possible, he acknowledges that this is a challenge which will have to include both humans and machines.

“I see it as a cat-and-mouse game from a technological point of view,” he said. “I do not think that saying ‘solving it’ is the right way to look at it. Providing people with a tool that can help them understand particular things about an article is part of the solution. This solution would be tools that can help you judge things for yourself, staying educated as an active citizen, understanding things, and reading between the lines. I don’t think that a solely technological solution can be applied to this problem because so much of it depends on people and how they see things.”

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Here’s how to hide your active status on Instagram

Love using Instagram, but also love your privacy? Earlier this year, Instagram added Activity labels, allowing followers and people you direct message to see the last time you were on the social media platform. Now, there’s a green dot to further indicate when you are online.

The label states how long it has been since the profile has been active, such as, “Active 2 hours ago” or “Active 5 minutes ago,” and the green dot appears next to profile pictures when users are online. Instagram Direct messages also have “seen” and “typing” activity updates in chat threads. It’s quite similar to Facebook Messenger.

Business profiles, in particular, can benefit from an activity monitor that shows they are on and ready to chat with potential customers who have questions. You may also want your friends or fans to know that you are active at certain times of the day so they know when to expect new posts, or so they know they can chat with you.

But for many others, this is a big nuisance. They don’t want to broadcast when they are on Instagram because it gets in the way of their privacy, their job, or how hard they are avoiding their ex. Fortunately, you can turn the feature off. Here’s how to hide your active status on Instagram.

Turning off your activity status

Step 1: Head to your Profile Icon. You can find this on the bottom right corner of your Instagram window. Select it.

Step 2: Now you’ll be at your profile page, where you can see the basic stats about your Instagram profile. Head to the upper right edge of the screen to select Settings. On Android phones, this looks like three vertical dots. On iOS, it’s a gear icon.

Step 3: Scroll down until you find the Privacy and Security section. Here, select the option that says Activity Status. This will show a toggle labeled “Show Activity Status.” By default, this is typically switched on. Toggle it off, and you’re done.

Important notes

With the activity status button toggled off, your activity status will never appear to anyone else on Instagram. But that means you will not be able to see anyone else’s activity status, either, so you’re also blinding yourself with this change.

If you’re truly annoyed by the status feature, you probably don’t mind skipping out on it altogether. But if the time comes when you really want to see the status of another profile, you can always go back and briefly flip the Show Activity Status back on so you can check on a friend, client, or other profile quickly before turning it back off.

On a final note, if you look through Instagram’s settings, you’ll notice plenty of additional security features you can enable. That includes comment controls, how photos of you are treated, two-factor authentication to prevent hacking, removing followers, and more. If you are truly worried about being stalked on Instagram or love your privacy, it’s worthwhile going through these features and enabling those that help out.

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Unknown virus halts factories that make iPhone chips

One of the world’s largest manufacturers of semiconductors and processors has been forced to halt operations due to a computer virus that has affected several of its factories. According to Bloomberg, a computer virus disrupted production at several factories owned by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Friday evening.

Many of the details surrounding the virus remain unclear. No individual or organization has taken credit for the attack though TSMC representatives have said that the virus was not introduced by a hacker. As of right now, TSMC has not stated rather this virus was a form of ransomware or something else so details are scarce. TSMC has said that the virus affected several of their fabrication tools though the problem has been contained. Some of the affected factories have resumed operations, but several will remain closed until at least Sunday afternoon.

During a phone call with Bloomberg, a TSMC representative acknowledged that the company had been hit by viruses before, but never one quite this bad.

“TSMC has been attacked by viruses before, but this is the first time a virus attack has affected our production lines,” TSM Chief Financial Officer Lora Ho told Bloomberg.

Regardless of the details behind the attack, it clearly comes at a bad time for TSMC. The company is currently the sole producer of the processors that power Apple’s iPhones and it was in the midst of ramping up for the launch of the company’s latest smartphones. Currently, we don’t know what impact, if any, this virus will have on the production of the new iPhone or TSMC in general. During the course of her conversation with Bloomberg, Ho declined to give any specifics regarding the financial impact of this attack — though she did say that the company would release a statement on Monday once they had completed its assessment.

Aside from this issue, both Apple and TSMC are having a good year with Apple boasting a market value in excess of $1 trillion. For its part, TSMC, is predicting strong growth in the latter half of this year thanks in large part to its work with Apple on the iPhone.

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Best Wireless Headphones for the Google Pixel 2

What are the best wireless headphones for the Google Pixel 2?

The Google Pixel 2 is a great phone, but you’re going to need a quality pair of Bluetooth headphones thanks to the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Fortunately, there are a plethora of options to choose from, from “Made for Google” options like the Pixel Buds to tried and tested classics. We’ve tried to round out a list that offers a good variety of styles and price points, so you should be able to find the right pair for your needs.

• Anker Soundcore Pro
• OnePlus Bullets Wireless
• Bose QuietComfort 35
• Jabra Move Wireless
• Libratone Q Adapt
• Skullcandy Ink’d
• Sony H.ear Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones
• Jaybird X3 Sport

Anker Soundcore Spirit Pro

Anker may be more famous for batteries than headphones, but its new Soundcore series of wireless Bluetooth headphones are fantastic. Anker is extremely generous with its sizing here, offering four sizes of ear tips and wings, plus clips and other amenities, included for just $50.

Of course, no headphones are worth the cost if they sound bad, and thankfully Anker has spent a lot of time making sure the Soundcore Pros sound great, from deep bass to smooth highs and pleasing mids. A single charge gets about 10 hours of battery life, and they have an 18-month warranty in case anything goes wrong. Highly recommended!

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OnePlus Bullets Wireless

OnePlus has always made great phones for less than its competitors, but did you know the same is true of its accessories? The Bullets Wireless headphones are a fantastic-sounding, well-designed pair of wireless earbuds. Technically they’re neckbuds, which mean the cord wraps comfortably around the neck taking stress (and gravity) off the headphones itself, so they’re easily worn for hours at a time.

The best part of the Bullets Wireless is their charging — you get 5 hours of playback from 15 minutes of charging through USB-C. The second best part? They’re only $70, and worth every penny!

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Bose QuietComfort 35 II

When it comes to over-ear noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones, the Bose QuietComfort 35 IIs are basically the gold standard. The Bose brand is synonymous with high-quality audio products and the QC 35s are a great example of their craftsmanship.

Featuring some of the best noise cancellation you’ll find, these are ideal options for your noisy commute or for frequent travelers who want to cut out the sound of the airplane engines. Cutting out that distracting noise is important and with 20 hours of battery life, you can wear them comfortably for hours without worrying about these dying on you. There’s also a button for quickly accessing Google Assistant, which is awesome.

Sure, these puppies will set you back $349, which is a fair price for what is arguably the best noise-cancelling headphones out there. They’ve been reviewed well by most people who’ve tried them, including AC’s own Phil Nickinson, who called them nearly perfect. If noise cancellation and comfort are your biggest factors when buying headphones, you have to consider Bose.

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Jabra Move Wireless

Not looking to break the bank on headphones? You’ll want to consider the Jabra Move Wireless on-ear headphones. They’re lightweight and durable with a headband made of stainless steel and dirt-resistant fabric on the ear cups. You get up to 8 hours of music playback and 12 days of standby time on a single charge.

They were selected by the Wirecutter as the best budget wireless Bluetooth headphones you can buy after testing 115 models. They say the sound quality and comfortable fit belies the lower price, so if you’re looking for Bluetooth headphones that sound great at a great price, pick up a pair for as low as $69.

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Libratone Q Adapt

These on-ear headphones from Libratone are featured in the Google Store as a “Made for Google” certified accessory. They’ve got a great look to them and feature adjustable noise cancellation, a touch interface for controlling playback and volume, and a built-in microphone for taking calls.

While the Pixel 2 did away with the headphone jack, there’s a good chance that you still own several products that use them, so Libratone has included an optional 3.5mm cable for those times when you’d prefer a wired connection.

The Q Adapt cost $249, which is a fair price to pay for excellent sound and tremendous comfort in a smallish package.

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Skullcandy Ink’d Wireless Bluetooth Headphones

Looking to inject a bit of fun into your headphone life without emptying your bank account? Skullcandy’s Ink’d headphones are available in a bunch of bright and playful colors (Miami Blue pictured here), and at $50 they’re relatively easy to replace if they get lost or break.

The best part is that they sound really good, have 8 hours of battery life, and are extremely comfortable to wear for long periods thanks to their neckbud design.

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Sony H.ear Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones

Sony’s wireless over-ear headphones are jam-packed with features such as noise-canceling, NFC connectivity, and a handy carrying case for traveling. They’re wireless with Bluetooth 4.1 technology, but also include a 3.5mm cable with inline volume controls. They have digital noise-canceling that adapts to your surroundings to cut out unwanted sound and deliver high-resolution audio to your ears.

They’ve got a sleek and comfortable design that you can wear for hours, and you can expect up to 20 hours of playback time on a battery charge. If they die, you’ve got a wired connection available, so make sure you got your headphone adapter with you.

These will run you just over $300, and they are arguably better than Sony’s more-expensive WH1000XM2

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Jaybird X3 Sport

Jaybird has been making quality headphones for quite some time and the Jaybird X3s are no exception.

You can get a full week of workouts on a single charge and a quick 15 minutes of charging will get you a full hour at least. If you rely on your tunes to get you through a workout, check out the Jaybird X3 wireless earbuds and enjoy.

These headphones come in Blackout or Sparta (white) colors, and they’re sweat- and rain-proof, so you can pour your heart and soul into every workout without worrying about frying them. Pricing starts around $100.

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What have you tried?

What are your favorite wireless headphones that you’ve tried? Any thoughts on the options we’ve listed here? Let us know in the comments!

Update, August 4: We’ve reworked this list a bit, removing some models and adding a few more. Enjoy our choices from Anker, OnePlus, and Skullcandy!

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

• Pixel 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
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• Join our Pixel 2 forums

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Samsung’s PowerBot, the iPad Pro, laundry detergent, and more are all discounted today

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

We found plenty of great deals today that include big discounts on the Anova sous vide precision cooker, the Samsung PowerBot robotic vacuum, the iPad Pro, and more! Most of these prices will be gone when the day ends, so don’t miss your chance to save big!

View the rest of the deals

If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

Motiv Ring review – one fitness ring to rule them all?

After complaining about a lack of innovation in the fitness tracking space, I’ve had the opportunity to review two unique products in this space. The first was the PowerWatch X, which never ran out of battery but its features and performance were ultimately disappointing. Now comes the Motiv: a fitness tracker ring that is worn on a single finger, rather than a wrist, and which only just announced official Android support. Can this diminutive device fare better? Let’s find out in our full Motiv Ring review.

Best fitness trackers | Best smartwatches

Concept and features

The idea here is simple: being able to track your steps taken, your calories burned, and your sleep is great, but wearing a huge device on your wrist 24/7 that gets sweaty, catches on things, and moves around a lot is less great. Conventional fitness bands also prevent you from wearing another watch without looking very over-blinged. They don’t work with all outfits, and they can even be a potential hazard during certain sports such as rock climbing.

Something like the Motiv Ring offers a tantalizing solution. This band fits like a wedding ring, but despite its diminutive size, it packs an optical heart-rate monitor, three-axis accelerometer, Bluetooth, three-day battery, and LED. Its use of space is pretty impressive — these tiny components must be packed in there pretty tightly. It’s even water-resistant up to 50m. iOS users have been enjoying this freedom for a while now, but now it’s our turn, as Motiv now supports a host of Android devices (Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, S8, S8 Plus, S9, S9 Plus, Note 5, and Note 8, and Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL).

Let’s get into the actual performance and practicality.

Design and comfort

There’s not a huge amount to say in regards to the design. The whole point of wearing a ring as a fitness tracker is that it isn’t a big ostentatious watch. It was designed to be subtle. It’s just a plain ring, available in either slate grey or rose gold, both of which look pretty nice. It’s made from matte titanium, and it feels pretty solid without being weighty. The only noticeable design element is a very faint line, which also houses an LED (which is off most of the time).

I can see your halo

This LED shows you when the device is charging and when it is syncing. Syncing can be prompted manually on the device by rotating it three times, which is pretty cool (though it occasionally refused to work). I would personally quite enjoy wearing a gadgety, biohacker type ring with lots of LEDs and things, but I understand why this subtler approach is probably more versatile.

The Motiv Ring has been designed with subtlety in mind.

While the ring itself is quite plain, there are some nice design touches throughout the entire experience where Motiv shows a little style. The box has a crisp and premium feel to it. Likewise, the charger is pretty clever. You actually get two, along with a magnetic housing to clip one to your keyring. These insert into a PC or powered charger, and then magnetically charge the ring which balances on top. It’s not terribly intuitive, but after the app walks you through it, it’s a rather smart solution. It’s great that the charger is just as svelte as the ring itself.

Comfort is really one of the big selling points of the Motiv Ring, and it’s something that will make or break the experience. As long you get the right size, the Motiv ring is perfectly comfortable. When you order a ring, you’ll first be sent a sizing kit (unless you can borrow one off of a friend — something Motiv incentivizes with a $20 discount). This kit is also pretty smartly designed, and it creates a little anticipation while you wait for your ring to arrive. The ring sizes don’t use the conventional measurement system of jewelry (I’m sure there’s a good reason why not) and Motiv encourages you to wear the samples for a while before making a choice, seeing as your finger typically changes size throughout the day. I found that there was only one size I could possibly wear — the others either didn’t fit on my finger at all or left far too much space.

Because of that, I was a little worried. However, since receiving my ring I’ve had zero complaints. It’s been very comfortable for the most part, with only a few caveats.

Experience

So, what is the Motiv Ring actually like to wear on a daily basis? Is it really that much more convenient than a watch? Yes and no.

The Motiv Ring next to a more conventional tracker, the Miifit Band 3

On one hand, a ring is easier to forget. I’m far less conscious of wearing a fitness tracker with it, which is an admirable feat. Sleeping wearing a ring is considerably more comfortable, which is ideal for sleep tracking. Likewise, as I mentioned, wearing a ring means you won’t have problems with other items of clothing or jewelry. A bulky watch always feels in the way when I’m typing as I rest my wrists on the keyboard — this isn’t a problem with the Motiv Ring.

However, there are also some downsides here.

For one, wearing a ring is less than ideal when you’re hitting the gym. Lifting weights will cause the device to scratch pretty severely, blemishing the matte finish. After a single workout using a barbell, my Motiv was very noticeably scratched on the underside. To avoid that you’ll have to take it off, meaning you aren’t tracking anything and are more likely to lose or forget it.

These scratches are from the very first use of the Motiv Ring during a weightlifting workout

It hurt to do that to it as part of the Motiv Ring review, too. I know this probably isn’t primarily what the device is intended for, but if you’re tracking your calorie burn throughout the day, then you should be able to wear it during workouts. If you’re trying to burn more calories and working out is one of the primary ways you intend to do that, you’re essentially forced to remove your tracker when you need it most — or live with it scratched up.

Even if you don’t mind the scratches, wearing a ring isn’t ideal during a heavy deadlift as it actually gets in the way. I also found it to be less than ideal when punching a bag. It’s not advisable to wear it climbing, either. Practically any activity where you’ll need gloves or use your hands a lot can cause problems or discomfort.

Wearing the Motiv ring under boxing gloves is painful!

If you want to see something really gruesome, google “degloving” (it’s really gross, don’t say I didn’t warn you). This is why rings and weight-lifting do not make great bedfellows.

The Motiv Ring has a tendency to move around a lot and can’t be worn during all activities.

This won’t be a problem for those who primarily workout by running, playing tennis, skipping, or otherwise using their legs, but I know a lot more people who lift weights than run. This is a reality many manufacturers seem unwilling to accept.

Another slight issue is that the ring has a tendency to move around a lot by rotating. This isn’t a huge problem, except it means the heart-rate monitor will often move away from the fleshy underside of your finger where you should maintain contact. This could potentially influence its accuracy.

Then there’s the light bleed, which I noticed multiple times during the Motiv Ring review period. When the heart-rate monitor is flashing away during the night, you’ll be able to see the green light creeping around the corners. This is a minor gripe, but even light you aren’t consciously aware of can increase cortisol, decrease melatonin, and ultimately lead to less restorative sleep. Kind of the opposite of what you want from a health tracker!

The Motiv Ring is also still something of a visual statement. If you’re not the sort of person who wears rings, it might take a while to get used to the look. If you wear a lot of rings, then you’ll need to consider how it’s going to look alongside your other jewelry.

Still, despite these shortcomings, a ring is still significantly less of an imposition than a watch when worn 24/7. It’s probably a little healthier as well.

Performance and tracking

The Motiv Ring could be the most comfortable device in the world, but it still needs to do what it says on the tin. So how does it fare in terms of its ability to track your performance?

First, its features are fairly bare bones. Don’t come into this expecting Fitbit or Garmin levels of data. Instead, you’ll get a number for your “active minutes,” which represents a combination of movement (mainly steps as far as I can tell) combined with a higher heart rate. Just walking isn’t enough; you need to cross a threshold in order for them to become “active steps.” You’ll be given an active minute target, too (set at 21 minutes for me).

On top of that, you also get basic sleep tracking, which tells you how long you’ve been out, but doesn’t provide any detail in terms of deep, light, or REM sleep, among other things.

What you do get is a resting heart rate, which is a good indicator of overall cardio fitness, and stress to a lesser degree.

All this is conveyed through the app, which is similarly minimalist, though still nicely designed and easy to use. The main screen shows your activity for that day, presented as a series of cards. These cards tell you the main data points that have been collected (specific walks with active minutes tallied, sleep, resting heart rate).

Your resting heart rate is a good indicator of overall cardio fitness.

Tapping on any of these cards shows a little more data. You can see trends for your sleep and average sleep time. Mine is currently seven hours and two minutes, which isn’t bad. Tap walk and you’ll be able to see the steps and distance.

The main page also shows you the number of steps you’ve taken, miles you’ve covered, and calories you’ve burned.

This is pretty much all you get.

To see previous days, simply swipe left. Unfortunately, there’s no way to see a calendar month and select a day that way.

For me, the data was fairly accurate, with a few exceptions. Sleep tracking might not be that detailed, but it has been very accurate when identifying the times I dozed off and woke up (not something you can always rely on, even with bigger trackers). Likewise, the number of steps seems to tally fairly accurately with other trackers I used. Finally, there’s the ability to add friends to a “Circle,” as well as the option to add custom workouts.

The fact the Motiv Ring can auto-detect anything is amazing given its tiny size.

Furthering my gripe regarding the lack of functionality in the gym though, my workouts there weren’t tracked in any way whatsoever, and there’s no way to manually begin a workout. That said, it accurately detected a quick run and provided a fairly accurate breakdown showing my distance covered and max heartrate. However, there’s no GPS and you don’t get more detailed stats like pace or cadence, so I wouldn’t rely on this as your sole method of tracking a serious workout. Still, it’s cool.

The ring should also be able to track a number of other activities. It couldn’t detect my boxing, but swimming (minus heart rate), sports, and more should be fair game. This is fairly basic, but the fact it can auto-detect anything at all is amazing given its tiny size. It means if you engage in a bit of impromptu activity, it generally won’t be missed.

I had some issues with the battery however. While writing this Motiv Ring review, I had the ring run out of power during the day on at least two occasions. One of those days I did 15,000 steps and two workouts, so that was quite a loss. Unfortunately, the ring itself doesn’t tell you when it’s running low. The app will tell you, but if you’re out for a walk or training this is easy to miss. It also takes its time charging, so it’s not easy to top up quickly if you’re caught short.

There’s also a slight oversight in the step-tracking department. If you have a day of walking that isn’t vigorous enough to trigger an”‘active minute” then you don’t get the card. Without the card, you can’t get to the page showing the breakdown of your steps that day. You can see your total steps, but you can’t see when those steps were taken throughout the day.

You’re also not going to get any MyFitnessPal synergy here, which is an unfortunate omission, though there is Google Fit integration.

Closing comments

Despite some of my concerns, I’m a fan of the Motiv Ring. I think it’s a well-made device, a feat of engineering, and a great idea.

Unfortunately, it also has a host of drawbacks. Wearing something this small comes with compromises, and the idea itself doesn’t inherently solve every issue present with traditional wrist-worn trackers.

As a result, I can’t recommend this device for everyone. The quantity and accuracy of the data is simply insufficient for true fitness enthusiasts. Whether or not the design solves serious issues for you will depend almost entirely on your lifestyle and how you use your tracker. This isn’t a great solution for weightlifters, so you’ll have to consider your individual workout habits before deciding if the Motiv Ring is a good fit.

Think of it as more of a cheerleader or motivator on your finger and less of a coach.

The Motiv Ring seems pretty ideal for someone who just wants a bit of extra motivation to walk more, sleep better, and engage in the occasional bit of exercise. You can just forget about it and look at your trends over time, without getting bogged down in an excess of data. It’s a useful “better than nothing” option if you’re unsure about wearing a whole watch but still want at least some tracking. I often give up on wrist-worn trackers for months at a time, so I could easily see myself using the device more consistently than those (especially considering how no fitness tracker is perfectly accurate anyway). In fact, I probably will keep it on for now. It is still very early days for the device, especially on Android. Future updates could add further functionality. At the very least, I hope to see support for a broader range of devices going forward.

If you think of it as more of a cheerleader than a coach, you may find the Motiv Ring meets your expectations. The clue is in the name, I guess!

Will you pick up the Motiv Ring? Sound off in the comments below!

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact review

Research Center:

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact

Like station wagons and iPod repairmen, small phones are a dying breed today. Phone screens continue to get bigger and bigger, and the International Data Corporation reports that “phablets” will overtake regular smartphone shipments by 2019. Smartphone manufacturers often reserve special features for large-screen phones too — the Google Pixel 2 has a duller design compared to the Pixel 2 XL; the Samsung Galaxy S9 doesn’t come with a dual-lens system, unlike the S9 Plus; and HTC launched the U12 Plus without a regular-size U12 at all.

But Sony hasn’t given up. While the Xperia XZ2 Compact doesn’t have the same vibration system or sleek design language of the Xperia XZ2, its differences make it a better phone. In fact, it’s one of the best options if you’re looking for a small phone today. Here’s why.

Compact design and display

The highlight of this phone is in its name; it’s all about size. With a 5-inch screen, the XZ2 Compact will easily fit in every palm. The rear curves inwards at the sides, making it ergonomic and comfortable to hold, and there’s a nice weight to it that makes it feel like a solid, well-built phone. We especially love how little space the XZ2 Compact takes up in pant pockets.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The design isn’t as contemporary as the Compact’s bigger brother, the XZ2. The bezels on the front aren’t as svelte as most of the competition, but we’re happy with the varied color options, especially the Moss Green shown here. The rear doesn’t utilize glass, which means there’s no wireless charging, but the phone’s also a little more durable. It’s a simple look, with just a single-lens camera at the top, a fingerprint sensor below, and the Xperia logo at the bottom. There’s even an indicator for where the NFC antenna sits for services like Google Pay.

The fingerprint sensor is still a little too low, as it was on the XZ2, but it’s manageable thanks to the Compact’s smaller size, and quick to react.

We especially love how little space the XZ2 Compact takes up in pant pockets.

All the buttons are on the right edge, with a volume rocker up top, a power button in the middle, and a camera shutter button at the bottom. We’d have liked to see the power button a tad higher — it’s a little too centered for our grip — but adjusting the way we held the phone fixed this issue. Over on the bottom edge is a USB Type-C port for charging.

There are two front-facing speakers, and while the bass isn’t as punchy as we’d like, the audio gets plenty loud to hear even outdoors — handy if you want to watch a movie or YouTube video at the park. There’s no headphone jack, but Sony supports a wide-range of high-resolution audio formats, including AptX HD, ensuring your music sounds good over Bluetooth. There’s a USB Type-C to 3.5mm headphone jack converter in the box, too.

The 5-inch LCD screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and it packs an 18:9 aspect ratio with 2,160 x 1,080 pixel resolution. It’s sharp, colorful, and gets bright enough to view outdoors on a sunny day. Blacks aren’t as dark as those you’d find on an OLED panel, but you won’t have any qualms about screen quality here.

We didn’t find ourselves using this phone to watch a lot of video content, at least compared to bigger phones, as the screen feels a little too cramped for it. The XZ2 Compact’s display does support HDR, though, so if you do spend some time on YouTube or Netflix, know that you’re getting excellent visuals. You’ll want to make sure the content you watch supports HDR — for example, Marvel’s Luke Cage season 2 looks great, though we kept the screen close to our face to make sure we could see everything.

The Xperia XZ2 Compact fits like a glove in the hand. All parts of the screen are easy to access, and if you increasingly find yourself turned off from large-screen phones, then Sony’s Compact should be on the top of your list.

Fast performance, dated-looking software

Like the Xperia XZ2, the Compact delivers incredibly speedy performance with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and 4GB RAM. We didn’t run into any problems at all running graphics-intensive games like PUBG: Mobile and Alto’s Odyssey; the Compact was capable of handling everything we threw at it.

Here are a few benchmark results:

• AnTuTu 3DBench: 244,847
• Geekbench 4 CPU: 2,406 Single-core; 8,192 multi-core
• 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 3,346 (Vulkan)

The Compact’s AnTuTu score is right below the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, landing in the top ranks as one of our best performing phones based on benchmark tests. These tests aren’t necessarily a good measure of real-world performance, but it seems to ring true here. You won’t have any performance issues with the XZ2 Compact.

The phone comes with 64GB of internal storage, plus support MicroSD cards in case you need more space.

The rear 19-megapixel lens captures photos with good detail and great color accuracy.

The XZ2 Compact runs Android 8.0 Oreo, and you may be surprised to hear that our device is stuck on the February 1 security patch. There have been regular software updates rolling out consistently to XZ2 and XZ2 Compact units, including the July security patch and other bug fixes, but we’ve yet to see it on our phone. We spoke to a Sony customer service representative, and were told to simply wait for our unit to get the over-the-air update notification.

Otherwise, the software experience is average. There’s a good deal of bloatware, such as pre-installed Amazon apps that can’t be uninstalled, and a handful of Sony apps we never found particularly useful. One neat app is 3D Creator, which lets you create 3D models of anything with the phone’s camera — you can even send this 3D scan to a 3D printer — though this feature seems tailored for a niche audience.

Some parts of Sony’s Android skin look a tad dated, but it’s thankfully customizable, and it’s still simple to operate. We have seen a few apps force closing occasionally, but it never felt frustrating or disruptive to our day-to-day experience.

A more than capable camera

The camera on the XZ2 Compact doesn’t stand out from the strong competition. There’s no dual-camera system here — you’ll have to look at the newer XZ2 Premium for that — but that doesn’t mean the Compact can’t handle its own. The rear 19-megapixel lens captures photos with good detail and great color accuracy.

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We do have some gripes, such as how the camera app isn’t too fast. It takes a full two seconds or more to launch, and the camera shutter is a tad slow to react. Open a picture in the photo gallery and zoom in, and you’ll notice it always takes a few seconds to load.

The camera also takes some time to adjust the exposure in high-contrast scenarios. When there’s a bright sky and a dark foreground, the XZ2 Compact needs a few seconds to process the lighting, but sometimes HDR even feels like it’s non-existent.

The true-to-life colors in the XZ2’s 4K HDR video is astounding.

We’re quite satisfied with most of the photos the XZ2 Compact takes in low-light scenarios. Grain starts to creep in, but the camera still maintains good color accuracy, and detail is solid. Photos have a higher chance to look blurrier here, though, so you may need a few tries to get the right shot.

The bokeh mode, which adds a strong blur behind a subject, is hit or miss. We’ve found it sometimes likes to simply refuse to add a blur, but when it does, it has trouble detecting all the edges around a subject, specifically hair. It can work well — you just need to spend some time with it and get ready to make a few attempts.

Shooting video is one of the highlights on the XZ2 Compact. Sony said the Compact, along with the XZ2 and XZ2 Premium, are among the only phones that can capture 4K HDR content. This helps with bringing out more realistic colors in your videos, and manages contrast better. There is a warning that the camera will force close if the phone gets too warm, though your content will always save.

So how do videos look? The true-to-life colors are astounding, and the detail the camera captures looks good — but keep in mind you need a 4K HDR display to truly appreciate what you’ve captured. We’re not fans of the phone’s video stabilization, which can make the video look quite janky. We preferred shooting HDR in 1080p, rather than 4K. The camera app also does start to stutter a little if you record a little too long.

The other big video feature is super slow motion at 960 frames per second, which is captured in 1080p — a higher resolution than the super slow motion feature on the Galaxy S9. It’s a fun feature, but it really requires lots light to look good, and you need to be accurate when you press the slow-mo button to make sure you can capture the moment at the perfect time.

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact Compared To

Land Rover Explore

Motorola Moto E4

Google Pixel

Fairphone 2

LG V10

HTC One A9

Huawei P8 lite

Motorola Moto G (2015)

YotaPhone 2

Mlais M9

ZTE Blade S6

Asus PadFone X

Sprint Vital

Sony Xperia ZL

Samsung Galaxy S4

The 5-megapixel camera takes decent selfies, but it’s nothing to write home about. The screen lights up as a flash in dark environments, which is helpful.

The XZ2 Compact has a camera that takes great photos in almost all environments, though it doesn’t necessarily excel in one particular area.

Day-long battery

We’ve found the Xperia XZ2 Compact offers a full day of battery life, based on medium to heavy usage, due to its 2,870mAh battery capacity. Starting around 7:30 a.m. off the charger, with plenty of gaming, video and music streaming, and browsing social media, our device ended up with 32 percent around 5:30 p.m. This would often stretch to 15 percent by midnight or so, with minimal use at home.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Typically though, we arrived home around 6 p.m. with a little under 50 percent remaining — that’s with medium to light usage, using the phone mostly to browse the web and take some photos. On weekends, when we didn’t use our phone much, we found about 54 percent remaining by 9 p.m.

The Compact supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology, and it sure does charge up quickly. We plugged it in at 10:54 p.m. with 33 percent remaining, and it hit 90 percent by 11:50 p.m. Unlike the XZ2, the Compact does not support wireless charging.

Price, availability, and warranty information

The Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact initially cost $650 at launch, but you can grab it for $600 at Best Buy, Amazon, BuyDig, and Focus. It won’t work on Sprint, Boost Mobile, and Virgin Mobile, but it will be perfectly fine on Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Sony offers a one-year limited warranty that protects the device from manufacturer defects.

Our Take

The perfectly sized Xperia XZ2 Compact will fit in any pocket, and it comes with excellent performance, a good camera, and day-long battery life.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes, the Google Pixel 2 is one of the closest phones in size that you’ll find to the Xperia XZ2 Compact. Its camera is better, though the Compact excels in performance thanks to its newer processor. The Galaxy S9 is another option that has similar performance and a great camera, though it’s a tad more expensive. You can check out our guide to the best small phones for more.

How long will it last?

The Xperia XZ2 Compact will likely last you a little more than three years. It will continue to receive software updates for the next two years, and its life will probably continue for a little while after. It’s protected by a Gorilla Glass 5 screen on the front, but you might still want to grab a case. Thankfully, it’s IP65/68 water-resistant, so it can handle a drop in the pool.

Should you buy it?

Yes. If you’re in the market for a small smartphone, this is one of your best choices right now.

Here’s what we’re reading, watching, playing, and listening to this week

How we’re spending our leisure time.

Everyone has a bit of quiet downtime once in a while. Whether you’re sitting quietly at home or trying to relax on a plane or just giving your busy mind and hands a break, it’s important to relax.

A good way to do that is to read a book, listen to some music or watch a movie or show. See what’s caught our attention for the week of August 4th.

Ara Wagoner

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations started back in the spring of 2017, but this summer brought us the first big payoff from the sequel series — as well as one of the most well-paced boss battles I’ve seen in years. Episode 65 — titled Father and Child — is a battle from start to finish, with brief cooldowns and rallies every couple of minutes as the fight shifts between the 5 Kages, Naruto and Sasuke, the Kages again, and Boruto stepping in to defend his father and help win the day.

This fight is a turning point for the show and its titular characters; Naruto sees who his son really is and how far he’s come as a shinobi, and Boruto finds his destiny, receiving the powerful-yet-mysterious Karma Seal from his defeated foe that will dominate the show’s next arc. It’s also an excellent time to jump on the Boruto bandwagon, as the simulcasted subtitled episodes enter a new arc and Viz prepares the first episodes for their English dub debut at the end of September on Toonami.

You can find Boruto — as well as Naruto and Shippuden — on Crunchyroll and Hulu.

Tom Westrick

I’m nearing the end of season eight of Cheers, and I’m taking a bit of a break from it right now. I’ve enjoyed it, but a break for another series is a good way to keep it from feeling like a chore. I’m taking that break by watching Season 4 of The Flash. I’m about halfway through the season, and other than being annoyed that the Speed Force is more and more the Plot Force, I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s cool to see Team Flash fight a villain who isn’t a speedster, and I’m curious to see just how they defeat the Thinker.

Essa Kidwell

It’s a good week for music for me. With the Dystopia Rising: PA game kicking off this weekend I’ve been on a writing overdrive. So between making sure there are plenty of Zombie stories to keep the larpers entertained for a whole weekend, and getting prepped for all the fun new things coming in August with gaming… I’m pretty stoked! So this calls for nothing less than some Postmodern Jukebox and a whole lot of relaxing. Perhaps naps as well. Shoot me a Tweet and tell me your favorite larp, Postmodern song or what game you’re most excited about!

The world may never know.

Quentyn Kennemer

Orange is the new Black is back! I actually didn’t even realize the new season was out until Netflix sent me a notification about it a day late. That’s OK. I’ve been bingeing it all the same. In case you haven’t seen it, OitnB (as it’s affectionately abbreviated) takes a look inside the lives of women stuck in prison.

The show strikes that nice balance between comedy, violence, and serious moments, and this latest season is the biggest yet. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical in Jenji Kohan’s ability to drive a show home after the train wreck that was Weeds, but with a proper budget, creative control, and no fear that the show will be canceled in the blink of an eye, I will happily admit that she has shut me up.

Your turn

What are YOU reading, watching, or listening to this week? Let us know in the comments!

Update, August 4th, 2018: This is a bi-weekly series where we tell you what we’re into, so check back every other weekend!

YouTube Music review: A mixtape full of promise

Guess who’s back, back again. YouTube Music’s back. Tell a friend.

AC
Score
4

From the latest official music videos to bootlegged, out-of-print albums to concerts and cover videos, you can find just about any song you want to hear on YouTube, which hosts the biggest video library in the world and quite possibly the biggest music library, too. It’s no surprise that YouTube would seek to capitalize on that massive library to try and better market itself to music lovers, but the new YouTube Music — much like its 2015 predecessor — has had a few missteps in its first months.

But YouTube Music is in this for the long haul, and while there are still some rough spots in the app and service to be worked out, YouTube Music can definitely rock you right now.

Jump right in — YouTube already knows what you like

For most music services, when you sign up and start using it, you have to suffer through a setup process. You pick a few genres or artists that you like, and then the service will generate suggestions based on your choices. YouTube Music will let you tell it what artists you like if you want to, but honestly, if you already have a Google account — and thus a YouTube account — YouTube Music probably already knows what you like.

When you open YouTube Music for the first time, the only thing it’ll ask you off the bat — apart from if you want to subscribe to YouTube Music Premium — is if it can access your location. That’s it. No tedious onboarding, no patronizing walkthrough of how to play a song; just give it your permissions and it will take you straight to the Home feed.

The constantly shifting recommendation carousels on the Home feed are based on your location, history, and time of day. Some of these recommendations can be really useful — especially when you’re building up a traditional “library” — but some music video recommendations just aren’t as helpful.

If you’re looking to build up your library and you want to be scared by how well YouTube Music really knows you, start Your Mixtape.

If you want to know just how dead-on YouTube Music knows you, this is the best way to tell.

Your Mixtape is an endless mix of songs and videos YouTube compiles based on your library and history, and for newer users, the feature usually appears after a couple of hours of listening and liking songs. My first time firing up Your Mixtape, I hit the thumbs down and next track buttons 5-6 times in the course of an hour. Two days in with the new YouTube Music, I wasn’t reaching for my phone to change the songs anymore, but to thumb songs up and add them to my library.

Almost three months in now, and Your Mixtape has become the default when I open YouTube Music. Not only does Your Mixtape learn your tastes faster than Spotify, it has way, way more music to serve up, thanks to a library that has just about every song you could ever search for.

YouTube Music truly has everything: mainstream music, 500 kinds of covers, and more pirates than Disneyland

YouTube is one of the most-used sites on the internet, and as such, it is home to an ungodly amount of uploaded music. Some music has been uploaded by the legal owners and record labels, like Ariana Grande and Daughtry. Some music has been remixed 12 ways to Sunday or covered by an up-and-coming musician. And then there’s a lot of pirated music that was uploaded without copyright consent.

YouTube Music serves all of them up in the same app and in the same search results.

YouTube Music is great because it knows what I like, and has all the obscure stuff I go to YouTube for anyway.

To its credit, YouTube does the best it can to comply with international copyright and media laws. It has cooperated extensively with record labels in recent months and years to improve the legal music offerings on the platform, and continues to expand its official album/single offerings.

In YouTube Music, official albums and song have square album art instead of a landscape video thumbnail. This makes YouTube Music look and behave a little more like a traditional music player, and it also makes label-uploaded music easier to distinguish from the pirates and the posers as it sits in the Song and Album categories rather than the free-for-all that is Videos.

The only safe, reliable place to look for this music is YouTube.

That said, there’s a vast, vast amount of music which either can’t be uploaded by the labels or has not been commercially released — unreleased demos, tracks stuck in a vault or lost when a label folded, soundtracks from the Disney Parks firework shows. It’s the kind of music that’s usually only available in some seedy fileshare site or in hard-to-find, hard-to-infiltrate swap groups.

This kind of music being included in YouTube Music is priceless. It allows normal users to try and patch the holes in YouTube’s library — much like the music locker on Google Play Music — and it allows users to mix that music they won’t find anywhere else with the latest songs from their favorite artists in one place and in one library.

Everything ties to YouTube, for better or worse

YouTube Music gives YouTube a pollution problem.

Speaking of one place, YouTube Music is fed by — and feeds back to — your YouTube account. Just as YouTube Music pulled on your YouTube history to attain its stunning recommendations, everything you listen to in YouTube Music goes onto that same YouTube history. Now, in back at launch, YouTube Music completely overtook many users watch histories and playlist library, but YouTube has segregated YouTube Music watch history and albums from the main YouTube app, just as non-music YouTube videos won’t show up in YouTube Music playlists and recommendations.

Every playlist you make or save to library from YouTube’s recommendations is still added to your Playlists in the main YouTube app. For many users, this is good news, as it means that you can access your playlists and albums from either app or website, should you only have access to YouTube but not YouTube Music on a device. For others, this just means their playlists tab in YouTube got much more difficult to navigate. Artists you subscribe you in YouTube Music show up in the Subscriptions tab on the main YouTube app, too — for now, at least.

YouTube Music’s management team is working to make sure YouTube Music and YouTube compliment each other without polluting users’ experiences on the other app. It’s still a work-in-progress, but it’s far better than it was at launch already.

YouTube Music (Key) Beta 2.0

Regardless of the hype around YouTube Music right now, the service is still very, very clearly unfinished. Not all albums are populating in search results properly, even when they’re in the system. Not all albums for an artist are appearing on their page, even if songs from those albums are appearing in their song lists. Downloaded music still streams if you play it outside the Downloads section — and downloaded music is completely deleted and redownloaded regularly. This can spell trouble for users on data-capped home internet and can strand users without music if it starts to re-download its music and then loses Wi-Fi.

Casting from YouTube Music is a bit of a roulette game right now. Your playback queue can change order (and even content) when it begins casting, and shuffle and repeat vanish from your playback controls while casting. Some of the casting quirks date back to the previous versions of YouTube Music, but they need fixing now more than ever.

That said, almost every single UI change that comes with the new YouTube Music is an improvement. The options menu that pops up for songs is more robust — even if it has a tendency to scroll when to try to hit an option — and YouTube Music’s Last Played section of the Library tab is a godsend, especially when trying to start back up a station or playlist you stumbled upon days ago. Tapping a playlist opens it to view rather than autoplaying it, a welcome change.

Download controls are easier to find and use for albums and playlists, and the Downloads section is the first category in your Library so that you can switch to offline tunes quicker when you’re on the go. Offline mixtape is a delight: a playlist that regenerates and re-downloads itself every day based on Your mixtape and your daily listening.

Of course, Downloads are only available to YouTube Music Premium subscribers…

What is YouTube Music Premium and why do I want it?

YouTube Music Premium has a short but highly important feature list:

• Removes ads
• Enables Background playback, allowing you to listen to music with the screen off
• Enables Offline playback, allowing you to download music for listening on the go
• Google Home integration allows you to play albums/stations/artists via Google Home and on Chromecast Audio. With a Free account, you can only cast to TVs

If you’re going to purchase YouTube Music Premium, stop right now and go get YouTube Premium instead. Why pay $10/month for premium in one app when you can pay $12/month for six apps’ premium experience?

Read more: YouTube Premium is Google’s bundle future — and its only great streaming deal

Jump on this bandwagon, because it is going places

Many look at YouTube Music and wonder if it’s going to last. Listen to the app for one day and I can all but guarantee you’ll know that answer is ‘yes’. Even if YouTube Music’s recommendations weren’t uncannily accurate, even if its selection didn’t trounce any other music subscription on the market today, and even if it weren’t the streaming platform with a damn-near universal sharing option — a YouTube link — we know YouTube Music is a long-haul endeavor for Google.

4
out of 5

They’ve been building up the team and the contracts behind this for years, and Google intends to make it their only music service in a few short years. That’s right, Google Play Music — and its free, 50,000 song music locker — is going to be (eventually) migrated to YouTube Music.

Not only is YouTube Music going to have the best selection and the best algorithms, it’s going to have the best music locker service, too.

So does YouTube Music have some kinks to work out? Absolutely. Is it worth your time, attention, and your money? You bet your Bluetooth headphones, it is. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some Disney parades to get carried away to.

See at YouTube

Updated August 2018: This review has been updated to reflect the summer’s progress with YouTube Music, including the rollout to 17 countries and library updates.