Best Google Pixel 2 Accessories

Make the best phone even better.

When the Pixel 2 was announced, Google launched a ‘Made for Google’ certification partnership with a wide range of accessory manufacturers to ensure there’s a good selection of accessories for its flagship.

The best place to find certified Pixel 2 accessories is straight from the source — the Google Store. They offer proprietary accessories along with some third-party products, but there are also deals to be found on Amazon.

• Google-designed cases
• Peel Super Thin Pixel 2 Case
• Moment Photo Case & Wide Lens Kit
• Libratone Q Adapt USB-C Earphones
• USB-C Digital to 3.5mm headphone adapter
• dB MAGIX Mini Hi-Res Headphone Amplifier
• 18W USB-C Power Adapter
• Anker PowerLine USB-C cables [3-pack]
• Belkin USB-C Car Charger

Google-designed cases

Google has partnered with a number of different case manufacturers to get accessories certified as ‘Made for Google’, just another way for Pixel 2 owners to be confident in their accessory purchases.

Right now, there’s a limited number of third-party accessories available, but If you’re planning to order your phone straight from the source you should check out the cases designed in-house by Google.

Best Cases for the Google Pixel 2

For the Google Live cases there are two case types to choose between — a slim one-piece shell or a more rugged dual-layer case. No matter which you go with, you get to customize the back of your Pixel 2 with a stunning shot from your own photo roll, from Google Earth, or sample a work of art.

Each Google Earth case can be paired with a matching live wallpaper for a cohesive look around your device that just looks gorgeous. And if you opt for the dual-layer case, you’ll be getting enhanced drop protection when compared to a single-layer case. Find yours starting at $50.

Another compelling option is the Google Fabric Cases which brings the look and most importantly the feel of that fabric finish found on other Google products, like the Home Mini and Daydream View. These cases offer a premium microfiber liner and will keep your Pixel 2 looking like a standout device no matter which color combination you decide on. They’re also available for $50.

See at Google Store

Peel Super thin Pixel 2 Case

If you’re looking for a way to protect the finish on your Pixel 2 with no extra bulk and no graphics or branding of any kind, Peel’s Super Thin Pixel 2 Case is exactly what you’re looking for.

This .35mm thin case is precision cut and formed to fit perfectly on your Pixel 2 and fits more like a glove than a traditional case. Once in place, you’ll barely notice it’s there while you’re using or carrying your phone but will definitely notice that your expensive Pixel 2 isn’t getting scratched up from rubbing against other things in your pocket or a table.

Take it from us: the back glass on your Pixel 2 will scratch if you give it a chance. Peel’s Super thin Case is the perfect medium between nothing at all and a thick case for people who just aren’t into cases.

See at Peel

Moment Photo Case & Wide Lens Kit

Photography is a big feature on the Pixel line, and the Pixel 2’s camera is positioned to be the best on the market. If you’re #teampixel, get ready to take your photos to the next level with the Moment Photo case, which lets you quickly and securely attach peripheral lenses to enhance the Pixel 2’s already outstanding camera setup.

Google is selling the Moment Photo case which includes an 18mm wide-angle lens made from premium materials that let the Pixel 2 camera capture more in crystal clarity. The case itself is pretty basic as a phone protector, but the lens is top-notch and accounts for the majority of the $130 price tag you can bet that this case is mostly a vessel for the high-quality camera lenses that Moment makes for mobile.

Check out Moment for more fancy camera lenses for your fancy new phone — Macro, Telephoto, and Super Fisheye. Quite the investment, but might be worth it if you want to add some uniqueness to your ‘Gram game.

See at Google Store

Libratone Q Adapt USB-C Earphones

With the Pixel 2 ditching the headphone jack many of us are looking for a new set of headphones or earbuds. There are plenty of choices when it comes to wireless headphones, but if you’d rather go with USB-C connectivity, Libratone has a great pair in the Google Store.

The Libratone Q Adapt USB-C Earphones were built to work perfectly with the Pixel 2 and deliver clear, clean sound without the hassle of pairing or recharging. With a braided cable and multiple tips, these earbuds will fit almost everyone and are built to last. They also include Libratone’s four-stage CityMix active noise cancellation that you can control through the four-button inline remote or through the Libratone Android app.

You can also trigger Google Assistant through the remote if you need some help picking out a song.

See at Google Store

USB-C Digital to 3.5mm headphone adapter

You may notice that a number of these accessory recommendations are centralized around coping with the loss of the headphone jack, a feature which many still consider an essential smartphone feature. Google will be including a headphone adapter with the new phones but look at that thing — assuming you’re not going to keep it plugged in all the time, there’s a good chance of this thing getting lost.

If that happens, you may need to bite the bullet and get a new one — for $20. Might be a good idea to buy a spare from the get-go and keep it in a safe place.

See at Google Store

dB MAGIX Mini Hi-Res Headphone Amplifier

Maybe you already have a good pair of headphones and aren’t ready to ditch them for a wireless option. You’re not alone and this little jewel of a headphone adapter can make those headphones sound better than ever.

The dB magix Mini Hi-Res Headphone Amplifier is the size of a regular USB-C to 3.5mm adapter but it packs a punch with a premium DAC and amp inside that outputs 2 volts worth of audio with a total harmonic distortion of just 0.0003%. That means it will drive almost any pair of cans and sound great while doing it.

It’s plug-and-play with any device using a USB-C port and best of all will bring premium audio support to your Pixel 2 for just $60.

See at Amazon

18W USB-C Power Adapter

It’s always a good idea to stick with the charging accessories that came with your phone, and especially so with the claims Google has made regarding the Pixel 2 — seven hours of battery life after just 15 minutes on the juice.

Since you’re probably gonna need some extra charging accessories anyways, you can’t go wrong doubling up on the 18W USB-C Power Adapter. Of course, we’ll be keeping an eye out for any certified 27W chargers that might offer even quicker charging speeds.

See at Google Store

Anker PowerLine USB-C cables [3-pack]

So you’re at a party and your phone is dying, and you ask around to see if anyone has a charging cable. If you’re lucky, someone may have a USB-C cable, but it’s not a guarantee.

That’s why you ought to grab this three pack of USB-A to USB-C cables from Anker. Beyond the cables that came with your phone, Anker is one third-party accessory maker that you can trust. The pack includes three 3-foot cables that offer transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps, and they’re also backed by Anker’s worry-free lifetime warranty.

Available for just $14, it breaks down to under $5 per cable. Keep one at work, one in your car, and one in your laptop bag so you’ll always have a spare charging cable nearby wherever you are!

See at Amazon

Belkin USB-C Car Charger

Keeping your phone charged while you’re on the go is important. Everyone hates when you realize you forgot to charge your phone and it’s time to go.

The Belkin USB-C Car Charger is a great option for the Pixel 2 that’s been promoted on the Google Store. It plugs right into the 12V port your car and offers two charging ports — a hardwired USB-C cable and a USB-A port for charging a second device.

You’ll be able to maximize your charging speeds thanks to Belkin’s 15W universal charging system that automatically detects and delivers the optimal charging speed for your Pixel 2. Get yours from Amazon for just $17 — a great price compared to what Google is selling this accessory for.

See at Amazon

What sorts of accessories are you looking for?

Did you get a Pixel 2? What are the go-to accessories you buy alongside a new phone? Let us know in the comments!

Updated June 2018: We’ve updated our list to ensure you have the best Pixel 2 accessories, including the Libratone Q Adapt USB-C earphones and the Peel 2 case!

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

• Pixel 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL review: The new standard
• Google Pixel 2 specs
• Google Pixel 2 vs. Pixel 2 XL: What’s the difference?
• Join our Pixel 2 forums

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Verizon
Google Store
Project Fi

Fitbit’s huge fitness tracker sale includes the Fitbit Ionic for $50 off

Sure, get one for Father’s Day. Then get one for you.

Amazon has a huge selection of Fitbit fitness trackers and headphones discounted up to $50 off for Father’s Day, which is just a couple weeks away now. There are a variety of colors and sizes on sale, and the different models all have varying features.

The Fitbit Ionic smartwatch is down to $249.95. That price matches the lowest we’ve seen, and it’s $50 off what it normally sells for. The Ionic is Fitbit’s first attempt at a full-featured smartwatch, and it does a pretty good job. You can read more about it here.

The Charge 2 Heart Rate + is a more pure activity tracker, and it’s down to $119.95 with this sale. That price also matches one of the lowest we’ve ever seen before. The Charge 2 HR+ uses wrist tracking to monitor your heart rate. You can see call, text, and other notifications on the display. The GPS can give you real-time stats like your pace and distance traveled while running. It works with hundreds of third party apps on Android, iOS, and Windows.

If dad already has a great fitness tracker, pair it with the Fitbit Flyer wireless headphones for $99.95. These headphones normally sell for $130 and this sale is actually the first time they’ve dropped this low. They come with interchangeable parts so you can find the best fit and deliver up to six hours of playtime on a single charge. You can squeeze out an extra hour with a quick charge mode, too.

There are several other trackers, including different colors and sizes for the ones mentioned above, on sale from now until June 16, the day before Father’s Day.

See on Amazon

The $180 Ecovacs Deebot N79S robot vacuum works with Amazon’s Alexa

New and improved.

The Ecovacs Deebot N79S robotic vacuum cleaner is down to $179.98 with code FPCIH96U on Amazon. That price is by far the lowest we’ve ever seen this vacuum go and probably won’t last very long.

We have shared deals on the previous generation, the Deebot N79, before. The difference is a pretty big improvement. The N79S adds a Max Power function, which increases the suction by 50% when you need it. It also adds compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa, which means if you connect it to an Echo Dot or something similar you can control the N79S with your voice.

The N79S has a three-stage cleaning system, which includes high-efficiency suction, a deep reach main brush, and wide-reach side brushes. The battery life lasts for just under two hours, and it will return to the docking station automatically when it runs low. It has sensors that help prevent collisions and falls. It comes with a one-year warranty, and users give it 4.3 stars based on 541 reviews.

See on Amazon

Enter our Galaxy S9 and Mophie Charge Stream Pad+ Giveaway and win!

The Mophie Charge Stream Pad+ delivers up to 10W of fast-charging power to Qi-enabled smartphones on contact, and since it’s optimized for Apple and Samsung Fast Charge, you’ll always get the quickest wireless charge. It’s an amazing accessory for an amazing phone! That’s why we’ve teamed up with mophie to give away not only the charging pad, but a Galaxy S9 to go with it! Keep reading for details and to get entered!

THE PRIZE: One Android Central reader will receive a Samsung Galaxy S9 and a mophie charge stream pad+!

THE GIVEAWAY: Use the widget at the bottom of this page. There are multiple ways to enter, each with varying point values. Complete all of the tasks for maximum entries and your best shot at winning! Keep in mind that all winning entries are verified and if the task was not completed or cannot be verified, a new winner will be chosen. Phone service is not included with the prize and we make no guarantees that the phone will work with your service provider, so be sure to check that before you enter. International winners will be responsible for any customs fees incurred during shipping.

The giveaway is open through June 18, 2018, and the winner will be announced right here shortly after the closing date. Good luck!

Android Central is giving away a Galaxy S9 and mophie charge stream pad+ !

Automate your life with Apple Workflow, the most powerful app you’re not using

Few things in life are as convenient as automation — IFTTT, anyone? — which allows us to blaze through life’s more monotonous tasks with the utmost ease. Apple knows this, which is why the Cupertino-based company has developed Workflow, a powerful automation tool that’s designed to expedite your everyday tasks.

The concept is clever: The app has a bunch of triggers and actions you can set from within the app, which you can then execute from top to bottom with the mere press of a button. Moreover, because the app was made by Apple, it can access a host of system-related utilities that third-party apps wouldn’t be able to access. Using Workflow, you can quickly grab the top stories from Apple News, for instance, or create a collage using some of your most recent photos.

Apple’s suggested uses for the app, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. To make the most of the app, you should use it to automate the tasks you perform on a daily basis. If you save a little bit of time here or there on things you do all the time, it’s going to have a far greater impact than if you were to set it up to automate something you do once a month. The app is really only limited to your own imagination.

To begin automating a task, download the Workflow app from the App Store. Then, launch the app and tap the My Workflows tab — or the Gallery tab, if you want to use a pre-made action — in the upper-right corner. Once there, select Create Workflow and choose one of the four workflows outlined below.

Type of workflow
Accessible from:

Normal
The Workflow app (iOS)

Today Widget
The Today View (iOS)

Apple Watch
Your Apple Watch (WatchOS)

Action Extension
The Share Menu (iOS)

Once you’ve chosen a workflow, swipe right, which will bring up the Actions menu. From here, you can search for your desired action or select an action from the list of available suggestions. Once you’ve settled on an action, drag it to the right to add it to your current workflow. If you want to include an additional action, one that will take place after the first, swipe right and repeat the process.

To edit your workflow, tap the gear icon in the upper-right corner. The resulting menu will contain a slew of different settings, allowing you change the workflow type and name it, among other things. When satisfied, tap Done in the upper-right corner to leave your workflow within the app, or select Add to Home Screen to launch the workflow within Safari. From there, you’ll want to tap Share and Add to Home Screen.

That’s it! Again, the app is only limited by your imagination, so experiment with different workflows. Makng your life easier has never been, well, easier.

David Cogen — a regular contributor here at Digital Trends — runs TheUnlockr, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him on Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

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Death Stranding: Everything You Need To Know

Kojima’s first independent game is just as weird and mysterious as you thought it’d be.

If you don’t know who Hideo Kojima is, it’s time to pay attention. He’s the creator of the world-renowned Metal Gear franchise, known best for his works with the mainline series Metal Gear Solid.

Well, he left Konami, the company that controls the Metal Gear IP, and is now doing his own thing under independent label Kojima Productions. Their first work is Death Stranding, a forthcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive that not even Kojima himself can easily explain. Here’s everything we know about it so far.

What is Death Stranding?

That’s a good question. The truth is we don’t know a whole lot about the type of game Death Stranding will be right now. Kojima has mentioned that there will be elements of action, adventure, RPG, stealth, and open world gameplay involved. That’s a pretty long list, but he contends it’s not right to try and fit the game into any of these categories as he instead opts to treat the game as its own genre.

While that sounds exciting on the surface, we won’t know what, exactly, he means until we see and learn more. Thanks to a few announcement and teaser trailers, however, the picture is starting to take shape, albeit ever-so-vaguely.

The story so far

It’s unclear what to expect from the story right now. In typical Kojima fashion, we’re left with nonsensical trailers which challenge the player to piece together their own conclusions about Sam (the main character) and what’s going on in the world around him. As attention-grabbing as these trailers are, they just don’t tell us much of anything. Hell, some scenes show naked babies trapped in capsules which are attached to characters via mechanical arms (or, worse yet, down Sam’s throat), and those babies are eventually sent floating up a river. It’s just plain weird and creepy.

Then there’s the Timefall rain mechanic, which seemingly both wears on the world and gives it accelerated growth, and it’ll also affect Sam one way or another. We don’t know how. We don’t know why. We just don’t know.

And it’s not because we aren’t trying to know, either. Even Kojima’s own team has mentioned that they are sometimes confused when he is explaining his vision for the game and the story. We reckon it’ll be one of those things we’ll just have to play through before we know what the hell is actually going on, but we’re still holding out hope that they’ll be a little less tight-lipped before the game’s launch.

The human connection

Interestingly enough, Kojima took a lot of inspiration from a Japanese novella called Rope for the premise of Death Stranding. In that written work, the concept of mankind’s earliest tools was boiled down to two simple things: sticks and ropes.

The thinking here is that the stick is the object you would use to keep unpleasant or violent things away from you. Think of it as your weapon, even if all you ever do with it is keep someone at arm’s length. That’s not to say you’ll be tasked with trying to cut through the apparent skeletal armies present in this game using nothing but a tree branch, but we know that the main character will heavily rely on one.

Then there’s the rope, which is the item you use when you want to keep things close to you like your beloved pet dog on a leash. This is the part where we get a tad confused, though early murmurings from Kojima suggest that the “rope” will shape the concept of “strands” in this game.

So what are strands? Good question – we’re not quite sure yet. (Getting tired of that theme yet?) We do know that it’ll be the basis of a core gameplay mechanic that keeps people in this mystery world connected. And considering co-op play has been confirmed for the title, we’re sure it’ll have a lot to do with the connections you make with both digital and real companions.

Life and death

Kojima’s theme for Death Stranding thus far seems to surround the cycle of life and death. In most games, death typically means either game over or you’re zipped back to a checkpoint to try again.

But death will take on a whole new meaning in Death Stranding, with the player instead being taken to some sort of purgatory realm whenever they die. It’s not yet clear what you can do in this realm, but we do know you’ll be free to explore it and return to your living form anytime you wish.

Kojima says their desire for changing the role of death in video games stems from the industry’s long misuse of the mechanic. He noted that death checkpoints were designed for arcade machines to keep people popping quarters into the slot, but the gaming industry has largely failed to move on from the mechanic even as arcade machines have become a dying breed. While it’s just as vague and cryptic as Kojima wants it, it still leaves us wondering what, exactly, death will mean in this title.

Top-notch visuals

Though we don’t know a whole lot about the game, story, and characters at large, Kojima has been particularly chatty when it comes to the technology behind it. He revealed that his team met with over 30 studios to find the perfect engine for Death Stranding.

They eventually landed with the engine Guerilla Games created for Horizon Zero Dawn. Their choice was based on a number of factors, including an engine with great graphical capabilities and one that supports open-world development. Many engines fit that bill by default, but Guerilla’s won the ticket due to their willingness to collaborate with Kojima on further developing the engine. In fact, the two have even gone so far as to co-brand the engine with the name ‘Decima.’ The specifics of what and how they’ve changed it aren’t really important, just as long as you know it’ll look good (there’s PS4 Pro 4K + HDR support) and play great.

An all-star cast

Not one to shy away from cinematics, Kojima is pulling top talent to help drive the narrative in Death Stranding. The main character, Sam, seems to be portrayed by Norman Reedus. You may know him as the actor for the character Daryl on AMC’s The Walking Dead. We also know Mads Mikkelson and Guillermo del Toro will be along for the ride.

When can you play it?

If there’s one thing you should know about Kojima, it’s that he’s not going to rush his art (so long as he has no pesky publishers forcing him to, which he doesn’t). To that end, the only expectation we have for Death Stranding’s release date is by the year 2020. That seems like light years away from now, but knowing the ambition Kojima has we’re sure it’ll be well worth the wait.

The company skipped E3 in 2017 as they opted to continue working on the game before showing anything, but it’s possible we may see more at E3 2018 which kicks off June 12th. As for platform availability, the PlayStation 4 is the only safe bet right now, though eventual releases on other platforms such as PC and Xbox have not yet been ruled out.

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• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

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These are all the phones Sony is launching in 2018

Here’s a look at Sony’s smartphone lineup for 2018.

Sony has an…interesting…position in the Android smartphone space. Sony produced some darn good phones in 2017, such as the Xperia XZ Premium and XZ1, but when compared to handsets like the Galaxy S8, Pixel 2, and even the OnePlus 5T, Sony’s offerings fell flat in one area or another.

We’ve seen Sony’s hand for 2018, and while this year’s phones still won’t keep everyone from jumping on the Samsung and Google bandwagons, they are compelling handsets that are at least worth checking out.

The phones that are still coming

Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium

The upcoming Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium.

In mid-April, Sony announced the Xperia XZ2 Premium. This is a bigger, badder, more expensive version of the regular XZ2 that’s already been released, and it looks like it’s going to pack a serious punch.

One of the main draws to the XZ2 Premium is its 5.8-inch 4K HDR display. That’s the same resolution found on most premium TVs these days, and Sony says it’s 30% brighter than the previous Xperia XZ Premium.

You’ll also find dual rear cameras, 3,540 mAh battery, and a price tag that’ll likely cost around $900 USD. The phone’s scheduled to come out this summer, so we should know more very soon.

Sony announces Xperia XZ2 Premium with 5.8-inch 4K HDR display, dual cameras, spec bumps

Sony Xperia R2/R2 Plus

Sony Xperia R1 and R1 Plus.

Last October saw the release of the Xperia R1 and R1 Plus — two budget phones that offered rock-solid specs at seriously affordable price points.

The rumor mill on successors to these two phones is pretty quiet at the moment, but there’s no reason to believe Sony won’t kick out an R2 and R2 Plus before 2018 is over.

India was the target market for the R1 series, and assuming the we get an R2, that’ll likely remain the same.

Mid-range Sony Xperia R1 and R1 Plus now available in India

The phones that have already been released

Sony Xperia XZ2

Sony’s big flagship this year is the Xperia XZ2. The XZ2 is a successor to last year’s XZ1 and features a completely new design language compared to other Xperia phones of the last few years. The glass back is super reflective with elegant curves, the fingerprint sensor is smack dab in the middle below the rear camera, and there’s an 18:9 screen with slim bezels.

Under the hood, the XZ2 is packing all of the latest specs — including the Snapdragon 845, 4GB RAM, 19MP/5MP rear/front cameras, IP68 dust/water resistance, and Android 8.0 Oreo. The phone costs $800 and is on sale now.

Sony Xperia XZ2 preview: Slimmer bezels, wider appeal

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact

There’s no denying that the XZ2 is a powerful phone, but what if you want all that horsepower in a phone that’s considerably smaller and a bit cheaper? For you, Sony’s got the Xperia XZ2 Compact.

The XZ2 Compact is mostly the same phone as the regular XZ2, save for a smaller battery, 5-inch screen, and a plastic back. Everything else, such as processor and cameras, are exactly the same.

It’s not necessarily cheap at $649, but it’s one of the few truly small phones that offers a no-compromises flagship experience.

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact review: The new standard for small

Sony Xperia XA2/XA2 Ultra

During this past CES, Sony officially took the wraps off of the Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra. Both phones are mid-rangers in Sony’s lineup for the year, and while there’s nothing particularly exciting about them, they do the basics really, really well while keeping costs low.

The XA2 offers a refreshingly small 5.2-inch display, and for those of you that prefer big phones, the XA2 Ultra should serve you just fne with a 6-inch screen size. Both come equipped with an LCD panel and resolution of 1920 x 1080, and for the first time ever, these two Sony phones have working fingerprint sensors in the United States 👏.

Each phone also shares NFC, Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, USB-C for charging, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Aside from the screen size, the only other big difference lies with the XA2’s 3,300 mAh battery and the XA2 Ultra’s 3,580 mAh unit.

The XA2 sells for a fair $349, and stepping up to the XA2 Ultra will cost you $449.

See at Best Buy

Sony Xperia L2

If you like what the XA2 and XA2 Ultra bring to the table but want to spend even less, Sony’s Xperia L2 is for you.

The Xperia L2 has a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720, MediaTek processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 3,300 mAh battery. As for the cameras, you’ll find a 13MP sensor on the back and an 8MP one up front.

There’s a working fingerprint sensor on the L2 and support for NFC just like on the XA2 and XA2 Ultra, but unlike those phones, the L2 ships with the older Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

You can buy the Xperia L2 in black, gold, and pink, and its price of $250 is more than manageable.

See at Best Buy

Updated June 2018 – Refreshed this entire list with info on Sony’s current 2018 phones and what we’re still expecting this year.

U.S. carriers charge you exorbitantly every month, and still sell your information — should we expect something different?

At some point we should expect a reduction in the cost of service in exchange for this data.

With pressure from T-Mobile and some prepaid offerings, U.S. carriers have consistently upped their data offerings in the past few years to provide a pretty good value for your money — that is, compared to the vastly expensive per-gigabyte pricing we had before. Now, despite having lots of unlimited plan options, people spend more per month on cell service in the U.S. than most countries in the world. If you go to one of the big four (soon to be three) carriers, you can easily spend $70 per month on a basic plan — but you’re more likely spending upwards of $100.

That’s just insane on the face of it, and it’s enough to make people consider using a prepaid carrier or cutting back on extra plan features. But the cost is even more absurd when you think about how much value the carrier derives from you simply using your phone every month. You see, the carrier isn’t just in the business of profiting off of data services and phone sales — it’s selling your personal data, too.

Being interviewed at Recode’s Code Conference, AT&T CEO Randal Stephenson was surprisingly candid about the reasoning behind AT&T’s $85 billion merger with Time Warner: it’s not about the content, it’s all about the advertising potential.

We all know how Google and Facebook coordinate massive troves of data to pinpoint advertising to specific groups and, more importantly, specific people. It’s the holy grail of advertising — knowing that you’re spending money to target someone who has a dramatically higher chance of being converted into a customer. AT&T wants to do the same thing, but for broadcast TV advertising — an area where ads are by comparison not particularly targeted or expensive.

AT&T wants to charge you $100 per month for cell service, and still sell your personal data to advertisers.

You see, AT&T feels it’s uniquely poised to charge advertisers more and deliver networks better-targeted ads because it simply has one of the most comprehensive and direct streams of customer data: your phone and your home internet connection. AT&T knows how you spend your time on your phone, and in many cases your home computer and TV. Stephenson said that AT&T has “great customer insight,” and posited that the big question is, “Can you pair a very formidable ad inventory with a very formidable amount of data, information on the customer, viewership data and all other kinds of information, and can you create something unique?” By merging with Time Warner, AT&T can take all of that customer information and deliver ads through its cable provider (and don’t forget AT&T also owns DirecTV) that are targeted to specific people — just like Google and Facebook do online.

Stephenson continued, “Where we use the data that I’m talking about, we monetize the advertising at three to five times what is done on just a traditional TNT, TBS, and so forth.” To say he’s bullish on the idea would be an understatement. And when you see how much data these carriers have on their customers, and how they plan to (and currently do) use it to make even more money on the backend, it becomes reasonable to start asking for some reduction in monthly costs on the customer side.

This transaction makes a lot more sense when it’s something like Google’s services, where you get all of these great things for free and in return the company collects usage data to bundle up and sell ads against. But in the case of the U.S. carriers, it just feels … dirtier. Not only are you paying for the service, sometimes to the tune of $100 per month or more, but the carriers are also taking all of your usage and location information and selling ads against it. At some point, this model has to break down, right?

I think it’s foolish to expect that the carriers will stop aggregating and selling usage data — we’re probably past the point of return on that one. But we can at least start to expect the economics to work out where consumers aren’t paying such a large amount to a company that also profits further off of their personal data.

Now, a few more random thoughts:

• I’m seriously impressed with how much the OnePlus 6 camera improved over the OnePlus 5 — low light shots in particular took a huge leap.
• I’ll be posting my full OnePlus 6 vs. Galaxy S9+ camera comparison this week, but for as far as the OnePlus 6 has come it’s not quite on par with the GS9+’s great camera — particularly in low light.
• This coming week we’ll see the BlackBerry KEY2, which is launching in New York on June 7. I’m excited to see it — the KEYone was cool for its keyboard, but the rest of the phone experience needs to step up a notch (or two) to not feel so compromised.
• You may have noticed we didn’t release a podcast this week — apologies, hectic schedules kept us from being able to put one out. We’ll be (sort of) back on schedule soon.

-Andrew

Meet the Australian ‘techno-artist’ growing a web-connected ear on his arm

There’s a body in Perth, Australia, one of the most remote cities on Earth, transmitting signals about how other bodies will behave in the future. It’s an unremarkable body, bald-headed and fit, complete with organs and limbs in all their preordained places. Plus one.

On the fleshy side of the left forearm there’s an impression of an ear, emerging from the skin as if punching through from the netherworld. It’s bulbous, life-sized, firm to the touch. Pockets of biomaterial and porous Polyethylene form divots and contours around its edges. Living cells, blood vessels, and tissue have moved in, permeated the pores of the surgical implant, and made the extra ear an inarguable part of this man’s body. Today it’s a relief, a replica, rather than a functioning organ. But if all goes as planned, by year’s end it will be connected to the internet, equipped with electronic circuits and a microphone so anyone, anywhere can tune in to the sounds around it.

Ear on Arm is an ongoing endeavor by the artist known as Stelarc, whose eccentric performances put his mortal form in the indifferent grip of technology. Stelarc sees the modern body as a “chimera of meat, metal, and code,” and uses it as the map, the vessel, and the uncharted territory to be explored. Each ensuing experiment, pushes the boundaries of his physicality and gives us a glimpse at the ways we’ll engage with the hyperconnected world.

“I’ve always been interested in comparative anatomies,” Stelarc told Digital Trends at the BodyHacking Conference in Austin earlier this year. “Not only the human body but also insects and other animals. All living things interact very differently with the world. We all have different capabilities. We all manipulate and operate in more or less subtle ways. That always fascinated me, and so the body became a convenient location of experimentation.”

“The body is a convenient location of experimentation.”

Over more than forty years, Stelarc’s art has put his body into precarious positions — both physically and conceptually — with visceral performances that probe the many tensions between man and machine.

In 1985, he was tethered to a construction crane by steel wires and body hooks, 100 feet above Copenhagen, Denmark. The crowd below seemed silent. Hanging in suspension, Stelarc heard only the whistle of the wind and the creaking of his stretched skin.

Thirty years later, in a piece called Propel, Stelarc was strapped onto an industrial robot arm in a factory in a suburb of Perth, then flipped and twirled like a human pinwheel for over half-an-hour. An anxious engineer stood near a control box, poised to smash the “kill switch” lest a glitch caused the robot to revert to its nesting position with artist still in tow.

Polixeni Papapetrou

More recently, during a marathon performance in 2015, the artist donned a video headset, noise-canceling headphones, and a partial exoskeleton in an act of abandoning his “eyes,” “ears,” and “arm” to the Other. The artist toured London through a video feed sent to his headset, as impromptu videographers carried a camera are town. Audio from New York City filled his headphones with sounds of traffic, chatter, and shuffle of footsteps. His right arm contorted involuntarily, controlled over the internet by digital puppeteers. The performance, Re-wired/Re-mixed spanned five consecutive days, six hours a day. Stelarc took one break to urinate.

The artist is often hooked up to contact mics that amplify the sound of his movement — but noisy as his art may be, he isn’t necessarily trying to say anything through his performances. Instead he says he’s making “gestures” towards strange possibilities of the human body, dragging technology down an unpaved path to an augmented, alternative anatomy.

Which highlights the least two most common threads that run through his work: exploitations of the body and apparent apathy towards technology. To the average viewer, his performances are fraught with uncertainty. They’re the sort of thing you’d spend weeks preparing for. And yet Stelarc says he rarely prepares. His performative face is almost always that of a man at a bus stop with nowhere to go — neither content nor concerned that his ride will arrive. The rare wince you might catch is more often the result of an electrode zapping his body into motion than some existential distress. When sic-fi author William Gibson met Stelarc, he called the artist “one of the calmest people I’ve ever met.”

“I approach these performances with a posture of indifference,” Stelarc said. “Indifference as in being open to possibilities…of minimizing expectations and allowing the performance to unfold in its own time, with its own rhythm.”

Apathy is arguably the most reliable mindset in which to moderate the meeting of man and machine. Today’s consumers are groomed to purchase the latest device, but little within our DNA prepares us to take on each next technological leap and we aren’t especially discrete about how we adopt tech into our lives. Negligent indifference could be the tag line of this digital age.

Ad agencies roll out algorithmic targeting, apparently unconcerned about its potential impact on the psyche. Consumers adopt new products without caution or conceit, like infants given a grenades to play with. Apple has been accused of failing to protect the Chinese workers who manufacture their products, and yet consumers continue to buy them. Plenty of Facebook users are aware of the company’s shoddy privacy policies, and yet stay logged in. Even in the wake of the recent Cambridge Analytical scandal, most social media users seem utterly unconcerned by its complicity.

Stelarc’s performances are caricatures of our relationship with technology.

Stelarc’s performances are like caricatures of our relationship with technology, carnival mirrors that reflect distorted forms of human-machine intimacy.

In Re-wired/Re-mixed, the 2015 performance that saw Stelarc decked out like a Gibsonian cyborg, the artist offered himself to strangers, allowing them to command his senses. Throughout the 1990’s Stelarc engaged in similar internet acts, such as 1995’s Ping Body, during which his muscles were stimulated in accordance with ping response times from 40 global locations, effectively turning his body into a “barometer of internet activity.”

In 2000, Stelarc wore an upper-body exoskeleton controlled by a genetic algorithm in a performance called Movatar. Through random mutations, the genetic code forced the artist and the metal apparatus into an involuntary choreography. A panel of control pedals on the floor gave Stelarc some degree of control over his movements, enabling him to modulate but not fully neutralize the system when things got too hectic. In a more recent performance, 2017’s StickMan, the artist wore a full-body, algorithmically controlled exoskeleton, fitted with microphones that amplified the sound of the moving limbs.

Today, algorithms pull the strings on our everyday lives, curating what we buy on Amazon, watch on Youtube, and read on Facebook. Evan Selinger, a philosopher at the Rochester Institute of Technology and co-author of the book Re-Engineering Humanity,  thinks these technologies have the power to corrupt our very identities.

“Technology affects our humanity because it impacts of senses…our thoughts…and how we think,” he said. “It impacts our decisions, including our judgement, attention, and desires. It impacts our ability to be citizens, what were informed about and how we stay informed. It impacts our relationships… It even impacts our fundamental understanding of what it means to be human, who we are, and what we should strive to become.”

Where many people see our dystopian future play out as a robotic revolt, Selinger said his concern “is that we are going to be programmed to want be placed in environments that are so diminishing of our agency and deliberation that we outsource our emotions and capacities for connection.”

In an inversion of a gamer in command of a virtual character, Stelarc has made himself a real-life avatar commanded by an algorithm. These compounded feedback loops break down classical conceptions of the self, raising questions about agency and control that are ever more poignant in today’s hyperconnected society.

“With all of these performances [I was] blurring the distinction between the biological, technical, and virtual,” Stelarc said. “And increasingly now we’re expected to perform in these mixed realities. So how do we seamlessly slide between these operational modes? I mean, we’re all doing it in some way or another.”

Stelarc ReWired ReMixed RWRM @ STRP 2017

Exoskeletons haven’t quite caught on, but algorithms and machines control us all. Facebook’s infamous social experiment highlighted the interplay between our news feed and our emotions. Every time our phone rings, our minds and bodies are drawn towards the device.

In Stelarc’s view, we’re building up a certain “thickness,” a melding between the physical and virtual worlds. Our embrace of technology is “not merely happening at a thin screen level,” he said. “The experience is deeper and much more profound.

“Our faces have become flattened onto screens, and so in one sense our experience is at screen level. But because these experiences are becoming more high-fidelity, immediate, and haptic, this flat-screen interface becomes a much more optically ‘thick’ and haptically ‘thick’ experience. We’re blending our biological bodies with technological and virtual systems. It’s not that the screen is interfacing this body and that body. We’re kind of blending into one thickened system of experience.”

Stelarc’s performances embrace a fairly unsafe relationship with technology that in many ways mirrors our own dependence on it. His posture may be indifferent but Stelarc is almost worryingly committed to his art. The devotion runs deep enough to put his life at risk.

In one such event, called Stomach Sculpture, the artist swallowed a small robot — two inches long and half an inch wide — tethered to an external control box, which, when activated, caused the capsule to unfurl like a tulip, flash a light, and emit a beeping sound from within his stomach cavity. An endoscope followed closely behind, filming the gastric performance.

Anthony Figallo

“Obviously if it malfunctioned and it couldn’t close again, there would have been a problem extracting it,” Stelarc said. “I mean, a serious problem. In fact, [the performance] was done within five minutes of a major hospital,” just in case.

The capsule used in Stomach Sculpture was coated in biocompatible materials like silver, gold, and stainless steel, but at the time, Stelarc had an idea to use copper, which would react with his stomach acid and potentially create a sort of crude battery, powering the robot and freeing it from its tether to the outside world. That proved unfeasible in 1993, but in 2017 engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed it wasn’t such a ridiculous idea.

Stelarc has a tendency to preface technological progress in unexpected ways. Case in point, the announcement earlier this year that surgeons successfully transplanted an ear that they’d “grown” through cartilage cultured in a soldier’s forearm.

“People are becoming portals of internet experience.”

The artist’s own ear is still a work in progress — his longest performance to date. When he first conceived of the idea in 1996, Stelarc wanted to clone an additional ear on the side of his head. When that proved too dangerous and technically challenging, he settled on a medical scaffold that would be implanted into his forearm. It’s took another decade to find a doctors willing to perform the operation, but he finally located a plastic surgeon and his protege who coordinated the surgery in Los Angeles.

The fact that Stelarc convinced certified surgeons to slice open his arm and slip in a prosthesis for no medical purpose, is a provocative performance in its own right. For Chris Hables Gray, author of the Cyborg Handbook and lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, it’s a vital act of dominion over one’s own body.

“Stelarc got doctors to overcome their own medical guidelines to do this surgery,” he said. “They violated the Hippocratic Oath. Doctors have had a big debate about this. Some say this is a violation of the Oath and others say that fundamentally patients should have a right to control their own bodies, especially if they’re an artist exploring what it means to have control of your body with technology.”

Stelarc is now coordinating with members of the biohacking community to fit his extra ear with electrical components that would connect the organ to the internet, allowing anyone with web service to tune in to the artist’s surroundings.

“The ear is not for me,” he said. “I’ve got two good ears to hear with.”

Ear on Arm Stelarc wants to engineer a kind of “internet organ” to literally, physically integrate with the digital world. It’s more than just a remote listening device. It’s the artist’s most earnest attempt to explore the human body of tomorrow — an alternative anatomy that can jack in and even be hacked.

“People are becoming portals of internet experience,” Stelarc said. “In my Re-wired/Re-mixed performance I effectively outsourced my senses to people in other places … It was a gesture towards future bodies, where you would be able to incorporate vision, hearing, and haptic experiences of people in other places. Your body is not this locally operating, locally perceiving body, but rather a body that’s distributed and can form beyond the boundaries of its skin, beyond the local space that it inhabits.

“That’s what’s sort of significant about what’s happening today [with Ear on Arm]. On the one hand it’s hacking a body to locally insert some chip circuitry, but the implications of that are once we’ve got chip circuitry, it can wirelessly connect online. Then it’s performing globally, not only locally. Of course, the other implication is that the body can be literally hacked, all the technology in the body can be hacked. This will generate some other interesting possibilities of interaction.”

Steven Aaron Hughes

If that sounds like Stelarc is inviting people to hack his artificial organ, that’s because he is. Or, at least, he’s not taking steps to prevent it. The artist has been letting people remotely control his limbs for years. Why stop now?

“I don’t really think in either dystopian or utopian terms into it in the sense of what technology is or does,” Stelarc said. “Having said that, yes, there are there are ethical concerns. There are physical dangers. There are going to be increasingly complex accidental situations, or situations that generate accidents. And on the one hand, you have a kind of a gung-ho cowboy approach to new technologies. Every new gadget seemingly enables the human body. You become part of this sort of capitalist consumer society of new technologies.

“I can only evaluate through my own actions,” he added. “And I typically see the possibilities rather than the negative connotations.”

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How to activate Night Mode on the OnePlus 6

How do I enable Night Mode on my OnePlus device?

Have you ever used the popular app f.lux on your computer to automatically adjust colors throughout the day, or Samsung’s blue light filter on the Galaxy S9? The idea behind these features is to put less strain on your eyes as you spend your whole day staring at screens.

Similarly, OnePlus includes a setting on the OnePlus 6 and older models simply called Night Mode, and it’s just as easy to toggle as it is on your eyes.

Note: This feature is available in OxygenOS version 4.0 and newer, for OnePlus devices going back to the OnePlus 3.

• How to enable Night Mode
• How to set a custom time range for Night Mode

Why would you want to use Night Mode?

Remember that time you checked your phone just after waking up, before your eyes had time to adjust, and you were blinded by your brighter-than-the-sun display? On a more serious note, blue light can have various negative effects on you, from disrupting your sleep cycle to suppressing melatonin, so it’s worthwhile to enable Night Mode and reduce your blue light intake — especially when it requires so few steps.

OxygenOS: Top 10 features you need to know

How to enable Night Mode

Enabling Night Mode just takes a few taps in the device’s settings.

Open the Settings app.
Scroll down to the Device category.

Tap the Display submenu.

Tap Night Mode.

Under Manual, slide the Turn on Night Mode toggle.

That’s it! You should notice your screen gradually shift to a noticeably warmer hue, and the Effect Strength section underneath the Night Mode toggle becomes available to fine-tune the display temperature. You can also access Night Mode directly from the notification shade toggles.

How to set a custom time range for Night Mode

While you’re in the settings, you can set Night Mode to automatically kick in from sunset to sunrise, or even set a specific time range manually.

In the Night Mode settings under Scheduled Night Mode, tap Turn on automatically.
In the pop-up menu, tap Custom time range.
Select From, and set the desired starting time for Night Mode using the pop-up clock.

Tap To and set when you’d like Night Mode to end.

You’re done! Now Night Mode should turn on automatically between your custom set times, giving your eyes some time to rest throughout your day.

Questions? Comments?

Got any questions about Night Mode? Want to share how Night Mode has improved your life, or maybe why you don’t use it? Let us know in the comments below!

Updated June 2018: This article was rewritten to reflect changes to OxygenOS on the OnePlus 6.

OnePlus 6

• OnePlus 6 review
• OnePlus 6 vs. OnePlus 5T: How much changes in six months?
• OnePlus 6 vs. OnePlus 5: Should you upgrade?
• These are the official OnePlus 6 cases
• The OnePlus 6 doesn’t work on Verizon or Sprint
• Join the discussion in the forums