Tag: Personal digital assistants

Terrifying Watch Dogs-Like Smart Glasses Make It Possible To Dox Strangers On The Street

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In Ubisoft’s open-world game Watch Dogs (and its sequels), you can quickly scan any NPC you meet and discover facts about them, including their name, address, criminal record, and so on. And now two people have essentially created this tech in real life using Meta’s smart glasses and mostly off-the-shelf tech and software, providing a scary glimpse at our future.

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As reported by 404 Media, two Harvard students have built working smart glasses that use facial recognition technology to automatically identify someone via their face. Not only that, but the glasses then use that information to track down other details about the stranger including their address, phone number, past photos, and family members. According to the two students, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, they did this to raise awareness of what is possible with current tech and they have no plans to release it publicly.

Nguyen and Ardayfio call the project I-XRAY and showed a demo of it in action earlier this week on social media. In the video posted to Twitter, the pair were able to identify multiple strangers without asking them for any details, though some of the data proved to be inaccurate when the duo talked to the people.

“The motivation for this was mainly because we thought it was interesting, it was cool,” Nguyen told 404 Media. Apparently, other people they showed it to also thought it was “really cool” and some suggested it could be used for “networking” or to “make funny videos.” However, thankfully, someone also mentioned to them how incredibly dangerous this tech could be in the wrong hands. “Some dude could just find some girl’s home address on the train and just follow them home,” said Nguyen.

As pointed out by 404 Media, this kind of smart-glasses-facial-scanning tech has been around for a few years now. But Google and Facebook, two companies who were working on it, eventually decided to not release their software.

But you don’t need big tech resources and money to build your own Watch Dogs super glasses that can instantly dox anyone you meet on the street. Nguyen and Ardayfio’s I-XRAY uses Meta’s Ray Bans and the publicly available face recognition service Pimeyes to scan someone’s face with hidden cameras in the glasses and then identify them. That info is then used to scrape the web for phone numbers, other photos, family information, and addresses.

“We would show people photos of them from kindergarten, and they had never even seen the photo before,” said Ardayfio. “Most people were surprised by how much data they have online.” One time, they were able to show a stranger their mom’s phone number after simply scanning their face.

“I think people could definitely take [the idea of I-XRAY] and run with it,” Ardayfio said. “If people do run with this idea, I think that’s really bad. I would hope that awareness that we’ve spread on how to protect your data would outweigh any of the negative impacts this could have.” The duo has included information on how to protect yourself in a large document about the project that is freely available online.

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Zack Zwiezen

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October 2, 2024
Best Smartwatches You Can Buy in 2024

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I never thought I’d see the day I’d become a “wearables” person, and it’s because I’ve spent so long on the Android side of things. For years, Android users waited in vain for manufacturers to make smartwatches that fit nicely and didn’t peter out after a mere eight hours off the charger. It wasn’t until these last few years after Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch 4 that Android-based wearables offered feature parity to one of the most popular wearables, the Apple Watch.

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Thankfully, there is plenty more choice for wearables, not just between Apple and Android. Although some companies have left the connected wearables game—RIP Fossil and your delightful hybrid watches—plenty more remain, including mainstays from the fitness industry. Here’s a look at some of the latest smartwatches we’ve covered and which ones are worth buying if you’re shopping for one. iPhone users, you already know which one we’re going to suggest.

Best smartwatch for iPhone users

Apple Watch Series 9, $400

The Apple Watch Series 9.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it: you should have an Apple watch if you use an iPhone. Other smartwatches work with the iPhone, particularly for those of you who want more of a training device rather than a remote accessory for your smartphone. But for everyone else wielding an iPhone, the Apple Watch is it.

The Apple Watch has maintained a consistent price point throughout its lifetime. The Apple Watch Series 9 currently costs $400 for the 40mm size and $430 for the 45mm size. There’s also the Apple Watch SE, a pared-down version of the flagship Apple Watch, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, meant for rugged types who spend time outdoors or don’t mind wearing a bigger watch for the battery life.

The battery life of Apple Watches and the best ones for Android users is about the same. You’ll almost get two full days of notifications and time-telling, mainly if you use energy-saving modes. Apple has also done some work between generations of the Apple Watch. Siri’s common commands are available offline on the Series 9—something Google is still working on with Wear OS.

Best smartwatch for Android users

Google Pixel Watch 2, $350

The Pixel Watch 2.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

It took two generations, but Google finally delivered on its smartwatch promises with the Pixel Watch 2. The watch is comfortable for most wrists and pairs well with any of the dozens of available Android devices. Google also offers several different watchbands and finishes. The only downside is that the watchband employs proprietary connection mechanisms. Finding quality third-party watchbands is not as easy, and some of the Google Store’s offerings are pretty pricey.

The Fitbit app is what makes the Pixel Watch 2 a worthy wear. Its robust offerings include a daily readiness score, overnight body temperature tracking, sleep coaching, and stress monitoring. (Some features require a Fitbit Premium subscription, though they can be bundled in with Google One if you’re an all-in Android user.) The only drawback is that even with Health Connect, Fitbit doesn’t sync up with many popular third-party wellness suites without the help of a few other additional apps. I’m still trying to figure out how to count my Peloton workouts toward my weekly stats on Fitbit without manually entering the data.

Battery life is pretty average among most smartwatches available right now. Most of today’s Android-compatible smartwatches last as long as the Apple Watch—about a day and a half with the always-on display off. You can set the watch to a power-saving mode to eke out more time with it. But generally, smartwatches the size of the Pixel Watch 2 won’t make it two full days off the charger.

Best smartwatch for Samsung users

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, $300

The Galaxy Watch 6.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

I used a Galaxy Watch 4 with a Pixel smartphone and the OnePlus 8, which was fine. However, the latest Galaxy Watch 6 has exclusive capabilities available only to Samsung smartphone users, including blood pressure and ECG monitoring, facilitated by apps available only through the Galaxy app store.

Like the Pixel Watch 2, the Galaxy Watch 6 can detect irregular heartbeats, track your sleep, measure your skin temperature as you sleep, and track your sleep patterns. It offers a larger display than the Pixel Watch 2—1.3 inches on the Galaxy Watch 6 versus 1.2 inches on the Pixel Watch 2—with less bezel. The Galaxy Watch 6 also uses a universal clasping mechanism so that you can buy watchbands anywhere.

My favorite part of Samsung Health is the new medication reminder offering, which simultaneously blasts the phone and smartwatch to hold me accountable for my pill. It’s louder than Apple Health and the Apple Watch’s quieter medication notifications. It functions like an alarm, and if you don’t take a second to mark whether you’ve taken your medication, it will nag you until you dismiss it entirely.

Best battery life

OnePlus Watch 2, $300

The OnePlus Watch 2.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

The OnePlus Watch 2 is a decidedly better smartwatch than the first-generation OnePlus Watch. But it is a big watch, and it is only available in one size. If it looks too big for you from the picture featured here, that’s because it is. However, if you think this honker of a wearable is something you’d sport after all, let me tell you the best part of the OnePlus Watch 2: it has the best battery life I’ve seen in a Wear OS watch in a long time.

With the always-on display off, the OnePlus Watch 2 lasts up to 100 hours off the charger. OnePlus employs two processors: one to handle the smartwatch’s lighter loads, like step counting and touch input, and one to take on the heavier loads, like apps and workout tracking. OnePlus’s health suite isn’t as robust as a Pixel Watch 2 with Fitbit or the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 with Samsung Health. But at least it syncs up with Health Connect.

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Florence Ion

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April 14, 2024
Your Screen Protector Is Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be

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When you’re buying a new smartphone, salesmen love pestering you to buy some increased protection — insurance, a case, and, obviously, a screen protector. The screen protector has long been hailed as a necessity, costing anywhere from $10 to $60. These little slips of plastic and glass have ballooned to a $50 billion industry, but there’s a dirty secret underneath it all. Your screen protector may not be essential anymore.

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You wouldn’t be crazy for wanting to protect your screen. Cracking your screen is the number one way to break your phone, followed by water damage and battery issues. However, the glass in your phone has gotten significantly stronger in the last five years. Some experts say you might be able to skip the screen protector, and even warn about some relatively unknown downsides that salespeople aren’t telling you.

“It’s really not particularly useful,” said Raymond Soneira, CEO of DisplayMate Technologies, about screen protectors in an interview with Gizmodo. Soneira’s company researches how to optimize your phone’s display. He doesn’t use a screen protector, just a phone case, but caveats this by noting he is very careful with his phone and rarely ever drops it.

DisplayMate found that screen protectors make your phone more reflective. This reduces the quality of your display and requires you to increase your phone’s brightness to match the same quality. Over time, he says this will wear down your phone’s battery, and give you a shorter daily battery life.

However, the phone community is mixed on this screen protector issue. iFixit Repairability Engineer, Carsten Fraunheim notes that screen protectors can be useful against scratches, micro-abrasions, and just give you peace of mind. He calls them a “no-brainer” but admits they’re less essential than they used to be.

“As smartphone glass tech becomes more and more shatter resistant, screen protectors will lose their ‘drop protection’ selling feature,” Fraunheim said in an email.

Even the liquid screen protectors have their issues.

“Liquid wipe-on screen protectors are snake oil,” said iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens in an email. He says that this variety of protection actually compromises the structure of your screen, though he had no comment on panel-style protectors.

Trey Barnett, a computer technician at a Manhattan uBreakiFix, has seen a lot of cracked screens in the 14 years he’s been repairing phones. However, he sees fewer iPhones with broken screens than he used to.

“I would say that screens have gotten a bit stronger, but, you know, it hasn’t stopped people from breaking them altogether.”

There is an obvious argument in favor of screen protectors: they cost less than replacing your phone screen. While that’s true, the chances of having to repair your screen are far lower than they used to be. The multi-billion dollar screen protector industry would like to keep that on the down low.

Origins of The Screen Protector

In 2021, Apple’s iPhones started using Ceramic Shield, a new material that claims to be tougher than any previous smartphone glass. It comes from Corning, a glass company that Steve Jobs commissioned to produce the first screen for the iPhone in 2007.

Jobs famously gave Corning a 6-month deadline to produce the iPhone’s screen, which was originally planned to be plastic. Corning got it done, creating an especially strong, thin material called Gorilla Glass. This material would be used in the first decade of iPhones and is still used in most Samsung phones.

Gorilla Glass is stronger than most glass, but it wasn’t great at first. Screen protectors for phones almost immediately popped up, as consumers raced to wrap their phones in protective materials.

Apple forums in 2008 were full of people discussing early screen protectors. The first iPhone adopters quickly scratched their Gorilla Glass displays. Some users found these early screen protectors were so bad they messed with the iPhone’s touch screen. Screen protectors have gotten much better, but so have screens themselves.

Ceramic Shield was a major leap forward for screen technology. The materials used in Ceramic Shield are much different from typical smartphone glass. Corning describes it as somewhere in between ceramics and glass, and Apple says it’s four times stronger than Gorilla Glass when it comes to drops.

However, these major improvements have flown under the radar. That may have something to do with the growth of the screen protector industry. By 2030, the industry is expected to grow to roughly $85 billion, according to Grand View Research.

Why Screen Protectors Persist

Anyone who has cracked their phone screen will tell you how painful that experience is. Even though phone screens have gotten much better, the replacement process is scarring enough to make anyone just buy the dang screen protector.

It’s totally understandable why you might put your phone in a screen protector still. It is a large investment, but there’s more and more evidence that screens are getting better. A good phone case alone may be sufficient.

So at what point do we ditch the screen protectors? These flimsy films could be degrading the quality of that very expensive screen in your pocket, and they are potentially running through your battery. Screen protectors are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

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Maxwell Zeff

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March 4, 2024
The Best Big Phones You Can Buy Right Now

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I don’t like big phones. They are cumbersome to carry, they don’t fit into most of my size of pockets or purses, and I’m constantly dropping them. I wasn’t made for larger phones. But I can’t deny that they have their advantages. The bigger the phone you go, the longer the battery you’ll have so you can watch TV and chortle on the train. Plus, most of the latest large phones have extra photography capabilities you won’t get with a small phone, like the ability to zoom in at a farther distance.

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Bigger phones also cost more, which can drag if you’re on a budget. So be strategic: if you go for a device with more display, you should know what the rest of the phone can do for you. Not all mega-phones are created equal—some are better at taking photos, while others exist simply for multitasking. If you’re not penny-pinching, you might also consider the latest large foldables, some of which are now offered with a discount that makes them easier to afford than when they initially debuted. Here’s what the big phone market looks like, including the ones that fold into tablets.

Best Big Phone for Being Big

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Big and titanium.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

This year’s phones are some of the biggest they’ve ever been, though Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra has the largest display as a traditional smartphone—it’s a 6.9-inch Super AMOLED display compared to, say, the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display. Part of that extra screen on the Ultra makes it possible to enjoy the stowed S Pen on the bottom, which also acts as a camera remote for when you’re taking selfies from afar—I use it all the time to snap pictures of myself on my walks. How else would I prove that I take them?

Alternative Pick – iPhone 15 Pro Max

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is another big phone favorite. There’s a bit more width to the Pro Max than the OnePlus 12, a narrow type of smartphone. You also get the added benefit of its three-tiered camera system and larger battery. One advantage to this big phone compared to an Android offering is the built-in Emergency SOS and Roadside Assistance via satellite offerings, which are nice to have when life gets unexpectedly perilous.

If the Pro Max’s $1,200 starting price range is a little steep and you want to stay on iOS, the iPhone 15 Plus is just as worthy. It also has a 6.7-inch display with a spectrum of pastel offerings.

Best Big Phone for Battery Life

OnePlus 12

The front of the OnePlus 12 is a 6.8-inch QHD+ display with up to 4,500 nits brightness in direct sunlight.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

If you’re considering carrying around this much product, you might as well get something with the best battery life. For Android users, that’s the OnePlus 12. It was the longest-lasting Android device in Gizmodo’s battery benchmarks. The OnePlus 12 is a 6.8-inch device with 16GB of RAM and a whopping 5,400 mAh battery—that’s how it managed up to 27 hours and 43 minutes of battery in our rundown tests.

Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max has the next best battery offering with 25 hours, followed by the newest Galaxy S24 Ultra with 23 hours and 22 minutes. Apple and Samsung devices have both been pretty steady about battery life. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary depending on how you use the devices. Our tests determine how long the phones last on screen for extended periods at around 200 nits.

Best Big Phone for Zooming In

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

How far do you want to zoom in? If you don’t mind a ton of algorithmic help, the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s four-part camera system can manage up to 100x digital zoom. If you need to peep at something too far away or too high up, that’s where the telephoto can help. It’s also nice to have different framing options offered by the Ultra’s varying focal lengths. The Ultra is capable of up to 5x optical zoom on its secondary 50-MP camera and up to 3x optical zoom on its tertiary 10-MP telephoto camera.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has telephoto lenses that stick out and can manage up to 5x optical zoom.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

Alternative Pick – Google Pixel 8 Pro

Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max and Pixel 8 Pro can also zoom in from far away. Both phones max out at 5x optical zoom, though the iPhone 15 Pro Max can handle up to 25x digital zoom and the Pixel 8 Pro up to 30x with “Super Res Zoom.”

It’s not a big phone; it’s a foldable

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold

I said that I don’t like big phones. But I adore the large folding ones because you can fold them up and put them into something else when you are not using the screen. I’ve shared my thoughts on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 in our full review, and my opinion has remained largely the same: they are still too expensive to justify outright. That said, whenever I pick up the Z Fold 5, I am reminded of its utility as a tablet on the go.

Foldables are a great way to get a big phone that can fold up and disappear.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

The Z Fold 5 has other things going for it besides its 7.6-inch inner display. If you intend to use it like a tablet, you can buy an S Pen to unlock a few extra features. (Though I would recommend toting the S Pen around some other way than the official Slim Case because it falls out periodically.) There’s also a triple-lens camera system, plus up to 3x optical zoom.

Alternative Pick – OnePlus Open

OnePlus became a contender in the foldable game when it launched the OnePlus Open, one of the best foldables we reviewed last year after the Z Fold 5. There’s plenty to like about it: a solid hinge, a screen with no discernable crease, and a UI that is quite good at handling the multi-app experience of the inside screen. It even has 16GB of RAM, a hefty amount for a device with many screens.

Also, if you like to type with both thumbs and that’s why you’re looking to adopt a larger device, the foldable is the way to go. I’ve found it much faster at typing two-handed than the iPhone 15 Pro Max or Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Best Big Phone for AI

Google Pixel 8 Pro / Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Circle to Search can be used with the built-in S Pen on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

AI is a thing in this day and age, so we might as well lean in. Android is better suited for the so-called “AI future,” as it waves the freak flag for all to see. Apple’s approach is much more subdued, with its AI offerings sprinkled throughout iOS and the rest of the well-tended walled garden.

If you want to be on the equivalent of the cutting edge, then sign up for life with the Pixel 8 Pro. It’s the flagship from Google, which means it will be the device that showcases what Google’s AI smarts can do. One of our favorite features, Circle to Search, is limited to Google’s latest, anyway, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra. But it’s hard to tell how much feature parity Samsung’s Galaxy AI will have with Google’s Pixel hardware going forward.

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Florence Ion

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February 16, 2024