Animoji, iPhone X’s face-detecting emoji, were a question mark in people’s mind until AnimojiKaraoke hit and everything made sense.

If you look through the current 12 options for Animoji currently, each has its strengths and weaknesses, in terms of facial expressions–for example the robot displays the least emotion.

Which emoji should Apple let people animate with their faces? Here are my picks.

Lion, Chick, Creepy Clown, Ghost, Fish, and Whale.

Obviously there are some choices which seem more likely, like the Koala, or Bear, but those feel really close to other cute, furry creatures. I think ones like the Lion, Clown, Ghost, and Fish, are some of the most popular emojis, and add some diversity in situations Animoji might be sent.

It’s late 2017, you want to recommend a streaming music service, which one do you pick?

Over at The Sweet Setup I wrote about the best streaming music service in 2014, I updated it in 2015, and now we’ve just updated it again. A lot has changed over those few year, including the recommendation. It’s no longer Spotify, It’s now Apple Music.

You can read the nearly 4,000 words as to why I think Apple Music is the best pick for most people, but I did want to add just a little more commentary to the decision.

Read The Sweet Setup’s pick for best streaming music service

First, Spotify is great and just because I think Apple Music is the best service to recommend to a majority of people, doesn’t take anything away from that company or service.

Second, it really is Apple Music and Spotify as the two leaders in the streaming music space. A few years ago it was unclear how many streaming...

DVDs and Blu-rays feel like a waste of space now with streaming video services and the ability to buy movies digitally on iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, and Google Play.

Not just space, but connected set-top boxes also make it way more convenient to find and watch a movie across multiple devices.

So, how do you take your DVDs and Blur-rays and convert them to digital copies you can access from your phone, tablet, or TV? Here’s a little hack that makes it easy:

Walmart owned Vudu introduced a feature a while back called Disc To Digital which went a little under the radar. When it launched you could scan a barcode, select SD or HD and then pay a small fee to convert them to digital.

It was something people had been wanting, but Vudu didn’t have an Apple TV app at the time and it didn’t make that much sense to revolve your digital movie library around a service that was the most likely to be...

You need something to listen to, so listen to these new songs.

Mansions - “Heel Theme”

Tourist - “We Stayed Up All Night”

The Lighthouse and The Whaler - “Paths”

Madi Diaz - “The One You Want”

Jaja Bu - “Caroline”

First, technology companies came for your ears with headphones and earbuds, now they’re coming for your home. Whole home wireless audio and smart speakers are the next big business target.

Let’s look at the smart speaker choices and things to consider when picking one.

In the matter of a few months, choosing a connected speaker—one that connects through wi-fi directly to the internet, unlike Bluetooth—got really tough and confusing. The reason it just got a lot tougher is because you’re not just picking the speaker that sounds the best, you are buying into a web of music services, voice assistants, and mobile operating systems.

Speaker options to consider:

• Sonos speakers - Sonos One, Play:1, Play:3, Play:5, Playbar, Playbase
• Amazon Echos - Echo, Echo Plus
• Google Home Max
• Apple HomePod

There are other choices available, but these options are the most mainstream, most likely to be...

Google’s Pixel line of phones is now in its second iteration and the new Pixel 2 device got some really cool features like a great camera, unlimited photo storage, ability to squeeze the phone to bring up Assistant, and a lot more.

The phone’s use of its OLED lock screen might be the coolest, however. Since OLED technology allows a screen to only light up the pixels it needs to display a message, the screen can keep displaying new info without a hit to battery life.

Instead of needing to ask an app or assistant to name a song you hear playing, the Pixel 2 automatically displays that information right on the lock screen.

Ever since we’ve been able to identify songs by apps listening, the problem persists, we’re too late. Either the song was already close to finishing or it took way too long to get to Shazam or ask for the music to be identified. It looks like that problem is now...

It’s a big day for anyone with a Sonos speaker and an Amazon Echo. You can now control your speaker by asking Alexa to play music.

Here’s a quick look at how to do that and how it works.

First, download the latest app update on the App Store or Google Play. This will prompt your speakers to update their software. There’s also a refreshed Sonos app design which looks really great.

After your Sonos app and speakers have finished updating, you’ll need to open the Alexa mobile app and add the Sonos skill and signing in to your Sonos account. Hit the smart home section and refresh the list of devices and you should now see your Sonos speakers pop up.

Tip: If you have any speakers named “Play:3 or Play:5” you probably want to change them to something close generic, default names like Living Room or Bedroom. Telling Alexa to “Play Tom Petty on the Play 5” doesn’t work so well.

Now you...

Before AirPods were even out, I railed against wireless earbud controls. Not just wireless earbuds, but most wireless headphone controls aren’t good either because they require the user to remember a bunch of non visual gestures.

For example, The Dash from Bragi has more than 26 touch control gestures! (The image is just a sample.)

The gestures on AirPods have been limited since launch, but this new improvement gives them a big jump in functionality.

With iOS 11, AirPods can now perform different commands based on which one (left or right) you double tap. You can do this in the Bluetooth settings under the “i.”

I have mine set to play/pause on the right and skip track on the left. Also if you’re using a 3rd party app like Overcast, skip track will do whatever the app does, which in this case is 60 seconds forward.

If you’re at all curious about wireless earbuds, AirPods are...

Apple Watch is continually getting smarter, especially around fitness and activity, but it’s still got a long way to go. Trying out the new Siri watch face has showed that more than anything.

Looking at the bigger picture for a second, the first question around Apple Watch’s smartness is why aren’t the watch faces more dynamic? I find myself wishing complications would change to other ones when they are no longer relevant. For example, if you have a calendar complication on a modular face and your appointments are done for the day, shouldn’t it switch to another complication for the rest of the night instead of being empty space?

We may not have dynamic complications presently, but in the meantime we have the Siri watch face which I hoped would be a move in that direction.

In the first week, waiting for it to be useful, it has seemed to just fall completely flat.

Even with...

Apple unveiled iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus on September 12th, 2017. Not only that, it also announced the iPhone X–but pronounced it “Ten,” instead of ex.

Apple has a long history with X as a Roman numeral so the naming scheme isn’t out of the ordinary. This is also the tenth anniversary of the iPhone so calling it “ten” is definitely a nod to that milestone.

The reason a lot of people thought it’d be the iPhone ex, and not ten, however, was because now Apple will be selling an iPhone 8 and an iPhone 10.

What happened to 9?

Here’s my guess at how I think this iPhone numbering plays out:

The iPhone X is the future of the iPhone line and Apple is foreshadowing that it’s two years out from being its mainstream device.

Next year there will be an iPhone 9 and an iPhone XI–though it could also move to a modifier like X2.

So in 2018, the iPhone 9 will be the mainstream device at the...