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Thanks for watching Techquickie.

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Click the subscribe button, then enable notifications with the bell icon, so you won't miss any

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future videos.

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Oh, hey, what's that thing?

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Well, I guess if you're watching this on an iPhone X, you're used to it by now.

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But for the rest of you, this is probably pretty annoying.

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So what exactly is the point of the notch, which is either suddenly in vogue or a huge

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source of complaints, depending on your opinion?

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Is Apple just trying to tell us all, yeah, we're Apple, and we can do whatever we want

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with our gadgets, just like we do with a headphone jack?

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Well, not exactly.

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In fact, the lesser-known Essential Phone was actually the first modern smartphone to

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feature a notch for its front-facing camera, though it's quite a bit smaller than the one

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you'd find on the iPhone X.

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Released just two months before the iPhone X, the Essential Phone was our first look

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at how a phone designer might try to fill as much of the front of the device as possible

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with actual screen instead of bezels.

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And although they figured out how to bury a fingerprint sensor under the phone, they

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figured out how to do it with a front-facing camera, which is now a critical feature in

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all modern smartphones due to its utilization by popular apps and, of course, our narcissistic

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need for on-demand selfies.

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Of course, many phone makers simply hide the camera and other phone components inside of

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a bezel, but Essential went with the notch approach because Android OS fills the top

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notification bar from the left and right, so the idea was that the camera in the middle

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wouldn't block anything super important.

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And they even built in an option allowing the user to choose whether or not to hide

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the notch in landscape mode by turning the notch side of the screen into a black bar

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that won't block anything.

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Of course, Apple's notch is significantly larger, leaving only two small loaves of screen

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space at the phone's corners.

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A big part of the rationale for this is that the iPhone X's Face ID recognition system

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needs additional equipment, such as an IR camera and a dot projector, that can't also

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—yet— be buried under the screen.

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So to be fair, the iPhone X is sporting a pretty cool piece of tech that Essential Phone

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and other Android devices don't yet have, and iOS also doesn't display notification

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icons across the top of the screen like Android does, making the notches a little easier to

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get away with.

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And Apple does designate safe areas in app development to prevent content from being

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obscured by the notch.

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Now of course, this doesn't mean that the notch should be immune from criticism, with

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many users noting that it seems like the notch is a bit too big for the iPhone X, and Apple's

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technology has completely caught up, especially as we're now seeing phones that are bezel-less

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on three sides — a more appealing alternative to the awkward notch, at least for some.

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Because awkwardness is in the eye of the beholder, right?

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And there's been speculation that Apple is intentionally using the bezel as a signature

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look, just like the scroll wheel on the iPod.

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And any time Apple does that, other companies, including OnePlus and ASUS, follow suit.

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And both have already confirmed they'll be using notches in their upcoming phones, with

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one ASUS exec even going so far as to say it's what the people want.

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So whether you love or hate Apple for starting this trend, there's a good chance we'll

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see notches become more common until solutions for hiding phone components beneath the display

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become widespread.

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In fact, Android P has features specifically for developers who want to incorporate notches

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into app design, so if you are hoping that the phone industry will relent and suddenly

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consider a bad idea, you might want to dial your hopes back a notch.

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Not only does PIA work on up to five devices at once by hiding your IP address and allowing

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you to bypass geo-restrictions and censorship by making you appear that you're connecting

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from somewhere else, it also blocks unwanted connections to help prevent attacks, auto-blocks

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all traffic if the VPN disconnects, keeps your data out of the hands of advertisers

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and other snoops who are tracking your activity, prevents DNS leaks, and even includes MACE,

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PIA's built-in malware block.

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PIA supports multiple VPN protocols and encryption levels, allowing you to dial in the exact

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level of protection that you need.

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They have apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and a Chrome extension, with support

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for even more platforms coming soon.

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And PIA has over 3,000 servers in 28 different countries and does not log user activity,

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so what are you waiting for?

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Check them out today at the link below.

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Okay guys, thanks for watching TechWiki.

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Like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you didn't.

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Like for more notches and bad news.

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