Google has released some new cases for Nexus and Samsung smartphones, so what? Hear me out these aren’t your run of the mill boring cases. The first three limited-edition “live cases” are designed by… Skrillex.
Now I’m no fan of Skrillex but I do know he’s an eccentric man, seems to me an eccentric Grammy Award-winning music producer making Android phone cases is not a recipe for greatness, but what do I know. Not a lot these cases are awesome.
Space Shield, Circuit Bae and Lil Planet cost about £40 and come in four phone-fitting sizes for the Nexus 6, Nexus 5, Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S5. They are being dubbed smart cases, although so is everything from lightbulbs to the dishwasher these days, so what makes it so smart? It’s not just the design that makes these Skrillex-backed back covers stand out. They also wirelessly beam content to your Android phone.
Use the case during the day and your phone shows a live wallpaper of the Earth’s stratosphere, and these moving images update over course of the day. Use it at nighttime, the case begins showing constellations visible from your current location (if there wasn’t a ton of light pollution).
They didn’t just do this on the cheap and nick the images from NASA either, Skrillex being the eccentric he is actually launched a custom-designed balloon satellite, named after the musician’s dog, Nanou, to pull this off. It’s certainly not your average animated background.
Live cases also add one more way to control your Android phone thanks to a single button on the back. At first, it leads to Skrillex’s YouTube channel, but it can be customized to become a one-touch button that launches any app or function, such as the camera.
By far some of the coolest cases I’ve seen, I’ll be interested to see how good they are in practice.