#( i just finished amol a few weeks ago

[luckhissoul]

cook >:3

cook .   present  my  muse  with  home - cooked  food . // @windtold //  meme // accepting

so, he had come unannounced. but light, what was he supposed to do? put up a whole bloody procession ahead of his arrival? seemed bloody pointless if you asked him. it didn't matter what foolish customs there might be. what sort of flaming procession did the prince of ravens get anyways? the bloody prince of ravens, he wonders if nynaeve has had her laugh about that one. it was bad enough telling her he was leading the band. if a glare could strip everything away and make you feel incompetent it was nynaeve's. sitting here in front of her feels different but familiar. her hair is cut short, there's a glow to her that he doesn't remember her having. is it that she's aes sedai now? that she's married? that the last battle is over and won? that comes with a sting of sadness. they had lost too much, the sacrifices too great. he doesn't focus on it. he lowers his eyes to the table when she places the plate in front of him. light, he hadn't expected that. but he's half way there to being honored before he realizes what it looks like. now, he knew what was said of nynaeve, one of the most powerful channelers that had ever lived. queen of malkier. former wisdom of emond's field. a healer. she was a lot of things. but she was no bloody cook. from the look of the food that she had set down in front of him he could tell. maybe she thought cooking was too close to whatever concoctions she used to make back in emond's field. light, some of those tasted as bad as they looked. but the plate of food she set before him - .

he smiles at her. the kind of smile he was used to giving women when he wanted to get out of doing something. he knew, of course, that it had never once worked on nynaeve. she had been a terror, hadn't she? when he was younger. she was bloody free with that stick of hers and she wouldn't hesitate to make you know when you were getting on her nerves. light, sometimes just a good talking to from her was worse than any switch from his mother. but he smiles nonetheless. this trip was a long time coming, wasn't it? after all the time passed they hadn't had a moment to actually say much to each other since ebou dar. and a lot had happened since then. he had been convinced that she'd pop up during the planning of the last battle to give him some bloody lashing about staying too bloody long in ebou dar when he said he'd follow them out or about the bloody seanchan and tuon, blood and ashes, tuon. he shifts a little in his seat, lifting up the spoon and preparing himself before he shovels it into his mouth. he lifts his eyes to her face again. looking at her now after everything brings - well, burn me, he thinks, but there's some comfort in it. like going home without having to unpack a mess. like knowing there's someone out there even if you don't exactly need it. but they're there. he swallows down the food. keeps his smile. "light, did you cook just for me? it's better than it looks."

#( i just finished amol a few weeks ago #srsly lacking nynaeve in amol #i wanted more reunions for the emond's fielders #so i tossed this as post amol #windtold #( answered meme ) #fml mats dumb lmao

[abangtech]

Oppo Find X2 Pro review

The Find X2 Pro is nothing more than a statement of intent from Oppo. With Galaxy S20 Ultra-rivalling specs – and a price tag to match – this is a company saying: we don’t just make good phones. Or great phones. We make the best phones.

And honestly? It’s not far off. Spec for spec there aren’t many phones out there that can match it, while the design feels premium – if a little pedestrian by Oppo’s usual standards, orange leather aside.

This is undoubtedly one of the best Android phones on the market, so the only question that really remains is whether anyone in the UK and Europe is really willing to spend as much as they would on a Samsung or Apple flagship for a phone from a Chinese brand they may never have heard of before.

Design and build: Who loves orange leather?

The Find X2 Pro looks great. But it also looks like most other 2020 flagship phones, so don’t expect anything wild like the company’s early forays into pop-up cameras and the like.

You get a big 6.7in curved display with a pin-hole selfie camera in the top left, and on the rear the cameras are laid out in a vertical strip, also in the corner. The phone has an IP68 rating, so should be safe from both water and dust.

The main thing that is notable is the finish. You can buy the phone in a fairly standard dark grey ceramic, but our review unit is the much more exciting orange vegan leather option. This isn’t the first phone to use a pleather finish, but we wish more would: it adds a welcome grippiness to the rear, avoids the risk of smashing, and looks a little different to everything else out there.

The vegan leather model does run a little thicker, but lighter, and at 9.5mm and 200g it definitely feels chunky, though not unmanageably so. It also comes with a small Oppo logo in a gold-coloured metal tag on the back, a mildly blingy touch I’d rather the company had left out.

Orange pleather aside, the Find X2 Pro essentially looks good but forgettable. There’s nothing really to criticise here, but not a lot to make it stand out in a competitive crowd. And it should go without saying, but if you’re not a fan of big phones you should absolutely look elsewhere.

Display: As good as it gets

Speaking of size, we’ve naturally got the 6.7in display to blame for that. But honestly? We can forgive it when the display is this damn good.

The AMOLED screen has a resolution of 1440 x 3168 and supports HDR-10, displays over a billion colours, and runs at a blistering 120Hz refresh rate – the same as Samsung’s Galaxy S20 series.

Just a few weeks ago I declared the Galaxy S20’s display to be the best you could buy, but already it’s been supplanted by Oppo’s That’s not least because unlike the S20 it will let you run the phone with both max resolution and the 120Hz refresh rate simultaneously, making this both the crispest and smoothest screen around at the same time.

The hit to battery life luckily isn’t too bad – more on that later – but if you’re worried you can also set each to an auto option, which will dynamically adjust refresh rate and resolution to suit the current content, ensuring it only uses up the extra battery when you’ll actually see a benefit.

The screen is bright, with vivid colour and fantastic dynamic range. Oppo’s ‘01 Ultra Vision Engine’ chips in to boost both frame rate and colour gamut on compatible video content, though even without its help most things will look great on this phone just by virtue of the display itself.

It’s curved on the sides, but fortunately not to the extreme extent of more recent ‘waterfall’ displays from the likes of Vivo or Huawei. It still feels comfortable to use, with impressive palm-rejection, so you can enjoy the look of the curved panel without sacrificing usability along the way.

Camera: Oppo’s best yet

If Oppo has gone all out on the Find X2 Pro’s display, it’s just as committed to the camera.

On the back you’ll find a triple camera setup: a 48Mp f/1.7 main camera with a custom IMX689 Sony sensor that’s capable of taking shots with 12-bit colour – more than can even be fully displayed on the screen.

It’s joined by a second 48Mp lens, using the older IMX586 sensor and f/2.2, which serves as a wide-angle. Then you get a 13Mp f/3.0 periscope lens that delivers roughly 5x optical zoom and up to 10x hybrid, capping out at 30x zoom overall.

Photos from the main sensor are bright and vivid, with excellent colour depth and dynamic range, but without the over-saturation that plagues many rival Android devices. Essentially if you want crisp, detailed shots that feel true-to-life rather than over-stylised, the Find X2 Pro will be one of the best options around.

The wide angle delivers solid results, but between the aperture and the different sensor it’s clear that this is still not on a par with the main sensor for detail and vibrancy – so don’t expect similar results just because of the common megapixel counts. Still, the extra detail is welcome for landscapes, and should pay off in macro shots too.

Finally, that zoom lens. This isn’t Oppo’s first foray into extreme zoom – the Reno 10x Zoom got there last year – but it remains one of the best around. Capping digital zoom at 30x is a smart way to avoid the distraction those very lossy images provide, and instead makes it easier to focus on how great the camera performs at up to 10x.

Yes, images lack the phenomenal colour range that the main camera can deliver, but the detail captured here remains really remarkable, and at least on a par with what Samsung delivered in the S20 Ultra. I still don’t know how often most people will use periscope lenses like this, but if you want to the Oppo undeniably delivers.

There’s the usual night mode and portrait options. The former is a solid effort, though I did find that it tended to overblow light sources, and especially struggled with realistic night skies. It’s good, but far from the best. Portrait mode is also hit-and-miss – the edge detection is pretty spot on, but you lose a lot in dynamic range, especially from the 32Mp f/2.4 selfie lens.

As for video, the big downside is that there’s no 8K recording support here, but I honestly don’t think that will matter to most people – and even on phones that do support 8K, it’s really not good enough yet to miss it much here. Otherwise there’s the usual features, including image stabilisation, and the now fairly common option for portrait mode video.

Specs & performance: Faster than you need

Just about every other spec on the Find X2 Pro is predictably top-tier. You get the flagship Snapdragon 865 processor along with 12GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB of ultra fast storage.

The result is blisteringly fast performance across basically anything you’d hope to use it for, including the fastest multi-core processing performance we’ve seen on any Android phone yet – though the Exynos-equipped Galaxy S20 phones do beat it at simpler single-core tasks.

Beyond the core internals, you get the likes of stereo speakers, Wi-Fi 6, 5G, NFC, and an optical in-display fingerprint sensor that’s one of the most reliable I’ve used yet.

Battery: Stupidly fast charging

Power and charging are two of Oppo’s standout strengths, and the Find X2 Pro doesn’t disappoint here. Even with both 120Hz refresh rate and QHD resolution the 4,260mAh battery comfortably made it to the end of the day, every day, and if you turn those down (or just switch to the more efficient auto settings) this will last even longer, though won’t quite be a two-day device.

Charging is even more impressive. This is the first phone Oppo has released in the West with its 65W wired fast charging, which actually involves splitting the battery into two cells so that it can be charged fast enough.

Oppo claims that the phone will reach a full charge in 35 minutes – and since I got it to 97 percent in our standard 30 minutes charging test (from empty, with the phone off) I’m inclined to believe it.

Setting numbers aside, this is a game-changer in terms of fast-charging – you can now genuinely plug your phone in for ten minutes and get most of a day’s charge back in return, completely removing the need to worry about plugging it in overnight or stressing about lugging battery packs around with you.

The only downside? There’s no wireless charging at all, as Oppo says it couldn’t include Qi support without compromising on those wired speeds.

Software: Customisable to a fault

Finally, software. If you haven’t tried it, Oppo’s ColorOS is one of the better Android skins out there, and the best by far from the Chinese big three: Oppo, Xiaomi, and Huawei.

There’s a fairly clean, angular design to the icons and OS settings, but more importantly there’s a huge amount of customisability here. For example, you can set not only the home screen style and number of app icons, but the icon style can also be tweaked to a really granular level, right down to whether the corners are rounded or how much of the icon box each app logo takes up.

If there’s a fault it’s that there’s so much control that some of the settings menus become a confusion of sliders, toggles, and settings, enough so that even Android experts might find the array of options daunting. That’s mostly forgivable on this phone at least, which is pretty much targeting power users anyway.

Beyond that this is mostly a pretty typical Android 10 setup, with the usual array of digital wellbeing options and eye care modes, along with a schedulable dark mode – still not guaranteed on Android devices, so welcome here.

Price and availability: Premium price

Finally, the big question: is the Find X2 Pro worth it? Inevitably, that comes down to price as much as anything, and at £1,099 in the UK the phone certainly isn’t cheap.

That’s still cheaper than the £1,199 Galaxy S20 Ultra – but not by much – though to be fair you’re still getting more storage, faster charging, and a Snapdragon processor with the Oppo, all for less.

If you can afford to drop over a grand on a phone, then the Find X2 Pro is perhaps the best option out there right now, so long as you can live without wireless charging, but I still wonder if that will be enough to tempt the average shopper over to an unfamiliar brand.

Otherwise, you might consider dropping down to the £899 Find X2. It has mostly the same specs, but drops the vegan leather option, and has a downgraded camera – probably trade-offs worth making to save £200.

It’s a moot point right now anyway – the phone won’t be available to buy until after its UK launch on 27 May, so you’ll have to wait until then to pick one up. If you want to check out some other options in the meantime, take a look at our full ranking of the best phones on the market right now.

Verdict

The Oppo Find X2 Pro is a phenomenal phone by any measure. It packs the best display you’ll find in any phone right now, and backs it up with the fastest wired charging around and a top-tier camera too.

You’ll have to live without wireless charging, and the choice between bland grey or garish orange leather might leave some shoppers struggling to find a design that suits their style.

For pure performance though, the Find X2 Pro can’t be beat right now – you’ll just have to be willing to pay the price for it.

Specs

Oppo Find X2 Pro: Specs

Android 10 with ColorOS 7.1

6.7in Quad HD+ (3168×1440) AMOLED

HDR10+ support

120Hz refresh rate

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 octa-core processor

12GB RAM

512GB internal storage

48Mp, f/1.7, OIS rear camera + 48Mp ultra wide, f/2.2 + 13Mp 5x periscope zoom, f/3.0

32Mp, f/2.4 front camera

Under-display fingerprint scanner

2D Face Recognition

11ax dual-band Wi-Fi

Bluetooth 5.1

GPS

NFC

5G

USB-C

4260mAh non-removable battery

65W wired charging

IP68 dust & waterproof rating

165.2 x 74.4 x 8.8mm (ceramic) or 9.5mm (leather)

217g (ceramic) or 200g (leather)

Source

The post Oppo Find X2 Pro review appeared first on abangtech.

from abangtech https://abangtech.com/oppo-find-x2-pro-review/

[truemedian]

Samsung Galaxy A51 review: Wait for a price drop

Image credit: Chris Velazco/Engadget It's not a bad phone, just a bad deal. (In the US, anyway.)

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Samsung got me. On paper, the company's Galaxy A51 appears to have everything you could want out of a $400 smartphone. A big, pretty screen. A multitude of cameras. A 4,000mAh battery. A flagship-inspired design, and a headphone jack. As an avid -- some might say rabid -- fan of ambitious midrange smartphones, I was ready for the A51 to take its place alongside other modestly priced standouts like the Pixel 3a XL and the iPhone SE. It never did.That’s not to say the Galaxy A51 is a bad phone. Samsung got a lot right here, and over a week of testing, I found it perfectly pleasant at times. Sadly, all the things the company handled well couldn't fully offset some janky, inconsistent performance: This is a $400 device that sometimes runs like a $250 one. I don’t think that's enough to make the A51 a bad smartphone, but it does make it a bad deal. Excellent design Big and beautiful AMOLED screen Flexible multi-camera system Laggy performance Camera quality is largely unremarkable Mediocre battery life Samsung’s Galaxy A51 packs a great screen, a handful of cameras, and a big battery -- what more could you ask from a mid-range smartphone? Well, more consistent performance, for one. Despite using a reasonably powerful chipset, the A51 is often plagued by slow app launches and laggy animations, to the point when it sometimes feels like a device that costs much less. Battery life wasn’t as good as we had hoped for, either. While Samsung got a lot right with the Galaxy A51, it never feels as consistently nice to use as some of truly great devices available in its price range.

Be the first to review the Galaxy A51 LTE? Your ratings help us make the buyer’s guide better for everyone. Write a review Key specs ConfigurationsThe Galaxy A51 I've been testing is a Verizon Wireless model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. (Disclaimer: Verizon is Engadget's parent company, but it has no influence over what we say.) Sprint and AT&T also offer this version of the A51, and no matter which carrier you choose, they'll all sell you the phone outright for $399. That doesn't sound too steep, but it's worth noting that the phone can be had for less when purchased unlocked, especially if you live outside the United States. If you're serious about owning an A51, scouting out a good deal is a must: This isn't worth $400.

Chris Velazco/Engadget Image credit: Chris Velazco/Engadget Flagship styleIf there's one thing Samsung deserves credit for, it's that the A51 in no way looks like a $400 phone. With a surprisingly trim frame; an eye-catching, light-refracting finish; and some incredibly small bezels, this midrange model could easily pass for a phone that costs twice as much. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best-looking midrange smartphone out there. Just keep in mind that thanks to its display, the A51 might be a nonstarter for people with smaller hands -- it's thin but still plenty large.Of course, since this phone costs a fraction of what a flagship does, Samsung had to be judicious about balancing style and substance. Consider Samsung's choice of materials: Wrapping a phone in glass quickly makes its price tag jump, so the company used what it calls "Glasstic" for the A51's body. As the name suggests, that just means this phone has a plastic frame that sort of feels like glass if you don't scrutinize it too much. The Galaxy A51 also lacks an IP-rating for water and dust resistance, which is very common for phones in this price range. (Note: If you Google "A51 water resistance," you might see a search result from Verizon claiming the A51 is rated IP68 -- it absolutely is not.) 

Chris Velazco/Engadget The rest of the phone's design is fairly standard. There's a USB-C port that supports 15W fast charging and a combination nanoSIM/microSD card tray on the phone's right side that you can use to augment the standard 128GB of storage. If you're a music fan, you'll also appreciate the proper headphone jack Samsung squeezed into the A51, since its single speaker is pretty awful. What helps elevate the A51's design is its spacious, 6.5-inch, Full HD+ Super AMOLED screen. It's one of Samsung's Infinity-O displays which, if you're allergic to marketing BS, means there's a tiny hole cut out of the panel to accommodate a 32-megapixel front camera. It’s remarkably small and would be easy enough to overlook were it not for the shiny metallic ring surrounding it -- it's almost like Samsung wants you to keep looking at it. Thankfully, the rest of the screen is typical Samsung: Deep blacks, punchy colors, and great viewing angles considering the price. Its max brightness feels a little anemic so outdoor use can be a little tricky at times, but the display is very well-suited to binging on YouTube videos while you're sheltering at home.The screen is very often the most expensive component in a smartphone, and I'm glad that Samsung went with the display it did here. It's not just easy on the eyes; it’s a great rebuttal to devices like the iPhone SE that rely on dated designs to keep costs down. Visually, the A51 is a stunner, but as my parents always used to tell me, looks aren't everything.

Chris Velazco/Engadget Image credit: Chris Velazco/Engadget In use The frustration here begins when you go to unlock the phone. There's an optical fingerprint sensor under the display, and it's... not great. When it does work, it usually takes a while to actually recognize my thumb. Too often, though, the sensor just didn't work. Normally, you'd see a bit of green whooshing around your finger to let you know the sensor was analyzing your print, but that didn't always appear. Repeated screen cleanings didn't fix the issue, and neither did re-enrolling my fingers. For your sanity, maybe just set up a PIN or an unlock pattern instead.Once I made it in, a bigger issue became obvious pretty quickly -- the A51 is noticeably laggy at times. Switching between apps frequently felt choppy, as did thumbing through pages of apps, and even just popping back out to the home screen. You know, the stuff you do every day.To be clear, this doesn’t happen constantly, and I didn’t have much to complain about when the phone was firing on all cylinders. If you're the kind of person who just wants to watch videos and maybe send a few emails to the family, you might not even notice this momentary lag. But if you're a fan of smooth, consistent performance, be prepared for some disappointment -- stuttering animations and delayed app launches are never too far away, and it gets old pretty quickly. Gallery: Samsung Galaxy A51 review photos | 13 Photos

Exactly why the A51 runs the way it does isn't wholly clear, but part of the issue probably lies with Samsung's choice of chipset. Rather than use a Qualcomm Snapdragon like most US-bound Android phones, the company ran with its in-house Exynos 9611. From what I can tell, there's not much difference between this sliver of silicon and the Exynos 9610 Samsung started using in late 2018 -- some of the CPU cores are marginally faster and it supports a wider variety of rear cameras, but that's really it. That Samsung would splurge on a great screen and use a minor refresh of a chip that was announced a little over two years ago tells you a lot about its priorities. The funny thing is, this chipset is no slouch. It falls somewhere between the $250 Moto G Power (with a Snapdragon 665 chipset) and the $470 Pixel 3 XL (with a Snapdragon 670), which is exactly what you'd expect considering how much these phones cost. The A51 benchmarks pretty well, too -- it’s nowhere near flagship level, but well in line with other US-bound devices we’ve seen in this price range. That being the case, it seems more likely that this inconsistent performance is due to a lack of software optimization that could theoretically be fixed in a future update. (For what it’s worth, Samsung wouldn’t confirm that any such updates were in the works.)In fairness to Samsung, people contemplating a $400 smartphone probably know not to expect best-in-class performance. The bigger issue here is that it’s still a considerable sum to drop on a smartphone, and the A51's balance of performance and price just doesn’t feel right. 

Chris Velazco/Engadget The Moto G Power -- a phone that costs $150 less with an older chipset -- manages to run a little more consistently. And the Pixel 3a XL? Forget about it. The difference in smoothness and the overall quality of experience between these devices skews heavily in the Pixel's favor. It’s also worth noting that all three of these phones have 4GB of RAM, so it’s not like Motorola or Google had more resources to work with here. And if you’re not married to Android, there's always the iPhone SE. It's a $400 arrow aimed at Samsung's heart and runs just as well as Apple’s most expensive smartphones. Whether it's because of a heavy touch with software, poor memory management, or something else entirely, this questionable performance makes the A51 hard to recommend for the price. I had hoped that epic battery life would've sweetened the deal here, but it doesn’t. Despite packing a pretty sizable 4,000mAh (along with a mid-range chipset and a screen that only runs at 1080p), the Galaxy A51 is only good for about one full day of use. That's not awful by any stretch, but when other mid-range phones -- like the Moto G Power -- have battery lives measured in days instead of hours, the A51 can't help but feel a little disappointing.

Chris Velazco/Engadget Image credit: Chris Velazco/Engadget Plenty of camerasAt this point, the one thing that could redeem the A51 is truly excellent camera performance. Calling the phone's trio of rear cameras "excellent" would be a stretch, but in most cases, they're good enough.And that's right, I said "trio" although there are four lenses on the A51's rear. Most of the time you'll wind up using the 48-megapixel standard wide camera which, like most other phones with pixel-rich sensors, produces smaller 12-megapixel stills by default. As usual for a Samsung phone, the results feature lots of vivid colors, though pixel-peepers will notice a surprising lack of fine details upon zooming in. That’s despite Samsung’s typical -- and almost stylized -- image processing, too. Big surprise, right? Like nearly every Samsung camera before it, this one seems tuned to deliver images that look slightly nicer than reality. These are great photos to post on Instagram, but maybe not for printing and mounting on your wall. Unfortunately, even the decently wide f/2.0 aperture doesn't help the A51's main camera much in low light -- colors tend to look a little washed out, and details get smeared into oblivion. Gallery: Samsung Galaxy A51 camera samples | 24 Photos

Meanwhile, the 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It captures a 123-degree field of view with minimal barrel distortion around the edges, and its colors are even poppier and more saturated than what you'd get out of the main camera. If you're walking around and shooting photos on a clear day, those pale blue skies will turn out a little more neon than you'd expect. Since this camera is mainly meant to capture lots of attractive, well-lit space, it's no surprise that it struggles more than the main camera does in low light.Rather than a telephoto camera (which was almost certainly too expensive for a phone like this), the A51's third sensor is a 5-megapixel affair for macro photos. I've wondered in the past who spends their time bopping around and looking for very small things to take photos of, but ever since testing the OnePlus 8 Pro, I've become one of those people. It's too bad, then, that this never produced the sort of crisp, super-tight images I was hoping for. That's partially because the camera's image processing seems to iron out some of those minute details, but also because the narrow depth of field means getting everything framed up just right can take some work.And that last lens? It's for a 5-megapixel depth sensor that Samsung uses to capture data for more bokeh-filled portraits. It does its job well. I've seen more than a few phones struggle with accurately separating the subject from its background, but the A51 handles the task without much fuss. Ultimately, no matter which camera you spend the most time with, be prepared for good -- not great -- results. If getting the best overall photo is your biggest concern, you'd still be much better off with one of Google's Pixel 3As or the iPhone SE. Samsung's real edge here doesn't lay in the quality of its images so much as the flexibility that multiple cameras provide.

Chris Velazco/Engadget Wrap-upWith the Galaxy A51, Samsung tried to bring some flagship style and features to an affordable smartphone. It wasn't completely successful, but the effort is appreciated. More than anything, what Samsung really got wrong here (in the US, at least) is the phone's price. If the Galaxy A51 cost closer to $300, as it does in certain overseas markets, Samsung's strange blend of style and stymied performance would be a lot easier to swallow. As it stands, though, the A51 never feels as consistently smooth as some of the truly great devices you can get for around $400 now. Sure, the Pixel 3a XL and the iPhone SE lack the A51’s panache, but they’re just nicer to use. And hey -- if you’re really itching for a Samsung phone and have some latitude in your budget, the slightly more powerful Galaxy A71 might be a better choice. If you can find a sweet deal -- or don't mind trading an older phone in -- the Galaxy A51 isn't a bad option. Anyone who doesn't need a phone now though should wait until Google releases its new mid-range Pixel and decide.  All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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[e-dowon]

all 100, if not that then the first 50

I think I have a lot of time, let’s do all of them.  1: Is there a boy/girl in your life? Maybe, we’ll see with time.2: Think of the last person who hurt you; do you forgive them? I forgive them, they’re in a rough spot right now and even though it was an impulsive lashing out, it’s okay.3:Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17. At the time, the volleyball coach, Seonwoo, was well-known in Korean volleyball history.4: What’s something you really want right now? See question 1.5: Are you afraid of falling in love?I don’t think so, I’m more afraid of what happens after.6: How can I win your heart?Be a good person and we’ll see how it goes, but I don’t need it to be won right now.7: Have you ever slept on a couch with someone else?Somehow fell asleep for about 10 minutes, woke up, didn’t even realize I was sleeping. I was only able to know because of the other person telling me.8: What’s the background on your cell?A dark background with some blue lines and a white light in the center, trying to take advantage of my AMOLED screen. New backgrounds are welcome.9: Name the last four beds you were sat on?This questions is phrased confusingly. The four beds I sat on? My own, the own in my dorm, my parents’, and the person’s dorm bed from question 1, 4, and 7.10: Think of the last person who said I love you, do you think they meant it?That was a half a year ago. They probably did, I feel bad.11: Honestly, are things going the way you planned?I never plan things this far in advance so how can things go the way I planned when I never planned anything in the first place?12: Who was the last person whose phone number you added to your contacts?The Indian man that picked up the phone for my driving school.13: Would you rather have a poodle or a Rottweiler?Rottweiler.14: Which hurts the most, physical or emotional pain?Emotional pain, I think I’ve gotten used to physical pain after sparring and lots of stupid stunts I did.15: Would you rather visit a zoo or an art museum?Art museum, zoos are sort of sad to go to.16: Are you tired?Not really, especially given the time of day I’m currently writing this.17: How long have you known your 1st phone contact?All my life, it’s like I’ve been born because of them. Them being my parents.18: If you had to delete one year of your life completely, which would it be?Sophomore year.19: Would you ever consider getting back together with any of your exes?No20: When did you last talk to the last person you shared a kiss with?Today :)21: If you knew you had the right person, would you marry them today?I’m really indecisive so something like marriage would take me years, luckily that’s expected before a proposal.22: Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?Yeah.23: When was the last time you were disappointed?On Sunday because of my own musicianship.24: Is there a certain quote you live by?Too many quotes and I don’t want to live by the words of others.25: What’s on your mind?Filling out these questions.26: Do you have any tattoos?No, and I don’t think I want one, but if I have to, I would have “李“ or “韓山李” on my right shoulder, chest, or back. Branding myself with my family name doesn’t sound so bad, right?  27: What is your favorite color?Gray28: Next time you will kiss someone on the lips?This doesn’t sound like a question.29: Who are you texting?The person from question 1, 4, 7, 9, 20, and 22.30: Are you superstitious about anything?Aliens or secret societies if that counts.31: Have you ever had the feeling something bad was going to happen and you were right?Yeah, it happens a lot.32: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex you can talk to?Yes, and I’m really thankful to have several of them to talk to.33: Do you think anyone has feelings for you?Boy, I sure hope so.  34: Has anyone ever told you you have pretty eyes?Yeah, but they’re usually hard for people to see because I don’t open my eyelids as wide as they can be often.35: What was the reason for your last breakup?A rushed relationship.36: Were you single on Valentines Day?Yeah, my last breakup was on February 7th.37: Name one physical feature that you like about yourself, and one you dislike.My nose gets complimented the most out of all my features, so I guess I like my nose. I dislike my eyes, but only because my sister makes fun of them, but then again, my sister makes fun of my nose too.38: What do your friends call you?Ben39: Has anyone upset you in the last week?Myself40: Have you ever cried over a text?I don’t think so41: Where’s your last bruise located?Don’t remember, probably my shin.42: What is it from?Biking43: Last time you wanted to be away from somewhere really bad?Sunday44: Who was the last person you were on the phone with?Person from questions 1, 4, 7, 9, 20, 22, 29. 45: Do you have a favourite pair of shoes?These 5 year old grey Nikes, I really want to find replacements but don’t know where to get them. They’re super worn out but they’re a nice shade of grey with white accents.46: Do you wear hats if you’re having a bad hair day?Don’t really get bad hair days because I try to sort it out as best as possible, plus it’s not hard to fix it. But I have worn hats because of my hair.47: Would you ever go bald if it was the style?No, I would feel cold.48: Do you make supper for your family?My mother won’t let me and if I did, my sister would insult the way I cook.49: What’s the toughest decision you made this year?Following through with someone giving hints at me, but it’s paid off.50: Top 3 web-pages?reddit, tumblr, and facebook?51: Do you know anyone who hates shopping?Me52: Does anything on your body hurt?My joints.53: Are goodbyes hard for you?No, because most likely I’ll see them again.54: What was the last beverage you spilled on yourself?Water55: How is your hair?It’s at a length that I’m really comfortable with, I wish I could stop my hair growth right now, that’s how much I like it right now.56: What do you usually do first in the morning?Crack my back and pee.57: Do you think two people can last forever?Yeah, as long as they can live.58: Think back to January 2007, were you single?Definitely single, too young for anything.59: Green or purple grapes?Purple60: When’s the next time you will give someone a BIG hug?When I see the person from questions  1, 4, 7, 9, 20, 22, 29 and 44 again.61: Do you wish you were somewhere else right now?Maybe, but I can sleep in my room, which is nice.62: What did your father teach you?You can’t improve yourself unless you try, and trying is going to hurt, but the pain will also make you improve.63: Where will you be 5 hours from now?Asleep.64: What were you doing at 8 this morningSleeping.65: This time last year, can you remember who you liked?I don’t think I had anyone in mind.66: Is there one person in your life that can always make you smile?Person from questions  1, 4, 7, 9, 20, 22, 29, 44,  and 60.67: Did you kiss or hug anyone today?Person from questions  1, 4, 7, 9, 20, 22, 29, 44, 60, and 66.  68: What was your last thought before you went to bed last night?Oh boy, I get to see person from questions  1, 4, 7, 9, 20, 22, 29, 44, 60, 66, and 67 when I wake up.69: Have you ever tried your hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end?Countless times, too many to recall.70: How many windows are open on your computer?Just Chrome.71: If you won 100 million dollars, what would you buy first?Stocks and other investments.72: What is your ringtone?The theme from the movie, “Hanabi”, composed by Joe Hisaishi.73: How old will you be in 5 months?1974: Where is your Mum right now?In her room, sleeping.75: Why aren’t you with the person you were first in love with or almost in love?Conflicts, misunderstanding, just different and clashing personalities.76: Have you held hands with somebody in the past three days?Yeah, person from questions  1, 4, 7, 9, 20, 22, 29, 44, 60, 66, 67, and 68. 77: Are you friends with the people you were friends with two years ago?Yeah, I’m surprised I managed to retained friendships with them. It’s nice.78: Do you remember who you had a crush on in year 7?Is that supposed to be 7th grade? Yeah, I think we both had a crush on each other but we didn’t do anything about it, Well, she did, but I was too nervous and naive to do anything about it, but she moved next year so I guess it was good not to.79: Is there anyone you know with the name Mike?Yes80: Have you ever fallen asleep in someones arms?I think we’ve fallen asleep in each others’ arms.81: How many people have you liked in the past three months?Just one?82: Has anyone seen you in your underwear in the last 3 days?Yeah, I don’t really care if people see me when I’m changing.83: Will you talk to the person you like tonight?Just did.84: You’re drunk and yelling at hot guys/girls out of your car window, you’re with?I wouldn’t be yelling at attractive people, even if I was drunk.85: If your BF/GF was into drugs would you care?I would care a lot because that’s bad.86: What was the most eventful thing that happened last time you went to see a movie?I saw people spilling out of the restroom as I waited for my mother to finish up after the family went to watch Wonder Woman.87: Who was your last received call from?Person from questions  1, 4, 7, 9, 20, 22, 29, 44, 60, 66, 67, 68, and 76.88: If someone gave you $1,000 to burn a butterfly over a candle, would you?Sorry butterfly, but if you’re not an endangered species native to California, I think I would do it.89: What is something you wish you had more of?Self-confidence and a will to keep trying.90: Have you ever trusted someone too much?Maybe, but nothing bad has happened, yet.91: Do you sleep with your window open?Did a few times by accident.92: Do you get along with girls?I don’t think I really got along well in high school, mostly because I was nervous all the time, but I think that’s changed a lot since I went to college.93: Are you keeping a secret from someone who needs to know the truth?I’m a pretty open person so I don’t think so.94: Does sex mean love?I guess it can, but it also doesn’t have to be. It’s between participants.95: You’re locked in a room with the last person you kissed, is that a problem?Nope, that’ll be great.96: Have you ever kissed anyone with a lip ring?No97: Did you sleep alone this week?Yes98: Everybody has somebody that makes them happy, do you?Yes99: Do you believe in love at first sight?No, that’s infatuation at face value, not something I would call love.100: Who was the last person that you pinky promise? Person fromquestions  1, 4, 7, 9, 20, 22, 29, 44, 60, 66, 67, 76, and 87.

#asks #answers #thanks for asking

[ladystylestores]

OnePlus Nord review: Android’s best bang for your buck

The front, featuring a beautiful 90Hz display.

Ron Amadeo

The extremely vibrant blue back.

Ron Amadeo

Here you can better make out the shape of the display, along with the camera cutout in the top-left corner.

Ron Amadeo

A closer look at the camera cutout.

Ron Amadeo

Even though it’s a mid-range smartphone, you still get lots of camera lenses.

Ron Amadeo

Note the total lack of curve in the display. It’s flat!

Ron Amadeo

The camera bump.

Ron Amadeo

The bottom has a USB-C port and no headphone jack.

Ron Amadeo

The side.

Ron Amadeo

OnePlus is coming back to the budget smartphone market in a big way with the “OnePlus Nord,” a device with an odd name but a pretty spectacular feature set for the ~$450 price tag. We’ve had the phone for almost two weeks now and can say it’s easily one of the best Android phones on the market.

Let’s talk about what OnePlus is offering. With Snapdragon 865 phones often topping $1,000, this is the first phone we’ve tried with the cheaper Snapdragon 765G; at just one step down in Qualcomm’s lineup, this is what most manufacturers seem to be going with to bring smartphone prices back down to Earth. The phone still has a minimum of 8GB of RAM, and while it’s only using UFS 2.1 storage, the phone still feels plenty fast. The headline feature is probably the 90Hz display, which is sneaking out of the flagship realm and into less-expensive phones.

The biggest downside to this phone is the distribution; for now, it is not for sale in the US. OnePlus is sending a lot of mixed messages as to future US availability of the Nord. First, the official quote from CEO Pete Lau doesn’t totally close the door on the idea, saying, “We are going to start relatively small with this new product line by first introducing it in Europe and India. But don’t worry, we’re also looking to bring more affordable smartphones to North America in the near future as well.”

OnePlus both sent the Nord to US media and has the phone listed on its US website, which it usually doesn’t do for phones that aren’t launching here. The company is also running a “Beta Program” for the US and Canada that will see 50 people get the phone. People on OnePlus’ mailing list have been receiving a provocative email that screams “OnePlus Nord is coming to North America” (meaning all 50 units of the beta test).

You know, on second thought, maybe OnePlus isn’t sending mixed signals. Please just officially announce that the phone will be for sale here. It’s good!

Design—indistinguishable from a flagship

You wouldn’t know the Nord is a cheaper phone from the design or construction, since it’s basically identical to any high-end smartphone on the market. You get a standard all-glass smartphone with Gorilla Glass on the front and back. There’s a slim-bezel display with a hole-punch camera on the front and a ton of cameras on the back. Other than the option for a hyper-vibrant light blue color, it’s a positively generic design. In the case of a mid-range phone, that’s a good thing—there really haven’t been any corners cut here.

SPECS AT A GLANCE: ONEPLUS NORD SCREEN 6.44-inch, 2400×1080, 90Hz AMOLED

(408ppi, 20:9 aspect ratio)

OS Android 10 with Oxygen OS skin CPU Eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G

Two Cortex A76 cores and six Cortex A55 cores, up to 2.4GHz, 7nm

RAM 8GB, or 12GB GPU Adreno 620 STORAGE 128GB or 256GB, UFS 2.1 NETWORKING 802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, NFC PORTS USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C CAMERA Rear: 48MP main camera, 8MP wide-angle, 2MP Macro, 5MP depth sensor

Front: 32MP main, 8MP wide-angle

SIZE 158.3×73.3×8.2mm WEIGHT 184g BATTERY 4100mAh STARTING PRICE ~$456 OTHER PERKS 30w quick charging, optical in-display fingerprint sensor

The OnePlus Nord’s primary sales pitch is that you’re getting the best display ever fitted to a mid-range smartphone. The 90Hz display means this phone looks and feels like a flagship from the past year or so, and it’s something no other company offers at this price right now. A faster display is one of the biggest improvements in smartphones in the past few years and makes everything about the phone feel faster and smoother. Scrolling, swiping, and animations all look and feel better, provided your phone has the horsepower to draw everything at 90fps, and we’re happy to say the OnePlus Nord is definitely fast enough. Once you’ve used a higher refresh rate display, it’s hard to go back to anything else.

Another major point for the OnePlus Nord display is that it’s completely flat, a stark contrast to the last few phones from OnePlus (and Samsung, and LG, and most Chinese OEMs) that have put a curve on the left and right side of the display. Curves have few upsides and come with a host of problems. A curved display can make the text hard to read and will distort the top and bottom of landscape videos. In some lighting, the curve gets a ton of glare, making it hard to see the sides of the display. Manufacturers have convinced each other that a curved display “looks cool,” but looking at a distorted screen doesn’t seem cool to me at all.

The Nord has a flat screen designed to display flat apps, webpages, and videos just like the creators intended, and it’s glorious. OnePlus says they did this because a curved display is more expensive, but curved displays are a gimmick. More expensive phones should use flat screens, too.

There’s a sizable cutout in the top-left corner of the display for the dual front-facing camera, making the phone look like a mirrored version of the Galaxy S10+. Beside the main 32MP front camera is the 8MP wide-angle camera, letting selfie shutterbugs get that wide shot without the need for a selfie stick. This is something manufacturers like Samsung and Google did a generation ago and then quickly discarded for the current generation, and no one really complained. I’m not sure why OnePlus is trying to bring back front wide-angle cams.

The oval-shaped camera cutout is the strangest part of the design. Being on the left side means it pushes the clock to the right, which now isn’t on the left side of the screen, or the right side, it’s just kind of floating around at the one-quarter mark of the display. It’s odd-looking.

Of course, there’s also the non-Android competition to consider, and any mid-range phone has a big problem in the form of the new iPhone SE, which at just $400 in the US is a killer deal. Apple’s SoC prowess and Qualcomm’s Android monopoly mean this mid-range iPhone is faster than even the most expensive Android phones this year and might out-benchmark Qualcomm’s chips from next year, too. There is more to a phone than benchmarks, though, and the OnePlus Nord actually has a decent argument against the iPhone SE, thanks to the bigger, faster display and more modern design. Right now, OnePlus also isn’t going up against the $400 iPhone SE, which is the price in the US. In Europe and India, Apple’s mid-ranger is a lot more expensive, at about $570, so OnePlus is actually undercutting Apple by quite a bit.

The light-blue version I was sent is one of the most vibrantly colored products I have ever seen, and photos really don’t do it justice. The light blue back is nearly luminescent, and while it’s not the dramatic color-changing effect that we’ve seen on other phones, it feels like it’s part of the same branch of materials science. Light likes to bounce around and scatter inside the glass panel, and the whole thing kind of lights up. It’s pretty, but it’s also fragile glass, so most people are just going to put a case on it.

The metal mid-frame is exposed around the sides, and this, too, gets a hyper-vibrant color treatment: a metallic light blue with a mirror finish. On the bottom you’ll find the SIM slot, USB-C port, and the phone’s only media speaker. There’s no headphone jack or MicroSD slot. On the left side, you have OnePlus’ trademark three-position mute switch, which changes between sound, silence, and vibrate, followed by the power button.

There are four cameras on the back, and together with the front, that makes six cameras. I have to ask, is it really necessary to have a budget phone with six cameras? If you asked me to cut down a phone’s bill of materials, the first thing I would do is start hacking and slashing at the superfluous camera lenses, but this $450 phone has more cameras than even a $1,200 Galaxy S20 Ultra. Google’s budget approach of “one good camera” on the Pixel 3a seems like the more reasonable approach, and maybe if OnePlus did that, it could bring the price down even more!

For a mid-range phone, there really isn’t much missing here. You still get NFC, the same in-screen optical fingerprint reader as every other phone, and OnePlus’ fantastic 30W quick charging. Compared to a flagship phone, the big list of missing features would be the aforementioned single speaker instead of stereo, no wireless charging, and no official water-resistance rating. OnePlus says the phone still has gaskets to provide some water resistance, but with no official rating it’s hard to say how much, like “is this submersible?” Even with an official rating, no smartphone company stands behind its water-resistance ratings with an official policy to replace a water damaged phone under warranty (see policies from Apple, Samsung, Google, Verizon), so I can’t ding OnePlus too much.

A surprisingly strong argument against the iPhone SE

The OnePlus Nord versus the iPhone SE. There is a bit of a size difference.

Ron Amadeo

The backs.

Ron Amadeo

You get a lot more webpage on the 6.44-inch display than on the 4.7-inch one.

Ron Amadeo

Android’s competition is stronger than it has ever been this generation, thanks to Apple’s launch of the iPhone SE. The SE has really upended the mid-range market by offering the same Apple A13 Bionic SoC that comes in the bigger iPhone, but in a $400 device. Android phones couldn’t compete with Apple’s SoC at the high end (certainly not at single-threaded performance), but to now have a $400 device that is still faster than the most expensive Android devices is downright embarrassing. Qualcomm, which is Android’s biggest SoC vendor, really has no answers at all for a mid-range device like this.

There’s more to a phone than just benchmarks, though, and I think the OnePlus Nord actually has a surprisingly solid argument against the SE. The 90Hz display is something the iPhone SE doesn’t offer, and it makes a major difference in how fast the phone feels. If you didn’t show them a benchmark first, I bet most people would say the 90Hz Nord feels faster than the 60Hz iPhone SE. The Nord also has a much more modern design with a huge display and thin bezels, while the iPhone SE design looks like it’s several years old. The SE design basically is several years old—Apple copy-and-pasted the iPhone 7 design from 2016. Some people might call the iPhone’s tiny 4.7-inch display a good thing, but, according to every smartphone manufacturer’s market research department and lots of sales data, those people are a vocal minority. Smaller phones also have worse battery life, a common complaint with the new SE.

There’s also the matter that the SE’s headline $400 price tag is a sweetheart deal for the US, and in the rest of the world, the SE is much more expensive. In Europe and India, where the Nord will actually be for sale, the SE is $570, so OnePlus is actually significantly undercutting Apple. The $450 price in Europe is already enough of a difference, but India gets a special, lower-tier SKU with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage for ₹24,999, or $335.

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#World Wide News

[kilo1118]

The case history intake paper work that I held in my hand informed me that  I would be consulting with a 93 year old woman who had lost one of her hearing aids. Naomi was vibrant, her thoughts were instantly converted into words as she sat across from me explaining how much she was missing out in her daily life. She was sharp, at her advanced age she didn’t appear to have experienced any cognitive decline. I asked her about her daily activities, her social life, and  where an improvement in her hearing would be of most importance. We finished our discussion and concluded that new hearing aids would indeed be of benefit. We filled out the required paperwork and together walked out to the front desk where I turned Naomi over to Jen, the spirited patient care coordinator in our Acton MA office. I said goodbye to Naomi, I wished her well and then retreated back to the office to which I had been assigned, for my work week. The office chair had long since seen its better days, as the hydraulic lift sank within moments of my seating. I grasped my Samsung Galaxy S9 and began scrolling the 5.7 inch amoled display screen. My inner voice scolded me for the ugliness of the cuticle damage that was apparent on my scrolling thumb. As I mindlessly viewed the 40 yard dash times of offensive lineman at the NFL combine, I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation transpiring, only steps away between Jen and Naomi in the reception room. Naomi was explaining to Jen that she had a long wait as her transportation was a bus, one that was available for seniors, but it wouldn’t be returning for her trip home for over an hour. I called out to Jen, asking her how far away from the office Naomi lived. Jen informed me that Naomi lived right in Acton. I had forty five minutes until my next patient consult, so I figured that left me plenty of time to give Naomi a ride home  (I make it a point in life to do at least one decent, non self indulgent act, every few years. Since I knew I was long overdue, I figured why not do this). I brought my car around to the front door where Jen was waiting with Naomi. Jen opened the door and told me the address of Naomi’s home. I was immediately struck with two thoughts; the first that Naomi didn’t need the physical help that Jen and I were providing with car and door, the second was that I had been infinitely inappropriate in asking Jen for Naomi’s address, rather than simply going directly to  the source. I apologized to Naomi, telling her that I was wrong for being dismissive of her, and that I remembered the first time when a young waiter had dismissed me and was instead corresponding exclusively with the daughter and son of my then girlfriend at our dining table. She politely accepted my apology. My GPS indicated that it was an eight minute drive to Naomi’s residence. Nice I thought, not too much time for awkward small talk. I made a left turn out of the driveway onto Main St. I asked Naomi if she had lived in Acton long. She said that she had lived there for 32 years, but in the general area her whole life. I though about how limiting that seemed. How quaint it was that many people, especially of her generation, often lived their entire life in a very restricted area. That’s so nice, I said. I have lived in so many places, I envy your having roots and continuity. (I hoped that I hadn’t sounded condescending and patronizing, though I was sure I had.) I asked Naomi if she was married. She said that she never married, and never had children. She explained that she had always wanted be an architect. That it was all she ever wanted. She informed me that she had always made bad choices with men. She had been engaged when she was twenty four but that her fiance called it off, exclaiming that he was not really over his previous engagement, one that Naomi hadn’t known anything about. I continued to ask more questions, my GPS showed that her house was now four minutes away. Naomi was born in 1927, she never owned her own firm because she could never afford to.Instead she spent about half her life working as an employed architect and the other half looking for work. She told me that it was hard for a woman to be taken seriously in her day. She told me this with a particular humility in her tone and words, one I think might be unique to women of her generation. There was no combativeness in her words, no talk of a patriarchy, of toxic masculinity, or of a male privilege. She was simply telling me the way things were, very matter-of-fact. I recognized that this humility left me less defensive. Rather than forming an argument in my head about how men have their own struggles, instead I was open and humble. I dropped Naomi off at her senior housing apartment. She spryly exited my car before I was able to go around to the passenger side and open her door. I got the feeling that Naomi hadn’t had many doors opened for her in her life. I knew that she didn’t need doors opened for her, at least not the type I was offering her. I reset my GPS for Hearing Health USA, Acton MA. I teared up on my drive back to the office. I knew I had only four minutes to allow my lacrimal apparatus to exercise its will. I would then take the last four minutes for my eyes to return to their respectable, less emotional condition. As I teared up I thought about Naomi. I thought about how much she struggled in her professional life. Though I knew that as a 93 year woman who had never married, she was still able to afford new hearing aids. This indicated to me an enormous amount of self reliance and financial solvency. I thought about my anxieties, about my grief. A wave of perspective washed over me. I fantasied about the fortune telling machine in the 1980′s movie Big, staring Tom Hanks. In my fantasy I would transform from a 55 year old man into a 93 year old version of myself. I would turn my car a round and bang on Naomi’s door. I would profess my love for her and we would live in aged bliss for however long fate would allow. I was struck with the profundity of what can transpire in a mere eight minutes. I was humbled in those eight minutes. It seemed so long ago  that the arrogant condescending version of me had seen Naomi as an unsophisticated ancient woman, limited in life’s experience. I also knew that my desire for Naomi to have the companionship of a romantic partner was pure projection. She seemed just fine with her romantic life, or lack there of. I realized I was falling outside of the parameters I had allotted myself to crying, on my return trip. I would have to tell Jen it was allergies. As I made a right turn into the driveway of the clinic I was working at, I thought about my standard of doing one selfless act every few years. Those eight minutes with Naomi were vital, and I was paid back in full with my eight minute return trip.

[todaybharatnews]

via Today Bharat This year, Samsung clearly wants to get as many sales for each new budget or mid-range phone in a short amount of time before moving on and whipping up a new budget or mid-ranger just a few months down the line. Among the first devices that strategy has produced is the Galaxy A50s,nbsp;which was made official in late August, six months after the Galaxy A50. What Samsung is doing is simple: Taking features from the higher-end A series phones already launched this year and putting them on the cheaper devices. The A50s, for example, gets the 48MP primary rear camera and 32MP front cameranbsp;from the Galaxy A70nbsp;while almost everything else remains the same as before. The Exynos 9611 chipset inside the A50s is simply a higher-clocked Exynos 9610, and you get a new rear panel design and newer software out of the box. The Galaxy A50s is one of the first lsquo;srsquo; upgrade Samsung officially launched for its 2019 Galaxy A series phones. Thankfully, the Galaxy A50nbsp;was a pretty solid phone, so the A50s was an easy recipe for Samsung. How does it stand up to scrutiny? Thatrsquo;s something only our full review will tell you, but I do have a few early impressions of the device to share after spending a day with a review unit sent over by Samsung India. The first thing I noticed was the updated rear panel design. The Galaxy A50 had a gradient finish that blew up in a stunning rainbow-ish pattern when the sun hit it, and Samsung has added prism-like lines to it to differentiate the A50s. Itrsquo;s all still very beautiful, and I personally prefer this understated effect over the Aura Glow Galaxy Note 10, which just shines too much no matter how much light is falling on it and also makes fingerprints very easy to spot. The Galaxy A50s has the same overall dimensions as the Galaxy A50 and the same Infinity-U Super AMOLED display. The screen-to-body ratio is pretty high, but the rather wide chin below the display stands out a bit too much now that Irsquo;ve used the Galaxy Note 10 (review) for the last few weeks. But hey, you get a headphone jack here,nbsp;unlike the Galaxy Note 10 or the Galaxy M40, so maybe you wonrsquo;t mind the asymmetrical bezels all that much. Now, letrsquo;s talk about the software, the area in which I think the A50s stands out the most because of the fact that it gets One UI 1.5 from the Galaxy Note 10 along with some of the new features, like a Link to Windows shortcut in the quick toggles for firing up Microsoftrsquo;s Your Phone app. Therersquo;s Game Booster, which is an updated version of Game Launcher and tells you how much battery life you can expect while gaming. Therersquo;s also NFC-based Samsung Pay. nbsp; More importantly, the A50s has Edge screen and Edge lighting functionality, which has been reserved for Samsungrsquo;s flagship phones until now. Well, that or it arrived on one of the earlier mid-rangers Samsung launched in 2019 and I just didnrsquo;t notice.nbsp;Not all the Edge screen panels seem to be available, though. The lack of thenbsp;Smart selectnbsp;panel, which allows you to snip selective parts and make GIFs of on-screen content, is most conspicuous here asnbsp;Smart selectnbsp;can be incredibly useful, but perhaps Samsung will add those through an update later on. Hopefully, Samsung will also bring over the built-in screen recordernbsp;that you get on the Note 10 and Note 10+nbsp;to the A50s ndash; itrsquo;s not available on the device out of the box. On the imaging front, the A50s has a couple of new features, like shot suggestions that help you take better pictures by telling you where to point the camera, introduced on the Galaxy S10 earlier this year. Therersquo;s the built-in QR code scanner as well, along with stuff like Super Slow-mo recording and AR Emoji. When it comes to image quality, Irsquo;m assuming the A50s will perform just like the Galaxy A70, but I wonrsquo;t be able to give you a verdict on that right now. Performance on the phone seems to be very similar to the A50. And thatrsquo;s not exactly a good thing as far as generally navigating through the user interface is concerned. There seems to be some hesitation in the phonersquo;s response to taps on the screen. I mean, things are smooth and menus and apps open quickly, but the response isnrsquo;t as instantaneous as I would like. That, I think, is down to the Exynos 9611 chipset. The Snapdragon-powered Galaxy M40 and A70 do not have the same issue, and so I continue to stick to the belief that Samsungrsquo;snbsp;Exynos chips remain inferior to Qualcommrsquo;s Snapdragon SoCs on mid-range phones. However, gaming performance should be great on the A50s, going by how the Galaxy A50 ran games pretty well. Overall, the Galaxy A50s seems like a nice package. In India, it costs Rs. 22,999 (~$320) for the 4GB+128GB configuration and Rs. 24,999 (~$350) for the 6GB+128GB configuration, with the latter being placed right between the Galaxy A50s and Galaxy A70. Whether it offers enough to get a recommendation over those two already impressive phones is a question Irsquo;ll answer in our full review. GALAXY A50S SM-A507F GENERAL INFORMATION Model name Galaxy A50s Model Number SM-A507F Model type Phone Color Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush White, Prism Crush Green, Prism Crush Violet Announced 2019, August Released 2019, September PHYSICAL SPECIFICATIONS Dimensions 158.5 x 74.7 x 7.7mm Weight 169g OPERATING SYSTEM Operating System Android 9.0 (Pie) NETWORK/BEARER SIM Dual WiFi Only No SIM card size Nano-SIM (4FF) Network 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE 2G GSM GSM850, GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900 3G UMTS B1 (2100), B2 (1900), B5 (850), B8 (900) 4G LTE 4G FDD LTE: B1(2100), B3(1800), B5(850), B7(2600), B8(900), B20(800) 4G TDD LTE: B38(2600), B40(2300), B41(2500) DISPLAY Technology (Main Display) Super AMOLED Size (Main Display) 6.4"(162.1mm) Resolution (Main Display) FHD +2340 x 1080 Colour Depth (Main Display) 16M Pixel Density ~402 PPI S Pen Support No PROCESSOR Type Exynos 9610 Clock Speed Quad -Core 2.3GHz amp; Quad-Core 1.7GHz Cores 8 Cores (Octa-Core) GPU Mali-G72 MP3 MEMORY RAM Size (GB) 4GB, 6GB ROM Size (GB) 64GB, 128GB SSD No eMMC No External Memory Support Up to 512GB SENSORS Sensors Accelerometer, Optical Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor Additional features Bixby, Samsung Pay (NFC) AUDIO AND VIDEO Video Recording Resolution FHD (1920 x 1080) @30fps Video Playing Format MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM Video Playing Resolution UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) @120fps Audio Playing Format MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA CAMERA Main Camera Triple Front Camera Single Main Camera - Resolution 48 MP, CMOS amp; 5MP, CMOS Depth amp; 8MP, CMOS Ultrawide Rotating Camera No Front Camera - Resolution 32 MP, CMOS Main Camera - Flash Yes Front Camera - Flash No Main Camera - Auto Focus Yes Front Camera - Auto Focus No CONNECTIVITY ANT+ No USB Version Type C Location Technology GPS, GLONASS Headphone Socket 3.5mm Stereo MHL No Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4G+5GHz, VHT80 Wi-Fi Direct Yes DLNA Support No NFC No Bluetooth Version Version 5.0 Bluetooth Profiles A2DP, AVRCP, DI, HFP, HID, HOGP, HSP, MAP, OPP, PAN, PBAP PC Sync. Samsung Smart Switch BATTERY Standard Battery Capacity 4.000mAh Removable No Fast charging Yes Super Fast charging No GALAXY A50S NEWS 1 PHONESamsung Galaxy A50s hands-on impressionsBy Abhijeet M.|6 hours ago 4 PHONESamsung launches the Galaxy A50s and A30s in IndiaBy Naresh|1 day ago 6 PHONEGalaxy A50s set to launch in India on September 11By Naresh|3 days ago 8 PHONEGalaxy A50s, Galaxy A30s official with upgraded cameras and designBy Abhijeet M.|3 weeks ago nbsp;

#IFTTT #Today Bharat

[cloudandcomputing24-blog]

Nokia's new MeeGo-based N9 is set up for disappointment Nokia has revealed a noteworthy new MeeGo-based handset, however the item won'.

Nokia has at last reported the since quite a while ago expected N9 handset, the finish of Nokia's five-stage plan to convey a standard Linux-based cell phone. The N9 is a stunningly built gadget that is coordinated with a refined touch-arranged interface and a capable programming stack with open source underpinnings. It's a commendable successor of the designer driven N900, however it gives a client experience that is custom-made for a standard group of onlookers.

The N9 is the primary really current cell phone that Nokia has disclosed since the begin of finger-accommodating interface upset. In spite of the fact that it's a huge specialized accomplishment, it's unfortunately a pyrrhic triumph for Nokia—the gadget has arrived a year past the point of no return. The Finnish telephone mammoth has officially relinquished its Linux stage for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 working framework.

The N9 has a 1GHz TI OMAP Cortex A8 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 3.9-inch AMOLED capacitive show, and a 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics. The equipment details aren't industry-driving, however are as yet respectable—particularly when you consider the way that a great part of the product is local code, not hampered by the asset overhead of an oversaw code runtime. The modern building is exceptional, highlighting a bended glass screen and thin polycarbonate body.

The front of the N9 has no catches, a plan choice that was made conceivable by the product's signal based connection show. The N9 UI, which is to a great extent worked with the open source Qt advancement toolbox, has a totally new look and feel. Beside the adjusted symbols, it looks altogether different from Symbian and the Maemo interface of the N900. Nokia is calling the new client encounter layer "Swipe" in reference to its accentuation on the swiping motion. It has a new and particular style.

There is some disarray about the correct design of the N9 programming stack. Nokia's legitimate advertising and PR material refer to MeeGo 1.2 as the product stage, however it's really a cross breed that is to a great extent based on Harmattan, the heritage Maemo 6 code base that Nokia covered when it focused on MeeGo.

It appears kind of questionable at first glance to call the product MeeGo when it's truly still Maemo, however the mixture is obviously outlined such that it has full API similarity with MeeGo 1.2. This means the qualification will be minimal more than a usage detail the extent that clients and application engineers are concerned.

A nearer review of Nokia's MeeGo methodology demonstrates that this half breed approach is altogether reliable with the guide that Espoo was embracing not long ago.

Another significant purpose of disarray is the connection between the new N9 and a spilled model with a similar name that appeared on the radar a year ago. The first MeeGo-based N9 model had a slide-out physical console and was believed to be planned for a Q1 2011 dispatch. That plan, which was referred to inside as N9-00, was dropped. The discharge date got pushed back as Nokia began another keyboardless outline called the N9-01, codenamed Lankku, which was likely the reason for the N9 that Nokia disclosed for the current week. In light of some odd pictures that Engadget spotted, it would seem that N950—an extraordinary engineer variation of the N9 that may be accessible to choose outsider engineers—may be founded on the first slide-out console plan.

Will it mix?

In spite of the fact that it seems to have a considerable measure to offer, the N9 shockingly won't get a chance to sparkle. Nokia's schizophrenic stage system and absence of long haul duty make the gadget a non-starter. The new telephone is somewhat similar to the Titanic: a perfect work of art of value building and extravagance craftsmanship that is bound to sink on its first journey. The uncertainty of MeeGo's part in Nokia's future item lineup and the organization's baffling blended messages to outsider programming designers have officially set up the N9 for disappointment.

At the point when the gossipy tidbits initially begun to develop about the likelihood of Nokia receiving Windows Phone 7, I was exceptionally incredulous. As I brought up at the time, Nokia's MeeGo endeavors were near creating the sort of stage that Nokia should be focused. The organization had adequately wagered its future on MeeGo—implying that any change at such a late stage would be marginal self-destructive.

At the point when new CEO Stephen Elop issued his now-scandalous "consuming stage" reminder, my recommendation to the organization was to bet everything on MeeGo and maintain a strategic distance from the diversion of a move to another working framework. Elop, be that as it may, had different thoughts. His sentiment was that MeeGo would essentially take too long to convey, while embracing WP7 would enable them to get an item to advertise with a present day working framework immediately.

The way that a convincing MeeGo gadget will probably dispatch initially brings up the issue of whether Elop misinterpreted the Linux-based stage and its reasonableness for buyers. It's significant, in any case, that Nokia is additionally on track to dispatch its first WP7 gadget this year. Elop was not wrong in his conflict that Microsoft's stage offered Nokia a fast way to the market.

It's imaginable that Elop saw the long haul difficulties of doing legitimate MeeGo upkeep and combination (versus the down to business half and half model of the N9) as an untenable test for an organization in Nokia's position. The choice to receive WP7 was a leave that enabled Nokia to stay away from the trouble of propelling its own particular stage. The drawback is that reliance on WP7 will consign Nokia to the part of a simple equipment maker. In picking WP7, Nokia is giving up the sort of stage independence and chance to control its own biological community that it would have had with MeeGo.

Elop has said on a few events before that MeeGo will stay out of sight at Nokia as an exploration stage for future advancement, though with essentially decreased venture. It's not so much clear what this implies, yet it appears to be genuinely evident that MeeGo doesn't have a solid vital significance at Nokia any longer because of the change to Windows Phone 7. Without greater lucidity about the degree to which Nokia will bolster the stage and shoppers who purchase the N9, it's difficult to envision it drawing in a genuine standard group of onlookers. In the event that Nokia doesn't regard MeeGo as a genuine stage, then the N9 is just not going to get enough footing to make it suitable, particularly with regards to outsider programming.

The pitiful part is that Nokia once hosted an expansive group of onlookers of third-gathering engineers who were anxious to bolster a MeeGo gadget. Organizations like Rovio and Qik as of now had Qt-based ports of their applications a work in progress particularly for Nokia's MeeGo gadgets. The new stage technique hosts tossed the organization's current third-gathering designer group under a transport and has made it unreasonable for them to keep supporting the organization's items.

In the event that Nokia ported its open source Qt toolbox—which is upheld today on MeeGo and Symbian—to WP7, it would open the entryway for building applications that objective each of the three of the organization's major working frameworks. Lamentably, that is recently not going to happen. Elop himself dismisses the likelihood of Qt on WP7.

Nokia's mentality about Qt through this stage move has been distressingly conflicting. Amid the introduction at which the N9 was divulged, Qt was over and over highlighted as a basic piece of Nokia's vision for versatile improvement. From where I'm standing, it's not in the least clear how Qt can keep on being characterizing some portion of Nokia's versatile technique when it's not in any case going to be bolstered on the organization's leader WP7 gadgets.

Nokia can tout the expansive Symbian introduce base as an objective that makes Qt applicable in the versatile space, however that is a deadlock—Sybmian will be eliminated in 2014. It's not by any means clear now if Qt 5, booked for discharge in 2012, will even formally bolster Symbian. Qt is as yet one of the best apparatuses accessible for cross-stage desktop advancement (and on account of a tolerant permit and various group, the toolbox's survival is guaranteed over the long haul regardless of what Nokia does), yet it's not authoritatively upheld today on any standard versatile working framework.

When I consider Nokia and its place in the market today, I'm helped to remember Janus, the Roman divine force of beginnings and moves. Janus is frequently portrayed as a being with two countenances pointed in inverse headings. Now and again, it appears as though Nokia is as yet glancing back at MeeGo as though it lies ahead and at different circumstances the organization is apparently gone for an unfaltering way towards WP7.

The blended messages and irregularities in the stage procedure are not useful. By making disarray about what advancement apparatuses and stages Nokia is truly going to remain behind in the long haul, the organization is making it difficult to have any trust in its tentative arrangements. This is particularly hazardous for its first—and potentially just—MeeGo gadget, a convincing item with minimal future in front of it.