Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Which is Better?
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Which is Better?
Samsung and Apple are currently the two brands that have some great product lineups in the premium category. Although the latest iteration of their flagship products include the Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max, there is some curiosity among users about last year’s flagships. Yes, we are talking about the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max. The last year’s flagship from Samsung comes loaded with flagship-grade features and specifications, including the powerful Samsung chipset, pro-grade cameras, long-lasting battery life, impressive display, and some useful AI features.
On the other hand, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is also among the few handsets from Apple that will soon support Apple Intelligence features. So, does it make sense to buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max or go with the Galaxy S23 Ultra? In this article, we have pitted both devices against each other in this specs-based comparison. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Price in India
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max price in India starts at Rs 1,34,900 for the base variant with 256GB of storage. The mid-variant with 512GB comes with a price tag of Rs 1,45,900, while the top-end option with 1TB storage is priced at Rs 1,54,900.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G price in India currently starts at Rs 79,999 for the base variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The top-end 12GB RAM + 512GB model is currently available for as low as Rs 1,14,999.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Design
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max offers a Titanium build. The handset was the first smartphone from Apple to support the Action Button that replaces the single-function switch. The iPhone 15 Pro Max also features an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. The iPhone is available in ****** Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium and Natural Titanium. The iPhone 15 Pro Max measures 159.9 x 76.7 x 8.25mm and weighs 221 grams.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra features a premium design and was the first handset in the S-series to come equipped with a built-in S-Pen. The smartphone offers an armour aluminium frame and comes equipped with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection coupled with an IP68 rating. The handset is available in Phantom ******, Green, and Cream colour options. The Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G measures 1163.4 x 78.1 x 8.9mm and weighs 234 grams.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Display
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is loaded with a 6.7-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display. The handset offers a resolution of 1290×2796 pixels and ProMotion technology with up to 120Hz screen refresh rate. The handset also features up to 1,000nits of peak brightness, HDR, True Tone, Dynamic Island, and Ceramic Shield protection.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G packs a 6.8-inch Quad HD+ Infinity-O-Edge Dynamic AMOLED display. The screen has a resolution of 3088 x 1440 pixels and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. It also features up to 1,750nits of peak brightness, 240Hz touch sampling rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Performance and OS
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is powered by the Apple A17 Pro chipset. The SoC packs a 6-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max packs up to 512GB of internal storage. The device runs on the latest iOS 18 operating system. Moreover, Apple has already confirmed that the iPhone 15 Pro series will get Apple Intelligence.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor that is specially made for the Galaxy handset. The chipset offers an Adreno 740 GPU. It also packs 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Cameras
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is equipped with a triple-camera setup on the rear panel. The handset packs a 48-megapixel wide-angle primary camera with sensor-shift OIS support, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture, and a 12-megapixel ‘tetraprism’ periscope sensor with 5x optical zoom and 25x digital zoom. On the front, the handset is equipped with a 12-megapixel TrueDepth sensor with f/1.9 aperture.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G packs a quad-camera setup. The device features a 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP2 primary sensor with OIS support, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with 120-degree FoV, a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom, and a 10-megapixel periscope lens with 10x zoom, and 100x space zoom. On the front, the handset comes equipped with a 12-megapixel Dual Pixel selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Battery
In terms of battery, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is equipped with a 5,000mAh battery. The handset features 45W fast wired charging support, 10W Qi wireless charging, and wireless powershare.
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max features a 4,441mAh lithium-ion battery that can deliver up to 29 hours of video playback. The handset features up to 25W fast charging support.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Conclusion
To conclude, both models offer some interesting features and specifications, which still make sense in 2024. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (Review) offers a premium design and brings some interesting camera features, coupled with flagship performance. The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max (Review) offers a premium design, flagship performance, pro-grade cameras, and a good display. Moreover, it is again a great option for those who don’t want to buy the new iPhone but still want to experience the Apple Intelligence features.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comparison
Key Specs
Display
6.70-inch
6.80-inch
Processor
Apple A17 Pro
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Front Camera
12-megapixel
12-megapixel
Rear Camera
48-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 12-megapixel
200-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 10-megapixel
RAM
8GB
8GB, 12GB
Storage
256GB, 512GB, 1TB
256GB, 512GB, 1TB
OS
iOS 17
Android 13
Resolution
1290×2796 pixels
–
Battery Capacity
–
5000mAh
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Bluesky chief doesn’t know age limit for users
Bluesky chief doesn’t know age limit for users
Getty Images
The chief executive of Bluesky said there are no plans to introduce advertising
The chief executive of the social media network Bluesky – which has exploded in popularity in recent weeks – was unable to give the correct age limit for users on the platform in an interview with the BBC.
Jay Graber wrongly said you needed to be 18 to use Bluesky, when the actual age limit is 13.
While speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast programme, Ms Graber also said the company had chosen not to verify the ages of its users on the platform, with concerns over how that data would then be handled.
Millions of people signed up to the app since the US election results, some in protest at the role X, formerly Twitter, played in propelling Donald Trump to victory.
Ms Graber put the rapid growth down to the “really great” experience users were having on Bluesky.
“There’s not harassment and bots and spam and a lot of the other problems that plague other platforms,” she said.
13 or 18?
On age verification, Ms Graber told the BBC that Bluesky has “age-gating” when users sign up, by asking people to enter their date of birth.
When asked directly what the age limit was on Bluesky, Ms Graber said: “When you sign up – I’ll have to check – I think it’s like 18 and above.”
Following the interview, Bluesky contacted the BBC to clarify that the minimum age is 13, not 18. They added there are additional settings within the app to ensure content is safe for children.
In a wide-ranging interview with presenter Rick Edwards, she said Bluesky does not try to verify the identification of the user, to ensure people are not lying when signing up.
She said: “We don’t take IDs or anything like that. I know that’s proposed in some places. That’s very private information.
“I think companies like us would want to make sure we’re handling that private user data very responsibly.”
Ms Graber also said moderation on the platform came from a mix of human moderators and automated technology, and they have no plans to introduce “traditional advertising”.
One option being looked at, she said, was making money through subscriptions for users who want extra features on their accounts.
Election defection
Bluesky was developed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and visually looks how X used to look back in its Twitter days.
Mr Dorsey is no longer part of the team behind it, having stepped down from the board in May last year, and the platform has experienced a surge in sign ups since the results of the US election.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, was a major backer of Donald Trump during his campaign.
He will also be heavily involved in the President’s administration after being named co-head of the new administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Political division has lead to some people leaving X in protest since the election, and Bluesky appears to have benefitted.
In September, the company said it had nine million users. This week, it surpassed 20 million.
However that ******** far behind X, as well as Threads, a rival platform set up by Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer said this week he has “no plans” to join the social media platform.
The Prime Minister told reporters that “at the moment” there are no moves to establish official *** government accounts or a personal one in his name.
He said it is “important for a government” to be able to communicate with “as many people as possible”.
X does not share its total user numbers but it is understood to be measured in the hundreds of millions. Mr Musk himself has 205m followers on his account.
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****** Friday deals include the Theragun Mini massager for $149
****** Friday deals include the Theragun Mini massager for $149
Who couldn’t use a good massage right now? This ****** Friday ***** slashes $50 off one of our favorite gifts for moms: the compact and triangular Theragun Mini 2.0 massage ****. It can soothe aches and pains and easily slide into a small purse, backpack or gym bag. The massager is discounted to $149, down from its usual $199. It’s part of a larger ***** of Therabody’s often coveted recovery devices.
Although more forceful massage guns are available, Therabody’s second-gen mini massage **** strikes a nice balance of power and portability. It’s 20 percent smaller and 30 percent lighter than its predecessor, measuring 5.55 x 4.92 x 1.93 inches and weighing one pound. This 2.0 model has a slightly longer battery life than the first Theragun Mini: up to 120 minutes from a full charge (via USB-C).
Therabody
It has three speeds, ranging from 1,750 to 2,400 percussions per minute (PPM). Its 12mm amplitude delivers deep tissue massage to help you recover after a workout or soothe areas of habitual tension or chronic aches.
Although this model lacks a screen, it has an LED speed indicator. You can also pair it via Bluetooth with the Therabody app to control the device and perform guided massage routines.
This model includes three attachments: a dampener (firm but gentle), a standard ball (firmer) and a thumb (for trigger points). However, if you decide to expand its arsenal, it’s compatible with all of Therabody’s fourth and fifth-generation attachments. The massage **** includes a soft carrying case to protect it while bouncing around in your workout bag.
Check out all of the latest ****** Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.
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3 Big Dividends (Yielding 7.9%) Built for Post-Election Drama
3 Big Dividends (Yielding 7.9%) Built for Post-Election Drama
Well, that was fast. As you no doubt know by now, stocks gave back their post-election bump nearly as fast as they took it. Now they’re more or less where they started pre-election.
There’s a story behind this “pop and drop” that showed me something we need to bear in mind more and more as we head into 2025 (and a new presidential term): The need to diversify our portfolios, not only within stocks but (especially, with more volatility likely) beyond them.
And that need for diversification goes for our holdings of high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs), too.
Now, market veterans will no doubt be quick to say that these short-term moves are just noise, and in the long term it doesn’t really matter who is the president. There’s definitely some truth to that.
Market Euphoria Followed the 2016 Vote …
Back in 2016, when President-elect Trump’s first win stunned the world, stocks rose, even as some commentators predicted a slump.
However, we should note the shape of the line in the chart above: Stocks were already soaring before November 8, 2016, when the results became clear.
And as is the case in any other administration, stocks also saw some rough patches during Trump’s first term, as the fell just over 6% in 2018, the index’s first down year in a decade.
And, yes, when President Biden won in 2020, we saw a similar market jump:
… And the 2020 Election, Too
Truth is, election results really don’t change the long-term trajectory of the stock market, and it’s really not all that surprising that stocks have returned to pre-election levels.
Long Term, Stocks Create Wealth
But that said, there are proposals, especially around tariffs, that would affect some sectors more than others. And there is the fact that the market has soared this year. And then, of course, there are the things that catch everyone off-guard, like the selloff we saw earlier this week on higher tensions around Ukraine.
That uncertainty, combined with stocks’ strong run this year, does suggest we could see a pullback in the short term.
But we do not want to go to cash in response. For one, we’ll cut off our payouts! Plus we’ll likely miss out on stock gains (since investors who sell in a panic almost always buy back in too late) and leave ourselves vulnerable to inflation.
This is where CEFs come in, because they let us do the opposite of cash: Set ourselves up for gains and higher income as volatility ticks up.
Members of my CEF Insider service know the value of CEFs’ high yields at times like these: CEFs yield 8% on average, and our CEF Insider portfolio pays even more—9.4% as I write this, with 80% of our holdings paying dividends monthly.
Another thing that often surprises newbie CEF investors is the diversification we can get from these funds—there are CEFs holding everything from stocks and bonds to preferred stocks, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and utility stocks (even blue chip techs). So if the market pivots from stocks to, say, bonds or REITs, we’re covered if we have a diversified CEF portfolio, because we’ll own all three.
Here’s a quick three-CEF sample portfolio that will give you just this kind of diversification, along with a sweet 7.9% average dividend, too.
CEF No. 1: A 6.5% Payer That Profits From Volatility
The Nuveen NASDAQ 100 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (NASDAQ:) is a 6.5%-yielding stock fund that, as the name says, focuses on the . If you’ve been investing for a while, you know that the NASDAQ is a higher-performing index than the S&P 500, but it’s more volatile, too.
QQQX mitigates this volatility by selling call options on its holdings, which translates that volatility into an income stream that backstops that payout. The cost of that higher dividend is the fact that selling calls does hamper the fund’s overall return, as its best performers are sold, or “called away.”
However, that effect is somewhat offset by the stronger historical returns of the NASDAQ vs. the S&P 500. The overall result is an S&P 500–like return from QQQX, with a much ******* income stream than the 1.3% payout on an S&P 500 index fund:
6.5%-Paying QQQX Delivers S&P 500–Style Returns
Moreover, the fact that the fund “clones” the NASDAQ means you get exposure to top techs, like NVIDIA (NASDAQ:), Apple (NASDAQ:) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:) as well as non-tech firms in the index, like PepsiCo (NASDAQ:), Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:).
Finally, this one stands out for its 10% discount to net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio). That’s particularly attractive given the heightened volatility we’re seeing these days.
CEF No. 2: A Corporate-Bond Fund Run By the Premier Name in CEFs
Let’s top up that 6.5% dividend yield with a fund with a portfolio of corporate bonds and bond derivatives it actively manages to respond to the Fed.
The upshot? Whether rates go up or down, the PIMCO Corporate & Income Opportunity (NYSE:) will position itself to keep up its 9.8% dividend yield. It’s got a tremendous track record, too, returning over 1,000% in the last 20 years.
Big Gains for PTY Shareholders
I do have a word of caution here, though: This one trades at a 25% premium to NAV today, but that’s the price of owning a fund run by PIMCO, a vaunted name in CEFs. It’s also roughly the premium at which the fund has traded over the last five years, so that markup isn’t completely unusual (though I prefer discounted funds like the 5 I’ll tell you more about here).
CEF No. 3: A REIT Fund Paying More Than You’d Ever Get From Rental Property
Finally, we can pick up attractive real estate with the appropriately named Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund (NYSE:).
This one is always on my watch list due to its 197 holdings, many of which are in REITs that themselves hold thousands of buildings. Top holdings include cell-tower owner ********* Tower Corp (NYSE:), warehouse REIT Prologis (NYSE:) (PLD) and data-center landlord Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:).
This is about as diversified as you can get, and it’s an approach that’s provided a strong total return that includes a high payout: RQI yields 7.4% and trades at a 4% discount, which is around where it has traded, on average, over the last five years.
Reliable Profits Over the Long Haul
In addition to REITs, RQI also holds some bonds and preferred stocks (stock-bond hybrids that trade on a market, like stocks, but whose payouts tend to be fixed, like a bond). With diversification like this, no matter where America’s flows under President Trump’s second administration, you’ll be there to collect a piece of it.
Buy These 5 “Low Drama” Funds Now (for 10.5% Yields, Monthly Payouts)
At times like these, stocks and funds that pay dividends MONTHLY give us even more peace of mind than those that simply pay a high yield alone.
Sure, monthly payouts roll in along with our bills, and that’s a very good reason to prefer them. But more important, it’s just plain comforting to have that reliable payout coming your way every 30 (or 31) days, rather than having to wait for 90 or more. Especially when the markets are roiling beneath our feet.
That’s why NOW, with so many things seeming uncertain, I’m recommending a diversified collection of 5 CEFs that pay us every single month. And they yield an outsized 10.5% too.
Think about that for a second: Every year, we’re earning more than 10% of the value of our upfront investment in these funds in dividend cash. And that comes our way in the form of reliable payouts that drip, drip, drip into our accounts monthly.
The time to buy these 5 monthly paying CEFs is now, while they’re still bargains.
Disclosure: Brett Owens and Michael Foster are contrarian income investors who look for undervalued stocks/funds across the U.S. markets. Click here to learn how to profit from their strategies in the latest report, “7 Great Dividend Growth Stocks for a Secure Retirement.”
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Row at climate talks over ‘backsliding’ on fossil fuels
Row at climate talks over ‘backsliding’ on fossil fuels
A row has broken out at COP29 climate talks as leading countries said a draft deal risked going back on a historic agreement to reduce the use of planet-warming fossil fuels.
“Standing still is retreat and the world will rightly judge us very harshly if this is the outcome,” said *** energy minister Ed Milband.
The ***, ********* Union, New Zealand and Ireland said the proposed agreement was “unacceptable”.
Developing nations said they are unhappy that a **** of money has not been agreed to help them tackle climate change.
Nearly 200 countries are meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan to try to decide on the next steps in tackling climate change
The row comes as the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned countries that “******** is not an option”.
At the heart of the talks is a trade-off between promises of more money from developed nations and global pledges to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Some developing nations and oil-rich countries are reluctant to push strong action on cutting fossil fuels because it could jeopardise their economic growth.
In an open meeting of all nations, the EU Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra called the draft deal “unbalanced, unworkable and unsubtle”.
US Climate Envoy John Podesta said: “We are surprised that there is nothing that carries forward…what we agreed last year in Dubai.”
“We will have ******* in our duty and the millions of people already feeling the effects of extreme weather,” he added.
Samoan minister Cedric Schuster, representing small island nations on the front-line of climate change, said:
“We cannot afford to undermine the progress achieved less than a year ago in Dubai”.
At the COP28 climate talks last year, nations agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels.”
“If we do not get ambition on mitigation, then everything else fails,” said Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s minister for the environment, speaking to journalists.
Diplomats are upset with the COP29 hosts Azerbaijan. They say the draft deal reflects the views of the ***** group of countries and what’s termed the Like-Minded group, which includes Saudi Arabia, China, India and Bolivia.
The Saudis have suggested that the fossil fuels agreement reached was just one option for countries, rather than an specific instruction.
Minister Ryan said the new proposed deal text reflected this view.
“We all know that there has been backsliding. There has been an attempt to interpret what we agreed last year as a menu, and actually taking back the language and taking back the commitment, and that has to stop in the interest of the ***** group too.”
But developing countries have made clear that they think richer countries are also going back on previous promises. In 2015, as part of the landmark Paris Agreement, developed nations promised to provide money to help poorer countries move away from fossil fuels and prepare for extreme weather.
The proposed agreement on new finance for climate – published Thursday morning – currently contains no figure.
Diego Pacheco, Bolivia’s lead negotiator, said: “This is not even a joke. This is an offence to the demands of the global south.
“This is a finance COP and needs political will to provide finance and any thing less is a betrayal to […] the Paris agreement and to millions of people around the world,” he said
The G77+China group, which represents developing countries, want $1.3tn (£1.03tn) by 2030. That could be from governments and private sources like banks or businesses.
But they say no specific number has been mentioned here.
“I have heard figures in the corridors, but nothing official,” said Evans Njewa, chair for the Least Developed Countries Group.
Developing countries also want to get a figure about how money will be from grants, such as in aid budgets, and how much would be private loans.
They ***** any more loans will increase their existing debt burdens.
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Pick Up A Discounted Victrix Pro ****** Stick Just In Time For Your Holiday Gaming
Pick Up A Discounted Victrix Pro ****** Stick Just In Time For Your Holiday Gaming
Fighting games are ******* and better than ever, and if you’re looking to make your next round of Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8 a winning one, you might want to check out this ****** Friday special on Victrix’s Pro FS ****** sticks, which are discounted to $320 (normally $400).
Victrix Pro ****** Sticks
This deal includes both the traditional FS model that is equipped with a joystick on Sanwa JLF base and the FS-12 leverless version that replaces the joystick with extra inputs. While it feels somewhat alien to use at first, leverless ****** sticks are becoming very popular with professional fighting game players as these can help pull off tricky moves in games more reliably. As for colors, there are two options here, depending on your tastes.
Both models have Sanwa Denshi 30mm buttons, a removable Sanwa Densi Ball-top joystick on the regular model, and a foam lap pad for comfortable gaming sessions. You can also open them up for when you want to do some customization or cleaning, and since they’re made from a single piece of aircraft-grade aluminum, they can easily survive a turbulent trip to Las Vegas for the next Evo tournament. If you’d prefer something nondescript, you can pick up one of these ****** sticks in a crisp PS5-style white, or for something flashier, there’s a bright purple finish.
Victrix Pro FS ****** stick (PS5/PS4/PC)
Victrix Pro FS-12 leverless ****** stick (PS5/PS4/PC)
Alternatively, you can also check out the Razer Kitsune. This is a bit more affordable at $270 (was $300), and depending on your preferences, it might be superior to the Victrix Pro. This is Razer’s take on the leverless style fighting game controller, and it features low-profile linear optical switches and a slick design that’s complemented with RGB lighting.
For more deals, be sure to check out Amazon’s full ****** Friday *****. You can also check out GameSpot’s ****** Friday deals hub for all the latest discounts throughout the holiday shopping season.
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Our trust in society is eroding. We need to ****** back
Our trust in society is eroding. We need to ****** back
A recent scandal over food hygiene ratings shows how deception destroys trust within society. We need to ****** back, says Jonathan R. Goodman
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#trust #society #eroding #******
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Exclusive: get $150 off the best Shark cordless vacuum with this ****** Friday promo code
Exclusive: get $150 off the best Shark cordless vacuum with this ****** Friday promo code
Head to Shark right now and you can get the PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum with Auto-Empty Base for $349.99 (was $499.99) using our exclusive coupon code TR150. This code expires at the end of the day on Saturday, so you’ll need to be speedy to take advantage of it.
The ****** Friday deals are really hotting up now, and this one is well worth taking advantage of. The PowerDetect line just launched in September, and it combines powerful suction with clever automation features to save you effort and maximize battery life (it’s due to be added to our official best Shark vacuum guide when that next gets an update).
Our code is on the version with the auto-empty base (scroll down for a full explainer on that). If you just want the vacuum, and not the base, you can pick that up for $299.99 (was $429.99) at Shark. Get the full low-down in our Shark PowerDetect cordless vacuum review.
Given that it’s so new, we weren’t necessarily expecting discounts on this line in this year’s ****** Friday vacuum sales. It’s good value for money even at full price, and even more of a steal with these early deals.
Today’s best Shark cordless vacuum deal
Do I need the auto-empty base?
This promo code is on the PowerDetect Cordless with an auto-empty base. As well as providing somewhere for you to store this vacuum while it charges, the dust cup will automatically empty, via a sealed system, into a larger bin in the base when you dock it.
This not only saves time and effort, but it also means far fewer chances for dust and allergens to escape back into the air, because you’ll only need to manually empty it occasionally. Shark has added a handy anti-odor puck to the base to ensure it stays smelling fresh, even when full.
It’s a clever and useful idea that we haven’t spotted anywhere else yet (although we suspect we might see auto-empty bases appearing with the next generation of best cordless vacuums).
More of today’s ****** Friday sales in the US
Amazon: TVs, smart home & air fryers from $12.99
Apple: AirPods, iPads, MacBooks from $89.99
Best Buy: $1,000 off 4K TVs, laptops & headphones
Cheap TVs: smart TVs at Best Buy from $69.99
Christmas trees: top-rated trees from $54.99
Dell: best-selling Inspiron & XPS laptops from $279.99
Dreamcloud: mattress deals from $349 + free shipping
Holiday: decor, lights, Christmas trees & PJs from $10.99
Home Depot: 40% off tools, appliances & furniture
Lowe’s: holiday decor, appliances & tools from $17.31
Nectar: up to 50% off all mattresses
Nordstrom: 46% off boots, coats, jeans & jewelry
Samsung: $1,500+ off TVs, phones, watches & appliances
Target: save on furniture, tech & clothing
Walmart: cheap TVs, ****** vacs, furniture & appliances
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****** Friday deals bring the Echo Buds down to only $25
****** Friday deals bring the Echo Buds down to only $25
Our choice for best budget open design earbuds is currently discounted for ****** Friday. Right now, you can pick up the Amazon Echo Buds for just $25, down from $50 — an all-time low price that makes an affordable option that much more accessible.
Amazon released its most recent generation of Echo Buds in 2023 and impressed us with its level of quality for an open earbud option. The semi-in-ear style allows for more ambient noise and might be more comfortable depending on your ear shape. The earbuds have some solid perks such as multi-device connectivity and a solid five hours of music playback. You can increase their life by another hour if you turn wake word off. You’ll get up to 20 hours of charge with the case.
Amazon
As an Amazon device, the Echo Buds are also equipped with Alexa, so you can ask the assistant to play music, call someone, set a reminder or one of the many other standard tasks. Plus, you can use the Alexa app to set tap controls for muting your mics and changing your music. Speaking of music, these earbuds have 12mm drivers and a crisp overall sound (though the open nature hurts the bass quality). Be careful, though, when working out as their low IPX2 water resistance rating means sweat could be a problem.
Check out all of the latest ****** Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.
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Super-bright ****** holes could reveal if the universe is pixelated
Super-bright ****** holes could reveal if the universe is pixelated
Artist’s representation of a galaxy with a brilliant quasar at its centre
NASA, ESA and J. Olmsted (STScI)
Space-time, the so-called fabric of physical reality, may be made of tiny, discrete pieces stitched together. A preliminary analysis of the way matter orbits quasars suggests we could find evidence of this cosmic quilt in the universe’s most extreme neighbourhoods.
Much of the understanding we have of the make-up of our universe comes from probing matter at smaller and smaller scales. Think of fluids, says Jonathan Gorard…
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Android Switch App for iOS Users Launched; Google Says Improved Data Transfers Coming to More Phones in 2025
Android Switch App for iOS Users Launched; Google Says Improved Data Transfers Coming to More Phones in 2025
Google is making it easier for iPhone owners to switch to Android smartphones. The company has rebranded its data transfer tool that helps users on iOS move their information and accounts, and it is now called Android Switch. Meanwhile, Google has also confirmed that a useful delayed data transfer feature introduced on the Pixel 9 series will also make its way to other Android phones in 2025. The company also says that data transfers from iOS to Android when using a cable will now be considerably faster.
Google Rebrands Data Transfer Tool to ‘Android Switch’
As part of its efforts to streamline the process of switching from iOS to Android, Google says its Data Restore Tool is now called ‘Android Switch’. The listing for the app on the App Store and Google Play store has already been updated with the new name, a refreshed icon, and the description refers to it as “Google’s official transfer app”.
The redesigned Android Switch app can transfer a user’s chats, calendars, contacts, Wi-Fi networks, Google account, and other data from an iPhone to a new Android device. It also shows users how to disable iMessage when switching away from iOS — an essential step that must be completed before a one can begin receiving SMS messages (or RCS messages, in supported regions) from other users.
According to Google’s FAQ page, users will be able to transfer contacts, calendar events, and on-device photos and videos using a cable or the cloud. However, if they want to transfer messages, apps, on-device music, and notes, they will need to transfer their data using a cable.
Google also says that users who use a cable to transfer data from their iPhone to a new Android phone using the Android Switch app will benefit from a 40 percent increase in transfer speeds, which appears to be a considerable jump in performance over the last year. The company didn’t share any details on how it managed to improve transfer speeds when using a cable.
When the Pixel 9 series was launched, Google also introduced the ability to quickly complete an initial setup process so users can get faster access to their smartphone, then start the data transfer process at a later stage. While this feature is currently limited to the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Google says it will be available on more Android phones in 2025.
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Craig O’Donoghue: Fremantle Dockers add more interstate recruits at AFL Draft as talent outweighs location
Craig O’Donoghue: Fremantle Dockers add more interstate recruits at AFL Draft as talent outweighs location
Eight of Fremantle’s last 10 picks at the national draft have come from interstate, but their history tells us that they are happy to focus on talent instead of worrying about the go-home factor.
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The Real History Behind Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’ and Life as a Fighter in the Ancient Roman Arena
The Real History Behind Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’ and Life as a Fighter in the Ancient Roman Arena
Meilan Solly
Senior Associate Digital Editor, History
To mark the opening of the Colosseum in 80 C.E., the Roman emperor Titus staged a staggering spectacle, flooding the arena with water and bringing in “horses and bulls and some other domesticated animals that had been taught to behave in the liquid element just as on land,” according to the Roman historian Cassius Dio. “He also brought in people on ships, who engaged in a sea ****** there.” The stakes were high: In most naumachiae, as these mock naval battles were called, the participants were prisoners of war or convicted ********** who were expected to ******—perhaps to the ******—for the crowd’s amusement.
This potentially fatal predicament takes center stage in Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s new sequel to his blockbuster 2000 film, Gladiator. In the movie’s trailer, an archer takes aim at an ****** soldier, ******* an arrow that sends the man plunging over the side of his ship—and into the waiting jaws of a shark. (Despite Scott’s insistence that the Romans would have had no trouble trapping “a couple of sharks in a net from the sea,” historians have pointed out that no evidence supports the animal’s presence in the ancient amphitheater.)
Aquatic apex predators aren’t the only challenge faced by Gladiator II’s Lucius Verus (played by Paul Mescal). The film, which takes place around 20 years after the events of Gladiator, also pits Lucius against a rhinoceros, a monkey and hordes of fellow gladiators, not to mention an invading army, power-hungry politicians and multiple ghosts from his past. The secret son of Maximus, the eponymous gladiator portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 2000 movie, Lucius must retrace his father’s footsteps, achieving fame as an enslaved fighter driven by his ******* for revenge against his family’s killers.
Gladiator II | Official Trailer (2024 Movie) – Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington
Much like its predecessor, Gladiator II takes a relatively loose approach to history, compressing timelines, borrowing real historical figures’ names but little of their stories, and inventing other characters entirely. As historian Allen Ward wrote in 2001, the first Gladiator was both “the best of films” and “the worst of films,” igniting the public’s interest in the ancient world while perpetuating many of the myths surrounding the era. “Certainly creative artists need to be granted some poetic license, but that should not be a permit for the wholesale disregard of facts in historical fiction and costume dramas,” Ward added. “In most cases, the easily determined factual details would not have made Gladiator less interesting or exciting, and the record of Commodus’ reign contains characters and events that could easily make what is now a good story even better history.”
While University of Chicago historian Shadi Bartsch has criticized Gladiator II as “total Hollywood *********,” the director himself is more sanguine, to put it charitably, about historical accuracy in Hollywood. When historians criticized his 2023 film Napoleon for taking artistic liberties with the historical record, Scott told the New Yorker that they needed to “get a life.”
Even if Gladiator II doesn’t present a wholly accurate portrait of the political machinations of the Roman Empire, its depiction of ********* as entertainment reflects striking realities of the ancient civilization’s culture, including the social chasm between the free spectators and the enslaved gladiators, and the sheer brutality of everyday life.
Drawing of a naumachia, or staged naval battle
Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
“One of the things that’s very hard for us to appreciate [today] is how very fragile life was in antiquity and how common it was to see extreme suffering and very early deaths,” says Kathleen M. Coleman, a classicist at Harvard University. “Because we can keep people alive for so long and through all kinds of childhood illnesses, … life has a premium now in our society that it couldn’t have had in antiquity, and that may affect people’s tolerance of *********.”
Here’s what you need to know about the real history behind Gladiator II, from characters’ historical counterparts to the likelihood of a gladiator dying in the arena, ahead of the film’s arrival in theaters across the ******* States on November 22.
How Gladiator II is connected to Gladiator
The original Gladiator opens in 180 C.E., with the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius choosing Maximus, then a general, as his successor. ****** at being passed over, Marcus’ son Commodus (played by Joaquin Phoenix) murders his father and seizes power. After Maximus refuses to pledge his loyalty to the new emperor, he is sold into slavery, becoming a gladiator who must ****** to secure his freedom.
Maximus makes a name for himself in the amphitheater, reconnecting with his former lover, Commodus’ sister Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), and forging alliances with the emperor’s enemies along the way. In the film’s climactic final battle, Maximus ****** Commodus but is mortally wounded himself. He uses his dying breaths to call for political reform, encouraging onlookers to return to the democratic ideals of the Roman Republic.
Maximus Reveals Himself to Commodus (Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix) | Gladiator (2000)
Lucius, the main character of the sequel, appears in Gladiator as Lucilla’s son. He idolizes Maximus but is unaware that the former general is also his father. After Maximus’ ******, Lucilla sends Lucius to Numidia, a territory in northwest *******, to protect him from imperial intrigue. There, he builds a new life for himself, eventually marrying and starting a family. At the beginning of Gladiator II, he is forced to return to Rome after an army led by the fictional general Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) invades Numidia, ****** Lucius’ wife and son, and sells him into slavery as a gladiator.
Like Maximus and Lucius, most gladiators were enslaved men, prisoners of war, convicted ********** or individuals otherwise rejected by society. But free Romans could also volunteer to ****** in the arena. A new recruit would relinquish “all his rights over his own body and his own life and ******,” says Coleman. “He took an oath of allegiance to his owner and trainer, who then had the discretion to decide what would become of him.” Though gladiators had no social standing, the scholar adds, they “could redeem themselves to a certain extent by earning some admiration for expert fighting.”
Looking out at the audience during a match at the Colosseum, Lucius recognizes his mother, Lucilla (Nielsen, reprising her role from Gladiator), who is now married to none other than the general who murdered his family. Commodus may be gone, but in his place are the co-emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), brothers who revel in the “brutality, cruelty and wastefulness” of ancient Rome with no regard for their subjects, as Scott tells Vanity Fair. Denzel Washington rounds out the cast as Macrinus, a charismatic arms dealer who harbors a secret agenda as he guides Lucius to gladiatorial greatness.
“There is an authoritarian power that is parading as if it were still somehow the vestiges of a *********** government,” Nielsen says to Vanity Fair.
L to R: Fred Hechinger as Caracalla, Pedro Pascal as Marcus Acacius and Joseph Quinn as Geta in Gladiator II
Aidan Monaghan / Paramount Pictures
The real historical figures behind Gladiator II
The Gladiator franchise’s characters are a blend of fact and fiction. The four emperors depicted in the films—Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Caracalla and Geta—are all based on real Roman rulers. Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus and sister of Commodus, did have a son named Lucius Verus, but he ***** young and couldn’t have been the secret child of a general turned gladiator, as Maximus himself is fictional.
Though Gladiator II suggests that Lucilla was alive and well during the ****** reign of Caracalla and Geta in the early 200s, she was actually ********* in 182 after conspiring to overthrow Commodus. A bloodthirsty emperor who “devoted most of his life to ease and to horses and to combats of wild beasts and of men” that were often held in the Colosseum, according to Cassius Dio, Commodus was such an unpopular leader that his advisers paid a wrestler to strangle him in his bath in 192.
A bust of Emperor Commodus
J. Paul Getty Museum via Wikimedia Commons
A bust of Marcus Aurelius
Daniel Martin via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0
Commodus’ ******* didn’t inspire a return to the ideals of the Roman Republic, as shown in Gladiator. Instead, it sparked a civil war in which five separate men claimed the title of emperor in just one year. Military commander and politician Septimius Severus emerged victorious, defeating his rivals for the throne by 197. With control of his kingdom secure, the emperor turned his attention to military campaigns, first against Parthia (based in modern-day Iran and Iraq) and then the British tribes north of Hadrian’s Wall.
“It’s very interesting to think about Rome as a military power [whose] borders are policed by the armies, and it is around the … limit of the empire that we have military fort after military fort, and we’re starting to realize that so many of these had an amphitheater attached,” says Coleman. Designed to entertain the troops and frighten the ******, the displays of sheer power that took place in these arenas were “most evident when they were enacted through physical strength, so *********,” Coleman explains. Still, she adds, “the extent to which Rome’s militant ethos required stiffening people’s morale by having them watch these [matches] is not fully understood.”
Severus invested his two sons with imperial authority during his lifetime, naming the elder, Caracalla, co-emperor in 198 but leaving the younger, Geta, to wait for the title until 209. Upon Severus’ ****** in 211, the brothers gained ****** control of the Roman Empire, but they detested each other and found themselves caught in a struggle for power. “Typically, Geta has been presented as the intellectual interested in civil administration, while Caracalla’s wish was for glory in battle,” writes History Extra. After just ten months, Caracalla gained the upper hand by ordering a group of centurions to ***** Geta, reportedly while their mother held him in her arms, trying to protect him.
A dynastic portrait of Severus; his second wife, Julia Domna; and his sons, Caracalla and Geta (whose face is erased)
Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
After murdering his brother, Caracalla sought to erase all traces of him, though some likenesses and records of Geta survived. The fratricide overshadowed Caracalla’s achievements, including the passage of an edict granting all free men in the Roman Empire citizenship and the construction of a luxurious public bath complex that bore the emperor’s name.
“Caracalla always justified himself by claiming that his brother had plotted against him,” historian François Chausson tells CNRS News. “Why not believe him? The fact that Geta was ******* in this struggle to the ****** is no token of innocence. The inferiority, dictated by protocol, from which the younger brother suffered could have fueled bitterness for years. The two brothers had not received the same favorable treatment from their father.”
A bust of Macrinus
José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0
Caracalla’s own downfall arrived in 217, when he was stabbed to ****** while urinating on the side of the road, supposedly by a legionary acting on the orders of Macrinus, who soon succeeded him as emperor. While Gladiator II depicts Macrinus as a scheming gladiator trainer who was once enslaved by Marcus Aurelius, no evidence supports this characterization. Born in modern-day Algeria as a member of the equestrian social class, which was directly below the senatorial class, Macrinus rose to prominence as a lawyer and bureaucrat before assuming control of the Praetorian Guard, the personal protectors of the emperor. He relied on the support of his soldiers to claim the throne despite his lowly origins, becoming the first Roman emperor who didn’t belong to the senatorial class.
During his 14-month reign, Macrinus settled “disputes on the borders of the empire … through diplomacy rather than through warfare”—a stark departure from Caracalla’s belligerent approach to foreign policy, writes historian Andrew G. Scott. But Macrinus lost the army’s favor by reducing pay for new recruits, and in 218, the legion abandoned him for Elagabalus, a teenager whose mother and grandmother claimed he was the illegitimate son of Caracalla. Roman forces captured and ********* both Macrinus and his young son, sending their heads to Elagabalus as trophies.
Life as a gladiator
Hollywood films like Gladiator and Gladiator II tend to present their lead characters as tragic heroes doomed to ****** to the ****** at the whims of an emperor in no-holds-barred battles against men and wild beasts alike. In truth, says Coleman, a strict set of rules enforced by a referee governed gladiatorial bouts, and just 5 percent of gladiators ***** in violent combat. The majority of matches ended in a draw, with both fighters earning a reprieve at the discretion of the spectators.
“Gladiators were very expensive because they had [to undergo] special training,” Coleman says. “They had to be kept alive and well fed. … They [were] a capital investment, so it wasn’t in their owners’ or trainers’ interests for them to be *******.”
The first recorded gladiatorial games took place in 264 B.C.E., during the ******** of a prominent Roman aristocrat. According to Coleman, historians are unsure whether the Romans borrowed the idea from another culture on the Italian Peninsula, but they do have reliable records of what gladiators’ daily lives looked like. Housed in barracks, these ancient fighters learned how to spar in front of a crowd and use different types of weapons and armor depending on the type of gladiator they were training to be. The murmillo, for instance, wore a Gallic-style helmet adorned with fish imagery and wielded a rectangular shield to protect himself. The scantily clad retiarius sported just an arm and a shoulder guard, but this lightweight armor enabled him to move around easily with his trident, offering an advantage over opponents weighed down by heavy equipment.
A third-century C.E. mosaic depicting a ****** between two gladiators named Simmachius and Maternus
Ángel M. Felicísimo via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0
Though the Gladiator films depict fighters clashing with both humans and animals, real gladiators who specialized in defeating other men wouldn’t have battled beasts, too. Instead, trained hunters known as venatores faced off with elephants, lions, bears and other wild creatures, whose carcasses were then given away as meat to eager spectators. Animals also fought other animals: In 80 C.E., at the inauguration of the Colosseum, a rhinoceros reportedly sparred with a bull, a bear, a buffalo, a lion and two cattle.
Novelty was key to retaining audience members’ attention, says Coleman. In addition to forcing beasts to battle, organizers recruited a select few female gladiators and staged increasingly ambitious spectacles like the naumachiae. The success of these displays hinged on the dehumanization of the combatants involved, especially those who were enslaved and therefore viewed as property.
When a vast chasm between the free audience members and the enslaved gladiators existed, “you had one person on one side of it and everybody else on the other side of it,” Coleman says. “The objectification of the people in the arena was made possible by [the crowd] detaching themselves from any fellow feeling with [the gladiators]. But at the same time, there is this interest in seeing them ****** professionally because they’re highly trained and specially armed, and they had a following.”
As historian Ward put it in 2001, many modern observers find the first Gladiator film “offensively violent, ******* and gory. Unfortunately, life in the ancient world in general was much more violent and gruesomely ******* than life in modern industrial democracies.”
A retiarius stabs at a secutor with his trident in this mosaic from a villa in Nennig, Germany.
TimeTravelRome via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0
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Catch Up On Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure With These Blu-ray Deals
Catch Up On Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure With These Blu-ray Deals
There’s no shortage of great anime series to binge on, but if you’re looking for a wacky action romp, then Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is an easy recommendation. Luckily, several of Blu-ray box sets are on ***** for ****** Friday, so if you’ve been looking to jump into this cult-classic collection, this is the best time to do so.
While not every box set is on *****, the deals make for a fairly comprehensive collection of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Blu-rays to pick up. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is adapted from Hirohiko Araki’s manga for the same name. It chronicles the history of the Joestar family, with each arc focusing on a different member in its sprawling lineage, and each arc features its own unique themes and tone–from martial arts epics to supernatural ******* mysteries and ****** thrillers. They’re also packed with fun homages to musicians and bands, with references to icons like Led Zeppelin, Dolly Parton, Kenny Loggins, and more sprinkled throughout the entire series.
If you want to start at the beginning, you can grab a set that includes the first two seasons, Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency. Phantom Blood tells the story of Jonathan Joestar and his evil adopted vampire brother Dio Brando, and its sequel sees Jonathan’s descendant, Joseph Joestar, take on the seemingly invincible shape-shifters known as the Pillar Men.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
From there, you can pick up Blu-ray releases of various other story arcs, including the Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable, Golden Wind and more. Check out the complete list of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Blu-ray deals below.
For more anime and manga deals, be sure to check out Amazon’s ****** Friday *****. You’ll also find more deals on games, electronics, and more on GameSpot’s ****** Friday deals hub.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure ****** Friday Blu-ray Deals
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Microsoft is again nagging Windows 10 users to buy a new machine – a Copilot+ PC to be precise, for the ‘ultimate Windows 11 experience’
Microsoft is again nagging Windows 10 users to buy a new machine – a Copilot+ PC to be precise, for the ‘ultimate Windows 11 experience’
New ad suggests Windows 10 users buy a Copilot+ PC
This is part of a raft of full-screen adverts pushing Windows 11 upgrades
Expect the nagging to intensify next year, sadly
Windows 10 users are receiving a new advert prompting them not just to upgrade to Windows 11, but to get that OS on a new PC – specifically a Copilot+ PC.
By now, those with a Windows 10 computer are used to being encouraged to upgrade to Windows 11 (assuming their device is up to the hardware requirements) with full-screen pop-ups informing them about support for the older OS running out next year.
This has taken a fresh twist, however, with a new full-screen advert that Windows Latest noticed on one of its Windows 10 PCs (and a virtual machine running the older operating system).
In this effort, Microsoft is specifically pushing Windows 10 users to “do more with a Windows 11 PC,” referring to buying a new one, and that for the “ultimate Windows 11 experience” you should purchase a Copilot+ PC.
Microsoft confirmed to Windows Latest that it’s pushing a bunch of Windows 11 upgrade adverts in this full-screen, in-your-face style, and that the features offered with a Copilot+ PC – which has additional AI functionality exclusive to these devices – are also part of the persuasion tactics employed here.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Analysis: Glossing over some major issues
As noted, this is part of a broad campaign to get Windows 10 users upgrading to Windows 11 on a compatible PC, and we’ve seen a fair few of these messages on our older Windows 10 computer throughout this year. In fact, we’ve lost count of the number of times this has happened, but we haven’t seen an ad pushing Copilot+ PCs – not yet anyway. Doubtless as 2025 rolls onwards, we’ll be seeing even more of this kind of badgering from Microsoft.
Buying a new PC is an idea Microsoft has been pushing elsewhere for those whose machine isn’t compatible with Windows 11’s hardware requirements – likely due to a lack of TPM, or having an older processor. However, as we’ve discussed in the recent past, this glosses over some truly worrying issues about a ton of old PCs heading to the scrapheap when Windows 10 hits End of Life in October 2025.
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You won’t see a full-screen Windows 10 pop-up about a potential looming environmental disaster, as flagged up by multiple third-parties in the past year or two, that’s for sure.
One concession Microsoft has made, this time around on the OS merry-go-round, is that consumers can finally purchase extended support with Windows 10, albeit only for a year, effectively granting a stay of ********** until October 2026 – which is at least something.
You may also like…
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Greensboro mayor explains loose leaf collection after complaints
Greensboro mayor explains loose leaf collection after complaints
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — The City of Greensboro announced a year ago it wouldn’t use the giant vacuum trucks to get leaves curbside anymore, but the reality of the decision didn’t set in until the seasons changed and the leaves started piling up.
The complaints started trickling in on social media and to the city council. Now, they’re at a fever pitch.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan says she’s heard from many people about the situation. Even a second grader during a school visit raised his hand to ask if she would fix the leaf collection. She says the new procedures are the fix.
“It’s about to fit all those leaves in one can, so it’s a little disappointing the city isn’t doing more to pick the leaves up,” said Julie Buchanan, a Greensboro resident. “It was a great bonus, and I feel like we pay enough in tax dollars that it should be covered.”
FOX8 took those concerns to the mayor. Vaughan says the change was in the interest of safety.
“Roads were down to one lane of traffic, kids walking to school, joggers, people with strollers, dog walkers. It really made it very hazardous … Leaving big piles like that in the street is very bad for the stormwater system,” Vaughan said.
This year, the city has picked up almost 200,000 more pounds of leaves than the same time last year using the new system.
“I understand that there are people unhappy with this, and I understand there are people who are very vocal, but there are also people who don’t see this as a critical service for the city of Greensboro,” she said.
Other cities have also cut loose-leaf collections, including Charlotte and Durham.
“We don’t shovel people’s sidewalks. We don’t plant people’s flowers. Why should we pick up leaves that fall on private property?” Vaughan said.
Misinformation about possible fines has also added fuel to the *****. People don’t have to worry about leaves on their street, but dumping all of your leaves in the street would be a problem.
“Nobody is going to get ticketed or fined for leaves that fell organically in the street in front of their house,” Vaughan said.
If you’ve dumped a bunch of leaves in the street, you’re given two weeks to clean them up. If they’re still there after that, you could then get a $75 fine.
“We would love if they would reconsider leaf-pickup,” Buchanan said.
That’s not likely.
The trucks have been sold. Private businesses are offering their services to pick up leaves, and others are choosing to mulch the leaves themselves.
“I think you are going to see cities and towns across the state cut back on loose leaf collection,” Vaughan said.
If you have a physical issue that prevents you from rolling the big bin of leaves out on leaf pickup days, the city will make arrangements to help you just like they do with the trash bins. You can call them at (336) 373-CITY or (336) 373-2489.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX8 WGHP.
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We Just Know Shadow Will be Cooler Than Sonic- After Cyberpunk 2077, Keanu Reeves and Toshiyuki Morikawa’s Reunion Will Make Sonic 3 Legendary
We Just Know Shadow Will be Cooler Than Sonic- After Cyberpunk 2077, Keanu Reeves and Toshiyuki Morikawa’s Reunion Will Make Sonic 3 Legendary
This holiday season, Sonic the Hedgehog will make his big-screen comeback in his most exciting adventure to date. According to the movie’s synopsis, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails team up to battle Shadow, a formidable new foe who possesses powers unlike anything they have ever encountered.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is hitting the theatres on December 20, 2024. | Credit: Paramount Pictures.
In order to stop Shadow and save the planet, Team Sonic must find an unlikely alliance because their skills are completely outmatched. In the new film, Ben Schwartz reprises his role as Sonic the Hedgehog, Colleen O’Shaughnessey plays Miles “Tails” Prower, and Idris Elba plays Knuckles the Echidna. However, the whole anticipation is revolving around Shadow.
Shadow Will be Voiced by the Power Duo of Cyberpunk 2077 in Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 was voiced by the power duo behind Shadow. | Credit: CD Projekt Red.
Jim Carrey’s two Doctor Robotnik characters and Keanu Reeves’ Shadow are among the twelve Sonic the Hedgehog 3 character posters that Paramount Pictures has made public.
According to game lore, Professor Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of the series’ primary antagonist Doctor Eggman, created Shadow, a ****** hedgehog that has undergone anthropomorphic changes.
Fans are already hyped up with the inclusion of Keanu Reeves for the voice acting of Shadow in the upcoming movie. However, this hype broke free when Paramount Japan released the *********-dubbed trailer of the upcoming movie. In this trailer, Toshiyuki Morikawa comes up as the ********* voice actor of Shadow.
Now, this Reeves-Morikawa duo reminds us of the glory days of Cyberpunk 2077. In this popular RPG title, Morikawa voiced Johnny Silverhand in the ********* dub, which was originally voiced by Keanu Reeves.
Silverhand was a blockbuster character in the game. Hence, we hope this duo will keep their legacy alive in the upcoming movie as well through Shadow.
The Backstory of Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow will make his theatrical debut in the upcoming movie. | Credit: Paramount Pictures.
Although it may appear that way at first glance, Shadow isn’t your stereotypical “evil” Sonic the Hedgehog. Since he made his debut in the Dreamcast game Sonic Adventure 2 in 2001, this antihero may be the only positive outcome of that misguided console.
Hero and Dark were the two halves of the game’s plot. Sonic and his friends Tails and Knuckles are followed in the first section of the game, while the antagonist of the series, Doctor Eggman, who collaborates with Shadow, is followed in the second.
Naturally, a large portion of *****’s early game marketing emphasized the contrast between Sonic and Shadow. While one hedgehog was a good, angelic one, the other was a much more cunning and dangerous adversary.
Fans soon discovered, however, that Shadow’s “bad” persona is simply the way he presents himself. Over the course of Sonic Adventure 2‘s Dark plot, a much more tragic and complex character gradually emerges.
About fifty years ago, Doctor Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of Doctor Eggman, created Shadow. He was born in the Space Colony Ark, a space station located far above Earth, where Robotnik was studying immortality in an attempt to treat his granddaughter Maria’s terminal illness.
As the “Ultimate Life Form,” Shadow is immune to all illnesses and wounds, and Robotnik made a valiant attempt to give Maria Shadow’s powers.
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Realme GT Neo 7 Series Launch Timeline Leaked; Said to Get 7,000mAh Battery
Realme GT Neo 7 Series Launch Timeline Leaked; Said to Get 7,000mAh Battery
The Realme GT Neo 7 has recently become a topic of interest in the rumour mill. The smartphone was recently spotted on a certification website, hinting at an imminent launch. Earlier leaks had suggested several key details about the handset, while recent reports hint that the Realme GT Neo 7 series is likely to debut in China soon. The lineup could include a base and an SE variant. Some important features of the Realme GT Neo 7 series phones have been tipped as well.
Realme GT Neo 7 Series Launch, Features (Expected)
The Realme GT Neo 7 will be the first handset in the series to launch in China, according to a Weibo post by tipster Digital Chat Station (translated from ********). He claimed that the mid-range offering would be a “performance ******” with a powerful chipset and battery performance alongside the “strongest waterproof” and durability in the segment.
Another tipster, Smart Pikachu suggested in a Weibo post that a Realme GT Neo 7 series model, which is expected to launch in China in December, will likely have a large, display. This could be the base GT Neo 7 variant. The post adds that another model with a 6.5-6.6-inch flat screen is currently being tested and could be unveiled next year. The latter handset may be the SE version.
In another Weibo post tipster Smart Pikachu hinted that the Reame GT Neo 7 phone will likely carry a 7,000mAh battery. If true, it will be an upgrade over the 5,500mAh battery of the preceding Realme GT Neo 6. The battery details of the GT Neo 6 SE successor have not yet been tipped.
Notably, the Realme GT Neo 7 was recently spotted on China’s 3C certification site with support for 80W wired SuperVOOC charging. Previous leaks claimed that the handset could support up to 100W fast charging. It is expected to get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC with overclocked CPU cores and a 1.5K resolution display.
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Nvidia (NVDA) stock slumps despite Q3 earnings beat
Nvidia (NVDA) stock slumps despite Q3 earnings beat
POLAND – 2024/11/13: In this photo illustration, the NVIDIA company logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Piotr Swat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Nvidia shares dropped in U.S. premarket trading Thursday after the tech giant’s third-quarter earnings ******* to impress investors.
Shares of the chipmaker slumped 3.21% at around 5:03 a.m. ET, following the Wednesday release of Nvidia’s quarterly results, which beat on both the top and bottom lines.
Revenue came in at $35.08 billion, up 94% year-on-year and exceeding the $33.16 billion forecast by LSEG analysts. Earnings per share was 81 cents adjusted, also above analyst expectations.
Other chipmakers fell on the back of the market reaction to Nvidia’s third-quarter results. Shares of Intel, Qualcomm and Micron Technology all lost 1% or more in value, while AMD declined 0.6%.
The slump in Nvidia also had a knock-on effect on ********* semiconductor firms. ASML, a key chip equipment supplier, dropped 0.9%, while compatriot Dutch chip firm ASMI fell 0.5%. Chipmakers BE Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics and Infineon slipped 0.8%, 0.7 and 0.6%, respectively.
Several notable chip names were also in negative territory in Asia. TSMC, which makes Nvidia’s high-performance graphics processing units, eased as much as 1.5%. Contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn dropped 1.9%.
Why are Nvidia shares falling?
Nvidia has largely cornered the market for the high-powered chips powering the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Despite nearly doubling sales year-on-year, Nvidia’s third-quarter results showed a slowdown from previous quarters. Nvidia previously reported growth of 122% in the second quarter, 262% in the first quarter, and 265% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said in emailed comments Wednesday that the dip in Nvidia’s share price “suggests even outstanding isn’t enough for some investors,” adding that he expects the stock to bounce back once markets open.
“NVIDIA’s generated stellar gains for shareholders over many years now, and right now it’s pretty hard to see any major holes in the investment case,” Nathan added.
Analysts are looking ahead to the much-anticipated launch of Nvidia’s next-generation chip called Blackwell. On the firm’s earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang said that demand for the chip is exceeding supply.
– CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report
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Gran Turismo 7 update 1.54 out now, adds PS5 Pro enhancements and five new cars
Gran Turismo 7 update 1.54 out now, adds PS5 Pro enhancements and five new cars
Gran Turismo 7 receives PS5 Pro enhancements and improved PSVR2 visuals in the latest update.
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US Department of Justice wants Alphabet to sell Chrome browser
US Department of Justice wants Alphabet to sell Chrome browser
Following on from winning its antitrust case against Alphabet, the parent company of Google, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is now seeking to force the search engine giant to offload its Chrome browser.
The landmark US court ruling from August 2024 declared that Alphabet had illegally sought to maintain its hold on the online search market.
Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Alphabet’s strategy of paying billions to ensure the Google search engine was the default search available on Samsung and Apple smartphone devices was anti-competitive.
The DoJ has been looking to curb Alphabet’s strategy to preload Android devices with Google products, and suggested the use of “behavioural and structural remedies” to prevent Google from using products such as its Chrome internet browser, Play app store and Android operating system to “advantage” Google Search.
Bloomberg has now reported that the DoJ is looking to ask the judge to force Alphabet to sell the Google search engine as remediation.
In response, Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer at Google and Alphabet, posted a blog describing the DoJ’s proposals as “staggering”, “interventionist” and micromanagement of Google search.
“The DoJ chose to push a ******** interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership,” he said. “DoJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision. It would break a range of Google products – even beyond Search – that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives.”
Walker spoke about how the remedy would “endanger the security and privacy of millions of Americans, undermine the quality of products, and disclose personal search queries to unknown foreign and domestic companies”.
He claimed the remedy would damage Mozilla’s Firefox business, as it “depends on charging Google for Search placement”.
Walker also warned that Alphabet would “chill our investment in artificial intelligence [AI], perhaps the most important innovation of our time, where Google plays a leading role”.
In October, the tech giant began ramping up efforts to link government intervention with the development of AI. “There are enormous risks to the government putting its thumb on the scale of this vital industry – skewing investment, distorting incentives, hobbling emerging business models – all at precisely the moment that we need to encourage investment, new business models and ********* technological leadership,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice-president of regulatory affairs, in a blog post.
The ruling follows on from the Court of Justice of the ********* Union upholding a fine of €2.4bn imposed on Google for ****** of its dominant position in shopping comparison services.
Among the big questions that will ultimately determine Google’s fate is who president-elect Donald Trump hires to lead the department when he takes office in January 2025.
Commenting after the results of Trump’s win in the US presidential election, Daniel Castro, vice-president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank for science and technology policy, said the new administration should focus on creating a pro-innovation regulatory environment that supports AI adoption, collaborating with Congress to pass a light-touch regulatory framework for consumer data protection. He called on the incoming *********** administration to “enact legislation that preempts state efforts to create a patchwork of digital policies that hamper interstate commerce, such as on digital taxation, content regulation and children’s online safety”.
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When Alistair Brownlee helped brother Jonny over finish line in Mexico
When Alistair Brownlee helped brother Jonny over finish line in Mexico
Alistair Brownlee helps his exhausted brother Jonny over the finish line in a dramatic end to the Triathlon World Series in Mexico in 2016.
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Amazon ****** Friday deals include the ***** Max 11 tablet for a record low of $140
Amazon ****** Friday deals include the ***** Max 11 tablet for a record low of $140
The Amazon ***** Max 11 tablet is on ***** for just $140, which is a record low price. This early ****** Friday deal brings the price down from $230, which is a savings of nearly 40 percent. That’s a whole lot of tablet for not so much money.
This is a fairly recent entry into Amazon’s library of tablets, having just been released last year. The ***** Max 11 boasts a large 11-inch LCD screen, a slim aluminum frame and plenty of smart home controls. Of course, it integrates with Alexa for voice controls. This is the cooler and more refined sibling of the ***** 10 and ***** 8 tablets.
Amazon
The tablet uses an octa-core MediaTek processor and weighs just over a pound. There’s a fingerprint sensor, support for WiFi 6 and 4GB of RAM. It runs ***** OS 8, which allows for split-screen and picture-in-picture features. This lets users slam some emails while, say, keeping an eye on a YouTube video.
The tablet integrates with a keyboard and stylus, but those cost extra. There are some minor downsides. First of all, this is an ad-supported model that’ll throw advertisements on the lock screen. In my experience, these are surprisingly unobtrusive. I hate ads and barely notice them. This ***** is also for the 64GB version. That’s not a whole lot of room but the tablet does come with a microSD reader for up to 1TB of additional storage.
Check out all of the latest ****** Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.
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Oppo Announces Android 15-based ColorOS 15 Globally with Find X8 Series: Compatible Models
Oppo Announces Android 15-based ColorOS 15 Globally with Find X8 Series: Compatible Models
ColorOS 15 — the new operating system (OS) for Oppo smartphones — was launched globally on Thursday, a month after its introduction at the Oppo Developer Conference in China. It is based on Android 15 and brings enhancements to visual elements with new themes, detailed animations, and texture interpretation. The update makes it easier to transfer files between Oppo smartphone and iPhone models, taking advantage of the new O+ Connect app. It supports a range of artificial intelligence (AI) features for enhancing images and increasing productivity.
ColorOS 15 Compatible Models
Oppo says ColorOS 15 is available out-of-the-box on the new Find X8 series which comprises the Find X8 and the Find X8 Pro. It will be rolled out to Oppo Find N3, Find N3 Flip, and Reno 11 Pro 5G in November. The entire release timeline and list of models compatible with the ColorOS 15 update is as follows:
Release *******
Smartphone
November 2024
OPPO Find N3, OPPO Find N3 Flip, OPPO Reno 11 Pro 5G
December 2024
OPPO Reno 12 Pro 5G, OPPO Reno 12 5G, OPPO Reno 12 FS 5G,
OPPO Reno 11 5G, OPPO Reno 11 F 5G, OPPO K12x 5G,
OPPO F25 Pro 5G, OPPO F27 5G, OPPO Pad 3 Pro, OPPO Pad 2
Q1 2025
OPPO Find N2 Flip, OPPO Find X5 Pro, OPPO Find X5,
OPPO Reno 10 Pro+ 5G, OPPO Reno 10 Pro 5G, OPPO Reno 11 A,
OPPO F27 Pro+ 5G
Q2 2025
OPPO Reno 12 FS, OPPO Reno 12 F, OPPO Reno 11 FS,
OPPO Reno 8 T, OPPO Reno 8 T 5G, OPPO F23 5G
ColorOS 15 Features
According to Oppo, ColorOS 15 brings a refreshed user interface (UI) and new Flux themes, enabling users to create personalised home and lock screen combinations with layouts, effects, themes, and wallpapers. It features dynamic motion effects for everyday actions such as charging and fingerprint access. The company says ColorOS 15 results in up to 18 percent better response time and up to 40 percent more control stability. This is courtesy of the Luminous Rendering Engine which is claimed to run parallel animation effects.
The update brings an improved Trinity Engine with a smart caching system for optimisation of the CPU and system performance. Oppo says it can improve the overall system smoothness by 22 percent while also increasing the battery life by up to 12 minutes.
A big part of ColorOS 15 is the range of AI features on offer. It gets AI Clarity Enhancer which is claimed to upscale low-resolution images into high-definition snapshots. Further, it comes with AI Unblur for removing blur, AI Eraser for unwanted object removal, AI Best Face and AI Clear Face for correcting and enhancing facial features, and AI Studio for adding artistic styles and textures to photos.
For improved productivity, the update features an AI Toolbox, using which, users can summarise web articles, draft emails, get ideas for social media captions, rephrase text, and get chat suggestions. They can also get translation and document summaries using the AI Docs feature. Oppo says it has enabled AI functionality in the voice recorder which can now transcribe and summarise recordings, while the Notes app also gets an AI assistant. Additionally, ColorOS 15 incorporates Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash large language models (LLMs) across language, assistance, and search, and brings support for Circle to Search.
Another notable addition is the O+ Connect app which makes transferring files, such as photos, videos, and documents between Oppo devices and iPhone models a quick and seamless process, as per the company.
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