Hey.

It was hard not to notice that the design of Mobile-Review.com has changed, we tried to make it more convenient, added a number of features that were previously impossible in principle. The update was overdue a long time ago, we tried different options, you could see that the news section or blog with articles about Android is somewhat different from the main site. It was a kind of zoo of different solutions, we looked and tried what suits us best. We started working on this design two years ago, using trial and error to find the optimal parameters for viewing articles and reviews on both mobile devices and computers. The lack of a mobile version was the classic version of the bootless shoemaker and we were blamed for it many times. Now the design is adaptive for any type of device. It is unusual for our regular readers, someone wants the old look of the site, but everything is changing, and these changes are for the better.

Organizationally, a separate section of Android has disappeared from us, it was once an experiment that dragged on and grew into a separate blog. Now, all the articles that you once searched for on this blog, you see on the main site.

Начиная с января, мы жили на два сайта, все материалы верстались как в старом дизайне, так и новом. Искушение перенести весь багаж материалов в новый дизайн существовало, мы спорили о необходимости этого. Но в конечном итоге посчитали, что делать этого не стоит — статьи остаются по старым адресам, можно прийти и прочитать их как и раньше. В какой-то мере это создает путаницу при поиске, так как задвоенные материалы первой половины года часто показываются в версии для старого дизайна, но постепенно эта проблема изживет себя сама, дайте только время.  Удобнее стало меню, возможность просмотра материалов по авторам и многое другое. Поиск стал общим по всем разделам ресурса, что также порадует вас, плюс можно выбирать конкретные бренды и смотреть все, что есть по ним. Понимаю, что это зачастую непривычно и нужно время, чтобы приспособиться к новым меню, представлению сайта. Но визуально сайт выглядит иначе, что впрочем не отменяет того, что он будет меняться и дальше, причем мы планируем выкатывать все обновления небольшими пакетами, то есть аккумулировать их, в том числе собирая ваши отзывы. Меня удручало то, что в старом дизайне, со старым движком, мы не могли сделать многое, если не сказать больше, надеюсь, что теперь этот вопрос решен. Фронт работ впереди огромный, но мы работы не боимся и только рады ей.

Сказать, что у нас идеальный дизайн, что получилось все, что хотели реализовать, я не могу. Но в сравнении с предыдущей версией сайта, это огромный шаг вперед, с которым мы сильно припозднились, так как хотели сделать хорошо. Надеюсь, что у нас получилось. Возможно стоит сделать отдельный материал, в котором рассказать как работать с сайтом, чтобы раскрыть все его возможности, подумаем об этом на неделе. А пока давайте начнем наш традиционный выпуск, поехали!

Table of Contents

Blocking w4bsitXNUMX-dns.com Roskomnadzor, a very strange story

I know very well the guys with w4bsitXNUMX-dns.com and do not think that they are doing anything wrong in the everyday sense, they have ethics, ideas about life. Therefore, for me, as well as for them, the decision to block the resource by Roskomnadzor sounded like a bolt from the blue.

The lawsuit was filed by National Sports Channel LLC, and this is Match TV, it stated that content that belongs to this company was posted on w4bsitXNUMX-dns.com. The case file can be found here.

The strangeness of the claim lies in the fact that the presented pages contain links to the video of the “Football 1” channel, but they were posted by the user on the site’s forum. There is no doubt that the copyright holder can and should demand the removal of the content that is being distributed illegally. But from my experience with w4bsit4-dns.com and many other resources, I made a simple judgment – resources willingly remove someone else’s content when copyright holders access them. The feedback form, the coordinates of the editorial office – all this is located in a conspicuous place and it is not difficult to find them. In this case, there were no appeals in principle, which is reflected in the lawsuit (by the way, there are some strange links, not even on wXNUMXbsitXNUMX-dns.com).

Обращение ООО “Национальный спортивный канал” адресовано не к сайту 4PDA, а к хостингу, на котором он расположен, — компании Cloudflare Inc. Американский хостинг сталкивается с судебными запросами со всего мира, но никогда не выступает в локальных юрисдикциях. С тем же успехом правообладатель мог писать на деревню дедушке, результат был изначально предопределен. И выглядит это как осознанный шаг, чтобы создать подобную ситуацию.

Никакой попытки связаться с 4PDA и администрацией ресурса, никаких писем на английском языке в адрес хостинга с описанием проблемы, словно результат должен был быть иным. В конце марта суд вынес решение, но о нем никто в 4PDA не мог узнать, так как в качестве ответчика они не выступали. Более того, в формулировке суда говорится, что ответчик не явился, а это — тот самый американский хостинг.

Можно долго и упорно пытаться объяснить, что “Матч ТВ” имел все права требовать удаления контента, который принадлежит им. Но выглядит все, как ловушка, в которую попал сайт, хотя ничего специально его сотрудники не делали. Можно экстраполировать эту ситуацию на любой ресурс, где есть пользовательские комментарии, нечто подобное возможно с кем угодно, и никто не застрахован от такой ситуации. Суд был весьма формальным, по букве закона, но никак не по духу. Никто не пытался разобраться в тяжести правонарушения, причинах и следствиях.

For w4bsit4-dns.com, this is certainly quite a tangible blow, the site moved to the mirror w4bsitXNUMX-dns.com, which is unknown to most visitors. In all such cases, the audience falls, it is inevitable. And this is a significant blow to the resource, since the audience means the fulfillment of advertising contracts, the number of displays of banner ads, and much more. This is something that has been accumulated over the years, and you can lose it instantly, you are simply thrown back in time. Now is a very difficult time for any media, without exception, size does not matter. And what happens with wXNUMXbsitXNUMX-dns.com, the resource will not kill, but will greatly complicate his life in a short-term distance. I saw several frostbitten comments in which people were happy about this event, I cringe – a neighbor’s cow died, joy for the whole Ivanovskaya.

The problem of blocking resources in a similar style, when the court does not understand the issue, is that formally it is possible to deliver problems to any site. And the cost of creating such problems is minimal, and the damage that is inflicted on the resource is maximal. I think this approach is wrong, since even the potential harm is less than that which causes a court decision for a resource, a team that works there, and, in the end, taxes that go to the state’s expense. This is clearly a losing position for the state and one should not look for logic in it. The same Roskomnadzor in this situation is a mechanism, they did not make a decision on blocking, did not implement it, it was done by the court. And it is possible that in the letter of the law they are right, but the whole situation looks like a phantasmagoria in which the copyright holder acts as an elephant in a china shop.

In my opinion, a simple and understandable mechanism is needed here, namely, the appeal of victims to the owners of the resource, in any such situation. After all, it is not possible to write to grandfather about the village, but why do that? You will not get any sensible answer and solution to the problem, unless you want to annoy the resource and do it on purpose. I do not have any special knowledge about this story, only what everyone knows, the situation looks exactly like this, and according to the guys with w4bsitXNUMX-dns.com, there are no pitfalls. Just like many people from our industry, as soon as I found out about the situation, they immediately offered any help and support, but now the issue is decided exclusively by lawyers, it is impossible to do anything else. This text was not written by me at the request of anyone, I feel this way and consider it important to say it, but at the same time discuss it for the future, so that such situations simply do not happen in such an ugly way.

Petersburg sketches, a little about technology on the run

Even when breaking out to St. Petersburg for a few days, you notice little things that surprise. For example, before Sapsan drove up to the Moscow train station, an elderly couple asks to order a taxi for them to the hotel. The hotel is located quite close, but the very request to order a taxi not through the application seems surprising, we are so accustomed to the convenience of a smartphone and the speed of solving problems that archaic methods hit our minds.

Another example. A street cafe, a young man sits at a table, he has one AirPods in his ear, but he speaks on the phone, which is leaning against the other ear. Either the earpiece is discharged and the ear is just a holder for it, or something else has happened. But it all looks extremely strange.

Crowds of tourists, many take photographs of sights, this is not the first time I have done this, as if for the first time, some little things emerge that previously eluded sight. The Manege hosts an excellent exhibition of Russian sculpture, correctly exposed lighting, interesting works and guides that lead their groups past the busts and statues.

Potemkin-Tavrichesky is depicted as a statesman, holding a manuscript in his hand. For a modern child, this looks unambiguous – a lightsaber from Star Wars and nothing else. The mixing of reality and fiction is happening before my eyes, one penetrates into the other.

Erarta has excellent exhibitions, face recognition has been operating for about a year, just stand at the turnstile and it will open, your name will be written on the screen – of course, if you purchased a subscription in advance. I once wrote about it and said that it was a great thing. Now we can say that this has become the norm and is now not perceived as something special. We began to get used to the wonders of technology very quickly; they fit into the fabric of our being. One of the skills of a modern person is not to be surprised at the opening opportunities, and also to quickly adapt to them. And this makes us different from our parents, the speed of their adaptation is noticeably lower. It is difficult for them to pick up a smartphone, study it, they slowly immerse themselves in what these toys can do. Of course, generalization is superfluous here, since there are elderly people who behave completely differently. In Moscow, in a store near my home, I often see grandmothers paying with a smartphone or smart watch at the checkout. Recently, while walking, I saw two grandmothers sitting on a bench, talking to someone via video link.

Контраст с каноническими бабушками, что раньше сидели на лавочках и общались исключительно друг с другом, разительный. Технологии, которые они получили позволяют дотянуться куда угодно и до кого угодно. Не удивлюсь, если пожилые люди активно общаются в сервисах случайных знакомств, ищут как разнообразить свое общение (если что, то я не про Tinder, а про сервисы общения и только).

Peter is a fabulous and crazy city at the same time, walking in the center, we saw a young man walking his tank! The radio-controlled model was driving along the street, he followed her a few meters away, as if it were a pet. The men standing nearby asked if this tank could shoot, one of them immediately got a shot in the leg, could not restrain himself and swore in surprise.

It is easy to imagine that very soon someone will be walking along the streets not living pets, but mechanical toys that copy real life. A person is able to become attached even to a piece of iron, to endow it with human features. Many people already call certain household appliances by names, for some reason very often names are given to robotic vacuum cleaners that crawl around the house in search of dust. It is possible that in this case their mobility is captivating, the fact that they know how to move around the apartment. I know that many people give nicknames to cars, but none of my acquaintances name a refrigerator. Either the limitedness of the world and its perception in my case, or is it still mobility – an important factor for endowing an object with a proper name. How do you think?

New from Xiaomi, Xiaomi Mi 11 series, Mi 11 Lite and Mi 11 Lite 5G

Models of the 11th series from Xiaomi have long been known, but in Russia they were officially presented last week. The intrigue remained regarding the cost of these devices and there is something to talk about. So Xiaomi Mi 11 is the company’s flagship Snapdragon 888, with a 108-megapixel camera, the best body materials.

The price of this smartphone is 85990 rubles, while on the gray market it costs 62-65 thousand rubles and these are two big differences, as they like to say in Odessa. With an official cost of 86 thousand rubles, Xiaomi climbs into the segment of flagships from Apple and Samsung, where almost no one is waiting for the company. Sales of previous years show that no one can gain a foothold in the segment above 50 thousand rubles, Samsung’s marketing budgets, as well as Apple’s image, burn out competitors with a hot iron. And therefore, it is impossible to say that there are any chances. I think that is why the Russian office of Xiaomi did not even try to achieve significant sales, and the prices are close to the gray market, this simply does not make sense. The model will be sold in insignificant volumes, which means you can earn a little money on it.

The Mi 11 Lite model is a completely different matter, look at its appearance.

The Russian cost of this device is 30990 rubles (8/128 GB). The appearance of this device is very similar to two bestsellers at once – the Galaxy A52, as well as the iPhone 11 (even more the second device than the first). The similarity is not only in pictures, but also in life, very similar aesthetics.

Functionally, this smartphone clearly outperforms the iPhone 11 in many parameters (it does not have protection against water). With the Galaxy A52, the advantage is not so noticeable, each model has its own pros and cons, they are roughly equal at their cost.

And look at the gray market, where the prices for this device are slightly lower, MI 11 Lite in the official retail is equal to the gray market. And this means a simple thing, that this model will be key in promoting it on the market, a stake will be placed on it. In my opinion, this is absolutely the right move, since it is precisely such models in the region of 30 thousand rubles that become the most popular in this crisis, this is the very price / quality ratio. And the necessary competitors for the A-series from Samsung, which eat up a share in the company’s sales. While the Mi 11 Lite 5G version is again an assortment offer that is not needed by everyone, it is not the most popular model. Xiaomi’s lineup turned out to be correct and timely. From the ridiculous, as soon as people do not name the company in Russian, and I myself am a sinner, I can use two readings. But, perhaps, for the first time a journalist of one of the federal newspapers pronounced this name as “Saomi”, at the first moment he could not even understand who she was talking about. In the piggy bank of Xiaomi names that may be.

LeEco – sometimes they come back

Мы живем во времена, когда репутация не стоит ровным счетом ничего. Поэтому даже заведомо провальные проекты, построенные на лжи и обмане, по мошенническим схемам, могут спокойно возвращаться на рынок через какое-то время. Конечно, память у людей не как у золотых рыбок, но видимо расчет на то, что она очень коротка.

В России с большой помпой LeEco запустили в 2016 году, денег на нативные размещения не жалели, они лились рекой. Тогда же написал забавный текст, где высмеивал эту ситуацию, равно говорил о том, что больше года этот мошеннический проект в России не проживет. Огреб тогда полную панамку, что только мне не говорили и как только не объясняли мою позицию. Но неожиданно оказалось, что я был прав от начала и до конца.

И вот 18 мая компания планирует возвращаться на рынок, вначале на китайский. Напомню, что в планах был даже собственный электрокар, который на китайской презентации выкатывали на руках, так как макет не умел ездить! Ошибки прототипа! Что будет сейчас боюсь даже представить, но горбатого исправит только могила. Веры в то, что LeEco сможет что-то сделать, нет.

This story is interesting to me in a different context, because LeEco really managed to break through the information noise and fix their name in the minds of people (with what connotation is a separate question). Therefore, the use of the same name is quite justified, it is a resource that plays into the hands of its creators. And about the debts of 2017, bankruptcy, unfulfilled obligations and other “little things” have long been forgotten. The new army of partners is waiting for opportunities to earn money, the main thing is that they should be given money. Exist in our time the institution of reputation and these guys would not even try to launch the same brand, but diligently avoided mentioning it. But alas and ah, the reality is completely different.

There are three types of lies: lies, blatant lies, and statistics. ROMIR study

Found in the mail a press release from Romir, it says that Russians have begun to use applications such as Yandex.Navigator and Tinkoff more often. Percentage figures and other information are given, which many publications take as they are, without any attempt to realize what exactly is offered to them.

Let’s take a look at what the methodology for this study looks like. Here is what is written on the Romir page: “The data is based on Romir single source Panel* – a unique product of the Romir team aimed at cross-analysis of all types of consumption: consumption of goods and services, media (TV and radio) and Internet consumption (desktop, mobile and applications). The study of Internet consumption on the desktop covers 40 people (000 households), as does the Romir Consumer Panel. Research on TV, radio, mobile Internet (Android) and applications – 15 respondents in Russian cities with a population of 000 or more. Such a size of the urban sample is dictated by the demand in the market and based on the demands of current customers, however, if necessary and the development of the market, it is possible to expand these parameters ”.

What puzzles me is that the study in this case is being conducted on a limited sample of 4000 people. The reason is that Romir does not have access to the statistics of operators, or the creators of operating systems, and therefore cannot see the entire market. Designing a sample for about 60 million people based on 4000 respondents does not work and is extremely far from reality. But the signs with the groups of respondents “Buyers of Milk”, “Buyers of Coca-Cola 0.5 liters” were especially delivered.

What’s the logic? Why do people every day produce meaningless information that has no practical meaning? This is a great way to create constant PR-reasons for the press, but there is no point in these “studies”, since they are baseless. I thought that maybe I didn’t understand something and decided to check how they use applications in Russia, how their consumption has changed. A striking but expected result – almost nothing. The audience of these applications remained more or less stable, there was no noticeable rise or fall. The fluctuations caught by ROMIR belong to a small group of respondents and not to the market as a whole. And in the world there have long been excellent tools to measure the consumption of certain applications, how actively people use them. And for this, polling respondents is the worst possible way in principle. Although maybe I’m unfair and just don’t see the full picture behind individual trees. If so, please describe to me what practical meaning such research has, how it can be used, and whether there is such a use. Thanks in advance.

PS Have a good working week, bright sun, the same sunny mood and more walks in the fresh air. Good luck in good deeds.