Content

1. Quarantine consequences
2. HP presentation – new laptops
3. Realme X50 Pro
4. How Facebook won’t read messages
5. Instead of a conclusion

Quarantine consequences

Obviously, this year (I want to believe that the story of the coronavirus will end in 2020) humanity will change more significantly than in the past two decades. And many will have to get used to living in a new reality. As practice shows, today most people fail to clearly distinguish between work and life. And in general, manage your time.

At the presentation, HP shared a 2019 study, according to which people working remotely work an average of 1.4 working days more per month. By the way, this is bad for a number of reasons. First, if you work in a team, then there is always a bottleneck effect, and the team usually works at the speed of the slowest employee. Secondly, such processing, according to Beeline, where they have been systematically working on transferring employees to a remote mode for a long time, lead to an accelerated burnout. Accordingly, quick-shooters “create” only nervous tension in the team and exhaust themselves.

After work, you need to rest. Unfortunately, this is also a problem. A recent study by SleepStandards of Netflix subscribers in May found that 75% end up not having enough time to sleep at least 7 hours.

And 55% watch Netflix more than two hours a day. The flip side of the fact that the series is released in its entirety, and not a series once a week.

The problem is that quarantine is a sufficient period of time for the brain to form a habit of working for a long time, and to clog free time watching Netflix, sacrificing sleep. Such a combination is guaranteed to lead to psychological stress, which will result in something.

HP presentation – new laptops

In addition to the story from the previous paragraph that teleworkers recycle, HP also talked about new premium business-oriented laptops.

In laptops, chips appeared, sharpened for workers sitting at home:

• 5G or 4G connection for a stable internet connection
• HP realized that many people work at night, so they improved the screens by removing the blue color even more and making the backlight more suitable for working in the dark, so as not to dazzle. At the same time, the maximum brightness of 1000 nits has not gone anywhere.
• Fingers crossed, but it seems that the new laptops will get webcams that are not scary to look at – a good viewing angle and an adequate picture, and not the typical 720p
• Especially true for those working at home. A noise cancellation system has appeared, which, in theory, should save you from barking a dog or children’s screams. Of course, it’s not you to save, but your Zoom or Skype interlocutors.
• And once again the battery life has increased.

An interesting laptop for professionals appeared in the Z-series. We have already published a review about the HP Elite Dragonfly (“Elite dragonfly”). This is the laptop for those looking for a lightweight and long-lasting device. Now HP has introduced the Elite Firefly in 14 “and 15” diagonals.

Interestingly, they decided to use the Nvidia Quadro P520 as a video card. The interest is due to the fact that this is a professional video card, but it was indicated on the slides that it will show itself in games as well. In modern top-end games, the Quadro P520 produces an acceptable number of frames only at low settings (1280 by 720 pixels, the screen resolution must be set). Rather, it looks like an attempt to change shoes on the fly. We were preparing a laptop for offices, but then suddenly you have to sit at home. Well, they can play then!

And in conclusion, I want to tell you either about a funny or a sad moment. A separate slide was devoted to the story that new laptops can withstand cleaning efficiently. Body materials withstand at least 1000 alcohol cleanings. The body will not deteriorate and the paint will not peel off. Of course, it’s nice when you know you won’t ditch your laptop with a cleaning agent, but it’s still somehow sad.

Realme X50 Pro

Realme is statistically the fastest growing brand in the world. Starting in the second quarter of 2018, realme has rapidly reached the level of 7-10 million smartphones per quarter. For example, in Q1 2020 the company sold 7.2 million devices, which is significantly more than 2.8 million in Q1 2019.

The previous flagship of realme was the realme X2 Pro model on Snapdragon 855, presented, by the way, not so long ago – in October 2019. 7 months later realme is releasing the new flagship X50 Pro. There are questions about the names. There was realme X (mid-range on Snapdragon 710), then X2, and now X50. The love of the Chinese for large numbers is evident. At this rate for next year X1000 will be.

Briefly about the technical characteristics:

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 (7nm +), Adreno 650 graphics
• Memory: 6/8/12 GB LPDDR5 / 128/256 GB UFC 3.0, no memory card slot
• Screen: 6,44 inches, Super AMOLED, 1080 x 2400 pixels, 20: 9 ratio, 409 ppi density, 90 Hz, HDR10 +, 100% DCI-P3
• OS: Android 10 shell realme UI 1.0
• SIM-cards: 2 nano-SIM
• Cameras:
  • 64 MP, f / 1.8, 26mm (wide), 1 / 2.0 ″, 0.8µm, PDAF
  • 8 MP, f / 2.3, 119 °, 16mm (ultra wide angle)
  • 12 MP, 54mm, f / 2.5, (tele)
  • 2 MP, f / 2.4, (depth)
  • Video recording: 4K @ 30 / 60fps, 1080p @ 30/60/240 / 960fps; gyro-EIS
• Front-camera:
  • 32 MP, f / 2.5, 29mm, 1 / 3.0 ″, 1.0µm
  • 8 MP, f / 2.4, (ultra wide angle)
• Communication: GSM / CDMA / HSPA / EVDO / LTE / 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1 AptX HD, dual band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, NavIC, NFC, USB Type-C
• Battery: Li-Po 4 200 mAh, fast charging 65 W, 100% – 35 minutes
• Sensors: in-screen fingerprint scanner, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, lighting, compass
• Other: no 3.5 mm jack, no water resistant, stereo speakers
• Materials: glass and aluminum frame
• Dimensions: 159 x 74.2 x 8.9 mm, weight 205 g
• Price: 37 rubles for 000/12 GB (translation from yuan at the rate of May 128)

The smartphone is geared towards gamers. The presentation showed how well you can play PUBG at 90 frames per second.

Along the way, realme announced Android TVs in sizes 32 (1366 × 768) and 43 (Full HD) inches with a peak brightness of 400 nits. The TV has a chipset from MediaTek, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage, there is Google Play. Android 9, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, 3 HDMI. 2 USB Type-A, DVB-T2, Ethernet. 2 x 12 W speakers + 2 x tweeters, Dolby Audio support. The younger version is $ 171, the older one is $ 290.

Looking at the new flagship realme, I involuntarily once again admire Apple’s strategic genius. The company went into the super-premium segment, pushing up prices for iPhones even before it hit the mainstream. Three years after the iPhone X was announced, it is clear that this was absolutely the right move.

Previously, bloody battles took place in the very budget segment, where no one is looking at brands, then active actions began in the “Medium-” price segment, and this year the trouble has spread to almost all smartphones up to 40 rubles.

In recent years, the world has lived in an era of economic growth that encouraged people to spend money. As a result, a bubble blew up in the electronics markets, when the price of smartphones went over $ 1, and every time after I see how much premium TVs from Samsung cost, I lie down, look at the ceiling and tell the girl that these are not tears, but simply something horrible to the eye.

However, with every rise, there is a fall, and every bubble is bound to burst. Apple business analysts noticed this 3 years ago. Brought prices to heaven. After that, they competently survived the “consumer shock”. They did not reduce prices directly, but they did a lot of marketing campaigns that made it possible to buy devices cheaper. Yes, people paid less, but they got used to the new numbers on the price tag.

See how the situation turns out. The conventional realme X50 comes to the market with good characteristics and at an attractive price. The consumer, willy-nilly, subconsciously compares with other phones and thinks: is it necessary to overpay for the flagship?

Apple’s main merit is that they pulled the iPhone out of the smartphone category, making it a status item. Here are the ballpoint pens, and here is the Montblanc. And you can say as much as you like that a StarWalker pen cannot cost under 40 thousand rubles. And these pens for 100 rubles are no worse. Do you want a beautiful and status one? Here is Parker! There are for 1,5 thousand, and there is for 17 thousand rubles! But not for 37! And no matter how the market and the economy sagged, there are still connoisseurs of premium products who will buy a ballpoint pen for 37 thousand rubles. So it will be with the iPhone.

Other manufacturers have remained in the smartphone market, where they will have to deal with a new reality in the form of brands like realme, which by their actions pull the average price of smartphones down.

The most interesting point is how smartphone manufacturers will resist. They used to have innovative technologies on their side that could justify the cost. And the market lived by the rule that the most top-end in the flagships, and six months or a year later, technological solutions descend to the lower price segments. Think of the Pocophone F1. The flagships received the Snapdragon 845 at the beginning of the year, and 8 months later the Pocophone received it. Now the time gap has practically disappeared. Xiaomi launched the Mi 10 at the same time as the Samsung Galaxy. And the Mi 10, in terms of technology, is in no way inferior to the top flagships. The same fast memory, 8K shooting, the same Snapdragon 865. Realme X50 Pro on the top chipset comes out 3.5 months after the main Android announcements of the year.

The recession and fall of the economy will lead to the fact that the top components will become more affordable. If earlier, at the start of production of new chipsets, there could be a shortage, then with a drop in demand, Qualcomm faces the question of organizing sales. And then you have to sell to everyone.

In conclusion, I will say that the market has been relatively stable for too long. But note that gradually all the previous leaders disappeared from the radar. HTC, LG, Sony, Nokia. Even Huawei was asked to exit. There is only Samsung left. The question is: for how long?

How Facebook won’t read messages

Parent company Facebook remains the world’s premier social platform. It includes Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram. As a result, the company collects all the bigwigs related to privacy, trolls, cyberbullying, scammers and pornography. Also, the governments of all countries are pressing and publicly demanding moderation and backdoors for special services. By the way, the main reason for such public scolding is that the user base is too huge and neither Facebook nor the special services can keep track of it. However, the latter cannot admit this, so they are looking for a scapegoat.

Facebook is conducting a global experiment where artificial intelligence will warn users that the message they receive is either a trap from scammers or offensive content. At the same time, Facebook claims that AI will only examine the metadata, and not the message text itself. Facebook claims the new feature will work when end-to-end encryption is introduced. Unfortunately, the company did not provide details on how the technology was implemented. But it looks interesting.

Instead of a conclusion

The Epic Games Store continues its global sale. Some games have discounts of up to 75%. But the main highlight is that everyone is given 650 rubles coupons, which can be used when buying any games from 800 rubles, even if the game has already been discounted by the sale. After each purchase, a new coupon is issued.

And in the store, they still consistently give out top games for free. GTA 5 was handed out for free in the past weeks, and now Civilization VI. To be honest, I don’t really understand the economics of such frenzied discounts and giveaways. But I recommend everyone to look into the store and get some help.

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