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breakingarrows · 2 years ago

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Ratalaika Games, Trophy Bait, and Storefront Gatekeeping

Prior to Sony updating their PlayStation Network trophy levels in late 2020 I was what the internet, in its eternal and mature approach to naming conventions, would call a “trophy whore.” Essentially this meant that there were games in my library that were bought and played purely for the trophies. During high school I was a loyal PlayStation fan, refusing to give in to the costs of an Xbox 360 (a console where the online functions required a subscription and the wifi was an additional adapter??) and was finally rewarded in the summer of 2009. After the trade in credit of a bunch of my old hardware and software being given to Game Crazy (RIP) was combined with the cash gained from my birthday I was finally able to purchase a used PlayStation 3 console. This was only a month before the slim version was announced at a lower price point (RIP). I wasn’t mad, I was happy to finally have a machine to play the games I had purchased prior to even owning the console: SOCOM Confrontation (for that sweet Bluetooth headset), Resistance 2, Infamous, and I think Killzone 2. Thanks to the PlayStation 3 dominating my adolescence, and the dominance of the PlayStation 4 over the market during my time at DualShockers, I accrued quite a large library of PlayStation games, all of which were, post-2008, mandated to have trophies. The correlation meant I was top of the ladder amongst my friends when it came to our trophy levels. Occasionally someone would threaten my standing but I would break out the excel spreadsheet and jump ahead to secure my position. Due to this there are some oddities and “Trophy whore” games in my library that wouldn’t exist there if not for their easy-to-earn trophies. For the OG Podcast Beyond fans, I have yet to add Hannah Montana: The Movie: The Game to my library and sadly probably never will now that the trophy fever has long since left my system.

Ratalaika Games S.L. is a publisher infamous for helping put many, many games onto the PlayStation storefront which serve as easy ways to earn trophies. During the final trophy fever I purchased and got the platinum trophy in Burly Men at Sea, Deep Space Rush, Jack N' Jill DX, Mochi Mochi Boy, Super Weekend Mode, Mekabolt, Milo's Quest, and My Name is Mayo. Of these, 75% were published by Ratalaika. Each takes under an hour of playtime to earn the platinum, which by itself earns you 300 points in the PlayStation Network trophy system, exponentially more than a bronze trophy and over three times as many as single gold trophy.

The Platinum Trophy was one of Sony’s contributions, and improvements, to the meta-game system started by Microsoft with their Xbox 360 Achievement system. Players on the Xbox 360 would earn “achievements” worth varying levels of numerical points and obtained after accomplishing specific tasks within a game. Some were tied to story completion, others were merely a number to reach in terms of kills or headshots, and some required outside-the-box thinking and made you play the game in a way you never would have if not for the carrot-on-a-stick of earning an Achievement. A single Xbox 360 game had 1000 points in Achievements to distribute, but players who earned all 1000 had no additional acknowledgement besides the 1000/1000 displayed next to the title when viewing your online profile.

Sony dragged their feet when it came to replicating this system, finally introducing trophies in July 2008 and eventually making it mandatory for every title released on their platform the following year. Pretty much every game simply replicated their Achievements and Trophy lists, the only difference being trophies were assigned grades: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, the last of which was only obtained if you earned every other available trophy. The platinum icon became a badge of honor for PlayStation gamers and became shorthand for 100%-ing a game. “Did you get the platinum?” “Are you going to get the platinum?” “How are the trophies/achievements?” In addition to the platinum, Sony also had the trophies earned feed into an RPG-like display of your trophy level. This level system became a quick reference to understand just how hardcore a particular gamer was. Given that I grew up within the PlayStation trophy ecosystem, I’m not sure if the Xbox 360 system of a singular number count of all Achievements was as quick to understand comparatively. It was the devaluation of this leveling system in their 2020 update, extending the levels from 100 to 1000, that entirely killed any trophy hunting enthusiasm that remained within me. Despite my personal burnout late in the game, an entire genre of YouTube video was born out of the chase for Achievements/Trophies. Naturally commercial incentive to put out games with easy trophies as a way to draw in that crowd for a quick cash injection followed.

Some of the early “easy trophy games” were art titles such as .detuned and Linger in Shadows, two games I’ve written about earlier this year and noted that part of their appeal was that they were short and the trophies were easy. This was before games distributed solely on the PlayStation Network digitally could give out a platinum trophy, but nevertheless their cheap cost and low time investment required made them magnets for trophy hunters, myself included. I may never have actually purchased and played these two titles were it not for their constant mention on lists of easy trophies, and I can’t help but think many others likely followed the same route I did in purchasing and playing them with a trophy guide for a quick increase in trophy levels.

Others subjected to trophy fever look down on this method of trophy hunting, as it requires no skill and is mainly a cheapening of what is supposed to be, in their mind, a pure tradition of completing challenging requirements to score that sweet platinum. Which is to say, it's a perception issue, an not a real problem afflicting those who game. These titles are just as readily available for them as they were for me, but they are convinced it's wrong, and that publishers and developers putting out breezy games with platinums that can be earned in under an hour are somehow making the platform worse.

As the wall separating game creators from the audience grew smaller and smaller as digital distribution platforms became larger and larger, so too did the influx of “shovelware,” particularly when it came to Valve’s de facto monopoly on PC distribution via Steam. Due to a higher cost and more stringent certification process required to be published onto Sony and Microsoft’s platforms, the PlayStation and Xbox marketplaces haven’t become quite as full of asset flips or bear the stink of Steam Greenlight’s worst offenders. With critics of Ratalaika you get close to the same mindset of those that cry out against platform holders' lack of quality control for their platform, but does it really matter?

Complaints lobbied towards companies such as Valve are mainly that they allow just about any game to be published on their platform. Valve originally would not allow and remove games featuring prominent nudity and sexual content, a policy which picked up in mainstream attention in 2018 as it seemed visual novels were being specifically targeted more so than any other type of game, even if they had already been modified to fall in line with Steam’s vague guidelines.

Valve eventually relented and began allowing all ranges of nudity within games to be published onto Steam, much to the chagrin of some online forum posters.

[MuForceShoelace]: It's not sex as a general concept that is annoying. It's steam going from relatively well curated to all the feeds being full of clearly junk level shovelware that people download because it's all "anime hentai sex girl feet simulator"

[Zombiedrd]: Absolutely with you there. The shovelware isn't just porn, that is just what catches your eye. Turn off all filters and look at new. There is so much cheap shovelware trash. Steam needs a much better QA.

[deleted]: I've got the opposite take. I'd rather Steam/Valve be as hands off about what's on their platform as possible as they've shown serious inconsistencies in the past. Give a robust series of preferences for people to pick and choose what they want to see and allow for external curation or recommendations.

Comments such as the above are pretty common when it comes to complaints about Steam, and over time, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo’s digital storefronts being inundated with “cheap shovelware trash.” What actually determines whether a singular game is “cheap shovelware trash” is a subjective determination. There are oddities, such as the infamous saga of Sterling v. Digital Homicide, but is a significant portion of Steam’s userbase being tricked into purchasing games such as those? There were 55 games listed as released on November 23, 2023, over a week ago as of the time of this writing. Of those, only 5 have more than 30 reviews, a decent indicator that more than 1,000 people have purchased/played it. Sand:box (267), Cyber Avenger (50), Easy Red 2: Ardennes 1940 & 1944 (47), Retro Commander (181), and Metal Breaker (30). A large majority of releases had none, or less than five, reviews listed, and a very small, or simply nonexistent, user base. Does any significantly sized group browse Steam by their “All Products sorted by Release Date” page? And for those who do, how many are engaging with anything beyond those that have been assigned the thumbs up icon, indicating mostly positive reviews? An icon which can easily be hovered over to view a pop up of exactly how many reviews have been posted for said title.

As user vedder charts using MobyGames API, there are now more games being released than at any point in the past, with the drop off post 2017 not being the result of less games being released but so many that the website cannot keep up with all of the new releases. With this increase in volume so too does the increase in games many will refer to as shovelware, but this is not a real problem. Filters and storefront curation means that only the most marketed, most reviewed, and best selling titles are going to be seen by a majority of people browsing the storefront. Only freaks like me keep bookmarks for the new releases for each platform out of curiosity of what might be the Next Big Thing, if I’m even paying attention at any given time.

People become irrationally angry and annoyed that Valve and other store owners refuse to do anything about all the “crap” clogging the store, even though its something an insignificant portion of their overall user base cares about. Even if they were to attempt to curate and filter out the “crap”, how would they do so? Crap games are subjective affairs, and we have seen time and time again how the general internet userbase will manipulate and skew aggregated reviews in petty protest. There is also the problem of quantity of releases: you simply can’t keep up with the amount of games being released. Valve was already criticized for failure to keep to any standard when it came to their prior implementation of banning nude games, especially when it came to those that featured no more and less explicit nudity than those seen in much more popular titles that would never be threatened with removal.

The introduction of smartphone storefronts and the dissolution of any barrier to publishing a game on PC did not introduce anything new to the industry when it comes to “shovelware”. People complaining about this topic have existed forever. The hubris of corporations, not the lack of quality control, is what led to the video game crash of 1983. Nintendo’s “Seal of Quality” during the NES era meant jack shit to the quality of the game and simply meant it was officially licensed by Nintendo to work on their system. Certification on current consoles is a system to ensure the game won’t brick your console, though recently we’ve seen even that process can be exempted from larger publishers.

It is not in the commercial interest for publishers to start trimming the quantity of content form their storefronts as well, considering they accrue a hefty income amount by getting a cut of every sale on their platform. The transition from physical to digital was a boon to developers as they no longer had to engage with publishers for the complex and expensive process of retail and could instead simply upload their game to the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Marketplace. This also meant that those digital store owners could better control and collect money on products sold. This is similar, and more controllable, to how developers and publishers had to pay the console owner a license fee to get their discs printed and working on that console. However with digital stores, the owner gets a larger cut than they do via licensing. The standard revenue split is taking 30% of each purchase, the exceptions being Itch.io which is 10%, and Microsoft who changed theirs from 30% to 12% for PC sales in 2021. This was following in Epic’s footsteps as when they launched the Epic Game Store it was with a 88/12 revenue split as a marketing strategy to attract developers, and therefore users, to its new platform. Due to this, why would any of them reduce the amount of games being published on their platform? As every purchase gets them some funding, and if the server costs of maintaining an old platform becomes too much they can just shut it down forever (or walk back their announcement like Sony and the PlayStation 3/Vita storefronts).

Twitch recently conjured an entirely new competitor due to their content moderation policies against gambling. In October 2022 Twitch updated their policy prohibiting gambling from being streamed on their site. Due to the lucrative nature of being sponsored by gambling sites, a lot of streamers were unhappy about this and Kick was able to wiggle its way onto the streaming market by being a much less regulated platform. Taken from a recent New York Times profile on the platform, “Kick, an Australian company, has flourished thanks to an unusual business model. It offers eyebrow-raising multimillion dollar contracts to top streamers and takes just 5 percent of all streamers’ earnings, compared with a 50-50 split on Twitch, helping lure away both top Twitch stars and rank-and-file content creators who say they’ve seen a bump in earnings. But the site itself is something of a loss leader for Stake, the online casino backed by the same ownership and frequently promoted on Kick. By offering them sizable endorsement deals with Stake, Kick has also attracted mainstream stars like the rapper Drake.” Where there is money to be made, someone will always be there to reap the cash. Steam banning hentai games isn’t going to eliminate them from the internet, but it would also simply hurt their business, and again, is this really such a big problem? Whereas Twitch’s banning of gambling is a moral good given how evil the gambling industry is, the previous complaint lobbied at Twitch over their “failure” to regulate “hot tub” streamers, was mostly petty men mad that women in bathing suits were “stealing” their views and diminishing the quality of the streaming platform (as if watching people react to YouTube videos was inherently more valuable content).

The only moral obligation the stores currently adhere to are legal ones, mainly applied towards the banning of certain depictions of minors. What is lawful may not always be moral, but regulating content by laws above all else is currently the only reliable way to maintain a storefront today. All other filtering attempts will fall into a subjective trap in which a small group will hold control over what gets made readily available for everyone. We already have a contingent of annoying posters who scream out “censorship!” anytime a game is changed from its original release, even though these changes are being submitted by the creators themselves out of a commercial interest, steadily eroding the power of that censorship claim. Leaving the fate of releases in the hands of a few risks too much given human whims. We all know how unbalanced the scales are when it comes to depictions of violence compared to depictions of anything sexual in nature in both games and other media. And let us not fool ourselves into thinking minority groups wouldn’t be unfairly targeted by these policies. The only morally objectionable content I’ve seen in my time paying attention was the infamous game Hatred in 2014. At the time I believed the best course at the time was to simply not pay it any attention and hold to that today. Instead, it was subject to numerous articles and op-eds and became a martyr for any and all self-described “transgressive” titles. Gatekeeping content being published online is much more trouble than it is worth, and pleasing people is not the sort of policy you want to engage in when your platform exists online and has innumerable users and commentators.

Some will see my platinum trophies for Deep Space Rush, Jack N' Jill DX, Mochi Mochi Boy, Super Weekend Mode, Mekabolt, Milo's Quest in my profile and think these are cheap trophies compared to the real platinum trophies I have for DOOM (2016), Dead Space 2, and Control, but who cares? These are insignificant problems. This metagame that has existed for over a decade has done little to change the landscape of gaming, simply creating a new niche of games being published with the intent not to create a work of art but to entice those with trophy fever to purchase and play them for a quick boost. Is this really that different from games made purely for profit than art? Reddit and their ilk online will always complain about publishers exploiting players, whether through online passes, season passes, microtransactions, loot boxes, gacha titles, battle passes, and whatever the next monetization strategy will be. Some of these are real problems, such as those games which prey on gambling addicts, but a publisher like Ratalaika or those on Steam publishing hentai puzzle games are not worth the time and energy. And on a larger scale, gate keeping releases on a platform level will never be satisfactory, and risks blocking the release of worthwhile titles due to a perverted sense of morality or quality control. We’ve seen the former bear fruit in the form of the Hays Code of the film industry in its early life, and the latter is simply unsustainable. You are going to be okay seeing Zombies Wars and Soulash 2 and hundreds of other titles on the list of Steam releases, we will get through this and be stronger for it.

#video games #writing #ratalaika games #steam #trophies

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garamonder · 6 years ago

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Said and Done

Peter pays Pepper and Morgan a visit for the first time since the funeral. Set just before Far From Home.

“Of course, Peter,” she'd said over the phone, “we'd love to see you.”

Peter had to give her the benefit of the doubt and hope she meant it. He couldn't blame her if she didn't. He hadn't seen Ms. Potts since the funeral. Even then they had spoken only briefly, Peter almost afraid to look at Morgan as he mumbled his condolences, shoving down his own misery and forcing himself to smile at the four-year-old. Her big eyes stared back, unsure of this stranger who'd shown up to her father's memorial. He must have appeared an adult to her.

Ms. Potts seemed to know Peter better than he would have expected, having never actually interacted with her before that day. But she'd also had a five-year head start on getting to know him. Peter kind of wondered at that until Ms. Potts told him that Tony had often talked about Peter to her.

For some reason it surprised him. Maybe because he'd spent more time dead than as Mr. Stark's 'intern' and Tony was not such a stranger to tragedy that Peter would've assumed he'd take up the lion's share of Mr. Stark's grief.

Then again, he'd recognized the look on Tony's face when Peter began to stagger toward him on Titan. It was the same instant, deep dread Peter was sure he'd worn himself at the sight of police lights flashing red and blue one night, and the horrified crowd gathered near a car he recognized as Uncle Ben's.

Peter was used to being the one standing graveside. He felt robbed, of course. But it was nothing next to losing a husband and father.

Peter hadn't explained his reason for visiting Ms. Potts and Morgan. Holding his cell and nervously fiddling with some machinery on his desk, he'd called with the intention of explaining everything then, but once he began to try he remembered who he was talking to and got glue in his throat. He only got so far as saying there was something he thought Mr. Stark would want Morgan to have.

Truthfully, he'd stopped himself clarifying because he'd been afraid Ms. Potts would refuse. Everyone dealt with their grief differently. What might seem a ghastly reminder to a widow would mean something entirely different to a four-year-old.

So here he was again, at the house in the woods. May had to work so Peter took a bus, forgetting to wear his earbuds while gazing at the city turning into trees, and easily covered the remaining distance. Happy could probably have driven him but Peter didn't really want to explain this to anyone else, no matter how sympathetic the ear.

He looked around. This place must have felt like an escape after the Snap. A born-and-bred city kid, Peter never lost a kind of marvel at unfenced green spaces. Gravel crunched under his sneakers. He'd always liked the sound of gravel.

Peter kind of had trouble picturing the flashy billionaire abandoning the penthouse view for a forest. But anyone who'd known Tony longer might have said the same if asked to envision him with a wife and daughter after all the supermodels who'd cycled through his life in an endless parade back out the door.

Ms. Potts walked out on the porch to meet him, dressed in a casual sweater and long pants. She looked around for the car that had brought him and Peter realized he hadn't said how he was getting there.

“I took the bus,” he said lamely.

“Oh,” she said in surprise, “you didn't need to do that. We could've come to the city.”

“No, it's fine. I don't mind,” Peter told her.

Mindlessly he'd stopped at the foot of the porch. Ms. Potts came forward and hugged him warmly. “How are you?” she asked.

“Okay,” he said, adjusting the strap of his backpack slung over one shoulder. “Um—you?”

“Okay,” she repeated, with a small smile and a shrug. “Sad. Making Morgan a lot of cheeseburgers.”

Despite himself Peter gave her a faint grin. He'd had occasion to witness Tony's fondness for them.

“Happy says you're going on a school trip soon,” said Ms. Potts, turning to invite him inside. “To Europe. Wow.”

“I don't think it's going to be that fancy,” Peter said. He'd looked up the hostels on the itinerary, and after seeing the foreboding Yelp reviews had updated his booster shots accordingly.

“Oh, but it's Europe,” Ms. Potts said fondly.

“Have you been?”

“Uh huh. I dragged Tony to the Louvre and he complained the whole time. I told him he needed to appreciate art outside of heavy metal album covers.”

Peter grinned again. He suspected she was trying to lighten the mood. “We're supposed to see Paris.”

“You'll have to find a cute girl to give a rose,” she teased.

He was hoping to do better than a rose. Besides, the cute girl preferred black dahlias.

Dishes sat in a drying rack. Though of fine quality, everything in the house exuded homey comfort. It was a funny mix of old-fashioned furnishings with evidence of high-tech gadgetry spotting bookshelves and side tables. If Peter ever retired, maybe he'd like a place like this. Provided it had good wifi. And a lab. And pizza within deliverable distance.

As though she'd read his mind, Ms. Potts said, “Pizza's in the oven. We're a little out of the delivery range. You like the works, right?”

Another one of the tiny things Mr. Stark must have remembered and told her. Peter Parker had liked pizza. He always got the works.

(Actually, what Tony had said to Pepper was: “I once watched Parker demolish a giant pizza in one sitting. Before wolfing down a bouquet of churros for dessert. It was like watching an anaconda devour a goat.”)

Touched, Peter said: “Yeah, but you didn't have to go to any trouble, Ms. Potts—”

“Pepper, please,” she corrected him. “And it's no trouble. Eat first?”

“Sure. Thanks.” Maybe it was better for Morgan to get her bearings around him anyway, before he started asking her odd questions.

The table was set already. When was the last time she'd set the table for three? Yikes, don't think about that. Peter was a little nervy being the only guest now, no strangers to act as a buffer between him and Mr. Stark's widow. He leaned his backpack carefully against a recliner.

“Morgan!” Pepper called down a hall. “Pizza!”

Moments later a bright-eyed girl emerged from the hall, carrying an action figure with her. “Morgan, this is Peter,” her mom told her, brushing aside a strand of fine dark hair from the girl's forehead. “You met him a few months ago.”

She remembered. “You're a friend of my dad's,” she declared with certainty.

Peter nodded. “That's right.”

He was glad she remembered, because it boded well for what he'd ask her soon.

Dinner ended up being a lot less awkward than he'd feared. Pepper had a knack for guiding the conversation without forcing small talk, and before he knew it Peter was chatting away almost comfortably. Morgan divided her attention between the guest, her pizza and her action figure, which she rearranged in different poses throughout the meal. Tony Stark was, conversationally speaking, the elephant in the room, and they skirted mention of him in their discussion with the delicacy of probing around a flesh wound.

Peter helped Pepper clear the dishes, wiping them off with a flowery towel. Once the drying rack was full again, Pepper sat on the couch with an arm around Morgan and watched Peter dig restlessly through his backpack.

Finally he withdrew a funny-looking contraption that comprised of a set of glasses, on which perched a recording device wired to a hard drive. The glasses were tiny, designed for a child. The device was a somewhat hodge-podge Frankenstein of tech cobbled from Mr. Stark's files with some additions of Peter's own.

“So, um,” he started, suddenly nervous again, “I borrowed from some of Mr. Stark's B.A.R.F. software. You know he's got it so it doesn't need an implanted chip anymore? It works on a proximity basis now. So when someone wears the glasses, it'll, like, recognize the user and act as a kind of Bluetooth for their brain.”

Pepper nodded, following along. Half-sunk into the cushy pillows, Morgan was gazing at the pink, child-sized glasses, which Peter had bought cheap in Flushing.

Peter turned the small headset around in his hands. “I thought Morgan could use it.”

Surprised, Pepper said: “Morgan? Why?” At the mention of her name, the little girl peered at Peter curiously.

“Have you heard of childhood amnesia?” Peter asked Ms. Potts. “You know how you just...forget stuff from when you were really little? Maybe there's flashes here and there, but it's hard to hold on to much.”

As if prompted, Pepper's eyes flicked to the side in an unconscious effort to recall early memories. She nodded again thoughtfully.

Peter went on, relaxing a little: “As we get older it's hard to retain memories from early childhood. Some stuff will stick out but the little things, the day-to-day stuff, gets lost. There's a lot of debate about how it happens, whether it's”—animatedly, he started waving a hand around— “developing cognitive behavior or because the GABA neurotransmitter acts as a gatekeeper for early memory retrieval—” He stopped as Pepper's eyes began to glaze over and started over with an apologetic grin. “Sorry. Anyway, it happens.”

He held up the gadgetry. “Morgan's actually at a really good age for memory retrieval. She's old enough to form autobiographical memories and young enough that they haven't been rewritten yet. Even better, she's able to process memory without emotion acting like, I don't know, rose-colored glasses. It's kind of hard to separate long-term memory from emotion, and that can almost change, um, your whole recollection of something.”

“Okay,” said Pepper, who was probably used to Tony babbling at her about this. “Tony mentioned some of these things during the early stages of B.A.R.F.”

Morgan giggled at the word 'barf.'

Smiling at her, Pepper added: “He said even though the system hijacks the brain, what it pulls back out might not actually be what happened—it's just our impressions. Even the holograms in his demonstration at MIT had to be padded out retroactively by computer modeling. I'm pretty sure he tried to make his younger self a little taller in the demo.”

Peter stifled a grin. “Well, maybe I would too.”

Pepper's eyes fell on the glasses. “What do you want Morgan to remember?” she said quietly. Maybe she knew the answer already.

“Her dad,” said Peter.

Faltering before the sudden silence, Peter fumbled for the hard drive and kept talking. “I uh, I've got this hooked up to a drive. Instead of projecting a hologram, the memories she consciously processes will be recorded on this. So you can, um—play it back. Like a movie, I guess.”

Pepper stared at him with an expression he couldn't decipher. Morgan abandoned her action figure to gaze up at her mother, alert to the change in demeanor.

Would Pepper tell him no? Thanks, but I don't really know if that's the healthy way for a child to process her father's death. It's the thought that counts. We appreciate you visiting, and please have a wonderful time in Europe.

A little desperately, Peter said: “It's hard to know now what memories Morgan's going to hang on to. Pictures and YouTube clips are good but they aren't really a substitute.”

He was speaking from experience, of course, but he didn't mention that.

“I thought maybe she could try it out. And if it works OK, you can spend a few weeks adding memories to the drive. The code is kind of complicated so I'll have to convert the files myself.”

When he looked up he saw Pepper blinking quickly. There was a long moment.

She turned to the little girl. “What do you say, Morgan? Wanna make a photo album of Daddy?”

“OK,” Morgan replied, still a little uncertain but it seemed to be the answer expected of her.

Peter blew his breath out. “OK,” he repeated, relieved. “Here, um—why don't you try these on?”

He passed the glasses to Pepper, who, gingerly considering the delicate tech barnacled to the frames, perched them on Morgan's nose. Perhaps knowing it drew from Tony's tech, and wasn't totally derived from a high-schooler's notebook scribbling, gave her confidence. “Stylish,” she told her daughter. Morgan preened.

Meanwhile Peter withdrew a laptop from his bag and opened it, setting it aside on the coffee table and attaching a cord to the hard drive wired to the pink spectacles. He'd already pulled up the software he'd use for conversion. He rubbed his hands together, suddenly energized as he always was when beginning a lab experiment. “Let's give it a test. So um, Morgan, what's your favorite animal?”

“A hippogriff,” she said promptly.

Pepper mouthed silently, “Don't tell her.”

“Oh—good choice. OK, can you picture a hippogriff? The last time you, um, saw one? You can close your eyes if it helps.”

Obediently Morgan squeezed her eyes shut. “Concentrate and think about all the different parts of the animal,” said Peter, scooting his laptop closer. “Like, what color is it? How big is it? You can answer by thinking about it.”

Morgan thought for a few moments. “OK,” she announced when presumably a hippogriff filled her vision.

Peter watched his screen as live data collected on the drive and took shape. It did not process like a movie file so much as a rendered model writ in code. She evidently had a very good recollection of what she thought hippogriffs looked like. When the stream tapered off he said: “Okay, pause your brain.” Morgan giggled.

Pepper watched Peter as he tapped away at his computer. “I honestly think Tony lost the ability to type,” she informed him. “It'd been so long since he actually needed a keyboard.”

Peter snorted. Tony must have thought it very confining, typing out one line when his brain was leaping ten lines ahead already.

“Let's take a took,” he said once he'd converted the file. “They take a while to render totally so it's low res for now.”

He took a miniature hologram projector Tony had once tossed him and hooked it to the laptop, which now resembled a nerve cluster with so many cords branching out. Then he pressed a series of buttons and a second later the slightly shimmering image of a hippogriff spun slowly above the device. Morgan had surpassed expectations: not only was the image of the creature clear (and a near-perfect replica of the one from Harry Potter) but she'd even envisioned its environment in the form of a forested clearing.

Morgan was delighted. “That came out of my head!”

Peter was familiar with the tech but he still marveled at its ability to draw out subconscious detail. Brains weren't a bank; they didn't store everything, but the software was very good at rounding out the model.

“That's awesome, Morgan. Now, let's try something a little harder. Can you turn your brain on again?”

Like an astronaut conducting a pre-launch checklist, she nodded, straight-faced.

Normally he'd run tests gradually building in complexity but this time he jumped ahead.

“This time, I uh, want you to think about something your dad's said to you. You don't have to say it out loud.” He shot a glance at Pepper, who merely gave him a small smile. “Think about when this was. Where were you? What were you wearing? What did he say, and how did he say it? Can you put it in order? What else was in the room? Go around the memory like you're looking everywhere in a room and memorizing it.”

He was half-afraid he was pelting her with too many questions. While her memory skills were developed enough for the device, it was a lot for a not-yet-five-year-old to juggle at once. But she didn't say anything, just sat with a face comically scrunched up from shutting her eyes so tightly.

Data began flooding through the drive. Peter sat and watched it materialize into characters on his screen. He waited patiently so his typing wouldn't disrupt her concentration.

While she sat and thought, Peter couldn't help letting his eyes wander around the living room, across family mementos.

It was just so different. Had Tony relocated here to escape the city? Following the Snap, it would have been full of shell-shocked mourners. When blows were so sudden sometimes the pain came belatedly, like a thunderclap following the lightning flash. The horror must have been worst the day after, when it became clear the disappearances were, in fact, deaths. Every day he would have encountered so many people he must have felt he'd failed.

What would I have done? Peter thought suddenly, startling himself.

Well, he'd failed people before too, and probably wasn't done yet.

Eventually the data slowed to a trickle. Peter cut it off after it'd leveled. “Brain off,” he said, and Morgan opened her eyes.

Pepper watched him work quietly. Peter felt tense again for a reason he couldn't explain. The data was much more complicated this time and required longer to convert to a viewable format. In the meantime, Morgan toyed with her action figure again, though her interest in it seemed feigned.

Finally Peter looked up. “Um—it's more 2D than anything,” he said, “for now. But I can project it. Just to show you.”

He picked up the hologram projector again and toyed with it. Light emanated from a lens and Peter looked up to see Tony Stark's face loom above.

Morgan watched with rapt attention. Her mother's hands were tightly entwined in her lap.

In the memory, Mr. Stark was putting Morgan to bed. It must have been very recently. For a four-year-old's recollection the image was quite sharp, though it was imperfect, vague in some areas, unrefined and lacked true three-dimensional modeling. The color was muted. You could see what he looked like and how his voice sounded. That was important; Peter had wanted her to retain that herself rather than having to round it out with computer modeling from archived data.

“I love you 3000,” Peter heard her childish voice say, tinny coming from the small speakers.

Tony seemed impressed. 3000 was a high grade, apparently. After telling her to go to bed or he'd sell all her toys, he went out and closed her door behind him.

As memories do, the hologram faded into an obscure, indistinct image and Peter shut it off wordlessly.

The room was hushed. Peter was startled to see tears falling down Pepper's cheeks. He felt uncomfortably like he'd witnessed something private. It seemed a little like eavesdropping.

“Play it again,” Morgan commanded him, and Peter dutifully played it back.

After they watched it again Peter said to Morgan, “You can keep those glasses.”

“Really?” she asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah. When you think of something you want to remember, you can put them on and think really hard about it, the way you did just now. Then I'll get the drive back and make it so you can watch them later.”

“Okay,” said Morgan. She might have started right away to try and think of other pennies to put in the memory bank. Still silent, Pepper nudged her. “Thank you,” she added, remembering her manners.

Peter smiled. “Sure.”

There was a danger to this kind of technology, of course. Peter was never really sure about the therapeutic benefits of B.A.R.F. He was never tempted to use it himself. When you couldn't actually go back and change anything, what was the point to reliving it and pretending otherwise? It almost seemed another way to kick yourself for roads not taken.

It was easy to get lost in the past, but a child was less susceptible. He knew Pepper would never use the technology to recreate her husband. Once they'd collected a garden of Morgan's memories, she'd give him the glasses.

For the first time he realized how late it'd gotten. The summer evening had grown dark. “Oh geez, I should go,” he said quickly after glancing at his watch. The last bus would be leaving before long, and he had two miles to swing before he reached the stop. He disconnected the laptop and hologram projector, leaving the glasses and the drive they were attached to.

Pepper stood up with him, carefully removing Morgan's glasses and setting them on a shelf until they were ready for round two. “I'll walk you out,” she told him. Something in her voice was restrained. “Say goodnight to Peter, hon,” she said over her shoulder. “Then it's bedtime.”

“G'nite,” said Morgan, wiggling her little fingers goodbye.

“'Night,” he said back.

As he glanced back on his way to the door he saw that Morgan had not yet picked up her action figure, but sat instead concentrating on something they could not see.

The summer evening was pleasant out on the deck. A light breeze ruffled the tops of the trees. As a child Peter had found this sound ominous, but maybe it had meant something else to Tony and Pepper. He could hear an owl hooting.

They walked across the deck to the top of the stairs, where Pepper drifted to a stop. Peter stopped too.

“Um,” he said, words sounding flat in the dark air, “So in a few weeks I'll get the drive back—or you can send it, whatever you want—and I'll convert them to a better quality. I thought maybe I'd have to add some archival data to flesh it out, but her memory's pretty good and I might just leave it. It's not, you know, polished, but I think it's more authentic.”

Recorded memories were a distant second to the real deal, but repetition was instrumental to memory retention. If Morgan saw the recordings every once in a while, it'd bolster her real recall—he hoped.

Pepper nodded minutely. Her tears had gone and she seemed to study him a moment. Then, without speaking, she stepped forward and pulled him into a hug.

“This is a gift,” she whispered over his shoulder. “Thank you.”

After a long moment she drew back, keeping her hands on his shoulders like Aunt May sometimes did. “What made you think to do this?”

“Oh.” Peter shrugged. “Ah, it was just an idea I had. That's all.”

It wasn't, and Pepper knew that full well. He felt dumb; she had to know about the plane crash. Richard and Mary Parker had died when their son was no older than Morgan. Mr. Stark would have told her that too.

Pepper wore a bittersweet smile. Just then he knew she was wondering whether he remembered them at all. If she asked, he'd lie and say he did. Why upset her?

It was different with Uncle Ben. Peter could remember the things he'd said and done. In a way, they showed the way forward. So, too, would he remember Tony.

Sometimes Uncle Ben would fondly mention his late brother Richard. Once, when Peter was in fifth grade, Ben had asked if Peter remembered the way his dad would swing him side to side, making a seat from his hands and whirling his cackling son around. Amused by the story, Peter had said no. He never forgot the flash of disappointment that crossed his uncle's face before Ben's usual cheer reasserted itself.

He hadn't wanted that for Morgan, that was all.

“Come see us anytime,” Pepper said kindly. “And have fun in Europe. Make the most out of Paris. I know there's a girl.”

Peter laughed. “Will do.”

He went to Europe and came back. It was a hair-raising experience. He did give a girl a flower, even though it wasn't a rose and it was in London, not Paris.

“Hot dogs sound good?” said Pepper over the phone. Morgan had recorded several more memories, and they were ready for conversion. “I got some Nathan's from the store. Relish or no relish?”

“Relish, totally,” said Peter. “I'm civilized, aren't I?”

“Hawkeye's kid puts mayonnaise on his,” confided Pepper.

“Ugh.”

Hot dogs sounded great. He'd catch the bus upstate later, right after his date with MJ. He was going to take her swinging for the first time.

(I actually put ketchup on my hot dogs, I don’t like relish)

#peter parker #spider-man #mcu #tony stark #pepper potts #fic

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metricslascl · 3 years ago

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dthshoppe · 5 years ago

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megacheatercom-blog · 6 years ago

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eyeliveinabook · 8 years ago

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Bucky x Reader p.4

Okay so this is a pre-smut part. Smut will come next(probably later on tonight) I would really apperciate it if y'all can let me know if you want a series of this or just let it die. Bye

After what had happened with Ray, Bucky suggested you go somewhere else to try to scout for this hacker. He noticed that your steps were very quick and it seemed like you just want to get away, go back to the tower and curl under the blankets. Annoyed about it he decided to try talking to you as you guys sat together in a park. "So what was up with Ray?" You sighed and turned to face him. "I don't want to talk about it, so drop it." You say trying to have anger burning in your eyes but all that shown was no emotion. "Well I want to know why you were acting strange. So unless you start talking I'll keep asking. Or I can text Ray and ask him." You could hear the smirk in his voice and all the color in your face was gone. "He gave me his number not you, besides you wouldn't do it." "Wanna bet Doll I took the number out of your pocket." "You can't text, old man, and I am not helping you." "Suite yourself." He pulled out his phone, you grab it and without thinking you stuffed it in your bra. "I'll tell when we get back to the house tonight. Until then I am keeping your phone." Bucky just looked at you suprised and shook his head, "Doll, Steve is going to call me later today for an update on this misson. I am going to need it then." "Well steve can wait until tonight. Hey Buck, there is a guy sitting at your 9'oclock wasn't he at the coffee shop earlier this morning?" After Bucky turns while trying to be smooth(doesn't work) he looked back at you, "Yeah so?" You dig into your bag and pull out a small laptop, when you turn it on there is no wifi signal. "How is he using it if there is no wifi?" "Maybe he is playing games on it." "Bucky go over there and talk to him." "What why?" "Because he had a shirt on earlier with Tony's logo and his laptop have an Avenger's sticker. Since you're not technically part of the Avengers he won't recognize you. Here when you sit down put this near his computer and then if he seems fishy tell him that this has some personal blueprints of Tony's. Then when you feel comfortable to leave go back to the house, as soon as I am finished here, I'll head over there." You hand him the stuff as you pull out your bluetooth to ring Tony. Bucky just glares at you then gets up. You watch as he starts talking to the kid. "I am not taking care of a winter solider baby if that is why you are calling." Tony says. "No time for jokes Tony I need your help, you know that flash drive that you gave to me that has blueprints of your newst tech. I need your help activating it. Also I didn't appriate you stealing my PJ's." You heard Tony chuckle,"Sorry couldn't pass up the opertunity, now let me talk you into this. The two devisses Tony gave you were part of a hacking system. Bascally there is a square device and the flash drive. The square thing sitting by Bucky is extra storage, while the flash drive is upgraded and transfer all the files that are on the laptop into the storage. If the kid takes the flash drive it doesn't matter, as long as we get that storage back. The laptop will act normal and all the files will be there as if nothing happened. Setting that aside you pull out a walkie talkie and a small microphone when you speak into the microphone BUcky's arm will pick up the signal and tranfer what you are saying into his ears as if you were whispering to him. "The kid can leave with the flash drive but don't let him take that little storage box. When I tell you, slip that thing back in your pocket." "You talking to me?" Tony asks. "No, I am talking to Buck with that walkie talkie system you designed." "Aw okay tell Bucky to call me if it doesn't work. You know if you wanted to mess with him, you can say whatever you want and he will hear it." "And?" You sigh getting really tired of Tony, "Are you trying to hook us up?" "No I am just suggesting that if you want to irriate him or get back at him for anything, now would be the time because all he can do it listen." You hear the smirk in his voice, "Tell Buck that all the files are transfered. Have fun (Y/N)." Tony said chuckling. "Oh I will Tony thanks." You say ending the call. You tell Bucky that his mini mission is finished and he can leave whenever he wants to. However you notice that he seems to really enjoy the conversation with the kid. Would it be worth it to get back at him for the stunt he pulled yesterday? You get up and walk a little ways away so no one can see you, but still in range with the walkie talkie. Taking your bluetooth out, because knowing Tony it's probably bugged to see if you would take on his suggestion. You take a deep breath and just go for it, "You know Buck your phone is getting really warm in my bra. I also put it on vibrate for when Steve calls." You look to see Bucky freeze, the kid didn't even notice. He relaxes a bit, "Yeah this is total pay back for that shit you pulled making me touch your dick. You know, after that it's all I've been thinking about. How your body would feel against mine, how it would feel to have you fucking my mouth over and over." You were so satisfied with what you were seeing, Bucky was trying to stay calm and collected but you knew he was so going to kill you later, "Well have fun talking to the kid I'll be back at the house taking a shower." With that you turn the walkie talkie off and start walking back. When you finally got back to the house you threw your bag on the bed and decided to find some clean comfy clothes. Settling on yoga pants and a tank top, you jumped in the shower. You grinning the whole time thinking what Bucky was going to do. Probably nothing that bad, you two will just fight and scream, he would walk out, come back at night when you were asleep and in the morning you two would act like nothing happened. That is how your fights usually went when you were in the Tower. Turning off the shower you hear the front door open and close, while ringing out the water from your hair you hear the bathroom doorknob move. "(Y/N) you better have a fucking good reason why you did what you did back there." You can hear him growling at you and as much as you hate to admit it you found yourself incrediable aroused. "(Y/N) get your ass out here." "OKay buck let me dry off." You heard him walk away when your whole face went red. You had forgotten to bring a towel and your clothes were on your bed. You couldn't just go out there like this, espically with what happened. You racked your brains for ideas before you whipe as much water off of you as you could, creeping over to the door you gently unlocked it and quitely pulled it back and just sticking your head out you see Bucky laying on his bed. his feet were by the pillows as his head was hanging down on the oppisite side of the bed, which of course was in your direction. He opened his eyes, looking at you and he was pissed off, like 'Holy Shit I don't care what happens to me but I just might fucking murder you' pissed. "Bucky?" You were shaking because of embarrassed and neverous you were. "Um...could you maybe get me a towel." This made him turn so his stomach was on the bed, "Why don't you get the shadows to do it?" "They can't...their not working. Bruce gave my and injection that kept my powers from working during the day because he didn't want me killing you." You voice came out as a whisper. Bucky got up and leaned on his bed, "Well you're in quite a pickle, Doll, because after that stunt you pulled, I am not getting you a towel." There was a wide grin on his face that you would love to smack off. "Bucky seriously please help me." "If you want a towel your going to have to go and get it." "Well then get out of the bedroom." "No." You were suprised at how un-Bucky-like he was being. you closed the door and looked around the bathroom. No mat, no hand towels, hell at this point you were really fucking cold. You knew that just made it worse as look down to see your nipples hardening. "Fucking shit please Bucky." "Nope." He said popping the p. You knew karma was being a bitch, you took a deep breath in. "Fine I'll come get the towel just....please don't laugh." You didn't give time for him to answer before you opened the door. You started moving to your bag that had your towel, not even looking him in the eye. After searching for it you couldn't find it,then you saw it sitting over by Bucky's bag. That bastard had moved it. Totally forget the situation you put your hands on your hips, "Dude what th-" The stare he was giving you was not pissed off it was more, 'Holy Shit I don't care what happens to me but I need to fuck you.' You remembered that you were naked and quickly reached for a pillow to cover you up, but the damn super solider moved so fast that he hand your hands behind you back. You wiggle around trying to get him to loosen up, "Bucky let me-" He cut you off by kissing your neck, you couldn't stop the moan coming out of your mouth. His lips were hot and his tongue licked ever part of you skin, until he spun you around letting go of your hands. Both of you stood there in silence, then as if you both made up your mind you both crashed your lips together. You couldn't believe that just yesterday you were fighting with Fury about this mission and now here you are, lip locked with Bucky. He suddenly jerked away and stared at the floor, "Uh....I'll get your towel." He said walking away. Before you could stop yourself the phrase, "Don't" left your mouth. With his back still turned to you, "Hun, you better wrap up because right now I wanna fuck you." Just hearing that alone made you pussy even wetter, "We can still..." you start. "Can what? Go from hating each other to passionately having sex. I don't have feelings for you." "You don't have to, we could be fuck buddies." "What the hell-" "It's two people agree there will be no feelings while having sex. We could do it and then go back to ripping each other's head off." You started walking towards him, his back still facing you. "Would you be okay with that?" he asks, voice trembling. "One other condition: if one of us suddenly gets into a relationship it stops. I am not going to be a side chick. As long as you can agree to that, I agree." Bucky turned facing you, his cheeks red as were yours. "Okay I agree." He says quitely and you can tell that he is trying to process what is happening, because in the 40's there were probably no 'fuck buddies'. You smile to him and rub your hands on his shoulders. "Just relax, James." You say

okay so I swear I will write the smut later tonight, but I need to do homework. as soon as I finish (for today) I will start writing straight away. Do you guys want me to turn this into a series or just leave it like it will be?

#bucky barnes imagines #bucky x reader #bucky smut #tony stark #smutt #captain america #steve rogers #james barnes #Tonystark #The Avengers

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endenogatai · 6 years ago

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Femtech startup Inne takes the wraps off a hormone tracker and $8.8M in funding

Berlin-based femtech startup Inne is coming out of stealth to announce an €8 million (~$8.8M) Series A and give the first glimpse of a hormone-tracking subscription product for fertility-tracking and natural contraception that’s slated for launch in Q1 next year.

The Series A is led by led by Blossom Capital, with early Inne backer Monkfish Equity also participating, along with a number of angel investors — including Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise; Tom Stafford, managing partner at DST; and Trivago co-founder Rolf Schromgens.

Women’s health apps have been having a tech-fuelled moment in recent years, with the rise of a femtech category. There are now all sorts of apps for tracking periods and the menstrual cycle, such as Clue and Flo.

Some also try to predict which days a women is fertile and which they’re not — offering digital tools to help women track bodily signals if they’re following a natural family planning method of contraception, or indeed trying to conceive a baby.

Others — such as Natural Cycles — have gone further down that path, branding their approach “digital contraception” and claiming greater sophistication vs traditional natural family planning by applying learning algorithms to cycle data augmented with additional information (typically a daily body temperature measurement). Although there has also been some controversy around aggressive and even misleading marketing tactics targeting young women.

A multi-month investigation by the medical device regulator in Natural Cycles’ home market, instigated after a number of women fell pregnant while using its method, found rates of failure were in line with its small-print promises but concluded with the company agreeing to clarify the risk of the product failing.

At issue is that the notion of “digital contraception” may present as simple and effortless — arriving in handy app form, often boosted by a flotilla of seductive social media lifestyle ads. Yet the reality for the user is the opposite of effortless. Because in fact they are personally taking on all of the risk.

For these products to work the user needs a high level of dedication to stick at it, be consistent and pay close attention to key details in order to achieve the promised rate of protection.

Natural contraception is also what Inne is touting, dangling another enticing promise of hormone-free contraception — its website calls the product “a tool of radical self-knowledge” and claims it “protect[s]… from invasive contraceptive methods”. It’s twist is it’s not using temperature to track fertility; its focus is on hormone-tracking as a fertility measure.

Inne says it’s developed a saliva-based test to measure hormone levels, along with an in vitro diagnostic device (pictured above) that allows data to be extracted from the disposable tests at home and wirelessly logged in the companion app.

Founder Eirini Rapti describes the product as a “mini lab” — saying it’s small and portable enough to fit in a pocket. Her team has been doing the R&D on it since 2017, preferring, she says, to focus on getting the biochemistry right rather than shouting about launching the startup. (It took in seed funding prior to this round but isn’t disclosing how much.)

At this stage Inne has applied for and gained European certification as a medical device. Though it’s not yet been formally announced.

The first product, a natural contraception for adult women — billed as best suited for women aged 28-40, i.e. at a steady relationship time-of-life — will be launching in select European markets (starting in Scandinavia) next year, though initially as a closed beta style launch as they work on iterating the product based on user feedback.

“It basically has three parts,” Rapti says of the proposition. “It has a small reader… It has what we call a little mouth opening in the front. It always gives you a smile. That’s the hardware part of it, so it recognizes the intensity of your hormones. And then there’s a disposable saliva test. You basically collect your saliva by putting it in your mouth for 30 seconds. And then you insert it in the reader and then you go about your day.

“The reader is connected to your phone, either via BlueTooth or wifi, depending on where you are taking the test daily… It takes the reading and it sends it over to your phone. In your phone you can do a couple of things. First of all you look at your hormonal data and you look at how those change throughout the menstrual cycle. So you can see how they grow, how they fall. What that means about your ovulation or your overall female health — like we measure progesterone; that tells you a lot about your lining etc. And then you can also track your fluids… We teach you how to track them, how to understand what they mean.”

As well as a contraception use-case, the fertility tracking element naturally means it could also be used by women wanting to get pregnant.

“This product is not a tracker. We’re not looking to gather your data and then tell you next month what you should be feeling — at all,” she adds. “It’s more designed to track your hormones and tell you look this is the most basic change that happens in your body and because of those changes you will feel certain things. So do you feel them or not — and if you don’t, what does it mean? Or if you do what does it mean?

“It builds your own hormonal baseline — so you start measuring your hormones and we go okay so this is your baseline and now let’s look at things that go out of your baseline. And what do they mean?”

Of course the key question is how accurate is a saliva-based test for hormones as a method for predicting fertility? On this Rapti says Inne isn’t ready to share data about the product’s efficacy — but claims it will be publishing details of the various studies it conducted as part of the CE marking process in the next few weeks.

“A couple more weeks and all the hardcore numbers will be out there,” she says.

In terms of how it works in general the hormone measurement is “a combination of a biochemical reaction and the read out of it”, as she puts it — with the test itself being pure chemistry but algorithms then being applied to interpret the hormonal reading, looping in other signals such as the user’s cycle length, age and the time of day of the test.

She claims the biochemical hormone test the product relies on as its baseline for predicting fertility is based on similar principles to standard pregnancy tests — such as those that involve peeing on a stick to get a binary ‘pregnant’ or ‘not pregnant’ result. “We are focused on specifically fertility hormones,” she says.

“Our device is a medical device. It’s CE-certified in Europe and to do that you have to do all kinds of verification and performance evaluation studies. They will be published pretty soon. I cannot tell you too much in detail but to develop something like that we had to do verification studies, performance evaluation studies, so all of that is done.”

While it developed and “validated” the approach in-house, Rapti notes that it also worked with a number of external diagnostic companies to “optimize” the test.

“The science behind it is pretty straightforward,” she adds. “Your hormones behave in a specific way — they go from a low to a high to a low again, and what you’re looking for is building that trend… What we are building is an individual curve per user. The starting and the ending point in terms of values can be different but it is the same across the cycle for one user.”

“When you enter a field like biochemistry as an outsider a lot of the academics will tell you about the incredible things you could do in the future. And there are plenty,” she adds. “But I think what has made a difference to us is we always had this manufacturability in mind. So if you ask me there’s plenty of ways you can detect hormones that are spectacular but need about ten years of development let alone being able to manufacture it at scale. So it was important to me to find a technology that would allow us to do it effectively, repeatedly but also manufacture it at a low cost — so not reinventing the whole wheel.”

Rapti says Inne is controlling for variability in the testing process by controlling when users take the measurement (although that’s clearly not directly within its control, even if it can send an in-app reminder); controlling how much saliva is extracted per test; and controlling how much of the sample is tested — saying “that’s all done mechanically; you don’t do that”.

“The beauty about hormones is they do not get influenced by lack of sleep, they do not get influenced by getting out of your bed — and this is the reason why I wanted to opt to actually measure them,” she adds, saying she came up with the idea for the product as a user of natural contraception searching for a better experience. (Rapti is not herself trained in medical or life sciences.)

“When I started the company I was using the temperature method [of natural contraception] and I thought it cannot be that I have to take this measurement from my bed otherwise my measurement’s invalid,” she adds.

However there are other types of usage restrictions Inne users will need to observe in order to avoid negatively affecting the hormonal measurements.

Firstly they must take the test in the same time window each time — either in the morning or the evening but sticking to one of those choices for good.

They also need to stick to daily testing for at least a full menstrual cycle. Plus there are certain days in the month when testing will always be essential, per Rapti, even as she suggests a “learning element” might allow for the odd missed test day later on, i.e. once enough data has been inputted.

Users also have to avoid drinking and eating for 30 minutes before taking the test. She further specifies this half hour pre-test restriction includes not having oral sex — “because that also affects the measurements”.

“There’s a few indications around it,” she concedes, adding: “The product is super easy to use but it is not for women who want to not think ever about contraception or their bodies. I believe that for these women the IUD would be the perfect solution because they never have to think about it. This product is for women who consciously do not want to take hormones and don’t want invasive devices — either because they’ve been in pain or they’re interested in being natural and not taking hormones.”

At this stage Inne hasn’t performed any comparative studies vs established contraception methods such as the pill. So unless or until it does users won’t be able to assess the relative risk of falling pregnant while using it against more tried and tested contraception methods.

Rapti says the plan is to run more clinical studies in the coming year, helped by the new funding. But these will be more focused on what additional insights can be extracted from the test to feed the product proposition — rather than on further efficacy (or any comparative) tests.

They’ve also started the process of applying for FDA certification to be able to enter the US market in future.

Beyond natural contraception and fertility tracking, Inne is thinking about wider applications for its approach to hormone tracking — such as providing women with information about the menopause, based on longer term tracking of their hormone levels. Or to help manage conditions such as endometriosis, which is one of the areas where it wants to do further research.

The intent is to be the opposite of binary, she suggests, by providing adult women with a versatile tool to help them get closer to and understand changes in their bodies for a range of individual needs and purposes.

“I want to shift the way people perceive our female bodies to be binary,” she adds. “Our bodies are not binary, they change around the month. So maybe this month you want to avoid getting pregnant and maybe next month you actually want to get pregnant. It’s the same body that you need to understand to help you do that.”

Commenting on the Series A in a supporting statement, Louise Samet, partner at Blossom Capital, said: “Inne has a winning combination of scientific validity plus usability that can enable women to better understand their bodies at all stages in their lives. What really impressed us is the team’s meticulous focus on design and easy-of-use together with the scientific validity and clear ambition to impact women all over the world.”

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/31YsgXW via IFTTT

#IFTTT #RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425

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youtuber-gautam-pragya · 6 years ago

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iPhone XS UNBOXING nReview

New Post has been published on https://gautampragya.com/2019/02/19/iphone-xs-unboxing-nreview/

iPhone XS UNBOXING nReview

Yesterday when I was out with my daughter to walk in the snowfall and soak up all the winter, snow and cold in Vancouver downtown we could. And yes! off course to take some pictures, to make some videos and then I realized my phone is switching off often and I thought damn what's the problem in my phone and as soon as I came back I googled why it happened and I got to know that "This is not a flaw with Apple products. This happens with any lithium-ion battery-powered device. Apple designed the iPhone to turn off under extreme conditions, such as very cold or very hot weather. This actually helps protect your iPhone from malfunctioning as a result of low voltage from the battery. Apple recommends that you only use your iPhone (and other iOS devices) when the temperature is between 32-95 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid temperature-related issues." That time I got the butterfly in my stomach and I was so proud that I have an iPhone now. Absolute thanks to my husband Nimish (https://bit.ly/2WPxUdB) for that.

Alright, Folks so it has been more than 30 days when had brought this new family member iPhone XS in our lives for the first time. Remember I told everywhere on my Instagram (http://bit.ly/2r1qAzL) and Facebook (http://bit.ly/2DrpqQq) and my recent YouTube videos too that I am going to do an unboxing video as well as the review? Guess what, here I am with it. let me tell you iPhone XS do deserve my time and effort to tell the people everything I know about it through my YouTube channel (https://goo.gl/2zQsdp) and my website in detail. Now let's Start, shall we??

So our baby iPhone XS is Silver in color and 256GB phone and came with earpods with a lightning connector, Lightning to USB cable and USB power adapter.

Some basic features which I absolutely love are

1. Face Id: That means your phone recognizes your face to unlock, authorize Apple Pay payments, and perform other tasks.

2. Control Center: Swipe down from the upper right corner to quickly take a photo, turn on room lights, control music, Portrait orientation lock, WiFi, mobile data, torch and more.

3. Home: Swipe up to go home.

4. The left side of the body has 2 buttons and 1 Switch. Top Ring/Silent Switch to choose either of it. 2 buttons to adjust audio volume.

5. Tap to Wake: You can tap anywhere on the screen to wake your iPhone.

6. 3D Touch: You can access menus, shortcuts, and content by pressing the screen with 3D touch

7. The right side of the body has 1 button which has 3 functions. A) press once to sleep or wake. B) Press twice to activate Apple Pay. C) Press and hold to turn on iPhone or activate Siri.

8. In Emergency: Press and hold the side button and either of the volume button to turn off the iPhone or make an Emergency call.

Let's move towards Specifications to know and love iPhone XS more

Display size, resolution 5.8-inch Super Retina OLED; 2,436×1,125 pixels Pixel density 458 ppi Dimensions (millimeters) 143.6×70.9×7.7 mm Weight (ounces, grams) 6.24 oz; 177 g Mobile software iOS 12 Camera Dual 12-megapixel

Front-facing camera

7-megapixel with Face ID Video capture 4k Processor Apple A12 Bionic Storage 64GB, 256GB, 512GB Fingerprint sensor None (Face ID) Connector Lightning Special features Water-resistant (IP68), dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM), wireless charging, Face ID, Memoji Price off-contract (USD) $999 (64GB), $1,149 (256GB), $1,349 (512GB)

Display

In case if you are wondering what the Retina oled in the World is than Retina display is a brand name used by Apple for its series of IPS LCD, and OLED displays that have a higher pixel density than traditional Apple displays. The goal of Retina displays is to make the display of text and images extremely crisp, so pixels are not visible to the naked eye.

Camera, Picture, and Video

Trust me or not most of us when we see specification or just go through any new mobile phone we check camera quality first. At least I do it. If you agree on it then comment down below "Yes I do", it will be really fun to see all those comments. Okay so I am showing all the videos I filmed and pictures I took in iPhone XS and with that let me explain the specification which I also did not know and that is the 4K resolution, also called 4K, refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. So I hope now you also know it.

You guys might have seen some of my recent videos on my YouTube channel (https://goo.gl/2zQsdp ) like Day In The LIfe – CANADA LIFE Video (https://youtu.be/WWYnNNaPllA) and right now also you are seeing my iPhone camera videos and pictures only. Let me tell you I am literally obsessed with it. But Why I am obsessed with the iPhone XS camera? here are the reasons

The cameras are better, especially in low light, and the new Depth Control for portraits works really really well as well.

Slow Motion video quality though Oh my goodness you can take screenshots from slow-motion video and edit it a little bit and trust me you will have some really good captures ever.

Portrait mode though, my goodness iPhone XS has nailed in this quality. It is great in close-up photos and especially I love how it takes photos with real good espouser and the way it captures yellow in the back wahoo I love it.

It definitely delivers more detail of the picture.

Speaker and Microphone

Sound Sound Sound… Okay, when you will turn the audio ON in iPhone you will definitely avoid connecting it to earpods or any other Bluetooth speakers because they are surprisingly very amazing. Audio in iPhone XS is sweeter stereo, Apple says it widened the stereo sound to deliver more detail. Yes! you are going to love it too.

You won't believe I am loving this audio quality of my YouTube videos to the extent that I am wondering whether I will switch to my canon rebel t6 again or not. Let's have a comparison in sound quality of SAMSUNG galaxy and iPhone XS. Cum on the galaxy is a high-end smartphone and we expect something really similar. so let's see.

Battery Life

If you know me a little bit from YouTube or Social Media I am not a big fan of spending hours and hours behind the phone and playing games. Trust me I use to when I was not a mom. So if you are a person who for any reason does not spend HOURS on phone you will be very with battery life too. For me I charge once in every 24 hours, mostly I put it in charge when I go to bed every night. 100% battery charging lasts for more than 24 hrs. for me, I am not joking.

Conclusion

So in the bottom line, I would say the iPhone XS is one of the Best phone and deal in the price range it is coming for sure. If you are the among those people who are either thinking of purchasing iPhone for the first time in the life "Just like I did" or still holding off on upgrading your iPhone 7 or iPhone 6s, do not think twice for spending on iPhone XS. Also, the cameras are miles better especially in low light.

In between iPhone XS and iPhone XS MAX, I would definitely recommend MAX because of screen size which is 6.5 inches if you can afford and hold in one hand obviously. But for me, I preferred the iPhone XS because I wanted a one-handed friendly one.

That's it all for today's review. I want you to write to me in the comment box "Which iPhone or Smartphone do you own"? If you buy iPhone XS or iPhone XS MAX take a picture and please tag me on Instagram( http://bit.ly/2r1qAzL) and Facebook (http://http://bit.ly/2DrpqQq) I would love to repost it. Give this video like and share it with your friends.

Thanks for sticking here till the end. Until next time XOXO

Pragya Gautam

#LIFESTYLE #TECH REVIEW

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reafu · 7 years ago

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Catch Up Time-Inktober Edition!

Things on my end have been a little hairy on my end so there was a couple of days that I couldn’t post my Inktober artwork on Instagram, twitter or here on tumblr. But I was definitely drawing. Definitely going to try how to learn to use my copics and prismacolour markers and experiment more! So now, on to the artwork!

DAY 6: JELLYFISH WITCH

Giselle is a simple lass...being a jellyfish with no functional brain and all, but she’s quite friendly! She wants to shake hands and hug everyone she meets with her tentacles as she floats about in the sea. Problem is, whether it’s other sea creatures or better yet, humans, they all have the same complaint, “Your hugs hurt!” She’s been working on her magic to make her hugs less stingy with limited success...methinks she needs to start conjuring up bottles of vinegar! Keep at it Giselle!

DAY 7: TECHNOLOGY WITCH In a dystopian future, where magic and technology have come together. The world government has partnered with the leading robotics corporations within Asia to combat the intergalactic threat. The aim of Project W.I.T.C.H. Is to create gynoid combat bots using the latest technology and ancient magic. Here we see one codenamed M.O.R.G.A.N. Undergoing routine maintenance and refueling processes...

DAY 8: FLOWER WITCH Aisha wants the latest iPhone dammit! But her folks...they claim making sure she has everything she needs for college is much more important. To add insult to injury, they told her to get a job! What de ass is dis? She looked in the paper...she was not going to fry chicken, fold clothes, answer the phone...none of that! The answer came to her, out the window, in the garden. The next day, she “borrowed” her mother’s prized hibiscus plants, and opened up a little juice stand by the air port! Selling the finest sorrels, hibiscus teas, business was slow at first, but as the hours passed Aisha started getting return customers...all with very glassy eyes...Maybe her grandma was right about doing those obeah rituals at midnight...On the bright side Aisha will get that iPhone pretty soon at this rate!!

DAY 9: PUMPKIN WITCH

Jacqueline comes from a long line of witches and warlocks. Her accomplished lineage makes her a little over confident though! While doing her final thesis on thaumaturgy, in a freak accident, Jacqueline has been transformed, into a pint-sized, pumpkin pooka! She can’t attend class, let alone go out like this! On the other hand...the whole sticking lighters and candles in her head makes for a badass party trick! But her head comes off!!! Whelp let’s find a cure and have fun with it!

DAY 10: WITCH FAMILIAR

In the days of witches and dragons, many a practitioner of the dark arts was accompanied by a helper, a companion...a familiar. It has been a week since St.Isidore, the school for the technologically gifted, was transformed into an academy of witchcraft and wizardry. Adapting to this change, as a group project, Gin Hoshi, an aspiring programmer, Yasu Mamoru, a painter, gamer, and self-taught game dev came up with the Nekobot-3000! A digital assistant in the form of a cat, as Gin loves cats. The Nekobot can easily connect to wifi, communicate using Bluetooth to other wearable technologies and search the internet using voice and text commands. At the suggestion of Tama, the social media maven, it is equipped with dual screens for checking ones makeup, front and back facing, high res cameras. These cameras have a 9000 megapixel resolution for perfect selfies, and over 2000 individual filters, for optimal posts. Despite being highschool students, they hope to see their little gadget in stores. So move over Siri, Alexa, get out of here! No one likes you Google Home...it is now the time of the Nekobot!

#art: reafuart #artists on tumblr #Inktober #inktober2018 #gin #yasu #tama #isidore project

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wbouldingblog-blog · 7 years ago

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OK so it wasn’t phenomenal, however fond of the word I am, I just liked the convenience of the word-play. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice, but it didn’t enthral me as much as some of the other places we’ve been to on our journeys so far.

We had arrived an hour ahead of schedule in our bunk-bedded bus. Bleary-eyed, we searched for an Uber (we’d been tipped off that they’d actually got Uber here) and, after watching him crawl down the road to us, we finally dumped our bags in the boot and hopped in the arctically air-conditioned taxi and explained the route to him three times. Once at the hotel, Henny managed to sleep, as only she can, but I was awake and using the wifi to try and contact Arthur, who needed to be awake for his early flight to Phuket. Leaving our bags at the hotel, we followed the map to his last shared location and found his room after looking through the guestbook.

Knocking on his door at 7 in the morning shouting things like ‘Room Service’, ‘Thai Massage’ and imitating Conchita from Family Guy (‘Nooooo, Misser superman no home’), he finally relented and opened the door. Turns out we were actually doing him and the boys a favour, as they wouldn’t have heard their alarms and would have overslept. Arthur and Will had bought Cambodian football shirts at the central market the day before and had been given one of them in the wrong size – medium. Cambodian shirt sizes are a little less generous than ours, so when They had tried on the medium-sized one, it looked like the fat kid from school wearing a shirt at the pool. We dived off through the rubbish-strewn streets and arrived at the recently renovated French-designed Central Market. An impressive Art-deco design, it was full of stalls selling everything from live fish being slaughtered at the request of a sadistic customer to fake Bluetooth speakers, which Arthur had also purchased yesterday. They found the stall they were looking for and after a brief to-and-fro, exchanged the shirts then had to run back. Henny and I hadn’t eaten, so we stayed behind and with a rushed ‘See you in New Zealand’, went off to find some food.

I was looking to be culinarily adventurous, so engaged the services of a lady who was making a chicken noodle soup for a throng of slurping customers. We sat down and watched as she combined the necessary ingredients in a bowl and poured some broth over it, sprinkling a handful of coriander over the top for good measure. We also added some deep-fried bread sticks about as long as my hand which were the Cambodian crouton replacements. The broth was warm and delicious, the fried bread fatty and hearty and the chicken almost inedible. The lady had seemingly sought out the bits of chicken which one normally has difficulty navigating when carving a roast and plonked them all in our bowl. We survived by sucking the meat off the bones though, but I did have the lion’s share, Henny deciding to take it easy for this particular dish (I don’t think the boiled whole chicken staring out at us from behind the display glass was helping her appetite).

After paying 2 dollars for the experience, I promised Henny that we could find a nice western coffee shop for our hobbit-like second breakfast. We headed back in the direction of our hotel and found a hip little place for an iced coffee and a cheese and ham toastie. Henny’s appetite finally satisfied, we decided to pay a visit to our rooftop pool and had a lazy late morning/early afternoon session of sunbathing and reading with a glorious view and a pool that I could swim two lengths of underwater, as I love to do in hotel pools.

When I’d had enough of relaxing (it didn’t take too long, I can tell you), I went down and wrote the previous blog post and then looked up some jobs in New Zealand and polished off a whole bag of potato sticks in the process (I’m so sorry, diet – I swear I’ll get back to you soon!!!). Browsing through various websites full of a variety of things (vineyard technician, sales assistant, trainee shepherd – bring your own sheepdog), my excitement and anticipation grew and grew until I had to remind myself that I still had a month to explore and enjoy the delights of Asia in. There are so many things to look forward to, I can’t focus on anything at the moment (insufferable I know, I’m just a bit excited ok?).

We’d also booked ourselves onto a sunset cruise which our hotel organised for its guests., so at 5 o’clock, after a very polite courtesy call to our hotel room to remind us, we trotted off to the bus and drove at a snail’s pace down to the harbour where we jumped on the ‘OKAY’ branded boat, which looked a little junk-esque (the boat style, not that it was at all bad quality) and found a lovely seat in the bow. After a couple of games of musical chairs as we tried to guess which way forwards was (Henny doesn’t like going against the direction of travel), we were sipping cocktails and watching a huge fireball sink below the horizon. It was spectacular, and the lighting was very good for taking photos of Henny too, which she wasn’t really sure she liked. I’ll probably include them here anyway though, just to annoy her a bit.

We had a bite to eat on the boat (a chicken yellow noodle stir-fry between two) but were still hungry when we landed 2 hours later. I still felt the need to be adventurous and had been curous about many street food stalls selling baguettes, usually accompanied by a bbq. I decided that I must try this local delicacy and approached a man who was selling the baguettes and asked him what was worth trying. Eventually we came to the understanding that these small, red sausages were the bees’ knees and so I ordered a whole baguette with them. He toasted the baguette, smeared it with some yellow paste (it was sweet, may have been condensed milk or honey) and placed the sliced sausage inside. I was wondering what noise the meat had made before it had become a sausage but didn’t feel like bringing the full spectrum of my farmyard animal impressions to this street in Phnom Penh, and instead kept quiet. The flavour was deep and rich, like venison or black pudding, but I had a feeling that some of the gristle had been left in as there were still some chewy bits which I had to power through. This, combined with my growing fear that the sausage may have been more ‘woof’ than ‘moo’ or ‘oink’, made me finish as quickly as I could. It had been really interesting flavour-wise, but I don’t think I’d repeat the experience before finding out what had actually gone into it.

After grabbing a 50-cent beer to steady my nerves (and stomach) and a papaya salad for Henny in a local restaurant where a middle-aged man flirted far too much with a teenage Cambodian waitress (though she didn’t seem to mind and laughed like a hyena whenever he said anything), we headed back to the hotel and flopped exhaustedly into our bed. A very long couple of days it had been and we slept like the heaviest of logs.

The next day we woke up early, as has become our habit, and got excited; our first buffet-style breakfast was waiting just a few floors away, just another half-floor above the rooftop pool. We went for it, mixing western and eastern food to mixed reviews, but decided that the green curry with rice was excellent and the ham and cheese omelette was also pretty damn fine. We stuffed ourselves to avoid having to buy lunch and made sure to monitor the interesting eating habits our fellow diners from various Asian countries. It was fascinating to see these well-dressed and obviously intelligent people slurping noodles into their mouths, which they neglected to close as they chewed camel-like, a dangle of saliva never far away from their chins. I wonder if they say the same about us (“He didn’t even have his mouth open – you couldn’t tell what ratio of rice to curry he’d put in there!” or “His chopstick-work was so far below par, I thought I’d spit out my rice wine”) or if they’re just nice, unjudgemental beings like the rest of you.

After waddling back to the lift, grabbing our stuff from the room and heading down to the lobby, we began negotiations on a tuk-tuk to take us to the days’ main events – the sombrely-named Killing Fields and S21, a former Khmer Rouge prison. I like to keep these blog posts relatively jolly and high-spirited, and have thought about writing my thoughts on the two memorial sites in a separate post, to give them, and me, the space required to describe and analyse them effectively. In brief: the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed an estimated 3 million people between 1976 and 1979, before they were forced out of power by a joint Cambodian and Vietnamese government. Pol Pot remained the leader recognised by the west until the early 1990s and lived to his mid-70s and denied responsibility for the killings. He’s definitely up there on my list of people who deserve absolutely no thought or respect whatsoever. S21 was where thousands were tortured and died; the killing fields were where they were sent and murdered when S21 had run out of room to store the corpses. It was a chilling day to say the least, and both Henny and I were glad when we had finally put it behind us and could escape our thoughts. Henny escaped to the rooftop pool and I went on a long walk along the harbourside, where the locals were preparing for the imminent lunar new year and its influx of tourists and money.

One of the revellers taking a crazy ride

I saw a number of street food sellers trying to sell small shellfish which they had on their carts by the thousand, A lady was also collecting some flowers or something from the central reservation of the road, leaving her bike in the nearest lane as she did. A group of tourists were feeding the pigeons (in direct contradiction of my Trafalgar Square-based sensitivities) and a cat was, rather unsuccessfully, trying to hunt one of the fat ex-dinosaurs for its dinner. Elsewhere, a large, colourful screen was flashing images of what promised to be an excellent celebration for the lunar new year, but some bright soul had left the video control panel open so that it blocked the top left-hand corner of the screen. I walked along the vast Mekong river where swallows flitted by. Some boys were playing street football (I got a couple of good action shots) and some men were playing a version of badminton with what looked like a plastic bottle and instead of racquets they used their feet to bat the shuttlecock back and forth.

Then, a little further on, I saw a man working, completely on his own, trying to move a rock from the side of a path which was being redeveloped to improve the riverside further. Again and again he tried to shift this boulder, but it was only moving an inch at a time. Cracking, I thought, a perfect opportunity for a photograph. Then it came: a ferry with one of the most capitalist slogans emblazoned on its side drifted past and this man, who had been working so hard to improve this one small part of his country all alone, moving away from its natural, wild self and towards a uniform, westernised, Coca-cola Cambodia, had a glimpse of its future as he took a break. It will be hard work, but the unforgivable actions of the Khmer Rouge can be countered by the continued efforts of the Cambodians themselves and continue to bring sustainable economic and social development to this fascinating, beautiful and varied country. I hope this doesn’t mean that it’ll lose its wild charm, but if it can improve the day-to-day lives of the everyday Cambodians, it will be for the best. I know I said I’d keep it light but have got a little preachy. I’ll stop now.

I returned to the hotel room via the red light district (by accident, I assure you dear readers; I experienced enough of those sorts of sights during my stay in Hamburg) and found Henny writing her blog post. After sharing accounts of our afternoons, we had a quick dinner and headed to a cool rooftop bar for a 2-4-1 cocktail, then back to our room and to bed for our early start the next day – we had a bus to Sihanoukville booked for 8am, which meant very little time at the breakfast buffet. A short tuk-tuk ride and we climbed into a Toyota Hilux-type van and were surrounded by other people’s bags. With a lack of both leg space and sleep, we left Phnom Penh for the last leg of our time in Cambodia. That is a tale for another post my dear readers, so until then I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing before you read this all the way through.

Yours apologetically,

Boulders.

Phnom(enal) Penh OK so it wasn’t phenomenal, however fond of the word I am, I just liked the convenience of the word-play.

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ergohacks · 8 years ago

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The Ergohacks Verdict

The Amazon Echo came out in the UK in September last year and we had one on day one. We’ve since expanded to a couple of Dots and a couple of Google Home devices so when Amazon announced a new version of the Echo we were interested – although running out of rooms!

If you’ve never used a personal assistant before you’re probably wondering why you’d want one. I admit with the exception of playing music there still isn’t much that you can do with an Echo that you can’t do with any normal mid-range smartphone. The difference is one of simplicity. It takes a bit of getting used to but asking for your music, calendar or news is easier than getting your phone out and Alexa’s voice control is good enough to be reliable. Out of the box she’ll give you personalised news reports, play music, give you the weather, act as a to-do list and shopping list manager, set timers and alarms, look things up for you on Bing and control any smart home devices you’ve got. There’s also a range of new abilities that have been added in the last six months or so. You can message friends who also have Alexas, create routines – single commands that string together multiple actions and use multiple Alexas to create a multispeaker system. Multiplay is particularly impressive as it’s startable from any Alexa but can be individually volume controlled. Extendable apps called skills have proliferated although frustratingly most of them are aimed at the much larger US market and aren’t available in the UK. Perhaps the best I’ve found in the UK are Mastermind that lets you SMS, 7-Minuite-Workout, a white noise generator and IFTTT.

So what does the new second generation Echo look like? It’s a clear evolution of the previous version and now is shaped less like a Pringles can and more like a kitchen roll – a bit shorter and a bit wider. Rather than being hard plastic, it’s fabric covered with a plastic top with the controls. It keeps the LED ring that gives you a little visual feedback and the mute button and action buttons but does away with the spinnable volume ring replacing it with volume up and down buttons instead. Aesthetic beauty is subjective but the new form factor does say home a little more than tech and with a range of colours it’s likely to be able to fade into the background a little more.

The bottom line is that the 2017 Alexa is a spruced up and prettied up version of its predecessor. It’s just as responsive and perhaps slightly better from a music perspective but the difference is fractional. Their abilities are identical and while there might come a time where the 2017 model gets an ability the older doesn’t that’s not on the horizon anytime soon. The 2017’s big advantage is cost – down from a price around £150 to £90 which makes getting one a lot more appealing. If you’ve already got an Alexa you’re happy with, stick with it – the new model won’t give you much worth paying for but if you’re new to the market or want to add units to other rooms the new model is very compelling.

Buy it from Amazon +

Price: ± € £90 – 100 Included: Amazon Echo with attached shell, power adaptor with 1.8m cable, quick start and things to try cards.

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Specification

Product dimensions: 14.8 x 8.8 x 8.8 cm Item Weight: 820g Colour: Heather Grey, charcoal fabric, oak fabric, sandstone fabric, silver, walnut finish Speakers: 2.5″ Woofer and 0.6″ Tweeter Microphones: 7 mic array Lineout: Yes 3.5mm Bluetooth: Yes A2DP and AVRCP supported Wifi: 802.11 a/b/g/n – does not support peer-to-peer App: Android, iOS and FireOS and web access

Warranty: One-year limited warranty

Requirements

The Alexa needs mains power and a decent wifi signal. It also needs access to an Amazon account which does not need to be a Prime account. Some services such as Prime Music require a separate account or paid subscription.

About Amazon

Amazon probably needs little introduction to any internet user. The company started selling books online in the late 1990’s and expanded to fill the market and began reselling almost everything else you can possibly think of. They started their own electronics arm making the Kindle which iterated to become the dominant e-reader and then expanded to a small range of other electronic devices based on Android including tablets, a phone and media streamers.

We based our Ergohacks Verdict on 2 weeks of testing and playing with the 2017 Amazon Alexa. This product is still in regular use today. It was provided by Amazon in October 2017. This article was first published on 9 November 2017

Amazon Alexa 2017 – UK The Ergohacks Verdict The Amazon Echo came out in the UK in September last year and we had one on day one.

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androidtvboxreview · 8 years ago

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Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC Review By Android TV Box Review

The Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC Box is a very compact PC with an inoffensive design, that is basically a square block with rounded corners. Although it is on the lighter side at under 250 grams and is made of plastic, it does not feel cheap. There was no noticeable creaking noise or looseness.

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Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC Package Content

Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC Specification

Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC Supported

Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC

Software

The Wintel Box has two variants, one with Windows 10 and the other with Android. We were provided with the Windows one, which came pre-loaded with dual-language (English, Simplified Chinese) Windows 10 Home build 1511. However, the manufacturer hasn’t provided an activated copy and the user is expected to purchase a license from the Windows Store separately. Additionally, the packaging features the MS Office logo, but only the Modern version of the productivity suite, that does not support document editing without a valid Office 365 account, is bundled with the OS.

Performance

I connected the device, first with my 42-inch LG TV which has 1080p resolution and later with a smaller 23-inch Samsung TV with 720p resolution. The device did a decent job in detecting and displaying content on both the screens with no noticeable lag.

However, the Wintel box struggled on the connectivity front due to its flaky Wi-Fi. For a device aimed at media consumption, this is definitely not acceptable. I often found the PC struggling to catch a signal from the nearest Wi-Fi router/extender, and I ended up placing an extender next to the device to carry on with my review. For input, I used a Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse combo, which worked fine for up to three meters beyond which the reception wasn’t great. The network issue can be bypassed using an ethernet cable or an alternate WiFi dongle, but that’s the most one can do as manufacturer support for the device is non-existent.

Main Features:

● Intel Atom Cherry Trail x5-Z8300 CPU, burst speed up to 1.84GHz: Stable, efficient and reliable.Support H.265 video code, enjoy the high-resolution video even at a low-internet-speed environment. ● 802.11b/g/n WiFi: Connect effortlessly in a world without wires. ● Two USB 2.0 ports: For the webcam, keyboard, mouse, external hard drive, USB stick and more. ● Bluetooth 4.0: Easy pairing with most Bluetooth-enabled devices (computer, mobile phone, keyboard, and others). ● HDMI connector: Set up your home cinema for the best HD multimedia experience. ● 2GB RAM + 32GB ROM gives you more space to download your favorite apps and caches to browse websites, play games, run apps, watch movies more smoothly. ● Infrared remote control lets you enjoy your wonderful life which the wireless brings to you.

Where to buy CSA96 TV Box

You can buy the CSA96 TV Box from GearBest, Amazon or Ebay

Amazon UK

Amazon.com

Buy from ebay.co.uk

Buy from EBay.com

Buy from GearBest

Specification

Model: CX-W8 Type: TV Box System: Windows 10 CPU: Intel Atom Cherry Trail x5-Z8300 Core: Quad Core GPU: Intel HD Graphic RAM: 2G ROM: 32G TV Box Features: XBMC Color: Black

Media Supported

Decoder Format: AVS,H.263,H.265,HD MPEG4 Video format: 1080P,AVS,H.263,H.264,VP8 Audio format: AAC,AC3,MP3,WAV Photo Format: BMP,GIF,JPEG,PNG,TIFF

Product Details

Support XBMC: Yes WIFI: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth: Bluetooth4.0 Power Supply: Charge Adapter Interface: 3.5mm Audio,DC 5V,HDMI,LAN,Micro USB,TF card,USB2.0

Firmware Information

System Bit: 64Bit WiFi Chip: RTL8723/AP6234

Power Requirement

Power Type: External Power Adapter Mode

Dimension and Weight

Product weight: 0.2500 kg Package weight: 0.6400 kg Product size (L x W x H): 9.80 x 9.80 x 2.00 cm / 3.86 x 3.86 x 0.79 inches Package size (L x W x H): 20.80 x 13.50 x 6.00 cm / 8.19 x 5.31 x 2.36 inches

Package Contents:

1 x Wintel Pro CX-W8 TV Box Intel 1 x Power Adapter 1 x HDMI Cable 1 x English Manual

Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC Review Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC Review By Android TV Box Review The Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC Box is a very compact PC with an inoffensive design, that is basically a square block with rounded corners.

#android TV box #review #Wintel #Wintel Pro CX-W8 Mini PC

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harlequindreams-blog · 8 years ago

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Can Massive Knowledge And AI Fix Our Prison</h1>

Whether or not you are a seasoned skilled or a newcomer to the world of photography, it's impossible to ignore the modifications happening throughout the trade. All you really want to know is that the iPhone SE is capable of capturing some remarkably detailed, nicely colored images. It produced the sharpest footage in vibrant gentle, plus it had the best stabilization and the least noise in low mild. These kinds of level and shoot camera are typically known as ‘bridge cameras', presumably since they are the proper bridge from a small compact to a bigger dSLR. It's primarily built for the people who find themselves not skilled photographers and so it entails focus free lenses or autofocus for focusing. Pros: Extraordinarily low price, skinny digicam easily matches in a pocket, 8X optical zoom lens is good in a thin digital camera, constructed-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Most screens are LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY and around three inches in size, with the resolution various considerably across value points. With the section-main advanced F1.4 24mm Lens, the big selection of aperture steps delivers clear photographs and video even in very low best point and shoot camera light situations. You've also acquired your self an awesome digital camera as long as circumstances are favorable, and all the facility you can presumably need with a quad-core 2.5GHz CPU at its coronary heart. Use the Canon Digicam Join app in your smartphone to wirelessly distant management the camera. It is tough to argue with the results from the Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II camera. There's a super-high ISO value of 1,640,000 on provide, while 4K video recording is also on hand. The RX100 V offers an improved autofocus system, a 24 fps burst mode (of sixteen fps on RX100 IV), and extra recording settings for video, however it does have a slighly lower battery life than the IV. Taking photographs or recording video at a sporting event or capturing the finer particulars of a scenic view requires a longer zoom vary to attain lifelike photographs at a larger distance. Like the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera , the Pocket model sports a novel, all-steel design that feels solid - massively out of proportion to its low value. With improved AF times and reduced taking pictures lag over previous G-series models, the developments to Canon's AF system assist guarantee users by no means miss a shot. One thing I can stick in my jacket pocket while I travel and nonetheless get great photos. It's excellent for these candid road images snaps. Thanks to a long 34x zoom range with a high quality NIKKOR Lens, this Nikon level and shoot is a perfect journey camera. Through Wi-Fi, customers can send a digital picture to any email handle saved in your digital camera's deal with e book or by utilizing the camera's touch-screen QWERTY keypad. The Fujifilm X100F seems to be essentially the most significant overhaul of the X100 series since its inception, bettering on dealing with, performance and image high quality. Technophobes typically depend on devoted shutter buttons … but smartphone producers think the fewer buttons they've, the higher, so the devoted shutter release button should be on the way out. Small sensors often have trouble balancing shiny highlights and darkish shadows, however the 360 HS did an admirable job with this difficult excessive-contrast scene. It may well shoot its first picture 1 second after urgent the ability button, and it has virtually no shutter lag. After the initial set-up, sharing photographs might be so simple as using the LUMIX HYPERLINK software on the smartphone. Panasonic's Image App puts a dwell view of the scene (left) in your cellphone, the place you may set focus, hearth the digital camera's shutter, and modify most exposure settings. Including to its portability and comfort, the digicam features USB charging by means of a computer or conventional charging by the AC adaptor, permitting users to power-up from just about wherever. My D-Lux 4 has change into my again-as much as my back-ups since I purchased it a bit of over a yr and a half in the past. First, the iPhone SE helps shooting Stay Pictures , shifting photographs that add a little bit aptitude and context to your pictures. In addition, the digital camera's creative handheld HDR Scene mode routinely combines multiple photographs of a scene to assist create an image with a greater dynamic range without the necessity for a tripod. Panasonic HDC-HS350 lets you report over 30 hours of HD. With numerous selections from manufacturers like Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Olympus, and SeaLife, it's definitely not straightforward to make a quick determination about which digicam is right for you. When you take a second to think about the feat Sony's accomplished right here, the efficiency issues are easier to miss. Within every sort, the myriad digital camera fashions vary drastically, from the bodily design, comparable to dimension and body shape, to the extra complex lens varieties, picture quality, capabilities, and worth. To know more in regards to the technical concepts and sensible demonstration of focal length and photography, be a part of 3 Months On-line Foundation Images Course. If you're headed on a trip where you count on to take lots of photos in low-light conditions, this digicam is your greatest guess. Use a smartphone to control publicity, launch shutter and receive photographs. Throw in maybe the best digital viewfinder in the business plus a beautiful touchscreen and you have got a stew going. Nikon's extensive focal vary (25 to 750 mm equivalent) means it might seize close-ups as simply as action far away. The 2 compression factors (first to focus, second to shoot) are very clearly defined, and I preferred them to the on-screen shutter button (you too can convey up the digicam app with a long-press of the bodily key). It isn't just like the 5D Mark III was a bad digicam - it was one of the best excessive-end DSLRs cash might purchase. Rather than questioning months later the place you had been while you took a specific photograph, GPS knowledge permits you to know precisely the place you were! In our tests, we discovered it does not right the left and right twist motions common to pole customers, however could have a huge effect on the amount of watchable footage. The digital camera can be set to the max 9900K and the tint at M7 and the colours look fairly good however will need some correcting in post.

It additionally lacks a touchscreen, a function we'd have appreciated as a quick and easy solution to set the main target level. Point and Shoot cameras make up a big phase of the digital digital camera market due to their ease of use and their reasonably priced price. The Twin Dial and entrance wheel keys additionally permit customers to shortly and simply alter publicity for easy pro-style control. So yeah, it will fit in your clothes and takes images that'd make your phone cry (had some macabre machine maker kitted it out with tear ducts). The PowerShot N is supplied with enhanced wi-fi capabilities, so excessive-quality photographs might be shared with family and friends even whereas on-the-go. Our selection of underwater cameras has everything for the most onerous core scuba divers in addition to the cautiously clumsy. One other major hitch for Powershot customers is the camera's poor battery life. Canon says that the sensor in this digital camera is engineered specifically for high quality shots in low mild, even at ISO speeds of as much as ISO 3200. The Canon PowerShot G16 occurs to be the camera I often suggest to any good friend who asks me what digital camera they should buy for less than $500, it actually is among the greatest pocket cameras out there. AF-S and AF-C is available in Single-point, Zone and Large/Tracking, making the Fuji-X70 versatile sufficient for many on a regular basis situations and fast paced topics like photographing kids. Olympus and Panasonic use Micro Four Thirds-measurement sensors, offering a middle floor and some excellent and reasonably priced lenses. Fast capturing pace allowed me to capture multiple photographs of the fish college because it formed and turned in a pleasing route. Out of the field, each panel on the Z3C's residence display screen carousel is completely sodden in widgets and shortcuts selling Sony's apps and providers, so you'll must spend somewhat time organizing this to your liking. Featured in two different colours, black, and silver, this digital camera is a beauty that's certain to take unimaginable pictures, whether it is day or night. As has turn into normal on most cameras, Canon's new mirrorless options NFC and WiFi, letting you easily switch footage to an iOS or Android machine. Certain, it's slightly on the hefty side, but it's nonetheless comfortably pocket-sized, is quite a looker, and was the one which we found ourselves reaching for when it came time to take a few holiday snaps on our own. When readers choose to purchase The Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it might earn affiliate commissions that help its work. Underneath bright daylight, it's going to seize the sharpest detail and deepest, most saturated color, so that recording of your child's first football recreation will capture each blade of grass. Pakistani Clothes Unstitched Cloth Kurtas & Shalwar Kameez Formal Wear Abayas & Hijabs Dupattas, Stoles & Shawls Pants & Trousers. With a wide-aperture f/1.7 lens, low-mild picture quality could be very impressive. The RX100 IV packs a 20.1-megapixel, 1-inch Exmor RS CMOS sensor alongside a BIONZ X image processor and Zeiss best pocket camera Vario-Sonnar T 24-70mm (f/1.eight-2.8) wide-angle lens. Underwater housings are primarily protective shells that encase cameras they're specifically designed round, and are sometimes made from thick plastic or aluminum, and are sometimes able to being submerged to depths of 30 meters or extra.

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youtuber-gautam-pragya · 6 years ago

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iPhone XS UNBOXING n Review | Specification And Features Explained

New Post has been published on https://gautampragya.com/2019/02/19/iphone-xs-unboxing-n-review-specification-and-features-explained/

iPhone XS UNBOXING n Review | Specification And Features Explained

So our baby iPhone XS is Silver in color and 256GB phone and came with earpods with a lightning connector, Lightning to USB cable and USB power adapter.

Some basic features which I absolutely love are

1. Face Id: That means your phone recognizes your face to unlock, authorize Apple Pay payments, and perform other tasks.

2. Control Center: Swipe down from the upper right corner to quickly take a photo, turn on room lights, control music, Portrait orientation lock, WiFi, mobile data, torch and more.

3. Home: Swipe up to go home.

4. The left side of the body has 2 buttons and 1 Switch. Top Ring/Silent Switch to choose either of it. 2 buttons to adjust audio volume.

5. Tap to Wake: You can tap anywhere on the screen to wake your iPhone.

6. 3D Touch: You can access menus, shortcuts, and content by pressing the screen with 3D touch

7. The right side of the body has 1 button which has 3 functions. A) press once to sleep or wake. B) Press twice to activate Apple Pay. C) Press and hold to turn on iPhone or activate Siri.

8. In Emergency: Press and hold the side button and either of the volume button to turn off the iPhone or make an Emergency call.

Let's move towards Specifications to know and love iPhone XS more

Front-facing camera

Display

Camera, Picture, and Video

The cameras are better, especially in low light, and the new Depth Control for portraits works really really well as well.

Slow Motion video quality though Oh my goodness you can take screenshots from slow-motion video and edit it a little bit and trust me you will have some really good captures ever.

It definitely delivers more detail of the picture.

Speaker and Microphone

Battery Life

Conclusion

Thanks for sticking here till the end. Until next time XOXO

Pragya Gautam

#TECH REVIEW

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