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The new iPad Air reminds us just how bad most Android tablets really are – Android Central

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Source: Hayato Huseman / Android Central

Samsung can make a damn nice tablet. I don’t much care for tablets, but even I was really impressed with the Galaxy Tab S6 while I had it here for a review, and I’ll be the first to say that a Samsung tablet is a well-built piece of machinery that looks and feels like it justifies its price. But that’s not the problem — it’s the apps.

The most expensive Windows laptop is hundreds of times faster than a new iPad or Chromebook or crappy Windows laptop.

Forget all the PR mumbo jumbo Apple’s slick new iPad Air presentation about how much more powerful it is than practically every Chromebook and Android tablet out there. That’s all hogwash — an expensive product from one company was compared to the best-selling budget models from others. The new Galaxy Tab S7 with Qualcomm’s latest processor is plenty powerful enough to do everything the new iPad can do. The iPad is overbuilt so Apple has fewer components to manage and that saves money in the long run.

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No, what’s frustrating about Android tablets isn’t the hardware. It’s not even the platform. It’s the apps.

The only great apps on a brand new Galaxy Tab S are the ones Samsung wrote for it. You can use the S Pen with oodles of pressure sensitivity, you can transfer handwriting to text, you can even draw a crummy circle and an app can make it look geometrically accurate instead of like the blob you drew. But when you open the Play Store it all comes crashing to a halt.

I feel like I keep writing this over and over, but Google just doesn’t seem to care about tablet apps the same way Apple does. That’s a shame because something like a Galaxy Tab deserves great apps like Pixelmator or any of the other “must-have” apps for the iPad. It just doesn’t get them.

There isn’t much Samsung can do about it other than pay thousands of developers to write those apps and games. Samsung probably could afford to do it, but it’s not going to when it can spend that money developing its own first-party apps that are pretty awesome on the Galaxy Tab. No, this problem is something only Google can solve.

It’s.👏The.👏Apps.👏

That’s not an easy task, either. Google basically has two choices: it could go the Apple route and if an app isn’t tablet-optimized it’s not listed on the device’s Play Store at all. That means close to 90% of the apps — including ones you want to use — would be gone when you hit up the Play Store with a new Android tablet. Or it could pay cold hard cash to get developers to do it. Google is going to do neither, so it just gave up.

It’s all about the mighty dollar. You’ve heard it before but developers don’t make much money from Android apps when compared to apps for iOS. That goes double (at least) for tablet apps. I don’t know if that’s because Android users have been trained not to pay for things after years of getting most apps and services for free, or whether because of Android’s open nature piracy is just rampant. But I do know it’s true because I’ve seen the same studies and reports you have. Apps written for iOS make a lot more money than ones written for Android even though there are twice as many people using Android.

When there’s no money to be made, nobody cares. I can’t fault a developer who wants to feed their family by sticking with iOS. That’s a smart move and exactly what I would do if I were in their shoes. I’m actually impressed that some third-party apps, like Sketchbook (a must-have app for any Galaxy Tab or Galaxy Note, in my opinion) are so great on a tablet because I know they aren’t making much money.

I want to recommend a new Galaxy Tab to someone looking for a great tablet, but I can’t because iOS has apps that are so much better.

There is no easy answer. Most Android apps work on an Android tablet or a Chromebook but they look like crap or don’t work correctly. Google keeps making it easier to design and lay out apps for bigger screens — because it hasn’t given up on great Chromebooks like it has for tablets — but it’s not making a difference. Google Play is a desert for good tablet apps. You’ll find an oasis once in a while, but there is a lot of empty sand not worth paying attention to in between.

If someone were to ask me which tablet I recommend I’d either steer them to a Fire tablet if they were all-in with Amazon Prime — or an iPad. And I hate that because Android is just better than iOS. You can simplify Android down so it “just works” but you can’t upscale iOS so it does more than just work. I want to be able to recommend Samsung’s great line of premium tablets, but until Google gets the app gap sorted, I can’t.

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Model doesn't feel safe wearing designer clothes in Canada's biggest city | Canada – Daily Hive

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A model says she feels like a “sitting duck” wearing designer clothes in downtown Toronto amid a general state of unease in the city in response to an uptick in violent crimes.

Hanya Kizemchuk posted a video on Instagram and TikTok where the local model claimed that she sprinted two blocks to her car after a recent modelling shoot in Toronto after being overcome with the sense that her expensive attire read as “a stop sign screaming ‘rob me.’”

In the video, Kizemchuk describes the scene on a cold, rainy night after finishing a shoot, explaining, “I wrapped my head in my Louis Vuitton wrap. I had my Louis Vuitton duffle bag with all my shoes and makeup and whatever I need for that job. I was wearing my Gucci crossover and I was wearing my black leather Burberry coat.”

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“And as I jumped out onto the street, I have to say that I realized for the first time ever in the city of downtown Toronto, I was truly like a sitting duck and that this is no longer okay to be running around like this, that I need to be a little more downplayed so that I don’t attract attention.”

Kizemchuk says she was “a little unnerved” and felt compelled to run “two blocks to my car and continuously check to see if anyone was popping out from somewhere because I was like a stop sign screaming, ‘Rob me.’”

“And that’s how I felt for the first time ever in this beautiful city of Toronto, which I grew up in and don’t recognize anymore.”

A few chimed in, sharing comments siding with Kizemchuk.

Others questioned why she would run away without identifying any specific threats and then make a post online about feeling unsafe.

One user pointed out how this video is another example of wealth inequality and the ever-growing divide between the rich and poor in Toronto.

According to Toronto Police data, major crime indicators have spiked year-to-date in several categories during 2024, including assault (+10.9%) and robbery (+19.7%).

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Forged by friendship, this year's Stampede boots pay tribute to Stoney Nakoda iconography – MSN

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If not for Duane Mark and Lloyd Templeton’s budding friendship, this year’s Calgary Stampede boot design would have never existed.

While the boot was only constructed in recent months, the process began when Templeton, a Calgary-raised artist in his early 20s, approached Mark with a request to use images of the Stoney Nakoda teepee-holder and educator for artwork he was preparing for the Calgary Stampede.

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The two clicked from the get-go. By November, after hours together, Templeton’s piece featuring Mark — dressed in full regalia standing in the foreground of the Calgary Tower among a diverse group of parade participants — was chosen as the 2024 Stampede poster artwork.

On Thursday, Templeton’s art was unveiled as the design for this year’s Stampede boot — now the second product of their friendship that’s been produced for this year’s 10-day rodeo and fair.

“What comes to mind is the growth of a young man named Lloyd,” Mark said, when asked what he sees in this year’s boot design.

The artwork on the exterior reflects key Stoney Nakoda First Nation and Treaty 7 iconography, Templeton said at Thursday’s unveiling. Stitchings of Alberta’s mountain range and the golden eagle flying through a rising sun — two important symbols for the First Nation’s culture — line the outside of the boot.

The boot’s interior has the words Oyadé Gichiyabi, Ahogichopabi Îyûhabith inscribed, which roughly translates in Stoney language to “be empowered to foster peace and respect,” which was selected at Mark’s recommendation.

A recent graduate from the Alberta University of the Arts, Templeton is becoming a household name in Calgary’s arts community at a pace that’s not lost on him.

“Just last year I was making school projects, and a year later, there’s going to be people wearing my art. That’s nuts,” he said.

Working in three dimensions was a new challenge for Templeton. To start, he would tape paper to the back of the boot to get a feel for the shapes he needed to produce. He then drew the designs by pencil, scanned them into his computer and produced it into a special file that allowed it to be etched by laser onto the boots.

“My poster was oil paint, a very traditional process,” he said. “I was kind of making it up on the go to see what worked. I liked the challenge of that.”

Margaret Holloway, the Stampede’s 2024 First Nations Princess who also provided input on the boot design, said she was “breathtaken, speechless” when she first saw the design. Breaking from tradition, this year’s design will be available on five different shades of boot. Alberta Boot normally creates one special boot for each Stampede.

The 22-year-old jingle dancer is the first person from Stoney Nakoda to be named First Nations Princess in more than 20 years.

Holloway’s family teepee at the Elbow River Camp has three large eagles on it, she said.

“Back home, we see the eagles fly and we feel blessed by their presence, and we feel amazed just by their beauty of soaring in the skies. To see that on this year’s Stampede boot was absolutely unbelievable.”

With their latest creation publicly revealed, Templeton and Mark’s friendship will extend far past their artistic collaboration.

“He’s the coolest dude. We have a lot in common — a good sense of humour, listen to the same music and movies. We make a lot of the same jokes,” Templeton said.

Mark said he’s watched the young artist grow and mature in front of his eyes. Over the past year they’ve discussed “deep Indigenous philosophy,” which Templeton has evidently absorbed into his own life, he said.

“We became the best of friends and will continue to be the best of friends,” Mark said.

mscace@postmedia.com

X: @mattscace67

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Huawei's new Kirin 9010 brings minor CPU improvements – GSMArena.com news – GSMArena.com

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Huawei announced the Pura 70 series today, and once again offered no details regarding the chipsets. However, early benchrmarks confirmed they feature a new platform called Kirin 9010, which has an 8-core CPU, identified by apps as 12-core unit due to hyperthreading.

Hyperthreading is nothing new in the chipset industry, as the Taishan cores have been supporting the technology for some time; it has been part of the Kirin 9000s and now is a part of the 9010 as well.

First Geekbench results revealed a minor improvement in raw performance, coming from slightly faster core speeds. The numbers show improvement single digit percentage improvements in both single core and multi core tests.

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Kirin 9000S on Geekbench

Kirin 9010 vs Kirin 9000S on Geekbench

The actual octa-core combination of Kirin 9010 is as follows: one 2.30 GHz Taishan Big, three 2.18 GHz Taishan Mid and four 1.55 GHz Cortex-A510. The GPU remains Maleoon 910 at 750 MHz.

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