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designspecialismsami · 5 years ago

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Coding the website

Seen as I am new to coding, I had a video call with Kat and Liv where she gave us a short summary of what the different tags do, how to set up our folders and she showed us the code for the header in order to give us a head start.

We specified the font in the css folder so that it would be the same font throughout the whole body.

In the css file we could also specify the colour we wanted the header, height and width. We added the logo image so also specified the size of that in the css folder.

This is where we also created the navigation bar which will link to the other pages.

I added a hover tag to mine too where the colour will change when you hover over the link as I thought it would make it look more aesthetically pleasing.

This video call with Kat really helped as I feel like it gave me a much better understanding of setting up the code and gave me the confidence to want to start doing the rest by myself.

Homepage

To begin, I created the Homepage, for this I needed the header which I had already created, the main section and the footer.

Then there was four sections in the main part of the code, the first section included a left image and right text.

This part was fairly simple, as it was the first thing on the page too, it meant it was positioned where I wanted it and nothing could overlap it.

The services box was something I struggled with for a while with trying to position the images exactly where i wanted them, but in the end I managed.

Then there was two more content boxes with one right image and left text and one left image and right text.

Problems I came across:

Like I said before, I came across a problem when I could get the images of weight and leaf to go side by side.

When I did manage to get them side by side, I came across a new issue which was getting the headers to go underneath each image.

A problem I came across in the last two sections was being able to position the text next to the image, when I would use the same code that I used for the image at the top of the page to make them align, the text would jump up to the top of the page next to the top image rather than staying in the content box iI had placed it in.

I then managed to sort it out on the right image but it took me a bit longer to figure out what I had done wrong with the left image that meant it wouldn’t work, but I got there in the end.

Personal Training

On the navigation bar on the header you can click the tabs that will then send you to a seperate page with more information on that specific area, which I liked together when creating the header, which I can design later in te different html files e.g ‘personaltraining.html1.

In the design we were given, the header and footer is the same on each page, so I could just copy and paste the same header and footer code that I had on the homepage, this ensures that the header and footer stays the same throughout each page, and makes the user experience for the user easier so they can click between each page.

Then there was the main section of the personal training page that I needed to code, I split this off into three ‘sections’ which then contained seperate content boxes inside them.

The first section just contains an image to the left and text to the right.

This section was fairly simple and I didn’t come across any issues.

Then it has a ‘specialties’ box that just contains some centered text.

Finally there was a content box containing some centered text and a centered image, I used two separate content boxes for this as I struggled to place the image where I wanted it when I just used the one content box for both text and image.

Problems I came across:

I didn’t come across many problems with the personal training page, I was able to copy a lot of it off the homepage as it contained the same sort of layout, and it was easy to place the pictures as there was only one in each content box so I didn’t have the difficulty of trying to place them both equally.

Nutrition

The nutrition page was very similar layout to the personal training page so i could copy a lot of the coding I’d done already and just change the images and text.

Problems I came across:

Because the sentences in the ‘philosophy’ section were quite long, I did come across a problem where the text was going off the page, this is where I learnt about the <br> tag, which moves the sentence underneath so it doesn’t go off the page, it makes it look better positioned with bigger margins at the sides.

Before.

After.

About Me

In the design that Kat gave to us there wasn’t actually a ‘About’ page, it just had an ‘about me’ button on the navigation bar. So that it wasn’t just a blank page when you clicked it, I copied over the text from the ‘about me’ section on the homepage and put this into the ‘about me’ page, formatted in the same way that the nutrition, personal training and contact page is, with the header at the top in the centre at the writing the the right of the image.

Contact

The contact page was very simple, it just had one image and a bit of text next to it, it was the same as the personal training page and the nutrition page so I was able to copy the code from that again.

I didn’t come across any problems with this page as it was fairly straight forward.

Footer

Problems I came across:

On some pages the footer would sit perfectly and on other pages the footer would overlap the bottom content box, for example on this picture here it overlapped. This was harder to figure out because the code was the same on all of the html pages so it was unusual that it didn’t sit the same in each page. To fix this I had to play around with some of the coding in the CSS file to get it in the right place on each page.

Experimenting with the coding

After finishing the coding for the design that Kat gave us, I copied a second version of my code so that I could experiment with some other features and see what I could do.

W3 Schools is a really useful website that can help you with the coding for the majority of features you want to add onto your website, so this is the website that I used to help me with most of it. If I didn’t use W3 Schools then I would use a YouTube video, this is more helpful when you want to find out in more detail why each line of code does what.

Parallax scrolling

Something I wanted to try and include in my code is parallax scrolling, this is a web design technique, in which the background moves at a slower pace than that of the foreground. This results in a 3D effect as visitors scroll down the site, adding a sense of depth and creating a more immersive experience.

I used W3 schools to try to embed this into my code.

When I tried to copy from W3 website, it didn’t work on my website, it just scrolled through the website as it would with a regular website without parallax scrolling. I think the images in my website wouldn’t be big enough anyway, as the design we were given had the images small and to the side, I think if I tried to use them in parallax scrolling then it would stretch them to look blurry and morphed, but if I was to create a website again in the future then I think this is something that I would want to include because I think that it makes the website look a lot more professional and clean cut.

After making a few alterations I did manage to make the code work on the website.

Fading the buttons

Another feature I wanted to add was a fade background on the hover on the navigation bar. This was fairly simple, I just needed to add a transition of 2 seconds onto the css on the hover, making the brown fade into a grey when you hover over it, I changed this on the whole website so its the same on each page.

Transitions between html pages

I felt the transition between each page was very jumpy so I wanted to see if there was a way that I could ease in the pages when flicking between on the navigation bar.

I used a video tutorial to help me with this.

https://www.google.com/search?q=transition+between+html+pages&oq=transisition+between+html+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l7.8173j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_NFvBXoftIYqr1fAPyoaFqAo32

When I actually embedded it onto my website I ended up not liking how it looked, it made the website look more like it was running slowly. If I was to create a website again though then experimenting with more transitions would be something I would like to do because I do feel like it can make the click from page to page a lot smoother.

Toggle Like and Dislike

Click on the icon to toggle between thumbs-up and thumbs-down (like/dislike).

I thought this would be a good feature on a website seen as if customers see that the person has a lot of likes on their page it means that they would feel more inclined to use them than if they had more dislikes. Its like if something has loads of good reviews you are more likely to use it, it will boost the website and hopefully get it more interaction.

Chat Messages

I actually really liked the idea of added a chat to the website, I think it makes it a lot more personal and it also helps the user get instant feedback if they have any concerns, rather than perhaps waiting a while for an email or text back, plus then the customer doesn’t have to go to any extra lengths to message. I also think this would be more professional than texting.

I added in the little icon of a picture of the ‘staff member’, and gave an example of how the chat can be used. I think its really effective and if I was to create a website like this again or expanding on this website itself then its definitely something i would want to include.

CSS Skill bar

I thought this would be a good feature on a website like this because it would make the customers experience on the website a lot nicer as they wouldn’t have to look around everywhere for booking onto their classes and if there is space left. Its also more likely that the customer would book a class because they’d be scared that they class would book up, creates a sense of urgency within the customer without them realising, but helps the owner as their classes would be getting booked up, so I think it would be a good feature to include.

I changed the names to make it more fitting to what this website is about.

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maggieisalarrie · 7 years ago

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Titles: W

walk my days on a wire by sunshiner (39k)

Harry hums, staring at his hands in his lap, and Louis can still feel their smoothness, how solid they were in between his own. “Do you think it’s the same for us? Are we here only because of the likeliness of our jobs? Of our lives?” “We’re here because we have inventive managers,” Louis says, giving Harry’s leg a little nudge with his knee, but all that’s going around in his head is, I think I'd be in the same spot in every possible universe.

or, when actor Louis Tomlinson used to daydream about dating Harry Styles, this is not what he had in mind.

Want You More Than A by TheCellarDoor (78k)

Falling in love with your step-brother’s best friend is a disaster enough. When he happens to be the boy everyone loves and you’re a nerd who wears sweater vests and cries during rom-coms, it takes it to a whole new level.

we are honey and the bee by soleilouis (41k)

It isn’t his fault though, it is entirely the fault of whichever gods thought it would be a good idea to taunt Louis by dangling a curly haired boy in front of him with a mouth that can’t possibly be as soft as it looks, a mouth that requires further inspection with Louis’ own mouth. Unfortunately, Louis absolutely cannot do that, because it would go against all rules and guidelines in the Golden Handbook of Nanny and Employee Etiquette that he’s pretty sure exists.

au where harry plays rugby at uni, louis needs to hire a nanny, and life is one big cliche.

we can get there (we can do it if we try) by zouisclimax (28k)

He’s a bit shocked when he sees the person in front of him. Because, it’s a man? Which, yeah, he guesses that really isn’t that weird, but. Just, what? Of all the nannies Louis has ever met he has never once encountered a male. And really, of all the males he has encountered, he has never encountered one so pretty. Okay, there’s Zayn, but, he doesn’t count.

[or, the one where Louis's a dad in desperate need for a new nanny. Harry's perfect for the job]

we can take the long way home by eleadore (27k)

“Fertile,” Louis says, and then laughs because it sounds stupid to say out loud. He hasn’t ever really thought of himself in those terms. Baby-making terms. It’s just one of those things his body can do, like exercise, or go without tea. Doesn’t mean he will.

or,

The band takes a break. Harry and Louis come together.

we fool ourselves so much we could do it for a living by veterization (24k)

Louis has been King of Pranks in his dorm for two years, and a random freshman named Harry Styles isn't going to take that title from him. It is on.

We Made These Memories for Ourselves by supernope (17k)

Breath held, Harry squints his eyes open and focuses on the first stick. A blue line. Harry breathes out an unsteady breath. He’s pretty sure he read that one blue line is a negative, but he fishes the box from the bottom of the pile just to make sure.

“Negative,” he confirms, voice echoing around the small room. “Next.”

Now that he’s feeling a little less shaky, he scans the rest of the tests at once, is met with a headache-inducing mixture of pink plus signs and blue double lines. His heart rate picks up until it’s pounding triple-time in the base of his throat and the pit of his stomach, thundering in his ears and throbbing in his temples. He flips over the rest of the boxes slowly, but he knows what they’re going to say before he even looks.

[or, Louis is a footballer, Harry owns a bakery, and they're having a baby.]

we were just like glue by togetherwecouldbealright (24k)

Louis works in a library where his own books sit on the shelves. Also, there may or may not be a Harry Styles involved and he may or may not be Louis' muse. Not that Louis is admitting to anything.

Wear It Like A Crown by zarah5 (141k)

AU. As part of a team of fixers hired to handle a gay scandal in Buckingham Palace, Louis expects Prince Harry to be a lot of things—most notably a royally spoilt brat. Never mind that the very same Prince Harry used to star in quite a number of Louis' teenage fantasies.

we can meet again somewhere by LSFOREVER (9k)

“I don't even know who he is, Niall! I just want to know his name or some - ”

“So why do you keep fucking blushing while talking about him!”

“You know what, fuck off! I'm gonna find him myself!”

or, The morning after his party Harry wakes up naked on his bed, and there is a Polaroid photo of a stranger right beside him. Harry wants to know who is this tiny little boy that has soft fringe and a smile from heaven. He has endless hope.

we were just like glue by togetherwecouldbealright (24k)

Louis works in a library where his own books sit on the shelves. Also, there may or may not be a Harry Styles involved and he may or may not be Louis' muse. Not that Louis is admitting to anything.

We Will Find Our Way by supernope (10k)

Harry smiles at Louis, quick and easy, and says, “Well, since we’re in the same boat, we’ll just make our own Christmas. What do you say?” Louis tamps down on a bloom of warmth in his belly. He barely knows Harry past seeing him walk down the hall in just his skivvies - not that he’s complaining - but he’s being so lovely, smiling at him so hopefully, and, well. Louis doesn’t much fancy the idea of spending Christmas completely alone. Nodding, he reaches out and pokes Harry’s dimple, watches it flirt to life underneath his fingertip. “I say yes.”

AKA, Harry and Louis are uni students studying abroad in New York, stuck in the dorms together over Christmas.

We’ll Be Seamless by waytoomanypeopleintheaddisonlee (dinosaursmate) (52k)

Green reblogged an old photo of himself. It was from back in October, a Halloween special. A pulse shot all the way through Louis because this photo was his absolute favourite, and it had taken the rest of the year for him to wean himself off of it.

Green was on his knees, arms stretched out in front of him with his fingertips digging into the surface of his bed. He was wearing a pair of cat ears on his head, his curls falling forward. His back was arched, and in the foreground of the picture, Green’s bum was high in the air, a long, black cat tail sitting neatly between his cheeks. --- Louis spends all his spare time scrolling arty nude blogs on Tumblr but amongst them all, Green is his favourite.

With a whimper by kitundercover (133k)

The man grips his arm tightly. “You’re not going to say anything.” It’s not a question.

Louis shakes his head, his body twitching.

“Fine,” large green eyes survey him before letting go. “It’s cold. Take this. Wear it.”

Louis can’t help another flinch as the man’s long scarf is wrapped around his tender neck, it’s still warm. He touches the soft material. “Thank you.”

The man bears his teeth. “Don’t thank me. Don’t ever thank me.”

Dystopian AU. Louis has been alone for too long to remember how not to be, and Harry has too much to worry about to deal with a scrawny, wild, stranger.

With love comes strange currencies by mediaville (17k)

One day One Direction will be over and Louis won't be around Harry every waking moment. He'll be able to finally get some space, let their bond dissipate as it's bound to do, if they don't mess up again. He can move to Costa Rica and forget that Harry Styles popped his first knot inside him. Until then, he's going to have to deal with this.

or, They're Accidentally Mated and Dealing With It Rather Badly.

with nothing but your t-shirt on by crybaby (35k)

Louis knows that I’ve seen you fuck yourself with a vibrator should not be the first thing that comes to mind when he meets Harry Styles.

(Harry is a camboy and Louis has been an avid subscriber for a while before he finds out they attend the same university)

wrapped in light, in life, in love by tomorrows (19k)

It should be embarrassing — it is a bit embarrassing, actually, because he can feel Lila watching over him like a hawk, but Louis’ got a palm on his thigh and there’s a cherry red lollipop in his hand and Harry feels so bloody dizzy with butterflies. He brings the lollipop to his mouth and sure enough, the sweet cherry flavor feels more therapeutic than anything, like it’s made from warm hugs and naps by the fireplace. He’s too busy falling in love all over again to be embarrassed.

“S’good, innit?”

Harry nods his head. He feels like a child, but it’s okay because Louis is there and he’s staring right at him, blue eyes consumed by Harry before him. Being at the center of Louis’ attention is just as overwhelming as Harry remembers it being fifteen years ago.

Of all the things to happen while taking care of his niece for a month, falling in love with his boyhood crush all over again is probably the highlight of Harry’s autumn.

Well. That, and getting pregnant.

Please let me know if I can add anything!

Last edited: September 6, 2017

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pogueman · 8 years ago

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The New Samsung Galaxy does 28 things the iPhone doesn't

The Samsung Galaxy S8 (and the larger S8+) give you more screen in less phone. (Image: B. Gaskin)

Every spring, Samsung introduces a new Galaxy phone; every fall, Apple (AAPL) counterpunches with a new iPhone.

At the moment, we find ourselves in mid-cycle: Samsung has just released its Galaxy S8, and the iPhone 8 is still a summer away.

The S8 is a gorgeous phone. It’s a hardware masterpiece, it’s getting rave reviews, and—hey!—so far, nobody’s battery has exploded.

It’s also so crammed with features, it’s amazing the thing doesn’t weigh 20 pounds. That’s the Samsung way: Pile on features to see what sticks. Unfortunately, some of it’s garbage.

So here, as a public service, is a peculiar kind of review: A master list of features that the new Samsung has and the iPhone doesn’t—along with an assessment of which ones are actually useful.

1. The wraparound screen

Samsung’s S8 design goal was, “the most screen in the smallest space.” And sure enough: the side margins of the screen are gone completely—the screen image actually begins to curve around the side edges—and the top and bottom margins have been halved.

The result: Samsung’s screen shows 40% more than the iPhone 7’s—but the phones are the same width. (The screen is 5.8 inches diagonal on the S8, vs. 4.7 on the iPhone.)

That’s a little misleading, of course—the Samsung gets some of that extra screen area by being taller than the iPhone (.4 inches taller). In other words, it’s a weird shape—tall and skinny—that leaves you with black bars beside your videos.

Here’s what else is misleading: Samsung advertises a resolution of 2960 by 1440 pixels—much higher than the iPhone’s 1334 by 750. But in hopes of saving battery life, Samsung hides much of that high-res goodness. Out of the box, the phone comes set to 1080p resolution—only one-quarter of its potential sharpness. You have to fiddle with Settings if you want all the clarity you paid for.

But no question: it’s great to have so much screen. And such a great screen! Bright, colorful, gorgeous OLED.

Usefulness grade: A

2. Edge display

On the right edge, you can set up something called the Edge display. It’s a vertical bar, hugging the curved edge, that you can swipe inward to reveal a skinny pane of icons. You choose which icons appear here—favorite apps, speed-dial icons for your friends, news, and so on. Because this bar is available from within any app, it’s like an ever-present dock. Once you try it, you’ll use it constantly. It spares you all the trips to the Home screens. It’s really great.

This skinny bar at the edge of the screen gives you instant access to favorite apps and people.

Usefulness: A+

3. Video enhancer

The S8’s Video Enhancer mode gooses the contrast and brightness in video apps like Netflix (NFLX) and YouTube (GOOG, GOOGL). Honestly? Without seeing two S8’s side-by-side, it’s hard to see a difference. (It comes turned off, because it’s a battery drainer.)

Usefulness: B+

4. Gigabit LTE

The S8 and S8+ are the first phones that can tap into Gigabit LTE—a cellular network that’s supposed to give you much faster internet speeds.

It probably won’t affect you. Only T-Mobile (TMUS) has started upgrading its network to Gigabit LTE, and only in 300 towns. Sprint (S), Verizon (VZ), and AT&T (T) say they’re working on it.

(Gigabit LTE isn’t the same thing—nor as fast—as 5G, which will take a few more years to arrive.)

Usefulness: B

5. Iris recognition

You can now unlock your S8 by gazing into its camera lens; it recognizes the irises of your eyes, even if you have glasses on.

Most people don’t wind up using this feature, though, because it requires that you bring the phone up to eye level and hold it about 10 inches from your face; it’s just goofy and awkward. It also doesn’t work in bright sunlight.

Unlocking the phone with your irises is awkward, but handy when you have gloves on.

Unfortunately, the alternative secure unlocking method—your fingerprint—is a total disaster. Samsung put the fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone, directly beside the camera, so you get finger grease on the lens every time you unlock it. (The phone even warns you as much: “Be careful not to smudge the camera lens,” it says when you set up your fingerprints.)

That’s if you can unlock it—the scanner is a tall rectangle (not a circle, as on the iPhone), and you have to cover the entire thing to make it work. A design disaster all the way around.

Usefulness: C

6. Face recognition

The Galaxy can also unlock itself by recognizing your face. It’s fast, and doesn’t involve holding the phone like you’re trying to mind-meld with it.

Unfortunately, face recognition is neither reliable (it often doesn’t work) nor secure; for example, Samsung doesn’t consider it secure enough to use for Samsung Pay. People report being able to fool it with a photo.

You can’t use both iris and face recognition; you must choose one or the other.

Usefulness: B

7. Longer battery lifetime

Samsung says that the new S8 battery will last longer—not in hours per charge, but in overall lifetime of usefulness. After a year, the battery will maintain 95% of its charging capacity—up from 80%, on the Galaxy S7.

There’s no way to test Samsung’s claim without waiting a year or two, so we’ll have to take their word for it.

Usefulness: B+

8. Portrait mode

The S8’s main camera hasn’t been improved since the S7 came along—it’s a wicked great camera—but its software has.

For example, when you’re photographing a face, you can turn on a Portrait mode, which simulates the blurry-background effect you usually see only in pro photos.

This is not an optical effect; it’s basically a filter, and the phone sometimes gets it wrong. The blurring sometimes spills into your person. (On the iPhone 7 Plus, the similar Portrait feature relies on the phone’s two camera lenses, and is therefore more reliable.)

What’s cool, though, is that you can adjust the blur after shooting the picture. You can even blur the foreground, leaving the background sharp.

The S8’s blurring feature can soften focus of either the background or foreground, although the results can look phony.

Usefulness: B+

9. Snapchat-style overlays

The Camera app can now add goofy, Snapchat-style animated costumes to your head. They’re pretty awful. Stick to Snapchat (SNAP) or MSQRD.

Usefulness: D

10. “Virtual” photos

Within the Camera app, there’s a new option: You can walk around an object, “filming” it. Later, you can “play it back” by swiveling the phone around in space, changing your angle on the subject. Convenient if you’re shopping for sculptures, I guess.

The Camera app is full of tricks, like Snapchat-style video overlays (left) and 3-D walkarounds of objects (right).

Usefulness: C

11. HDR certified

The S8 is the first smartphone with an HDR-compatible screen. That’s high dynamic range, and it means that, if you can find an HDR movie to watch, you’ll see it with more vivid colors and a greater range of brights to darks.

So far, there’s not much to watch. Netlix’s HDR movies don’t yet play on the S8 (and would require a more expensive streaming plan if they did). Amazon Prime’s HDR movies do, but there are only a handful of them.

Usefulness: D

12. Enhanced front-facing camera

The camera above the screen now captures 8-megapixel photos with an f/1.7 lens, and can autofocus now. Good stuff, though not an earth-shattering improvement over the iPhone 7’s front camera (7 megapixels, f/2.2 aperture).

Usefulness: B

13. Bluetooth 5

Bluetooth 5 has four times the range and twice the data rates of Bluetooth 4—but you get those benefits only if you’ve upgraded your Bluetooth stuff (speakers, Fitbits, headphones, etc.) to Bluetooth 5 gear.

Even now, though, the S8 lets you pair with two existing Bluetooth headphones, so you and a friend can listen simultaneously.

Usefulness: B+

14. Split screen

The S8 introduces “multi window,” a feature that lets you split the screen between two apps, side-by-side (or top-and-bottom). At that point, you can adjust their relative sizes, or copy between them.

Two apps, one screen.

It’s slick, but getting there takes some learning—and, unfortunately, it’s available only in some apps.

Usefulness: B–

15. Bixby voice control

Bixby is Samsung’s version of Siri or Google Assistant. It’s so important, it gets its own dedicated button on the left edge of the phone—which you can’t reassign to another function.

Which is too bad, because at the moment, Bixby doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t take spoken questions, like Siri or Assistant does. Samsung says that’s coming soon. (Meanwhile, you can always use Google Assistant, which is still there.)

Samsung says that once Bixby is activated, it’ll be much smarter than Siri or Assistant—that you’ll be able to give it far more complex commands. For example, if you’re looking at a map, you can say, “Capture this and send it to mom.”

Samsung also says, though, that apps must be rewritten to respond to Bixby commands—and only 10 apps will be controllable in this way when Bixby goes live.

Usefulness: Unknown

16. Bixby Home

A second feature, confusingly also called Bixby, is a nearly perfect copycat of Google Now: A scrolling list of “cards” that present information you might find useful right now, based on the time and your location: weather, appointments, headlines. Why is it necessary for a phone to have two copies of the same thing?

Bixby Home is a fairly pointless duplicate of Google Now.

That’s always been a downside of Samsung’s phones, which already come with two photo apps, two web browsers, and so on. Why bother duplicating Google’s good work?

Usefulness: D

17. Bixby Vision

Yes, there’s a third feature called Bixby. This one is built into the Camera app. You can point the phone at a landmark and see details about it, supplied by Foursquare; at a product to get shopping information, supplied by Amazon (AMZN); at any image to be shown similar ones, from Pinterest; at a wine-bottle label for ratings and details, from Vivino; or at foreign-language writing for a translation, supplied by Google Translate.

The best feature of the long-dead Amazon Fire phone lives on.

Last week, Google announced that the same feature is coming to Android. So once again, you’ll have two identical versions of the same feature.

Usefuness: B

18. Samsung Health

This new, surprisingly complete app automatically tracks your steps, workouts, and (if you have a Samsung smartwatch that you wear at night) sleep; it also offers places to manually record your weight, food, blood glucose, water, caffeine, and so on.

In a novel twist, the app also lets you have an instant video conference with an actual, board-certified doctor for $60 (courtesy of American Well), which your insurance may or may not cover—great for getting immediate help or refilling a prescription.

Usefulness: A–, if you’re into that sort of thing

19. Dex Station

For $150, you can buy a special dock that lets you connect your phone to a big monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Your phone becomes the CPU of a PC!

The long-dead Motorola Atrix lives on in the Dex.

Unfortunately, many apps don’t work right on the big screen, and there’s the whole question of, “Why?”

Usefulness: C

Older Features

Many of Galaxy’s features aren’t new in the S8, but are still unmatched by the iPhone. A few examples:

20. Cool gestures

The Galaxy phone is the shortcut lover’s idea of heaven. You can turn on all kinds of super cool gesture-based shortcuts, like these:

Swipe the fingerprint reader to open Notifications

Smart Stay (the screen stays on as long as you’re looking at it)

Press the Power button twice to fire up the camera

Wipe the edge of your hand across the screen to take a screenshot (which you can then annotate or crop)

Direct Call (hold the phone to ear to auto-dial the person whose card is on screen)

Smart Alert (when you pick up the phone, it vibrates if notifications are waiting)

Easy Mute (silence the ringer by placing the phone face down—in a meeting, say)

Send an SOS to designated contacts (press the Power button three times)

Answer a call by pressing the Volume Up key

During video playback, drag up/down for volume adjustments, left/right for brightness. Double-tap to pause.

These gestures erase a lot of the fussiness of trying to get things done on a tiny, no-mouse device.

Usefulness: A+

21. Quicker charging

The S8’s quick-charging technology (unchanged since last year’s model) gives you a full charge in about 1.5 hours, as long as the screen isn’t on. That’s about half the time of an iPhone 7 Plus.

Usefulness: A+

22. “Wireless” pad charger

You can charge your S8 by setting it onto a Qi charging pad (under $15). It takes twice as long to charge that way, but saves you the plugging and unplugging of a cable. Grab and go.

Rumor has it that the iPhone 8 will offer “wireless” charging, too.

Usefulness: A

23. Samsung Pay

Loop Pay was a phone dongle that could trick a credit-card reader into thinking that you’d actually swiped a card through it. In 2015, Samsung bought Loop and built its technology into its Galaxy phones.

(Here’s my review.)

It’s hard to believe. You wave the phone near the card-reader slot, up to a couple of inches away, and — beep! — you’ve just paid.

This is nothing like Apple Pay and Android Pay, which work only at checkout terminals that have been upgraded to work with them. In the big picture, there just aren’t very many places to use Apple Pay and Android Pay.

But Samsung Pay works almost everywhere that fine credit cards are swiped—90% of all checkout counters.

Usefulness: A

24. Always-on screen

The phone’s screen never goes fully dark. When it’s “asleep,” you still see the current time, battery charge, and notification summaries.

The S8’s screen is almost never fully dark.

“Won’t that eat the battery up?” Yes, a few percent; you can turn the feature off if you like. But it’s kind of handy, especially if you use your phone as a watch.

Usefulness: A

25. Smart Unlock

This is an Android feature, not a Samsung feature, but it’s cool: You can set things up so that as long as the phone is in a certain place (like your home), within range of a certain Bluetooth device (like your Fitbit [FIT]), or on your person (based on your body motion), it won’t keep locking. You won’t need a password, fingerprint, or whatever to unlock it.

Obviously, you won’t turn this on if you work at, you know, the NSA. But when you’re alone at home, why shouldn’t you enjoy a little convenience?

Usefulness: A

26. Headphone jack

Yep. Samsung managed to create a waterproof phone without sacrificing the headphone jack. So much for Apple’s “courage.”

Usefulness: A

27. Expansion slot

You can outfit your S8 with a tiny micro SD card for additional storage—lucky, since there’s only one S8 model (with 64 gigs of memory). The memory-card thing isn’t quite as good as built-in storage, because the phone treats it as an external drive, and it’s up to you to manage which data and apps get stored in which place, and some apps can’t be on the card. But for photo and video storage—awesome.

Usefulness: A–

The counterpunch

Of course, the iPhone has a long list of its own exclusives, like stereo speakers, a pressure-sensitive screen (press harder for more options), an optical zoom on the camera (on the Plus), built-in storage options up to 256 gigabytes, and twice the storage (128 gb) for the same price.

Above all, there’s the software—iOS 10—and the Apple ecosystem. Apple’s gotten more feature-happy of late, but it’s still the world leader in simplicity and coherence. You would never catch Apple bloating up your screens with duplicate apps and junkware. Apple’s apps are far more consistent in design and operation. You’ve got the Apple Stores to visit for on-the-spot fixes and help. You’ve got the glorious flexibility of sending iMessages instead of short, limited texts.

And then there’s the tight integration between Macs and iPhones. You know: Copy some text on your phone, paste it one second later on your laptop. Read a web article on the subway on your phone, sit down at your Mac at home to see the same site. That kind of thing.

In a way, then, all of these comparison articles (including this one) are missing a key point. They’re interesting for monitoring the state of the art, but they shouldn’t be called, “Which one should you buy?” Moving from the Apple ecosystem to the Google/Samsung ecosystem, or vice versa is a big, expensive hassle that not many people undertake. You have to re-buy all your apps. You have to buy all new chargers. You have to do a lot of relearning.

But clearly, the Galaxy S8’s hardware is a beast. A huge leap beyond the iPhone 7. So the ultimate experience would be the hardware features of the Galaxy S8, running the software and ecosystem of the iPhone.

Well, who knows? If the rumors are right, we’ll be getting something like that in the iPhone 8.