#chrome cast doesn’t like to loop videos

[lanciilatte]

they don’t like Me

[managedmischiefs]

unauthorized//matthew gray gubler

based on mgg’s new unauthorized documentaries

genre: fluff 

warnings: none!

word count: 3.4k

one last apology for the delay on posting these. fuck migraines!! iykyk. anyways, here it is. im really close to 200 followers and when i get there, ill be doing a preview of my new spencer fic called “north” so be ready to see that v soon! enjoy and don’t forget to give me some feedback!🖤

Getting to visit Matthew while he’s filming is a rare, yet special, occurrence. I always try to make the best of it when I get the change to head up to Vancouver, whether it be for a quick weekend or a whole week. When the final season of the show started, I did what I could to get to Vancouver for as long as I possibly could. I’d grown close to the cast, not to mention my boyfriend of six years. I wanted to make the best of this final season and make as many memories as I could, even if I’m not a member of the cast. They always joke that I’m an honorary member.

When, one night, Matthew mentioned reviving the Unauthorized Documentaries for the final season of Criminal Minds, I thought he meant it as a joke. He mentioned it so nonchalantly that I’d almost laughed. I thought he’d be too busy to worry about filming something on his own. But on his first week filming, during one of our first nightly FaceTimes, he ran a whole slew of ideas by me and I knew he was serious. 

At least once a week, he would run an idea by me and would judge the quality by my quantity of laughter. I didn’t even need to comment or give my input, he’d just rattle off jokes and concepts and then either check them off or cross them out when I react. He did this every week up until this week, when he started filming. 

“Do I look good?” Matthew brings my attention up from my laptop as he tugs on the lapel of his dress jacket, then holds out his hands to reveal his outfit. He’s dressed for the scenes he’s filming today, a scene with

Aubrey, so I’m not entirely sure why he’s so worried about how he’s dressed, but I’m not composing about the open request to check him out. “I’m about to go start filming the documentary with Andy,” 

I drag my eyes up and down his body, my fingers stilling over the keys as I admire his figure. When I reach his eyes again, his eyebrows are raised because he can tell I’m doing more than just evaluating his outfit. I suck my bottom lip between my teeth as I nod, pushing my laptop aside and reaching my hands out for him. “You look very good, bunny,” 

Matthew chuckles as I successfully grab his hands and tug him closer to me. “No, no,” he doesn’t resist as I twist my fingers in his belt loops, “I gotta go work,”

“I know,” I pout, letting go of him and sitting back in the too-comfy armchair I’m in. I’d give anything to grab him again and drag him into this chair with me. “Go film, I’ll probably be here when you get back,”

“Probably?” He picks up his script and, like the diva he is, checks his hair in the mirror and heads towards his trailer door, peeking back at me. 

“I might follow you, I might stay here and keep doing the work I’ve been procrastinating,” I shrug and gesture back to my discarded laptop, flashing with a blank Google Doc, a doc that has been blank for weeks on end. Being a writer is hard and frustrating and not easy, by any means. What made me think getting a degree in writing would be a good idea? Shaking off my frustrations, I smile cutely at my boyfriend, tilting my head to the side. “Give me a kiss before you leave?”

Matthew nods and stalks back over, leaning over to peck my lips. “Whatever you write,” he whispers, warm breath fanning across my face, “will be absolutely amazing and beautiful and I’ll be honored to read it,”

“Oh, you give me too much credit,” I scoff, watching Matthew roll his eyes.

“And you don’t give yourself enough,” he responds, and then hastily checks his watch. “Okay, I’ve gotta go, but this conversation is not over. I’ll see you later. Love you,”

“Love you too. Go be funny,” I wave goodbye at him as he goes bouncing out of the trailer, closing the door behind him, leaving me to my empty Google Doc. 

///

An hour later, my head is starting to hurt from staring down at a bright screen so I decide to take a break and get something to eat from catering. I haven’t heard anything from Matthew and I’m not sure what he’s up to, so I grab my phone and throw on one of his hoodies that’s a bit too big on me and head out of his trailer. 

As soon as I do, though, I run right into Matthew with a pile of shoes in his hands, making them tumble to the asphalt. He curses and keeps a straight face as he tries to pick them up again. Then he sees an opportunity in me and starts to shove shoes into my hands to help him, but they’re still tumbling out. I resist the urge to laugh because I know this would ruin his bit, and I just let him silently shove Daniel’s shoes into my arms. 

But then he runs off, leaving me with shoes in my arms. Without any direction or guidance from my boyfriend, I turn to Andy, who’s holding the camera, and shrug my shoulders, dropping Daniel’s shoes to the floor before walking off to my original destination- catering. Those two boys can clean up the mess they devised. I’m hungry. 

Matthew finds me just twenty minutes later, taking me by surprise when he wraps his arms around my shoulders from behind, pressing kisses to my cheek. “Thanks for helping me,”

He pulls out the chair beside me and scoots as close as he can to me, our thighs touching. “I mean, I wasn’t really expecting it but it was funny. I was internally laughing,” I let my head fall onto his shoulder, feeling his arm snake around my waist. I peer up at him, feeling my pupils dilating into hearts at the sight of my stunning boyfriend. I’ll never stop being floored by his eyes and his jawline and his dimples and his lips and his smile and how fucking beautiful he is. “I liked that idea from the beginning.”

“I know you did,” he quips, not-so-sneakily swiping a chip from my plate and popping it into his mouth. “Maybe you’ll appear in another episode. Who knows?”

I don’t see Matthew until the end of the day because he’s busy doing his job, as he should be. I spend my day writing in his trailer and filling up my previously empty Google Doc. When the cast has a long break, Matthew comes in to film a scene that I recognize as the ending to the second episode. He’s sitting at his open trailer door, supposedly watching videos of Daniel modeling. He’d only waved at me when he came in, not wanting to bother my work. I wish he would distract me more. Maybe I’d take action on my fantasy of melting into this armchair with him. 

His exaggerated and focused facial expression is enough to make me suppress a giggle, but then I spot a baby girl hat from Shemar on the counter and a light bulb starts floating over my head. 

“Psst,” I hiss, and Matthew looks up at me, his eyebrows raised. I hold up the hat to him, and his eyes light up with a childlike excitement. He holds up his hands and I toss the hat to him, and as soon as he puts it on, I let out the laugh I’ve been holding in. “Perfect, you look perfect, baby,” Matthew winks at me and then gives a thumbs up to Andy, putting on his exaggerated face yet again and staring down at his phone. I tuck my face in my laptop so I don’t laugh again, typing diligently. 

The next day is when I’m, yet again, roped into Matthew’s documentary. I don’t mind though. His ideas are hilarious and they never fail to make me laugh. 

I sit in Matthew’s trailer for an hour without him, staring at a blinking cursor. I don’t write a single word and I know that sitting in the same spot won’t make inspiration suddenly strike. I decide to change my scene up and bring my laptop to catering. I grab a snack and take a seat at an empty table, crossing my legs under me, beginning to mull over combinations of words and debate definitions of words. It’d been relatively quiet in catering for a while, but it all comes to an end when Matthew comes marching up to me.

“Hi, babe,” he says sweetly, a bit too sweetly, pulling out the chair next to me and taking a seat. Like yesterday, I give him a confused look, and when he gives me the same adorable smile that he always does, my heart practically melts. The ways this man makes me fall so easily. I’ll never understand.

“Hi, there,” I respond, and then glance up at Andy holding the camera. “Can I help you?” 

“Could you possibly google something for me?” Matthew says and directs his attention to my laptop. The way he’s not giving me any type of attention or physical affection let’s me know that he really is filming his documentary again, so I play into it again. What do I have to lose? I’m not writing anyway.

“Yeah, sure,” I switch to Chrome and pull up Google. “What is it?”

“Could you search Daniel Henry?” Matthew keeps a straight face and it’s moments like this that remind me how great of an actor he is. Who can keep a straight face while regurgitating an incorrect name?

I turn my head to him, biting my lip to hold back my laugh. “Henry?” 

Matthew nods. “Yeah, I know, it sounds like a girl's name. I thought it was a girls name at first. Daniel,” He repeats it as if that clarifies anything at all. I just narrow my eyes at him again, and when I don’t search the obviously incorrect name that he’s giving me, he sits back in his chair, finally looking at me again with his eyes narrowed. “Do you-“ he lets out a breath, crossing his arms over his chest, “do you think there’s any chance he could be taller than me?”

“Okay, we can stop there,” Andy cuts us off, dropping the camera from focus.

“I think you missed your calling in life, love,” Matthew chuckles, pulling me into his arms, attacking my face with kisses. “I’m sorry to spring that on you, but-“

“No, it’s fine. I wasn’t really getting anywhere anyway. If you need help with anything else, you know I’m around for the rest of the week.”

Surely, he cashed in on that offer. It was accidental. It was my fault, really. I was just trying to get back to Matthew’s trailer the next day after having lunch with Kirsten and Daniel, to which Matthew jokingly called me a traitor. I heard Matthew’s loud voice from all the way down the hallway and I should have turned and left, but I didn’t. 

So, iced coffee in hand, I stroll down the hallway and when I make it to the clearing, I stop in my tracks. Now, you’d think that after being with this man for five years and living with him, nothing would surprise me anymore. But he still has his moments, and this is definitely one of them. He has these wooden boxes and he’s got a roll of packing tape, and he’s taping the boxes to his feet. Maybe this shouldn’t surprise me, because he’s told me about this idea of his, but seeing him actually doing it with my own eyes is a whole different thing. 

It only takes him a moment to notice my presence, and when he does, he waves me over. “Babe, babe, hey babe, babe, babe,” he says quickly, waving his hand quickly, holding the wooden box against his foot. “Come help me,”

Keeping up the same attitude I’ve had in the past, I let out a dramatic sigh and drag myself over to him, sitting down on the floor and putting my coffee on the floor. But the moment I do, Matthew snatches it up and starts drinking it as I grab the dangling packing tape. Gosh, if he actually acted like this, I’d have broken up with him forever ago. 

I wrap the tape around his foot and the box and then around his ankle, making sure to not make it too tight so that I hurt him. He’s still sipping my coffee and staring into the camera like some cocky asshole when I move onto the other foot, and then I eventually run out of tape.

I sit back on my heels and look up at him. “I’m out,” Wow, this position we’re in right now? If Matthew didn’t have wooden boxes strapped to his feet and we weren’t in the middle of the Criminal Minds offices, I’d probably be reaching for his belt. But I can’t let my mind go there or else we’ll be hooking up in a bathroom or his trailer, and that never ends well for anyone.

“Okay,” he mumbles, and I watch in amusement for way too long as he struggles to get up to his feet. I don’t even help him, I just sit back and giggle. “Here, you can have this back,” he holds my coffee out to me, and just as soon as I reach for it, he pulls it back. “Wait,” he takes a long sip, “okay here.” I finally grab my coffee again and then move to lean against the wall, watching him struggle to take the first few steps with boxes taped to his feet. 

He hobbles down the hallway, all the way to BJ and proceeds to ask her to paint the boxes like shoes. And once he gets the shot he wants of this scene, Andy wanders off and he comes wobbling back to me with a cute, dumb smile on his face. “Will you help me get these off?”

I nod, sitting down on the floor again to pull off the tape around his feet. “Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t trip and fall on your face,”

“Me too,” he laughs, sighing with relief when I take the first box off and set it aside. “But hey, this is my last break and then I’m gonna be working late today. I don’t know if it’s worth it to stick around set. I’m not gonna be able to come see you or anything,”

“Maybe I’ll go back to your house. I can make some dinner instead of ordering out,” I pull off the last bit of tape and then swiftly reach up to press it against Matthew’s cheek, watching it hang there limply. 

He gives me a deadpan look as I devolve into giggles, falling over his lap and holding onto his misplaced elbow pads to hold me up. “Ha ha, very funny. I’m laughing so much. That was so funny,” His voice is void of any humor as he holds my shaking body from hitting the carpeted floor. 

“I know, I’m just so funny,” I quip, pulling myself together enough to crane my neck and kiss his cheek. “But I am probably gonna go back to your house. Sounds like a good idea,” 

“Okay, just let me know when you get there,” Matthew pats my thigh and signals me to get up, and once we’re on our feet again, he moves the wooden boxes aside. “I might not respond but-“

“Text you so you know I’m safe. I’ve got it,” I finish for him, fixing the lapel of his jacket. I push my pointer finger against the tip of his nose, making him scrunch it up in the insanely adorable way he does. The sight brings a smile to my face and it makes my heart beat faster. “I’ll see you later, okay? Go be brilliant.”

///

The sound of the front door opening lifts my head, taking my attention away from the glass of wine in my hand and the laptop in front of me, yet again. I glance at the timer on the oven and then jump to my feet, padding towards the foyer.

Matthew is dropping his backpack by the door when I get to him, and pauses halfway through reaching for his jacket. “Hi, love bug,” he murmurs, giving me a weak smile.

I grab Matthew’s jacket for him and slide it off his shoulders. “Hi, bunny,” When I turn to hang the teddy bear jacket on the coat rack, I feel his hands on my waist, drawing me closer to him. He successfully pulls me against his chest, lips leaving a trail against my shoulder. “Long day, huh?”

“Yeah,” he whispers, voice wavering as he tucks his face into my neck, “long, and repetitive, and tiring, and I’m very hungry and I smell food,” 

I turn myself around in Matthew’s arms and face him, placing my hands on his cheeks. “I got pizza dough on my way home and I made homemade pizza. It’s in the oven and it’ll be done in about ten minutes. And I poured you a glass of wine too,”

Matthew’s eyes flutter closed and he presses his forehead against mine. “You’re an angel. You’re a goddamn angel, sent from heaven to bless me with your presence,”

“Oh, stop,” I laugh, patting his cheek gently. “Let’s just get wine drunk and eat pizza and watch movies all night. You don’t have work tomorrow and I’m tired of looking at my damn laptop,”

“You make us sound like two teenage girls,” Matthew unwinds from my embrace and wanders into the kitchen, swiping the full glass of wine from the counter. He takes a sip and then pecks my lips again, and I revel in the sweetness of his lips. 

Matthew sits at the counter, right in front of my laptop, taking another long gulp of his wine. I check on the pizza, just to make sure it’s not burnt, but when Matthew is silent for too long, I look back to make sure he’s okay. Sometimes when he has a hard or long day at work, he tends to shut down and not open up to me, and I don’t want that to happen. But when I turn to check up on him, I find him leaning into my laptop, his eyes darting across the screen. 

I gasp, stepping forward and slamming my laptop shut, ripping it away. “Hey! You know I don’t like it when you read my work before it’s edited and finished,” 

Matthew pouts, hiding his face behind his wine. “Sorry, I just- well, you’ve been talking about it so much and it was right here and I wanted to see how it was going,” I go into the other room and put my laptop into my bag, out of sight and out of mind. When I return to the kitchen, Matthew is pulling the pizza out of the oven just as the timer goes off. “If it means anything, of what I did read, it was really good. I only got through the first two paragraphs, but I really loved it.”

“Well, thanks,” I mumble, going onto my toes to kiss his cheek before grabbing the pizza cutter. “I’m not mad, I just-“

“I get it. You don’t let me read your writing until it’s done and I don’t let you see anything I’ve filmed until it’s done,” 

“Oh, so, I can’t see any of the documentary until it’s done?” 

“Maybe I’ll make an exception for that,” he quips, grabbing the pizza cutter from me and digging it into the hot pizza crust. “I don’t trust you with this thing anymore. Not after you ended up in the hospital last year with Sandy,” he turns to me with a pointed look.

“It was an accident and you know it!”

“Oh, really?” He guffaws, tossing the pizza cutter aside and reaching for my waist. But I dodge him, taking a step back. He accepts this as his challenge, reaching for me again, and when I dodge him one more time with a confident smirk, a playful fire ignites behind his eyes. “Fuck the pizza. I’m coming for you.”

[kelzammtg]

6.18.19 :: CMDR: Yawgmoth, Part 01

This last Friday I managed to pick up [[Yawgmoth, Thran Physician]] once my LGS was able to sell singles. I was thrilled that they had gotten him in, because I’ve been undecided on a Mono-B Commander for the longest time. He solves an itch I’ve had to rebuild [[Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons]]. While he loses access to Green, he also doesn’t have to have her weakness of the entire deck being built around him and Creature tokens. 

In the future, any Commander decks that I’m considering building will have a post or video going over my thought process, card selection and initial build I end up with. For my first post here, I’m actually skipping that, because I’ve already been testing with an initial build that I feel has a lot of promise. I will, however, state the goals of the deck:

Deck Goals

Utilizing Yawgmoth’s ability with easily recurring creatures to gain a huge card advantage into gigantic mana ramp. The payoff will be drawing enough cards and accessing enough ramp to Proliferate into ultimates/emblems from various Planeswalkers. If all else fails, various trigger loops and massive X spells can end the game.

Current Deck List

As of Sunday 06/18/2019, this was my current list:

https://archidekt.com/decks/91614#Yawgmoth,_Thran_Physician

Commander 1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Planeswalker 1 Liliana, the Last Hope 1 Liliana of the Dark Realms 1 Karn Liberated 1 Sorin Markov 1 Karn, Scion of Urza 1 Karn, the Great Creator 1 Ugin, the Ineffable 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon Enchantment 1 Phyrexian Scriptures 1 Nest of Scarabs 1 Bloodchief Ascension 1 Crumbling Ashes 1 Call to the Grave 1 Necromancy 1 Bitterblossom 1 Bridge from Below 1 Dreadhorde Invasion Creature 1 Pitiless Plunderer 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star 1 Pawn of Ulamog 1 Archfiend of Ifnir 1 Sifter of Skulls 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 1 Smothering Abomination 1 Zulaport Cutthroat 1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel 1 Bloodsoaked Champion 1 Burnished Hart 1 Psychosis Crawler 1 Reassembling Skeleton 1 Bloodghast 1 Necroskitter 1 Avatar of Woe 1 Horobi, Death's Wail 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Artifact 1 Mindcrank 1 Oblivion Stone 1 Mirage Mirror 1 Commander's Sphere 1 Thought Vessel 1 Sol Ring 1 Mind Stone 1 Illusionist's Bracers 1 Caged Sun 1 Everflowing Chalice 1 Expedition Map 1 Coldsteel Heart 1 Mana Vault 1 Gilded Lotus 1 Lightning Greaves Land 1 Field of Ruin 1 Buried Ruin 1 Maze of Ith 1 Crypt of Agadeem 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Vesuva 1 Cabal Coffers 1 Cabal Stronghold 1 Emergence Zone 1 Karn's Bastion 22 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Barren Moor Sorcery 1 Decree of Pain 1 Torment of Hailfire 1 Beseech the Queen 1 Dark Deal 1 Black Sun's Zenith 1 Exsanguinate 1 Final Parting 1 Command the Dreadhorde 1 Dead of Winter Instant 1 Cabal Ritual 1 Dark Ritual 1 Liliana's Triumph

06/18/2019 Notes

So, first things first: I'm missing a chunk of the potential ramp for the deck. I need to pick up Crypt Ghast, Nirkana Revenant, Jet Medallion, Gauntlet of Power and Bubbling Muck. Chances that I'll ever pick up a Mana Crypt or Grim Monolith are extremely low given their current price range. However, I've still been able to ramp pretty well with what I do have, so I'm excited to acquire what I can. I had been tempted to get a Chrome Mox with some store credit but it was either that or Liliana, the Last Hope and Liliana was a much more important inclusion.

Crypt of Agadeem is about to be replaced with something else because the deck needs to ramp up ASAP and it's worse than a Swamp for most of the game I've had it.

I won a game with a Torment of Hailfire for 30 just off of the land ramp when I wasn't drawing into anything else. I'm pretty confident in leaving this and Exsanguinate in my build finishers to build towards if Yawgmoth is hated off of the table too much to stay on the Proliferate plan. The problem with this game wasn't Yawgmoth being targeted, though. It was actually that I had no card draw outside of Yawgmoth and only ever drew into Bloodghast that game for recurrable draw. I think there's a weakness in trying to depend too heavily on Yawgmoth sticking or for sac fodder to use him and not having any other draw. There's so much mana ramp potential here, but if the sac fodder doesn't come, the deck feels like it falls flat, especially when you want to hold a good chunk of your deck for a big turn (PWers).

Phyrexian Scriptures was surprisingly good. I originally added it for flavor reasons (the same is true of Avatar of Woe; it's a pet card because I have a PT one signed by rk post and casting it for BB with Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder out is SO good). In my last game last night I had quite a play: I had used Command the Dreadhorde and stolen Garruk, Primal Hunter, Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Veteran Explorer. Then I cast my Horobi, Death's Wailand used -3 on Garruk to draw 5 cards and get 5 Niv-Mizzet triggers. I blew up a few targets (Liliana, Heretical Healer, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, a 21/21 Consuming Abberation, the Veteran Explorer to ramp up Cabal Stronghold some more and something else). Well, at the end of turn the Grixis player cast Thrilling Encore and got it alllll back, and then some. I had a ton of mana because of Cabal Stronghold and some heavy land ramp earlier. So I cast Yawgmoth. Wasn't countered, so I should be good. Cast Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Yes, yes. It resolved. Cast Phyrexian Scriptures and put the +1/+1 counter on Yawgmoth and turned him into an Artifact creature. Finally cast Grey Merchant of Asphodel to offset the life loss from Command the Dreadhorde last turn. Mostly, I needed a sac target so I could sacrifice him to Yawgmoth to Proliferate the Phyrexian Scriptures to Chapter II and wipe the board other than Yawgmoth. I did so, destroyed everything but Yawgmoth, got 14 Zombies from Kalitas and was on my merry way. It was gorious.

Archfiend of Ifnir may be too slow. I've had it in my hand multiple times but never really wanted to cast it over anything else. I'm still giving it some more time, though, because it has cycling, so at worst I can discard it to draw another card, potentially reanimating it to clear the board later.

I've been pretty happy with Call to the Grave in the games where I get my recurrable sac fodder and it's kept the board clear early on and let me play some of my Planeswalkers and start ticking them up without having to hold them in my hand for a while. Keep in mind since I'm still missing key ramp cards and probably won't have access to Grim Monolith/Mana Crypt, as I had mentioned earlier.

I thought Illusionist's Bracers may be too slow, but the couple times I've had it on Yawgmoth it was incredible.

With the sudden availability of snow lands, I'm trying Dead of Winter in place of Toxic Deluge. While it's true that you're still winning until the last point of life is gone, I've found that I go through it at a dangerous rate, especially with some of the Spellslinger decks in my various play groups. I haven't run into anything this hasn't been able to kill, yet. The appeal of Toxic Deluge is having a flexible answer for 2B, but so far this has done just as well!

Psychosis Crawler is another decent alternate win con that won me a game, and I was pretty happy to see it. It gave me a place to put my -1/-1 counters for Nest of Scarabs to get that combo started and is a win condition once you have the Yawgmoth's Bargain combo set up with Nest.

All of that said, it still went very well:

End Step

Anyway, that's about it for my testing with the deck so far. After I pick up some cards on my Maybe/Acquire Boards and get some more testing, I’ll be back with another post on those changes and how it went!

-Kelzam

[tech-battery]

Galaxy Book Flex review: A pretty QLED laptop with a useful S Pen Samsung’s laptops are coming into their own.

Samsung has had a troubled past as a laptop maker. Its ATIV, Notebook and Odyssey machines were underwhelming, and in the late 2010s the company consolidated its efforts into the Galaxy Book line. Instead of competing against the usual PC makers like Dell, HP, Lenovo and ASUS, Samsung focused on making more mobile-friendly machines. It prioritized thin-and-light designs and great displays, and it added an onboard stylus, borrowing the features that made its smartphones the industry favorites they are today.

With the Galaxy Book Flex, Samsung continues to show improved self-awareness by showcasing its superior display tech. The Flex is the first laptop with a QLED panel, which promises more colors, deeper blacks and greater brightness. It also comes standard with an S Pen and a wireless-charging pad built into the trackpad. Two models -- 13 inch and 15 inch -- are available, and we received the smaller version, which costs $1,349. The larger is just $50 more, and both are available today.

Engadget Score

Pros

Beautiful build

Useful onboard S Pen

Trackpad can wirelessly charge other devices

Comfortable keyboard

Cons

Limited configurations

Middling battery life

Summary

The Galaxy Book Flex is a gorgeous, powerful laptop with a vibrant QLED display. Though its battery life isn’t as long as some of the competition, the Flex is still a capable machine with a helpful S Pen onboard.

Design

I gotta give Samsung props. The company has seriously stepped up the design of its laptops over the past few years. The Galaxy Book S and Galaxy Chromebook both had super sleek builds, and the Flex is no different. This thing is all clean lines and sharp corners, with gleaming edges that give it a polished look. The deep royal blue of my review unit is refreshing: I’m used to boring silver, black or gray laptops, so my eyes welcome this change.

Though it’s impressively thin, the Flex feels solid and dense. It’s still pretty light though at just 1.15kg (2.53 pounds). In comparison, the new MacBook Air and the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 are both heavier at 2.8 and 2.9 pounds, respectively.

The Flex’s 13.3-inch screen is surrounded by minimal bezels on the top, left and right sides, with a fatter chin at the bottom. That thicker bottom bezel is still common in laptops, though Dell managed to do away with it in this year’s XPS 13 -- maybe the rest of the industry will catch up soon. Samsung still managed to squeeze a webcam above the Flex’s screen, although it sadly doesn’t support Windows Hello logins.

Along the edges, you’ll find a headphone jack, a microSD card reader, a push-to-release S Pen slot and three USB-C ports (two of which are Thunderbolt 3 compatible). That’s one more USB-C socket than the XPS and MacBook have, with the Apple laptop lacking the card slot the other two offer. As a consequence of offering more connectivity options, the Flex is also slightly thicker than both of those laptops. Still, it’s compact enough to fit in most of my work bags.

Display

I’ll be honest: I can’t tell the difference between an OLED and QLED screen of the same size and resolution. And you might not be able to either. That is to say, you won’t have any complaints about the Flex’s full HD display in terms of color reproduction and vibrance. I watched several episodes of Amazon’s new show Upload. The rich, autumnal colors in the leafy forest settings were stunning, and it was easy to make out details in even dimly lit scenes.

My apartment gets a lot of light, so it can sometimes get hard to see any laptop’s screen. The Flex’s Outdoor Mode is supposed to combat that by bumping the brightness an extra 200 nits to 600 nits. But switching it on via the keyboard shortcut only helped a little bit. However, it was much more useful on a slightly gloomy day.

I wish Samsung hadn’t made this a mode that you switch on or off and instead offered it as a few extra levels on the built-in brightness scale. Sometimes I needed a little bit more than the built-in max, but in those situations I had to use Outdoor Mode, which scorched my retinas. Still, it probably conserves battery to only bump up brightness by that much for short periods of time rather than encourage you to use it for an extended stretch.

Outdoor Mode also added a weird yellow cast to the screen, as if it turned on a blue-light filter. This wasn’t a big deal other than when I needed to edit photos for color temperatures. In those cases, you’ll have to turn off Outdoor Mode and figure out some other way to see your display without that brightness boost.

Keyboard and trackpad

Because it’s so slim, I was expecting the Book Flex to have shallow keys, but Samsung was able to offer a surprisingly deep amount of travel here. The keyboard is well laid out, with no undersized buttons save for the right-shift key, which is a little less wide to make room for the fingerprint sensor next to it.

My one gripe would be that the left-shift key seemed a little sticky, and too often I would try to uppercase the first letter of a word and end up getting the first two letters instead. I’d blame it on my lazy pinkie, but I haven’t encountered this on any other laptop.

A quick note on the fingerprint scanner: It was fast and accurate, usually unlocking the laptop without delay. Since it’s Windows Hello-compatible, I also used it for authentication on programs like Google Chrome. While the placement is uncommon -- most laptops place their fingerprint readers on the top right of the deck or embed it into the power button -- Samsung’s choice didn’t feel too odd.

Below the spacebar sits the Flex’s trackpad, which is fairly roomy given the laptop’s small footprint. Smaller notebooks often have cramped trackpads, but the surface area here is generous. It’s not as tall as the XPS 13’s or MacBook Air’s, but it offers enough vertical space. Aside from being large, the Flex’s touchpad is also responsive and smooth, and gestures like scrolling or pinch-to-zoom worked well.

S Pen

One of my favorite things about Samsung laptops is the S Pen. It’s not only fun for drawing self-portraits or scribbling down notes but also helpful for signing urgent PDFs. I just had to open the document, select “Add a Note” from the toolbar and sign on the dotted line.

The Flex offers the same onboard stylus as the Note 10 -- don’t expect the bigger, more pen-like version on the Galaxy Tab S series. Still, it’s comfortable enough to use for hours while drawing a self-portrait. Fans of Samsung’s Air Command menu on its Note phones will be pleased to know it pops up here too when you slide the S Pen out of its slot.

Performance and in use

The Flex may look like a dainty machine, but it actually packs a powerful 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor. My review unit came with 16GB of RAM, which is double the 8GB configuration you can buy in the US. (The 15-inch model has the same CPU but 12GB of RAM.) Bear in mind that this means my experience, at least when it comes to performance and speed, isn’t going to be representative of what you can expect.

With these guts, the Flex deftly dealt with my daily workflow of Slack, dozens of Chrome tabs, spreadsheets and the inescapable Zoom calls that permeate our lives now. The laptop also kept up with my new at-home needs, like executing my podcast-recording setup and uploading large files for review videos. I also played several rounds of League of Legends after rediscovering it, and the Flex never let me down.

That is, until I decided to turn on Samsung’s Silent mode. This is meant to keep the laptop’s fans quiet if you’re bothered by them. It’s pretty easy to activate: Just slide a switch in the Samsung Settings app. You don’t have to go into Boot mode to access it. I never found the Flex too loud, but I guess those trying to get work done in bed next to a light sleeper or just really hate white noise might.

I did notice a significant decrease in sound when I enabled Silent Mode, though it seemed to throttle CPU performance. When I tried to continue playing League afterward, the system lag made it nearly impossible: My character could barely make it to the first turret before I gave up and restarted (with Silent Mode off). This is somewhat understandable. You can’t expect high-speed performance when the fans are turned off without the computer running too hot. Silent Mode is more useful if you’re bothered by the noise and aren’t running anything intensive.

Battery life and wireless PowerShare

Thanks to the Flex’s QLED screen and 69.7Whr battery, Samsung promises up to 20 hours of runtime. In reality though, that number is a lot lower. Our video-looping battery test drained the Flex in about 13 and a half hours, which is better than the MacBook Air but falls short of the XPS 13 2-in-1’s 14-and-a-half hour mark. In real-world experience though, I saw power levels plunge below 20 percent after five hours of heavy use. To be fair, that involved energy-sapping processes like video playback and more-frenzied League games.

One of the new features of the Flex is its trackpad’s built-in wireless charger that can deliver power to Qi-compatible devices. It’s the same Wireless PowerShare feature that debuted on the Galaxy S10. You can’t use the trackpad while you’re charging something, which makes sense, since something is literally obstructing the usable area. I’m not sure how helpful this feature is, since wireless charging is typically too slow to be meaningful. I placed the Galaxy S20 Ultra on the trackpad (after the requisite first step of turning on the feature in Settings) and watched as its battery level climbed painfully slowly from 79 percent to 85 percent in 20 minutes.

For something smaller, like the Galaxy Buds, I could see this being useful in a pinch (say, in an airplane when you’re running low on juice). Otherwise, wireless PowerShare isn’t something I’ll use a lot.

Wrap-up

I’m enamored with the Galaxy Book Flex. It’s a pretty machine with a nice display, powerful guts and useful S Pen. But I wish there were more configurations (for each size) to make the base price lower. Sure, $1,349 for a Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM isn’t the priciest, considering the new MacBook Air tops out at $1,199 for a Core i5 and the similarly specced XPS 13 2-in-1 costs a lot more at $1,700. But with the competition offering options starting at $999, that’s tough to swallow.

Still, if you’re looking for a gorgeous, beefy laptop with a good screen and don’t need it to last forever, the Galaxy Book Flex is worth considering. More important, it proves it’s time to take Samsung’s laptops seriously again.

[terryblount]

All The Game Announcements From The Xbox E3 2019 Briefing

With Sony not making an E3 appearance this year, Xbox gets prime time attention for its briefing. And the Xbox E3 2019 briefing is pretty alright. They revealed about 60 games on stage, 14 of which by their first-party Xbox Game Studios. And 34 of the games will be, or are now available, on Xbox Game Pass, their monthly gaming subscription.

Here’s a rundown on all the game announcements from the Xbox E3 2019 briefing.

The Outer Worlds

Starting with a bang is a new trailer of Obsidian’s final non-first party release. The new trailer for the RPG showcased more locales, weapons and highlighted you can make choices in the game: good, evil, or somewhere in-between like a true psychopath. They know.

The Outer Worlds will be releasing on October 25th

Bleeding Edge

Ninja Theory, the studio known for character action games like Heavenly Sword, DmC: Devil May Cry and Hellblade, showed off their new multiplayer game. Bleeding Edge looks like a 4v4 character action game. There’s an eclectic cast of characters, each with their own type (melee or range) and abilities.

A technical alpha test will start on June 27th on the Xbox One. You can sign up here.

Ori And The Will Of The Wisp

The beautiful 2D platformer sequel gets a new trailer and a new release date, February 11th, 2020. It will be out on Xbox One and PC (Steam, Microsoft Store) and available on Xbox Game Pass on release.

Minecraft Dungeons

It’s no Minecraft 2, but rather a Minecraft Diablo-like from Mojang. With four players local and online co-op.Spring 2020 on PS4, PC (Microsoft Store), Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It is also available on Xbox Game Pass on release.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Hot of the heels of yesterday’s gameplay reveal, there’s a new trailer for Respawn’s single-player action game. Some new cinematics spliced with some gameplay seen from EA Play.

Blair Witch

A surprise announcement, this one. It’s a new first-person horror game based on the Blair Witch Project by Team Bloob, the makers of Layers Of Fear.

It will be out on August 30th on Xbox One and PC (Steam). It will also be on Xbox Game Pass on release.

Cyberpunk 2077

  CD Projekt RED’s ambitious open world RPG gets a new cinematic and a release date, April 16th, 2020.

Also, we got Keanu Reeves in the game as Johnny Silverhand. And we got Keanu shouting “CYBERPUNK!” on stage to the cheer of the crowd.

Spiritfarer

Developed by Thunder Lotus Games, this sweet-looking 2D indie game is all about building, crafting boats, exploring and making friends. And set the friends free. These friends are lost spirits which you must take care of as your job as Stella, ferrymaster to the deceased.

It’s a sweet, and poignant game. That also includes 2-player co-op.

It will be out on PS4, PC, Xbox One and Switch. It will be on Xbox Game Pass on release.

Battletoads

Beat-em-up revival of Rare’s classic gets a full showing. Now with 80’s cartoon aesthetic. Just like the original arcade release, there is three-player couch co-op. No release date however, but confirmed to be on Xbox Game Pass on release.

RPG TIme: The Legend Of Wright

An indie RPG that is set in a scrapbook. A pen-of-paper RPG of sorts. This is developed by Deskwork, a two-person development team from Japan, which should explain the art style.

It will be out in October 2020 for Xbox One as well as PC, iOS and Android.

Indie Sizzle Reel

The ID@Xbox sizzle reel showcase a lot of indie games. All of which will be available on Xbox Game Pass as they are released.

Some of the games include:

Dead State Drive

Star Renegades

Afterparty

Way To The Woods

Creature In The Well

Killer Queen Black

UnderMine

Pathologic 2

The Lord Of The Ring Living Card Game

The Good Life

Blazing Chrome

Spiritfarer

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator

Secret Neighbor

Supermarket Shriek

Blair Witch

Unto The End

Night Call

Riverbond

Felix The Reaper

Ikenfell

Totem Teller

Xbox Games Pass for PC

Xbox Games Pass for PC is out now. This is a separate subscription to Xbox Game Pass, and has a different library of PC games available, including very-much PC games like Paradox’s Imperator Rome and Sega’s Football Manager 2019.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

An all-new entry of Microsoft Flight Simulator revealed. It will be out next year on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC.

Age Of Empires II Definitive Edition

A new trailer for the remaster of the seminal RTS sequel. As announced earlier, alongside a release on Windows 10 PC via Microsoft Store, it will come to Steam as well.

It will be out in Fall 2019.

Wasteland 3

Another now-first-party developer showing their not-first-party game like Obsidian. InXile’s Wasteland 3, the top-down RPG series that spawned Fallout, heads to Colorado in a new, wacky trailer.

It will be out later this year on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

Double Fine Joins Xbox Game Studios

They bought another one. Tim Schafer’s development studio joins the now the big family of Xbox Game Studios, now 14 studios strong. So we can safely expect another Psychonauts if the upcoming one is any good.

Psychonauts 2

New trailer focuses on the gameplay. Raz is in a suit. Combat and platforming should look familiar to the previous game (but hopefully better controls) and a look at the new villain.

The video description on Youtube reassures that Psychonauts 2 is still being released on PS4, PC and Xbox One, despite the acquisition.

LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga

All the nine Star Wars films, including the latest one coming this year, will be getting the Lego game treatment in 2020. Consider this a nice remaster of the original Lego Star Wars games, which started the series, plus the new movie trilogy.

It will be on PS4, PC, Xbox One and Switch

Dragon Ball Project Z – Dragon Ball Kakarot

The Dragon Ball RPG now has a full trailer and a new name. The stakes are high here as everyone is getting beaten by Freiza.

This trailer here features the English dub, the one aired on the Xbox briefing uses the original Japanese voiceovers.

It will be out in early 2020 for the PS4, PX and Xbox One.

12 Minutes

A game by Luis Antonio and published by Annapurna Interactive. An Interactive thriller about time loops of.. 12 minutes.

This is not exactly a new game, it made some rounds of press coverage in 2015, but it’s now getting released.

It will be out on PC and Xbox One.

Way To The Woods

A game by Anthony Tan. A deer mom and her fawn on an adventure. The game is now targeting a 2020 release on Xbox One and PC, “for real this time”.

Gears 5

Gears 5 is Xbox’s big game of this year. A new trailer just set up the mood for new protagonist Kait. The other showcases a cinematic of a new game mode, Escape. The last one, a Terminator Dark Fate character pack reveal. Because who doesn’t want to play a Terminator carrying a gun with a chainsaw bayonet.

Gears 5 will be out on September 10th.

Xbox Elite Controler Series 2

There’s a new revision of the Xbox Elite controller. Now with rubberised grips.

Dying Light 2

The open world zombie game gets a new trailer. Your character is Aiden and he’s not a silent protagonist like the first one.

The game also now have a new release window, moved to Spring 2020.

Forza Horizon 4 LEGO Speed Champions

How do you top showcasing a car on the E3 stage? Show a car made of Legos. The next Forza Horizon 4 expansion is topping Forza Horizon 3’s Hot Wheel expansion by partnering up with a different toy brand.

A new world called Lego Valley, new Lego-fied cars such as the McLaren Senna, Ferrari F40 Competizione and 1967 Mini Cooper S are among the content included in the expansion.

It will be out this week, June 13th.

Gears Pop

A new trailer of the Gears mobile game.

State Of Decay 2 Heartland

An actual story-based campaign is coming to the systems-driven open world zombie game. Scratch that, it’s out now.

Phantasy Star Online 2

For real this time? Phantasy Star Online 2, the popular free-to-play MMO in Japan, was first announced to be heading to the west (as in, released in English) since 2012. But this time it’s actually happening. At least for North America.

It will be out on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.

Crossfire X

Smilegate’s FPS is now coming to Xbox One in 2020. The South Korean developers have ammased over 650 million players and will be making their console debut. This version of the game will have a single-player campaign developed by Remedy Entertainment, as well as battle royale and multiplayer. It will be out in 2020, and available on Xbox Game Pass on release.

Tales Of Arise

This is a new Tales Of game. Like the many entries before, it features a new cast of characters, new world and this time, a major art style upgrade.

The JRPG will be out on PS4, PC and Xbox One in 2020.

Borderlands 3

A new cinematic trailer shows the stakes- the importance of Sirens and how Lilith isn’t one of them anymore. And also hero shots of the Vault Hunters, the villains Calypso Twins and the supporting cast.

Also, the first acknowledgment of the term “shloot”. Urgh.

Also, Borderlands 2 is getting a free DLC now. Commander Lilith And The Fight For Sanctuary bridges the gap of Borderlands 2 and 3.

Elden Ring

A new game by From Software and George R. R. Martin of A Song Of Ice And Fire fame. Yes, those rumour and leaks are true.

It will be published by Bandai Namco.

Project xCloud

The game streaming service will begin testing in October through the Xbox One. This should be similar to how PS Now.

Project Scarlett

The next Xbox console is teased and its codename revealed to the public. Project Scarlett will have the latest Zen 2 CPU and Radeon RDNA (Navi) GPU by AMD, GDDR6 RAM and an SSD.

Specs-wise, it sounds like it will be similarly in power to Sony’s next Playstation, which is using the same AMD innards.

Project Scarlett will be out Holiday 2020.

Halo Infinite

After the Project Scarlett reveal is more footage of Halo Infinite, now confirmed as launch title for the next Xbox. It will also come to Xbox One and PC.

All The Game Announcements From The Xbox E3 2019 Briefing published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[lucindatracey-blog]

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