#honestly kind of maddening how many times i have tried to use my keys to get in somewhere and the key fit perfectly into the hole

[teethrotter]

my brother in christ. there is no point in providing me with custodial keys if every single building i work in requires a key unique to it that needs to be physically checked out beforehand

[doubleleoenergy]

ii; BLUE BAYOU SERIES

Oh that boy of mine, by my side. The silver moon and the evening tide.

Series Masterlist

Pairing: TFAWS!Sam Wilson x fem!Reader

Summary: Sam and y/n go on their first date.

Word Count: 2326

Author’s Notes: I’m so excited for this series, please let me know any feedback you have!

Sam has been on many missions in his life, but none COMPARE to the nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach as he’s deciding what to wear. Why was it even this hard? It was just a date, he had been on plenty of dates in his life before his tours in the Air Force. Okay, maybe it WAS his first date since then, but did that mean the Wilson charm and composure was just gone, right?

He had helped at the docks that day, carrying in the new catch and helping take inventory of the stock they had to sell for the weekend, but he still couldn’t quite get y/n out of his mind. Sarah had been busy cooking and dropping off another large order for a family reunion downtown, so he hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to her about y/n or the DATE.

Sam had just dried off from the shower, grabbing a pair of clean Calvin Klein boxers and pulling them over his hips. Fingers fumbled with his phone, hitting the Facetime button next to Sarah’s contact and furrowing his brows as he waited for her to answer.

“Cass! AJ! No running PLEASE, come and set the table for dinner.” Sarah’s voice was yelling out past the phone and out of Sam’s vision, but her face popped up on the screen as she stood in the kitchen. “Hey Sam, got that date tonight huh?” Her face turns back towards the screen, a wide smile spreading across her lips.

“Yes, in an hour actually, which is why I called. It’s weird to wear a dress shirt, RIGHT?” He had a few options laid out on the bed, looking them over and scratching the back of his neck. “Sam, it’s summer in Louisiana, do YOU think it’s a good idea to wear a dress shirt?”

“Right...definitely don’t want to be sweating.” Not that he WASN’T already. “Let me show you what I have on the bed then, you know what women like.” Sarah chuckles. “Of course I do, I am a woman.” Sam flips the video screen so Sarah can look over the choices, catching a glimpse of AJ & Cass moving behind his sister to grab the food off the stove.

Sarah takes a moment, looking at the choices he’s laid out and thinking about the atmosphere at Thompson’s Kitchen. It wasn’t SUPER fancy, but also not just a bar and grill. “If I were you I’d go with the navy t-shirt, dark denim jeans, those black sneakers and...your brown suede jacket.” Sam pulls the pieces together as she’s talking, nodding his head in agreement. That was his favorite jacket, maybe it would bring him good luck.

“Mom, your dinner’s getting cold!” AJ calls out from the kitchen table, piling some green beans onto his plate. “Alright, Sam I gotta go. Just remember to relax, be yourself, and DON’T make this messy, I don’t want to have to stop going to the boxing gym because of you.” Sam chuckles, rolling his eyes at her words. As if he would mess up THAT bad. 

“Alright, I promise. Boys, be good for your mom tonight! Love you, Sis.” He waits for her to say it back before hanging up his phone, dropping it to the bed. He’s got the outfit all picked, now he just has to get himself ready and head OUT.

Y/N just finished curling the last strand of her hair, shaking out the loose curls and spraying them just slightly with hairspray. She is honestly EXCITED for this date, having not been out on a date since she was completing her Master’s. And besides, it didn’t hurt to get out of her apartment and find another spot in town for her to dine at during the week.

The ride the day before with Sarah was fine, both of them laughing at how Sam had TRIED to be smooth by asking her out. Sarah assured her that her brother was not some fuckboy she’d find if she had decided to download Tinder as she had almost done a week prior before Sarah had advised her against it.

She didn’t need time to pick out an outfit, most of her clothes from the move were work appropriate, only having a few outfits she could wear out on the town. She REALLY needed to go shopping if she was going to be spending more time out at night and on the weekends. Her days consisted of work and nights consisted of lying in bed watching reruns of New Girl or reading one of the many books she had bought at the bookstore down the street from her apartment. Y/N LOVED going out, but she hadn’t really gotten close to anyone but Sarah so far.

Her fingers smoothed out the lavender slip dress against her figure, the hem coming just above her knee. She quickly pulled on a pair of white Keds, fumbling through the jewelry on the dresser until you pulled out a pair of simple gold hoops to compliment her skin tone. She didn’t know how long they’d be out, and wearing anything heeled would not feel good after having worn her Steve Madden wedges at work all day.

“Perfect.” She smiles at herself in the mirror, swiping on a bit of chapstick before grabbing her purse and keys to walk out the front door.

Sam arrives at Thompson’s Kitchen and peaks inside, not seeing y/n anywhere at the bar or tables. He decides to grab them a table near the wall, taking off his jacket and setting it on the back of his chair. A waitress comes over to the table, a middle aged woman with the name tag “Elizabeth” on the top right hand of her maroon polo. “Welcome to Thompson’s Kitchen.” Her eyes look up from her notepad, smiling as she recognizes him.

“Well if it isn’t Captain America himself! What can I getcha darlin’?” He chuckles nervously, still not used to hearing himself called that in public. “I’m actually waiting on someone…” His voice trails off when he feels a burst of air from the door open, y/n emerging and scanning the room for her date. She looks PERFECT, the lavender dress draped beautifully against her body, the neckline sweeping low, but not low enough to be too revealing.

“And it looks like she’s just come in. Y/N!” He calls out, his voice making her turn and smile as she moved over to the table he was at. She gestured politely to the waitress, taking the seat across from him and setting her bag next to her feet on the floor.

She looks even more STUNNING up close, and he takes note of the Keds on her feet, glad that she didn’t wear heels. He definitely felt that they looked natural together, not over or underdressed for the occasion.

“Good Evening Miss.” The waitress pulled two menus from under her arm, setting them down on the table. “Could I get ya’ll started with something to drink?”

Y/N’s eyes scan over the list of drinks on the back of the menu, looking back up to the waitress. “I’ll get a bottle of Coors Light.” Sam smiles, he was a beer guy himself. 

“I’ll take a Miller Lite.” Sam watches as the waitress leaves, scanning over the menu again before looking back up to y/n. “I took you as more of a WINE girl.”

Y/N scrunches her nose, shaking her head. “Definitely NOT, wine tastes like nail polish remover to me. I can only really handle beer and some mixed drinks.” Her head tilts to the side, taking in the scent of his cologne. It was nice, a very woodsy smell with a HINT of orange. “What’s your go to liquor?”

Sam has already decided what he wants, having come to the restaurant quite a bit whenever he was in town. “Scotch, you?” He raises an eyebrow up at her. “Jack Daniels, preferably the honey kind, definitely nothing with cinnamon.” A love for whiskey and beer, already TWO things they had in common.

The waitress returns with their drinks, pulling out her notepad once again. “What’ll it be tonight?”

“I’ll have the crawfish étouffée, thank you.” Sam hands her the menu as she finishes jotting down his order, turning to y/n. “I’ll get your shrimp po’boy with a side of sweet potato fries please.” She shuts her menu and hands it to her, sitting up straighter in her seat.

The waitress walks off and the table goes silent briefly, both taking sips of their beer. Sam smiles softly, he doesn’t feel NERVOUS, just wondering what to ask her about first.

“So you said you just moved here, I’m assuming from Colorado?” He’s referring to her license plate that he noticed the day prior.

“Yeah, I used to live in Boulder but I got offered a great position at Northwood University after I graduated.” Her smile is so genuine with excitement, and Sam can’t help but smile wider at her. “Northwood University is great, quite the commute for you though. Are you a professor?” It was at least a forty minute drive from his place.

She takes another swig from her beer, nodding her head. “Definitely, but I didn’t want to live in the city, that would be way too much for me. BESIDES, a former colleague of mine used to live in this area and they highly recommended it to me.” Nails tap against the table as she hears a Fleetwood Mac song drifting out of the speakers overhead. “And yes, I’m a sociology professor, I just graduated with my PhD in sociology last Fall.” She’s very proud of herself and what she’s accomplished, having gone farther in school than anyone in her family.

Sam is taken aback, she was very impressive and clearly EXTREMELY intelligent. Brains and beauty. “Congratulations, I can tell you have a passion for what you do.” She nods, eyes meeting his brown hues. “Enough about me though, Sarah told me you used to be in the Air Force, said you were in two tours in Afghanistan?”

The waitress makes it back to their table, setting the food in front of them and asking if they need anything else. After they decline Sam takes a bite of his food, chewing thoughtfully before answering. “Yes I did.”

“What made you get out?” He stops his motions, taking a deep breath. “Actually, I lost my friend, RILEY, during a mission. Decided it was time to get out and...now I’m here.”

Y/N takes a bite of her po’boy, wiping at her mouth as the sauce spreads against the corner of her lip. “I’m sorry...I can imagine how hard that must’ve been.” She pauses, looking down at her plate, chewing softly on the inside of her cheek. “I actually lost my dad during that war...he was stationed with the military in Afghanistan after 9/11. About six months in him and his crew were headed to back to the BASE when their vehicle hit an IED, none of them survived...he served in the Kosova War before that.” She grabs a fry off her plate, chewing on it before looking back up at him.

Sam’s face grows solemn. “I’m sorry…” He feels connected to her through their shared stories, feeling a sense of relief that someone could UNDERSTAND him on a level that most couldn’t.

“It’s fine, I was only seven so I don’t remember it much…” She lied, she DID remember it. She remembered the call her mom got that day, how her mother fell to the floor, the scream that left her mouth embedded in her brain. Y/N remembered how she held her little sister tight to her chest, distracting her by singing Part of Your World, trying to keep her from crying, though she barely knew what was going on.

The conversation shifts as they finish their meals, talking about less serious topics; music they like, movies they’ve recently seen, places they’ve traveled. Y/N is nursing her second beer when the check arrives, immediately picking it up.

“No, y/n, give that to me.” Sam tries to pull it from her grasp but she moves it out of his way. “I’ll only offer to split it.” She HATED when others paid for anything, her mother always taught her to be independent and take care of HERSELF.

Sam can tell she won’t budge, handing her some cash from his wallet. “Fine...but at least let me also pay the tip. And I WILL pay next time.” He didn’t mean to let it slip, but y/n wasn’t bothered at all by the thought of a next time.

After paying, they excuse themselves from the table. Sam opens the door to the restaurant, letting y/n step under his arm to walk through before him.

“That was FUN.” She announced, tilting her head to look up at him. It’s not that late, but the moon was out, shining over the water as the waves crashed gently against the rocks near the shore.

“It was…” He hesitates, hand coming up to itch at the back of his neck. “I don’t suppose you’re up for some dessert?” He can SMELL her perfume when the wind blows, a sweet fragrance that tickles his nose.

Y/N smiles, she’s not ready to leave him just yet either. This was the most fun she’s EVER had on a date, and the easiest the conversation has ever flowed with someone. He was DIFFERENT. Her stomach did a somersault at that thought, she hadn’t let herself get this close to anyone in awhile. “I’m down for anything.”

Sam steps closer, hesitating before taking his hand in hers. It feels SMALL in his own, but fits perfectly in his grip. And just like that he’s not as nervous, she hadn’t pulled her hand away either, which was a good sign.

“Well then, I’ll lead the way.”

[jackscnallen]

letter task – task number five. 

a compilation of unsent letters jackson allen has written dawn madden.

jackson’s first unsent letter to dawn madden, written at age fifteen. 

dear dawn,

i want to hold your hand in front of everyone, but i can’t. every time i see you, my knees go weak and my breath catches in my throat, but no one can know. i keep this crush to myself because i don’t want to hurt any of the friendships i have with you and your brother. i know he’s protective of you and i don’t want him to view me differently if i tried to make a move on you. so i’ll just admire you from afar. 

from, jackson

jackson’s second unsent letter to dawn madden, written at age sixteen.

dear dawn,

sometimes i just want to hear your voice and feel your heartbeat in the space between us, but i’m thinking i can’t let myself do that until i tell you how i feel. so i might be waiting forever. whenever i see you in person, i keep stuttering and stammering over all these things i have to say to you, but the fear of rejection always holds me back. sometimes i think it would be better to move on to someone new, but where would that leave me? so, i just keep my mouth shut and decide that it’s for the best if i don’t say anything yet.

love, jackson

jackson’s third unsent letter (parents thought it was junk mail, so they threw it away) to dawn madden, written at age seventeen.

dear dawn,

hi. wow, oh my god this is already a bad start to a love letter. i don’t even know what to write! why am i even writing this? i have no idea what to say. is this letter going to be given to you? i hope not. i can write letters for days, but honestly, i have no idea what to write to you. it’s late in the night and i decided to start this now since a lot of my thoughts come together at midnight. it’s weird. and you didn’t need to know that. let’s try this again, let me start over. 

hey there! okay, that was pretty shitty for an introduction, but i’m keeping it since this is   “the final copy”. i just wanted to write you something that show you how i truly feel about you, if that’s alright. from the first time i saw you, i was smitten. how can one person be so beautiful in so many different ways? you’ve got eyes so stunning that they can put the northern lights to shame, a heart so full of love it rivals all the love songs on every radio station. as i got to know you, i always wondered how could someone so beautiful actually exist and be friends with me? you’re someone who finds beauty in everyone and everything you come into contact with. i really need to thank you for being my friend. i mean, i know most people don’t really see it as a big deal, but you being my friend is a really big deal to me. i know, it’s probably weird that it’s such a big deal to me, but no matter how how long this friendship lasts ( and i genuinely hope it lasts ), i just need you to know it means a lot to me. and yes, i do consider you to be my friend, too. i know your brother’s my best friend and he is, don’t get me wrong, but i think we have a special friendship, too.

i realized that i’ve never felt more comfortable around anyone than when i’m with you. is that weird? that’s probably weird. ignore that. i don’t know. i just don’t feel the need to hide anything when we’re together and it’s weird because i’m so used to faking a smile, but around you i can be crying or something and you wouldn’t judge me or force me to talk about what’s wrong. i don’t need to hide anything. i can tell you things that i can’t tell anyone else and that genuinely scares me. i think it scares me just because i’ve never felt so vulnerable. i think it’s a good vulnerability, though? i’m so used to keeping all of my secrets under lock and key, and i’m sure if i didn’t have you in my life i would probably just combust one day from all the secrecy and thoughts running throughout my brain. this all makes it sound like i’m putting the weight of my world on your shoulders now, but i swear i’m not doing that! i just... i mean... we can carry the weight of our worlds together now, because you can trust me too. i will never judge you. ever.

i just... i just thought that this would be a good opportunity to tell you how much i love you. i'm moving to los angeles soon, so i thought i would leave you with something to remember me by. whenever you need someone, i’m really just a phone call, a facetime call, or a text away. you know that, right? i don’t mind sacrificing hours of sleep or anything for a friend, you know? i’m literally available 24/7 if you want to talk or whatever. i just need you to know you can depend on me. i think i’m pretty trustworthy. i hope i’m trustworthy. i know you have other people you could talk to, too, but you know. just for reference. just in case. i don’t know. see, you probably thought this whole rambling thing was just when i was actually speaking. sorry to disappoint. as you may have noticed by now, it’s not. anyways, i hope now that high school is over you have the chance to be everything you've always wanted to be. you are so unique, more than you maybe even realize. you are so funny and you make so many people smile on a daily basis. you are so, so loved by those around you. you are a well of incredible, endless creativity and enthusiasm. i adore your enthusiasm and i think you really do deserve the entire world, you are a true star that shines, even in a sea of darkness. your friendship does mean everything to me, it’s so hard to find someone who you just get along with so quickly and so beautifully. you have so much value, not only in your talents and your brilliant mind, but also in your heart. every day should really be filled with recognition of just how amazing you are.

so i guess my point of this letter is: do you love me, too? 

love, jackson 

jackson’s fourth unsent letter to dawn madden, written at age twenty.

dear dawn,

wow, i haven’t written to you in years. not since the last letter i wrote to you never got sent. maybe it was the sign from the universe that i should give up on my damn crush for you. but, it has been almost four years since we last talked. i mean, i still talk to your brother but i haven’t spoken to you since i left for the city of angels. i’m sorry i haven’t reached out to you myself, but i haven’t been in the best place here in los angeles. words will never be enough to explain how much i miss you. it doesn’t come often, but when it does, it overwhelms me. it’s like visiting the sea and the times i do visit, the waves are rather strong. and it amplifies the space you left in my heart. i miss you. 

ah, there it is, the familiar ache in my heart.

i miss you. maybe i believe in a world that will let us meet again through an instance that we both never expected. maybe, all throughout these years, the world has been planning for a funny reunion. i’d like that, something mundane yet funny. i can picture many scenarios of how it would unfold, but there’s one thing that is present in all of them, it would be our laughter followed by a tight hug. maybe. one day. someday. for the meantime, i send my well wishes through the stars. i hope the world has been giving you the happiness that you deserve.

love, jackson

jackson’s fifth unsent letter to dawn madden, written at age twenty one.

dear dawn,

how are you? 

the sky is clear tonight, unlike the clouded heart that has been accompanying me the past days. my days have been weary and dreary with the constant knocks of loneliness on my door. but it’s okay, i’m okay. i am slowly relearning how to take baby steps again, and reacquainting myself with the feeling of losing my sight, forcing me to feel myself out of the darkness. i’m alright. i’ll do better. 

how about you? is the world treating you well? did you see your favorite sunset or maybe had your favorite cup of coffee? you know, i always wonder about you and how this world works, or would work, for us to look at the same sunrise as we both untangle ourselves from a good night’s sleep. i don’t have the exact answer for that nor a vague idea on how everything would unfold, but know that i am here. waiting. making repairs in my humble home. i just wish to the stars that by the time our paths cross again, i have enough warmth to welcome you into my arms. for the meantime, i’ll continue to look at the night sky and wonder how your night is unfolding. 

love, jackson

jackson’s sixth unsent letter to dawn madden, written at age twenty two.

dear dawn,

wow, seeing you for the first time in years made me turn into a shy, sweaty palmed teenager all over again. you still look like the same dawn i remember. the one with the doe eyes and sweet smile. i couldn’t help but melt when you gave me a hug. even after all these years, you’re still someone with a heart i know like the back of my hand. i know we have a lot of catching up to do, but i know that when i’m in any conversation with you, no matter how we’re both feeling or where we’re at, i can let my walls down around you. and that just means so fucking much to me. you’ve had my back when i’m at my lowest, when i’m doubting myself and everything around me, and that’s something that i will never ever forget. we are not by any means easy people to get to know past all of the surface layers, but i am getting more comfortable with myself and expressing that to people i care about, and i think you’re getting there too. we can make it work because that’s how important and special and wonderful this friendship is. i will always wait for you, through the bad times and the awful times, when you struggle with yourself and when you struggle with me. i think we have a friendship, a connection, that is truly worth fighting for and keeping.

love, jackson

jackson’s seventh unsent letter to dawn madden, written at age twenty three.

dear dawn,

it’s been months since i last wrote to you. maybe because i have been pondering about the path i want to take. the kind of person i want to be. or maybe i have been trying my best to run away from vulnerability. and i know how the thought of writing to you makes me soft, and open, and emotional of some sort. but here i am, being a little more brave by each passing day. 

do you remember when i asked you what you wanted between sharp breaths, with my hands shaking on the train in mid-january? perhaps you didn’t hear, i’ve only ever said it in my head. only in the moments when nothing exists beyond being reckless and young with a passion that astonishes – only in those moments do i let myself realize what i want. and it’s you. it’s been you for as long as i can remember. and i consider that i would like it quite a bit if we were something real, rather than a fever dream fueled by my mind. 

love, jackson

jackson’s eighth unsent letter to dawn madden, written at age twenty four.

dear dawn,

i think it’s a cruel joke. the day i decide to admit to you that i’m in love with you, i realize that you’ve been pining over some guy all this time. that’s just brilliant. and it’s not just some guy, though, it’s ryder. one of my best friends and my band mate. i’m trying to play nice, trying to be kind, but sometimes jealousy flares up and i just want curse at myself for not telling you about my feelings sooner. i could make a scrapbook of all my memories with you, all the hours of phone calls and legions of texts and driving in the middle of the night when you needed to be with someone and your brother wasn’t available. but i can’t be mad or jealous at all because you’re not even mine nor are you a prize to be won. so instead of wallowing and having a huge fuckin’ pity party for myself, i’ll help you get the guy. ryder’s actually an incredible man and he’s pretty worthy of you. i mean, hell, i don’t blame you for falling for him. i would, too, probably. yeah, anyways, i can’t help but feel like we still have a chance to be something more than friends, but for now, i’ll let you go and allow you to get the man of your dreams. 

always yours, jackson

[eternalnight8806-3]

Ch 3 The Cat and the Fox

Category: Romance, Modern College AU

Rating: Will be Explicit but for now I’ll just say Mature for language and drinking

Pairing: InuKag

Words: 2,357

Also available on ff.net and AO3

Tag list: @keichanz @noviceotakus-blog @hinezumi @morikothehalfangel @cstorm86 @digital-art-monster @cammysansstuff

Enjoy!

 Hey, I have a kind of personal question for you

InuYasha rubbed his tired eyes and stretched. He had been staring at his laptop for the last 3 hours straight trying to finish this damn midterm paper. The sound of his phone buzzing caught his attention. Who the hell would be texting him at 2 a.m.? Miroku was downstairs with the other idiots watching some stupid Netflix show he never could get into about a women's prison. The goofy grin that spread across his face upon seeing her name was completely accidental, or so he would tell you.

 Shoot

 What happened to your mom? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I was just sitting here thinking about it and I realized you never told me how she died. But it's totally fine if you don't want to tell me. I swear.

InuYasha almost laughed out loud at her obvious text babbling. It's cool. She had breast cancer.

 Oh sweetie I'm so sorry. It must have been so hard to lose her that way.

 Honestly, it wasn't long after her diagnosis. She was already stage 4 by the time they caught it. They tried everything they could but a month later she was gone. It was hard. Still is. I miss her a lot. She was my rock

 Yeah. I don't know what I would do without my mom. She's the kindest woman ever. She's always supported me in everything. You never mentioned your dad though?

 He died when I was a baby. I never knew him.

 Wow.

 Yeah. Hey what are you doing up anyway? I thought you had to work this weekend?

 I do. Couldn't sleep. My brain just won't shut off.

 Missed me that much in 24 hours?

 You're incorrigible

 Always

 You don't have a humble bone in your body do you?

 Maybe one

     *    eyeroll emoji      *  

 What time do you have to be up?

 In exactly 2.5 hours. I have to catch the 5:45 train to get there on time.

 Jesus woman! Go to sleep!

 I already told you I can't

 Do I need to come over and sing you a lullaby?

InuYasha regretted that the instant he hit send. She would definitely think he was total creepy bastard now.

 Lol. You don't know where I live

He hesitated before typing again. Fine. I'll call you. I hope you like shitty renditions of twinkle twinkle little star.

     *    a series of crying laughing emojis      *  

 Can't be worse than my little brother trying to sing to our cat Buyo.

 You have a brother?

 Yep

 Me too. Well a ½ brother. Older. And an asshole.

 Oh yeah? Ever talk to him?

 Not really. Like I said he's an asshole.

 Got it. Foxy doesn't like his big bro

InuYasha's eyebrow quirked. Foxy?

 Ummm... yeah???

 What is that?

 Ummmm

 Your name?

 Is it now wench? ;)

 Ha. Ha.

 Hey, what do you call me?

 Catwoman

 I suppose that makes sense.

 Why do you call me Foxy? ;)

 Because of your       costume  

 Suuuuuuure

 You're obviously delusional

 Am I?

 Severely.

 Well you're the one talking to me at 2:45 in the morning

 Yeah. I know. I need a padded room next to yours

 So I can sing twinkle twinkle for you?

 OMG stop! I'm going to wake up my room mate!

 Sorry...

 You really should get some sleep wench.

 I know.

 Night Foxy

 Night wench

InuYasha couldn't sleep after that. He felt guilty for keeping her up, even though she had texted him first. Inane images scrolled past his eyes as he delved into the internet black hole, searching for something to occupy his mind. Finally, when he realized it was about 5 minutes past the time she said she had to be awake, he decided to make sure she had gotten up ok.

 Wakey wakey wench

Kagome groaned aloud at the sound of her alarm. She tried to roll over and go back to sleep but then her phone dinged.

 Don't wanna

 C'mon. You gotta. That job you love so much is beckoning

 Damn you

 You're cranky in the morning ain't ya?

 Only for people who won't let me sleep

 But you have to go babysit brats

 Uggggh. Fine. I'm up. Happy?

 Are you actually up? Like out of bed?

 Kagome put her feet on the floor next her bed.  Yes...

 Don't believe you

She sent him a picture of her feet on the floor.

 Sexy

 Shut up jerk

 Get ready for work wench

 I would if someone would quit distracting me

 I'm distracting huh? ;)

 You're maddening

 Only for you wench

 I'm getting dressed now

 I'll be right over

 Ha. Ha.

 Again, I remind you, you don't know where I live

 I'll sniff it out

 Very funny

 Seriously, I'm up and getting dressed now

 Go back to sleep

She pulled off her nightclothes and tossed them in the direction of her hamper as she made her way over to the closet. Pulling out a sweater and jeans, she made her way back over to the bed where she'd laid her phone.

 Never did

 What? Why?

 Just distracted

Kagome wasn't sure what to make of that, so she decided to ignore it as she pulled the jeans up over her hips. Then go to sleep. Weirdo.

 Only after I know you get to work ok

 You're nuts. I won't get there for another hour!

 So?

 Go to sleep.

 Nope. Gotta know you're safe.

The sweater made it's way over her head and down to her waist. Overprotective much? She grabbed her hairbrush and set to work on her tangled mane.

 Only of cheeky wenches

 Oh now I'm cheeky?  The hairbrush returned to her nightstand.

 Yep

Kagome picked up her purse and keys before quietly exiting her room. I'm leaving now. Go to sleep

 I told you, not til you're at work

Kagome didn't respond during her 20 minute walk to the subway station. She hoped he would fall asleep waiting for her to text back. No such luck.

 Oi wench! Where'd you go?

 To the train

 Hahaha

 Cheeky wench

 You on the train?

 I am now.

 Good. How long of a ride is it?

 20ish minutes

 What do you normally do on the train at too damn early o'clock?

 Lol. Well, listen to music, or read. Sometimes I people watch but there aren't too many people on the train this early on Sunday.

 People watch?

 Yeah. People will do the weirdest things when they think no one is watching them. I've seen people practically doing it right in front of me before

 Doing what exactly? ;)

 Shut up

 Never wench

 You make it too easy

 Do I now?

 Yep.

 Will you just go to sleep?

 You at work?

 No

 Then I'm gonna go with no

 How did I see that coming?

 Idk maybe because I've said it like 1000 times already

 Alright alright I get it.

 '  Now approaching 10      th     street station' came the automated voice over the loudspeaker. Kagome stood and slid her phone into her pocket to keep it from falling out of her hand as she exited the train. Since the station was nearly deserted it was easy for her to maneuver her way out to the street to make the short walk to work. Once outside, she saw that the sun was now fully on the horizon, creating beautiful hues of pink and orange. Stopping for a moment, she smiled and took it all in. The crisp autumn air whipped her raven locks around her shoulders. Seeing the sun between the trees, Kagome couldn't resist the urge to snap a photo with her phone and send it to her new self-proclaimed watchdog.

 Isn't it so beautiful Foxy?

 Just like you wench ;)

Kagome snorted as she walked and texted at the same time. You don't know what I look like

 Sure I do. Long black silky hair, eyes the color of dark chocolate, ivory skin. See? I know

 Still, you've not seen my face

 Don't have to

She didn't know how to respond to that. Lucky for her though, she rounded the last corner before coming up to Yoro North's front door. She took a picture of her hand opening said door and sent it to him.

 All safe. Please sleep now? I'd feel awful if you didn't get any sleep because of me

 Not your fault wench. I'm a big boy. But I promise I'll close my eyes now. Have a good day at work.

 Thanks Foxy. Sweet dreams!

Kagome tucked her phone back into her pocket as she walked right past Ayame's death glare without giving the girl a second glance. As she stepped around the corner to make her way back to the classroom, she found herself cemented smack dab into Koga's chest.

“Whoa there, sweetheart!” He said as he grabbed her shoulders and gently pulled her back. “You alright?” He asked, genuine concern in his voice.

Kagome shook her head to clear the fog from having the wind knocked from her slightly. Looking up into his sky blue eyes, she didn't miss the smirk that crossed his features at her antics. “I-I'm fine, Koga. Thanks. Hey, actually there was something I wanted to run by you if you've got a minute?”

“Sure thing, darling. Step into my office?”

Kagome had noticed his use of several terms of endearment in the last few days, but she didn't mind it so she didn't say anything to her new boss about it. Instead, she walked into his office and sat herself down without being prompted. Koga came around her to sit himself on the edge of his desk, crossing his arms lazily and smiling down at her.

“What can I do for ya, love?”

“Well, I've noticed that we don't ever take the kids anywhere outside of this building and its grounds. Is there a reason for that?”

Koga's face took a decidedly less happy appearance. “Kagome, this building is all that stands between these kids and the outside world. Humans aren't exactly welcoming to our kind, with the exception of the rare person such as yourself. We don't take the kids anywhere for their own protection but also for yours. You've seen how they can be with eachother. Imagine if they did that to a human? The backlash would be catastrophic.”

Kagome frowned. “So, they never get to leave here? Ever?”

“We occasionally take them to other facilities to interact with other children, but for the most part, yeah, they stay here.”

“And it's absolutely out of the question to take them to say a park?”

Koga's eyebrow quirked up in interest. “A park? Kagome, we have outside areas here for them.”

“I know that, Koga, but they should interact with other kids. Even human ones. I think it'll be good for them to socialize outside of their comfort zones. Some of them desperately need it. Besides, imagine if you were on the front lines of demon-human coexistence?”

Koga sighed deeply. “Kagome, I wish things were different but they're just not. I can't allow you to put the kids or yourself in that kind of danger. I'm sorry.”

The look of supreme disappointment that crossed her features nearly caused the wolf to cave. “If you say so, Koga. I'll go relieve Ginta and Hakkaku now.” She stood and exited his office with slightly slumped shoulders. She had been so sure she could convince him to let her take the kids out for a little while. Sighing, she decided she would just have to keep working him down until he agreed. Eventually, he would see her reasoning.

xxx

The next two weeks almost flew by for both InuYasha and Kagome. Even in the midst of studying for their impending final exams in a couple weeks, the pair never let a night pass without talking. It became part of both of their routines. They both looked forward to hearing from the other. Something that both of their respective room mates had not failed to notice.

“InuYasha, are you ever actually going to meet this girl?” Miroku asked his hanyou friend one Saturday afternoon.

“I have, jackass.”

Rolling his eyes, Miroku huffed. “You know what I mean. Sango and I have actually been on actual dates and you know, know eachother's names.”

“Bully for you. Now fuck off.” InuYasha practically yelled as he tried to stick his headphones on his ears.

Sighing, he took his friend's obvious hint and went downstairs to meet Sango. Upon seeing her leaning against the banister, fingers looped in her jeans, he couldn't help but smile. She smiled back and asked, “Everything ok up there? I thought I heard someone yelling.”

Miroku took his girlfriend's hand and went to exit the house. “Yeah. Just my room mate being an idiot.”

Sango raised an eyebrow in question. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. He met a girl at the Halloween party but has yet to actually learn her name or even see her face outside of whatever mask she was wearing. They just text constantly.”

Sango's eyes widened. “Th-they do?”

Miroku didn't hide his puzzled expression. “Yeeeeeah...”

“Um... well...”

Stopping mid step on their trek to the campus food court, Miroku eyed his girlfriend suspiciously. “Sango?”

Biting her lip, the girl looked down at the concrete. “I think your room mate is texting my room mate.”

Eyes widening to nearly the size of saucers, Miroku burst out laughing. “You're kidding!?”

Shaking her head, Sango responded, “Nope. She calls him Foxy. I guess he was wearing a fox costume or something?”

Miroku was nearly on the ground by this point. “Jesus! Yep. That's him.”

“I don't see how this is so funny.”

Finally calming himself, Miroku placed his hands on her shoulders, “Because my dear Sango, this cannot be purely coincidental. Maybe the strings of fate had a hand in this, eh?”

Sango rolled her eyes. “You're an idiot. What are we gonna do? I can't just lie to her.”

Placing a finger on his lips thoughtfully, Miroku had a dangerous gleam in his eyes. “Mayhaps you won't have to my dear...”

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[megaphonemonday]

I absolutely love your prompt alot an i have yet to find a sickfic prompt of pitch yet so i was wondering please if you do one of ginny get sick with the flu during off season and Mike takes care of her please please

Thank you! Also, Super sorry for making you wait so long on this one. I’d say I have a good reason, but that would be a total lie. Hope you saw the other sick!fic I posted back in May, though :)

cheap medicine | ao3

Mike was just getting back from his afternoon bike ride—another ploy to get his cardio up while keeping the strain off his knees—when his phone skittered across the kitchen island. He’d tossed it there face down when he came in, or he would have just glanced over to see who’d texted him. As it was, he was busy chugging down water and monitoring his heart rate to prove that all this low-impact bullshit was beneath him.

Maybe if he hadn’t wheezed up that last hill, he’d believe it himself.

It wasn’t until later—a totally normal amount of time later, thanks—after Mike stopped feeling like his lungs were on fire and had washed away all the sweat, that he remembered the message waiting for him on his phone. 

He padded back into the kitchen, towel wrapped around his waist, to see what it was. 

A few other notifications had come in while he was distracted, updates from the ESPN app and an email from his agent, but only one text message.

From Ginny.

Mike was pretty sure it meant something that just the sight of her name on the screen made him smile, but that wasn’t a thought he was allowed to have. 

So, he settled for getting on with it and opened the message.

Ginny Bakerwhat was that movie u told me about?

Shaking his head, Mike returned, You’re gonna have to be more specific, Baker.

Almost immediately, a bubble and three little dots popped up. 

Jesus. Didn’t she have anything better to do?

ugh. u know. the one u with the guy and the thing.

Real helpful.

Shaking his head, Mike hit the dial key. Might as well just hash this out in one go rather than volley back and forth while Ginny tried to figure out what she was talking about. 

The line rang a few more times than Mike was used to, especially since Ginny had to have her phone close by. Frowning, he rattled around the kitchen, filling another glass of water while he waited on his teammate to pick up.

Finally, the ringing stopped, though Ginny didn’t say anything in greeting. Instead, there was muffled coughing. 

“Baker, if you think that’s going to keep me from making fun of you, you’re wrong. There aren’t many movies I haven’t told you to see. After Livan, you have to be the pop culture weak link on the team, and he grew up in a dictatorship.”

Mike could’ve kept going, but honestly, it wasn’t often that Ginny let him get that far without interrupting him, and he’d definitely given her plenty to interrupt. 

“You there?” he asked, pulling the phone away from his face to see if the call had been dropped. 

Nope. Ginny was just unusually quiet.

Finally, after a long moment, came a croaked, “I’m here.”

“Jesus, what happened to you?” Mike demanded. Ginny’s voice was naturally a little raspy, but this was something else. Had she been out partying last night? Hard enough to completely lose her voice? No way. That would definitely have gotten attention and the google alert he’d set up would’ve told him if there were any new pap shots.

(It was for the sake of the team, all right? Mike had to know what bullshit they were getting up to. He had one for all the guys.

If he’d set up Ginny’s first, and then worried about being seeming like a creep, that was immaterial.)

She cleared her throat, not that it did her much good. “Nothing. I’m fine. Just tell me the movie.”

“You never take my movie suggestions,” he returned. “Why need one now?”

Ginny huffed and again, it probably meant something that Mike knew the exact expression on her face, but, again, that wasn’t a thought he could be having.

Lately there’d been quite a few of those.

“Fine,” she sighed. “I’m not feeling too hot and figured I could use the down time to make fun of your taste in movies.”

Mike had never known Ginny to need down time, no matter how shitty she felt. Hell, the afternoon after her wild night out in LA, going off next to no sleep, she’d come in and gone hard during the pre-game work out and warm ups. Probably too hard for the day after a start. But she thought that she had something to prove and God forbid anyone tell her she didn’t.

“How sick are you?” he asked, knowing that whatever she answered, he’d probably have to multiply by a magnitude of three or four to approach reality. 

“It’s just a cold,” she sniffed, though Mike honestly couldn’t tell if it was disdain or because her nose was dripping.

“A cold.”

“Yes,” she hissed, clearly regretting the decision to divulge even that scant information.

“Bullshit, Baker. How do you know it’s not walking pneumonia?” he demanded, bracing himself against the counter, phone tucked between his ear and shoulder. If she was going to downplay it, he could afford to be a touch overdramatic.

“’Cause it’s not.”

“So your doctor ruled it out?”

There was a long silence over the line before Ginny reluctantly croaked, “… No.”

Mike’s eyes slid shut, his patience tested. “Have you even been to the doctor?”

“No, because it’s just a cold, old man.”

Had she always been this maddening? Straightening and scrubbing a hand across his face, Mike moved on. There was no point in arguing with Ginny when she was perfectly healthy. He had a feeling that being sick just made her more stubborn. 

“Sure it is. Who’s taking care of you?”

“Huh?” 

The utter confusion in her voice shouldn’t have been so adorable, but there were a lot of things about Ginny that Mike wasn’t supposed to find so adorable.

Patiently, he replied, “Who’s making sure you medicate and eat? That you don’t go out and try to run a marathon?”

“Oh, uh. Me?”

“What.”

“What?” she whined back.

“No one’s taking care of you?”

“Uh, no.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because I’m 24 and live on my own? I don’t need someone to take care of me while I have a cold.”

Well, she could think that all she liked, but it didn’t make it true.

While she spoke, Mike started hunting around the kitchen for one of the reusable grocery bags his housekeeper used. Inexplicably, they were stashed under the sink, along with the cleaning supplies. He resolved to start washing his produce more thoroughly, and began rummaging through his cabinets for soup and crackers, not trusting Ginny to have much more than protein shakes and grape soda in her kitchen.

“Baker,” he said, packing up his supplies and making a list of things he’d need to pick up at the pharmacy, “you sound like you’re on death’s doorstep. Clearly, you need someone to come keep you alive.”

“I told you,” she protested, “I’m fine.”

Mike would be more inclined to believe her if she hadn’t had to pause in the middle of her protest to hack out a lung. She only just managed to rasp out “fine,” which sealed the deal.

Car keys and supplies already in hand, he told her, “I’ll be over in twenty minutes. Try not to die before I get there.”

“Fuck you,” she wheezed, hanging up.

Mike just chuckled, shaking his head. “This should be fun.”

He was halfway to his car before he realized he was still wearing just a towel and ran back inside to get dressed. 

Fun indeed.

Ginny’s head was killing her. Her mouth was dry, but she could feel the mucus from her nose draining down the back of her throat, a slick, grimy ooze that kind of made her want to throw up. If she thought she could actually make it to the bathroom without dizzily stumbling into something, she’d consider it. As it was, she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon The pile of used Kleenexes on the floor practically barricaded her into her nest on the couch. It was so tall, that if she rolled off the cushions, she wouldn’t drop an inch. She knew she was too warm, but she couldn’t stop shivering.

But she was fine. Really.

The fact that the room spun when she hauled herself upright when her buzzer went, didn’t mean much. The creak in her back and joints didn’t mean much, either. She’d been through a hell of a lot of pain in her life, this wasn’t that bad. 

Still, she shuffled towards her condo’s front door, where the intercom was still buzzing insistently. It hurt too much to pick up her feet and take real steps. Plus, wearing her fuzzy socks, this was kind of like sweeping. She was multitasking.

She giggled blearily at the thought, but had to stop and wait for everything to steady when it sent her head off into a rapid swirl.

Once she arrived at her goal, Ginny jabbed at the key that would make the buzzing stop and open the lobby door. She didn’t bother to say anything, just unlocked the front door and shuffled back to her nest. If it wasn’t Mike, she wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight, but with the way she felt, maybe getting crazy axe murdered wouldn’t be such a bad thing.  

It would definitely be better than getting woken up by her captain shaking her awake, gruffly demanding, “What the hell are you doing?”

Ginny couldn’t say how she’d managed to fall so thoroughly asleep in the three minutes between buzzing Mike into her building and him making his way up, but she startled awake, thrashing in her blanket cocoon and nearly toppling off the couch. 

Once she had her balance back, she glared at Mike. “I was sleeping,” she grouched hoarsely.

“With your door unlocked? Anyone could’ve wandered in!”

She squinted up at him, resisting the urge to flop back into her nest and ignore the worry wart. When he looked ready to start in on a speech, and, really, her head could not take that right now, Ginny finally replied, “And yet, you still felt welcome to let yourself in.”

“Just to make sure you were still alive. I did knock first.”

She shrugged, pulling her blankets tighter around her shoulders as a shiver raced through her. 

Mike eyed her critically, though he did soften upon appreciating how pitiful she really was. It was a testament to how godawful Ginny felt that she didn’t start needling him to push against the pity, rile him out of feeling sorry for her. All she could do was cough and sniffle weakly. 

“When was the last time you ate?”

“Uhh…” God, why did it hurt to think? She shook her head, eyes shut tight against the way her entire reality shook with it. Finally, she settled on, “I don’t know.”

“All right, lie down before you hurt yourself.” Ginny acquiesced, letting his concern wash over her. “Are you nauseous or just too tired to get food?”

“Second,” she murmured, eyes already drifting shut.

There was a rustling as Mike shoved her secondary pile of Kleenex off the coffee table—the garbage can and floor already full—to make a space for himself. Once seated, the back of his hand settled on her forehead and his skin was so cool that Ginny didn’t even bother not to lean into his touch.

“You’re too warm, Ginny. Do you have a thermometer?”

Ginny was far more interested in the way her name rolled off his tongue, but still managed to shake her head no. Mike’s hand lingered, and he didn’t say anything, prompting Ginny to force her heavy eyelids up and open. 

He was staring. Staring with this dangerous mixture of exasperation and fondness that had Ginny’s stomach swooping. 

There was probably a better time to lick her chapped lips. 

Mike’s gaze darted down, following the path of her tongue. Ginny felt like she was going to burn up, and it had nothing to do with the fever. She kind of wanted to do it again, see if she could get more than his eyes to follow the movement, but Mike shook himself and leaned over to rummage through the bag she honestly hadn’t noticed until now. 

“You’re lucky I knew you wouldn’t have one,” he said, pulling out an oral thermometer and shoving it unceremoniously in her mouth. Ginny squawked a little as it jabbed the soft underside of her tongue, but her captain ignored her, unpacking the rest of the bag. A box of saltines, more Kleenex, cough syrup, decongestants—actually it seemed like Mike had cleared out the entire cold/flu aisle at CVS. “I also knew there was no way you’d have any of this stuff, let alone food—”

“Don’t need food if I’m too tired to make it,” she muttered around the thermometer, curling on her side and trying not to get overemotional. 

Mike was taking care of her. She hadn’t asked—had very specifically not asked—and he was still here, trying to make her feel better. 

“You’ve got to eat to get better,” he replied. “Sleep’s good, but you need food, too.” 

Ginny scrunched her nose, just in time for the timer on the thermometer to go off. Mike plucked it from her lips and frowned at the display. 

“Definitely too warm. When was the last time you took a shower?”

“Are you trying to tell me I smell, Lawson?” she teased weakly.

“I would never,” he gasped, though Ginny could recall at least three separate times he’d told her she sweat like a pig. Then, giving her a critical once over, tilted his head to the side and continued, “I might think it, though.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be nice to me?” she pouted. “I’m sick.”

Her captain just shook his head, rueful. “I’ll be nice when you answer the question.”

That seemed unlikely, but Ginny still replied, “This morning. I cut my workout short, but I thought it might make me feel better.” She left out the fact that she’d had to sit on the floor, too dizzy and out of it to trust herself on the slippery tile.

“You still went to the gym?”

“I didn’t feel as bad this morning,” she lied.

Mike’s glare clearly said he saw straight through her, though he let it slide. “Well, you need another. You need to cool down and then get some food in your system.”

Ginny grumbled, but started peeling away the layers of blankets she’d shrouded herself in. She didn’t have the stamina today to go head to head with Mike. Still, she couldn’t resist getting in a parting shot as she shuffled off to her bathroom. 

“Did you at least bring the movie I wanted?”

Wordlessly, Mike held up a stack of DVDs. 

She sniffed and swept—which sounded so much better than shuffled, even if it was less accurate—off, ignoring her captain’s snort of amusement.

Mike was old enough that he didn’t quite trust digital libraries. He liked having physical copies of things, though whether that was due to his age or his childhood, he was disinclined to speculate. 

Either way, his movie collection was nothing to sneeze at, though Ginny literally did once she settled herself back on the couch. Having inhaled three bowls of chicken noodle soup after padding out of her bedroom, curly hair staining the shoulders of her t-shirt with water, she looked slightly more coherent. Even if she was demonstrating her terrible taste in movies.

She’d shrugged at both The Sandlot and The Bad News Bears, and eventually admitted the only baseball movie she liked was A League of Their Own, which Mike would allow was excellent. She hadn’t seemed impressed by Monty Python and the Holy Grail or My Cousin Vinny or Clerks, though the copy of The Princess Bride that had made it out of his marriage got a fond smile. 

Mike didn’t need anything more, plucking the case from Ginny’s hands and going to figure out her ridiculous entertainment system. He would bet good money on this being the first time she’d used it to do more than keep tabs on sports news for all it was the off season. She’d been going so hard at her rehab, Mike was a little surprised she’d allowed herself to give into being sick. Then again, she’d had a fever of 103.8º. There hadn’t been much choice in the matter. 

When he succeeded in getting the TV set up and came back, he definitely intended to sit in the armchair and let Ginny stretch out on the couch. It seemed safer. Even with Ginny running a fever. 

But Ginny was sitting up and patted the cushion beside her. 

It wasn’t as if he could deny a sick woman in good conscience, right? 

So, he settled in next to her to watch Peter Falk read his grandson a story. 

Mike got up a few times to get a cool wash cloth for Ginny’s forehead, but it wasn’t like he was missing anything he hadn’t seen a hundred times.

Aside from the way Ginny mouthed some of the lines along with the movie, laughing before a joke even landed. 

“You know my movie suggestions were supposed to broaden your cinematic horizons, right?”

She shrugged, unrepentant. “I know what I like, now be quiet,” she hushed, “you’re missing the best part.”

(As it turned out, there were a lot of best parts according to Ginny. According to Mike, watching her light up and laugh, even if sometimes a cough broke in, was any day’s best part.) 

In a testament to how much she loved this movie, Ginny managed to stay awake for the whole thing, though by the end she was definitely using Mike to remain upright.

He laid his hand against her forehead again, relieved to find that she was slightly cooler to the touch. “You feeling better?” he checked, just to be sure.

Ginny nodded, humming in contentment, but made no move to get up or remove herself from his side.

“Want to watch something else?” he teased, having watched her eyelids flutter closed and her head jerk at least four times in the past ten minutes. Clearly, what she needed was to go to sleep.

She just shook her head. “I don’t think any of these were the movie I wanted,” she admitted, leaning sleepily into his shoulder and gesturing vaguely at his selection of movies. 

“I hate to break it to you, Gin, but I have no idea what movie you were talking about.”

“It wasn’t a comedy,” she replied after a moment’s consideration.

“Well, that’s all I brought. You have heard that laughter’s the best medicine, right?”

Her head lolled to the side so she could squint up at him suspiciously. “That explains why you brought the whole CVS with you, huh?”

Mike rolled his eyes. “I figured a little codeine couldn’t hurt, either.”

Ginny settled back against his shoulder, though her forehead definitely brushed against the bare skin of his neck, chuckling weakly. “Whatever you say, Mike.”

“That’s right,” he said, scrambling to get his bearings and ignore the way she felt, all pressed up against him, warm and relaxed. Not only was she sick, but they would be playing with each other again in less than a month and they still weren’t talking about this. He needed to backpedal, and fast. “Now can I get that in writing? For spring training when you undoubtedly shake me off fifteen times a game?”

“Sure,” she murmured, her dark lashes kissing the tops of her cheeks. “When I wake up.”

“No, no,” he laughed, scooting out from supporting her and dragging the drooping pitcher to her feet. “If you’re gonna fall asleep, you should do it in your own bed.”

Ginny only made cursory protests, especially once Mike looped an arm around her waist and she could lean on him for the short walk to her bedroom. The protests died completely when she fell into the cool sheets of her bed and Mike settled another damp washcloth on her forehead. He smoothed the blankets over her and within moments, she was asleep. 

Mike only allowed himself to admire how peaceful she looked for a few seconds before going back out to the living room to begin cleaning up. 

Just because he wasn’t going to watch her sleep didn’t mean he was going to leave before her fever broke. Someone had to make sure Ginny would survive to see next season; it might as well be him. (That he didn’t want it to be anyone else’s responsibility was entirely his business.) Just, he’d avoid hanging out creepily in her bedroom and do his best to make himself useful.

And, surveying the wreckage of Ginny’s couch and the pile of dirty dishes he knew were piling up in the kitchen sink, Mike knew exactly how he would do that.

When Ginny awoke, feeling groggy and disoriented, but without the dizzy haze that’d characterized most of her waking hours for the past few days, she was relieved. 

A little confused as to why Mike wasn’t there—which was confusing all on its own—but relieved.

She padded out into the living room, and was not all that surprised to find that her blanket nest from earlier had been untangled and folded into a neat pile at one end of the couch. Her coffee table and floor were free of Kleenex and the trash can in the corner had been emptied, too. The personal pharmacy that Mike had supplied had moved to her kitchen counter, along with the pile of DVDs, a note stuck to the top. 

Ginny—

How did just reading her name in his scrawl, imagining his low, rumbly voice saying it, tie her up in knots? She didn’t even have her cold-induced weakness to blame.

Your fever broke while you were sleeping. I would’ve waited until you woke up, but my agent wouldn’t reschedule our meeting, so I had to go. Text me to let me know you’re still alive and I don’t have to explain to Oscar that I’ve let his star pitcher die. 

Watch the movies, and not just the ones you’ve seen before. Eat the food I left you—don’t just order a pizza and wings—and take the cough medicine. 

P.S. Don’t roll your eyes at me. You’re the one who said, “Whatever you say, Mike.”

P.P.S. I still expect that in writing.

Ginny couldn’t help but grin, even as a cough rattled her lungs and left her throat sore. She found her phone and fired off a message to her captain.

still alive, old man. thx for keeping me that way. p.s. ur gonna be waiting a long time

His reply came back, nearly immediate.

MikeThat’s okay, rookie. I can wait.

The bright shock of laughter left Ginny breathless and wheezing, but it was okay. 

She felt better than she had in a long time.

[homeplanetreviews]

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) Movie Review by: Will Whalen

Here we are once more. The fifth Transformers film in this horrible franchise that nobody wanted and once more, is directed by the beloved director, Michael Bay. How we have gotten five of these films and people still go to the theaters to see them, is beyond me. The only reason I even see them is because they're a big movie that comes out and I try to see everything anyway. I never expect anything from these movies and I haven't for quite some time. I'm not afraid to say that I actually like the first film and the third isn't so terrible either. Two is horrible and four is also. However, four is so amazing in such a terrible way that I kind of love it. When you see Mark Wahlberg crash an alien ship and land right on a Bud Light truck and watch him get out, say obnoxious things, grab a beer, drink it and throw it on the ground, you know that there really can't be much better for the franchise. I mean that's one of the greatest scenes in a film ever (sarcasm is intended) and not to even mention Optimus Prime riding a Transformer dinosaur. So I was hoping to get something even close to that in Transformers: The Last Knight. Yeah, that doesn't happen and this film sucks ass to no surprise.

So Transformers: The Last Knight is about the humans and transformers are at war and supposedly, the key to surviving the future has something to do with the past and with knights and things like that. While this may seem like the main plot, it's quite easy to get lost along the way and ask yourself, “What is this about?”

This franchise was never legitimately good. At best, they're guilty pleasures at this point. However, they're not all bad. The first is actually quite enjoyable and three isn’t horrible either. How they're still making these films and why Michael Bay is still making them, I have no idea. He either must love the money, or must be crazy about Transformers. It also surprises me that Mark Wahlberg signed to be in these films as well. He's an actor of such high caliber that can and has done such great work, but chooses to do this. I'm a fan of Mark Wahlberg but I don't feel like these films need him per se. However, it does make it a lot more enjoyable and funnier. Whether that's a good thing or not, I'm not sure. Anthony Hopkins is in this and his character basically gives us a LOT of exposition to further the plot and to also get us places so I guess he somewhat serves a place in this film. A problem that these films have is that there's literally always a really big exposition scene or several and one character to tell us every single thing we need to know. I'm not saying exposition isn't always needed but it's just so lazy and disrespectful to the audience when it's used constantly. My point is, that's what Anthony Hopkins character basically consists of.

Now let's talk about the film itself. From the start, we’re following these kids who cuss a lot because, kids who cuss while saying things fast and loud, is really funny. So, they run around while being chased by something and they get saved by a little girl who constantly says stuff like, “I can fight a transformer because I'm a girl and I can do anything!” She says things like that quite a lot while she's on screen but thankfully, she's not on screen much. Now far as the actual so called “plot” goes, it's honestly so scrambled and confusing that it's hard to tell what even happens at times. Basically, the government hates the Transformers so they're at war with one another. However, I guess they hate the Autobots more because they, as in the the military or government, meet with Megatron. They meet Megatron in the middle of the desert to negotiate with him, about freeing some of the Decepticons from jail, if they will stop the Autobots… That sounds like a joke right? It's not a bit. So, while they are negotiating, there's a sort of Suicide Squad montage where the read off the names and give background information about these Decepticons that they're negotiating… WHAT?! The government, meets with Megatron, to free some of the Decepticons so that they can take out the Autobots. The same Decepticons who once tried to destroy the planet like, 4 times before this film. I had no words. I sat there bewildered and speechless. But the military still helps out Mark Wahlberg and the Autobots despite the fact that they have a “suicide squad” of Transformers.

In the last film, Optimus Prime flies to space to try and find his home to fight them or something, and he returns but he is now evil. These aren't spoilers by the way because they're in the trailer. So he returns to earth to kill his Transformer friends and the humans. So this starts what is probably my favorite scene in the whole film and a scene I genuinely really enjoyed. Which is a fight between Bumblebee and Optimus. No spoilers of course but this fight was actually a lot of fun and very entertaining. It's probably one of the better Transformer fights of the entire franchise. So, this film isn't ALL bad and even the finale has fun to be had.

Now Michael Bay. The man, the myth, the legend is back for his fifth film in this franchise. Usually, I hate Michael Bay. His films are always so ridiculous and filled with pornstar looking women and the most absurd explosions and so on. He could take a good film, and bog it down with his Michael Bayisms. Doesn't mean I don't like some of his films, because I do. That being said, his productions are genius and there's no disputing that. He and his team do incredible work with CG, Pyrotechnics, and so on. Hate the man if you will, but you must admit that he does great work with the production itself. I just don't think he cares much about a story. With all of that said, there's something I noticed as soon as this film started. And that's that the aspect ratios changed a lot. As in, every other shot the aspect ratio was different. I thought it was just doing it for a little bit but no! This happened literally every other shot! At one point within the first five minutes I was wanting to scream at the screen! I get aspect ratio changes but when it's every other shot, changing them in a dialogue scene, I don't understand! It was maddening! There's also so many cuts. Like, he didn't let a shot linger a single bit. No way, not Michael Bay! Another thing is, it felt so tired. His direction that is. As if he was just doing this film for a check and to get it over with because it just felt so lazy.

I've recently learned that there are actual fans of this franchise that genuinely think these movies are good and not just so bad that they're good. That they think the story is good and so on. So, if you're one of THOSE people, you'll probably like this and you'll probably cream your shorts when Optimus Prime says at the end (like he does every movie) “I am Optimus Prime. We fight for humans and we will be victorious.” and all that load of shit. Speaking of, I really don't know why they always have to end those films that way but I digress. But if you hated all of them except MAYBE the first and third film like me, you'll probably hate this one too.

I'm going to give Transformers: The Last Knight…

1.5 out of 5 Stars.

Also, sorry about the delayed review everyone. I actually saw this last week when it came out but I got swamped with things I had to do last week till now. However, stay tuned this week because we got many reviews coming your way and even more within the next month!

[smartecky]

Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center.

The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile reviewers have been roaming the streets of Barcelona with the S10 in hand and Galaxy Buds in ears. You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.

And, naturally, none of us minded testing those new photo features in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Here’s everything announced at Samsung’s Galaxy S10/Galaxy Fold event

But the 10th anniversary Galaxy arrives at a transitional time for Samsung — and the industry at large. The last couple of years have seen smartphone sales plateau for the first time since anyone started keeping track of those sorts of numbers, and big companies like Samsung and Apple are not immune.

That manner of existential crisis has led to one of the most eventful Mobile World Congresses in memory, as companies look to shake the doldrums of a stagnant market. It also led Samsung to open last week’s Unpacked event with the Galaxy Fold — first the cryptic product video and then the product unveil.

It’s a heck of a lead in, and, quite frankly, a recipe for disappointment. Here’s a look at the future, and now let’s talk about the present. Several people saw that I was carrying around a new Samsung device, got excited and were ultimately disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t unfold the thing.

None of this is any reflection on the quality of the S10 as a device, which I will happily state is quite high. But unlike the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary handset, the new Galaxy isn’t an attempt at a radical departure. Instead, it’s a culmination of 10 years of phone development, with new tricks throughout.

The Galaxy S10 doesn’t offer the same glimpse into the future as the Fold. But it does make a strong claim for the best Android smartphone of the moment. Starting at $1,000, it’s going to cost you — but if Samsung’s $1,900 foldable is any indication, smartphones of the future could make it look like a downright bargain.

Screen time

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has been my daily driver for a week now. It joined me on an international road trip, through several product unveils from the competition and is responsible for all of the images in this post. Sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket, as the saying goes.

A closer look at Huawei’s folding Mate X

Like other recent Samsung flagships, it’s going to be a tough device to give up when review time comes to a close. It’s a product that does a lot of things well. Tending, as Samsung often does, toward jamming as much into a product as possible — the polar opposite of chief competitor Apple’s approach.

But in the case of the Galaxy line, it all comes together very nicely. The S10 doesn’t represent a radical stylistic departure from its predecessor, maintaining the same manner of curved design language that helps the company cram a lot of phone into a relatively limited footprint, including a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio in the case of the S10+.

That means you can hold the handset in one hand, in spite of the ginormous 6.4-inch screen size. This is accomplished, in part, by the curved edges of the display that have been something of a Samsung trademark for a few generations now. It has also helped the Infinity-O design display, a laser cutout in the top-right of the screen, to fit the front-facing camera in as small a space as possible. In the case of the S10+, it’s more like an Infinity-OOO display.

Samsung was going to have to give in to the cutout trend sooner or later, opting to go ahead and skip the whole notch situation. The result is a largely unobtrusive break in the screen. Just for good measure, the phone’s default wallpapers have gradually darkening gradients that do a good job obscuring the cut out while not in use.

But while the whole more-screen-less-body deal is generally a good thing, there is a marked downside. I found myself accidentally triggering touch on the sides of the display with the edge of my palms, particularly when using the device with one hand. This has been a known issue for some time, of course.

Oh, and there’s one more key aspect in helping the S10+ go full screen.

Putting your finger on it

As with many of the features here, Samsung can’t claim to be the first to have the under-display fingerprint sensor. OnePlus, in a rare push to be first to market, added a similar technology to the 6T, which arrived last fall. But Samsung’s application takes things a step further.

The S10 and all of its variants are among the first to implant the fingerprint technology that Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii last year. The key differentiator here is an extra level of security. If the OnePlus’ fingerprint sensor is akin to your standard face unlock, this is more in line with what you get on the iPhone or LG’s latest handset.

The ability to sense depth brings another layer of security to the product — quite literally. Here’s how Qualcomm describes it:

Combining a smartphone’s display and fingerprint reader for a seamless and sleek look, 3D Sonic uses technological advances and acoustics (sonic waves) to scan the pores of a user’s finger for a deeply accurate 3D image. An ultra-thin (0.2 mm) sensor enables cutting-edge form factors such as full glass edge-to-edge displays, and can be widely used with flexible OLED displays.

Setup proved a bit fussier than the standard physical fingerprint button. Once everything is squared away, the reader is actually fairly responsive, registering a rippled water animation and unlocking the phone in about a second.

Getting your finger/thumb in the right spot might take a couple of tries on the first go, but after that, it’s muscle memory. There’s also a small fingerprint shaped guide that pops up on the lock screen for help. It can still be a bit tricky for those times you’re not looking directly at the display, or if you switch between hands.

It’s also worth noting that the unlock can be tricky with some screen protectors. Samsung will be working with accessory manufacturers to design compatible ones, but picking the wrong company could severely hamper the unlock function.

In some ways, though, the in-display fingerprint reader beats face unlock. I tend to lay my device down next to my keyboard when I work. Lifting the phone up to my eyes in order to read notifications is a bit of a pain. Same goes for when I need to check messages in bed. Here you can simply touch, check the notifications and go on with your life.

Ports in a storm

Around the edge is a mirrored metal band that houses the power button on one side and volume rocker and devoted Bixby button on the other. Yes, the Bixby button is back. And no, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung is wholly devoted to the smart assistant, and the company’s mobile devices are the one foothold Bixby currently commands.

The complaint about the Bixby button mostly stems from the fact that the assistant was, quite honestly, pretty useless at launch — particularly when compared to Android’s default assistant. In fact, when Google announced this week at Mobile World Congress the upcoming arrival of Assistant buttons on third-party devices, the news was generally welcomed by the Android crowd.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 deserves better than Bixby

Samsung, meanwhile, gets hounded about the Bixby button, as though its inclusion is a way of forcing its assistant on users. Once again, Samsung relented, giving users the ability to remap the button in order to launch specific apps instead. This has played out time and again with the last several Galaxy devices.

The fact is, after an admittedly rocky start, Bixby has slowly been getting better, feature by feature. But the assistant still has catching up to do with Google’s headset, and frankly doesn’t offer a ton of reasons to opt into it over Android’s built-in option. Samsung has certainly made big promises of late, coupled with the imminent arrival of the Galaxy Home Hub.

Samsung’s Bixby may finally get more third-party integration soon

Of course, that device was announced more than half a year ago, and when it does finally arrive, it will likely be carrying a prohibitive price tag. Beyond that, Bixby is currently the realm of things like Samsung refrigerators and washing machines. None of this adds up to a particularly compelling strategy for a multi-million-dollar AI offering that has become something of an inside joke in the industry.

But Samsung sticks to its guns, for better or worse. Sometimes that means Bixby, and sometimes that means defiantly clinging to the headphone jack. Turns out if you avoid a trend for long enough, you can become a trendsetter in your own right — or at least a respite from the maddening crowd.

It’s been a few years since the beginning of the end came for the jack, and the whole thing still leaves plenty of users with a sour taste. Even the once-defiant Google quickly gave in and dropped the jack. Samsung, however, has stood its ground and the decision has paid off. What was ubiquitous is now a differentiator, and even as the company hawks another pair of Bluetooth earbuds, it’s standing its ground here.

All charged up

The back of the device, like the front, is covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The latest from Corning, which debuted over the summer, promises to survive “up to 15 drops.” But don’t try this at home with your shiny new $1,000 smartphone, as your results may vary.

The material also helps facilitate what is arguably the device’s most compelling new feature: Wireless PowerShare. Samsung��s not the first company to roll out the feature — Huawei introduced the feature on the Mate 20 Pro last year. Still, it’s a cool feature and, perhaps most importantly, it beat Apple to the punch.

The feature needs to be activated manually, by swiping down into notifications (it will also automatically shut off when not in use). From there, tapping Wireless PowerShare will pop up a dialog box, letting you know the feature is ready to us. Turn the phone face down on a table and place a compatible phone on top, face up, and the S10 will go to work charging it.

Placement can be a bit tough to get right the first couple of times. The trick is making sure both devices are centered. Once everything is where it should be, you’ll hear a quick notification sound and the phone will register as charging. In the case of the new Galaxy Buds, the sound is accompanied by the appearance of the case’s charging light.

It’s a neat feature, for sure. I can certainly imagine lending some ill-prepared friend a little juice at the bar one night. I wouldn’t go throwing out my power bank just yet. For one thing, one of the phones needs to be face-down the whole time. For another, wireless charging isn’t nearly as fast as its wired counterpart, so beyond the initial novelty of the feature, it may not ultimately be one you end up using a lot.

And, of course, you’re actively draining the battery of the phone sharing power. It’s a little like a Giving Tree scenario, albeit with the lowest stakes humanly possible. Thankfully, the handsets all sport pretty beefy batteries. In the case of the S10+, it’s a massive 4,100 mAh (with the 5G model getting an even nuttier 4,500 mAh).

It’s clear the days of Samsung’s Note 7-induced battery cautions are well behind it, thanks in no small part to the extensive battery testing the company implemented in the wake of a seemingly endless PR nightmare. As it stands, I was able to get around a full day plus two hours with standard usage while roaming the streets and convention center halls of Barcelona. That means you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of energy by day’s end — and you may even have a bit to spare before it’s all over.

Camera ready

You know the drill by now, Samsung and Apple come out with a new flagship smartphone, which quickly shoots to the top of DxOMark’s camera ratings. The cycle repeats itself yet again — with one key difference: It’s a three-way tie.

[Left: Standard, Right: Full zoom]

Really, there’s no better distillation of the state of the smartphone industry in 2019 than this. The latest iPhone, which is now half-a-year-old, is now a few spots down the list, with Samsung in a three-way tie for first. The other two top devices are, get this, both Huawei handsets. It’s been a banner year for the Chinese handset maker on a number of fronts, and that’s got to leave the Apples and Samsungs of the world a bit nervous, all told.

For now, though, there’s a lot to like here… 109 points’ worth, in fact. The last several generations of camera races have resulted in some really well-rounded camera gear. It’s a setup that makes it difficult to take bad shots (difficult, but hardly impossible, mind), with the combination of hardware and software/AI improvements we’ve seen over the course of the last few devices.

The camera setup varies from device to device, so we’re going to focus on the S10+ — the device we’ve spent the past week with (though, granted, the 5G model’s camera warrants its own write-up). The plus model features a three-camera array, oriented horizontally in a configuration that brings nothing to mind so much as the original Microsoft Kinect.

[Left: Samsung S10+, Right: Pixel 2]

It’s been fascinating watching companies determine the best use for a multi-camera array. Take Nokia’s new five-camera system, which essentially compiles everything into one super-high-res shot. Here, however, the three lenses capture three different images. They are as follows:

Wide (Standard): 12 MP, 26mm Telephoto: 12 MP, 52mm Ultrawide: 16 MP, 12mm

The system is configured to let you seamlessly switch between lenses in order to capture a shot in a given situation. The telephoto can do 2x shots, while the ultrawide captures 123-degree shots. The 5G model, meanwhile, adds 3D-depth cameras to the front and rear, which is a pretty clear indication of where Samsung plans to go from here.

That said, the current setup is still quite capable of pulling off some cool depth tricks. This is no better exemplified than with the Live Focus feature, which applies a Portrait Mode-style bokeh effect around the objects you choose. The effect isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty convincing. Above is a shot I took on the MWC show floor and used in the led for a story about the HTC Vive.

There are some fun tricks as well, like the above Color Point effect. I’m not sure how often I’d end up using it, but damn if it doesn’t look cool.

All of that, coupled with new touches like wide-image panorama and recent advances like super-slow-motion and low-light shooting make for an extremely well-rounded camera experience. Ditto for scene identification, which does a solid job determining the differences between, say, a salad and a tree and adjusting the shooting settings accordingly.

Oh, and a low-key solid upgrade here are the improved AR Emojis, as seen above. They’re 1,000 times less creepy than the originals. I mean, I’m still not going to be sharing them with people unironically or anything, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Today’s Galaxy

The present moment is an exciting one for the mobile industry. There were glimmers of promise all over the MWC show floor and a week prior at Samsung’s own event. A stagnant industry has caused the big players to get creative, and some long-promised technologies are about to finally get real.

The Samsung Fold feels like a clear peek into the future of one of the industry’s biggest players, so it’s only natural that such an announcement would take some of the wind out of its flagship’s sails.

The S10 isn’t the smartphone of the future. Instead, it’s the culmination of 10 solid years of cutting-edge smartphone work that’s resulted into one of today’s most solid mobile devices.

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/01/samsung-galaxy-s10-review/

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move.

[toomanysinks]

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review

Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center.

The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile reviewers have been roaming the streets of Barcelona with the S10 in hand and Galaxy Buds in ears. You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.

And, naturally, none of us minded testing those new photo features in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Here’s everything announced at Samsung’s Galaxy S10/Galaxy Fold event

But the 10th anniversary Galaxy arrives at a transitional time for Samsung — and the industry at large. The last couple of years have seen smartphone sales plateau for the first time since anyone started keeping track of those sorts of numbers, and big companies like Samsung and Apple are not immune.

That manner of existential crisis has led to one of the most eventful Mobile World Congresses in memory, as companies look to shake the doldrums of a stagnant market. It also led Samsung to open last week’s Unpacked event with the Galaxy Fold — first the cryptic product video and then the product unveil.

It’s a heck of a lead in, and, quite frankly, a recipe for disappointment. Here’s a look at the future, and now let’s talk about the present. Several people saw that I was carrying around a new Samsung device, got excited and were ultimately disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t unfold the thing.

None of this is any reflection on the quality of the S10 as a device, which I will happily state is quite high. But unlike the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary handset, the new Galaxy isn’t an attempt at a radical departure. Instead, it’s a culmination of 10 years of phone development, with new tricks throughout.

The Galaxy S10 doesn’t offer the same glimpse into the future as the Fold. But it does make a strong claim for the best Android smartphone of the moment. Starting at $1,000, it’s going to cost you — but if Samsung’s $1,900 foldable is any indication, smartphones of the future could make it look like a downright bargain.

Screen time

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has been my daily driver for a week now. It joined me on an international road trip, through several product unveils from the competition and is responsible for all of the images in this post. Sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket, as the saying goes.

A closer look at Huawei’s folding Mate X

Like other recent Samsung flagships, it’s going to be a tough device to give up when review time comes to a close. It’s a product that does a lot of things well. Tending, as Samsung often does, toward jamming as much into a product as possible — the polar opposite of chief competitor Apple’s approach.

But in the case of the Galaxy line, it all comes together very nicely. The S10 doesn’t represent a radical stylistic departure from its predecessor, maintaining the same manner of curved design language that helps the company cram a lot of phone into a relatively limited footprint, including a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio in the case of the S10+.

That means you can hold the handset in one hand, in spite of the ginormous 6.4-inch screen size. This is accomplished, in part, by the curved edges of the display that have been something of a Samsung trademark for a few generations now. It has also helped the Infinity-O design display, a laser cutout in the top-right of the screen, to fit the front-facing camera in as small a space as possible. In the case of the S10+, it’s more like an Infinity-OOO display.

Samsung was going to have to give in to the cutout trend sooner or later, opting to go ahead and skip the whole notch situation. The result is a largely unobtrusive break in the screen. Just for good measure, the phone’s default wallpapers have gradually darkening gradients that do a good job obscuring the cut out while not in use.

But while the whole more-screen-less-body deal is generally a good thing, there is a marked downside. I found myself accidentally triggering touch on the sides of the display with the edge of my palms, particularly when using the device with one hand. This has been a known issue for some time, of course.

Oh, and there’s one more key aspect in helping the S10+ go full screen.

Putting your finger on it

As with many of the features here, Samsung can’t claim to be the first to have the under-display fingerprint sensor. OnePlus, in a rare push to be first to market, added a similar technology to the 6T, which arrived last fall. But Samsung’s application takes things a step further.

The S10 and all of its variants are among the first to implant the fingerprint technology that Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii last year. The key differentiator here is an extra level of security. If the OnePlus’ fingerprint sensor is akin to your standard face unlock, this is more in line with what you get on the iPhone or LG’s latest handset.

The ability to sense depth brings another layer of security to the product — quite literally. Here’s how Qualcomm describes it:

Combining a smartphone’s display and fingerprint reader for a seamless and sleek look, 3D Sonic uses technological advances and acoustics (sonic waves) to scan the pores of a user’s finger for a deeply accurate 3D image. An ultra-thin (0.2 mm) sensor enables cutting-edge form factors such as full glass edge-to-edge displays, and can be widely used with flexible OLED displays.

Setup proved a bit fussier than the standard physical fingerprint button. Once everything is squared away, the reader is actually fairly responsive, registering a rippled water animation and unlocking the phone in about a second.

Getting your finger/thumb in the right spot might take a couple of tries on the first go, but after that, it’s muscle memory. There’s also a small fingerprint shaped guide that pops up on the lock screen for help. It can still be a bit tricky for those times you’re not looking directly at the display, or if you switch between hands.

It’s also worth noting that the unlock can be tricky with some screen protectors. Samsung will be working with accessory manufacturers to design compatible ones, but picking the wrong company could severely hamper the unlock function.

In some ways, though, the in-display fingerprint reader beats face unlock. I tend to lay my device down next to my keyboard when I work. Lifting the phone up to my eyes in order to read notifications is a bit of a pain. Same goes for when I need to check messages in bed. Here you can simply touch, check the notifications and go on with your life.

Ports in a storm

Around the edge is a mirrored metal band that houses the power button on one side and volume rocker and devoted Bixby button on the other. Yes, the Bixby button is back. And no, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung is wholly devoted to the smart assistant, and the company’s mobile devices are the one foothold Bixby currently commands.

The complaint about the Bixby button mostly stems from the fact that the assistant was, quite honestly, pretty useless at launch — particularly when compared to Android’s default assistant. In fact, when Google announced this week at Mobile World Congress the upcoming arrival of Assistant buttons on third-party devices, the news was generally welcomed by the Android crowd.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 deserves better than Bixby

Samsung, meanwhile, gets hounded about the Bixby button, as though its inclusion is a way of forcing its assistant on users. Once again, Samsung relented, giving users the ability to remap the button in order to launch specific apps instead. This has played out time and again with the last several Galaxy devices.

The fact is, after an admittedly rocky start, Bixby has slowly been getting better, feature by feature. But the assistant still has catching up to do with Google’s headset, and frankly doesn’t offer a ton of reasons to opt into it over Android’s built-in option. Samsung has certainly made big promises of late, coupled with the imminent arrival of the Galaxy Home Hub.

Samsung’s Bixby may finally get more third-party integration soon

Of course, that device was announced more than half a year ago, and when it does finally arrive, it will likely be carrying a prohibitive price tag. Beyond that, Bixby is currently the realm of things like Samsung refrigerators and washing machines. None of this adds up to a particularly compelling strategy for a multi-million-dollar AI offering that has become something of an inside joke in the industry.

But Samsung sticks to its guns, for better or worse. Sometimes that means Bixby, and sometimes that means defiantly clinging to the headphone jack. Turns out if you avoid a trend for long enough, you can become a trendsetter in your own right — or at least a respite from the maddening crowd.

It’s been a few years since the beginning of the end came for the jack, and the whole thing still leaves plenty of users with a sour taste. Even the once-defiant Google quickly gave in and dropped the jack. Samsung, however, has stood its ground and the decision has paid off. What was ubiquitous is now a differentiator, and even as the company hawks another pair of Bluetooth earbuds, it’s standing its ground here.

All charged up

The back of the device, like the front, is covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The latest from Corning, which debuted over the summer, promises to survive “up to 15 drops.” But don’t try this at home with your shiny new $1,000 smartphone, as your results may vary.

The material also helps facilitate what is arguably the device’s most compelling new feature: Wireless PowerShare. Samsung’s not the first company to roll out the feature — Huawei introduced the feature on the Mate 20 Pro last year. Still, it’s a cool feature and, perhaps most importantly, it beat Apple to the punch.

The feature needs to be activated manually, by swiping down into notifications (it will also automatically shut off when not in use). From there, tapping Wireless PowerShare will pop up a dialog box, letting you know the feature is ready to us. Turn the phone face down on a table and place a compatible phone on top, face up, and the S10 will go to work charging it.

Placement can be a bit tough to get right the first couple of times. The trick is making sure both devices are centered. Once everything is where it should be, you’ll hear a quick notification sound and the phone will register as charging. In the case of the new Galaxy Buds, the sound is accompanied by the appearance of the case’s charging light.

It’s a neat feature, for sure. I can certainly imagine lending some ill-prepared friend a little juice at the bar one night. I wouldn’t go throwing out my power bank just yet. For one thing, one of the phones needs to be face-down the whole time. For another, wireless charging isn’t nearly as fast as its wired counterpart, so beyond the initial novelty of the feature, it may not ultimately be one you end up using a lot.

And, of course, you’re actively draining the battery of the phone sharing power. It’s a little like a Giving Tree scenario, albeit with the lowest stakes humanly possible. Thankfully, the handsets all sport pretty beefy batteries. In the case of the S10+, it’s a massive 4,100 mAh (with the 5G model getting an even nuttier 4,500 mAh).

It’s clear the days of Samsung’s Note 7-induced battery cautions are well behind it, thanks in no small part to the extensive battery testing the company implemented in the wake of a seemingly endless PR nightmare. As it stands, I was able to get around a full day plus two hours with standard usage while roaming the streets and convention center halls of Barcelona. That means you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of energy by day’s end — and you may even have a bit to spare before it’s all over.

Camera ready

You know the drill by now, Samsung and Apple come out with a new flagship smartphone, which quickly shoots to the top of DxOMark’s camera ratings. The cycle repeats itself yet again — with one key difference: It’s a three-way tie.

[Left: Standard, Right: Full zoom]

Really, there’s no better distillation of the state of the smartphone industry in 2019 than this. The latest iPhone, which is now half-a-year-old, is now a few spots down the list, with Samsung in a three-way tie for first. The other two top devices are, get this, both Huawei handsets. It’s been a banner year for the Chinese handset maker on a number of fronts, and that’s got to leave the Apples and Samsungs of the world a bit nervous, all told.

[gallery ids="1790609,1790610,1790611,1790612,1790613,1790614,1790615,1790617,1790618,1790619,1790620,1790621,1790622,1790623,1790624,1790625,1790626,1790627,1790628,1790629"]

For now, though, there’s a lot to like here… 109 points’ worth, in fact. The last several generations of camera races have resulted in some really well-rounded camera gear. It’s a setup that makes it difficult to take bad shots (difficult, but hardly impossible, mind), with the combination of hardware and software/AI improvements we’ve seen over the course of the last few devices.

The camera setup varies from device to device, so we’re going to focus on the S10+ — the device we’ve spent the past week with (though, granted, the 5G model’s camera warrants its own write-up). The plus model features a three-camera array, oriented horizontally in a configuration that brings nothing to mind so much as the original Microsoft Kinect.

[Left: Samsung S10+, Right: Pixel 2]

It’s been fascinating watching companies determine the best use for a multi-camera array. Take Nokia’s new five-camera system, which essentially compiles everything into one super-high-res shot. Here, however, the three lenses capture three different images. They are as follows:

Wide (Standard): 12 MP, 26mm Telephoto: 12 MP, 52mm Ultrawide: 16 MP, 12mm

The system is configured to let you seamlessly switch between lenses in order to capture a shot in a given situation. The telephoto can do 2x shots, while the ultrawide captures 123-degree shots. The 5G model, meanwhile, adds 3D-depth cameras to the front and rear, which is a pretty clear indication of where Samsung plans to go from here.

That said, the current setup is still quite capable of pulling off some cool depth tricks. This is no better exemplified than with the Live Focus feature, which applies a Portrait Mode-style bokeh effect around the objects you choose. The effect isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty convincing. Above is a shot I took on the MWC show floor and used in the led for a story about the HTC Vive.

There are some fun tricks as well, like the above Color Point effect. I’m not sure how often I’d end up using it, but damn if it doesn’t look cool.

All of that, coupled with new touches like wide-image panorama and recent advances like super-slow-motion and low-light shooting make for an extremely well-rounded camera experience. Ditto for scene identification, which does a solid job determining the differences between, say, a salad and a tree and adjusting the shooting settings accordingly.

Oh, and a low-key solid upgrade here are the improved AR Emojis, as seen above. They’re 1,000 times less creepy than the originals. I mean, I’m still not going to be sharing them with people unironically or anything, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Today’s Galaxy

The present moment is an exciting one for the mobile industry. There were glimmers of promise all over the MWC show floor and a week prior at Samsung’s own event. A stagnant industry has caused the big players to get creative, and some long-promised technologies are about to finally get real.

The Samsung Fold feels like a clear peek into the future of one of the industry’s biggest players, so it’s only natural that such an announcement would take some of the wind out of its flagship’s sails.

The S10 isn’t the smartphone of the future. Instead, it’s the culmination of 10 solid years of cutting-edge smartphone work that’s resulted into one of today’s most solid mobile devices.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/01/samsung-galaxy-s10-review/

[meanwebhost]

Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center.

The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile reviewers have been roaming the streets of Barcelona with the S10 in hand and Galaxy Buds in ears. You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.

And, naturally, none of us minded testing those new photo features in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Here’s everything announced at Samsung’s Galaxy S10/Galaxy Fold event

But the 10th anniversary Galaxy arrives at a transitional time for Samsung — and the industry at large. The last couple of years have seen smartphone sales plateau for the first time since anyone started keeping track of those sorts of numbers, and big companies like Samsung and Apple are not immune.

That manner of existential crisis has led to one of the most eventful Mobile World Congresses in memory, as companies look to shake the doldrums of a stagnant market. It also led Samsung to open last week’s Unpacked event with the Galaxy Fold — first the cryptic product video and then the product unveil.

It’s a heck of a lead in, and, quite frankly, a recipe for disappointment. Here’s a look at the future, and now let’s talk about the present. Several people saw that I was carrying around a new Samsung device, got excited and were ultimately disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t unfold the thing.

None of this is any reflection on the quality of the S10 as a device, which I will happily state is quite high. But unlike the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary handset, the new Galaxy isn’t an attempt at a radical departure. Instead, it’s a culmination of 10 years of phone development, with new tricks throughout.

The Galaxy S10 doesn’t offer the same glimpse into the future as the Fold. But it does make a strong claim for the best Android smartphone of the moment. Starting at $1,000, it’s going to cost you — but if Samsung’s $1,900 foldable is any indication, smartphones of the future could make it look like a downright bargain.

Screen time

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has been my daily driver for a week now. It joined me on an international road trip, through several product unveils from the competition and is responsible for all of the images in this post. Sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket, as the saying goes.

A closer look at Huawei’s folding Mate X

Like other recent Samsung flagships, it’s going to be a tough device to give up when review time comes to a close. It’s a product that does a lot of things well. Tending, as Samsung often does, toward jamming as much into a product as possible — the polar opposite of chief competitor Apple’s approach.

But in the case of the Galaxy line, it all comes together very nicely. The S10 doesn’t represent a radical stylistic departure from its predecessor, maintaining the same manner of curved design language that helps the company cram a lot of phone into a relatively limited footprint, including a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio in the case of the S10+.

That means you can hold the handset in one hand, in spite of the ginormous 6.4-inch screen size. This is accomplished, in part, by the curved edges of the display that have been something of a Samsung trademark for a few generations now. It has also helped the Infinity-O design display, a laser cutout in the top-right of the screen, to fit the front-facing camera in as small a space as possible. In the case of the S10+, it’s more like an Infinity-OOO display.

Samsung was going to have to give in to the cutout trend sooner or later, opting to go ahead and skip the whole notch situation. The result is a largely unobtrusive break in the screen. Just for good measure, the phone’s default wallpapers have gradually darkening gradients that do a good job obscuring the cut out while not in use.

But while the whole more-screen-less-body deal is generally a good thing, there is a marked downside. I found myself accidentally triggering touch on the sides of the display with the edge of my palms, particularly when using the device with one hand. This has been a known issue for some time, of course.

Oh, and there’s one more key aspect in helping the S10+ go full screen.

Putting your finger on it

As with many of the features here, Samsung can’t claim to be the first to have the under-display fingerprint sensor. OnePlus, in a rare push to be first to market, added a similar technology to the 6T, which arrived last fall. But Samsung’s application takes things a step further.

The S10 and all of its variants are among the first to implant the fingerprint technology that Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii last year. The key differentiator here is an extra level of security. If the OnePlus’ fingerprint sensor is akin to your standard face unlock, this is more in line with what you get on the iPhone or LG’s latest handset.

The ability to sense depth brings another layer of security to the product — quite literally. Here’s how Qualcomm describes it:

Combining a smartphone’s display and fingerprint reader for a seamless and sleek look, 3D Sonic uses technological advances and acoustics (sonic waves) to scan the pores of a user’s finger for a deeply accurate 3D image. An ultra-thin (0.2 mm) sensor enables cutting-edge form factors such as full glass edge-to-edge displays, and can be widely used with flexible OLED displays.

Setup proved a bit fussier than the standard physical fingerprint button. Once everything is squared away, the reader is actually fairly responsive, registering a rippled water animation and unlocking the phone in about a second.

Getting your finger/thumb in the right spot might take a couple of tries on the first go, but after that, it’s muscle memory. There’s also a small fingerprint shaped guide that pops up on the lock screen for help. It can still be a bit tricky for those times you’re not looking directly at the display, or if you switch between hands.

It’s also worth noting that the unlock can be tricky with some screen protectors. Samsung will be working with accessory manufacturers to design compatible ones, but picking the wrong company could severely hamper the unlock function.

In some ways, though, the in-display fingerprint reader beats face unlock. I tend to lay my device down next to my keyboard when I work. Lifting the phone up to my eyes in order to read notifications is a bit of a pain. Same goes for when I need to check messages in bed. Here you can simply touch, check the notifications and go on with your life.

Ports in a storm

Around the edge is a mirrored metal band that houses the power button on one side and volume rocker and devoted Bixby button on the other. Yes, the Bixby button is back. And no, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung is wholly devoted to the smart assistant, and the company’s mobile devices are the one foothold Bixby currently commands.

The complaint about the Bixby button mostly stems from the fact that the assistant was, quite honestly, pretty useless at launch — particularly when compared to Android’s default assistant. In fact, when Google announced this week at Mobile World Congress the upcoming arrival of Assistant buttons on third-party devices, the news was generally welcomed by the Android crowd.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 deserves better than Bixby

Samsung, meanwhile, gets hounded about the Bixby button, as though its inclusion is a way of forcing its assistant on users. Once again, Samsung relented, giving users the ability to remap the button in order to launch specific apps instead. This has played out time and again with the last several Galaxy devices.

The fact is, after an admittedly rocky start, Bixby has slowly been getting better, feature by feature. But the assistant still has catching up to do with Google’s headset, and frankly doesn’t offer a ton of reasons to opt into it over Android’s built-in option. Samsung has certainly made big promises of late, coupled with the imminent arrival of the Galaxy Home Hub.

Samsung’s Bixby may finally get more third-party integration soon

Of course, that device was announced more than half a year ago, and when it does finally arrive, it will likely be carrying a prohibitive price tag. Beyond that, Bixby is currently the realm of things like Samsung refrigerators and washing machines. None of this adds up to a particularly compelling strategy for a multi-million-dollar AI offering that has become something of an inside joke in the industry.

But Samsung sticks to its guns, for better or worse. Sometimes that means Bixby, and sometimes that means defiantly clinging to the headphone jack. Turns out if you avoid a trend for long enough, you can become a trendsetter in your own right — or at least a respite from the maddening crowd.

It’s been a few years since the beginning of the end came for the jack, and the whole thing still leaves plenty of users with a sour taste. Even the once-defiant Google quickly gave in and dropped the jack. Samsung, however, has stood its ground and the decision has paid off. What was ubiquitous is now a differentiator, and even as the company hawks another pair of Bluetooth earbuds, it’s standing its ground here.

All charged up

The back of the device, like the front, is covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The latest from Corning, which debuted over the summer, promises to survive “up to 15 drops.” But don’t try this at home with your shiny new $1,000 smartphone, as your results may vary.

The material also helps facilitate what is arguably the device’s most compelling new feature: Wireless PowerShare. Samsung’s not the first company to roll out the feature — Huawei introduced the feature on the Mate 20 Pro last year. Still, it’s a cool feature and, perhaps most importantly, it beat Apple to the punch.

The feature needs to be activated manually, by swiping down into notifications (it will also automatically shut off when not in use). From there, tapping Wireless PowerShare will pop up a dialog box, letting you know the feature is ready to us. Turn the phone face down on a table and place a compatible phone on top, face up, and the S10 will go to work charging it.

Placement can be a bit tough to get right the first couple of times. The trick is making sure both devices are centered. Once everything is where it should be, you’ll hear a quick notification sound and the phone will register as charging. In the case of the new Galaxy Buds, the sound is accompanied by the appearance of the case’s charging light.

It’s a neat feature, for sure. I can certainly imagine lending some ill-prepared friend a little juice at the bar one night. I wouldn’t go throwing out my power bank just yet. For one thing, one of the phones needs to be face-down the whole time. For another, wireless charging isn’t nearly as fast as its wired counterpart, so beyond the initial novelty of the feature, it may not ultimately be one you end up using a lot.

And, of course, you’re actively draining the battery of the phone sharing power. It’s a little like a Giving Tree scenario, albeit with the lowest stakes humanly possible. Thankfully, the handsets all sport pretty beefy batteries. In the case of the S10+, it’s a massive 4,100 mAh (with the 5G model getting an even nuttier 4,500 mAh).

It’s clear the days of Samsung’s Note 7-induced battery cautions are well behind it, thanks in no small part to the extensive battery testing the company implemented in the wake of a seemingly endless PR nightmare. As it stands, I was able to get around a full day plus two hours with standard usage while roaming the streets and convention center halls of Barcelona. That means you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of energy by day’s end — and you may even have a bit to spare before it’s all over.

Camera ready

You know the drill by now, Samsung and Apple come out with a new flagship smartphone, which quickly shoots to the top of DxOMark’s camera ratings. The cycle repeats itself yet again — with one key difference: It’s a three-way tie.

[Left: Standard, Right: Full zoom]

Really, there’s no better distillation of the state of the smartphone industry in 2019 than this. The latest iPhone, which is now half-a-year-old, is now a few spots down the list, with Samsung in a three-way tie for first. The other two top devices are, get this, both Huawei handsets. It’s been a banner year for the Chinese handset maker on a number of fronts, and that’s got to leave the Apples and Samsungs of the world a bit nervous, all told.

For now, though, there’s a lot to like here… 109 points’ worth, in fact. The last several generations of camera races have resulted in some really well-rounded camera gear. It’s a setup that makes it difficult to take bad shots (difficult, but hardly impossible, mind), with the combination of hardware and software/AI improvements we’ve seen over the course of the last few devices.

The camera setup varies from device to device, so we’re going to focus on the S10+ — the device we’ve spent the past week with (though, granted, the 5G model’s camera warrants its own write-up). The plus model features a three-camera array, oriented horizontally in a configuration that brings nothing to mind so much as the original Microsoft Kinect.

[Left: Samsung S10+, Right: Pixel 2]

It’s been fascinating watching companies determine the best use for a multi-camera array. Take Nokia’s new five-camera system, which essentially compiles everything into one super-high-res shot. Here, however, the three lenses capture three different images. They are as follows:

Wide (Standard): 12 MP, 26mm Telephoto: 12 MP, 52mm Ultrawide: 16 MP, 12mm

The system is configured to let you seamlessly switch between lenses in order to capture a shot in a given situation. The telephoto can do 2x shots, while the ultrawide captures 123-degree shots. The 5G model, meanwhile, adds 3D-depth cameras to the front and rear, which is a pretty clear indication of where Samsung plans to go from here.

That said, the current setup is still quite capable of pulling off some cool depth tricks. This is no better exemplified than with the Live Focus feature, which applies a Portrait Mode-style bokeh effect around the objects you choose. The effect isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty convincing. Above is a shot I took on the MWC show floor and used in the led for a story about the HTC Vive.

There are some fun tricks as well, like the above Color Point effect. I’m not sure how often I’d end up using it, but damn if it doesn’t look cool.

All of that, coupled with new touches like wide-image panorama and recent advances like super-slow-motion and low-light shooting make for an extremely well-rounded camera experience. Ditto for scene identification, which does a solid job determining the differences between, say, a salad and a tree and adjusting the shooting settings accordingly.

Oh, and a low-key solid upgrade here are the improved AR Emojis, as seen above. They’re 1,000 times less creepy than the originals. I mean, I’m still not going to be sharing them with people unironically or anything, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Today’s Galaxy

The present moment is an exciting one for the mobile industry. There were glimmers of promise all over the MWC show floor and a week prior at Samsung’s own event. A stagnant industry has caused the big players to get creative, and some long-promised technologies are about to finally get real.

The Samsung Fold feels like a clear peek into the future of one of the industry’s biggest players, so it’s only natural that such an announcement would take some of the wind out of its flagship’s sails.

The S10 isn’t the smartphone of the future. Instead, it’s the culmination of 10 solid years of cutting-edge smartphone work that’s resulted into one of today’s most solid mobile devices.

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move.

[letters-from-alex]

Dear Friend,

April 3, 2017

I had a very busy day today. I woke up at 7:30am. I didn’t need to be awake until 9:30am, but I couldn’t go back to sleep after I got up to use the restroom. For some odd reason my mind just started racing. I kept thinking and I didn’t know how to make it stop. That was going on for a whole hour.

When I finally got up, I opened my door and was blinded by the bright sunlight burning through the windows in the dining room. My mom had the blinds open for the natural lighting instead of using our fluorescents. She was sitting by the bar, typing away on her laptop, and working on some paperwork.

“Good morning Mom,” I said.

“Good morning Papi,” she replied. She calls me that when she’s in a good mood. 

I walked passed her and headed towards the kitchen. I had prepared an overnight oatmeal recipe the night before, so the first thing I did was open the fridge to get my breakfast. I normally don’t eat breakfast, but I’m trying to fix that.

This was my second attempt at making this overnight oatmeal. I made it with almond milk, plain yogurt, honey, cocoa powder, and chia seeds. It was supposed to have strawberries as well, but we didn’t have any, unfortunately. And to be honest, it wasn’t as great as the first time I made it.

When I finished eating my chocolate strawberry-less oatmeal, it was time for me to get ready for school. I took a shower, brushed my teeth, changed into some nice clothes, put on my black Steve Madden boots, and fixed my hair. Then, I left to school.

I walked toward my class which was located in the business building. I was there thirty minutes early for class and I was actually pretty happy about that because I was about to take an exam. I sat down in the first empty seat I saw and started to study for the time being.

I remember this one classmate of mine was walking in circles around the hallways of the building. He was wearing sweatpants and I could tell he wasn’t wearing any underwear. It was really a nice sight to see - I wish you were there to stare at his junk with me. 

My thirty minutes of studying came to an end… I unconfidently walked into class to fail my exam. To my surprise, it was a lot easier than I thought, but to be honest I don’t expect to get higher than a “D”. I will find out by tomorrow how I truly did.

After my exam, I walked to another building - The College of Liberal Arts. I went there in hopes of running into an old English professor. I printed out a copy of one of the letters I have sent you… I’m thinking about publishing it… I hope that’s okay…

Thankfully, she was there! I told her about what I was doing and what I was expecting from her. She’s such a kind woman. I’m not even her student anymore and she agreed to help me with this. She even said she’d give it to her colleague because he’s a creative writing professor. She said she doesn’t have that kind of experience. She mostly only reads and writes for academic purposes.

Soon after I told my professor goodbye (and many thank you’s), I headed toward the writing center to get a second opinion on the same letter. The girl that helped me was very kind. I was so nervous to let her read it and judge it in front of me. Honestly, I was scared she was going to think it was nonfiction (obviously, it is, but I didn’t want her to get that impression). I was shaking for a few moments and my palms started to sweat.

She didn’t have to edit it much. She just told me I had a lot of punctuation mistakes. I should really work on that.

It was actually really nice to be next to her while she read my excerpt. She let out a few sighs as if she could relate. She let out subtle aw’s under her breath. She also let out a giggle at one point. It was very comforting to see someone’s real life reactions while reading something I wrote. It makes me wonder if you do them too.

Afterward, I ended up going to my previous workplace to interview my ex-manager for a project I have for my management class. When I got there, everyone who I used to work with was still there. I only saw one unfamiliar face there. The guy was obviously new.

Everyone said hello and asked how I was doing. I made small talk with them for as long as I could. Then, I sat in the way corner of the restaurant and waited for my ex-manager to sit with me.

When she got to the table she said, “I hope you don’t mind me eating right now. I’m starving.”

“No, of course! Don’t worry about it.” I said encouragingly with a big smile.

“Alright then, good! So… let’s make this happen. Hit me with your best questions,” she said. “Show me what you got.”

I laughed, looked down at my notes and started interviewing her. It lasted about thirty minutes. I had worked with her for over three years and I can honestly say I learned so much more about her today in this one session alone than those three years with her.

Later, I got something to eat before going into work. I had Chinese; it was sadly very unsatisfying. I was only at work for a few hours. Nothing worth mentioning happened there. When I got home, I was greeted by my mom the same way she greeted me in the morning. She was at the bar doing work on her laptop again - I was living in déjà vu.  My dad was in the living room watching TV. “How was your day Papi?” She asked while I walked into the kitchen. “It was okay. I’ve just been really busy all day and I’m about to go eat with Josh,” I said. “Really? At this hour? Where are you guys going?” I didn’t realize it was already 10:30pm. “Yeah. I’m pretty hungry and I want to see him. We’re supposed to go to Applebee’s. To be honest, I’m not too sure if I’m going after all because you know how he is with his kids and all. Sometimes he’ll say let’s go, then ten minutes later he’ll say never mind because one of his twins woke up or something.” “Yeah. You’re right,” she agreed. I continued talking to my mom for a moment; all while preparing my breakfast for the week. I’m trying to eat healthier, so I’ve been making the overnight oatmeal I mentioned earlier almost every night. To save time, I decided to prep for the next four mornings. I got papers, blunts, bongs. All the ingredients to make a high nigga pie. Just kidding. That’s one of my favorite line’s in Scary Movie; I just had to say it, sorry. Let me start over. I got oats, almond milk, cocoa powder, yogurt, chia seeds, yogurt and strawberries. All the ingredients to make my chocolate strawberry oatmeal (yes, we had strawberries this time). It didn’t take me long. Just before I finished up, Josh called me. “Hey! Do you still want to go to Applebee’s? I got my dad’s truck, so I can just meet you there.” He sounded really happy to go and meet with me.  “Yeah. Of course. I just need to finish something. If you get there before me you know what to order me right?” I asked. “Cedar Grilled Chicken?” He questioned.  “Yes.” “Okay. See you later.” I hung up the phone and continued to make my oatmeal. My stomach was feeling really empty so I tried to hurry. When I was done, I got my keys and rushed out the front door. I sped my way through the streets and through the highway.  In times like these - when I’m anxious to see my best friend and hungry - I’m glad the speed limit on the highway is seventy-five miles per hour.  So, it surely didn’t take me long to get there.  When I showed up at the restaurant, I walked in and noticed he was sitting at one of the high tables that surrounded the bar. I walked up to him, he saw me and we both smiled at each other.  He looked so cute with his freshly new haircut and clean shaved face.  He knows I don’t like facial hair.  Sometimes I wonder if he shaves it just for me.  I doubt he did it for me this time because he just started a new job at a restaurant; they prefer if you don’t have any facial hair.  “Hey Josh,” I said with a big smile.  “Hey Alex,” he responded. He mirrored my smile.  “Did you already order for me?” I asked.  “Yeah, I ordered for you. It should be coming out in a little bit. I got wings - buffalo and bbq flavored. And of course I ordered your chicken for you.” “Thanks, because I’m starving!” The rest of the night consisted of us talking about movies, games, a girl that he’s talking to and our lives.  He talked about his twins.  I talked about my love life - or lack thereof.  This was going on for over an hour.  When it started getting late, I paid for the tab and we walked out together.  I started walking him to his truck and when we turned the corner of the restaurant I gave him a big hug.  We kept our arms wrapped over each other’s shoulder and kept walking toward his truck together.  It was really cute, because I felt like we were a couple - I’m sure it looked like that to other people who could see us through the windows of the restaurant - but we aren’t.  He’s just a really great friend who deserves all my love and appreciation. He’s been there for me every single time, and that’s not me being overdramatic.  We talk every day. I see him two to three times a week - four on a good one. I just love him to death.   I really do. And I know he really loves me too.  I can honestly say bravely that I’d do anything for him.  “Hey,” he said as he looked at me.  I turned over to him and looked straight into his brown eyes. His face was close to mine because we were still holding on to each other.  “Thank you for the food baby, and the drink of course,” he continued.  I like it when he calls me names. I laughed. “You’re welcome Josh. You don’t have to thank me though,” I lied. Of course he has to thank me.  I just said that so I could fish for more appreciative comments.  “Yes I do. You always buy me food. And you’re always there for me when I need you. Or when I need money - you give it to me. The least I could do is tell you thank you. I love you Alex.” I swear, I feel like he and I make the perfect homo-hetero couple. My heart fluttered when I heard him say that.  That’s all I ever want in a relationship - whether it be a friend or a boyfriend - all I ever want is to feel wanted, appreciated, important, and, of course, loved.  “I love you too, Josh,” I said with a smirk.  We finally got to his truck and I gave him another hug before I said goodbye.  “I’ll text you when I get home,” I said. “You better,” he demanded.  And I did.  I didn’t do much after I got home.  To be honest, there was nothing for me to do.  I didn’t have homework and there was nothing productive to do around the house.  So, I decided to have a bit of downtime by myself.  I made popcorn, heated up some nacho cheese, poured some hot cheetos in my bowl of freshly popped popcorn and pigged out in my room while watching a new episode of Riverdale.  I only saw about twenty minutes of it though, because I couldn’t stay up too late.  I also really wanted to tell you about my day.  I don’t know why.  I guess I just wanted to say that I wish I had more days like this - days where I’m busy as hell and distracted that I don’t even have the time to think about the bad things.  So here I am writing to you.  It’s already passed midnight; I should really go to sleep soon. I have to wake up early in the morning because my friends and I are going to the school clinic to get our blood checked.  I’m getting tested for STD’s and general blood work like my sugar levels, cholesterol, etc.  I’m not sure if my friends are getting checked for STD’s.  By the way, I know I’m always ranting to you; so, I just wanted to take this time to tell you thank you - I know I don’t do it enough. So… Thank you! I have learned to appreciate what you have while you still got it, because one day it will be taken away from you in the most tragic, unprepared way.  Until Next Time…  Love always, Alex

[forlawfirmsonlymarketing]

Simple Ways to Delight Your First-Time Visitors: 6 Dos & 4 Don’ts via @adamproehl

Want to delight your first-time visitors?

Above all, get to the point right away. So with that in mind, this post has two parts:

Things you should ALWAYS do.

Things you should NEVER do.

6 Things You Should Always Do

1. Make the Landing Page Purpose Crystal Clear Obvious (& Relevant) to the Visitor

If you take only one thing from this post, it would be to ask this two-part question when you’re developing the creative and messaging for your landing page:

How did the visitor get here?

Why did they click on whatever link led them to the page?

There can be multiple answers to each question. For example, as far as “how” is concerned, the same landing page may be used for a paid search, email, and an ad on Facebook. In terms of  “why”, it might be to check the price, learn more, check availability, see evidence that the product/solution meets the specific visitor’s need, etc. Remember that some part of the creative/copy in the referral source (ad, email, link, meta description, etc.) made a promise. The anticipation of seeing that promise fulfilled led to a click. That click led the visitor to the landing page in order to see that promise met. Did you meet it? To get this part right:

Review the referral source (again, the ad, the email, the link, the meta description, etc.) and note the promises made.

Now review the landing page and make sure that it delivers on all of those promises made prior to the click. If not, the referral source is promising too much or the landing page is under-delivering. Either way, this is where you fix it.

Important note: Succeeding in making the landing page crystal clear to the visitor may sometimes result in a quick exit. Most likely, you’re not a fit for that visitor so at the very least you didn’t waste their time which they’ll (at least subconsciously) appreciate.

2. Load Quickly 

This one should be obvious. Slow loading pages will destroy the experience for the visitor and you will likely not recover. There are plenty of other options available and the visitor knows it. Load quickly and the visitor will be delighted at the near-instant access.

3. Display Properly

File this one also under the category of “obvious”. Visitors will be happy when you reduce friction – and delighted when you take it away. A page the doesn’t display properly on whatever device the visitor happens to be using means a high level of friction that will likely kill any chance of a conversion. Don’t worry if it doesn’t show properly on an iPhone 4 (released in 2010 so it’s well past time for that user to upgrade), but as a general practice, I always test backward compatibility for whatever operating systems were widely used during the past three years.

4. Provide Reassurance to the First-Time Visitor

Remember that time you clicked on a link, went to a page, and just had a gut feeling you’re in the wrong place? Either you didn’t immediately see what you thought you were there for or the site looked sketchy. Chances are you were less than delighted and didn’t stick around long. On the flip side, there was probably another time you clicked on a link to a page you’ve never been to before and you immediately knew you were in the right place. This page:

Had exactly what you were looking for.

Did NOT look to be the least bit sketchy.

To reassure that first-time visitor, here are a few things that will always help:

Crystal clear relevance to the visitor intent (see point #1).

Speak directly to whatever the visitor hopes to achieve by looking at your product.

Key trust elements present on the page (testimonials, reviews, security, privacy links, history, etc.).

Minimal interference pop-ups.

Here’s an example of key trust elements on a page. This provides reassurance to the visitor that the product is legit and worth a look.

5. Communicate to the Visitor’s Emotional Need Before the Rational Part of Their Brain

Countless marketing experts advocate the importance of speaking to the emotional part of the brain over the rational, logical part. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be speaking to both (because you should), but the key elements that stand out on your page (headline, image, first 10 seconds of video), need to trigger an emotion, Then the visitor will be open to the rational sales pitch. For example, below is a B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) that lets auto repair shops offer easy and accurate online scheduling for service.

Software for auto shop scheduling

Note the two headlines. They’re nothing fancy or particularly clever here, but they state the obvious and trigger a positive emotion (most likely “interest” or “hope”) by solving two issues every small, independent auto repair shop face:

Informing customers when there is shop availability without tying up a resource on the phone and making a customer hold.

Letting customers schedule service easily and painlessly.

Once the emotion is triggered, then the page visitor is open to finding out more. In other words, the rational part of the brain is now ready to take a closer look.

Software for auto shop scheduling

6. Provide Clear & Relevant Navigation Links

There’s no need to clutter a landing page with every possible piece of relevant information that a visitor would possibly need. In fact – don’t do that – you’ll end up with a cluttered page that tries to be everything to every possible segment. Instead, just make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Examples of relevant navigation can include:

Image gallery

Specifications

Related products and accessories

Reviews

Q&A

Links to educational content

Help links

Clarity on who the product or service is meant for

Simple, helpful, obvious navigation links tell the visitor exactly who the product is meant for

4 Things You Should Never Do

Use the list above as a checklist, but you will definitely not delight your visitors if any of the following conditions exist on your page:

1. Ads Aren’t Just Present… They Take Control of Your Experience

We’ve all been to this kind of a site. It’s maddening. You start reading or viewing a piece of content and all of a sudden the most intrusive, annoying popup takes over the page and forces you to either view it, click out of it, or click on it (deceptively), or lose your place on the page. This is not an “anti-advertising” point at all (Actually, I make my living running ad programs!). Advertising certainly has its place on the web – something has to pay the cost of producing the content we all love to consume. In some cases, that means ads. This is, however, an “anti-over-intrusive, annoying, irritative, deceptive advertising” point. Once you get to the landing page, the content is nearly taken over by ads and internal links:

Does anyone actually not click on the “Skip” link?

Once you get to the landing page, the content is nearly taken over by ads and internal links:

This may get email signups or link clicks, but it does not delight the visitor.

2. Do Not Immediately Put an Obstacle or Distraction That Offers No Value to the Visitor

Many sites provide a pop-up distraction to the visitor. That’s not uncommon and it’s perfectly fine as long as it provides real value (and in some cases, may even delight them). Examples of this include:

Discount or free ad on in exchange for email signup.

Information about an upcoming event.

Helpful chat window.

Things that add zero value include: Getting the Timing Wrong This makes popups that may otherwise provide value but don’t simply because they launch at the wrong time. They’ll either come across as too aggressive or irrelevant thanks to timing. Examples of this could include satisfaction surveys (before the visitor even has time to view the page), an offer for a free download or trial (again, before the visitor even has had a chance to look at the page). A Video on Auto-Play with the Sound On Gets attention for sure, but usually not in a good way.

3. Do Not Require Some Type of Plugin Just to View the Content

I honestly can’t believe I still have to give this advice, but there are still sites that have not been updated for devices that have been around since 2007. If your site hasn’t been updated since before the last recession (2008), it’s way past time. Flash is dead.

4. Drive Potential Customers to a Page with a Discontinued Product

This one should be obvious, but it happens all the time – usually by accident.

Note that a discontinued product still shows up in a query.

The link in the search result leads to:

Product page for a discontinued product still active.

This can easily happen on large catalog sites unless you stay ahead of it. To their credit, they do provide category links on the page, but it would be better if the visitor could’ve just been driven to a page in the first place with a currently available product. The query was fairly generic and there are plenty of 9 HP snowblowers manufactured and in inventory.

Bottom Line

Before even building a landing page, ask yourself (or your team) the following simple questions:

Why is the visitor landing on your page?

What would they be looking for believing it can be found on your page?

What must we provide that will make them believe they’re exactly where they want to be once they land on our page?

More Resources:

Image Credits All screenshots taken by author, October 2019

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/simple-ways-to-delight-your-first-time-visitors-6-dos-4-donts-via-adamproehl/

[nbntv-blog]

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Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center.

The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile reviewers have been roaming the streets of Barcelona with the S10 in hand and Galaxy Buds in ears. You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.

And, naturally, none of us minded testing those new photo features in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

But the 10th anniversary Galaxy arrives at a transitional time for Samsung — and the industry at large. The last couple of years have seen smartphone sales plateau for the first time since anyone started keeping track of those sorts of numbers, and big companies like Samsung and Apple are not immune.

That manner of existential crisis has led to one of the most eventful Mobile World Congresses in memory, as companies look to shake the doldrums of a stagnant market. It also led Samsung to open last week’s Unpacked event with the Galaxy Fold — first the cryptic product video and then the product unveil.

It’s a heck of a lead in, and, quite frankly, a recipe for disappointment. Here’s a look at the future, and now let’s talk about the present. Several people saw that I was carrying around a new Samsung device, got excited and were ultimately disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t unfold the thing.

None of this is any reflection on the quality of the S10 as a device, which I will happily state is quite high. But unlike the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary handset, the new Galaxy isn’t an attempt at a radical departure. Instead, it’s a culmination of 10 years of phone development, with new tricks throughout.

The Galaxy S10 doesn’t offer the same glimpse into the future as the Fold. But it does make a strong claim for the best Android smartphone of the moment. Starting at $1,000, it’s going to cost you — but if Samsung’s $1,900 foldable is any indication, smartphones of the future could make it look like a downright bargain.

Screen time

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has been my daily driver for a week now. It joined me on an international road trip, through several product unveils from the competition and is responsible for all of the images in this post. Sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket, as the saying goes.

Like other recent Samsung flagships, it’s going to be a tough device to give up when review time comes to a close. It’s a product that does a lot of things well. Tending, as Samsung often does, toward jamming as much into a product as possible — the polar opposite of chief competitor Apple’s approach.

But in the case of the Galaxy line, it all comes together very nicely. The S10 doesn’t represent a radical stylistic departure from its predecessor, maintaining the same manner of curved design language that helps the company cram a lot of phone into a relatively limited footprint, including a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio in the case of the S10+.

That means you can hold the handset in one hand, in spite of the ginormous 6.4-inch screen size. This is accomplished, in part, by the curved edges of the display that have been something of a Samsung trademark for a few generations now. It has also helped the Infinity-O design display, a laser cutout in the top-right of the screen, to fit the front-facing camera in as small a space as possible. In the case of the S10+, it’s more like an Infinity-OOO display.

Samsung was going to have to give in to the cutout trend sooner or later, opting to go ahead and skip the whole notch situation. The result is a largely unobtrusive break in the screen. Just for good measure, the phone’s default wallpapers have gradually darkening gradients that do a good job obscuring the cut out while not in use.

But while the whole more-screen-less-body deal is generally a good thing, there is a marked downside. I found myself accidentally triggering touch on the sides of the display with the edge of my palms, particularly when using the device with one hand. This has been a known issue for some time, of course.

Oh, and there’s one more key aspect in helping the S10+ go full screen.

Putting your finger on it

As with many of the features here, Samsung can’t claim to be the first to have the under-display fingerprint sensor. OnePlus, in a rare push to be first to market, added a similar technology to the 6T, which arrived last fall. But Samsung’s application takes things a step further.

The S10 and all of its variants are among the first to implant the fingerprint technology that Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii last year. The key differentiator here is an extra level of security. If the OnePlus’ fingerprint sensor is akin to your standard face unlock, this is more in line with what you get on the iPhone or LG’s latest handset.

The ability to sense depth brings another layer of security to the product — quite literally. Here’s how Qualcomm describes it:

Combining a smartphone’s display and fingerprint reader for a seamless and sleek look, 3D Sonic uses technological advances and acoustics (sonic waves) to scan the pores of a user’s finger for a deeply accurate 3D image. An ultra-thin (0.2 mm) sensor enables cutting-edge form factors such as full glass edge-to-edge displays, and can be widely used with flexible OLED displays.

Setup proved a bit fussier than the standard physical fingerprint button. Once everything is squared away, the reader is actually fairly responsive, registering a rippled water animation and unlocking the phone in about a second.

Getting your finger/thumb in the right spot might take a couple of tries on the first go, but after that, it’s muscle memory. There’s also a small fingerprint shaped guide that pops up on the lock screen for help. It can still be a bit tricky for those times you’re not looking directly at the display, or if you switch between hands.

It’s also worth noting that the unlock can be tricky with some screen protectors. Samsung will be working with accessory manufacturers to design compatible ones, but picking the wrong company could severely hamper the unlock function.

In some ways, though, the in-display fingerprint reader beats face unlock. I tend to lay my device down next to my keyboard when I work. Lifting the phone up to my eyes in order to read notifications is a bit of a pain. Same goes for when I need to check messages in bed. Here you can simply touch, check the notifications and go on with your life.

Ports in a storm

Around the edge is a mirrored metal band that houses the power button on one side and volume rocker and devoted Bixby button on the other. Yes, the Bixby button is back. And no, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung is wholly devoted to the smart assistant, and the company’s mobile devices are the one foothold Bixby currently commands.

The complaint about the Bixby button mostly stems from the fact that the assistant was, quite honestly, pretty useless at launch — particularly when compared to Android’s default assistant. In fact, when Google announced this week at Mobile World Congress the upcoming arrival of Assistant buttons on third-party devices, the news was generally welcomed by the Android crowd.

Samsung, meanwhile, gets hounded about the Bixby button, as though its inclusion is a way of forcing its assistant on users. Once again, Samsung relented, giving users the ability to remap the button in order to launch specific apps instead. This has played out time and again with the last several Galaxy devices.

The fact is, after an admittedly rocky start, Bixby has slowly been getting better, feature by feature. But the assistant still has catching up to do with Google’s headset, and frankly doesn’t offer a ton of reasons to opt into it over Android’s built-in option. Samsung has certainly made big promises of late, coupled with the imminent arrival of the Galaxy Home Hub.

Of course, that device was announced more than half a year ago, and when it does finally arrive, it will likely be carrying a prohibitive price tag. Beyond that, Bixby is currently the realm of things like Samsung refrigerators and washing machines. None of this adds up to a particularly compelling strategy for a multi-million-dollar AI offering that has become something of an inside joke in the industry.

But Samsung sticks to its guns, for better or worse. Sometimes that means Bixby, and sometimes that means defiantly clinging to the headphone jack. Turns out if you avoid a trend for long enough, you can become a trendsetter in your own right — or at least a respite from the maddening crowd.

It’s been a few years since the beginning of the end came for the jack, and the whole thing still leaves plenty of users with a sour taste. Even the once-defiant Google quickly gave in and dropped the jack. Samsung, however, has stood its ground and the decision has paid off. What was ubiquitous is now a differentiator, and even as the company hawks another pair of Bluetooth earbuds, it’s standing its ground here.

All charged up

The back of the device, like the front, is covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The latest from Corning, which debuted over the summer, promises to survive “up to 15 drops.” But don’t try this at home with your shiny new $1,000 smartphone, as your results may vary.

The material also helps facilitate what is arguably the device’s most compelling new feature: Wireless PowerShare. Samsung’s not the first company to roll out the feature — Huawei introduced the feature on the Mate 20 Pro last year. Still, it’s a cool feature and, perhaps most importantly, it beat Apple to the punch.

The feature needs to be activated manually, by swiping down into notifications (it will also automatically shut off when not in use). From there, tapping Wireless PowerShare will pop up a dialog box, letting you know the feature is ready to us. Turn the phone face down on a table and place a compatible phone on top, face up, and the S10 will go to work charging it.

Placement can be a bit tough to get right the first couple of times. The trick is making sure both devices are centered. Once everything is where it should be, you’ll hear a quick notification sound and the phone will register as charging. In the case of the new Galaxy Buds, the sound is accompanied by the appearance of the case’s charging light.

It’s a neat feature, for sure. I can certainly imagine lending some ill-prepared friend a little juice at the bar one night. I wouldn’t go throwing out my power bank just yet. For one thing, one of the phones needs to be face-down the whole time. For another, wireless charging isn’t nearly as fast as its wired counterpart, so beyond the initial novelty of the feature, it may not ultimately be one you end up using a lot.

And, of course, you’re actively draining the battery of the phone sharing power. It’s a little like a Giving Tree scenario, albeit with the lowest stakes humanly possible. Thankfully, the handsets all sport pretty beefy batteries. In the case of the S10+, it’s a massive 4,100 mAh (with the 5G model getting an even nuttier 4,500 mAh).

It’s clear the days of Samsung’s Note 7-induced battery cautions are well behind it, thanks in no small part to the extensive battery testing the company implemented in the wake of a seemingly endless PR nightmare. As it stands, I was able to get around a full day plus two hours with standard usage while roaming the streets and convention center halls of Barcelona. That means you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of energy by day’s end — and you may even have a bit to spare before it’s all over.

Camera ready

You know the drill by now, Samsung and Apple come out with a new flagship smartphone, which quickly shoots to the top of DxOMark’s camera ratings. The cycle repeats itself yet again — with one key difference: It’s a three-way tie.

[Left: Standard, Right: Full zoom]

Really, there’s no better distillation of the state of the smartphone industry in 2019 than this. The latest iPhone, which is now half-a-year-old, is now a few spots down the list, with Samsung in a three-way tie for first. The other two top devices are, get this, both Huawei handsets. It’s been a banner year for the Chinese handset maker on a number of fronts, and that’s got to leave the Apples and Samsungs of the world a bit nervous, all told.

For now, though, there’s a lot to like here… 109 points’ worth, in fact. The last several generations of camera races have resulted in some really well-rounded camera gear. It’s a setup that makes it difficult to take bad shots (difficult, but hardly impossible, mind), with the combination of hardware and software/AI improvements we’ve seen over the course of the last few devices.

The camera setup varies from device to device, so we’re going to focus on the S10+ — the device we’ve spent the past week with (though, granted, the 5G model’s camera warrants its own write-up). The plus model features a three-camera array, oriented horizontally in a configuration that brings nothing to mind so much as the original Microsoft Kinect.

[Left: Samsung S10+, Right: Pixel 2]

It’s been fascinating watching companies determine the best use for a multi-camera array. Take Nokia’s new five-camera system, which essentially compiles everything into one super-high-res shot. Here, however, the three lenses capture three different images. They are as follows:

Wide (Standard): 12 MP, 26mm Telephoto: 12 MP, 52mm Ultrawide: 16 MP, 12mm

The system is configured to let you seamlessly switch between lenses in order to capture a shot in a given situation. The telephoto can do 2x shots, while the ultrawide captures 123-degree shots. The 5G model, meanwhile, adds 3D-depth cameras to the front and rear, which is a pretty clear indication of where Samsung plans to go from here.

That said, the current setup is still quite capable of pulling off some cool depth tricks. This is no better exemplified than with the Live Focus feature, which applies a Portrait Mode-style bokeh effect around the objects you choose. The effect isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty convincing. Above is a shot I took on the MWC show floor and used in the led for a story about the HTC Vive.

There are some fun tricks as well, like the above Color Point effect. I’m not sure how often I’d end up using it, but damn if it doesn’t look cool.

All of that, coupled with new touches like wide-image panorama and recent advances like super-slow-motion and low-light shooting make for an extremely well-rounded camera experience. Ditto for scene identification, which does a solid job determining the differences between, say, a salad and a tree and adjusting the shooting settings accordingly.

Oh, and a low-key solid upgrade here are the improved AR Emojis, as seen above. They’re 1,000 times less creepy than the originals. I mean, I’m still not going to be sharing them with people unironically or anything, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Today’s Galaxy

The present moment is an exciting one for the mobile industry. There were glimmers of promise all over the MWC show floor and a week prior at Samsung’s own event. A stagnant industry has caused the big players to get creative, and some long-promised technologies are about to finally get real.

The Samsung Fold feels like a clear peek into the future of one of the industry’s biggest players, so it’s only natural that such an announcement would take some of the wind out of its flagship’s sails.

The S10 isn’t the smartphone of the future. Instead, it’s the culmination of 10 solid years of cutting-edge smartphone work that’s resulted into one of today’s most solid mobile devices.

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Samsung Galaxy S10+ review – TechCrunch Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move.

[sheminecrafts]

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review

Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center.

The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile reviewers have been roaming the streets of Barcelona with the S10 in hand and Galaxy Buds in ears. You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.

And, naturally, none of us minded testing those new photo features in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Here’s everything announced at Samsung’s Galaxy S10/Galaxy Fold event

But the 10th anniversary Galaxy arrives at a transitional time for Samsung — and the industry at large. The last couple of years have seen smartphone sales plateau for the first time since anyone started keeping track of those sorts of numbers, and big companies like Samsung and Apple are not immune.

That manner of existential crisis has led to one of the most eventful Mobile World Congresses in memory, as companies look to shake the doldrums of a stagnant market. It also led Samsung to open last week’s Unpacked event with the Galaxy Fold — first the cryptic product video and then the product unveil.

It’s a heck of a lead in, and, quite frankly, a recipe for disappointment. Here’s a look at the future, and now let’s talk about the present. Several people saw that I was carrying around a new Samsung device, got excited and were ultimately disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t unfold the thing.

None of this is any reflection on the quality of the S10 as a device, which I will happily state is quite high. But unlike the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary handset, the new Galaxy isn’t an attempt at a radical departure. Instead, it’s a culmination of 10 years of phone development, with new tricks throughout.

The Galaxy S10 doesn’t offer the same glimpse into the future as the Fold. But it does make a strong claim for the best Android smartphone of the moment. Starting at $1,000, it’s going to cost you — but if Samsung’s $1,900 foldable is any indication, smartphones of the future could make it look like a downright bargain.

Screen time

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has been my daily driver for a week now. It joined me on an international road trip, through several product unveils from the competition and is responsible for all of the images in this post. Sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket, as the saying goes.

A closer look at Huawei’s folding Mate X

Like other recent Samsung flagships, it’s going to be a tough device to give up when review time comes to a close. It’s a product that does a lot of things well. Tending, as Samsung often does, toward jamming as much into a product as possible — the polar opposite of chief competitor Apple’s approach.

But in the case of the Galaxy line, it all comes together very nicely. The S10 doesn’t represent a radical stylistic departure from its predecessor, maintaining the same manner of curved design language that helps the company cram a lot of phone into a relatively limited footprint, including a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio in the case of the S10+.

That means you can hold the handset in one hand, in spite of the ginormous 6.4-inch screen size. This is accomplished, in part, by the curved edges of the display that have been something of a Samsung trademark for a few generations now. It has also helped the Infinity-O design display, a laser cutout in the top-right of the screen, to fit the front-facing camera in as small a space as possible. In the case of the S10+, it’s more like an Infinity-OOO display.

Samsung was going to have to give in to the cutout trend sooner or later, opting to go ahead and skip the whole notch situation. The result is a largely unobtrusive break in the screen. Just for good measure, the phone’s default wallpapers have gradually darkening gradients that do a good job obscuring the cut out while not in use.

But while the whole more-screen-less-body deal is generally a good thing, there is a marked downside. I found myself accidentally triggering touch on the sides of the display with the edge of my palms, particularly when using the device with one hand. This has been a known issue for some time, of course.

Oh, and there’s one more key aspect in helping the S10+ go full screen.

Putting your finger on it

As with many of the features here, Samsung can’t claim to be the first to have the under-display fingerprint sensor. OnePlus, in a rare push to be first to market, added a similar technology to the 6T, which arrived last fall. But Samsung’s application takes things a step further.

The S10 and all of its variants are among the first to implant the fingerprint technology that Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii last year. The key differentiator here is an extra level of security. If the OnePlus’ fingerprint sensor is akin to your standard face unlock, this is more in line with what you get on the iPhone or LG’s latest handset.

The ability to sense depth brings another layer of security to the product — quite literally. Here’s how Qualcomm describes it:

Combining a smartphone’s display and fingerprint reader for a seamless and sleek look, 3D Sonic uses technological advances and acoustics (sonic waves) to scan the pores of a user’s finger for a deeply accurate 3D image. An ultra-thin (0.2 mm) sensor enables cutting-edge form factors such as full glass edge-to-edge displays, and can be widely used with flexible OLED displays.

Setup proved a bit fussier than the standard physical fingerprint button. Once everything is squared away, the reader is actually fairly responsive, registering a rippled water animation and unlocking the phone in about a second.

Getting your finger/thumb in the right spot might take a couple of tries on the first go, but after that, it’s muscle memory. There’s also a small fingerprint shaped guide that pops up on the lock screen for help. It can still be a bit tricky for those times you’re not looking directly at the display, or if you switch between hands.

It’s also worth noting that the unlock can be tricky with some screen protectors. Samsung will be working with accessory manufacturers to design compatible ones, but picking the wrong company could severely hamper the unlock function.

In some ways, though, the in-display fingerprint reader beats face unlock. I tend to lay my device down next to my keyboard when I work. Lifting the phone up to my eyes in order to read notifications is a bit of a pain. Same goes for when I need to check messages in bed. Here you can simply touch, check the notifications and go on with your life.

Ports in a storm

Around the edge is a mirrored metal band that houses the power button on one side and volume rocker and devoted Bixby button on the other. Yes, the Bixby button is back. And no, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung is wholly devoted to the smart assistant, and the company’s mobile devices are the one foothold Bixby currently commands.

The complaint about the Bixby button mostly stems from the fact that the assistant was, quite honestly, pretty useless at launch — particularly when compared to Android’s default assistant. In fact, when Google announced this week at Mobile World Congress the upcoming arrival of Assistant buttons on third-party devices, the news was generally welcomed by the Android crowd.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 deserves better than Bixby

Samsung, meanwhile, gets hounded about the Bixby button, as though its inclusion is a way of forcing its assistant on users. Once again, Samsung relented, giving users the ability to remap the button in order to launch specific apps instead. This has played out time and again with the last several Galaxy devices.

The fact is, after an admittedly rocky start, Bixby has slowly been getting better, feature by feature. But the assistant still has catching up to do with Google’s headset, and frankly doesn’t offer a ton of reasons to opt into it over Android’s built-in option. Samsung has certainly made big promises of late, coupled with the imminent arrival of the Galaxy Home Hub.

Samsung’s Bixby may finally get more third-party integration soon

Of course, that device was announced more than half a year ago, and when it does finally arrive, it will likely be carrying a prohibitive price tag. Beyond that, Bixby is currently the realm of things like Samsung refrigerators and washing machines. None of this adds up to a particularly compelling strategy for a multi-million-dollar AI offering that has become something of an inside joke in the industry.

But Samsung sticks to its guns, for better or worse. Sometimes that means Bixby, and sometimes that means defiantly clinging to the headphone jack. Turns out if you avoid a trend for long enough, you can become a trendsetter in your own right — or at least a respite from the maddening crowd.

It’s been a few years since the beginning of the end came for the jack, and the whole thing still leaves plenty of users with a sour taste. Even the once-defiant Google quickly gave in and dropped the jack. Samsung, however, has stood its ground and the decision has paid off. What was ubiquitous is now a differentiator, and even as the company hawks another pair of Bluetooth earbuds, it’s standing its ground here.

All charged up

The back of the device, like the front, is covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The latest from Corning, which debuted over the summer, promises to survive “up to 15 drops.” But don’t try this at home with your shiny new $1,000 smartphone, as your results may vary.

The material also helps facilitate what is arguably the device’s most compelling new feature: Wireless PowerShare. Samsung’s not the first company to roll out the feature — Huawei introduced the feature on the Mate 20 Pro last year. Still, it’s a cool feature and, perhaps most importantly, it beat Apple to the punch.

The feature needs to be activated manually, by swiping down into notifications (it will also automatically shut off when not in use). From there, tapping Wireless PowerShare will pop up a dialog box, letting you know the feature is ready to us. Turn the phone face down on a table and place a compatible phone on top, face up, and the S10 will go to work charging it.

Placement can be a bit tough to get right the first couple of times. The trick is making sure both devices are centered. Once everything is where it should be, you’ll hear a quick notification sound and the phone will register as charging. In the case of the new Galaxy Buds, the sound is accompanied by the appearance of the case’s charging light.

It’s a neat feature, for sure. I can certainly imagine lending some ill-prepared friend a little juice at the bar one night. I wouldn’t go throwing out my power bank just yet. For one thing, one of the phones needs to be face-down the whole time. For another, wireless charging isn’t nearly as fast as its wired counterpart, so beyond the initial novelty of the feature, it may not ultimately be one you end up using a lot.

And, of course, you’re actively draining the battery of the phone sharing power. It’s a little like a Giving Tree scenario, albeit with the lowest stakes humanly possible. Thankfully, the handsets all sport pretty beefy batteries. In the case of the S10+, it’s a massive 4,100 mAh (with the 5G model getting an even nuttier 4,500 mAh).

It’s clear the days of Samsung’s Note 7-induced battery cautions are well behind it, thanks in no small part to the extensive battery testing the company implemented in the wake of a seemingly endless PR nightmare. As it stands, I was able to get around a full day plus two hours with standard usage while roaming the streets and convention center halls of Barcelona. That means you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of energy by day’s end — and you may even have a bit to spare before it’s all over.

Camera ready

You know the drill by now, Samsung and Apple come out with a new flagship smartphone, which quickly shoots to the top of DxOMark’s camera ratings. The cycle repeats itself yet again — with one key difference: It’s a three-way tie.

[Left: Standard, Right: Full zoom]

Really, there’s no better distillation of the state of the smartphone industry in 2019 than this. The latest iPhone, which is now half-a-year-old, is now a few spots down the list, with Samsung in a three-way tie for first. The other two top devices are, get this, both Huawei handsets. It’s been a banner year for the Chinese handset maker on a number of fronts, and that’s got to leave the Apples and Samsungs of the world a bit nervous, all told.

[gallery ids="1790609,1790610,1790611,1790612,1790613,1790614,1790615,1790617,1790618,1790619,1790620,1790621,1790622,1790623,1790624,1790625,1790626,1790627,1790628,1790629"]

For now, though, there’s a lot to like here… 109 points’ worth, in fact. The last several generations of camera races have resulted in some really well-rounded camera gear. It’s a setup that makes it difficult to take bad shots (difficult, but hardly impossible, mind), with the combination of hardware and software/AI improvements we’ve seen over the course of the last few devices.

The camera setup varies from device to device, so we’re going to focus on the S10+ — the device we’ve spent the past week with (though, granted, the 5G model’s camera warrants its own write-up). The plus model features a three-camera array, oriented horizontally in a configuration that brings nothing to mind so much as the original Microsoft Kinect.

[Left: Samsung S10+, Right: Pixel 2]

It’s been fascinating watching companies determine the best use for a multi-camera array. Take Nokia’s new five-camera system, which essentially compiles everything into one super-high-res shot. Here, however, the three lenses capture three different images. They are as follows:

Wide (Standard): 12 MP, 26mm Telephoto: 12 MP, 52mm Ultrawide: 16 MP, 12mm

The system is configured to let you seamlessly switch between lenses in order to capture a shot in a given situation. The telephoto can do 2x shots, while the ultrawide captures 123-degree shots. The 5G model, meanwhile, adds 3D-depth cameras to the front and rear, which is a pretty clear indication of where Samsung plans to go from here.

That said, the current setup is still quite capable of pulling off some cool depth tricks. This is no better exemplified than with the Live Focus feature, which applies a Portrait Mode-style bokeh effect around the objects you choose. The effect isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty convincing. Above is a shot I took on the MWC show floor and used in the led for a story about the HTC Vive.

There are some fun tricks as well, like the above Color Point effect. I’m not sure how often I’d end up using it, but damn if it doesn’t look cool.

All of that, coupled with new touches like wide-image panorama and recent advances like super-slow-motion and low-light shooting make for an extremely well-rounded camera experience. Ditto for scene identification, which does a solid job determining the differences between, say, a salad and a tree and adjusting the shooting settings accordingly.

Oh, and a low-key solid upgrade here are the improved AR Emojis, as seen above. They’re 1,000 times less creepy than the originals. I mean, I’m still not going to be sharing them with people unironically or anything, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Today’s Galaxy

The present moment is an exciting one for the mobile industry. There were glimmers of promise all over the MWC show floor and a week prior at Samsung’s own event. A stagnant industry has caused the big players to get creative, and some long-promised technologies are about to finally get real.

The Samsung Fold feels like a clear peek into the future of one of the industry’s biggest players, so it’s only natural that such an announcement would take some of the wind out of its flagship’s sails.

The S10 isn’t the smartphone of the future. Instead, it’s the culmination of 10 solid years of cutting-edge smartphone work that’s resulted into one of today’s most solid mobile devices.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2IYoJVp via IFTTT

[tekaevl]

Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center.

The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile reviewers have been roaming the streets of Barcelona with the S10 in hand and Galaxy Buds in ears. You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.

And, naturally, none of us minded testing those new photo features in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Here’s everything announced at Samsung’s Galaxy S10/Galaxy Fold event

But the 10th anniversary Galaxy arrives at a transitional time for Samsung — and the industry at large. The last couple of years have seen smartphone sales plateau for the first time since anyone started keeping track of those sorts of numbers, and big companies like Samsung and Apple are not immune.

That manner of existential crisis has led to one of the most eventful Mobile World Congresses in memory, as companies look to shake the doldrums of a stagnant market. It also led Samsung to open last week’s Unpacked event with the Galaxy Fold — first the cryptic product video and then the product unveil.

It’s a heck of a lead in, and, quite frankly, a recipe for disappointment. Here’s a look at the future, and now let’s talk about the present. Several people saw that I was carrying around a new Samsung device, got excited and were ultimately disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t unfold the thing.

None of this is any reflection on the quality of the S10 as a device, which I will happily state is quite high. But unlike the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary handset, the new Galaxy isn’t an attempt at a radical departure. Instead, it’s a culmination of 10 years of phone development, with new tricks throughout.

The Galaxy S10 doesn’t offer the same glimpse into the future as the Fold. But it does make a strong claim for the best Android smartphone of the moment. Starting at $1,000, it’s going to cost you — but if Samsung’s $1,900 foldable is any indication, smartphones of the future could make it look like a downright bargain.

Screen time

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has been my daily driver for a week now. It joined me on an international road trip, through several product unveils from the competition and is responsible for all of the images in this post. Sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket, as the saying goes.

A closer look at Huawei’s folding Mate X

Like other recent Samsung flagships, it’s going to be a tough device to give up when review time comes to a close. It’s a product that does a lot of things well. Tending, as Samsung often does, toward jamming as much into a product as possible — the polar opposite of chief competitor Apple’s approach.

But in the case of the Galaxy line, it all comes together very nicely. The S10 doesn’t represent a radical stylistic departure from its predecessor, maintaining the same manner of curved design language that helps the company cram a lot of phone into a relatively limited footprint, including a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio in the case of the S10+.

That means you can hold the handset in one hand, in spite of the ginormous 6.4-inch screen size. This is accomplished, in part, by the curved edges of the display that have been something of a Samsung trademark for a few generations now. It has also helped the Infinity-O design display, a laser cutout in the top-right of the screen, to fit the front-facing camera in as small a space as possible. In the case of the S10+, it’s more like an Infinity-OOO display.

Samsung was going to have to give in to the cutout trend sooner or later, opting to go ahead and skip the whole notch situation. The result is a largely unobtrusive break in the screen. Just for good measure, the phone’s default wallpapers have gradually darkening gradients that do a good job obscuring the cut out while not in use.

But while the whole more-screen-less-body deal is generally a good thing, there is a marked downside. I found myself accidentally triggering touch on the sides of the display with the edge of my palms, particularly when using the device with one hand. This has been a known issue for some time, of course.

Oh, and there’s one more key aspect in helping the S10+ go full screen.

Putting your finger on it

As with many of the features here, Samsung can’t claim to be the first to have the under-display fingerprint sensor. OnePlus, in a rare push to be first to market, added a similar technology to the 6T, which arrived last fall. But Samsung’s application takes things a step further.

The S10 and all of its variants are among the first to implant the fingerprint technology that Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii last year. The key differentiator here is an extra level of security. If the OnePlus’ fingerprint sensor is akin to your standard face unlock, this is more in line with what you get on the iPhone or LG’s latest handset.

The ability to sense depth brings another layer of security to the product — quite literally. Here’s how Qualcomm describes it:

Combining a smartphone’s display and fingerprint reader for a seamless and sleek look, 3D Sonic uses technological advances and acoustics (sonic waves) to scan the pores of a user’s finger for a deeply accurate 3D image. An ultra-thin (0.2 mm) sensor enables cutting-edge form factors such as full glass edge-to-edge displays, and can be widely used with flexible OLED displays.

Setup proved a bit fussier than the standard physical fingerprint button. Once everything is squared away, the reader is actually fairly responsive, registering a rippled water animation and unlocking the phone in about a second.

Getting your finger/thumb in the right spot might take a couple of tries on the first go, but after that, it’s muscle memory. There’s also a small fingerprint shaped guide that pops up on the lock screen for help. It can still be a bit tricky for those times you’re not looking directly at the display, or if you switch between hands.

It’s also worth noting that the unlock can be tricky with some screen protectors. Samsung will be working with accessory manufacturers to design compatible ones, but picking the wrong company could severely hamper the unlock function.

In some ways, though, the in-display fingerprint reader beats face unlock. I tend to lay my device down next to my keyboard when I work. Lifting the phone up to my eyes in order to read notifications is a bit of a pain. Same goes for when I need to check messages in bed. Here you can simply touch, check the notifications and go on with your life.

Ports in a storm

Around the edge is a mirrored metal band that houses the power button on one side and volume rocker and devoted Bixby button on the other. Yes, the Bixby button is back. And no, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung is wholly devoted to the smart assistant, and the company’s mobile devices are the one foothold Bixby currently commands.

The complaint about the Bixby button mostly stems from the fact that the assistant was, quite honestly, pretty useless at launch — particularly when compared to Android’s default assistant. In fact, when Google announced this week at Mobile World Congress the upcoming arrival of Assistant buttons on third-party devices, the news was generally welcomed by the Android crowd.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 deserves better than Bixby

Samsung, meanwhile, gets hounded about the Bixby button, as though its inclusion is a way of forcing its assistant on users. Once again, Samsung relented, giving users the ability to remap the button in order to launch specific apps instead. This has played out time and again with the last several Galaxy devices.

The fact is, after an admittedly rocky start, Bixby has slowly been getting better, feature by feature. But the assistant still has catching up to do with Google’s headset, and frankly doesn’t offer a ton of reasons to opt into it over Android’s built-in option. Samsung has certainly made big promises of late, coupled with the imminent arrival of the Galaxy Home Hub.

Samsung’s Bixby may finally get more third-party integration soon

Of course, that device was announced more than half a year ago, and when it does finally arrive, it will likely be carrying a prohibitive price tag. Beyond that, Bixby is currently the realm of things like Samsung refrigerators and washing machines. None of this adds up to a particularly compelling strategy for a multi-million-dollar AI offering that has become something of an inside joke in the industry.

But Samsung sticks to its guns, for better or worse. Sometimes that means Bixby, and sometimes that means defiantly clinging to the headphone jack. Turns out if you avoid a trend for long enough, you can become a trendsetter in your own right — or at least a respite from the maddening crowd.

It’s been a few years since the beginning of the end came for the jack, and the whole thing still leaves plenty of users with a sour taste. Even the once-defiant Google quickly gave in and dropped the jack. Samsung, however, has stood its ground and the decision has paid off. What was ubiquitous is now a differentiator, and even as the company hawks another pair of Bluetooth earbuds, it’s standing its ground here.

All charged up

The back of the device, like the front, is covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The latest from Corning, which debuted over the summer, promises to survive “up to 15 drops.” But don’t try this at home with your shiny new $1,000 smartphone, as your results may vary.

The material also helps facilitate what is arguably the device’s most compelling new feature: Wireless PowerShare. Samsung’s not the first company to roll out the feature — Huawei introduced the feature on the Mate 20 Pro last year. Still, it’s a cool feature and, perhaps most importantly, it beat Apple to the punch.

The feature needs to be activated manually, by swiping down into notifications (it will also automatically shut off when not in use). From there, tapping Wireless PowerShare will pop up a dialog box, letting you know the feature is ready to us. Turn the phone face down on a table and place a compatible phone on top, face up, and the S10 will go to work charging it.

Placement can be a bit tough to get right the first couple of times. The trick is making sure both devices are centered. Once everything is where it should be, you’ll hear a quick notification sound and the phone will register as charging. In the case of the new Galaxy Buds, the sound is accompanied by the appearance of the case’s charging light.

It’s a neat feature, for sure. I can certainly imagine lending some ill-prepared friend a little juice at the bar one night. I wouldn’t go throwing out my power bank just yet. For one thing, one of the phones needs to be face-down the whole time. For another, wireless charging isn’t nearly as fast as its wired counterpart, so beyond the initial novelty of the feature, it may not ultimately be one you end up using a lot.

And, of course, you’re actively draining the battery of the phone sharing power. It’s a little like a Giving Tree scenario, albeit with the lowest stakes humanly possible. Thankfully, the handsets all sport pretty beefy batteries. In the case of the S10+, it’s a massive 4,100 mAh (with the 5G model getting an even nuttier 4,500 mAh).

It’s clear the days of Samsung’s Note 7-induced battery cautions are well behind it, thanks in no small part to the extensive battery testing the company implemented in the wake of a seemingly endless PR nightmare. As it stands, I was able to get around a full day plus two hours with standard usage while roaming the streets and convention center halls of Barcelona. That means you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of energy by day’s end — and you may even have a bit to spare before it’s all over.

Camera ready

You know the drill by now, Samsung and Apple come out with a new flagship smartphone, which quickly shoots to the top of DxOMark’s camera ratings. The cycle repeats itself yet again — with one key difference: It’s a three-way tie.

[Left: Standard, Right: Full zoom]

Really, there’s no better distillation of the state of the smartphone industry in 2019 than this. The latest iPhone, which is now half-a-year-old, is now a few spots down the list, with Samsung in a three-way tie for first. The other two top devices are, get this, both Huawei handsets. It’s been a banner year for the Chinese handset maker on a number of fronts, and that’s got to leave the Apples and Samsungs of the world a bit nervous, all told.

For now, though, there’s a lot to like here… 109 points’ worth, in fact. The last several generations of camera races have resulted in some really well-rounded camera gear. It’s a setup that makes it difficult to take bad shots (difficult, but hardly impossible, mind), with the combination of hardware and software/AI improvements we’ve seen over the course of the last few devices.

The camera setup varies from device to device, so we’re going to focus on the S10+ — the device we’ve spent the past week with (though, granted, the 5G model’s camera warrants its own write-up). The plus model features a three-camera array, oriented horizontally in a configuration that brings nothing to mind so much as the original Microsoft Kinect.

[Left: Samsung S10+, Right: Pixel 2]

It’s been fascinating watching companies determine the best use for a multi-camera array. Take Nokia’s new five-camera system, which essentially compiles everything into one super-high-res shot. Here, however, the three lenses capture three different images. They are as follows:

Wide (Standard): 12 MP, 26mm Telephoto: 12 MP, 52mm Ultrawide: 16 MP, 12mm

The system is configured to let you seamlessly switch between lenses in order to capture a shot in a given situation. The telephoto can do 2x shots, while the ultrawide captures 123-degree shots. The 5G model, meanwhile, adds 3D-depth cameras to the front and rear, which is a pretty clear indication of where Samsung plans to go from here.

That said, the current setup is still quite capable of pulling off some cool depth tricks. This is no better exemplified than with the Live Focus feature, which applies a Portrait Mode-style bokeh effect around the objects you choose. The effect isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty convincing. Above is a shot I took on the MWC show floor and used in the led for a story about the HTC Vive.

There are some fun tricks as well, like the above Color Point effect. I’m not sure how often I’d end up using it, but damn if it doesn’t look cool.

All of that, coupled with new touches like wide-image panorama and recent advances like super-slow-motion and low-light shooting make for an extremely well-rounded camera experience. Ditto for scene identification, which does a solid job determining the differences between, say, a salad and a tree and adjusting the shooting settings accordingly.

Oh, and a low-key solid upgrade here are the improved AR Emojis, as seen above. They’re 1,000 times less creepy than the originals. I mean, I’m still not going to be sharing them with people unironically or anything, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Today’s Galaxy

The present moment is an exciting one for the mobile industry. There were glimmers of promise all over the MWC show floor and a week prior at Samsung’s own event. A stagnant industry has caused the big players to get creative, and some long-promised technologies are about to finally get real.

The Samsung Fold feels like a clear peek into the future of one of the industry’s biggest players, so it’s only natural that such an announcement would take some of the wind out of its flagship’s sails.

The S10 isn’t the smartphone of the future. Instead, it’s the culmination of 10 solid years of cutting-edge smartphone work that’s resulted into one of today’s most solid mobile devices.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/01/samsung-galaxy-s10-review/

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move.

[fmservers]

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review

Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center.

The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile reviewers have been roaming the streets of Barcelona with the S10 in hand and Galaxy Buds in ears. You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.

And, naturally, none of us minded testing those new photo features in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Here’s everything announced at Samsung’s Galaxy S10/Galaxy Fold event

But the 10th anniversary Galaxy arrives at a transitional time for Samsung — and the industry at large. The last couple of years have seen smartphone sales plateau for the first time since anyone started keeping track of those sorts of numbers, and big companies like Samsung and Apple are not immune.

That manner of existential crisis has led to one of the most eventful Mobile World Congresses in memory, as companies look to shake the doldrums of a stagnant market. It also led Samsung to open last week’s Unpacked event with the Galaxy Fold — first the cryptic product video and then the product unveil.

It’s a heck of a lead in, and, quite frankly, a recipe for disappointment. Here’s a look at the future, and now let’s talk about the present. Several people saw that I was carrying around a new Samsung device, got excited and were ultimately disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t unfold the thing.

None of this is any reflection on the quality of the S10 as a device, which I will happily state is quite high. But unlike the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary handset, the new Galaxy isn’t an attempt at a radical departure. Instead, it’s a culmination of 10 years of phone development, with new tricks throughout.

The Galaxy S10 doesn’t offer the same glimpse into the future as the Fold. But it does make a strong claim for the best Android smartphone of the moment. Starting at $1,000, it’s going to cost you — but if Samsung’s $1,900 foldable is any indication, smartphones of the future could make it look like a downright bargain.

Screen time

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has been my daily driver for a week now. It joined me on an international road trip, through several product unveils from the competition and is responsible for all of the images in this post. Sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket, as the saying goes.

A closer look at Huawei’s folding Mate X

Like other recent Samsung flagships, it’s going to be a tough device to give up when review time comes to a close. It’s a product that does a lot of things well. Tending, as Samsung often does, toward jamming as much into a product as possible — the polar opposite of chief competitor Apple’s approach.

But in the case of the Galaxy line, it all comes together very nicely. The S10 doesn’t represent a radical stylistic departure from its predecessor, maintaining the same manner of curved design language that helps the company cram a lot of phone into a relatively limited footprint, including a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio in the case of the S10+.

That means you can hold the handset in one hand, in spite of the ginormous 6.4-inch screen size. This is accomplished, in part, by the curved edges of the display that have been something of a Samsung trademark for a few generations now. It has also helped the Infinity-O design display, a laser cutout in the top-right of the screen, to fit the front-facing camera in as small a space as possible. In the case of the S10+, it’s more like an Infinity-OOO display.

Samsung was going to have to give in to the cutout trend sooner or later, opting to go ahead and skip the whole notch situation. The result is a largely unobtrusive break in the screen. Just for good measure, the phone’s default wallpapers have gradually darkening gradients that do a good job obscuring the cut out while not in use.

But while the whole more-screen-less-body deal is generally a good thing, there is a marked downside. I found myself accidentally triggering touch on the sides of the display with the edge of my palms, particularly when using the device with one hand. This has been a known issue for some time, of course.

Oh, and there’s one more key aspect in helping the S10+ go full screen.

Putting your finger on it

As with many of the features here, Samsung can’t claim to be the first to have the under-display fingerprint sensor. OnePlus, in a rare push to be first to market, added a similar technology to the 6T, which arrived last fall. But Samsung’s application takes things a step further.

The S10 and all of its variants are among the first to implant the fingerprint technology that Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii last year. The key differentiator here is an extra level of security. If the OnePlus’ fingerprint sensor is akin to your standard face unlock, this is more in line with what you get on the iPhone or LG’s latest handset.

The ability to sense depth brings another layer of security to the product — quite literally. Here’s how Qualcomm describes it:

Combining a smartphone’s display and fingerprint reader for a seamless and sleek look, 3D Sonic uses technological advances and acoustics (sonic waves) to scan the pores of a user’s finger for a deeply accurate 3D image. An ultra-thin (0.2 mm) sensor enables cutting-edge form factors such as full glass edge-to-edge displays, and can be widely used with flexible OLED displays.

Setup proved a bit fussier than the standard physical fingerprint button. Once everything is squared away, the reader is actually fairly responsive, registering a rippled water animation and unlocking the phone in about a second.

Getting your finger/thumb in the right spot might take a couple of tries on the first go, but after that, it’s muscle memory. There’s also a small fingerprint shaped guide that pops up on the lock screen for help. It can still be a bit tricky for those times you’re not looking directly at the display, or if you switch between hands.

It’s also worth noting that the unlock can be tricky with some screen protectors. Samsung will be working with accessory manufacturers to design compatible ones, but picking the wrong company could severely hamper the unlock function.

In some ways, though, the in-display fingerprint reader beats face unlock. I tend to lay my device down next to my keyboard when I work. Lifting the phone up to my eyes in order to read notifications is a bit of a pain. Same goes for when I need to check messages in bed. Here you can simply touch, check the notifications and go on with your life.

Ports in a storm

Around the edge is a mirrored metal band that houses the power button on one side and volume rocker and devoted Bixby button on the other. Yes, the Bixby button is back. And no, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung is wholly devoted to the smart assistant, and the company’s mobile devices are the one foothold Bixby currently commands.

The complaint about the Bixby button mostly stems from the fact that the assistant was, quite honestly, pretty useless at launch — particularly when compared to Android’s default assistant. In fact, when Google announced this week at Mobile World Congress the upcoming arrival of Assistant buttons on third-party devices, the news was generally welcomed by the Android crowd.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 deserves better than Bixby

Samsung, meanwhile, gets hounded about the Bixby button, as though its inclusion is a way of forcing its assistant on users. Once again, Samsung relented, giving users the ability to remap the button in order to launch specific apps instead. This has played out time and again with the last several Galaxy devices.

The fact is, after an admittedly rocky start, Bixby has slowly been getting better, feature by feature. But the assistant still has catching up to do with Google’s headset, and frankly doesn’t offer a ton of reasons to opt into it over Android’s built-in option. Samsung has certainly made big promises of late, coupled with the imminent arrival of the Galaxy Home Hub.

Samsung’s Bixby may finally get more third-party integration soon

Of course, that device was announced more than half a year ago, and when it does finally arrive, it will likely be carrying a prohibitive price tag. Beyond that, Bixby is currently the realm of things like Samsung refrigerators and washing machines. None of this adds up to a particularly compelling strategy for a multi-million-dollar AI offering that has become something of an inside joke in the industry.

But Samsung sticks to its guns, for better or worse. Sometimes that means Bixby, and sometimes that means defiantly clinging to the headphone jack. Turns out if you avoid a trend for long enough, you can become a trendsetter in your own right — or at least a respite from the maddening crowd.

It’s been a few years since the beginning of the end came for the jack, and the whole thing still leaves plenty of users with a sour taste. Even the once-defiant Google quickly gave in and dropped the jack. Samsung, however, has stood its ground and the decision has paid off. What was ubiquitous is now a differentiator, and even as the company hawks another pair of Bluetooth earbuds, it’s standing its ground here.

All charged up

The back of the device, like the front, is covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The latest from Corning, which debuted over the summer, promises to survive “up to 15 drops.” But don’t try this at home with your shiny new $1,000 smartphone, as your results may vary.

The material also helps facilitate what is arguably the device’s most compelling new feature: Wireless PowerShare. Samsung’s not the first company to roll out the feature — Huawei introduced the feature on the Mate 20 Pro last year. Still, it’s a cool feature and, perhaps most importantly, it beat Apple to the punch.

The feature needs to be activated manually, by swiping down into notifications (it will also automatically shut off when not in use). From there, tapping Wireless PowerShare will pop up a dialog box, letting you know the feature is ready to us. Turn the phone face down on a table and place a compatible phone on top, face up, and the S10 will go to work charging it.

Placement can be a bit tough to get right the first couple of times. The trick is making sure both devices are centered. Once everything is where it should be, you’ll hear a quick notification sound and the phone will register as charging. In the case of the new Galaxy Buds, the sound is accompanied by the appearance of the case’s charging light.

It’s a neat feature, for sure. I can certainly imagine lending some ill-prepared friend a little juice at the bar one night. I wouldn’t go throwing out my power bank just yet. For one thing, one of the phones needs to be face-down the whole time. For another, wireless charging isn’t nearly as fast as its wired counterpart, so beyond the initial novelty of the feature, it may not ultimately be one you end up using a lot.

And, of course, you’re actively draining the battery of the phone sharing power. It’s a little like a Giving Tree scenario, albeit with the lowest stakes humanly possible. Thankfully, the handsets all sport pretty beefy batteries. In the case of the S10+, it’s a massive 4,100 mAh (with the 5G model getting an even nuttier 4,500 mAh).

It’s clear the days of Samsung’s Note 7-induced battery cautions are well behind it, thanks in no small part to the extensive battery testing the company implemented in the wake of a seemingly endless PR nightmare. As it stands, I was able to get around a full day plus two hours with standard usage while roaming the streets and convention center halls of Barcelona. That means you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of energy by day’s end — and you may even have a bit to spare before it’s all over.

Camera ready

You know the drill by now, Samsung and Apple come out with a new flagship smartphone, which quickly shoots to the top of DxOMark’s camera ratings. The cycle repeats itself yet again — with one key difference: It’s a three-way tie.

[Left: Standard, Right: Full zoom]

Really, there’s no better distillation of the state of the smartphone industry in 2019 than this. The latest iPhone, which is now half-a-year-old, is now a few spots down the list, with Samsung in a three-way tie for first. The other two top devices are, get this, both Huawei handsets. It’s been a banner year for the Chinese handset maker on a number of fronts, and that’s got to leave the Apples and Samsungs of the world a bit nervous, all told.

[gallery ids="1790609,1790610,1790611,1790612,1790613,1790614,1790615,1790617,1790618,1790619,1790620,1790621,1790622,1790623,1790624,1790625,1790626,1790627,1790628,1790629"]

For now, though, there’s a lot to like here… 109 points’ worth, in fact. The last several generations of camera races have resulted in some really well-rounded camera gear. It’s a setup that makes it difficult to take bad shots (difficult, but hardly impossible, mind), with the combination of hardware and software/AI improvements we’ve seen over the course of the last few devices.

The camera setup varies from device to device, so we’re going to focus on the S10+ — the device we’ve spent the past week with (though, granted, the 5G model’s camera warrants its own write-up). The plus model features a three-camera array, oriented horizontally in a configuration that brings nothing to mind so much as the original Microsoft Kinect.

[Left: Samsung S10+, Right: Pixel 2]

It’s been fascinating watching companies determine the best use for a multi-camera array. Take Nokia’s new five-camera system, which essentially compiles everything into one super-high-res shot. Here, however, the three lenses capture three different images. They are as follows:

Wide (Standard): 12 MP, 26mm Telephoto: 12 MP, 52mm Ultrawide: 16 MP, 12mm

The system is configured to let you seamlessly switch between lenses in order to capture a shot in a given situation. The telephoto can do 2x shots, while the ultrawide captures 123-degree shots. The 5G model, meanwhile, adds 3D-depth cameras to the front and rear, which is a pretty clear indication of where Samsung plans to go from here.

That said, the current setup is still quite capable of pulling off some cool depth tricks. This is no better exemplified than with the Live Focus feature, which applies a Portrait Mode-style bokeh effect around the objects you choose. The effect isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty convincing. Above is a shot I took on the MWC show floor and used in the led for a story about the HTC Vive.

There are some fun tricks as well, like the above Color Point effect. I’m not sure how often I’d end up using it, but damn if it doesn’t look cool.

All of that, coupled with new touches like wide-image panorama and recent advances like super-slow-motion and low-light shooting make for an extremely well-rounded camera experience. Ditto for scene identification, which does a solid job determining the differences between, say, a salad and a tree and adjusting the shooting settings accordingly.

Oh, and a low-key solid upgrade here are the improved AR Emojis, as seen above. They’re 1,000 times less creepy than the originals. I mean, I’m still not going to be sharing them with people unironically or anything, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Today’s Galaxy

The present moment is an exciting one for the mobile industry. There were glimmers of promise all over the MWC show floor and a week prior at Samsung’s own event. A stagnant industry has caused the big players to get creative, and some long-promised technologies are about to finally get real.

The Samsung Fold feels like a clear peek into the future of one of the industry’s biggest players, so it’s only natural that such an announcement would take some of the wind out of its flagship’s sails.

The S10 isn’t the smartphone of the future. Instead, it’s the culmination of 10 solid years of cutting-edge smartphone work that’s resulted into one of today’s most solid mobile devices.

Via Brian Heater https://techcrunch.com

[dizzedcom]

Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move. Samsung celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship phone line by launching its latest device on Apple’s sometimes-stomping grounds at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center.

The timing was less than ideal for all of us jet-lagged gadget reviewers, but the effect clearly paid off. Dozens of the world’s highest-profile reviewers have been roaming the streets of Barcelona with the S10 in hand and Galaxy Buds in ears. You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.

And, naturally, none of us minded testing those new photo features in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Here’s everything announced at Samsung’s Galaxy S10/Galaxy Fold event

But the 10th anniversary Galaxy arrives at a transitional time for Samsung — and the industry at large. The last couple of years have seen smartphone sales plateau for the first time since anyone started keeping track of those sorts of numbers, and big companies like Samsung and Apple are not immune.

That manner of existential crisis has led to one of the most eventful Mobile World Congresses in memory, as companies look to shake the doldrums of a stagnant market. It also led Samsung to open last week’s Unpacked event with the Galaxy Fold — first the cryptic product video and then the product unveil.

It’s a heck of a lead in, and, quite frankly, a recipe for disappointment. Here’s a look at the future, and now let’s talk about the present. Several people saw that I was carrying around a new Samsung device, got excited and were ultimately disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t unfold the thing.

None of this is any reflection on the quality of the S10 as a device, which I will happily state is quite high. But unlike the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary handset, the new Galaxy isn’t an attempt at a radical departure. Instead, it’s a culmination of 10 years of phone development, with new tricks throughout.

The Galaxy S10 doesn’t offer the same glimpse into the future as the Fold. But it does make a strong claim for the best Android smartphone of the moment. Starting at $1,000, it’s going to cost you — but if Samsung’s $1,900 foldable is any indication, smartphones of the future could make it look like a downright bargain.

Screen time

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has been my daily driver for a week now. It joined me on an international road trip, through several product unveils from the competition and is responsible for all of the images in this post. Sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket, as the saying goes.

A closer look at Huawei’s folding Mate X

Like other recent Samsung flagships, it’s going to be a tough device to give up when review time comes to a close. It’s a product that does a lot of things well. Tending, as Samsung often does, toward jamming as much into a product as possible — the polar opposite of chief competitor Apple’s approach.

But in the case of the Galaxy line, it all comes together very nicely. The S10 doesn’t represent a radical stylistic departure from its predecessor, maintaining the same manner of curved design language that helps the company cram a lot of phone into a relatively limited footprint, including a 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio in the case of the S10+.

That means you can hold the handset in one hand, in spite of the ginormous 6.4-inch screen size. This is accomplished, in part, by the curved edges of the display that have been something of a Samsung trademark for a few generations now. It has also helped the Infinity-O design display, a laser cutout in the top-right of the screen, to fit the front-facing camera in as small a space as possible. In the case of the S10+, it’s more like an Infinity-OOO display.

Samsung was going to have to give in to the cutout trend sooner or later, opting to go ahead and skip the whole notch situation. The result is a largely unobtrusive break in the screen. Just for good measure, the phone’s default wallpapers have gradually darkening gradients that do a good job obscuring the cut out while not in use.

But while the whole more-screen-less-body deal is generally a good thing, there is a marked downside. I found myself accidentally triggering touch on the sides of the display with the edge of my palms, particularly when using the device with one hand. This has been a known issue for some time, of course.

Oh, and there’s one more key aspect in helping the S10+ go full screen.

Putting your finger on it

As with many of the features here, Samsung can’t claim to be the first to have the under-display fingerprint sensor. OnePlus, in a rare push to be first to market, added a similar technology to the 6T, which arrived last fall. But Samsung’s application takes things a step further.

The S10 and all of its variants are among the first to implant the fingerprint technology that Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii last year. The key differentiator here is an extra level of security. If the OnePlus’ fingerprint sensor is akin to your standard face unlock, this is more in line with what you get on the iPhone or LG’s latest handset.

The ability to sense depth brings another layer of security to the product — quite literally. Here’s how Qualcomm describes it:

Combining a smartphone’s display and fingerprint reader for a seamless and sleek look, 3D Sonic uses technological advances and acoustics (sonic waves) to scan the pores of a user’s finger for a deeply accurate 3D image. An ultra-thin (0.2 mm) sensor enables cutting-edge form factors such as full glass edge-to-edge displays, and can be widely used with flexible OLED displays.

Setup proved a bit fussier than the standard physical fingerprint button. Once everything is squared away, the reader is actually fairly responsive, registering a rippled water animation and unlocking the phone in about a second.

Getting your finger/thumb in the right spot might take a couple of tries on the first go, but after that, it’s muscle memory. There’s also a small fingerprint shaped guide that pops up on the lock screen for help. It can still be a bit tricky for those times you’re not looking directly at the display, or if you switch between hands.

It’s also worth noting that the unlock can be tricky with some screen protectors. Samsung will be working with accessory manufacturers to design compatible ones, but picking the wrong company could severely hamper the unlock function.

In some ways, though, the in-display fingerprint reader beats face unlock. I tend to lay my device down next to my keyboard when I work. Lifting the phone up to my eyes in order to read notifications is a bit of a pain. Same goes for when I need to check messages in bed. Here you can simply touch, check the notifications and go on with your life.

Ports in a storm

Around the edge is a mirrored metal band that houses the power button on one side and volume rocker and devoted Bixby button on the other. Yes, the Bixby button is back. And no, it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Samsung is wholly devoted to the smart assistant, and the company’s mobile devices are the one foothold Bixby currently commands.

The complaint about the Bixby button mostly stems from the fact that the assistant was, quite honestly, pretty useless at launch — particularly when compared to Android’s default assistant. In fact, when Google announced this week at Mobile World Congress the upcoming arrival of Assistant buttons on third-party devices, the news was generally welcomed by the Android crowd.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 deserves better than Bixby

Samsung, meanwhile, gets hounded about the Bixby button, as though its inclusion is a way of forcing its assistant on users. Once again, Samsung relented, giving users the ability to remap the button in order to launch specific apps instead. This has played out time and again with the last several Galaxy devices.

The fact is, after an admittedly rocky start, Bixby has slowly been getting better, feature by feature. But the assistant still has catching up to do with Google’s headset, and frankly doesn’t offer a ton of reasons to opt into it over Android’s built-in option. Samsung has certainly made big promises of late, coupled with the imminent arrival of the Galaxy Home Hub.

Samsung’s Bixby may finally get more third-party integration soon

Of course, that device was announced more than half a year ago, and when it does finally arrive, it will likely be carrying a prohibitive price tag. Beyond that, Bixby is currently the realm of things like Samsung refrigerators and washing machines. None of this adds up to a particularly compelling strategy for a multi-million-dollar AI offering that has become something of an inside joke in the industry.

But Samsung sticks to its guns, for better or worse. Sometimes that means Bixby, and sometimes that means defiantly clinging to the headphone jack. Turns out if you avoid a trend for long enough, you can become a trendsetter in your own right — or at least a respite from the maddening crowd.

It’s been a few years since the beginning of the end came for the jack, and the whole thing still leaves plenty of users with a sour taste. Even the once-defiant Google quickly gave in and dropped the jack. Samsung, however, has stood its ground and the decision has paid off. What was ubiquitous is now a differentiator, and even as the company hawks another pair of Bluetooth earbuds, it’s standing its ground here.

All charged up

The back of the device, like the front, is covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The latest from Corning, which debuted over the summer, promises to survive “up to 15 drops.” But don’t try this at home with your shiny new $1,000 smartphone, as your results may vary.

The material also helps facilitate what is arguably the device’s most compelling new feature: Wireless PowerShare. Samsung’s not the first company to roll out the feature — Huawei introduced the feature on the Mate 20 Pro last year. Still, it’s a cool feature and, perhaps most importantly, it beat Apple to the punch.

The feature needs to be activated manually, by swiping down into notifications (it will also automatically shut off when not in use). From there, tapping Wireless PowerShare will pop up a dialog box, letting you know the feature is ready to us. Turn the phone face down on a table and place a compatible phone on top, face up, and the S10 will go to work charging it.

Placement can be a bit tough to get right the first couple of times. The trick is making sure both devices are centered. Once everything is where it should be, you’ll hear a quick notification sound and the phone will register as charging. In the case of the new Galaxy Buds, the sound is accompanied by the appearance of the case’s charging light.

It’s a neat feature, for sure. I can certainly imagine lending some ill-prepared friend a little juice at the bar one night. I wouldn’t go throwing out my power bank just yet. For one thing, one of the phones needs to be face-down the whole time. For another, wireless charging isn’t nearly as fast as its wired counterpart, so beyond the initial novelty of the feature, it may not ultimately be one you end up using a lot.

And, of course, you’re actively draining the battery of the phone sharing power. It’s a little like a Giving Tree scenario, albeit with the lowest stakes humanly possible. Thankfully, the handsets all sport pretty beefy batteries. In the case of the S10+, it’s a massive 4,100 mAh (with the 5G model getting an even nuttier 4,500 mAh).

It’s clear the days of Samsung’s Note 7-induced battery cautions are well behind it, thanks in no small part to the extensive battery testing the company implemented in the wake of a seemingly endless PR nightmare. As it stands, I was able to get around a full day plus two hours with standard usage while roaming the streets and convention center halls of Barcelona. That means you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of energy by day’s end — and you may even have a bit to spare before it’s all over.

Camera ready

You know the drill by now, Samsung and Apple come out with a new flagship smartphone, which quickly shoots to the top of DxOMark’s camera ratings. The cycle repeats itself yet again — with one key difference: It’s a three-way tie.

[Left: Standard, Right: Full zoom]

Really, there’s no better distillation of the state of the smartphone industry in 2019 than this. The latest iPhone, which is now half-a-year-old, is now a few spots down the list, with Samsung in a three-way tie for first. The other two top devices are, get this, both Huawei handsets. It’s been a banner year for the Chinese handset maker on a number of fronts, and that’s got to leave the Apples and Samsungs of the world a bit nervous, all told.

For now, though, there’s a lot to like here… 109 points’ worth, in fact. The last several generations of camera races have resulted in some really well-rounded camera gear. It’s a setup that makes it difficult to take bad shots (difficult, but hardly impossible, mind), with the combination of hardware and software/AI improvements we’ve seen over the course of the last few devices.

The camera setup varies from device to device, so we’re going to focus on the S10+ — the device we’ve spent the past week with (though, granted, the 5G model’s camera warrants its own write-up). The plus model features a three-camera array, oriented horizontally in a configuration that brings nothing to mind so much as the original Microsoft Kinect.

[Left: Samsung S10+, Right: Pixel 2]

It’s been fascinating watching companies determine the best use for a multi-camera array. Take Nokia’s new five-camera system, which essentially compiles everything into one super-high-res shot. Here, however, the three lenses capture three different images. They are as follows:

Wide (Standard): 12 MP, 26mm Telephoto: 12 MP, 52mm Ultrawide: 16 MP, 12mm

The system is configured to let you seamlessly switch between lenses in order to capture a shot in a given situation. The telephoto can do 2x shots, while the ultrawide captures 123-degree shots. The 5G model, meanwhile, adds 3D-depth cameras to the front and rear, which is a pretty clear indication of where Samsung plans to go from here.

That said, the current setup is still quite capable of pulling off some cool depth tricks. This is no better exemplified than with the Live Focus feature, which applies a Portrait Mode-style bokeh effect around the objects you choose. The effect isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty convincing. Above is a shot I took on the MWC show floor and used in the led for a story about the HTC Vive.

There are some fun tricks as well, like the above Color Point effect. I’m not sure how often I’d end up using it, but damn if it doesn’t look cool.

All of that, coupled with new touches like wide-image panorama and recent advances like super-slow-motion and low-light shooting make for an extremely well-rounded camera experience. Ditto for scene identification, which does a solid job determining the differences between, say, a salad and a tree and adjusting the shooting settings accordingly.

Oh, and a low-key solid upgrade here are the improved AR Emojis, as seen above. They’re 1,000 times less creepy than the originals. I mean, I’m still not going to be sharing them with people unironically or anything, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Today’s Galaxy

The present moment is an exciting one for the mobile industry. There were glimmers of promise all over the MWC show floor and a week prior at Samsung’s own event. A stagnant industry has caused the big players to get creative, and some long-promised technologies are about to finally get real.

The Samsung Fold feels like a clear peek into the future of one of the industry’s biggest players, so it’s only natural that such an announcement would take some of the wind out of its flagship’s sails.

The S10 isn’t the smartphone of the future. Instead, it’s the culmination of 10 solid years of cutting-edge smartphone work that’s resulted into one of today’s most solid mobile devices.

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review Launching around the globe a few days ahead of the world’s largest mobile show was the ultimate big-dog move.