Saturday coffee #232

This week hasn't been the busiest for news. So, there was information that Microsoft will buy the Netflix video service for 190

billion US dollars.Apparently, the guys looked at Apple from their TV + and decided that they also needed their own streaming service. But making it from scratch is long and troublesome, so it’s easier to buy a ready-made solution right away, especially if you don’t have a lot of money.

Nothing will release TWS headphones under its new sub-brand "Particles by XO". The headphones look quite exotic, however, it is not very clear why Nothing needs a sub-brand.

The network has images of Honor 80 GT, which should be presented on December 26.

On December 26, a series of RedMagic 8 Pro gaming smartphones based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor will be presented.

It became known that the presentation of the flagship smartphone OnePlus 11 will be held on February 7. Only now I wonder if the brand still has fans after all those changes in the company.

Miscellaneous

Affiliate material

Reality and prospects of the IT professions market

What professions are the most popular and highly paid?

Saturday coffee #232

Pour a cup of invigorating Saturday coffee andcheck out the news of the week. Alice will help you find a phone, full-size Soundcore headphones are on sale, VKontakte launched a joint video viewing, and Microsoft will buy Netflix ...

Opel Crossland test. Crossover for Europe

Opel Crossland is the second civilian, let's call it that, model of the German Opel brand, with which the manufacturer returned to the Russian market.

Review of e-book PocketBook 617

A budget reader from PocketBook in a classic style: without a touch screen, with a closed OS, but very light and fits in a jeans pocket.

And Evan Blass posted images of Motorola's ThinkPhone smartphone. An ordinary-looking device that exploits the theme of popular laptops.

We also published this week's material about Samsung:

What are the main problems of Samsung smartphones and when to expect a solution?

We analyze the problems of the former leader of the smartphone market, and set the deadlines for the solution.

Table of Contents

• About voice assistants and smart speakers
• Tele2 changes minutes to a discount
• Big Soundcore headphones and new content in Sound
• New hardware is inexpensive
• Video Sharing
• Best Products of the Year
• ...and dessert

About voice assistants and smart speakers

Last week, Yandex announced that now the voiceAlice's assistant will help you find your lost phone. The assistant can call the owner of the "Station" or smart TV, just ask: "Alice, where is my phone?" or say: "Alice, find my phone."

Alice calls the number that the owner of the smartconnected columns to his Yandex ID account when setting up the Station or installing other Yandex services. For example, Go or the Yandex with Alice application.

Pretty useful voice assistant option,which may be useful to someone. The call comes over the cellular network, so it will work almost anywhere. I checked this option myself, and it really works, however, it's funny that Kaspersky Who Calls detects an incoming call as a call from scammers.

On the subject of unwanted calls, we have published the following material:

Mintsifry against autodial, subscribers are happy, but banks are sad

Automatic dialing is prohibited, but banks indulge in it. Life stories and how Mintsifra wants to overcome this phenomenon. Spam that concerns each of us.

As for smart assistants and speakers with them, we released a review of the new “Neo Capsule” from VK this week:

Overview of the smart speaker "VK Capsule Neo" with disassembly

Inexpensive smart speaker with bright stickers included: a great gift for a child…

By the way, the column is very interesting, and, as I wroteafter the announcement, VK wants to make New Year sales with this gadget. The “Neo Capsule” is made of high-quality plastic, it’s nice that a power supply unit of the same color with a cable of the same color goes to the blue speaker. In the box with the device, you can find several sheets of bright stickers with which you can customize the device, which children love to do. My child immediately set to work and sealed the “Neo Capsule” with the maximum set of stickers. The only thing is that we made a mistake and did not look where the device has “eyes”, so after turning on the speaker we got a pirate. But on the other hand, we conducted a test in this way and it turned out that the stickers are quite easily removed from the device without leaving marks on the case, and later they can be re-glued to another area.

“Neo Capsule” sounds pretty good for thiscompact device, and the microphones located on the top are sensitive enough to recognize the quiet voice of a child from the opposite corner of the room. The “facial expression” of the speaker during communication looks cute and is liked by children. By the way, Marusya's voice assistant, in my opinion, has become quite wiser over the past year, so it no longer looks lagging behind in comparison with Alice. The only thing is that Marusya better understands phrases that are slightly different in structure than her competitor, so if you have previously communicated with another assistant, you will have to slightly reorganize in the process.

And so, in my opinion, “Capsule Neo” is veryan interesting product and is well suited as a New Year's gift to children, especially since the price of the column is quite reasonable and amounts to 3,490 rubles today.

Tele2 changes minutes to a discount

On New Year's Eve, Tele2 launchesa unique solution, according to him, for the telecom industry. The operator's subscribers can purchase smart devices at a favorable price by exchanging the accumulated minutes for a discount. As part of a special offer, Tele2 customers can exchange minutes for a discount on VK Capsule or VK Capsule Mini smart speakers with Marusya voice assistant and a new generation Wink+ TV set-top box.

To take advantage of the new promotion, the subscriberyou need to go to the “Manage minutes” section in your personal account or the Tele2 mobile application, select the section for exchanging minutes for a discount on smart devices, exchange minutes for a discount and receive a promotional code. The amount of the discount for one device is from 500 to 2,000 rubles. In this case, one minute is equal to one ruble. The maximum discount for one client is 12,000 rubles.

Logical development of the previous exchange promotionminutes accumulated by Tele2 subscribers for a discount. This time, the operator's customers got the opportunity to purchase smart devices, which are now in high demand, and besides, they can become a very useful gift for the upcoming holidays. I myself have accumulated decently minutes on the tariff there, it will be necessary to see what is more profitable to exchange them for.

Big Soundcore headphones and new content in Sound

Anker under the Soundcore brand introduced newSpace Q45 full-size wireless headphones. The sound in Space Q45 is answered by 40 mm drivers with a two-layer membrane made of silk and ceramics. The headphone noise reduction system is adaptive, it independently analyzes external noise and adjusts its work depending on its intensity. And according to the developers, it cuts off up to 98% of external sounds.

Soundcore Space Q45 headphones support codecLDAC. And in the Soundcore app, you can adjust the sound for yourself: 22 equalizer settings are available to users. According to the manufacturer, Space Q45 is able to work on a single charge for more than two days non-stop. And 5 minutes of charging will provide up to 4 hours of work.

Soundcore Space Q45 are already on sale at a price of 13,999 rubles.

An interesting new product from Anker, whichIt was not without reason that they brought Soundcore into a separate brand, since their audio products turn out to be at least interesting. I really liked the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro, for their money they are very good. I would like to believe that the Soundcore Space Q45 will also be of high quality and sound for all the money. If you have already tested this product, share your impressions in the comments.

Operators

Eldar Murtazin

Mixx subscription line from Tele2. A product for everyone, not just your own

Mixx subscriptions from Tele2, an offer for subscribers of all operators - a bargain purchase of a Premier cinema, 50 GB of traffic and much more. We look at the impact on the economy of the operator and the market.

Samsung KNOX - protecting your data from any hacking

Why you need to use the KNOX folder, how to do it right and why the average person needs it. We protect important information from any threats of a troubled world.

All new Oppo INNO Day: competitor for Samsung Galaxy Flip

Two new smartphones, a breakthrough in wireless audio, and a wellness egg for the whole family.

Tecno presentation: Sonic 1, Megabook T1 and Phantom X2/X2 Pro

Great wireless headphones, an affordable laptop and two unusual flagship smartphones…

More this week in the app and on the websiteHiFi-streaming service "Zvuk" has new New Year's content: an audio performance "The Story of Babar", a musical card with wishes from Russian stars and a new endless wave "Elkin Hit". If you have children, then I recommend listening to “The Story of Babar” with them, “Sound”, together with the podcast studio “Either-Or”, for the first time in Russian, voiced the book of the French writer Jean De Brunoff. I think you'll like it.

New hardware is inexpensive

This week in China was introducedSmartphone ZTE Nubia Z50. The device received a 6.67-inch FHD + OLED display with a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz. Inside is a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 8/12/16GB of fast LPDDR5X RAM, and 128/256/512/1024GB of the same fast UFS 4.0 persistent storage. The front camera in the device is 16 MP, the main double: 64 MP Sony IMX787 + 50 MP Samsung S5KJN1. Nubia Z50 5000mAh battery with 80W fast charging support.

The most interesting thing here, apart from the new hardware, isThe ZTE Nubia Z50 is priced at around $429 in the home market. It is clear that if the product receives a global version, then it will no longer meet this amount, but it will be interesting to buy such a smartphone for just over $400 from the home market.

And in Russia, TECNO opened a pre-order for a newflagship smartphone PHANTOM X2. The junior model of the line will be available for 44,990 rubles. The official start of sales of the flagship in Russia is scheduled for December 26. But there is no information about the appearance of the PHANTOM X2 Pro in our country yet, however, I like the visually ordinary X2 even more, and the price for it is more or less acceptable.

This week, we published a material about the smartphone market in Russia in 2022:

Results of 2022. Smartphone market in Russia - losers and winners

How the smartphone market has changed, what buyers choose. The fate of Apple and Samsung, how Xiaomi, realme, Tecno grew up. How the market is shaping up and what awaits us in 2023.

As well as a review of the new TECNO laptop, which is already available for sale:

TECNO Megabook T1 review: big but light

Screen 15.6 inches in the case of an ultrabook. A curious workstation for those who like to work comfortably away from the office.

Video Sharing

"VKontakte" launched joint viewingvideo content in VK Calls — with real-time reactions and no restrictions on the number of viewers. Any content posted on VK Video is available for viewing: films, series, shows, videos of bloggers and users.

And also "VKontakte" presented animatedvmoji: VK Calls users will be able to connect to meetings with personal avatars without turning on the video from the camera. Avatars support head movement, mouth animation during a conversation, and eye blinking - the technology reads the voice stream and adjusts the character's movements to the user's speech.

VK is now right on the horseback in terms of introducing newoptions, but they introduce not something completely innovative, but solutions already existing on the market, making, so to speak, full-fledged import substitution. The joint viewing function will certainly be of interest to a young audience, and earlier we saw a similar solution from the same Apple. Animated vmoji are also available in other similar products, so users get just a familiar tool in VK Calls.

Best Products of the Year

With my ranking of the best gadgets of 2022, II will share it in the next issue of Saturday Coffee. Here I want to ask you to write in the comments about the best, in your opinion, devices that appeared this year.

This week we released a selection of New Year's gifts in the price category up to 15,000 rubles:

New Year's Buyer's Guide 2022. Gifts up to 15,000 rubles

In today's issue: a robot vacuum cleaner, a smart watch, a wireless speaker, TWS headphones and a lot of good smartphones.

...and dessert

Today I want to recommend Andrew's book to youPolyakov "Press Tour", written in the genre of fantastic horror. I found out about this fictional novel at the time of its release, since Andrei is a colleague in the shop, but still could not get to it. And then something in the evening finally opened the book and unnoticed for himself immediately swallowed half.

And finally - our material about the Louvre in Abu Dhabi:

Louvre Abu Dhabi - space architecture by Jean Nouvel

One of the most unusual buildings in the world, the Louvre outside of Paris was created thanks to calculations and design on computers.

Saturday coffee #231

Pour a cup of invigorating Saturday coffee andcheck out the news of the week. OPPO introduced foldable smartphones, VKontakte released apps for smartwatches, Yandex made their own scooter, and Tinkoff is releasing a Tinkoff Pay sticker…

Saturday coffee #230

Pour a cup of invigorating Saturday coffee andcheck out the news of the week. Tecno has introduced flagship smartphones, Tele2 can buy your phone, Dyson has opened pre-orders for its headphones, and the first trailer for the new Transformers has appeared on the network ...

Saturday coffee #229

Pour a cup of fragrant Saturday coffee andcheck out the news of the week. Xiaomi's big presentation was cancelled, VK introduced a new smart speaker, Infinix brought colorful laptops, and Indiana Jones is back on the big screens...