Friday 29 July 2022

Keep Breathing (2022)

I thought this was going to be a survival story and to some degree it was, but it was much more a portrait of our main character as her current predicament is used by the writing team to enable reflection through much flashback, particularly in the second half. It's on Netflix and is a short 6-episode mini-series, each episode 30-40 minutes.

Liv is an unfriendly, hard-nosed corporate lawyer who finds it hard, or pointless even, to form relationships with anyone - at work or otherwise. She is played by the very pretty Mexican actress, Melissa Barrera (In the Heights, Scream) and does an excellent job of displaying many of the emotions and exasperation the character must have been feeling, stuck in the middle of nowhere.

She's been in a plane crash, you see, in amongst the forests and lakes of Canada. She was desperate to get to visit someone (who we later discover was her mum) and when her flight was cancelled, she begged for a ride on a small plane with a couple of hoods, as it turns out, who were clearly tied up with money and drugs. The flight has not been logged, the two characters with her don't survive the crash for long and so nobody knows she's there.

She's on her own. Which, as it turns out, is a large reflection tool used throughout as we discover that she's been left on her own specifically during her childhood, but also in her recent life by those around her. The little girl who plays her as a child is equally pretty, the young Spanish actress Joselyn Picard.

Most of the 'action' takes place in the first half of the show and is directed by Maggie Kiley. As we get into episodes 4-6, things slow down to a large degree. There's plenty of those flashbacks and even Liv hallucinating as she loses strength and reflects more on her life and childhood. There's a switch of director at this point, to Rebecca Rodriguez.

As more information is uncovered about her background, in the style of Lost, we find out much more about not only her childhood, but her recent past too. We discover the reasons why she's like she is. From a very difficult childhood where she felt abandoned and lost and we start to see the parallel with the present dilemma, being abandoned and lost.

She reflects on what went on with her mother, the trauma with her father too, but also how she mistreated a current suitor, bed-partner and work colleague played by Jeff Wilbusch. She's had to act independently throughout her life and here's an unwelcome opportunity for her to rely on her resolve, skills and wits to come out the other side. We're not encouraged to like the Liv character. She's nasty to people and it's only as the story unfolds that we're permitted to warm more to her.

There are plenty of dumb things that she does in her plight, inconsistencies, events and unlikely decisions made - and they could have gone two ways with the outcome. A nice neat Hollywood ending or one which is much more likely realistic given the situation. I won't tell you which is chosen but whichever it is, the strings are pulled together nicely for the viewer in what we learn about Liv, what life has been for her and if she were to survive, what it could be like. Yes, there are also flash-forwards which she sees (or rather hopes for)!

Watch it for the very good performance of Barrera. It's quite moving in parts, thrilling in others, but tight too - especially in terms of the flashbacks. They involve few people but tell the viewer much. Watch it also for the scenery which the series makes the most of in terms of cinematography and setting. It seems to have got bad press so far, but I really enjoyed it, was moved by it in places and particularly enjoyed the performance of the main leads.

The Essex Serpent (2022)

This is a mystery/drama/love story which centres around a widow from London who's passion is following up on the discoveries of Charles Darwin by trying to find and classify fossils in the landscape. There's a mystery brewing in Essex at the same time where it is alleged that there's a sea serpent lurking in the waters, bring bad luck and horror to a coastal community there who rely on fishing for their livelihood.

When she, her son and live-in maid arrive in Essex, she meets the local pastor who is at a crossroads in his life, questioning his faith and looking for something other than what he has. The locals are hugely religious and believe that this curse of the serpent, with which they are whipping each other up into a frenzy, is the devil sent to punish them. Er, for something. This part of it plays out a bit like a witch-hunt which our pastor hero tries hard to derail!

Anyway, back in London, Cara, the widow, meets a cocky young doctor who is the talk of the town, carrying out progressive surgery on patients and pushing the boundaries of medicine, when his bosses let him get away with his experimentation. This part of it plays out a bit like Frankenstein! He falls in love with Cara, the pastor falls in love with Cara, the doctor's side-kick falls in love with Cara's maid, who in turn is trying to change social housing for deprived people via the Socialist Party! A potential love-triangle in a love triangle! Keeping up?!

It's an interesting enough story to keep the attention for 6 episodes of about 50 minutes each, but it didn't need to be any longer - so good choice by Apple TV. The five main leads are excellent in their roles, especially Tom Hiddleston (The Night Manager, The Deep Blue Sea) as the pastor and Claire Danes (Homeland, The Hours, Romeo + Juliet) as Cora. Supporting confidently are Clémence Poésy (In Bruges, The Tunnel) playing the pastor's long-suffering wife Stella, Hayley Squires (In the Earth, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain) as Martha the maid and appropriately annoyingly, Frank Dillane (In the Heart of the Sea, How to Build a Girl) as the young doctor.

It plays out like something of a cross between a period drama, love story, soap opera and statement on the social times of the day, which I think is set in about turn of the century Victorian times. It's quite slow at times and relies on the excellent acting by the main players to keep it moving along. The sets are appropriate for time and place, social differences highlighted between the haves and have-nots at every turn and the deep-rooted suspicion people have for each other comes through aplenty.

There are some twists and turns, but this is not gripping viewing particularly. The cinematography is excellent however and it's worth a watch to focus in some the very well played out interactions between the leads. It's not quite Upstairs Downstairs - it feels a bit more 'liberated' than that, but you'll get that impression. Don't take out an AppleTV subscription to watch it, but do catch it when it comes along elsewhere. It would fit perfectly on BBC on Sunday evenings!

Monday 25 July 2022

Dylda (Beanpole) 2019

Beanpole (original title Dylda) is the story of two friends struggling through the aftermath of post-WWII in Leningrad (St Petersburg), returning from the front-line and now working in a hospital as nurses to help recovering soldiers. It's a work by the relatively inexperienced and young 
Kantemir Balagov from southern Russia.

One of the two girls is very tall, leading to the title of the film and has been previously invalided out of the army due to trauma suffered. She now suffers from some kind of periodic 'blackouts' where she freezes. Those around her are clearly used to coping with this difficulty. There's one tragic scene where this problem reveals itself with a dreadful outcome. Her name is Iya and her role is amazingly portrayed by little-known actor Viktoria Miroshnichenko.

Her friend is called Masha and she's more recently returned from the front-line, desperate to see her son, who she had to leave behind. She's played with equal talent by the even less-known Vasilisa Perelygina. Masha is much more world-wise than Iya and does what she can to get pregnant again - and when she can't, tries to talk Iya into be a surrogate mother for her to have another child.

In amongst all this, we see the terrible poverty and destruction around the characters as soldiers in their care struggle for life - and in some cases cry out for the doctors and nurses to put them out of their misery. This brings us to another interweaving thread of the story and the main doctor, Nikolay, who introduces the whole euthanasia issue, rights and wrongs, moral groundwork etc. He supports the main players very well, too, portrayed by another unknown actor, Andrey Bykov.

The last main character is a young lad who Misha tries to hook up with as a possible husband and/or father of the child she so wants. He's from a relatively rich family and there's one scene where he takes her back to the family home for dinner. The scene reflects many of the differences in attitudes between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'. Those with power and position and those scrabbling around in the gutter to survive. The young chap is called Sasha and is played by Igor Shirokov with some conviction, spoilt brat in some scenes, playboy around town in some and devoted potential partner in others.

There's a colourful theme running through the film. Lots of green. Rich greens. And reds. Apparently the director is quoted as saying that the reds are about the blood of wounds, reflecting the wounded lives and devastated society, damaged by the harrowing situation while the greens are about hope for the future and being alive. It could well have been shot in black and white, given the subject matter, but colour was used to portray a different message of contrast - the terrible past/present and future growth. You can see where these colours are used in various scenes to reflect that and it works well.

The film is a harrowing study of these people, destroyed by what has gone before and giving us an insight into how they have to live now. It focuses mainly on the intense but exploitative friendship between the two girls but also reaches out to a wider group of people, social issues and challenges faced by all the characters. It's amazingly well acted (especially by the two leads), beautifully shot by the more experienced cinematographer Ksenia Sereda (Chernobyl: Abyss) and wonderfully directed. Clearly Bagagov has a rich career ahead of him.

I was able to see this on the Mubi channel but I note that it can also be streamed on some other services. Very highly recommended and worth a watch.

Poco F4 GT

My ears prick up whenever my nose gets a sniff of someone pushing things forward with speakers on phones. The HTC One (M7, M8), Marshall London, Razer Phone, ZTE Axon 7, a Zenphone here and there - over the years OEMs have tried, but even powerhouse Gaming Phones don't always cut it. This is why I was keen to see how the new Poco F4 GT measured up.

There's much more to a phone than speakers and sound of course - in fact, many have no interest in speakers in this world of cheap and good Bluetooth options and perhaps they have a point - so I was also keen to see what the Poco offered as a phone for general use too. I'm no serious Gamer, but will try to appraise the features here for those who might be in this kind-of gaming phone which feels more like something of a hybrid. An 'ordinary' phone which would appeal to some lower-level Gamers - perhaps like me!

The bright yellow box with black trim it arrived in is presumably a nod to motor sport, taking into account the GT bit in the name and those Gaming leanings. You get the phone, a simple but very well-fitting clear TPU case, a 120W charging brick (which I'll come to), a very long USB-A to USB-C cable (with a right-angled plug on the end to plug into the phone so it gets out of the way of Gamers' hands), the usual paperwork and pokey-pin for SIM Tray and also a simple-looking USB-C to 3.5mm audio-plug adapter. Yes, you guessed it, there's no traditional audio-out port. There's a pair of basic-looking wired earphones here too - 3.5mm on one end (so not USB-C), in-ear-canal style speakers on the other and an in-line 'remote' controller in the wire. Good box contents compared to many these days.

I have the 256GB version here with 12GB RAM but there's also a 128GB version with 8GB RAM in some regions too. There's no microSD Card slot here, so users choose carefully. The 'proper' price here in the UK is £699 but at PSC Towers here Steve Litchfield was able to snag this for £399 on an Amazon Prime Day! On the face of it, £300 off and a real bargain. This one is Stealth Black in colour, but there's also Knight Silver or a Cyber Yellow one floating about if you can find them. We fancied a yellow one, but sadly we couldn't get one. Still, the conservative black is much less lairy!

The phone itself is not small but because of pretty small bezels around the screen, it seems to defy its 6.67" screen size. It feels very classy with an aluminium frame, glass front and back (Gorilla Glass Victus on the front) and a hefty 210g in weight. Of the phones I have kicking around here at the moment, it's very comparable in size to the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE but a tad fatter. There's no official IP-rating here so user beware.

Much of the phone is orientated 'sideways', though not to make it more a like a 'proper' camera (and encourage landscape photography) this time, but more to acknowledge the Gaming leanings, assuming that this will mostly be executed in landscape with a hand at each end. This notion is clearly supported by the inclusion of physical, magnetically-controlled pop-up 'triggers' (which I'll come to) where the index fingers will fall when held this way. There are accents and design elements across the back which suggest 'forward' and 'speed' many in 'V' shapes, even surrounding the camera island, top-right in landscape, which sticks out about a millimetre.

Printed on the back are the words 'speediest' and 'freezing' (whatever they mean). If you get your magnifying glass out you can read them, each side of the camera and next to the LED Notification lights which can be assigned in terms of colour (on a sliding scale), frequency for incoming calls, notifications and in gaming. You can also schedule it if you like (perhaps to not do it at night). Nice touch, but it'd be much more useful on the front!

On the same 'top' side of the device alongside the triggers is a capacitive fingerprint scanner/power button. On the opposite side we have the volume rocker (so 'bottom' when Gaming) and a SIM Card Tray. On the bottom is a USB-C port and - here's where the fun starts - two of the four 'stereo' speakers (which I shall certainly come to) with the other identical pair up the top (so in landscape, they're towards the top, on the sides, just under the index fingers on the triggers.

The 6.67" front panel is an AMOLED one which can refresh at 120Hz. It's decently colourful and bright, but not up there with my Motorola Edge+ which I consider to be the Gold Standard these days. It's got a 20:9 ratio, is 1080p, so not the 1440 or more that Gamers might be looking for, and returns 395ppi. It feels as though some corners have been cut here to keep the price down, not trying to compete with ROG Gaming phones, for example - rather keeping in the company of the likes of Black Shark. It's really fine enough though and outside in sunlight I can still happily see/use it.

The colours can be adjusted in the usual ways, Vivid, Saturated etc. with temperature adjustments, cool, warm and so on - as usual I don't see much difference between them, but then I can't see the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates still (I'll take the battery-saving), whatever I'm doing on phones these days and however much further I sink into my minority bucket amongst my tech-orientated friends! Anyway, here's a tip for you - remove the nasty factory-fitted screen protector as soon as you get it out of the box! It makes the screen horribly unresponsive - you'll wonder what's wrong with the thing and send it back! It's got Victus glass anyway, so I really don't see the point. Without it, the screen is beautifully responsive.

The phone is powered by the SnapDragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm) chipset and it simply flies in every department. I have played some gaming, car-racing to test for example, and there's not a jitter or judder anywhere in the experience. I realise that hard-core gamers will push it harder than me, but reports from users seem to say that there's no lag anywhere. The one thing that more of them are complaining about is the generated heat. That powerful chipset when in flight is clearly working very hard and even with my level of use have found this to be true - it does get warm sometimes, though not silly-hot. There is an advanced cooling system (dual vapour chambers) built into the phone, so I dread to think how hot it'd get without that in action!

The 12GB RAM keeps much of the phone's previously-used apps running, only interrupted by optimisations available to Gamers when in the 'Game Turbo' mode. As we've seen on other gaming phones, a dedicated monitor area and panel to switch off all sorts of other phone settings to concentrate on the matter in hand. Performance optimisation, WiFi speed boost, battery management, you get the idea. If you need more RAM, the phone does offer the 'virtual' RAM extension system which is becoming popular, by borrowing 3GB from the storage and using that dynamically. 12GB not enough? Really?

The shoulder triggers are beautifully designed. They have little sliders next to each and pop up just a millimetre - enough to use comfortably and assign to functions in games without having use on-screen buttons. They 'click' delightfully and during games which will make the most of them (many don't) they are an interactive dream. They lend themselves to first-person-shooters where the left might be 'aim' and the right, 'fire', for example. Some games give more control than others but few only rely on two buttons, so there will also be some on-screen touches needed. They're pretty pointless with many other games like pool, pinball, golf or Angry Birds for example - sadly the kind of general limit of my gaming prowess! This is probably not the phone's primary feature for me! But I can imagine it would be just fabulous for the right gamer playing the right games. And they are gorgeous! Oh, there's also a wild vibration motor in the phone which will do loads to enhance gameplay too.

You can also assign the two triggers for general use outside of gaming, but I'm not sure who would use that functionality. You can assign each to a launch a limited number of functions: camera, record a video, record the screen, record audio, turn on the torch, invoke Silent Mode or control the Vibrate. You have double-press and press-and-hold for each button so from that list clearly four of the functions can be assigned. The problem here though is that before you press it, you have to also slide the catch, so every function actually involves 'opening' the button first. I guess it could be useful for an emergency torch - move the slider by feel in the dark, then press it (instead of fumbling around on the screen).

The four speakers are arranged symmetrically as I said earlier. There's a Woofer and a Tweeter at each end of the phone, so technically 4 speakers, and they sound great to me. I was really very impressed with the sound output. Testing here with a mix of tunes it does pretty well with bass but more delightfully with the mid-tones. Solo piano, classical and jazz sound great. Loud, rich and with body. As always, everyone's ears are different, everyone's leaning towards the sounds they like will influence how much you like it, but for me it's super.

I put it up here against the best-sounding phones I have to hand, the Motorola Edge+ and Sony Xperia 5ii. The Poco is louder with better bass/general 'tone' than the Sony, though I do really like the clean reproduction of piano on the Sony. I was close to calling it a draw with the Edge+ though I think that maybe the Poco has a tad more bass even though I do prefer the mid-tones again of the Edge+ like the Sony.

All three are pretty close in many ways. I lean towards those mid-tones, but when gamers are wanting to rumble through a game's sounds, I can see why they'd prefer the Poco. It's a great sounding phone and I'm very impressed. The stereo balance is very well tuned, soundstage wide enough for arms-length use and the system-wide Dolby does give the user further enhancements - available for head/earphone use and the speakers.

Headphone use is not terribly impressive with the supplied 3.5mm dongle and my usual reference AKG K701 headphones. I get the impression that although the reproduction is fine, the target user here won't be impressed with the top volume and will want to get enhanced DAC of some sort involved. Furthermore, when I tried my 32-bit enhanced-DAC dongle the output was just the same as with the supplied one. We conclude that Poco is somehow rendering the use of enhanced audio via the USB-C port invalid. Bit of a mystery. Clearly the "24-bit/192kHz audio tuned by JBL" doesn't apply here. Turning to Bluetooth and the experience is excellent, as we have now come to expect. Bluetooth 5.2, pairing up quickly and easily, job done. I guess they're expecting gamers to adopt that route. They might be wrong though!

Apart from the shoulder triggers, the other selling point here is the fast charging. And that's a serious understatement! It's a 4,700mAh battery but apparently it's been split into two halves. So presumably 2,350mAh x 2. This has been done in order to make all the electronics work to gain this ludicrously fast charging speed - 0-100% in 17 minutes! Furthermore, the 120W charger to achieve this is supplied in the box. Here, it's still in the box (to protect resale value) and I've not used it, but I have seen online other people proving quite clearly that it does work. I do have a 100W charger here and I got it to charge in under half an hour.

Unlike the Oppo SuperVOOC charging solution that relies on their own charger and their own cable being used every time to get good charging speeds, it's clear that this is not the case here as it works with my GaN UGreen one and generic cable. The bad news is that there's no wireless charging here, but frankly, when I have speeds like this perhaps it's time to turn tail on my long-held position on the matter! I do think that wireless charging is the way to go still though - otherwise how are they going to make the portless, buttonless slab of glass phone!

Battery performance
has not been been the best in my tests here. One evening I left it on 50% battery, connected to WiFi but not cellular, 12 hours later it was dead without me touching it. As always, it depends what you're doing with the phone as to how it's going to perform. I was just about getting through a day with my average use and the result of my 10% Reading Test was about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Not the best, but then when you get in the shower it can get a blast of power, by the time you've finished, it's full again! Maybe fast charging really is going to be a game-changer. Here, in more ways than one!

The side-mounted fingerprint scanner is just perfect. The user can set it to 'touch' or 'press'. Some users were complaining that when set to 'touch' accidental brushes executed the action, but I haven't found that here in my use and I do prefer using it that way. Capacitive and physical of course, entry first-time, every-time. There's also a supporting face unlock too for those who want/trust it, both systems are quick and easy to set up.

I mentioned the storage earlier on and lack of microSD to expand that. You can of course plug in portable storage to the USB-C 3.1 port and copy stuff across or run media from the external source. I was disappointed to discover that there's no HDMI-Out support either. I know I'm in a huge minority here, but I do like to be able to plug my phone into my TV with a cable and not rely on streaming, having to use/rely on connectivity always. Not possible here. You can 'cast' of course, but in my experience that tends to try and find a way to 'stream' if it possibly can - and even if it can't find a way and resorts to playing locally stored content, there are usually lag/latency issues with lip-sync etc. I did use VLC for Android at one point and adjust the 'audio delay' to compensate, but it's a right fiddle!

There's a rubber-sealed Dual SIM Card slot of the back-to-back variety and cellular connectivity seems to be of good quality, both ends report. Data seems to be fine too over 4G (I can't test 5G where I live) and WiFi, having tested it on two different routers. WiFi 6 is present but I can't test that I'm afraid either. I do live out in a remote neck of the woods! Not too far out to know that the GPS works well enough though locking on and maintaining a good signal via various apps which make use of it. NFC is present and appears to work well for connecting to other gear and users can of course use Google Pay (now Wallet) in the shops with ease. There's even an Infrared port here for those who need to hijack a hotel-room TV for the night!

The camera is stacked-out with options as they try to make up for the fairly basic set on offer. There's a 
64MP f/1.9 main shooter, 8MP f/2.2 wide-angle, 2MP f/2.4 macro and 20MP f/2.4 Selfie round the front which, incidentally, sits in a punch-hole top-centre. It's small and not terribly intrusive (especially with a dark wallpaper), so much so that I almost forgot to mention it! Steve Litchfield appraised the main camera as being not bad at all. There's no optical zoom or OIS but in decent-enough light it was producing acceptable enough photos for a gaming-centric phone.

The options in the camera software really are plentiful and gives the user many bells, whistles, knobs and dials to play with! The one I was hope for more with was the Macro functionality but sadly the close-focus really isn't very close compared to many from the tiny 2MP snapper. It would have been nice to see that Macro lens replaced with an optical zoom. Oh well. Plenty else though and I was taking plenty of decent photos in good light. I'm going to do my usual trick here and point readers to the GSMArena rundown of the camera as they know what they're talking about and I don't!

My last port of call here is potentially the biggest, but most subjective one. MiUI software thickly overlaying Vanilla Android. I do understand that these phone systems rely very much on what you get used to, what you like, evolving with a fork/branch of Android - and how adaptable the person is. All the below, then, comes with that caveat and is a personal view from someone who is most at home with a clean Android implementation from the likes of Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Fairphone et al. Before I go on, just to say that Android 12 is installed here with MiUI 13 and (as I write at nearly the end of July 2022) May 2022 Google Security.

There's an Always on Display. Great! It's not the 10-second limited nobbled one of the Xiaomi Note 10S. Great! It stays on if you want it to. Well, actually it doesn't. Because there's one situation where it just goes off, even if set to always-on. If the phone detects that the environment is dark for about 10 minutes. Then it goes off. Pah! They almost got there, then snatched away the 'bedside clock' option. During the night, charging, it just goes off if it's dark. Sigh. Always on AMOLED to the rescue.

Here's the list of software, services and apps which are pre-installed on the phone. Firstly the ones which are uninstallable: Genshin Impact (game), Agoda, Booking(dot)com, Compass, FaceBook, Joom Shopping (whatever that is), Mi Browser, Mi Remote, Notes, Recorder, Spotify, Weather and Scanner. Now the ones which are not uninstallable: Calculator, Cleaner, Clock, Downloads, File Manager, Gallery, Mi Video, Music, Security, Services and Themes. There's so much doubling-up of Google's core services and Apps that I can't see why, like the aforementioned OEMs above, they can't just use Google's. Some of theirs are very similar and even if you choose to use them, you can't get rid of the Google ones. Anyway, I did warn you that this was subjective - I'm sure the next person would point out how great Xiaomi's apps are over Google's. Moving on...

There are nags here, there and everywhere to sign up to a Mi account, use their Cloud service, there are also adverts (often full-page) inside some of their apps. The system also defaults to three-button navigation (with the Back button on the wrong side) and they put on their Nanny's uniform now and again making users wait for 10 seconds to execute an action with an 'OK' button greyed out for the duration. Treating users like children. Surely an 'are you sure' dialogue would suffice. Annoying.

The Homepages UI doesn't allow for the insertion of 'pages'. So, if you accidentally don't leave at least one item on a page, the page disappears and you have to then copy all the items from one page to another, leaving one in place, to retain that page. Come on Poco - a simple overview and 'plus' button would do it! On a positive note, there is the option to use the Google Feed to the left of the 'home' page. Hurrah!

So now we have the iOS copy of Control Panel. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm sure some people will like it (especially coming from Apple) but really? Swipe down from the right for Control Panel and from the left for the Android Notification Shade? Thankfully, this can be turned off and users can get back to the usual way it works. Dots on App icons is next (or Badges as they call them)! The only way to remove them (that I can find) is app-by-app, one-by-one. There's no global setting. Tedious time-waste. Incidentally, they have also gone their own way on not adopting Android 12's bigger-button iOS-style Notification Shade options. They get a point back there - well done!

I think these are my main niggles, apart from the Settings being in complete disarray, nothing like the standard Android. I get that people with long-term use of the system will get to know where things are, but that doesn't excuse the lousy search-engine which just doesn't find things and makes the user drill through manually, even when the search-string is perfect. Anyway, there's loads to like here so let's move on...

Notification (Edge) lighting works really nicely to alert the user to incoming messages or whatever is set. Very Samsung, very nicely done, though not as many options. A bit like the Sidebar for those who want to add Apps to a pull-out panel. This seems very popular and most OEMs seem to be adding their variation on Samsung's Edge Panel.

Recents
is (for some reason) arranged in a grid formation instead of the simpler carousel, but OK. From here you can invoke 'split screen' which works well enough. File Manager works well enough but is really a copy of Google's Files app, Floating Windows is present, the Security App does what you'd expect, scanning the phone for potential issues and reporting back on findings, offering to clean things up, optimise, boost speed and so on, and so on, and so on.

There really are tons of software options to explore within MiUI 13 which some people will love, others will get confused about and some just ignore and get on with using the phone's apps! Probably good advice. Don't try and understand what's going on, just use your apps and be done with it! I'm being flippant, of course. There has clearly been much work and effort put into the design and style of this overlay and we haven't touched on user-generated offerings inside Themes or their idea of video 'shorts' and online content present in Mi Video. As I often say, if I had to use a phone with a UX like this for a couple of years, I'd get on with it and learn how to make the most of it. Perhaps I'm not the best person to be appraising the software experience!

However, I do like the hardware. It's got oodles of style, class and interesting features. I really like the sound from the speakers, the classy trigger buttons (even if limited use to me), the boxy design, great build, nice enough OLED panel and fabulous, addictive 120W charging! It's a really nice package - perhaps not for me personally, but for someone deep-diving into learning to use and live with the way things are done on the Poco, gaming and playing media. It's a great device. I'm really not sure that I would value it at the RRP of £699 (though I see it's already now down to £649 in some outlets), but for £399 for the right person, it's an awful lot for a great price. For £699 I'd like to see wireless charging and a 2 x Zoom in the camera setup at least, but it just depends how much a hard-core gamer is going to value the great sound and lovely triggers.

Sunday 17 July 2022

The Outfit (2022)

If you ever saw a film that looked like it was a stage play, then this is it! Apart from a few exterior shots of the front of the shop, it's all inside the shop, tightly held together as if live theatre. And a tidy little show it would be for an evening out as it verges on a whodunit!

It's the story of an English tailor with a past, running his shop in 1950's Chicago. Apparently trying to mind his own business, making top-quality suits for anyone with enough cash to afford his prices. Which inevitably means dealing with mobsters and other dubious characters.

Like any good whodunit, there are twists and turns along the way as the audience is left to guess which of the very few players has done this, that and the other - the elements which make up a plot involving much double-crossing, the FBI, rat-weedling, nasty people, nasty deeds and with some surprise outcomes surviving. As always with these tight dramas, the audience will be suspecting everyone from the outset, but it seems to conquer that anyway. Like a cross between a Hitchcock film, Patricia Highsmith play and Agatha Christie book!

Graham Moore holds things together here as director, having previously penned a very successful 2014 outing in The Imitation Game, here working alongside actor Johnathan McClain. Oscar winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) plays the tailor Leonard, present in pretty much every scene (or Act) superbly well - the calm person in control as chaos unfolds around him! He holds the story together well and the elements fall into place as he conducts like a maestro.

Zoey Deutch (The Professor) is very capable and engaging as Mable, Leonard's secretary/receptionist, Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner) and Johnny Flynn (The Beast) equally as the 'sons' of mob boss and 'dad' Roy, played briefly but well by Simon Russell Beale (Operation Mincemeat, Operation Finale). There's a short but punchy appearance by Nikki Amuka-Bird (Old, Gold Digger) as the rival mob's head, pulling together a small team bringing us a very enjoyable story.

It is claustrophobic of course, which adds to the tension, the set is beautifully detailed to reflect the era and atmosphere is added aplenty by the winter setting, cold and snow falling outside. I would recommend a viewing if you can, currently available via various streaming services, but don't read any spoilers so you can enjoy the ride!

The Deep House (2021)

Available via various streaming services/rental now. It's a kind of low-budget'ish horror/thriller about a couple who are looking to make a killing on social media by seeking out spooky, interesting and/or mysterious underwater locations then posting their footage for hits. They rock up in France and one of the leering locals shows them a spot where they'll find a very interesting house under a lake, which was flooded at some point in the not-too-distant past.

They tag along and get their gear out, start the dive, find the house - but also much more than they bargained for, which is where the 'horror' bit comes in with spooks aplenty. Say no more! The two leads' characters are really annoying, maybe purposefully, she an irritating whinger with no spunk that you'd expect from someone trained to deal with tricky underwater situations - and he, cocky overconfident, teaser and bore - the kind of bloke you'd avoid at a party.

Anyway, it's an interesting enough yarn - you'll see the plotline coming from way off of course and be annoyed that if you're in it for the spooks and horror, you'll probably be disappointed as most of it, well, just doesn't really work underwater. The chaos of bubbles and movement every time something looks like being scary kills it dead.

It's OK though - there's a dollop of tension thrown in here and there. A very simple and straightforward short film which amuses for a while! I didn't know anyone in it (though the two leads Camille Rowe and James Jagger seem to have a number of previous appearances elsewhere), nor any of the direction or production team. The creators Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury seem to have done a number of similar things in France.

Friday 1 July 2022

PodHub UK Podcasts for the Month of June 2022

  ...a roundup of our month of podcasting. Links to the team, communities and podcast homes on the net at the foot, so scroll down!

Projector Room
Episode 113 - Maverick Moonfall
Wednesday 1st June
The gang is back again with a natter about all things film, cinema and TV. Gareth, Allan Gildea and I pick up your thoughts and reviews as well as bringing our own stuff. We visit Poland for our location and view Silverton Siege in Private Screening. Tom's Top Gun protrudes whilst Moonfall amazes and Candyman scares nobody!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 698 - The Folding Future
Saturday 4th June
Steve and I are back this weekend with YouTube star of the Duo Shane Craig from the good ol' USofA! We do some more deep diving on foldables, pros and cons, where Microsoft are going with this and plenty more besides.

Tech Addicts Podcast
Sunday 5th June
Peep-ho! Back again. Gareth and I with another tantalising trail through tech! This week we go Bananas about Honor-able Sharks, Raleigh around computerised bikes, square up to monitors, Lookout for Amplifiers and bellyache about Bing!

Whatever Works
Episode 164 - Limey Condom Soup!
Friday 10th June
Aidan and I welcome back Steve this time so we catch up with Whatever Works in his life as well as yours. And ours! Desalination, limescale, Polar split-keys and nylon Gucci - it's all here and much more! ...oh, don't forget that we're having a summer break in a fortnight, so we'll be back in 4 weeks!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 699 - Penultimate Ponderings
Saturday 11th June
Steve and I bring you this week's musings as we welcome back Mark Swidler for a chat and drop in a pre-record we had with Aidan about his new Astro Slide. Plus lots of other goodies as always - and phones being boring slabs not mentioned once. Well, except here now!

Projector Room
Episode 114 - Jurassic Invasion
Wednesday 15th June
Allan, Gareth and I are back again with our fortnightly roundup of all things film, cinema and TV. We go dinosaur mad with a Spaced Out Invasion, get the Tunis blues and look at the Stranger Things of Berlin!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 700 - Beautiful Dorset
Saturday 18th June
James Burland is our guest this week as he tells us all about how he uses Apple products in his life and brings news of his newly-launching imaging service. Plenty of other stuff too, of course, so why not join the fun with Steve and I.

Tech Addicts Podcast
Sunday 19th June
We're back! Gareth and I toy with tons of tech again as we chew over the week's findings. We Marshall in new Ikea Turntables, wonder about Windmills over Solar, Type out a naughty report for Three on a Silver Reed, try new Calendars and Email clients and oodles more!

Phones Show Chat
Saturday 25th June
Steve and I welcome back Marton Barcza of Tech Altar to chat about all things mobile phone and beyond as we Altar the landscape! Loads of topics and news to cover, so do join us.

Tech Addicts Podcast
Sunday 26th June
Gareth and I are here for a Dizzy look at turbulent tech tinctures this week! MOZI havit but NZXT just conducts us. Invite madness deserves Nothing, or not, Micron has bigger Micros and we also bang on about a couple of tablets not worth mentioning! You can waste a couple of hours with us if you like or go paste your thermals!

Projector Room
Episode 115 - Off Season Ottoman
Wednesday 29th June
The movie mashers are back for another fortnightly roundup, so why not join Gareth, Allan and I for 90 minutes. We visit Strange New Worlds, Uncharted, grab some loot in Korea and end up in a Great Raid at Manila. Plenty of True Things, sharks and even piranhas!

Sony WH-CH720N: First Impressions

These arrived today and it's first impressions time. They're currently £78 at AmazonUK but I got them used at a very generous price ...