Entertainment
‘Lockdown has made me value my friendship’: Hollywood actress Lily James
Lily James has learned just how much she values her female friendships during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 32-year-old actress has grown close to her ‘The Pursuit of Love’ co-star Emily Beecham after filming the drama during lockdown, during which she reached out to all of her pals online, strengthening her bond with them all.
In an interview with Closer magazine, she said: “The endless Zooms we’ve had in lockdown have made us see what female friendship means to us and the impact on our lives. We all need each other. And ‘The Pursuit of Love’ is really about two girls and their friendship – they’re soul mates. I think girl friendships can be the most vital in your life.”
The BBC One series sees Lily as Linda Radlett and Emily as her best friend Fanny Logan, who set out to find their ideal husbands but get pulled apart as one settles for love and the other seeks something different from life.
However, Lily believes she has been both of the characters at a stage in her life when she has sought love and another time when she wanted something more.
She explained: “We all have Fanny and Linda within us – and at different points in your lives, you’re more Fanny or Linda. That’s what’s so powerful about the story – both these women are deeply relatable. You don’t have to be one or the other!”
What’s more, the series was one of the first shows that returned to filming following the first lockdown in the UK and the cast had to stick to very strict guidelines on set.
She said: “We all had coloured bands that told us what group or bubble we were in. So, if anyone did go out of it, you’d be isolated. There were no scripts and we weren’t allowed to touch anything someone else had touched. It was different with the actors, as we had to touch each other when filming. But it was very strict.”
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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