Entertainment
Superstar Dileep collects passport from court for travel to Dubai
Kochi, Nov 27 (IANS) Malayalam superstar Dileep, currently out on bail in a case involving alleged kidnapping and sexual assault of an actress in February, on Monday collected his passport from the Angamaly magistrate court for his travel to Dubai.
Accompanying Dileep on his Dubai trip is his actress wife Kavya Madhavan and his daughter from his earlier marriage to actress Manju Warrier.
Last week the Kerala High Court permitted Dileep to travel to Dubai and directed the trial court to hand over his passport for six days and gave him permission to be in Dubai for four days, so as to enable him to take part in the inauguration of — Dhe Puttu — a restaurant that he co-owns with friend and actor Nadir Shah.
The two have a hugely successful – Dhe Puttu – that has been functioning here for a few years.
The High Court gave the nod for his travel despite stiff opposition from the prosecution and the police on the grounds that Dileep, after coming out on bail, had been trying to influence crucial witnesses in the case — a charge denied by the actor’s counsel.
The High Court nod came one day before the police probe team filed the final charge sheet in the case naming Dileep as the eighth accused in the case.
The court granted him travel permission but asked him to furnish all the details of his whereabouts once in Dubai and directed that no attempts should be made to influence the case.
Miffed by the actor getting permission to travel abroad, the police probe team according to sources is working to see if they can garner enough evidence to nail the superstar by approaching the court to cancel his bail.
Dileep was arrested on July 10 after the police found evidence to link him to the conspiracy angle in the kidnap case.
After 85 days in jail, he got conditional bail and has been on a religious sojourn.
The abduction of the popular actress took place in February when she was on her way from Thrissur to Kochi.
She was forcibly driven around in her vehicle for about two hours and allegedly molested before being dumped near an actor-director’s home.
The key accused — Pulsar Suni and his accomplices involved in the actual abduction — were arrested a week later.
–IANS
sg/rn
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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