Entertainment
‘Hostiles’ is existential movie for me: Rosamund Pike
Los Angeles, Feb 12 (IANS) Actress Rosamund Pike says “Hostiles” is an existential movie with a simple story.
“I didn’t think of this as a genre film. This is very much an existential movie for me. The story is quite simple and yet there’s so much,” Pike said in a statement.
“The human landscape of it is vast. There’s tremendous interplay between these characters. They’ve all seen such darkness and it’s affected them in different ways,” she added.
Set in 1892, “Hostiles” stars Christian Bale as a captain who agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief (Wes Studi) and his family back home to tribal lands. The journey takes Bale and his detail from New Mexico to the grasslands of Montana. “Hostiles” is based on an original manuscript by the late Donald Stewart.
It is directed by Scott Cooper from his own script, and also stars Q’orianka Kilcher, Adam Beach, Rory Cochrane, Ben Foster, Jesse Plemons, Jonathan Majors and Timothee Chalamet. Brought to India by PVR Pictures, “Hostiles” will release in India on February 16.
Cooper also praised Pike, who plays character of Rosalee Quaid in the film.
“She has such a high emotional IQ. She’s the actress who always wants to take the character from one stage to something completely unexpected. She’s thinking at every moment of how she’ll relate to something that’s six, eight or ten minutes down the narrative,” Cooper said.
–IANS
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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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