Entertainment
Actress Maureen O’Hara dies at 95
Los Angeles: Irish actress Maureen O’Hara, who starred in a series of American films, including “Miracle on 34th Street”, “The Quiet Man” and “The Parent Trap”, is no more. She was 95.
One of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s golden age, the actress was often described “fiery”, and she displayed her versatility in such works as “How Green Was My Valley” and “Our Man in Havana”. She died on Saturday at her home in Boise, Idaho, and is survived by a daughter and a grandson, as per reports.
O’Hara’s movie career began thanks to Charles Laughton.
While she was still a teenager, he viewed a screen test she had made and he and partner Erich Pommer signed her on to a seven-year contract with their company, Mayflower Films.
O’Hara had small roles in a couple of English films made in 1938 but made her first significant bigscreen appearance was in Alfred Hitchcock’s Gothic actioner “Jamaica Inn,” starring Laughton.
She worked with directors ranging from Hitchcock to Chris Columbus, but is best remembered for her works with John Ford, particularly in her pairings with John Wayne, such as “Quiet Man.”
She was one of the few Wayne co-stars who could prove her match in screen presence.
Her “Quiet” character is prideful and stubborn, strong and intelligent, the emblematic O’Hara role.
One of her best performances was in the 1940 proto-feminist film “Dance Girl Dance,” directed by Dorothy Arzner and also starring Lucille Ball.
In 2014, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presented her with an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards.
O’Hara was born Maureen FitzSimons in Ranelagh, a suburb of Dublin.
Along with several of her siblings, she received training in drama and dance. She began appearing in amateur theatre at the age of 10, and at 14 she was accepted to the Abbey Theater, where she began pursuing classical theatre and operatic singing.
O’Hara made her last screen appearance in the 2010 Irish documentary “Dreaming the Quiet Man.”
Her autobiography, ” ‘Tis Herself,” was published in 2004. In April 2014 the actress appeared at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood.
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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