Samsung’s head of mobile, D.J. Koh, said that the company plans to release a new foldable phone every year in select markets, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News.
The report claims that the first foldable Samsung smartphone will be released in the first half of next year. Notably, it will not be part of the company’s popular Galaxy S or Galaxy Note series. Instead, the company will launch a brand new series for the foldable phones called the “Galaxy F” series.
Samsung’s foldable phones were long-rumored to be one of the company’s greatest innovations in the increasingly saturated smartphone market. The phone is rumored to be vastly different — and certainly more intentionally bendable — than anything available from chief rivals Apple and LG.
It sounds a little screwy, but this type of device might actually be really helpful if it works as intended. The device would essentially work like a tablet that folds in half. When folded, the front pane of glass will be a regular smartphone-sized display.
But, when users want to indulge or use their phones for more serious work tasks, they could then unfold their phones into a full-sized tablet. The mobile front display would become inactive to reveal the tablet-sized display in all it’s glory. Plus, it’s worth noting that the display would not have any breaks on the binding. It would, indeed, be one large display.
Samsung’s new “Galaxy F” smartphones will unfold into a full-sized tablet.
Koh says that Samsung’s first foldable smartphone will ship in the first half of 2019 “no matter what.” The yearly unveils, and that determination, indicates that Samsung views this new device as another flagship — not just a gimmick.
Production will reportedly start with 1 million units. That means Samsung thinks 1 million people want to walk around with a double-decker phone in their pants. And Koh reportedly insisted that that was just a start, and expects to increase production should the need arise, which it definitely, totally will.
The phone will also reportedly cost $1,770 — more expensive than the most pricey iteration of the iPhone XS Max. Smartphones really were becoming too cheap, frankly. Too many affordable, simple, and intuitive smartphones out there. Thank goodness someone has finally introduced a premium entry into the market. Since we’re all so rich, you know? Us millennials are totally down to buy a foldable phone in lieu of saving for a mortgage on a house we can’t afford.
But that price really is a steal, considering you’re getting both a phone AND a tablet in one device. Just think — you could use your phone in a vertical aspect ratio. And — then — you could use your phone on a screen that’s double the size.
Who doesn’t absolutely, positively need that?! With yearly updates to boot!
Maybe this phone will be worth bending over backwards for, after all.
The recurring theme at 2018’s E! People’s Choice Awards, echoed in many acceptance speeches throughout the show on Sunday night (November 11), was gratefulness. That’s standard fare at awards shows, sure, but this year’s show took place in Santa Monica, just miles from where cataclysmic blazes have killed 31 people and charred 200,000 acres of land. Most speeches thanked the firefighters and first responders. Some asked for continued prayers and good wishes.
When Black Panther‘s Danai Gurira stepped up to accept Action Movie Star of 2018, she offered a version of those thoughts, too, expressing gratefulness in the native tongue of Wakanda before thanking director Ryan Coogler for “entrusting women to be collaborators and to be front and center and to have space to tell a story with him.”
Gurira’s win as Black Panther’s fierce warrior-general Okoye was made even sweeter by the four nominees she bested in the category, all fellow superheroes. To win Action Movie Star of 2018, she beat out Chris Hemworth (in Thor: Ragnarok), Chris Pratt (in a non-superhero role in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Ryan Reynolds (in Deadpool 2), and the Black Panther himself, Chadwick Boseman. She still called each of them “beautiful” and said she loved them all.
Finally, Gurira’s closing sentiments brought her entire speech to another level. “To the people, to the people, to the people!” she said to rising applause. “Thank you for affirming that women and girls, when they’re given a chance to hang with the boys, can hang with the best of them.”
Gurira returned to the stage twicemore for Avengers: Infinity War‘s big wins, alongside costars Scarlett Johansson and Pom Klementieff. Watch Gurira’s inspiring solo speech above in full.
City are 12 points ahead of their Manchester rivals
“You can go for stats, that’s the way people who don’t understand football analyse football,” said Jose Mourinho after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat by Manchester City.
Well Jose, we’ve looked at them anyway.
League leaders and reigning champions City are now 12 points ahead of United, who languish in eighth after the derby loss.
BBC Sport chief football writer Phil McNulty said there is a “gulf in class” between the blue and red side of Manchester, and the stats that Mourinho so dislikes seem to suggest this.
United firmly in mid-table
“I think we are not going to be relegated,” Mourinho said when asked about their title hopes.
But he’s not as far from the danger zone as he thinks. United are also 12 points from Cardiff in 18th, the same distance as they are from City at the top.
Mourinho continues to set unwanted records. The City loss was United’s fourth in the league this season – the first time they have lost that many in their opening 12 games since the 1990-91 season, when they finished sixth in the old First Division.
Last season, when they finished second, it took them to January to lose four league games, a 2-0 defeat by Tottenham in their 25th match.
Case for the defence
Goalkeeper David de Gea beat Manchester City counterpart Ederson last year to the Premier League Golden Glove, with 19 clean sheets to the Brazilian’s 18.
It’s highly unlikely he will repeat the feat this year, with just one blank this season – only Fulham, without a clean sheet, have a worse record.
Since that 3-2 comeback win against Newcastle on 6 October, Mourinho has named an unchanged back four in the last four league games, with Luke Shaw, Chris Smalling, Victor Lindelof and Ashley Young starting every match. Centre-back Eric Bailly, signed for £30m in 2016, has not got a look in after he was subbed in the 19th minute, with United 2-0 down to the Magpies.
But consistency in selection has not stopped the goals. Only four other sides in the league have conceded more this season – Fulham (31), Huddersfield (22), Cardiff (25) and Burnley (25).
It’s a different story a few miles up the road from Old Trafford at the Etihad Stadium. Pep Guardiola’s side share the fewest goals conceded (five) and most clean sheets (seven) with Liverpool.
Blunt attack
Romelu Lukaku’s problems up front, with four league goals, contrast with City’s frontman Sergio Aguero, who tops the goal charts after he scored against United to take his tally to eight for the season.
Anthony Martial is United’s top scorer in the league with six, the same amount as City’s Raheem Sterling.
But overall, United are way behind Guardiola’s free scoring side.
Back to the 70s
So conceding a lot and not scoring much equals not a great goal difference.
In fact, this is the first time since 1977-78 that United have a negative goal difference after 12 games of a top-flight season – Baccara were top of the charts with Yes Sir, I Can Boogie. (Who? Exactly.)
So what could this mean for the season?
Sports data company Gracenote, which ranks European clubs, has Man City at an all-time high of fourth in Europe after beating United, who are down in 12th.
The rankings are produced from results over the past four seasons, but the most recent campaign carries a weight of about two-thirds.
“The last time an English club were in the Euro Club Index top four was towards the end of the 2012-2013 season when Manchester United were fourth under Sir Alex Ferguson,” said Gracenote’s head of sports analysis Simon Gleave.
“Manchester United’s decline was sharp after Ferguson’s departure and they had already dropped out of the Euro Club Index top 10 in their first season without their legendary Scottish manager. Manchester United eventually dropped as low as 19th in March 2016 before something of a recovery began which has taken them up to 12th place now.”
Gracenote are currently projecting City to be champions and finish on 91 points, with United in sixth place, 20 points behind them.
That would mean United finishing behind City for a sixth straight season.
Mars is hard. Hard to get to, hard to make habitable for humans, hard to tell a story about on the screen and leave the viewer with any lasting impression.
With a few shining exceptions — looking at you, The Martian — all Mars movies have bombed. From Mission to Mars with Tim Robbins in 2000 to TheLast Days on Mars with Liev Schreiber in 2012, even supernatural thrillers have failed to locate deposits of decent drama on the Red Planet. And the TV version hasn’t fared much better.
Witness Hulu’s new original series The First: ostensibly about the first Mars mission, it doesn’t even bother to make us care about the destination, focusing one entire season on sad Sean Penn and his earthbound struggles.
National Geographic’s Mars, which returns for a second season of six episodes starting Monday, would seem to have everything going for it in its bid to be the one Mars drama you should actually watch.
Like The Martian, it focuses on the problems of Red Planet living and the need for humans to “science the shit” out of them (even if this PG production would never use the salty language of Martian’s Mark Watney, which is a pity).
National Geographic dubs this “hybrid drama.” I call it the death of drama.
Unlike The First, Mars doesn’t put its baby planet in the corner. The rust-and-dust landscape was front and center from Mars Season 1 episode 1 (which was, so far as I can find, the first serious on-screen portrayal of humans reaching Mars for the first time; even The Martian shied away from showing the actual historic arrival).
So why do all 12 episodes so far (including Season 2, which I’ve seen) seem a struggle to get through? Why does the drama feel so oxygen-deprived? Why do I, a space nerd and very much the target audience, feel like I’m being forced to eat Mark Watney’s Mars-grown potatoes?
Ron Howard produces. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Elon Musk and a host of other luminaries pop up throughout to talk about what a real mission to Mars might be like. Nick Cave wrote a theme so bleak and ominous, you half expect a police procedural set on the slopes of Olympus Mons.
On paper, what you get for Season 2 should be no less thrilling. Having established a base, suffered deadly sandstorms and found bacterial life, our scientist-colonists now must share the planet with new arrivals from a SpaceX-esque private corporation. Hello, timely analogy for Earth’s struggle between scientific truth and corporate greed!
A moody moment for Marta on ‘Mars’.
Image: National Geographic/Richard Donnelly
The first and most obvious problem is the show’s insistence on intercutting between Mars in the 2040s and interviews on Earth today every 5 to 10 minutes. National Geographic dubs this “hybrid drama.” I call it the death of drama.
Not even the most riveting epics on television could survive such a back-and-forth.
Imagine Game of Thrones if the action stopped every few scenes while talking heads discuss, say, dragons actually being a metaphor for nuclear weapons in modern warfare. Even if it was George R.R. Martin himself holding forth on the topic, you’d probably prefer he wait until after the episode.
By squeezing what is essentially two programs into every 45-minute episode, Mars manages to massively short-change both of them.
On the documentary side, NatGeo has assembled a dream team of authors, from Andy Weir (The Martian) to Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) to Kim Stanley Robinson (The Mars Trilogy), but we rarely get to hear more than a sentence from them. Nor do we really get to know the scientist in Greenland or the Greenpeace activist that are too briefly profiled.
Instead, for the most part, we get crisis cliché: dramatic montages of a kind you’ve seen a thousand times. News footage of people fighting; streets flooding; headlines saying STUFF IS BAD; CNN anchors saying STUFF IS BAD; cut to expert saying “could it be better on Mars, or would we make the same mistakes?”
By squeezing what is essentially two programs into every 45-minute episode, Mars manages to massively short-change both of them.
(Also, a personal plea to NatGeo on behalf of those of us who assumed a show called Mars would help us escape his shadow: Please, no more soundbites of Trump denying climate change in this show ever again.)
On the 22-minute drama side, likewise, no character in this too-big ensemble feels at all fleshed out. The script prefers moody close-ups and flat voice-over to character depth. It’s practically crying out for some snappy one-liners to relieve the grimness; why would we go to Mars and leave our sense of humor behind?
Also, despite the background-level arrival of a Chinese space station that is said to be broadcasting 24-7 as a kind of reality show, there’s no sense that the characters exist in a social media near-future. Where are all the smartphones and tablets? If they can communicate with Earth, can’t they also get Facebook? Shouldn’t the colonists all be on a local version of Slack, at least?
Given no scenes they can really sink their teeth into, the actors mostly chew the Martian scenery. If a future Mars civilization has telenovelas, they might look like this. Just with fewer documentary breaks.
Take the most promising new character, Commander Kurt Hurrelle, the man in charge of the Lukrum corporation’s on-planet operation. He’s played by Jeff Hephner (Chicago Fire) with sheer bro-ish assholery. Hurrelle would be an interesting villain — if you ever learned a single complex detail about him like, say, his motivations for coming to Mars, or what happened in his past to make him such a jerk to scientists.
Commander Hana Seung has a free and frank exchange of views with Commander Kurt Hurrelle of Lukrum Corp.
Image: National Geographic/Dusan Martincek
There are stupid decisions aplenty, plus brief brawls and romances between the scientists and the corporates. But these aren’t really woven into the fabric of the show, which hits the reset button in relations between the two camps every episode, and hits a giant reset button at the end of the season.
That said, we also end with a heartwarming development for the colonists that cracks open the first real signs of life for this show. No spoilers, but given that the show isn’t afraid of jumping forward in time, I’m optimistic that Season 3 can find its footing.
That is, if Mars can separate the two sides of its hybrid. I experimented by watching just the dramatic scenes in an episode, then rewinding and watching the documentary bits. It felt like an improvement. Showrunner Dee Johnson told me she would be open to the idea of National Geographic “remixing” the show this way.
I hope so. Because like those dear two-dimensional colonist characters who narrowly escaped being called home at the end of Season 1, I stubbornly refuse to believe we’ve come this far and struggled this much and eaten this many potatoes to fail.
I really hope we’re on Mars to stay.
‘Mars’ Season 2 premieres on Monday at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on the National Geographic Channel.
Usulutan, El Salvador – The trial of a young Salvadoran woman, who became pregnant after being raped and suffered complications during her pregnancy, is set to begin on Monday in the latest case tried under the country’s strict abortion laws.
Imelda Cortez, 20, is accused of attempted aggravated homicide of her newborn baby. She became pregnant at the age of 17 after being raped repeatedly by her stepfather.
Cortez, who said she was not aware she was pregnant at the time, suffered abdominal pains and went to the bathroom where she fainted in April 2017. Her baby was found in the toilet.
The baby survived, but Cortez was sent to jail to await trial. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Her stepfather has been charged with aggravated sexual assault of a minor and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Cortez’s lawyers had previously asked the judge to suspend the case due to lack of evidence of an attempted aggravated homicide. Medical reports from government institution Legal Medicine show that the young mother experienced a natural birth with no signs of having induced it herself. The baby did not show signs of aggression after birth, the institution reported.
A verdict in the case is expected sometime this week.
Women suffer under strict abortion laws
Cortez is one of dozens of Salvadoran women accused of attempting to kill their babies in a country with a total abortion ban and some of the highest rates of disapproval of legalising abortion.
The Central American country criminalised abortion in all circumstances in 1998 when the country rewrote the penal code to remove previous exceptions that allowed abortion in some cases. Since then, El Salvador has put dozens of women behind bars for suspected abortions.
In the face of national and international pressure, El Salvador released some women imprisoned for suspected abortions earlier year.
This included Teodora Carmen Vasquez, who was released in February after serving more than 10 years in prison for aggravated homicide in one of the most high-profile cases of women imprisoned for abortion in El Salvador.
Carmen Vasquez was convicted in 2008 for allegedly aborting her child and sentenced to 30 years in prison. She maintained she suffered a stillbirth after health complications. Her sentence was reduced before her release.
Teodora del Carmen Vasquez hugs her niece as she walks out of jail after her 30-year sentence was commuted by the Supreme Court of El Salvado [File: Jose Cabezas/Reuters]
Since Carmen Vasquez was allowed to walk free, at least four other women have been released.
“For us women who have been detained in a prison for late-term obstetric emergencies, I consider the system unjust because they have not investigated the things as they have happened,” Carmen Vasquez told Al Jazeera in September. “They’ve accused us of something that we’ve never done, just because we had these emergencies outside a hospital.”
‘A step backwards’
Although Vasquez’s release seemed to be marking a step forward in terms of reproductive rights, recent shifts in the political makeup of the Salvadoran National Assembly suggest otherwise.
Despite lobbying by activists, a bill to depenalise abortion in cases of rape of a minor and risk to the life or health of mother failed to pass in April 2018.
In May 2018, newly-elected representatives for the legislative assembly took their seats, with the right-wing ARENA party retaking control, leaving little possibility of passing a similar bill until the next election cycle.
The international community should be alert because sexual and reproductive rights often take a backseat when there are these steps backwards for human rights. The worst part is always lived by women.
Sara Garcia, Citizen Group for the Depenalisation of Abortion
Sara Garcia, an activist with the Citizen Group for the Depenalisation of Abortion, called the failed attempts a “step backwards for the assembly, for our democracy and for the human rights of women“.
She also called on the international community to “be alert because sexual and reproductive rights often take a backseat when there are these steps backwards for human rights. The worst part is always lived by women.”
Carmen Vasquez stands in solidarity with Cortez because they’ve gone through the same experience, with just one difference.
“Now I’m free and she’s still going through this process,” she said. “They should investigate the cases well to serve justice as it should be.”
Maira’s case isn’t unusual. In 2017, El Salvador sentenced a rape victim to 30 years in jail after a she had a stillbirth. pic.twitter.com/Ovddnvhf71
England coach Trevor Bayliss said Moeen may move down the order for the second Test this week and named Buttler and Ben Stokes as possible replacements.
“I will bat wherever is required,” Buttler, 28, told BBC Sport.
He added that an adaptable batting order has been a strength of England’s top-ranked one-day side “for a while now” and could also work in Test cricket.
“There are not many egos in the side that need those defined roles as to where they bat,” he said.
“You need a good balance of being settled but it shows a good team environment and ethic that people are willing to play wherever is required.”
Moeen moved up the order to three for the second innings of the fourth Test against India this summer – with captain Joe Root switching to four – and scored nine, 50 and 20 in the rest of the series.
After the first Test against Sri Lanka, Bayliss said Buttler would have batted at three in Galle had England bowled first and all-rounder Moeen bowled 40 overs in the first innings.
“That doesn’t affect me too much,” said Buttler.
“Especially in this part of the world, it doesn’t make much difference what number you bat. Whether you’re batting number three or number eight, you’re probably going to start your innings against spin.”
With Jonny Bairstow out with ankle ligament damage sustained playing football in training, Ben Foakes kept wicket instead of one-day international keeper Buttler in the first Test and scored a fine century on debut.
Bairstow trained on Monday but there is no confirmation yet whether he will be available for the second Test in Pallekele, although Bayliss has said all three wicketkeeper-batsmen could play.
Buttler said he has no aspiration to be England’s Test wicketkeeper and instead was focused on “scoring runs to try and stay in the side”.
“If Jonny was fit, I wouldn’t be the wicketkeeper anyway, so Ben Foakes keeping didn’t really bother me” he said.
“In your pride as a wicketkeeper, you want to be good enough to be selected – but I didn’t keep as well in the one-day series as I would’ve liked to and it’s quite healthy to see someone like Ben come in.
“He’s been much talked about as the best gloveman in England for a number of years and it was great to see him first hand and that’s the level I’ve got to try and attain.”
Buttler added that Bairstow was a “vital part” of England’s side and had done a “fantastic” job as Test wicketkeeper.
On the twelfth night of bingeing, my Netflix gave to me… new movies and more TV!
Stoking your holiday spirit embers into a full-blown Christmas blaze, Netflix has just announced a cheery streaming lineup to get you through Thanksgiving and into the start of 2019.
From a Great British Baking Show holiday special to Kurt Russell’s highly-anticipated jaunt as Santa in The Christmas Chronicles, most everything Netflix is teeing up looks delightful. The new arrivals join tons of already streaming holiday favorites like Love Actually and A Christmas Prince.
One unexpectedly nightmarish addition? Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is getting a surprise holiday episode on Dec. 14, titled “A Midwinter’s Tale.” Here’s the episode’s full description:
The Church of Night, like all covens, celebrates the Winter Solstice – the longest night of the year – when families gather around the Yule Fire to sing pagan carols and tell ghost stories. But the holidays are also a time for guests and visitors – both welcome and unwelcome – you never know what might come down the chimney…
Fingers crossed for a demonic Santa à la Batty Bat. Or at least Harvey and Sabrina under some mistletoe.
Here’s everything new (and old) decking your Netflix queue this holiday season.
Netflix’s new holiday arrivals
The Holiday Calendar (streaming now) Christmas Wedding Planner (11/15) The Princess Switch (11/16) The Christmas Chronicles (11/22) A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (11/30) The Great British Baking Show: Holidays (11/30) Chill with Bob Ross (12/1) Nailed It! Holiday (12/7) Neo Yokio: Pink Christmas (12/7) Super Monsters and the Wish Star (12/7) Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale (12/14)
Already streaming Christmas favorites
A Christmas Prince A Christmas Star A Dogwalker’s Christmas Tale A Holiday Engagement A Russell Peters Christmas A Very Murray Christmas All American Christmas Carol Angels in the Snow Bad Santa Bad Santa 2 BoJack Horseman: Christmas Special Christmas Cracker Christmas Crush Christmas in the Smokies Christmas Inheritance Christmas Ranch Christmas with a View Coffee Shop Dear Santa Disney’s Beauty & The Beast George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker Get Santa Holiday Baggage Holiday Breakup How Sarah Got Her Wings How the Grinch Stole Christmas Irving Berlin’s White Christmas Love Actually Mariah Carey’s Merriest Christmas Merry Kissmas Miss Me This Christmas Pee-wee’s Playhouse: Christmas Special Red Christmas Semana Santa The Christmas Candle The Christmas Project The Spirit of Christmas Trailer Park Boys: Xmas Special You Can’t Fight Christmas
Graham has been a key figure in Newcastle’s rise in recent seasons
Autumn Test: Scotland v South Africa
Venue: Murrayfield, Date: Saturday, 17 November Kick-off: 17:20 BST
Coverage: Watch live on BBC Television, listen live on Radio Scotland & online; text commentary on BBC Sport website & app
Scotland have called up Newcastle flanker Gary Graham, who was picked for England’s 2018 Six Nations training camp, for their final autumn Tests.
The uncapped 26-year-old, born in Stirling, is the son of former Scotland prop and forwards coach George Graham.
He comes in as an injury replacement for Scarlets flanker Blade Thomson, who is still recovering from concussion.
“I’m Scottish through-and-through but England asked me first as I’m eligible through residency,” Graham explained.
“It would have been a silly opportunity to pass up, as I hadn’t been selected for a Scotland squad since U20s.
“I’m absolutely delighted to get this opportunity. I phoned [head coach] Gregor Townsend to assure him I wanted to play for Scotland, and always wanted to play for my country. It’s where I’m from and where I played most of my rugby.”
Graham moved to Carlisle age three but returned to Scotland at 17 and played for Gala and Scotland Under-20s before joining Jersey in the English Championship and then moving to Newcastle last year.
Scotland, fresh from Saturday’s 54-17 win over Fiji, host a resurgent South Africa this Saturday, 17 November, before completing their autumn series against Argentina on 24 November.
Townsend said it was “great to hear” that Graham “wanted to commit to Scotland”.
“It has become a competitive environment for dual-qualified players recently and we know these are not easy decisions for players,” he added.
“We’ve been tracking Gary since he was at Jersey and his form over the past 12 months at Newcastle has moved him closer to playing international rugby. We look forward to welcoming him into our squad for this week’s camp.”
Exeter Chiefs lock Sam Skinner, who represented England at Under-20 level, was named man-of-the-match on his Scotland debut against Fiji on Saturday.
‘There’s a lot of convincing to be done’ – analysis
Former Scotland international Peter Wright on BBC Radio Scotland
Like most people, I’m pretty shocked as we thought he’d committed himself to England. He’s now backtracked on that so the most important people he’ll have to get on side are the players in that squad – there will be a lot of black humour going around, a lot of guys wondering what he’s doing so he’s got them to convince and if manages that the Scottish public will take him on board big time.
He’s a real workmanlike player and very good for the modern game – he’s a hard, aggressive, physical guy and with the blend you are looking for in your back row you are looking for that. His dad is one of the most passionate Scots you’ll ever meet and if Gary has half of that passion then he’ll do a fantastic job.
Riverdale star Lily Reinhart is done apologising for her body.
Speaking at Glamour’s ‘Women of the Year’ event, the 22-year old actress lashed out against the media’s retouching culture and “fake” beauty standards in a powerful and honest speech.
“Why do I feel like I need to apologise to the world for my ever-changing self?”
Reinhart also opened up about her own struggles with feelings of low self esteem and body dysmorphia.
“Reflections don’t lie. Or do they?” she said. “Is this the normal part of being a woman that no one really talks about?”
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