World Most Beautiful Birds

Hyacinth Macaw

With an impressive length of 100 cm, hyacinth macaw is the largest of all flying species of parrots in the world. They inhabit in semi-open areas and savanna grasslands of Northern Brazil. Their population have been declined in past few years. Today, less than 5000 Hyacinth Macaws left in the world. Habitat loss and hunting are main threats to hyacinth macaw.

Besides the large size, Hyacinth Macaw is famous for their striking cobalt blue plumage with bright yellow rings around the eyes. Due to this stunning coloration, Hyacinth Macaw also called as ‘blue macaw’. They also have a beautiful long tail and strong and curved black bill.

With proper training, Hyacinth Macaws could be an excellent pet. To make them comfortable, You should also give them a lot of space. They are very playful and not so good at imitating words like some other members of Macaw family.

You should be aware of powerful bill of Hyacinth Macaws. It can’t be guaranteed that they won’t bite you even with proper caring and training. The Hyacinth Macaws also can be extremely loud when they are in a group.

Wood Duck

Wood duck is probably the most stunningly colorful waterfowl in the world. The male bird has a metallic, purplish-green head and crest. Their belly is white and chest is dark-red. Along the neck, they have attractive, narrow white stripes. Their wings are patterned blue and black.

Female wood ducks are not so colorful as males. They have grey-brown head, white belly and white speckled breast. Male bird uses their colorful plumage to attract female bird during breeding season.

wood ducks inhabit in marshes, wooded swamps and streams across North America. With unique coloration and shape, the wood ducks are also one of most easily recognizable birds in the North America. Unlike other water fowls, wood ducks nest in tree holes and form flocks.

Bohemian Waxwing

Bohemian waxwing is a medium-sized songbird with distinctive crested head and black masks. They are brownish-grey overall and wings have white and yellow edging. Thus, Bohemian Waxwing is among the most beautiful passerine birds in the world.

Bohemian waxwings inhabit in boreal forest across North America and Eurasia, mostly in Canada and Alaska. In winter, they migrate in large flocks to the Northwest parts of the United States. They nest on tree branches. Both male and female Bohemian Waxwings are known for their high pitched calls. They mainly feed on insects and berries.

Blue Jay

Blue jays are one of the most intelligent and beautiful birds in the world. They found across forests of Eastern and Central North America. The blue jays have stunning blue, white and black plumage. The most distinguishing feature of this songbird is its noisy ‘jay jay’ like calls. They can also imitate the call of other species of birds.

Besides the striking appearance, blue jays are famous for their intelligence. They may steal nestlings and eggs of other birds. Blue jays also mimic the voice of hawks to deceive other birds. It is said to blue jays in captivity also could mimic human speech and the voice of other pets.

Blue jays are social birds that found in small flocks. But in winter, during migration to the South, they form large flocks of hundreds of blue jays. Their migration behavior still remains a mystery among scientists. Not all blue jays migrate during winter, some birds remain in their natural territory. Also, no blue jays migrate every year.

Atlantic Puffin

Atlantic puffin is a small, well-adapted seabird that found across the coast of Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Atlantic puffins are also known as ‘sea parrot’ due to their huge, multi-colored bill and penguin-like coloration. Atlantic puffins spend most of their lives on sea. Their water-resistant feathers keep their body warm while swimming. They flap their wings to swim on the surface and underwater.

Atlantic puffins have excellent diving capability. They can reach up to 60 m on diving. They typically hunt sand eels, capelins and hakes. Atlantic puffins are also excellent fliers. They can reach a speed of 55 miles an hour by flapping wings up to 400 times per minute.

They breed in each summer and spring on the islands of North Atlantic Ocean. They build nest using feathers and grasses in the burrows on the cliffs. The female lays only one egg and it takes 45 days to hatch it. After hatching, adult puffins leaves the nest for finding food for the chicks. They bring back small fishes for their chicks. Atlantic puffins can load between 10-30 fishes in their huge beaks.

Keel-billed Toucan

Keel-billed toucan is among the birds with most amazing bills in the world. They have huge, multi-colored beak that will reach up to 20 cm in length. Due to their colorful bill, keel-billed toucan is also known as rainbow-billed toucan. Their beak is a mixture of green, red and yellow colors.

In spite of heavy appearance, beak of the keel-billed toucan is hollow and light. It is made up of one type of proteins called keratin. They use this large, colorful beak to attract female during the breeding season and also as a defensive weapon.

This beautiful bird inhabit in the forest across Central and South America. They have a length of 20 cm and weigh up to 4 kg. Their plumage is mostly black with a yellow throat and chest. Keel-billed toucans are poor flyers due to their heavy wings. They can only move between the tree branches by hopping.

Keel-billed toucans are very social birds. They form small flocks that contain up to thirty birds. They live in either natural or woodpecker made holes in trees. Their diet mainly consists of insects, lizards, and eggs.

Peacock

Peacock is actually the name of male bird of peafowl family. There are three types of peafowls in the world – Indian, Congo and green peafowl. The Indian peafowls are the most common type of peafowls found around the world. Peacocks (male birds) are renowned for their colorful display of iridescent tail feathers.

Peacocks can grow up to 5 feet in length, which make it one of the largest flying birds in the world. In fact, the long tail of a peacock makes 60% of its total length. The colorful tail feather display of peacocks is probably the most beautiful courtship display among bird family.

On courtship display, peacock spread out its enormous tail feathers to display the colorful patterns and eye spots. Some peacocks have a lengthy tail and more eyespots than others. The female peafowl or peahen also chooses a peacock with lengthy tail and more eye spots. Depending on the angle of reflection of light, color of the tail feathers of peacock looks different.

Flamingo

Flamingo is probably the most recognizable wading bird in the world. The stunning red-purple colored plumage itself make flamingo so special among birds. There are 6 different species of Flamingos in the world. They found on every continent except Antarctica.

An adult flamingo measure  4-5 feet in length and up to 3.6 kg in weight. Their neck is long and lean and has a distinctive downward, bend beak. The legs of flamingos are also very long, measure between 30 and 50 inches. The long leg and specially adapted beak let them to catch small fishes, larvae and planktons from the mud.

Flamingos live in large colonies that include thousands of members. Their striking red-purple color is due to the food they eat. Their diet mainly consists of brine shrimp, plankton, and blue-green algae. Flamingo also spends hours on oil up their plumage from the special glands using their plumage. It helps them to keep their plumage always in good condition.

Source: https://themysteriousworld.com

Samsung Galaxy S9 vs Apple iPhone X

Samsung’s latest flagship has sailed onto the scene at MWC in Barcelona boasting an impressive new camera, a refined curved body, and a few other improvements over last year’s Galaxy S8. It’s an attractive smartphone that’s sure to tempt many, but in order to claim the title, it will have to knock out Apple’s reigning champion — the iPhone X. We decided to compare the two in various categories to see which comes out on top.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 comes with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 processor, which is faster and less power-hungry than last year’s Snapdragon 835. It’s backed up by an ample 4GB of RAM. Expect a phone that’s capable of handling the latest and greatest games and switching between apps with seamless ease. We’ll need to take it for a longer spin to really put it through its paces, but this challenger is certainly no slouch in the performance department. For all its power, the Galaxy S9 is up against a behemoth in the speed stakes. Apple’s iPhone X is packing the company’s A11 Bionic chip and it’s lightning fast, blowing away all comers in benchmark testing.

The iPhone X only has 3GB of RAM, but iOS handles memory management differently than Android, so it doesn’t translate to inferior multitasking performance. Both phones come with 64GB of onboard storage, but there’s also a 256GB version of the iPhone X, though it does cost an extra $150. The Galaxy S9 offers a MicroSD card slot for easy, and potentially cheap, memory expansion of up to 400GB. It’s arguable whether you really need the extra processing power, but there’s no doubt that the iPhone X is faster, so it has to take this round.

DESIGN AND DISPLAY

The design of the Galaxy S9 is a slight refinement on the Galaxy S8, but you could easily mistake the two phones for each other. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because the S8 is one of the best looking phones ever released. Samsung has refined the design, smartly responding to feedback by moving the fingerprint sensor underneath the camera module, where it really should have been from the start. Samsung’s stunning 5.8-inch, curved, Super AMOLED, Infinity Display is gorgeous, sporting an 18.5:9 aspect ratio at a razor sharp 529 pixels-per-inch (ppi). The sloping glass sides and incredibly slim bezels have enabled Samsung to fit a relatively big screen in a phone that’s easy to manage one-handed.

Apple’s iPhone X is a very different design, with a glass back that houses the dual camera module in the top left corner. There’s no fingerprint sensor to be found, because Apple opted for FaceID instead, which employs the dual front-facing camera setup on the front. The iPhone X has an almost all-screen bezel-less front, but the front-facing camera and a few other bits and pieces have been packed into a notch that digs into the top of the display. The Super Retina AMOLED in the iPhone X is also 5.8 inches, but it has a more traditional aspect ratio, and isn’t quite as sharp as the S9 at 458 ppi. It’s still a very good-looking display indeed.

Side by side, you will be hard pressed to pick the better display. The designs are so different that it really comes down to personal preference, though the lack of a fingerprint sensor on the iPhone X can be annoying at times. We’re going to give the S9 a narrow win here.

CAMERA

The headline feature for the Galaxy S9 is the camera. Samsung has packed in what it’s calling a Super Speed Dual Pixel camera, which is rated at 12-megapixels. It’s capable of switching between an f/1.5 aperture and an f/2.4 aperture, which means it can adjust for low light situations to take in more light with a larger aperture. It also takes shots with 30 percent less noise than the S8, by employing a multi-frame system that snaps 12 shots and combines them for best results. As for the front-facing camera, it’s rated at 8-megapixels and sports a fairly large f/1.7 aperture. Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Plus actually has a better, dual camera setup which allows for telephoto zoom and a more pronounced bokeh effect.

Apple also put a lot of effort into the iPhone X camera with dual 12-megapixel lenses with f/1.7 and f/2.4 apertures. It’s capable of 2x optical zoom and can produce a great bokeh effect. Apple’s front-facing camera is rated at 7-megapixels and has an infrared counterpart that enables it to detect faces, even when it’s dark. We can’t call this one without a proper hands-on test of the Galaxy S9 camera in the wild. There’s no doubt that the iPhone X camera is superb, but we expect great things from the S9 camera. Only an in-depth head-to-head can produce a winner, so we’re calling this a tie for now.

BATTERY LIFE AND CHARGING

You’ll find a 3,000mAh battery in the Galaxy S9, which should see you through an average day with change. That’s the same size battery that’s in the Galaxy S8 and it’s just about right. Because the Snapdragon 845 is more power efficient, and Samsung doesn’t seem to have added anything that would be an obvious battery drain, the S9 may offer a slight improvement over its predecessor. We’ll find out for sure when we test it more extensively. The iPhone X battery is rated at 2,716mAh. We’ve lived with it for quite a while now and find that it offers average day-long performance, almost always making it to the end of the day with a little left in the tank.

Both phones support wireless charging, which is handy. They also both support fast charging, though Samsung has chosen to limit the S9 to Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0, even though the Snapdragon 845 would in theory allow for QC 4. Although the iPhone X can also be charged up quickly, Apple neglects to include a fast charger in the box with it, which is annoying considering the price of the phone. There isn’t enough to separate these phones, so we’ll call this a tie pending further testing with the S9.

SOFTWARE

The Galaxy S9 comes running Android 8 Oreo with Samsung’s user interface on top. It’s a solid combo that runs smoothly and does everything you might want it to. Samsung has done some good work to improve and streamline its UI, but it’s still a far cry from stock Android. Apple’s iPhone X runs iOS 11, which is tailor made for the device and silky smooth to navigate. We’re not going to get into Android vs. iOS again here, suffice to say both are great and your preference will probably be based on what you’re used to.

Samsung has surprised no one by throwing AR Emoji onto the S9, allowing you to create an emoji that reflects your facial expressions, just like Apple’s Animoji. The big software extra for Samsung’s S9 is Bixby, which has a range of AI tricks up its sleeve, enabling you to identify objects around you and translate in real-time. A lot of the same things can be done with Google Assistant and other Google apps, so we’re not entirely convinced that Bixby is essential.

The iPhone X also boasts FaceID, Apple’s sophisticated face unlock security, which is certainly a bit faster and easier to use than Samsung’s Iris scanner, though possibly not as secure. We can’t pick a clear winner here.

Pricing and Availability

It’s available from all the major carriers in the U.S. and you can buy it unlocked from Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and a few others retailers. It costs $720 unlocked, which is far cheaper than Apple’s iPhone X, which starts at $1,000. It’s an easy win for the Galaxy S9.

Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com

Apple iPhone X

The iPhone X is the huge leap forward that Apple's handsets needed. Aside from the original iPhone in 2007, this new iPhone is set to have the biggest impact on Apple’s smartphone direction ever.

Apple itself is calling it the future of the smartphone, the embodiment of what it’s been trying to achieve for a decade. But while the iPhone X is all about premium parts and an all-new experience, it’s a huge gamble for the Cupertino brand too as it tries to reclaim some leadership in smartphone innovation.

Losing known, reliable elements like the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, the home button; introducing new methods of navigating and unlocking the phone – and charging a lot more for the privilege – seems risky for a company that was already treading new ground by doing away with the traditional headphone jack last year.

But the iPhone X is the handset we’ve been demanding from Apple for years – a world away from the increasingly-tired designs that those who just want a new iPhone have had to make do with. he fervor around this phone tells that story – everyone wants to know if the new iPhone X is worth having, partly because it actually represents a new iPhone, and that fervor is such that they don’t seem to care about the cost.So… is the iPhone X worth having? Will it change the direction of an industry where many of the specs Apple has put in – wireless charging, bezel-less displays and face recognition – are already on the market?

We've had the iPhone X in our grasp for a few months now, and it's easily one of the best smartphones around - but there are still a few things that might niggle.

iPhone X Price and release date

Released on November 3

The most expensive flagship phone on the market

Comes in 64GB and 256GB options

It’s almost pointless to discuss the price of the iPhone X – it’s the most expensive flagship phone on the market, but iPhone users are more willing than most to look past cost. 

But, while the focus here is going to be on the technology, we still need to at least mention the price and release date.The iPhone X costs $999 / £999 / AU$1,579 for the basic, 64GB model. If you want the larger 256GB model it’s going to cost you $1,149 / £1,149 / AU$1,829 for the privilege.Word is that Apple is looking at a cheaper variant for 2018, as it looks to bring the bezel-less form factor to a lower-cost, non-OLED variant... but that's strictly rumor for now.The initial issues with stock are now over, and you can grab the handset in a a number of ways - with the iPhone X colors pretty limited this year, and the option of two storage sizes your main choices.

By far the best screen on an iPhone

Clear, vibrant colors

Notch at top slightly irks, but doesn’t get in the way

The first thing you’ll notice about the new iPhone is hard to miss: the new screen blazes into your eyes the second you pick up the handset.

The 5.8-inch OLED display is, quite simply, the best thing Apple has ever crammed into an iPhone. It’s leaps ahead of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus for so many reasons: the sharpness, the quality, the fact that it fills the whole front of the phone, and the color reproduction.

It’s also using a new, longer, screen, but while it looks larger than the iPhone 8 Plus’ 5.5-inch display on paper, it’s only marginally bigger in terms of actual screen real estate – it’s just stretched upwards.OLED technology means you’re getting deeper blacks and more blinding whites, so everything from websites to the photos you take will look a little better. Some will point to the fact that Samsung has been using OLED screens on its phones since the first Galaxy, but Apple counters that by saying it’s only now that the technology is good enough for its phones.On the face of it that sounds defensive, but when you use the iPhone X you can see it’s a screen that’s incredibly, well, Apple. 

It’s not the sharpest or most colorful screen on a smartphone, but it’s clean, crisp and doesn’t suffer from terrible color shifts when you move it around. It’s a great display to look at, and that’s what you want on a phone.It's also been dubbed the best in the world, by the esteemed DisplayMate testing, showing that it's the brightest and more color-accurate OLED on the market and good off-centre brightness shifts - showing Apple can tune the tech from Samsung really well.The term ‘bezel-less’ has been bandied about for the iPhone X, but that doesn’t really tell the right story. Yes, there are slight bands around the edges of the screen, but they don’t mar the experience – they give the fingers something to land on, preventing accidental touches of the screen.

Apple could reduce these further in the future and offer a more visually-appealing iPhone, but on the X the experience is still striking.Talking of visual appeal, the notch at the top of the iPhone X is something that’s going to divide opinion, and that’s fair. Apple has taken this little chunk out of the top of the screen to house the new TrueDepth camera, and it encroaches on the display.In portrait mode it’s hard to notice it’s there, and the way the notifications bar spills around it is nice. 

However, place the phone in landscape mode and it’s far more noticeable; it’s an irritant when you’re watching movies, as when we wanted to expand them to fill the screen (one of the real beauties of having a longer display) elements of the action were cut out by the notch.The longer screen is also thinner though - this means there's less real estate for typing. We didn't notice this at the start, but when flipping between the X and an older iPhone, you'll really see there's less space for your digits to tap onto.While we’re talking about that longer screen, the 18:9 format is something we’ve seen on a number of other phones this year, and in the Android world the apps are largely encoded to fill the display just fine.

On the iPhone X, however, that’s not the case, with many apps we used packing massive black bars above and below the display. That's quickly started to improve though, and each day more apps update for the longer screen.The issue with apps using the black bars is that it makes the iPhone X look like any other handset from Apple - even an iPhone 3GS – and given the screen is the main visual differentiator on this phone, and you want every app to fill the display nicely. There are now very few apps left that have these bars above and below, with most expanding the screen to fill the whole front of the phone and curve around the notch.The new display on the iPhone X also showcases a new feature for Apple: HDR playback. The phone can show movies encoded in the HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats, and combined with the OLED display the images offer so much more depth and realistic color reproduction.

If you’re watching a scene with explosions in it, the effect is incredible on the iPhone X – much like with all OLED screens.However, it’s inherently harder to make out detail in darker scenes in HDR movies – that’s something you’ll need to adjust to. Compared to the LCD screen of the iPhone 8 Plus, there are times when you can see less of the action, but compare them side by side and you’ll see that the overall richness, depth and quality for watching movies is just higher on the iPhone X.Like the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, the X uses a True Tone display, which mimics the lighting conditions around it and will adjust the white balance accordingly. It’s not a reason to buy the phone on its own, but it’s a really premium little extra that you’ll grow to like.

The design of the iPhone X is very much a mix of old and new. The new parts are obvious: this is a phone with very little bezel, a glass back and no home button.But it's also got the familiar rounded shape in the hand – in fact, it harks back to the days of the iPhone 3G, feeling similar when picked up.What you will sense when holding the iPhone X for the first time is that this is a premium handset. It feels expensive, with the weighty steel rim on the outside blending in impressively with the curved glass all around.The silver version of the X comes with a polished stainless steel band, while the black option has a similar dark coloring that's been attached through a process called vapor deposition. 

That means the band’s color isn’t painted on... it's inside the metal itself, giving the premium feel we're used to from Apple. A word of warning: after a few days carrying the phone in the pocket, unencumbered by a case we are starting to see a few examples of scuffing on the rim, so it's worth thinking about putting this in a case, or at the very least a skin, if you want to keep it looking nice.While it weighs less than the iPhone 8 Plus (174g compared to 202g), the iPhone X feels a lot heavier in the hand, in a good way. You’ll feel like this is a strong, solidly build handset (and don’t forget, it’s still IP67 water-resistant) and you’d be right – despite it being glass front and black, Apple believes it's made the strongest iPhone yet.

One negative thing to say about the design: it's a smudge sucker. The outer band gets covered in fingerprints in no time at all, and the glass front and back will happily accept any oil your fingers want to deposit on them.And while the rear of the phone is glass, as on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, there’s a different design language at play with the iPhone X. Every button is elegantly embedded into the rim of the phone, yet there’s a sharpness to each key that comes from them being machined in a certain way.The same is true of the protruding camera bump on the rear of the phone – the edge is sharp, where on the iPhone 8 it rolls into the case. This shows that Apple is taking a new design direction with the X, hinting at the short-term future of iPhone design.

In terms of how the iPhone X feels in the hand, well, it’s surprisingly easy to use one-handed. It balances naturally in the hand, with the glass and metal combination feeling grippy enough to do so, and most thumbs will be able to roam comfortably over the slippery surface like a little flesh-colored penguin.You’ll need to drag down the notifications panel and Control Center with the digits of your other hand on most occasions, but generally the iPhone X is a good mix of phablet-sized screen while being ergonomic enough to use in one hand.A special mention to Apple for the way it’s incorporated the speakers into this tightly-packaged phone – the sound is really something, with full volume making the phone reverberate with audio.

Despite one of the speakers firing downwards from the bottom of the iPhone X, you can easily listen to movies without headphones – and the irritated glances from colleagues when we tested out this phone in the office shows that the sound can carry pretty far too.There have been reports of a crackling speaker in some models - however, we've not seen that in the wild and our model was able to crank to full volume with ease.In terms of sound, it’s worth reiterating that there’s no headphone jack on the new iPhone range – Apple has made a big bet that it can convince users to leave their 3.5mm headphones behind, but it still annoys for now if you don’t have a decent pair of Bluetooth headphone or lose the adapter that comes in the box.

The camera on the iPhone X is very similar to the one on the iPhone 8 Plus, with some small differences.

For instance, while both have a dual 12MP sensor array (for taking zoomed-in pictures, or capturing depth perception in a scene) the iPhone X has an f/2.4 aperture, where on iPhone 8 Plus it’s f/2.8, and only the wide-angle lens has optical image stabilization.It's also been dubbed the best camera on the market by DxOMark, although only for still images, showing the technical prowess of the sensor.Before we get too far into the performance of the rear camera, let's talk about the front-facing TrueDepth camera, which is a 7MP affair but with some smart capabilities to make the iPhone one of the best selfie-taking cameras on the market.

The camera, as the name suggests, can sense depth incredibly well, so the new Portrait mode – debuted on the iPhone 8 Plus – can be used with the front-facing camera to take excellent selfies.Not only will this blur the background, you can also use the Portrait options to change the lighting of the scene, or cut yourself out of the picture altogether and place yourself on a black background.The lighting alterations, adding things like contoured lighting to your visage, don't really add a huge amount, and some of the 'stage lighting' pictures that cut you out of the image don't always trace the edges of your head and body perfectly. But when it does work, the iPhone X's camera is out of this world – it delivers stunning shots that are rich with detail, and while it's not the best smartphone camera on the market it takes natural-looking photos very well, and that's something a lot of people will celebrate.

Those pictures look far better on the X’s OLED display too, thanks to the improved contrast ratios and better colors, although sharing the same pictures to an Apple TV shows they’re a little brighter than on the phone screen.While the iPhone X is a long way from being the first handset from Apple to use Live Photos, this feature is improved in iOS 11 – being able to loop, bounce or long-expose photos is a fun little extra that you can share with friends well.

The overall speed of snapping and quality of the iPhone X camera is strong, as you’d expect from a flagship handset from Apple with the new A11 Bionic chip inside.Low-light performance is a touch better than from previous iPhones – although it’s curious the way the iPhone 8 Plus and X have different apertures, yet deliver the same kind of zoomed-in low-light performance.In real terms, the f/2.4 aperture and optical image stabilization on the zoom lens should mean better low-light photos, but when you’re zoomed in sometimes you’re not actually using the optical lens (which is designed for the task) in favor of the more dark-adept 'main' lens.

This is a good thing. Instead of using the zoomed-in sensor for low-light pictures, the iPhone X uses the wide-angle lens (which has better low light capabilities) and uses  digital zoom to get the best looking snaps.It's hard to say why Apple has bothered to improve the other sensor if this is what it's going to do, but the main thing is picture quality and that's coming through well.Some of the shots from the iPhone X are astonishing – the performance in lower light conditions, when the light is fading, is really strong, although the slower shutter speeds do lead to a touch more noise and blur.The camera could do with booting a touch faster from the lock screen (although you can now 3D Touch - push hard - on the photography icon to load the camera, rather than swiping), but generally it’s hard to fault the natural, clear and crisp photos you’ll get from the iPhone.

The battery on the iPhone X is, according to the same Chinese regulatory filing as we mentioned earlier, is 2716mAh, which makes it a touch larger than the iPhone 8 Plus.That's quite a large power cell from Apple, but given the larger screen with more pixels to power, it makes sense.While the iPhone X battery life isn't mind-blowing, it's certainly better than some iPhones of old - it's more than acceptable.Some real world use: in heavy testing, we managed to run the iPhone down in just a shade over 12 hours. But that included 30 minutes of Netflix trying HDR mode, walking to work and listening to Bluetooth music on Spotify, using a portable hotspot on the train, taking sample images with the camera and testing Face ID over and over, and playing some games.

The next day, it got closer to 9PM with a slightly lighter load, but still spending a lot of time testing - both of these were expected. It was also impressive how long the iPhone X held on while watching a movie with only 5% battery left and power-saving mode turned on... we got a good 35 minutes of watching before it finally gave up.But when put into lighter use - just pulling the iPhone X out once in a while to send a message, take a few pictures at a wedding and navigate on GPS for around 30 minutes, we were at 25% by midnight.

And overnight it only lost 5% battery life before the morning - again, a good result. It's not the absolute best we've seen from a phone, but if you're someone that suffers with an iPhone that drains quickly you'll be pleased with what's on offer here, and most days you'll get home with plenty of power to spare.Based on the data that we've pulled from using the iPhone X in a variety of scenarios, we've found that it'll last a good 18 hours per day with some heavier usage - that includes a tonne of Bluetooth streaming, WhatsApp, Facebook and browsing the internet, all things that are pretty tough on the battery.

The reason it seems to do better than some might expect is the screen - the OLED technology has proven to be very effective at sucking less battery.That's shown in our testing: we ran the same 90 minute, Full HD video at full brightness from 100% charge - and the iPhone X set a record-breaking score for an Apple handset.Where most (including the iPhone 8 Plus) lost around 25% battery, the iPhone X managed an incredible 10% drop - that's unheard of in our tests, and given the X has more pixels to drive from the same A11 Bionic chipset on the 8 Plus, it's only the OLED technology that's the differentiator.

Source: https://www.techradar.com

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal, also spelled Tadj Mahall, mausoleum complex in Agra, western Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It is situated in the eastern part of the city on the southern (right) bank of the Yamuna (Jumna) River. Agra Fort (Red Fort), also on the right bank of the Yamuna, is about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the Taj Mahal.

In its harmonious proportions and its fluid incorporation of decorative elements, the Taj Mahal is distinguished as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a blend of Indian, Persian, and Islamic styles. One of the most beautiful structural compositions in the world, the Taj Mahal is also one of the world’s most iconic monuments, visited by millions of tourists each year. The complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.

History Of Construction

The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahān (reigned 1628–58) to immortalize his wife Mumtāz Maḥal (“Chosen One of the Palace”). The name Taj Mahal is a derivation of her name. She died in childbirth in 1631, after having been the emperor’s inseparable companion since their marriage in 1612. The plans for the complex have been attributed to various architects of the period, though the chief architect was probably Ustad Aḥmad Lahawrī, an Indian of Persian descent. The five principal elements of the complex—main gateway, garden, mosque. jawab (literally “answer”; a building mirroring the mosque), and mausoleum (including its four minarets)—were conceived and designed as a unified entity according to the tenets of Mughal building practice, which allowed no subsequent addition or alteration. Building commenced about 1632. More than 20,000 workers were employed from India, Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Europe to complete the mausoleum itself by about 1638–39; the adjunct buildings were finished by 1643, and decoration work continued until at least 1647. In total, construction of the 42-acre (17-hectare) complex spanned 22 years.

A tradition relates that Shah Jahān originally intended to build another mausoleum across the river to house his own remains. That structure was to have been constructed of black marble, and it was to have been connected by a bridge to the Taj Mahal. He was deposed in 1658 by his son Aurangzeb, however, and was imprisoned for the rest of his life in Agra Fort.

Layout And Architecture

Resting in the middle of a wide plinth 23 feet (7 metres) high, the mausoleum proper is of white marble that reflects hues according to the intensity of sunlight or moonlight. It has four nearly identical facades, each with a wide central arch rising to 108 feet (33 metres) at its apex and chamfered (slanted) corners incorporating smaller arches. The majestic central dome, which reaches a height of 240 feet (73 metres) at the tip of its finial, is surrounded by four lesser domes. The acoustics inside the main dome cause the single note of a flute to reverberate five times. The interior of the mausoleum is organized around an octagonal marble chamber ornamented with low-relief carvings and semiprecious stones (pietra dura). Therein are the cenotaphs of Mumtāz Maḥal and Shah Jahān. Those false tombs are enclosed by a finely wrought filigree marble screen. Beneath the tombs, at garden level, lie the true sarcophagi. Standing gracefully apart from the central building, at each of the four corners of the square plinth, are elegant minarets.

Flanking the mausoleum near the northwestern and northeastern edges of the garden, respectively, are two symmetrically identical buildings—the mosque, which faces east, and its jawab, which faces west and provides aesthetic balance. Built of red Sikri sandstone with marble-necked domes and architraves, they contrast in both colour and texture with the mausoleum’s white marble.

The garden is set out along classical Mughal lines—a square quartered by long watercourses (pools)—with walking paths, fountains, and ornamental trees. Enclosed by the walls and structures of the complex, it provides a striking approach to the mausoleum, which can be seen reflected in the garden’s central pools.

The southern end of the complex is graced by a wide red sandstone gateway with a recessed central arch two stories high. White marble paneling around the arch is inlaid with black Qurʾānic lettering and floral designs. The main arch is flanked by two pairs of smaller arches. Crowning the northern and southern facades of the gateway are matching rows of white chattris (chhattris; cupola-like structures), 11 to each facade, accompanied by thin ornamental minarets that rise to some 98 feet (30 metres). At the four corners of the structure are octagonal towers capped with larger chattris.

Two notable decorative features are repeated throughout the complex: pietra dura and Arabic calligraphy. As embodied in the Mughal craft, pietra dura (Italian: “hard stone”) incorporates the inlay of semiprecious stones of various colours, including lapis lazuli, jade, crystal, turquoise, and amethyst, in highly formalized and intertwining geometric and floral designs. The colours serve to moderate the dazzling expanse of the white Makrana marble. Under the direction of Amānat Khan al-Shīrāzī, verses from the Qurʾān were inscribed across numerous sections of the Taj Mahal in calligraphy, central to Islamic artistic tradition. One of the inscriptions in the sandstone gateway is known as Daybreak (89:28–30) and invites the faithful to enter paradise. Calligraphy also encircles the soaring arched entrances to the mausoleum proper. To ensure a uniform appearance from the vantage point of the terrace, the lettering increases in size according to its relative height and distance from the viewer.

Source: https://www.britannica.com

Bill Gates

Who Is Bill Gates?

Entrepreneur and businessman Bill Gates (born October 28, 1955) and his partner Paul Allen founded and built the world's largest software business, Microsoft, through technological innovation, keen business strategy and aggressive business tactics. In the process, Gates became one of the richest men in the world. In February 2014, Gates announced that he was stepping down as Microsoft's chairman to focus on charitable work at his foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Net Worth and House

In March 1986, Bill Gates took Microsoft public with an initial public offering (IPO) of $21 per share, making him an instant millionaire at age 31. Gates held 45 percent of the company's 24.7 million shares, making his stake at that time $234 million of Microsoft's $520 million. 

Over time, the company's stock increased in value and split numerous times. In 1987, Bill Gates became a billionaire when the stock hit $90.75 a share. Since then, Gates has been at the top, or at least near the top, of Forbes' annual list of the top 400 wealthiest people in America. In 1999, with stock prices at an all-time high and the stock splitting eight-fold since its IPO, Gates' wealth briefly topped $101 billion.

In 1997, Gates and his family moved into a 55,000-square-foot, $54-million house on the shore of Lake Washington. Though the house serves as a business center, it is said to be very cozy for the couple and their three children. 

Wife and Children 

In 1987, a 23-year-old Microsoft product manager named Melinda French caught the eye of Bill Gates, then 32. The very bright and organized Melinda was a perfect match for Gates. In time, their relationship grew as they discovered an intimate and intellectual connection. On January 1, 1994, Melinda and Bill were married in Hawaii. 

Following the devastating death of his mother to breast cancer just a few months after their wedding, Bill and Melinda took some time off in 1995 to travel and get a new perspective on life and the world. In 1996, their first daughter, Jennifer, was born. Their son, Rory, was born in 1999, and a second daughter, Phoebe, arrived in 2002.

Family and Childhood

Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family with his older sister, Kristianne, and younger sister, Libby. Their father, William H. Gates Sr., was a promising, if somewhat shy, law student when he met his future wife, Mary Maxwell. She was an athletic, outgoing student at the University of Washington, actively involved in student affairs and leadership. The Gates family atmosphere was warm and close, and all three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Bill showed early signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family athletic games at their summer house on Puget Sound. He also relished in playing board games (Risk was his favorite) and excelled at Monopoly. 

Bill had a very close relationship with his mother, Mary, who after a brief career as a teacher devoted her time to helping raise the children and working on civic affairs and with charities. She also served on several corporate boards, including those of the First Interstate Bank in Seattle (founded by her grandfather), the United Way and International Business Machines (IBM). She would often take Bill along when she volunteered in schools and at community organizations.

Education

Bill was a voracious reader as a child, spending many hours poring over reference books such as the encyclopedia. Around the age of 11 or 12, Bill's parents began to have concerns about his behavior. He was doing well in school, but he seemed bored and withdrawn at times, and his parents worried he might become a loner. Though they were strong believers in public education, when Bill turned 13, they enrolled him at Seattle's exclusive preparatory Lakeside School. He blossomed in nearly all his subjects, excelling in math and science, but also doing very well in drama and English.

While at Lakeside School, a Seattle computer company offered to provide computer time for the students. The Mother's Club used proceeds from the school's rummage sale to purchase a teletype terminal for students to use. Bill Gates became entranced with what a computer could do and spent much of his free time working on the terminal. He wrote a tic-tac-toe program in BASIC computer language that allowed users to play against the computer.

Gates graduated from Lakeside in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the college SAT test, a feat of intellectual achievement that for several years he boasted about when introducing himself to new people

Bill Gates and Microsoft

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen formed Micro-Soft, a blend of "micro-computer" and "software" (they dropped the hyphen to Microsoft within a year). Although the company started out on shaky footing, by 1979 Microsoft was grossing approximately $2.5 million, and, at the age of 23, Gates placed himself as the head of the company. With his acumen for software development and a keen business sense, he led the company and worked as its spokesperson. Gates personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, often rewriting code himself when he saw it necessary. 

Following the development of software for IBM, between 1979 and 1981 Microsoft's growth exploded. Staff increased from 25 to 128, and revenue shot up from $2.5 million to $16 million. In mid-1981, Gates and Allen incorporated Microsoft, and Gates was appointed president and chairman of the board. Allen was named executive vice president.

Microsoft’s Software for IBM PCs

As the computer industry began to grow, with companies like Apple, Intel and IBM developing hardware and components, Bill was continuously out on the road touting the merits of Microsoft software applications. He often took his mother with him. Mary was highly respected and well connected with her membership on several corporate boards, including IBM's. It was through Mary that Bill Gates met the CEO of IBM.

In November 1980, IBM was looking for software that would operate their upcoming personal computer (PC) and approached Microsoft. Legend has it that at the first meeting with Bill Gates someone at IBM mistook him for an office assistant and asked him to serve coffee. 

Gates did look very young, but he quickly impressed IBM, convincing them that he and his company could meet their needs. The only problem was that Microsoft had not developed the basic operating system that would run IBM's new computers. Not to be stopped, Gates bought an operating system that was developed to run on computers similar to IBM's PC. He made a deal with the software's developer, making Microsoft the exclusive licensing agent and later full owner of the software but not telling them of the IBM deal. The company later sued Microsoft and Gates for withholding important information. Microsoft settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, but neither Gates nor Microsoft admitted to any wrongdoing.

Gates had to adapt the newly purchased software to work for the IBM PC. He delivered it for a $50,000 fee, the same price he had paid for the software in its original form. IBM wanted to buy the source code, which would have given them the information to the operating system. Gates refused, instead proposing that IBM pay a licensing fee for copies of the software sold with their computers. Doing this allowed Microsoft to license the software they called MS-DOS to any other PC manufacturer, should other computer companies clone the IBM PC, which they soon did. Microsoft also released software called Softcard, which allowed Microsoft BASIC to operate on Apple II machines.

By 1983, Microsoft was going global with offices in Great Britain and Japan, and with 30 percent of the world's computers running on its software. 

Source: https://www.biography.com