Haven't played in a very long time, I've played the basic version for 150 hours according to the counter. Stopped playing after they added stealth helicopters which broke the balance of the game. What's happening? the introduction of classes broke the game even more, now you can not use hacking RAO and AA against helicopters. Immortal cheater helicopters have become even more imbalanced. Why is every game on the same map? how to play base maps? in the basic version which played great, the maps changed every battle, the weather effects like tornadoes were cool. Why did they break the game by adding so much rubbish like classes and stealth helicopter. This is not sarcasm. I bought the game, I liked it, I played a lot of hours and would play more. But the game was broken by bad updates.

Hello! I live in MN and the weather events of the last 24 hours have meant a huge blizzard for all of us. Got off work late to find a very large section of a tree in my backyard had fallen off, hit the wooden fence and broken in two pieces with one very large section in my yard and one very large section in my neighbors yard. Power lines are pulled down between them and draped on the fence but still working as our house hasn’t lost power. There is a shit ton of snow and ice in the ground and obviously tree crews aren’t going to suiting up to chop up a few large branches anytime soon. We’re in contact with our utility about downed lines, the storm is still raging, our neighbor is super chill so no worries there. I’m just trying to figure out the order of operations here in terms of who to hit up about what. I was planning on starting a claim with my homeowner’s insurance for the fence damage. Any sage wisdom out there? I’m a first time homeowner.

I have to be up in a few hours to get ready for an annual road trip. I need to dump my brain somewhere.
Last words my husband said to me before going to bed: Don’t stay up too late because I want us to have a good trip tomorrow.
Currently it’s 2:32AM
I’m in the south-east. The weather is about an hour away and of course I’ve been watching it since midnight because I’m terrified of tornadoes.
I’ve sat here zoned out on the tv, I’ve researched job openings at funeral homes, I’ve read about becoming a CNA, I’ve been browsing my local obituaries to see if I know anyone. Usually I do. It’s a small town. I’m also so darn hungry. And my hair is tickling my face.
I’m newly diagnosed 38/F as of a week ago and not on meds yet.
I have never had a desire to work in a funeral home, yet I was so invested in searching for an opening. Major respect to those who work in that line of work! I don’t think I could handle it as I would be joining the families and crying and hugging them.
I’ve job hopped half my life through healthcare. I don’t stay anywhere long. I love the line of work, it’s just that my ADHD keeps me so frazzled all the time.
Icing on top of the cake: I CANNOT WORK RIGHT NOW AND I KNOW THIS. I have a teenage daughter who requires ALLLLLLL of my attention at the moment and that’s why I had to quit my last job at the hospital. So why the heck am I up looking for jobs when I need to be sleeping!!!!!
Still, here I sit with my eyes burning and listening to the thunder in the distance, with my dog next to me having the occasional nightmare, looking up jobs I know I don’t want and even if I did, I can’t have them.
WHY AM I LIKE THIS!!!!
This is all new to me and I’m feeling like the walls are caving in because it all makes sense to me now. I’ve been through so many meds for disorders I never had. Just to name a few: Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder. I’m still on a crap ton of meds that I want off of, but can’t. The withdrawals are terrible. I don’t even need them!
It was ADHD all along and not a soul thought to test me. 🥲🫠 Thanks, my first psychiatrist who went through a midlife crisis when I was under her care and got a divorce and skipped down on her patients. You ruined most of my life. Years I won’t get back because I don’t remember the first 3 years of my daughters life due to the Bipolar meds you had me on.

It was raining when she came. Dark skies had threatened a downpour all day, claps of thunder intermittent but the rain itself had held off until nightfall, until after we had gotten home, tucked into pj's and sheltered from the storm.
Hearing the door chime didn't surprise me, but it should have. My home is not central to anything. You need to travel dirt tracks and winding roads. Unless you know where you're going, I'm very hard to find. I wasn't expecting anyone, but still I rose from where I'd been sitting on the couch, trying to unwind after a long day. I wasn't psychic or anything, but I had a peculiar feeling all day that something wasn't right and hearing the knocking had cemented that for me.
She was dressed in a green sundress, sandals, a very strange sight considering the weather. And as the wind and rain danced violently around her, whipping her long, wet, dark hair around in every which direction, she simply looked possessed, like a crazy person. But still, I didn't flinch. Instead I opened the door, taking a step back to allow her inside. She glared at me as she stepped inside, dripping water onto the wooden floorboards, and making squelching noises with every step she took. "I'm not here to play games, Thomas. Where is he? Where is my son?"
For a moment, I'd had hope. Despite how she had arrived, despite the look in her eyes. I took a long breath, trying to compose myself, to keep my voice from breaking as I told her the news she had never been able to accept. "Ava, your son's gone, he's in heaven now. You.. You killed him."
The rage in her eyes broke me, sending shivers down my neck. She screamed like a wild animal caught in a trap, running to find the first thing she could grab hold of - my glass coffee table - and lift it and throw it as hard, and as far as she could against the wall. We were silent, breathless, as we listened to the glass shatter into a million pieces.
I'd never been close to my sister. She had been born years after me, after my mother had passed away and dad remarried, I was 15 when Ava came into the world. I remember holding her awkwardly, feeling something between love and contempt for this scrunched up, pink skinned and blue eyed little human.
I was moved out, living my own life by the time she learnt to ride a bike, by the time she started school. I saw them occasionally, holidays like Christmas and we would make awkward conversation over the phone on birthdays, but as time passed it was like they all were strangers to me, we had nothing in common, my dad and my step mum were busy with teenager Ava, and I was busy trying to start a family of my own. Life just got busy, I guess.
When I got the phone call saying dad and my step mum had been killed in a car crash, I was devastated. I kicked myself for not spending more time with them, and then my thoughts went to my sister, to Ava, 16 years old and now, all alone. I got on the phone and told her I was on my way to her, ready to help my little sister in any way I could. I realised I was about to become a guardian of a teenage girl who I basically knew nothing about, a teenage girl who was grieving the death of the only family she had ever known.
I needn't have been so rush in my decision to jump in the car, by the time I arrived it was clear that Ava was basically fine. It had been less than 24 hours since her parents death, but she was sipping on a daiquiri by the pool when I arrived. I cried to her and she held my hand in cold disdain. I never saw a tear.
It was only a mere few weeks later that I got another call, this time from a worried neighbor. The police tape cautioned off the childhood house I grew up in, a dozen or so officers roamed the yard and trailed in and out of the house, bringing out bags marked as 'Evidence'.
I wasn't sure what was going on. I knew dad and my step mum had been killed in a car accident, I wasn't sure if it was protocol to search the home of a deceased accident victim, I had no idea. So when I eventually saw little Ava sat in the back of one of the patrol cars, my heart dropped into my stomach.
I went over to the car to talk to her. To ask her what the heck was going on, but before I can get a word out, a beefy officer is standing between me and the car, his arm outstretched in a stop signal. "Sorry, I just wanted to talk to my sister. This is my parents house and -" The cop looked incredulous, shaking his head slowly then quicker with every word I spoke. He didn't respond to me in anyway once I finished talking, just started me in the eyes as he took his walkie talkie off his belt, and spoke into it. He asked for his boss, Stat.
I'm lead into a cop car myself. Although I'm not arrested, or cuffed, I still feel anxious getting inside. I wonder how scared Ava must be, and the thought makes me mad. Why the hell are they interviewing us in the back of a damn cop car? I fired my question at the Sargent and the cop in the front seat, and watched as they passed a look between themselves.
"I'm sorry no one's explained the situation to you, sir. Your sister isn't being interviewed. She has been arrested, and once the boys have finished up with the evidece bags, she'll be heading down to lock up. She is being charger with murder, so if you have a lawyer, how will probably be the time to get in contact." "Mm-murder? What are you talking about? I was told my parents had been killed in a car accident and now you're telling me my little sister had something to do with their death?"
"Sorry, sir. I should have been more clear. You're correct, your father and his wife were killed in a motor vichele aciident. This is relating to something... Ah, someone else, entirely. Now I need to ask you a few questions while we've got you here, if we aren't done by the time the others are ready to leave, we can continue this down at the station. That okay?" I nod numbly, not taking in what they're saying. The first question he asks me, is if I knew my 16 year old sister had been pregnant. I look out the window and catch Ava's eye. She smiles and waves at me, and even though I feel sick to the stomach, I plaster on a fake smile and wave back, as well.
Now, in this moment, I make Ava tea. She has showered, now warm and dressed in one of my old dressing towns. She cries as she sips the tea, saying she's sorry she's sorry she's sorry. She didn't do it. She didn't do it. She didn't do it. I give her a look of comfort and tell her it's okay, it's all going to be okay. She eats the lemon biscuit I brought out with the tea, between mouthfulls she tells me about living in the psychiatric ward, about how the people there scared her and the medicine she took made her feel sleepy and dull.
She asks me if she can stay here for a while, and I tell her of course she can. She's my little sister and I love her, no matter what. I tuck her into the spare bed, telling her things we be better in the morning, but she's already snoring by the time I finish my sentance. I close the door, sliding the lock behind me. As I prepare the evenings snack, I am feeling relived. I knew Ava wouldn't be having a great time in that place, but whenever I called up to see how she was going, she would only ever say things were fine, opting to always end our conversation before the allocated time was up.
I could hear the sadness in her voice, the desperation to get out, and it broke me. I would offer to come visit, bring her anything she felt like but she said with the contraband ban, there was no point. She never felt like having a visitor, refusing my requests and when I asked the nurses about it, they told me she spent most of her time staring off into space, they couldn't force her to accept visits, and that was that.
She would be out when she turned 23, after serving the 7 year sentence for the manslaughter of her newborn. Everyone said she was lucky to not get jail, but after hearing her voice in the psychiatric ward, I wasn't so sure I agreed.
Now she's here, out of that awful place. I'm going to really take care of her, something I should have done all those years ago. I'm her big brother after all, and it's up to me to make sure she's looked after. I go down stairs, this time carefully carrying a tray, with warm milk and few of the infamous lemon biscuits.
Karl is sitting up cross legged in his race car bed, concentration vivid on his little face as he plays a game on his Xbox. A moment later he let's out a little whoop, and I can't help but to smile at his excitement. "Kicking everyone's butts still, I see." Karl laughs at my comment, blushing but pleased. I can tell he's chuffed, and it makes me happy seeing his genuine joy.
I place the tray on his desk, and sit next to him to watch him play for a while. He offers me the controller and asks if I want to have a turn? I shake my head, and thank him, telling him its time for this old man to be getting to bed. He grins at me when I call myself an old man, and shakes his head laughing as he calls me silly.
"Milk and biscuits here when you're ready. Remember, lights out in an hour. I love you, son." "Okay, thanks dad. I love you, too."
As I walk out of his room, I ponder for a moment, wondering and hoping it wasnt, if it was possible he had heard any of that commotion upstairs, but eyes still glued to the screen, Karl seemed as happy as ever and basically impervious to anything apart from the car racing game he was playing.
It was me who'd asked her to babysit. Begged her, really. Told her how much Jennie and I had been fighting, how hard the baby was on our relationship. She said she really wanted to help her big brother out and she even said it would be a welcome distraction from the finals she was studying for. No mention of the parents she had recently lost.
She told me she felt a bit nervous about it all, but she felt it would be good for her, as well. I agreed. We organised a time for an evening a night away, and that was that, my plan was in motion. Done all over HiddentextApp of course, so there was no trace of our conversation.
It was all the rage with the kids these days, according to Google, so when I suggested it to my sister, she hadn't batted an eyelid. I knew she had been having trouble sleeping, and honestly, for the both of us, it seemed like the easiest way.
There would be no one to blame, it would be a simple, cruel act of nature that no one would even consider questioning. She could of said it was an accident, and everyone would have believed her. I didn't think she would do what she did. I asked her if she was still okay to babysit, feigning guilt and worry, and she had nodded. Our fathers and her mother's death had not seemed to greatly affect her. She seemed bored of talk of them. "A distraction would be great." I thanked her with a close, tight hug, and told her I'd brewed her some green tea and made a batch of an old recipe my mum used to make me while I was growing up, lemon biscuits.
Once Ava was settled on my couch, Netflix on the tv, with her snacks and mug of green tea. She had baby monitor on hand so she was ready to hear the cries that would never come. I expected silence when I got home. I expected Ava, sleeping peacefully, still on the couch where she had first sat down.
But she wasn't. And the house was not silent, instead the sound of an electric saw penetrated the halls. Maybe the shock of losing both parents, perhaps she felt bad for the fact they were out on the roads that night, they would have been safely tucked up in their bed if it had not been for their teenage daughter needing to be picked up. I don't know, seeing the baby like that.. Well, I guess that honestly would've broken anyone's soul.
At the start, I tried to explain to her, calmly and using soft voices, but she was beyond contemplating my words. It was as if what I was saying to her, she just simply could not comprehend. I tried to stop her, honestly I did, but she was a force that could not be reckoned with and truly, Ava had basically already finished when I arrived home.
The walls were painted red. My hacksaw now lay disgauardrd to one side of Ava, who was just as red as the walls. I didn't notice the noise had ceased. All I could hear was the hammering of my own heart in my chest. She cradled something white and rubbery to her chest, blood making it slippery to keep hold of, and once I realised what it was, I'm throwing up and crying and screaming as well.
When I catch my breath I ask what the fuck she has done and she tells me it's her son, her son, her son. She loves him. She loves him to pieces and she's never going to leave him. She was fixing him. Fixing him. Fixing him. She laughs and smiles. I take her home, with what's left of the baby wrapped up in a towel. She holds the towel as we drive, singing to it, cooing.
The scene is stuck in my memory, a picture I have tried hard to forget, but it greets me every time I close my eyes. I sit in the car and watch as she cradles the bundle in one arm, still singing softly to it, and let's her self inside my empty, parentless childhood home.
Now she is back, and this time she is a threat to my family. To my son, who can never ever know what this woman has done. She's still sleeping when I go back into the spare bedroom.
I am not surprised, because I did give her enough sleeping pills in her green tea to knock out a grown man. But, I had no choice really. If only she stayed away..I sigh to myself as I place the pillow over the top of her head. She could have started her life all over again. But no, she couldn't. As a good big brother, it was my responsibility to help her, in whatever way that meant.
I knew she would never accept that her son was dead or that she had been the one to kill and dismember him. I knew her life would be a constant battle of heart break and pain. I was doing her a favor. And keeping my family safe, as well.
It's almost daylight when I return home. I am straight into the shower, dressing quickly for my day before I head into the kitchen and get started on Karl's favorite breakfast - banana pancakes with maple bacon on the side.
He beams as I pass him his plate and thanks me for being the best daddy in the whole world. It's always the moments like this that I feel a pang of guilt. I wonder if his brother would have the same opinion, had he still been around. In my mind I picture the two of them, identical twins, sat side by side with me at the table.
Would Rory had liked maple bacon? I ruffle Karl's hair as he finishes eating, telling him he better get a move on if he doesnt want to miss his bus again, and he laughs and goes to get dressed for school. Before he left, he flashed me a grin and crinkled his green eyes with happiness. I think of last night, of Ava, those same green eyes staring up at me in panic when she woke up, managing to push the pillow off her.
She glared at me, opening her mouth to scream, or maybe ask me why, but I placed the pillow back in place and leaned down before she could speak. Her eyes were open when I eventually took the pillow off again, this time the green eyes were bloodshot and vacant,staring at nothing. The exact same eyes I had seen on Rory when I walked into the twins bedroom to check on him. He was blue, his eyes that blazed green were open, unblinking. I stared at him for a long time, until Karl's crys woke me up, brought me back to reality. I took Karl down for his bottle, placing a blanket on his brother, who was cold to the touch. I knew it was too late. I knew it didn't matter anymore. But to me, it would always matter.
I was a good dad, really I was. I had wanted to be a dad for so long, that when I heard my baby sister was pregnant at 15 years old, I felt sick with anger and disappointed. But my dad and step mum had pleaded for me to take the babies, to raise them. Ava didn't want them, she wanted to get rid of them, but it was too late in the pregnancy.
They told me Ava had her whole life ahead of her. They told me I could have what I had always wanted, to be a dad. We didn't have to tell anyone. It would be a family secret. Just better for everyone that way, my dad had said. So I agreed.
I had never wanted to hurt Ava. I had given her sleeping pills so she wouldn't go searching for her son. So she could simply fall asleep, and I'd come home later that evening, and together we would discover the absolute heart breaking news that baby Rory had passed away in his sleep. Which is what had happened, just a few hours before.
She had questioned why their would only be one baby to look after, but when I explained that Karl had been a bit under the weather and we wanted to keep a close eye on him, she didn't give it another thought. She never even asked why Jennie wasn't around, given we were supposedly heading off for a mini getaway sans one child.
I hadn't told anyone we'd separated, after she decided having kids just wasn't for her. I felt guilty, but not too guilty. Ava had given the babies away without another thought, not even bothering to check in on them or ask how they were growing. I didn't think it would truly affect her so much. And so.. Badly.
But in a fucked up way, it all worked out in the end, I guess.
Karl was safe then, because the girl that was his mother had truly lost her mind and she was kept away in a place she couldn't reach him, even thought it seemed as if she had completely forgotten of his existence, I always had the idea in my head that she would one day remember there had been two bright green eyed boys, not just the one.
And what if she wanted her other son back, as well? I've kept him safe, unlike I was able to do for his brother. And I wasn't about to start letting someone mess with the sweet natured and gentle boy I'd raised.
I saw things in Ava that made me realise I had never known her, only knew what I thought she was, what I wanted to her to be, the sweet, sweet little sister. Instead, my sibling had been a devil in disguise. As we leave the house, ready to make our trekk to the school bus stop, I glance at the window at the fresh mound of dirt thats waiting to be spread when I get back.
Karl notices it, and asks if he can plant some roses there when he gets home. I tell him that's a wonderful idea, wondering if and how he could possibly know that flowers were Ava's favorite flower.
I shake the idea from my head, and together we walk down the dirt roads, hand in hand.

Welcome to to UK Task force where we have a pve/pvp dayz pc server based on the deerisle map… Here at UKTF we have an awesome community that is growing every day… We host weekly pvp and pve events… the server is a no raid server so you don’t have to worry about those late nights spent defending your base and can concentrate on whatever you like doing in game weather that’s pvp or just wondering around the map looting all you can find or wasting away hours and money in our gambling den all with the knowledge your prize possession are safe locked away in your base… we have lots of different vehicles to chose from to help you on those long looting sessions… this server is brand new so get your friends and come and join this awesome new community and help it grow
https://discord.gg/UvNjw54ZTq

The description says I can moan about the weather.
I rode from Ely to Woking last night in the pissing rain and my waterproofs only lasted 1 hour.
Is there anything better than nikwax tech wash and nikwax waterproofing? I have textile jack and trousers.
I understand I'll get wet when riding but the rain yesterday was awful. There were parts of the ride that I had to stop because it was coming down so hard.
Also annoyed that my helmet AGV K5 leaks like a motherfucker in the rain. Made the pin lock visor totally useless after 1.5 hours.
Can't wait for sunny weather.

It’s windy 🌬️ outside,…. Super windy that I can hear the noises house makes at this hour. It’s 1:30a and im trying to sleep but it’s hard with all the wind. I was supposed to go out today but cancelled plans because of severe weather here, hoping to find someone to chat a bit before I doze off

Introduction

I have been using Samsung Galaxy devices for 11 years, with my first Android/Samsung Galaxy device being the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (got the Galaxy Nexus in January of 2012) and with me currently daily driving the S22 Ultra (since May 2022).
I have been using iPhones for more than 12 years, with my first iPhone being the iPhone 4 (got the iPhone 4 in December of 2010) and with me currently daily driving the iPhone 14 Pro Max (since September 2022) and the iPhone SE (2020) as a secondary iPhone for iOS development (since March 2022).
Here is my daily driver history:
Android:

• Samsung Galaxy Nexus (bought in January 2012, traded the phone in October 2013)
• Samsung Galaxy Note3 (bought in October 2013, traded the phone in October 2014)
• Samsung Galaxy Note4 (bought in October 2014, traded the phone in September 2015)
• Samsung Galaxy Note5 (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's son (16M) in August 2016)
• Samsung Galaxy Note7 (bought in August 2016, recalled in October 2016)
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (bought in October 2016, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in April 2017 after he broke his iPhone 6 Plus)
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (bought in April 2017, sold to my cousin's son in Vietnam (29M) in April 2018)
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (bought in April 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in March 2019, with him giving me his S7 Edge)
• Samsung Galaxy S10+ (bought in March 2019, gave to my sister (21F) in March 2020 via mail, making the A50 as her secondary phone)
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (bought in March 2020, traded the phone in February 2021)
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (bought in February 2021, gave to my sister (21F) in May 2022 via mail due to her cracking her S10+ with the front suffering some cracks, got the S10+ back)
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (bought in May 2022, still using it now)

Primary iPhone:

• iPhone 4 (bought in December 2010, sold to Vietnam's used market in October 2011)
• iPhone 4S (bought in October 2011, traded the phone in September 2012)
• iPhone 5 (bought in September 2012 right after moving to the US, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2013)
• iPhone 5S (bought in September 2013, sold to my cousin (39F) in September 2014)
• iPhone 6 (bought in September 2014, sold the phone on eBay in September 2015)
• iPhone 6S (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's daughter (17F) in October 2016)
• iPhone 7 Plus (bought in September 2016, sold the phone on eBay in November 2017)
• iPhone X (bought in November 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in September 2018)
• iPhone XS Max (bought in September 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in October 2019 with him giving me his iPhone X to help use that towards my iPhone 11 Pro Max)
• iPhone 11 Pro Max (bought in October 2019, sold to my cousin (53F) in November 2020 with her giving me her iPhone 7 Plus to use as a spare device)
• iPhone 12 Pro Max (bought in November 2020, device started breaking down, so I traded the phone in December 2021, initially planned to keep it for longer)
• iPhone 13 Pro Max (bought in December 2021, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2022 after complaints that her iPhone 11 Pro Max is breaking down, with her giving me her iPhone 11 Pro Max)
• iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought in September 2022, still using it now)

Secondary iPhone (mostly for iOS app development, listening to music, not including any iPhone/smartphones I bought on eBay for a collection):

• iPhone 5 (September 2015-November 2017): my cousin's husband (55M) upgraded from an iPhone 6 to a Galaxy S6 Edge+ and decided to give his iPhone 6 to my cousin (53F) due to him preferring Android over iOS (he kept the S6 Edge+ until May 2020 when he bought the S20+ and then he gave his S6 Edge+ to me in May 2020 via mail, but between 2017-2020, this acted as his 2nd phone as he was daily driving the iPhone X/XS Max mentioned above)
• iPhone 6S (November 2017-November 2020): my cousin's daughter (17F) upgraded from the 6S to the 7 Plus, along with both her parents (55M, 53F) not only due to the family switching from T-mobile to Verizon but also due to her cracking my old iPhone 6S, which caused her parents not only to replace the screen but also the battery)
• iPhone 7 Plus (November 2020-March 2022): my cousin (53F) received my iPhone 11 Pro Max, but since the iPhone 6S fell off my bike mount a month before, it cracked, and since the battery is so horrendous on the 6S, my cousin (53F) decided to give me her iPhone 7 Plus and I decided to take the 6S to the Apple Store in Cambridge MA to recycle it
• iPhone SE (2020) (since March 2022): Even though my cousin, and later I took very good care of the iPhone 7 Plus, the phone started breaking down on several fronts: the silent switch, charging port pins, and even battery started to die hard, and plus, since the phone is getting unsupported, I started deciding on the iPhone SE. After finding out the iPhone SE 3 was $429 and finding out I could get a prepaid iPhone SE 2 on AT&T for $150 ($50 plan+$15 activation fee but I cancelled auto pay immediately after buying the phone), I got the brand-new SE 2 instead. Nowadays, the battery started to fall apart (even though the battery is currently at 93% capacity) and even though this phone is not in a beta, there are a lot of bugs even on 16.3.1 (I am thinking of updating to 16.4 tonight)

Things my Samsung Galaxy does better than my iPhone

There are many things that Samsung Galaxy phones and other Android phones do better than iPhones, including the fact that on Android:

• notifications are not cluttered in the lock-screen unlike on iOS
• Android is more customisable than iOS and Android is an open-source mobile operating system
• Many new features such as reverse wireless charging, in screen fingerprints, foldable phones, 5G, triple camera setup, phablet size phones,
• there is a real back button on Android
• No need to use iTunes; you could just transfer music and photos/videos between your computer and phone without the hassle of iTunes
• Some Samsung Galaxy phones (S1-S20 excluding the S6/Note5) have microSD and older Samsung Galaxy phones have removable batteries
• Some Samsung Galaxy phones in certain markets have dual sim support, but since e-SIM was introduced, first with the Pixel 2, and later with the iPhone XS, dual sim is less of an advantage
• There are a lot of options, including the M/J series for budget conscious buyers, the A series for the average folk in many countries, the S/Note series for power-users, business users for extra productivity (mostly the Note series) and phone enthusiasts (like me), and the Z series for certain business users for extra productivity and for Flexers
• On my Samsung Galaxy devices, I could share the Wi-Fi password to other phones using the QR code; on iPhones, I could only share the Wi-Fi connection with other iPhones
• Samsung Galaxy devices support split screen view and pop up view, but these two features are restricted to the iPad, and iPhones only support picture in picture video

However, there are many lesser-known things that my Samsung Galaxy phones do better than my iPhones (based on my experience over the past 11 years), and some might be controversial:

• iPhone batteries start to massively degrade after a new iPhone and iOS version comes out

Even though the iPhone batteries are mostly very good during the first year of usage and have extremely good standby compared to Android phones due to software optimisation, by around July 2016, my iPhone 6S's battery is starting to fail, and I did need to rely on battery packs for my iPhones to survive as the iPhone 6S's battery would go from 100-0 after 4-6 hours of heavy use. My cousins did replace the iPhone 6S battery in October of 2017, but by October 2020 (please note according to battery health, IIRC, the 6S stands at 85%), on iOS 14, the iPhone 6S would drain from 90 to 35 in as little as 10 minutes and sometimes, during cold weather, the iPhone 6S's battery (on iOS 14) would die at 30%. Turns out this is not only an issue on my 6S as I bought a 6S on eBay in 2021 for my smartphone collection and that phone (with 80% capacity) also behaved the same, draining from 80 to 25 in around 10 minutes. The iPhones before the 6S also had a poor battery life after a year in my experience, and even though the iPhone 7 Plus, X, XS Max, and 11 Pro Max's battery holds better than the 6S due to the batteries being bigger, the batteries still started to become bad after 1-2 years.
My iPhone 12 Pro Max (I got rid of it in December of 2021 after it accidentally fell out from my nightstand drawer and the back cracked a month before) started seeing its battery fail sometime in September 2021, when the 13 Pro Max came out. Say I leave the house at 10:00 and were to return home at 19:00. By 17:00, with medium usage + hotspot, the iPhone's battery would have depleted to around 20 percent. Plus, my iPhones typically consume more battery if devices are connected to hotspot than my Samsung Galaxies are.
Also, I did receive the Galaxy S7 Edge (2019), Samsung Galaxy S9+ (earlier this month as my cousin's husband upgraded to the S23+), and the Samsung Galaxy S10+ (last year), and given that I would sell these phones on the second hand market, I would test the phones for a week or two to see the phone's condition before assessing it and selling it on the second hand market. What I found is that even though the S10+ cracked and therefore, I donated it rather than sold it, all three phones seem to have solid battery, considering their ages. The S7 Edge with its 3600 mAh battery under heavy use after 3 years would go about for 6-8 hours before needing a recharge, and my S9+ would go about for around 5-6 hours as well before hitting down to 20% of battery (that is after 5 years and given the fact my cousin's husband is a power user), and even though the S10 cracked, it would go for 8-10 hours under heavy usage before draining to around 20%. I also got back my Note5 from 2015 once my cousin's son upgraded to my cousin (50M)'s S8 Active in 2019 once my cousin upgraded to the Note10+, and even on that phone, the battery is still very good considering its age and its 3000 mAh size, doing around 4-6 hours going down from 100-20.

• My Samsung devices have proven more reliable as a whole than many of my iPhones

Even though all the 4 Samsung Galaxy S phones I have repossessed were slightly slow compared to when they were first purchased, all of them, apart from the front cracks on the S10+, are still highly reliable, and according to my usage as well as from the 4 people who have used my phones, they have commented that the phones I gave to them gave them minimal issues and they JUST WORK. Fun fact: during my ownership, I have never experienced any major problems with any of my Samsung phones.
Fun fact, my cousin (28M) switched from the iPhone 7 Plus to the Samsung Galaxy S10+ in March of 2019 and is now currently using a Galaxy S23 Ultra. From his 4-year long experience using just the Galaxy S10+ (he bought the ceramic colour with 512GB of storage and currently his father is using the S10+), even though he is a power user with him customising the phone with themes, being a heavy user, and having cracked his S10+ last year, the phone was still extremely reliable, working fully as intended, apart from the battery, which has been shortened to 6 hours of heavy usage before dying.
My iPhones however, were not so bright. Even though pre-2015 iPhones are mostly reliable during my time using it, since the 6S, there have been some phones which have showed issues here and there, sometimes within the first year of ownership. As for the iPhone 6S, it is basically only the battery, which has been extremely bad after a year and the fact it would sometimes shut off at 30% during cold weather.
Starting with the iPhone 7 Plus however, and there started to be a lot of problems. Even though my iPhone 7 Plus didn't show any problems during my ownership, even though my cousin took good care of the 7 Plus, when I got her 7 Plus in November of 2020 (she got the phone brand new at Verizon in November 2017), the silent switch started to wear down and get stuck, meaning it is hard to turn on silent switch, the charging port pins started to wear, making it very hard to charge the phone or connect the phone to the computer, and the battery started to struggle real hard.
Starting with the iPhone XS Max and there started to be real struggles. Even though I didn't see any problems with either the iPhone XS Max and 11 Pro Max during my ownership and took good care of these two phones, when these two phones got passed to their second owners, problems started to arise. For the XS Max, in May of 2020, it got bricked, and it wouldn't turn on even if he plugged it in the charging cable or through iTunes, and my cousin's husband had to bring it to service, and that got him to purchase an S20+ given he prefers Android over iOS, and after fixing the XS Max, he gave it to his daughter (17F), who is his only child. For the 11 Pro Max however, the phone's battery drained fast and my cousin always had to rely on the charger, and plus, there are issues of connecting Bluetooth devices as well as with calls and volume whilst connected to Bluetooth devices, and my cousin always complained about these issues and even though I did attempt to fix, the issues didn't get resolved (I am tech savvy by the way, so I could get through a lot of issues, such as reset my bricked iPad using iTunes, etc.).
And now onto my iPad Pro 9.7. I bought the iPad in June of 2016, and even though I used it mostly for watching YouTube videos, Udemy and edX courses, the iPad started having a bricking issue in November of 2017. What happened was that I was charging and overnight, the iPad just shut itself off and never powered on again. I tried connecting it to iTunes and even though iTunes could recognise the device, whenever I reset it, errors keep on popping up and it is impossible to reset. I tried bringing it to the Apple Store, but they couldn't reset it either and they suggested that I replace the iPad Pro 9.7 with an iPad Mini 4 for $300. Then, I started taking matters into my own hands and finally resetted the iPad Pro successfully after multiple attempts in January of 2018. Four months later (in May 2018), the iPad bricked again, and I had to do the same process, and it took until August of 2018 after at least 5-10 tries for it to work again. And then in August 2020, whilst charging overnight, the iPad turned off and I thought it was toast. Turned out it was, as after countless times diagnosing the issues on iTunes, the iPad would keep on bricking after multiple reset attempts and after more than 2 years. Then, there was a miracle. In November of 2022, I finally got my iPad working again and I felt like I was very lucky, because I thought that the iPad was bricked forever and wouldn't go back on, ever.
Then, finally, it is my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I bought the phone on 20 November 2020, and by mid-September 2021, things started to go south for this phone. The top speaker started to fail and even though I cleaned it, the speaker was so muffled that I could barely hear anything from the top speaker. I brought it to the Apple Store and they said it is a digitiser issue and they couldn't even clean it for me, and around that same time, the touchscreen started to act up. With a lot of ghost touches, it started to become very hard to use the iPhone (and keep in mind, I have never replaced the screen since I never cracked the front screen). In October 2021, the phone started to have lose cellular signal when I enter the MBTA train and still didn't recognise cellular signal for minutes after I exited the MBTA and was at least a mile from that station on my bike, but luckily, resetting network settings did fix the issue with the cellular signal however. By the time the phone accidentally fell to the ground and the back did suffer some cracks in November, I started to give up on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and in December, I upgraded to the 13 Pro Max.
Even though my Galaxy Buds and my cousin (28M)'s Galaxy Buds did not show any issues (he bought the Galaxy Buds in March 2019 and after heavy usage, it still held up very well and he even gave it to his father), all 4 of my AirPods, even the AirPods Pro 2, have shown issues here and there. My first AirPods (January 2017-July 2018) basically stopped working, and hence, I bought another pair of AirPods in July 2018 and used it until February 2022, when I dropped it in the toilet. Even though I was using the 2nd pair of AirPods half the time (July 2018-January 2020, December 2020-April 2021, November 2021-February 2022), by late 2021, the AirPods started showing major problems. First off, the battery drains so fast even indoors that it only lasted about an hour. Then, once I am outside, the right side would disconnect after only 5 minutes of usage and the left side would keep soldering on. Once it fell to the toilet, it was game over (however, I still kept the AirPods, it is just in the nightstand sitting there, and I did clean it as well). I bought the AirPods 2 in February 2022, and after 2 months, at least once every week or two, the right side would discharge, even in the case (the case is clean by the way), until it went out of battery. I tried resetting the case and putting the case to charge again, but to no avail, and it took several reset attempts for it to return to normal. The same exact scenario happened to the AirPods Pro 2, which I got in October as my cousin wanted to gift me the AirPods Pro 2, in exchange for my AirPods 2. Except that sometimes, my iPhone 14 Pro Max couldn't even connect to the AirPods Pro 2 or even recognise it.

• Hotspot doesn't always work on my iPhones, but always does on my Galaxy

I currently have two phone plans: my main Verizon phone plan with my iPhone 14 Pro Max and my secondary MetroPCS phone plan with my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. I do carry a third phone with me (without a phone plan), which is the iPhone SE 2020. Due to me not having a phone plan on my iPhone SE 2020, I do have to rely on hotspot when I am outside. For my iPhone SE 2020, I primarily use it for music streaming and to test my mobile applications, whilst my two other phones are used for more intense purposes, with me spending the most time on my Samsung.
For my iPhone 14 Pro Max and previous iPhones (iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, etc), personal hotspot is very buggy. My Samsung connects just fine to the iPhone hotspot, but my iPhones don't. To preserve the battery, after several minutes, the iPhone SE would get disconnected from the iPhone 14 Pro Max hotspot (which is acceptable), but it gets worse. Even if I am currently streaming Apple Music on my iPhone SE with the screen on as well, the iPhone would disconnect from the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it is very hard to connect it to hotspot. Sometimes, the iPhone SE would say 'Unable to join network' and others, it said 'Personal Hotspot Failure', which would force me to restart both the iPhone SE and 14 Pro Max. Now the Remote Hotspot Failure started happening since I got the 11 Pro Max in 2019, and at the time, my 16:9 phone was the iPhone 6S, and even then, there were hotspot failure problems. I restarted the 11 Pro Max, but the hotspot failure would return after a week or two. Even after resetting network settings in 2021 right before my 13 Pro Max because my iPhone 12 Pro Max would lose cellular connectivity even after I exited the MBTA tunnel and I am outside a mile from the MBTA station, once I got my 13 Pro Max, the remote hotspot failure still appears. My Samsung Galaxy over the years connects to the iPhone hotspot without any issues, and would stay connected even if I am not using the phone until I basically turn off hotspot on my iPhone.
Now due to the fact connecting my iPhone SE to the iPhone hotspot is so bad, I would typically use the Samsung hotspot as a backup (keep in mind my iPhone plan gives unlimited hotspot whilst Metro only gives 5 GB). Both iPhones connect to the Samsung hotspot flawlessly, without any issues.

• On my Samsung Galaxy phones, I can disable Wi-Fi using the Quick Settings (swipe down) menu, but for iPhones, it is less consistent

Sometimes, I don't want my main iPhone 14 Pro Max to connect to the Samsung hotspot due to it having its own data. I would turn off Wi-Fi on the control centre and after 5-10 minutes, it would reconnect the Wi-Fi, therefore wasting hotspot data on my Samsung metroPCS plan and making me mildly angry. iPhone does say turning off until tomorrow but in reality, Wi-Fi is turned on after 5-10 minutes. For Samsung, I turn off Wi-Fi on the quick settings until I turn it back on or I flick on airplane mode, which seems more intuitive in my case. However, when I am at home without any hotspot devices, whenever I use quick settings for iPhone, nearby Wi-Fi does disconnect until tomorrow

• Connecting to Bluetooth devices is better on my Samsung Galaxy phones than my iPhones

Pretend I have two Bluetooth devices (AirPods Pro, JBL Clip 4), and I wanted to connect to the JBL speaker. On the Samsung, if I accidentally clicked on the AirPods Pro, I could click JBL Clip 4 immediately and within 5 seconds, I would be connected to the JBL Clip 4 speaker. For the iPhone however, things are not so bright, as if I were to accidentally click the AirPods Pro, I had to wait 15 seconds for Apple to search for the AirPods Pro, and then once it says it couldn't find the AirPods Pro because I left my AirPods Pro at home, that is when I could click on JBL Clip 4 and connect it. That turns a 5 second process into something like a 15-20 second process.

• Apple Pay sometimes doesn't work on my iPhone

On several occasions since 2021, my iPhones would sometimes not pay using Apple Pay and would fail to pay. Sometimes, the iPhone couldn't even detect a reader even though the reader does work. Once I use Samsung Pay on my Samsung Galaxy devices as a backup, the payment did go through and it finally worked.
Yesterday, I was at the MBTA station, and I was attempting to pay for the Monthly pass. Ironically, even though the reader did work, the iPhone 14 Pro Max kept on saying 'Hold near Reader', and even though I held it near the mobile payment reader for 10-15 seconds, it still didn't do anything. Fed up, after the second time, I repaid the MBTA ticket and used my S22 Ultra and the payment did go through. However, at the restaurant around 1 hour later, even though I didn't restart the iPhone, Apple Pay finally worked again as I was able to pay my meal using Apple Pay.

• Automatic updates are better on my Galaxies than my iPhones

My Samsung automatic updates are set overnight, and even with airplane mode turned on during the night, my Samsungs are always up to date without ever having to go to the settings app to update the firmware to Android 13. As for iPhone, they did schedule automatic updates between 4-5 am, but in reality, automatic updates keep failing even with Wi-Fi turned on overnight. If I wanted to update my iPhones, I would typically have to manually update via settings

• Wi-Fi is far better on my Samsung Galaxy/Android phones than my iPhones, iPads, or Macs

I attended university between 2018 and 2022, and in late 2021, at university (I majored in CS by the way), my iPhones, iPads, and Macs would often struggle with Wi-Fi. My iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 7 Plus (as of November 2021) would sometimes even outright refuse to connect to Wi-Fi and same goes with the MacBook 15' Core i9 (2019) (I have since upgraded to the M1 MBP 16 since the logic board on the MBP 2019 failed in November 2021), and if connected, at some parts of the university, they are extremely slow, and sometimes, borderline unusable. My S21 Ultra however, at the same place, worked far better and was able to load websites. Even my Windows laptop was able to load websites as well as my Galaxy A51 (I brought an A51 one day to MIT to see if the Wi-Fi issues only occurred on Apple products).
Fun fact: the Galaxy S21 Ultra was the first phone to offer Wi-Fi 6E and not even the iPhone 14 Pro Max supports this feature
Then in July 2022, during a flight from Dallas back to Boston, my iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone SE 2 would fail to connect to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network several times and if connected, the Wi-Fi was painfully slow and near unusable whilst my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra connected to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network just fine and worked as expected, with websites loading reasonably quick, just like at my university with the S21 Ultra.

• USB C lasts longer than lightning connector

Finally, one thing Samsung and Android OEMs do better than Apple is the fact that many Android devices, including Samsung Galaxy devices, come with USB-C which is the future compared to Apple's ancient lightning connector (frankly, Apple now uses USB-C on most of their iPads except for the entry level iPad 9). It allows for faster charging and transfer speeds and USB-C is basically superior to lightning, which is a relic from a bygone era. Plus, USB-C seems to last longer. Whilst my lightning connectors generally worn out between 6-18 months before having inconsistent connections or connectivity issues, my USB-C connectors would keep soldering on for at least 5 years before breaking down like the lightning connectors.
TL;DR: Even though there are many benefits to owning an iPhone over an Android device, based on my user experience, after over 11 years of using various Samsung Galaxy phones, two Samsung Galaxy Tabs, and one Galaxy Bud and after over 12 years of using various iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirPods, I could safely assure that there are a lot of benefits to using Samsung and Android products over iPhones, namely due to the fact that notifications, customisation, features, options, Wi-Fi, multitasking, batteries, hotspot, Bluetooth, mobile payment, etc., are better on Samsung and Android products than on iPhones, based on my user experience.

Introduction

I have been using Samsung Galaxy devices for 11 years, with my first Android/Samsung Galaxy device being the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (got the Galaxy Nexus in January of 2012) and with me currently daily driving the S22 Ultra (since May 2022).
I have been using iPhones for more than 12 years, with my first iPhone being the iPhone 4 (got the iPhone 4 in December of 2010) and with me currently daily driving the iPhone 14 Pro Max (since September 2022) and the iPhone SE (2020) as a secondary iPhone for iOS development (since March 2022).
Here is my daily driver history:
Android:

• Samsung Galaxy Nexus (bought in January 2012, traded the phone in October 2013)
• Samsung Galaxy Note3 (bought in October 2013, traded the phone in October 2014)
• Samsung Galaxy Note4 (bought in October 2014, traded the phone in September 2015)
• Samsung Galaxy Note5 (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's son (16M) in August 2016)
• Samsung Galaxy Note7 (bought in August 2016, recalled in October 2016)
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (bought in October 2016, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in April 2017 after he broke his iPhone 6 Plus)
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (bought in April 2017, sold to my cousin's son in Vietnam (29M) in April 2018)
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (bought in April 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (40M) in March 2019, with him giving me his S7 Edge)
• Samsung Galaxy S10+ (bought in March 2019, gave to my sister (21F) in March 2020 via mail, making the A50 as her secondary phone)
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (bought in March 2020, traded the phone in February 2021)
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (bought in February 2021, gave to my sister (21F) in May 2022 via mail due to her cracking her S10+ with the front suffering some cracks, got the S10+ back)
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (bought in May 2022, still using it now)

Primary iPhone:

• iPhone 4 (bought in December 2010, sold to Vietnam's used market in October 2011)
• iPhone 4S (bought in October 2011, traded the phone in September 2012)
• iPhone 5 (bought in September 2012 right after moving to the US, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2013)
• iPhone 5S (bought in September 2013, sold to my cousin (39F) in September 2014)
• iPhone 6 (bought in September 2014, sold the phone on eBay in September 2015)
• iPhone 6S (bought in September 2015, sold to my cousin's daughter (17F) in October 2016)
• iPhone 7 Plus (bought in September 2016, sold the phone on eBay in November 2017)
• iPhone X (bought in November 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in September 2018)
• iPhone XS Max (bought in September 2018, sold to my cousin's husband (55M) in October 2019 with him giving me his iPhone X to help use that towards my iPhone 11 Pro Max)
• iPhone 11 Pro Max (bought in October 2019, sold to my cousin (53F) in November 2020 with her giving me her iPhone 7 Plus to use as a spare device)
• iPhone 12 Pro Max (bought in November 2020, device started breaking down, so I traded the phone in December 2021, initially planned to keep it for longer)
• iPhone 13 Pro Max (bought in December 2021, sold to my cousin (53F) in September 2022 after complaints that her iPhone 11 Pro Max is breaking down, with her giving me her iPhone 11 Pro Max)
• iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought in September 2022, still using it now)

Secondary iPhone (mostly for iOS app development, listening to music, not including any iPhone/smartphones I bought on eBay for a collection):

• iPhone 5 (September 2015-November 2017): my cousin's husband (55M) upgraded from an iPhone 6 to a Galaxy S6 Edge+ and decided to give his iPhone 6 to my cousin (53F) due to him preferring Android over iOS (he kept the S6 Edge+ until May 2020 when he bought the S20+ and then he gave his S6 Edge+ to me in May 2020 via mail, but between 2017-2020, this acted as his 2nd phone as he was daily driving the iPhone X/XS Max mentioned above)
• iPhone 6S (November 2017-November 2020): my cousin's daughter (17F) upgraded from the 6S to the 7 Plus, along with both her parents (55M, 53F) not only due to the family switching from T-mobile to Verizon but also due to her cracking my old iPhone 6S, which caused her parents not only to replace the screen but also the battery)
• iPhone 7 Plus (November 2020-March 2022): my cousin (53F) received my iPhone 11 Pro Max, but since the iPhone 6S fell off my bike mount a month before, it cracked, and since the battery is so horrendous on the 6S, my cousin (53F) decided to give me her iPhone 7 Plus and I decided to take the 6S to the Apple Store in Cambridge MA to recycle it
• iPhone SE (2020) (since March 2022): Even though my cousin, and later I took very good care of the iPhone 7 Plus, the phone started breaking down on several fronts: the silent switch, charging port pins, and even battery started to die hard, and plus, since the phone is getting unsupported, I started deciding on the iPhone SE. After finding out the iPhone SE 3 was $429 and finding out I could get a prepaid iPhone SE 2 on AT&T for $150 ($50 plan+$15 activation fee but I cancelled auto pay immediately after buying the phone), I got the brand-new SE 2 instead. Nowadays, the battery started to fall apart (even though the battery is currently at 93% capacity) and even though this phone is not in a beta, there are a lot of bugs even on 16.3.1 (I am thinking of updating to 16.4 tonight)

Things my Samsung Galaxy does better than my iPhone

There are many things that Samsung Galaxy phones and other Android phones do better than iPhones, including the fact that on Android:

• notifications are not cluttered in the lock-screen unlike on iOS
• Android is more customisable than iOS and Android is an open-source mobile operating system
• Many new features such as reverse wireless charging, in screen fingerprints, foldable phones, 5G, triple camera setup, phablet size phones,
• there is a real back button on Android
• No need to use iTunes; you could just transfer music and photos/videos between your computer and phone without the hassle of iTunes
• Some Samsung Galaxy phones (S1-S20 excluding the S6/Note5) have microSD and older Samsung Galaxy phones have removable batteries
• Some Samsung Galaxy phones in certain markets have dual sim support, but since e-SIM was introduced, first with the Pixel 2, and later with the iPhone XS, dual sim is less of an advantage
• There are a lot of options, including the M/J series for budget conscious buyers, the A series for the average folk in many countries, the S/Note series for power-users, business users for extra productivity (mostly the Note series) and phone enthusiasts (like me), and the Z series for certain business users for extra productivity and for Flexers
• On my Samsung Galaxy devices, I could share the Wi-Fi password to other phones using the QR code; on iPhones, I could only share the Wi-Fi connection with other iPhones
• Samsung Galaxy devices support split screen view and pop up view, but these two features are restricted to the iPad, and iPhones only support picture in picture video

​
However, there are many lesser-known things that my Samsung Galaxy phones do better than my iPhones (based on my experience over the past 11 years), and some might be controversial:
​

• iPhone batteries start to massively degrade after a new iPhone and iOS version comes out

Even though the iPhone batteries are mostly very good during the first year of usage and have extremely good standby compared to Android phones due to software optimisation, by around July 2016, my iPhone 6S's battery is starting to fail, and I did need to rely on battery packs for my iPhones to survive as the iPhone 6S's battery would go from 100-0 after 4-6 hours of heavy use. My cousins did replace the iPhone 6S battery in October of 2017, but by October 2020 (please note according to battery health, IIRC, the 6S stands at 85%), on iOS 14, the iPhone 6S would drain from 90 to 35 in as little as 10 minutes and sometimes, during cold weather, the iPhone 6S's battery (on iOS 14) would die at 30%. Turns out this is not only an issue on my 6S as I bought a 6S on eBay in 2021 for my smartphone collection and that phone (with 80% capacity) also behaved the same, draining from 80 to 25 in around 10 minutes. The iPhones before the 6S also had a poor battery life after a year in my experience, and even though the iPhone 7 Plus, X, XS Max, and 11 Pro Max's battery holds better than the 6S due to the batteries being bigger, the batteries still started to become bad after 1-2 years.
My iPhone 12 Pro Max (I got rid of it in December of 2021 after it accidentally fell out from my nightstand drawer and the back cracked a month before) started seeing its battery fail sometime in September 2021, when the 13 Pro Max came out. Say I leave the house at 10:00 and were to return home at 19:00. By 17:00, with medium usage + hotspot, the iPhone's battery would have depleted to around 20 percent. Plus, my iPhones typically consume more battery if devices are connected to hotspot than my Samsung Galaxies are.
Also, I did receive the Galaxy S7 Edge (2019), Samsung Galaxy S9+ (earlier this month as my cousin's husband upgraded to the S23+), and the Samsung Galaxy S10+ (last year), and given that I would sell these phones on the second hand market, I would test the phones for a week or two to see the phone's condition before assessing it and selling it on the second hand market. What I found is that even though the S10+ cracked and therefore, I donated it rather than sold it, all three phones seem to have solid battery, considering their ages. The S7 Edge with its 3600 mAh battery under heavy use after 3 years would go about for 6-8 hours before needing a recharge, and my S9+ would go about for around 5-6 hours as well before hitting down to 20% of battery (that is after 5 years and given the fact my cousin's husband is a power user), and even though the S10 cracked, it would go for 8-10 hours under heavy usage before draining to around 20%. I also got back my Note5 from 2015 once my cousin's son upgraded to my cousin (50M)'s S8 Active in 2019 once my cousin upgraded to the Note10+, and even on that phone, the battery is still very good considering its age and its 3000 mAh size, doing around 4-6 hours going down from 100-20.
​

• My Samsung devices have proven more reliable as a whole than many of my iPhones

Even though all the 4 Samsung Galaxy S phones I have repossessed were slightly slow compared to when they were first purchased, all of them, apart from the front cracks on the S10+, are still highly reliable, and according to my usage as well as from the 4 people who have used my phones, they have commented that the phones I gave to them gave them minimal issues and they JUST WORK. Fun fact: during my ownership, I have never experienced any major problems with any of my Samsung phones.
Fun fact, my cousin (28M) switched from the iPhone 7 Plus to the Samsung Galaxy S10+ in March of 2019 and is now currently using a Galaxy S23 Ultra. From his 4-year long experience using just the Galaxy S10+ (he bought the ceramic colour with 512GB of storage and currently his father is using the S10+), even though he is a power user with him customising the phone with themes, being a heavy user, and having cracked his S10+ last year, the phone was still extremely reliable, working fully as intended, apart from the battery, which has been shortened to 6 hours of heavy usage before dying.
My iPhones however, were not so bright. Even though pre-2015 iPhones are mostly reliable during my time using it, since the 6S, there have been some phones which have showed issues here and there, sometimes within the first year of ownership. As for the iPhone 6S, it is basically only the battery, which has been extremely bad after a year and the fact it would sometimes shut off at 30% during cold weather.
Starting with the iPhone 7 Plus however, and there started to be a lot of problems. Even though my iPhone 7 Plus didn't show any problems during my ownership, even though my cousin took good care of the 7 Plus, when I got her 7 Plus in November of 2020 (she got the phone brand new at Verizon in November 2017), the silent switch started to wear down and get stuck, meaning it is hard to turn on silent switch, the charging port pins started to wear, making it very hard to charge the phone or connect the phone to the computer, and the battery started to struggle real hard.
Starting with the iPhone XS Max and there started to be real struggles. Even though I didn't see any problems with either the iPhone XS Max and 11 Pro Max during my ownership and took good care of these two phones, when these two phones got passed to their second owners, problems started to arise. For the XS Max, in May of 2020, it got bricked, and it wouldn't turn on even if he plugged it in the charging cable or through iTunes, and my cousin's husband had to bring it to service, and that got him to purchase an S20+ given he prefers Android over iOS, and after fixing the XS Max, he gave it to his daughter (17F), who is his only child. For the 11 Pro Max however, the phone's battery drained fast and my cousin always had to rely on the charger, and plus, there are issues of connecting Bluetooth devices as well as with calls and volume whilst connected to Bluetooth devices, and my cousin always complained about these issues and even though I did attempt to fix, the issues didn't get resolved (I am tech savvy by the way, so I could get through a lot of issues, such as reset my bricked iPad using iTunes, etc.).
And now onto my iPad Pro 9.7. I bought the iPad in June of 2016, and even though I used it mostly for watching YouTube videos, Udemy and edX courses, the iPad started having a bricking issue in November of 2017. What happened was that I was charging and overnight, the iPad just shut itself off and never powered on again. I tried connecting it to iTunes and even though iTunes could recognise the device, whenever I reset it, errors keep on popping up and it is impossible to reset. I tried bringing it to the Apple Store, but they couldn't reset it either and they suggested that I replace the iPad Pro 9.7 with an iPad Mini 4 for $300. Then, I started taking matters into my own hands and finally resetted the iPad Pro successfully after multiple attempts in January of 2018. Four months later (in May 2018), the iPad bricked again, and I had to do the same process, and it took until August of 2018 after at least 5-10 tries for it to work again. And then in August 2020, whilst charging overnight, the iPad turned off and I thought it was toast. Turned out it was, as after countless times diagnosing the issues on iTunes, the iPad would keep on bricking after multiple reset attempts and after more than 2 years. Then, there was a miracle. In November of 2022, I finally got my iPad working again and I felt like I was very lucky, because I thought that the iPad was bricked forever and wouldn't go back on, ever.
Then, finally, it is my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I bought the phone on 20 November 2020, and by mid-September 2021, things started to go south for this phone. The top speaker started to fail and even though I cleaned it, the speaker was so muffled that I could barely hear anything from the top speaker. I brought it to the Apple Store and they said it is a digitiser issue and they couldn't even clean it for me, and around that same time, the touchscreen started to act up. With a lot of ghost touches, it started to become very hard to use the iPhone (and keep in mind, I have never replaced the screen since I never cracked the front screen). In October 2021, the phone started to have lose cellular signal when I enter the MBTA train and still didn't recognise cellular signal for minutes after I exited the MBTA and was at least a mile from that station on my bike, but luckily, resetting network settings did fix the issue with the cellular signal however. By the time the phone accidentally fell to the ground and the back did suffer some cracks in November, I started to give up on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and in December, I upgraded to the 13 Pro Max.
Even though my Galaxy Buds and my cousin (28M)'s Galaxy Buds did not show any issues (he bought the Galaxy Buds in March 2019 and after heavy usage, it still held up very well and he even gave it to his father), all 4 of my AirPods, even the AirPods Pro 2, have shown issues here and there. My first AirPods (January 2017-July 2018) basically stopped working, and hence, I bought another pair of AirPods in July 2018 and used it until February 2022, when I dropped it in the toilet. Even though I was using the 2nd pair of AirPods half the time (July 2018-January 2020, December 2020-April 2021, November 2021-February 2022), by late 2021, the AirPods started showing major problems. First off, the battery drains so fast even indoors that it only lasted about an hour. Then, once I am outside, the right side would disconnect after only 5 minutes of usage and the left side would keep soldering on. Once it fell to the toilet, it was game over (however, I still kept the AirPods, it is just in the nightstand sitting there, and I did clean it as well). I bought the AirPods 2 in February 2022, and after 2 months, at least once every week or two, the right side would discharge, even in the case (the case is clean by the way), until it went out of battery. I tried resetting the case and putting the case to charge again, but to no avail, and it took several reset attempts for it to return to normal. The same exact scenario happened to the AirPods Pro 2, which I got in October as my cousin wanted to gift me the AirPods Pro 2, in exchange for my AirPods 2. Except that sometimes, my iPhone 14 Pro Max couldn't even connect to the AirPods Pro 2 or even recognise it.
​

• Hotspot doesn't always work on my iPhones, but always does on my Galaxy

I currently have two phone plans: my main Verizon phone plan with my iPhone 14 Pro Max and my secondary MetroPCS phone plan with my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. I do carry a third phone with me (without a phone plan), which is the iPhone SE 2020. Due to me not having a phone plan on my iPhone SE 2020, I do have to rely on hotspot when I am outside. For my iPhone SE 2020, I primarily use it for music streaming and to test my mobile applications, whilst my two other phones are used for more intense purposes, with me spending the most time on my Samsung.
For my iPhone 14 Pro Max and previous iPhones (iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, etc), personal hotspot is very buggy. My Samsung connects just fine to the iPhone hotspot, but my iPhones don't. To preserve the battery, after several minutes, the iPhone SE would get disconnected from the iPhone 14 Pro Max hotspot (which is acceptable), but it gets worse. Even if I am currently streaming Apple Music on my iPhone SE with the screen on as well, the iPhone would disconnect from the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it is very hard to connect it to hotspot. Sometimes, the iPhone SE would say 'Unable to join network' and others, it said 'Personal Hotspot Failure', which would force me to restart both the iPhone SE and 14 Pro Max. Now the Remote Hotspot Failure started happening since I got the 11 Pro Max in 2019, and at the time, my 16:9 phone was the iPhone 6S, and even then, there were hotspot failure problems. I restarted the 11 Pro Max, but the hotspot failure would return after a week or two. Even after resetting network settings in 2021 right before my 13 Pro Max because my iPhone 12 Pro Max would lose cellular connectivity even after I exited the MBTA tunnel and I am outside a mile from the MBTA station, once I got my 13 Pro Max, the remote hotspot failure still appears. My Samsung Galaxy over the years connects to the iPhone hotspot without any issues, and would stay connected even if I am not using the phone until I basically turn off hotspot on my iPhone.
Now due to the fact connecting my iPhone SE to the iPhone hotspot is so bad, I would typically use the Samsung hotspot as a backup (keep in mind my iPhone plan gives unlimited hotspot whilst Metro only gives 5 GB). Both iPhones connect to the Samsung hotspot flawlessly, without any issues.
​

• On my Samsung Galaxy phones, I can disable Wi-Fi using the Quick Settings (swipe down) menu, but for iPhones, it is less consistent

Sometimes, I don't want my main iPhone 14 Pro Max to connect to the Samsung hotspot due to it having its own data. I would turn off Wi-Fi on the control centre and after 5-10 minutes, it would reconnect the Wi-Fi, therefore wasting hotspot data on my Samsung metroPCS plan and making me mildly angry. iPhone does say turning off until tomorrow but in reality, Wi-Fi is turned on after 5-10 minutes. For Samsung, I turn off Wi-Fi on the quick settings until I turn it back on or I flick on airplane mode, which seems more intuitive in my case. However, when I am at home without any hotspot devices, whenever I use quick settings for iPhone, nearby Wi-Fi does disconnect until tomorrow
​

• Connecting to Bluetooth devices is better on my Samsung Galaxy phones than my iPhones

Pretend I have two Bluetooth devices (AirPods Pro, JBL Clip 4), and I wanted to connect to the JBL speaker. On the Samsung, if I accidentally clicked on the AirPods Pro, I could click JBL Clip 4 immediately and within 5 seconds, I would be connected to the JBL Clip 4 speaker. For the iPhone however, things are not so bright, as if I were to accidentally click the AirPods Pro, I had to wait 15 seconds for Apple to search for the AirPods Pro, and then once it says it couldn't find the AirPods Pro because I left my AirPods Pro at home, that is when I could click on JBL Clip 4 and connect it. That turns a 5 second process into something like a 15-20 second process.
​

• Apple Pay sometimes doesn't work on my iPhone

On several occasions since 2021, my iPhones would sometimes not pay using Apple Pay and would fail to pay. Sometimes, the iPhone couldn't even detect a reader even though the reader does work. Once I use Samsung Pay on my Samsung Galaxy devices as a backup, the payment did go through and it finally worked.
Yesterday, I was at the MBTA station, and I was attempting to pay for the Monthly pass. Ironically, even though the reader did work, the iPhone 14 Pro Max kept on saying 'Hold near Reader', and even though I held it near the mobile payment reader for 10-15 seconds, it still didn't do anything. Fed up, after the second time, I repaid the MBTA ticket and used my S22 Ultra and the payment did go through. However, at the restaurant around 1 hour later, even though I didn't restart the iPhone, Apple Pay finally worked again as I was able to pay my meal using Apple Pay.
​

• Automatic updates are better on my Galaxies than my iPhones

My Samsung automatic updates are set overnight, and even with airplane mode turned on during the night, my Samsungs are always up to date without ever having to go to the settings app to update the firmware to Android 13. As for iPhone, they did schedule automatic updates between 4-5 am, but in reality, automatic updates keep failing even with Wi-Fi turned on overnight. If I wanted to update my iPhones, I would typically have to manually update via settings
​

• Wi-Fi is far better on my Samsung Galaxy/Android phones than my iPhones, iPads, or Macs

I attended university between 2018 and 2022, and in late 2021, at university (I majored in CS by the way), my iPhones, iPads, and Macs would often struggle with Wi-Fi. My iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 7 Plus (as of November 2021) would sometimes even outright refuse to connect to Wi-Fi and same goes with the MacBook 15' Core i9 (2019) (I have since upgraded to the M1 MBP 16 since the logic board on the MBP 2019 failed in November 2021), and if connected, at some parts of the university, they are extremely slow, and sometimes, borderline unusable. My S21 Ultra however, at the same place, worked far better and was able to load websites. Even my Windows laptop was able to load websites as well as my Galaxy A51 (I brought an A51 one day to MIT to see if the Wi-Fi issues only occurred on Apple products).
Fun fact: the Galaxy S21 Ultra was the first phone to offer Wi-Fi 6E and not even the iPhone 14 Pro Max supports this feature
Then in July 2022, during a flight from Dallas back to Boston, my iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone SE 2 would fail to connect to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network several times and if connected, the Wi-Fi was painfully slow and near unusable whilst my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra connected to JetBlue's Wi-Fi network just fine and worked as expected, with websites loading reasonably quick, just like at my university with the S21 Ultra.
​

• USB C lasts longer than lightning connector

Finally, one thing Samsung and Android OEMs do better than Apple is the fact that many Android devices, including Samsung Galaxy devices, come with USB-C which is the future compared to Apple's ancient lightning connector (frankly, Apple now uses USB-C on most of their iPads except for the entry level iPad 9). It allows for faster charging and transfer speeds and USB-C is basically superior to lightning, which is a relic from a bygone era. Plus, USB-C seems to last longer. Whilst my lightning connectors generally worn out between 6-18 months before having inconsistent connections or connectivity issues, my USB-C connectors would keep soldering on for at least 5 years before breaking down like the lightning connectors.
​
​
​
​
TL;DR: Even though there are many benefits to owning an iPhone over an Android device, based on my user experience, after over 11 years of using various Samsung Galaxy phones, two Samsung Galaxy Tabs, and one Galaxy Bud and after over 12 years of using various iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirPods, I could safely assure that there are a lot of benefits to using Samsung and Android products over iPhones, namely due to the fact that notifications, customisation, features, options, Wi-Fi, multitasking, batteries, hotspot, Bluetooth, mobile payment, etc., are better on Samsung and Android products than on iPhones, based on my user experience.

Female 63 longtime cardiology patient since 1987. Last month hospital stay and diagnosed HF Cachexia, unintentional weight loss. No appetite, no hunger feel, no thirst feel, all food tastes odd, etc.
See sites like WebMD or MayoClinic for description about it and more info. Not sure how to post link have brain fog.
On liquid med feed Ensure bottles, insurance here EU pays 3 months. Dietician med need get 3 hours from insurance, my dietician left me after 1.5 hours for better payment private sector dietician job. She was nice person. She herself say 3 hours is too little for heart failure cachexia. Her diet food eat plan is eat every 1.5 hour small amount start 7:00 am and last food with last rx meds 21:00....Eat more proteins
Some site mention it is only 10% heart failure patients get cardiac cachexia, was late night when read this, maybe try to look into it more later on.
If anyone else has cachexia? Or if you know someone?
Cachexia is known seen in cancer patients. But it happens in HF too. One more thing to deal with. HF battle never ends..... Any tips?
Does anyone know what treatment is in other countries? I live in EU so curious about how things are done in other countries around the world ?

Basically I bought a bottle of Xanax a couple months ago and I would take one pill an hour or two before I went to bed.
Nothing crazy, but life is just been stressful so I bought LEGIT Xanax and was trying to use it responsibly.
Well apparently just taking one pill a night for 30 days straight is enough to get your body hooked on it, so towards the end of the bottle when I had like three or four pills left I decided that I can't just turn to pills to solve my problems, I need to man up and figure it out myself without just taking a pill.
So I straight up stopped taking them and just put the last couple I had in my safe for a rainy day or in case maybe someone else needed one.
4 days later I'm standing in my Grandma's kitchen talking to her 1 minute, and the next minute I'm waking up on the floor covered in blood and there's EMT people trying to hoist me up onto a stretcher.
I have no idea what happened, I was just talking to her one minute and the next minute I'm on the floor and I don't remember anything between then.
Apparently I broke out in a seizure and when I go to the hospital the doctor said it's because you can't just stop taking Xanax, you have to wean your self down until you can completely get off. That was news to me, because I know people that take four and five Xanax bars in one sitting just for shits and giggles, so I thought me taking one before bed wouldn't be a problem.
Well after my blood work came back the doctor asked if I had any cocaine.
I told him it's not an everyday thing, but once every blue moon it's nice to kick back and ski the slopes with the boys.
That's when the doctor said that quitting Xanax cold turkey and then putting Coke up your nose is not a good combination because the cocaine lowers the threshold as to whether you have a seizure or not, and not just compounds the problem because quitting Xanax cold turkey could potentially give you a seizure.
Again, news to me 😩
Well fast forward five or six months later, I decided to buy another bottle, only this time I'm only going to use these things for an emergency, so I'm hoping this bottle can last me at least a year.
So far since I bought it I've only taken two and I realized that for the last 48 hours I haven't been able to feel the right side of my face. I don't see any bruises or anything, but it just feels numb, kind of like if you scratch a big scar. You can feel it, but you can't really feel it at the same time.
I'm wondering if maybe I blacked out and had another seizure and hit my head, but since there was no one around and I have no recollection of anything that happens when I'm having a seizure, I have no fucking idea.
Anyway, I was wondering if anybody has experienced anything like this before. My coworkers were fucking with me and asking me if I had a stroke or something, which I've never had one, but I'm pretty sure I would fucking know if I had a goddamn stroke, right?
TLDR: my face is numb and I have no idea why. Of course you look on WebMD and that's useless because it says it could be everything from syphilis, to a brain tumor and everything in between. Anyway, I just figured I'd hit up the good people at Reddit and see if anyone can shine a light on this situation for me.
Oh by the way, idk if it helps but I'm 32 years old, and slightly overweight, but went to the doctor semi recently and they said other than liking double cheeseburgers a little more than normal ppl, I'm in otherwise pretty good health.

Basically I bought a bottle of Xanax a couple months ago and I would take one pill an hour or two before I went to bed.
Nothing crazy, but life is just been stressful so I bought LEGIT Xanax and was trying to use it responsibly.
Well apparently just taking one pill a night for 30 days straight is enough to get your body hooked on it, so towards the end of the bottle when I had like three or four pills left I decided that I can't just turn to pills to solve my problems, I need to man up and figure it out myself without just taking a pill.
So I straight up stopped taking them and just put the last couple I had in my safe for a rainy day or in case maybe someone else needed one.
4 days later I'm standing in my Grandma's kitchen talking to her 1 minute, and the next minute I'm waking up on the floor covered in blood and there's EMT people trying to hoist me up onto a stretcher.
I have no idea what happened, I was just talking to her one minute and the next minute I'm on the floor and I don't remember anything between then.
Apparently I broke out in a seizure and when I go to the hospital the doctor said it's because you can't just stop taking Xanax, you have to wean your self down until you can completely get off. That was news to me, because I know people that take four and five Xanax bars in one sitting just for shits and giggles, so I thought me taking one before bed wouldn't be a problem.
Well after my blood work came back the doctor asked if I had any cocaine.
I told him it's not an everyday thing, but once every blue moon it's nice to kick back and ski the slopes with the boys.
That's when the doctor said that quitting Xanax cold turkey and then putting Coke up your nose is not a good combination because the cocaine lowers the threshold as to whether you have a seizure or not, and not just compounds the problem because quitting Xanax cold turkey could potentially give you a seizure.
Again, news to me.
Well fast forward five or six months later, I decided to buy another bottle, only this time I'm only going to use these things for an emergency, so I'm hoping this bottle can last me at least a year.
So far since I bought it I've only taken two and I realized that for the last 48 hours I haven't been able to feel the right side of my face. I don't see any bruises or anything, but it just feels numb, kind of like if you scratch a big scar. You can feel it, but you can't really feel it at the same time.
I'm wondering if maybe I blacked out and had another seizure and hit my head, but since there was no one around and I have no recollection of anything that happens when I'm having a seizure, I have no fucking idea.
Anyway, I was wondering if anybody has experienced anything like this before. My coworkers were fucking with me and asking me if I had a stroke or something, which I've never had one, but I'm pretty sure I would fucking know if I had a goddamn stroke, right?
TLDR: my face is numb and I have no idea why. Of course you look on WebMD and that's useless because it says it could be everything from syphilis, to a brain tumor and everything in between. Anyway, I just figured I'd hit up the good people at Reddit and see if anyone can shine a light on this situation for me.
Oh by the way, idk if it helps but I'm 32 years old, and slightly overweight, but went to the doctor semi recently and they said other than liking double cheeseburgers a little more than normal ppl, I'm in otherwise pretty good health.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a stunning and unprecedented turn of events, sources confirmed today that everything in the world is absolutely fine, and there is no news to report. The global population awoke this morning to discover that every issue, problem, and crisis had miraculously resolved itself overnight, leaving humanity in a state of serene tranquility.
"This is truly a historic day," said a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Calm Affairs. "For the first time in recorded history, we have absolutely nothing to worry about. No wars, no scandals, no natural disasters. It's just... calm."
The lack of news was felt across all industries, with journalists around the world scrambling to find something—anything—to write about. One newspaper in Ohio resorted to publishing an entire edition dedicated to photos of puppies playing in the park. The headline read, "Puppies Frolic. That's It. That's the News."
Economists and financial experts were equally baffled, reporting that the stock market had entered a period of unrelenting stability. "It's just a straight line," said one Wall Street trader, staring at a graph of stock prices. "I've never seen anything like it. I think I might take up gardening or something."
Social media platforms saw a sharp decline in activity as users found themselves with nothing to rant or argue about. Twitter, once a hotbed of discourse and debate, became a peaceful virtual oasis filled with heartwarming stories of human kindness and videos of baby animals.
Even meteorologists were left scratching their heads as weather patterns around the world stabilized into a perpetual state of mild and pleasant conditions. "It's 72 degrees and sunny everywhere on Earth," reported a weather anchor during the evening news. "I mean, literally everywhere. I don't even know how that's possible."
Meanwhile, politicians in every country were seen taking extended lunch breaks and enjoying leisurely strolls through the park, reveling in the newfound harmony that had enveloped the world.
The United Nations, which typically convenes to address global conflicts and humanitarian crises, held an emergency session to discuss how to spend their newfound free time. A unanimous vote was cast in favor of hosting a worldwide pizza party, with extra toppings for everyone.
As humanity collectively basks in the warm glow of universal contentment, experts are optimistic that this trend will continue indefinitely.
"We expect tomorrow to be much like today," said the spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Calm Affairs. "Everything will be fine. No news to report. Just take a deep breath and enjoy the moment."
At press time, a gentle breeze was blowing through the trees, and somewhere in the distance, a bird was singing.
alt:
NEW YORK—In an unprecedented and highly unusual turn of events, citizens across the nation awoke today to a world that seemed to have been touched by an angel of serenity, as news outlets reported that, quite simply, everything is fine. "No news today, folks. Absolutely nothing happened," announced a visibly relaxed newscaster, sipping a cup of coffee while lounging on the studio couch.
The complete absence of news, experts explain, appears to have been caused by a series of non-events, such as "people generally getting along," "the weather being mild and unremarkable," and "politicians deciding not to do anything rash or controversial." Confounded journalists scrambled to find anything even remotely newsworthy, but their efforts were thwarted by an overwhelming sense of calm and contentment that had settled over the world like a cozy blanket.
"I thought I had a lead on a possible traffic jam, but it turns out everyone just decided to carpool today," said a befuddled reporter at the scene of a strangely peaceful intersection. "I've never seen anything like it. Even the pigeons are getting along."
In a stunning show of solidarity, rival news networks came together for a joint press conference, where they announced in unison that there is, in fact, no news to report. "We tried to dig up some scandals, but it turns out everyone's being pretty honest today," explained one anchor, shrugging. "We even tried to stir up some celebrity drama, but all we found was a heartwarming story about an actor adopting a stray dog. It's just not news."
In response to the lack of news, media outlets have resorted to airing footage of kittens playing, peaceful nature scenes, and heartwarming stories of everyday heroes who didn't really do anything extraordinary today, but who deserve some recognition anyway. "We've got 24 hours to fill, folks, so get ready for some wholesome content," announced a news anchor as she queued up a video of a baby giggling.
Meanwhile, the internet was abuzz with citizens expressing their delight at the absence of distressing headlines. "Everything is fine? That's the best news I've heard all year!" exclaimed one Twitter user, while another posted, "No news is good news, am I right?"
At press time, news outlets were considering making "No News Day" an annual tradition, though many were skeptical that such a miraculous day could ever happen again. For now, citizens are encouraged to enjoy this rare moment of tranquility, and perhaps even step outside and take a deep breath of fresh air, because who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Hi guys, I would really appreciate it if someone could read my descriptive essay and give feedback.
PS. Not a native speaker hehe.
Q. Describe a town or city centre in the early hours of the morning.
The town too had a soul of its own. It awoke, as the sun did. It bathed in the energising shower of light. The tranquil night– just moments ago, was now a thing of the past.
Roosters crowed, windows swung open and curtains were drawn. Light poured into the small unkept rooms where mothers struggled to wake their children, who were nestled; snuggled in their warm beds. The blissful previous night’s slumber reflected on those children's faces when illuminated by the glimmer of the morning rays.
The tide had turned, and the town unleashed itself. The bustling activity began like a cascading river overcoming a breaking dam. The marble water fountain in the town centre began with a jolt: streaks of clear water thrust out of the cupid’s arrow; the centrepiece, and jets of water sprouted from the snouts of the surrounding dolphin sculptures posing in playful leaps, flips and twists. All the streams of water met in a harmonious arch – flaunting a mini-rainbow as the golden beams of light met with the sprinkling of water.
The sloping clay roofs cast angular shadows on the narrow streets. The twisting Oak lined between alternating Tudor homes: its leaves radiated a warm glow and its delicate yet graceful branches stretched like a poised ballerina. On these branches, Robins chirped boisterously, squirrels with a sinuous grace rummaged for their hidden treasure and Warblers pecked at writhing worms.
Supple, old men basked in courtyards outside their ornate and weathered fences. Others swept the fallen leaves and Warbler droppings. The smell of fresh baking bread baking permeated through the open doors of bakeries. Stray dogs lay curled cosily on doorsteps. An inquisitive spotted cat pawed at the tinkling bell hanging on the bakery door. The low, mellow mooing of cows being milked echoed on the streets. The clanking and clattering of cutlery from surrounding kitchens mixed with the sizzling and hissing sounds of steeping tea from nearby tea houses in a cacophony of domestic simplicity.
Little boys and girls with combed hair swept to the side and curly pigtails, trudged slowly to school in their loose socks and drooping bags– while exchanging excited chatters and giggles.
Some rubbed their eyes sleepily while others with animated mannerisms exchanged exaggerated stories.
Then, the shutters opened, markets began crowding and the town centre soon enough filled with pairs sitting around the fountain, discussing the coming years’ crop yields and more. The air was filled with a multitude of ‘pleasantries’ along the lines of, “Lovely to see you again after so long, Martha!” and “When did you buy that new motorcycle Robert?”.
The day went on.

I am an international student. I received admissions from Virginia Tech (VT) Meng CS at NCR campus, Pitt(University of Pittsburgh) MSCS and Vanderbilt MSCS in this fall term. I got MD degree in my country so I look forward to having opportunities to do research or projects coheld with a medical center or a medical research institution. Based on my survey, Vandy and Pitt both have prestigious medical center and they are top notch in medical research. In addition, Vandy CS and Pitt CS are really close in CS ranking by US News. However, VT is slightly better than Vandy and Pitt in its CS ranking on US News.
I plan to go to the workforce after finishing the degree, so being easier to grab tech offers(doesn't have to be FAANG, but I heard they are better choices for international students because of the visa issue.) is the biggest attraction for me.
Due to the unstable situation of the whole tech industry, a greater opportunity to shift to PhD will also make the choice more favored amongst all.
Lower price(including tuition, housing, and living in total), better weather, life qualify in the city are also my concerns when making the decision, though secondary ones.
I am more than happy to have any advice or opinions for me about my decision. Will be grateful for any response, thanks 🙂
View Poll