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Apple and Google have both just launched their new high-end smartphones, the iPhone 15 and the Pixel 8, at the end of 2023. The two base models have very different technical specifications, and a few points could well lead one to agree tends to be one or the other. We’ll explain everything you need to know.

Apple launched its new iPhone 15 in September, while Google just unveiled its Pixel 8. The latter, often referred to as “Android iPhones”, usually have serious arguments to convince those looking for an alternative to Android smartphones. Apple.

If the iPhone 15 is not radically different from the previous generation, the Pixel 8 offers many interesting new features compared to the Pixel 7. Is that enough to compete with Apple’s smartphones? That’s what we’ll see in this detailed comparison.

The technical data sheets of the iPhone 15 and Pixel 8

Here you will find a summary of the technical specifications of the two smartphones. We will analyze these properties in more detail later in this article.

Design: two formulas for success

Apple has used the same general look and feel on its high-end iPhones for years, and the Pixel 8 also adopts key design features from its predecessor. These are two “small smartphones”, but the iPhone 15 has the most compact format with dimensions of 147.6 x 71.6 x 7.8 mm, compared to 150.5 x 70.8 x 8.9 mm Pixel 8. It’s also lighter at 171 grams for the iPhone 15, 187 grams for the Pixel 8.

On the front, the iPhone 15 finally adopts the Dynamic Island tablet introduced with last year’s iPhone 14 Pro. Apple will then finally abandon the notch on its high-end smartphones. The front of the Pixel 8 is also in the spotlight with increasingly thin black borders around the screen. These are almost uniform, giving the device a much more premium look.

Both smartphones have an aluminum frame and are protected by glass, but the iPhone 15 uses Ceramic Shield, which is tougher than the Pixel 8’s Gorilla Glass Victus. Both are IP68 certified for water resistance and dust. The iPhone 15 is characterized by more high-quality materials than its competitor, but ultimately only your personal taste can decide in this category.

Screen: Fluidity is in the spotlight at Google

We’ve seen that the iPhone 15 and Pixel 8 have an almost identical format, and the same goes for their screen sizes. We have to expect a diagonal of 6.1 inches for the iPhone 15 and 6.17 inches for the Pixel 8. So let’s focus instead on the technologies built into each panel.

This year, the iPhone 15 takes over the iPhone 14 Pro’s screen with a tablet with Dynamic Island and a resolution of 2556 x 1179 pixels (460 ppi). The maximum brightness increases to 2000 nits, making it one of the brightest screens in its category. However, this is still stuck at only 60 Hz.

The Pixel 8, on the other hand, improves significantly by offering a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels (427 ppi) with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, while the Pixel 7 had to make do with 90 Hz. The brightness also goes up to 2000 nits, as much as the iPhone 15.

The fluidity of the Pixel 8 screen makes it the big winner in this category. Android smartphone manufacturers have been eager to offer high-resolution screens on their devices for several years now, and it’s time for Apple to stop reserving this technology for its Pro models.

Performance: The iPhone is unbeatable

With its A16 Bionic chip that powered last year’s iPhone 14 Pro, the iPhone 15 is one of the most powerful smartphones on the market, right behind the iPhone 15 Pro and its A17 Pro SoC. The Pixel 8’s new processor, the Tensor G3, promises a significant increase in performance compared to the previous generation, but it’s still not up to the task of worrying Apple.

The chip is based on Samsung’s Exynos 2300, which should be found in the Galaxy S23. It uses a 9-core configuration (1+4+4) with one Cortex-X3 (2.91 GHz), four Cortex-A715 cores (2.37 GHz) and four Cortex-A510 cores (1.70 GHz). In the famous Geekbench 6 benchmark, the SoC only achieved 1,600 points on a single core and 4,200 points on a multi-core. That’s far behind the A16 chip in the iPhone 15, which achieved around 2550 and 6300 points in the same test.

The Tensor G3 is therefore significantly less powerful than the A16, whether on the CPU or GPU side, but has the advantage of offering certain interesting technologies, including AV1 encoding, which is only found in the A17 Pro. The Tensor G3 also offers Wi-Fi 7, while the A16 has to make do with Wi-Fi 6. Still, the point goes to the iPhone 15 thanks to its superior raw performance.

Battery: None really stand out

This year’s Pixel 8 comes with a 4,575mAh battery, larger than the Pixel 7’s, but the iPhone 15 also benefited from a capacity increase with a 3,349mAh battery. Despite this significant gap, the iPhone 15s are still the battery life champions thanks to the tight integration between smartphone hardware and iOS software.

As for fast charging, the iPhone 15 is limited to 20W with wired fast charging and up to 15W with wireless MagSafe. The Pixel 8 is faster at 27W wired and 18W wireless, but given the extra capacity of its battery, it can’t stand out in this area with that edge. It’s a drawing.

Camera: The Pixel 8 will shine at night, at least on paper

The iPhone 15 has a 48MP sensor, but it is smaller than the sensor on the iPhone 14 Pro. The Pixel 8, for its part, benefits from a new 50 MP Samsung GN2 sensor, larger than that of the Pixel 7 but also the iPhone 15. Google’s reputation is well established when it comes to photo quality, and with With such a sensor we expect first-class performance in both photos and videos, especially in low light conditions.

The iPhone 15 and Pixel 8 are also equipped with a second 12 MP ultra-wide-angle sensor, there is also a 12 MP front camera on the iPhone 15 and 10.5 MP on the Pixel 8. Both smartphones offer similar technologies, including a 2- Multiple zoom thanks to pixel binning on the main sensor or macro mode with the ultra wide-angle sensor.

Finally, the Pixel 8 offers a ToF depth sensor that allows distances to be calculated. We’ll have to wait for the Pixel 8 tests to know what the device is capable of, but given Google’s history in this area, we’re guessing the result will be there. On paper, Google wins for now.

Software: iOS 17 and Android 14, flavors and colors

As in previous years, it is always complicated to choose between iOS and Android. The latest versions iOS 17 and Android 14 each brought interesting innovations to the operating systems of both manufacturers and are now both well-equipped with functions.

When it comes to software monitoring, Google now promises a total of 7 years of updates and is therefore almost in line with Apple in this area. However, Apple is known to provide certain security updates on certain smartphones almost ten years after their release. Therefore, Apple’s software monitoring will last longer, meaning you can benefit from the latest features for longer.

While Google gives you more flexibility and customization with Android, Apple is still a leader when it comes to integrating iOS into its product ecosystem. The problem is that the latter is closed and therefore some of its functions require the use of other services or products from the Cupertino company. This category therefore depends on your preferences but also on the other devices you already own.

Price: a more aggressive price for the Pixel 8

The Pixel 8 scores another point thanks to its cheaper price compared to its competitor. Google launched its smartphone in France for “only” 799 euros, while you have to pay a whopping 969 euros for the iPhone 15.

Both start at 128GB of storage, but Apple has the advantage of offering up to 512GB of storage on its smartphone, compared to a maximum of 256GB on the Pixel 8. However, Google’s storage expansion costs less. The Pixel 8 with 256 GB of storage sells for 859 euros (+60 euros), compared to 1099 euros (+130 euros) for the iPhone 15 with 256 GB of storage.

The iPhone 15 is available in 5 colors: Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green and Black, while the Pixel 8 has to make do with 3 different colors: Obsidian, Hazel and Rose.

Diploma

Due to its more aggressive price and generally more interesting spec sheet than the iPhone’s, the Pixel 8 stands out the most in this comparison. If your budget is tighter and you are looking for good value for money, we can only advise you to go for the Google smartphone.

However, if you are already entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, i.e. own a Mac or another device from the American giant, opting for the iPhone 15 could well be the best solution. You benefit from the close connection between iOS and the manufacturer’s other operating systems, which have been Apple’s strength in recent years.

Microsoft is offering a nice surprise to all Windows 11 users who are installing their system for the first time. The company suggests killing time with a little surfing session.

Image credit: Microsoft

If you just bought a new PC with Windows 11 or decided to reinstall your system with a clean configuration, you may have noticed that Microsoft includes the following a very nice Easter egg when installing the operating system. The Redmond company actually recycled it Microsoft Edge Surfing Gamewhich, as the name suggests, can be accessed by entering “edge://surf” in the address bar of the Microsoft browser.

Read – A more powerful PC is not required to run Windows 11 23H2 properly. That’s good news

Update sessions orInstalling Windows 11 promise to be a little less tedious for users. The Redmond OS waiting screen will now appear an “infinite scrolling” surfing game, identical to what Edge has been offering for three years with Microsoft Edge Surf. According to The Verge, the company discovered this surprise when first configuring Windows 11 on a Surface Laptop Studio 2.

Windows 11 gives you the option to browse while installing the update

When starting the Windows 11 update, the screen displays: “We are installing the latest features. This can take around 30 minutes. You can go or Play our surfing game while you wait “. This casual game is a port of Edge Surf, the hidden program that activates in Edge when there is no internet connection. The actual principle of these “infinite scrolling” titles is well known. To keep internet users waiting when they are offline, Google Chrome uses the same process (but in horizontal scrolling) with the famous dinosaur game.

Read – Windows 11: Copilot is withheld from Europeans, here’s the tip to use it anyway

Obviously, the Windows 11 surfing game offers very simple gameplay and pixel graphics, which will especially delight nostalgics and fans of 8-bit aesthetics. In any case, it’s a nice gesture from Microsoft, whose operating system is evolving at an incredible speed.

The next annular solar eclipse will take place on October 14, 2023, during which the moon will partially obscure the sun. Although the eclipse will not be visible in France, it will still be easily observed in North America, and NASA intends to use this to launch its Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path (Apep) mission. The latter aims to use three probes to study the effects of the sudden drop in solar brightness during a solar eclipse on the atmosphere and in particular on the ionosphere, the dynamics of which are determined by the ultraviolet rays coming from the Sun.

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[EN VIDÉO] Great solar eclipse of August 21, 2017: incredible images A solar eclipse crossed the United States on August 21, 2017, sparking excitement…

It’s an expected event for Americans who love the sky: On October 14, the Earth, Moon, Moon and SunSun will be in perfect alignment. This alignment will temporarily eclipse the Sun, which will then remain hidden behind the Moon. This phenomenon is called an annular solar eclipse and is different from a total solar eclipse. During a solar eclipse, a total solar eclipse, the moon completely covers the sun’s disk, so that it is replaced by a very dark lunar silhouette that only reveals the sun’s crown.

In an annular solar eclipse, on the other hand, the apparent size of the moon in the sky is slightly smaller than that of the sun: observers who look into the sky will then see a very bright ring appear around the disk at the peak of the eclipse. Moon, also called the “Ring of Fire.” The annular solar eclipse on October 14th will only be visible from the Americas, where the apparent brightness of our Sun will drop to 10% of its usual brightness.

Effects on the ionosphere, an atmospheric layer controlled by sunlight

The ionosphere of a planet corresponds to the part of its atmosphere in which the gases are ionized, that is, the atoms, atoms and molecules lose or gain one or more electrons, electrons and thus become charged particles (ions). On Earth, the ionosphere takes up a large part of the atmosphere and is between 60 and 1,000 kilometers high.

It is the ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Sun that is at the origin of the ionosphere: this reacts with atmospheric molecules, sometimes allowing their dissociation (for example, ultraviolet radiation can break a dioxygen molecule into two oxygen atoms). but also to ionize them. Ultraviolet radiation can actually strip a molecule or atom of an electron, creating a soup of ions (lacking an electron) and free electrons in equal amounts. Through these processes, gases in the ionosphere act as an absorbing filter and help limit the amount of ultraviolet radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface. During the day, constant sunlight ensures that these particles remain separated; But as night falls, many recombine into neutral molecules or atoms before breaking away again at daybreak.

A still poorly understood dynamic during a solar eclipse

During a solar eclipse, the sun’s light disappears and reappears almost immediately on a small portion of the Earth’s surface. In a very short time, the temperature and density of the ionosphere decrease, only to rise again, creating waves that move through matter, like a body of water in which a boat is moving, creating ripples (or ripples) in its wake .

To study these phenomena, NASA plans to launch its Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path (Apep) program, conducted in collaboration with researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. Little anecdote: The acronym “Apep” refers to the Egyptian god Apophis (Apep in Egyptian), a deity depicted as a snake who, according to mythology, would have pursued the sun god Ra to the point of causing him to almost completely disappear during a solar eclipse.

The American space agency therefore plans to send three probes into the ionosphere, the first 35 minutes before the peak of the eclipse, the second during the peak of the eclipse and the last 35 minutes afterwards. They will travel through our atmosphere at altitudes between 70 and 325 kilometers to deploy four scientific instruments that measure fluctuations in the ionosphere’s electric and magnetic fields, as well as changes in temperature and density. During their trajectories (ascending and descending), these probes can precisely measure changes that occur at different altitudes. The probes will be recovered at the end of the mission and launched again during the next total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.

The influence of the ionosphere on telecommunications satellites

At the same time, several ground observations will complete the mission. Researchers at Haystack Observatory, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will use their instruments to measure ionospheric disturbances slightly further from the path of the eclipse. A team of students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will use high-altitude probe balloons to measure weather changes during the solar eclipse.

All of these measurements will help create an accurate model of the dynamics of the ionosphere. Understanding it is becoming increasingly important as all of our satellite communications pass through the ionosphere before reaching Earth. It therefore seems important to fully understand the behavior of the ionosphere and to be able to predict the disturbances that occur there.

Mayor’s Mentions: A citizen honored for his contribution to Shawinigan’s influence

Left to right : Guy Arseneault (City Council – Val-Mauricie District); Josette Allard-Gignac (Councillor – Almaville District); Jacinthe Campagna (Councillor – La Cité district); Michel Angers (Mayor of Shawinigan); Yannick Benoît (mention of the mayor); Louis-Jean Garceau (City Council – Boisés District); Jean-Yves Tremblay (City Council – District des Hêtres); Lucie De Bons (Advisor – Rocher District); Christian Hould (Consultant – Montags District).

Handing over the “Mayor’s Mentions”
A citizen honored for his contribution to the impact of the City of Shawinigan

During last night’s public meeting, the council honored a citizen with the Mayor’s Mention. These citations are awarded to citizens whose actions contribute to the impact of the City of Shawinigan.

Here is the text of the lecture for the public meeting on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

Mr Yannick Benoît

It is our pleasure to recognize Council’s Mr. Yannick Benoît in the Mayoral Nomination and Recognition category, as he is one of the most promising Canadian researchers of his generation.

Mr. Benoît is originally from Saint-Georges-de-Champlain and has been Assistant Professor and Research Director of Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa since 2017. His work consists of developing innovative treatments to treat colon cancers.

He has won numerous awards throughout his career, including a Young Scientist Fellowship in 2015. More recently, Mr. Benoît received a large grant of $895,000 over five years from the federal government to support his research work.

Congratulations on your professional and academic achievements; You are a role model for the young people of our community!

– 30 –

Source :
Eve Chamberland
Communications and Citizen Relations Department
City of Shawinigan
819 536-7200 | [email protected]

“Fairy circles,” these small circular areas devoid of vegetation, have raised questions about their origins for years. We knew them in two or three countries, some were perhaps in 15 countries on three continents. But we still need to agree on a definition.

The commonality of these strange circular shapes, which have so far been observed mainly in Namibia and Australia, was that they appeared in very dry regions, each time at the speed of several circles in the same sector.

For this reason, several scientists suggest, among other things, that these circles of “bare earth” would help the vegetation in the region use the meager water reserves more efficiently.

263 locations in 15 countries

The hypothesis of targeted destruction by termites has also been put forward. As well as that of fungi or an as yet unidentified toxin.

The fact that these counties are in very remote areas has made their study difficult. Analysis of 15,000 satellite photos using artificial intelligence by Spanish researchers recently led to this new estimate.

Such “circles” – in reality the shape is round rather than perfectly circular – are found in at least 263 locations in 15 countries from Southwest Asia to the Horn of Africa and Madagascar. This compilation was published September 25 in PNAS magazine.

Oppo made a big impression last year when it announced the Find N2 Flip, a foldable clamshell smartphone with a large vertical outer display. The competition reacted quickly and offered even larger models, for example the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

At the end of August, the brand responded with the official launch of the Oppo Find N3 Flip in China, which included the first telephoto lens in a folding model. Good news, the international launch is getting closer and closer.

An Oppo Find N3 Flip soon in France?

As usual, Oppo prefers to launch in China before expanding the availability of its devices. Now the Find N3 Flip is starting to cause a stir internationally, as this foldable model is now listed on the brand’s Indian website.

On the web page we notice a part that highlights the design of the smartphone, another that praises the triple sensor photo module and a last that advocates the versatility of the external screen, which allows the display of more than 40 applications in this format enabled.

The most interesting is still the bottom of the page, which mentions a competition where you can win an Oppo Find N3 Flip, a pair of Enco Air2 Pro headphones and vouchers. In fact, the period of the event from October 3rd to 24th suggests that a launch international conference would be held in India in October. The smartphone should then appear immediately, probably after the competition has closed.

As a reminder, the Oppo Find N2 Flip was launched in France on February 28th. The availability of his successor in France in the coming months therefore seems very likely.

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Many Internet users have found that iOS17 is not up to date in terms of energy efficiency. Apple offers new functions, the use of which comes at the expense of higher energy consumption. The next update should also fix this problem.

Credits: Apple

Despite all the new features offered to iPhone users, there is a point where iOS 17 is a disappointment : Energy efficiency. Apple’s new mobile operating system requires more power than iOS 16 to perform the same tasks. We can come to this conclusion based on the results of the tests of the YouTube channels iAppleBytes and Cult Of Mac. The experts are also clear: “iOS 17 has a battery problem”. At this point it is less efficient there than his predecessor.

Read – Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max review: A powerful spirit in a robust body

After testing and comparing iOS 17.0.2 battery drain performance on various iPhone models, especially on some iPhone models. For example, if you own an iPhone Xr, you won’t get much benefit from applying this update. The latter will be more energy intensive and You may need to charge your device more frequently.

The next iOS 17 update should benefit the autonomy of all iPhones

The update on iOS 17.0.2 brings important bug fixesfor example, transferring data directly from another iPhone during setup, as well Security fixesbut it seems clear that it doesn’t offer anything worthy of being included in the “Top 5 Best Features of iOS 17 That Will Change Everything on Your iPhone.”

Read – iPhone 15: Scratches, poor screen alignment, some smartphones have defects

Apple is currently working on preparing one Update that will improve the autonomy of iPhones, by making its operating system more energy efficient. By solving the iPhone 15’s overheating problem, the company aims to simultaneously improve the battery life of other iPhones.