Gadgetory

Taylor Swift argues for a better deal for more Spotify artists Samsung's s10 may be absolutely massive and we find out how good a Netflix Christmas really is it's all coming up on the scene at UK podcast episode 5 for 8 hello and welcome to the show I'm Andrew Hoyle and joining me today is rich trend home oh wait no you don't it's that rich oh no way it's Katie Collins no oh it is right I'm just very good at disguising myself as Katie Collins European correspondent exactly that's me rich Tran home in here just just confirm for me that you are actually Kate Collins okay fine I am wow that's good because I've tailored this show a little bit around you and I do mean that pun to be as good as it was I have tailored the show in I'm talking about Taylor Swift your your BFF your face a very natural segue that was I thought so too this is our first news story you're absolutely right to say in those precise words because Taylor Swift has got a new record deal with Universal and you may be thinking well what the hell's I got to have seen it and you're probably silly thinking that at the end of a story but we're gonna try anyway because do you think this is relevant and you're gonna tell us why on you absolutely so the the background to the story is that Taylor Swift assigned a brand new record deal it's the first time in her career since she first signed her record record deal at the age of 14 that she's done so 14 yes she's been in that deal since she was 14 she hundred four terms of change but this this new deal the one that she's had obviously had all of the big record labels that kind of bidding for her but the thing that's kind of literally has sealed the deal for her is that she wanted to make sure that there was a specific Clause to do with Spotify front and center okay and ever wants to be on it again is that right that's not at all so effectively all of the big record labels of shares in Spotify since the company went public now when the there are sort of rumors that Universal Music Group is going to sell its shares next year in Spotify and what Taylor wanted was for all of the artists that are sienten Universal to get a share of the money should-should Universal Music Group cash in on on its equity that seems like a good a good positive move yes on Taylor's part indeed and universals agreed to this and to also to make sure that it's not and it's not recouped it doesn't kind of collect and recouped money through the through the share so effectively if artists Oh outstanding money to the label for for whatever reason it's not going to offset the money that that it gets from these shares against that amount so it no matter what happens no matter what the kind of financial situation is between the label and the artist they get a nice bonus they will get every single artist will get money you know what I'm not entirely sure I agree with that or maybe I just don't understand it in quite the right terms because in a nutshell the way recording contracts tend to work is is is a record label will effectively upfront the cost of a band's music production or VAT or or you know they basically give them this upfront amount of cash whether that's 10 grand or 100 grand or whatever and the band basically earns money by releasing albums of my touring and pays that money off that is effectively alone now I'm not really like the label is owed that money by the band so I'm not sure if they were to sell those shares and then say to the band well here is effectively I don't know you would get 20,000 pounds from the sale of a spotify money but we're keeping that and knocking it off your debt like that's still money that they'd be paying back I don't necessarily see that as long as they do as long as that is knocked off in some way as long as it isn't just more profit for Universal but if it if it is still knocked off that debt there's still money effectively money for the artist I think the the whole point of this is that streaming as a kind of way of making money for artists has been extremely volatile you know a lot of artists feel like they're being like very much under compensated and it's take it takes ages for the money to get between you know from from when we as consumers are streaming a song for the money to arrive in the bank account of the artist there's so many hands yeah it takes a long time and often they're not compensated the way that they should and I think this is a way of investing in creators long term saying to writers to artists to producers and you know you streaming is an incredibly volatile difficult industry for you but what we want is for em you know we want you to keep doing what you're doing we want you to keep whatever your kind of talent is and your skill is and whatever kind of music you're making we want you in the long term to feel like you it this is a profitable industry for you that you can you can keep making this amazing music that we're all effectively prophesying at sure so I so I think that that's basically that you're effectively then is it is it is and it's it's an important it's it's a show of support to the artist it's a show of you know it's a real because a lot of artists struggle with this and you know it's it's it's okay for big artists like Taylor Swift who you know Taylor has got a long history with Spotify where she pulled all of her music off and every year music on Spotify that's a big deal yeah and so and but when she rejoined the service you know that the terms were slightly renegotiated slightly but we don't know exactly what those terms are it's hard for a smaller artist and and you know more independent artists and whatever to make that kind of stand to say you know to throw it because they don't have as much weight to throw around and I think the point of this as well is that it's about bigger artists saying you know it's not just about getting money for themselves but it's about making sure that across the whole of the industry that you know the artists are ultimately treated for and it's effectively like a big artist standing up for all of the smaller artists out though and I think that that is a really you know when it comes to negotiating how things kind of pan out in this brand brave new world of streaming there that the people who do have clout effectively using it to ensure the the future of the music industry which is good that's really positive and in fact Universal on the only major label doing this Sony in the summer of this year sold half of its Spotify stake and that was valid at seven hundred and sixty eight million dollars and and the and I believe shared it with did share with its artists yeah so it's sold half it's it's taken and it has again it's shared it with its artists and Warner which is the other kind of a major one yeah as a major label has also sold some of its stake in Spotify and gave the you know it said that it would allocate money to the artists but it is offsetting it against the money that the art of the artist saw them yeah again I don't necessarily think is unfair like that money is is owed and and the artist is effectively getting that money like if you if you won ten thousand pounds now whether you got that in cash or whether they I lopped it off say like your student loan that's still money that in the long term is coming back to you I guess it's about saying - it's about the the label saying to the artists you know we respect what you're doing and we respect the fact that you know we that this is not an easy industry for you to produce the kind of work in the is making us money and that is allowing this industry to be sustainable for the future so it's it's a show of support really and you know maybe they don't have to do it at all but maybe they should be doing it yeah and you know it's it's a it's one of those cases and ultimately the labels have agreed they've had they have said yes actually we do think that we should be doing this you know they have to but they but they've made the made that call and they've said that actually yeah and they can see that this is really important for the further future of the music industry yeah so it's not like it's just artists against the labels and like fighting over who should own them you know who should get that money the labels are in agreement here ultimately but this was this was a real it's it's interesting that that this hard fought over record deal that this is one of the we don't know many of the details about this record deal but we rarely do we know is it's a multi-album agreement this is one of the stipulations the other is that that tell us with will own all of that will own all of the masters that she makes of for all of the music that she makes from now on or they'll revert back to her five years after they've been released effectively sure so so it was good for her there's one there's one thing there that's good for her and one thing though that's good for all of the artists so I'm sure there are lots of artists at Universal Music Group who will probably be incredibly grateful to her yeah making sure that that was in there because it is something that that it's been rumored and that they've been talking about and thinking about and you know the artists a you know unless somebody uses their leverage to ensure it ensure that that happened and she has leverage and asking issue but she's using that she recognizes that she is a big deal and not that she's you know she's not trying to like hold him over a barrel and anything like that she's not trying to go in with these big big demands that would be like negative on the industry this is this is the whole idea is that it's it's about doing making a good step in the right direction for more artists and the fact that they have supported that is good and as you write if it was a small artist coming on they are they have to fight to get with a good a good label and often they don't get that they're the terms that they want and and therefore they can't turn around and say we want to do we want to do this and that's why we're seeing a lot of artists who are coming in on much smaller labels and launching their own labels and launching their own music independently because they just can't make the money when when Spotify doesn't pay I don't know what the figure is but I know it's it's a really shockingly poor amount if like per stream like it's it's it's such a zero point zero zero zero zero percent per stream they'd have to have however many thousands of streams in order to in order to get even any money at all but that's not what we want to talk about cuz because we didn't we don't a lot of this is is very sort of behind closed doors Spotify and the labels generally don't talk openly about how much money is made and so it is sometimes difficult to work out exactly how much of changing hands it was a lot of things where we only kind of hear when certain bands or certain labels will basically try and get a little bit of publicity by by kicking up a fuss about it but it's interesting for Taylor has because she has very publicly gone out against Spotify she also criticized Apple music for the amount that it was paying fans and an Apple both Apple and Spotify worked to rehash their terms in in in line with kind of what she wanted but for all artists she wasn't she wasn't just trying to do this for her own music it was also for other artists I feel like the the Spotify thing obviously that was a good three years of going back and forth and negotiating never the Apple music thing was quite extraordinary because that was a turnaround of around 24 hours when that happened you know she that effectively it was when Apple said that it was going to be launching its music service and during the during the trial period when when people can use the service for free in order to decide whether they want to sign up and pay for it or not they weren't going to be paying artists the you know for streams that happen during trial periods which is kind of outrageous you know given especially given that they are one of the wealthiest companies in the world and to say that actually that they would were not going to be paying artists for their streams during his free trial that they were giving away it was really I mean now when you think about it even I mean at the time but like now in retrospect that seems totally out of the less I actually didn't know that was the case that is absolutely bonkers yeah and the fact that Taylor Swift wrote this letter and then 24 hours later Eddy Cue he was in charge of Apple music when we hear you fine we'll pay you yeah it's almost like they've been caught red-handed and they knew they had to make this quick decision so you know I don't see that as a good thing that wasn't like they sat down and negotiated over a period of time that was like oh yeah we tried to get away with this and we can so let's change it but again it just shows that it really is it's difficult for people to to create that kind of change in the music industry and to you know make stuff happen unless they are a big-name and they can guarantee a certain amount of publicity and and it is up to the bigger artists out there to to stand up and to sit and to make take a stand in these situations and that is not like it's great that when you see artists doing that but I mean it's a terrible precedent to set for the music industry on the whole that like the only way that things will ever get better for artists and and change is if like one person really takes it upon themselves or perhaps a group of people take it upon themselves you know I think if the balance was more fairly distributed in the first place and it wouldn't necessary to do that it's almost like the labels want the most money for themselves and power that's a surprising news thanks for joining us on the scene at UK podcast where we bring you the biggest tech scoops moving swiftly on see what I did there we're gonna talk a little bit of a sampling Galaxy S 10k t is it that time already we're getting close to that time and we have mentioned this phone a couple of times already on the podcast but we're coming back to it now because we have a new report this is coming in from The Wall Street Journal credible source we might we might say and those guys say that the S 10 is going to come in an immense six point seven inch size that it will have six cameras and they will have 5g what do you think of that well I mean it's a tablet that's note size it's it's this whole thing about about more cameras on the back of phones it reminds me of like the a few years ago when when phone manufacturers are having that battle so kind of who can put the most megapixels it's exactly the same battle yeah and and it's so like it's so like I think it's one of those things that makes people it's probably I'm not saying that there's no technical benefit to having those six cameras on on a phone but I think it's almost one of those things where it's a its massive one-upmanship and you know almost trying to persuade people were more is better you know and what what we spent a really long time as tech journalists doing during that like megapixel battle was explaining to consumers actually more isn't always better it's not that simple like it's not the only thing that you need to look at when you're deciding on earth well it's not as it's not even as simple as that because it's gonna be four on the back two in the front so I have two front facing cameras and they're before cameras on the back at the moment I think the most we've seen on the back you know in a in a flagship mainstream phone I'm not including things like the Amazon fire phone which had a billion cameras the huawei mate 20 pro and the the p20 Pro they had three cameras and probably others so yeah four is four would be probably quite a lot and almost certainly we will see like different things in terms of zoom like telephoto zoom and they'll be almost certainly things like 3d depth recognition for like a better portrait mode pictures or even like 3d scanning objects and that's not of things I'll be I'll be interesting um yes six point six point seven inches that's gonna be very very very big that's again in line with a note range so we're not expecting this to be the only s10 fermius will probably be the biggest in a range of s10 phones there's also had rumors where we may have a whole range including like a budget option almost like an s10 light going through to you the flagship and then this may be like the max version biggest hyper powered phone of the range 5g isn't surprising because next year in UK is when we're going to start seeing 5g launching EE and Vodafone have both said that is next year we're going to see 5g launching to consumers right now we have already got trials going on trials don't count its when it actually goes on sale and that is gonna be next year in I think starting in 20 cities in the country but it will start to spread so that's gonna be really interesting because it will be MD BC in Barcelona and that's the big mobile showcase where we see all the big brands showing off their new wares we're gonna start seeing a lot more talk about 5g phones and a lot more phones actually going on sale so it'll be interesting to see 5g launching in that phone but not surprising that's in line with what we expect to see I mean I so when it comes to 5g phones I expect actually we might start to see some announcements over the next few weeks and the reason that I say that is because a lot of the 5g phones will be at will contain Qualcomm z-- 7 nanometre chipsets that it's been developing for 5g and I stand there and Qualcomm's do to make some announcements I think over the next few weeks I don't know specifically what they are but I imagine they might not announce these specific phones but they might and they might announce some partnerships and you know sort of say we will be seeing 5g phones from these manufacturers specifically next year I don't know if Samsung will be among them and when I definitely will like we know a lot of the Chinese manufacturers and but but we yeah we expect that we will start to see these first 5g handsets in in the flesh hopefully at Mobile World Congress next year and the the one thing that is going to be really interesting for Samsung specifically I think is that often Samsung is at the top battling out with Apple to see who can have the most exciting flagship phone of the year and ever six cameras yes and what we do as far as we know and we might not be getting a fighty iPhone year in you know in accordance with the kind of the life the the life cycle the release cycle of I phone so we could be getting a 5g flagship phone from Samsung but not from Apple and so if you are one of those people that always wants to get you know a flagship phone every year and you know you're agnostic when it comes to operating system and then this could be a really crucial thing if you see yourself as an early adopter of new technologies because you know it's possible we don't know for sure I just like to caveat that and but it might be a choice between getting a 5g phone and an iPhone next year yeah but that also I think it's gonna be worth remembering that 5g is exciting as a concept but 5g doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have suddenly supercharged speed it's not suddenly everything's going to be faster and better quality and it 5g goes a little bit beyond that the way and I'm not gonna get too technical because a lot of this is still a little bit surprisingly theoretical but it's about the way it uses the networks is is more its talked about bigger bandwidth so connecting a lot more Internet of Things devices so as everything you have in your house your car your office place is connected from you know not just your phone and your laptop but fridges and light bulbs and and everything else in your house there's a lot more bandwidth into 5g to support those devices so it's not just about suddenly you can stream YouTube 4k even faster we can already do that now so things like that isn't gonna make a lot of a lot of difference so yeah I think at the moment it's important not to get blown away by what inevitably will be that hype around 5g is bigger and better you have to have finally almost certainly EE Vodafone the other networks when they launch 5g it will be targeted as this is the fastest the best thing to have and there's gonna be a lot of rhetoric going around about that but realistically in certainly in the early days that isn't necessarily going to mean you have you have got the best service there's a lot of things we don't know about how well that signal is going to penetrate into rural areas some apparently 5g will help with because of the way that this thing signals work so there's a lot of unknowns basically I'm saying right now is like if that battle between Samsung on potentially 5g and Apple potentially not being on 5g is not necessarily one is going to be faster this is very true and I think that them for the majority of people I don't I don't think that 5g will fight or 5g contract will necessarily be something that you will either want to pay for and or that you will feel that you need maybe for another two to three years realistically and you know it's important to remember that 5g is built on a base of 4G and you know you can the the 4G is also improving and 4G is getting better all the time and that the the advante advanced contracts out there you know the ones that are offering really really high speeds you know probably are gonna be equally as desirable for a while as 5g yeah I'm a services that you use won't won't immediately catch up to demanding those speeds in the same way as you know Netflix now on the go you get support you can you can now use get much better quality video and you can stream it very comfortably but those services weren't really designed for phones and apps when 4G first launched anyway it's only as its developed and P and more people have it that those services become available the same thing will happen so it's one of those things that isn't you may not necessarily need to be an early adopter back to the phone no will it fold because of course we were talking last time about Samsung's foldable phone which is showed off and will be an official product we believe no that is going to be a second product line we're not going to see the s10 as the first in that a foldable line of smartphones instead the follow ball phone will probably be the galaxy x or the galaxy f and that will almost certainly be a product line launching alongside the Galaxy S line of phones which makes sense because that is another one of Samsung's I'm gonna say gimmicks I don't necessarily mean that in a concert experiment it's fine again like you know we talked about last time with the Galaxy K zoom their camera phone and they have their their curve not bendy but curved phone before and out so yeah I something did want to something LG I think HTC may have had one there at very few and thankfully they went away pretty quickly but yeah so we're gonna we're gonna obviously keep our eye very very closely on Samsung's Galaxy S 10 and the foldable phone and of course 5g developments I would be interested actually to know how excited our audience is podcast listeners or watches how how keen you are to get 5g and how do you think it's gonna make a difference so if you do have any thoughts on that please do let us know the email address is seen at UK podcast at CBS i.com or you can tweet Katie Collins or battery HQ if you'd rather do it that way I'm genuinely do you want to know what you think about that so please do tell us but I think we should move on to something a little bit more festive and that of course is Netflix yes who apparently have a good line in soppy Christmas films they do and some of them have already been released some of them are still to be released over the over the coming weeks for example if you were a fan of last year's the Christmas prints I think that there is a sequel lined up - that should be coming out sometime over the next week on that but there are also a whole range of other Christmas movies there should be should be either available to you now or coming soon the big one that they're plugging at the moment yes the princess switch now we watch that over the weekend with ex of this show Luke Westaway and I'm gonna say it's not exactly a corker of a film I mean I I would say it's deeply flawed and and deeply flawed do matter that on the poster but I do think you know I'm currently writing my review of this and I have said that I think the while it's kind of a botched attempt at a Christmas rom-com and has many faults do think that there is a strong argument for maybe stickiness on the telly on Christmas Day and as a sort of cross generational people-pleaser I don't think I think for kids I think that they might not notice a lot of the inconsistencies and weirdness that adults might pick up on adults and we as we were watching it I think we had a really good time just laughing at some of the ridiculousness the whole concept is flawed as a basic spoiler-free premise it's a baker attending a baking competition in a town or a country what a small European country called Belgravia oh yeah which is effectively supposed to be like Monaco I think where it's basically a principality and and in this town where there's bacon Commission is happening there was a princess do to marry a prince but she's not a princess she's a duchess princess the title is not actually a pretty no she's actually a duchess and the princess and Baker find out they look identical and decide to switch hilarity ensues now I yeah I did say that this is it is charming in that it's just it's very nice and it's it's just a bit silly but Vanessa Hudgens gives a great performance in both of the lead roles yeah a princess it's just very I don't know if it's poorly done or if it's intentionally done to be a little bit silly for example like they over there they go to Wembley studios to film things and I use to try and make it English even though it's not supposed to be England and there's bad English accents all over the place and and weirdness oh it's all over the place I really think that this is one of those shows well one of those films sorry that like in the in the age of like made for TV specials in America that the Disney Channel would have got away with this and nobody would have questioned it because it would have been made for American audiences and you know a lot of Americans might not have been to Europe so they might not know what your apps like but in this age of streaming where they're pushing it as hard to European audiences as American audiences and you know this is you know there's more international travel going on these days as well I think that their depiction if Europe is totally overblown and ridiculous and it's the most like it's so American and twee that like I I just it's it's very kind of hard to believe it is we said over time one of the the main house where they stay in it looks just like they've just taken one of their Western sets one of the western movie sets and just blasted it with the snow because it's a total like American ranch house sort of thing but they're just dressed it up to try and look like some swiss mountain town chalet and it doesn't work yeah that's one of that is but frankly the least of my concerns with the film but it is it is charming I highly recommend giving it a watch because it's funny in its awfulness in a sense and but I do suggest watching with a group of friends where you want to feel a little bit festive if you're a student in holes and you want to get everyone together and watch a movie and you've all seen home alone too many times and like me you don't agree with a die-hard as a Christmas film pop this on but have a good few drinks with it it's definitely one that I think a certain amount of beer and wine will improve it dramatically like for us anyway I think you know if you're a family and you're watching you on Christmas Day like I said I think the kids will like it I think the parents will laugh at it and the grandparents can happily fall asleep during it and can't have sherry too many with this one but what about a different film was you've been to see a fantastic bit too recently yes so well I suspect that the princess which is something of a low-budget effort for for a Netflix film this is like the opposite end of the spending more money was spent on this too is its kind of it's got a real epic sort of sense to it you know before we go on sorry to interrupt you we're going spoiler free here aren't we just in case anyone is switching off its spoiler free I haven't seen this either I will need to be careful yes I will concentrate on what I'm saying you spoil this for me and with but we've got so on CNET we've got a spoiler free review that you can read and then we've got a piece that I've written which is all of the outstanding questions that the film threw it for me which there were a lot of things that I was left wondering about at the end that you know does contain spoilers so if you have seen film then maybe check that list out and see if you agree because I was left feeling a little bit confused and frustrated at the end of it so if you are a Harry Potter fan and also felt like that then you might find some some questions on those lists what frustrated you the most if you can say without can you and oh you know I think I probably can say so I feel like oh actually it's not rip that's not risk it let's let's go let's go a different a different way then and did you enjoy it did you enjoy it as a Harry Potter fan and would you enjoy it as someone new like would you recommend it to anyone who's new to the franchise no we didn't and because I think that it relies on a lot of knowledge of like past films okay I also don't think that it necessarily be fine and you have a vague idea of Harry Potter then you probably okay watching it but like don't watch it on its own and I think that is probably I did find it enjoyable like I didn't I did enjoy the process of watching it but it's not one of those films that you would ever just be like oh we'll stick crime so Grindelwald on the telly like yeah as a standalone thing and I think that actually if you if you are gonna create a film like this I spend that much money on it I actually don't I think that you should be able to watch it as a standalone and I do that with a / Harry Potter feel less less so with definite Hallows one and two but with three other ones I will happily pop certainly Prisoner of Azkaban because I think that one out of all of them is the story that stands up on its own the most but the other ones I mean yeah it's obviously still following the same the same general overarching plot but it's still got its own distinct beginning middle in it exactly and I think it also really helps that you know they did though the stories are very distinct and they had different directors for each of the different films so that you kind of have like a different thing kind of going on then and actually that inconsistency doesn't really matter because the the you know if you know anything about Harry Potter you know the how much the story changes and how it gets really how it gets much darker yeah as it goes on and so the kind of femme the more childlike qualities that the first felt first two films have both in terms of the storyline and the production values I think really really shifts later on and it allows the stories to stand up on their own this is not a film that will stand up on its own I don't think I would like to be proved wrong in future I genuinely I wanted to like this more than I did and I think I enjoyed it but fundamentally it is not a good film damning thoughts so we shall leave it on that note obviously fantastic piece to is out now I believe and I mean I think some of those things that even if if you're if you're a potter fan already even being told it's not a good film you're gonna go and say it yeah why wouldn't you unless unless you've been told for some reason it's so terrible it's not worth your money you'll still say at some point but I mean and it's it's beautiful it's high budget like you know it the sets the costumes the creatures you know that there's still a lot to admire in there is there another cute steely sort of moly from the first fantastic beasts film make a return and kind of play a crucial role in the plot I think don't watch it to find out what that is there a highlight okay that's good to know yeah let's move on very quickly before we end on a little talk about our favorite iPhone games now I don't want to talk about this because we got chatting about this earlier in the day and maybe realize that we don't really talk about iPhone games at all on the podcast I talk a great length as you'll know about some of the triple-a console titles like Dead Redemption 2 which I've talked about three episodes in a row and is still brilliant by the way and my horse Mary Poppins is fantastic um but I want to talk about mobile games a little bit because we've both had our noses firmly stuck in a couple of games for weeks and weeks and weeks now months in fact for me but why don't you start tell us about your game and yes so I've been playing a game called home design home design and I found out about this because my one of them one of our editors in the US Leslie Katz wrote a brilliant piece about how she'd become really obsessed with it and it sounded great and so I decided that I would download it and also have a go and I will link to the piece in them in the story and in the show notes I mean I will yes but ultimately this is a game that is its it kind of is does what it says on the tin you design homes I mean you design creative names is it for a creative game and it's very descriptive I suppose but the yeah it's a sort of a comment if there's a competitive element to it so you design a room and it's judged against other rooms that you know have you been given a kind of a blank slate as it were and and a concept a little storyline about about people that perhaps live there so like it's gonna be a Alpine chalet retreat yeah or Manhattan stylish apartment I might try and pull some of the descriptions up actually because they are really rather good but at least you place furniture and your place art and you place other decorations in and those are believe all the decorations all the furniture and stuff they are actually real products and real designers real stores so everything you're creating could be made yeah this is correct and it's not sponsored by any it's not like it's not like you know it's not kind of created or sort of officially sponsored but I think certain challenges are sponsored by certain interior decor companies and is a very amateur home decor enthusiast I don't actually know a lot about the company so I couldn't really know you know I'm new to interior design but there may be like a habitat challenge where habitat site you don't you know decorate this room all but were there anything from our catalogue yeah habitat is like the only place I could think of it wasn't John Lewis it was one and it was you had to design a kid's room in Queensland in Australia and the brief was to design a giraffe seemed bedroom for a little girl and which you'd like that which was one of my favorite challenges the here was another one this was that they can get quite specific so this one was you need to do to need to design a living room in Edinburgh Scotland style style a modern study for a Lepidoptera test I think that's how you say it moving into her new home in Edinburgh Scotland with top I am had to had to google that and it was them I think it's somebody who studies butterflies so yeah like they can get really like specific so yeah I really like I love this game I find it like really kind of meditative I usually do like one or two challenges a day you get like a daily reward for kind of going these challenges right how what's there people people vote to like decide you know whether whether you and you get a kind of overall you get a score out of five stars and and if you get over four stars you get certain prizes you get more furniture and if you get 5 stars you get even bigger prizes and you know for each no I only had a couple of five stars it's really hard to get five stars and four for each of the challenges you also earn money for your duties real money your services now as an interior designer so and you know I am NOT one for gaming that much but when you know when there is something like this then I quite take there's more of a creative challenge yeah yeah the gaming element is is pretty minimal yeah you just want to design a really nice looking room I think that's cool and I do like that it's it's brand diagnostic in the sense that it's not it's all game that I can really see I care have made given that they do basically have that technology already they use it yeah and you can design rooms using there so you can see what things look like but defying it it seems like a really really cool idea isn't it it's an Android it's you know you can obviously pay to buy more stuff within the game I've paid a little bit I would say no more than ten pounds maximum aying it for a few months so yeah you've definitely got that value and I think is good with with any any game is free to play like that I on one hand I'm always loathed to give in to any eye pop-ups and anything like that it's like you know basically means pay to win if you want to actually play any more than you've got a pair yeah the other hand when I when I find a game but I enjoy and I think a lot of hours in I will pay what I believe I should have paid or maybe would have paid if I'd have bought this for the amount of hours I've played yeah or a games like true skates like a skateboarding game on the iPhone which I play I would love to know how many at much I play because I reckon I play that in the certainly in the hundreds of hours if not thousands because I will play that at least an hour every single day on my commutes and have done for the last several years is that the game that you wanted to tell us about no it isn't no I wanted to talk about asphalt 9 which is Gameloft's it's their big high-profile racing series and they asked well now I came out I sought my legends I believe it's called came out a good few months ago now but I've been playing it pretty solidly since it came out and it is brilliant it's so much fun I did like the asphalt Series before but not as much as I've enjoyed this one it's I don't know what it is I mean one looks brilliant but the gameplay is a little bit easy because it has these like Auto Drive functions basically it's a car racing game like I'm gonna ask the car racing game yeah but there is like these Auto Drive functions where instead of having to focus on like tilting the phone to get it just right which can be a little difficult to do or if you're playing on your commute it does the driving for you and use of decide the routes you want to take there's are always different routes and if you want us or take this route which will take you on a particular jump and you earn like basically extra speed for the tricks or if you want to go and get like a a bottle of nitrous which I meant you go you know it's a bit more tactics rather than it is about skill at racing but it is a game which is it's free to play and is fundamentally revolves around the money making part of it is you know do you want to buy like card packs to get new cars do you want to pay to upgrade certain cars but you can do all of that without paying a penny should you want to you can get it's more difficult it's certainly more time-consuming but you can but you can do it and I actually think they've got a really good balance in not by blasting you constantly with oh by this and it's this much money and you know I think they've got a good balance I played plenty of games which certainly EA games who have historically been really bad at this sort of thing where it's really like if you want to do anything in this game you've got to pay money there they're real suckers for the whole o if you know in Sim City for example you wanted to a building to be built immediately then spend like five quid or whatever for it to be done or wait three days in real time for it to be done so I think they've done really good it's a lot of fun to play and it you really kind of for me I feel committed to wanting to unlock more cars and when you do I want to actually play I want to I want to build them up I'm as a good multiplayer thing as well where it matches you with other real players around the world and I think that's good as well because I often I don't have that in a lot of games there's not a lot of a multiplayer element but a racing game obviously makes a lot of sense and I think they've got a good balance of how they match you up with other people I tend to be able to come first or second on some and some of them I will come 7th or 8th and it's almost got like that Mario Kart thing where you can be doing really really well the whole race and then someone takes you down because there is that you know you can crash into people and take them out of the race and then suddenly you're in the last place and it is really annoying but in a way that you kind of want to keep playing again like Mario Kart where two laps you're in first place and right is about to cross the finish line someone hits you with a shell in your back at the end which is annoying but it's kind of fun in the same way yeah I guess it it's just like there's always everything to play for yes a nice feeling yeah but it's great yeah and I say it's freeze on iOS and it on Android it looks great I think it's probably quite demanding I'm playing an iPhone and I've been using it as my benchmark game on a lot of the other flagships and it plays really really well I haven't played it on a really low end Android phone so I'm I'm not sure if it will run particularly well because it is so glossy there are so many swooshing effects and light things and all kinds of other things going on so I suspect it's probably for higher-end phones only but it's definitely worth checking out if you are after a racing game the only downside that I do have is it you do need an internet connection to play it so oh and that same thing for that yeah and I find that a little frustrating if you're on the tube a lot but I tend not to go underground as much anymore because I'm not womble so there we go to games that are great and if you want to spend some time away from your family at Christmas and just having a bit of gaming then those are good ones to go for but that does bring us to a close thank you very much Katie for joining us do you remind us where people can get in contact with you directly should they want to you can tweet me to chat about tech or other things I don't really mind dogs giraffe yeah I've got a wide variety of interests and at Katie Collins on Twitter and Instagram oh yeah you can find me on instagram at an unfamiliar sky an unfamiliar sky an unfamiliar guy or not you can find me with at battery HQ on Twitter and Instagram give me give me a follow on Instagram I prefer on there I don't tend not to use to it all that much these days but of course you can get in touch with the show with seen at UK podcast at CBS I comm please do we would love to hear your thoughts on all of today's topics or indeed any other tech topic you want to chat to us about we will read out your email if you want us to or if we want to both so yeah do keep conversation coming and if you are watching on YouTube then please make 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