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One Plus 7 has been in the shadows of the high end ‘Pro’ flagship ever since its launch. But it is important to know that it exists. One Plus 7 carries forward the same design element from last year’s 6T. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the two look almost identical. But there’s more than what meets the eye.

For starters, the 7 comes with all new Snapdragon 855 processor which is leading the flagship market right now. So you will see a performance upgrade from the 6T. Second and most importantly, in cameras, this year OnePlus has gone for the 48 MP imx586 sensor, which is better than last year’s.

The company has increas­ingly focused on software rather than hardware improvements on the cam­era, following Google’s exam­ple. While the Pro variant gets a triple camera setup the 7 gets only two rear cameras. The cameras aren’t the best in the market, but you can expect the results to improve as OnePlus rolls out software updates.

Compared to the 7 Pro, this one is shorter, narrower, thin­ner, and significantly lighter. So if you’re not a big fan of big screens, you can totally con­sider the 7. The phone comes with a standard 20 watt Quick Charger, the same they had for the 6T, for a superior charging performance

The phone has a 3,700 mAH battery. Bundled with the 855 processor and clutter free Oxygen OS, it delivers a solid battery backup, beating the likes of the higher end 7 Pro. If you want a great phone for a good price, go for the OnePlus 7.

                                                                                                OnePlus 7

One Plus 7 Pro is the flashier and more exclusive of the new One Plus models. For a variety of reasons, but most importantly, it’s finally above budget territory. So we will look at the phone as a flagship phone and not the “flagship killer” name the com­pany has garnered for these phones.

The new phone comes with an edge to edge screen. In other words, they have removed the notches. So where did the camera go? Inside the screen. Yes, the OnePlus 7 Pro sports a pop up selfie camera that hides under the screen during normal use. Fear not, the camera is quick to retract if you drop your phone and extremely dura­ble while at it. Next, it sports a 90 HZ display. What does that mean? The screen is significantly smoother than all other screens out there. The stan­dard flagship refresh rate is 60 HZ so you can already tell it’s a significant increase. And the notchless display combined with the 90 HZ refresh rate makes the OnePlus 7 a fantastic front design. And did I tell you the edges are curved now?

In the processor department, the OnePlus 7 Pro gets the same treat­ment as the 7. But the phone gets one more camera than the stan­dard OnePlus 7. The camera quality should be comparable between the two devices.

7 pro, however, sports the 30 watt Warp Charge technology which delivers blazing fast charging per­formance. The battery also stands strong at 4,000 mAh but because of the 90 HZ display, battery perfor­mance lags that of the 7.

Even with the asking price of roughly Rs 88,000, the phone still lacks features like wireless charging, an official IP rating, among others.

 on a rainy day, Bipin Kandel, 27, was sipping tea at a local cafe with his friends when he saw an old lady selling roasted corn by the street. People were queu­ing up, holding their umbrellas, waiting for their pop of cobbed corn. This sparked an idea in the engineering graduate. “Can’t we make a roasting machine?” he asked his friends. He went home and started researching such a machine. “I found nothing. There could’ve been such machines but I couldn’t find anything to draw inspiration from,” Kandel explains. So he began designing one from scratch.

After coming up with a design, he made a prototype which could roast 10 corn cobs at the same time. “I was very nervous when I tried it for the first time,” Kandel explains. “But it came out amazing. The gap between the charcoal and the corn was perfect”. He says tasting that first batch of corn has been the most rewarding part of his Makai Ghar journey thus far.

Then, around a month ago, he started ‘Thetno: Makai Ghar’ as a business experiment. When asked about the name, Kandel says “Thetno is our bigger brand, a local term for the hard part of corn. And Makai Ghar is one of the offerings of Thetno”. “Our vision is to infuse technology into local food we Nepalis love”. Every kernel of corn you find in Thetno is locally sourced, and usually comes from Panchkhal. When it’s off season there, the corn is sourced from Chit­wan and Hetauda.

“Corn is a versatile food. You can make a variety of food from it,” Kandel adds. “But in Nepal it’s use is limited so we started the corn experiment ourselves”. Indeed, Makai Ghar sells things from Makai momo to Makai Chatpate to Cheese Makai. “Sticking to our spirit of stay­ing local, we also have unorthodox drinks like Moi, Chass, and Lassi,” he adds.

The green-and-yellow themed Makai Ghar is located at Sangam Chowk, Mid-Baneshwor. In one con­spicuous corner is a recycled bicycle as a table and bright electric lamps hanging from the ceiling. Everything about the restaurant screams of the word ‘fresh’. Kandel says, Makai Ghar, which he calls his experiment, has been a success so far. “People have loved what they’ve tasted here.” It’s a small place now but they plan to expand.

Currently, Makai Ghar sells over 50 cobs of corn a day. A cup of corn with a single cob costs anything from Rs 50 to Rs 130. From the sticky notes in the restaurant, you can see that “Sadeko Makai” is an absolute fan-favorite. Having eaten a plate, I can see why.

Kandel says the business has made profit even in the first month of operation. “We didn’t expect to cover our operating expenses in the first month itself, as it’s such a new idea,” he adds. This makes Kandel excited. “We plan to expand. We could try sekuwas one day, who knows?” he adds. 

On an overcast morning on June 29, I’m out on my balcony with John Mayer’s “Waiting for the world to change” blasting on my speaker when I suddenly feel drop­lets of water against my shirt. Ten minutes later, there’s a downpour. “What will happen to the parade now?” I ask myself.It was the day of the first official Queer/MOGAI Pride Parade taking place in the international Gay Pride Month of June.

Luckily, the rain stopped, so I set off for Maitighar mandala, stop­ping at a local tea shop for a cuppa before I headed to the parade. As I sipped my tea, I overheard an old man. “Look at the hijras! You know they can kill anyone easily,” he said. “They have stones in their pockets at all times,” he added as he exited the shop.

After I paid for my tea, I approached the old man, Ram Saran Timilsina, and asked him if he’d be willing to talk about the parade. Slightly hesitant, yet with a great deal of assertiveness, he said, “They are humans, just like us. They have to be given their rights.”

This irony, perhaps, helps explain where we are in terms of LGBTQ+ inclusion. I can’t blame Timilsina’s generation but the irony does illus­trate the level of acceptance in our society—homophobic but shielded by a veneer of political correctness.

The parade was a colorful affair—hues of red, yellow, orange, green, purple, blue everywhere. There were rainbow flags and rainbow umbrellas. Rainbow ribbons and rainbow fans. Rainbow tees and cheeks. It was a carnival.

I saw people singing and dancing. The crowd was diverse in terms of age, ethnicity, sexuality, and so on. Everyone was unapologetically themselves. And happy. I talked to some participants who collectively made the parade the visual specta­cle that it was.

Bijaya, 18, who identifies as a bisexual, believes events like these are integral to promote diversity and inclusiveness. “I’m excited to find out that there are many more people like me out there. And that makes me feel empowered,” she said.

Dipesh, 18, identifies as gen­der-fluid and chooses pronouns like ‘they’, ‘them’ and ‘their’ to refer to ‘themselves’. Dipesh said ‘they’ did not expect so many people to attend the parade. “We need to recognize that there are more terms than just L-G- B-T. It’s going to be huge, this is just the start,” said Dipesh.

Anish Rana, 20, identifies as gay and believes Nepal is so much safer for the LGBTQ+ community than many other countries. “Perceptions will change with time,” he said enthusiastically.

Not everything is hunky dory for the community members though. Obviously their lives aren’t always this happy and exciting. What are the stories that make events like these so important for the commu­nity? What do they go through when they go back to their normal lives? To gain some insight, I sat down with two teenagers for a chat.

Kurasa is a 17-year-old girl who identifies as bisexual. She was nine when she first suspected she might be different to what the society con­siders ‘normal’. “My sister and I were talking about celebrity crushes and I named a mix of actresses and actors”. Her sister then confronted her. “She said it doesn’t work like that as we were a ‘normal’ family. What is ‘normal’ anyways?” Kurasa asks me as she continues with her story.

“I was constantly confronted with the idea that my natural preference is wrong,” she says. And for that reason, she thinks she might nev­er be able to accept herself fully. Kurasa says she tried very hard to convince herself that she doesn’t like girls. “And so I forced myself into homophobic behavior in the hope that it would turn me straight”. After she took her District Level Exams at the end of Grade 8, she started surfing the net. And that is when she found out that there might be a definition for the type of person she was. “But by then, a lot of emotional damage had already been wrought,” says Kurasa.

Kurasa even inflicted self-harm in an attempt to cope with her reality. “I was in Grade 5 when I started cutting myself”. The first time was when her sister yelled a homopho­bic slur at her (‘Chhakka’). “For her, it was an ordinary word, but she didn’t know the self-hatred it plant­ed in my mind. I can’t count the number of times I’ve cut myself since then”.

When I ask her if and when she plans to tell her parents, she says “maybe never”.

Prajwal is an 18-year-old high school student who identifies as a gay man. “From a very young age, I knew I was different. Boys would go out to play sports whereas I enjoyed playing with my girl friends. I real­ized my interests were markedly different to those of other boys in my class.” When Prajwal was in Grade 4, he faced his first instance of homophobia. “They called me using female names and shouted homophobic slurs at me. That really hurt”, he says. Then he adopted a homophobic attitude himself in an attempt to turn straight and find friends. “As much as I hate to say it, it worked and people stopped teasing me.”

Then in Grade 9, Prajwal found romance for the first time on Insta­gram. “I didn’t know what it was, I couldn’t define it. I just felt an emo­tional connection with this guy and it felt good,” he says. Prajwal was 16 when he discovered a community of people like him. “It helped me accept myself. It didn’t feel wrong anymore,” he adds. “After I started accepting myself, I came out to my sister. She said to my face that she really hoped it was a lie and that it was a big joke,” he adds. “Now she is very supportive and has been very accepting.”

I ask him to tell me a pleasant experience he’s had. “It was when I had a real life boyfriend and when we kissed for the first time,” he recounts. “I can’t explain in words what that meant to me, it felt pure and true”. “And when I came out to my friends for the first time, I was bracing myself for physical abuse,” he adds. Lucky for him, there was none.

What about telling his parents? “I have heard what my parents say about people like me, so I know I’ll get kicked out if I come out to them”. He believes it is in his interest to open up only after becoming finan­cially independent. “Another 10, 15 years. Who knows?” he shrugs.

Stories like these are what make Pride Parades so important. In a conservative society, such events make people like Kurasa and Pra­jwal feel alive and, well, human. With a big smile in their faces and a newfound excitement for the future, both Kurasa and Prajwal marched with flag poles as we drew our con­versation to a close

Wizards Unite is a mobile AR (augmented reality) based videogame from Niantic. Yes, Niantic, the developer behind the highly popular AR-videogame Pokemon Go that made headlines around the world when it was launched in 2016. So, out of curiosity about the recent development of AR games (and a little childhood nostalgia) I downloaded Wizard Unite. And here’s my impression.

The game starts off with an owl gliding towards the Wizards Unite logo, accompanied by the classic Harry Potter theme song (+1 nostalgia). Although it is a lot more immersive than Pokemon GO, the game has a simple backstory: a calamity has scattered people/things from the wizard world on our world and we’re tasked with restoring them to their original places. So you go around (actually go around) the real world guided by real time maps and find the collectibles.

The game has elements from the Harry Potter franchise all over the map to keep your nostalgia
meter up.

Game mechanism
As the game relies on a mobile internet network, you should probably download the 3.3 GB asset before you head out (and get a data pack). So how does the game mechanic work? When you encounter a ‘Confoundable’, you see the difficulty meter to release it, followed by a spell trace pattern on the screen. You drag your fingers along the traces. And power of your spell depends on your accuracy. That’s pretty much it. But it is more difficult than it sounds.

While that is the primary goal of the game, there are other (better) things to do. The game has Inns (where you get additional spell energy), Greenhouses (which give you ingredients to brew potions), and Fortresses (where you duel with other players and magical creatures using something called Runestones). Now you find these structures throughout the map, in places Niantic calls point-of-interests.

Kathmandu context
Niantic employs a pretty witty strategy for Kathmandu to determine these points of interests: Temples. As we all know, we all have lots of them. I live in mid-Baneshwor so my experience might differ from yours. I plugged out my phone at 100 percent charge, put my battery pack in my backpack, plugged in my headphones and headed out to try the game for myself. My nearest point of interest was an Inn (at Panchakumari Mandir), a mere 200 meter walk from where I live. So I collected some ingredients and brewed my first potion.

Next, I looked for fortresses. The nearest one was at the Birendra International Convention Center and the Chakku Bakku Mandir beside it. I headed over to the temple, obviously, and got into my first duel. Now, I have to say I absolutely love the fortress mechanics, and fighting mystical creatures with a health bar on the top makes the game feel adventurous. Then I headed back to my home, releasing some ‘Foundables’ on the way.
It’s a great game. But as it borrows many elements from Pokemon Go, you can’t help but feel like it’s simply a Harry Potter skin for the Pokemon game. Also, I know it’s a lot to ask but I really hope Niantic adds more ways to refill your energies in the game (besides going to the Inns) as you tend to run out of them quickly. Regardless, you should totally try Wizards Unite. Call your clan to the nearest fortress and duel each other or go for a walk around town. The possibilities are endless.

Samsung A50

Price Rs 31,499

Samsung Stores, Daraz

Samsung A50 is the most prom­ising high-mid range smartphone, packing in a range of amazing fea­tures. But how do these features fare in terms of overall experi­ence?

Pros:

• The phone sports a FHD AMO­LED display, a big welcome for this price point. The phone as a result has great color accuracy and viewing angles.

• The ultra-wide angle. Though it does not pack a lot of details, the phone fits in more angles than its competi­tors, giving you more content to capture. And it lets you capture ultra-wide videos. Whaaat?

• Samsung has focused on cutting down bloatware on its One UI, and that gives a superior performance on the A50.

• The 25 MP front camera gives a very natural result and great result overall.

• It gives a massive battery backup. 4,000 mAH battery will last you a day, and maybe even two.

• The phone also sports the now-standard USB C port which makes for superior file transfer and charging experience. Samsung finally seems to have listened to its customers.

Cons:

• The phone has a plastic build. Samsung has tried to cover it up by giving the back refractive property to give off rainbow-ish colors but it gets boring over time. And you know, plastic is still plastic.

• While on-screen fingerprint sensor is a welcome addition, the sensor works a little too slow for my liking.

Vivo V15

Price Rs 41,990

Vivo Stores, Daraz

The Vivo V15 is for those of you who hate the notch. If you don’t mind a camera popping out of the phone every time you click a selfie, read below.

Pros:

• The edge to edge notchless dis­play (90% screen to body ratio) makes for a wonderful smart­phone viewing experience. The bottom chin could have been made a little smaller though.

• The wide-angle camera fares bet­ter than its competitors, offering better color and details.

• It sports a massive 4,000 mAH battery that offers promising bat­tery life.

• The P70 chipset has no perfor­mance issues.

Cons:

• Even though the front camera packs a 32 MP sensor, the results are disappointing for a sensor that big.

• The IPS LCD screen is a bit of a let-down at this price point.

• Pixel binning is limited to the pro variant. This addition would have made a substantial difference.

• Having a Vivo phone means you get FunTouch OS, which isn’t as fun as it’s loaded with bloatware

Huawei P30 lite

Price Rs 39,999

Huawei Stores, Daraz

The P30 lite is a beautiful budget smartphone from Huawei. If you are a Huawei loyalist and are ready to stick with the brand through thick and thin, read on.

Pros:

• I absolutely love the gradient glass back on the Honor 20 lite. From a distance one can easily confuse it for a flagship phone, like its big brother, the P30.

• Its Kirin 710 platform is gaming-friendly hard­ware. Tagged with the new optimized EMUI, it makes for a smooth experience.

• It starts with a whopping storage capacity of 128 GB. Storage is a big concern for heavy users like me.

• The camera shoots amazing pictures, and its night mode is far better than the competition.

• It also utilizes a USB-C port, which is still not the norm among budget smartphones.

Cons:

• The 3,340 mAH battery on this device is a bit disappointing when you compare it with massive 4,000 mAH batteries on the phones in the same price range.

• Huawei has cursed the Nepali market with a 24 MP camera while some markets have a 48 MP sensor on the back.

 You must have already heard of the ban on Huawei! Maybe all that geo-political trade war talk doesn’t interest you (it should), and you just want to know what will hap­pen to that sweet new triple camera phone you just bought from Huawei. If so, read on. The drama started when we woke up to headlines across the world, which read along the lines of: Trump effectively bans Huawei with a national security order. In response, Google cuts off Huawei phones from future Android updates.

According to Statistica, Android OS commands a massive 88 percent share of the mobile operating system market. And guess who controls Android? That’s right, G double O G L E. If you’ve wondered why every non-Apple phone feels the same, there’s your answer: they all run on Android. So, as a result, your Huawei will lose access to new updates to the operating system. So no Android Q,R,S,T…

Losing access to Google services also means your future Huawei handset will have no Play Store, Gmail, and other proprietary Goo­gle apps (think Maps, Youtube). As inconsequential as that may seem, apps like Google Maps, Play Store make Android the user favorite it is today.

Huawei revealed that the com­pany has been working on a new operating system for years, to pre­pare for something like this. So your phone will probably switch to an alien interface that will be signifi­cantly different from the one you’re using now. You’ll probably have to download third party maps app, and a Gmail alternative from your new ‘Huawei Store’.

So what should you do? While I wouldn’t recommend ditching a Huawei straight away—the ban is not applicable to existing devices (see chart) and most people don’t bother to update their software anyway. But if you already own one, you should probably stay away from buying a new one for the time being.

 For most folks, Narayan B.S Dangol, 78, is a Nepali aviation expert. Or the designer of the Nepali sky. But for this young reporter, Narayan is a man with a story to tell, too young for his age. With unflinching passion for his work and field, he still has the energy of a 20-year-old. Perhaps passion does not age as bad as we humans do? As much as he may have later contributed to aviation, as a youth Dangol didn’t dream of entering the field. Ever ambitious, he had con­tested the Sandhurst course for the British Army after dropping out of his Bachelor’s program, only to be rejected because of his Newari back­ground. Then, aspiring to be a pilot, he entered aviation. After several relocations, he finally ended up as an air traf­fic controller.

After rigorous training in Thailand, Dangol joined the then poorly maintained Tribhuvan International Air­port in 1963. “When I started, the control tower was a two-storey hut. We used to lean out of the windows to see planes coming and leaving”. He expedited several changes, from infrastructure to secu­rity, during his time at the TIA, modernizing the institu­tion. But changes only hap­pened after “banging tables”.

From carrying a stack of paper to the palace to facil­itate training for traffic con­trollers to calling in a favor with the chief of Delhi Airport, Dangol always took his work seriously. He told me about his many feuds with ministerial secretaries, TIA officials, and even ministers.

Many changes he suggested had gone unnoticed at the time, and are being imple­mented only now. “After my visit to Heathrow Airport, I had suggested an under­ground tunnel to direct the flow of traffic at the TIA. It didn’t happen and we are fac­ing the consequences now,” he added.

From leading crash investi­gations to participating in high level courses and seminars, Dangol has represented Nepal all over the world.

On the career prospect of air traffic controller, Dangol says it is lucrative. He remem­bers his first salary was Rs 475 back in the 60s. “Later I found out Rs 475 could buy one tola [11.33 grams] of gold”. Today, an air traffic control­ler can earn well above Rs 100,000 a month working at the TIA. “The beauty of the job is you get to travel all over the world.” However, he adds, the work of an ATC is physi­cally and mentally challeng­ing. “It’s easier to be a pilot. Our boys need rest after every 1-2 hours”.

Even after quitting as ATC over 20 years ago, Dangol is still involved in the field. Right now, he serves as the Director at the Helicopter Association Nepal. Towards the end of our conversation, while talking about the new parking expan­sion at the TIA that he is also involved with, Dangol pulls out a document detailing the project from a stack of other papers. His attachment to avi­ation is unwavering as ever. “I used to tell myself I am chosen by god to make things better. And that’s how I always kept ahead”.

 According to a recent report by the Department of Transport Management, the number of motorcycles plying the streets of Nepal has risen to a whopping 2.5 million, with Kathmandu Valley alone having a million-plus motor­bikes. And with this rise, the sellers of one commodity in particular have benefitted a lot. Today, you have more options in helmets than ever—full helmets, half helmets, helmets you can flip up, off-road helmets, dual-sport hel­mets, dad passed down-looking hel­mets, helmets… To understand the ‘helmet’ market better, we headed to the largest wholesale retail mar­ket in the valley: Teku.

We walk into a local helmet retail shop and sit down with the owner, Shyam Chaudhary, who has been in the business for the past eight years. He reveals that the largest change in market trend over time has been customers’ increasing preference for quality over price. “Some years ago, people would only look for helmets that cost between Rs 500-800 and they didn’t care about anything else. That has changed”. He reveals that young­sters today are increasingly aware of the importance of a good helmet. “They ask how damage resistant helmets are, the ease of procur­ing spare parts, the comfort—all before they inquire about prices,” he says.

In these markets, helmet cost ranges from Rs 800 to over Rs 7,000. Chaudhary says his shop sells 6-7 pieces a day on average. And most of his helmets go for around Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000. The profit margin on every helmet sold is around 12-15 percent. “The market is definitely growing. But with that, we also have many competitors,” he adds. Not only in Teku. Helmet shops are sprouting up like wild-grass in every nook of the valley.

While the Teku markets cater mostly to the average bike rider, shops like Helmets Nepal also look after high-end customers. “We sell helmets from brands like AGV, Benelli, Steelbird, and Vega. The price increases with sophistica­tion,” says Rais Maharjan, a senior sales officer at Helmets Nepal. The most expensive one he has costs Rs 170,000. Yes, almost as much as a brand new Hero Honda Splendor. With entry of bikes setting you back by hundreds of thousands in the market, the premium helmet sector is definitely getting a good slice of the pie.

Recently, online marketplaces have also stepped up to cater to this growing demand. Daraz, a leading online marketplace, today offers a variety of helmets, as you get to choose from 20+ brands from the comfort of your home.

“Helmets are no longer the piece of hemispherical dullness they once were. They now have their own identity. Some flashy-hip, some gentle, some queer and some mil­itary looking,” says Adarsha Acha­rya, a helmet enthusiast who owns multiple helmets, of all shapes and prices.