Over nine million Twitter users illegally watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie this weekend. The unauthorized posting of the film was uploaded on Friday and stayed up until Sunday.
Posting a film in this fashion is a major copyright infringement. In most cases, social media companies are quick to take down illicit movie posts before they amass a substantial number of views.
In the case of Twitter, however, there has been concern surrounding incidents like this in the wake of Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform. Under Musk’s new direction, Twitter Blue users can now post videos of up to 60 minutes in length. On top of this, Musk has significantly scaled back the company’s trust and safety and compliance teams in a bid to increase revenue.
It’s possible that these decisions have collectively enabled bad actors to take advantage of the current status quo. Whether Twitter will respond with any additional policy changes remains to be seen.
With the Leafs’ advancing to the second round after a 19-year drought, the next round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs will see the Florida Panthers take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In the playoffs, home-ice advantage is everything. This is something the Panthers have seemed to pick up on, with the organization restricting sales on Ticketmaster to residents of the U.S. only.
Sorry, Leafs fans.
Canadian fans looking to cheer on The Buds at an away game in Florida will have to find another way to secure seats, with Ticketmaster posting a note stating, “Orders by residents outside of the United States will be cancelled without notice and refunds given.” The site says that residency is based on users’ credit card billing addresses.
The restrictions only cover attempted purchases on Ticketmaster, meaning that fans can still purchase tickets through third-party vendors or on secondary apps, albeit for inflated rates.
The Panthers aren’t the first team to deploy this strategy. Teams from all different sports have limited ticket sales to home fans in order to prevent a flood of away fans that could effectively eliminate any home-field advantage. Florida games are historically known to house fans of Canadian teams, most notably those on vacation during the cold months.
Although it’s been done before, Leaf fans will no doubt feel hard done by, with the Edmonton Oilers facing off against the Vegas Golden Knights without any ticket restrictions.
Google’s newest phone offering is set to be released sometime in June of 2023, and now, we have a closer look at what the Google Pixel Fold might look like through some new leaks.
The photos surfaced on Twitter through Evan Blass and gave a more detailed look at the upcoming foldable. Previously, renders and even some video footage appeared online, but this looks to be the first leak from a historically reputable source.
Blass, whose account is currently private, posted three photos showing off how the Pixel Fold looks. The images show off the front and back covers of the phone, the home screen display and what the phone could look like when folded.
These photos add up to what has been said about the upcoming phone to date. They show off the phone’s foldability, front-facing camera and how the Pixel Launcher home screen will look on the larger foldable display.
Blass included some more personal thoughts on the Pixel Fold’s bezels, saying, “Keep in mind, there’s something to be said for bezels on larger-screen devices.”
The Pixel Fold will likely be announced at the company’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, on May 10 and is set to be released sometime in June 2023. Pre-orders for the phone are slated to open on the same day as the conference.
Canada’s Innovation Minister says he will take action if telecom giants fail to agree on wireless coverage for TTC riders.
“If they don’t come to an arrangement together that would serve Canadians, that would increase the coverage, that would increase the 911 services in the subway system in Toronto, we’ll take action, and we’ll make sure that we do what’s right for Canadians,” François-Philippe Champagne said at a press conference Friday.
Rogers announced its plans to take over cellular coverage on the TTC from BAI in early April. At the time, the company said it was open to working with Bell and Telus to ensure all riders have coverage.
On April 19th, the Minister sent the CEOs of Bell, Rogers, Telus, and Québecor a letter asking the companies to work together to provide coverage.
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic responded soon after, calling the transaction “a closed door, backroom deal.” Bibic said the company put a second option on the TTC’s table that would see it buy the contract with Telus with a promise to provide an open network. The TTC rejected the offer soon after.
The constant back and forth, and apparent avoidance of some sort of network agreement, have led to more questions than answers.
Both Bell and Telus told The Canadian Press a “joint build approach” is the best way to go.
“It would result in access for all riders regardless of their cellphone provider, less congestion on the network, ability for the network to continue to operate in the event that one carrier suffers a network outage, and a better overall customer experience,” a Telus spokesperson said.
A Rogers spokesperson told the publication the company is still “committed to working with all carriers.”
Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 5 was rumoured to have a ‘tabbed’ external display — new renders give us a better idea of how this tabbed display will look.
The renders come from a partnership between leaker @OnLeaks and MediaPeanutand show off outer and inner displays. The Z Flip 5 is rumoured to sport a larger external display than the Z Flip 4 (though it’s not as big as the rumoured Motorola Razr 40 Ultra screen). The rumours clearly show the larger outer screen, with the rumoured ‘tab’ to make room for the cameras.
Good Morning #FutureSquad! Here comes your first and most comprehensive look at the #Samsung#GalaxyZFlip5 (360° video + crispy 5K renders + dimensions)!
Along with the renders, MediaPeanut detailed some specs of the Galaxy Z Flip 5. The publication reports Samsung’s upcoming foldable will include a 6.7-inch main display, a 3.4-inch cover display, dual rear cameras, and measure 165 x 71.8 x 6.7mm when unfolded.
Beyond that, MediaPeanut suggests the phone could run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, feature battery improvements and launch in late July with a $999 USD (roughly $1,353.73 CAD) price tag. We could also see faster UFS 4.0 storage, at least in the models with 256GB of storage.
Overall, the Z Flip 5 seems to be shaping up well. However, I’m not entirely sold on the tabbed external display, especially after seeing the Razr 40 Ultra leaks. Motorola’s foldable will have a slightly larger 3.5-inch cover display that extends almost to the edge. Interestingly, the cameras are placed inside the display, similar to the hole-punch selfie camera popularized on many devices. To me, that looks a lot better than the tab, but I’ll reserve judgment until I see the phones in person — in my experience, controversial design choices tend to look better in person than in renders and photos.
Amazon and JBL have slashed the price of the popular JBL Club Pro+, which are in-Ear noise cancelling headphones. the price is a beautiful 50 percent off, now $149.98.
The JBL Club Pro+ brings high-quality sound and comes with its Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) technology, which blocks out external noise for a better listening experience. Additionally, the earbuds have a “TalkThru” feature that enables users to hear their surroundings without removing the earbuds.
The JBL Club Pro+ has a battery life of up to 7 hours on a single charge, with an additional 21 hours provided by the charging case. The earbuds are also IPX4 water-resistant, making them resistant to sweat and splashes.
Cache refers to the temporary files that apps store over time. Cached data is useful — it’s there to help your apps load quicker and run smoother.
Of course, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. If you’ve been using the same phone for a long time, some spring cleaning might be in order. That’s because over time cache data can balloon in size and rob you of valuable storage space.
Thankfully, if your phone runs Android, clearing an app’s cache is a simple process:
Launch the “settings” app on your phone. From here, navigate to the “apps” category.
You’ll be greeted with a list of all your installed apps in alphabetic order. Tap on the “storage” subsection, then tap “clear cache.”
And that’s it! Follow the same process to clear the cache of any installed app on your Android. You won’t lose any user data or be logged out of any accounts, either.
It’s worth noting that the process might differ slightly depending on which Android phone you’re using. Different phone makers like Samsung and OnePlus have a tenancy to fiddle with the organization of settings on their devices.
If you’re on an iPhone, unfortunately, Apple doesn’t make the process nearly as easy. Some apps support cache clearing within the “settings” app, but most don’t.
If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll see the functionality added in the upcoming iOS 17 update.
If you’re on Android, it’s probably time to reorganize your Quick Settings.
I’ve been using Google’s Pixel 7 Pro lately, and since it runs a slightly modified version of stock Android, it’s been fun to reorganize my Android life.
I’m a big fan of the large Quick Settings buttons that Google has implemented since Android 13, and I hope that more manufacturers follow suit. There’s something about the larger Google buttons that feel more usable and approachable compared to the small icons that Samsung and OnePlus use.
It might be annoying to some that Google only shows eight buttons next to OnePlus’ 14, but at the end of the day, I still have to have two pages of Quick Settings on both phones anyways. So when it comes down to it, I enjoy the easier-to-read buttons from Google more.
When I began reorganizing my quick Settings, I first noticed that Google finally added a quick toggle for the calculator, bringing it to feature parity with iOS. Annoyingly, the Google Calculator app is required to make this work. On OnePlus and Samsung phones, you’ll need to download the Google Calculator app and disable your phone’s default number cruncher. This sounds like a small change, but it’s great to quickly jump into the calculator when you need to do fast math.
I’ve also been experimenting with keeping a Bitwarden toggle in the Quick Settings area to remove the app icon from my home screen. I haven’t taken to this one as quickly because it’s hard to remove my previous Bitwarden muscle memory, but being able to open the app without actually exiting my current app feels seamless when I use it.
Overall, the Android Quick Toggles have gone criminally underused in my life beyond the Wifi and Bluetooth options, but I’m hoping that Google will slowly add more features there over time. One of my favourites on my Pixel 7 Pro is that you can set a button to ‘Colour correct’ your screen. This is helpful for someone like me that does a lot of mobile phone editing. I can swipe down, turn on the colour-accurate screen and edit. Samsung has a similar mode to this, but not all Android phones.
All of this is to say that if you’re on Android and you’ve forgotten about your Quick Settings, now might be the time to reorganize it.
Find all iPad acessories on sale here. It’s worth noting that the products mentioned above have varying ‘sale end’ dates. If you’re going to sit on the idea of making a purchase, make sure to check when the sale ends.
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‘RPM – Turntable Speed Accuracy’ is an app that allows users to test their turntable’s revolutions per minute (RPM) speed with nothing more than their phone to ensure the best audio quality possible for record listening.
And if you love listening to vinyl records like I do, this app is a must.
Nothing beats the experience of getting a turntable set up just right, tinkering with speaker settings for the perfect sound, and of course, getting to own physical copies of your favourite artists’ work without renting or streaming. It all comes together in perfect harmony once the needle drops and the warm crackle of the record fills the room.
However, there’s a reason music streaming has come to dominate today’s music market, and it’s not just portability.
Countless elements go towards ensuring the best possible audio quality for vinyl records. Whether it’s making sure the records themselves are dust and scratch-free, adjusting external amplifiers, or even splurging on a better tonearm; at-home listening is never as easy as popping on a track through Spotify or Apple Music.
Before I made the switch to my current AT-LP60X Belt-Drive turntable, I found that my old turntable wasn’t spinning at the correct speed. More often than not, I would have everything set up perfectly, only to be met with haunting Axl Rose vocals that were slowed, distorted and frankly demonic. When I would blindly adjust the rotation speed, I would instead get Eddie Van Halen shredding solos at speeds that aren’t humanly possible, even for him. Turns out, this is a problem that plagues many turntable owners.
That was until I found RPM – Turntable Speed Accuracy on the App Store. This app allows users to see how many rotations per minute their turntable is spinning at, allowing for easy adjustments if it’s spinning too slow or too fast.
Companies design records to spin at varying speeds, and this app allows for various speeds to be verified, whether it be 16, 33.3, 45, or 78 RPM.
It works by using the built-in gyroscope in your iPhone to determine the rotation speed of the turntable. Simply start up the app and place your phone on the center of the turntables platter. Once flipped on, the app will automatically display the rotation speed, the speed setting the turntable is using, and how accurate it is.
There’s an option for the RPM speed display to be locked into place as the turntable rotates, which is helpful for reading speeds in real-time (it’s also incredibly mesmerizing to watch). The display on the app will hold green once it’s spinning at the correct speed, allowing for on-the-fly adjustments if your turntable allows for it.
Additionally, the app shows a scrolling graph of the RPM accuracy variation over time, so you can see how changes are affecting the turntable’s speed and adjust accordingly. Users can also save these changes to view later, giving them a history of their speeds over time.
A recent update to the app brought in the Worldwide RPM Turntable Accuracy Database, letting users research what other RPM users are finding out about their turntable’s accuracy, which is a welcomed touch to an already loaded app.
The app, made by Philip Broder, is available for free in the App Store. RPM – Turntable Speed Accuracy is not available for Android, although similar apps do exist in the Google Play Store. Users can also choose to upgrade to enable unlimited measurements, continuous display, and ad removal for $20.99.
