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Windows 11 will soon let you control RGB accessories natively

Your Windows 11 PC might soon be able to control RGB PC accessories natively.

As shared by Albacore (@thebookisclosed), via The Verge on Twitter, in the latest public test build of the operating system, Albacore has found a new setting for “device lighting.”

“New settings for device lighting make an appearance in build 25295. Is this the beginning of the end for low quality RGB gamer gear apps?” wrote Albacore.

The screenshots shared reveal that users would be able to control basic RGB settings, including brightness, lighting effect, effect speed and colour. There is also a toggle to “Match my Windows accent colour.”

The update could allow Windows 11 users to avoid software like Razer’s Synapse app, Logitech G Hub or the SteelSeries GG app, in case they only control basic lighting features for the RGB lights.

As pointed out by The Verge, Microsoft hasn’t officially announced the existence of the feature, or the fact that it is working on it. However, the company is working on several experimental features, many of which are expected to appear in Windows 11 later in 2023.

Microsoft is also reportedly looking to add the ability to capture screen recordings to the Snipping Tool. Read more about it here.

Source: @thebookisclosed via The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Yahoo starts laying off 20 percent of its workforce

Yahoo is laying off more than 1,600 employees in a bid to restructure its ad tech unit.

According to Axios, the cuts impact 50 percent of the company’s ad tech employees. CEO Jim Lanzone told the publication the layoffs aren’t due to financial challenges but changes to the Yahoo for Business advertising unit.

The move will be “tremendously beneficial for the profitability of Yahoo overall,” Lanzone told Axios.

According to TechCrunch, staff were notified in an email Thursday that 1,000 employees will lose their job before the day ends. A further 600 people will be laid off in six months.

Several other tech companies have also recently laid off large chucks of their employee base, including Spotify and Microsoft. However, most of the layoffs stemmed from financial challenges, unlike Yahoo.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Axios and TechCrunch 

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo to end $10/mo Lunar New Year discount on February 14

Koodo, Fido and Virgin Plus launched a Lunar New Year discount back in mid-Janaury, but it looks like the deal could soon come to an end.

Telus flanker Koodo now lists February 14th as the last day to get the deal. While Fido and Virgin haven’t added similar notices to their websites, they’ll likely follow suit soon.

End date for Koodo’s Lunar New Year discount.

The deal, for those unfamiliar with it, gives customers a $10/mo discount for 12 months on select plans ($120 in total). In the case of Koodo, it’s available with three plans, the $55/8GB, $60/10GB and $65/15GB options.

If you’re looking for a new phone plan, you might want to claim this offer before it goes away on February 14th. While not the best offer from Canadian wireless providers, $10 off each month is better than nothing — even if it’s only for a year.

You can read the original post here.

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Mobile Syrup

Canadian actor has major role in new The Last of Us episode

At the end of last week’s episode of The Last of Us, a man and his little brother get the drop on Joel and Ellie, holding them at gunpoint.

Those who’ve played the original PlayStation game that inspired the hit HBO series will recognize them as Henry and Sam, arguably two of its most memorable characters. (If you know, you know.)

But what many might not know, however, is that the older brother, Henry, is played by Toronto’s own Lamar Johnson. The 28-year-old actor is best known for a lead role in the Canadian teen drama series The Next Step, as well as appearances in the likes of The Hate U Give and Your Honor. He also stars in Brother, an upcoming Toronto-set drama that garnered rave reviews at TIFF.

In the fifth episode of The Last of Us, premiering on Friday instead of Sunday due to the Super Bowl, Henry features prominently in his desperate attempt to escape Pittsburgh with his brother (Keivonn Woodard).

Henry and Sam in The Last of Us on HBO

Henry (Johnson) and Sam (Woodard). Image credit: HBO

While that brotherly relationship was present in the game, the show tweaks Henry’s background by giving him a troubled history with the new character, Kathleen, a ruthless revolutionary leader played by Yellowjackets‘ Melanie Lynskey.

Some other changes from the game: HBO’s version of Sam is younger and Deaf (Woodard is also Deaf himself), which is a nice move for representation. We’ll see this all play out in the fifth episode, titled “Endure and Survive.”

Henry The Last of Us

Henry (performed by Brandon Scott) in The Last of Us’ PS5 remake. Image credit: PlayStation

Johnson is one of The Last of Us‘ many Canadian connections. Most notably, the series was filmed in Alberta for an entire year, shooting in such locations as Calgary, Edmonton, High River and Lethbridge. However, it was the small town of Canmore that stars Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie) raved the most about in a recent interview with MobileSyrup. “Every inch of Canmore was just this magical little town… with really great fudge,” Pascal told us.

Elsewhere, the series’ production designer, John Paino, has talked about his surprise at how “clean” the province ended up being. Meanwhile, Travel Alberta has created an interactive map to let you view the exact filming locations from the series.

The Last of Us is streaming exclusively on Crave in Canada.

Image credit: HBO

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Mobile Syrup

Should you buy Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra? [SyrupCast 271]

On this week’s SyrupCast, Patrick O’Rourke, Brad Bennett and Dean Daley chat about Samsung’s new Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra, and the smartphones’ recent launch event in San Francisco.

While the S23 and S23+ are nearly identical to their predecessors, the S23 Ultra offers a few notable upgrades, including a 200-megapixel camera. Enjoy as the pod squad reunites to chat about how good the snacks were at Samsung’s launch event.

Subscribe on Spotify

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Direct download link

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon discounts Echo Dot by up to 36 percent

Amazon has discounted its popular Alexa-enabled Echo Dot smart devices today. Perhaps it’s time to jump on the voice requests at these prices, which saves you up to 36 percent.

Amazon is also noting that if you “spend $400 or more on Echo devices and get 10% off. Limited time offer. Promo Code: ECHO.

Check out the deals here:

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.

Source: Amazon Canada

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Mobile Syrup

Some Ubisoft titles are up to 80 percent off right now

The Ubisoft Store currently has an ongoing Valentine’s Day sale, with a few titles and DLC up to 80 percent off.

Check out some of the discounted titles below:

Ubisoft’s Valentine’s Day sale ends on Thursday, February 16th. Check out the complete sale here.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.

Image credit: Ubisoft

Source: Ubisoft

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Mobile Syrup

PUBG maker opens first Canadian studio in Montreal, led by ex-Ubisoft dev

South Korea-based PUBG publisher Krafton has opened its first Canadian studio in Montreal.

The appropriately named Krafton Montreal is working on a game based on the Korean fantasy novel, The Bird That Drinks Tears.

Krafton Montreal will be led by Patrik Méthé, a Ubisoft Montreal veteran who co-directed Far Cry 3, 4 and 5. The team is currently made up of 15 people but aims to grow up to 150 over the next three years. Some of the other former Ubisoft staff that Méthé has brought with him so far include game director Frédéric Duroc (Prince of Persia), producer Benoit Frappier (Rainbow Six) and technology director Martin Paradis (Assassin’s Creed).

It’s not yet clear what type of game the untitled project will end up being, as the team is still in the early stages, Méthé told GamesIndustry.biz. However, it’s confirmed to be a single-player title.

Interestingly, Méthé also told the publication that he was “very, very involved” in the tabletop RPG space, at one point even owning his own store selling Dungeons and Dragons products. Therefore, the project may draw inspiration from such IPs.

Méthé was brought onto Krafton in October 2022, and since then has been looking for a dedicated office space for the team. It remains to be seen where Krafton Montreal will ultimately set up shop.

Regardless, Krafton is the latest in an ever-growing list of studios to expand into Montreal. With nearly 20,000 workers across 200-plus studios, the city is one of the top five biggest game development hubs in the world, per the economic development agency Montreal International. Lucrative tax incentives and a deep pool of developer talent have made the city a particularly appealing hub for the gaming industry.

Some of the major publishers in Montreal include the aforementioned Ubisoft, Warner Bros. (Gotham Knights), Eidos (Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy), EA Motive (the recent Dead Space remake) and Behaviour Interactive (Dead by Daylight).

Collectively, they’ve helped Canada as a whole become the third-largest producer of games in the world, behind only the U.S. and Japan. In total, the national games sector contributes $5.5 billion to Canada’s GDP annually.

Krafton, meanwhile, has two other studios in North America: the California-based teams Striking Distance (the recent Callisto Protocol) and Unknown Worlds Entertainment (Subnautica).

Image credit: Krafton

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Mobile Syrup

Scalpers charge $400 for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom collector’s edition

The just-revealed collector’s edition of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom quickly sold out, so naturally, scalpers are taking advantage of the situation.

Retailing for $174.99 CAD, the package includes a physical copy of the game, an artbook with concept art, a Steelbook case, an Iconoart steel poster and four pin badges. Considering the game has an unusual $90 price tag, this means the extra goodies effectively cost an additional $85.

However, scalpers are now charging as much as $400 CAD. A quick look at eBay Canada shows multiple listings for around $400, with a few in the $300 to $400 range (before shipping). Of course, it’s not uncommon for collector’s editions to sell out, especially for something as beloved as Zelda, but it’s still unfortunate for those who wanted it.

Your best course of action is to follow Twitter accounts like @Lbabinz, who will regularly tweet when the collector’s editions and other hot products go up for regular price at retailers like Amazon.

As previously mentioned, Tears of the Kingdom generated a lot of buzz this week for costing $90, $10 more than any other Switch game. Nintendo didn’t explain why Tears of the Kingdom justifies a higher cost, simply claiming the $90 price tag will only happen on a “case-by-case basis” going forward.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches exclusively on the Nintendo Switch on May 12th, 2023.

Image credit: Nintendo

Via: The Gamer

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Mobile Syrup

Stadia didn’t JUST die, its been dead since day one

With Google’s Stadia completely out of the cloud gaming picture now, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has shared a statistic that reveals that Stadia had a market share much smaller than competing services.

The report, titled “Microsoft — Activision deal could harm UK gamers,” goes over how Microsoft acquiring Activision could affect Xbox Game Pass streaming. “The evidence available to the CMA currently indicates that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service,” reads the report.

In one part of the report, the CMA goes over statistics regarding each cloud gaming service’s user count in 2021 and 2022.

Based on the monthly average users (MAUs) from information provided directly by each cloud gaming company, it’s revealed that Stadia never captured more than 10 percent of the cloud gaming market share.

In 2021, Stadia’s market share is estimated to be between five and ten percent, whereas, in 2022, it fell to between zero and five percent. In both years, PlayStation Cloud Gaming, Nvidia’s GeForce Now and Xbox’s xCloud far outpaced Stadia in terms of MAUs and market share.

Further, while we don’t know the exact user count Stadia boasted before its untimely death, PlayStore downloads for the Stadia app offer a good idea. “The Android app for Stadia was downloaded between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 times, while the Android TV app was only downloaded between 100,000 and 500,000 times,” according to 9to5Google.

The CMA points to the fact that Google, being the industry giant that it is, was unable to drive Stadia to success, and because of this, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision could make it difficult for other cloud gaming services, likely the ones that don’t have an industry giant like Google backing it up, to grow and offer a competitive game library.

An excerpt from the report is below:

“We consider that Google’s recent decision to shut down its own cloud gaming service, Stadia, shows that merely having some strengths relevant to cloud gaming is not enough to guarantee a platform’s success.

We provisionally believe that content is particularly important to the success of a cloud gaming service, particularly considering Google’s failure with Stadia, which our evidence suggests was caused at least in part by a lack of gaming content, which was connected to its use of a Linux OS.”

Read the CMA’s report here.

Source: Competition and Markets Authority Via: 9to5Google