Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Hyundai’s 2024 Kona looks like a smaller Ioniq 5

Borrowing design cues from Hyundai’s popular electric vehicle, the car maker’s new Kona 2024 bears a striking resemblance to a smaller, and hopefully cheaper, version of the Ioniq 5.

The compact SUV, which is also available as an electric vehicle (EV), features a full-width LED headlight strip running across its entire front end and an Ioniq 5-like indent on its side, giving the car a far more aggressive look than its minor 2021-2022 redesign. On the rear, a pixelated backlight runs across the back of the car, sticking with the futuristic look the front offers and borrowing even more from the Ioniq 5’s look.

Hyundai says that the new Kona is 4.25m in length, making it 150mm longer than the 2023 version of the car. The vehicle is also slightly wider at 25mm in width with a 60mm wheelbase and 19-inch wheels.

On the inside, similar to the Ioniq 5, the 2024 Kona also features 12-inch touchscreen displays and, at least in the EV version, ample interior space. A sportier version of the car in Hyundai’s N line is also on the way.

Given how popular the Ioniq 5 has been for Hyundai, it’s not surprising that its recognizable design language is trickling down to the company’s other vehicles.

It’s unclear how much Hyundai plans to charge for the 2024 Kona, but if it can hit a price point between the $33,395 the standard version of the car costs/$44,599 starting price of the EV and the $48,999 the Ioniq 5 costs, it could be a huge seller.

Image credit: Hyundai

Via: Car and Driver

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Mobile Syrup

Musk’s hunt for a new Twitter CEO has been ongoing

Elon Musk has served as Twitter’s CEO, or Chief Twit, since he bought the company in October. But now, Musk is reportedly looking for his replacement, unnamed sources tell CNBC.

The publication states the search began before Musk posted a poll on Sunday, asking users if he should step down as CEO. The poll received 17.5 million votes, with 57.5 percent of respondents answering “yes.” 

While Musk promised to “abide by the results of this poll,” he has a history of not following through on tweets. Following the results, Musk, in true fashion, said he’ll restrict who can vote in polls. 

It’s unclear what requirements candidates need to successfully receive a shot to be Twitter’s CEO.

Image credit: Shuttertstock 

Source: CNBC

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Mobile Syrup

Sore loser Musk will restrict who can vote after losing Twitter poll

After Twitter CEO Elon Musk lost a poll asking if he should step down as head of the company, he says the rules determining who can vote in Twitter polls in the future will change.

Twitter user ‘Unfiltered☢️Boss’ suggested Musk lock polls so that only Blue subscribers can vote in “policy related polls,” writing that subscribers “actually have skin in the game.” While I don’t think paying a monthly subscription fee to use a social network run (poorly) by the world’s formerly richest man counts as having “skin in the game,” Musk appears to agree with the idea of restricting voting to paying users. In response to Unfiltered☢️Boss, Musk tweeted, “Good point. Twitter will make that change.”

Of course, it’s worth keeping in mind what kicked all this off: Musk having a public tantrum and banning several journalists who had been critical of Musk, as well as rival platforms. As a quick refresher, last week Musk alleged a stalker used information from the ElonJet account run by Jack Sweeney to follow a car carrying Musk’s child. The ElonJet account used publicly available information to share details about the flights of Musk’s private jet.

However, despite the dubious (at best) link between the stalker incident and Sweeney’s account, Twitter introduced a new policy prohibiting the sharing of real-time information, banned ElonJet and Sweeney, then started banning journalists who covered the story and accounts that tweeted links to Sweeney’s ElonJet accounts on other social media platforms. That included Mastodon, the much-hyped possible Twitter replacement. Twitter also introduced a policy prohibiting linking to other social media platforms.

Following outcry, Twitter rolled back the policies, Musk apologized, and he promised there would be a vote for major policy changes in the future. Musk then started a poll asking if he should step down as head of Twitter, with 57.5 percent of the over 17.5 million votes being in favour of Musk stepping down. Although apparently, the vote may not have mattered — reports indicate Musk started hunting for a new CEO before posting the poll.

Twitter relaunched its Blue subscription on December 12th at a higher cost of $10/mo for Canadians who subscribe through the Twitter website and $15/mo for those who subscribe through the App Store on iOS. Currently, the Twitter Blue subscription doesn’t offer much beyond adding a blue checkmark to subscribed accounts and the promise of future features like reduced ads, priority in replies, and more. Further, despite positioning the new Blue subscription as verifying users with their phone number, Twitter’s about page for Blue notes that Twitter won’t review accounts to ensure they’re authentic.

You can follow along with the latest insanity from Musk’s Twitter here.

Source: @elonmusk

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Mobile Syrup

Claim three months of Google Play Pass for just $0.68 per month

Google Play Pass released in 2019 as a membership service that gives subscribers access to numerous Android games and applications. It costs $5.99/month and is a direct competitor to Apple’s Apple Arcade, which also costs $5.99/month in Canada.

Android users can currently get a 90 percent off promotion on Play Pass, and subscribe to the service for just $0.68/month for three months, as shared by RedFlagDeals user ‘izarzuela.’

To claim the offer, open the Google Play app on your Android smartphone and tap of “Shop the hottest deals of the year on Play.” Scroll down and you should see a “90% off play pass” limited-time offer.

In total, you’ll be able to enjoy four months of service for essentially nothing. You’ll get the first month of service under a free trial, while the following three months would only cost you $2.04 ($0.68 per month). Following the three months, the subscription cost would go back up to $5.99/mo ($6.77/mo after tax).

The promotion ends on January 3rd.

Image credit: RedFlagDeals user ‘izarzuela’

Source: RedFlagDeals user ‘izarzuela’

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Mobile Syrup

London Drugs reveals its upcoming Boxing Week deal flyer

London Drugs has released a flyer that offers an early sneak peek of its upcoming Boxing Week sale starting online on Monday, December 26th.

Check out some of the deals from the flyer below:

Laptops

MacBook Air M2 13-inch 256GB: $1,349,99 (save $150)

ASUS Vivobook J1400KA Laptop 14-inch: $399.99 (save $130)

ASUS X515JA Laptop 15.6-inch: $599.99 (save $150)

HP Stream 14-dq3007ca Laptop 14-inch: $369.99 (save $100)

HP Chromebook 14 Chrome OS: $299.99 (save $100)

Lenovo Flex 5 Notebook 14-inch: $779.99 (save $100)

Monitors

LG 21.45-inch Full HD Monitor: $109.99 (save $60)

Acer 23.8-inch LED Monitor: $119.99 (save $60)

Acer 23.8-inch Nitro VG240Y LED Monitor: $139.99 (save $60)

MSI Optix 27-inch Curved Gaming Monitor: $229.99 (save $110)

ASUS TUF 27-inch 165Hz Curved Gaming Monitor: $299.99 (save $50)

Samsung 32-inch FHD Curved Monitor: $249.99 (save $130)

Printers

Canon PIXMA TS3420 Document and Photo Printer: $49.99 (save $60)

HP DeskJet Plus 4155e Wireless All-in-One Colour Ink-Jet Printer: $114.99 (save $35)

Canon PIXMA G3260 MegaTank Wireless All-In-One Printer: $249.99 (save $80)

HP Envy 6055e All-in-One Printer: $129.99 (save $75)

Canon imageCLASS MF451dw Multifunction Printer: $249.99 (save $160)

Epson EcoTank ET-3830 Colour All-in-One Supertank Printer: $399.99 (save $100)

Smart home

Amazon Blink Mini Indoor Camera: $38.99 (save $6)

Amazon Blink Video Doorbell + Sync Module 2: $74.99 (save $30)

Amazon Blink Outdoor Camera: $89.99 (save $40)

Google Nest Mini (2nd Gen): $34.99 (save $35)

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen): $48.99 (save $31)

Audio

Samsung Sound Tower Party Speaker: $299.99 (save $400)

LG 420 Watt 3.1-Channel High Res Audio Soundbar: $329.99 (save $220)

Razer Kraken V3 X Gaming Headset: $49.99 (save $40)

SteelSeries Arctis 7+ Wireless Headset: $149.99 (save $80)

Logitech G Pro X Wireless Headset: $219.99 (save $80)

EPOS H6 Pro Closed Gaming Headset: $229.99 (save $30)

Apple AirPods (3rd Generation): $219.99 (save $20)

Peripherals

ASUS TUF K1 RGB Gaming Keyboard: $39.99 (save $30)

Logitech G213 RGB Gaming Keyboard: $49.99 (save $20)

SteelSeries Apex 3 Water-Resistant Gaming Keyboard: $49.99 (save $30)

SteelSeries Apex 5 Keyboard: $99.99 (save $30)

Razer Viper Mini Wired Gaming Mouse: $34.99 (save $20)

Logitech G502 Hero Wired Gaming Mouse: $49.99 (save $30)

Razer Basilisk V3 USB Gaming Mouse: $69.99 (save $20)

Razer Wolverine V2 Controller: $79.99 (save $60)

Everything else

RCA Home Theatre Projector: $79.99 (save $100)

Fitbit Sense 2: $259.95 (save $140)

UltraLink Power Bars: $59.99 (save $20)

Apple TV 4K Wi-Fi (64GB): Available for $179.99 — Get a $20 London Drugs gift card

Google Chromecast Streaming Media Player HD: $29.99 (save $10)

Monster 4 Device HDMI Switch: $39.99 (save $40)

FUJIFILM instax mini Evo: $219.99 (save $30)

Aura Frames Carver Digital Frame: $159.99 (save $40)

It’s worth noting that the sale pricing isn’t live yet. You can find the discounted London Drugs tech deals online starting Monday, December 26th. The deals mentioned above end on Sunday, January 1st, 2023.

Check out the London Drugs Boxing Week flyer here. Alternatively, you can find all of the top Boxing Week deals at other Canadian retailers 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.

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Mobile Syrup

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to sport 12-megapixel selfie, downgrade from previous years

Since the year 2020, Samsung’s Ultra S series has featured a 40-megapixel front-facing shooter that snaps high-resolution selfies. However, it looks like the Galaxy S23 Ultra will downgrade the S series lineup.

According to leaks from GalaxyClub, the handset will sport a 12-megapixel selfie shooter with a wider field-of-view, similar to Google’s Pixel 7 series. Another leak indicates that the Galaxy S23 and S23+ will also feature a 12-megapixel front camera.

While this is a noticeable downgrade in resolution, this doesn’t actually mean much. The Pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro take better selfies than the S22 Ultra, in my opinion, and they offer 10.8-megapixel and 12-megapixel selfie shooters, respectively.

The S23 Ultra is also rumoured to feature a 200-megapixel primary shooter, 12-megapixel ultrawide and, similar to previous years, two telephoto cameras with 3x and 10x optical zoom. The phone is rumoured to feature a 4,855mAh battery, which will be marketed as a 5,000mAh battery, a QHD+ 3088 x 1440-pixel resolution display, up to 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage.

Rumours indicate that the S23 Ultra will launch in the first week of February. 

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter’s new Blue for Business subscription will identify companies and their employees

Twitter has rolled out Blue for Business, a subscription for businesses to “distinguish themselves” on the platform.

The feature will allow companies to link employees, brands, and affiliated parties to their accounts. Linked accounts will receive a small badge made up of their parent company’s profile picture next to their blue or gold checkmark, according to a post from Twitter Business.

“By creating this connection, we’re making it possible for businesses to create networks within their own organizations–on Twitter,” the post says.

It’s not clear how much the subscription costs or who can even apply. The post states Twitter is testing the feature “with a select group of businesses.”

According to The Verge, this includes Twitter’s own employees. As the publication points out, Esther Crawford, director of Twitter’s product management, has a small badge displaying Twitter’s iconic blue bird next to her blue checkmark.

Twitter says it will expand the program to more businesses next year but warns in a footnote (with a very tiny font) that features on Twitter Blue for Business will vary by platform, which could “change periodically.”

Image credit: Twitter 

Source: Twitter Business Via: The Verge 

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel 8 series may sport new primary camera with staggered HDR

It looks like Google could switch the primary camera in its next flagships, likely called the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.

While still months away, we’ve gotten a glimpse of some camera details thanks to developer and leaker Kuba Wojciechowski. Wojciechowski claims to have obtained an “unobfuscated version” of the Google Camera Go app, which shares resources with the regular Google Camera app available on Pixel phones. In the Camera Go app’s code, Wojciechowski found references to ‘Shiba’ and ‘Husky,’ which are likely the codenames for the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, respectively (Shiba and Husky turned up in a previous leak with details about the RAM and screen resolutions of the devices).

The references Wojciechowski found mention that Shiba and Husky support ‘staggered HDR,’ a different approach to HDR than what Pixel phones currently use. When you take a picture on a Pixel phone, the camera captures long and short exposures in quick succession, then stitches together the different exposures to create the final image. Staggered HDR, on the other hand, captures the long and short exposure at the same time, reducing the time taken to capture the image and, by extension, reducing the likelihood of ghosting or strobe effect caused when the phone can’t match the two exposures together.

The thing is, the camera sensor Google used in the primary camera for the Pixel 7 series and Pixel 6 series — the 50-megapixel Samsung GN1 — doesn’t support staggered HDR at a hardware level. That means if the code snippet is accurate, the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro will need a different camera sensor to support staggered HDR. Android Police points to Samsung’s GN2 sensor, noting it’s similar to the GN1 but offers staggered HDR support.

Aside from a change to the sensor, this would mark a larger shift for Google. The company previously stuck with the same camera hardware over multiple iterations of its phones, focusing on machine learning and software instead of hardware upgrades. For example, the camera sensor introduced with the Pixel 3 stuck around until Google switched to the GN1 with the Pixel 6.

Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see what comes of the GN2 switch, if anything. We’re still really early in the rumour cycle for the Pixel 8 series, which likely won’t come out until the fall of 2023. A lot can change, so I wouldn’t bet on a new camera sensor just yet.

Source: @Za_Racze Via: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

TikTok will soon let users learn why they see specific videos on their FYPs

Have you ever wondered why certain videos pop up on your For You page (FYP) as you endlessly scroll through TikTok?

According to a recent blog post the company shared, a new tool will provide the exact details.

Here’s how to access it:

  • Tap on the share panel while in your For You feed
  • Tap the question mark labelled “why this video” to reveal why the video came up on your page

Getting into the specifics, what you see comes down to rankings based on your activity, which measures a bunch of factors, including how much time you spend on the app, user interaction, and popular content in your region.

“This feature is one of many ways we’re working to bring meaningful transparency to the people who use our platform, and builds on a number of steps we’ve taken towards that goal,” the company said in the blog post.

TikTok says it will roll out the feature “over the coming weeks” but didn’t provide specifics. It’s the latest development coming from the social media company, which recently announced it’s testing horizontal full-screen mode.

Source: TikTok

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Mobile Syrup

Lenovo unveils several laptops ahead of CES 2023

Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the new year, Lenovo has rolled out a ton of product announcements. The announcements include no less than six (six!) laptops, a desktop, a tablet, and a few monitors. And we’re likely to get more announcements from Lenovo related to CES come January.

Since we’ve got so many products to go over, let’s just dive in.

Laptops

First up, we’ve got the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5/5i, IdeaPad Slim 5/5i, and IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook. The Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 and 5i (pictured in the header image) come in 14- and 16-inch sizes in either ‘Artic Grey’ or ‘Frost Blue.’ Unfortunately, only the 16-inch Pro 5i will be available in North America. It offers “up to the latest Intel Processor” and “up to an Nvidia GeForce Next-Gen Laptop,” although Lenovo didn’t specify which CPUs and GPUs would actually be available.

Other IdeaPad Pro 5i features include a 25 percent larger touchpad, expandable SSD storage, up to 120Hz refresh rate, and a QHD+ resolution. The IdeaPad Pro 5i that will be available in North America will start at $1,499.99 USD (roughly $2,049.08 CAD) and will be available starting in May 2023.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i

There’s also the IdeaPad Slim 5 and 5i Gen 8 in 14- and 16-inch variants (only the 16-inch models will be available in North America). The IdeaPad Slim’s OLED display offers up to a 2.5k resolution with 400 nits of brightness. Moreover, the Slim 5i sports up to the latest Intel Core processor, while the Slim 5 offers upto the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. They come in three colours — ‘Violet,’ ‘Cloud Grey,’ and ‘Abyss Blue.’

The IdeaPad Slim 5i will start at $749.99 USD (about $1,024.53 CAD) and the Slim 5 will start at $649.99 USD (approximately $887.93 CAD). Both will be available in May 2023.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3i

Finally, the IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook offers a 360-degree hinge for 2-in-1 use. Lenovo says the Flex 3i’s battery lasts up to 12 hours on a charge and it runs on the latest N-series Intel CPU. The Flex 3i will start at $349.99 USD (about $478.11) when it becomes available in May 2023.

Alongside the consumer laptops, Lenovo showed several ThinkPad laptops aimed more at businesses. There’s the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, and ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3. The X1 laptops are built on Intel’s Evo platform and offer the latest generation of up to Intel Core i7 CPUs and up to 64GB of RAM. All three will be available in April 2023 starting at:

  • ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 – $1,729 USD (about $2,361.92 CAD)
  • ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 – $1,859 USD (roughly $2,539.51 CAD)
  • ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 – $1,649 USD (approximately $2,252.63 CAD)

Desktop and tablets

Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini 5i

The desktop unveiled by Lenovo is the IdeaCentre Mini 5i, a tiny, Mac mini-style PC. It sports a built-in power supply unit and a chassis that Lenovo says can be easily opened, allowing users to access the dual-vortex cooling fan and memory chip. It’s got the latest Intel Core CPU, two DDR4 memory chips, up to 1TB of SSD storage, Wi-Fi 6 support, and more.

The IdeaCentre Mini will start at $649.99 USD (roughly $887.93 CAD) and will be available starting Q2 2023.

Lenovo Tab M9

Lenovo also showed off its Tab M9 tablet running Android 12. Sporting a MediaTek Helio G80 Octa-Core CPU, 128GB of storage and a 9-inch ID display, the Tab M9 looks like a decent option for watching Netflix and playing games. It will cost $139.99 USD (about $191.23 CAD) and is expected to be available starting in Q2 2023.

Monitors

Lenovo’s P49w-30 is a one wide boy

Lenovo listed several monitors, but the only one really worth writing about was the wild ThinkVision P49w-30. It’s a 49-inch ultrawide display with up to 13 ports, two of which support Thunderbolt 4 with up to 100W of power delivery and that can be used to daisy chain other Thunderbolt 4 monitors (if you even have room for one after placing this behemoth on your desk).

Lenovo expects the P49w-30 to be available starting in June 2023 for $1,699.99 USD (about $2,322.29 CAD)