Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Apple’s new App Store pricing allows for $0.29 apps

Apple is giving developers more options regarding how they can price apps on its mobile App Store.

According to a recent press release from the company, it now offers 700 new price points and tools for developers in what it calls the “biggest upgrade to App Store pricing” since the platform’s launch.

Pricing now starts at $0.29 USD (roughly 40.40 CAD) and can go all the way up to $10,000 “upon request.” Hopefully, we don’t see any $10,000 USD (roughly $13,649 CAD) apps on the App Store. In total, there are 600 new price points available to developers, with 100 available on request from Apple, according to the company’s press release.

App prices can also increase incrementally across price ranges — for example, every $0.10 up to $10 (see the U.S chart below for more detail).

App Store Pricing
Further, as part of this update, developers of subscription apps can “manage currency and taxes across storefronts more effortlessly.”

“…developers of subscription apps will also be able to manage currency and taxes across storefronts more effortlessly by choosing a local storefront they know best as the basis for automatically generating prices across the other 174 storefronts and 44 currencies. Developers will still be able to define prices per storefront if they wish,” writes Apple in the press release.

Finally, developers are also now able to change pricing to shift automatically in different regions based on exchange rates. Apple says that this new pricing structure is available now for apps on auto-renewable subscriptions. It will come to all apps and in-app purchases in spring 2023.

Image credit: Apple

Source: Apple

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Mobile Syrup

Apple’s car reportedly won’t self-drive, launch delayed to 2026

Apple’s automotive plans have reportedly changed once again.

The tech giant has delayed its electric vehicle’s (EV) launch to 2026 and has rolled back its ambitious self-driving plans, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

While rumours surrounding ‘Project Titan’ appeared almost weekly a few months ago, hinting that the electric vehicle could launch as soon as 2025, reports have been relatively quiet lately.

Apple’s new automotive plans include a steering wheel and pedals, contrary to previous reports indicating that the vehicle wouldn’t include conventional car control input, along with support for autonomous driving capabilities on highways, says Bloomberg. This likely means that Apple’s vehicle will offer a version of Level 2 or Level 3 (or possibly Level 4) autonomous driving, allowing drivers to be hands-free under certain circumstances.

The car will reportedly be powered by a custom Apple chip and will feature a price tag under $100,000 USD (roughly $136,485 CAD), ensuring it’s a luxury vehicle. It’s rumoured to release between 2024 and 2028.

Apple’s EV project has been fraught with production difficulties. For example, back in 2016-2017, the car was reportedly scuttled in favour of a focus on autonomous vehicle technology and a manufacturing partnership with Hyundai or Kia. However, that plan was reportedly scrapped, and Apple is once again working on its own car.

We still don’t have a clear picture of what Apple’s car will look like, but the final design should be ready by next year, with features being locked in by the end of 2024.

Though Tesla will be Apple’s main competition in the EV space, the market has become far more crowded lately, with legacy manufacturers like Hyundai, Kia, Rivian, Volkswagen and more jumping into the electric vehicle fray.

Source: Bloomberg

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Mobile Syrup

Quickly search Chrome tabs, history, more with new ‘@’ shortcuts

Google Chrome is getting new, helpful shortcuts for searching your tabs, bookmarks, and history right from the ‘omnibox.’

Enabling in Google Chrome version 108 for desktops, Chrome users can type ‘@tabs,’ ‘@history,’ or ‘@bookmarks’ into the omnibox, which is Google’s name for the search bar at the top of Chrome. After typing in one of these shortcuts and pressing the spacebar or clicking the corresponding pill-shaped button with your mouse, you can then start typing a search query.

The tab search shows results right below the omnibox that you can quickly access using the arrow keys or your mouse. History and bookmarks, on the other hand, open the respective page with the results of your query.

These quick search options sound very handy, especially for anyone who keeps a ton of tabs open and needs help finding them again later.

Image credit: 9to5Google

9to5Google first detailed these new ‘@’ shortcuts back in September, but they were hidden behind a Chrome flag. However, with the Chrome 108 update, they should be widely available for all, regardless of the flag.

The features are part of Google’s larger ‘Chrome Actions’ project, which has added several ways to quickly access various Chrome features and settings from the omnibox. Google started adding Chrome Actions back in version 103 of the browser — so far, it includes things like ‘Clear Browsing Data,’ ‘Open Incognito Tab’ and ‘Set Chrome as Default Browser.’ Typing those into the omnibox should surface a shortcut to activate the respective action.

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft reportedly wants to build a ‘super app’ to get people using Bing

Microsoft reportedly plans to make a ‘super app’ for iPhone and Android that brings a ton of the company’s services into one spot. The plan is reportedly part of an effort to compete better in the mobile search space.

The details come from The Information (via 9to5Mac), which explained that Microsoft wants to “emulate a mobile strategy that has worked for Tencent,” referring to the company’s WeChat app. WeChat, for the uninitiated, is an extremely popular messaging platform in China that combines other features, like shopping, news, and games, in one place.

The Information reports that Microsoft considered building a similar super app that “could combine shopping, messaging, web search, news feeds and other services in a one-stop smartphone app.” The publication goes on to describe the plans:

“[It] would be an ambitious move by the software giant to expand further into consumer services, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions. Microsoft executives wanted the app to boost the company’s multibillion-dollar advertising business and Bing search, as well as draw more users to Teams messaging and other mobile services.”

However, The Information also said it wasn’t clear if Microsoft will actually launch the app. At the very least, it appears to be something the company has considered internally.

9to5Mac adds more details about how the app could be a way to combat Google’s search dominance. Currently, Google is the default search engine on Android devices and on Apple’s iPhone, something Google pays a lot of money for. The Information notes that Microsoft has previously bid on becoming the default search engine but ultimately lost to Google.

Of course, Microsoft isn’t the only company hoping to make a successful super app. Elon Musk, who currently spends his days lighting fires at recently-acquired Twitter and then blaming activists for anything that gets burnt, has repeatedly expressed interest in creating “X, the everything app.” Musk described X as a digital town square that can handle payments and suggested it could be like WeChat.

It remains to be seen whether Microsoft can make a super app and if it will gain traction among users. Arguably, making the app is the easier of the two pieces since gaining traction among users means getting people to willingly use Bing, something Microsoft historically hasn’t done successfully.

Source: The Information Via: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

PvP modes are coming to Elden Ring on December 7th

Elden Ring is finally bringing a PVP arena to the Lands Between. While most players knew it’d eventually happen since the game has always had colosseums that you couldn’t enter, it’s taken months for it to come to fruition.

The new PVP mode launches on December 7th on all platforms.

FromSoftware’s recent patch added separate damage scaling for PvP weapons, spells, shields and others, which means now the single player can be adjusted separately from the PVP gameplay.

The Game Awards will be streaming live on December 8th, where many fans, like myself, are hoping for news regarding an Elden Ring expansion. While FromSoft’s previous title, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, didn’t have DLCs, Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 did; therefore, more content coming to Elden Ring isn’t impossible.

Source: FromSoftware 

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk’s brain implant company is facing federal probe on animal testing

Neuralink, a medical device company co-founded by Elon Musk, is under U.S. federal investigation for alleged animal-welfare violations.

According to Reuters, staff have complained the company is rushing animal testing leading to avoidable suffering and tests. Neuralink is creating a brain implant to treat neurological conditions and uses animals for its experiments.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)  Inspector General’s probe focuses on suspected violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which examines how some animals are treated while being tested.

Internal documents and interviews with 20 current and former employees reveal several complaints, including pressure from CEO Musk to speed up development, leading to mismanaged experiments, Reuters reports.

The full scope of the federal investigation isn’t clear, but the company has killed at least 1,500 animals since 2018. While animal deaths don’t mean the company is violating practices, employees are saying the number of deaths is higher than need be due to rushed experiments.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Reuters

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Mobile Syrup

GM opens Canada’s first full-scale EV plant in Ontario

The GM CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, is the first full-scale electric vehicle (EV) plant in Canada, and it’s making electric delivery vehicles for DHL and other companies.

GM has been on a mission to re-tool the CAMI plant for EVs since May 2022, from making Equnoix crossovers to the new Brightdrop Zevo 600 delivery vans. This is GM’s fastest rework of a plant and ideally means that others can be refurbished in less than a year.

If you’re asking yourself, “what is Brightdrop?” you can find more information in our previous coverage. That said, the short of it is that Brightdrop is GM’s branding for electric logistics solutions, including delivery vans or warehouse tools.

Once the plant reaches full scale, it should produce around 50,000 EVs annually. Then, once production starts picking up for the Brightdrop delivery vehicles, there are plans to build the smaller Zevo 400 in the factory.


This is a notable achievement for Canada since it helps solidify our EV manufacturing supply chain on the world stage. At the event, Prime Minister Trudeau mentioned that over the past few years, Canada has moved from 5th in the world to 2nd in terms of battery supply chains. With a company like GM willing to revamp a plant in Ontario, it sets the stage for other automakers to follow suit.

Canada’s vast mineral wealth, new refinement factories and now EV assembly workforce will be hard to ignore as more automakers look to step into the world of electric vehicles.

For the Canadian workforce, that’s good news, as CBC reports that 400 people currently work on the assembly line, but the plant could scale up to as many as 1,600 by the end of 2023 if things go well in the coming months.

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Mobile Syrup

AI-powered chatbot that writes essays has more than one million users

ChatGPT is the internet’s new AI-powered chatbot that sounds surprisingly human.

Created by Open AI, the technology answers follow-up questions, admits when it’s made a mistake, and refuses to answer inappropriate questions, according to its website. Open AI launched the technology on November 30th, and it already has more than one million users, according to co-founder Sam Altman.

Once users have signed up for the ChatGPT, they can ask several questions. But according to CNN, some users are getting creative. Twitter user Jonathan Stray asked the chatbot to rewrite the song “Baby Got Back” in the style of “Canterbury Tales.” Others have used the technology to write a letter to remove an account from a credit report and ask a question from an AP English exam.

But with all new technologies come issues, including spreading incorrect information and conserving biases based on the data used for training, CNN reports.

This is something Open AI is working on. “We’re using the Moderation API to warn or block certain types of unsafe content, but we expect it to have some false negatives and positives for now. We’re eager to collect user feedback to aid our ongoing work to improve this system,” the company says on its website.

ChatGPT is free to use for now, but it will be monetized down the road. “Average [cost] is probably single-digits cents per chat; trying to figure out more precisely and also how we can optimize it,” Altman tweeted. 

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: ChatGPT Via: CNN

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Mobile Syrup

Save 29 percent on the OnePlus 10 Pro right now

If you’ve been holding off on buying the OnePlus 10 Pro in hopes of a sale, well, you’re in luck.

OnePlus currently has the 10 Pro available for $729 in Canada, down from the regular $1,029. The 29 percent discount applies to the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant, with the 12GB/256GB version rocking only a seven percent discount to $1,049 (it’s also out of stock at the moment).

Along with the 29 percent discount, OnePlus has a few other ways to save. For example, those who already own a OnePlus device can save an extra $60.

OnePlus has a few bundle offers too. Customers can save up to 80 percent on earbuds if they bundle them with the OnePlus 10 Pro. The 80 percent off bundles include the OnePlus Buds Pro ($39.99 when bundled vs. $199.99 regular) and the OnePlus Buds Z2 ($23.99 vs. $119.99 regular).

Customers can also save 10 percent on the ‘Karbon’ or ‘Sandstone’ bumper cases when bundled, bring the prices to $49.50 and $30.60, respectively.

Check out the deals here.

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Mobile Syrup

Canadian Tire’s centennial celebration is a virtual Christmas Tree designing experience

2022 marks Canadian Tire’s 100th anniversary. To celebrate the retail company’s century in existence and the upcoming holiday season, Canadian Tire is introducing a virtual Tree Decorator (VR) experience.

Available on the web, mobile, and as a VR app for the Quest, Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, the experience lets you walk around a room with interactable objects and a Christmas tree. Interacting with the tree allows you to choose from several trees available at Candian Tire locations near you, while you also have the option to use your own tree.

You then get to design your tree with a range of ornaments, toppers, garlands, tree skirts and collars. Once designed, you can head to your local Canadian Tire to pick up a package full of everything you need to make your virtual tree a reality or have the items delivered.

“When you’re happy with your personalized tree, from the tinsel to the Christmas tree topper, you can order the tree and the ornaments and use your design as a blueprint to make magic happen in your living room. Your Canadian Tire Christmas tree, plus every decoration you’ve selected, will be ready for pickup or delivery — so you can focus on everything else on your Christmas to-do list,” reads the retailer’s website.

Elsewhere, in the virtual world, click around and explore and you’ll find an “extra festive Christmas mission,” which is basically a puzzle that awards you with a bonus gift. “If you unravel the puzzle, you could win a limited-edition 100th anniversary NFT. It’s a new type of digital collectible for you to keep, gift, or bring with you on your journey into the metaverse,” says the retailer.

The NFTs have been designed by five Canadian artists, namely CelinePaul Glyn-Williams, Olya, Vectorvault (aka. Adam Jarvis) and Josh Hy, and are likely to serve no purpose. Canadian Tire doesn’t mention if the NFTs have, or would have in the future, any utility at all. The retailer only says that there are only 100 NFTs to be claimed, which makes it “super rare,” and that you can keep the collectible as a “memorabilia or transfer it to someone else.”

Image credit: Canadian Tire

Source: Canadian Tire