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Mobile Syrup

Apple Music adds more lyrics for karaoke superfans with ‘Sing’

If you love to sing, Apple Music has just become the best music streaming service for you.

A new feature called Apple Music Sing releases later in December and will work with tens of millions of songs at launch, with more coming over time, says Apple. To help make it easy to find songs that support the feature, the tech giant says it will also launch over 50 playlists highlighting songs that you can sing along with.

It makes the existing lyric functions act more as you’d expect from a karaoke machine. This means the words highlight along with the beat, and you can remove or lower the vocals from a song.

Other perks include separate lyrics for background vocals and duets. Songs with background lyrics will have smaller text to signify they’re to be sung in the background. Tracks with duets will feature verses justified to the right and the left, with each side denoting a different vocalist.

This feature will launch on all Apple products that support lyrics (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV), but it shines on Apple TV. While this might not be a huge draw for everyone, karaoke machines are often expensive and can become outdated fast. Getting 90 percent of the functionality from an iPad or Apple TV as part of your existing Apple Music subscription could be a huge selling feature for many people.

Overall, Apple Music now offers a compelling radio feature, great lyrics and Hi-Fi audio, giving it much more value than Spotify, though it does cost an extra dollar per month.

Image credit: Apple

Source: Apple

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Mobile Syrup

Apple might move some iPad production to India

Apple’s production footprint in India could expand if talks to bring iPad production to the country succeed.

Two sources close to India’s government told CNBC the plans aren’t official, but talks have been ongoing. Apple already assembles iPhone 14 devices in India. 

The news comes as Apple considers its options to move some production outside of China, following tensions between the country and the U.S. Rising labour costs and recent protests triggered by China’s strict covid restrictions also play a role.

The protests led Apple to reduce iPhone 14 production last month, contributing to shipping delays.

But moving manufacturing to India isn’t a straightforward task. CNBC reports the country lacks people with the expertise to build iPads, and industry experts estimate growth to be slow.

“I think in five years, 35% [of iPhones] will be manufactured in India,” Gene Munster of Loop Ventures told CNBC. “I think Apple will add iPhone production to other countries outside of India and China in the next five years. Perhaps Vietnam, Malaysia and the USA.”

Source: CNBC

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Mobile Syrup

Android updates set to get faster with improvements to seamless updates

Android updates may soon get a little faster for people using devices that support seamless updates.

Seamless updates, for those unfamiliar with the feature, were introduced back in 2016. It manages updates across multiple partitions, allowing Android to download and install new updates in the background without disrupting the user. Once everything’s ready to go, users simply reboot the smartphone, and Android starts up on the new, updated partition.

Google’s Pixel phones use the seamless updates feature, but not every manufacturer has gotten on board. Notably, Samsung hasn’t adopted seamless updates.

Anyway, Esper senior technical editor Mishaal Rahman spotted some changes coming to the seamless update system that should help speed things up. Per Rahman’s tweets, Googe is moving the writing of COW operations to batches, which means they will finish faster. Second, seamless updates will start using two threads for running compression.

With those two pieces in place, seamless updates should happen significantly faster. For example, the installation time for a ‘full’ 2.2GB update would drop from 23 minutes to 13 minutes, while a smaller ‘incremental’ update sized at 376MB would drop from 22 minutes to 16 minutes.

Unfortunately, it’s not entirely clear when these changes will hit Android devices. Regardless, it’s good to see Google improving on basic systems like this. These updates may not be flashy, but they’re important.

Source: Mishaal Rahman (Twitter) via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Music, food, and identities celebrated in TikTok’s end of year wrap-up

Canadian TikTok creators shared content over the last year that was seen by people around the world.

According to the social media platform’s annual Year on TikTok wrap-up, this included dancing videos, nursing parodies, and tasty recipes.

“Canadian TikTok creators continue to make content that celebrates the uniqueness of our identities, enriches our lives, and makes us smile,” Marisa Hammonds, TikTok’s general manager for North America, said. “Their impact is felt around the world and goes beyond our platform.”

Fyfaves

For You feeds cater to every TikTok user’s personal experiences, but there are always videos that end up on everyone’s FY feeds. In Canada, it was the following:

  1. @jamie32bsh – Everyone’s favourite mirror dancing video
  2. @w2sixpackchef – For ASMR chacers
  3. @parisa_henna_art – Henna inspo
  4. @tamarasbluechicken – The best bird on the internet
  5. @kristenandreafe – The funny reaction to this filter

TikTok taught me

TikTok is home to great recipes, hacks, and techniques. In Canada, that involved learning how to perfectly drape a saree and making homemade mung bean noodles.

  1. @ongsquad – How to cut a pineapple
  2. @natashathasan – No-sew saree draping
  3. @shinanova – Learning the meaning behind Inuit facial expressions
  4. @huxintingting – Learning to make mung bean noodles
  5. @ilysmnails – Taking care of cuticles

Big little communities

If you’ve been on TikTok for more than five minutes, you know there is a community for literally everything. In Canada, this year’s favourites include:

  1. #BookTok – When you need a new recommendation
  2. #SmallBusinessTok – Support small!
  3. #TransTok – Celebrate yourself
  4. #IndigenousTok – Learning about Indigenous identities
  5. #OutdoorTok – Travelling across Canada

You can learn more about TikTok’s 2022 wrap-up here.

Image credit: TikTok 

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon puts select Alexa-enabled devices on sale by 54 percent off

Amazon is coming off its massive Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals with a fresh slew of discounts on its own hardware.

Below are some great deals on Alexa-enabled devices, from TVs to smart speakers, to security systems. Here’s what you can score along with free shipping if you’re a Prime Member.

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

The latest Humble Bundle discounts VR games for charity

Humble Bundle’s latest bundle offers everal virtual reality games, with proceeds going to charity.

The titles include DOOM VFR, Cave Digger Dig 2 Harder, Bean Stalker, After the Fall, Cosmonious High, Arizona Sunshine and Vox Machinae. 

You can pay $33.62 CAD  for all seven of these titles, but you can also donate more. Any less won’t get you all seven games.

There is a four-item bundle that gets you most of the titles. This includes Arizona Sunshine, Doom VFR, Cave Digger 2 Harder and Bean Stalker. This offer ends in 11 days, and the donation supports Starlight Children’s Foundation

The Starlight Children Foundation supports seriously ill children and their families.

Source: Humble Bundle 

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Mobile Syrup

Tons of coffee and $2,761 worth of kebabs, here’s what Canadians ordered on DoorDash

Toronto DoorDash users are the most indulgent eaters and coffee drinkers in Canada, according to the company’s end-of-year trends report.

The report uses ordering data between January and November 2022.

Vancouver residents are the healthiest, and Thunder Bay, Mississauga and Saskatoon have the biggest savers, using most of the coupons DoorDash offered this year.

The most expensive order came from Outremont, Quebec, where 12 plates of kebabs, meat platters, and salads racked up a bill of $2,761.

“We’ve seen incredible support for local restaurants with an increase of takeout and pick up options,” Shilpa Arora, General Manager, DoorDash Canada, said.

“With that comes a lot of interesting trends and consumer preferences that we’re excited to share with Canadians once again.”

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: DoorDash 

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Mobile Syrup

Where to stream Die Hard, the best Christmas movie, in Canada

It’s a debate as old as time: is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

Now, we’re not here to argue (it’s indisputably a Christmas movie since the entire story, themes, dialogue and music all revolve around the holiday), but instead, we just want to celebrate that it’s a damn good movie to watch at any time, especially during Christmastime.

With that in mind, we’ve rounded up where you can stream the 1988 Bruce Willis classic action flick in Canada. It’s actually pretty straightforward; since Disney owns Fox, Die Hard is streaming in Canada on Disney+ under the Star banner. It’s even got 4K support, to boot.

What’s more, Die Hard 2, Die Hard: with a Vengeance and Live Free or Die Hard are also all streaming on Disney+. Amusingly, A Good Day to Die Hard, the series’ most recent entry, is not on the Disney service, which is fitting since it’s widely regarded to be the worst Die Hard.

So if you’re someone who needs to see Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber fall from the Nakatomi Plaza to properly celebrate the Christmas spirit, then Disney+ has got you covered.

Image credit: 20th Century Fox

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Mobile Syrup

Cool Master’s Orb X is an awesome-looking futuristic dome chair

Cool Master has launched an awesome-looking new futuristic-ass chair, the Orb X.

The Orb X is a semi-enclosed cockpit with a fully automated motorized shuttle dome for privacy. The dome supports up to three 27-inch monitors for immersive or multiple views, or you can use one 34-inch display. It also features built-in surround sound for speakers with a realistic soundstage to avoid using headphones.

Additionally, it features an ergonomic recliner for better comfort. The Orb X is for visual, audio and comfort experiences.

Colour-wise, Arctic White or Universe Black, and there’s ARGB illumination, which surrounds the user with a variety of colour arrangements to match the atmosphere.

It also comes with a remote control to help set the different ergonomics, audio, and colour options with the press of a button. Additionally, there’s an extra large desk space that can wirelessly charge users’ phones but also has room for a keyboard, mouse and even a tablet.

Source: Cool Master

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Mobile Syrup

Belkin launches AirPods earwax cleaning kit

If you use Apple’s AirPods or any wireless earbuds for that matter, you’ve likely noticed that they can become covered in earwax after even just a day of use in some cases.

While this unwanted debris can usually be removed with a Q-tip and some sort of cleaning solution (I use rubbing alcohol), accessory maker Belkin has released an official AirPods Cleaning Kit that it claims “restores acoustic performance.” While likely true to some extent, you’d need a lot of earwax and dirt jammed in your AirPods for the audio to degrade in quality.

The kit is specifically designed for every generation of Apple’s standard AirPods that don’t feature silicone tips, though I don’t see why you also couldn’t use it with the AirPods Pro (perhaps the swab won’t fit in the silicone tip?). The ‘AirPods Cleaning Kit’ includes a cleaning brush, an earwax softening solution (gross 🤮), cleaning gel and a microfiber cloth.

The kit seems designed to only be used once given the small quantity of cleaning fluid, which isn’t great given its $14.99 USD (roughly $20.38 CAD) price. With this in mind, the cleaning kit is a tough sell, even for someone who actually likes Apple’s pricey $25 official polishing cloth.

Image credit: Belkin