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Canadian retailers offering up to $70 off for Xbox Series S for Black Friday 2022

The Xbox Series S will be available for $309.96 ($70 off) at Walmart Canada for Black Friday 2022.

The deal begins online on November 16th at 9pm ET and November 17th in-store. Considering the current-gen console is celebrating its second anniversary this month, that’s a pretty solid discount. Notably, this is $70 in direct savings on the console itself; there isn’t a free game thrown in like the same Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bundle Nintendo has offered for the last several Black Fridays.

The Series S is the most entry-level current-gen box, supporting all of the same games as its more powerful sister console, the $599 Series X, at the same frame rates but at a  lower resolutions. The only other difference is that the Series S lacks a disc drive, so it can only play digital media. And hey, with this price drop, the Series S is only slightly more than PlayStation’s $269 DualSense Edge controller.

Best Buy will also offer the Series S at a discount, although it will cost slightly more than Walmart at $319.99. We’ll update this story should more retailers announce that they’re taking part in this deal.

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s long-rumoured Pixel Fold might release in May for $2,390

This is the most solid leak we’ve seen in months surrounding Google’s often-rumoured foldable Pixel.

According to Jon Prosser, an occasionally reliable source of tech leaks that sometimes enjoys shaving his eyebrows off, the images below are renders of Google’s foldable smartphone, currently codenamed “Felix” internally at the tech giant.

Similar to Prosser’s past leaks, these renders are based on real-world images and information his “sources” relayed to him. Based on these renders, the smartphone is wider than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3, which could make it more difficult to fit in a pocket.

Other information that can be gleaned from the renders includes the fact that the Pixel Fold’s cover display features a 9.5-megapixel under-display camera, alongside a raised camera bump on its rear that sits in the center of the smartphone’s back.

The foldable’s inner and cover display bezels look minimal, and there’s a glass “G” logo that sits under it. Moreover, the inner display camera comes in at 9.5-megapixels, and as expected, the Pixel Fold features a USB-C port.

And finally, the fingerprint sensor will reportedly be built into the smartphone’s side-oriented lock button, with the standard volume rocker sitting below. It’s worth mentioning that the hinge looks rather minimal and perhaps even a step above Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 3, the best foldable smartphone currently on the market.

Prosser says that the Galaxy Fold will launch this may for $1,799 USD (roughly $2,390 CAD). This price puts it well over the cost of Samsung’s Fold 3, which currently costs $1,969.99.

Image credit: Front Page Tech/@jon_prosser

Source: Front Page Tech/@jon_prosser Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon unveils upcoming tech deals for Black Friday 2022

Amazon Canada has come out swinging with a mega teaser for its upcoming 2-day Black Friday event.

The online retailer has unveiled some of the tech deals that will be available to all. The 48-hour event starts on Thursday November 24th through November 25th at Amazon Canada.

Amazon also notes that “Prime members get 30-minute early access to select Lightning Deals on Amazon throughout the holiday season.”

Source: Amazon Canada

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

Microsoft’s Black Friday pricing is live for some Surface products

The Microsoft Store is leaking some of its upcoming Black Friday promotions, with some deals that are already active, and some that go live on Friday, November 18th.

Check out some of the promotions below:

Save up to $500 on the Surface Pro 8 at the Microsoft Store  — Live now

Save $100 on the Surface Pro 9 (Model: Pro i5/8/256)

Save up to $400 on the Surface Pro X — Live now

Save up to $150 on the Surface Laptop Go 2

Save up to $500 on the Surface Laptop 4 13.5-inch — Live now

Save up to $500 on the Surface Laptop 4 15-inch — Live now

Save up to $50 on the Surface Go 3 — Live now

Save up to $300 on the Surface Laptop Studio 14.4-inch

At Costco only – Save $450 on Surface Pro 7+ bundles

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

Amazon to lay off 10,000 employees, NYT reports

Amazon will implement the most significant job cuts in the company’s history.

According to the New York Times, the company will lay off as many as 10,000 employees, possibly beginning this week. However, that figure could fluctuate, employees familiar with the matter anonymously told the publication.

The employees work on Amazon’s devices, including Alexa, retail, and human resources.

The news comes just around the holiday season, a significant time for Amazon, which recently released some early Black Friday deals.

Amazon isn’t the only tech company to issue layoffs. Last week, Meta announced its most extensive layoffs, citing a changing landscape. More recently, contracted Twitter employees around the world, many of which were responsible for content moderation were let go.

Amazon didn’t confirm the news.

Source: New York Times

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Mobile Syrup

Here are the Game of the Year, Canadian nominees at The Game Awards 2022

The full list of nominees for The Game Awards 2022 has been revealed.

During a stream, Geoff Keighley, the Canadian creator and producer of the show, announced which games are up for awards across more than 30 categories.

Most notably, here are the six games up for Game of the Year:

  • A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo/Focus Home Interactive)
  • Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
  • God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/PlayStation)
  • Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/PlayStation)
  • Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

Overall, God of War Ragnarök, Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West lead in the nominations.

Meanwhile, here are the nominees for Best Mobile Game:

  • Apex Legends Mobile
  • Diablo Immortal
  • Genshin Impact
  • Marvel Snap
  • Tower of Fantasy

A number of Canadian games are also up for awards, including:

It’s also worth noting that The Last of Us Part I is up for Innovation in Accessibility, and the co-director of the game who also spearheads Naughty Dog’s accessibility efforts is Montreal’s Matthew Gallant. Additionally, The Cuphead Show!, based on the beloved Cuphead game from Canada’s Studio MDHR, has been nominated in the inaugural Best Adaptation category.

As always, a percentage of votes for which games actually win comes from the fans themselves. You can vote in all categories via  The Game Awards’ official website and Discord server from now until December 7th.

The Game Awards will be held live on Thursday, December 8th and streamed on a variety of platforms worldwide, including on The Game Awards’ YouTube and Twitch channels.

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Mobile Syrup

Swole chad Jeff Bezos decides his net worth is not for keeping

‘CEO, Entrepreneur, born in 1964, Jefferey, Jeffrey Bezos,’ said in a recent interview with CNN News that he intends to donate a majority of his current $124 billion USD (roughly $164 CAD) net worth during his lifetime, with a major chunk of his money going towards climate change and “supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions.”

 

Bezos is currently the fourth-richest person in the world, behind Gautam Adani, Bernard Arnault & family, and Elon Musk, according to Forbes. This happens to be the first time Bezos has made a public announcement regarding his intentions to give away most of his money. Bezos, alongside his partner Lauren Sánchez said they are “building the capacity to be able to give away this money.”

The two of them announced American singer and songwriter Dolly Parton as the recipient of the Bezos Courage and Civility Award and a $100 million grant. Previous recipients of the grant and the award include celebrity chef Jose Andrés and Dream.org founder Van Jones.

Bezos has also in the past committed $10 billion over 10 years, which is roughly 8 percent of his current net worth, to the Bezos Earth Fund, which prioritizes reducing the carbon footprint of construction-grade cement and steel, advancing technologies to monitor carbon emissions, pushing financial regulators to consider climate-related risks, and more.

This comes amid a time when Amazon is reportedly planning to lay off thousands of employees.

Source: CNN News

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Mobile Syrup

Telus attempted to sway Rogers-Shaw merger, internal documents show

Vancouver-based telecom giant Telus made attempts to alter the $26 billion merger between Rogers and Shaw, internal documents show.

The efforts were initially presented to Telus’s board under the name ‘Project Fox,’ and were shared during the Competition Tribunal’s hearing into the matter.

“Continued execution of our top-of-house strategy where ELT meets with political leaders to kill, shape and slow the deal,” the presentation reads.

ELT refers to the executive leadership team. Persuasion attempts included discussions with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) to block Québecor’s acquisition of Freedom Mobile.

The board meeting took place in August 2022, and the slides were initially kept from public view. After redactions, the document became available for the public to see, in an attempt to make the hearing transparent.

In its second week, the first week primarily consisted of questioning witnesses away from the view of the public, creating issues of transparency. Chief Justice Crampton started Monday’s session by addressing the issue and the need to keep matters public.

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Mobile Syrup

Leaked Galaxy S23 Ultra sample photo reveals quality improvement over S22 Ultra, Pixel 7 Pro

Despite not being officially revealed yet, a sample shot comparing Samsung’s Galaxy S23 to the S22 Ultra and the Pixel 7 Pro has already appeared.

As first reported by Ice Universe, Samsung’s next high-end smartphone will reportedly feature a 200-megapixel primary sensor. This report is backed up by several photographs of pumpkins showing off the S23 Ultra’s clear camera quality upgrade over the S22 Ultra’s and Pixel 7 Pro’s shooter in terms of sharpness and colour vibrancy. These images first appeared on the China-based social network Weibo.

The Galaxy S22 and Pixel 7 Pro images feature far softer focus and less vivid colour than the S22 image. Even the S22 shot looks better than the Pixel 7 Pro’s, even though Google’s smartphone features a 200-megapixel main sensor compared to the S22 Ultra’s 108-megapixel sensor.

As is often the case with Ice Universe’s leaks, the leaker also shared details regarding the S23 Ultra’s various sensors and the resolution of photographs.

Of course, with the Galaxy S23 still several months away from its official reveal, Samsung’s plans regarding the high-end camera could quickly change.

Image credit: Weibo

Source: @UniverseIce, Weibo Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Organizations will soon be able to ‘identify’ other Twitter accounts associated with them

Soon after Twitter’s new $9.99/month Blue subscription with a Blue checkmark caused a myriad of fake imposter accounts on the platform, so much so, that the subscription has been indefinitely suspended.

Roughly two days after suspending the subscription, Elon Musk announced via a Tweet that Twitter will soon allow organizations to “identify” other Twitter accounts associated with them. This likely means that accounts like MobileSyrup’s Twitter account would be able to verify that I work for the website, which might subsequently result in my account displaying a “verified by @MobileSyrup,” or a similar tag.

While the Twitter Blue verification is indefinitely suspended until Twitter finds a way to combat impersonators, the new ‘organization identification’ feature might be a good step for the platform to push some kind of verification/identification marking for organizations and their employees.  When asked whether users would just be able to “create an organization” of their own, Musk said that Twitter will be the “final arbiter” regarding what constitutes an organization.

Organizations would also reportedly be able to “manage affiliations” with employees, giving them the ability to removed said ‘organization identification’ when an employee changes their job.

Finally, while Blue Verification is suspended, Twitter is making a second 360 on the recently released ‘Official’ badge. The badge, which was released first on November 9th and removed on the same day, is now being re-added, according to the Twitter Support page.

Source: @elonmusk