The national emergency alerting system delivers alerts to Canadians through television, radio and LTE-connected devices. Alerts cover a variety of matters, including AMBER alerts and tornado warnings.
According to the testing schedule, residents across Canada will hear the alert at different times between 10am and 2pm, local time. The schedule can be viewed here.
Canadians are not required to take action when they hear the alert.
Google has confirmed that it’s releasing a Nest Wifi Pro software update that fixes an issue causing some users to experience slow internet speeds.
In a statement to The Verge, Sanjay Noronha, Google’s Nest Wifi product lead, said that Google is “currently investigating reports of a small number of users experiencing reduced internet speeds on Nest Wifi Pro routers,” and that there are plans to roll out a fix.
Shortly after the Nest Wifi Pro’s release, reports started to emerge of some users experiencing internet speeds capped at roughly 50Mbps despite subscribing to a faster connection. Not everyone encountered the problem, however. For example, my experience with the Next Wifi Pro over the last few weeks has been relatively solid so far.
It’s unclear what the cause of the issue is, but it’s believed to be related to point-to-point ethernet (PPPoE) networks, and primarily only affects owners in the United Kingdom. Google has not confirmed the source of the problem.
Google’s $269.99 Nest Wifi Pro features support for faster Wi-Fi 6E with speeds up to 5.4Gbps, alongside its 6GHz band that helps solve network congestion.
The most recent cuts target contract employees, with 4,400 of its 5,500 contact employees being “eliminated.” According to Casey Newton, the founder of Platformer, the move will “have significant impact” on content moderators and the site’s core infrastructure services.
Impacted employees are in the U.S and abroad, and Twitter gave them no warning. “Contractors aren’t being notified at all, they’re just losing access to Slack and email. Managers figured it out when their workers just disappeared from the system,” Newton tweeted.
The recent cuts further highlight growing concerns about the spread of misinformation.
Amid Twitter’s ongoing struggles to drum up profit as advertisers bail, SpaceX has ordered one of the social media platform’s larger advertising packages.
While a company buying advertising from another company wouldn’t typically be a big deal, it’s worth noting that Elon Musk is CEO for both SpaceX and Twitter. Moreover, Twitter has faced increasing pressure to make money after Musk’s acquisition saddled the company with significant debt. Musk previously said Twitter saw a “massive drop in revenue” and that the company faced bankruptcy, and under Musk, Twitter laid off a significant portion of its workforce to save money.
CNBC reported on the SpaceX ad buy, citing internal records viewed by the publication as well as information shared by a Twitter employee who asked not to be identified. SpaceX reportedly purchased what’s called a Twitter ‘takeover’ to promote Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service. The campaign will target Australia and Spain and was reportedly purchased last week.
According to CNBC, when a company buys a takeover, it typically costs $250,000 USD (about $332,036 CAD) per day and will put the brand at the top of the main Twitter timeline for a full day. Users reportedly will see Starlink brand messaging for the first three times they open Twitter on the day (or days) of the takeover campaign. SpaceX’s campaign is slated to run in the coming days.
Moreover, CNBC notes that SpaceX doesn’t typically purchase large advertising campaigns from Twitter.
This all makes for a relatively suspicious transaction, given Musk’s very public discussions of Twitter’s financial problems and dropping ad revenue. It also comes after Musk headed the failed rollout of a revamped Twitter Blue subscription service. Musk pushed Twitter to launch a new, more expensive version of Blue that provided paying subscribers with a blue verified checkmark, which was previously reserved for authenticating high-profile accounts. Within hours of the subscription going live, a variety of fake accounts with paid verification badges flooded Twitter with posts, some of which had significant impacts on companies — namely, a fake tweet about insulin that caused Eli Lilly to lose billions after the company’s stock took a dive.
Rolling out soon, Twitter will enable organizations to identify which other Twitter accounts are actually associated with them
Seems like Monday is the best day to score deals on Anker accessories. The company has once again discounted some of its most popular chargers, cables and portable chargers, some to the tune of 50 percent.
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.
I’ve tried a few gaming laptops over the years and generally arrive at the same core issue: you give up too much performance for not enough portability. However, Asus’ ROG Flow Z13 2-in-1 is a gaming laptop I wouldn’t mind carrying around.
While likely not everyone agrees, for me, I find it a tough tradeoff to make. Generally, I want my laptops to be as portable as possible — thin, light, small, etc. I expect lower performance accordingly, but that’s okay since I make up for it with a large, bulky desktop with tons of performance for when I need it. Gaming laptops tend to walk a fine line of being technically portable while also managing to be obnoxious to carry around. They’re big, heavy, loud, and the battery dies if you spend more than an hour away from an outlet. They tend to be covered in gaudy RGB, giant fan grilles and sport weird designs. None of these things are explicitly bad, but I don’t look for them on a laptop.
At the same time, these things are getting better thanks to improvements in Intel’s recent 12th and 13th Gen chips. Still, in most cases, getting a mobile chip will mean trading performance for improved thermals and energy use versus comparable desktop chips, both of which are important in laptops. The same generally holds true for GPUs.
This is where Asus ROG Flow Z13 comes in. I’ve had the opportunity to play around with one for a few weeks and generally was impressed by its portability. The Flow Z13 offers a similar form factor to Microsoft’s excellent Surface Pro 2-in-1, but significantly more power. Enough to actually play games, although maybe not at the highest visual settings.
The Flow Z13 does still suffer from a major affliction of ‘gamer aesthetic,’ but it manages to be less in-your-face than other gaming laptops. Plus, the rear window showing off some of the internal components plain looks cool.
A brief look at performance
On the inside, the Flow Z13 I played around with sported a 12th Gen Intel i9-12900H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU. It also features 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a 13.4-inch UHD+ 3840×2400 pixel 60Hz display. The screen looks great, although admittedly having such a high resolution seems like a bit of a waste on such a small screen. Plus, in some games, hitting the coveted 60fps target was hard when running at the higher resolution. It’s also worth noting Asus offers other variants of the Flow Z13 with i7 or i5 CPUs, although the i5 variant only offers Intel Xe graphics, which I don’t recommend for anyone wanting to do serious gaming.
You can view the full spec page for the ROG Flow Z13 here, but I do want to highlight the weight at 1.18kg (2.6lbs). That's quite a bit lighter than the similarly specced MSI Raider GE76 I tested earlier this year, which weighed 2.9kg (6.39lbs). The Flow Z13 is still heavier than the almost 880g Surface Pro 9, but that gap is much narrower.
Speaking of the Raider GE76, it's currently the top dog in our archive of laptop benchmarks. It sports an i9-12900HK and 32GB of RAM, meaning it has slightly more power than the 12900H and 16GB of RAM in the Flow Z13. On the GPU side, it's a 3080 Ti Laptop GPU versus the Z13's 3050 Ti Laptop edition. In CPU benchmarks, the Flow Z13 was close to the GE76, but it fell further behind in GPU benchmarks thanks to the less capable 3050 Ti.
Still, in the games I played, the Flow Z13 did well enough that I'd be happy gaming on it, although I sometimes had to tone down graphics settings to keep a consistent 60fps. I had a blast playing my go-to game at the moment, Destiny 2, on the Flow Z13, while newer titles like Hitman 3 averaged about 55fps on high settings (with some tweaks, 60fps is well within reach). Of course, like any other gaming laptop, performance falls off a cliff when running on battery power, not that the battery will last long enough for a good gaming session anyway.
Will the Flow Z13 blow you away with incredible game performance? No. But it does well enough, and, for the size, I was content with the trade-offs I was making.
A note about accessories
Surface Pro (left) and ROG Flow Z13 (right).
One area where the Flow Z13 differs from 2-in-1s like the Surface Pro is that it comes with the keyboard. Given that keyboards are an integral part of PCs, it's good that Asus didn't make this an extra cost. However, one accessory that you may want isn't exactly readily available.
The Flow Z13 is compatible with the ROG XG Mobile eGPU, which acts almost like a dock for connecting the device to an external monitor. According to Asus' website, the XG Mobile can feature either a GTX GeForce RTX 3080 or 3070 Laptop GPU, further boosting performance. But, the XG Mobile eGPU doesn't appear to be available for purchase in Canada, except as a bundle with a different Asus gaming laptop.
To be fair, the XG Mobile isn't necessary for external monitor use -- I was able to get the Flow Z13 to output to my desktop monitor using a USB-C to HDMI adapter, but ultimately the XG Mobile would be a more elegant solution if it were available. It'd also make it easier to recommend the other Flow Z13 devices with less powerful GPUs since you could make up for that with the eGPU.
The i9-equipped ROG Flow Z13 clocks in at a pricey $2,499.99 in Canada and is available at Best Buy and Amazon. Given how unique the 2-in-1 is, though, if you're looking for a laptop to pull double duty between gaming and portable productivity, this is a great option.
MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though MobileSyrup may earn a commission on purchases made via these links.
This fake twitter account is impersonating twitter corporate with a newly purchased check mark and gotten 34k rts. This is going great so far. How long before having a check mark will just be a hallmark of scamming? pic.twitter.com/RV3ARb91J7
— Rafael Shimunov is on Mastodon (@rafaelshimunov) November 11, 2022
Personally, I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with Twitter. There’s too much confusion and impersonation, a ton of ads, and many angry people. Are you sticking with Twitter? Or are you going to shift to Mastodon or another social media platform?
If you’ve ever used Snapchat, you know how annoying it is when Team Snapchat messages you on holidays and special events. However, I found out recently that you can mute them.
It’s straightforward and just like muting any other conversation on Snap, but because these messages were messages and not actual notifications, I never considered it. To mute the chat, all you need to do is tap and hold on the conversation, then select the ‘Chat Settings’ option.
From there, turn off ‘Message Notifications’ and ‘Game and Mini Notifications.’
Voila, welcome to life unbothered by random chats from a bot you care nothing about.
Best Buy Canada is leaking some of its upcoming Black Friday promotions that go live on Thursday, November 17th, giving you a sneak peek at some of the retailer’s hottest deals for the season.
From TVs and smart vacuums, to gaming PCs, tablets, headphones and more, Best Buy is teasing several deals that go live between November 17th and November 24th. Check them out below:
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.
Every week, MobileSyrup outlines some of the most notable movies and TV shows that recently hit Canadian streaming platforms.
Our ‘Streaming in Canada’ column typically focuses on new content from Amazon Prime Video, Crave and Netflix, but other services like Apple TV+ and Disney+ are mentioned when relevant. Premium video on demand (PVOD) platforms are also fair game as movies continue to come to digital early amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finally, we’ll highlight shows or movies that are made by Canadian companies, involve notable Canadian cast or crew and/or are filmed in Canada.
Amazon Prime Video
The English [Amazon Exclusive]
An Englishwoman heads to the West to seek vengeance for the death of her son, only to meet a man with whom she discovers a possible shared history.
The English was created by Hugo Blick (Black Earth Rising) and stars Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada), Chaske Spencer (Banshee), Rafe Spall (Trying) and Tom Hughes (Victoria).
Amazon Prime Video Canada release date: November 11th, 2022 Genre: Western drama Runtime: Six episodes (47 minutes to 1 hour, 9 minutes each)
Rihanna debuts the latest in her fashion line, featuring special guest like Mississauga, Ontario’s own Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Winston Duke (Black Panther), Taraji P. Henson (Empire) and Cara Delevingne (Carnival Row).
Amazon Prime Video Canada release date: November 9th, 2022 Genre: Fashion Runtime: 41 minutes
The full list of movies and shows hitting Amazon Prime Video Canada this month can be found here.
Apple TV+
Mythic Quest (Season 3) [Apple Original]
Ian and Poppy struggle to co-lead their new independent studio, while David’s leadership of Mythic Quest creates its own chaos.
Mythic Quest was created by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Rob McElhenney, Megan Ganz and Charlie Day and stars McElhenney, Charlotte Nicdao (Content), David Hornsby (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Danny Pudi (Community) and Ashly Burch (the PlayStation 4 video game Horizon Zero Dawn).
Apple TV+ Canada release date: November 11th, 2022 (first two episodes, new episodes every Friday) Genre: Comedy Runtime: 10 episodes (around 30 minutes each)
Find out what’s coming to Apple TV+ in November here.
Crave
Don’t Worry Darling
In the 1950s, a woman lives in a seemingly idyllic community with her husband, only to discover things are not quite what they seem.
Don’t Worry Darling was directed by Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) and stars Florence Pugh (Little Women), Harry Styles (Dunkirk), Wilde and Chris Pine (Wonder Woman).
Original theatrical release date: September 23rd, 2022
Crave release date: November 7th, 2022 Genre: Psychological thriller Runtime: 2 hours, 3 minutes
A standard Crave subscription is priced at $19.99/month, with Starz costing an additional $5.99/month. A mobile-only subscription is also available for $9.99/month.
The full list of movies and shows hitting Crave in November can be found here.
Netflix
Capturing the Killer Nurse [Netflix Original]
Tim Travers Hawkins (XY Chelsea) explores how one nurse helped investigators take down a notorious serial killer colleague. Notably, this same story was dramatized in the recently released Netflix film,The Good Nurse.
Diana and Charles wage a media war as the monarchy’s role is up for debate.
The Crown was created by Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) and stars Imelda Staunton (The Girl), Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes) and Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread).
Netflix Canada release date: November 9th, 2022 Genre: Historical drama Runtime: 10 episodes (48 to 56 minutes each)
Ava and the sisters of the Order band must take down a false prophet who threatens the entire world.
Warrior Nun is based on the comic book character Warrior Nun Areala by Ben Dunn, was created by Simon Barry (Continuum) and stars Alba Baptista (Miami), Toya Turner (Incredibles 2) and Lorena Andrea (No Man’s Land). It’s worth noting that Toronto’s David Hayter (Metal Gear franchise) is a writer and producer on the series.
Netflix Canada release date: November 11th, 2022 Genre: Fantasy drama Runtime: Eight episodes (37 to 52 minutes each)
The full list of movies and shows hitting Netflix Canada in November can be found here.
This week in Netflix news: It’s also worth noting that Triviaverse, a new trivia game for devices that support interactive Netflix experiences, is now available.
Paramount+
Tulsa King (Paramount+ Original]
Upon completing a 25-year prison sentence, a New York Mafia Capo is sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma to establish a new criminal empire.
Tulsa King was created by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone) and stars Sylvester Stallone (Rocky series), Max Casella (The Sopranos), Domenick Lombardozzi (The Wire) and Vincent Piazza (Boardwalk Empire).
Paramount+ Canada release date: November 13th, 2022 Genre: Crima drama Runtime: Ten episodes (around one hour each)
