Microsoft has been fighting this console generation to oust Playstation as the top console, and it appears that low prices are part of the strategy, at least for now.
It’s no secret that game consoles are typically sold at a loss to drive game sales. Companies make up revenue on the backend from subscriptions, games and accessory sales, so getting as many people onto a platform is crucial to success.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Xbox boss Phil Spencer mentions that the Xbox Series X ($600 CAD) loses around $100 (roughly $136 CAD), and the cheaper Xbox Series S ($379 CAD) is sold at a $200 (roughly $272 CAD) loss for the company.
Spencer previously said that after the holidays, Xbox might raise the price of Xbox Game Pass subscriptions and its consoles. However, this new tidbit of typically secret Xbox sales information further suggests that the consoles will receive a price jump in 2023. There’s still a chance Spencer is referring to accessory and subscription prices going up, but we likely won’t get the full story until the new year.
In August, Bloomberg reported that the PS5 ($649 CAD) is no longer selling at a loss. However, the less expensive PS5 Digital Edition ($519 CAD) was still offset by subscriptions and accessory purchases.
During this same time, the company announced that the PlayStation Network had 104 million monthly active users, spending an average of $37.09 ($50.54 CAD) each during Q1 2021.
Microsoft has been more tight-lipped regarding how much it makes per user, but at the start of 2021, the company revealed that Xbox Live has over 100 million active users, and at the beginning of 2022, it claimed to have 25 million Game Pass subscribers. With both numbers continuing to grow, it will be interesting to see how much revenue Microsoft earns per user per quarter now.
After several months of trying to back out of acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk now officially owns the social media giant.
While any billionaire buying the platform would have been cause for concern, the fact that the world’s richest — and arguably most immature — man has done so is especially worrisome. That’s because, among Musk’s many shortcomings, is the fact that he’s really quite inept.
Looking back on his past screw-ups, it’s not hard to feel pessimistic about how Twitter will fare under his control. With that in mind, here are seven things that Musk has messed up on that add to the notion that he’ll run Twitter into the ground.
The Thai cave rescue
These are clearly the words of someone who cared about saving people and not his own fragile ego.
Between June and July 2018, rescue efforts were underway for a junior football team in a Tham Luang cave in Thailand. Initially, Musk revealed plans to build a mini-submarine to rescue the team, although this was viewed by many as both infeasible and a publicity stunt. Even though the mini-sub was ultimately never used in the rescue, Musk was quick to slam his critics, including, most infamously, by calling Vernon Unsworth, one of the people who did save the team, a “pedo guy.”
That Musk initially didn’t back down from his comments, and reportedly even pressured Thai officials to praise his mini-sub, only made him look worse. While many would surely agree that the most important thing was making sure the kids and their coach go out safely, Musk just had to make it all about himself.
Being such a loose cannon that his Twitter account has to be legally monitored
He also stepped down as chairman. He’s since been trying to appeal this ruling and, in typical “old man tries to be hip” form, even referenced an Eminem song to do so.
Covering up Tesla issues
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
Musk loves to talk about free speech, but it’s something he very clearly doesn’t believe in. On top of defaming falsely accusing Unsworth of pedophilia simply for criticizing him, Musk has a track record of going after people who say things he doesn’t like.
While Tesla is far from the only company that has had autonomous vehicle stumbles, Musk is notorious for lying about Autopilot. Every year, he’s made promises about Tesla’s self-driving car ambitions, and every year, they don’t come to pass. Tesla even admitted privately last year that Musk has been exaggerating FSD’s capabilities.
Alright, this is mostly a joke and really doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but it’s nonetheless amusing that a narcissist who tries so desperately to look funny and cool on Twitter was caught proudly sharing a bad Elden Ring build. Essentially, he gave his character two shields when you only benefit from having one. This is a problem because it weighed his character down, thus preventing him from executing critical maneuvers like dodging.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Musk spread a variety of misinformation related to the virus, including promoting a widely discredited paper about the alleged benefits of chloroquine and claiming death statistics were inflated. That would be bad in and of itself, but that doesn’t even address his most recent wrongdoing.
Just three days after buying Twitter, Musk shared a fake news story about Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. Speaker of the House. On October 28th, Paul Pelosi was assaulted with a hammer inside his home by a man looking for his wife. However, Musk soon tweeted a link to a story in a faux newspaper, the Santa Monica Observer, alleging that Paul Pelosi was injured during a drunken fight with a male prostitute. “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.” Eventually, Musk deleted the tweet, but instead of actually owning up to the mistake, he took the chance to take a dig at The New York Times instead.
The fact that the person in charge of Twitter can’t even discern what’s blatantly false before sharing it is certainly worrisome. That Musk is the third-most-followed account on Twitter only makes such politically-charged tweets all the more dangerous.
Fortnite has quite a few fashion industry collabs under its belt, from Balenciaga and Ferrari in-game clothing to Moncler skins, the game has never felt stale thanks to regular crossovers.
Now, Epic’s battle royale shooter is joining forces with American fashion company Ralph Lauren for real-world clothing and in-game items.
The new in-game skins are inspired by Ralph Lauren’s ‘1992 Stadium’ collection, with “iconic streetwear line infused with the worlds of auto-racing and aviation.” The skin set is being called the ‘Polo Stadium Collection Set,’ and includes new back blings and emotes as well.
The new collection set includes a ‘Stadium Hero ‘92’ player skin and a ‘Polo Prodigy’ outfit, both available in multiple colourways.
The set drops in the Fortnite item shop on November 5th at 8pm ET/5pm PT.
Additionally, Epic Games is hosting a ‘Polo Stadium Cup’ Cup on November 4th, which will award players who rank between 1st and 2,300th with the ‘Polo’ In-Game Cosmetic Bundle. You can find full tournament rules here.
Notably, to celebrate the partnership, Polo Ralph Lauren would also be releasing a physical ‘Polo Ralph Lauren x Fortnite Capsule.’ Drop #1 releases on November 2nd and contains apparel featuring a special Polo x Llama logo and custom embroidery, while drop #2 comes out later in December, and “contains apparel featuring the Polo x Llama logo and a Fortnite-ified take on Polo Stadium’s design elements.”
Google has been in and out of the news in recent months over its efforts to reduce costs by shuttering moonshot projects like Area 120 or the Pixelbook line (although the latter arguably wasn’t a moonshot). However, those efforts apparently don’t include spending millions on an avatar startup.
Per TechCrunch, Google acquired Alter, a startup that built an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar tool to help creators and brands express their virtual identities. A source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Google bought Alter for about $100 million USD (roughly $136.3 million CAD).
Moreover, both Alter and Google kept the acquisition under wraps. TechCrunch says the acquisition was completed about two months ago, and neither company made a public disclosure, although some Alter executives updated their LinkedIn profiles to share that they joined Google. A Google spokesperson confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch, but wouldn’t discuss the financial terms of the deal.
The source told TechCrunch that Google plans to use Alter to improve and ramp up its content offerings, particularly to help Google better compete with TikTok.
Alter, previously called Facemoji, started as a platform offering plug-and-play tech to help game and app developers put avatar systems into apps. The startup received $3 million USD (about $4 million CAD) from investors including Twitter, Play Ventures, and Roosh Ventures.
Phil Spencer, the head of all things Xbox at Microsoft, says that Activision’s Call of Duty series will always be on PlayStation consoles.
“As long as there’s a PlayStation out there to ship to, our intent is that we continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation,” said Spencer to YouTubers Justine Ezarik (iJustine) and Jenna Ezarik on their Same Brain podcast.
Spencer goes on to say that Microsoft is taking a similar approach to Minecraft when it comes to the Call of Duty franchise and plans to continue to release future entries in the series across several platforms, including possibly even the Nintendo Switch.
“I’d love to see it on the Switch, I’d love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft,” said Spencer during the Wall Street Journal’s recent tech conference.
There’s been significant back and forth between Microsoft and Sony amid the latter company’s looming $68.7 billion USD (about $85.96 billion CAD) acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard.
For example, there are government documents backing up reports that Sony is paying “blocking rights” to keep specific titles off Xbox’s Game Pass. Further, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan recently stated that Microsoft’s recent offer to ensure Call of Duty remains multiplatform is “inadequate on many levels.”
Since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s II‘s (MWII) release, the game has been criticized for its fast time-to-kill (TTK), the inability to turn crossplay off on some platforms and the lack of returning features like a ranked ‘Hardcore’ mode (MWII’s Tier 1 Hardcore mode will arrive in November).
It should be noted that Activision Blizzard is facing ongoing legal action related to reported work culture issues. Specifically, the gaming giant was accused in a July 2021 lawsuit of fostering a toxic “frat boy” culture at its U.S. studios in which many employees, particularly women, dealt with harassment, gender discrimination, unequal pay and other forms of mistreatment. Bobby Kotick, the company’s CEO, has specifically come under fire for allegedly working to cover up these reports and has faced calls to resign, yet he still leads the company. Earlier this month, the company was hit with a new lawsuit alleging more sexual harassment.
There’s a lot to be said about the Pixel Watch, but one thing nearly everyone agrees on is that the battery life isn’t great. Google pushed the line that the Pixel Watch offered 24-hour battery life, but reviewers (including myself) generally found that figure to be off base without some significant concessions.
Now, Google has updated a Pixel Watch support document about battery life with how it came to the 24-hour figure. According to the search giant, the 24-hour battery life is based on the below usage:
240 notifications
280 time checks
A five-minute LTE phone call
45 min LTE and GPS workout with downloaded YouTube Music playback
50 minutes of navigation via Google Maps while connected to a phone via Bluetooth
The watch configured with the default settings, including the always-on display set to off
There are a few notable things here, particularly the bit about the always-on display being set to off. The Pixel Watch pushes users to enable the always-on display, and it’s arguably a core feature of the smartwatch. However, in my experience, the always-on display made it difficult to hit the 24-hour mark.
Moreover, I’d argue my Pixel Watch use is significantly less than what Google describes. According to the Digital Wellbeing app on my smartphone, I average about 100 notifications per day, most (but not all) of which come across to the Pixel Watch. I’m not sure how often I check the time, but I can say I typically don’t take calls on the Pixel Watch, nor do I use GPS for workouts or navigate via Google Maps. Plus, I keep the always-on display turned off.
With that usage, the Pixel Watch still barely gets past 24 hours of battery life. Although I’ve fallen into a routine of charging the Pixel Watch when I sit down at my desk to start work in the morning, I’d peg its battery life at maybe 26 or 27 hours, which gives a nice little cushion if my morning charge routine gets disrupted.
With all that said, I’d be less bothered by the Pixel Watch’s battery life if it weren’t for sleep tracking, which requires wearing the watch overnight. Those who don’t care about sleep tracking can charge the watch overnight, resolving most battery issues.
Putting battery life in perspective
For all the complaints about the Pixel Watch battery life, it’s worth noting that it stacks up well to the arguable king of smartwatches: the Apple Watch. Per Apple’s own smartwatch battery page, the company targets 18 hours of battery life after an overnight charge, billed as “all-day battery life.” Apple describes it as:
“All-day battery life is based on the following use: 90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app use, and a 60-minute workout with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth, over the course of 18 hours; Apple Watch Series 8 (GPS) usage includes connection to iPhone via Bluetooth during the entire 18-hour test; Apple Watch Series 8 (GPS + Cellular) usage includes a total of 4 hours of LTE connection and 14 hours of connection to iPhone via Bluetooth over the course of 18 hours.”
As interesting as these numbers are, most people likely don’t use their smartwatches like this. In other words, whatever promises manufacturers make about smartwatch battery life likely won’t match up with actual user experience.
If you’re looking for a cheap data plan, don’t count Public Mobile out. The third-tier Telus-owned flanker brand now offers 4G data speeds and great prices.
As of the time of writing, the carrier’s website in Ontario is offering 12GB of bonus data on top of each plan. This means you can get 17GB for $40 or 20GB for $50. There are a few other plans, topping out at 52GB for $90.
Plans also include unlimited Canada-wide calling and texting. It’s worth noting that Public Mobile subscribers on RedFlagDeals mention that upgrading retains your Public Mobile points and promotions like loyalty and auto-pay.
Overall, these are pretty great deals considering 8GB of 4G data from Virgin Plus costs $55 per month.
An Instagram outage that occurred this morning resulted in millions of accounts being incorrectly listed as suspended.
“we suspended your account on October 31, 2022,” is the message many users received this morning. The problem seems to be affected both iPhone and Android users, with some reports stating that the app continuously crashed.
We're aware that some of you are having issues accessing your Instagram account. We're looking into it and apologize for the inconvenience. #instagramdown
On Twitter, Instagram tweeted that it’s “aware that some of you are having issues accessing your Instagram account. We’re looking into it and apologize for the inconvenience.”
However, the situation appears to be slowly being resolved. Some users have been able to access their Instagram accounts again, and Down Detector indicates a drop in outage reports starting at roughly 12pm ET/9am PT.
For what it’s worth, my Instagram account seems to still be working fine. No one on the MobileSyrup team has run into problems either.
This story will be updated when Meta-owned Instagram is fully back online. Have you run into issues using Instagram today? Let us know in the comments below.
It seems earlier rumours indicating Apple could launch its M2-powered MacBook Pro and Mac mini in November might be incorrect. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has reworked its plans and will drop its refreshed Mac lineup in the new year.
Gurman says that Apple’s M2 Pro and Max-powered chips will make their way to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro in early 2023, replacing the current M1 chips featured in the laptop line. It’s possible we could finally see this laptop refresh at Apple’s March event. Beyond the addition of the M2 chip, not much else is expected to change about Apple’s high-end laptop.
In his Power On newsletter, Gurman also mentions that a refreshed M2-powered Mac mini is coming in 2023. What’s unclear is whether Apple’s cheese grater-like Mac Pro will be refreshed at the same time as the rest of Apple’s Mac lineup. The tech giant still needs to refresh its 24-inch iMac, too.
Elon Musk has made it clear that he’s a proponent of free speech, and that protecting free speech is one of the pivotal reasons behind his acquiring Twitter. “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” wrote Musk in a recent Twitter post offering the rationale behind the acquisition.
Musk officially acquired Twitter on Friday, October 28th. What followed was a slew of users posting Tweets full of “slurs and other derogatory terms,” to troll and test the limits of free speech on the platform. According to Yoel Roth, the head of safety & integrity at Twitter, more than 50,000 Tweets with hateful slurs were posted within 48 hours of the acquisition, with a majority of them coming from just 300 accounts.
Over the last 48 hours, we’ve seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms. To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts.
Similarly, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute, via The Verge, recent posts on 4Chan have reportedly encouraged users to “amplify derogatory slurs,’ and as a result, on Friday, the usage of the n-word was up by nearly 500 percent from the previous average.
Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on @Twitter. Several posts on 4chan encourage users to amplify derogatory slurs.
For example, over the last 12 hours, the use of the n-word has increased nearly 500% from the previous average. pic.twitter.com/mEqziaWuMF
— Network Contagion Research Institute (@ncri_io) October 28, 2022
As stated by Roth, Twitter has started taking action against these bad actors. “Nearly all of these accounts are inauthentic. We’ve taken action to ban the users involved in this trolling campaign — and are going to continue working to address this in the days to come to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone,” said Roth.
Musk made it clear that while he wants Twitter to be a free speech safe haven, he also can not let the platform become a “free-for-all hellscape,” and that there will be consequences for those who spread hate or incite violence.
Further, Musk also stated that he intends to establish a ‘Content Moderation Council’ with members offering widely diverse viewpoints,” to tackle such instances and decide whether to take down certain posts or not.
