Canada and Ontario flags in front of skyscrapers in Toronto
The federal government and the Province of Ontario have tasked Bell and Cogeco with three projects that will bring high-speed internet access to thousands of rural communities in eastern Ontario.
Cogeco is responsible for one project that will benefit 836 households in Greenhurst-Thurstonia, Omemee, and Pleasant Point. The company will complete the work in March 2024.
Bell is responsible for two projects, targeting more than 15,000 homes. Bell will complete the first project, benefiting various communities, including Burleigh Falls, Curve Lake, and Detlor, in March 2025. Its second, larger project, will be completed in December 2025.
The projects, worth $56 million, are part of a joint venture the two governments, along with the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), entered in July 2021. The goal was to support large-scale fibre projects for 280,000 homes across the province.
“These projects will expand high-speed internet access to more unserved and underserved communities across eastern Ontario,” Amarjot Sandhu, Parliamentary Assistant to Ontario’s Minister of Infrastructure, said.
The three projects are also a part of the federal government’s connectivity plan, ensuring 98 percent of residents have high-speed internet access by 2026, and 100 percent by 2030. The initiative has led to a host of similar announcements throughout the year, including in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Earlier this week, PlayStation confirmed that its DualSense Edge controller for the PS5 will cost a staggering $269.99.
While the price of pretty much everything is going up, it’s interesting to see PlayStation charging so much for a controller. Naturally, many people quickly pointed out how the DualSense Edge is more than half the price of the $519.99 PS5 Digital Edition. For context, the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 costs $229.99, while the standard PS5 DualSense is priced at $89.99.
Of course, the DualSense Edge is intended to be a niche product. After all, it’s a high-end customizable gamepad that people generally will only use if they play multiplayer games often. PlayStation clearly isn’t targeting everyone with this.
Even still, close to $300 for a controller is insane, and as such, we feel the need to call that out. With that in mind, here are 10 gaming products you could put that money towards instead. Now, we’re not saying you should buy any of these, but rather, merely offering up some alternatives — some serious, some maybe not so much — to an overpriced gamepad.
Backbone One PlayStation Edition — $139.99
Image credit: Backbone
I’m not much of a mobile gamer myself, but it’s obviously a very big market. In particular, there’s been a lot of positive reception to the Backbone One, a controller that makes it easier to play on mobile. There’s even a specific PlayStation version with dedicated buttons and functionalities for the ecosystem. If the idea of being able to stream your PS5 games to your phone is appealing to you, the Backbone One PlayStation Edition will only set you back $139.99, leaving you with $130.
15 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate — $254.85
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the best deal in gaming, offering access to hundreds of games across console and PC. Through its Cloud Gaming feature, you can also stream titles to mobile devices, which is a great option for people who don’t want to buy hardware.
Considering Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is $16.99/month, $270 would last for 15 months. This is also assuming you’ve used the service before and aren’t eligible for the $1 introductory offer for your first month.
Nintendo Switch Lite — $259.99
With $270, you could buy Nintendo’s most affordable Switch system and still have $10 remaining. While the Switch Lite doesn’t have TV docking capabilities, it otherwise does everything a regular Switch can do, including having access to the Switch’s top-notch games catalogue. And if you really did want a standard Switch, you’d “only” need an additional $140. The OLED Switch model, meanwhile, is $449.99.
6.75 copies of Cyberpunk 2077 — $269.93
Cyberpunk 2077 has seen a huge bump in popularity lately due to the Edgerunners anime series. Image credit: CD Projekt Red
If you’re not one of the many people who watched Studio Trigger’s exceptional Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix and then got into Cyberpunk 2077, you could buy nearly seven full copies of the open-world action-RPG for you and your friends. Of course, you can’t have 0.75 of a game, so let’s knock this down to six copies for $239.94. With that remaining $30, you could scoop up the highest Netflix subscription ($20.99/month) to watch Edgerunners and pass your account around with the boys before Netflix starts charging for password sharing.
Two years of PlayStation Plus Premium — $279.98
Image credit: PlayStation
While I’m fairly mixed on PlayStation Plus Premium, it’s the closest thing PlayStation has to Xbox Game Pass with its catalogue of older games and streaming functionality. In Canada, one year of Premium is $139.99, so for the price of a DualSense Edge + $10 extra, you can get a full 24 months of the highest PlayStation Plus offering. If you go with PS Plus Extra, which is what I’d recommend, you can get two full years for $229.99 ($114.99/12 months) and have $40 left for something else, like a game.
Xbox Series S — $379.99
The DualSense Edge is basically 2/3 the cost of Microsoft’s entry-level current-gen console. While it’s less powerful than the $599 Series X and lacks a disc drive, it plays all of the same games and offers the same speedy SSD. It would be a great way for current PlayStation owners with a bit of extra cash to get into the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem if they don’t want to stream.
We always need batteries for something or another, whether it’s (annoyingly) Xbox’s Wireless Controller, your TV remote or a fire alarm. Given that, you might want to spend your hard-earned $270 on a big supply of batteries.
For the purposes of this story, we’ve chosen Energizer’s AA batteries, but this would, of course, change a bit if you went with AAA, C, etc. With respect to the rabbit-themed AA, though, you could get 16 packs of 20-pack ($16.14 individually on Amazon) for $258.24, leaving you with $11 and change.
An SSD — price varies
The file sizes for games are so big nowadays that they just eat right through your storage. Forget playing a game with a high-end controller — does your PS5 even have the space to play any more games, period? Once you know which M.2 SSDs are supported on your console, then the price will be determined by the size and brand you want. That said, you can get 1TB drives for around $200, which is certainly pricey in and of itself, but still more affordable than a DualSense Edge.
Some of the many good games that have come out this year alone
Elden Ring. Image credit: Bandai Namco
There have been so many big game releases in 2022. The year started strong with the likes of Pokémon Arceus: Legends, Horizon Forbidden West,Elden Ring and Kirby and the Forgotten Land, while the following months include Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Return to Monkey Island, Multiversus, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Splatoon 3, A Plague Tale: Reqiuem, Live A Live, Gotham Knights and, in the next couple of months, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0, God of War Ragnarök, Sonic Frontiers and Crisis Core Reunion: Final Fantasy VII.
That’s to say nothing of lower-profile games like Immortality, The Chant and Pentiment. Many of these are on PlayStation, too, so PS5 owners could buy multiple of them (at least three if we’re starting at full-priced $80-90 titles) instead of a premium controller.
Steam Deck — $499.99 to $819
Valve’s remarkably impressive PC handheld is the perfect gateway into gaming PCs for those who haven’t invested a lot of time and money into building one. Instead of a DualSense Edge, you could put the $269.99 towards the base Steam Deck model and only need $230 more. That said, you’ll likely want the middle Steam Deck offering, the $659 256GB NVMe SSD model. While it might seem expensive, it’s a decent price for the hardware and certainly worth the investment.
Again, though, it’s ultimately your choice on what to spend your hard-earned cash. Those who are interested in the DualSense Edge can pre-order it now in Canada.
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Following the reveal of the new iPad and the iPad Pro last week, new rumours indicate Apple is developing a 16-inch iPad.
The Information‘s Wayne Ma shared that Apple is looking to release its biggest iPad ever in the fourth quarter of 2023, around this time next year.
The largest Apple iPad currently is the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. With the introduction of a 16-inch iPad, Apple might be ready to blur the lines between its tablets and laptops.
“A 16-inch iPad would likely be geared toward creative professionals such as graphic artists and designers who prefer a larger screen,” reads the report.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a large-screen iPad. In June last year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that Apple is exploring future iPad designs with larger screens.
Leaks from earlier in the year quoting Display Supply Chain Consultants’ (DSCC) said that Apple is also looking to launch a larger entry-level iPad. That leak already turned out to be true as the new entry-level 2022 iPad measures in at 10.9-inches, compared to its predecessor’s 10.2-inch display size.
Learn more about how the new entry-level iPad (2022) compares to its predecessor here.
Toronto-based national carrier Rogers made some updates to its ‘Infinite’ plans, adding new 5G+ branding and speed caps.
The Rogers website now lists the various ‘Infinite‘ plans as having “access to [the] 5G/5G+ network” (spotted byiPhone in Canada). However, it’s not immediately clear what 5G+ means in this case, although presumably, Rogers is referring to 3,500MHz spectrum the company started rolling out in June. MobileSyrup has reached out to Rogers for clarification.
Both Telus and Bell have added similar branding. Bell announced its 3,500MHz spectrum rollout under the 5G+ branding, while Telus has used the ‘+’ sign to differentiate between tiers of its ‘Unlimited 5G’ plans. In Telus’ case, the 5G+ branding doesn’t appear connected to 3,500MHz spectrum.
Rogers is also jumping on the speed cap bandwagon, locking its $85/mo ‘Infinite Essential’ 25GB plan to a maximum speed of 250Mbps, and its other Infinite plans to a maximum speed of 1Gbps. The ‘Infinite Lite’ plan for additional lines is also capped at 250Mbps.
Rogers Infinite plans with 5G+ branding and speed caps.
MobileSyrup also asked Rogers why it made the switch to capping mobile speeds. This article will be updated with any additional details the carrier provides.
Speed caps are a frustrating new restriction on mobile customers
Speed caps mark a fairly significant shift for mobile data, which for years in Canada has been offered with restrictions on the amount of data customers could use each month, not how fast it was. Instead, data was served at effectively the fastest speed available based on network conditions and other factors.
Now, that’s flipping — at least, it is with the Big Three who offer “unlimited” plans. Rogers, Bell, and Telus all have plans that let people use as much data as they want, although the carriers throttle speed at a certain point. With the addition of speed caps, the carriers now restrict data speeds at all times and the restrictions still become more severe after a certain amount of use. That squeezes customers at both ends, and I don’t see mobile data moving entirely to a speed-based system like home internet, where most plans offer unlimited use with different tiers of speed.
The change is even more frustrating at the flanker brands, which still have hard caps on monthly usage as well as lower maximum speeds.
Sure, 1Gbps is likely more than fast enough for your mobile internet needs. Heck, 250Mbps is probably overkill for most people too. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Big Three all now offer plans with worse value than before, for the same price as before.
Fitbit now supports Google’s ‘Health Connect‘ system for pulling in and dishing out all your health data from various sources.
As spotted by 9to5Google, Fitbit ‘version 3.69’ enables support for Health Connect, but you wouldn’t know it from using the app. Instead, you need to head into Health Connect itself, which might be a tad challenging since it no longer appears in the app drawer (if you even have it installed).
If you don’t have Health Connect installed on your phone, head to the Play Store page to download it (note that it is still in beta). Once downloaded, you can launch it from the Play Store. If you already have it downloaded, you can open Health Connect through a quick settings tile or by heading to Settings > Apps > See all apps > Health Connect > Open app.
Within Health Connect, tap ‘App permissions’ to view a list of all the installed apps that can access the service. Fitbit should be listed if it’s up-to-date — tap it and select ‘Allow all’ to connect it with Health Connect. Alternatively, you can go through the various data and individually enable what you want in Health Connect.’
The data Fitbit can share to Health Connect includes:
Distance
Elevation gained
Exercise
Floors climbed
Heart rate
Sleep
Steps
Total calories burned
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, Fitbit only supports writing data to Health Connect, and doesn’t pull data from Health Connect. That means if you’re like me and have a connected health device from another company, there’s still no solution to merge that data into Fitbit. Hopefully now that Health Connect support is live, Fitbit will soon allow users to pull in health data from other sources.
Ultimately, this also means Health Connect doesn’t do a whole lot at the moment for Fitbit users unless they really want to sync their Fitbit data with Google Fit or other apps.
Beyond the Health Connect change, Fitbit version 3.69 doesn’t bring any other substantial changes, like the impending redesign. Meanwhile, Health Connect got a small update that adds a ‘Recent access’ timeline so users can see which apps access their health data, add to it, and how often they do so.
The reports seems to be accurate as in its review of the headphones, RTings wrote that ‘The Apple AirPods Max’s noise isolation performance is great. However, after updating the headphones to firmware 4E71, their active noise cancelling (ANC) system blocks out a bit less noise between the mid-bass to high-bass range than the previous firmware. This range is occupied by sounds such as the low rumble of bus and plane engines. That said, it still does a fair job in this range.”
RTings gave the post-4E71 update AirPods Max 8.3 in noise isolation, whereas the same headphone, pre-4E71, received a score of 9 in the same category. Similarly, in high-bass scenarios, the AirPods Max only showed a 10-decibel reduction in noise, compared to a 30-decibel reduction pre-firmware 4E71.
According to RTings, “if you’re around cars, trains, or planes for a good chunk of your day, you might notice a reduction in noise-cancellation with AirPods Max. If you’re commuting by subway daily or work near a highway, it’ll likely be a noticeable issue.”
On the other hand, when it comes to mid and treble ranges, like ambient chatter, and the high-pitched whirl of AC units, the headphone suppresses noise extremely well.
Microsoft says more than 20 million people have used its Xbox Cloud Gaming service.
Satya Nadella, the company’s CEO, revealed the figure during an October 25th earnings call. For context, Xbox Cloud Gaming is available on a variety of devices, including Xbox consoles, PC and mobile.
In late April, Microsoft said over 10 million people had streamed games through the service. Since then, the company has teamed up with Epic to bring Fortnite to Xbox Cloud Gaming — a particularly notable move since it’s the only game in the catalogue that can be streamed for free. Everything else offered through Xbox Cloud Gaming requires a $16.99/month Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
That said, it’s unclear exactly how much Fortnite has contributed to the service’s growth. Moreover, Microsoft simply saying 20 million people have used the service doesn’t tell us how many are actively streaming. We don’t even know how many people are subscribed to Game Pass, as Microsoft last revealed such data (25 million members) in January.
On the whole, gaming companies have been mum about their cloud offerings. Google never disclosed how many people have been using its Stadia service, though it clearly wasn’t that many since it’s being shuttered in January. Likewise, we don’t know how well Nvidia’s GeForce Now or Amazon’s U.S.-only Luna have been performing.
Nonetheless, there’s clearly an interest in continuing to invest in cloud gaming. Earlier this month, reputable analytics firm Newzoo published a report outlining how the games industry is set to generate approximately $2.4 billion USD (about $3.25 billion CAD) in cloud revenue this year. That’s a 74 percent increase year-over-year and works out to roughly 31.7 million consumers paying for cloud gaming.
Google has updated its support document that lists the screen protectors that work best for the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. Back in 2021, some complained that the fingerprint scanner on the Pixel 6 series didn’t work well when using a screen protector, so Google updated a support document with a list of screen protectors that work with its Pixel series. We’ve broken out that list below:
Have you been thinking about upgrading to Samsung’s latest Galaxy Z Fold or Apple’s iPhone but wondering if it would be worth it?
According to a new analysis by Ookla, the upgrade is worth it if you’re looking for a device with faster 5G performance.
Ookla compared Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold4’s to the Galaxy Z Fold3 and found the newer device had faster 5G upload and download speeds in every country it surveyed except Australia. Samsung’s Fold4 performed similarly to the Fold3 in South Korea and Taiwan.
The study also found Apple’s iPhone 14 models performed better than the iPhone 13 devices in all of the countries it surveyed.
What about Canada?
“Canadian consumers saw a moderate increase in 5G download speed if they upgraded their phone from the Galaxy Z Fold3 to the Fold4,” the study states.
The Fold4 had a median download speed of 202.23Mbps, compared to the 165.36Mbps speed seen with the Fold3. There was less of a difference in upload speeds, with 27.73Mbps for the Fold4 and 26.77Mbps for the Fold3.
Image credit: Ookla
“Canadian Galaxy Z Fold3 users should feel confident that upgrading their phone to the Fold4 will give them a faster 5G experience,” the findings state.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max had a download speed of 198.12Mbps, compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max’s 149.78 Mbps.
The iPhone 14 Pro had download speeds of 193.53 Mbps, compared to 145.60 Mbps for the iPhone 13 Pro.
The iPhone 14’s download speed was 189.85 Mbps, and the iPhone 13’s download speed was 133.64 Mbps.
Upload speeds were also slightly faster for all iPhone 14 models.
Image credit: Ookla
“Canadian iPhone 13 users should beeline straight to their mobile operator to upgrade to a new iPhone 14 model,” the study states.
Ookla used data from its Speedtest Intelligence, covering data within the first weeks of the devices’ launch.
Each month, PlayStation offers a handful of games at no additional cost to its PlayStation Plus subscribers.
Now, the company has revealed the trio of titles hitting PlayStation Plus Essential in November. PlayStation will announce PS Plus Extra and Premium games in the coming days.
On PS5, you’ll be able to snag the action-RPG Nioh 2 Remastered, while PS4 owners will get the original version of Nioh 2. Additionally, action-adventure cosmonaut game Heavenly Bodies will be offered on both PS4 and PS5, while the Lego Harry Potter Collection (includes Years 1-4 and 5-7) will be available on PS4.
All of these games will come to PS Plus Essential on November 1st. Meanwhile, you have until October 31st to claim October’s free PS Plus Essential games.
With $270, you could 
The DualSense Edge is basically 2/3 the cost of Microsoft’s entry-level current-gen console. While it’s less powerful than the $599 Series X and lacks a disc drive, it plays all of the same games and offers the same speedy SSD. It would be a great way for current PlayStation owners with a bit of extra cash to get into the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem if they don’t want to stream.
Valve’s remarkably impressive PC handheld is the perfect gateway into gaming PCs for those who haven’t invested a lot of time and money into building one. Instead of a DualSense Edge, you could put the $269.99 towards the base Steam Deck model and only need $230 more. That said, you’ll likely want the middle Steam Deck offering, 
