Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Tesla expands Full Self-Driving beta to thousands of drivers in Canada, U.S.

Tesla will roll out its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta to 160,000 vehicle owners in Canada and the U.S.

“FSD Beta 10.69.2.1 looks good,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Monday, before clarifying he meant 10.69.2.2.

As noted by NotaTeslaApp, the release includes smoother driving, improved left turns, and increased smoothness for right turns.

Musk further tweeted the update will apply to drivers with a lower safety score, particularly those with a score above 80. The next update, 10.69.3, will come out after AI day, slated for September 30th.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: @elonmusk Via: NotaTeslaApp, Tesla North

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will be available to pre-order on October 6

Google has announced that pre-orders for the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will open on October 6th, the day of the company’s big fall hardware keynote.

The tech giant revealed this information in a video that features Pixel fans checking out the new smartphones.

Oddly, the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are censored in the video, which is weird given Google already revealed renders of the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro back in May at Google I/O.

At the end of the clip, there’s tiny text on the screen that reads,”Pre-order starting October 6th, 2022.” Following that, you can hear fans saying at the end, “Wait! there’s a watch?” With this in mind, it’s possible that the Pixel Watch’s pre-order date might also be on October 6th.

A recent rumour suggests that the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro won’t go on sale until September 18th. This leak goes on to state that the Pixel Watch won’t be available until November 4th. With this in mind, while the smartphone and possibly the watch will be available to pre-order on October 6th, you’ll likely need to wait a few weeks before you get the devices in your hands.

It’s worth noting that this ad is U.S.-based, so the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro may have a different pre-order date in Canada. MobileSyrup has reached out to Google for more information.

Source: Google

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Mobile Syrup

How to turn off the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display

If you’re like me and aren’t fond of the battery life hit the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max takes when the smartphones’ always-on display is on, it’s thankfully possible to turn the feature off.

Here’s how to make that happen.

What’s the always-on display?

In always-on display mode, the iPhone 14 Pro’s ProMotion 120Hz screen turns its refresh rate down to 1Hz and only changes a single instance per second. The entire screen also dims, though it still features a dash of colour. You can then select different widgets like a battery indicator, your alarm and more than appear on the always-on screen.

It’s worth noting that the iPhone 14 Pro’s always on display turns off when your smartphone is face down or if you have it in your bag or pocket.

How to turn it off

To turn off the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display entirely, navigate to ‘Display & Brightness’ under ‘Settings’ and scroll down to toggle off ‘Always-on.’

iPhone 14 Pro

And that’s it, the screen is off, and you should start experiencing slightly better battery life.

For more on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, check out my review of the smartphones.

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Mobile Syrup

SpaceX’s Starlink to gain more ground in Canada later this year

Starlink’s internet services will be available to more Canadians later this year, Elon Musk told a disappointed Starlink fan on Twitter.

The response stems from a post stating the internet service is available in all seven continents, with one respondent replying, “just sad it’s not available for 70 percent of Canada.”

That prompted Musk to respond. “It will be later this year when laser links activate on polar constellation.”

While positive news, it’s unclear how much the update will impact the 70 percent figure.

It’s clear the company has support in Canada, and even government bodies are utilizing its services. Both the Governments of Canada and Quebec have utilized Starlink to connect Canadians with high-speed internet access on separate occasions.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: @elonmusk Via: Tesla North 

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Mobile Syrup

Samsung trademarks Slidable Flex Solo and Duet in South Korea

LONDON, UK – FEBRUARY 20, 2020: Samsung tech brand leterring logo in Harrods shopping mall.

Samsung has applied for several trademarks related to flexible displays, according to SamMobile.

Samsung Display, in particular, applied for these trademarks with the KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service) under the names ‘Slidable Flex Solo’ and ‘Slidable Flex Duet.’

The South Korean company has shown off slidable concepts in the past, so this isn’t entirely surprising. The prototype showed off earlier this year was called ‘Slidable Wide.’ SamMobile indicates that these patent applications might have something in relation to the Slidable Flex Duet. The Slidable Wide featured a flexible display inside the device that could extend out from its sides to create a larger display area.

The trademarks don’t include images, so it’s difficult to know for sure if the filing is related.

Back in January, Samsung also showed off its Flex G and Flex S prototypes. However, these devices were foldables and not slidable devices.

If Samsung does plan to release a slidable device, it likely won’t appear until late next year in the same timeframe as the Fold 5’s release, or possibly even later. That said, it’s highly unlikely we’ll see a slidable smartphone from Samsung in 2023.

Several years ago, LG teased a slidable phone that was poised to launch in 2021, but the company has since exited the smartphone industry.

Source: SamMobile

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Mobile Syrup

Xbox has removed DRM checks for Xbox One discs on Series X

Xbox has confirmed that it’s removed a DRM hurdle on the Xbox Series X that relates to playing original Xbox One games.

DRM, or digital rights management, refers to the online process of verifying that you actually own a license to the content you’re attempting to access. On Series X, this means that the console will no longer need to run a DRM check if you’re playing a disc version of an Xbox One game. Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie confirmed the quiet rollout of the feature on Twitter.

This is a notable change, as Microsoft has been criticized for aggressively enforcing DRM on consoles, as it requires an online connection to play many games. Naturally, this would render them unplayable in the event of, say, an internet outage.

On Twitter, Marie explained that Microsoft determined that the online compatibility check “isn’t needed in the vast majority of cases for Xbox One discs.” However, she added that “some games may still need to be updated online after install to ensure the best experience.”

Of course, none of this applies to the Xbox Series S, which is a digital-only console. It remains to be seen whether Xbox will lift some of the other DRM-related restrictions in the months to come.

Via: Eurogamer

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Mobile Syrup

Samsung isn’t ditching the Exynos chip from its flagships just yet

Samsung might bring its Exynos chipset to more S series devices in 2023.

This past year, Samsung expanded the availability of the better-performing Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the Galaxy S22 series, reducing the markets that received its Exynos 2200 chipset. This is due to complaints surrounding the Exynos chip underperforming compared to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

However, according to a Weibo post from well-known leaker Ice Universe, Samsung’s top bosses still want users to equip the Galaxy S23 with the Exynos 2300 chip in select markets. This means that if you were hoping Samsung would do away with the chipset, that’s unfortunately not the case.

Of course, this doesn’t apply to us in Canada since Samsung’s flagships only come equipped with Qualcomm’s chipsets here.

Rumours also point to Samsung developing a competitor to Apple’s Bionic chipset for iPhones. This processor would likely only be featured in the company’s flagship offerings. Further, this exclusive SoC likely won’t hit the market until 2025.

Samsung’s Exynos chips occasionally make their way to Canada in the company’s budget offerings or occasionally in Motorola devices.

Source: Ice Universe Via: GSMArena

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Mobile Syrup

Leaked Pixel 7 Tensor G2 specs reveal stagnating CPU performance

Google recently revealed that it will launch its latest Pixel 7 lineup alongside the long-awaited Pixel Watch at its ‘Made by Google’ event scheduled for October 6th.

Following the news, Google updated the Pixel 7 product page on its website and revealed the Tensor chip’s successor. The chip in the Pixel 7 and Pixel  7 Pro will be called the Tensor G2, and is expected to “bring even more helpful, personalized features to photos, videos, security, and speech recognition,” when compared to the last-gen Pixel flagships.

Until recently, we didn’t know much else about the new chip, but thanks to the developer Kuba Wojciechowski, via SamMobile, we now know that Tensor G2 uses the same CPU cores (two Cortex-X1, two Cortex-A76 and four Cortex-A55 cores) as the last-gen Tensor chip. The information comes via a Pixel 7 Pro Geekbench listing.

The Tensor G2 will reportedly be manufactured using Samsung’s 4nm process, with minor clock speed improvements to the X1 and A76 CPU cores. “The A76 cluster has been bumped by 100 MHz, to 2.35 GHz, and the X1 cluster now runs 50 MHz faster than it did before, at 2.85 GHz,” wrote Wojciechowski. The minor advancements could result in a roughly 10 percent increase in multi-core performance, with a negligible improvement in single-core performance, all while prioritizing power efficiency.

Similarly, improvements on the GPU side reportedly offer 20 percent better gaming performance, 20 percent better power efficiency, and 35 percent improved machine learning performance. According to Wojciechowski, the improvements can be credited to the new Mali-G710 GPU, while the last-gen Tensor used the Mali-G78 GPU. “Google runs a huge part of their Google Camera pipeline on the GPU on their Tensor devices. It will certainly improve that considerably, as well as make the new Pixels way better at gaming,” wrote Wojciechowski.

Further, Tensor G2 will reportedly feature a new TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) with the codename “Janeiro,” to offer “incredible brand new AI experiences,” alongside a new S5300 modem for better connectivity.

Read more about the Tensor G2 in Wojciechowski’s Twitter thread here.

Source: @Za_Raczke Via: SamMobile

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Mobile Syrup

YouTube is adding shorts to its partner program

YouTube is adding creators who post ‘shorts’ on the platform to the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Shorts refer to YouTube’s short-form video sharing feature that hosts videos under 60 seconds.

Launched in 2007, YPP pays creators who meet specific criteria for the content they produce. YouTube has paid creators more than $50 million in the last three years, Neal Mohan, chief product officer, revealed at Made on YouTube 2022, where he shared details of the new program.

The announcement gives YouTube a slight edge in the crowded short-form video market. While it’s not the only platform of its kind to offer compensation for videos, it differs in how it pays creators.

Ads on shorts run between videos instead of within a video, as seen with long-form YouTube videos. The company will pool revenue from ads that play after a creator’s shorts and pay them 45 percent.

Creators with 10 million views on their shorts in the last 90 days can apply for the partnership.

The funds will also cover music licenses under a second new program, Creator Music. The program will allow creators to use copyrighted music without giving up the revenues they earn from videos where they use the music. Music creators and writers will also be paid for their work. YouTube creators will have access to a music library and an easy way to license music.

The program is in beta and will launch in the U.S. in the fall. It will expand to other countries next year.

Image credit: YouTube 

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft unveils Windows 11 2022 Update, rolling out now

Microsoft announced its Windows 11 2022 Update, which is rolling out today in over 190 countries. The company focused on making the PC easier and safer to use, improving productivity, boosting security, and more.

In the making the PC easier and safer to use department, Microsoft highlighted new features like updates to the Start menu, faster and more accurate search, Quick Settings, and tabs in File Explorer. That last one has been a long time coming, and it’s great to see it finally come to Windows 11.

Moreover, Microsoft will expand on the accessibility services available in Windows 11, including system-wide live captions that can automatically generate captions from any audio content. There’s a new voice access preview as well, which will let people control their PC and write text using only their voice, while Natural Voice for Narrators better mimics natural speech.

On the productivity side, Microsoft added enhancements to Snap layouts, the feature for snapping windows into different parts of the screen. There’s a new Focus feature as well, plus performance and battery improvements.

Snap layouts will now work better with touch navigation, and Microsoft Edge will support the ability to snap multiple browser tabs.

As for Focus, the new feature adds Focus sessions and Do Not Disturb to help Windows users minimize distractions. Further, Focus is integrated into the Clock app, with options to launch a timer to help you focus, or remind you to take regular breaks.

There are new features for connecting and playing too. For example, Microsoft says the new Windows Studio Effects can help improve the video and audio on calls, such as by using artificial intelligence (AI) to filter out background noise.

For gamers, Windows 11 2022 Update brings Auto HDR and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support for windowed games. Plus, there are general performance optimizations that should help improve latency in games too.

Finally, on the security side, most of the updates coming to Windows 11 with the 2022 Update are aimed at businesses. For example, there’s a new Microsoft Defender SmartScreen feature that can identify when someone enters their Microsoft credentials into a malicious app or hacked website, and alert them. There’s also a new optional presence sensing feature coming to Windows Hello for Business, among other things.

To learn more about all the Windows 11 2022 Update features, check out the full details from Microsoft here.

Images credit: Microsoft